The Natural History of Selborne

Fern-owls breed but two young at a time: but breed, I think, twice in a summer.

Swifts, I have just discovered, lay but two eggs.  They have now naked squab young, & some near half-fledged: so that their broods cannot be out ’til toward the middle or end of July, & therefor can never breed again before the 20th of August.  In laying but two eggs, & breeding but once they differ from all our other hirundines.  Scarabaeus solstitialis.  The appearance of this insect commences with this month, & ceases at the end of it.  These scarabs are the constant food of caprimulgi the month thro’.

* When Oaks are quite stripped of their leaves by cahfers, they are cloathed again soon after mid-summer with a beatiful foliage: but beeches, horse-chest-nuts, & maples, once defaced by those insects, never recover their beauty again for the whole season.

Some swallows this day bring out their broods, which are perchers: they place them on rails that go across a stream, & so take their food up & down the river, feeding their young in exact rotation.

Young nestling rooks still. Young partriges, flyers.

My Brother’s vines turn pale on the chalk: the leaves begin to whither.

My Bro: has brewed a barrel of strong beer with his hordeum nudum.  My Brother’s hordeum nudum is very large and forward, and has a broad blade like wheat: it is now spindling for ear, & the tops of the ears appear.  It will be much forwarder than the common barley.  Swifts squeak much.

* The swifts that dash round churches & towers in little parties, seem to me to be the cock-birds: they never squeak ’til they come close to the walls or eaves, & possibly then are seranading their females, who are close in their nests attending to the business of incubation.  Swifts keep out the latest of any birds, never going to roost in the longest days ’til about a quarter before nine.  Just before they retire they squeak & dash & shoot about with wonderful rapidity.  Thy are stirring at least seventeen hours when the days are longest.

Nightingales very jealous of their young: & make a jarring harsh noise if you approach them.

Spiraea filipendula, Valeriana offic:. Quail calls.  Young backward rooks just flown.  Young nightingales flown.  Mayflies abound on the Whorwel streams & are taken by hirundines.

Dark, & still.  Rain.

Bees frequent my chimneys: they certainly extract somewhat from the soot, the pitchy part, I suppose.