The Natural History of Selborne

Went to Oxford from London.

Jack-daw, monedula, chatters on churches.  Went to London.

Sowed more cucumber seeds.  Fringillado, great titmouse, begins some of his spring notes.  Pricked out the cucumbers.

Ananas budding for bloom.  First crop of kidney-beans gather’d in the Hothouse at Hartley.

A cock-pheasant appeared on the dunghill at the end of my stable; tamed by hunger. Laurustines appear as if scorched in the fire. Portugal laurel, red American Juniper untouched. Nuthatch, sitta, chatters. Garden-plants were well preserved under the snow. Turneps in general little damaged. Wheat, being secured by the snow, looks finely.

Lambs begin to fall.  Nothing frozen in my cellar.  Titmice pull straws from the eaves.

My provisions are kept in the Cellar.  Birds pull the moss from ye trees.

Laurels begin to suffer.  Laurustines suffer.

Coughs and colds are general.  Provisions freeze within.

The birds must suffer greatly as there are no Haws. Meat frozen so hard it can’t be spitted. Several of the thrush kind are frozen to death.