63 PERIOD III. 



Leroy (ranger to the King of France), Stephen Hales, 

 Gilbert White and William Kirby (country parsons), 

 and William Spence (a drysalter) were all amateurs in 

 natural history. To this list we might add Willughby, 

 Ray, Leeuwenhoek, Reaumur, De Geer, Buffon, the 

 Hubers, and George Montagu, who were either so 

 fortunate in their worldly circumstances or so devoted 

 to science as to make it their chief, or even their sole 

 pursuit, though they did not look to it for bread. A 

 large proportion of the naturalists whose names have 

 been quoted occupied themselves with the habits and 

 instincts of animals, and biology has been notably 

 enriched by their observations. To Englishmen the 

 most familiar name is that of Gilbert White, in whom 

 were combined thirst for knowledge, exactness in 

 description, and a feeling for the poetry of nature. 



White used his influence to encourage what may be 

 called live natural history, which, as he understood it, 

 " abounds in anecdote 1 and circumstance." He bids 

 his correspondents to " learn as much as possible the 

 manners of animals ; they are worth a ream of des- 

 criptions." His example has done more than his 

 exhortations. He focusses a keen eye upon any new 

 or little-known animal, such as the noctule, the harvest- 

 mouse, or the mole-cricket ; detects natural contrivances 

 little, if at all, noticed before, such as the protective 

 resemblance of the stone-curlew's young ; dwells upon 

 the practical applications of natural history, such as the 

 action of earthworms in promoting the fertility of soils; 

 and combines facts which a dull man would be careful 

 to put into separate pigeon-holes, such as the different 



1 White uses anecdote in the old sense, meaning by it a piece of 

 unpublished information. 



