(Authors are responsible for nomenclature used.) 



The Scottish Naturalist 



No. 31.] 1914 [July 



EDITORIAL. 



From the pages of the The Field 1 we learn that two 

 portraits of Gilbert White, the famous author of The 

 Natural History of Selborne, have recently been discovered. 

 A bookseller in Winchester recently purchased in Alton, 

 near Selborne, a copy of Pope's translation of the Iliad, 

 first edition, dated 1720. The work is in six volumes, 

 and from an inscription on the flyleaf of the first volume 

 it appears that this particular copy was presented to the 

 naturalist by the author himself on his taking his B.A. 

 degree in 1743. This fact in itself is interesting, but, 

 more important still, in vols. iii. and v. there are to be 

 found on the flyleaves two pen-and-ink portraits, the first 

 authentic ones known, of the Selborne naturalist himself. 

 The earlier one, in vol. iii., is that of a young man with 

 hair tied back with a ribbon, while the later one shows 

 White in a wig and proctor's velvet cap. Both these are 

 reproduced in The Field, and will, no doubt, be often copied 

 in the future. 



We are pleased to learn from several sources that the 

 Grey Seal, Halichcerus grypus, is shortly to be protected 

 by Act of Parliament. A Bill has been introduced in the 



1 6th June 1914, p. 1213. 

 31 T 



