Brown's White's Selborne. 133 



White, Rev. Gilbert, A.M., &c. : The Natural History of 

 Selborne ; Observations on various Parts of Nature ; and 

 the Naturalist's Calendar. With Notes, by Captain Tho- 

 mas Brown, F.L.S., M.K.S., President of the Royal Phy- 

 sical Society. Foolscap 8vo, 356 pages, with cuts, 3s. ; or 

 bound in green cloth, made to resemble Turkey morocco, 

 and titled, 3s. 6d. Edinburgh, London, and Dublin, 1833. 



This volume contains White's Selborne complete. It is 

 the first of a series of uniform volumes prepared and under 

 preparation, to be published, one a month, all at the same 

 price, and denominated the British Library. The pro- 

 prietors, in their prospectus, descant on the superiority of the 

 time-tried authors, whose writings a long course of public 

 approbation has rendered classic, over the more novel but 

 usually more vapid productions which are now daily born into 

 the world. Their series of volumes, accordingly, is to include 

 only the writings of the " classic " authors of Great Britain. 

 The volumes are to be " occasionally illustrated with plates 

 and woodcuts." In their first volume, or White's Selborne, the 

 cuts are twenty-two in number, and eight of them are respect- 

 ably executed. On the writings of White, the subject-matter 

 of the volume, we have not a word to offer, save to rejoice 

 at this instance of their being published so cheaply as to be 

 placed within the reach of those unable to purchase dearer 

 editions. On the " Notes " subscribed by the editor, in illus- 

 tration or amplification of the text, we have a little to say. 

 A share of these are from original observation ; but the 

 majority of them are compiled from books. The Magazine 

 of Natural History has been most liberally drawn on for the 

 supply of a large proportion of them, and, in many instances, 

 without acknowledgment. As the ground on which the Maga- 

 zine of Natural History addresses itself to its contributors 

 and subscribers for support is its usefulness, we deem it due 

 to the just advocacy of its claim to regard, to neglect no 

 opportunity to make its usefulness deservedly apparent. The 

 present is a necessary opportunity, our appropriation of 

 which may possibly be unwelcome to the party whose de- 

 ficient sense of justice has supplied it to us. Notes, includ- 

 ing facts derived from the Magazine of Natural History, and 

 acknowledged to be thence derived, occur in the following 

 pages of the volume: — 6. 26. 36, 37. 40, 41. 43, 44. second 

 paragraph, 71. 73, 74. 121. 123. 131. 138. 153. 169. 177. 

 276. note f, 291. 322.: the last is quoted from Vol. IV. 

 p. 542.; but is rendered worthless by a subsequent criticism in 

 our Vol. V. p. 197. Facts and notices, many of them very 



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