466 FIELD STUDY IN ORNITHOLOGY. 



noue of these systeiiuitically noted tli<' habits of birds ai)ait from an 

 occasional mention of their niditication, and very rarely do they even 

 describe the eggs. Bat White was the first observer to recognize how 

 mneh may be learned fioiii the life habits of birds. He is generally 

 content with recording his observations, leaving to others to speculate. 

 Fond of Mrgilian quotations (he was a fellow of Oriel of the last cen- 

 tury), his ([uotations are often made with a view to prove the scrupu 

 lous accura(-y of tlie Koman poet, as tested by his (White's) own obser- 

 vations. 



In an age incredulous as to that Avhich appears to break the uni- 

 formity of natuic, but quick to recognize all the i)henomeua of life, a 

 contrast arises before the mind's eye between the abiding strength of 

 the objective method, wliich brings Gilbert Wliite in touch with the 

 great writers whose works are for all time aud the transient feebleness 

 of the modern introspective philosophies, vexed with the i)rob]ems of 

 psychology. The modern psychologist propounds his theory of man 

 aud the universe, and we read him and go on our way, aud straightway 

 forget. Herodotus and Thucydides tell a plain tale in plain language, 

 or the Curate of iSelborue shows us the hawk on the wing, or the snake 

 in the grass, as he saw them day by day, and somehow the sinqjle story 

 lives and moves him who reads it long alter the subtleties of this or 

 that philosophical theory have had their day aud passed iuto the limbo 

 of oblivion. But, invaluable as has been the exampleof Gilbert White 

 iu teaching us how to observe, his field was a very narrow one, circum- 

 scribed for the most part by the boundaries of a single parish, and on 

 the subject of geographical distribution (as we know it now) he could 

 contribute nothing, a subject on which even the best explorers of that 

 day were strangely inobservant aud inexact. 



AVIAN DISTRIBUTION. 



A century and a lialf ago, it had not come to be recognized that dis- 

 tribution is (along of course with morphology and i^hysiology) a most 

 important factor iu determining the facts of biology. It is difficult to 

 estinuite what might have been gained in the case of many species, now 

 irreparably lost, had Forster aud the other companions of Capt. Cook, 

 to say nothing of many previous voyagers, had the slightest conception 

 of the importance of noting the exact locality of each specimen they 

 collected. They seem scarcely to have recognized the specific distinc- 

 tions of the characteristic genera of the Pacific Islands at all, or if they 

 did, to have dismisse<l them Avith the remark, "On this island was 

 found a flycatcher, a pigeon, or a parrot similar to those found in New 

 Holland, but with white tail feathers instead of black, an orange instead 

 of a scarlet breast, or red shoulders instead of yellow." As we turn 

 over the pages of Latham or Shaw, how often do we find for locality 

 one of the islands of the South Sea, and, even where the locality is 

 given, subsecpient research has x)rovedit erroneous, as though the speci- 



