48 PROCEEDINGS OE THE LINNEAN SOCIETY. 



Hanger, and then wrote a letter telling us what he had observed. 

 Moreover, White was a scholar and wrote tolerable vert<es. There 

 is a delightful personal flavour in his book, and the 'Natural 

 History of Selborne ' is as fresh to-day as if the ink were still 

 wet on the page. The hard, impersonal verities, which Montagu 

 recorded wdth a graceless pen, have long since passed into the 

 body of our general information, and there remain^ no particular 

 cause, unless it be curiosity, to seek out the archives in which 

 they are entombed, and no bounden duty, unless it be gratitude, 

 to perpetuate the memory of the man to whom, whether naturalists 

 know it or not, they are indebted for a large proportion of our 

 seaside Natural History and the Natural History of our British 

 Birds. 



[The portrait of Colonel Montagu, which forms the frontispiece 

 of this part, is from a miniature bequeathed to the Linnean 

 Society by Mr. H. Dorville, as recorded in the General Minutes, 

 3rd December, 1874.— B. D. J.] 



