18T8.] 237 



In 1875 we noticed (vol. xii, p. 90) the establishment of the " Naturalist," the Journal 

 of the West Riding Consolidated Natural History Society (a Union, now, of about 

 twenty associations), which appears regulai'ly. The journal now under consideration 

 is slightly larger, and slightly higher in price ; and, comparing it with some of the 

 later Nos. of the " Naturalist," shows evidence of better editing iu the way of avoiding 

 printer's errors, &c. Let us hope it may continue in the way it has commenced. 

 Wo welcome this as we do every journal conducted in the same spirit, and are 

 disposed to accord all praise to the courage of its conductors for starting such a 

 periodical in these flattest of all times in our industrial centres. 



The contents are of the most varied nature, eiitomology being, apparently, rather 

 at a discount ; but a few notes by the Rev. C. F. Thornewill, M.A., contain sensible ob- 

 servations and advice as to the differences that exist between merelyforming a collection 

 and acquiring habits of observation, with the power and will of communicating dis- 

 coveries to brother naturalists. We have seldom seen a local journal that held out 

 greater promise of becoming important and useful. 



The Natural History anb Antiquities of Selborne, by the late G-ilbert 

 White : edited by Thomas Bell, F.R.S., Professor of Zoology in King's College, 

 London. 2 vols.,8vo.,pp. i— lix, 1 — 507, and 1 — 410. London: J. Van Voorst, 1877. 



No work on natural history has a greater claim to the title of an English 

 " classic," than " White's Selborne." No book of the kind has gone through so 

 many editions ; there is none in which the deductions from personal observations 

 have been so little disputed or so generally confirmed. It may confidently be pre- 

 dicted that after the lapse of centuries (during which the amount of " force " ex- 

 pended in paltry squabbles over the priority of names and kindred subjects, that 

 engage the attention of naturalists at the present day, will be enormous) the works of 

 De Greer, Reaumur, Gilbert White, and a few others, will remain monuments of 

 patient investigation and sincerity of purpose. 



In the abstract, it might be said that there was no necessity for another edition 

 of " White's Selborne." But there are special circumstances connected with this 

 edition that cause us to value it above all others. 



Some years ago, the now venerable Thomas Bell (ex-prosidcnt of the Linnean 

 Society) took up his residence at the parsonage formerly occupied by Gilbert White ; 

 a more charming or fitting retreat for a naturalist it would be difficult to find. In 

 Bell, the ' naturalist ' is, as it was in White, and as it is in more than one of our 

 prominent students of natural science, combined with the antiquary and archfeologist, 

 and it would have been impossible to find any one more competent to edit the 

 writings of an author of such kindred tastes. 



The principal portion of the first vohunc consists of the well-known letters, 

 albeit with copious notes, and an exhaustive memoir, and concluding pages bring 

 Gilbert White out as a poet, and of no mean importance. The following ultra- 

 conservative lines, on an iU-mended road, are amusing : 



" Cramra'd up with furze, with faggots, and huge stones, 

 What a rough road of glass, hard flints, and bones ! 

 Blockheads are always busy'd in the wrong ; 

 Mend not at all, and one might get along." 



The second volume contains several hitherto unpublislied letters and memo- 



