342 BRITISH BIRDS. 



SALE OF GILBERT WHITE MSS. 



The following brief particulars of a number of manuscripts 

 connected with Gilbert White, of Selborne, which were sold 

 by auction by Messrs. Sotheby on March 16th, will, we think, 

 be of interest to the readers of British Birds. The chief 

 item is thus described in the catalogue : — 



" 341 FLORA SELBORXIENSIS, with some coincidences 

 of the coming and departure of the birds of passage and 

 insects, and the appearing of reptiles for the j^ear 1766, 

 manuscript on 62 pp., the last page consisting of notes 

 of events in August, 1767. 



"This mteresting httle work, which is quite unpublished, 



is separate from and additional to the Garden Calendar 



which Gilbert White kept regularly from 1751 onwards ; 



it proves that he was a real botanist." 



This manuscript was bought by Mr. W. Mark Webb, Hon. 



Secretary of the Selborne Society, for £61. 



Other " lots " of interest were the manuscript Introduction 

 to " The Fauna of Gibraltar " (Porter, £4 5s.) by John, brother 

 of Gilbert White, and two letters from Colonel George Montagu 

 (author of the " Ornithological Dictionary") written in 1789 

 and discussing ornithological questions raised in the 

 " Natural History of Selborne " (Porter, £2 4s.) Other letters 

 and documents are of interest chiefly on historical or personal 

 grounds, and need not be alluded to here. 



Breeding-Habits of the Willow-Wren. — Mr. S. E. 

 Brock has contributed a very valuable paper (ZooL, 1910, 

 pp. 401-417 and cf. 1911, p. 72) on this subject, basing his 

 facts on observations of twenty-two pairs of Willow- Wrens 

 [Phylloscopus trochilus) Avhich he AAatched with wonderful 

 patience and assiduity in a plantation in Linhthgowshire. 

 The paper should be carefully read by all those interested in 

 the subject, and here we can onlv draw attention to some of 

 the points made by Mr. Brock. The question of unpaired 

 birds is an interesting one to which the author has given some 

 attention, and it is only by very close and careful observation 

 that we can learn Avhat projaortion of unpaired birds there may 

 be, and why they should be mateless. The author shows that 

 in the case of the Willow- Wren at all events, the "territory" 

 of the male is not always strictly adhered to, and he thinks 

 that perhaps too much stress has been laid (presumably by 

 Mr. HoAvard in his Warblers) on the precise demarcation of 

 these " territories." In one case he located the nests of three 

 Willow- Wrens in one piece of ground which was not included 



