INTRODUCTION. xiii 



neglected. But we agree with Mr. White in his idea of parochial 

 history, which, he thinks, ought to consist of natural productions and 

 occurrences, as well as antiquities : for antiquities, when once sur- 

 veyed, seldom recall further attention, and are confined to one spot ; 

 whereas the pleasures of the naturalist continue through the year, 

 return with unabated attractions every spring, and may be ex- 

 tended over the kingdom. 



" Mr. White is the gentleman who some years ago favoured the 

 world with a monography of the British Hirundines, published in 

 the Philosophical Transactions , which we reviewed in a former 

 volume. It is now reprinted, and the same sagacity of observa- 

 tion runs through the work before us. 



" If this author should be thought by any to have been too 

 minute in his researches, be it remembered that his studies have 

 been in the great book of Nature. It must be confessed, that 

 the economy of the several kinds of crickets, and the distinc- 

 tion between the stock-dove and the ring-dove, are humble 

 pursuits, and will be esteemed trivial by many ; perhaps by some 

 to be objects of ridicule. However, before we condemn any 

 pursuits, which contribute so much to health by calling us abroad, 

 let us consider how the studious have employed themselves in 

 their closets. In a former century, the minds of the learned were 

 engaged in determining whether the name of the Roman poet 

 should be spelt Vergilius or Virgilius ; and the number of letters 

 in the name of Shakespear still remains a matter of much solici- 

 tude and criticism. Nor can we but think that the conjectures 

 about the migration of Hirundines are fully as interesting as the 

 Chattertonian controversy. 



" We could have wished that this gentleman had uniformly, as 

 he has frequently, used the Linnaean names. No naturalist can 



