212 Summer Studies of Birds and Books CHAP. 



him to do at Selborne ; and though he could have 

 hardly realised the importance of the lesson he was 

 giving to English naturalists, he could justify this 

 gratification of his natural instincts on excellent 

 grounds. Let me quote his own words. "Though 

 there is endless room for observation in the field of 

 nature, which is boundless, yet investigation, where 

 a man endeavours to le sure of his facts, can make 

 but slow progress ; and all that one could collect in 

 many years would go into a very small compass." Or 

 again: "Men that undertake only one district are 

 much more likely to advance natural knowledge 

 than those that grasp at more than they can possibly 

 be acquainted with ; every kingdom, every province, 

 should have its own monographer." 



The full force of sentences like these can hardly 

 be felt by one who merely reads White's book in the 

 light of our modern knowledge. They are indeed 

 invaluable warnings for all time, and every man who 

 puts pen to paper to write on natural history might 

 do well to learn them by heart. But we must 

 remember that in his day the accurate study of the 

 life and habits of animals was almost unknown, and 

 that facts which are now the common property of 

 naturalists were then awaiting discovery or verifica- 

 tion. If, for example, we take his favourite study of 

 ornithology, it is at first astonishing to find that for 

 a whole century before his book was published no 



