1781 FATE OF THE 'FAUNA CALPENSIS' 67 



brother Benjamin (who died in 1821), carried on 

 their father's publishing business, it is stated that 

 the work was ''now existing in MS." ; but it seems 

 since then to have been certainly lost or destroyed, 

 very possibly in 1839, when the last member of the 

 White family ceased to reside in Gilbert White's 

 house at Selborne, where, there is reason to believe, 

 the MS. had remained. The introductory chapter 

 describing the Eock of Gibraltar, in John White's 

 handwriting, still exists. 



In the course of the year following her husband's 

 death Mrs. John White came to Selborne, where 

 she resided with her brother-in-law during the rest 

 of his life. 



From the Naturalist's Journal : — 



"Feb. 10. The nuthatch brings his nuts almost every day 

 to the alcove, and fixing them in one corner of the pediment, 

 drills holes in their sides, and after he has picked out the 

 kernels, throws the shells to the ground." 



Writing to his nephew, Samuel Barker, who had 

 inquired whether anything corresponding to the 

 aurora borealis was ever seen in the southern 

 hemisphere, Gilbert White quotes a passage from 

 J. E. Forster's 'Observations in a Voyage round 

 the World,' p. 120, and then proceeds as follows : — 



To Samuel Barker, g Lambeth, Mar. 26, 1781. 



My thanks are due for your entertaining account of the 

 Testudo aquarum dulcium. You do very right, I think, in 

 looking into history, which is a very gentleman-like study. 



