Introduction xxxv 



source of erroneous ideas as to fact, by correcting in the footnotes {for 

 the benefit of young or untechnical readers} the most questionable or 

 mistaken statements and conclusions. Wherever modern science has 

 authoritatively settled some point which was a moot one for White, I 

 have given its decision without its reasons. Wherever it has -pro- 

 nounced with a clear voice against his speculations, I have briefly 

 chronicled its new view. Where -possible with absolute certainty ', I 

 have substituted accepted modern names ; and I have also brought 

 White's crude local geological nomenclature into line with the terms of 

 modern geologists. I have corrected and emended the text where it was 

 clearly faulty ; I have given the more recognised modern names of 

 villages and hamlets in square brackets, while preserving in the text 

 White's spelling ; and I have occasionally added the modern form or 

 equivalent of a word which White uses in an obsolete shape or a 

 provincial sense. I have thus confined my work in the strictest sense 

 to the task of editing a classic-, I have not attempted the impossible 

 labour of bringing all its statements up to the modern standard of 

 scientific knowledge. And that no doubt may exist as to what part is 

 the author s and what the editor 's, I have enclosed all my own additions 

 in the text in square brackets. T'o my own notes I have added the 

 abbreviation ED. Notes without this addition are therefore those of the 

 original writer. 



While saying all this, I would not wish in any way to detract from 

 the solid and permanent scientific value of White's remarkable life-work. 

 On the contrary, it is impossible not to attach the highest importance to 

 it. Most of his observations were conducted with such care and 

 accuracy that they are still among the best we possess for the fauna and 

 especially for the birds of Great Britain. Only a few modern 

 observers, such as Mr. Warde Fowler and Mr. Hudson, can be 

 named in the same rank with White as patient and sympathetic first- 

 hand watchers of the wild life of the moors and woodlands. Whoever 

 reads these Letters to-day may learn on every page of them numerous 

 facts which no subsequent observation has either disproved or improved 

 upon. I have lived myself for some years in White's own country, 

 looking out daily upon Selborne and upon Wolmer Forest; the same 

 ponds have flashed in the sunlight on my eyes ; the same beasts and 



