ADVERTISEMENT. 



[THE advertisement to the octavo Edition of Selborne, published in 

 1802, and edited by John White, the brother of the author, will 

 explain the manner in which the following Calendar and Observa- 

 tions first came to be printed. I include them here in accordance 

 with a now time-honoured custom.] 



"The favourable reception with which the works on natural 

 history of my late respected relation, the Rev. Gilbert White of 

 Selborne, have been honoured by the persons best qualified to judge 

 of their merit, has induced me to present them to the public in a 

 collected and commodious form, free from the encumbrance of any 

 extraneous matter. His largest work, entitled ' The Natural 

 History of Selborne,' has probably been supposed by many to be 

 formed upon a more local and confined plan than it really is. In 

 fact, the greater part of the observations are applicable to all that 

 portion of the island in which he resided, and were indeed made in 

 various places. Almost the only matter absolutely local is the 

 account of the antiquities of the village of Selborne ; and this 

 seemed to stand so much apart, that, however well calculated to 

 gratify the lovers of topographical studies, it was thought that its 

 entire omission would be considered no loss to the work, considered 

 as a publication on natural history. Its place is occupied by the 

 ' Naturalists' Calendar, and Miscellaneous Observations/ which 

 appeared in a separate volume since the author's decease, extracted 

 from his papers by Dr. Aitkin. That gentleman has also made 

 some farther selections from the papers, which are now all in my 



