PREFACE. 



lence of its spirit, and the close and accurate 

 observation evinced in almost every page, to be- 

 come more extensively popular than any other 

 publication on a similar subject that has yet ap- 

 peared was given to the world in quarto, in 1789, 

 four years before the death of its amiable author. 

 In 1795 Dr. Aikin selected from Gilbert White's 

 Natural History Journals, which had been regu- 

 larly kept for a period of five-and-twenty years, 

 closing only with his death, numerous additional 

 observations, and compiled from the same source 

 a calendar of the appearances of nature, which 

 together formed a thin octavo volume under the 

 title of " A Naturalist's Calendar, with Observa- 

 tions in various Branches of Natural History." 

 The " Calendar" and " Observations" were added, 

 in 1802, to a reprint of the "Natural History," 

 with some further extracts from the Journals, also 

 selected and incorporated with the previous Ob- 

 servations by Dr. Aikin. In this edition, in two 

 volumes octavo, the "Antiquities" were omitted; 

 many notes were added by Mr. Markwick, who 

 supplied a comparative Calendar founded on his 

 own observations ; and the " Biographical Re- 

 cords" of the author, which have been copied in 

 all subsequent reprints, were prefixed by his 

 nephew John, the publisher of the new edition. 



A second edition in quarto of the " Natural 

 History" and "Antiquities" combined, together 

 with the " Calendar" and the enlarged " Observa- 

 tions," was published in 1813; and in this appeared 

 for the first time a few of the author's poems, of 

 no great critical pretensions, but strongly illus- 



