OF SELBORNE. Ill 



as you observe, that a bird so common with us should 

 never straggle to you 2 . 



And here will be the properest place to mention, 

 while I think of it, an anecdote which the above men- 

 tioned gentleman told me when I was last at his house ; 

 which was that, in a wan-enjoining to his outlet, many 

 daws (Corvi Monedulce) build every year in the rabbit 

 burrows under ground. The way he and his brothers 

 used to take their nests, while they were boys, was by 

 listening at the mouths of the holes ; and, if they heard 

 the young ones cry, they twisted the nest out with a 

 forked stick. Some waterfowls (viz. the puffins) breed, 

 I know, in that manner ; but I should never have sus- 

 pected the daws of building in holes on the flat ground. 



the acquisition of facts, and an extrinsic value superadded to those facts 

 by the regularity with which they are noted. The Naturalist's Calendar, 

 which forms part of the contents of this volume, is a digest of the daily 

 entries made by Gilbert White, during a quarter of a century, in the form 

 of natural history book keeping, as it may be called, which was published 

 by Sandby. He entered in it also many casual observations of various 

 interest : for it was always at hand, and formed really his day-book. It 

 is chiefly from these entries that his Observations on various branches of 

 Natural History, which succeed the Natural History of Selborne, were 

 derived. E. T. B. 



2 Mr. White considers it very extraordinary that a bird so common in 

 his 1 vicinity, as the Charadrius CEdicnemus (CEdicnemus crepitans, TEMM.) 

 should never straggle into the neighbourhood of his friend. My obser- 

 vation is, that it is found only on chalk. I used to find it and its two 

 eggs on the bare ground in September, at Highclere, in Hampshire, but 

 only where there was a chalk subsoil. It never strayed to the sand 

 or gravel, and consequently was not upon the heaths; but in the chalky 

 turnip fields. Temminck says it is found on high sandy uncultivated 

 tracts and heaths far from water. I have found it only on chalk and 

 ploughed land. I have seen it on the chalk district in Kent. I have 

 never seen it in Yorkshire, nor in the vicinity of the moors, where it 

 should be found if Temminck's account were true. I do not believe that 

 it ever lays an egg upon sand as he states. The dotterell (Charadrius 

 Morinellas) also is peculiar to dry chalk districts, and feeds chiefly on 

 small green beetles ; but Temminck most erroneously states that it lives 

 in desert miry places, lieux deserts etfangeux. He should have said dry 

 sheep walks. It is probable that the insects to which this species is 

 partial reside only in the chalk districts, but they may possibly thrive on 

 a different subsoil in the South of Europe, though I am very little 

 disposed to believe it. W. H. 



