OF SELBORNE. 191 



7. Nightingale, Luscinia : Beginning of April. 



8. Cuckoo, Cuculus : Middle of April. 



9. Middle willow ( Regulns non ci'ista- > TV.,. 



wren ) tus- \ Ditto : a sweet plaintive note. 



10. Whitethroat, Ficedulce affinis : \ Di " : . me , an note ' sin S s on til1 



1 1. Redstart, Ruticilla - \ Middle of April : more agreeable 



( song. 



12. Stone curlew ? GEdicnemus : j ^thfstte ^ ' 1O " d n CtUrnal 



13. Turtle-dove ? Turtur : 



judge, were eventually laid aside by him : although not until after they 

 had fostered in him an attachment to antiquarian pursuits which he re- 

 tained through life so strongly as to entitle him to be distinguished among 

 his fellow students in that department of knowledge as a vice president 

 of the Antiquarian Society. To the transactions of that body he was a 

 frequent contributor. He also made numerous communications to the 

 Royal Society, which were printed in the Philosophical Transactions. 

 Many of them were afterwards republished by himself in a separate 

 form, under the title of Miscellanies ; a work alluded to with satisfaction 

 by our historian in his Letter LI. In his essays Barrington availed 

 himself freely of the information imparted to him by White, whose au- 

 thority he repeatedly quotes, and whose merits as a " well read, inge- 

 nious, and observant" naturalist he is ever ready to acknowledge. 



A large proportion of the essays in the Miscellanies are on subjects of 

 natural history ; and in many of them Daines Barrington was the advo- 

 cate of views directly opposed to those of our author's other corres- 

 pondent, Pennant. Thus, for instance, while Pennant felt a full con- 

 viction as to the migration of many birds, Barrington was most sceptical 

 on the subject ; and it is scarcely to be doubted that his letters to Gilbert 

 White tended to keep alive and to increase the suspicions which the 

 historian of Selboi-ne always entertained that the little creatures whose 

 presence delighted him during the summer, were still at hand, though 

 hidden from him, in the winter. Another point on which his two corres- 

 pondents disagreed was as to the authority which they attributed to Ray 

 and to Linnaeus ; and White was evidently quite aware of the difference 

 of their feelings on this subject, and humoured them so far as to accom- 

 modate himself to the wishes of each when addressing him in particular. 

 When sending to Pennant, in his Letter XVI, a list of the summer birds 

 of passage, the Latin names which he uses are " Linnaei nomina:" in his 

 correspondence with Barrington, in this Letter I. and elsewhere, he 

 designates his birds, scientifically, by " Raii Nomina." Barrington argued 

 so warmly against the deficiencies of the Linnaean characters, and ad- 

 vocated so strongly the excellencies of our countryman John Ray, that 

 he is carried on by the discussion in which he was engaged to inquire, no 

 doubt in his estimation triumphantly, " After this comparison can there 

 be a doubt whether the English botanist should consult Ray or Linnaeus 

 for an English plant?" E. T. B. 



