TIO NATURAL HISTORY. 



the extraordinary accuracy of their observations, and for 

 their graphic descriptions of the habits of animals 

 namely, Gilbert White and Alexander Wilson. These 

 two names well deserve something more than a passing 

 mention or a mere enumeration of their published 

 works. 



THE REV. GILBERT WHITE. 



There are few, probably, to whom the words ' White's 

 Selborne,' do not sound perfectly familiar, though possibly 

 many to whom these words are 'household words' have 

 not actually read the book of which they form the 

 abbreviated title. It must, in truth, be admitted and the 

 admission cannot be made without some touch of pain 

 and regret that the press and hurry of the latter half of 

 the nineteenth century render it almost impossible for the 

 majority of people to read a book like White's ' Selborne.' 

 Indeed, the art of reading books, in the sense in which 

 our forefathers read them, threatens to become altogether 

 lost; and it is almost inconceivable that a book like 

 White's ' Selborne ' should be written at the present day. 

 Such books are redolent of the health and peace of the 

 quiet country ; they breathe tranquillity and repose ; they 

 imply unlimited time for contemplation; they tell of a 

 mind, unresting it may be, but assuredly unhasting. Such 

 ingredients for a book are rarely to be obtained in any 

 age : in the feverish life of modern civilisation they bid 

 fair to disappear altogether. 



It has to many appeared a matter for regret that so 

 very little next to nothing in fact is known of Gilbert 

 White himself. In this, however, one cannot but feel a 



