PREFACE. xi 



this quietness that the invisible becomes visible. The vacant 

 field gradually grows full of living things. In the hedges un- 

 suspected birds come to the surface of the green leaf to take 

 breath. Over the pond brilliantly coloured insects float to and 

 fro, and the fish that never seem to move from the dark depths 

 do move and do come up in sight. Be very careful not to go 

 too far; keep round the skirts of home near the garden, or in the 

 nearest field, else you will jump over the very best ; for it is a 

 fact that the greatest variety of information is generally gathered 

 in a very small compass. I have noticed that people are never 

 so astonished as when some fact of natural history is unexpec- 

 tedly pointed out to them, where it must have been for a long 

 time under their very eyes. There are people who have never 

 seen a humble bee drill a hole in the nectary of a snap-dragon, 

 and yet have whole gardens full of flowers. At least, do not go 

 out of your own locality much for some time. 



The mass of this book was collected in the little Surrey 

 parish of Selborne. They say the place is very much the same 

 as when he was there a hundred years ago, for the country 

 changes very slowly ; the people, too, move slow, and their 

 memories linger long memories never seem to die out. I 

 suppose in a modern villa people would hardly understand 

 what was meant by the allusion to bats creeping down 

 chimneys and gnawing the bacon. Of old time, in all country 

 houses, sides of bacon were hung up to smoke in the fumes of 

 the great wood fires, so that a bat might come down and eat 

 the edge. Bacon is not so much cured like this now ; but 

 in any country house they would at once understand what 

 was meant. Those who follow the studies of Mr. White out- 

 of-doors will find very little altered, and can take up the 

 picture as he left it, and begin to fill in the endless touches 

 which make nature. 



If the great observer had put down what he saw of the people 

 of his day just as he has put down his notes of animals and 

 birds, there would have been a book composed of extraordinary 

 interest. Walking about among the cottages, he saw and heard 

 all their curious ways, and must have been familiar with their 



