xii PREFACE. 



features of Selborne, notwithstanding a chapter on the 

 subject by the author, we find the same number of pages 

 devoted to a note on bats, and as many more to the subject 

 of migration. The author had only to allude to the infra- 

 orbital cavities in the heads of deer to suggest to his editor 

 a dissertation upon deer and antelopes, illustrated by an 

 engraving of two heads of an Indian species to which, it is 

 needless to say, no reference is made by the historian of 

 Selborne. An equally long note, concluding with a de- 

 scription and figure (p. 178) of a bird which Gilbert White 

 never saw and does not even mention, is quite as irrelevant 

 and out of place. 



But if four pages of notes be considered an unduly long 

 commentary upon a single passage, what is to be thought 

 of fifteen pages (pp. 119-213), the majority of them ap- 

 pended to only two lines of text, upon the treatment of 

 birds in confinement, and suggested, apparently, by a 

 casual remark of the author that a blackcap and sedge 

 bird " would require more nice and curious management in 

 a cage than he should be able to give them " ? These cannot 

 but be regarded as errors of judgment. However entertain- 

 ing a note may be, it should never be introduced at the 

 expense of the author. Long notes, moreover, weary the 

 reader, distract his attention, and ofttimes cause him to 

 lose sight of his author altogether. While I have retained, 

 therefore, in the present edition, many valuable notes by 

 Mr. Bennett and his coadjutors, the late Hon. and Rev. 

 W. Herbert and Professor Kennie, it has seemed desirable, 

 for the reasons stated, to eliminate much that they have 

 supplied, and either to refrain altogether from dwelling on 

 passages which in point of fact require no comment, or to 

 substitute, where such is needed, a more modern interpre- 

 tation than was offered to the reader five and thirty years 

 ago. 



The original foot-notes by Gilbert White have been 

 scrupulously reproduced, and are in every case distin- 

 guished by the initials, " G. W." 



As the reader may expect, not unnaturally, to have pre- 

 sented to him some brief memoir of the author, it may be 



