Dli. AIKIN'S ADVERTISEMENT. 



HE Rev. Mr. White, so agreeably known to 

 the public by his Natural History of Selborne, 

 left behind him a series of yearly books, con- 

 taining his diurnal observations on the occur- 

 rences in the various walks of rural nature, 

 from the year 1768 to the time of his death in 1793. From 

 these annals he had already extracted all the matter com- 

 prised in the work abovementioned, down to the middle of 

 1787; but several curious facts in the preceding numbers 

 had not been thus employed ; and all the subsequent ones 

 remained untouched. It was thought a mark of respect 

 due to his memory, and to the reputation he had acquired 

 as a faithful and elegant observer, not to consign these relics 

 to neglect. The manuscripts were accordingly put into 

 my hands for the purpose of selecting from them what 

 might seem worthy of laying before the public. The pre- 

 sent small publication is the fruit of my research. With 

 no small pains I collected the materials of it, dispersed 

 through the records of so many years, and gave them such 

 an arrangement as I thought would present them in the 

 most agreeable and useful manner to the lovers of natural 

 knowledge. 1 



J. AIKIN. 

 LONDON, Jan. 1, 1795. 



1 The "Natural History of Selborne" and the " Naturalist's Calendar " 

 are singularly connected. In the last paragraph of the former work, 

 Gilbert White announces that he had proposed to have added a Natural 

 History of the Twelve Months of the Year, and that a main induce- 



