INTRODUCTION xix 



was so intent upon the study of live natural history. More 

 than once in his correspondence he dwells upon the necessity 

 of a systematic foundation for work that is meant to last. 

 Thus, writing to his brother John (May 26, 1770), he says : 

 " I am glad you begin to relish Linnaeus ; there is nothing 

 to be done in the wide, boundless field of natural history 

 without system," and other passages to the same effect might 

 be quoted. Several very interesting accounts of remarkable 

 young musicians are to be found in the Miscellanies. Bar- 

 rington had personally witnessed and critically examined the 

 early performances of Mozart, Charles and Samuel Wesley, 

 and Crotch. His anecdotes have often been drawn upon by 

 later writers. 



These are the best things which the naturalist finds in 

 Barrington's Miscellanies. He also contributed to the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions a number of papers which were never 

 collected. The chief of these is one on the " Singing of Birds ". 

 The sounds uttered by birds are, he thinks, no more innate 

 than language is in man. He gives instances of birds which 

 have caught the song of a foster-parent or a fellow-captive. 

 He thinks that hen birds are commonly mute and dull- 

 coloured, for their own safety during incubation. The 

 repeated references to Barrington in Darwin's Descent of 

 Man show that his observations still constitute an important 

 part of the literature of animal instinct. He wrote also on 

 the temperature of Italy in ancient and modern times (see 

 White's Letter V.) ; on the trees indigenous to Great Britain 

 (where he very properly decides that the Spanish chestnut 

 is not among the number); on rain at different heights, 

 and on Dolly Pentreath, the last person who spoke the 

 Cornish language. His plan of a Natwralisfs Calendar was 

 put into practice by Gilbert White and others. Barrington 

 was F.R.S., and presented White's papers on Swallows to 

 the Royal Society. A tropical myrtle, Barringtonia, named 

 after him by Forster, still keeps his name familiar to the new 

 generations of botanists. He survived long enough to become 

 one of the oddities among Charles Lamb's Old Benchers. By 

 a singular fate the correspondent of Gilbert White is the 

 bencher whose bill for sparrow-poison is disallowed. 



