226 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



also fond of catching flies against the warm sides or 

 upon the sloping roofs of large buildings. When first 

 seen it gives the impression of being one of the summer 

 birds which has failed to migrate with the rest ; a 

 second glance shows that it is a redstart, greyer and 

 darker in plumage than the "firetail," for whose 

 arrival we watch in spring. 



THE HOME OF A NATURALIST. 



Who is there that takes a pleasure in fresh-turned 

 earth and leafing woods, and in all furred and feathered 

 things which disport themselves therein, but will be 

 ready to honour the pious memory of old Gilbert 

 White, arch-priest of the cult of the field-naturalist, 

 and founder of his craft ? No doubt, as there were 

 mighty men before Agamemnon, so there must have 

 been yet earlier votaries of nature who strolled by 

 quiet ways, with quick eye and listening ear, but they 

 passed away, mute, inglorious, because they did not, 

 like the sage of Selborne, commit their observations to 

 writing. And probably he, as he penned that long 

 series of letters to his faithful correspondents, Mr. 

 Pennant and the Honourable Daines Barrington, had 

 little idea of the possibility of their ever appearing in 

 print. Hence, in part, their easy, simple flow, without 

 pose or affectation, no small advantage attaching to the 

 epistolary style. And what a far away eighteenth 



