ON THE NOTES OF BIRDS. 27 
the cabinets of the curious are of small utility ; on the 
contrary, I am willing to allow that their importance 
is very considerable; but I would anxiously guard 
against an exclusive attention to the collecting and 
arranging of specimens to the neglect of what is much 
more instructive and valuable: I allude to the study 
of their habits, manners, and economy. In these im- 
portant particulars the history of birds is still very 
defective, the majority of authors, foreign as well as 
native, having limited themselves to the simple 
enunciation of specific characteristics and distinctions 
founded principally on external structure and colour, 
and the occasional introduction of a few anecdotes, 
which, from frequent repetition, have in general lost 
much of the novelty they once possessed. We must 
except from this remark, however, the excellent works 
in natural history of our ingenious countryman the 
late Rev. Gilbert White, of Selborne, in Hampshire, 
which abound with new and interesting facts. This 
diligent observer, whose example in investigating 
nature cannot be too highly recommended, instead of 
confining himself to the mere classification of natural 
objects, ranged the extensive wood, the tangled brake, 
the solitary sheep-walk, and the treacherous morass, 
to contemplate the manner of life, dispositions, and 
peculiar characters of their feathered inhabitants in 
their most sequestered retreats ; and his writings bear 
ample testimony how well his researches were repaid. 
The subject, however, is still far from being exhausted. 
