GILBERT WHITE AGAIN 175 



house sparrow as doing both. White seems to have 

 been about the first writer upon natural history who 

 observed things minutely ; he saw through all those 

 sort of sleight-o'-hand movements and ways of the 

 birds and beasts. He held his eye firmly to the 

 point. He saw the swallows feed their young on the 

 wing ; he saw the fern-owl, while hawking about a 

 large oak, " put out its short leg while on the wing, 

 and by a bend of the head deliver something into 

 its mouth." This explained to him the use of its 

 middle toe, " which is curiously furnished with a ser- 

 rated claw." He timed the white owls feeding their 

 young under the eaves of his church, with watch in 

 hand. He saw them transfer the mouse they brought, 

 from the foot to the beak, that they might have the 

 free use of the former in ascending to the nest. 



In his walks and drives about the country he was 

 all attention to the life about him, simply from his 

 delight in any fresh bit of natural knowledge. His 

 curiosity never flagged. He had naturally an alert 

 mind. His style reflects this alertness and sensi- 

 tiveness. In his earlier days he was an enthusiastic 

 sportsman, and he carried the sportsman's trained 

 sense and love of the chase into his natural history 

 studies. He complained that faunists were too apt 

 to content themselves with general terms and bare 

 descriptions ; the reason, he says, is plain, — " be- 

 cause all that may be done at home in a man's 

 study ; but the investigation of the life and conversa- 

 tion of animals is a concern of much more trouble 

 and difiiculty, and is not to be attained but by the 



