THE ZOOLOGIST. 



true that Sir T. Browne, Willughby, and Ray had each, in the 

 middle of the seventeenth century, committed various observa- 

 tions to print ; but though Willughby, at least, recognised the 

 importance of the soft parts in affording a key to classification, 

 as well as the osteology, as may be seen from his observation of 

 the peculiar formation in the Divers [(Colymbidce) of the tibia, 

 with its prolonged procnemial process, of which he has given a 

 figure, or his description of the elongation of the posterior 

 branches of the Woodpecker's tongue, as well as by his descrip- 

 tion of the intestines of all specimens which came under his 

 notice in the flesh, none of these writers systematically noted the 

 habits of birds, apart from an occasional mention of their nidifi- 

 cation, and very rarely do they even describe the eggs. But 

 White was the first observer to recognise how much may be 

 learnt from the life habits of birds. He is generally content 

 with recording his observations, leaving it to others to speculate. 

 Fond of Virgilian quotations (he was a Fellow of Oriel of the 

 last century), his quotations are often made with a view to prove 

 the scrupulous accuracy of the Roman poet, as tested by his 

 (White's) own observations. 



In an age incredulous as to that which appears to break the 

 uniformity of nature, but quick to recognise all the phenomena of 

 life, a contrast arises before the mind's eye between the abiding 

 strength of the objective method, which brings Gilbert White in 

 touch with the great writers whose works are for all time, and the 

 transient feebleness of the modern introspective philosophies, 

 vexed with the problems of psychology. The modern psychologist 

 propounds his theory of man and the universe, and we read him, 

 and go on our way, and straightway forget. Herodotus and 

 Thucydides tell a plain tale in plain language, or the Curate of 

 Selborne shows us the hawk on the wing, or the snake in the 

 grass, as he saw them day by day, and, somehow, the simple 

 story lives, and moves him who reads it long after the subtleties 

 of this or that philosophical theory have had their day and passed 

 into the limbo of oblivion. But, invaluable as has been the 

 example of Gilbert White in teaching us how to observe, his field 

 was a very narrow one, circumscribed for the most part by the 

 boundaries of a single parish, and on the subject of geographical 

 distribution (as we know it now) he could contribute nothing — a 

 subject on which even the best explorers of that day were strangely 



