390 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [16:9— Dec, 1920 



at all times, when communication is almost as swift as thought, it 

 is not' strange that we know the exact movements of every bird 

 on almost every day in the year. But this is a subject which has 

 been developed only in the last 25 years. In White's day, the old 

 theories and superstitions were rampant and White stood 

 almost alone as a believer in the definite migration of birds south- 

 ward to other countries in winter. Again and again he was chal- 

 lenged by Pennant and to Barrington he wrote, "You are, I know, 

 no great friend to migration ; and the well attested accounts from 

 various parts of the kingdom seem to justify you in your suspic- 

 ions." But in that period naturalists were few, communication a 

 serious business, with no telegraph, few newspapers, infrequent 

 posts and unmentionable roads, so that facts to back up theories 

 were next to impossible to obtain. White says, "It has been my 

 misfortune never to have had any neighbors whose studies have 

 led them towards the pursuit of natural knowledge; so that, for 

 want of a companion to quicken my industry and sharpen my 

 attention, I have made but slender progress in a kind of information 

 to which I have been attached from my childhood." 



To assist him in substantiating his theories, he used various 

 means. His letters contain frequent appeals to his friends for 

 observation of certain birds in other parts of England, especially 

 when a journey was in prospect. In one letter he says, "I have no 

 acquaintance at present among gentlemen of the navy ; but have 

 written to a friend who was a sea-chaplain in the late war desiring 

 him to look into his minutes, with respect to birds that settled 

 on their rigging during their voyage up or down the channel." 

 He listened to the stories of his neighbors, for one sees often "An 

 observing Devonshire gentleman tells me," etc. or, "Another 

 intelligent person assures me , ' ' etc. Though he heard many a tale 

 about which there can be little doubt that the flight of the imagina- 

 tion was far more apparent than the flight of birds, yet he never 

 ridiculed what others said or wrote, for he says, " Candour forbids 

 me to say absolutely that any fact is false, because I have never 

 been witness to such a fact." 



Had White, with his wonderful perceptive power, been less 

 content with the sedentary life of Selbourne, the advancement of 

 knowledge in respect to bird migration would perhaps have taken 

 more rapid strides in the 1 8th century for then assuredly would he 

 have determined the wintering of many species in that distant 



