1906. 
195 
REVIEW. 
A " READY REFERENCE " SELBORNE. 
The Natural History of Sclbornc. By the Rev. Gilbert White, 
INI. A, Re-arranged and classified under subjects, by Charles 
MoSLKV. London: Klliot Stock, 1905. Pp. viii.'and 266. Price6j.net. 
The idea of this new edition of a favourite and incomparable classic is 
to re-arrange all the observations embodied in the vSelborne letters as far 
as possible under the headings of the species referred to, to facilitate ready 
reference. There may be students to whom it will be useful for that 
purpose, though all the charm of the old "Natural History of Selborne" 
is completely lost in Mr. Mosley's series of scrap-book extracts, and 
though the editor has found it necessary to depart from or vary the prin- 
ciple of his scheme in so many ways that those who turn to his volume 
as the quickest way of finding out Avhat White had to say on the subject 
of some particular species, will frequently find only another illustration 
of the wisdom of the homely warning, "More haste less speed." They 
will look in vain under "Fieldfare" or under "Redwing*' for any 
extract from the several interesting letters (e. ^. VIII. and IX. to Daines 
Barrington) in which White touched on the question whether those birds 
might sometimes breed in Great Britain; in vain under "Cuckoo" for 
his remarks (letter X. of same series) on the local variations which a 
musical neighbour had detected in that bird's note; in vain under " Fly- 
catcher" for the touching story (related in letter XIV.) of parental 
affection shown by the pair of Spotted Flycatchers which had their nest 
in W^hite's vine. These extracts, of course, are all given elsewhere in the 
book, under miscellaneous headings ; but what becomes of that con- 
venience for speedy reference which is supposed to be the justifying cause 
of Mr. Mosley s edition ? The book certainly does not enable us to .see 
at a glance all that White had to say on each animal of which he wrote. 
Even with the help of its index it fails to tell us this, for the '* Observa- 
tions on various parts of Nature," the " Naturali.sts' Calendar," and the 
Poems, which figure in most modern editions of the classic, are excluded 
from Mr. Mosley's. Thus the student who may flatter him.self that he 
has read in this book all that W^hite has left on record concerning the 
habits of (for instance) the Nightjar or the Hawfinch will be wolulh' 
misled. 
There are some cases in which letters of real interest have been most 
unhappily dissected. In letter 26 to Pennant, for instance, W^hite notes 
what he regards as certain analogous peculiarities in the habits of the 
Swift and of the Great Bat, or Noctule, and suggests, though diffidently, 
an inference from this analogy. Mr. Mosley cuts the passage in two, puts 
the sentences dealing with the Noctule under " Bats." and those dealing 
with the Swift under " Swallow, Martins, and Swift." The effect of this 
treatment is, naturally enough, that the argument cannot be followed. 
