DR. AIKIN'S ADVERTISEMENT. 
HE Rev. Mr. WHfce^ so agreeably known to 
the public by his I^atural History of Selborne, 
left behind him a series of yearly books^ con- 
taining his diurnal observations on the occur- 
rences in the various walks of rural nature, 
from the year 1768 to the time of his death in 1793. From 
these annals he had already extracted all the matter com- 
prised in the work abovementioned, down to the middle of 
1787; but several curious facts in the preceding numbers 
had not been thus employed ; and all the subsequent ones 
remained untouched. It was thought a mark of respect 
due to his memory and to the reputation he had acquired 
as a faithful and elegant observer_, not to consign these relics 
to neglect. The manuscripts were accordingly put into 
my hands for the purpose of selecting from them what 
might seem worthy of laying before the public. The pre- 
sent small publication is the fruit of my research. With 
no small pains I collected the materials of it^ dispersed 
through the records of so many years, and gave them such 
an arrangement as I thought would present them in the 
most agreeable and useful manner to the lovers of natural 
knowledge.'^ 
J. AIKIJVT. 
London, Jan. 1, 1795. 
^ The "Xatural Histoi-y of Selborne" and the " Naturalist's Calendar " 
are singularly connected. In the last paragraph of the former work^ 
Gilbert White announces that he had proposed to have added a Natural 
History of the Twelve Months of the Year, and that a main induce- 
