232 
the appearance of a small prayer or hymn book. Neither of them 
are filled, but have been begun at each end, and in the smaller 
volume are many extracts from Latham, the ‘ Encyclopedic 
Methodique,’ Temminck, Pennant, Montagu, &c. 
The earliest dated entry in the larger Calendar is on March 1st, 
1809, and the last on November 3rd, 1826, on the 10th December 
of which year Mr. Whitear died. The diary at first contains little 
of special interest to the Naturalist, being almost entirely devoted 
to farming and gardening operations, with the occasional mention 
of the arrival or departure of the summer and autumn migrants. 
The selection here printed includes only those entries relating to 
wild fiowers and birds, purely agricultural and horticultural entries 
having, with a few exceptions, been excluded. At first the remarks 
on the birds are few and brief, but they gradually become more 
frequent and of greater interest, till they form the bulk of the 
diary, their rapid increase in later years indicating the author’s 
growing fondness for ornithological pursuits, and rendering it 
probable that but for the untimely accident which caused his 
death, the “ List of Norfolk and Suffolk Birds,” and a paper “ On 
Changes of the Plumage of Birds,” which also appeared in the 
‘ Transactions ’ of the Linnean Society (vol. xii. p. 524- — 526, 1818), 
would not have been the only contributions to ornithology with 
which Mr. Whitear’s name is associated. For convenience of 
reference all the dated entries from these four sources have been 
intercalated, the larger volume being taken as the ground-work, 
and the passages so inserted having a distinguishing prefix to 
indicate their origin. Some “ Memoranda ” which occur at the 
end of each volume, and do not form part of the Journal, arc 
added in the order in which they occur in the originals. 
William Whiteae, the author of the Calendar, was born on 
February 26th, 1778, at Hastings, of which place his father* 
(whose Christian name he bore) was for many years the rector, and 
it is probable that from him he first imbibed that taste for Natural 
History pursuits which in later years more fully developed itself. 
His early studies were directed by his father, but subsequently ho 
* This gentleman also seems to have been of St. John’s College, where he 
took the degree of LL.B. in 1778, and was described in the Admission Book 
as of the County of Hants. 
