46 
NATURE NOTES 
servant who was caretaker) to have remained in “ the possession 
of the family in London.” 
There remain, then, two portraits of gentlemen : that of 
Benjamin Hyde the elder, and that of the Rev. Thomas Holt, 
the naturalist’s maternal grandfather. The former picture 
became the property of Glyd White, who was in 1839 living at 
Ewelme, Oxfordshire ; and it may have gone from Selborne to 
London. But it cannot be the “ likeness ” picture, since it 
represents a bearded and moustachiod layman, who wears the 
costume of a period long anterior to Gilbert White, with a wide 
lace collar and a sword ; his right hand rests upon a globe, no 
doubt in signification of his profession as a Russia merchant 
and navigator. 
One portrait only, then, remains, that of the Rev. Thomas 
Holt. This picture, with three others of ladies, Mrs. Holt, her 
daughter, Anne Holt (not mentioned in Glyd White’s list), and 
her mother, Anne Ford (Mrs. Hyde), were sent in 1839, through 
Georgiana White’s brother, the Rev. John White, then living in 
London,* to my grandfather, Thomas Holt-White, in Essex, as 
more especially representing the Holt family ; and this picture, 
I think, must be the one which the housekeeper called a “ like- 
ness ” of the naturalist of Selborne. 
The picture, a well-painted one, portrays a clergyman in the 
prime of life, robed in a gown, and with a clerical ‘‘ bob ” wig, 
and bands. The features are a little heavy, and the forehead is 
not that of a philosopher, nor can I see any resemblance — 
except that the eyes are brown — to the existing portraits of 
Gilbert White’s brothers, Thomas, Benjamin, and Henry ; but 
there is, I think, a distinct likeness to the portrait of Mr. Holt’s 
daughter and only child, the naturalist’s mother, which is also 
in my possession, and it may be that Gilbert White favoured 
his mother’s family more than was the case with his brothers. 
Here the matter must be left, since 1 do not think any further 
light is ever likely now to be shed upon it. 
February 14, 1904. Rashleigh Holt-White. 
BIRD MOVEMENTS IN SPRING. 
With Special Reference to Nidification of Indigenous and 
Migration Movements of Migratory British Birds. 
OW that March is well advanced, it may not be out 
j of place to draw attention to some of the features 
: of bird-life in spring and early summer. 
None of these, perhaps, are more interesting to the 
majority of the devotees to Natural History than the times of 
' As far as I am aware, he was the only member of the family living in 
London at this time. 
