632 
A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
[white 
West End picture-dealer for as many pounds and subse- 
quently engraved. Two other reputed sketch portraits have 
also this year (1914) been unearthed in Gilbert White’s copy 
of Pope’s translation of Homer’s Iliad , presented to him by 
the poet on his taking his B.A. at Oxford in 1743. (This 
is now in the British Museum.) There is also an oil paint- 
ing in the possession of the Earl of Lytton at Knebworth, 
which bears on the back an inscription stating it to be a 
portrait of Gilbert White (cf. Selborne Magazine, Aug. 1913, 
p. 142). He is thus described by his nephew, Francis 
White, who well remembered his uncle, in the preface to 
Bell’s edition, p. lviii : “ He was only five feet three inches 
in stature, of a spare form and remarkably upright carriage.” 
In manner he was kind and courteous, and, though never 
possessed of more than moderate means, liberal to his relations 
and parishioners and fond of entertaining. For fuller 
biographies see Bull. B.O.C. No. cxc. (1913), by Mr. Mullens ; 
Life and Letters of Gilbert White, by Mr. Rashleigh Holt- 
White, 2 vols. 8vo , London, 1901 ; and private reprint of 
art. for Diet, of Nat. Biog. by Professor Newton, 1899. 
Gilbert White’s most interesting observations in orni- 
thology were on the three “ Willow Wrens,” and he was 
undoubtedly the means of clearing up the confusion which 
had hitherto existed on the subject ( cf ’. Yarrell, 4th edit. vol. i. 
p. 427, art. “ Wood Wren ”), and of establishing the status of 
the Wood Wren. The Common Cuckoo and the Nightjar, 
or Fern Owl as Gilbert White called it, were also studied by 
him with great care, and his observations on these birds have 
been freely quoted by later writers, and often without 
acknowledgment. His conjectures as to the descent of the 
domestic pigeon from the small blue Rock-Pigeon ( Columba 
livid) and not from the Wood-Pigeon ( C . ypalumbus) or Stock- 
Dove ( C . cenas) are especially worthy of mention. 
1774. Account of the House Martin or Martlet. (Phil. Trans. Ixiv. 
pp. 196-201.) 4to. 
1775. Of the House-Swallow, Swift and Sand-Martin. (Op. cit. lxv. 
pp. 258-76.) 4to. 
