634 
Gilbert White Reconsidered. 
[October, 
unfounded with Tenebrio molitor or with Blafis mortisaga, 
both of which are true beetles, both black, and which haunt 
bakehouses^ writings teem with fadts which had 
escaped al previous naturalists, we find that with trifling 
exceptions, all relate either to the locality or the habits of 
animals With their structure, and even their outward ap- 
nearance he is much less concerned. He complains, with 
nistice of the vagueness of the descriptions of species given 
bv the systematic writers of his time ; but he does not 
attempt to amend their defeft. He assumes each bird, &c„ 
as a something known, and goes on to treat of i s doings 
and its occurrence. Classification was as foreign to him as 
m We Naturally ask what was his position with regard to 
the great questions of zoological philosophy such as the 
origin the persistence, and the distribution of species their 
relations to each other, their dependence on climate, and 
a- t ? This enauiry appears the more reasonable if we 
refledt that he lived In the same century which produced the 
elder Darwin, and that he was acquainted with the writings 
of Buffon and Linmeus. Yet there is no evidence that he 
gave these subjefts any especial consideration. He wntes, 
fndeed that “ Linnaeus ranges plants geographically; palms 
iL trooics grasses the temperate zones, and mosses 
^nd lichens polar circles ; no doubt animals may be 
classed in the same manner with propriety. This is merely 
an assertion of the fadt that different climates have their 
characteristic forms of animal and vegetable life. He spe- 
cnaracteris origin of “ those genera that are peculiar 
lo Ameri a hlw they came there, and whence ?” Without 
hazaldTng an opinion of his own, he refers to the arguments 
of thlse writers who “ stock America from the western coast 
f Afrka and the south of Europe, and then break down 
°* • that bridged over the Atlantic,”— an hypothesis 
th , e . 77 characterises as a “ violent piece of machinery.” 
w h a p! had alfinkling of the doftrine of Organic Evolu- 
tkn he could scarcely have failed to bring it forward in this 
C °He ea obs n erves, however, the influence of food upon the 
1 tinl nf birds and puts the question whether the 
iSknTn the colours of our domestic animals may not in 
Ilrt bedll to more abundant and more stimulating diet ? 
P He notices the helplessness of young swifts, a 
whfch might have served for the better instrudtion of those 
wHters who dwell so persistently on the precocity of 
