DR. AIKIN'S ADVERTISEMENT.

HE Rev. Mr. White, so agreeably known to the public by his Natural History of Selborne, left behind him a series of yearly books, containing his diurnal observations on the occurrences 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 comprised 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 present 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.1

LONDON, Jan. 1, 1795.

J. AIKIN.

1 The "Natural History 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.

380 DR. AIKIN'S ADVERTISEMENT.

ment to him to forego his intention had been the publication by Dr. Aikin of somewhat of the same kind: the commencement of the Naturalist's Calendar is a Preface by Dr. Aikin himself, explanatory of his part in the preparation of such a work from the materials left Ly Gilbert White !--ED.

THE NATURALIST'S CALENDAR,

AS KEPT AT SELBORNE, IN HAMPSHIRE,

FROM THE YEAR 1768 TO THE YEAR 1793.

BY THE REV. GILBERT WHITE, M. A.

TO WHICH ARE APPENDED, PARALLEL OBSERVATIONS MADE

AT CATSFIELD, NEAR BATTLE, IN SUSSEX.

PY WILLIAM MARKWICK, ESQ. F. L. S.

PREFACE TO THE NATURALIST'S

CALENDAR.

HE mode in which the following rural Calendar of the year has been composed, was to copy out from the Journals all the circumstances thought worthy of noting, with the several dates of their recurrence, and to preserve the earliest and latest of those dates; so that the Calendar exhibits the extreme range of variation in the first occurrence of all the phenomena mentioned. To many of them only one date is annexed, only one observation having been entered. This is particularly the case with respect to the flowering of plants, with which the book of 1768 alone was copiously filled; and it is to be noted that this was rather a backward year.-[J. A.]

[In the preface to the edition of the Natural History published in 1802 it is stated that

A very valuable addition to the Calendar and Observations has been obtained from the kindness of William Markwick, Esq., F.L.S., well known as an accurate observer of nature; whose parallel calendar, kept in the county of Sussex, is given upon the opposite columns.]