more complete, Mr. Adams has explained the manner of using them in the folution of feveral problems; he hath alfo given ample directions how to adjust them for obfervation, and difcover the corrections which they may want. After having thus laid before our readers the contents of these Effays, we must inform them that the work is executed in fuch a manner as to answer the purpose of general information, and afford affiftance to fuch perfons as have not been initiated into the fuppofed myfteries of mathematics; and who might, from the abftrufenefs of the fubject, and an opinion that to engage in it requires much previous knowlege, be deterred from the pleafing task of contemplating the heavenly hoft, and admiring the harmony of the fpheres.' To fmooth the entrance into the paths to science, and render them confpicuous and plain, are objects peculiarly worthy our beft attention; for it is on the very threshold of any fcience that a learner is moft difcouraged from entering; and he who removes the rubbish and brambles from the door, although he may not be entitled to the highest niche in the temple of fame, merits the approbation of every friend to science, and the thanks of all those who wish to promote its cultivation. To this approbation, and thefe thanks, we think Mr. Adams is juftly entitled, in confequence of his prefent publication; in which, befide rendering the avenues to geography and aftronomy pleasant, he takes every opportunity of fixing the reader's thoughts on that Being whofe wifdom contrived, and whose power supports the ftupendous fabric. In the perufal of Mr. Adams's former works, we have always obferved that, like a true philofopher, "he looks through nature up to nature's God." The fubject of this volume affords him ample room for enlarging on his favourite theme, and he has done it that justice which its importance requires. A few typographical errors have caught our eye in perufing the book, but they may eafily be corrected by an ordinary reader. As p. 357, 1. ult. for first of June,' read, twenty-first of June; P. 73, 1. 16, for 20 deg. 30 min.' read, 2 deg. 30 min. and fome others of lefs note. ART. V. The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, in the County of Southampton: with Engravings, and an Appendix. 4to. pp. 468. 11. is. Boards. White and Son. 1789. TH HOSE who are fond of topographical enquiries will find much fatisfaction in this entertaining fpecimen of paro chial hiftory. By an attentive obfervation of facts, and by a diligent inveftigation of ancient remains, this ingenious writer (the Rev. Gilbert White, of Selborne) has collected, from a fmall diftrict, a great variety of curious particulars in the various REV. July, 1789. D branches branches of natural hiftory, and made fome valuable additions to the general flock of antiquarian knowlege. The whole is well digefted, and written in a manner which reflects much honour on the understanding, and (what is not ufual on such subjects) the TASTE of the author. That we may afford our readers as large a fpecimen as our narrow limits will permit, of the amusing and ufeful information which may be expected from this work, we shall immediately proceed to lay before them a few extracts. Mr. White, who feems to have been particularly attentive to the natural hiftory of Birds, as well as other animals, relates many curious particulars concerning the feathered tribes: among which are the following: The most unufual birds I ever obferved in these parts were a pair of hoopoes (upupa), which came feveral years ago in the fummer, and frequented an ornamented piece of ground, which joins to my garden, for fome weeks. They used to march about in a stately manner, feeding in the walks, many times in the day; and feemed difpofed to breed in my outlet; but were frighted and perfecuted by idle boys, who would never let them be at rest. Three grofs beaks (loxia coccothrauftes) appeared fome years ago in my fields, in the winter; one of which I fhot: fince that, now and then one is occafionally feen in the fame dead feason. A cross-bill (loxa curviroftra) was killed laft year in this neighbourhood. • Our freams, which are fmall, and rife only at the end of the village, yield nothing but the bull's head, or miller's-thumb (gobius fluviatilis capitatus), the trout (trutta fluviatilis), the eel (anguilla), the lampern, (lampætra parva et fluviatilis), and the tickle-back (pifciculus aculeatus). We are twenty miles from the fea, and almoft as many from a great river, and therefore fee but little of fea-birds. As to wild fowls, we have a few teems of ducks bred in the moors where the fnipes breed; and multitudes of widgeons and teals in hard weather frequent our lakes in the foreft. Having fome acquaintance with a tame brown owl, I find that it cafts up the fur of mice, and the feathers of birds in pellets, after the manner of hawks: when full, like a dog, it hides what it can not eat. The young of the barn owl are not easily raised, as they want a conftant fupply of fresh mice: whereas the young of the brown owl will eat indifcriminately all that is brought; fnails, rats, kittens, puppies, magpies, and any kind of carrion or offal. The houle-martins have eggs ftill, and fquab-young. The laft fwift I obferved was about the twenty-firit of Auguft; it was a traggler. Red farts, fly-catchers, white-throats, and reguli non criftati, ftill appear; but I have feen no black-caps lately. I forgot to mention that I once faw, in Chrift Church college quadrangle in Oxford, on a very funny warm morning, a house martin flying about, and fettling on the parapets, fo late as the twentieth of November. At prefent I know only two fpecies of bats, the common vefpertilio murinus and the vespertilio auribus. I was much entertained laft fummer with a tame bat, which would take flies out of a perfon's hand. If you gave it any thing to eat, it brought its wings round before the mouth, hovering and hiding its head in the manner of birds of prey when they feed. The adroitnefs it fhewed in fhearing off the wings of the flies, which were always rejected, was worthy of obfervation, and pleafed me much. Infects feemed to be most acceptable, though it did not refuse raw flesh when offered: fo that the notion, that bats go down chimnies and gnaw men's bacon, feems no improbable ftory. While I-amufed myself with this wonderful quadruped, I faw it feveral times confute the vulgar opinion, that bats when down on a flat furface cannot get on the wing again, by rifing with great eafe from the floor. It ran, I obferved, with more difpatch than I was aware of; but in a most ridiculous and grotesque manner. Bats drink on the wing, like fwallows, by fipping the surface, as they play over pools and ftreams. They love to frequent waters, not only for the fake of drinking, but on account of infects, which are found over them in the greateft plenty. As I was going, fome years ago, pretty late, in a boat from Richmond to Sunbury, on a warm fummer's evening, I think I faw myriads of bats between the two places the air fwarmed with them all along the Thames, so that hundreds were in fight at a time.' In another letter, Mr. W. purfues the fame subject: The history of the ftone-curlew, charadrius ocdicnemus, is as follows. It lays its eggs, ufually two, never more than three, on the bare ground, without any neft, in the field; fo that the countryman, in ftirring his fallows, often deftroys them. The young run immediately from the egg like partridges, &c. and are withdrawn to fome flinty field by the dam, where they fculk among the ftones, which are their beft fecurity; for their feathers are fo exactly of the colour of our grey fpotted flints, that the moft exact obferver, unless he catches the eye of the young bird, may be eluded. The eggs are short and round; of a dirty white, fpotted with dark bloody blotches. Though I might not be able, just when I pleafed, to procure you a bird, yet I could fhew you them almost any day; and any evening you may hear them round the village, for they make a clamour which may be heard a mile. Oedicnemus is a most apt and expreffive name for them, fince their legs feem fwoln like thofe of a gouty man. After harvest I have fhot them before the pointers in turnip-fields. I make no doubt but there are three fpecies of the willow wrens : two I know perfectly: but have not been able yet to procure the third. No two birds can differ more in their notes, and that conftantly, toan those two that I am acquainted with; for the one has a joyous, eafy, laughing note; the other a harsh loud chirp. The former is every way larger, and three quarters of an inch longer, and weighs two drams and a half; while the latter weighs but two: fo the fongfter is one fifth heavier than the chirper. The chirper (being the first fummer bird of paffage that is heard, the wryneck fometimes excepted) begins his two notes in the middle of March, and continues them through the fpring and fummer till the end of Auguft, as appears by my journals. The legs of the larger of these two are flesh-coloured; of the lefs, black. ་ • The grasshopper-lark began his fibilous note in my fields laft Saturday. Nothing can be more amufing than the whisper of this little bird, which feems to be close by though at an hundred yards diftance; and when close at your ear, is fcarce any louder than when a great way off. Had I not been a little acquainted with infects, and known that the grafshopper kind is not yet hatched, I should have hardly believed but that it had been a locufta whispering in the bufhes. The country people laugh when you tell them that it is the note of a bird. It is a moft artful creature, fculking in the thickest part of a bufh; and will fing at a yard diftance, provided it be concealed. I was obliged to get a person to go on the other fide of the hedge where it haunted; and then it would run, creeping like a mouse, before us for an hundred yards together, through the bottom of the thorns; yet it would not come into fair fight: but in a morning early, and when undisturbed, it fings on the top of a twig, gaping, and fhivering with its wings. Mr. Ray himself had no knowledge of this bird, but received his account from Mr. Johnson, who apparently confounds it with the reguli non criftati, from which it is very diftinct. See Ray's Philof. Letters, p. 108. The fly-catcher (ftoparola) has not yet appeared it usually breeds in my vine. The redftart begins to fing: its note is fhort and imperfect, but is continued till about the middle of June. The willow-wrens (the smaller fort) are horrid pests in a garden, destroying the peafe, cherries, currants, &c.; and are so tame that a gun will not scare them. ALIST of the SUMMER BIRDS of PASSAGE difcovered in this Neighbourhood, ranged fomewhat in the Order in which they appear. Goatfucker, or fern-owl, Caprimulgus Europæus : My countrymen talk much of a bird that makes a clatter with its bill against a dead bough, or some old pales, calling it a jarbird. I procured one to be shot in the very fact; it proved to be the fitta Europea (the nut-hatch). Mr. Ray fays that the lefs fpotted woodpecker does the fame. This noife may be heard a furlong or more. Now is the only time to afcertain the fhort-winged fummer birds; for, when the leaf is out, there is no making any remarks on fach a reftlefs tribe; and, when once the young begin to appear, it is all confufion there is no diftinction of genus, fpecies, or fex. In breeding-time fnipes play over the moors, piping and humming: they always hum as they are defcending. Is not their hum ventriloquous like that of the turkey? Some fufpeft it is made by their wings. This morning I faw the golden-crowned wren, whofe crown glitters like burnished gold. It often hangs like a titmouse, with its back downwards.' To thefe mifcellaneous obfervations on birds, we muft add the following letter concerning doves: Unless the stock-dove in the winter varies greatly in manners from itself in fummer, no fpecies feems more unlikely to be domefticated, and to make an bouse-dove. We very rarely fee the latter fettle on trees at all, nor does it ever haunt the woods; but the former, as long as it stays with us, from November perhaps to February, lives the fame wild life with the ring-dove, palumbus torquatus; frequents coppices and groves, fupports itself chiefly by maft, and delights to rooft in the tallest beeches. Could it be known in what manner ftock-doves build, the doubt would be fettled with me at once, provided they conftruct their nefts on trees, like the ring-dove, as I much fufpect they do. You received, you fay, laft fpring a stock-dove from Sussex; and are informed that they fometimes breed in that country. But why did not your correfpondent determine the place of its nidification, whether on rocks, cliffs, or trees? If he was not an adroit ornitho. logift, I fhould doubt the fact, because people with us perpetually confound the frock dove with the ring dove. For my own part, I readily concur with you in fuppofing that house-doves are derived from the small blue rock-pigeon, for many reafons. In the first place the wild stock-dove is manifeftly larger than the common house-dove, against the ufual rule of domestication, which generally enlarges the breed. Again, thofe two remarkable black Spots on the remiges of each wing of the ftock-dove, which are fo characteristic of the fpecies, would not, one fhould think, be totally loft by its being reclaimed; but would often break out among its defcendants. But what is worth an hundred arguments is, the inftance you give in Sir Roger Moftyn's houfe-doves in Caernarvonshire; which, though tempted by plenty of food and gentle treatment, can never be prevailed on to inhabit their cote for any time; but, as foon as they begin to breed, betake themselves to the faftneffes of Ormfbead, and depofit their young in fafety amidst the inacceffible caverns and precipices of that ftupendous promontory. 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