Gilbert White

See also: White

Gilbert White (July 18th 1720, Selborne in the Hampshire - June 26th 1793 Selborne), is a Naturaliste and a British Ornithologue which can be regarded as a pioneer of the ecology. After the first education by tutors with Basingstoke, it leaves in Oriel College Oxford. White obtains a title of deacon in 1747 and becomes vicar of Moreton Pinkney in the Northamptonshire. It has in load the church of Farrington in Hampshire, a parish close to Selborne. In 1784, it is in station with Selborne where it remains until its death.

White is regarded with the the United Kingdom as the first ecologist. He says worms of ground (1770):

Worms of ground, although pretense small and unimportant in the chain of nature, however, if you disappear, you would see a terrible chaos the worms seem to be the large promoters of the vegetation, who could survive without them but so badly…

The most known work of White is her Natural History and Antiquities off Selborne (1789) who are a compilation of her letters with Thomas Pennant, large a zoologist, but also with Daines Barrington, a Welsh lawyer and member also of the Royal Society. These letters describe the discoveries of White on the birds and the animals of its area. He thinks that the observation of the birds is enough to distinguish them and that it is not need to catch them. He is one of the first to separate from the species of close aspect like the Chiff-chaff ( Phylloscopus collybita ), the Willow warbler ( Phylloscopus trochilus )) and the Wood warbler ( Phylloscopus sibilatrix ).

Its Natural History becomes a best-seller: it is the British book which were sold the most afterwards, of course, the Bible and works of Shakespeare. Even if it is written in a very book style, it contributes to popularize the study of the birds and causes very many vocations of ornithologists.

In addition to its work on the natural history, he is also the author of Poésie S.

Its house of Selborne, The Wakes , shelters today the Gilbert White Museum as well as the Oates Memorial Museum , commemorating Frank and Lawrence Oates.

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