NATURALIST GILBERT WHITE was born on July 18, 1720, at a vicarage in Selborne, Hampshire, England, which his family lived in from 1728. Gilbert owned the house from 1763 and lived in it until his death. White graduated with a bachelor of arts from Oriel College, Oxford, in 1743. In 1744 he was elected fellow of Oriel, retaining his fellowship until his death; in the 1750s, he served as junior proctor of the University of Oxford and dean of his college. He was ordained successively deacon and priest in the Church of England and served as curate and vicar of various rural parishes in which his family or college had an interest, but did not seek preferments that would have prevented his living at Selborne. On January 7, 1751, White began the record of the natural world on which his fame rests. His “Garden kalendar” records the cycle of growth and decay in his garden, with some wider references to natural history such as the migration of birds. From Benjamin Stillingfleet’s Miscellaneous…