Career
White is regarded by many as England's first ecologist, and one of those who shaped the modern attitude of respect for nature. He said of the earthworm:
Earthworms, though in appearance a small and despicable link in the chain of nature, yet, if lost, would make a lamentable chasm. [...] worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without them...
The later naturalist Charles Darwin, when asked in 1870 about books that had deeply impressed him in his youth, mentioned White's writings. However, in Darwin's book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould: Through the Action of Worms, with Observations of Their Habits (1881), there is no footnote acknowledgement of White's earlier work in The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne on the significance of earthworms in creating and maintaining topsoil. Although Darwin clearly states White had a deep understanding of worm behaviour. (See page 14 of Darwin's The Formation of Vegetable Mould). It has been argued that Darwin might not have propounded the theory of evolution without White's pioneering fieldwork establishing the importance of close observation.
Rather than studying dead specimens, White observed live birds and animals in their own habitats over many years; creating a 'new kind of zoology, scientific, precise and based on the steady accumulation of detail'. The Natural History represents a shift to holistic, evidence-based engagement warmed by empathy. From nearly 40 years of observations, White recognised that birds and animals have inner lives. He based his work on accurate (if haphazard) recording of events, classifying, measuring, analysing data, making deductions from observations, and experimenting. He was 'one of the first writers to show that it was possible to write of the natural world with a fresh and intensely personal vision without in any way sacrificing precision'. Thus, Richard Mabey quotes White: 'during this lovely weather the congregating flocks of house martins on the Church and tower were very beautiful and very amusing! When they flew off all together from the roof, on any alarm, they quite swarmed in the air. But they soon settled again in heaps on the shingles; where preening their feathers to admit the rays of the sun, they seemed highly to enjoy the warm situation.' White's scientific outlook was coloured by his theology. He did not have grand theories, plan experiments and replicate them as a modern scientist would: he was more freewheeling and, arguably, as a consequence more appealing as a writer.
White and William Markwick collected records of the dates of emergence of more than 400 plant and animal species, White recording in Hampshire and Markwick in Sussex between 1768 and 1793. These data, summarised in The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne as the earliest and latest dates for each event over the 25-year period, are among the earliest examples of modern phenology.
American nature writer, Donald C. Peattie, writes in The Road of a Naturalist about White's contribution to the public interest in birds: "The bird census, now so widely promulgated by the Audubon Society, was the invention of Gilbert White; he was the original exponent, as far as I know, of the close seasonal observation of Nature, a branch of science known to the pedantic as phenology. He was the first to perceive the value in the study of migration (then a disputed fact) and of banding or ringing birds, though it was Audubon who first performed the experiment. No professional ornithologist ever did so much to widen interest in birds; from White's pages they cock a friendly eye at us, and hop out of his leaves right over our thresholds."
'White's other contributions to the field of natural history are impressive, for example, his close observation and recording of events over time led him to develop the idea of the 'food chain', laying the foundations for the modern study of ecology; he discovered a distinction between three species of leaf warblers based on their different songs; he pioneered modern theories on bird territory and its effects on their population. Even today, most naturalists will have read White and often refer to his work for its insights and investigative achievements.'
His 1783–84 diary corroborates the dramatic climatic impacts of the volcanic 'Laki haze' that spread from Iceland with lethal consequences across Europe.
White's sister Anne was married to Thomas Barker (1722–1809), called 'The father of meteorology', and Gilbert maintained a correspondence with his nephew Samuel Barker, who also kept a naturalist's journal.
