Gilbert White a minister and observer of nature (1720–1793).
Quaker a member of the Society of Friends, a Christian movement noted for plain dress and simple living.
chaffinch a small European finch that has a white patch on each shoulder.
Linnaeus Carolus Linnaeus (1707–1778), Swedish botanist.
kestrel a small, reddish-gray European falcon.
shrikes predatory, shrill-voiced passerine birds with hooked beaks, gray, black, and white plumage, and long tails.
Proserpine the mythical daughter of Zeus, abducted by Pluto to be the Queen of Hades, but allowed to return to the earth for part of the year. She is sometimes used as a personification of Spring.
Alderbaran, Betelgeuse, and Sirius three stars.
Orion a constellation named after a mythical hunter.
atomy a tiny being.
the lower strata the lower layer of the atmosphere.
purgatory a place of limbo, traditionally believed to be located between Heaven and Hell.
joie de vivre French for "joy of living."
maritime of or relating to sea navigation.
heather a type of heath-grass with small purple flowers.
widgeon a freshwater duck.
curlew a large, brownish shorebird.
redshanks and dunlin types of European sandpipers.
tussocks thick tufts or clumps of grass.
anseriformes geese.
peregrines falcons used for hawking.
blue-stocking a learned, bookish, or pedantic woman.
guillemot a shorebird.
kittiwake a small gull.
W. H. Hudson English naturalist and writer (1841–1922).
