Dear Sir

Nothing but the obliging notice you were so kind as to take of my trifling observations in the natural way, when I was in town in the spring, & your repeated mention of me in some late letters to my Brother¹, could have emboldened me to have entered into a Correspondence with you: in which tho’ my vanity cannot suggest to me that I shall send you any Information worthy your attention; yet _^^the communication of my thoughts to a Gentleman so distinguished for these kinds of studies will unavoidably be attended with satisfaction & improvement on my side.

It has been my misfortune never to have had any neighbour whose studies have taken the same bent: so that for want of a Companion to quicken my Industry, & sharpen my attention, I have made but a slender progress in a kind of knowledge, which I have been attached to from a Child.

As to Swallows (hirundines rusticæ) being found in a torpid state during the winter in the Isle of Wight, or any part of this County, I have never heard any account worth attending to. But a Clergyman of an inquisitive turn assures me, that when he was a great boy some workmen in puling down the battlements of a church tower early in the spring found two or three Swifts (hirundines apodes) among the rubbish, which were in appearance dead; but on being carried towards the fire revived. He tells me farther that out of his great care to preserve them, he put them in a paper bag, & hung them by the kitchen fire, where they were suffocated. An other intelligent person has informed me that while he was a school boy at Brighthelmstone in Sussex a great flake of the chalk cliff fell down After a stormy winter on the beach; & that many people among the rubbish found swallows: but on my questioning him whether he saw any of those birds himself, to my great disappointment he answered in the negative: but that others assured him they did.

Young broods of Swallows began to come forth this year July 11:^th & young martins (hirundines arbicæ) were then fledge in their nests.

Both species will breed again once if not twice. And I see by my Fauna of last year that young broods came forth so late as Septem^r: 18. Are not these late hatchlings more in favour of hiding than migration?

Nay some young martins remained in their nest last year so late as Septem^r: 29: & yet they disappeared with us by the 5:^th of Octob^r: How strange is it, that if Swift (which seems to live exactly the same life with the swallow, & martin) should never appear ‘till 14 or 16 days after them; & then should leave us by the middle of August constantly; while the latter stay ‘till the middle of Octob^r: in general: & once I saw numbers on the seventh of Novemb^r: the martins, & red wings (turdi iliaci) flying in sight together!

The Alauda minima locustæ voce is to be found with us; & continued his sibilous note ‘till some days in July. The Stoparola of Ray (for which we have no name in these parts) is called, I saw, in y^r valuable Zoology the cobweb bird. There is one circumstance characteristic of this bird, which Ray & Linnæus take no notice of; & that is, it takes it’s stand on the top of some stake or post, from whence it springs forth on its prey, catching a fly in the air, & hardly ever touching the ground, but returning still to the same stand for many times together. I perceive there is more than one species of the motacilla trochilus. Mr: Derham says in Ray’s Philos: letters that he has discovered three; & two of y^r Locustellæ. There is an Instance again in the former of these two of a very common bird that with us has no English name. Mr Stillingfleet makes a question whether the motacilla atricapilla be a bird of passage or not. I think there is no doubt to be made: for in the end of March or the beginning of April, on the first fine weather, they come trooping all at once into these parts, & are very common. They have pleasing notes.

Numbers of snipes (scolopaces Gallinag:) breed every summer in some moory grunds in a King’s forest on the verge of this parish: it is very amusing to see the cock (while his mate sits on her eggs) poise himself on his wings, making sometimes a whistling, & some times a drumming noise. I have had no opportunity yet of procuring any more of those mice ² I mentioned to you. The person that furnished me with the last, says they are plenty in harvest times, when I will take care to procure more, & will endeavour to put the matter out of doubt, whether it is a new species or not.

I suspect much that there are two species of water rats. Ray says, & Linnæus after him, that the water rat is webfooted behind. Now I have discovered a rat on the banks of our little stream that is not web.footed, & yet is an excellent diver. It answers exactly to the Mus terestris of Lin: (see Syst: Nat:) which he says,“natat in fossis, & urinator, plantis licet fissis.” ³ I should be glad to see one plantis palmastis. Linnæus seems To be in a pother about_^^between the mus amphibius, & the mus terrestris, & not to know at last whether they are not the same⁴. But he mistakes strangely when he supposes the last to be the same with the "mus agrestris, capite grandi, brachyurous” of Ray; which lives in hilly fields, & has nothing to do with the water.

As to the Falco I mentioned, I take the liberty to send it, presuming on y^r candour that you will excuse me, if it should appear as familiar to you as it was strange to me. - - -qualem⁵ - -dices⁶ - - -Antehæ fuisse, tales cum sint reliquiæ⁷. It hunted a marshy piece of ground in quest of wild ducks, & snipes: but when it was shot had just knocked down a rook (corvus frugilegus) which it was tearing in pieces. I cannot make it answer to any of our common Hawks neither could I find any like it at the curious exhibition of stuffed birds in the Haymarket.

I am, with a greatest regard, your most Humble Servant,

Gil: White.

Selborne near Alton, Hants. August 10:1767.

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Editorial notes

1. This is Benjamin White, the publisher at Fleet Street who published many of Pennant's works
2. This becomes identified as the Harvest Mouse
3. translation:"He swims in ditches and urinates, although the plants are divided"
4. these are all synonyms for the Water Vole, Arvicola amphibius (Linneaus, 1758)
5. translation:"such as"
6. translation: "you say"
7. translation: "As they were formerly, such are the remains"
8. addition made by Thomas Pennant