Sir,

As in one of y^r former letters you expressed the more satisfaction from my correspondence on account of my living in one of the most southerly counties: so now I may return the compliment, & hope to have my curiosity gratifyed with regard to the first article by y^r living much more to the North.

For many years past I have observed that about Novem^r: vast flocks of Chaffinches have appeared in the fields; many more I used to think, than could be hatched in any neighbourhood but when I came to observe them more narrowly, I was amazed to find that they appeared to me to be almost all Hens. I communicated my remark to some intelligent neighbours, who, after taking some pains about about the matter, declared that they appeared to be well nigh all females; at least 50 to one. This extraordinary appearance brought to my mind the remark of Linnæus “that before winter all their Hen. Chaffinches migrate thro’ Holland into Italy”. Now I want to know from some curious persons farther North whether there are any large flocks of finches with them in the winter; & of which sex they mostly consist. For from such Information one might be able to judge whether they come over from the Continent, or whether our female flocks make their migration from the other end of the Island.

We have in the winter vast flocks of the common linnets, more I think, than can be bred in any district. These, I observe, when the spring advances, congregate on some tree in the sunshine; & join up their winter quarters, & betake themselves to their respective summer homes. It is well known at least that the Swallows & the fieldfares congregate for some time with a gentle twittering before they make their departure from us.

You may depend on it that the Bunting, Emberiza alba, does not leave us in the winter: because in Jan: 1767 in very severe weather I saw several doz: of them among some bushes on the downs near Andover.

Wagtails both white & yellow are with us all the winter: & Quails croud to some parts of our Coast, & are killed by people that go on purpose.

If you know where to have recourse to a compleat set of Gent;magazines, I could wish you would look (while you are on the subject of migration) for a dissertation on fieldfares. I can’t pretend to say at this distance of time in what year it appeared: it may be more than twenty years ago: I only remember it gave me satisfaction.

Mr Stillingfleet in his tracts days “that if the wheatear, Ananthe, does not quit England, it certainly shifts places: for about Harvest they are not to be found where before there was great plenty of them.” This well accounts for the vast quantities that are caught about that time on the South Downs near Lewes, where they are esteemed a delicacy. There have been shepherds, I have been credibly informed, that have made many pounds in a season by catching them in traps with an hors-hair noose. Yet tho’ such multitudes are caught for Tunbridge, Brighthelmstone, & all the neighbourhood, I never saw (well as I am acquainted with those parts) above four or five at a time: for that purpose may draw towards the Coast of Sussex in Autumn: but that they do not all I am sure; because I have seen a few stragglers in many Counties at all times of the year, especially about warrens, & stone-quarries.

I have no acquaintance at present among the Gent: of the navy: but have wrote to an observing friend , who was a sea chaplain in the last war, desiring him to look into his minutes with respect to birds that came aboard during his passages up or down the Channel. This Gent: who was at the siege of Louisburg, & Quebec, & who wintered at Halifax, brought home with him a pretty little collection of N: Amern: birds, some of which, I think, were nondescripts: but as he had no acquaintance with any Naturalist, they hung on his staircase neglected, ‘till they dropp’d to pieces. ¹

What Hasselquist says with respect to land birds frequently coming to ships as they sail near the shore is remarkable. There were little shortwing’d birds continually flying on board all the way from our Channel, quite up to the Levant², especially before squally weather. Vide page 9^th: & elsewhere what you suggest with regard to Spain is highly probable.

The winters of Andalusia are so mild that in all probability the soft-billed birds may find Insects sufficient for their support.

I have a relation, an intelligent person, at Gibraltar³, who often takes an airing into Spain. but he has never turned his thoughts to these studies. Tho’ I remember in one of his letters a copy of verses in which it was implied that the nightingale came to their rock at a stated season in the spring, & then left them. Some young man enjoying fortune, health, & leisure should make an autumnal voyage into that kingdom, & should spend an year in investigating the nat: curiosities of that vase, & almost unknown Country. Mr Willughby, & Mr Ray were there; But they seem to have skirted along it in a hasty manner. A nat: History of Gibraltar, of it’s plants, fossils, insects, reptiles, migrations of birds, &c: would make a pretty little pamphlet, that would be well received.

I have no friend now left at Sunbury⁴ to apply to about the roosting of the swallows in Octⁿ: on the willows & reeds of the aights of the Thames. Nor can I hear any more concerning those birds which I suspected were merulæ torquatæ.

As to my new mice⁵, I have farther to remark, that tho’ they nest for breeding up amidst the straws of the standing corn; yet I find that in the winter they burrough deep in the ground, making warm beds of dead grass. But their grand winter rendezvous seems to be in corn-ricks, into which they are carried at Harvest.

A Neighb^r: housed an oast-rick lately, under the thatch of which were assembled near 100, most of which were taken & some I saw. I measured them & found that from nose to tail they are two inches & a quarter & their tails are two inches. Two of them in a scale weighted down just one Copper-half-penny, which is about the third of an ounce averdupoise: so that I suppose they are the smallest hairy quadrupeds of this Island.

A full grown mus medius domesticus weights, I find, one ounce lumping weight, which is more than six times the weight of the mouse above; & measures from nose to rump for inches & ¹/₄, & the same in it’s tail. We have had a very severe frost & deep snow. My Thermometer was on Thursday the 7th: of this month 14 degrees & ½ below the freezing point within doors. Tender evergreens have suffered very much. It was very providential that the air was still, & the ground well-covered; else vegetation must have suffered prodigiously. There is reason to believe that some days were more keen than any since 1739/40

your friend Mr Barrington (to whom I am an entire stranger) has been so obliging as to make me a present of one of his Naturalist’s Journals, which I hope to fill in the Course of the year.

P:S: I have just ascertained the Nuthatch, sitta: it is not a common bird with us. This last frost brought us no new fowls.

Hoping you will excuse the unreasonable length of this letter. I conclude with a great regard Y^r: obedient Servant

Gil: White.

Selborne Jan 22 1768

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Editorial notes

1. It is unclear at present who this is, but White does recieve a letter from the Baron of Quebec discussing military encounters on the 8th July 1759(held at the Linnean Society of London on behalf of the Selborne Society, ref SS/3/4/30).
2. Hasselquist is probably best known for his studies of the Levant, undertaken at the recommendation of Carl Linnaeus. Unfortunately he died on the return journey, however his work was later published by Linnaeus under the title Iter Palæstinum, Eller Resa til Heliga Landet, Förrättad Ifrån år 1749 til 1752
3. This is the first reference White makes regarding his brother Rev John White in Gibraltar. It is potentially notable that he doesn't use John's name here (this doesn't appear until much later in the correspondence), it has been suggested that the scandal(financial, although Thomas Bell postulates there may also have been a family issue disapproving of Johns new wife Barbara. I have seen no evidence of this however.) which resulted in John leaving for Gibraltar for sixteen years was somewhat public at this point?
4. White's friend at Sunbury was John Mulso, his friend and confidant from university.
5. another reference to the Harvest Mouse