Dear Sir,

op Some avocation or business of one kind or an other has still prevented my paying that attention to your kind letter of Jan:22: which it deserved. As at the close of that letter you invite me in a most obliging manner to come & spend some time in Flintshire; that paragraph seems to challenge my first attention. You will not, I hope, suspect me of flattery when I assure you that there is no man in the kingdom whom I should visit with more satisfaction. For as our studies turn the same way , & we have been so well acquainted by a long & communicative correspondence; I trust we should relish each others conversation, & be soon as well acquainted in person as by letter. Besides your part of the world would not be without it’s charms from novelty; as I am not not acquainted with the N:W: part of this island any farther up than Shrewsbury. Your improvements y^r mines, y^r fossils, y^r botany, your shores, y^r birds would all be matter of the highest entertainment to me. But then how am I to get at all these pleasures & amusements? I have neither time nor bodily abilities adequate to so long a journey. And if I had time I am subject to such horrible coach-sickness, that I should be near dead long before I got to Chester. These difficulties, I know, will be matter of great mirth to you, who have travelled all over Europe; but they are formidable to me. As therefore the man cannot come to the mountain; I hope the mountain (since friendship will effect strange things) will come to the man: I hope you will have it in your power to meet me in London, & that you will gratify me with an opportunity of waiting on you to Selborne.

op It is not improbably but that they Guernsey-lizard¹, & our lizard may be specifically the same. All that I know is that when some years ago many Geurnsey-lizards were turned loose in Pembroke Coll: garden, they lived a great while, & seemed to enjoy themselves well; yet never bred. Whether this circumstance will_^^prove any thing either way, I shall not pretend to say.

op If you are conscious that y^r Norwegian history has merit, it would be a good deed if you could procure a translation of it, & draw it forth from the obscurity in which it now lies. Your friend Forster the Swede may probably understand the Danish tongue, which is a sister language to his own; they being both derived from the antient teutonic.

op I return you thanks for y^r account of Cressi-hall: but recollect, not without regret, that in June 1746 I was visiting for a week together at Spalding without ever being told that such a curiosity was just at hand. Pray send me word in y^r next what sort of tree it is that can contain such a quantity of large nests; & whether the heronry consists of a grove or wood or only of a few trees.

op It gave me satisfaction to find we accorded so well about the Caprimulgus. All that I contended for was to prove that it often chatters sitting as well as flying; & therefore the noise was voluntary, & from organic impulses; & not from the resistance of the air against the hollow of it’s mouth & throat.

op Mr Forster’s scheme for a treatise on insects seems to promise well: I wish it may meet with encouragement. Is it to be in Latin or English?

op Swallows (hirundines rusticæ) as far as I can observe, are the only birds that feed their_^^young you flying. At first when they bring out their broods they usually place them in a row on the dead bough of some tree where they feed them sitting. As soon as the young can fly tollerably, the parent-birds, whenever their mouth is well-furnished with flies, give a signal by a certain note; & the dam & the young bird advancing in a rising direction towards each other on the wing, the food is conveyed by a delicate sleight from the mouth of the former to that of the latter. This method of feeding continues for some time: for after the broods are able to fly pretty strongly, yet there are such awkward vacillations in their motions as incapacitate them to provide for themselves.

op Swallows with us sometimes build in barns against rafters; & so they did in Virgil’s time:

op Antea qu’am tignis nidos suspendit hirundo².

op Some times also they build in porches: & therefore the epithet or trivial, chimney, (chimney-swallow) used by Mr Ray is not a good one: & would still be more improper in countries where there are no chimnies.

op If ever I saw any thing like actual migration it was last mich: day. I was travelling & out early in the morning. At first there was a vast fog: but by the time I was got seven or eight miles from home towards the coast the sun broke out into a delicate warm day. We were then on a large wild heath or common: & I could discern as the mist began to break away great numbers of swallows (hirun: rust: )clustering on the stunted shrubs & bushes, as if they had roosted there all night. As soon as the air became clear & pleasant they proceeded on S:ward towards the sea. After this I did not see any more flocks; only now & then a straggler.

op I cannot agree with Mr Barker that the swallow-kind disappear some & some gradually as they come: for the bulk of them seem to withdraw at once: only some stragglers stay behind a long while, & do never (there is the greatest reasonto believe) leave this island.

op Swallows that lay themselves up seem to come forth on a warm day, as bats do continually of a warm evening after they have disappeared for many weeks. [this moment a bat is flying round my house] For a very respectable Gentleman assures me that an year or two past as he was walking with some friends under Merton-wall on a remarkably hot noon either in the last week in Dec^r: or the first in January he spied two or three swallows huddled together on the moulding of one of the windows of that College. And I have frequently remarked that the swallow kind are seen alter at Oxford than elsewhere. It is owing to the vast massy buildings of that place, or to the many waters that surround it, or what else?

op Long before I had the pleasure of your correspondence I began to suspect that Swifts copulate flying. I kept my suspicions to myself, & have observed them narrowly several years; & do not yet find any reason to retract my supposition: & therefore hope you will not be startled at it. Those that will attend to their motions on fine summer mornings in the height of breeding time, may see that as they sail gently round very high in the air, one shall settle on the back of the other. During this contact they tumble down for many fathoms together head over heels with a loud shriek: at this juncture, I suppose, the business of generation is carrying on. There is nothing very strange in the supposition: for we know that many insects engender flying; as do ducks in their own element the water.

op All that I have to say about Swifts farther at present is, that if what I advance is true, these birds eat, drink, collect material for their nests, & procreate on the wing: in short perform every function in the air except that of incubation, & sleeping!

op When I used to rise in a morning last autumn & see the swallows & martins congregating on the chimneys & thatch of my neighbours cottages, I could not help being touch’d with a secret delight mixed with some degree of mortification: with delight _^^{to see} with how much ardor, & punctuality those poor little birds obeyed the strong impulse imprinted on their spirits by their great Creator; & will some degree of mortification, when I reflected that after all our pains, & enquiries We are not yet quite certain to what regions they all migrate & are still farther embarrassed to find that some do not actually migrate at all!

op These reflections made so strong an impression on my mind that they became productive of a composition that may perhaps amuse you for a quarter of an hour when next I have the honour of writing to you.

I am with the greatest esteem Y^roblighted & humble Servant,

Gil: White

op

---

---

Editorial notes

1. It is not clear here what White is referring to, possibly a question from Pennant in a previous letter, possibly a recent public article or discussion.
2. Translation: Before the swallow hangs its nest from the rafters