Dear Sir,

op Your engaging letter of Septem^r: 29^th: came safe to this place: but not finding me at home, it pursued me down to a village near Lewes in Sussex¹ where I stayed three weeks, & from whence I wrote a long letter to Mr Barrington.

op Tho’ I had little or no doubt concerning my Hirundo hyberna, but that it must be the Hir: rupestris of Scopoli: yet I was pleased to have the sanction of y^r judgement, & to find that we are so readily concurred.

op Notwithstanding the Quail appears to be a nondescript & a new species: yet I think it merits farther enquiry: & I have_^^shall accordingly desire. my Brother to procure more specimens, & to satisfy himself thoro’ly that the back toe is always wanting, & also to get an old bird of each sex.

op No: 5: as you say seems also to be a nondescript. It is by no means a cold-finch as I once also thought: for I have several cold-finches by me, which differ widely from this little bird both by having a white spot in their fore-heads & a white speculum in their wings. The male bird, had it not some white in it’s tail, resembled most (as far as I can remember) the black-cap.

op In the first place Mr Ray classes his JuncoJunco as improperly as he does his sedge-bird; for with all deference neither of them have any relation to the chapter where they are put: & in the next place he does not describe it well; for it has not a stiff, wood-pecker-like tail: neith_^^er are they thighs remarkably strong, & muscular.

op You tender me Kramer in so obliging a manner & give so tempting a description of his Fauna², that I don’t know how to wave so pleasing an offer: & yet I should be sorry to give you any trouble on that account.

op I will desire my Bro^r3 to take the height of the rock of Gibraltar: was it not stupendous, there could not be such a resort & rendesvous of so many sorts of wild shy birds amidst such a concourse of people. In an E: wind, or levant the top is usually capped with a fog.

op On saturday night last I was gratifyed with y^r pleasing[g] letter of Octob: 21. I mention this circumstance to shew the that I lose no time in returning y^r fine drawings, as you desired they might not be detailed. Your artist has done my birds a great deal of credit, as well as himself; & I hope they will get safe back without any injury. The Junco is finely expressed; & the Quail is, I think, as lovely a drawing as ever I saw. If I might object at all to any part of the performance it should be to the right wing of the Hirundo, which perhaps is rather stiff, & to the middle of the tail which seems too round. For the tail, tho’ not forked, is some what emarginated, as Scopoli observes. The oval spots of the tail, which are characteristic of this species, are well hit off. The secondary wing-feathers are, you must observe, deeply knotched.

op I rejoice in y^r acquisition of N: American animals and am pleased to find that you persist in additions to y^r Brit: Zoology illustrated. Such hints as occur on any of those subjects shall be much at y^r service.

op It gives me real pleasure to hear that the report concerning Mr Banks is groundless. If there should be a rupture with Spain my Bro^r:⁴ will be much circumscribeed in his excursions; as he has been already this summer by the death of his horse.

op The bane of our science is the comparing one animal to an other by memory in order to describe it. For want of this caution Scopoli falls into errors. He is not so full with regard to the manners of his indigenous birds as might be wished, as you justly observe.

op I have more to say but my servant will be too late for the post which I would not lose.

op Regarding y^r correspondence as a very pleasing circumstance of my life, & hoping for a continuance of it I remai with great esteem

Your obliged, & humble Serv

Gil: White

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Editorial notes

1. This will have been Ringmer, where GW will have been visiting his Aunt
2. This is Kramer's Elenchus Vegetabilium and Animalium per Austriam inferiorem Observatorum
3. John White
4. John White