Dear Sir,

I am sorry our affairs do not coincide a little better, so as to give us an opportunity of meeting in London. According to our present plan, my Brother & I propose to be there about the middle of April, at w^ch time it is to be feared you will be return’d to the country. I am obligd to you for your kind offer concerning the Drawings, but cannot yet positively say which in particular I would wish to have copied. I must first consult some of my friends on that head, & sh^d. be glad of your opinion in the choice of them. Linnæus says the fish wch I am doubtful whether to call Perea or Zeus, is actually a New Genus! I have a_^^good specimen w^ch you shall see & it will be better to draw from _^^thatthan my rude outline.

I shall now be glad to collect all my scatter’d remarks on the Nat. Hist. of Gibraltar, & shall beg the favour of seeing, once more, those Anecdotes w^ch I have sent you from time to time, especially those that relate to the fishes, & birds. I beg your thoughts on the Lepidopus. It certainly is what Gouan speaks of, tho’ very different in some respects. I shall have a great variety of new Insects; but I fear many more are lost by being too hastily handled & examined. On examining the biggest of my short-bill’d AndalusianLarks, & comparing it with the British Larks here, I find it to be the real & genuine Sky lark, Al. arvensis. However I hope it’s past all doubt that I have still two new Larks.

What I think you of Gasterost. Saltatrix, as I have ventur’d to call it? Yet I fear it cannot be positively pronounc’d that species. I could like to have Cuts of all my new subjects, provided they were well executed. But I observe_^^that all the Artists, who succeed pretty well in Quadrup^s & Fishes, & Insects, are still very defective in Birds. Have you & M. de Buffon adjusted. matters concerning the Scops? I have a pretty specimen, but fear the Engravers will murder the delicate pencilling of that Bird.

I should be happy to have some days conference with you on the more rare of our subjects, before I finish my Fauna. I am not so forward as Ie.^d wish, for want of all having all my Specimens & materials about me. If you have any papers or memorials that you can spare, w.^ch may, contribute to my farther information, please to leave them_^^{at my Brother’s1} in Fleetstreet. I hope to be at Blackburn the beginning of May. I am, D.^r Sir, with much esteem

In your list of Animals of Southern Europe w.^ch you have got drawn? I cannot precisely distinguish w.^ch of them are mine, but shall be glad if you w.^d put a mark on those w.^ch you had from me

Your most obed^t. Servt,

J. White

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Editorial notes

1. Benjamin White