Dear Sir,

¹The common note of the white throat, which is continually repeated, & often attended with odd Gesticulations on the Wing, is harsh & displeasing: but when that bird sits calmly & engages in Earnest in song, it pours forth verry sweet but inward Melody & expresses great variety of soft and gentle Modulation. The white throat seems of a pugnacious Disposition: for it’s common Note is attended with an erected Crest, & Attitudes of rivalry & Defiance. It is shy & with; avoiding neighbourhoods it haunts lonely lanes, & Commons; nay even the very tops of the Sussex downs, where there are Bushes & Covert.

The song of the Redstart is superior, but somewhat like to the common song of the white throat; tho’ some birds have a few more Notes than others. Sitting very placidly on the top of some tall tree near to some Village it sings in the Spring from morning to Night. It affects Neighbourhoods, & avoids solitudes; & loves to build in Orchards & about houses.

The black cap has a full, sweet, deep, & wild pipe, superior perhaps to any of our birds, the nightingale excepted. It chiefly haunts Orchards, & Gardens. While it warbles it’s throat it is wonderfully distended.

The Fly-Catcher is of all our summer birds the most mute & the most familiar. It is also the latest bird that appears. It builds in a vine or sweet. briar against the wall of an House; & often close to the Post of a door where people are going in & out all day long. This bird does not make the least pretentions to song; but uses a little inward wailing Note when it thinks it’s young in danger from Cats, or other Annoyances.

Some young men went down lately on the verge of Wulmere Forest to hunt Flappers, or young wild ducks, many of which they caught & among the rest some very minute yet wellfledged wild Fowls alive, which upon Examination I found to be teals. I did not know ‘til then that teals wer bred in the south of England.

We have had ever since I can remember a pair of white Owls that constantly breed under the eaves of this Church. As I have paid pretty good Attention to the manner of these birds during their breeding season, which lasts pretty well the summer thro’; the following remarks may not perhaps be unacceptable. About an hour before sun-set they sally forth in quest of prey; & hunt all round the hedges of meadows & small enclosures for mice which seem to be their only food. In this irregular country we can stand on an Eminence & see them beat the Fields over like a setting-dog & often drop down in the Grass or Corn. I have often minuted these birds with my watch for an hour together, & have found that they return to their nest, the one or the other of them about once in five minutes; reflecting at the same time on the adroitness that every animal is possessed of as for as it regards the well-being of itself & offspring But a piece of address which they shew when they return loaded should not, I think be passed over in silence. As they take their prey with their Claws, so they carry it in their Claws to their Nest. But as their Feet are necessary in the Ascent under the tiles, they constantly perch first on the roof of the chancel, & shift the mouse from their claws to their bill, that the feet may be at liberty to take hold of the plate on the wall as they go_^^up under the eaves.

White Owls seem not (but in this I am not positive) to hoot at all. All that calamorous hooting appears to me to come from the wood-Kinds. The white owl does not indeed snore, & hiss & Liss in a tremendous manner: & these Menaces will answer the intention of intimidating: for I have known an whole village up in arms on such an occasion, imagining the church yard to be full of goblins, & spectres. White Owls also scream horribly as they fly along: from this screaming probably arose the common People’s imaginary species of screech-Owl which they superstitiously think attends the windows of dying Persons.

The plumage of the remiges or the wings of every species of owl that I have yet examined is remarkably soft, & pliant. Perhaps it may be necessary that the wings of these birds should not make much resistance or rushing, that they may be enabled to steal thro’ the air unheard upon a nimble & watchful quarry.

While I am talking of owls it may not be improper to mention what I was told by a Gentleman of the county of Wilts. As they were grubbing a vast, hollow pollard-ash that had been the Mansion of owls for centuries, he discovered at the bottom a mass of mater that at first he could not account for. After some examination he found that it was a congeries of the bones of mice (& perhaps of birds & bats) that had been heaping together for ages, being cast up in pellets out of the crops of many generations of inhabitants. For owls cast up the bones, fur & feathers of what they devour, after the manner of hawks. He believes, he told me, that there were bushels of this substance.

²My thanks are due for y^r Genera: & y^r letter of May 30^th. Pray favour me with An other soon.

When the brown owl hoots, it’s throat swells as big as an hen-egg. I have known a bird of this species live a full year without any water. Perhaps the case is the same with all birds of prey.

I am, with due esteem, your most obedient, & obliged servant.

Gil White

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Editorial notes

1. Main body text written in the hand of an amenuensis.
2. The letter here returns to Gilbert White's handwriting