Dear Sir
Nothing but the obliging notice you were so kind as to take of my trifling observations in the natural way, when I was in town in the spring, & your repeated mention of me in some late letters to my BrotherThis is Benjamin White, the publisher at Fleet Street who published many of Pennant's works, could have emboldened me to have entered into a Correspondence with you: in which tho’ my vanity cannot suggest to me that I shall send you any Information worthy your attention; yet ^
the communication of my thoughts to a Gentleman so distinguished for these kinds of studies will unavoidably be attended with satisfaction & improvement on my side.
It has been my misfortune never to have had any neighbour whose studies have taken the same bent: so that for want of a Companion to quicken my Industry, & sharpen my attention, I have made but a slender progress in a kind of knowledge, which I have been attached to from a Child.
As to Swallows (hirundines rusticæ) being found in a torpid state during the winter in the Isle of Wight, or any part of this County, I have never heard any account worth attending to. But a Clergyman of an inquisitive turn assures me, that when he was a great boy some workmen in puling down the battlements of a church tower early in the spring found two or three Swifts (hirundines apodes) among the rubbish, which were in appearance dead; but on being carried towards the fire revived. He tells me farther that out of his great care to preserve them, he put them in a paper bag, & hung them by the kitchen fire, where they were suffocated. An other intelligent person has informed me that while he was a school boy at Brighthelmstone in Sussex a great flake of the chalk cliff fell down After a stormy winter on the beach; & that many people among the rubbish found swallows: but on my questioning him whether he saw any of those birds himself, to my great disappointment he answered in the negative: but that others assured him they did.
Young broods of Swallows began to come forth this year July 11:th & young martins (hirundines arbicæ) were then fledge in their nests.
Both species will breed again once if not twice. And I see by my Fauna of last year that young broods came forth so late as Septemr: 18. Are not these late hatchlings more in favour of hiding than migration?
Nay some young martins remained in their nest last year so late as Septemr: 29: & yet they disappeared with us by the 5:th of Octobr: How strange is it, that if Swift (which seems to live exactly the same life with the swallow, & martin) should never appear ‘till 14 or 16 days after them; & then should leave us by the middle of August constantly; while the latter stay ‘till the middle of Octobr: in general: & once I saw numbers on the seventh of Novembr: the martins, & red wings (turdi iliaci) flying in sight together!
The Alauda minima locustæ voce is to be found with us; & continued his sibilous note ‘till some days in July. The Stoparola of Ray (for which we have no name in these parts) is called, I saw, in yr valuable
Zoology
the cobweb bird. There is one circumstance characteristic of this bird, which Ray & Linnæus take no notice of; & that is, it takes it’s stand on the top of some stake or post, from whence it springs forth on its prey, catching a fly in the air, & hardly ever touching the ground, but returning still to the same stand for many times together. I perceive there is more than one species of the motacilla trochilus. Mr: Derham says in Ray’s
Philos: letters
that he has discovered three; & two of yr Locustellæ. There is an Instance again in the former of these two of a very common bird that with us has no English name. Mr Stillingfleet makes a question whether the motacilla atricapilla be a bird of passage or not. I think there is no doubt to be made: for in the end of March or the beginning of April, on the first fine weather, they come trooping all at once into these parts, & are very common. They have pleasing notes.
Numbers of snipes (scolopaces Gallinag:) breed every summer in some moory grunds in a King’s forest on the verge of this parish: it is very amusing to see the cock (while his mate sits on her eggs) poise himself on his wings, making sometimes a whistling, & some times a drumming noise. I have had no opportunity yet of procuring any more of those mice This becomes identified as the Harvest Mouse
I mentioned to you. The person that furnished me with the last, says they are plenty in harvest times, when I will take care to procure more, & will endeavour to put the matter out of doubt, whether it is a new species or not.
I suspect much that there are two species of water rats. Ray says, & Linnæus after him, that the water rat is webfooted behind. Now I have discovered a rat on the banks of our little stream that is not web.footed, & yet is an excellent diver. It answers exactly to the Mus terestris of Lin: (see
Syst: Nat:
) which he says,“natat in fossis, & urinator, plantis licet fissis.” translation:"He swims in ditches and urinates, although the plants are divided" I should be glad to see one plantis palmastis. Linnæus seems To be in a pother about
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between the mus amphibius, & the mus terrestris, & not to know at last whether they are not the samethese are all synonyms for the Water Vole, Arvicola amphibius (Linneaus, 1758). But he mistakes strangely when he supposes the last to be the same with the "mus agrestris, capite grandi, brachyurous” of Ray; which lives in hilly fields, & has nothing to do with the water.
As to the Falco I mentioned, I take the liberty to send it, presuming on yr candour that you will excuse me, if it should appear as familiar to you as it was strange to me. - - -qualemtranslation:"such as" - -dicestranslation: "you say" - - -Antehæ fuisse, tales cum sint reliquiætranslation: "As they were formerly, such are the remains". It hunted a marshy piece of ground in quest of wild ducks, & snipes: but when it was shot had just knocked down a rook (corvus frugilegus) which it was tearing in pieces. I cannot make it answer to any of our common Hawks neither could I find any like it at the curious exhibition of stuffed birds in the Haymarket.
I am, with a greatest regard, your most Humble Servant,
Gil: White.
Selborne near Alton, Hants. August
10:1767.