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 wch 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, & shd. 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 wch 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 , & shall beg the favour of seeing, once more, those Anecdotes wch 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 Andalusian Larks , & 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 Quadrups & 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 . 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’s Benjamin White 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 obedt. Servt, J. White