 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to find out how to volunteer, please contact LibriVox.org. Recording by Peter Yersley. The Natural History of Selborne by Gilbert White. Letters to Thomas Penanty Square, Numbers 32 to 44. Letter 32 to Thomas Penanty Square. Selborne, October the 29th, 1770. Dear sir, after an ineffectual search in Linnaeus, Bryson, etc., I begin to suspect that I discern my brother's Herundo Hiberna in Scopoli's new-discovered Herundo Rapestris, page 167. His description of Supramorina subtus albida, recticaismacula ovale alba in latteri inferno, pedes nudi nigri, rostrum nigrum, remigues obscuriores quam plume dorsales, recticaes remigibus concolores, cauda marginata, neck forkipata. Readers note, mouse coloured above, white beneath. Tail feathers with an oval white patch on the inside edge. Its feet are bare and black, its beak is black. Primary feathers darker than its dorsal feathers, with the tail feathers the same colour. Tail notched, not forked. End Readers note. Agrees very well with the bird in question, but when he comes to advance, that it is Statora Herundinis Urbikei, Readers note the same size as a house martin, End Readers note, and that Definitio Herundinis Raparie Linnae, who quok quick convene it. Readers note. The definition of the house martin by Linnaeus also applies to this. End Readers note. He in some measure invalidates all he has said, at least he shows it once, that he compares them to these species merely from memory, for I have compared the birds themselves and find they differ widely in every circumstance of shape, size and colour. However, as you will have a specimen I shall be glad to hear what your judgement is in the matter. Whether my brother is forestalled in his nondescript or not, he will have the credit of first discovering that they spend their winters under the warm and sheltery shores of Gibraltar and Barbary. Scopoli's characters of his ordinate and genera are clear, just and expressive, and much in the spirit of Linnaeus. These few remarks are the result of my first perusal of Scopoli's annus primus. The bane of our science is the comparing of one animal to the other by memory, for want of caution in this particular 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. His Latin is easy, elegant and expressive, and very superior to Kramer's. I am pleased to see that my description of the moose corresponds so well with yours. I am, etc. Letter 33 to Thomas Pennant, Esquire, celiborn November the 26th, 1770 Dear sir, I was much pleased to see among the collection of birds from Gibraltar some of those short-winged English summer birds of passage, concerning whose departure we have made so much enquiry. Now, if these birds are found in Andalusia to migrate to and from Barbary, it may easily be supposed that those that come to us may migrate back to the continent and spend their winters in some of the warmer parts of Europe. This is certain that many soft-billed birds that come to Gibraltar appear there only in spring and autumn, seeming to advance in pairs towards the northward for the sake of breeding during the summer months, and retiring in parties and broods towards the south at the decline of the year, so that the Rock of Gibraltar is the great rendezvous and place of observation from whence they take their departure each way towards Europe or Africa. It is therefore no mean discovery, I think, to find that our small short-winged summer birds of passage are to be seen spring and autumn on the very skirts of Europe. It is a presumptive proof of their emigrations. Scopoli seems to me to have found the Herondo Melba, the great Gibraltar Swift, in Tyrol, without knowing it. But what is his Herondo alpina but the aforementioned bird in other words? Says he, Omnia priores, meaning the Swift, said Pectis album, Paola major priore, readers note, all is as in the former but for the white breast, and it is a little bigger than the former, end readers note. I do not suppose this to be a new species. It is true also of the Melba that Nidificatina accelsis alpium rupibus, readers note, its nests on high alpine peaks, end readers note. Vidae annum primum My Sussex friend, a man of observation and good sense, but no naturalist, to whom I applied on account of the stone curlew, Edic Nemus, sends me the following account. In looking over my naturalist's journal for the month of April, I find the stone curlews are first mentioned on the 17th and 18th, which date seems to me rather late. They live with us all spring and summer and at the beginning of autumn prepare to take leave by getting together in flocks. They seem to me a bird of passage that may travel into some dry hilly country south of us, probably Spain, because of the abundance of sheep walks in that country, for they spend their summers with us in such districts. This conjecture I hazard as I have never met with anyone that has seen them in England in the winter. I believe they are not fond of going near the water but feed on earthworms that are common on sheep walks and downs. They breed on fallows and lay fields bounding with grey mossy flints, which much resemble their young in colour, among which they skulk and conceal themselves. They make no nest but lay their eggs on the bare ground, producing in common but two at a time. There is reason to think their young run soon after they are hatched and that the old ones do not feed them but only lead them about at the time of feeding, which for the most part is in the night. Thus far my friend. In the manners of this bird you see there is something very analogous to the bustard whom it also somewhat resembles in aspect and make and in the structure of its feet. For a long time I have desired my relation to look out for these birds in Andalusia and now he writes me words that for the first time he saw one dead in the market on the 3rd of September. When the edic neemers flies it stretches out its legs straight behind like an heron. I am, etc. Letter 34 to Thomas Pennant Isquire Selborn March the 30th, 1771 Dear sir, there is an insect with us especially on chalky districts which is very troublesome and teasing all the latter end of the summer getting into people's skins especially those of women and children and raising tumours which itch intolerably. This animal which we call in harvest bug is very minute, scarce discernable to the naked eye of a bright scarlet colour and of the genus of acaris. They are to be met with in gardens on kidney beans or any legumes but prevail only in the hot months of summer. Warriners, as some have assured me are much infested by them on chalky downs where these insects swarm sometimes to so infinite a degree as to discolour their nets and to give them a reddish cast while the men are so bitten as to be thrown into fevers. There is a small long shining fly in these parts, very troublesome to the housewife by getting into the chimneys and laying its eggs in the bacon while it is drying. These eggs produce maggots called jumpers which harbouring in the gamins and best parts of the hogs eat down to the bone and make great waste. This fly I suspect to be a variety of the most caputris of Linnaeus. It is to be seen in the summer in the farm kitchens on the bacon racks and about the mantle pieces and on the ceilings. The insect that infests turnips and many crops in the garden destroying often whole fields while in their seedling leaves is an animal that wants to be better known. The country people here call it the turnip fly and black dolphin but I know it to be one of the cheloptra. It is a male oleracea sultatoria femoribus postisis croissimus In very hot summers they are bound to an amazing degree and as you walk in a field or in a garden make a pattering like rain by jumping on the leaves of the turnips or cabbages. There is an estrus known in these parts to every ploughboy which because it is omitted by Linnaeus is also passed over by late writers and that is the curvy corda of Old Mufae mentioned by Durham in his Physicotheology page 250 an insect worthy of remark for depositing its eggs as it flies in so dexterous a manner on the single hairs of the legs and flanks of grass horses but then Durham is mistaken when he advances that this estrus is the parent of that wonderful star-tailed maggot which he mentions afterwards for more modern entomologists have discovered that singular production to be derived from the egg of the muska chameleon. A full history of noxious insects hurtful in the field, garden and house suggesting all the known and likely means of destroying them would be allowed by the public to be a most useful and important work. What knowledge there is of this sort lies scattered and wants to be collected. Great improvements would soon follow of course a knowledge of the properties, economy propagation and in short of the life and conversation of these animals is a necessary step to lead us to some method of preventing their depredations. As far as I am a judge nothing would recommend entomology more than some neat plates that should well express the generic distinctions of insects according to Linnaeus for I am well assured that many people would study insects could they set out with a more adequate notion of those distinctions than can be conveyed at first by words alone. Dear sir, happening to make a visit to my neighbour's peacocks I could not help observing that the trains of those magnificent birds appear by no means to be their tails those long feathers growing not from their oropygm but all up their backs a range of short brown stiff feathers about six inches long fixed in the oropygm is the real tail and serves as the fulcrum to prop the train which is long and top heavy when set on end when the train is up nothing appears of the bird before but it's head and neck but this would not be the case where those long feathers fixed only in the rump as may be seen by the turkey cock when in a strutting attitude by a strong muscular vibration they make the shafts of their long feathers clatter like the swords of the sword-dancer they then trample very quick with their feet and run backwards towards the females I should tell you that I have got an uncommon calculus egogropila taken out of the stomach of a fat ox it is perfectly round and about the size of a large civil orange such are, I think, usually flat Letter 36 to Thomas Pennant Esquire, September 1771 Dear sir, the summer through I have seen but two of that large species of bat which I call Vespatilio altivolans from its manner of feeding high in the air I procured one of them and found it to be a male and made no doubt as they accompanied together that the other was a female but happening in an evening or two to procure the other likewise I was somewhat disappointed when it appeared to be also of the same sex this circumstance and the great scarcity of this sort at least in these parts occasions some suspicions in my mind whether it is really a species or whether it may not be the male part of the more known species one of which may supply many females as is known to be the case in sheep and some other quadrupeds but this doubt can only be cleared by a further examination and some attention to the sex all that I know at present is that my two were amply furnished with the parts of generation much resembling those of a boar in the extent of their wings they measured 14 inches and a half and 4 inches and a half from the nose to the tip of the tail their heads were large their nostrils bilobated their shoulders broadened muscular and their whole bodies fleshy and plump nothing could be more sleek and soft than their fur bright chestnut color their mors were full of food but so macerated that the quality could not be distinguished their livers, kidneys and hearts were large and their bowels covered with fat they weighed each when in tire full one ounce and one dracum within the ear there was somewhat of a peculiar structure that I did not understand perfectly but refer it to the observation of the curious anatomist these creatures sent forth a insid and offensive smell Dear sir, on the 12th of July I had a fair opportunity of contemplating the motions of the Caprimulgus or Thurn Owl as it was playing round a large oak that swarmed with scarabii solstitiales or fern chafers the powers of its wing were wonderful exceeding if possible the various evolutions and quick turns of the swallow genus but the circumstance that pleased me most was that I saw it distinctly more than once put out its short leg while on the wing and by a bend of the head deliver somewhat into its mouth if it takes any part of its prey with its foot as I have now the greatest reason to suppose it does these chafers I no longer wonder at the use of its middle toe which is curiously furnished with a serrated claw Swallows and Martins the bulk of them I mean have forsaken us sooner this year than usual for on September the 22nd they rendezvoused in a neighbour's walnut tree where it seemed probable they had taken up their lodging for the night at the dawn of the day which was foggy they arose altogether in infinite numbers occasioning such a rushing from the strokes of their wings against the hazy air as might be heard to a considerable distance since that no flock has appeared only a few stragglers some swifts stayed late till the 22nd of August a rare instance for they usually withdraw within the first week on September the 24th three or four ring oozles appeared in my fields for the first time this season how punctual are these visitors in their autumnal and spring migrations letter 38 to Thomas Pennant Selborn March the 15th 1773 Dear sir by my journal for last autumn it appears that the house Martins bred very late and stayed very late in these parts for on the 1st of October I saw young Martins in their nests nearly fledged and again on the 21st of October we had at the next house a nest full of young Martins just ready to fly and the old ones were hawking for insects with great alertness the next morning the brood forsook their nest and were flying round the village from this day I never saw one of the swallow kind till November the 3rd when twenty or perhaps thirty house Martins were playing all day long by the side of the hanging wood and over my fields did these small weak birds some of which were nestlings twelve days ago shift their quarters at this late season of the year to the other side of the northern tropics or rather is it not more probable that the next church ruin chalk cliff steep covered or perhaps sand bank lake or pool as a more northern naturalist would say may become their hibernaculum and afford them a ready and obvious retreat we now begin to expect our vernal migration of ring oozles every week persons worthy of credit assume me that the ring oozles Christmas 1770 in the forest of beer on the southern verge of this county hence we may conclude that their migrations are only internal and not extended to the continent southward if they do at first come at all from the northern parts of this island only and not from the north of Europe come from whence they will it is plain from the fearless disregard that they show for men or guns that they have been little accustomed to places of much resort the navigators mention that in the Isle of Ascension and some other desolate districts birds are so little acquainted with the human form that they settle on men's shoulders and have no more dread of a sailor than they would have of a goat that was grazing a young man at Lewis in Sussex assured me that about seven years ago ring oozles abounded so about that town in the autumn that he killed sixteen himself in one afternoon he added farther that some had appeared birds in every autumn but he could not find that any had been observed before the season in which he shot so many I myself have found these birds in little parties in the autumn cantoned all along the Sussex Downs wherever there were shrubs and bushes from Chichester to Lewis particularly in the autumn of 1770 I am etc letter 39 to Thomas Pennant Esquire Selborne November the 9th 1773 Dear sir, as you desire me to send you such observations as may occur I take the liberty of making the following remarks that you may, according as you think me right or wrong admit or reject what I hear advance in your intended new edition of the British Zoology the Osprey was shot about a year ago at Frincham's pond a great lake at about six miles from hence while it was sitting on the handle of a plough and devouring a fish it used to precipitate itself into the water and so take its prey by surprise a great ash-colored butcher bird was shot last winter in Tisted Park and a red-backed butcher bird at Selborne they are Rare Aves in this country crows go in pairs the whole year round Cornish chuffs abound and breed on beachy head and on all the cliffs of the Sussex Coast the common wild pigeon or stock dove is a bird of passage in the south of England seldom appearing till towards the end of November is usually the latest winter bird of passage before our beach and woods were so much destroyed we had myriads of them reaching in strings for a mile together as they went out in a morning to feed they leave us early in spring where do they breed the people of Hampshire and Sussex call the missile bird the storm cock because it sings early in the spring in blowing showery weather its song often commences with the year with us it builds much in orchards a gentleman assures me that he has taken the nests of ring-oosles on Dartmoor they build in banks on the sides of streams Tidlarks not only sing sweetly as they sit on trees but also as they play and toy about on the wing and particularly while they are descending and sometimes as they stand on the ground Adamson's testimony seems to me to be a very poor evidence that European swallows migrate during our winter to Senegal he does not talk at all like an ornithologist and probably saw only the swallows of that country which I know build within Governor Uahara's hall against the roof had he known European swallows would he not have mentioned the species the house of swallow washes by dropping into the water as it flies this species appears commonly about a week before the house Martin and about 10 or 12 days before the swift in 1772 there were young house Martins in their nest till October the 23rd the swift appears about 10 or 12 days later than the house swallows that is about the 24th or 26th of April winchats and stonechatters stay with us the whole year some wheat ears continue with us the winter through wagtails all sorts remain with us all the winter bullfinches when fed on hemp seed often become wholly black we have vast flocks of female chaffages all the winter with hardly any males among them when you say that in breeding time the cocksnipes make a bleeding noise and I a drumming perhaps I should have rather said an humming I suspect we mean the same thing however while they are playing about on the wing they certainly make a loud piping with their mouths but whether that bleeding or humming is ventralochus or proceeds from the motion of their wings I cannot say but this I know that when this noise happens the bird is always descending and his wings are violently agitated soon after the lap wings have done breeding they congregate and leaving the moors and marshes but take themselves to downs and sheep walks two years ago last spring the little orc was found alive and unhurt but fluttering and unable to rise in a lane a few miles from Alrisford where there is a great lake it was kept for a while but died I saw young teals taken alive in the ponds of Woolmer forest in the beginning of July last along with flappers or young wild ducks speaking of the swift that page says it's drink the dew whereas it should be it drinks on the wing for all the swallow kind sip their water as they sweep over the face of pools or rivers like Virgil's bees they drink flying flumina suma liban readers note drink the surface of the stream and readers note in this method of drinking perhaps this genus may be peculiar of the sedge bird be pleased to say it sings most part of the night its notes are hurrying but not unpleasing and imitative of several birds as the sparrow swallow skylark when it happens to be silent in the night by throwing a stone or cloth into the bushes where it sits you immediately set it a singing or in other words though it slumbers sometimes yet as soon as it is awakened it re-assumes its song letter 40 to Thomas Pennant Selbourn, September the 2nd 1774 Dear sir before your letter arrived and of my own accord I had been remarking and comparing the tales of the male and female swallow and this ere any young broods appeared so that there was no danger of confounding the dams with their pulley and besides as they were then always in pairs and busied in the employ of nidification there could be no room for mistaking the sexes nor the individuals of different chimneys the one for the other from all my observations it constantly appeared that each sex has the long feathers in its tail that give it that forked shape with this difference that they are longer in the tail of the male than in that of the female nightingales when they are young first come abroad and are helpless make a plaintive and a jarring noise and also a snapping or cracking pursuing people along the hedge as they walk these last sounds seem intended for menace and defiance the grasshopper lark chirps all night in the height of summer swans turn white the second year and breed the third weasels prey on moles as appears by their being sometimes caught in mole traps sparrowhawks sometimes breed in old crow's nests and the kestrel in churches and ruins there are supposed to be two sorts of eels in the island of Eli the threads sometimes discovered in eels are perhaps they're young the generation of eels is very dark and mysterious hen harriers breed on the ground and seem never to settle on trees when red starts shake their tails they move them horizontally as dogs do when they fawn the tail when in motion bobs up and down like that of a jaded horse hedge sparrows have a remarkable flirt with their wings in breeding time as soon as frosty mornings come they make a very piping, plaintive noise many birds which become silent about mid-summer reassume their notes again in September as the thrush, blackbird, woodlark willow-ren etc hence, August is by far the most mute month the spring, summer and autumn through are birds induced to sing again because the temperament of autumn resembles that of spring Linnaeus ranges plants geographically palms inhabit the tropics grasses the temperate zones and mosses and lichens the polar circles no doubt animals may be classed in the same manner with propriety house sparrows build under eaves in the spring when it becomes hotter, they get out for coolness and nest in plum trees and apple trees these birds have been known sometimes to build in rook's nests and sometimes in the forks of boughs under rook's nests as my neighbour was housing a rick he observed that his dogs devoured all the little red mice that they could catch but rejected the common mice and that his cats ate the common mice refusing the red red breasts sing all through the spring, summer and autumn the reason that they are called autumn songsters is because in the two first seasons their voices are drowned and lost in the general chorus in the latter their song becomes distinguishable many songsters of the autumn seem to be the young cock red breasts of that year notwithstanding the prejudices in their favour they do much mischief in gardens to the summer fruits note they eat also the berries of the ivy the honey-suckle and the euonymus europeus or spindletree end note the titmouse which early in february begins to make two quaint notes like the wetting of a sore is the marsh titmouse the great titmouse sings with three cheerful joyous notes and begins about the same time wrens sing all the winter through frost accepted house martins came remarkably late both in hamshire and devonshire is this circumstance for or against either hiding or migration most birds drink sipping at intervals but pigeons take a long continued draft like quadrupeds notwithstanding what I have said in a former letter, no grey crows were ever known to breed on dartmoor it was my mistake the appearance and flying of the scarabius solstitialis or fern chaffer commence with the month of july and cease about the end of it these scarabs are the constant food of caprimulgi or fern owls through that period they are bound on the chalky downs and in some sandy districts but not in the clays in the garden of the black bear inn in the town of redding is a stream or canal running under the stables and out into the fields on either side of the road in this water are many carps which lie rolling about in sight being fed by travellers who amuse themselves by tossing them bread but as soon as the weather grows at all severe these fishes are no longer seen because they retire under the stables where they remain till the return of spring do they lie in a torpid state if they do not how are they supported the note of the white throat which is continually repeated and often attended with odd gesticulations on the wing they are harsh and displeasing these birds seem of a pugnacious disposition for they sing with an erected crest and attitudes of rivalry and defiance are shy and wild in breeding time avoiding neighbourhoods and haunting lonely lanes and commons nay even the very tops of the Sussex Downs where there are bushes and covert but in July and August they bring their broods into gardens and orchards and make great havoc among the summer fruits the black cap has in common a full, sweet, deep, loud and wild pipe yet that strain is of short continuance and his motions are desultry but when that bird sits calmly and engages in song in earnest he pours forth very sweet but inward melody and expresses great variety of soft and gentle modulations superior perhaps to those of any of our warblers the nightingale accepted black caps mostly haunt orchards and gardens while they warble their throats are wonderfully distended the song of the red start is superior though somewhat like that of the white throat some birds have a few more notes than others sitting very placidly on the top of a tree in a village the cock sings from morning to night he affects neighbourhoods and avoids solitude and loves to build in orchards and about houses with us he perches on the vein of a tall maypole the fly catcher is of all our summer birds the most mute and the most familiar it also appears the last of any it builds in a vine or a sweetprier against the wall of a house or in the hole of a wall or on the end of a beam or plate and often close to the post of a door where people are going in and out all day long this bird does not make the least pretension to song but uses a little inward wailing note when it thinks it's young in danger from cats or other annoyances it breeds but once and retires early Selborn Parish alone can and has exhibited at times more than half the birds that are ever seen in old Sweden the former has produced more than 120 species the latter only 221 let me add also that it has shown nearly half the species that were ever known in Great Britain note Sweden 221 Great Britain 252 species end note on a retrospect I observe that my long letter carries with it a quaint and magisterial air and is very sententious but when I recollect that you requested stricture and anecdote I hope you will pardon the didactic manner for the sake of the information it may happen to contain letter 41 to Thomas Penantisquire it is a matter of curious inquiry to trace out how those species of soft-billed birds that continue with us the winter through subsist during the dead months the imbecility of birds seems not to be the only reason why they shun the rigor of our winters for the robust rhineck so much resembling the hardy race of woodpeckers migrates while the feeble little golden crowned wren that shadow of a bird braves our severest frosts without availing himself of houses or villages to which most of our winter birds crowd in distressful seasons while this keeps aloof in fields and woods but perhaps this may be the reason why they may often perish and why they are almost as rare as any bird we know I have no reason to doubt but that the soft-billed birds winter with us subsist chiefly on insects in their aurelia state all the species of wagtails in severe weather haunt shallow streams near their spring heads where they never freeze and by wading pick out the aurelias of the genus of Freganie etc. hedge sparrows frequent sinks and gutters in hard weather where they pick up crumbs and other sweepings and in mild weather they procure worms which are stirring in the year as anyone may see that will only be at the trouble of taking a candle to a grass plot on any mild winter's night red breasts and wrens in the winter haunt outhouses, stables and barns where they find spiders and flies that have laid themselves up during the cold season but the grand support of the soft-billed birds in winter is that infinite profusion of aurelia of the Lepidoptera ordo which is fastened to the twigs of trees to the pales and walls of gardens and buildings and is found in every cranny and cleft of rock or rubbish and even in the ground itself. Every species of titmouse winters with us they have what I call a kind of intermediate bill between the hard and the soft between the Linnaean genera of Fringilla and Mottakilla. One species alone spends its whole time in the woods and fields never retreating for sucker in the severest seasons and neighbourhoods and that is the delicate long-tailed titmouse which is almost as minute as the golden-crowned wren but the blue titmouse or none Parus carulius the coal mouse Parus aeter the great black-headed titmouse Fringilago and the marsh titmouse Parus palustris all resort at times to buildings and in hard weather particularly. The great titmouse driven by stress of weather such frequent houses and in deep snows I have seen this bird while it hung with its back downwards to my no small delight and admiration draw straw lengthwise from out the eaves of thatched houses in order to pull out the flies that were concealed between them and that in such numbers that they quite defaced the thatch and gave it a ragged appearance. The blue titmouse or none is a great frequenter of houses and the general devourer. Besides insects it is very fond of flesh for it frequently picks bones on dung hills it is a vast admirer of suet and haunts butchers shops when a boy I have known twenty in a morning caught with snap mousetraps baited with tallow or suet it will also pick holes in apples left on the ground and be well entertained with the seeds on the head of a sunflower the blue marsh and great titmouse will in very severe weather carry away barley and oats straws from the sides of ricks how the wheat here and windchats support themselves in winter cannot be so easily ascertained since they spend their time on wild heaths and warrens the former especially where there are stone quarries most probably it is that their maintenance arises from the aurelie of the Lepidoptera order which furnish them with a plentiful table in the wilderness I am at cetera letter 42 to Thomas pennant this choir Selborn March the 9th 1775 dear sir some future fornest a man of fortune will I hope extend his visits to the kingdom of Ireland a new field and a country little known to the naturalist he will not it is to be wished undertake that tour unaccompanied by botanist because the mountains have scarcely been sufficiently examined and the southerly counties of so mild an island may possibly afford some plants little to be expected within the British dominions a person of a thinking turn of mind will draw many just remarks from the modern improvements of that country both in arts and agriculture where premiums obtained long before they were heard of with us the manners of the wild natives their superstitions their prejudices their sordid way of life will extort from him many useful reflections he should also take with him an able draftsman for he must by no means pass over the noble castles and seats the extensive and picturesque lakes and waterfalls and the lofty stupendous mountains so little known and so engaging to the imagination when described and exhibited in a lively manner such a work would be well received as I have seen no modern map of Scotland I cannot pretend to say how accurate or particular any such may be but this I know that the best old maps of that kingdom are very defective the great obvious defect that I have remarked in all maps of Scotland that have fallen in my way is a want of a coloured line or stroke that shall exactly define the just limits of that district called the Highlands moreover all the great avenues to that mountainous and romantic country want to be well distinguished the military roads formed by General Wade are so great and Roman like an undertaking that they well merit attention my old map moles map takes notice of Fort William but could not mention the other forts that have been erected long since therefore a good representation of the chain of forts should not be omitted the celebrated zigzag up to Corrierech must not be passed over takes notice of Hamilton and Drum Landrig and such capital houses but a new survey no doubt should represent every seat and castle remarkable for any great event or celebrated for its paintings etc Lord Briad Albain's seat and beautiful policy are too curious and extraordinary to be omitted the seat of the Earl of Eglinton near Glasgow is worthy of notice the pine plantations of that nobleman are very grand and impressive indeed I am etc letter 43 to Thomas Pennant Esquire Dear sir a pair of honey buzzards Bouteo Opivorus Sivevestivorus Vrayi built them at a large shallow nest composed of twigs and lined with dead beech and leaves upon a small slender beach near the middle of Selworn Hanger in the summer of 1780 of the month of June a bold boy climbed this tree though standing on so steep and dizzier situation and brought down an egg the only one in the nest which had been sat on for some time and contained the embryo of a young bird the egg was smaller and not so round as those of the common buzzard was dotted at each end with small red spots and surrounded in the middle with a broad bloody zone the hen bird was shot and answered exactly to Mr Ray's description of that species had a black seer short thick legs and a long tail when on the wing this species may be easily distinguished from the common buzzard by its hawk like appearance small head wings not so blunt and longer tail this specimen contained in its claw some limbs of frogs and many grey snails without shells the irides of the eyes of this bird were of a beautiful bright yellow colour about the 10th of July in the same summer a pair of sparrow hawks bred in an old crow's nest on a low beach in the same hangar and as their brood which was numerous began to grow up became so daring and ravenous that they were a terror to all the dames in the village that had chickens or ducklings under their care a boy climbed the tree and found the young so fledged that they all escaped from him but discovered that a good house had been kept the larder was well stored with provisions for he brought down a young blackbird jay and house martin all clean picked and some half devoured the old birds had been observed to make sad havoc for some days among the new flown swallows and martins which being but lately out of their nests had not acquired those powers and command of wing that enabled them when more mature to set such enemies at defiance Letter 44 to Thomas Penant Esquire, Selborn, November 30th, 1780 Dear sir, every incident that occasions a renewal of our correspondence will ever be pleasing and agreeable to me As to the wild woodpigeon the Enos or Vinago of Ray I am much of your mind and see no reason for making it the origin of the common house dove but suppose those that have advanced that opinion may have been misled by another appellation often given to the Enos which is that of stock dove unless the stock dove in the winter varies greatly in manners from itself in summer, no species seems more unlikely to be domesticated and to make a house dove we very rarely see the latter settle on trees at all nor does it ever haunt the woods but the former, as long as it stays with us from November perhaps to February lives the same wildlife with the ring dove, Palumbus Torquatus frequents coppices and groves supports itself chiefly by mast and delights to roost in the tallest beaches could it be known in what manner stock dove build, the doubt would be settled with me at once provided they construct their nests on trees like the ring dove as I much suspect they do you received, you say, last spring a stock dove from Sussex and are informed that they sometimes breed in that county but why did not your correspondence determine the place of its nidification, whether on rocks, cliffs or trees if he was not an adroit ornithologist I should doubt the fact because people with us perpetually confound the stock dove with the ring dove for my own part I readily concur with you in supposing that house doves are derived from the small blue rock pigeon for many reasons in the first place the wild stock dove is manifestly larger than the common house dove against the usual rule of domestication which generally enlarges the breed again, these two remarkable black spots on the remages of each wing of the stock dove which are so characteristic of the species would not, one should think, be totally lost by its being reclaimed but would often break out among its descendants but what is worth 100 arguments is the instance you give in Sir Roger Mostyn's house doves in Canavenshire which though tempted by plenty of food and gentle treatment can never be prevailed on to inhabit their coat for any time but as soon as they begin to breed we take themselves to the fastnesses of Orm's head and deposit their young in safety amidst the inaccessible caverns and precipices of that stupendous promontory reader's note you may expel nature with a pitchfork but she will always return end reader's note I have consulted a sportsman now in his 78th year who tells me that 50 or 60 years back when the beech and woods were much more extensive than at present the number of wood pigeons was astonishing that he has often killed near 20 in a day and that with a long wildfowl piece he has shot seven or eight at a time on the wing as they came wheeling over his head he moreover adds which I was not aware of that often there were among them little parties of small blue doves which he calls rockiers the food of these numberless emigrants was beechmast and some acorns and particularly barley which they collected in the stubbles but of late years since the vast increase of turnips that vegetable has furnished a great part in hard weather and the holes they pick in these roots greatly damage the crop from this food their flesh has contracted a rancidness which occasions them to be rejected by nicer judges of eating who thought them before a delicate dish they were shot not only as they were feeding in the fields and especially in snowy weather but also at the close of the evening by men who lay an ambush among the woods and groves to kill them as they came in to roost note some old sportsmen say that the main part of these flocks used to withdraw as soon as the heavy Christmas frosts were over end note these are the principal circumstances relating to this wonderful internal migration which with us takes place towards the end of November and ceases early in the spring last winter we had in Selbourne high wood about 100 of these doves but in former times the flocks were so vast not only with us but all the district round that on mornings and evenings they traversed the air like rooks in strings reaching for a mile together when they thus rendezvoused here by thousands if they happened to be suddenly roused from their roost trees on an evening their rising all at once was like the sound of thunder heard remote it will by no means be foreign to the present purpose to add that I had a relation in this neighbourhood who made it a practice for a time whenever he could procure the eggs of a ring dove to place them under a pair of doves that were sitting in his own pigeon house hoping thereby if he could bring about a coalition to enlarge his breed and teach his own doves to beat out into the woods and to support themselves by mast the plan was plausible but something always interrupted the success for though the birds were usually hatched and sometimes grew to half their size yet none ever arrived at maturity I myself had seen these foundlings in their nest displaying a strange ferocity of nature so as scarcely to bear to be looked at and snapping with their bills by way of menace in short they always died perhaps for want of proper sustenance but the owner thought that by their fierce and wild demeanour they frighted their foster mothers and so were starved Virgil as a familiar occurrence by way of similee describes a dove haunting the cavern of a rock in such engaging numbers that I cannot refrain from quoting the passage and John Dryden has rendered it so happily in our language that without further excuse I shall add his translation also as when a dove her rocky hold for sakes roused in her fright her sounding wings she shakes the cavern rings with clattering out she flies and leaves her callow care and cleaves the skies at first she flutters but at length she springs to smoother flight and shoots upon her wings at first she flutters but at length she springs to smoother flight and shoots upon her wings I am etc the end of Letters 32 to 44 to Thomas Pennant Esquire in Gilbert White's The Natural History of Selbourne this is a LibriVox recording all the LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to find out how to volunteer please contact LibriVox.org by Peter Yersley The Natural History of Selbourne by Gilbert White Letters to Danes Barrington Numbers 1 to 6 Letter 1 to the Honourable Danes Barrington Selbourne June 30th 1769 Dear sir, when I was in town last month I partly engaged that I would sometime do myself the honour to write to you on the subject of natural history and I am the more ready to fulfil my promise because I see you are a gentleman of great candour and one that will make allowances especially where the writer professes to be an outdoor naturalist one that takes his observations from the subject itself and not from the writings of others The following is a list of the summer birds of passage which I have discovered in this neighbourhood ranged somewhat in the order in which they appear 1. Rhineck 2. Gina usually appears about the middle of March 3. Harsh note 4. Regulus noncristatus March 23rd 4. Churps till September 3. Swallow 4. Hierondo domestica April 13th 4. Martin 4. Hierondo rustica 5. San Martin 6. Riparia ditto 7. Roticula ditto 8. A sweet wild note 7. Nightingale 8. Lyskinea beginning of April 9. Cuckoo Cuckulus 9. Middle Willow Wren 9. Regulus noncristatus 10. Ditto 9. A sweet plaintive note 10. White throat 10. Thichedulia finis 10. Middle of April 11. Mean note sings on till September 11. Ditto 12. Stone Curlew 11. Edicneemus 12. Loud nocturnal whistle 13. Turtledove 14. Grasshopper Lark 14. Alorda minima locaste voque 14. Middle of April 15. Swiffed 15. Hierondo apis 15. Less read 16. Less read 16. Less read 16. Less read 16. Crossbarrow 18. Passe Tight 19. Rondinicus Minor 20. A sweet polyglot 20. But hurrying 21. It has the notes 21. Many birds 22. Seventeen 22. Land rail 23. Autigometra 24. A loud harsh note 25. Cricks Cricks 26. Eighteen 27. Largest Willow Wren note, end of April, on the tops of high beaches. Nineteen, goat-sucker, or fernal, caprimulgus, beginning of May, chatters by night with a singular noise. Twenty, fly-catcher, stop-a-roller, May the twelfth, a very mute bird, this is the latest summer bird of passage. This assemblage of curious and amusing birds belongs to ten several genera of the Linnaean system, and are all of the order of passerees, save the jinx and cuckulus, which are pique, and the charadrius, edic nemus, and vallus, autigometra, which are gralee. These birds, as they stand numerically, belong to the following Linnaean genera, one jinx, two six seven nine ten eleven sixteen and eighteen water-killer, three four five fifteen hirundo, eight cuckulus, twelve charadrius, thirteen columbar, seventeen rallus, nineteen caprimulgus, fourteen a lauda, twenty muskicapa. Most soft-billed birds live on insects, and not on grain and seeds, and therefore at the end of summer they retire, but the following soft-billed birds, though insecty, does stay with us the year round. One red-breast, rubecula. Two, ren, passe trugladaites. Note, the red-breast and ren frequent houses and haunt outbuildings in the winter, eat spiders. End note. Three, hedge-sparrow, corocca, haunt sinks for crumbs and other sweepings. Four, white-wagtail, motokiller-alba. Five, yellow-wagtail, motokiller-flava. Six, grey-wagtail, motokiller-kinneria. Note, the white-wagtail, yellow-wagtail, and grey-wagtail frequent shallow rivulets near the spring-heads where they never freeze, eat the aurelii of frigania, the smallest birds that walk. End note. Seven, wheat-ear, inanti. Some of these are to be seen with us the winter through. Eight, wind-chat, inanti secunda. Nine, stone-chatter, inanti tertia. Ten, golden-crowned ren, regulus cristatus. This is the smallest British bird, haunts the tops of tall trees, stays the winter through. A list of the winter birds of passage round this neighbourhood ranged somewhat in the order in which they appear. One, ring-oosal, merula toquata. This is a new migration which I have lately discovered about Myclemus week, and again about the fourteenth of March. Two, red-wing, turdus iliarchus, about Myclemus. Three, field-fair, turdus pilaris, though a percher by day roosts on the ground. Four, roisten crow, cornex canaria, most frequent on downs. Five, wood-cock, scolopax, appears about old Myclemus. Six, snipe, galinago minor. Some snipes constantly breed with us. Seven, jack snipe, galinago minima. Eight, wood-pigeon, enus. Seldom appears till late, not in such plenty as formerly. Nine, wild swan, sygnus ferris, on some large waters. Ten, wild goose, aseo ferris. Eleven, wild duck, anus toquata minor. Twelve, pochard, anus ferrafusca. Thirteen, whidgen, penelope. Fourteen, teal, breeds with us in Wollimer forest, quercuedula. Note, wild duck, pochard, whidgen, and teal, on our lakes and streams. End note. Fifteen, grossbeak, cockathrostes. Sixteen, crossbill, loxia. Seventeen, silk-tail, garylus bohemicus. Note, grossbeak, crossbill, and silk-tail are only wanderers that appear occasionally and are not observant of any regular migration. End note. These birds, as they stand numerically, belong to the following Linnaean genera. One, two, and three, turdus. Four, corvus. Five, six, and seven, scolopax. Eight, columbar. Nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen, anas. Fifteen, sixteen, loxia. Seventeen, ampalis. Birds that sing in the night are but few. Nightingale, laskinia. Inshadiest, covered, hid. Milton. Woodlark, alorder, arborea. Suspended, in mid-air. Less reed-sparrow. Pasea arundinacius minor. Among reeds and willows. I should now proceed to such birds as continue to sing after mid-summer, but as they are rather numerous they would exceed the bounds of this paper. Besides, as this is now the season for remarking on that subject, I am willing to repeat my observations on some birds concerning the continuation of whose song I seem at present to have some doubt. I am, etc. Letter II to the Honourable Daines Barrington, Selbourne, November the 2nd, 1769. Dear sir, when I did myself the honour to write to you about the end of last June on the subject of natural history, I sent you a list of the summer birds of passage which I have observed in this neighbourhood, and also a list of the winter birds of passage. I mentioned besides those soft-billed birds that stay with us the winter through in the south of England, and those that are remarkable for singing in the night. According to my proposal I shall now proceed to such birds, singing birds strictly, so called, as continue in full song till after mid-summer, and shall range them somewhat in the order in which they first begin to open, as the spring advances. 1. Woodlark, Raye Nomina, Allauda Arboria, in January, and continues to sing through all the summer and autumn. 2. Songthrush, Turdus Simplicita Dictus, in February and on to August, re-assume their song in autumn. Ren, Pasea Trogladaitis, all the year, hard frost accepted. 4. Red breast, Rubecula Ditto, 5. Hedge Sparrow, Caruca, early in February to July the 10th. 6. Yellowhammer, Emberitse Flava, early in February and on through July to August the 21st. 7. Skylark, Allauda Valgaris, in February and on to October. 8. Swallow, Hirondo Domestika, from April to September. 9. Blackcap, Atracapilla, beginning of April to July the 13th. 10. Titlark, Allauda Pratorum, from middle of April to July the 16th. 11. Blackbird, Mary Lavalgaris, sometimes in February and March, and so on to July the 23rd, re-assumes in autumn. 12. Whitethroat, Ficcadolche, a Finis, in April and on to July the 23rd. 13. Goldfinch, Carduelis, April and through to September the 16th. 14. Greenfinch, Chloris, on to July and August the 2nd. 15. Less reed sparrow, Pasea Orandonaceus Minor, May, on to beginning of July. 16. Commonlinit, Linaria Valgaris, breeds and whistles on till August, re-assumes its note when they begin to congregate in October and again early before the flock separate. Birds that cease to be in full song and are usually silent at or before mid-summer. 17. Middle Willow Wren, Regulus non-Christatus, middle of June begins in April. 18. Redstart, Rooty Killer, middle of June begins in May. 19. Chaffinch, Fringilla, beginning of June, sings first in February. 20. Nightingale, Luskinia, middle of June, sings first in April. Birds that sing for a short time and very early in the spring. 21. Missalbird, Turdus fiskivorus, January the 2nd, 1770, in February, is called in Hampshire and Sussex the Stormcock because its song is supposed to forebode windy wet weather is the largest singing bird we have. 22. Great Titmouse, or Oxeye, Fringillago, in February, March and April, re-assumes for a short time in September. Birds that have somewhat of a note or song and yet are hardly to be called singing birds. 23. Golden Crown Wren, Regulus Christatus, its note as minute as its person, frequents the tops of high oaks and furs, the smallest British bird. 24. Marsh Titmouse, Paris Poulastris, haunts great woods, two harsh sharp notes. 25. Small Willow Wren, Regulus non-Christatus, sings in March and on to September. 26. Largest Ditto, Ditto, contact Focke Stridula Locustae from end of April to August. 27. Grasshopper Lark, a Lorda Minima Vocale Locustae, chirps all night from the middle of April to the end of July. 28. Martin, Hirondua Agrestis, all the breeding time from May to September. 29. Bullfinch, Pirrilla, 30. Bunting, Embaritza Alba, from the end of January to July. All singing birds and those that have any pretensions to song, not only in Britain but perhaps the world through, come under the Linnaean Ordo of Paceres. The above mentioned birds, as they stand numerically, along to the following Linnaean genera, one seven ten and twenty-seven, a Lorda, two eleven and twenty-one, a Turdes, three four five nine, twelve fifteen, seventeen, eighteen, twenty, twenty-three, twenty-five, and twenty-six, Mota Pringilla, six and thirty, Embaritza, eight and twenty-eight, Hirondo, thirteen, sixteen and nineteen, Pringilla, twenty and twenty-four, Paris, fourteen and twenty-nine, Loxia. Birds that sing as they fly, are but few. Skylark, Rayee Nomina, a Lorda Volgaris, rising, suspended and falling. Titlark, a Lorda Pretorum, in its descent, also sitting on trees and walking on the ground. Woodlark, a Lorda Arboria, suspended, in hot summer nights, all night long. Blackbird, Merilla, sometimes from bush to bush. Whitethroat, Fikedili Afinis, uses, when singing on the wing, odd jerks and gesticulations. Swallow Hirondo Domestika, in soft sunny weather. Wren, Pasea Trugladaitis, sometimes from bush to bush. Birds that breed most early in these parts, Raven, Corvus, hatches in February and March. Song Thrush, Turdis, in March. Blackbird, Merilla, in March. Rook, Cornix, Fruglaiga, builds the beginning of March. Woodlark, a Lorda Arboria, hatches in April. Ringdove, Palumbus Toquatus, lays the beginning of April. All birds that continue in full song till after mid-summer appear to me to breed more than once. Most kinds of birds seem to me to be wild and shy, somewhat in proportion to their bulk. I mean, in this island, where they are much pursued and annoyed. But in a sentient island, and many other desolate places, mariners have found fowls so unacquainted with an human figure, that they would stand still to be taken, as is the case with boobies, etc. As an example of what is advanced, I remark that the golden-crested wren, the smallest British bird, will stand unconcerned till you come within three or four yards of it, while the bustard, Otis, the largest British landfowl, does not care to admit a person within so many furlongs. I am, etc. Dear Sir, it was no small matter of satisfaction to me to find that you were not displeased with my little methodus of birds. If there was any merit in the sketch, it must be owing to its punctuality. For many months I carried a list in my pocket of the birds that were to be remarked, and as I rode or walked about my business, I noted each day the continuance or omission of each bird's song, so that I am as sure as the certainty of my facts as a man can be of any transaction whatsoever. I shall now proceed to answer the several queries which you put in your two obliging letters in the best manner that I am able. Perhaps Eastwick and its environs, where you heard so very few birds, is not a woodland country, and therefore not stocked with such songsters. If you will cast your eye on my last letter, you will find that many species continued to warble after the beginning of July. The titlark and yellow hammer breed late, the latter very late, and therefore it is no wonder that they protract their song, for I lay it down as a maxim in ornithology that as long as there is any incubation going on, there is music. As to the red breast and wren, it is well known to the most incurious observer that they whistle the year round, hard frost accepted, especially the latter. It was not in my power to procure you a black cap, or a less reed sparrow, or sagebird alive. As the first is undoubtedly, and the last as far as I can yet see, a summer bird of passage, they would require more nice and curious management in a cage than I should be able to give them. They are both distinguished songsters. The note of the former has such a wild sweetness that it always brings to my mind those lines in a song in as you like it, and tune his merry note unto the wild bird's throat, Shakespeare. The latter has a surprising variety of notes resembling the song of several other birds, but then it always has an hurrying manner, not at all to its advantage. It is notwithstanding a delicate polyglot. It is new to me that titlarks in cages sing in the night. Perhaps only caged birds do so. I once knew a tame red breast in a cage that always sang as long as candles were in the room, but in their wild state no one supposes they sing in the night. I should be almost ready to doubt the fact that there are to be seen much fewer birds in July than in any form a month, not withstanding so many young are hatched daily. Sure I am that it is far otherwise with respect to the Swallow Tribe, which increases prodigiously as the summer advances, and I saw at the time mentioned many hundreds of young wagtails on the banks of the Churwell, which almost covered the meadows. If the matter appears as you say in the other species, may it not be owing to the dams being engaged in incubation, while the young are concealed by the leaves. Many times have I had the curiosity to open the stomachs of woodcocks and snipes, but nothing ever occurred that helped to explain to me what their subsistence might be. All that I could ever find was a soft mucus, among which lay many perlucid small gravels. I am, etc. Letter 4 to the Honourable Danes Barrington, Selbourn, February 19, 1770 Dear sir, your observation that the cuckoo does not deposit its egg indiscriminately in the nest of the first bird that comes in its way, but probably looks out a nurse in some degree congenerous, with whom to entrust its young, is perfectly new to me, and struck me so forcibly that I naturally fell into a train of thought that led me to consider whether the fact was so, and what reason there was for it. When I came to recollect and inquire, I could not find that any cuckoo had ever been seen in these parts except in the nest of the wagtail, the hedge-barrow, the titlark, the white throat, and the red breast, all soft-billed, insectivorous birds. The excellent Mr. Willoughby mentions the nest of the Palumbus, ring-dove, and of the Fringilla, chaffinch, birds that subsist on acorns and grains and such hard food, but then he does not mention them as of his own knowledge, but says afterwards that he saw himself a wagtail feeding a cuckoo. It appears hardly possible that a soft-billed bird should subsist on the same food with the hard-billed, for the former have thin, membranaceous stomachs suited to their soft food, while the latter, the granivorous tribe, have strong muscular gizzards which, like mills, grind by the help of small gravels and pebbles, what is swallowed. This proceeding of the cuckoo, of dropping its eggs as it were by chance, is such a monstrous outrage on maternal affection, one of the first great dictates of nature, and such a violence on instinct, that had it only been related of a bird in the Brazils or Peru, it would never have merited our belief. But yet, should it further appear that this simple bird, when divested of the natural storge, read as note, Greek, parental love and affection, end note, that seems to raise the kind in general above themselves, and inspire them with extra ordinary degree of cunning and address, may be still endued with a more enlarged faculty of discerning what species are suitable and congenerous nursing mothers for its disregarded eggs and young, and may deposit them only under their care, this would be adding wonder to wonder, and instancing in a fresh manner that the methods of providence are not subjected to any mode or rule, but astonish us in new lights and in various and changeable appearances. What was said by a very ancient and sublime writer concerning the defect of natural affection in the ostrich may be well applied to the bird we are talking of. She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers, because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding Job 39, verses 16 and 17. Query, does each female cuckoo lay but one egg in a season, or does she drop several in different nests, according as opportunity offers? I am, etc. I heard many birds of several species sing last year after mid-summer, enough to prove that the summer solstice is not the period that puts a stop to the music of the woods. The yellow hammer, no doubt, persists with more steadiness than any other, but the woodlark, the wren, the red breast, the swallow, the white throat, the goldfinch, the common linnet, are all undoubted instances of the truth of what I advance. If this severe season does not interrupt the regularity of the summer migrations, the black cap will be here in two or three days. I wish it was in my power to procure you one of those songsters, but I am no birdcatcher, and so little used to birds in a cage, that I fear if I had one it would soon die for want of skill in feeding. Was your reed sparrow, which you kept in a cage, the thick-billed reed sparrow of the zoology, page 320, or was it the less reed sparrow of Ray, the sedgbird of Mr. Pennant's last publication, page 16? As to the matter of long-billed birds growing fatter in moderate frosts, I have no doubt within myself what should be the reason. The thriving at those times appears to me to arise altogether from the gentle check which the cold throws upon insensible perspiration. The case is just the same with blackbirds, etc., and farmers and warreners observe, the first, that their hogs fact more kindly at such times, and the latter, that their rabbits are never in such good case as in a gentle frost, but when frosts are severe and of long continuance, case is soon altered, for then a want of food soon overbounds the repletion occasioned by a checked perspiration. I have observed, more ever, that some human constitutions are more inclined to plumpness in winter than in summer. When birds come to suffer by severe frost, I find that the first, that fail and die, are the red-winged field-fears, and then the song-thrushes. You wonder, with good reason, that the hedge sparrows, etc., can be induced to sit at all on the egg of the cuckoo, without being scandalised at the vast, disproportioned size of the supposititious egg, but the brute creation, I suppose, have very little idea of size, colour or number. For the common hen, I know, when the fury of incubation is on her, will sit on a single shapeless stone instead of a nest full of eggs that have been withdrawn, and moreover, a hen turkey in the same circumstances would sit on in the empty nest till she perished with hunger. I think the matter might easily be determined whether a cuckoo lays one or two eggs, or more, in a season, by opening a female during the laying time. If more than one was come down out of the ovary, and advanced to a good size, doubtless then she would, that spring, lay more than one. I will endeavour to get a hen and to examine. Your supposition that there may be some natural obstruction in singing birds while they are mute, and that, when this is removed, the song recommends it is new and bold, I wish you could discover some good grounds for this suspicion. I was glad you were pleased with my specimen of the Caprimologus or Fernowl. You were, I find, acquainted with the bird before. When we meet, I shall be glad to have some conversation with you concerning the proposal you make of my drawing up an account of the animals in this neighbourhood. Your partiality towards my small abilities persuades you, I fear, that I am able to do more than is in my power, for it is no small undertaking for a man unsupported and alone to begin a natural history from his own autopsy. Though there is endless room for observation in the field of nature, which is boundless, yet investigation, where a man endeavours to be sure of his facts, can make but slow progress, and all that one could collect in many years would go into a very narrow compass. Some extracts from your ingenious investigation of the difference between the present temperature of the air in Italy, etc., have fallen in my way and gave me great satisfaction. They have removed the objections that always rose in my mind whenever I came to the passages which you quote. Surely the judicious Virgil, when writing a didactic poem for the region of Italy, could never think of describing freezing rivers unless such severity of weather pretty frequently occurred. P.S. Swallows appear amidst snows and frost. Letter 6 to the Honourable Danes Barrington. Selbourn, May the 21st, 1770. Dear sir, the severity and turbulence of last month so interrupted the regular progress of summer migration that some of the birds do but just begin to show themselves, and others are apparently thinner than usual, as the white throat, the black cap, the red start, the fly-catcher. I will remember that after the very severe spring in the year 1739-40 summer birds of passage were very scarce. They come probably hither with the southeast wind, or when it blows between those points. But in that unfavourable year the winds blowed the whole spring and summer through from the opposite quarters, and yet amidst all these disadvantages, two Swallows, as I mentioned in my last, appeared this year as early as the 11th of April, amidst frost and snow, but they withdrew again for a time. I am not pleased to find that some people seem so little satisfied with Scopoli's new publication. Note. This work he calls his Anna's Primus Historico Naturalis. End note. There is room to expect great things from the hands of that man who is a good naturalist, and one would think that an history of the birds of so distant and southern a region as carniola would be new and interesting. I could wish to see that work, and hope to get it sent down. Dr. Scopoli is physician to the wretches that work in the Quicksilver mines of that district. When you talked of keeping a reed sparrow and giving it seeds, I could not help wondering. Because the reed sparrow which I mentioned to you, Pacea erundinaecius minor rei, is a soft-billed bird, and most probably migrates hence before winter, whereas the bird you kept, Pacea torquatus rei, abides all the year, and is a thick-billed bird. I question whether the latter be much of a songster, but in this matter I want to be better informed. The former has a variety of hurrying notes, and sings all night. Some part of the song of the former, I suspect, is attributed to the latter. We have plenty of the soft-billed sort, which Mr. Penent had entirely left out of his British zoology, till I'd reminded him of his omission. See British zoology last published, page 16. Note C letter 25 to Mr. Penent. End note. I have somewhat to advance on the different manners in which different birds fly and walk, but as this is a subject that I have not enough considered, and is of such a nature as not to be contained in a small space, I shall say nothing further about it at present. No doubt the reason why the sex of birds in their first plumage is so difficult to be distinguished is, as you say, because they are not to pair and discharge their parental functions till the ensuing spring, as colours seem to be the chief external sexual distinction in many birds, these colours do not take place till sexual attachments begin to obtain, and the case is the same in quadrupedes, among whom in their younger days the sexes differ but little, but as they advance to maturity, horns and shaggy mains, beards and brawny necks, etc., etc., strongly discriminate the male from the female. We may instance still further, in our own species, where a beard and stronger features are usually characteristic of the male sex, but this sexual diversity does not take place in earlier life, for a beautiful youth shall be so like a beautiful girl that the difference shall not be discernable. Horace Readers' Note Translation from the Latin If you were to place him in a crowd of girls, those who did not know him, no matter how wise they are, would not be able to know him different from the others, disguised by his long hair and his boy-girl face. End Note End of Letters 1-6 to the Honourable Danes Barrington in Gilbert White's The Natural History of Selbourne