260 CORRESPONDENCE OF GILBERT WHITE 



has lately sent me such a bird, sprung & shot in his coverts, 

 as I never saw before, or shall again. I pronounced it to be 

 a mule, bred between a cock pheasant & a pea-hen*. 



You say wood-cocks in their passage strike against light- 

 houses on y r coast : a Gent, tells me, that at Penzance sea- 

 fowls frequently dash in the night against windows where 

 they see a light. My well is 63 feet in depth ; yet in very 

 dry seasons, as last autumn, it is nearly exhausted : yet you 

 would be surprised to see how few inches of rain falling will 

 replenish it again. How do rains insinuate themselves to 

 such depths ? The rains this winter have been prodigious ! 

 In Novem r last 7 inches ; in December 6 inches. The whole 

 rain at Selborne in 1790 was 32 inches. Sure such thunder, 

 & lightening & winds have never fallen out within your 

 observation in one winter ! Had I known You 30 years ago, 

 I should have been much pleased; because I would have gone 

 to have seen you ; and perhaps You might have been pre- 

 vailed on, when all our timber was standing, to have returned 

 the visit. In the year 1746 I lived for six months at Thorney 

 in the Isle of Ely, to settle an executorship, & dispose of live 

 stock : there I lost nine oxen by their eating yew, as men- 

 tioned in my book |- I hope you will write not long hence. 

 With the truest respect & esteem I remain, 



Your most humble servant, 



GIL. WHITE. 



The dark butterfly which you saw was the papilio urticce: 

 it is often more early than the yellow papilio rhamni. At 

 this moment the Barometer stands somewhat below 28 inches 

 5 tens! the rain this day has been very great from the S.E. ! 



* [See " Observations on Birds/' Vol. I. p. 430 and note. T. B.] 

 t [Vol. I. p. 292 and note. T. B.] 



