300 CORRESPONDENCE OF GILBERT WHITE 



remember Hasselquist mentions many different birds, on dif- 

 ferent days, but forgets the poor yellow-hammer. M r Bar- 

 rington concludes Mons r Adanson's birds to be martins, be- 

 cause they roosted on the Sea-shore. But Adanson says after, 

 when he lived by the Gambia, great numbers of European 

 Swallows came every evening into his hut, fy past the night upon 

 the rafters. Now if these birds roosting on the sands proved 

 them martins, does not their roosting on the rafters prove 

 them swallows ? From pieces of quotations you may prove 

 blasphemy from the Bible, as you may remember finely proved 

 by Pulteny (afterwards E. of Bath) against Thomson in the 

 H. of Commons *. I honour & love M r Barrington ; but i 

 wish every man i love would be careful of what he commits 

 to the public notice. Your friend Pennant has been too 

 careless. 



I thank you for your account of the rain of last year, as i 

 do not measure it, i could only observe there has fallen a 

 great deal. If the Squirrels did you as much harm as they 

 do me, you would think your self obliged to the boys that 

 destroy them. I paid for above 80 one year. They bite off 

 the young shoots of my Trees. Indications of Spring in 

 1793. Snowdrop Jan 15. Thrush sings Feb. 15. Hawth. 

 1. Mar. 2. Ringdoves coo Feb. 22. Rooks build & stock 

 doves coo Mar. 4. Hepatica F. Feb. 16. Yellow butterfly 

 Feb. 24. Larch 1. Mar. 9. 



I hope you have presented your account of the fern-owl to 

 the R.S. I am hungry for it. I am glad you liked the 

 drawing of the two feathers. I hinted my wish for the whole 

 bird ; but she lent a deaf ear : & in that manner, all young 

 Women have treated me (when i ask favours) since i was 

 turned of 40. 



I congratulate you upon the cheque given to the cruel 



Yellow Hammer was most likely that which Hasselquist himself called 

 Emberiza africana (pp. 14 and 206 of the English translation) and iden- 

 tified by Linnaeus with his Loxia chloris (Syst. Nat. ed. 10, i. p. 174, no. 

 20), i.e. our Greenfinch. A. N.] 



* [This allusion is quite beyond me, nor can Mr. Elwin throw any 

 light upon it. A. N.] 



