1773 JOHN WHITE TO PENNANT 215 



is feared to be you will be returned into the country. I am 

 obliged 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, and should be glad of your opinion 

 in the choice of them. Linnaeus says the fish, which I am 

 doubtful whether to call perca, or zeus^ is actually a Tiew 

 genus ! I have a good specimen which you shall see ; and it 

 will be better to draw from that than my rude outline. 

 I shall now be glad to collect all my scattered remarks 

 on the Nat. Hist, of Gibraltar, and shall beg the favour 

 of seeing, once more, those anecdotes which I have sent 

 you from time to time, especially those that relate to the 

 fishes and birds. I beg your thoughts on the lejpidopus. 

 It certainly is what Gouan speaks of, though 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 and examined. On examining the biggest of my 

 short-billed Andalusian larks, and comparing it with the 

 British larks here, I find it to be the real and genuine 

 skylark Alauda arvensis. However, I hope it's past all 

 doubt that I have still two new larks. What think you 

 of Gasterosteus saltatrix as I have ventured to call it ? Yet 

 I fear it cannot be positively pronounced that species. 

 I would 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. and fishes and insects, 

 are still very defective in birds. Have you and 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 Fauna. I am not so forward as I could 

 wish for want of having all my specimens and materials 

 about me. If you have any papers or memorials that you 



