1788 TOEPID SWALLOWS 183 



sense of the motto: — instead of ast aves solse vario meatu, 

 it stands — est aves soke &c.* 



Mrs. J. White desires me to tell you that your boy is 

 'perfectly well : and that she will send you particulars soon. 

 We were much surprized last night to hear that Mr. 

 Charles Etty was at the parsonage : he has been lying for 

 weeks at the Motherbank, near Spithead; but is now to 

 sail with troops, he supposes, next week. He looks well. 

 Excuse haste ; as I want to send this to Alton this day. 



Y"" loving uncle, 



Gil. White. 



Mrs. White thanks you for your letter to her. 



A fragment of a letter to Mr. Churton, written 

 in the spring of this year (1788), contains the 

 following interesting reference to the old heresy of 

 hibernation : — 



" Pray go to Waverley : you will take the Hirundines just 

 in the nick of time, just as they are stretching and yawning 

 and rubbing their eyes; and struggling to loose themselves 

 from the chains of torpidity with which they have so long 

 been bound. Only one naturalist that I know of ever dug 

 out the holes belonging to bank-martins : he made no dis- 

 coveries — yet you may : and may hereafter figure in the 

 memoirs of the Koyal Society." 



The annual Easter visit to Oxford was made at 

 the end of March. In June the occurrence of the 

 red-backed butcher-bird, or " fiusher," in Benjamin 

 White's outlet at South Lambeth, was noted in the 

 Naturalist's Journal, which also records an account 



* Corrected in the errata slip. 



