250 GILBEIIT WHITE OF SELBOKNE 1792 



Mrs. J. White joins in good wishes ; and desires respects to 

 the Provost, when you see him; and to the Cox family, 

 D'^ Nowel, &c. &c. With all due regard I remain, 



Yours affectionately, 



Gil. White. 



Take care of your health, and don't study too hard. 

 When the shell of your House is compleat, insure it. 

 A friend of mine at Salisbury has just had a house, not 

 quite finished, burnt to the ground. It was to have cost 

 £4,000 ! 



To E. Marsham, Selborne, Novr. 20, 1792. 



Dear Sir, — Our last two letters seem as if they had 

 crossed each other on the road ; but whether they conversed 

 when they met does not appear. 



If you have got the Certhia muraria, or true WalUcreeper, 

 you are in possession of a very rare and curious bird. For 

 in all my researches here at home for 50 years past, and in 

 all the vast collections that I have seen in London I have 

 never met with it. No wonder that the great Mr. Willughby 

 is not very copious on the subject, for he acknowledges fairly 

 that he had not seen it; though he supposes it may be 

 found in this island. The best person I can refer you to is, 

 D"" John Antony Scopoli, a modern, elegant, foreign Natural- 

 ist, born in the Tyrol, but late deceased in Pavia, where he 

 was professor of Botany. This curious, and accurate writer 

 was in possession of one in his own Museum, and gives the 

 following description of his specimen in his 'Annus primus 

 historico-naturalis' : "that its bill is somewhat longer than 

 its shanks, slender, and somewhat bent ; that the tongue 

 is bifid; and the feet consisting of three toes forward and 

 one behind." Again he adds, "that the upper part is 

 cinerous, the throat whitish; the abdomen, wings in part, 

 tail and feet, black : the wings at their base, and the quill 



