6 LETTERS TO HIS BROTHER 



birds and fishes of Leghorn and Naples soon, and is ready to 

 communicate them. 



Mineralogy must not be neglected. 



In order to assist your enquiries Mr. Pennant sends you a 

 list of such animals as are known to belong to the southern 

 parts of Europe. 



Your wine proves very sound and good. 



LETTER II. 



Selbome, Jan. 25, 1771. 

 Dear Brother, 

 I received your kind letter of October 19, and wrote you an 

 answer on November 6. I should have been very glad to 

 have seen Mr. Twisse : he just came to London, called on 

 Bro. Ben, and set out for Gibraltar again. No. five is Bay's 

 Junco, and the Turdus arundinaeeas of Lin.* The Merula 

 passer solitarius of Bay is said to be a fine songster, and is 

 supposed to be the bird mentioned Psalm cii. 7 f. Your winter 

 swallow is undoubtedly the Ilirundo rupestris of Scopoli: you 

 however will have the credit of discovering it's winter quarters. 

 Brisson mentions a tridactyl quail \ from Madagascar : he 

 calls it " Perdix interne cinerea, superne e cinereo rufo, & 

 nigro variegata, gutture & collo inferiore nigris ; coturnici 

 nostrati paululum crassitie cedens." His 'Ornithology' is ex- 



* [See note to p. 9.— A. N.] 



t [The Rock-Thrush, Monticola cyanus of modern ornithologists. — A.N.] 

 [This seems to show that John White had met with the " Gibraltar 

 Quail," which was first described by Latham (Gen. Synops. ii. p. 790) 

 from a specimen in the Leverian Museum. At the same time he also 

 described {torn. cii. p. 791) the " Andalusian Quail," though that had 

 previously been mentioned by Shaw (Trav. p. 300), and both are now 

 known to be specifically identical. A few years afterwards Desfontaines 

 described and figured the species (Mem. del'Acad. desScien. 1787, p. 500) 

 as Tetrao sylvaticus ; and it is the Turnix sylvatica of modern ornithologists. 

 The type of Latham's " Gibraltar Quail " passed at the sale of the Leverian 

 Museum to that of Vienna, but, says Herr von Tekeln (Ibis, 1873, p. 36), 

 " is no longer in the collection." — A. N.] 



