256 CORRESPONDENCE OF GILBERT WHITE 



LETTER IV. 



MARSHAM TO WHITE. 



Stratton near Norwich. Dec. 29. 90. 



Dear Sir, 



It was not for want of inclination, but want of matter, that i 

 did not offer you my hearty thanks for the favour of your 

 very entertaining letter of the 12 th of October*. I have very 

 lately met with some intelligence that may afford you some 

 amusement, so wish to lay it before you. 



As i knew nothing of Mr Jennor's character, & as some of 

 his history of the Cuckow is extraordinary, i desired my 

 very estimable friend Lord Suffieldf to enquire that of Mr 

 Hunter ; he is perfectly satisfied of Jennor's accuracy. He 

 was his Pupil & lived in his house upwards of four years. 

 Jennor sent parts of the account of the Cuckow to Mr Hunter 

 18 months, or more, before they were published. Hunter 

 has himself repeated some of the experiments, & found them 

 correct : & this last Summer, he put a Blackbird's egg into a 

 hedge Sparrow's nest, & left three of her own eggs; & the 

 Sparrow hatched them & brought them all up. Mr Hunter 

 was not perfectly satisfied, that the ejecting the young spar- 

 rows from the nest was the act of the young Cuckow only, 

 but suspected some aid of the foster-mother : however she & 

 the Blackbird let the young Sparrows enjoy their nest quietly. 

 — Hunter told his Ldp. that he was now making repeated 

 observations upon a species of the Nightingale sent to him 

 from Germany, as a song Bird. Accident led him to suspect 

 that this Bird could (if one may so speak) see clearly in the 

 dark. His time of frolic is after midnight : he then hops 

 about the Cage from perch to perch, & from the wires of one 



* [This letter is missing. — T. S.] 



t [Sir Harbord Harbord, created Lord Suffield 1786, died 1810.— 

 A N.] 



