AND ROBERT M VRSHAM. 293 



''• 



If you have got the Certhia muraria, or true WaH-creepi 

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

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

 vast collections that I have seen in London, 1 have never met 

 with it. No wonder that the great Mr. AVillughby is not very 

 copious on the subject, for he acknowledges fairly thai he had 

 not seen it; tho' he supposes it may be found in this island. 

 The best person I can refer you to is U r John Antony Scopoli, 

 a modern, elegant, foreign Naturalist, born in the Tyrol, bul 

 late deceased in Pavia, where he was professor of Botany. 

 This curious & accurate writer was in possession of one in his 

 own Museum, & gives the following description of his speci- 

 men in his "Annus primus historico-naturalis : " — "thai it's 

 bill is somewhat longer than it's shanks, slender, & somewhat 

 bent ; the tongue is bifid; & the feet consisting of three toes 

 forward and one behind." Again he adds, " that the upper 

 part is cinereous, the throat whitish ; the abdomen, wings in 

 part, tail, & feet, black: the wings at their base, & the quill 

 feathers at their base on one side reddish." "It was taken 

 in Carniola." " It is the size of the common Creeper*, or 

 Certhia familiaris : it's nostrils oblong ; tail cinereous at the 

 point ; the first four quill feathers distinguished on the inner 

 side by two white spots." He concludes thus, — " Migrat so- 

 litario sub finem autumni ; turres & muros sedium altiorum 

 adit ; araneas venatur ; saltitando scandit ; volatu vago & in- 

 certo fertur volucris muta." — You are sure, 1 trust, that your 

 bird is not the Sitta Europcea, or Nut-hatch. 



I have written so soon, that you may examine \' bird well 

 again, before the specimen decays. Y r Lady's Turkey-hen is 

 a most prolific dame; & must, I think, lay herself to death. 

 You persist very laudably in y r curious experiments on trees. 

 Whenever You recommend my book, which begins to be bet- 

 ter known, you lay me under fresh obligations. 1 am \\ riting 

 my account of the Fern- owl, & endeavouring to vindicate it 

 from the foul imputation of being a Caprimulgus. My letter 



* [This is a slip of White's pen. Scopoli's words (op. cit. p. 51) 

 '• Statura sittce," that is, the size of the Nuthatch, which is nearly true. 



—A. N.] 



