554 
NATURAL HISTORY 
the common creeper^ or Gerthia familiaris : ^ its 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 solitario sub finem autumni ; turres 
et muros sedium altiorum adit ; araneas venatur ; saltitando 
candit ; volatu vago et incerto fertur volucris muta/^ Yon 
are sure, I trust, that your bird is not the 8itta Europoea . 
or Nut-hatch. 
I have written so soon, that you may examine your bird 
well again, before the specimen decays. Your lady^s turkey- 
hen is a most prolific dame ; and must, I think, lay herself 
to death. You persist very laudably in your curious experi- 
ments on trees. Whenever you recommend my book, which 
begins to be better known, you lay me under fresh obliga- 
tions. I am writing my account of the Fern-owl, and. en- 
deavouring to vindicate it from the foul imputation of being 
a Gaprimulgus. My letter will make a fierce appearance 
with a quotation from Aristotle, and another from Pliny, but 
whether the R. S. will read it, or whether afterwards they 
will print it I know not.^ 
With all good wishes for your health and prosperity, I 
remain 
Your obliged and humble servant, 
Gil. White 
Selborne Nov. 20tli, 1792. 
^ Scopoli {op. cit. p. 51) says, " Statura 5^7te," that is, the size of the 
Nut-hatch. — Ed. 
^ The history of the Fern-owl, so long contemplated and so frequently 
alluded to, unfortunately it would seem was never completed, the author 
dying within six months after the date of this letter. — ^Ed. 
