162 NATURAL HISTORY 
LETTER Vit. 
Ringmer, near Lewes, Oct. 8, 1770. 
Dear Sir,—I am glad to hear that Kuekalm is to 
furnish you with the birds of Jamaica. A sight of 
the hirundines of that hot and distant island would 
be a great entertainment to me. 
The Anni of Scopoli are now in my possession, 
and I have read the Annus Primus with satisfac- 
tion; for, though some parts of this work are ex- 
ceptionable, and he may advance some mistaken 
observations, yet the ornithology of so distant a 
country as Carniola is very curious. Men that 
undertake only one district are much more likely to 
advance natural knowledge than those that grasp at 
more than they can possibly be acquainted with. 
Every kingdom, every province, should have its 
own monographer. 
The reason, perhaps, why he mentions nothing 
of Ray’s Ornithology, may be the extreme poverty 
and distance of his country, into which the works 
of our great naturalists may have never yet found 
their way. You have doubts, I know, whether this 
Ornithology is genuine, and really the work of Sco- 
poli: as to myself, I think I discover strong tokens 
of authenticity ; the style corresponds with that of 
his Entomology ; and his characters of his Ordines 
and Genera are many of them new, expressive, and 
masterly. He has ventured to alter some of the 
Linnean genera, with sufficient show of reason. 
It might, perhaps, be mere accident that you saw 
so many swifts and no swallows at Staines; be- 
cause, in my long observation of those birds, I nev- 
t 
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