134 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
LE PTI RV se 
TQ THE SAME, 
RINGMER, near LEwEs, Oct. 8th, 1770. 
DEAR S1IR,—I am glad to hear that Kuckalm is to furnish you 
with the birds of Jamaica; a sight of the Azrundines 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 satisfaction ; for though some parts of this 
work are exceptionable, and he may advance some mistaken obser- 
vations, 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 Ornitho- 
logy may be the extreme poverty and distance of his country, into 
which the works of our great naturalist may have never yet found 
their way. You have doubts, I know, whether this Ornithology is 
genuine, and really the work of Scopoli; 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 Linnzean genera with sufficient show 
of reason. 
It might perhaps be mere accident that you saw so many swifts 
and no swallows at Staines; because, in my long observations of 
those birds, I never could discover the least degree of rivalry or 
hostility between the species. 
Ray remarks that birds of the ga//u@ order, as cocks and hens, 
* T. Kuckalm is the author of a very good paper on ‘‘ The preservation of Dead 
Birds,’’ published in 1770, in Transactions of the Philosophical Society, LX., p. 303. 
Abridgment, XITI., p. 50. 
_ The “‘hirundines” of Jamaica are only six or seven in number, their habits are very 
interesting, but scarcely bear upon those of any of our British species. Some are migra- 
tory there, retiring southward or tropically during the winter; but a true swallow, allied 
to Hirundo fulva of North America, but thought by Mr. Gosse to be distinct, is not 
migratory, at least in whole, and may be seen during the entire year. It builds in caverns 
and over-hanging rocks, gregariously, and with pellets of mud. 
