SCOPOLl's ANNUS PRIMUS. 127 



rate in their discoveries, and freer from errors, than 

 more general writers, and so by degrees may pave 

 the way to an universal correct natural history. Not 

 that Scopoli is so circumstantial and attentive to the 

 life and conversation of his birds as I could wish : he 

 advances some false facts ; as when he says of the 

 hirundo urbica, that, " pullos extra nidum non nutrit" 

 This assertion I know to be wrong, from repeated 

 observation this summer ; for house -mart ins do feed 

 their young flying, though, it must be acknowledged, 

 not so commonly as the house-swallow ; and the feat 

 is done in so quick a manner as not to be perceptible 

 to indifferent observers. He also advances some (I 

 was going to say,) improbable facts ; as when he 

 says of the woodcock that "pullos rostro portat fu- 

 giens ab hoste" flying from the enemy it carries its 

 young in its beak. But candour forbids me to say 

 absolutely that any fact is false because I have never 

 been witness to such a fact. I have only to re- 

 mark, that the long unwieldy bill of the woodcock is, 

 perhaps, the worst adapted of any among the winged 

 creation for such a feat of natural affection. 



LETTER XXXVII. 



TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. 



RINGMER, near LEWES, October 8, 1770. 



.. 



DEAR SIR, 



I AM glad to hear that Kuekalm is to furnish 

 you with the birds of Jamaica. A sight of the hirun- 

 dines 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 ; 



