XXXVIII.] 



OF SELBORNE. 



111 



LETTEE XXXVIII. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINOTON. 



I AM glad to hear that Kuckahn 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 satisfaction ; for though some 

 parts of this work are exceptionable, 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 " Orni- 

 thology " is the extreme poverty and distance of his country, 

 into which the works of our great naturalist may never yet have 

 found their way. You have doubts, I know, whether this " Orni- 

 thology " 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 " Entomologia ; " and his 

 characters of the ordines and genera are many of them new, 

 expressive, and masterly. He has ventured to alter some of the 

 Linnaean 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 observa- 

 tion of those birds, I never could discover the least degree of 

 rivalry or hostility between the species. 



Eay remarks that birds of the Gallince order, as cocks and 

 hens, partridges and pheasants, &c., are pulveratrices, such as 

 dust themselves, using that method of cleansing their feathers 

 and ridding themselves of their vermin. As far as I can 

 observe, many birds that dust themselves never wash : and 1 



