OF SELBORNE. 129 



LETTER VII. 



TO THE SAME. 



Ringmer, near Lewes, Oct. 8, 1770. 

 DEAR SIR, 



I AM glad to hear that Kuckalm 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 it's own monographer. 



The reason perhaps why he mentions nothing of Hay's 

 Ornithology 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 Ento- 

 mology- and his characters of his Ordines and Genera are 

 many of them new, expressive, and masterly. He has ven- 

 tured to alter some of the Linncean genera with sufficient shew 

 of reason. 



It might perhaps be mere accident that you saw so many 

 swifts and no swallows at Staines; because, in my long obser- 



* [The ornithology of this ancient colony remained scarcely better 

 known than it was in White's time, until in 1847 Mr. Gosse published 

 his excellent and interesting ' Birds of Jamaica ; ' since which time no 

 new facts of any importance have been added. T. B.] 



K 



