NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 109 



I am not pleased to find that some people seem so little satis- 

 fied with Scopoli's new publication ; there is room to expect 

 great things from the hands of that man, who is a good natu- 

 ralist : and one would think that a history of the birds of so 

 distant and southern a region as Carniola would be new and 

 interesting. I could wish to see that work, and hope to get 

 it sent down. Dr. Scopoli is physician to the wretches that 

 work in the quicksilver mines of that district. 



When you talked of keeping a reed-sparrow, and giving it 

 seeds, I could not help wondering ; because the reed-sparrow 

 which I mentioned to you (Passer arundinaceus minor Rait) 

 is a soft-billed bird ; and most probably migrates hence before 

 winter ; whereas the bird you kept (Passer torquatus Rail) 

 abides all the year, and is a thick-billed bird. I question 

 whether the latter be much of a songster ; but in this matter 

 I want to be better informed. The former has a variety of 

 hurrying notes, and sings all night. Some part of the song 

 of the former, I suspect, is attributed to the latter. We have 

 plenty of the soft-billed sort; which Mr. Pennant had entirely 

 left out of his " British Zoology," till I reminded him of his 

 omission. See " British Zoology " last published, p. 16. 



I have somewhat to advance on the different manners in 

 which different birds fly and walk; but as this is a subject that 

 I have not enough considered, and is of such a nature as not 

 to be contained in a small space, I shall say nothing further 

 about it at present. 



No doubt the reason why the sex of birds in their first plu- 

 mage is so difficult to be distinguished is, as you say, " because 

 they are not to pair and discharge their parental functions till 

 the ensuing spring." As colors seem to be the chief external 

 sexual distinction in many birds, these colors do not take place 

 till sexual attachments begin to obtain. And the case is the 

 same in quadrupeds ; among whom, in their younger days, the 

 sexes differ but little : but, as they advance to maturity, horns 

 and shaggy manes, beards and brawny necks, etc., etc., strongly 

 discriminate the male from the female. We may instance still 

 farther in our own species, where a beard and stronger features 

 are usually characteristic of the male sex : but this sexual diver- 

 sity does not take place in earlier life ; for a beautiful youth 



