1 10 WHITE 



shall be so like a beautiful girl that the difference shall not be 

 discernible : 



" Quern si puellarum insereres choro, 

 Mire sagaces falieret hospites 

 Discrimen obscurum, solutis 

 Crinibus, ambiguoque vultu." 



HOR. ODES, II. od. 5-21, p. 131, orig. edit. 



LETTER VII 



RINGMER, near LEWES, Oct. 8t/i, 1770. 



DEAR SIR, I am glad to hear that Kuckalm is to furnish 

 you with the birds of Jamaica ; a sight of the kirundines 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 " Or- 

 nithology " 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 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 obser- 

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

 of rivalry or hostility between the species. 



Ray remarks that birds of the gallince order, as cocks and 



