190 The Natural History of Selborne 



than those that grasp at more than they can possibly be ac- 

 quainted with : every kingdom, every province, should have 

 its own monographer. 



The reason perhaps why he mentions nothing of Ray'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 Linnsean 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 

 observations of those birds, I never could discover the least 

 degree of rivalry or hostility between the species. 1 



Ray 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 I 

 once thought that those birds that wash themselves would 

 never dust; but here I find myself mistaken; for common 

 house-sparrows are great pulveratrices, being frequently seen 

 grovelling and wallowing in dusty roads; and yet they are 

 great washers. Does not the skylark dust ? 2 



Query. Might not Mahomet and his followers take one 

 method of purification from these pulveratrices ? because I 

 find from travellers of credit, that if a strict Mussulman is 

 journeying in a sandy desert where no water is to be found, 



1 White, I think, is here in error. Both birds feed on the same sort of 

 insects, which they catch on the wing, and several observers have noticed 

 the swift flying or swooping in a hostile manner at swallows and house- 

 martins. En. 2 White is correct in this ; skylarks wash themselves 

 by dusting. ED. 



