1770 HIRUNDO HYBEENA 187 



" I rejoice in your acquisition of K American animals, 

 and am pleased to find that you persist in additions to your 

 ' Britpsh] Zoology ' illustrated. Such hints as occur on any 

 of those subjects shall be much at your service. 



" It gives me real pleasure to hear that the report con- 

 cerning Mr. Banks is groundless. If there should be a 

 rupture with Spain my Brother will be much circumscribed 

 in his excursions as he has been already this summer by the 

 (loath of his horse." 



From Mr. Sheffield.'^ 



Worcester Coll, DeC. 10, 1770. 



Dear Sir, — I am ashamed to have been so long in arrear 

 for your last Favour. . . . Had I known of the arrival of 

 your curious cargo from Gibraltar before I left the South 

 of Oxfordshire, you had most certainly seen me again at 

 Selborne: I could not possibly have resisted so strong a 

 temptation. At present I must content myself with the 

 hopes of gratifying my curiosity at a more favourable season 

 of the year ; being advised to use every Precaution, and not 

 run the least risk of taking cold this Winter. 



I had never heard of Scopoli's * Anni Historico Natu rales ' 

 but from the Description there seems to be no doubt but his 

 rupestris is your Brother's Hirundo hyherna Andal : I lay 

 little stress on those passages you have marked as exception- 

 able, having observed in Linnajus and other Systematists 

 that the specific difference is almost universally constituted 

 by one, or two particular marks ; the rest of the Description 

 running in general Terms — something like the expression 

 7nore or less in our own Language, when referred to estimates. 

 But I think Scopoli's Diagnosis sufficient to distinguish 

 this species of Hirundo, & particularly the Bedrice maculd 

 ovali alba in latere interno, without any other Description. 

 And here I cannot help observing that Honest John Ray 



* Fellow, and afterwards Provost, of Worcester College, Oxford. 



