1771 THE CUEIOUS BIEDS DEAWl^ 195 



for your work. Your embassy to the Emperor of Morocco 

 with a description of his person, manners, troops, etc. will 

 make a very good chapter. Have you not in Spain some 

 crown-flocks of sheep which migrate with the seasons from 

 IST. to S. Get some anecdotes of them. Mr. Pennant makes 

 his artist take all your most curious birds ; and promises the 

 drawings shall be forthcoming if wanted to engrave from. 

 Describe the Vultur ipercnajpterus most minutely, and learn 

 if you have an opportunity the difference of the sexes. Get 

 tlie skin of the Lwpus aureus from Barbary, and describe 

 it well. Scopoli's new Hirundo alpina is nothing, I think, 

 but the Hirundo melba, which is indeed a noble swift : get 

 all the anecdotes you can about them. Write to Scopoli, 

 he is very clever : but ask him as gravely as you can how he 

 is sure that the woodcock, when pursued, carries off her 

 young in her bill* I have just sent your cargo, which 

 I received in August, to Mr. Pennant: but as to your 

 collection shipped in October, I have never seen it yet ; for 

 brother Thomas writes word that it has been performing 

 quarantine in Stangate-creek. Just as I had penned the 

 last sentence a letter arrived from brother Thomas informing 

 me that the box was got safe to his house, which is good 

 news : for I was in pain for the curiosities and Jack's shirts. 

 When the Mantis casts his skins he is in his pupa state, and 

 advancing by casting aside those exuviae to perfection. 

 Scopoli's Icones will probably disappoint you: Linnseus's 

 engravings of insects are miserable: Geoffrey's are the best 

 I have seen. The bird you call a Parus (if it be not the 

 common black-cap) is a nondescript : if it should prove new, 

 call it Motacilla atricapilloides : Mr. Pennant thinks it a 

 new bird. Your purple-winged Vespa is no doubt the 

 Crahroni congener Eaij ; and if you can find that it has 

 "thorax ad latera postice utrinque dente notatus," I shall 



* Scopoli's words are "puUos rostro portat," which should be rendered 

 "by means of her bill," and relate what is since proved to be a fact.— A. N. 



