1771 ANNUS HISTOEICO-NATUEALIS 201 



little more than a paragraph (here omitted) upon 

 the tails of peacocks : — 



Selborne, July 19, 1771. 



Dear Sir, — My unusual silence has not been owing to any 

 disrespect, but to the roving unsettled life which I have 

 lived for this month past. 



I wish you had happened to have paid a little more 

 attention to the pair of larks which came over in my last 

 collection, because they seemed to me to be quite a different 

 species from any sent before : and I should not have hesitated 

 to have called them Spipoletta Florentinis Rai% had they had 

 black feet and black bills. The variegated (Enanthe also 

 deserved your regard. But I will endeavour to send both 

 sorts again when I have an opportunity, that you may survey 

 them at your leisure. My thanks are due for your setting 

 us right where some birds were misnamed. 



It is a great satisfaction to me to find that you and my 

 brother at Gibraltar are embarked in a correspondence. 

 You are capable of giving each other mutual entertainment : 

 and my brother (as by much the youngest Naturalist) will 

 derive from you much information and many useful hints 

 and queries. What from his natural propensity and applica- 

 tion, from the assistance of ingenious friends, and from 

 the copious field of the South of Spain, which he has all 

 to himself, I doubt not but that in time he will be able to 

 produce somewhat worthy the attention of men who love 

 these studies. 



As to any publication in this way of my own, I look upon 

 it with great diffidence, finding that I ought to have begun 

 it twenty years ago. But if I was to attempt anything it 

 should be somewhat of a Nat[ural] history of my native 

 parish, an annus historico-nuturalis comprizing a journal for 

 one whole year, and illustrated with large notes and observa- 

 tions. Such a beginning might induce more able naturalists 



