OF SELBORNE 115 



LETTER VII 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES HARRINGTON 



Ringmer, near Lewes, Oct. 8, 1770. 



DEAR SIR, 



I AM glad to hear that Kuckalm is to furnish you with the 

 birds of Jamaica ; a sight of the hirundines of that hot and 

 distant island would be 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 

 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 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 observation of those birds, I never could discover the 

 least degree of rivalry or hostility between the species. 



Ray remarks that birds of the gallinae order, as cocks 

 and hens, partridges, and pheasants, etc. are pulveratrices 

 such as dust themselves, using that method of cleansing 

 their feathers, and ridding themselves of their vermin. 



