y f ^ 



132 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE, 



they are not to pair and discharge their parental functions till the 

 ensuing spring." As colours seem to be the chief external sex- 

 ual distinction in many birds, these colours do not take place till 

 sexual attachments begin to obtain. And the case is the same 

 in quadrupeds ; among whom, in their younger days, the sexes 

 differ but little : but, as they advance to maturity, horns and 

 shaggy manes, beards and brawny necks, &c. &c. strongly dis- 

 criminate the male from the female. We may instance still fur- 

 ther in our own species, where a beard and stronger features are 

 usually characteristic of the male sex : but this sexual diversity 

 does not take place in earlier life ; for a beautiful youth shall 

 be so like a beautiful girl that the difference shall not be dis- 

 cernible ; 



" Q^iejn si,puellarum insereres choro, 

 Mird sagaces falleret h<5spites 

 Discrimen obscurum, solutis 

 C r t Urns, ambiguoque vultu. " HOR. 



LETTER VII. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. 



DEAR SIR, Ringmer, near Lewes, Oct. 8, 1770. 



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 a 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 mis- 

 taken observations, yet the ornithology of so distant a country 

 as Carniola is very curious. Men that undertake only one dis- 

 trict are much more 'Ukely 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 mo- 

 nographer. 



The reason perhaps why he mentions nothing of Ray's Orni- 

 thology 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 Orni- 

 thology is genuine, and really the work of Scopoli : as to myself, 

 I think I discover strong tokens of authenticity ; the style cor- 

 responds with that of his Entomology : and his characters of his 



