13 1 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



LETTER VII. 



TO THE SAME. 



, near LEWF.S, Oct. %tk, 1770. 



DEAR SIR, I am glad to hear that Kcickalm 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 mistaken obser- 

 vations, 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 Ornitho- 

 logy 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 seme of the Linnsean 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 observations of 

 those birds, I never could discover the least degree of rivalry or 

 hostility between the species. 



Ray remarks that birds of the gallince order, as cocks and hens, 



* T. Kuckalm is the author of a very good paper on " The preservation of Dead 

 Birds," published in 1770, in Transactions cf the Philosophical Society, LX., p. 303. 

 Abridgment, XIII., p. 50. 



The "hirundines" of Jama : ca are only six or seven in number, their habits are very 

 interest ng, but scarcely bear upon those of any of our British species. Some are migra- 

 tory there, retiring southward or tropically during the winter; but a true swallow, allied 

 to Hirundo fulva of North America, but thought by Mr. Gosse to be distinct, is not 

 migratory, at least in whole, and may be seen during the entire year. It builds in caverns 

 and ever -hanging recks, gregarit u^ly, and with pellets of mud. 



