NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 145 



when their bills & legs are brown : & especially since 

 all ornithologists agree that y e naked parts of birds are 

 the least apt to vary in colour. As to the oenanthe I 

 don't know at all what to make of it : it appears to me 

 more like a variegated accidental specimen than a new 

 species : but I shall hear what you have to say. The 

 outer edge of the first quill-feather of the wing of the 

 strix bubo is serrated : a circumstance which Linn : seems 

 not to be aware of ; for if he had he would never have 

 made it specific to his strix aluco : since what is common 

 to more than one species cannot be specific. But such 

 slips are pardonable nay unavoidable opere in longo. 



As the orioh galb : are birds of last year their colour is 

 by no means come to its full splendor. My Bro r> has 

 much to say in defence of his supposition that his Spanish 

 & Barbary partridges are different species. In one of his 

 last letters his words are, " I am perfectly clear about 

 the difference of the Span : & Bar : partridge. I have 

 examined multitudes of each, & never found the least 

 exception to my remark. . . that the Bar : sort has 

 always the chestnut collar, cheeks, &c., spotted with 

 white ; * the Span : sort always has those parts black, 

 & the collar of a different form. The distinction is 

 invariable ; & I wonder no one remarked it. The Span : 

 is rather the larger bird. Indeed on a careful comparison 

 the whole disposition even of those colours which corre- 

 spond in each bird differs." 



Shaw's travels are to be met with in Gibraltar ; & 

 my Bro r had discovered himself that the tridactyl quail 

 was known to the D r - in Barbary : however we are 

 equally obliged to you for y r hint. Gannets are never 

 seen about Gibraltar 'til Nov : they retire again about 

 March. My Bro r shall try to procure the bird for you 

 from the Barbary coast. 



1 This is the Barbary Partridge (Caccabis petrosd) and the other is the 

 Spanish Red-legged Partridge (Caccabis hispanica). John White was quite right 

 as regards the distinctive characters of the two species. [R. B. S.] 



T 



