LETTER XXXV 



TO THE SAME 1 



SELBORNE, 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 : & I should 

 not have hesitated to have called them the Spipoletta 

 Florentinis Rati, had they had black feet & black bills. 

 The variegated cenanthe also deserved your regard. But 

 I will endeavour to send both sorts again when I have 

 an opportunity, that you may survey them both at your 

 leisure. My thanks are due for y r setting us right where 

 some birds were misnamed. 



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

 Brother at Gibraltar are embarked in a correspondence. 

 You are capable of giving each other mutual entertain- 

 ment : & my Bro r (as by much the youngest Naturalist) 

 will derive from you much information, & many useful 

 hints & queries. What from his natural propensity, & 

 application, from the assistance of ingenious friends, & 

 from the copious field of the South of Spain, which he 

 has all to himself, I doubt not now but that in time he 



1 The letter as published was very short, but forms part of a long one written 

 to Pennant, and dated July 19, 1771. [R. B. S.] 



