76 The Natural History 



could wish : he advances some false facts : as when he 

 says of the hirundo icrbica that '■'' pullos extra iiidum non 

 7iutrit'^ This assertion I know to be wrong from 

 repeated observations this summer, for house-martins do 

 feed their young flying, though it must be acknowledged 

 not so commonly as the house-swallow ; and the feat is 

 done in so quick a manner as not to be perceptible to 

 indifferent observers. He also advances some (I was 

 going to say) improbable facts ; as when he says of the 

 woodcock that, ^'' pullos rostro port at fiigieiis ab hoste." 

 But candour forbids me to say absolutely that any fact 

 is false, because I have never been witness to such a 

 fact. I have only to remark that the long unwieldy bill 

 of the woodcock is perhaps the worst adapted of any 

 among the winged creation for such a feat of natural 

 affection. 



I am, etc. 



LETTER XXXII 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE 



Selborne, October 29, 1770. 

 Dear Sir, 



After an ineffectual search in Linn^us, Brisson, etc., I 

 begin to suspect that I discern my brother's hirundo 

 hyberna in Scopoli's new discovered hirundo rupestris^ 

 p. 167. His description of ''''Supra tfiuri?ia, subtus 

 albida ; rectrices macula ovali alba in latere inter?io ; 

 pedes niidiy nigri ; rostru?n nigrum ; remiges obscuriores 

 quam phwicz dorsales ; rectrices remigibus co?icolores ; 

 Cauda emarginahj, fiec forcipatd ;^' agrees very well with 

 the bird in question ; but when he comes to advance 

 that it is '''' statu ra hirundinis urbicie^' and that ^'' definitio 

 hirundinis riparice Linncei huic quoque convenit,^^ he in 

 some measure invalidates all he has said ; at least he 

 shows at once that he compares them to these species 

 merely from memory : for I have compared the birds 

 themselves, and find they differ widely in every circum- 



