NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 83 



says of the woodcock that "pullos rostro portat fugiens db 

 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, 



LETTER XXXII. 



SELBORNB, October 29^, 1770. 



AFTER an ineffectual search in Linnaeus, 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 murina, subtus albida ; 

 rectrices maculd ovali albd in latere interno ; pedes nudi, 

 nigri ; rostrum nigrum ; remiges obscuriores quam plumce 

 dorsales ; rectrices remigibus concolores ; cauda emarginatd, 

 necforcipata /" agrees very well with the bird in question 

 but when he comes to advance that it is " statura hirun- 

 dinis urbicce" 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 

 circumstance of shape, size, and colour. However, as you 

 will have a specimen, I shall be glad to hear what your 

 judgment is in the matter. 



Whether my brother is forestalled in his nondescript or 

 not, he will have the credit of first discovering that they 



