SCOPOLl's ANNUS PRIMUS. 07 



LETTER XXXVIII. 



TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. 



RZNGMER, near LEWES, October 8, 1770. 



DEAR SIR, I am glad to hear that Kuekalm 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 observations, 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 pos- 

 sibly be acquainted with. Every kingdom, every province, 

 should have its own monographer. 



The reason, perhaps, why he mentions nothing of Ray's 

 Ornithology, may be the extreme poverty and distance of his 

 country, into which the works of our great naturalists 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 Entomo- 

 logy; and his characters of his Ordines and Genera are many 

 of them new, expressive, and masterly. He has ventured to 

 alter some 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 obser- 

 vation of those birds, I never could discover the least degree 

 of rivalry or hostility between the species. 



Ray remarks, that birds of the galince order, as cocks and 

 hens, partridges and pheasants, &c. are pulveratrices, such as 

 dust themselves, using that method of cleansing their feathers, 

 and ridding themselves of their vermin. As far as I can 

 observe, many birds that dust themselves never wash ; and I 

 once thought that those birds that wash themselves would 

 never dust : but here I find myself mistaken ; for common 

 house-sparrows are great pulveratrices, being frequently seen 

 grovelling and wallowing in dusty roads ; and yet they are 

 great washers. Does not the skylark dust ? 



