SCOPOLI'S ANNUS PRIMUS. 101 



LETTER XXXIX. 

 TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 



SELBORNE, October 29, 1770. 



DEAR SIR, After an ineffectual search in Linnaeus, Brisson, 

 Ktc. I begin to suspect that I discern my brother's hirundo 

 hyberna in Scopoli's newly discovered hirundo rupestris, p. 167. 

 His description of " Supra murina, subtus albida ; rectrices 

 macula ovali alba in later e inferno ; pedes nudi, nigri; rostrum 

 nigrum ; remigcs obscuriores quam plumes dorsales ; rectrices 

 remigibus concolores; cauda emarginatd nee forcipata? agrees 

 very well with the bird in question ; but, when he comes to 

 advajice that it is " statura hirundinis urbicce" and that " defi- 

 nitio hirundinis riparicB Linncei huic quoque convenit" he, in 

 some measure, invalidates all he has said ; at least, he shews 

 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 spend 

 their winters under the warm and sheltery shores of Gibraltar 

 and Barbary. 



Scopoli's characters of his ordines and genera are clear, just, 

 and expressive, and much in the spirit of Linnaeus. These 

 few remarks are the result of my first perusal of Scopoli's 

 Annus Primus. 



The bane of our science is the comparing one animal to the 

 other by memory. For want of caution in this particular, 

 Scopoli falls into errors. He is not so full with regard to the 

 manners of his indigenous birds as might be wished, as you 

 justly observe : his Latin is easy, elegant, and expressive, and 

 very superior to Kramer's. * 



over which it rests, in a coal mine at Auchincruive, in Ayrshire." This 

 fact invalidates the Huttonian theory of the primitive formation of the 

 earth, and is in favour of the Wernerian hypothesis. ED. 



* See his Elenchus Vegetabilium et Animalium per A.ustriam Infe- 

 riorcm, 8cc. 



K2 



