NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 127 



LETTER VII. 



RiNGMER, Tiear Lewes, Oct. Uh, 1770. 



I AM glad to hear that Kuckalm 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 possibly 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 naturalist 

 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 Entomology ; and his characters of the 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 

 observation of those birds, I never could discover the least 

 degree of rivalry or hostility between the species. 



Ray remarks that birds of the Gallinoi order, as cocks 



