OF SELBORNE. 293 



LETTER XIX. 



TO THE SAME. 



DEAR SIR; Selborne, Feb. 14, 1774- 



I RECEIVED your favour of the eighth, 

 and am pleased to find that you read my 

 little history of the swallow with your usual 

 candour : nor was I the less pleased to find 

 that you made objections where you saw 

 reason. 



As to the quotations, it is dilficult to 

 say precisely which species of hirundo 

 Virgil might intend in the lines in ques- 

 tion, since the ancients did not attend to 

 specific differences like modern naturalists; 

 yet somewhat may be gathered, enough to 

 incline me to suppose that in the two pas- 

 sages quoted, the poet had his eye on the 

 swallow. 



In the first place the epithet garruia suits 



