154 NATURAL HISTORY 



so like a beautiful girl that the difference shall not be dis- 

 cernible ; 



" Quern si puellarura inserercs choro, 

 Mire sagaces fallerel hospites 

 Discrimen pbscurum, solutis 



Crinibus, ambiguoque vultu." HOR. 



LETTER VII. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 



, RINGMER, near LEWES, Oct. 8, 1770. 

 AM glad to hear that Kuckahn 1 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 posses- 

 sion ; 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 orni- 

 thology 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 mono- 

 grapher. 



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 his ordines and 



1 Kuckahn was the author of a paper in the " Philosophical Transac- 

 tions" for 1770 on the preservation of dead birds. ED. 



