88 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



its merits in ascertaining many of the birds of the Tirol 

 and Carniola. Monographers, come from whence they 

 may, have, I think, fair pretence to challenge some 

 regard and approbation from the lovers of natural 

 history ; for, as no man can alone investigate all the 

 ■works of nature, these partial writers may, each in theii 

 department, be more accurate in theii discoveries, and 

 freei from errors, than more general writers ; and so by 

 degrees may pave the way to an universal correct natural 

 history. Not that Scopoli is so circumstantial and 

 attentive to the life and conversation of his birds as I 

 could wish : he advances some false facts : as when he 

 says of the hirundo urbica that " pullos extra nidum 

 non nuirit." This assertion I know to be wrong from 

 repeated observations this summer, for house-martins do 

 feed theii young flying, though it must be acknowledged 

 not so commonly as the house-swallow ; and the feat is 

 done in so quick a manner as not to be perceptible to 

 indifferent observers. He also advances some (I was 

 going to say) improbable facts ; as when he says of the 

 woodcock that, " pullos rostro portal jugiens ab hoste." 

 But candour iorbids me to say absolutely that any fact 

 is false, because I have never been witness to such a 

 fact. I have only to remark that the long unwieldy bill 

 of the woodcock is perhaps the worst adapted of any 

 among the winged creation for such a feat of natural 

 affection. 



1 am, etc. 



