OF SELBORNE 89 



LETTER XXXII 



Selborne, October 29, 1770. 

 Dear Sir, 



After an ineffectual search in Linnaeus, Brisson, etc., I 

 begin to suspect that I discern my brother's hirundo 

 hyberna in Scopoli's new discovered hirundo rupestris, 

 p. 167. His description of " Supra murina, subius 

 albida ; redrices maculd ovali alba in latere interna ; 

 pedes nudi, nigri ; rostrum nigrum ; remiges obscuriores 

 quam plumx dorsales ; redrices remigibus concolores ; 

 Cauda emarginatd, nee forcipatd ; " agrees very well with 

 the bird in question ; but when he conies to advance 

 that it is " siatura hirundinis urbicse," and that " definitio 

 birundinis riparix Linnxi huic quoque convenit," he in 

 some measure invalidates all he has said ; at least he 

 shows 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 circum- 

 stance 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 



