OF SELBORNE. 



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 difficult 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 ^^-^rr^^/a suits 



