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cumftances, as it hath been fo much relied upon, and by natura- 

 lifts of fo great eminence. 



Monf. Adanfon is a very ingenious writer, and the publick is 

 much indebted to him for many of the remarks which he made 

 whilft he refided in Senegal. I may, however, I think, prefume 

 to fay, that he had not before his voyage made ornithology his 

 particular ftudy ; proofs of which are not wanting in other parts 

 of his work, which do not relate to fwallows. For example, he 

 fuppofes, that the Canary birds which are bred in Europe are 

 white, and that they become fo by our climate's being more cold 

 than that of Africa. 



" J'ai remarque que le ferin qui devient tout blanc en France, 

 " eft aTeneriffe d'un gris prefque auffi fonce que celui de la li- 

 " notte ; ce changement de couleur provient vraifemblablement 

 «' de la froidure de notre climat 



Mr. Adanfon in this paffage feems to have deduced two falfe 

 inferences from having feen a few white Canary birds in France, 

 which he afterwards compares with thofe of TenerifF, and fup- 

 pofes the change of colour to arife merely from alteration of cli- 

 mate : it is known, however, almoft to every one, that there is 

 an infinite variety in the plumage of the European Canary birds, 

 which, as in poultry, arifes from their being pampered with fo 

 much food, as well as confinement 1 . 



Monf. 



y Voyage an Senegal, p. 13. Shells feem to be the part of natural 

 hiftory which chiefly engaged Mr. Adanfon's attention. 



2 In the fame paffage, he compares the colour of the African Canary 

 bird to that of the European linnet, and fays it is d'un gris prefque avjji fonce, 

 whereas the European linnet is well known to be brown, and not grey. 

 The linnet affords a very decilive proof that the change of plumage does 

 not arife from the difference of climate, but the two caufes I have affign- 

 ed. The cock bird, whilft at liberty, hath a red breafl: yet if it is either 

 bred up in a cage from the neft, or is caught with its red plumage, and 

 afterwards moults in the b.oufe, it never recovers the red feathers. 



That, 



