OF SELBORNE. 
LETTEE XXXYIII. 
TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRING TON. 
I AM glad to hear that Kuckahn 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 possession; and I have 
read the "Annus Primus" with satisfaction; for though some 
parts of this woi'k are exceptionable, and he may advance some 
mistaken observations, yet the ornithology 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 tliat grasp at more than they can possibly be 
acquainted with : every kingdom, every province, should have 
its own monographer. 
The reason perhaps why he mentions nothing of Eay's " Orni- 
thology " is the extreme poverty and distance of his country, 
into which the works of our great naturalist may never yet have 
found their way. You have doubts, I know, whether this " Orni- 
thology" 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 " Entomologia ; " and his 
characters of the ordiues and genera are many of them new, 
expressive, and masterly. He has ventured to alter some of the 
Linnsean genera with sufficient show of reason. 
It might perhaps be mere accident that you saw so many 
swifts and no swallows at Staines ; because, in my long observa- 
tion of those birds, I never could discover the least degree of 
rivalry or hostility between the species. 
Eay remarks that birds of the Gallince order, as cocks and 
hens, partridges and pheasants, &c., are pulveratrices, such as 
dust themselves, using that method of cleansing their feathers 
and ridding themselves of their vermin. As far as I can 
observe, many birds that dust themselves never wash : and 1 
