OF SELBOBNE. 
103 
ScopoH'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 with regard to 
the manners of his indigenous birds as might be wished, as 
you justly observe : his Latin is easy, elegant, and ex- 
pressive, and very superior to Kramer's.^ 
I am pleased to see that my description of the moose 
corresponds so well with yours, 
LETTER XXXIII. 
TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 
Selborne, Xov 26, 1770. 
WAS much pleased to see, among the col- 
lection of birds from Gibraltar, some of those 
short- wing edEnglish summer birds of passage, 
concerning whose departure we have made so 
much inquiry. Now, if these birds are found 
in Andalusia to migrate to and from Barbary, it may easily be 
supposed that those that come to us may migrate back to 
the continent, and spend their winters in some of the 
warmer parts of Europe. This is certain, that many soft- 
billed birds that come to Gibraltar appear there only in 
spring and autumn, seeming to advance in pairs towards 
the northward, for the sake of breeding during the summer 
cnly ; but merely as indicating tliat it does not quit the neighbourhood 
of that place, like the other swaUows, during the colder months. It is, 
in fact, stationary throughout the year." M. Risso states it to be 
stationary also in the more northern locality of Nice ; where all the 
other swallows are, as in England, birds of passage. — Ed. 
^ See his " Elenchus vegetabilium et animalium per Austriam in- 
feriorem," &c. — G. AY. 
