102 
NATURAL HISTOEY OF SELBORNB. 
LETTEE VIL 
TO THE SAME. 
RiNGMER, near Lewes, Oct. Sth, 1770. 
Dear Sir, — I am glad to bear that Kuckalm 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 work 
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 that 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 Ornithology 
may be the extreme poverty and distance of his country, into which the 
works of our great naturalist may have never yet found their way. 
You have doubts, I know, whether this Ornithology 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 
Entomology ; and his characters of his Ordines 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 observation of those birds, 
I never could discover the least degree of rivalry or hostility between 
the species. 
Ray remarks that birds of the gallince order, as cocks and hens, 
partridges, and pheasants, &c., are pulveratrices, such as dust them- 
selves, 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 I once thought that those birds that 
Of either sex, each various grace 
You might behold with joy, 
As well might seem the lovely face 
Boyish in girl, or girlish in a boy." — Ovid. 
** While nature doubtful stands 
A male or female to compose. 
Beneath her forming hands 
•■ Almost a girl, the beauteous boy arose." — Auson, 
* T. Kuckalm is the author of a very good paper on ' ' The preservation of Bead 
Birds," published in 1770, in Transactions of the Philosophical Society, LX., p. 303. 
Abridgement, XIII., p. 50. 
The hirundines " of Jamaica are only six or seven in number, their habits 
are very interesting, but scarcely bear upon those of any of our British species. 
Some are migratory there, retiring southward or tropically during the winter ; but 
a true swallow, allied to Hirundo fulva of North America, but thought by Mr. Gosse 
to be distinct, is not migratory, at least in whole, and may be seen during the entire 
year. It builds in caverns and over-hanging rocks, gregariously, and with pellets 
of mud. 
