OF SEL BORNE. 85 
lovers of natural hiftory; for, as no man can alone inveftlgate all 
the works of nature, thefe partial writers may, each in their 
department, be more accurate in their difcoveries, and freer 
from errors, than more general writers ; and fo by degrees may 
pave the way to an univerfal correct natural hiftory. Not that 
ScopoU is fo circumftantial and attentive to the life and converfation 
of his birds as I could wifh : he advances fome falfefads; as 
when he fays of the hirundo urbica that " pullos extra mdiim non 
" nutrit." This alTertion I know to be wrong from repeated 
obfervation this fummer ; for houfe-martins do feed their young 
flying, though it mull be acknowledged not fo commonly as 
the houfe-fwallow ; and the feat is done in fo quick a manner as 
not to be perceptible to indifferent obfervers. He alfo advances 
fome (I was going to fay) improbable fafts ; as when he fays of 
the woodcock that " pidlos rojlro portat fugiens ah hqfte." But candour 
forbids me to fay abfolutely that any fa6l is falfe, becaufe I have 
never been witnefs to fuch a fadl. I have only to remark that the 
long unweildy bill of the woodcock is perhaps the worft adapted 
of any among the winged creation for fuch a feat of natural 
affedion. I am, Sec. 
LETTER 
