ii4 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
days, the sexes differ but little: but, as they advance to 
maturity, horns and shaggy manes, beards and brawny necks, 
etc., strongly discriminate the male from the female. We 
may instance still farther in our own species, where a beard and 
stronger features are usually characteristic of the male sex: 
but this sexual diversity does not take place in earlier life, for 
a beautiful youth shall be so like a beautiful girl that the differ- 
ence shall not be discernible. 
* A youth who, if introduced among a lot of girls, would, by the 
difficulty of distinguishing him from the rest, greatly puzzle even 
clever strangers, thanks to his loose hair and ambiguous face.” 
HORACE, Odes. 
LETTER: Vag 
RINGMER, zear LEWES, Oct. 8th, 1770. 
I am glad to hear that Kuckahn is to furnish you with the 
birds of Jamaica; a sight of the A/zrundines 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 exceptional, 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 knowl- 
edge 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 Ray’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; 
