ear 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 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; 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 Linnaean 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 _gallinoe_ order, as cocks and hens,
partridges, and pheasants, etc., 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 I once thought that those birds that wash
themselves would never dust; but here I find myself mistaken: for common
house-sparrows are great pulveratrices, being frequently seen grovelling
and wallowing in dusty roads; and yet they are great washers. Does not
the skylark dust?

_Query_.--Might not Mahomet and his followers take one method of
purification from these pulveratrices? because I find from travellers of
credit, that if a strict Mussulman is journeying in a sandy desert where
no water is to be found, at stated hours he strips off his clothes, and
most scrupulously rubs his body over with sand or dust.

A countryman told me he had found a young fern-owl in the