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The Natural History of Selborne
Contents:
Letter XXXII T Thomas Pennant, Esquire
Selborne, October 29, 1770.
Dear Sir,
After an ineffectual search in Linnaeus, Brisson, etc., I begin to suspect that I discern my brother’s hirundo hyberna in Scopoli’s new discovered hirundo rupestris, p. 167. His description of ’ Supra murina, subtus albida; rectrices macula ovali alba in latere inferno; pedes nudi, nigri; rostrum nigrum; remiges obscuriores quam plumae dorsales; rectrices remigibus concolores; cauda emarginata, nec forcipata,’ agrees very well with the bird in question; but when he comes to advance that it is ’statura hirundinis urbicae,’ and that ’definitio hirundinis ripariae Linnaei huic quoque convenit,’ he in some measure invalidates all he has said; at least he shows at once that he compares them to these species merely from memory: for I have compared the birds themselves, and find they differ widely in every circumstance of shape, size, and colour. However, as you will have a specimen, I shall be glad to hear what your judgment is in the matter.
Whether my brother is forestalled in his nondescript or not, he will have the credit of first discovering that they spend their winters under the warm and sheltery shores of Gibraltar and Barbary.
Scopoli’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 expressive, and very superior to Kramer’s.* (* See his Elenchus vegerabilium et animalium per Austriam inferiorem, etc.)
I am pleased to see that my description of the moose corresponds so well with yours.
I am, etc.
Contents:
Chicago: Gilbert White, "Letter XXXII T Thomas Pennant, Esquire," The Natural History of Selborne, ed. Bryant Conant, James and trans. Babington, B. G. (Benjamin Guy), 1794-1866 in The Natural History of Selborne Original Sources, accessed February 16, 2025, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=H3GEDIQS19XVXHY.
MLA: White, Gilbert. "Letter XXXII T Thomas Pennant, Esquire." The Natural History of Selborne, edited by Bryant Conant, James, and translated by Babington, B. G. (Benjamin Guy), 1794-1866, in The Natural History of Selborne, Original Sources. 16 Feb. 2025. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=H3GEDIQS19XVXHY.
Harvard: White, G, 'Letter XXXII T Thomas Pennant, Esquire' in The Natural History of Selborne, ed. and trans. . cited in , The Natural History of Selborne. Original Sources, retrieved 16 February 2025, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=H3GEDIQS19XVXHY.
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