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.
Letter XXXIII
To Thomas Pennant, Esquire
Selborne, Nov.
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