XXV.] OF SELBORNE. 79 



To see the feeding bat glance through the wooil ; 



To catch the distant falling of the flood ; 



While o'er the cliff th' awaken'd churn-owl hung 



Through the still gloom protracts his chattering song 



While high in air, and pois'd upon his wings, 



Unseen, the soft enamourW woodlark sings : 



These, NATURE'S works, the curious mind employ, 



Inspire a soothing melancholy joy : 



As fancy warms, a pleasing kind of pain 



Steals o'er the cheek, and thrills the creeping vein ! 



Each rural sight, each sound, each smell combine ; 

 The tinkling sheep-bell, or the breath of kine ; 

 The new-mown hay that scents the swelling breeze, 

 Or cottage-chimney smoking through the trees. 



The chilling night-dews fall : away, retire ; 

 For see, the glowworm lights her amorous flre ! 

 Thus, ere night's veil had half obscured the sky, 

 Th' impatient damsel hung her lamp on high : 

 True to the signal, by love's meteor led, 

 Leander hasten'd to his Hero's bed. 



SELBORNE, May 29, 1769. 



LETTER XXV. 



TO THE HONOURABLE VAINES BARRINOTON. 



WHEN I was in town last month I partly engaged that I would 

 some time do myself the honour to write to you on the subject 

 of natural history : and I am the more ready to fulfil my pro- 

 mise, because I see you are a gentleman of great candour, and 

 one that will make allowances ; especially where the writer 

 professes to be an out-door naturalist, one that takes his 

 observations from the subject itself, and not from the writings 

 of others. 



The following is a list of the summer birds of passage which 

 I have discovered in this neighbourhood, ranged somewhat in 

 the order in which they appear : 



