PREFACE. 



MANY years have now passed away since we were 

 presented with that very interesting and amusing 

 book, the " Natural History of Selborne : " nor 

 do I recollect any publication at all resembling it 

 having since appeared. It early impressed on my 

 mind an ardent love for all the ways and economy 

 of nature, and I was thereby led to the constant 

 observance of the rural objects around me. Ac- 

 cordingly, reflections have arisen, and notes been 

 made, such as the reader will find them. The two 

 works do not, I apprehend, interfere with each 

 other. The meditations of separate naturalists in 

 fields, in wilds, in woods, may yield a similarity 

 of ideas ; yet the different aspects under which 

 the same things are viewed, and characters con- 

 sidered, afford infinite variety of description and 

 narrative : mine, I confess, are but brief and slight 



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