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LETTER XXVI. 





To the same. 



SELBORNE, December %th, 1769. 

 EAR SIR, I was much gratified by your 

 communicative letter on your return from 

 Scotland, where you spent some consider- 

 able time, and gave yourself good room to 

 examine the natural curiosities of that ex- 

 tensive kingdom, both those of the islands, 

 as well as those of the highlands. The 

 usual bane of such expeditions is hurry, because men seldom 

 allot themselves half the time they should do ; but, fixing on 

 a day for their return, post from place to place, rather as if 

 they were on a journey that required dispatch, than as 

 philosophers investigating the works of nature. You must 

 have made, no doubt, many discoveries, and laid up a good 

 fund of materials for a future edition of the " British 

 Zoology " ; and will have no reason to repent that you have 

 bestowed so much pains on a part of Great Britain that 

 perhaps was never so well examined before. 



It has always been matter of wonder to me that fieldfares, 



