

LETTER XVII. 



To the same. 



RINGMER, near LEWES, Dec, tyh, 1773. 

 EAR SIR, I received your last favour just 

 as I was setting out for this place ; and am 

 pleased to find that my monography met with 

 your approbation. My remarks are the re- 

 sult of many years' observation ; and are I 

 trust true in the whole, though I do not 

 pretend to say that they are perfectly void of 

 mistake, or that a more nice observer might not make many 

 additions, since subjects of this kind are inexhaustible. 



If you think my letter worthy the notice of your respect- 

 able society, you are at liberty to lay it before them ; and they 

 will consider it, I hope, as it was intended, as an humble 

 attempt to promote a more minute inquiry into natural his- 

 tory ; into the life and conversation of animals. Perhaps, here- 

 after, I may be induced to take the house-swallow under 

 consideration ; and from that proceed to the rest of the 

 British hirundines. 



Though I have now travelled the Sussex Downs upwards 

 of thirty years, yet I still investigate that chain of majestic 



