LETTER XVII. 



To the same. 



RINGMER, near LEWES, Dec. 9(6, 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 appro- 

 bation. My remarks are the result 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 respectable 

 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 history ; into the life 

 and conversation of animals. Perhaps, hereafter, I may be induced 

 to take the house-swallow under consideration ; and from that 

 proceed to the rest of the British hirundines. 



