PREFACE. 



THE following letters were originally addressed 

 to a friend, residing beyond the Tweed, and owe 

 their appearance in a collected form to a subse- 

 quent suggestion that they might become a 

 popular contribution to the Fauna of Sussex, 

 possessing some attractions for the sportsman as 

 well as the ornithologist. 



The author cannot, however, conceal from him- 

 self, that having on the present occasion limited 

 the sphere of his observations to a single county, 

 it would be vain and presumptuous of him to 

 expect that they should prove as interesting to 

 the general reader as to those who, from local 

 circumstances, might be supposed to feel some- 

 what of an enduring interest in such records, or 

 as to an old and intimate friend, in whom " auld 



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