132 THE NATUEAL HISTORY 



some how, and some where ; for the birds that return yearly bear 

 no manner of proportion to the birds that retire. 



House-martins are distinguished from their congeners by 

 having their legs covered with soft downy feathers down to their 

 toes. They are no songsters ; but twitter in a pretty inward soft 

 manner in their nests. During the time of breeding they are 

 often greatly molested with fleas. 



I am, &c. 



LETTER XVII. 



TO THE SAME. 



Ringmer, near Lewes, Dec. 9, 1773. 



DEAR 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 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. 



Though I have now travelled the Sussex-downs upwards of 

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

 tains with fresh admiration year by year ; and think I see new 

 beauties every time I traverse it. This range, which runs from 

 Chichester eastward as far as East-Bourn, is about sixty miles in 

 length, and is called The South Downs, properly speaking, only 

 round Lewes. As you pass along you command a noble view 

 of the wild, or weald, on one hand, and the broad downs and sea 

 on the other. Mr. Ray used to visit a family l just at the foot of 

 these hills, and was so ravished with the prospect from Plumpton- 



1 Mr. Courthope of Danny. 



