LETTER XVII 1 



TO THE SAME 



RINGMER, near LawES, Dec. gth, 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. 



1 This letter is not among the MS. ones in the British Museum. [R. B. S.] 



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