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Ti. An -Acmmt of an Englifli Bird of the Genus Motacilla, 



fuppofd to be hitherto tmnotked by Britifh OrnlthrAogijls ; 



ohfervsd by the Rev. John Lighttbot, M. A. F. R. S. In. a. 



Letter to Sir Joieph Banks, Bart. P. R. S. -^ ^ 



Rejid November 1 8, i}-84. 



S I R, Uxbridge, Nov. 20, 1783. 



AS every difcovery In natural hiftory is efleemed worthy the 

 notice of that Society which was inftituted on purpofe to 

 iniprove natural knowledge, I have taken the liberty to fend 

 you a defcription and drawing of a bird which haunts the 

 reeds of the river Coin, in the neighbourhood of Uxbridge, 

 and which feems to have hitherto efcaped the notice of writers 

 on Britifli Ornitiiology ; and therefore fome account and de- 

 fcription of it will not, I trud, be unacceptable to the Society 

 over which you fo laudably prefide. 



The neft and eggs of the bird I am about to defcribe firft 

 attra£ted my attention, and led to the difcovery of the bird 

 itfelf. They were repeatedly brought by a fifherman on the 

 Uxbridge river, in the parifh of Denham, to her grace the 

 Duchefs DowMger of Portland, who firfl communicated them 

 to me. They were fuppofed by the fiflierman to belong to the 

 Sedge-bird of Pennant, or Motacilla Salicaria of LiNNiEUS ; but 

 being well acquainted with the neft and eggs of this, I was very 

 fure he was miftaken, though he adually produced this bird as 

 the true proprietor of the fubje£ls in queftion. The flru£ture 

 and pofition of the nefl: having a lingular appearance, and both 



that 



