136 NATURAL HISTORY 



LETTER I. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 



SELBORNE, June 30, 1769. 



$ HEN I was in town last month I partly en- 

 gaged that I would some time do myself the 

 honour to write to you on the subject of 

 natural history : and I am the more ready to 

 fulfil my promise, because I see you are a 

 gentleman of great candour, and one that will make allow- 

 ances ; especially where the writer professes to be an out- 

 door naturalist, one who takes his observations from the 

 subject itself, and not from the writings of others. 



The following is a list of summer birds of passage which 

 I have discovered in this neighbourhood, ranged somewhat 

 in the order in which they appear: 



