88 INTRODUCTION. 



ber, &c. &c. By a table in the first part of the xvth vo- 

 lume of the Transactions of the Linnean Society , prepared by 

 Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear, exhibiting the Times of 

 Migration of Summer Birds of Passage, at Harleston, 

 Norfolk, Offion in Suffolk, and Wrabness in Essex', the 

 Swift is rarely seen til! May ; the Turtle Dove not before the 

 12th of the same month : the Blackcap as early as the first 

 of April, sometimes as late as the 22d of the same month ; 

 the Swallow on the 7th or 8th of April, sometimes as late 

 as the 30th of the same month ; the Yellow-wren sometimes 

 as early as the 27th of March ; the Nightingale the 14th of 

 April, more commonly after the 20th of the same month; 

 the Cuckoo on the 10th of April, more commonly after the 

 20th of the same month. 



There is room for believing that some migratory birds 

 return, again and again, to the same spot which they have 

 visited in former years ; of the Swallow, indeed, this occur- 

 rence is said to have been particularly observed. 



The Natural History of Birds is extremely interesting; 

 it is impossible in this short introduction to do it justice. 

 If I shall by this work, altogether, excite a more general 

 attention towards this department of nature's works, I 

 shall be amply gratified for the labour and assiduity which 

 I have bestowed upon it. 



Nor is the study of the history of Domesticated Birds 

 to be neglected ; it being, when unaccompanied with 

 cruelty, a source of much gratification. Mason thus ele- 

 gantly describes several of the tribe which minister to 

 our pleasures or our wants : 



" The feather'd fleet 

 Led by two mantling Swans, at every creek 

 Now touch'd, and now unraoor'd : now on full sail 

 With pennons spread and oary feet they plied 



