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account of the unknown animal in this celebrated work, what 

 further inftruclion do we really procure, but that Linnaeus hath 

 either feen or heard of it? Surely this amounts to very little, 

 whilfr. the habits of the animal, the ufes for which its limbs 

 are peculiarly adapted, with other fuch circumftances, deferve 

 only the name of natural hiftory, or can be really interesting. 



The celebrated Mr. Gray therefore thus fpeaks of the Lin- 

 naean fyftem , " not much to my edification ; for though he is 

 " pretty well acquainted with their perfons, he is not fo with 

 " their manners e ." 



What Mr. Gray thus requires from the naturalifl, is only to 

 be attained by attending to the animals of our own country, or 

 rather diftridt. And to give an idea of what I conceive at leaffc to 

 be the proper articles of obfervation, I will beg leave to refer to 

 four letters of the Rev. Mr. White on the four fpecies of Britifh 

 fwallows f . But perhaps the admirers of Linnaeus may fuggefr, 

 that fuch an account of the animals of Sweden is to be found 

 in his Fauna Suecica, and it is true that the defcriptions in this 

 his later work are rather more full, but they by no means anfwer 

 what one mould exped"fc from a zoologift of fo diftinguimed pre- 

 eminence, and fmell of the lamp, rather than the country ex- 

 cursion. 



The great ufe in publications like thofe of Linnaeus, is to find 

 out the animal or plant which one happens to fee to the right or 

 left, for how few mufeums can be reforted to in molt parts, even 

 of this fcientific country ? I will fuppofe therefore, that the 

 common brown linnet is what 1 have feen either on the wing, or 

 lies dead before me. 



e Gray's Letters, who had employed the latter part of his life chiefly 

 in the ftudy of natural hiftory. 

 f Phil. Tranf. 



The 



