report, especially in print, without expressing some 

 degree of doubt and suspicion. 



Your approbation, with regard to my new dis- 

 covery of the migration of the ring-ousel, gives me 

 satisfaction ; and I find you concur with me in sus- 

 pecting that they are foreign birds which visit us. 

 You will be sure, I hope, not to omit to make in- 

 quiry whether your ring-ousels leave your rocks in 

 the autumn. What puzzles me most is the very 

 short stay they make with us ; for in about three 

 weeks they are all gone. I shall be very curious to 

 remark whether they will call on us at their return 

 in the spring, as they did last year. 



I want to be better informed with regard to 

 icthyology. If fortune had settled me near the 

 sea-side, or near some great river, my natural pro- 

 pensity would soon have urged me to have made 

 myself acquainted with their productions : but as I 

 have lived mostly in inland parts, and in an upland 

 district, my knowledge of fishes extends little far- 

 ther than to those common sorts which our brooks 

 and lakes produce. 



Selborne, A^ov 28, 1768. 



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