XXV.] 
79 
To see the feeding bat glance throngli the wood ; 
To catch the distant falling of the flood ; 
While o'er the cliff th' awaken'd chnrn-owl hung 
Through the still gloom protracts his chattering song ; 
While high in air, and pois'd upon his wings, 
Unseen, the soft enamour'd woodlark sings : 
These, Nature's works, the curious mind employ, 
Inspire a soothing melancholy joy : 
As fancy warms, a pleasing kind of pain 
Steals o'er the cheek, and thrills the creeping vein ! 
Each rural sight, each sound, each smell combine ; 
The tinkling sheep-bell, or the breath of kine ; 
The new-mown hay that scents the swelling breeze. 
Or cottage-chimney smoking through the trees. 
The chilling night-dews fall : — away, retire ; 
For see, the glowworm lights her amorous fire ! 
Thus, ere night's veil had half obscured the sky, 
Th' impatient damsel hung her lamp on liigh : 
True to the signal, by love's meteor led, 
Leander hasten'd to his Hero's bed. 
Selborne, May 29, 1769. 
LETTER XXV. 
TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARIUKQTON. 
AVhen I was ill town last month T partly engaged that I woulil 
some time do myself the honour to write to yon on the subject 
of natural history : and I am the more ready to fulfil my p)ro- 
mise, because I see you are a gentleman of great candour, and 
one that will make allowances ; especially where tlie writer 
professes to be an out-door naturalist, one that takes liis 
observations from the subject itself, and not from the writings 
of others. 
The following is a list of the summer birds of passage which 
I have discovered in this neighbourhood, ranged somewhat in 
the order in which they appear : — 
