136 
NATURAL HISTORY 
LETTER I 
TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 
Selborne, June 30, 1769. 
HEN I was in town last montli 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 : 
1. Wryneck, 
2. Smallest wil- 
low wren, 
3. Swallow, 
4. Martin, 
5. Sand martin, 
6. Blackcap, 
7. Nightingale, 
8. Cuckoo, 
9. Middle willow 
wren, 
10. Whitethroat, 
11. Redstart, 
12. Stone curlew 
13. Tui'tle-dove 
KAII NOMINA. 
i Jynx sive torquil- 
\ la: 
j Regulus non cris- 
\ tatus : 
j Hirundo domesti- 
\ ca: 
Hirundo rustica : 
Hirundo riparia : 
Atricapilla : 
Lusciniai 
Cuculus : 
i Regulus non cris- ^ 
) tatu,s : i 
FicedulcB affinis : | 
Ruticilla : | 
CEdicnemus: 3 
Turtur. 
USUALLY APPEAES ABOUT 
The middle of March : harsb 
note. 
March 23: chirps till Sep- 
tember. 
April 13. 
Ditto. 
Ditto. 
Ditto : a sweet wild note. 
Beginning of April. 
Middle of AprH. 
Ditto : a sweet plaintive note. 
Ditto : mean note ; sings on 
till September. 
Middle of April : more agree- 
able song. 
End of March, loud nocturnal 
whistle. 
