OF SELBORNE. 65 
I can show you some good specimens of my new 
mice. Linnzus, perhaps, would call the species 
mus minimus. 
LETTER XVI. 
Selborne, April 18, 1768. 
Dear Sir,—Tue history of the stone curlew, 
charadrius edicnemus, is as follows : It lays its eggs, 
usually two, never more than three, on the bare 
ground, without any nest, in the field, so that the 
countryman, in stirring his fallows, often destroys 
them. ‘The young run immediately from the egg 
like partridges, &c., and are withdrawn to some 
flinty field by the dam, where they skulk among 
the stones, which are their best security ; for their 
feathers are so exactly of the colour of our gray 
spotted flints, that the most exact observer, unless 
he catches the eye of the young bird, may be elu- 
ded. The eggs are short and round, of a dirty 
white, spotted with dark bloody blotches. Though 
I might not be able, just when I pleased, to procure 
you a bird, yet [ could show you them almost any 
day ; and any evening you may hear them round 
the village, for they make a clamour which may be 
heard a mile. Cdicnemus is a most apt and ex- 
pressive name for them, since their legs seem swol- 
len like those of a gouty man. After harvest I 
have shot them before the pointers in turnip-fields. 
but seem to descend in the night to streams and meadows, per- 
haps for water, which their upland haunts do not afford them.— 
WHITE, Observations on Birds. 
F 2 
