112 NATURAL HISTORY 
to be a new species. It is true also of the melba, 
that “ nidificat in excelsis Alpium rupibus.”* Vid, 
Annum Primum. 
My Sussex friend, a man of observation and good 
sense, but no naturalist, to whom I applied on ac- 
count of the stone curlew, @dicnemus, sends me the 
following account: “In looking over my Natural- 
ist’s Journal for the month of April, I find the stone 
curlews are first mentioned on the 17th and 18th, 
which date seems to me rather late. ‘They live 
with us all the spring and summer, and at the begin- 
ning of autumn prepare to take leave, by getting to- 
gether in flocks. ‘They seem to me a bird of pas- 
sage, that may travel into some dry, hilly country 
south of us, probably Spain, because of the abun- 
dance of sheepwalks in that country; for they Spend 
their summers with us in such districts. This con- 
jecture I hazard, as I have never met with any one 
that has seen them in England in the winter. I 
believe they are not fond of going near the water, 
but feed on earth-worms, that are common on sheep- 
walks and downs. ‘They live on fallows and lay- 
fields abounding with gray mossy flints, which much 
resemble their young in colour, among which they 
skulk and conceal themselves. They make no nest, 
but lay their eggs on the bare ground, producing in 
common but two at atime. There is reason to 
think their young run soon after they are hatched, 
and that the old ones do not feed them, but only 
lead them about at the time of feeding, which for 
the most part is the night.” Thus far, my friend. 
In the manners of this bird, you see, there is 
something very analogous to the bustard, whom it 
* It builds its nest in the high rocks of the Alps. 
