STONE CURLEW. 61 



111 tlie middle of February, I discovered in my tall hedges, 

 a iittle bird that raised my curiosity ; it was of that yellow- 

 green colour that belongs to the salicaria kind, and, I think, 

 was soft-billed. It was no parus, and was too long and too 

 big for the golden-crowned WTen, appearing most like tho 

 largest "Vkillow-wren. It hung sometimes with its back 

 downwards, but never continuing one moment in the same 

 place. I shot at it, but it was so desultory that I missed 

 my aim. 



I wonder that the stone curlew, characlrius oedicnemus, 

 should be mentioned by the \^Titers as a rare bird ; it 

 abounds in all the champaign parts of Hampshire and 

 Sussex, and breeds, I think, all the summer, having young 

 ones, I know, very late in the antumn. Already they begin 

 clamouring in the evening. They cannot, I think, with any 

 propriety be called, as they are by Mr. Eay, " circa aquas 

 versantes ; " for with us (by day at least) they haunt only 

 the most dry, open, upland fields and sheepwalks, far re- 

 moved from water : what they may do in the night I cannot 

 say. Worms are their usual food, but they also eat toada 

 and frogs. 



I can show you some good specimens of my new mice. 

 Linnaeus, perhaps, would call the species mus minimus. 



LETTER XYI. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, April 18, 1768. 

 Deak Sie, — The history of the stone curlew, charadrius 

 oedicnemus, is as follows : It lays its eggs, usually two, never 

 more than three, on the bare ground, vrithout any nest, in 

 the field, so the countryman in stiring 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 like partridges, &c., and are withdrawn to some flinty field 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 grey spotted flints, that the most exact ol> 



