r* NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



I wonder that the stone-curlew, Charadrins Kdicnemus, should 

 be mentioned by the writers 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 

 autumn. Already they begin clamouring in the evening. They 

 cannot, I think, with any propriety, be called, as they are by 

 Mr. Ray, "circa aquas -versantes ;" for with us, by day at least, 

 they haunt only the most dry, open, upland fields and sheep-walks, 

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

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

 frogs. 



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

 perhaps would call the species Mus minimus. 



NOTE TO LETTER XV. 



1 The cane is simply a local name for the weasel. It is called mouse-hunter 

 in Norfolk. A peculiarity of the weasel is its curiosity. If you startle it and 

 it runs into a hole, wait a few moments, and it will probably come out again to 

 look at you in a very impertinent kind of way. 



LETTER XVI. 



SELBORNE, April i8//, 1768. 



DFAR SIR, The history of the stone-curlew, Charadrius &dic- 

 nemus, 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, etc., 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 are withdrawn to some flinty field by the dam, where they skulk 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 observer, unless he catches the eye of the young bird, 

 may be eluded. The eggs are short and round ; of a dirty white, 

 spotted with dark bloody blotches. Though I might not be able, 



