OF SELBORNE. 61 



it feeds on ivy-berries, which ripen only at that season, in 

 March and April. 



I must not omit to tell you (as you have been so lately on 

 the study of reptiles) that my people, every now and then of 

 late, draw up with a bucket of water from my well, which is 

 63 feet deep, a large black warty lizard with a fin-tail and 

 yellow belly. How they first came down at that depth, and 

 how they were ever to have got out thence without help, is 

 more than I am able to say. 



My thanks are due to you for your trouble and care in the 

 examination of a buck's head. As far as your discoveries 

 reach at present, they seem much to corroborate my suspicions; 



and I hope Mr. may find reason to give his decision in 



mv favour ; and then, I think, we may advance this extraor- 

 dinary provision of nature as a new instance of the wisdom of 

 God in the creation. 



As yet I have not quite done with my history of the oedic- 

 nemus, or stone-curlew ; for I shall desire a gentleman in 

 Sussex (near whose house these birds congregate in vast 

 flocks in the autumn) to observe nicely when they leave him, 

 (if they do leave him) and when they return again in the spring: 

 I was with this gentleman lately, and saw several single birds. 



LETTER XXI. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, Nov. 28, 1768. 



DEAR SIR, 



WITH regard to the oedicnemus, or stone-curlew, I intend to 

 write very soon to my friend near Chichester*, in whose 

 neighbourhood these birds seem most to abound ; and shall 

 urge him to take particular notice when they begin to con- 



* [The gentleman here referred to was John Woods, Esq., of Chil- 

 grove (about six miles from Chichester, lying under the chalk down called 

 Bow Hill). The stone-curlew, I am informed, is still occasionally met 

 with 5 but its numbers are now but few. T. B.] 



