OF SEJLBORM;. 239 



;i:i aukward metaphor, implies that the legs arc as slender 

 and pliant as if cut out of a thong of leather. Neither Wil- 

 lugkby nor Ray, in all their curious researches, either at home 

 or abroad, ever saw this bird. Mr. Pennant never met with 

 it in all Great-Britain, but observed it often in the cabinets 

 of the curious at Paris. Hasselquist says that it migrates 

 to Egypt in the autumn : and a most accurate observer of 

 Nature has assured me that he has found it on the banks of 

 the streams in Andalusia. 



Our writers record it to have been found only twice in 

 Great-Britain. From all these relations it plainly appears 

 that these long legged plovers are birds of South Europe, 

 and rarely visit our island ; and when they do are wanderers 

 and stragglers, and impelled to make so distant and northern 

 an excursion from motives or accidents for which we are not 

 able to account. One thing may fairly be deduced, that 

 these birds come over to us from the continent, since nobody 

 can suppose that a species not noticed once in an age, and of 

 such a remarkable make, can constantly breed unobserved in 

 this kingdom. 



LETTER L. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, April 21, 1780. 



DEAR SIR, 



THE old Sussex tortoise, that I have mentioned to you so 

 often, is become my property. I dug it out of it's winter 

 dormitory in March last, when it was enough awakened to 

 express it's resentments by hissing; and, packing it in a 

 box with earth, carried it eighty miles in post-chaises. The 

 rattle and hurry of the journey so perfectly roused it that, 

 when I turned it out on a border, it walked twice down to 

 the bottom of my garden; however, in the evening, the 

 weather being cold, it buried itself in the loose mould, and 

 continues still concealed. 



