Jackdaw 



LETTER XXL 



To the same. 



SELBORNE, Nov. 2%th, 1768. 



EAR SIR, With regard to the cedicnemus, 

 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 par- 

 ticular notice when they begin to congregate, 

 and afterwards to watch them most narrowly 

 whether they do not withdraw themselves during the dead of 

 the winter. When I have obtained information with respect 

 to this circumstance, I shall have finished my history of the 

 stone-curlew; which I hope will prove to your satisfaction, 

 as it will be, I trust, very near the truth. This gentleman, 

 as he occupies a large farm of his own, and is abroad early 

 and late, will be a very proper spy upon the motions of these 

 birds ; and besides, as I have prevailed on him to buy the 

 Naturalist's Journal (with which he is much delighted), I 

 shall expect that he will be very exact in his dates. It is 

 very extraordinary, as you observe, that a bird so common 

 with us should never straggle to you. 



