40 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



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. 



LETTER XVI 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE 



Selborne, April 18, 1768. 



DEAR SIR, 



THE history of the stone curlew, charadrius oedicmmus^ 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 and are withdrawn to some flinty field by 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, just when I pleased, to procure you a bird, yet 

 I could show you them almost any day ; and any evening 

 you may hear them round the village, for they make a 

 clamour which may be heard a mile. Oedicnemus is a most 

 apt and expressive name for them, since their legs seem 

 swoln like those of a gouty man. After harvest I have 

 shot them before the pointers in turnip-fields. 



I make no doubt but there are three species of the 

 willow-wrens : two I know perfectly ; but have not been 



