LETTER XVI. 



To the same. 



SELBORNE, April iStt, 1768. 



EAR SIR, The history of the stone-curlew, 

 Charadrius cedicnemus^ is as follows. 1 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 the egg, like partridges, &c., and are withdrawn 

 to some flinty field by the dam, where they sculk 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 



1 These remarks are obviously called out by a question from Pennant respecting, 

 the stone-curlew mentioned in the last letter. ED. 



