110 NATURAL HISTORY 



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

 (Edicnemus, or stone-curlew ; for I shall desire a gentle- 

 man in Sussex (near whose house these birds congre- 

 gate 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 gentle- 

 man lately, and saw several single birds 5 . 



LETTER XXI. 



TO THE SAME. 

 DEAR SIR, SELBORNE, Nov. 28, 1768. 



WITH regard to the (Edicnemus , 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 congregate, and afterward 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 circum- 

 stance, 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 gentle- 

 man, 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 1 . It is very extraordinary, 



4 [See Letter XXXIII.] 



1 The Naturalist's Journal. Printed for W. Sandby, Fleet Street, Lon- 

 don; 1767. Price one shilling and sixpence. Such is the title of the 

 work commended in the text ; and recommended publicly and strongly by 

 Pennant, nearly at the same time, to general use. The reader of the 

 Natural History of Selborne owes much to it. The habit of recording 

 daily not only fixes correctly the time of each occurrence, but creates the 

 desire to have somewhat to record : there is consequently a stimulus to 





