92 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



naturalist, to whom I applied on account of the stone-curlew, ccdi. 

 cnemus, sends me the following account: "In looking over my 

 Naturalist's Journal for the month of April, I find the stone-curlews 

 are first mentioned on the seventeenth and eighteenth, which date 

 seems to me rather late. They live with us all the spring and 

 summer, and at the beginning of autumn prepare to take leave by 

 getting together in flocks. They seem to me a bird of passage that 

 may travel into some dry hilly country south of us, probably Spain, 

 because of the abundance of sheep-walks in that country ; for they 

 spend their summers with us in such districts. This conjecture I 

 hazard, as I have never met with any one that has seen them in 

 England in the winter. I believe they are not fond of going near 

 the water, but feed on earth-worms, that are common on sheep- 

 walks and downs. They breed on fallows and lay-fields abounding 

 with grey mossy flints, which much resemble their young in colour ; 

 among which they skulk and conceal themselves. They make no 

 nest, but lay their eggs on the bare ground, producing in common 

 but two at a time. There is reason to think their young run soon 

 after they are hatched ; and that the old ones do not feed them, but 

 only lead them about at the time of feeding, which, for the most 

 part, is in the night." Thus far, my friend. 



In the manners of this bird you see there is something very 

 analogous to the bustard, whom it also somewhat resembles in 

 aspect and make, and in the structure of its feet.* 



* The bustard is only mentioned twice in White's Letters, above where referred to, and 

 in Letter II. to Barrington, p. 123. Mitford has the following note. "The bustard is 

 extinct in England : and as it is now so scarce in Scotland owing to population and 

 enclosures, it becomes interesting to remark that two birds of this kind (male and female) 

 have been kept in the garden-ground belonging to the Norwich Infirmary, and have been 

 but lately sold by the owner of them. The male bird was very beautiful and courageous, 

 apparently afraid of nothing, seizing any one that came near him by the coat, yet on the 

 appearance of any small hawk high in the air, he would squat close to the ground, ex- 

 pressing strong marks of fear. The female was very shy." In England they may be 

 said to be almost extirpated, or if a few do remain they will not long be preserved. Upon 

 the continent, however, as we learn by a very interesting paper read before the Linnaean 

 Society, by Mr. Yarrell, in January last, they are still abundant, particularly in some 

 parts of Spain, upon the extensive grass marches which stretch along the banks of the 

 Guadalquiver, and in the corn plains of Seville ; but the important part of this paper is a 

 correction of an anatomical error which has been handed down and copied, and the parts 

 figured even in the most recent ornithological works. Edwards in his "Gleanings'* 

 figures a gular pouch, supposed to be a bag for the purpose of holding water, when in 

 desert lands or removed from it. This was given upon the authority of Dr. Douglas, of 

 the College of Physicians in London. Mr. Yarrell, anxious to satisfy himself of the 

 presence of this pouch or bag, took the opportunity of a mature male bustard dying in 

 the Zoological Gardens, to examine this structure. He carefully did so, but could find 

 no enlargement of the membrane or any sac. Not satisfied with his own accuracy, he 

 examined the descriptions of animals dissected by the Royal Academy of Sciences at 

 Paris, where he was equally unsuccessful ; and he concludes his interesting paper in the 

 following words : " Unwilling, however, to offer my statement to the notice of the Linnscan 

 Society without consulting the best living authority in this country, namely, Professor 

 Owen, I mentioned the subject to him, and had the satisfaction to find that Mr. Owen 



