248 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



that these long-legged plovers are birds of South Europe, and 

 rarely visit our island ; and when they do, are wanderers 

 and stragglers, and impelled to make so distant and 

 northern an excursion from motives or accidents for which 

 we are not able to account. One thing may fairly be 

 deduced, that these birds come over to us from the Contin- 

 ent, since nobody can suppose that a species not noticed 

 once in an age, and of such a remarkable make, can 

 constantly breed unobserved in this kingdom. 



LETTER L. 



SELBORNE, April 21s, 1780. 



THE old Sussex tortoise, that I have mentioned to you so 

 often, is become my property. I dug it out of its winter 

 dormitory in March last, when it was enough awakened to 

 express its resentments by hissing ; and, packing it in a 

 box with earth, carried it eighty miles in post-chaises. The 

 rattle and hurry of the journey so perfectly roused it that, 

 when I turned it out on a border, it walked twice down to 

 the bottom of my garden; however, in the evening, the 

 weather being cold, it buried itself in the loose mould, and 

 continues still concealed. 



As it will be under my eye, I shall now hare an oppor- 

 tunity of enlarging my observations on its mode of life, 

 and propensities ; and perceive already that, towards the 

 time of coming forth, it opens a breathing place in the 

 ground near its head, requiring, I conclude, a freer respiration 

 as it becomes more alive. This creature not only goes 

 under the earth from the middle of November to the 



