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. Linnseus, perhaps, would call the species Mus 

 minimus. 



LETTER XVI. 

 To Thomas Pennant, Esq. 



The history of the stone-curlew, Charadrius oedic- 

 nemiis, 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 ^^^ like partridges, &c., 

 and are withdrawn to some flinty field by the dam, 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 exactl}^ 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 al- 

 most any day ; and any evening you may hear them 



round the village, for they make a clamour which 



6i 



