OF SELBORNE. 77 



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 partridges, &c. and are withdrawn to some 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 se- 

 curity ; for their feathers are so exactly 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 almost any day ; and any 

 evening you may hear them round the 

 village, for they make a clamour which 

 may be heard a mile. Oedicnemus is a most 

 apt and expressive name for them, since 

 their legs seem swollen like those of a gouty 

 man. After harvest I have shot them be- 

 fore the pointers in turnip-fields. 



I make no doubt but there are three 

 species of the willow-wrens : two I know 

 perfectly ; but have not been able yet to 

 procure the third. No two birds can dif- 



