OF SELBORNE. I5i 



I applied on account of the stone-curlew, 

 oedicnemus, 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 seven- 

 ** teenth and eighteenth, which date seems 

 ** to me rather late. They live with us all 

 ** the Spring and Summer, and at the begin- 

 *' ning 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, pro- 

 ** bably 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 m 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 



