72 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



My Sussex friend, a man of observation and good sense, but no 

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

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

 ralist'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.* 



text ; at the same time, however, some of the species, the common swallow for 

 instance, has a very extensive range, and I believe is permanently resident no- 

 where. The more distant cannot be expected to reach northern Europe or 

 Great Britain, which in all probability are supplied from North or North-Eastern 

 Africa. 



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

 to, and in Letter II. to Barrington, p. 96. 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, expressing 

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

 particularly in some parts of Spain, upon the extensive grass marshes 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 worda : ' ' unwilling, however, 

 to offer my statement to the notice of the Linnsean 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 agreed with 



