OF SELBORNE. 



55 



I wonder that the stone curlew (Charadrius oedicnemus 1 ), 

 should be mentioned by the writers as a rare bird ; it 

 abounds in all the campaign parts of Hampshire and 

 Sussex, and breeds, I think, all the summer, having young 

 ones, I know, very late in the autumn. Already they begin 

 clamouring in the evening. They cannot, I think, with any 

 propriety, be classed, as they are by Mr. Ray, among birds 

 " circa aquas versantes ;" for with us, by day at 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. 2 



I can show you some good specimens of my new mice. 

 Linnaeus perhaps would call the species Mus minimus. 



LETTER XVI. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 



SELBORNE, April 18, 1768. 



I HE history of the stone curlew (Charadrius 

 oedicnemus) 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 fal- 

 lows, 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 from the egg like partridges, &c. and are withdrawn to 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 skulk among the 

 stones,, which are their best security ; 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 



1 (Edicnemus crepitans, TEMM. 



2 The stomachs of several stone curlews which we have examined 

 at different times, were filled chiefly with the remains of beetles, but in 

 one we found the remains of a long-tailed field mouse. ED. 



