50 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



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 called, as they are by Mr. Ray, 

 " 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. 



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

 Linnaeus, perhaps, would call the species mus minimus. 



LETTER XVI 



Seleorne, April 18, 1768. 

 Dear Sir, 



The 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 countrymen, in stirring his fallows, 

 often destroys them. The young run immediately from 

 the egg like partridges, etc., and are withdrawn to some 

 flinty field by their 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 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 



