52 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



flocks in the autumn) to observe nicely when they leave 

 him, (if they do leave him) and when they return again in 

 the spring : I was with this gentleman lately, and saw 

 several single birds. 



LETTER XXI 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE 



Selborne, Nov. 28, 1768. 



Dear Sir, 

 With regard to the oedicnemus, or stone-curlew, I intend 

 to write very soon to my friend near Chichester, in whose 

 neighbourhood these birds seem most to abound ; and shall 

 urge him to take particular notice when they begin to con- 

 gregate, and afterwards to watch them most narrowly 

 whether they do not withdraw themselves during the dead 

 of the winter. When I have obtained information with 

 respect to this circumstance, I shall have finished my 

 history of the stone-curlew ; which I hope will prove to 

 your satisfaction, as it will be, I trust, very near the truth. 

 This gentleman, as he occupies a large farm of his own, 

 and is abroad early and late, will be a very proper spy 

 upon the motions of these birds : and besides, as I have 

 prevailed on him to buy the Naturalist's Journal (with 

 which he is much delighted), I shall expect that he will be 

 very exact in his dates. It is very extraordinary, as you 

 observe, that a bird so common with us should never 

 straggle to you. 



And here will be the properest place to mention, while 

 I think of it, an anecdote which the above-mentioned 

 gentleman told me when I was last at his house ; which 

 was that, in a warren joining to his outlet, many daws 

 {^corvi monedulae) buUd every year in the rabbit-burrows 

 under ground. The way he and his brothers used to take 

 their nests, while they were boys, was by listening at the 



