44. 
NATURAL HISTORY 
LETTER XVL 
TO THE SAME. 
DEAR SIR, Seleorne, April i 8, 1768, 
The hiftory of the ftone curlew, charadrius oedicnemus, is as follows- 
It lays it's eggs, ufually t\ro, never more than three, on the bare 
ground, without any neft, in the field ; fo that the countryman, in 
ftirring his fallows, often deftroys them. The young run im- 
mediately from the egg like partridges, &c. and are withdrawn to= 
fome flinty field by the dam, where they fculk among the ftones, 
which are their beft fecurity ; for their feathers are fo exadlly of 
the colour of our grey fpotted flints, that the moft exadl obferver, 
unlefs he catches the eye of the young bird, may be eluded. The 
eggs are fhort and round ; of a dirty white, fpotted with dark 
bloody blotches. Though I might not be able, juil: when I 
pleafed, to procure you a bird, yet I could fhew you them almoft 
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 moft apt and expreflive name for them, fince their legs feem 
fwoln like thofe of a gouty man. After harveft I have fliot them 
before the pointers in turnip-fields. 
I make no doubt but there are three fpecies of the wlllow-wrens t 
two I know perfeftly; but have not been able yet to procure the 
third. No two birds can differ more in their notes, and that con- 
ftantly, than thofe two tliat I am acquainted with ; for the one 
has a joyous, eafy, laughing notej the other a harfh loud chirp. 
The 
