NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 99 



much inquiry. Now if these birds are found in Andalusia to 

 migrate to and from Barbary, it may easily be supposed that those 

 that come to us may migrate back to the continent, and spend 

 their winters in some of the warmer parts of Europe. This is 

 certain, that many soft-billed birds that come to Gibraltar appear 

 there only in spring and autumn, seeming to advance in pairs 

 towards the northward, for the sake of breeding during the summer 

 months ; and retiring in parties and broods towards the south at 

 the decline of the year ; so that the rock of Gibraltar is the great 

 rendezvous, and place of observation, from whence they take 

 their departure each way towards Europe or Africa. It is therefore 

 no mean discovery, I think, to find that our small short-winged 

 summer birds of passage are to be seen spring and autumn on the 

 very skirts of Europe ; it is presumptive proof of their emigrations. 



Scopoli seems to me to have found the hirundo melba, the great 

 Gibraltar swift, in Tirol, without knowing it. For what is his 

 hirundo alpina but the afore-mentioned bird in other words ? Says 

 he " Omnia prior is" (meaning the swift); " sed pectus album; paulo 

 major priore" I do not suppose this to be a new species. It is 

 true also of the melba, that " nidificat in excelsis A/plum rtipibus" 

 Vid. Annum Pnrnum. 



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

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

 csdicnemus, sends me the following account : " In looking over my 

 Naturalist'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 



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