NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 75 



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 de- 

 parture 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 the Tyrol, without knowing it. For 

 what is his hirundo alpina but the afore-mentioned bird in 

 other words ? Says he " Omnia prioris " (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 Alpium rupibus" Vid. Annum Primum. 



My Sussex friend, a man of observation and good sense, 

 but no naturalist, to whom I applied on account of the stone- 

 curlew, cedicnemus, sends me the following account : " In look- 

 ing 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 earthworms, that are common on 

 sheep-walks and downs. They breed on fallows and lay-fields 

 abounding with gray mossy flints, which much resemble their 

 young in color ; among which they skulk and conceal them- 

 selves. They make no nest, but lay their eggs on the bare 

 ground, producing in common but two at a time. There is 

 reason to think their young run soon after they are hatched ; 

 and that the old ones do not feed them, but only lead them 



