ii6 The Natural ^History of Se I borne 



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 a presumptive proof of 

 their emigrations. 



Scopoli seems to me to have found the Hirundo me/ba, 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 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" Vide 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, oidicnemus, 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 seven- 

 teenth 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 young in colour; among which 

 they skulk and conceal themselves. 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 



1 This is the Cypselus melba, sent to Linnseus by John White from 

 Gibraltar. It is now known that swifts are not swallows, nor related to 

 the swallow, the resemblance between the two being merely external and 

 due to similarity of habit. ED. 



