OF SELBORNE 77 



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 toward 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 a 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 prioris" (meaning 

 the swift;) " sed pectus album; paulo major prior e" 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, oedicnemus, 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 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 



