LETTER XXXIII. 



To the same. 



SELBORNE, Nov. i(*th, 1770. 



1EAR SIR, I was much pleased to see, among the 

 collection of birds from Gibraltar, some of those 

 short-winged English summer birds of passage, 

 concerning whose departure we have made so much 

 inquiry. Now if these birds are found in Anda- 

 lusia 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 



