94 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



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 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 ru- 

 pibus" 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-culew, 

 adicnemus, 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 gray 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 soon 

 after they are hatched ; and that the old ones do not feed them, 

 but only lead them about at the time of feeding, which, for the 

 most part, is in the night." Thus far my friend. 



In the manners of this bird you see there is something very 



* This large species of swift (ci/jwliw acinus) is now admitted into the fauna of this country, 

 as an occasional straggler, two or three of them having been shot in different parts. 1 have my- 

 self seen them in Surrey, gliding in company with the common kind, but so high in the air that 

 1 could never succeed in obtaining a specimen. They are easily distinguishable at any height, 

 from their much larger size, pale colour, and conspicuous white line adown the bellv. En. 



