144 NATURAL HISTORY 



tare we have made so much inquiry. Now, if these 

 birds are found in Andalusia 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 north- 

 ward, 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 obser- 

 vation, 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 pre- 

 sumptive proof of their emigrations. 



Scopoli seems to me to have found the Hirundo 

 Melba 1 , 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 rupibus" Vid. Annum 

 Primum. 



My Sussex friend, a man of observation and good 

 sense, but no naturalist, to \vhom I applied on account 

 of the stone curlew (CEdicnemusJ, sends me the follow- 

 ing account : " In looking over my Naturalist's Journal 

 for the month of April, I find the stone curlews are first 

 mentioned on the 17th and 18th, which date seems to 

 me rather late. They live with us all the spring and 

 summer, and at the beginning of autumn prepare to 



1 Cypselus Melba, ILL. (Cyps. alpinus, TEMM.) Stragglers of this spe- 

 cies, the large white-bellied swift, have lately occurred, in three several 

 instances, within the range of the British Fauna. E. T. B. 



