NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



LETTER XXXIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



SET.BORNE, Nov. 26t/t, 1770. 



DEAR 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 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 

 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 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 himndo melba, the great 

 Gibraltar swift, in Tirol, without knowing it. For what is his 

 himndo 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 anew species. It 

 is true also of the melba, that " nidificat in excelsis Alpium rupibus? 

 Vid. Annnm Primtim.* 



My Sussex friend, a man of observation and good sense, but no 



* "Annas I." p. 166. Quite right, it is the cypselns mclba, Gmelin. The alpine or 

 white-bellied swift of British authors, and communicated to Linnaeus by John White 

 during his residence at Gibraltar. There are a few instances recorded of its having been 

 killed in Great Britain and Ireland. 



The letters from his brother while at Gibraltar would be exceedingly interesting to 

 White while his attention was turned to migration, and there is little doubt that the great 

 bulk of our migratory species follow the line as suggested in the text ; at the same time, 

 however, some of the species, the common swallow for instance, has a very extensive 

 range, and I believe is permanently resident nowhere. The more distant cannot be ex- 

 pected to reach northern Europe or Great Britain, which in all probability are supplied from 

 North or North- Eastern Africa. 



