LETTER XXXIII 1 



TO THE SAME 



SELBORNE, Nov. z6th, 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? 



1 This seems to have been a letter introduced by Gilbert White into his 

 book, as there is no letter of this date in the MS. correspondence in the 

 British Museum. [R. B. S.] 



2 The course of migration of many species from Western Europe to Africa 

 and the return journey in spring takes place by the Gibraltar route (cf. Irby 

 Ornithology of Gibraltar), though Gilbert White had no idea that the migrations of 

 some of our small Warblers were continued far beyond the Mediterranean basin, 

 even to Senegambia, the Gold Coast, and Nigeria. Some of them doubtless cross 

 the Sahara, which they reach by some of the migration routes of Western 

 Europe : through the Pyrenees and across Spain and Portugal to Gibraltar, and 

 thence by way of Morocco to West Africa, either directly south or by following 

 the coast-line ; or along the Rhine Valley through Switzerland, reaching Algeria 

 by way of Corsica and Sardinia ; or by way of Italy, Sicily, and Malta to the 



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