STONE-CURLEW. 



LETTER XI- 

 TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 



SELBORNE, November 26, 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 rind 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 aforementioned bird in 

 other words ? Says he " Omnia prioris, (meaning the swift,) 

 ed pectus album; paulo major prior e" I do not suppose this 

 to be a new species. It is true also of the melba, that 

 " nidijicat in excelsis Alphun rupibus" Vid. Annum Primuni. 



My Sussex friend, a man of observation and good sense, 

 Dut no naturalist, to whom I applied on account of the stone- 

 curlew, (oedicnemus,) sends me the following account : " In 

 looking over my Naturalists 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 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 



