1.50 NATURAL HISTORY 



for the sake of breeding during the Sum- 

 mer-montlis ; 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 depar- 

 ture each way towards Europe or Africa. 

 It is therefore no mean discovery, I think, 

 to find that our small short-winged sum- 

 mer-birds of passage are to be seen Spring 

 and Autumn on the very skirts of Europe ; 

 it is a presumptive proof of their emigra- 

 tions. 



Scopoli seems to me to have found the 

 hirundo melha, the great Gibraltar swift, in 

 Tirol, without knowing it. For what is 

 his hirundo alpina but the afore-mentioned 

 bird in other words ? Says he Omnia pri- 

 " om ^ (meaning the swift) ; " sed pectus al- 

 ** hu7n ; paulo major priorc.'^ I do not sup- 

 pose this to be a new species. It is true 

 also of the mclba, that ** nidijic.atin excelsis 

 ** Alpium rupibas." Vid. Annum Primum. 

 My Sussex friend, a man of observation 

 and good sense, but no naturalist, to whom 



