NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 71 



Whether my brother is forestalled in his non-descript or not, he will 

 have the credit of first discovering that they spend their winters under 

 the warm and sheltery shores of Gibraltar and Barbary. 



Scopoli's characters of his ordines and genera are clear, just, and 

 expressive, and much in the spirit of Linnaeus. These few remarks 

 are the result of my first perusal of Scopoli's " Annus Primus." 



The bane of our science is the comparing one animal to the other by 

 memory : for want of caution in this particular Scopoli falls into errors : 

 he is not so full with regard to the manners of his indigenous birds as 

 might be wished, as you justly observe : his Latin is easy, elegant, and 

 expressive, and very superior to Kramer's.* 



I am pleased to see that my description of the moose corresponds so 

 well with yours. I am, &e. 



LETTER XXXIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, Nov. 26th, 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 hirundo melba, the great 

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

 alpina but the afore-mentioned bird in other words 1 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.i- 



* See his " Elenchus Vegetabilium et Animalium per Austriam Inferiorem, &c." 



f "Annus I." p. 166. Quite right, it is the cypselus melba, 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 



