104 NATURAL HISTORY 



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 mclba, 1 

 the great Gibraltar swift, in Tyrol, without knowing it. 

 For what is his Hirundo alpina but the afore-mentioned 

 bird in other words ? 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 

 melba, that " nidificat in excelsis Alpium rupibus," Vid. 

 Annum Primiun. 



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

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

 curlew (CEdicnemus) , sends me the following account: a ln 

 looking over my Naturalist's 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 con- 

 jecture I hazard, as I have never met with any one that has 

 seen them in England in the winter. 2 I believe they are 



1 Cypselus mclba, ILL. (Cyps. alpinus, TEMM.) Stragglers of thii 

 species, the large white-bellied swift, have occurred, in several instances, 

 in the British islands. A score of such instances will be found enume- 

 rated in the "Handbook of British Birds, 1 ' pp. 125, 126. ED. 



2 One of the most interesting facts in connection with Cornish ornith- 

 ology is that the stone curlew, which is usually met with in other parts 

 of England as a summer visitant, is never seen in the Lizard and Land's 

 End districts except in winter, and in the opinion of Mr. Rodd (" List 

 Brit. Birds," 2nd ed. 1860, p. 5) the only way to account for this dcvia- 



