SWALLOW. 235 



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 and Africa. 11 It is 

 very much to be regretted that the " Natural History of 

 Gibraltar," written by the Rev. John White, who lived 

 there for some years, and whose M.S. is referred to by 

 Gilbert White, in his fifty-third letter to Daines Barring- 

 ton, was never published. 



To show the course pursued to the northward by some 

 of those birds from western Africa, after crossing the 

 Mediterranean opposite Gibraltar, where the passage is 

 only from four to five miles wide, I may quote Mr. 

 Hewitson, who says, that on his voyage of return from 

 Madeira at the beginning of April 1842, whilst keeping 

 near the coast of Spain, the deck of the steamer was a 

 perfect levee daily, and a scene of the liveliest interest. 

 Whilst the Chimney-swallow and the Sand-martin con- 

 tinued to fly round and round us, Wheatears, Whinchats, 

 various species of warblers, Redstarts, Red-backed Shrikes, 

 &c., were constantly passing, each appearing to me as if 

 it had put on its gayest apparel for the occasion. 



Bewick, in the introduction to his History of British 

 Birds, says that an intelligent master of a vessel told him, 

 that whilst he was sailing early in the spring between the 

 islands of Minorca and Majorca, he saw great numbers of 

 Swallows flying northwards, many of which from fatigue 

 alighted on the rigging of the ship in the evening, but 





