OF SELBORNE 91 



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 ? Says he, " Omnia prions " (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. 



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

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

 stone curlew, oedicnemus, sends me the following account : 

 " In looking over my Naturalist's Journal for the month 

 of April, I find the stone curlews are first mentioned on 

 the seventeenth and eighteenth, 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 hazard, as I 

 have never met with any one that has seen them in 

 England in the winter. I believe they are not fond of 

 going near the water, but feed on earth-worms, that are 

 common on sheep-walks and downs. They breed on 

 fallows and lay -fields abounding with grey mossy flints, 

 which much resemble their young in colour ; among 

 which they skulk and conceal themselves. They make 

 no nest, but lay their eggs on the bare ground, producing 

 in common but two at a time. There is reason to 

 think their young run soon after they are hatched ; and 

 that the old ones do not feed them, but only lead them 

 about at the time of feeding, which, for the most part, is 

 in the night." Thus far my friend. 



In the manners of this bird you see there is something 



