150 NATURAL HISTORY 



for the sake of breeding during the Sum- 

 mer-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 obser- 

 vation, from whence they take their depar- 

 ture each way towards Europe ov 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 rnelba, 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- 

 " oris' (meaning the swift) ; sed pectus al- 



bum ; paulo major prior e'^ I do not sup- 

 pose this to be a new species. It is true 

 also of the melba, that ** nidijicatin excehis 



Alpium rupibusy Vid. Annum Primum, 



My Sussex friend, a man of observation 

 and good sense, but no naturalist, to whom 



