NATURAL HISTORY OP SBLBORISIE. 
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, &c. 
LETTEE 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. JSTow 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 Mrundo melha, the great 
Gibraltar swift, in Tirol, without knowing it. For what is his Mrundo 
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 melha, that " nidificat in excelsis Alpium rupibus." Vid. 
Annum Primum.f 
* See his ** Elenchus Vegetabilium et Animalium per Austriam Inferiorem, &c." 
t "Annus I." p. 166. Quite right, it is the cypselus melba, Gmehn. The alpine 
or white-bellied swift of British authors, and communicated to Linnseus by 
J f )hn 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 
