S8 NATURAL HI STORY 
and retiring in parties and broods towards the fouth at the 
decline of the year : fo that the rock of Gibraltar is the great 
rendezvous, and plac e of obfervation, from whence they take 
their departure each way towards Europe or Africa. It is tlierefore 
no mean difcovery, I think, to find that our fmall fhort-winged 
fummer birds of pafTage are to be feen fpring and autumn on the 
very fkirts of Europe ; it is a prefumptive proof of their emigrations. 
ScopoU feems to me to have found the hirundo melba, the great 
Gibraltar fwift, in 'Tirol, without knowing it. For what is his 
.hirundo dlpina but ttie afore-mentioned bird in other words? Says 
he " Omnia prioris" (meaning the fwift); fed peSlus album; 
" pa/'lo -major priore." I do not fuppofe this to be a new fpecies. 
It is true alfo of the melha, that " nidjjicat in exceljis Alpium rupibus" 
Fid. Annum Vrimuni. 
My Suffex friend, a man of obfervation and good fenfe, but no 
naturalifl, to whom I appUed on account of the Jlone-curleiVy 
oedicnemuSy fends me the following account: In looking over 
" my Naturallft's Journal for the month of April, I find xhejlom- 
*' curlews are firft mentioned on the feventeenth and eighteenthj 
which date feems to me rather late. They hve with us all the 
" fpring and fummer, and at the beginning of autumn prepare 
*' to take leave by getting together in flocks. They feem to me 
" a bird of paflage that may travel into fome dry hilly country 
" fouth of us, probably Spain, becaufe of the abundance of 
fheep-walks in that country ; for they fpend their fummers 
" with us in fuch diftrifts. This conjedure I hazard, as I have 
never met with, any one that has feen 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 flieep-vvalks and 
downs. They breed on fallows and lay-fields abounding with 
" grey 
