182 
“These phenomena awakened & alarmed my curiosity as 
events entirely new & unheard of among the body of Ornitholo- 
gists, & induced me to be particularly exact & attentive in my 
observations on every part of their conduct. Early in the autumn 
vast multitudes of these martins congregate in all parts of the 
town of Castillar, which is situate on the summit of a precipice 
most singularly lofty '& romantic, about 20 miles north of 
Gibraltar. Hence it may be inferred that they build & breed 
on the inland mountains of Andalusia, & Grenada. But on 
the approach of winter, when their summer habitations become 
bleak & inhospitable, (for all those mountains are then usually 
covered with snow) they retreat to these warm shores, & remain 
there ’till the snow is gone next spring. A few are always to be 
seen about our hill by the middle of Octob r -’ shifting round to all 
sides of the rock at times to avoid the wind. HovenT' 2, 1771, I 
saw several, with some young ones among them sitting in groupes, 
on the cliffs, where the old ones came & fed them.” 
Thus have I, for y r - amusement, according to promise, sent You 
an extract concerning this new, & unnoticed swallow , which 
my Brother, with great propriety, in his work has called Hirundo 
hy emails ; 2 & has given several particulars concerning it, & a 
description of it, too long for the compass of a letter. 
Permit me just to hint to You, that I wrote to you some time 
ago in answer to your last letter, which gave me much satisfaction. 
I forgot to mention in the extract, that these winter Swallows 
usually leave Gib. about the beginning of March, unless deep 
snows (as is sometimes the case, and was particularly so in 1770 
& 1772) fall in Spain about that time; & then they linger 
there till the latter end of the month. 
Surely my dear Sir, we live in a very eventful time, that must 
cut-out much work for Historians, & Biographers ! but whether 
all these strange commotions will turn out to the benefit or disad- 
vantage of old England, God only knows ! We have experienced 
a sad spring, summer, & autumn : & now the fallows are so 
s In his twenty-second Letter to Pennant, and in the eleventh letter of the 
present series, the species is named hyberna. The above name hyemalis 
possibly is a laps'/s memories. — J. E. II. 
