76 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
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 breed- 
ing 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 great Gibraltar swift, 
in Tirol, without knowing it. For what is his Hirundo alpina 
but the afore-mentioned bird in other words? Says he, mean- 
ing the swift: “It has all the qualities of the former except 
that its breast is white, and it is a little larger in size.” I do 
not suppose this to be a new species. It is true also of the 
melba, that “it builds among the lofty Alpine rocks.” 
My Sussex friend, a man of observation and good sense, but 
no naturalist, to whom I applied on account of the stone-curlew, 
sends me the following account : “ In looking over my WVatural 
ist’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- 
