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 fund 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 hirundo melba, 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 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 melba, that 'nidificat in excelsis Alpium rupibus.' Vid.
Annum Primum.

My Sussex friend, a man of observation and good sense, but no
naturalist, to whom I applied on account of the stone curlew,
oedicnemus, sends me the following account: 'In looking over my
Naturalist'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-worms, that are common on sheep-walks