-2d.
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 therefore
no mean difcovery,- I think, to find, that our fmall fhort-winged
fummer birds of paflage are to be feen fpring and autumn on the
very ikirts of Europe; it is a prefumptive proof of their emigrations.
Scopoli feems to me to have found the hirundo .melba, the great
Gibraltar fwift, in 'Tirol, without knowing it. For what is his
hirundo alpina but the afore-mentioned bird in other words ? Says
he “ Omnia prions” (meaning the fwift); “ fed peBus album i
^ j f t ^ “ paub major priore.” I do not fuppofe this to be anew fpecies.
_ • . 2-2— It is true alfo of the melba, that “ nidificat in excelfs Alpium rupibus.”
- — — " g f. Fid. Annum Primum.
My SuffexP friend, a man of obfervation and good fenfe, butjno
naturalift, to whom I applied on account of the ftone-curlew,
oedicnemus, fends me the following account: “ In looking over
“ my Naturalift’s Journal for the month of April, I find the fone-
“ curlews 'are firft mentioned on the feventeenth and eighteenth,
“ which date feems to me rather late. They live with us all the
‘ c 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
“ Iheep-walks in that country ; for they fpend their fummers
“ with us in fuch dill rifts. This conjefture I hazard, as I have
“ never met with any one that has feen them in England in the
fj winter. I believe they are not fond of going near the water,
“ but feed on earth-worms, that are common on Iheep-walks and
" downs. . They breed.on fallows and lay-fields abounding with
“ grey
grey molly flints, which much refemble their young in colour ;
among which they lkulk and conceal themfelves. They
‘ make no neft, but lay their eggs on the bare ground,
H Producing in common but two at a time. There is reafon to
“ think their young run foon after they are hatched; and that
“ the old ones do not feed them, but only lead them about at
the time of feeding, which, for the moll part, is in the night.”
Thus far my friend.
In the manners of this bird you fee there is fomething very
analogous to the buftard, whom it alfo fomewhat refembles in
afpedt and make, and in the ftrudture of it’s feet.
For a long time I have defired my relation to look out for
thele birds in Andalufa; and now he writes me word that, for the
firft time, he faw one dead in the market on the third of September.
When the oedicnemus files itftretches out it’s legs ftraight behind,
like an heron. j am &c.
L E T T E R XXXIV.
TO THE S AM E .
D E A R S I R . 0S
elborne, March 30, x77x.
T here is an infed with us, efpecially on chalky diftrids, which
is very troublefome and teafing all the latter end of the fummer
getting into people’s ikins, efpecially thofe ofwomen and children!
N and