omparing one animal to the other by
memory; for want of caution in this particular Scopoli falls into errors;
he is not so full with regard to the manners of his indigenous birds as
might be wished, as you justly observe; his Latin is easy, elegant, and
expressive, and very superior to Kramer's.

I am pleased to see that my description of the moose corresponds so well
with yours.

I am, etc.

LETTER XXXIII.

SELBORNE, _Nov. 26th_, 1770.

Dear Sir,--I was much pleased to see, among the collection of birds from
Gibraltar, some of those short-winged English summer birds of passage,
concerning whose departure we have made so much inquiry. Now if these
birds are found in Andalusia to migrate to and from Barbary, it may
easily be supposed that 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 breeding 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 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 spr