Another intelligent person assures me that they breed in great abundance all over the Peak of Derby, and are called there Tor-ousels; withdraw in October and November, and return in spring. This information seems to throw some light on my new migration.

Scopoli's new work' (which I have just procured) has its merit in ascertaining many of the birds of the Tyrol and Carniola. Monographers, come from whence they may, have, I think, fair pretence to challenge some regard and approbation from the lovers of natural history; for, as no man can alone investigate all the works of nature, these partial writers may, each in their department, be more accurate in their discoveries, and freer from errors, than more general writers; and so by degrees may pave the way to a universal correct natural history. Not that Scopoli is so circumstantial and attentive to the life and conversation of his birds as I could wish: he advances some false facts; as when he says of the Hirundo urbica that "pullos extra nidum non nutrit." This assertion I know to be wrong from repeated observation this summer; for house martins do feed their young flying, though it must be acknowledged not so commonly as the house swallow; and the feat is done in so quick a manner as not to be perceptible to indifferent observers. He also advances some (I was going to say) improbable facts; as when he says of the woodcock that "pullos rostro portat fugiens ab hoste." But candour forbids me to say absolutely that any fact is false, because I have never been witness to such a fact. I have only to remark that the long unwieldy bill of the woodcock is perhaps the worst adapted of any among the winged creation for such a feat of natural affection.2

1 "Annus Primus Historico-Naturalis."-G. W.

2 The fact that woodcocks carry their young has long been known to naturalists. Several instances are referred to by Yarrell in the third volume of his "History of British Birds." Others are recorded by Mr. Lloyd in his "Scandinavian Adventures" and "Game Birds and Wild Fowl of Sweden and Norway," in which latter work will be found a woodcut (p. 194) illustrating a case witnessed by a friend of the author. Mr. St. John, in his 'Natural History and Sport in Morav."

p. 211, has some interesting remarks on this subject from his own observation. He says: "That the old birds carried their young I had long since ascertained, having often seen them in the months of April and May in the act of doing so, as they flew, towards nightfall, from the woods down to the swamps in the low grounds. From close observation, however, I found out that the old woodcock carries her young even when larger than a snipe, not in her claws, which seem quite incapable of holding up any weight, but by clasping the little bird tightly between her thighs, and so holding it tight towards her own body. In the summer and spring evenings the woodcocks may be seen so employed passing to and fro, and uttering a gentle cry on their way from the woods to the marshes. They not only carry their young to feed, but also, if the brood is suddenly come upon in the daytime, the old bird lifts up one of her young, flies with it fifty or sixty yards, drops it quietly, and flies silently on. The little bird immediately runs a few yards, and then squats flat on the ground amongst the dead leaves, or whatever the ground is covered with. The parent soon returns to the rest of her brood, and if the danger still threatens her, she lifts up and carries away another young bird in the same manner. I saw this take place on the 18th of May." This is confirmed by a correspondent who, writing from Rostrevor, Co. Down, in August, 1871, says: "On the 2nd of this month I started a brace of woodcocks close to me. One of them had a young one pressed between its breast and feet; it lighted on the ground again after rising, apparently to get a better grasp of its young one, and then flew off with it. They were near the edge of a wood, in the afternoon and during sunshine.” Another correspondent, writing from Rohallion, Birnam, in "The Field" of 26th August, 1871, says: "This spring (1871) I have been witness repeatedly to the ability of the woodcock to carry its young and fly off with them pressed to its body by its legs. This was in May and June." Some additional evidence will be found in Mr. Stevenson's "Birds of Norfolk," vol. ii. p. 292.

This curious habit has been noticed also in the North American woodcock, as testified by Audubon and others, while more recently the same thing has been observed in England of the common snipe. A well-known sportsman, who has adopted the pseudonym of "Idstone," writing in "The Field" of 30th May, 1874, says that, on the 22nd of the same month, when crossing a marsh on his way to a trout stream, a snipe rose almost at his feet, "and there was attached to it, mostly on its left or near side, a young snipe which it carried, or which clung to it, for about twenty-five yards." He could distinctly see the markings on the young one, and is therefore positive that he was not mistaken. The locality was close to Lawrence's Mill, Morden, Dorsetshire.

In the same number of "The Field," Mr. John Titterton, of Ely, Cambs., says that a similar thing was observed near Ely also in May of the same year.-ED.

LETTER XXXII.

TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE.

SELBORNE, Oct. 29, 1770.

His

FTER an ineffectual search in Linnæus, Brisson, &c., I begin to suspect that I discern my brother's Hirundo hyberna in Scopoli's new discovered Hirundo rupestris, p. 167. description of " Supra murina, subtus albida; rectrices maculâ ovali albâ in latere interno; pedes nudi, nigri; rostrum nigrum; remiges obscuriores quam plumæ dorsales; rectrices remigibus concolores; cauda emarginata nec forcipata;" agrees very well with the bird in question; but when he comes to advance that it is "statura Hirundinis urbicæ," and that "definitio Hirundinis ripariæ Linnæi huic quoque convenit," he in some measure invalidates all he has said; at least he shows at once that he compares them to these species merely from memory: for I have compared the birds themselves, and find they differ widely in every circumstance of shape, size and colour. However, as you will have a specimen, I shall be glad to hear what your judgment is in the matter.1

Whether my brother is forestalled in his nondescript or not, he will have the credit of first discovering that they spend their winters under the warm and sheltery shores of Gibraltar and Barbary.2

'It seems highly probable that Gilbert White's suspicion of the identity of his brother's Gibraltar swallow with the Hirundo rupestris was correct; indeed, if the Gibraltar bird exhibited a white spot on the inner web of each of the tail feathers (except the two intermediate ones), it could have been no other than the bird first characterized by Scopoli, in his "Annus Primus," under the name quoted. According to M. Temminck the rock swallow is abundant along the shores of the Mediterranean.-ED.

2 "This remark," says Mr. Bennett, "is not to be understood as miting the residence of the rock swallow at Gibraltar to the winter

Scopoli's characters of his ordines and genera are clear, just, and expressive, and much in the spirit of Linnæus. These few remarks are the result of my first perusal of Scopoli's "Annus Primus."

The bane of our science is the comparing 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.1

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

LETTER XXXIII.

TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE.

SELBORNE, NOV 26, 1770.

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 softbilled 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

only; but merely as indicating that it does not quit the neighbourhood of that place, like the other swallows, during the colder months. It is, in fact, stationary throughout the year." M. Risso states it to be stationary also in the more northern locality of Nice; where all the other swallows are, as in England, birds of passage.-ED.

1 See his "Elenchus vegetabilium et animalium per Austriam inferiorem," &c.-G. W.

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 Hirundo melbu,' the great Gibraltar swift, in Tyrol, 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 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 (Edicnemus), 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 17th and 18th, 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

1 Cypselus melba, ILL. (Cyps. alpinus, TEMM.) Stragglers of this species, the large white-bellied swift, have occurred, in several instances, in the British islands. A score of such instances will be found enumerated in the "Handbook of British Birds," pp. 125, 126.—Ed.

2 One of the most interesting facts in connection with Cornish ornithology is that the stone curlew, which is usually met with in other parts of England as a summer visitant, is never seen in the Lizard and Land's End districts except in winter, and in the opinion of Mr. Rodd (“List Brit. Birds," 2nd ed. 1869, p. 5) the only way to account for this devia