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DEAR SIR,

LETTER XXXII.

TO THE SAME.

66

SELBORNE, Oct. 29, 1770. AFTER 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. His 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 matter1.

Whether my brother is forestalled in his nondescript or not, he will have the credit of first discovering that

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 barb 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; common in Savoy and in Piedmont; less numerous in Switzerland; rare in Germany; and a bird of passage in some of the southern departments of France. He states that individuals from Africa and from South America [!] scarcely differ from each other.-E. T. B.

they spend their winters under the warm and sheltery shores of Gibraltar and Barbary2.

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 3.

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

I am, &c.

LETTER XXXIII.

TO THE SAME.

DEAR SIR,

SELBORNE, Nov. 26, 1770. 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 depar

2 This remark is not to be understood as limiting the residence of the rock swallow at Gibraltar to the winter 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. They arrive, he remarks, about the fifth of March, and depart about the tenth of October: a general observation which, as it is applied equally to all the species that in England differ so considerably in the length of their summer residence, would seem to indicate that M. Risso is less given to make precise entries in the Naturalist's Journal than was Gilbert White.-E. T. B.

3 See his Elenchus vegetabilium et animalium per Austriam inferiorem, &c.

ture 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 shortwinged 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 Melba1, 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 the Melba, that nidificat in excelsis Alpium rupibus." Vid. Annum Primum.

66

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

1 Cypselus Melba, ILL. (Cyps. alpinus, TEMM.) Stragglers of this species, the large white-bellied swift, have lately occurred, in three several instances, within the range of the British Fauna.-E. T. B.

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 and downs. They breed on fallows and lay-fields abounding with gray mossy flints, which much resemble their young in colour; among which they skulk and conceal themselves. They make no nest, but lay their eggs on the bare ground, producing in common but two at a time. There is reason to think their young run soon 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 most part, is in the night." Thus far my friend.

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In the manners of this bird you see there is some

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thing very analogous to the bustard, whom it also somewhat resembles in aspect and make, and in the structure of its feet.

For a long time I have desired my relation to look out for these birds in Andalusia; and now he writes me word that, for the first time, he saw one dead in the market on the 3rd of September.

When the Edicnemus flies it stretches out its legs straight behind, like a heron.

I am, &c.

DEAR SIR,

LETTER XXXIV.

TO THE SAME.

SELBORNE, March 30, 1771. THERE is an insect with us, especially on chalky districts, which is very troublesome and teasing all the latter end of the summer, getting into people's skins, especially those of women and children, and raising tumours which itch intolerably. This animal (which we call a harvest bug) is very minute, scarce discernible to the naked eye, of a bright scarlet colour, and of the genus of Acarus. They are to be met with in gardens on kidney beans, or any legumens; but prevail only in the hot months of summer. Warreners, as some have assured me, are much infested by them on chalky downs; where these insects swarm sometimes to so infinite a degree as to discolour their nets, and to give them a reddish cast, while the men are so bitten as to be thrown into fevers1.

The harvest bug, as it is termed, is a very minute mite: it has been figured by Shaw in his Naturalist's Miscellany, and also by Professor Duméril in the Atlas of the Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles. On account of its possessing only six legs Latreille removed it, (as well as other mites which are similarly circumstanced,) from among the great genus Acarus of Linnæus: in his classification it is the Leptus autumnalis. It seems, from the account given of it by M. Duméril, to be as

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