202 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



165. Stilt, Himantopus candidjis, Bonn. (Hasselquist, 29) ; 

 "Abou magazel." 



Of all the queer birds that Nature ever formed, this is 

 the queerest. "At first sight," says Gilbert White, "one 

 might have supposed the shanks had been fastened on to 

 impose on the credulity of the beholder : " but Nature is 

 never wrong, and what seems to the superficial observer a 

 deformity, is a beautiful instrument adapted to the require- 

 ments of a wading bird which seeks its food in shallow 

 waters. It is a strange yet elegant sight to see them bend 

 forward the body at each step, as they slowly pace along in 

 the water ; but when frightened, they rise up, they are only 

 grotesque. With such unusual length of limb, it is needless 

 to say that they are slow fliers. For some seconds their 

 legs hang down like a Flamingo's, and they are greatly 

 incommoded by them. I have seen one go a hundred 

 yards with them dangling at right angles, which so re- 

 tarded his progress that my companions fired seven shots 

 at him before he was out of range. Let me say that though 

 not shy, either the closeness of their feathers, or the small- 

 ness of their bodies, makes them a very hard bird to kill. 

 It was on the sandbanks between Thebes and Assouan 

 that they were most plentiful. We only shot one in the 

 Delta, which I am rather surprised at. Sometimes they 

 were single, but more often in pairs. Once one of my 

 friends saw a flock of forty, but this was most exceptional. 

 Doubtless it is a resident. I shot one at the Faioum in 

 June. 



In "An Account of the Birds found in Norfolk," it is re- 

 marked that the changes of plumage to which the Stilt is 



common [at Weybourne in Norfolk], and that he killed sixty-two at one 

 shot in the year 18 14." 

 The above is a MS. note by the late Charles Buxton. 



