VOL. VI.] SIBBALD'S PRODROMUS. 45 



By the common consent of the learned, this is the bird which 

 under the name of Himantopus, is described by Pliny in these 

 words : — " The Himantopus, A\'hich is much smaller, although 

 of the same length of leg. It is bred in Egypt, stands on three 

 toes, principally feeds on flies, lives in Italy for a iew days. 



Birds drink by suction, that is, those that have a long neck, 

 a little at a time and with the head thro\v7i back, as though 

 pouring the water into themselves. 



The Porphyrins [the Purple Gallinule] alone drinks by sips, 

 the same bird being of a kind by itself, dipping all its food under 

 the water, and then lifting it to its beak with its foot, as though 

 it were a hand," which he (Pliny) says also applies to the 

 Himantopus. 



The name, according to some, is derived from the blood-like 

 colour of its legs, others derive it from its feet, as though it 

 were bow-legged, for its legs are very long and slender, for that 

 reason certain people of Aethiopia, who move with a crawling 

 gait (as Solinus interprets it), their legs being bent, are called 

 Himantopodes. by Pomponius Pliny. 



Oppian certainly writes, that the birds . . . obtain their 

 name from the slenderness of their legs. 



Aldrovandus who conjectures that Pliny speaks of this bird, 

 describes and depicts it amongst the water-fowl, on the 

 authority of Ornithologus* [GesnerJ who named it Erythro- 

 podes, so, also, does that most accurate writer, the learned 

 Willughby describe it. 



But this Himantopus is white over the whole belly, breast 

 and lower neck, and also on the head between the eyes ; but 

 above the eyes it is black, and on the back and wings it is of 

 a black or dusky colour. The bill also is black, it is a span or 

 more in length, slender and fit only for consuming wood-lice 

 or other insects. The tail shades from white to ash colour, 

 it is white underneath. On the back of the neck are black 

 spots tending do\\Tiwards ; the wings, legs, and thighs are of 

 marvellous length, but very slender and fragile, and they are 

 all the weaker for standing on, because the hind toe is lacking, 

 and the front toes are short for the length of the tibia, so that 

 the bird would properly be called Himantopus or Loripes. 



The toes are of almost equal length, of a blood-red colour, 

 the middle one is slightly longer. The claws are small, black 

 and somewhat re-curved. 



So far as I can make out none of the writers (on Natural 

 History) had seen this bird. Aldrovandus, indeed, takes from 

 Ornithologus [Gesner] a figure described from the skeleton 



* Aldrovandus plagiarised freely from Gesner, whom he quoted as 

 " Ornithologus." 



