286 NATURAL HISTORY 
pond-keeper says there were three brace in the 
flock ; but that, after he had satisfied his curiosity, 
of these specimens I procured, and found the length 
of the legs to be so extraordinary, that at first 
sight one might have supposed the shanks had been 
fastened on to impose on the credulity of the be. 
holder: they were legs in caricatura ; and had we 
seen such proportions on a Chinese or a Japan 
screen, we should have made large allowances for 
the fancy of the draughtsman. These birds are 
of the plover family, and might with propriety be 
called the stilt-plovers. Brisson, under that idea, 
gives them the apposite name of Pechasse. My 
specimen, when drawn and stuffed with pepper, 
weighed only four ounces and a quarter, though 
the naked part of the thigh measured three inches 
and a half, and the legs four inches and a half. 
Hence we may safely assert that these birds ex- 
hibit, weight for inches, incomparably the greatest 
length of legs of any known bird. ‘The flamingo, 
for instance, is one of the most long-legged birds, 
and yet it bears no manner of proportion to the 
