OF SELBORNE. 287 
himantopus; for a cock flamingo weighs, at an av- 
erage, about four pounds avoirdupois, and his legs 
and thighs measure usually about twenty inches. 
But four pounds are fifteen times and a fraction 
more than four ounces and a quarter; and if four 
ounces and a quarter have eight inches of legs, four 
_ pounds must have one hundred and twenty inches 
and a fraction of legs, viz., somewhat more than 
ten feet; such a monstrous proportion as the 
world never saw ! If you should try the experiment 
in still larger birds, the disparity would still in- 
crease. It must be a matter of great curiosity to 
see the stilt-plover move; to observe how it can 
wield such a length of lever with such feeble mus- 
cles as the thighs seem to be furnished with. At 
best one should expect it to be but a bad walker: 
but what adds to the wonder is, that it has no back 
toe. Now, without that steady prop to support its 
steps, it must be liable, in speculation, to perpetual 
vacillations, and seldom able to preserve the true 
centre of gravity. 
The old name of himantopus is taken from Pliny ; 
and, by an awkward metaphor, implies that the legs 
are as slender and pliant as if cut out of a thong 
of leather. Neither Willoughby nor Ray, in all 
their curious researches, either at home or abroad, 
ever saw this bird. Mr. Pennant never met with 
it in all Great Britain, but observed it often in the 
cabinets of the curious at Paris. Hasselquist says 
that it migrates to Egypt in the autumn; and a 
most accurate observer of nature has assured me 
that he has found it on the banks of the streams in 
Andalusia. 
Our writers record it to have been found only 
