HIMANTOPUS. 283 



LETTER XCI. f 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, May 7> 1779- 



IT is now more than forty years that I have paid 

 some attention to the ornithology of this district, 

 without being able to exhaust the subject : new oc- 

 currences still arise as long as any inquiries are kept 

 alive. 



In the last week of last month, five of those most 

 rare birds, too uncommon to have obtained an Eng- 

 lish name, but known to naturalists by the terms of 

 himantopus, or loripes, and charadrius himantopus 

 were shot upon the verge of Frinsham Pond, a large 

 lake belonging to the Bishop of Winchester, and 

 lying between Wolmer Forest and the town of Farn- 

 ham, in the county of Surrey. The pond-keeper says 

 there were three brace in the flock ; but that, after 

 he had satisfied his curiosity, he suffered the sixth to 

 remain unmolested. One of these specimens I pro- 

 cured, and found the length of the legs to be so ex- 

 traordinary, that, at first sight, one might have sup- 

 posed the shanks had been fastened on to impose on 

 the credulity of the beholder : they were legs in cari- 

 catura ; and had we seen such proportions on a Chi- 

 nese or Japan screen, we should have made large 

 allowances for the fancy of the draughtsman. These 

 birds are of the plover family, and might, with pro- 

 priety, be called the stilt-plovers. Brisson, under 

 that idea, gives them the apposite name of I'echasse. 

 My specimen, when drawn, and stuffed with pepper, 

 weighed only four ounces and a quarter, though the 



