OF SELBORNE 219 



able to exhaust the subject : new occurrences 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 English name, 

 but known to naturalists by the terms of himantopus^ or 

 loripeSy 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 Farnham, 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 

 procured, and found the length of the legs to be so extra- 

 ordinary, that, at first sight, one might have supposed the 

 shanks had been fastened on to impose on the credulity of 

 the beholder : they were legs in caricatura ; and had we 

 seen such proportions on a Chinese 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 propriety be called the stilt plovers. Brisson, 

 under that idea, gives them the apposite name of t echasse. 

 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 an half, 

 and the legs four inches and an half. Hence we may safely 

 assert that these birds exhibit, weight for inches, incompar- 

 ably 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 himan- 

 topus ; for a cock flamingo weighs, at an average, 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 one 

 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 increase. It must 



