84 NATURAL HISTORY 



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 

 lortpes t a.nd charadrms 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 spe- 

 cimens 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 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. Bris- 

 son 9 under that idea, gives them the appo- 



