280 HIMANTOPUS. 



and the town of Farnham, in the county of Surrey- 

 The pond-keeper says there were three brace in 

 the flock ; hut that, after he had satisfied his curio- 

 sity, he suffered the sixth to remain unmolested. 

 One of these specimens I procured, and found the 

 length of the legs to he 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 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 

 Vechasse. 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 exhibit, 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 himantopus ; 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 expe- 

 riment in still larger birds, the disparity would 

 still increase. It must be matter of great curio- 



