HIMANTOPUS. 281 



sity to see the stilt-plover move ; to observe how 

 it can wield such a length of lever with such 

 feeble muscles 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 ob- 

 served it often in the cabinets of the curious at 

 Paris. Hasselquist says, that it migrates to 

 Egypt in the autumn; and a most accurate ob- 

 server 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 

 twice in Great Britain. From all these relations 

 it plainly appears, that these long-legged plovers 

 are birds of South Europe, and rarely visit our 

 island ; and when they do, are wanderers and 

 stragglers, and impelled to make so distant and 

 northern an excursion, from motives or accidents, 

 for which we are not able to account. One thing 

 may fairly be deduced, that these birds come 

 over to us from the Continent, since nobody can 

 suppose that a species not noticed once in an age, 

 and of such a remarkable make, can constantly 

 breed unobserved in this kingdom. 



