NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 247 



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 that 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 be matter of great curiosity 

 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 

 Willughby nor Ray, in all their curious researches, either 

 at home nor abroad, ever saw this bird. Mr. Pennant 

 never met with it in all Great Britain, but observed it 

 often in the cabinets of the curious at Paris. Hasselquist 

 says that it migrates to Egypt in the autumn ; and a most 

 accurate observer of Nature has assured me that he has 

 found it on the banks of the streams in Andalusia. 



Our ^vriters record it to have been found only twice in 

 Great Britain. From all these relations it plainly appears 



