274 NATURAL HISTORY 



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 frac- 

 tion 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 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 vacil- 

 lations, 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 or 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 accu- 

 rate observer 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. 1 From all these relations it plainly appears 



1 The two specimens here referred to are doubtless those recorded 

 by Sibbald and Pennant as having been procured near Dumfries 

 (cf. Sibbald, " Hist. Scot." lib. iii. p. 18 ; and Pennant, " Caledonian 



