174 BRITISH AND EUROPEAN BIRDS. 



While the Goldfinches, chirping and flitting about, 

 Were delighted in picking the thistle seed out. 

 The Purs from the sea rose like clouds in the air; 

 Green Linnets( ,s ), Pine-Grosbeaks, and Cross- 

 bills were there, 



having the body varied with yellowish, beneath white. Flesh 



good. 



" With shrilly pipe, from headland or from cape, 



Emerge the line of plovers o'er the sands 



Fast sweeping." 



A Blackwood's Mag. March 1822. 



The Himatopus, Long-legged Plover, or Long-legs, is said 

 to be the longest legged bird in proportion to its bulk hitherto 

 known ; length from the point of the bill to the end of the tail 

 thirteen inches, from that to the end of the toes five inches 

 more ; bill two inches and a half long j legs four inches and a 

 half long, red ; outer and middle toes connected by a membrane 

 at the base. A rare bird in this country, but said to be plen- 

 tiful in the East and West Indies, Egypt, and on the shores of 

 the Caspian Sea. This bird is wholly white, except the wings 

 and back as far as the rump, which are black. The foreign spe- 

 cimens have the crown and all the hind part of the head black. 



The Calidris, Sanderling, Curwillet, or Tow-willy, has the 

 bill and legs black, rump greyish, body beneath white without 

 spots ; another variety cinereous varied with brown. Inhabits 

 the sandy shores of Europe and America. It is found in flocks, 

 together with the Purre, on our own shores j but whether it 

 breeds in this country is not decidedly known. 



( I5 ) Order, Passeres, (Linn.) Grosbeak, Green-Lin- 

 net, Crossbill, Bulfinch, &c. 

 The genus Loxia, (Linn.) Grosbeak, or Crossbill, compre- 

 hends more than one hundred and twenty species, of which the 

 Green-Linnet, or Loxia Chloris, is one; it is distinguished by 



