162 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



, /"'-' ' : "5 



White's description. 



ah advantageous place: and each of them hold- 

 ing a stone in either hand., they got behind it, 

 and striking the stones often one against the 

 other, roused it from its natural sluggishness, and 

 by degrees drove it into the net." The more 

 certain method of the gun has of late nearly su- 

 perseded both these artifices. 





THE LONG-LEGGED PLOffiR. 



THE following very pleasing description of 

 this bird is given by Mr. White. 



" In the last week of April 1779* five of these 

 most rare birds (which are too uncommon to 

 have ail English name, but are known to natu- 

 ralists by the terms himantopus, or loripes, or 

 eharadrius hiinantopus) were shot upon the verge 

 of Frensham-pond ; a large lake belonging to 

 the bishop of Winchester, and lying between 

 Woolmer-forest and the town of Farnham, in 

 the county of Surrey. The pond- keeper says 

 there were three brace in the flock ; but that 

 after he had satisfied his curiosity, lie suffered 

 the sixth bird to remain unmolested. 



" One of these specimens I procured ; and 

 fomid the length of the leers to be so extraordi- 



O O 



nary> that at first sight one might have supposed 

 the shanks had been fastened on, to impose on 

 the beholder: they were legs in caracatwa ; and 





