PLATE LV. 



Le Grand Chevalier d'ltalie. Behn Ponir. d'Oyfeaux. 53. 

 L' EchafTe. BrlJ. Orn. 5, p. 33. /. pi. 3. fig. 1. 



Buff. Oif.S.p. 114. pi. 2. 



— PL ml 878. 



This bird meafures thirteen inches from the tip of the bill to the 

 end of the tail ; to the claws nearly eighteen inches. The extraor- 

 dinary and very difproportionate length of the legs gives it fuch an 

 uncommon appearance, that we may pronounce it, with ftricT: pro- 

 priety, the moil lingular fpecies ever met with in this country. 



It is alfo not lefs rare than fingular. Sir Robert Sibbald records a 

 brace that were mot in Scotland ; another was fhot a few years ago on 

 St ant on- Hare our t Common near Oxford * : and Mr. White, bookfeller, 

 of Fleet-ftreet, has a fpecimen which was fhot out of a flock of fix or 

 {even, in Frenchman-ponds, in Hampjhire. This bird does not perfectly 

 3gree in it's plumage with our fpecimen, but is no doubt only a merq 

 difference in the fex. 



According to Latham it is common in Egypt ; plentiful about the 

 fait lakes, and often on the mores of the Cafpian Sea ; and in the 

 fouthern deferts of Independent Tartary. Found alfo at Madras, in the 

 $aji Indies ; and in the warmer parts of America. 



* Pennant, Br. Zool. 



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