To Dr. SHAW, 



BritiJJj Mufeum, London, 



Dear Sir^ 



It may perhaps feem ftrange that I lliould fend for 

 your perufal a drawing of a fubjedl defcribed and 

 figured by fo many different authors ; I mean the 

 Charadius Himantopus of Linnaeus, the Long- Leg- 

 ged Plover of Mr. Pennant and Mr. Latham. This 

 bird, on account of its beautifully red feet and legs 

 contrafted with its black bill ; the glolfy blacknefs 

 of its wings and back, with the fnowy whitenefs of 

 its breaft ; but particularly the fmgular proportion 

 of its parts, is exceedingly curious, and feems to 

 claim a place in your highly elegant and learned 

 work, the Naturalifi's Mijcellany ; but that is not 

 the only reafon of this addrefs ; you will have an 

 opportunity of obviating what feems to me (after an 

 attentive examination of one of this fpecies) a mif- 

 take, that hath prevailed among authors refpefting 

 the form of the bill of this bird; unlefs it varies 

 unaccountably in different individuals. 



LinnjEus in his Syftema Naturae gives it rojlnim 

 (ipice craffius ; Gmelin, in his edition of that work, 

 repeats the fame words, though he has improved the 

 defcription in other particulars. Moil of the figures 

 I have feen reprefent it in the fame manner; whether 

 taken from defcription, or mutilated fpecimens, I 

 ihall not pretend to determine. In many figures the 

 bill is likewife incurved from the bafe to the end, 

 which js by HQ means the cafe in the fubjed from 



which 



