[LETT. 
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 
tlie himantojms ; 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 
fraction more tlian four oances and one quarter; and if four 
ounces and a quarter have eight inches of legs, four pounds 
must haA^e one hundred and twenty inches and a fraction of legs ; 
viz., soniewliat more tlian 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 tlie stilt plover move; to observe 
LAPWING OR PLOVER S E(j( 
how it can wield such a length of lever with such feeble muscles 
as the thighs seem to be furnished Avith. 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 sup- 
port its steps it must be liable, in speculation, to perpetual vacilla- 
tions, and seldom able to preserve the true centre of gravity. 
The old name of liimantopus 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. JSTeither Willughby 
iior Eay, 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 
I'aris. Hasselquist says that it migrates to Kgypt in the autumn : 
