274 
NATURAL HISTORY 
four inclies and a half. Hence we may safely assert that 
these birds exhibit, 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 the Himantopus ; for a 
cock flamingo weighs, at an average, about four pounds 
avoirdupois ; and his legs and thighs measure usually about 
Wenty inches. But four pounds are fifteen times and a frac- 
tion more than four ounces and one quarter; and if four 
ounces and a quarter have eight inches of legs, four pounds 
must have one hundred and twenty inches and a fraction of 
legs; viz. somewhat more than 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 the 
stilt plover move ; to observe how it can wield such a length 
of lever with such feeble muscles as the thighs seem to be 
furnished with. 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 support its 
steps it must be liable, in speculation, to perpetual vacil- 
lations, and seldom able to preserve the true centre of 
gravity. 
The old name of Himantopus 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. 
Neither Willughby nor Ray, 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 Paris. Hasselquist says 
that it migrates to Egypt in the autumn : and a most accu- 
rate observer of nature has assured me that he has found it 
on the banks of the streams in Andalusia. 
Our writers record it to have been found only twice in 
Great Britain.^ From all these relations it plainly appears 
^ The two specimens here referred to are doubtless those recorded 
by Sibbald and Pennant as having been procured near Dumfries 
(c/. Sibbald. " Hist. Scot." lib. iii. p. 18 ; and Pennant, " Caledcniaii 
