128 
BIRDS. [Clafsn. 
a pure white .* the two firft quil feathers are black, 
marked on the middle of each web with a large 
white fpot. The tail confifts of twelve feathers; 
the tips of the two utmoft are black, beneath is 
a broad white bar, the remaining part barred with 
white and dulky brown : in the next feathers the 
white lefiens ; in the middle it almoft difappears, 
changing it to a pale reddiih brown, mottled with 
a darker : the legs are of a fine yellow : the toes 
very fhort, bordered with a ftrong membrane: 
the knees thick, as if fwelled; from whence the 
name of Oedicnemus ; This bird is not very 
common in England : it is found fometimes on 
Shirewoodforeft , but in greateft plenty in Nor¬ 
folk ; where from a fimilarity of colors to the 
Curlew, it is there called the flone Curlew. It 
breeds in rabbit borroughs, and is faid to lay two 
eggs, of a copper color, fpotted with a darker red. 
It is a nodlurnal bird, and makes a whiffling noife. 
Its food is worms and caterpillars. Gefner fays 
it will catch mice. 
SPECIES III. 
JVil. orn. 308. 
Rail fyn. av. 111, 
Charadrius Pluvialis. Lin. JyJt, 151 , 
T HIS elegant fpecies is often found on 
our moors and heaths, in the winter 
time, in fmall flocks. Its weight is nine 
ounces : its length eleven inches : its breadth 
twenty four: the bill is fhort and black : the 
feathers on the head, back, and coverts of the 
The green Plover. 
Pluvialis aurea. Briffon av. V. a?* 
Tab. 4. Fig. 1. 
Pluvialis. Gefner av. 714. 
wings are black, beautifully fpotted on each fide 
with light green : the breaft brown, marked with 
greenlfli oblong ftrokes : the belly white : the 
middle feathers of the tail barred with black and 
yellowifh green : the reft with black and brown : 
the legs black. 
SPECIES IV. The long legged Plover. 
us. JVil. orn. 297. 
iv . 106. 
•JN * - 
Sibb. Scot. 19. Tab. xi ? 13. 
Brifjon av. V. 33. Tab. 3. Fig. I, 
\ H I S is the moft lingular of the Bri- 
tifi birds; the legs are of a length, 
and weaknefs greatly difproportioned to 
the body, which is inferior in fize to that of the 
green Plover: this added to the defedt of the back 
toe,muft render its paces aukward and infirm. The 
naked part of the thigh is three inches and a half 
long; the legs four and a half : thefe, and the 
feet of a blood red : the bill is black, above two 
inches long. The length from its tip to the end 
of the tail is thirteen inches : the breadth from 
Charadrius himantopus. Lin. fyft. 
151. 
Gefner av. 546. 
tip to tip of the wing twenty-nine inches : the 
forehead, and whole under fide of the body are 
white : the crown of the head, back, and wings 
black : on the hind part of the neck are a few 
black fpots : the tail is of a greyifh white: the 
wings when clofed extend far beyond it. Thefe 
birds are extremely rare in thefe iflands : Sir Ro¬ 
bert Sibbald records a brace that were fhot in 
Scotland: we have feen them often in the cabi¬ 
nets of the curious at Paris, taken on the French 
coafts. SPECIES 
