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THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE, 215 
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 twenty inches. But 
four pounds are fifteen times and a fraction 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 vacillations, 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 accurate 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 
that these long-legged plovers are birds of South Europe, and 
