Stilt- or Long-legged Plover.
Charadrius himantopus, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 255.
— aufumnalis, Hasselq. Iter Palaest., p. 253..
Himantopus melanopterus, Temm. Man. d’Orn., 2nd edit., tom. ii. p. 528, and tom. iv. p. 350.
— rufipes, Bechst. Naturg. Deutsch!, tom. iv. p. 446, tab. 26. fig. 1.
-------------- Plinii, Flem. Hist, of Brit. Anim., p. 112.
- ' ■ - - — atropterus, Meyer, Tascbenb. Deutsch! Vög., p. 315.
: |—r candidus, Bonn. Ency. M6th., Orn., part i. p. 24, p ! 5. fig. 4.
—- albicollis, Vieil! Faun. Franq,, p. 269, tab. 117. fig. 2.
Hypsibates himantopus, Nitsch, in Ersch und Gruber, Encyc!, tom. xvi. p. 150.
How can I better commence the history o f this singular bird than with the following quotation from the
* Natural History of Selborne,* by the Rev. Gilbert White, a man whom we may regard as the father of
British ornithologists, and whose writings have inspired more young minds with a love o f nature and o f our
native birds than any other observer ? ,
“ In the last week of last month ” (April, 1779), “ five of those most rare birds, too uncommon to have
obtained an English name, but known to naturalists by the terms of Himantopus, o r Loripes, and Charadrius
himantopus, were shot upon the verge o f Frinsham Pond, a large lake belonging to the Bishop of Winchester,
and lying between Wolmer Forest and the town of Farnham, in Surrey. . . . One o f these specimens I
procured, and found the length o f the legs so extraordinary that, at first sight, one might have supposed the
shanks had been fastened on.to impose on the credulity of the beholder: they are legs in caricatura. My
specimen, when drawn and stuffed with pepper, weighed only four ounces and a q u a rte r; yet the naked part
o f the thigh measured three inches and a half, and the legs four inches and a half. I t must be a 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 seein to be furnished with. At best, one sluxild suspect it to be but a bad
walker; but what adds to the wonder is that it has no back •.©£>. \<wr witboat that steady to support
its steps, it must be liable, in speculation, to perpetual vacillations, and sckion' able to preserve the true
centre of gravity. . . . The old name of Himantopus is taken from Pliny, and, bv an awkward metaphor,
implies th at the legs are as slender and pliant as if cut out o f a thong leather.“ I can easily conceive
the delight and amazement of the good man at a sight so novel and curious, laving ■:»yself parties |¡afed in
similar feelings on first meeting with a nearly allied species o f this remarkable form, while wandering, in
the wilds o f Australia; and well do I remember with what delight I watched the movements of a flock
which, after running gracefully along the margin o f the river Mokai, suddenly rose, turned, and flew back
by ine with their long red legs streaming out behind.
<«ltx?r4 White wrote, solitary individuals and small companies o f this species have now and
then risked ike British Islan d s; such occurrences however, must, be regarded as purely accidental. But
a t only a short er the Channel (say, about 300 miles as the Crow flies), Long-legged Stilts may
be seen lu the spring and snaiwiev of every year, and no further off than Spain be found breeding in many places;
for there, as in Italy, Savoy, Greece, and Turkey, it is common. In France, Holland, and Germany it is
much less abundant, and, as with us, must be regarded as a mere wanderer.; on the other hand, the avifaunas
o f India and Jav a comprise a bird o f this form, so closely allied to the II. candidus as to be -scarcely
separable from it, but which may prove u> be the H. ¿eucocepha/us o f Australia.
From the brief but interesting notes reajpeefeNt species contributed to ‘ T he Ibis ’ by Lord Lilfora,
the Rev. H. B. T ristram, Mr. Howard SauwJ-. few# others, we learn :—that it is very abundant and breeds in
the marshes south of Seville; that it is conm» ^ i« Malta in spring and autumn, numerous on the shores
of Corfu and Epirus in March, April, and tawed» in great a ambers in the marshes near Spalatro, in
Dalmatia, and undoubtedly in T u rk ey ; that : to the drtdhes of the oases in Northern Africa,
and breeds abundantly in the northern Sahara; WM straggler* aw occasionally seen in Upper Egypt,
small flocks .found in the Delta and Faiomn; and tiin# ■■ is not ottfmpient and breeds on a small marshy lake
near Jenin, in the centre o f Palestine, where it reiHftfai» througlvHtt the year.
* O f the occurrence o f this species in Scotland vm- >*nv instance* arc on record, the first being mentioned
in Sir Robert Sibbald’s ‘ Scotia Illustrate;’ in i r - v .i a c c o r d in g to Thompson, it is extremely r a r e ; »
England, Mr. Yarrell notes examples killed in .Asigiewe.*. Devonshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Lincolnshire, ami
Norfolk: o f those killed in the last-mentioned conuty. a full account will be found in the second vrdutuc
of my friend Mr. Stevenson’s ‘Birds of Norfolk.1