DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11636#0336
306 TRAVELS IN UPPER
add, is the fruit of posterior observations, to those
which are already consigned to the Natural His-
tory, general and particular.
The houhous have very short wings, and yet they
are long in proportion to the body. They ac-
cordingly fly indifferently : they can neither soar,
nor even cross, on the same night* a space of
ever so little extent: if they do not meet with
some shrub on which they can perch, they are
soon obliged to let themselves, so to speak, fall to
the ground. Finally, they possess only the faculty
of flying as swiftly as is necessary, in order to
catch the grasshoppers, and the other insects of
the same species, of which they compose the prin-
cipal part of their subsistence. They are not at
ail wild, and you can approach them very nearly.
If any thing could determine us to abandon the
methods of natural history, founded merely on
some exterior forms of animals, and by which
those are frequently classed together whose na-
tures are entirely opposite, it would be, without
doubt, the comparison of the honhou with the cuc-
kow, of which two species have been made of the
same genus. In reality, the common cuckow, the
only one of all birds which displays neither atten-
tion to, nor affection for her progeny, the only
one which carries her indifference so far as to
abandon
add, is the fruit of posterior observations, to those
which are already consigned to the Natural His-
tory, general and particular.
The houhous have very short wings, and yet they
are long in proportion to the body. They ac-
cordingly fly indifferently : they can neither soar,
nor even cross, on the same night* a space of
ever so little extent: if they do not meet with
some shrub on which they can perch, they are
soon obliged to let themselves, so to speak, fall to
the ground. Finally, they possess only the faculty
of flying as swiftly as is necessary, in order to
catch the grasshoppers, and the other insects of
the same species, of which they compose the prin-
cipal part of their subsistence. They are not at
ail wild, and you can approach them very nearly.
If any thing could determine us to abandon the
methods of natural history, founded merely on
some exterior forms of animals, and by which
those are frequently classed together whose na-
tures are entirely opposite, it would be, without
doubt, the comparison of the honhou with the cuc-
kow, of which two species have been made of the
same genus. In reality, the common cuckow, the
only one of all birds which displays neither atten-
tion to, nor affection for her progeny, the only
one which carries her indifference so far as to
abandon