of the Mascarene Islands. 151 



mains of that bird, since discovered, have proved the exactness 

 of his statements. Besides this it appears also, from the nume- 

 rous observations which he communicates on known natural 

 objects*, that he was, as an amateur and for his time, an at- 

 tentive and accurate observer, that he consulted in his investi- 

 tigations a multitude of works on natural history, that by 

 comparing them mutually and with nature he tried to arrive at 

 truth, and that he was anything but a servile repeater of another's 

 words. When, for instance, he obtained the first flying-fish, he 

 examined, described, represented, and compared them with the 

 representations of other authors, discovering at once that there 

 exists among these animals two forms, those now called Dacty- 

 loptera and Exocoefus. He appends for this reason to his drawing 

 the copies of three figures of these fish taken from otherworks, and 

 on that of Olearius makes the true observation that it had pro- 

 bably been drawn from a dried specimen and was therefore in- 

 accurate ; for he says " quand ces animaux-l{\ vienuent k se secher, 

 il est difficile d'en observer la veritable forme. '^ Not less exact 

 are his observations on the birds which at that time were re- 

 presented under the name of " Flamans." He saysf, indeed, 

 that the numerous authors whom he had consulted, except Wil- 

 lughby, attributed to these birds the bill of a Spoonbill; and, 

 in fact, the name of Flamcmts was at that time generally given 

 to large red marsh-birds. The true Flamingo was figured by 

 Willughby, while many others, Rochefort for instance, whom 

 Leguat respectfully quotes, described and figured the red Spoon- 

 bill of America [Platalea ajaja) under the name of Flamant. In 

 his observations on the dorade bonito J he quotes Rochefort and 

 Rondeletius, the last of whom he subsequently takes to task 

 severely §; and on this occasion it appears that at the time of 

 his return he took an interest in natural history ; for he inserts 

 for comparison the figure of a bonito, which one of his friends 

 had drawn and communicated to him, from an example caught 

 in 1702 on the coast of Kent. His description of the peculi- 

 arities of the diflferent kinds of tortoises || which he met with is 



* 0/7. cit. i. pp. 10 et seq. t Ibid. i. p. 18. 



X Ibid. i. pp. 20 et seq. § Ibid. i. p. 12-3, 



I! Ibid. i. pp. 89-02. 



