OF LA PEROUSE. t 



oh the fame level, it fhikes the upper column of 

 the air with its wings, and then raiting them 

 again, and fixing them one againft the other 

 above its back, that they may no longer oppofe 

 any refiftance to the air, it darts on its prey, and 

 feizes it at a little diftance from the water. 



While admiring the aftonifhing addrefs of this , 

 bird, the wifhes of all of us were in favour of 

 the flying- fifh ; but it feldom efcapes. As it 

 does not rife much above the fea, the mart-of- 

 war bird would run the rifk of falling headlong 

 therein, if it did not know how to flop itfelf in 

 its defcent, by lowering its wings, in order to life 

 again and purfue another prey. 



Notwithftanding the faculty which Nature 

 has given to flying-filhes of living in the water, 

 and of coming out of it at pleafure, it is difficult 

 for them to avoid their numerous enemies : if 

 they efcape the voracity of the bonitoes, tunnies, 

 and dolphins, by riling out of the water, the 

 man-of-war bird waits for them in the air ; fome, 

 of them, during this confiicl, came and leaped 

 into the fhip. 



I found in the ftomach of feveral bonitoes a 

 great number of worms which muft be clafTect 

 among thofe of the genus fafciola of Linnaeus, 

 although their lower extremity, which is almoft 

 cylindrical, has a very prominent fwelling. Their 

 s 2 iiae 



