AND LOWER EGYPT. I43 



mine, beside the merit of priority in point of time, 

 contain more facts, and present a history more 

 complete, of those singular animals ; this is at least 

 the idea entertained of them, at the time, by the 

 learned world ; I satisfy myself with quoting the 

 authors of the Encyclopedic Journal. In the ac- 

 count which they gave of the fifth volume of 

 Travels vi Nubia arid Abyssinia, by Mr. James Bruce, 

 and after having transcribed his chapter on the jer- 

 bo, they add : " The ancients had described this 

 M animal. Herodotus, Theophrastus, and the 

 " Arabs, make mention ofthejerbo; but among 

 " the moderns, no naturalist has described it better 

 " than M. Sonnini, &c. who has travelled several 

 " years to promote the progress of natural history." 

 The compilers of that publication afterwards give 

 an extract from my observations *. 



The memoir, which I printed in 1787, will here, 

 therefore, naturally find a place, and the rather, 

 that it will now appear accompanied with additions 

 highly interesting to natural history. 



Since the time that the eloquent compositions of 

 BufFon have given a powerful impulse to the sci- 

 ence of nature, which he has had the skill to render 

 so attractive and so amiable, varieties have been 



* Encyclopedic Journal for the month of September, A. D. 



discovered 



