AND LOWER EGYPT. 171 



avow error, against which no man stands secure, 

 This is the track which Buffon constantly pursued; 

 this is the great, the manly example he has left to 

 all who write on natural history, and which I would 

 be zealous to imitate, were I not convinced, that 

 classing together the alagtaga and the gerbo, as 

 two animals of the same species, I am not only free 

 from the blame which you impute to me, but that 

 not even the slightest mistake can reasonably be 1 aid 

 to my charge. In fact, Sir, you will please to re- 

 mark, first of all, that, in my memoir, it was no 

 part of my intention to compose the nomenclature 

 of the gerboise race. I employed myself as little as 

 I possibly could in that dry, unacceptable, and too 

 frequently useless labour. My design simply was to 

 speak of the gerboiscs which I have seen in Egypt, 

 and to represent them exactly as they fell under 

 my observation. In describing the jerbo, the only 

 race of this genus to be found in that part of Africa, 

 I was struck with its resemblance to another ani- 

 mal of the same genus, a native of northern coun- 

 tries, and which Gmclin has described under the 

 name of alagtaga ; and I have said : /lie jerbo and 

 ihe alagtaga of Gmelin, appear to me one and the 

 same animal; though I felt some difficulty in be- 

 coming the proselyte of this approximation, on ac- 

 count of the extreme opposition of climates. Nay, 

 I acknowledge that, if reflection had not suggested 

 to me other species of quadrupeds, living equally in 



cold 



