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 flight, 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 

 all 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 houhou 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 



