170 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



big as a large hen (p). Its wings, when extended, mea~ 

 fure from tip to tip three Parifian feet, and according 

 to Gemelli, who meafured it in the Philippine ifles {q) 9 

 fix palms. Mr. BufFon acknowledges the excefs in fize 

 of the Afiatic bat over the American fpecies, but denies 

 it as to number. Gemelli fays, that thofe of the ifland 

 of Luzon were fo numerous that they darkened the air, 

 and that the noife which they made with their teeth, in 

 eating the fruits of the woods, was heard at the dif- 

 tance of two miles (r). M. de Paw fays, in talking of 

 ferpents (j), " it cannot be affirmed that the new world 

 " has fhewn any ferpents larger than thofe which Mr. 

 " Adanfon faw in the deferts of Africa." The greateft 

 ferpent found in Mexico, after a diligent fearch made 

 by Hernandez, was eighteen feet long ; but this is not 

 to be compared with that of the Moluccas, which Bo- 

 mare fays is thirty-three feet in length (/) ; nor with 

 the Anacandaja of Ceylon, which the fame author fays 

 is more than thirty-three feet long (a) ; nor with others 

 of Alia and Africa, mentioned by the fame author. 

 Laftly, the argument drawn from the multitude and fize 

 of the American infers is fully as weighty as the argu- 

 ment drawn from the fmallnefs and fcarcity of quadru- 

 peds, and both detect the fame ignorance, or rather the 

 fame voluntary and ftudied forgetfulnefs of the things of 

 the old continent. 



With 



(/) BufFon, Hift. Nat. torn. xix. 

 (y) Gemelli, torn. v. 



(r) What Gemelli fays refpecling the furprifmg noife of the bats of the 

 ifland bf Luzon is confirmed by feveral perfons worthy of credit, who have 

 been fome years in that ifland. 



(s) Defenfe des Recherch. Philofoph. chap. 22. 



Bomare Diction. Univ. d' Hifloire Natur. V. Couleiivre. 



(u^ Id. V. Anacandaja. 



