A t R I C A. 193 
each other. Is a fa£t I have already mentioned 
in my firft travels ; but the way in which I 
accouilted for it has been contradiflied. There 
are perfons who cannot believe that the oflrich 
places eggs before her neft, to ferve as food 
for her young when they are hatched. So 
much forefight in a bird, which we have 
hitherto thought proper to confider as the 
emblem of ftupidity, appears to them an im- 
probable fiction. It has been faid, that, before 
the publication of my travels, no naturalift 
ever mentioned the circumftance ; v^hich is the 
fum total of all the objedions they can make ; 
and I have furely no need to fliew its futi- 
lity, fmce, as naturalifts have fpoken fo dif- 
ferently on other points, what conclufion 
would be made fhould I affirm, on my parr, 
that they have publifhed nothing but falfehoods 
and errors ? 
How many difcoveries in natural hiftory, 
controverted at firft on account of their no- 
velty, are now admitted as inconteftable truths ! 
When a traveller thought proper to fay, that 
coral was not a marine production of the vege- 
table kingdom, but a real neft conftruded by 
infeds ; and when Delifle, on his return from 
Vol. Ill, O China, 
