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therefore jfrofedes only to abridge him, in which 
he often does not do juftice to the original. 
Whatever was allerted by Aridotle, is well known 
to have been mod implicitly believed, till the lad cen- 
tury ; and I am convinced that many of the learned in 
Europe would, before that time, not have credited 
their own eyefight againd what he had delivered. 
There cannot be a dronger proof that the general 
notion abouc the cuckow arifes from what is laid 
down -by Ariftotle, than the chapter which imme- 
diately follows, as it relates to the goatfucker, and 
dates that this bird fucks the teats of that animal. 
From this circumftance, the goatfucker hath ob- 
tained a ftmilar name in mod languages, though it is 
believed no one (who thinks at all about matters of 
this fort) continues to believe that this bird fucks the 
goat *, any more than the hedgehog does the cow. 
I beg leave, however, to explain myfelf, that I 
give thefe additional reafons only for my doubting 
with regard to this mod prevailing opinion ; becaule 
I am truly fenfible that many things happen in na- 
ture, which contradict all arguments from analogy, 
and I am perfuaded, therefore, that the firft perfon 
who gave an account of the dying fifh, was not cre- 
dited by any one, though the exidence of this animal 
is not now to be difputed. 
All that I mean to contend for is, that the ia- 
ftances of fuch extraordinary peculiarities in animals, 
fhould be proportionately well atteded, in all the 
necedary circumdances. 
I mud own, for example, that nothing fhort of the 
following particulars will thoroughly fatisfy me on 
this head. 
* See Zinanni p. 95. who took great pains to detecd this 
vulgar error. 
The 
