151 
of the Mascarene Islands. 
mains of that bird, since discovered, have proved the exactness 
of his statements. Besides this it appears also, from the nume¬ 
rous observations which he communicates on known natural 
objects*, that he was, as an amateur and for his time, an at¬ 
tentive and accurate observer, that he consulted in his investi- 
tigations a multitude of works on natural history, that by 
comparing them mutually and with nature he tried to arrive at 
truth, and that he was anything but a servile repeater of another's 
words. When, for instance, he obtained the first flying-fish, he 
examined, described, represented, and compared them with the 
representations of other authors, discovering at once that there 
exists among these animals two forms, those now called Dacty - 
loptera and Exoccetus. He appends for this reason to his drawing 
the copies of three figures of these fish taken from other works, and 
on that of Olearius makes the true observation that it had pro¬ 
bably been drawn from a dried specimen and was therefore in¬ 
accurate ; for he says “ quand ces animaux-la viennent a se secher, 
il est difficile d'en observer la veritable forme." Not less exact 
are his observations on the birds which at that time were re¬ 
presented under the name of “ Flamans." He saysf, indeed, 
that the numerous authors whom he had consulted, except Wil- 
lughby, attributed to these birds the bill of a Spoonbill; and, 
in fact, the name of Flamants was at that time generally given 
to large red marsh-birds. The true Flamingo was figured by 
Willughby, while many others, Rochefort for instance, whom 
Leguat respectfully quotes, described and figured the red Spoon¬ 
bill of America ( Platalea ajaja) under the name of Flamant. In 
his observations on the dorade bonito J he quotes Rochefort and 
Rondeletius, the last of whom he subsequently takes to task 
severely §; and on this occasion it appears that at the time of 
his return he took an interest in natural history; for he inserts 
for comparison the figure of a bonito, which one of his friends 
had drawn and communicated to him, from an example caught 
in 1702 on the coast of Kent. His description of the peculi¬ 
arities of the different kinds of tortoises || which he met with is 
* Op. cit. i. pp. 10 et seq. t Ibid. i. p. 18. 
f Ibid. i. pp. 20 et seq. § Ibid. i. p. 123. 
II Ibid. i. pp. 89-92. 
