Select Specimens of Natural History Collected in Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile. Volume 5.Bruce, James
History
Select Specimens of Natural History Collected in Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile. Volume 5.
Bruce, James
Natural history -- Egypt; Natural history -- Ethiopia; Nile River; Plants -- Egypt; Plants -- Ethiopia; Scientific expeditions -- Egypt
The reader may be assured there is no such Ibis in Egypt; none
ever appeared from the catacombs but what were black and white, as
historians have described[80], so that this is so disguised by the
drawing and colouring as not to be known, or else it came from some
other country than Egypt.
MOROC.
I have already said in the introduction which immediately precedes the
history of birds, that among those that live upon insects there are
some that attach themselves to flies in general, and others that seem
to live upon bees alone: Of this last sort is the bird now before us. I
never saw him in the low country where the fly is, nor indeed anywhere
but in the countries where honey is chiefly produced as revenue, such
as the country of the Agow, Goutto, and in Belessen.
[Illustration: _Bee Cuckoo_
_London Publish’d Jan.^y 19.^{th} 1790 by G. Robinson & Co._]
He seems to pursue the bees for vengeance or diversion as well as for
food, as he leaves a quantity of them scattered dead upon the ground
without seeking further after them, and this pastime he unweariedly
pursues without interruption all the day long; for the Abyssinians do
not look so near, or consider things so much in detail, as to imagine
all the waste which he commits can make any difference in their revenue.
His name is Maroc, or Moroc, I suppose from Mar, honey, though I
never heard he was further concerned in the honey than destroying the
bees. In shape and size he seems to be a cuckoo, but differs from him
in other respects. He is drawn here of his natural size, and in all
respects so minutely attended to, that I scarcely believe there is a
feather amissing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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