Create a new instance of a subclass in a base class

This code was written to solve an excercise in the book "Objects First With Java"

The code for the base class

/******************************************************************************/
/*                                                                            */
/*                                                          FILE: Animal.java */
/*                                                                            */
/*  Base class for all the animals                                            */
/*  ==============================                                            */
/*                                                                            */
/*  V1.00   19-NOV-2011   Te          http://www.heimetli.ch                  */
/*                                                                            */
/******************************************************************************/

import java.lang.reflect.* ;

/**
 * This code demonstrates how to create child classes in a base class.
 */
public class Animal
{
   /**
    * This method creates new instances of the subclasses.
    *
    * It uses reflection to get the constuctor of the child class and
    * to call this constructor.
    *
    * You probably need a fairly recent version of java. The calls to
    * reflection were more complicated in earlier versions ...
    */
   public void breed()
   {
      try
      {
         Constructor<? extends Animal> constructor = getClass().getDeclaredConstructor( boolean.class, Field.class, Position.class ) ;
         Animal animal = constructor.newInstance( true, new Field(), new Position() ) ;
      }
      catch( Exception e )
      {
         System.out.println( e ) ;
      }
   }
}

The code for the subclasses

/**
 * An extremely simple subclass, having only a constructor
 */
public class Hare extends Animal
{
   /**
    * This constructor will be called by the superclass
    */
   public Hare( boolean flag, Field field, Position position )
   {
     System.out.println( "Hare constructor: " + flag ) ;
   }
}

/**
 * Another extremely simple subclass, to prove that it works with all subclasses.
 */
public class Fox extends Animal
{
   /**
    * This constructor will be called by the superclass
    */
   public Fox( boolean flag, Field field, Position position )
   {
     System.out.println( "Fox constructor: " + flag ) ;
   }
}

Dummy classes for the parameters

public class Field
{
}

public class Position
{
}

Test application to prove that it works

/**
 * Main class to prove that the code really works.
 */
public class Main
{
   /**
    * Creates two different instances of subclasses and
    * calls the breed method in the base class to
    * create new instances of the same type.
    */
   public static void main( String args[] )
   {
      Hare h = new Hare( false, new Field(), new Position() ) ;
      Fox  f = new Fox( false, new Field(), new Position() ) ;
      h.breed() ;
      f.breed() ;
   }
}