676 Retrospective Criticism, 



_ His introducing this wanton epithet was the cause of my buying his edi- 

 tion of Montagu's Dictionary ; the only one of the Professor's works into 

 which I have ever dipped. The first " little error " which caught my eye, 

 ■was his specious theory of the incubation of the grebe : and, as he had held 

 me up as the " eccentric Waterton " in one Number of the Magazine, I 

 made bold to hold him up, as the erroneous Rennie in another. 



After this, the Professor of Natural History in King's College in the 

 City of London, solemnly informed the public, in Mr. Loudon's Maga- 

 zine [Vol. V. p. 102.], that / had hitherto published nothing respecting 

 the economy or faculties of animals ^ of the least use to natural history. This 

 was a fulmination of fearful import, from a high quarter. " Venit in hoc 

 ilia fulmen ab arce caput." My book sank under it. The departed spirit 

 of the Wanderings now haunts his faulty Dictionary ! ever and anon point- 

 ing to the numerous " little errors " it contains. But to the subject. 



Professor Rennie says, in his " Plan of Study," that " in tropical climates, 

 where the heat is great, such domed nests are very common ; and are pro- 

 bably intended to protect the mother bird, while hatching, from the intense 

 heat of a perpendicular sun." ,How well this theory suits the study! 

 How ill it accords with facts in the field of nature ! Should the Professor 

 ever go to Guiana, he will see, in the vast wet savannas of that far-extend- 

 ing region, that the little green humming-bird, not much larger than an 

 humble bee, always makes its nest upon the dried twig of a small, strag- 

 gling, ill-thriving bush. There is not one solitary leaf near the dried twig, 

 to screen the bird from the rising, the noonday, or the setting sun. Never- 

 theless, this little delicate creature sits on its hemispherical nest, exposed 

 to the downward rays of the fiery luminary, without the least apparent in- 

 convenience. If, then, the tender little green humming-bird can sit all day 

 long exposed to such an intense heat, surely the larger birds, such as the 

 bunya or cassique, surpassing our magpie in size, cannot be supposed to 

 make a dome to their nests, in order to protect their tough and hardy 

 bodies from the rays of a tropical sun. I think this fact of the incubation 

 of the green humming-bird tends to place the Professor's theory of domed 

 nests amongst his " little errors." I beg to apologise to the readers of the 

 Magazine, for introducing matter foreign to natural history in the first part 

 of this paper. I am aware that it is quite uninteresting to the public. 1 

 dislike it myself; but I was called upon by the Professor's anonymous ally. 

 It will be my last. — Charles Waterton. Walton Hall, July 21. 1832. 



Habits of the Carrion Crow (Corvus Corone L.) — Sir, Touching the carrion 

 crow controversy between Mr. Waterton and Professor Rennie, which has 

 of late occupied some portion of your pages, allow me to step in, and add 

 one word. I have been a birdsnester in the days of my youth, and verily 

 think that the crows, magpies, and hawks, of the present generation, must 

 still owe me a sort of hereditary grudge, on account of the depredations I 

 have heretofore committed on the domains of their ancestors. Like Mr. 

 Waterton, I have frequently mounted up, " in propria persona " to ihe nests 

 of the carrion crow; and I must say, that on these occasions I never did 

 find the eggs covered with the materials of the lining of the nest, though 

 the birds might be sitting, and away from the nest at the time of my visits. 

 I cannot speak to the habits of the Kentish crows ; but, judging from what 

 I have observed in those of their kindred in Warwickshire, I am much dis- 

 posed to think that the crows in the park at Walton Hall are not quite 

 such *' eccentric " beings as Professor Rennie seems to infer ; and that the 

 crows about Lee in Kent are rather the more eccentric of the two. Mr. 

 Waterton appears to be a downright matter-of-fact naturalist ; he seems 

 to hold most intimate and friendly converse with all the wild animals about 

 him, and to have made himself personally acquainted with their more secret 

 ways and doings. Iconfess I should feel loth to controvert what he states. 



