1 90 Waterton* $ Letter to Professor Jameson. 



loose and frolicking without a rider." It appears, from the 

 farther account of Mr. Audubon, that a succession of shocks 

 were daily felt for several weeks in Kentucky, and " near 

 New Madrid, and for some distance on the Mississippi ; the 

 earth was rent asunder in several places, one or two islands 

 sunk for ever, and the inhabitants fled in dismay towards the 

 eastern shores." 



But we forbear to make farther extracts, as we feel assured 

 that the two volumes of Ornithological Biography will be 

 perused with delight by every lover of natural history, and 

 find a place in every public library, when the true character 

 of the work is known. — B. 



Water-ton, Charles, author of " Wanderings in South Ame- 

 rica : " A Letter to James [it should have been Robert] 

 Jameson, Esq., Regius Professor of Natural History in the 

 University of Edinburgh. 8vo, 14 pages. Wakefield, 

 Nichols. January, 1835. 



In a review of the second volume of Audubon's Biography 

 of the Birds of America, published in Jameson's Journal, 

 January, 183.5, want of candour is imputed to Mr. Waterton 

 in the views he has promulgated on Mr. Audubon's con- 

 tributions to the science of natural history. This imputation 

 Mr. Waterton has met in the letter whose title we have 

 placed above. He has met it, not by asserting the measure 

 of the proportion of candour proper to himself, but by im- 

 pugning the authority of the professor's opinion in matters of 

 zoology. The subject which he has chosen is Mr. Audu- 

 bon's notes on the rattlesnake, published in Jameson's Jour- 

 nal, for April and June, 1827, which Mr. Waterton says 

 that the professor had "received and approved of;" Mr. 

 Waterton inferring this, we suppose, from the fact of their 

 being published in the journal. The point chosen will be 

 apparent from our 



Abstract of the Portion of Mr. Audubon 1 s Account which Mr, 

 Waterton has quoted. — " To give you an idea of the long 

 time this poison [the poison of the rattlesnake] retains its 

 property, I shall relate a curious but well-authenticated series 

 of facts which took place in a central district of the state of 

 Pennsylvania, some twelve or fifteen years ago. A farmer 

 was so slightly bit through the boot by a rattlesnake . . . that 

 the pain felt was thought by him to have been from the 

 scratch of a thorn, not having seen or heard the reptile : . . . 

 [he] died in a few hours. Twelve months after this, the 

 eldest son, who had taken his father's boots, put them on, 

 and went to church at some distance. On his going to bed 



