June 30. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



513 



menace and peck at any female who approached 

 it ; but was at all times ready to fraternise with 

 the masculine portion of humanity. I never 

 knew it to be spiteful to one of the male sex, 

 except on one occasion when it was teased by a 

 workman whUe the house was under repairs. If 

 a female entered the room when Poll was quietly 

 perched in her cage, she would at once leap down 

 to the floor of her cage, scream violently, and 

 endeavour to get out to the attack. When suf- 

 fered to leave her cage, which happened daily, she 

 would immediately attack the females in the room, 

 running along the carpet and pecking at their 

 feet; and, even when engaged in eating choice 

 morsels from my own hand, would, if a lady en- 

 tered the room, immediately leave me, and rush 

 at the visitor, attempting to tear her dress, and 

 especially to peck her feet. There was no play in 

 these eccentricities, but plenty of real spite. My 

 wife was always amused to see Poll enter the 

 kitchen to steal the fruit, while pastry-making 

 was going on ; but she would drop her dainties, 

 and offer battle boldly to the cook or the mistress 

 the moment they appeared, though encouraged 

 by them in her acts of petty larceny. Her queer 

 ways, and skill in stealing, saved her from utter 

 condemnation ; otherwise her spiteful habits ren- 

 dered her an object of fear and hate to all the 

 females in the house. With men she was bold, 

 playful, and confidant, and formed some very 

 strong attachments. 



I had a tame jackdaw which evinced the same 

 tendency, but in a less degree. 



Shiklet Hibberd. 



Sir Thomas Chaloner, ob. 1615' (Vol. xi., 

 p. 125.). — Fuller's Worthies, p. 186. ; Gough's 

 Camden, iii. 80. ; Berkenhout, Biog. Liter., p. 529. ; 

 Puttenham, Art of Poetry, p. 51.; ob. 1565, 

 Lloyd's Statesmen and Favourites of England since 

 the Reformation, Svo. (London, 1665), p. 343» 



E. W. 0. 



Camberwell. 



Eminent Men born in the same Year (Vol. xi., 

 p. 27.). — I beg to recommend the year 1788 to 

 such of your correspondents as are curious in 

 these matters. Lord Byron, Sir Robert Peel, 

 and other men of eminence, both at home and 

 abroad, were born in that year. J. S. Warden. 



Marriages between Cousins (Vol. x., p. 102.). — 

 I do not know why these marriages should be so 

 sweepingly condemned. There appears no reason 

 why amongst men, as in lower animals, good 

 qualities might not be improved and perpetuated 

 by such unions, if not carried to too great an 

 extent. Byron was the grandson of a marriage 

 between first cousins ; and whatever may be 

 thought of his conduct in many respects, no one 

 can say there was any approach to idiocy there. 



In short, anything of the kind may be proved by 

 selecting particular families for examples ; and I 

 believe that the direct reverse might be proved 

 by an equally careful selection of families in no 

 way related on the father's and mother's sides. 

 At all events, I believe that the highest family in 

 the land gives no confirmation to the gloomy view 

 that your correspondent takes of such marriages. 



J. S. Wakdes. 



" Barratry"' (Vol. xi., p. 441.). — 



" Barraior, or harretor, Lat. baredator, Fr. barateur, a 

 deceiver ; signifies a common wrangler, that setteth men 

 at ods, and is himself never quiet, but at brawle with, one 

 or other." 



Also — 



" Barrators be Symonists, so call'd of the Italian word 

 barrataria, signifying corruption or bribery in a judge 

 giving a false sentence for money." — Cowell's Inter- 

 preter, by Manley, London, 1684. 



It is rather hard upon Sancho Panza, who was 

 not so very unfair a judge, that he should have 

 been made governor of the Isle of Barrataria. 



A. F. B. 



Diss. 



Captain Molloy (Vol. x., p. 99.). — If tradition 

 be correct, the lady whom this luckless warrior 

 deserted was still more effectually avenged by her 

 successful rival, than even by the fulfilment of 

 her malediction, the Captain having been an ex- 

 ception to the general supposition, that brave men 

 abroad are the greatest cowards under their own 

 roof, and vice versa, as may be inferred from the 

 following lines, which have appeared in print 

 before : 

 ** I, Anthony James Pye Molloy, 



Can burn, take, sink, and destroy ; 



There's only one thing I can't do, on my life ! 



And that is, to stop the d d tongue of my wife." 



As for the Caesar, I think the name, before the close 

 of the war, had been, under such commanders as 

 Saumarez, Brenton, and Strachan, amply cleared 

 from the discredit brought upon it by her first 

 captain. J. S. Warden. 



Rings formerly worn by Ecclesiastics (Vol. viii., 

 p. 387.). — As yet the Query remains unanswered, 

 whether " Ecclesiastics not bishops were formerly 

 in this country expected to wear during their life- 

 time, and be buried with the ring, at their de- 

 cease." A paper published in the September 

 number of the Archceological Journal, by Messrs. 

 W. S. Walford and A. Way, contains a remark 

 from which we may gather that such was the 

 custom. 



" In the archdeaconry of Chester, on the death of every 

 priest, his best horse, saddle, bridle, and spurs, certain 

 articles of apparel, and his best signet or ring, belonged to 

 the bishop, as being the archdeacon." — Arch. Joum., 

 p. 273. 



Cbyrep. 



