86 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



prised at the incredulity of persons who do not leave cities, 

 for I occasionally hear of things which even stagger me, who 

 am so often a denizen of woods and swamps. What do you 

 think of rattlesnakes taking to the water, and swimming across 

 inlets and rivers? I have not seen this, but I believe it; since 

 the most respectable individuals assure me they have fre- 

 quently been eye-witnesses of this feat, I can conceive of in- 

 ducements which reptiles may have for traversing sheets of 

 water to gain dry land, especially in a country much inter- 

 sected by streams, and subject to inundations, which compel 

 them to be often in the water. In such countries, it is not an 

 uncommon occurrence to find snakes afloat and at great dis- 

 tances from the shore. This appears, no doubt, surprising to 

 those who live where there is almost nothing but dry land; 

 still they ought to be good natured, and believe what others 

 have seen. It has now been made notorious, that numerous 

 respectable individuals, whom duty, or the love of adventure, 

 have led into the woods of our country, have often seen snakes 

 —and the rattlesnake too— in trees; the good people, there- 

 fore, who pass their lives in stores and counting houses, ought 

 not to contradict these facts, because they do not meet with 

 rattlesnakes, hissing and snapping at them from the paper 

 mulberries, as they go home to their dinners. . . . 



Audubon's most persistent heckler was Charles 

 Waterton, 25 who during two of his most prolific years, 

 1833 and 1834, published no less than fourteen lucubra- 

 tions against the "foreigner," and "stranger" as the 

 American was called ; all were characterized by quizzing 

 interrogatories, shallow criticism and personal vitupera- 

 tion, for the most part unworthy of serious considera- 

 tion. Long noted for his eccentricities, Waterton had 

 little or no standing among English zoologists, against 

 many of whom, from time to time, he issued broadsides 

 or breezy polemics, whenev er their statements cast a 



25 See Bibliography, No. 104 et seq. 



