198 Transactions of the [Sess. 



his mandibles, then preen his feathers, and roll his brilliant green 

 head on the gland ; and I cannot believe that these acts are with- 

 out efifect on the plumage. 



Waterton's strong attachment to the Eomish Church is manifest 

 in almost all his writings ; and he never forgave Oliver Cromwell 

 for breaking down the drawbridge at Walton Hall, and firing 

 musket-balls into the old oaken gates. He tells us these balls 

 are still there ; and that Cromwell, not being able to get in, car- 

 ried off everything, in the shape of horses and cattle, which his 

 men could lay their hands on. Waterton occasionally uses strong 

 language when he speaks of controversial theology. He says he 

 would rather run the risk of going to hell with St Edward the 

 Confessor, the Venerable Bede, and St Thomas of Canterbury, than 

 make a dash at heaven in company with Harry VIII., Queen Bess, 

 and Dutch WiUiam. 



It was a matter of extreme regret to Waterton, as it is to many 

 of us, that all rare birds which appear here should be at once 

 slaughtered and become specimens for our museums, and that we 

 should now have to visit Holland to see the true habits of the Stork, 

 or roam through Germany to enjoy the soaring of the Kite. It is now 

 about forty years ago since I stood at the Devil's Bridge in Wales, 

 and watched for some time the graceful gyrations of this splendid 

 Hawk : I fear it would be difScult now to see one in all the Princi- 

 pality. And when recently, at Basle, a Stork flew by my bedroom 

 window to his nest on a housetop, and was seen afterwards walking 

 about in a field close to some peasants, it was, I confess, with a 

 feeling of shame that I thought of our treatment here of these and 

 so many other beautiful birds. 



One of Waterton's visits to South America was undertaken 

 mainly to procure the wourali poison with which the natives poison 

 their arrows, and which, it was supposed, from its peculiar pro- 

 perties, might prove an efficacious remedy for those dreadful mala- 

 dies, tetanus and hydrophobia. His experiments with this on three 

 quadrupeds showing manifest symptoms of rabies were successful 

 in two cases, failing in one ; and Waterton was very desirous of 

 trying the effect on a human being — offering to travel any distance 

 to administer it, if telegraphed for. It is unfortunate that he was 

 never able to ascertain its efficiency in this respect, for in the only 

 instance in which he was summoned, the patient died before his 

 arrival. 



Both White and Waterton had observed that, in their respective 

 localities, the Eooks in the several rookeries had some favourite 

 resort for roosting in the winter. In the neighbourhood of Sel- 

 borne, White tells us, they retired for the night to the beechen woods 

 of Tisted and Kopley. Waterton says that in his neighbourhood 

 they roosted in the woods of Nostell Priory. In Warwickshire they 



