APPENDIX. 557 



London's last. Only think that the puppy has no notion of the 

 anatomy of a cat's paw ! The blockhead has never even found out 

 that the claws being retractile, the cat can put them completely out 

 of the way when she washes her face. Swainson has got a most 

 tremendous castigation in the last number. I am very glad that he 

 has caught it, for I really think, with the exception of Audubon, 

 nobody has done such real mischief to science as Swainson. The 

 girls and Father Morris send their kindest regards. We shall go to 

 Aix-la-Chapelle in the summer; but I will in due time tell you 

 everything about our intended trip. Can't you contrive to meet us 

 there, and then return with us to Walton Hall. Believe me, my 

 dear friend, ever truly yours, 



CHARLES WATERTON. 



To the Same. 



ROME, December i, 1840. 

 No. 106 VIA DE DUG MACELLI. 



My dear Friend, I received your most welcome and instructive 

 letter on the 28th of November. I sit down this morning to answer 

 it, and I shall write a little from time to time, not being able to finish 

 it at one, nor perhaps at two, or more sittings, on account of having 

 my hands full of natural history. I go to the bird-market at the 

 Rotunda every day, and when I fall in with a rare bird in good 

 order, I buy it and take it home in order to prepare it. I have now 

 got nearly forty specimens ; and were I to give a public lecture on 

 the mode of preparing them, I should put Master Swainson's renewed 

 Taxidermy into a fever that would carry it off the stage for ever. I 

 cannot exactly understand how he can make me, at one and the 

 same time, a very observing and an unscientific naturalist. Acute 

 observation must be productive of knowledge. My former letter 

 to him galled him tremendously, and pointed out to the public 

 pretty clearly his lamentable ignorance of real ornithology. I was 

 informed by our consul at Palermo, that Swainson is about to settle 

 in Australia, having offered his museum for sale. He seems to be 

 an utterly disappointed man. His want of knowledge of the real 



