586 APPENDIX. 



ward it off. It is a matter of perfect indifference to me whether you 

 praise or condemn Mr Audubon that is entirely your own affair 

 Had you not condescended to have noticed me in your recent re- 

 view of his second book on the "Biography of Birds," you might have 

 given your lucubrations to the world without animadversion from me, 

 and continue them on any future day, without ever meeting my cen- 

 sure or applause. If, however, my opinion were asked, I should say 

 that I do not consider you qualified to review a book on ornithology. 

 Somehow or other, I happen to have acquired just a sufficient stock 

 of ornithological knowledge, to enable me to perceive errors and mis- 

 representations innumerable in Audubon's pages ; and I have seen a 

 work recently from America, which convinces me more than ever 

 that his statements are not to be relied upon. 



But to the point. I rubbed my eyes and began to suspect their 

 powers of vision, when I read the following precious morsel of absurd 

 fabrication in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal of Science, 

 for April and June 1827, conducted by Robert Jameson, Regius 

 Professor of Natural History in the College of Edinburgh : 



" To give you an idea of the long time this poison retains its pro- 

 perty, 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, as he was walking to view his ripening corn- 

 fields, that the pain felt by him was thought to be the scratch of a 

 thorn, not having seen or heard the reptile. Upon his return home 

 he felt on a sudden violently sick at stomach, vomited with great 

 pain, and 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 that night, while drawing oft 

 his boots he felt lightly scratched on the leg, but merely mentioned 

 it to his wife, and rubbed the place with his hand. In a few hours, 

 however, he was awakened by violent pains, complained of general 

 giddiness, fainted frequently, and expired before any succour could 

 be applied with success the cause of his illness also being quite a 

 mystery. In course of time his effects were sold, and a second 

 brother, through filial affection, purchased the boots, and, if I 

 remember rightly, put them on about two years after. As he drew 



