APPENDIX. 555 



enveloped The duck, for example. I wish you would read atten- 

 tively what I have already written on this subject in London, not for- 

 getting the article where I cut up Audubon about his swimming 

 partridge. In that article you will see why the feathers of a land 

 bird become soaked in the water. 



On reading your article your most satisfactory article on the 

 cow-bunting, since it has appeared in print, I fancy that they have 

 altered it in some places. I don't see that part which I underlined 

 concerning Audubon. 



You are quite right with regard to Jennets preposterous account 

 of the young cuckoo. He never saw what he relates. Fearing that 

 you might have a dozen of our naturalists on your back for daring 

 to call in question the authority of Jenner, I have already taken up 

 the club on your side. In my article on the jay, which I sent to 

 Loudon last week, I have introduced the subject, and I trust I have 

 proved to every rational reader that Jenner's account ought not to 

 be relied upon. The whipping which I have given Parson Morris 

 in the magazine of this month ought to have appeared in the one of 

 last month, but Loudon begged I would let him defer it till the 

 March number, on account of want of room, as he had several 

 articles from correspondents which had laid too long by him. 



Now that you are free from farming, pray turn all your thoughts 

 to ornithology. You and I have it fully in our power to dress over 

 those who defile the science by their pedantry, ignorance, and lies. 

 Jesse's " Gleanings in Natural History " are faulty in the extreme. 

 I told Loudon some time ago that he ought to be whipped. Nothing 

 can be more false or absurd than his statement , that horses in hot 

 countries bleed each other. I should say that Brother Jonathan, 

 with very great justice, might cut our scientific jackasses to pieces, 

 were it not that he might fear retaliation on account of Audubon, 

 whose reputation seems to be sinking very fast. I often wonder, for 

 the credit of your country, that some of your scientific people do not 

 lay their heads together and expose the cheateries of that man. 

 The affair of the rat leading the blind rat, is a real lie. You will 

 have seen in the last numbers of Loudon how exactly I agree with 

 you concerning the black snake. I think Master Taylor had better 

 drop zoology as a science above his reach. I am glad you look upon 



