^.29 



seen as large as a child of a year old? His Rattle-snake's 

 vapoiu'. shows himself to be a vapourcr. He seems enam- 

 oured with the young Indian nymphs. What sayest thee to 

 these originals, in their native dress ? Have they ever been 

 able to charm an Englishman, as they do the French, who 

 are not so delicate 'i As thee lovcst curiosities and novelties 

 — I herewith send thee the book, which will let thee see the 

 notions of a virtuoso, about one hundred years agone." The 

 French travelers and Jesuits, who visited this country in the 

 early period of its settlement, Lave given us in a few short 

 chapters an account of its natural history. Many of the an- 

 imals peculiar to America, when firi^t noticed by the Jesuit 

 lathers, were regarded with astonishment or alarm. Such, 

 as the Bison, Panther, Oppossum, Skunk, Beaver, Whippor- 

 will, Hummingbird and Rattlesnake. There is an amusing 

 account of the first discovery of the skunk, by the fathers 

 Du Poisson & Charlevoix. In a voyage up the Mississippi, 

 performed in 1727, I)u Poisson says: "on the 9th of June, 

 we had scarcely embarked, when there came from the woods 

 a most execrable odor. They told us that it proceeded from 

 an animal called hete puant." Charlevoix ;ays : " there is 

 a kind of pole cat which goes by the name of Enfant du Di- 

 able, or child of the Devil : a title derived from his ill scent, 

 l)ecause his urine, which he lets go, when he finds himself 

 ■pursued, infects the air for a league around ; this is in other 

 respects a very beautiful creature." 



The baron Lahontan, Du Pratz, fathers Hennepin and 

 Charlevoix, and some other authors of the same class, are 

 sometimes consulted by modern ornithologists, although 

 they abound in error and are wholly destitute of scientific 

 descriptions, which makes it frequently difficult for one to 

 understand to what bird they allude. Mark Catcsby in 

 1732, published the first volume of his "Xatural History of 

 Carolina, Florida, and the Bahamas ;" the second volume ap- 

 pearing in 1713. The work was in large folio, and for that 

 .day was considered a magnificent production. He was the 

 author of a paper printed in the 11th volume of the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions " on birds of passage " in which he 

 attempted to prove, that the cause of the migration of birds, 

 was their desire to search for their food. This is a great 

 mistake, no doidjt. ]\Ir. Catesby appears to have been 

 greatly perplexed in regard to the change of plumage in the 



ESSEX INST. PROCEED. VOL. ii. 42. 



