text:  As Mr Waterton's accuracy as an observer cannot be questioned we can only infer that the advantages of education enjoyed by the owls of Alma Mater and the Modern Athens enables them to attain a degree of vocal proficiency beyond the reach of their rustic brethren in Yorkshire--and we hope ere long to hear of Mr Waterton's having added a feathered professor of languages from one or other of these seats of learning to the colony of barn-owls established in the ruin of the old gateway at Walton