Because of the time required to load the sling and to raise the counterweight, a large trebuchet's rate of fire is slow, often not more than a couple of shots an hour. Smaller trebuchets can fire a couple of times a minute. The payload of a trebuchet was usually a large rounded stone, although other projectiles were occasionally used: dead animals, beehives, the severed heads of captured enemies, small stones burned into clay balls which would explode on impact like grapeshot, barrels of burning tar or oil, Greek fire, or even unsuccessful negotiators, prisoners of war, and spies catapulted alive.
Emphasis mine. I am not sure but I don't think the tone in the above paragraph would make it into Britanica. One of the many reasons to adore Wikipedia.
