The Field Book: or, Sports and pastimes of the United Kingdom compiled from the best authorities, ancient and modern (part 5 of 7)

The Field Book: or, Sports and pastimes of the United Kingdom compiled from the best authorities, ancient and modern (part 5 of 7)

The puffin weighs about twelve ounces, and measures twelve inches in length, and twenty-one in breadth. Its singular bill looks not unlike a kind of sheath slipped over both mandibles; and, from its appearance, the bird is not improperly named coulterneb, or knife-bill. At the base, where it is about an inch and a half in depth, it is rimmed with a white callous border, the two corners of which project above the brow, and below the chin. It is about the same in length, curved towards the point, compressed vertically, very flat, and transversely furrowed on the sides; the half of it adjoining to the head is smooth, and of a fine lead-coloured blue; the other part, to the tip, red: the nostrils are placed in long narrow slits, near the edge of the bill; the corners of the mouth, when closed, are curiously puckered, and form a kind of small star, or rose; the eyes are protected by small callous protuberances, both above and below; the edges of the eye-lids are crimson; irides grey; the chin and cheeks are white, bordered with grey—the latter much puffed up with feathers, which makes the head look large and round. From behind the corner of each eye the feathers are curiously separated, forming a narrow line, which reaches to the hinder part of the head: the crown of the head, hinder part of the neck, and upper part of the plumage, are black, and a collar of the same colour encircles the neck; the under parts are white; the tail consists of sixteen feathers; the legs are reddish orange.

The puffin, like others of the same genus, takes wing with great difficulty, and walks upon the whole length of the leg and foot, with a wriggling awkward gait. In tempestuous weather it takes shelter in caverns and holes in the nearest rocks, or in those made by the rabbit on the beach among the bent grass, in which it sits dozing, in snug security, till the return of the calm weather; for these birds cannot brave the storm, and it is not uncommon, when they have been overtaken by it, to find them drowned and cast on shore. Various kinds of fish, such as small crabs, shrimps, sprats, and also seaweeds, are said to be the food upon which they live; but it is evident from the structure, great strength, and sharpness of the bill, that they are furnished with powers to crush and pluck out other kinds of shell-fish, which ornithologists have not noticed.

The female makes no nest; she deposits her single whitish-coloured egg upon the bare mould, in a hole, dug out and formed in the ground, by her mate and herself, for that purpose; or in those which they find ready made by the rabbits, whom they easily dislodge. The parent birds are very attentive to their young, which they will defend to the last, by severely biting whatever enemy attempts to molest them, and will suffer themselves to be taken rather than desert them: and yet, notwithstanding this uncommon attachment, when the day of migration comes, the young, which are not able to fly, are left behind, and mostly perish of want, or are destroyed by birds of prey.

The bite of these birds is very severe: one sent to the author in a box, covered with netting, caught hold of the finger of a poor man, and brought away the fleshy part, as if it had been cut out with a knife; but they may be tamed, and soon become familiar. They are fed on fish and other animal substances.—These birds are spread over various parts of the northern world, and are met with on almost all the rocky cliffs on the coasts of Britain and Ireland, and on many of the surrounding isles, in immense numbers. They congregate in flocks of magnitude, regulated by the accommodations afforded them at their breeding places, at which they first assemble early in April, but do not settle to prepare for the business of incubation till May. They hatch their young in the beginning of July; from which time until nearly the middle of August, they are employed in returning and rearing their brood: when this is accomplished, the whole associated swarm leaves the place at once, and pursues its route to other regions, more suited to their future exigencies, there to spend the remainder of the varied year.

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Astonishing emigration of puffins.—A most extraordinary event took place at the great island of Arran, lying at the mouth of the bay leading to Galway, in Ireland, some years ago. The stupendous cliffs to the southwest of the island, which, from time immemorial, had been the place of resort, or rather the natural habitation of such numbers of rock-birds or puffins, as is almost incredible, were at once deserted, on the 24th of June, by that entire species of fowl, which abandoned their nests, eggs, and young ones, and went off to sea. The like incident is said to have happened forty years before, and no reason whatever could be assigned for these most extraordinary derelictions.

PUFFY, a. Windy, flatulent; tumid, turgid; out of wind.

PUG, s. A kind name for a monkey, or anything tenderly loved.

PUG DOG (Canis Pricator, GMELIN), s.

This variety is so nearly allied to the bull-dog (from which he is descended by a cross with the small Danish) in form and general appearance, that a detailed description is quite unnecessary. The chief difference is in its size, being much smaller, and its tail curled upon its back. It differs extremely in another particular, which is in courage, this animal being as timid as the other is valiant.

This dog was formerly very common in many parts of Great Britain, but is now becoming very scarce, from the circumstance, we have no doubt, of its being so useless. It may be prized as a pet, but certainly not for its beauty. Although its admirers in this country are becoming very limited in number, we are informed by Mrs. Piozzi, that in Italy it is a great favourite, more particularly at Padua.

There is a Sunday market at Moscow, where German pug dogs, which are so dear in London, can be bought for a sum of money equivalent to a shilling.

PULLET, s. A young hen.

PULSE, s. The motion of any artery as the blood is driven through it by the heart, and as it is perceived by the touch; vibration; leguminous plants.

It seems, by the nicest observations, that the pulsations of a healthy horse seldom exceed from forty to forty-five in a minute; exceeding which, in any material degree, there is then reason to believe inflammatory heat is predominant in the frame, and that fever is rapidly advancing in proportion to the increased velocity of the blood.

PULVERISE, v. To reduce to powder, to reduce to dust.

PUMICE, s. A light and spongy cinder of some fossil. It is ejected from volcanic mountains, or procured in melting glasses.

PUNCH, v. To bore or perforate by driving a sharp instrument.

PUNCH, s. A pointed instrument, which, driven by a blow, perforates bodies; a liquor made by mixing spirit with water, sugar, and the juice of lemons or oranges; an implement for cutting out hat or card waddings.

To make Punch.—A wine-glass nearly full of best refined lump sugar pounded. Twelve ditto of cold spring water, a lime, and half a lemon, (or if no lime, a whole lemon, which might yield about half a wineglassful of juice). Two wineglasses brim full of old Jamaica rum. Let the sugar be well melted, and the lemons thoroughly amalgamated with it and the water, before you add the spirit.

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It is better to make the punch with boiling water the night before it is required for use. Strain it in the morning, and place the bottles in a well or stream of water, sheltered from the sun. When wanted at dinner time, you will have a cooler and much more mellow beverage than if the water had been taken from the spring.—Hawker—Wild Sports.

PUNCTURE, s. A hole made with a sharp point.

PUNGENT, a. Pungent, sharp on the tongue, acrid; piercing, sharp, acrimonious, biting.

PUNT, s. A light flat boat for fishing and shooting.

Dressing for Punts and Canoes.—To keep gunning punts and canoes from leaking, or, as those who use them call it, weeping, melt a pint of tar with a pound of pitch, and either half a pint of common oil, or a proportional quantity of suet. You have then only to pour a little of this mixture into the seams of your punt, and, instead of bedaubing her all over the bottom, as we did in the old school, seven or eight years ago, have the bottom painted with one or two coats of red lead, which will last much longer, and with which the boat rows much lighter.

White resin and mutton suet is even a better dressing, and by far the lightest of any.

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Punt Shooting.—The punt shooters (men who earn their livelihood in winter by attacking the wild fowl, night and day, according as the tide serves) kill great numbers. The pursuit is hazardous, especially when there is much ice in the river, by which they sometimes get encircled, and then can only float with the current, and are kept often two or three tides before they can extricate themselves, and their punt is ill calculated to sustain pressure against its sides, which are not twenty inches high from the surface of the water; in this the punter by night drops down with the tide, or uses his paddles after the fowl; he knows their haunts, and takes every advantage of wind, tide, moon, &c.; his gun, which carries as much as a little cannon, is laid with the muzzle over the stem of the punt, in a hitch, which regulates the line of aim: at the bottom of the punt he lies upon his belly, and gets as near the rout of fowl that are upon the water as possible; when within the range of his gun, he rattles with his feet against the bottom of his punt, and when the fowl begin to spring at this unexpected sound, at that moment he pulls the trigger, and cuts a lane through their ranks, he instantly follows the direction of his shot, and gathers up those that are killed, or just expiring, for very seldom he makes it answer to row after fowl only wounded. He then charges his gun, and drifts further down the river, in hopes of a second, third, and successive shots. By this mode a man has brought home from fourscore to an hundred wild fowls, of various kinds, in one night’s excursion; and this will not seem an exaggerated account, when the multitudes which, in hard frosty weather, with the wind at east or north-east, haunt the Blackwater river are known. The numbers that are seen in their day-flights, and the noises of the various kinds of a night, are almost beyond belief: to the compiler, prepared as he was to behold amazing quantities, they exhibited far beyond what he was led to expect, and to others who have seen their throngs, the astonishment has been perhaps still greater. A punt shooter of the name of Bowles, has been known to clear upwards of an hundred pounds in a season by his gun; the wild fowl were sold to the higlers, &c., at two shillings a couple, one with the other; allowing his expenses to be only thirty pounds, here were two thousand six hundred birds brought home; an immense destruction, when the whole period allotted for it does not much exceed five months. Forty-two wigeons have been killed at a single shot in the day-time, and the difficulty of approaching the great flocks of fowl in the light is tenfold. A man, in whose punt the compiler was, got eighteen wigeons at one shot, and many that were crippled, escaped. If in the day, or at night, the punters get a shot at the fowl at feed upon the ooze, they tie on their plashes (similar to the mud-pattens used in Hampshire), and collect their spoil.

The best time for this shooting is the first or second day’s thaw after a sharp frost, and when deep snow has long covered the ground; the fowl are then flying in every direction to dabble in the fresh water, which then appears all around inviting them. Another favourable opportunity is at the commencement of a frost, with the wind strong at east, and a sleet or snow falling: if the guns can but be kept dry, there is no complaint about the using them, and the fowl in such weather always fly lower than when the atmosphere is clear.—Daniel—Hawker.

PUP, v. To bring forth whelps, used of a bitch bringing young.

All dogs that are much domesticated and confined, appear particularly subject to difficulty in bringing forth; consequently during pregnancy much exercise should be given, as nothing tends more to easy parturition than full exercise. Sometimes the constitution itself, in these tender and artificial breeds, is not equal to the exertion of labour; and sometimes false presentation increases the obstruction. Whenever a difficulty in pupping occurs, which has existed more than four or five hours, the bitch should be examined by means of a finger passed up the vagina; and, if any portion of a pup should be found to present itself, so as to be within reach of the finger, a skein of worsted ought, if possible, to be fastened around it; and, during the throes, or labour pains of the animal, it should be gently drawn away. If it cannot be reached in this way, a little longer time may be allowed; but, after all, should it not advance, a pair of forceps may be used to assist the extraction. It is a good practice to give a laxative as soon as any symptoms of pupping appear; and, when delivery seems much delayed, it will be prudent, in all cases, to bathe in warm water, and to give nutriment if the labour is protracted: occasional doses of laudanum united with æther must be given if any convulsive appearances come on. The patience of bitches in labour is extreme, and their distress, if not relieved, is most striking and affecting. Their look is, at such times, particularly expressive, and apparently imploring.—Blaine.

PUPPY, s. A whelp, a progeny of a bitch; a name of contempt to an impertinent fellow.

PURGATIVE, a. Cathartic, having the power to cause evacuation downwards.

PURGE, v. To cleanse, to clear from impurities; to evacuate the body by stool; to have frequent stools.

PURGE, s. A cathartic medicine, a medicine that evacuates the body by stool.

PURL, s. A kind of medicated malt liquor, in which wormwood and aromatics are infused.

PURPLE, a. Red, tinctured with blue.

PURPLE, v. To make red, to colour with purple.

PURSENET, s. A net of which the mouth is drawn together by a string.

PURSINESS, s. Shortness of breath.

PURULENT, a. Consisting of pus or the running of wounds.

PUS, s. The matter of a well-digested sore.

PUSS, s. The fondling name for a cat; the sportsman’s term for a hare.

PUSTULE, s. A small swelling, a pimple, an efflorescence.

PUSTULOUS, n. Full of pustules, pimply.

PUT, s. A clown; a vulgar game at cards.

Put, played with a complete pack, generally by two people, sometimes by three, and often by four, is a game at which the cards rank differently from all others, tray being the best, next the deuce, then ace, king, and so on in the usual order, as at whist. After cutting for deal, &c., at which the highest put card wins, three cards, by one at a time, are given to each player, then the game is played in the following way. If the non-dealer throw up his cards he loses a point; if he play, and the dealer do not lay down another to it, he gains a point; but should the dealer either win the same, pass it, or lay down one of equal value, forming what is styled a tie, the non-dealer is still at liberty to put, that is play, or not, and his opponent then only gains a point; then if both parties agree to go on, whoever gains all the tricks or two out of three, wins five points, which are the game; if each player win one trick, and the third be a tie, then neither party scores.

Four-handed put differs only in this, that on both sides, one of the players gives his best card to his partner, who lays out one in lieu of it, and the game is afterwards played as in two-handed put.

If the dealer turn up any of his adversary’s cards in dealing another deal may be demanded; but if he turn up his own he is to abide by it. Should a faced card occur, the pack must be shuffled and dealt again. When more cards than necessary are given to the non-dealer, he may either claim a fresh deal, or have the extra cards drawn; but should the dealer give himself too many, then his opponent is entitled to a point, and may either have another deal, or draw the supernumerary cards. Bystanders ought never to interfere, under penalty of paying the stakes. Either party saying, I put, must abide the event of the game, or pay the stakes.—Hoyle.

PUTREFACTION, s. The state of growing rotten; the act of making rotten.

PUTTOCK, s. A buzzard.

PUZZLE, v. To perplex, to confound, to embarrass, to entangle.

PYROTECHNY, s. The art of managing fire; the art of making fireworks.

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QUACK, v. To cry like a duck; to act the part of a boasting pretender to physic, or any other art.

QUADRANGULAR, a. Square, having four right angles.

QUADRILLE, s. A game at cards.

The game of quadrille is played by four persons, with forty cards; the four tens, nines, and eights, are discarded from the pack; the deal is made by distributing the cards to each player, three at a time, for two rounds, and once four to each, beginning with the right-hand player, who is the elder hand.

The stakes, consisting of several equal billets or contracts, comprising the counters and fish, are distributed among the players, who agree upon the value thereof, and upon the number of tours, which are usually ten. After the trump is named, the right-hand player leads, and should the ombre, either alone or with a friend, win all the tricks, he gains the vole, or, if six tricks, the game; but if he get only five tricks he loses by remise, and if only four, by codill. The game, consolation, matadores, bastos, and other payments, are variously regulated, according as the game is won or lost. The holder of either or both of the red aces, is entitled to a fish for each.

SOME SHORT RULES FOR LEARNERS.

1. When you are the ombre, and your friend leads from a mat, play your best trump, and then lead the next best the first opportunity.

2. If you possess all the trumps, keep leading them, except you have other certain winning cards.

3. If all the mats should not be revealed by the time you have won six tricks, do not risk playing for the vole.

4. When you are the friend called, and hold only a mat, lead it, but if only a mat, guarded by a small trump, lead the small one; though when the ombre is last player, lead the best trump you have.

5. Punto in red, or king of trumps in black, are good cards to lead when they are your best, and should either of them succeed, then play a small trump.

6. When the ombre leads to discover the friend, if you hold king, queen, and knave, put on the knave.

7. Preserve the called suit, whether friend or foe.

8. When playing against a lone hand, never lead a king, unless you have the queen, nor change the suit, nor permit, if possible to prevent it, the ombre to be last player.

9. Call on the strongest suits, except you have a queen guarded, and, if elder hand, you have a better chance than when middle hand.

10. A good player may succeed better with a weaker hand, when either elder or younger, than if middle hand.

THE RANK OF THE CARDS WHEN NOT TRUMPS.

CLUBS AND SPADES.

King, Queen, Knave, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Deuce. ———————— In all 9.

HEARTS AND DIAMONDS.

King, Queen, Knave, Ace, Deuce, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven. —————————— In all 10.

THE RANK AND ORDER OF THE TRUMPS.

CLUBS AND SPADES.

Spadille, the ace of spades. Manille, the deuce of spades or of clubs. Basto, the ace of clubs. King, Queen, Knave, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three. —————————— In all 11.

HEARTS AND DIAMONDS.

Spadille, the ace of spades. Manille, the seven of hearts or diamonds. Basto, the ace of clubs. Punto, the ace of hearts or diamonds. King, Queen, Knave, Deuce, Three, Four, Five, Six. —————————— In all 12.

N.B. Spadille and basto are always trumps, by which the red suits have one trump more than the black.

There are three matadores, viz.—spadille, manille, and basto, which force all inferior trumps; but if an ordinary trump be led, you are not obliged to play a matadore; though, if spadille be led, and you hold manille or basto unguarded, you must play it; also, if manille be led, and you have basto unguarded, that must be played.

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1. The first thing, after seeing the cards, is to ask leave; to pass; or play sans prendre; and if you name a wrong trump you must abide by it.

2. If all the players pass, he who holds spadille is obliged to play what is called forced spadille; but though he should not make three tricks, he is not basted.

3. The player who calls a king, ought to have a fair probability of winning three tricks, to prevent being basted.

4. Therefore, such games only are set down as give a fair chance to win by calling a king, with directions at the end of each what to lead.—Hoyle.

QUADRUPED, s. An animal that goes on four legs, as, perhaps, all beasts.

QUADRUPLE, a. Fourfold, four times told.

QUAGMIRE, s. A shaking marsh.

QUAIL, (Tetrao Coturnix, LINN.; Le Caille, BUFF.) s. A bird of game.

The length of the quail is seven inches and a half. Bill dusky; eyes hazel; the colours of the head, neck, and back, are of a mixture of brown, ash-colour, and black; over each eye there is a yellow streak, and another of the same colour down the middle of the forehead; a dark line passes from each corner of the bill, forming a kind of forget above the breast; the scapular feathers are marked by a light yellowish streak down the middle of each; the quills are of a lightish brown, with small rust-coloured bands on the exterior of the feathers; the breast is of a pale rust-colour, spotted with black, and streaked with pale yellow; the tail consists of twelve feathers, barred like the wings; the belly and thighs are of a yellowish white; the legs pale brown. The female wants the black spots on the breast, and is easily distinguished by a less vivid plumage.

Quails are almost universally diffused throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa; they are birds of passage, and are seen in immense flocks traversing the Mediterranean Sea, from Europe to the shores of Africa, in the autumn, and returning again in the spring, frequently alighting, in their passage, on many of the islands of the Archipelago, which they almost cover with their numbers. On the western coasts of the kingdom of Naples, such prodigious numbers have appeared, that an hundred thousand have been taken in a day, within the space of four or five miles. From these circumstances it appears highly probable that the quails which supplied the Israelites with food, during their journey through the wilderness, were sent thither on their passage to the north, by a wind from the south-west, sweeping over Egypt and Ethiopia, towards the shores of the Red Sea.

Quails are not very numerous here; they breed with us, and many of them are said to remain throughout the year, changing their quarters from the interior counties to the sea coast. The female makes her nest like the partridge, and lays to the number of six or seven eggs of a greyish colour, speckled with brown. The young birds follow the mother as soon as hatched, but do not continue long together: they are scarcely grown up before they separate; or, if kept together, they fight obstinately with each other, their quarrels frequently terminating in each others’ destruction. From this quarrelsome disposition in the quail, it was that they were formerly made use of by the Greeks and Romans, as we use game-cocks, for the purpose of fighting. We are told that Augustus punished a præfect of Egypt with death, for bringing to his table one of these birds, which had acquired celebrity by its victories. At this time the Chinese are much addicted to fighting quails: in some parts of Italy it is likewise said to be no uncommon practice. After feeding two quails very highly, they place them opposite to each other, and throw a few grains of seed between them; the birds rush upon each other with the utmost fury, striking with their bills and heels till one of them yields.

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In our way down to the beach, we observed a number of high poles erected at small distances in the low grounds. These the lad told us served to stretch their nets upon in the quail season. Capri has in all ages been celebrated for the prodigious number of quails caught there. The principal revenues of the bishop and of some convents, arise from the quails they send to Naples. In a good season, which lasts about three weeks only, 150,000, and in one day 12,000 have been taken. As birds of passage, they alight here merely to rest themselves in their flight to other countries; begin arriving in April, and continue till the middle of May. That period is a time of profit and rejoicing for the Capreans, every one being at liberty to shoot or catch as many as he can. Exhausted as the bird is, there is little difficulty in seizing him. The most common and productive method is, for one man to have a net, which he carries folded up on two poles, another drives the quails towards him, when the former instantly expands his net, and as soon as the birds strike against it, he turns the net with great dexterity, and confines them entangled as they are. They are then put into a bag, to preserve them alive, because the live ones fetch a double price at Naples. Very often, however, this pastime is attended with serious consequences; the bearer of the net, in twisting it round, frequently loses his balance, from the weight of the long poles, and is precipitated from the rocks. Even boys from the age of four amuse themselves by catching them with the hand in the bushes, and putting them under the netting which they constantly wear on their heads; and on their return home, the height of this animated head dress, as it affords the best proof of their success, is a matter of triumph among them. In Egypt, when these birds arrive in the month of September, I have more than once seen the Arabs killing and laming them, by throwing short sticks at them. During the time that the Capitani Bey blockaded the harbour of Alexandria with his Turkish squadron, one of the Greek sailors of his ship had caught two or three which had perched on the rigging. The mussulman rewarded him generously, and desirous of varying the hard fare which a blockading squadron has usually to sustain, by a more ample supply of such a delicate rarity, promised a piastre for every quail that should be brought him. In a few days the rigging, sails, and yards were covered with flocks of quails; great numbers were caught of course, and every one was brought into the cabin, as the price had been so liberally fixed. To escape the dilemma of either ruining his purse or breaking his promise, the Capitani Bey resorted to the alternative of standing out to sea, as by removing from the coast he got rid of the visits of these expensive strangers.

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In January, 1806, Lord Fitzharris was returning from shooting, when close to the sea his dogs pointed, and he shot a quail; in the same field he killed a brace more, these consisted of a male, female, and young bird; they were fat and in exceeding good condition, and it was conjectured that the old birds had been disabled from pursuing their autumnal migration. A similar incident not having occurred to any sportsman, in that part of England, in some measure accounts for Mr. Pennant’s remark (which he made for its singularity), of a quail being shot in Kent, during the winter of 1781.—Bewick—Daniel—Letters from the Campagna Felice.

QUAILPIPE, s. A pipe with which fowlers allure quails.

QUARRY, s. A square; game flown at by a hawk; a stone mine, a place where they dig stones; the ancient term for game, both winged and quadruped.

QUARRY, v. To prey upon; to dig out stones.

QUART, s. The fourth part, a quarter; the fourth part of a gallon; the vessel in which strong drink is commonly retailed.

QUARTAN, s. The fourth-day ague.

QUARTER, s. A fourth part; a region of the skies, as referred to the seaman’s card.

QUARTER, v. To divide into four parts; to divide, to break by force; to divide into distinct regions; to traverse back and forward carefully as a pointer quarters a field.

QUASSIA, s. A powerful bitter, useful in weakness of the stomach.

QUICK, s. The living flesh; sensible parts; plants of hawthorn.

QUICKSILVER, s. The vulgar name for mercury.

QUILL, s. The hard and strong feather of the wing, of which pens are made; prick or dart of a porcupine; wing feathers of birds generally.

QUINARY, a. Consisting of five.

QUINT, s. A set of five; sequents of five; a term at cards, pronounced kent.

QUINZE, s. A game at cards.

Quinze is a French game, usually played by two persons only, admired for its simplicity and fairness, depending entirely upon chance, being soon decided, and not requiring the attention of most other games on the cards, and therefore calculated for those who love to sport upon an equal hazard.

It is called quinze from fifteen being the game, made in the following manner:—first, the cards must be shuffled by the player, and when they have cut for deal, which belongs to him who cuts the lowest, they may be shuffled again, the dealer having the privilege to shuffle last: this being done, the adversary cuts, after which the dealer gives one card to his adversary and one to himself; if the adversary do not like his card, he has a right to have as many more given to him, one after the other, the pips of which will make 15, or come nearest to it, which are usually given from the top of the pack; for example, if he should have a deuce, and draw a five, which make seven, he should go on, in hopes of coming nearer to 15; if he then draw an eight, which makes just 15, and be elder-hand, he is sure of winning the game: but should he over-draw, and make above 15, he loses, unless the dealer does the same, in which case it is a drawn game, and they double the stakes; and thus go on till one of them has won the game by standing, and being 15, or the nearest to it, below that number, &c. At the end of each game, the cards are put up and shuffled, and the players cut anew for the deal, the elder hand constantly having the advantage.—Hoyle.

QUITTER, s. A disease of the hoof. Vide APPENDIX.

QUITTERBONE, s. A hard round swelling upon the coronet, between the heel and the quarter.

QUIVER, s. A case for arrows.

QUIVERED, a. Furnished with a quiver.

QUOIT, s. Something thrown to a great distance, to a certain point; the discus of the ancients is sometimes called in English quoit, but improperly.

QUOIT, v. To throw quoits, to play at quoits.

QUOTIDIAN, a. Daily, happening every day.

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RABATE, v. In falconry, to recover a hawk to the fist again.

RABBET, s. A joint made by paring two pieces, so that they wrap over one another.

RABBIT, s. A furry animal that lives on plants, and burrows in the ground.

Rabbit-keeping is practised by a few individuals in almost every town, and by a few in almost every part of the country; but thirty or forty years ago, there were one or two very considerable feeders near the metropolis, keeping each, according to report, from fifteen hundred to two thousand breeding does. These large concerns have ceased, it seems, long since, and London receives the supply of tame as well as wild rabbits, chiefly from the country.

The only considerable rabbit-feeders of whom I heard, some years since, were two gentlemen, the one resident in Oxfordshire, the other in Berks. The former fed some hundreds, and then, it was said, intended to double his stock. The huts were placed in a small building set apart for that purpose. The then stock produced one load of dung per week, two loads of which were sufficient to manure an acre of land. Three dozen of rabbits per week were sent to the London market, but keep and attendance reckoned, no other profit accrued, excepting the dung, the price of which used to be eight-pence per bushel, and I believe thirty-six bushels are reckoned a load. The Berks gentleman, according to the survey of that county, fed white rabbits, on account of the superior value of their skins, from their application of late years to the purpose of trimmings. Twenty does and two bucks were my largest stock.

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The rabbit-house should stand upon a dry foundation, and be well ventilated. Exposure to too much humidity, whether externally or internally, is fatal to rabbits, which are liable to the rot like sheep, and from the same causes. The rains of 1799, which continued nearly four months, destroyed my stock of rabbits, which were hutted in a boarded shed, not well defended from the cold and moist air. Ventilation and fresh air are also necessary, where considerable numbers of these animals are kept, which will not else remain healthy, or prosper for any length of time: and even sudden mortality may ensue, from impure and stagnant air. A thorough draught or passage for the air is thence indispensable, and should be contrived in the building, with the convenience of shutting such opposite windows or doors in cold and wet weather.

The huts or hutches are generally placed one above another, to the height required by the number of rabbits, and the extent of the room. Where a large stock is kept, to make the most of room, the hutches may be placed in rows, with a sufficient interval between, for feeding and cleaning, instead of being joined to the wall, in the usual way. It is preferable to rest the hutches upon stands, about a foot above the ground, for the convenience of cleaning under them. Each of the hutches, intended for breeding, should have two rooms, a feeding and a bed-room. Those are single for the use of the weaned rabbits, or for the bucks, which are always kept separate.

When much green meat is given, rabbits make a considerable quantity of urine, and I have sometimes seen occasion to set the hutches sloping backwards a few degrees, a very small aperture being made the whole length of the floor, to carry off the urine. A sliding door in the partition between the two rooms, is convenient for confining the rabbits during the operation of cleaning; which, indeed, is a good argument for having all the hutches double, it being more troublesome to clean out a room with a number of rabbits in it, than with only one. It must not be forgotten, that the teeth of rabbits are very effectual implements of destruction to any thing not hard enough to resist them, and their troughs should be bound with something less penetrable than wood. As they are apt to scratch out their food, and dung in it, I have often thought it might be useful to adopt the feeding troughs with moveable boards, as well for rabbits as hogs.

The floor of the hutches should be planed smooth, that wet may run off, and a common hoe with a short handle, and a short broom, are most convenient implements for cleaning these houses. The object being to obtain the dung pure, for sale, no litter should be allowed; but on a farm where the dung is expended at home, the hutches should be littered with refuse hay or straw, perfectly dry. The rabbit-house to contain a tub for the dung, and a bin for a day’s supply of hay, corn, roots, or other food, which should be given in as fresh a state as possible.

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As to the varieties of form and colour, in the rabbit, the short-legged, with width and substance of loin, generally few in number, and to be obtained only by selection, are the most hardy, and fatten most expeditiously, taking on fat both internally and in the muscular flesh. They have, besides, the soundest livers—the rabbits being generally subject to defects of the liver: they are the smallest variety. There is a very large variety of the hare colour, having much bone, length and depth of carcase, large and long ears, with large eyes, resembling those of the hare. They might well be taken for hybrid or mules, but from the objection of their breeding. Their flesh is high coloured, substantial, and more savoury than that of the common rabbit; and they make a good dish, cooked like the hare, which, at six or eight months old, they nearly equal in size. The large white, and yellow and white species, have whiter and more delicate flesh, and, cooked in the same way, will rival the turkey.

With respect to colour, I have always preferred the wild colour, and black, finding the skins of full as much worth as the white. The Turkish or French rabbit, with long white fur, differs little from the common varieties; nor did I find their skins of more value, either for sale or home use. I have been in the habit of drying the skins, for linings of night-gowns, and other domestic purposes; but have always found reason to prefer the short, close fur. The large above-mentioned—indeed any peculiar varieties—must be sought among the London dealers.

Of late years, in London, the term smut, has been applied as a mark of distinction in the rabbit. Thus, there are single and double smuts. The smut consists of a black spot on the side of the rabbit’s nose: when there are two black spots, one on each side of the nose, it constitutes a double smut. Generally, the rabbits are prized for the number of these black spots upon the head and body, and for the fineness and length and size of the ears, which occasions their falling about the head, in a manner different from the common rabbit. Black and tortoise-shell are the favourite colours.

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Rabbits are divided into four kinds—warreners, parkers, hedgehogs, and sweethearts. Burrowing under ground is favourable, it appears, to the growth of fur; and the warrener, though a member of a subterraneous city, is less effeminate than his kindred who roam more at large. His fur is most esteemed, and after him comes the parker, whose favourite haunt is a gentleman’s pleasure-ground, where he usually breeds in great numbers, and not unfrequently drives the hares away. The hedgehog is a sort of vagabond rabbit, that travels, tinker-like, throughout the country, and would be better clad if he remained more at home. Sweethearts are tame rabbits, and their fur, though sleek, is too silky and soft to be of much use in the important branch of hat-making.

Breeding.—The doe will breed at the age of six months, and her period of gestation is thirty or thirty-one days. It should be premised, that the buck and doe are by no means to be left together; but their union having been successful, the buck must be immediately withdrawn, and the doe tried again in three days: in fact, with rabbits, this business is conducted on the same principle as in the stud. Like chickens, the best breeding rabbits are those kindled in March. Some days before parturition, or kindling, hay is to be given to the doe, to assist in making her bed, with the flue, which nature has instructed her to tear from her body for that purpose. She will be at this period seen sitting upon her haunches, and tearing off the flue, and the hay being presented to her, she will, with her teeth, reduce and shorten it to her purpose.—Biting down of the litter or bed, is the first sign of approaching pregnancy. The number produced, generally between five and ten; and it is most advantageous always to destroy the weak or sickly ones, as soon as their defects can be perceived, because five healthy and well-grown rabbits are worth more than double the number of an opposite description, and the doe will be far less exhausted. She will admit the buck again with profit at the end of six weeks, when the young may be separated from her and weaned. Or the young may be suckled two months, the doe taking the buck at the end of five weeks, so that the former litter will leave her about a week before her next parturition.

A notion was formerly prevalent, of the necessity for giving the buck immediately after the doe had brought forth, lest she should pine, and that no time might be lost; and if it were intended that no time might be lost in destroying the doe, such, indeed, would be the most successful method. Great care should be taken that the doe, during her gestation, be not approached by the buck, or indeed by any other rabbit; as, from being harassed about, she will almost certainly cast her young. One doe in a thousand may devour her young; a sign that she ought to be otherwise disposed of. Some does admit the buck with difficulty, although often apparently in season; such should be immediately fattened off, since it can never be worth while to keep an objectionable individual for breeding, of a stock to be produced in such multitudes. Should the doe be weak on her bringing forth, from cold caught or other cause, she will drink beer-caudle, as well as any other lady; or warm fresh grains will comfort her; a malt mash; scalded fine pollard, or barley-meal, in which may be mixed a small quantity of cordial horse-ball.

Feeding.—Upon a regular plan, and with sufficient attendance, it is better to feed three times than twice a day. The art of feeding rabbits with safety and advantage is, always to give the upper-hand to dry and substantial food. Their nature is congenial with that of the sheep, and the same kind of food, with little variation, agrees with both. All weeds, and the refuse of vegetation, should be banished from rabbit feeding. Such articles are too washy and diuretic, and can never be worth attention, whilst the more solid and nutritious productions of the field may be obtained in such plenty, and will return so much greater profit. Rabbits may, indeed, be kept, and even fattened upon roots, good green meat, and hay; but they will pay for corn; and this may be taken as a general rule. Rabbits which have as much corn as they will eat, can never take any harm from being indulged with almost an equal portion of good substantial vegetables. However, the test of health is, that their dung be not too moist. Many, or most, of the town feeders never allow any greens at all; the reason, I suppose, because they feed almost entirely on grains. The corn proper for rabbits:—oats, peas, wheat; pollard, and some give buck-wheat, The greens and roots, the same as our cattle crops, namely carrots, Jerusalem artichokes, and if potatoes, baked or steamed. Lucerne, cabbage-leaves, clover, tares, furze. I have had them hoven, from eating rape; and not improbably, mangold might have a similar effect. Clover and meadow-hay, pea and bean straw.

Rabbits are generally sold from the teat, but there is also a demand for those of larger size, which may be fattened upon corn and hay, with an allowance of the best vegetables. The better the food, the greater weight, better quality, and more profit, which I apprehend to be generally the case in the breeding of all animals. Some fatten with fresh grains and pollard. I have tried all wheat, and all potato oats, comparatively; but could find no difference in the goodness of the flesh. The rabbit’s flesh being dry, the allowance of succulent greens may tend to render it more juicy; and I suppose the old complaint of the dryness of the flesh in Devon beef, entirely fed by hay, might be remedied in the same way. Rabbits are in perfection for feeding at the fourth or sixth month; beyond which period their flesh becomes more dry, and somewhat hard. It requires three months, or nearly so, to make a rabbit thoroughly fat and ripe; half the time may make them eatable, but by no means equal in the quality of the flesh. They may yet be over fattened, as appears by specimens exhibited a few years since, at Lord Somerville’s show, which were loaded with fat, without and within, like the best feeding sheep; and at the late London cattle show, two were exhibited, one of them exceeding the weight of fifteen pounds.

Castrated rabbits might be fattened, no doubt, to the weight of upwards of ten, or even fifteen pounds, at six or seven months old. The operation should be performed at the age of six or seven weeks. I have not succeeded in castrating the rabbit, but am informed it is successfully practised in the land of capons, namely, Sussex, near Chichester, where on the average, not one in three hundred is lost by the operation, which is performed at five or six weeks old.

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In slaughtering full-grown rabbits, after the usual stroke upon the neck, the throat should be perforated upwards, towards the jaws, with a small-pointed knife, in order that the blood may be evacuated, which would otherwise settle in the head and neck. It is an abomination to kill poultry by the slow and torturing method of bleeding to death, hung up by the heels, the veins of the mouth being cut; but still more so the rabbit, which in that situation utters horrible screams. The entrails of the rabbit, whilst fresh, are said to be good food for fish, being thrown into ponds.

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By 7 & 8 Geo. IV. if any person unlawfully and wilfully, in the night time, take any hare or coney, in any warren or ground lawfully used for the keeping thereof, whether enclosed or not, every such person shall be guilty of a misdemeanour; and persons guilty of the same offence in the day time, or using any snare or engine, are subject to a penalty of five pounds. But this does not extend to the taking, in the day time, any conies on any sea bank or river bank in Lincolnshire, so far as the tide shall extend, or within a furlong of such bank.

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Ampthill Rabbit Bazaar.—I have stated at the commencement of this article, that the large concerns had generally ceased. Of late, one has arisen at Ampthill, Beds; upon a more extensive scale than ever before attempted, established by J. H. Fisher, Esq., an agent of his Grace the Duke of Bedford. Upon so extensive a plan, indeed, is this new undertaking, that it may well be styled our grand National Rabbit Bazaar. The building, situated upon an eminence, is square, somewhat resembling barracks, with a court withinside the walls, and with thirty acres of fine light land adjoining, under culture of those crops known to be best adapted to the nourishment and support of rabbit-stock. It was proposed to keep between four and five thousand breeding does, which number is probably now complete. The young rabbits, from seven to nine weeks old, are sent to Newgate and Leadenhall markets, fifty to sixty dozens, weekly. The quantity of dung produced, which is reserved with the utmost care, and free from any extraneous substances, must be very considerable. A number of men and boys are employed in the concern, under the direction of an experienced foreman, and the utmost regularity of attention observed with respect to management, feeding, and cleanliness.

This bazaar has been honoured by the visits of persons of the highest rank; of his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence, his Grace the Duke of Bedford, Lord Holland, Lord Vernon, and a number of ladies and gentlemen.

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The wold warreners catch their rabbits with fold-nets, with spring-nets, and with “tipes,” a species of trap.

The fold-nets are set about midnight, between the burrows and the feeding grounds; the rabbits being driven in with dogs, and kept inclosed in the fold until morning.

The spring-net is generally laid round a haystack, or other object of inducement for rabbits to collect in numbers.

The tipe or trap is a more modern invention; it consists of a large pit or cistern, covered with a floor, with a small trap door nicely balanced, near its meuse. It used to be set by a haystack, but since turnips are now grown for the winter food, in an inclosure within the warren, the trap is placed within the wall of this inclosure. For a night or two the rabbits are suffered to go through the meuse, and over the trap, that they may be familiarised to where the turnips are grown, after that the trap-door is unbarred, and the number wanted are taken. In emptying the cistern, the rabbits are culled, the fat ones are slaughtered, and the others turned upon the turnips to improve.

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In shooting a rabbit, always consider the foremost half of him as your target, or he will probably be shot in a slovenly manner; and if there is an earth near, most likely scramble to it, and make his escape.—Moubray—Daniel.

RABID, a. Fierce, furious, mad.

RACE, s. A generation, a collective family; a particular breed; contest in running; course on the feet; progress, course.

RACING, v. A contest of speed, in which horses are commonly employed.

It is believed that horse-racing was known and practised by the Anglo-Saxons, but most probably confined to persons of rank and opulence, and followed only for amusement sake.

The first indication, however, of a sport of this kind occurs in the description of London, written by Fitzstephen, who lived in the reign of Henry II. He tells us, that horses were usually exposed for sale in West Smithfield; and, in order to prove the excellency of the most valuable hackneys and charging steeds, they were matched against each other; his words are to this effect—“When a race is to be run by this sort of horses, and perhaps by others, which also in their kind are strong and fleet, a shout is immediately raised, and the common horses are ordered to withdraw out of the way. Three jockeys, or sometimes only two, as the match is made, prepare themselves for the contest; such as being used to ride know how to manage their horses with judgment: the grand point is, to prevent a competitor from getting before them. The horses, on their part, are not without emulation, they tremble and are impatient, and are continually in motion: at last the signal once given, they strike, devour the course, hurrying along with unremitting velocity. The jockeys, inspired with the thoughts of applause and the hopes of victory, clap spurs to their willing horses, brandish their whips, and cheer them with their cries.”

In the middle ages there were certain seasons of the year when the nobility indulged themselves in running their horses, and especially in the Easter and Whitsuntide holidays.

It is certain, that horse-races were held upon various holidays, at different parts of the kingdom, and in preference to other pastimes. “It had been customary,” says a Chester antiquary, “time out of mind, upon Shrove Tuesday, for the company of sadlers belonging to the city of Chester, to present to the drapers a wooden ball, embellished with flowers, and placed upon the point of a lance; this ceremony was performed in the presence of the mayor, at the cross in the ‘Rodhee,’ or Roody, an open place near the city; but this year,” continues he, “the ball was changed into a bell of silver, valued at three shillings and sixpence, or more, to be given to him who shall run the best, and the farthest on horseback, before them upon the same day.”

Here we see the commencement of a regular horse-race, but whether the courses were in immediate succession, or at different intervals, is not perfectly clear; we find not, however, the least indication of distance posts, weighing the riders, loading them with weights, and many other niceties that are observed in the present day.

Races something similar to those above mentioned, are described by Butcher, as practised in the vicinity of the town of Stamford, in Lincolnshire. “A concourse,” says he, “of noblemen and gentlemen meet together, in mirth, peace, and amity, for the exercise of their swift running-horses, every Thursday in March. The prize they run for is a silver and gilt cup, with a cover, to the value of seven or eight pounds, provided by the care of the alderman for the time being; but the money is raised out of the interest of a stock formerly made up by the nobility and gentry, which are neighbours and well-wishers to the town.”

Running horses are frequently mentioned in the registers of the royal expenditures. It is notorious, that king John was so fond of swift horses and dogs for the chase, that he received many of his fines in the one or the other; but at the same time it does not appear that he used the horses for any purposes of pleasure, beyond the pursuits of hunting, hawking, and such like sports of the field.

In the reign of Edward III. the running-horses purchased for the king’s service, were generally estimated at twenty marks, or thirteen pounds six shillings, and eightpence each; but some few of them were prized as high as twenty-five marks. An entry appears, dated the ninth year of this king’s reign, which states, that the king of Navarre sent him as a present two running-horses, which I presume were very valuable, because he gave the person who brought them no less than one hundred shillings for his reward.

In the reign of James I. public races were established in many parts of the kingdom; and it is said that the discipline and modes of preparing the horses upon such occasions were much the same as are practised in the present day. The races were then called bell courses, because, as we have seen above, the prize was a silver bell.

At the latter end of the reign of Charles I. races were held in Hyde Park, and at Newmarket. After the restoration, horse-racing was revived and much encouraged by Charles II., who frequently honoured this pastime with his presence; and, for his own amusement, when he resided at Windsor, appointed races to be made in Datchet mead. At Newmarket, where it is said he entered horses and run them in his name, he established a house for his better accommodation; and he also occasionally visited other places where horse-races were instituted.

About this time it seems, that the bells were converted into cups, or bowls, or some other pieces of plate, which were usually valued at one hundred guineas each; and upon these trophies of victory the exploits and pedigree of the successful horses were most commonly engraved. William III. was also a patroniser of this pastime, and established an academy for riding; and his queen not only continued the bounty of her predecessors, but added several plates to the former donations. George I. instead of a piece of plate, gave a hundred guineas, to be paid in specie.

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RULES OF RACING.

Horses take their ages from May-Day; that is, a horse foaled any time in the year 1828, will be deemed a year old on the 1st of May, 1829.

Four inches are a hand. Fourteen pounds are a stone.

Catch weights are, each party to appoint any person to ride without weighing.

A post match, is to insert the age of the horses in the article, and to run any horse of that age, without declaring what horse, till he come to the post to start.

A Handicap Match, is A, B, and C, to put an equal sum each into a hat; C, who is the handicapper, makes a match for A and B, who, when they have perused it, put their hands into their pockets, and draw them out closed; then they open them together, and if both have money in their hands, the match is confirmed; if neither have money, it is no match. In both cases, the handicapper draws all the money out of the hat; but if one has money in his hand, and the other none, then it is no match; and he that has money in his hand is entitled to the deposit in the hat.

Free Handicap is an expression which frequently appears in race lists, the meaning of which is, that a number of horses being named, a weight is placed against the name of each, by the clerk of the races, or some disinterested person, who is well acquainted with the performances of the horses. These weights are supposed to be such as will bring all the horses as nearly on a par as possible; and the list containing them being handed to the owners of each horse, they accept or decline according as they imagine the chances are for or against them.

Horses not entitled to start without producing a proper certificate of their age, if required, at the time appointed in the articles, except where aged horses are included, and in that case a junior horse may enter without a certificate as to age, provided he carry the same weight as the aged.

No person shall start more than one horse of which he is the owner, either wholly or in part, and either in his own name or in that of any other person, for any race for which heats are run.

The horse that has his head at the ending-post first, wins the heat.

For the best of the plate where three heats are run, the horse is second that wins one heat.

For the best of heats, the horse is second that beats the other horse twice out of three times, though he does not win a heat.

Where a plate is won by two heats, the preference of the horses is determined by the places they get in the second heat.

Where a plate or subscription is given for the winner of the best of three heats, a horse, to win the prize, must be the actual winner of two heats, even though no horse appear against him for both or either of the heats.

When three horses have each won a heat, they only must start for a fourth, and the preference amongst them will be determined by it, there being before no difference amongst them.

In running of heats, if it cannot be decided which horse is first, the heat goes for nothing, and they may all start again, except it be between two horses that had each won a heat.

If a rider fall from his horse, and the horse be rode in by a person who is sufficient weight, he shall take his place the same as if his rider had not fallen, provided he go back to the place where the rider fell.

Jockeys must ride their horses to the usual place for weighing the riders, and he that dismounts before, or wants weight, is distanced; unless he be disabled by an accident which should render him incapable of riding back, in which case he may be led or carried to the scale.

Horses’ plates or shoes not allowed in the weight.

Horses running on the wrong side of a post, and not turning back, are distanced.

Horses drawn before the plate is won are distanced.

Horses are distanced if their riders cross or jostle.

All complaints of foul riding must be made before or at the time the jockey is weighed.

No distance in a fourth heat.

A confirmed bet cannot be off but by mutual consent, except in the case hereinafter mentioned.

Either of the betters may demand stakes to be made, and on refusal declare the bet to be void.

If a better be absent on the day of running, a public declaration of the bet may be made on the course, and a demand whether any person will make stakes for the absent party, and if no person consent to do so, the bet may be declared void.

Bets agreed to be paid or received in London, or any other specified place, cannot be declared off on the course.

If a match or sweepstakes be made for any specified day in any race-week, and the parties agree to change the day to any other in the same week, all bets must stand; but if the parties agree to run the race in a different week, all bets made before the alteration shall be void.

The person who lays the odds has a right to choose a horse or the field; when a person has chosen a horse, the field is what starts against him; but there is no field without one horse starts against him.

Bets and stakes made in guineas are paid in sovereigns.

If odds are laid without mentioning the horse before the race is over, the bet must be determined by the state of the odds at the time of making it.

Bets made in running are not determined till the plate is won, if that heat be not mentioned at the time of running.

A bet made after the heat is over, if the horse betted on does not start, is void.

Bets determined, though the horse does not start, when the words “play or pay,” are made use of in betting.

Where two horses run a dead heat for a sweepstakes or plate, and the parties agree to divide the stakes equally, all bets between those two horses, or between either of them, and the field, must be settled by the money betted being put together and divided equally between the parties. If, after the dead heat, an equal division of the stakes be agreed upon, then the money betted shall be put together, and be divided between the parties in the same proportion as the stakes shall have been divided. If a bet be made on one of the horses that run the dead heat against a horse that was beaten in the race, he who backed the horse that ran the dead heat wins half his bet. If the dead heat be the first event of a double bet, the bet shall be void.

Bets made on horses winning any number of races within the year shall be understood, however the expression may be varied, as meaning the year of our Lord.

Money given to have a bet laid shall not be returned, though the race be not run.

Matches and bets are void on the decease of either party before the match or bet is determined.

A horse walking over or receiving forfeit shall not be deemed a winner.

An untried stallion or mare is one whose produce has never run in public.

A maiden horse or mare is one that has never won.

Feather Weight.—A horse carries feather weight, when the terms of the race allow the owner to place what rider he pleases on his back: he consequently procures the lightest eligible jockey possible, who weighs neither before nor after the race.

Give and take plates, are weights for inches: twelve hands to carry a stated weight, all above to carry extra, in the proportion of seven pounds to an inch.—Strutt—Turf Expositor.

RACECOURSE, s. Ground over which a race is run. The principal are—

Ascot Heath. A circular course, exactly two miles, the last mile of which forms the Old Mile. The New Mile is straight, rising all the way, and measures 7 fur. 150 yds. The T. Y. C. (part of the New Mile) is 3 fur. 95 yds.

Buxton. A circular course of one mile.

Chelmsford. An oval course, thirty yards short of two miles; but by starting between the distance post and the winning chair, it becomes two complete miles.

Chester. A circular course of one mile. It is a complete flat, and perhaps the pleasantest course in England for spectators.

Doncaster. A circular course of 1 mile, 7 fur. 70 yds. The other courses are formed of portions of this circle, namely, Red House Inn, 5 fur. 164 yds. T. Y. C. 7 fur. 189 yds. Fitzwilliam Course, 1 mile, 4 fur. 10 yds. St. Leger Course, 1 mile, 6 fur. 132 yds. Two Mile Course, 2 miles, 25 yds. Four Mile Course, (twice round) 3 miles, 7 fur. 219 yds.

Egham. A flat oval course, 66 yds. short of 2 miles.

Epsom. Two miles, the last mile and a half of which is the Derby and Oaks Course. The Craven Course is one mile and a quarter of the same ground. Epsom Course can be properly called neither circular, oval, nor triangular.—It is altogether one of the worst courses in England.

Knutsford. A flat circular course of one mile.

Lancaster. A circular mile course, and good turf.

Leeds. A circular course of 1 mile, 2 fur. 48 yds. There is also a straight course, through the centre of the circular one, of 2 fur. 158 yds., which, uniting with each half of the circle, forms two other courses, in the form of a sector, the one 1 mile, 11 yds., the other 1 mile, 135 yds.

Liverpool. The Old Course is an oval mile, flat, and very good turf. The New Course is one mile and a half, forming an ill-defined oblong square; and though nearly flat, is a very distressing course for horses. It is a new establishment, races were held upon it this year (1829) for the first time. The form is bad—it is too elongated, and in consequence causes the horses, for a great part of the length, to be too far distant. The Old and the New Course are situated at the distance of two miles asunder.

Manchester. An oval course of 7 fur. 184 yds. The Cup Course is 2 miles, 168 yds. The T. Y. C. 5 fur. 184 yds. There is a hill, and the course is by no means of the best description.

Newcastle. A sort of square of 1 mile, 6 fur. 132 yds.

Newton. A triangular course of one mile.

Nottingham. A circular course of 1 mile, 2 fur. and 11 yds.

Oxford. Flat, oval course, 2 miles all but a distance.

Pontefract. An oval course, formed on the gentle declivity of rising ground, 2 miles, 1 fur.

Preston. An indifferent oval course, one mile.

Stockbridge. An oval course, rather hilly, the last three quarters of a mile in a straight line. There is one straight mile, and also a circular course of about one mile and a quarter; the latter is called the New Course.

York. T. Y. C. 5 fur. 59 yds. Mile Course, 1 mile, 8 yds. Last mile and quarter, 1 mile, 2 fur., 15 yds. Last mile and half, 1 mile, 4 fur., 18 yds. Last mile and three quarters, 1 mile, 5 fur., 160 yds. Two-mile Course, 1 mile, 7 fur., 85 yds. Four-mile Course, 3 mile, 7 fur., 24 yds. York Course is situated upon low ground, and, in consequence, becomes very heavy in wet weather.—Turf Expositor.

RACEHORSE, s. A horse bred to run for prizes.

There is much dispute with regard to the origin of the thorough-bred horse. By some he is traced to both sire and dam to Eastern parentage; others believe him to be the native horse, improved and perfected by judicious crossing with the Barb, the Turk, or the Arabian. “The Stud Book,” which is an authority acknowledged by every English breeder, traces all the old racers to some Eastern origin; or it traces them until the pedigree is lost in the uncertainty of an early period of breeding. If a pedigree of a racer of the present day be required, it is traced back to a certain extent, and ends with a well-known racer;—or, if an earlier derivation be required, that ends either with an eastern horse, or in obscurity.

It must, on the whole, be allowed, that the present English thorough-bred horse is of foreign extraction, improved and perfected by the influence of the climate, and by diligent cultivation. There are some exceptions, as in the case of Sampson and Bay-Malton, in each of whom, although the best horses of their day, there was a cross of vulgar blood; but they are only exceptions to a general rule. In our best racing stables, and, particularly in the studs of the Earls of Grosvenor and Egremont, this is an acknowledged principle; and it is not, when properly considered, a principle at all derogatory to the credit of the country. The British climate, and British skill, made the thoroughbred horse what he is.

Whatever may be the truth as to the origin of the race-horse, the strictest attention has for the last fifty years been paid to pedigree. In the descent of almost every modern racer, not the slightest flaw can be discovered: or when, with the splendid exception of Sampson and Bay-Malton, one drop of common blood has mingled with the pure stream, it has been immediately detected in the inferiority of form, and deficiency of bottom, and it has required two or three generations to wipe away the stain, and get rid of its consequences.

The racer is generally distinguished by his beautiful Arabian head;—his fine and finely-set-on-neck;—his oblique, lengthened shoulders;—well-bent hinder legs;—his ample, muscular quarters—his flat legs, rather short from the knee downward, although not always so deep as they should be;—and his long and elastic pastern. These are separately considered where the structure of the horse is treated of.

The racer, however, with the most beautiful form, is occasionally a sorry animal. There is sometimes a want of energy in an apparently faultless shape, for which there is no accounting; but there are two points among those just enumerated which will rarely or never deceive, a well-placed shoulder, and a well-bent hinder leg.

It has been imagined that the breed of racing horses has lately very considerably degenerated. This is not the case. Thorough-bred horses were formerly fewer in number, and their performances created greater wonder. The breed has now increased twenty-fold, and superiority is not so easily obtained among so many competitors. If one circumstance could, more than any other, produce this degeneracy, it would be our absurd and cruel habit of bringing out horses too soon, and the frequent failure of their legs before they have come to their full power. Childers and Eclipse did not appear until they were five years old: but many of our best horses, and those perhaps, who would have shown equal excellence with the most celebrated racers, are foundered and destroyed before that period.

Whether the introduction of short races, and so young horses, be advantageous, and whether stoutness and usefulness may not thus be somewhat too much sacrificed to speed: whether there may be danger that an animal designed for service may, in process of time, be frittered away almost to a shadow of what he was, in order that at two years old, over the one-mile-course, he may astonish the crowd by his fleetness,—are questions that more concern the sporting man than the agriculturist; and yet they concern the agriculturist too, for racing is principally valuable as connected with breeding, and as the test of breeding. Vide TRAINING.

RACER, s. A Runner, one that contends in speed.

RACK, s. An engine of torture; extreme pain; the clouds as they are driven by the wind; a wooden grate in which hay is placed for cattle; arrack, a spirituous liquor.

RACKET, s. An irregular clattering noise; the instrument with which players strike the ball.

RACKETS, s. A fine manly game, in which a small ball and cat-gut implement are used.

RAFFLE, s. A species of game or lottery, in which many stake a small part of the value of some single thing, in consideration of a chance to gain it.

ODDS ON A RAFFLE WITH NINE DICE, OR THE HIGHEST IN THREE THROWS WITH THREE DICE.

It is 10077695 to 1, that you 54 1007768 .. 1, do not 53 or more. 183229 .. 1, throw 52 — 45809 .. 1, 51 — 14093 .. 1, 50 — 5032 .. 1, 49 — 2016 .. 1, 48 — 886 .. 1, 47 — 422 .. 1, 46 — 215 .. 1, 45 — 116 .. 1, 44 — 66 .. 1, 43 — 39 } .. 1, 42 — very near 39½ } 24½ .. 1, 41 — 15¾ .. 1, 40 — 10½ .. 1, 39 — 7¹/₇ .. 1, 38 — very near 5 .. 1, 37 — 3½ .. 1, 36 — 2⁶/₁₁ .. 1, } 35 — or 28 .. 11, } 11 .. 6, 34 — 9 .. 7, 35 —

It is exactly equal that you throw 32 or more.—Hoyle.

RAGSTONE, s. A stone so named from its breaking in a rugged manner; the stone with which they smooth the edge of a tool new ground and left ragged.

RAKE, v. To gather with a rake; to heap together and cover; to fire on a ship in the direction of head and stern; a veterinary operation.

RAKING, a. An operation performed on a horse.

Raking.—This consists in introducing the hand into the horse’s rectum, and drawing out any hardened dung that may be there. It may be necessary in costiveness or fever, if a clyster pipe cannot be obtained; but an injection will better effect the purpose, and with less inconvenience to the animal. The introduction of the hand into the rectum is, however, useful to ascertain the existence of stone in the bladder, or the degree of distension of the bladder in suppression of urine, for the bladder will be easily felt below the gut; and at the same time, by the heat of the intestine, the degree of inflammation in it or in the bladder may be detected.—Blaine.

RAM, s. A male sheep.

RAMMER, s. An instrument with which anything is driven hard; the stick with which the charge is forced into the gun.

RANA, s. That class of animals in the Linnæan system to which the frog and the toad belong.

RANDOM, a. Done by chance, roving without direction.

RANGE, v. To place in order; to pass over; to rove at large.

RANGE, s. Anything placed in a line; excursion; room for excursion; compass taken in by anything excursive; line of a shot.

RANGER, s. One that ranges; a rover; a dog that beats the ground; one whose business it is to rechase the wild beasts from the purlieus of the forest, and to present offences within the forest.

RAPACIOUS, a. Given to plunder, seizing by violence.

RAPE, s. Something snatched away; a plant, from the seed of which oil is expressed.

RASH, a. Hasty, precipitate. An efflorescence on the body, a breaking out.

RASP, v. To rub to powder with a very rough file.

RASP, s. A large rough file, commonly used to wear away wood.

RAT, s. An animal of the mouse kind that infests houses and ships.

RATAFIA, s. A fine liqueur, prepared from the kernels of apricots and spirits.

RATAN, s. An Indian cane.

RATE, s. The pace of a setter, pointer, or horse.

RATE, v. To value at a certain price; to chide hastily and vehemently.

RATSBANE, s. Poison for rats; arsenic.

RAVEL, v. To entangle, to involve, to perplex.

RAVEN, s. A large black fowl; a bird of prey.

Raven or Great Corbie Crow. (Corvus Corax, LINN.; Le Corbeau, BUFF.)—This is the largest of this kind; its length is above two feet; breadth four. Its bill is strong and very thick at the base; it measures somewhat more than two inches and a half in length, and is covered with strong hairs or bristles, which extend above half its length, covering the nostrils: the general colour of the upper parts is a fine glossy black, reflecting a blue tint in particular lights; the under parts are duller, and of a dusky hue.

The raven is well known in all parts of the world, and in times of ignorance and superstition, was considered as ominous, foretelling future events by its horrid croakings, and announcing impending calamities: in those times the raven was considered as a bird of vast importance, and the various changes and modulations of its voice were studied with the most careful attention, and were made use of by artful and designing men to mislead the ignorant and credulous. It is a very long-lived bird, and is supposed sometimes to live a century or more. It is fond of carrion, which it scents at a great distance; it is said that it will destroy rabbits, young ducks, and chickens: it has been known to seize on young lambs which have been dropped in a weak state, and pick out their eyes while yet alive: it will suck the eggs of other birds; it feeds also on earthworms, reptiles, and even shell-fish when urged by hunger.

It may be rendered very tame and familiar, and has been frequently taught to pronounce a variety of words: it is a crafty bird, and will frequently pick up things of value, such as rings, money, &c. and carry them to its hiding place. It makes its nest early in the spring, and builds in trees and the holes of rocks, laying five or six eggs, of a pale bluish green colour, spotted with brown. The female sits about twenty days, and is constantly attended by the male, who not only provides her with abundance of food, but relieves her in turn, and takes her place in the nest.

The natives of Greenland eat the flesh, and make a covering for themselves with the skins of these birds, which they wear next their bodies.

* * * * *

In 1808, a raven was kept at the Red Lion, Hungerford: a gentleman’s chaise, in turning into the yard, ran over the leg of his Newfoundland-dog, and while examining the injury done, Ralph was evidently a concerned spectator. When the dog was tied up, under the manger with the horses, Ralph attended upon him with particular kindness: this was so marked, that it was observed to the hostler, who said, that he had been bred from his pin-feather in intimacy with a dog, that the affection between them was mutual, and that all the neighbourhood had been witnesses of the acts of fondness they had conferred upon each other. This dog also had his leg broke, and during the long time he was confined Ralph waited upon him and carried him provisions daily; by accident the hostler shut the stable door, and Ralph was deprived of the company of his friend the whole night, but in the morning the bottom of the door was found so pecked, that Ralph would, in another hour, have made his own entrance port.—Bewick.

RAVENOUS, a. Furiously voracious, hungry to rage.

RAW, a. Not subdued by fire; not covered with the skin; sore; immature; unseasoned; bleak, chill.

RAY, s. A beam of light; a genus of the class amphibia, including the skate, sturgeon, thornback, and torpedo.

REBOUND, s. The act of flying back in consequence of motion resisted.

RECHARGE, s. Among hunters, a lesson which the huntsman winds on the horn when the hounds have lost their game.

RECHEAT, s. A lesson which the huntsman winds on the horn when the dogs are at fault, to bring them back from pursuing a counterscent.

RECIPE, s. A medical prescription.

RECOIL, v. To rush back from resistance; the rebound of a gun.

Recoil.—Whatever retards the exit of the charge operates like an increase of lead, and, by confining the force of the explosion the more to the barrel, produces a greater recoil, hence partly it is, that in proportion as the barrel becomes foul within by repeated firing, the recoil increases. A piece will recoil if, from the breach plug being made too short, there remain some turns of the screw not filled up, these hollows, wherein a part of the powder is lodged, forming an obstacle that confines and retards the explosion. A barrel mounted on a stock that is very straight, will recoil more than when mounted on a stock that is considerably bent, as the curvature serves to break and deaden the force of the recoil; and, sometimes also, a fowling piece will recoil from the shooter applying it improperly to his shoulder, for if the butt is not applied closely to the shoulder, or is applied so as to be supported only at a single point, the recoil will be much more sensibly felt, than when the hollow of the butt embraces the shoulder, and is firmly supported by the weight of the body. Guns are observed to recoil more after being fired a number of times, than they did at the beginning. The matter which is left on the inside of the barrel after the explosion, and which increases on every discharge, attracts moisture very quickly, especially if the saltpetre employed in the powder was not well purified from the admixture of common salt which it contains in its rough state. This moisture becomes considerable after a few discharges, and, being formed into vapour by the heat during the explosion, adds its expansive effort to that of the inflamed powder, and greatly increases the agitation and recoil. Owing to this cause, probably, rather than to that before mentioned, arises the recoil, from some turns of the breech screw not being filled up by the breech plug, and thereby affording a lodgment to moisture.—Essay on Shooting.

RECTIFIED SPIRIT, s. Alcohol, or spirit of wine.

This is obtained in a dilute state from fermented liquors by distillation, and is afterwards rectified or concentrated, by repeating the operation two or three times. Rectified spirit is the basis of many useful embrocations, for strains, bruises, &c. It dissolves camphor and all the resins very readily: hence we have camphorated spirit, opodeldoc, Friar’s balsam, &c. Mixed with an equal quantity of water it forms what is termed proof spirit, which is the liquid generally employed for making tinctures. Rectified spirit is often used undiluted as an embrocation for strains; and, when the injury is deeply seated, may be serviceable. I think, however, it is rendered more efficacious by the addition of soap, ammonia and camphor, or oil of rosemary. Rectified spirit is never employed as an internal remedy in the horse; though fermented liquors, such as beer, porter, or wine, have been often given with advantage, in cases which required cordials. Horses, that have been so fatigued with a long chase or journey as to refuse their food and appear quite exhausted, are much refreshed by taking a cordial ball in half a pint of beer, and feed soon after with great alacrity. The advantage thus derived is merely temporary, as they are not by this treatment rendered adequate to another chase or journey quicker than they would otherwise be.

RED, a. Of the colour of blood, of one of the primitive colours.

REDBREAST, s. A small bird so named from the colour of its breast, called also a Robin.

This well-known species of warbler needs little description. The upper parts are of a yellowish brown, tinged with ash-colour; forehead and from chin to breast of a deep rufous orange; belly and vent whitish; the plumage of both sexes are alike; the nestling-feathers of young birds are spotted; and they do not possess the red on the breast for two or three months after they leave the nest.

It is said to be a migrative species, but from no other reason than their more frequent and numerous appearance about our habitations in the winter, when the woods and fields are destitute of insects; it is then they seek the protection of man, and are so tame as to enter doors and windows, and pick up the crumbs fallen from the table; here they too frequently fall a sacrifice to the watchful cat.

“The redbreast,” says Fleming, in a letter to Colonel Montagu, “is only occasionally observed in Zetland after gales of wind.” Whether in spring or autumn, or at what season, is not mentioned; but most probably in the latter, when those which breed in the more northern parts of the European continent may be shifting their quarters, and, by accident, are driven from Norway. It sings throughout the winter, except in severe weather. About the beginning of April it prepares a nest in some mossy bank or out-building, composed of dead leaves, green moss, and stalks of plants, lined with hair; and lays from five to seven whitish eggs spotted with rust-colour and cinereous; their weight about twenty-six grains.—Montagu.

RED DEER, s. The stag, the greater deer. Vide STAG.

REDLEAD, s. Minium.

REDPOLE, s. A bird of the finch tribe, so called from a red spot on the crown of the head.

This bird is less than the common linnet and twite, and although like them, subject to a partial change of colour at a particular season, may be readily distinguished from them, as well by other peculiar characteristics as by its inferiority of size, weighing about two drachms and a half; length five inches; the bill is of a light colour, inclining to dull yellow; irides hazel; the forehead is of a purplish red; the feathers of all the other parts are dusky, margined with rufous-brown; chin black; throat and breast pink; sides streaked with dusky; belly white; quills and tail dusky, edged with pale brown; in some the rump is tinged with pink; legs dusky.

The female differs in being somewhat lighter above, and in the colour on the head, which is not so bright, sometimes yellowish. This sex has the black spot on the chin, but none of the pink on the breast and throat. In confinement they lose the pink colour on the breast at the first moulting; at the second the colour on the head changes to a greenish yellow. Bechstein had a male, the head of which turned to a fine gold colour after the third moulting. The young birds are destitute of the pink feathers; and indeed the males are subject to as much variety as the linnet, and sometimes have no red at all on the breast.

This species is very generally diffused throughout Europe; but its native regions seem to be the northern parts. They reach Germany in great flocks towards the end of October, and again retire in the months of March and April.—Montagu.

REDSHANK, RED-LEGGED HORSEMAN, POOL SNIPE, or SAND COCK, (Scolopax calidris, LINN.; Le Chevalier aux Pieds rouges, BUFF.) s. A bird.

This bird weighs about five ounces and a half: its length is twelve inches, and breadth twenty-one. The bill, from the tip to the corners of the mouth, is more than an inch and three quarters long, black at the point, and red towards the base: the feathers on the crown of the head are dark-brown, edged with pale rufous; a light or whitish line passes over and encircles each eye, from the corners of which a dark-brown spot is extended to the beak: irides hazel; the hinder part of the neck is obscurely spotted with dark-brown, on a rusty ash-coloured ground; the throat and forepart are more distinctly marked or streaked with spots of the same colour: on the breast and belly, which are white, tinged with ash, the spots are thinly distributed, and are shaped something like the heads of arrows or darts. The general appearance of the upper parts of the plumage is glossy olive-brown; some of the feathers are quite plain, others spotted on the edges with dark-brown, and those on the shoulders, scapulars, and tertials are transversely marked with the same coloured waved bars, on a pale rusty ground: the bastard wing and primary quills are dark-brown; the inner webs of the latter are deeply edged with white, freckled with brown, and some of those quills next the secondaries are elegantly marked, near their tips, with narrow brown lines, pointed and shaped to the form of each feather; some of the secondaries are barred in nearly the same manner, others are white; back white; the tail-feathers and coverts are beautifully marked with alternate bars of dusky and white; the middle ones slightly tinged with rust colour; legs red, and measure from the end of the toes to the upper bare part of the thigh, four inches and a half.

This species is of a solitary character, being mostly seen alone, or in pairs only. It resides the greater part of the year in the fen countries, in the wet and marshy grounds, where it breeds and rears its young. It lays four eggs, whitish, tinged with olive, and marked with irregular spots of black, chiefly on the thicker end. Pennant and Latham say, it flies round its nest, when disturbed, making a noise like a lapwing. It is not so common on the sea-shores as several others of its kindred species.

Ornithologists differ much in their descriptions of the redshank, and probably have confounded it with others of the red-legged tribe, whose proper names are yet wanting, or involved in doubt and uncertainty. Latham, in his supplement, describes this bird as differing so much in its summer and winter dress, and its weight, as to appear to be of two distinct species. There is reason to believe that several species of the scolopax and tringa genera, which have not been taken into the list of British birds, appear occasionally in Great Britain, and that this circumstance, together with the difference of age and sex, has occasioned much confusion.

Red-legged Godwit, Spotted Snipe or Barker, Spotted Redshank. (Scolopax Totanus, LINN.; Le Chevalier Rouge, BUFF.)—The length of this bird, from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail is twelve inches, and to the end of the toes, fourteen inches and a half; its breadth, twenty-one inches and a quarter, and its weight about five ounces two drachms, avoirdupoise. The bill is slender, measures two inches and a half from the corners of the mouth to the tip, and is for half its length, nearest to the base, red, the other part black: irides hazel; the head, neck, breast, and belly are spotted in streaks, mottled and barred with dingy ash-brown and dull white, darker on the crown and hinder part of the neck: the throat is white, and lines of the same colour pass from the upper sides of the beak over each eye, from the corners of which two brown ones are extended to the nostrils: the ground colour of the shoulders, scapulars, lesser coverts, and tail, is a glossy olive-brown; the feathers on all these parts are indented on the edges, more or less, with triangular-shaped white spots. The back is white; the rump barred with waved lines of ash-coloured brown, and dingy white; the vent-feathers are marked nearly in the same manner, but with a great portion of white: the tail and coverts are also barred with narrow waved lines, of a dull ash-colour, and, in some specimens, are nearly black and white. Five of the primary quills are dark-brown, tinged with olive; the shaft of the first quill is white; the next six are, in the male, rather deeply tipped with white, and slightly spotted and barred with brown: the secondaries, as far as they are uncovered, when the wings are extended, are of the same snowy whiteness as the back. The feathers which cover the upper part of the thighs, and those near them, are blushed with a reddish or vinous colour: the legs are of a deep orange red, and measure, from the end of the middle toe-nail to the upper bare part of the thigh, five inches and a half.—Bewick.

REDWING, s. A bird.

Redwing, Swinepipe, or Wind Thrush. (Turdus Iliacus, LINN.; Le Mauvis, BUFF.)—This bird is not more than eight inches in length. The bill is of a dark-brown colour; eyes deep hazel; the plumage in general is similar to that of the thrush; but a white streak over the eye distinguishes it from that bird: the belly is not quite so much spotted, and the sides of the body, and the feathers under the wings, are tinged with red, which is its peculiar characteristic; whence also it derives its name.

These birds make their appearance a few days before the fieldfare, and are generally seen with them after their arrival; they frequent the same places, eat the same food, and are very similar to them in manner. Like the fieldfare, they leave us in the spring, for which reason their song is quite unknown to us; but it is said to be very pleasing. The female builds her nest in low bushes or hedges, and lays six eggs, of a greenish blue colour, spotted with black.

This and the former are delicate eating: the Romans held them in such estimation that they kept thousands of them together in aviaries, and fed them with a kind of paste, made of bruised figs and flour, and various other kinds of food, to improve the delicacy and flavour of their flesh; these aviaries were so contrived as to admit light barely sufficient to direct them to their food; every object which might tend to remind them of their former liberty was carefully kept out of sight, such as the fields, the woods, the birds, or whatever might disturb the repose necessary for their improvement. Under this management these birds fattened, to the great profit of their proprietors, who sold them to Roman epicures for three denarii, or about two shillings sterling, each.

* * * * *

A redwing was taken up, November 7th, 1785, at six o’clock in the morning, which, on its approach to land, had flown against the light-house at Tynemouth, and was so stunned that it fell to the ground and died soon after; the light most probably had attracted its attention.

* * * * *

When redwings appear on the eastern coast, they as commonly announce the approach of the woodcock, as does the arrival of the wryneck that of the cuckoo, in the south.—Bewick—Daniel.

REED, s. A hollow knotted stalk, which grows in wet grounds; a small pipe; an arrow.

REEK, s. Smoke, steam, vapour; a pile of corn or hay.

REEL, s. A turning frame upon which yarn is wound into skeins from the spindle; an implement for winding up the angler’s line.

REEVE, s. The female of the ruff.

REFUSE, s. That which remains disregarded when the rest is taken.

REGARDER, s. obs. The regarder is a ministerial officer of the forest, sworn to make regard there as usual, to view and enquire of all the officers within the forest of vert or venison, and of concealments or defaults of the forester, or other officers of the forest.

REIN, s. The part of the bridle which extends from the horse’s head to the driver’s or rider’s hand; used as an instrument of government, or for government.

REIN, v. To govern by a bridle; to restrain, to control.

REINS, s. The kidneys, the lower part of the back.

RELAY, s. Horses on the road to relieve others.

REMOVE, s. Change of place; the act of changing place; a step in the scale of gradation; act of putting a horse’s shoes upon different feet.

RENDEZVOUS, s. Assembly, meeting appointed; place appointed for an assembly.

RENDEZVOUS, v. To meet at a place appointed.

RENNET, s. The ingredient with which milk is coagulated, in order to make cheese.

RENOUNCE, v. To disown, to abnegate; a term in card playing.

REPELLENT, s. An application that has a repelling power.

REPERCUSSION, s. The act of driving back, rebound.

REPTILE, a. Creeping upon many feet.

REPTILE, s. An animal that creeps upon many feet.

RESINOUS, a. Containing resin, consisting of resin.

RESPIRATION, s. The act of breathing; relief from toil.

REST, s. Sleep, repose; cessation from disturbance; cessation from bodily labour.

REST, v. To lay as on a support; to steady a gun when taking aim.

RESTHARROW, s. A plant.

RESTIFF, a. Unwilling to stir; resolute against going forward; stubborn.

RESTIVENESS, s. Obstinate reluctance; viciousness in a horse.

RESTORATIVE, s. A medicine that has the power of recruiting life.

RETICLE, s. obs. A small net.

RETICULATED, a. Made of net-work.

RETINA, s. The optic nerve which receives the image of the object in vision.

RHEUM, s. A thin watery matter oozing through the glands, chiefly about the mouth and eyes.

RHEUMATISM, s. A painful distemper supposed to proceed from acrid humours.

Acute general rheumatism, or rheumatic fever, is inflammation of the muscular system, and has been already noticed under the head founder, or chill. There is, however, a different kind of rheumatic affection I have sometimes met with, in which the joints are affected; generally, I believe, the hock joint; but probably the other joints are equally liable to this affection. It is sometimes accompanied with a morbidly irritable state of the stomach and bowels, and if a strong or even a common purgative is given in such a case, there will be danger of its producing inflammation of these parts. The same irritable state of the stomach and bowels is sometimes observable also in chills, as they are termed, and when the hind-leg is suddenly attacked with inflammation and swelling, after violent shivering and fever. In all such cases, though physic is often necessary, that is, when the bowels are in a costive state, yet it is likely to do great harm unless in a moderate dose, and guarded with cordials or opium. The following ball may be given on such occasions: it must be observed, however, that copious bleeding is the essential remedy, and must precede every other.

PURGATIVE WITH OPIUM, OR CORDIAL CATHARTIC.

Barbadoes aloes 4 to 5 dr. Ginger 1 dr. Hard soap 3 dr. Syrup enough to form the ball.

The affected parts may be fomented and rubbed with some stimulating liniment or embrocation.—White.

RHUBARB, s. A medical root, slightly purgative, referred by botanists to the dock.

RIB, s. A bone in the body, any piece of timber or other matter which strengthens the sides; a slip of iron attached to gun barrels for strength or ornament.

RIBBED, a. Furnished with ribs; enclosed as the body by ribs.

RICK, s. A pile of corn or hay regularly heaped up and sheltered from wet.

RICKETS, s. The rickets is a distemper in children, from an unequal distribution of nourishment, whereby the joints grow knotty, and the limbs uneven; a disease in horses.

Rickets is very like to tabies, in all its causes, and also in some of its appearances and effects; it is common to the same breeds, and is both occasional and hereditary. It is occasional when it meets with the circumstances of confinement, bad air, filth, and unwholesome food, or the milk of an unhealthy mother. Many whelps are born with the predisposition, among the fancy breeds in the confined parts of great cities and large towns, particularly pugs and the smaller sorts of bull dogs: there is also a breed of wry-legged terriers which without doubt originated in ricketty specimens, which were afterwards cultivated for particular purposes, principally rabbit-hunting. The affection often appears soon after birth; and shows itself by the slow development of the body, except in the head, belly, and joints, all of which enlarge at the expense of the rest of the parts: particularly it attacks all the joints of the extremities; these swell into protuberances, probably from a sympathy in the constitution to make up by bulk what the bones want in ponderosity, but which is not effected; for, deprived of their earthy solidifying principles, they yield to the superincumbent weight, and the cylindrical ones particularly become crooked. Cleanliness, good air, free exercise, and wholesome food, will commonly prevent it in the future breeds of such dogs as have shown a disposition to it. As a cure, an invigorating diet added to these, with the occasional use of tonic bitters if the appetite fails, or the digestion should appear defective, will answer the intention.—Blaine.

RIDE, v. To travel on horseback; to travel in a vehicle; to be borne, not to walk; to manage a horse; to be supported, as ships on the water.

RIDER, s. One who is carried on a horse or in a vehicle; one who manages or breaks horses.

In Riding.—Jockeys may be divided into several classes: namely, the southern jockeys, the northern jockeys, and the dirty jockeys. The first class are those which are seen at Newmarket, Ascot, Epsom, and indeed in most of the races in the southern counties, and also at Doncaster. The second class attend the Yorkshire meetings, and what, for the sake of distinction, I will call the northern circuit. The third or dirty class, are met with still farther to the north, in Westmoreland, Cumberland, &c. and are remarkable for their slovenly, dirty, and unworkmanlike appearance:—it is no uncommon occurrence to see these wretched apologies for jockeys (at Kendal for instance) ride in dirty jackets, dark greasy corduroys, and gaiters of a similar complexion. Mr. Thomas Simpson’s jockey frequently appears thus, though Mr. Simpson is wealthy and highly respectable; but evidently not very scrupulous on the score of cleanliness. The southern jockeys, much to their credit, appear on horseback with a neatness and cleanliness bordering upon elegance; and their performance is, for the most part, of a superior order—superior, in fact, to their rivals of the north; they are illiterate ignorant men, with little exception: though, in private, they affect a mysterious, but plebeian importance, and would willingly be thought a sort of semi-gentlemen, which, however, their very attempt to assume such a character renders impossible. There is much less of this ridiculous and ignorant affectation in the northern jockeys, who yet seem, it must be confessed, not nearly so anxious about their appearance on horseback (as far as relates to the advantage of dress,) as their brethren of the south.

The question next arises as to which are the best workmen. The southerns, beyond a doubt; that is, speaking generally: but, it must be admitted, that there are some excellent northern jockeys, who would lose little by the comparison with either Chifney, Robinson, Dockeray, or any of the most favourite riders of the present day. Buckle is now grown old, and does not often appear; otherwise, I should place him at the head of the list. H. Edwards must be classed, I imagine, amongst the northern jockeys; he has a good seat, good hands, and a good head; and is altogether an excellent rider: I am doubtful if his superior is to be found. T. Shepherd, a northern jockey, has a good head, and I have always admired his riding; I think his abilities have generally been much underrated. Lear is a promising young northern jockey; but he must be careful not to let his self-opinion and overbearing temper supersede the plain uncultivated sense he possesses. Templeman is what may be called an improving jockey: he has a good seat, and I have frequently been much pleased with his performances. He rode Dr. Faustus (Sir T. Stanley’s) remarkably well at the Liverpool summer meeting, and I thought won the cup—I was not singular in this opinion: the judge, however, decided in favour of Velocipede. I never recollect observing a horse better managed than Forth managed his own horse Frederick, when running this year (1829) at Epsom, for the Derby. He had betted to a considerable amount upon Exquisite (also his own horse, and came in second) particularly with Mr. Crockford; but shifted his money the evening before running on Frederick, and thus became a winner to a very considerable amount. There are many very awkward jockeys, possessing but very slender requisites for the profession which they have embraced; to point them out, however, by name, would appear ill-natured and invidious.

It is some dozen years or more since “old Billy Pierse” quitted the avocation of a jockey. This man I always considered as a very superior rider—as one of the best I ever saw. In stature he was one of the shortest of his fraternity: but he was a sort of dwarf Hercules: he was able to give his horse a pull without any perceptible movement of his body; and of all the jockeys I ever saw, not one sat so steadily upon his horse. He never acquired the fame of Chifney; though there are those who think his merits were equal, if not superior to that celebrated jockey:—such is the opinion of one gentleman, in particular, whose superior judgment I have frequently experienced and very much admired.

What I have denominated the “dirty jockeys,” are little worthy of consideration. They are very indifferent riders, but made up of trick and cunning; and ready at any time to put in practice their sinister arts for the purposes of deception, swindling and fraud.

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I have not the least doubt, were this description of jockeyship entirely superseded, it would give very general satisfaction to the true friends of the turf. In the first place, with the exception of Lord Wilton, Mr. White, and some others, there are few gentlemen but what make a poor, or perhaps ridiculous, figure in riding a race. When gentlemen are to ride, it seldom happens that the patience of the multitude is not put to the test: if the preparations for gentlemen riders are not more complex than those of the professed jockeys, they cannot be either so well defined, or so direct, since they occupy a period of time of at least six times the duration. But this is by no means the worst of the business:—the system is liable to very gross abuse; and a class of men contrive to insinuate themselves into it, who have very meagre pretensions indeed to the character of gentlemen, and whose operations are, for the most part, merely a cloak for the basest purposes. I have often been surprised, that those genuine or sterling gentlemen who choose to contend in the race, are not more scrupulous as to the persons in whose company they thus appear: accustomed as they are to the turf, they cannot be unconscious, surely, that men frequently are seen as gentlemen riders, who are not only destitute of every honourable feeling, but whose exertions are in furtherance of a system of swindling, base and degrading, and utterly incompatible with the best interests of the turf. Also, a number of these men cannot come fairly under the description of amateur riders, since they go from race to race throughout the season, and are in the constant habit of riding, which they understand as well as the regular jockeys. What chance has a mere amateur against such competitors?

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As to jockeys riding to order, nothing can be more correct or judicious, when such orders are intended to bring out the horse, so as to make the most of his powers, and to win if possible; but many cases have no doubt occurred of an opposite description, where the horse possessing the qualities to win, has been ridden purposely to lose. Yet, I am inclined to think, that suspicion has not unfrequently been expressed without just grounds. It should be recollected that horses vary considerably in their running, unaccountably so at times, either from latent disease, or other inexplicable cause; and therefore before a jockey is accused of wilfully riding to lose, the matter should be very dispassionately considered. Generally speaking, a jockey is very anxious to win, and I should be more inclined to suspect him of foul riding in order to win, than premeditatedly riding to lose, unless he had betted largely against the horse, and this is much more likely to occur where the jockey happens to be the owner of the horse, than under ordinary circumstances.—Turf Expositor.

RIDGE, s. The top of the back; the rough top of anything; a steep protuberance; the ground thrown up by the plough; the top of the roof rising to an acute angle; ridges of a horse’s mouth are wrinkles or risings of the flesh in the roof of the mouth, running across from one side of the jaw to the other.

RIDGLING, s. A ram half castrated.

RIDINGCOAT, s. A coat made to keep out the weather.

RIFLE, s. A gun whose barrel is only constructed to shoot bullets.

I have made many experiments, and thought a good deal, by way of ascertaining the best calibre for answering the particular or general purposes to which the rifle may be applied. We all know that the resistance of the air is the chief obstacle which projected bodies have to encounter. It is so very great, that the range of projected spheres is more regulated by the degree of this resistance than by the velocity they receive from the powder,—the increased velocity of the ball being met by a geometrically increased ratio of atmospheric resistance. The larger bullets, therefore, having less surface in proportion to their mass, are, proportionately, much less resisted; so that the flights of the larger exceed those of the lesser, in more than the proportion of their respective diameters. For instance, a thirty-two pound shot, whose diameter is about six inches, will, with even a less proportionate charge of powder, and at an equal elevation, range half as far again as a nine pound, whose diameter is four inches. The proportion which the surface of a sphere bears to its mass, increasing in a geometrical ratio to the decrease of its diameter—the smaller the sphere, the greater is the proportionate resistance it meets with in its flight. At length, we find that small particles of the heaviest metals, becoming, as it were, nearly all surface, will actually float in the atmosphere, or remain suspended for a considerable time in the lightest fluids. Hence it is, that from the same piece, and with a similar charge of powder, we shall find that the range of an ounce of bird shot will regularly extend with the increased size of the shot employed, until, in progression, we get to the ounce bullet itself, which fits the piece; and which, by the by, at an elevation, would not be impelled further if projected from a twenty-four pound cannon.

The theory of the air’s regular resistance to the onward progress of the bullet, must also be applied to the irregular action of the wind across the line of its flight; which action also increases in the ratio of the decrease of the weight of the bullet. At the distance of 315 yards I have found a strong cross wind to cause a rifle bullet of nineteen to the pound to diverge from three to four feet. On the other hand, I have used a rifle carrying a bullet of ten to the pound, which, with the same wind, did not, at the same distance, diverge more than about one foot. In constructing a butt for rifle practice, regard should, therefore, be had to the more usual direction of the wind; and, as far as the locality will allow, the butt should be placed so as to have the wind more frequently in the line of the range, either way, than across it.

For general, and especially for military purposes, such large rifles as the last mentioned would, coupled with the ammunition, be found too heavy. The rifles commonly used in the United States carry, I am told, a bullet of thirty-two to the pound. The adoption of so small a calibre, I take to have been occasioned by the use of the rifle being, in that country, originally and generally confined to the interior of thick forests, wherein it seldom happens that an object is to be fired at beyond the distance of one hundred yards; and where, moreover, the wind is much less felt than in an open country.

Under the above circumstances, the half-ounce rifles are quite adequate to their purpose; but in a more open, and especially in a mountainous country, the calibre of rifles should be considerably larger. In a hilly country, you are often in the actual presence of the enemy, and capable of greatly annoying him, at distances at which, on a plain, the view is interrupted and confined by the least considerable of surrounding objects. In a hilly country, occasions are perpetually offering, wherein long rifle ranges would cause considerable mischief to your opponents. Such long ranges can never be obtained, nor depended on, with the half-ounce rifles of the Americans and Tyrolese.

If the foregoing observations are founded on fact, it is easy to decide what sort of rifle should be applied to a particular purpose. With respect to general purposes, I am inclined to fix on the calibre of one ounce, or sixteen bullets to the pound. The English government rifles are of nineteen or twenty to the pound; to which calibre there is little objection, especially as it is the same as that of the cavalry carbines and pistols. However, I could advance several reasons,—I do not call them very important ones,—for preferring the French regulation; according to which all the fire-arms of all the different corps, both of cavalry and infantry, are of one and the same calibre, of sixteen bullets to the pound.

With respect to the rifle, at least, I would most strenuously recommend the substitution of percussion for flint locks; over which the advantages of the former are as great as the latter are superior to the huge wheel and pyrites locks of two centuries ago. In comparison to the percussion gun, the very best flint one absolutely hangs fire, and one out of twenty is usually a miss-fire. A cap is put on much quicker than a flint lock is primed; there is no time lost in changing flints; and if Mr. Joyce’s percussion powder be used, there is no foulness or corrosion whatever; lastly, the rifles at present in use might be converted into copper caps at a trifling expense, and new copper cap locks will cost less than flint ones. The only objection to the change (and I own it is a very great one indeed), is the blind prejudice of custom.

To render the use of the copper cap piece still more eligible, especially for military purposes, there should be no lateral vent-hole in the breech, but in lieu of it, a broad convex-headed screw; which, upon being withdrawn, opens a passage into the chamber under the nipple, of an eighth of an inch in diameter.

By this simply contrivance,—which I have applied to all my own guns, rifles, and pistols,—should any obstruction occur, either from wet or dirt, which cannot be removed by merely probing the nipple, it will infallibly he cleared out by removing the screw, scooping out the passage into the chamber, putting a little powder therein, and firing it off, after having probed the nipple and replaced the screw. The aperture formed by the removal of the screw, greatly adds to the facility of washing the barrel.

Instead of the brush and brass wire pricker, required for the present flint-lock service, the use of percussion pieces would make it necessary to substitute a little instrument of steel, resembling the letter T; one half of the horizontal part being a four, or, what is perhaps better, a three-sided pricker, or probe, of about one-twentieth of an inch diameter. The other half of the horizontal piece forms a kind of little scoop, corresponding to the diameter of the lateral screw above mentioned; upon the removal of which it is to be employed. The centre piece, or foot of the T, is a turnscrew, surmounted by a little ring to attach it to the jacket. As, however, the instrument will not be often wanted, perhaps it had better be kept in the trap of the rifle stock, in the inside of which I attach it, by a thong, to a little screw staple.

Some persons recommend that, instead of the lateral screw above described, the nipple itself should be taken out, in case of obstruction, or for the purpose of washing the barrel. This is not only ineffective, but highly improper, as it requires the use of a particular shaped key or pincer to screw the nipple; whereas, such things as will turn a screw, or serve the purpose of a pricker, are to be found everywhere.

The percussion powder for the caps, should by all means be composed of the nitrate of mercury, first brought into use by Mr. F. Joyce, of Old Compton Street. This, instead of having the slightest tendency to corrode the piece, would rather appear to possess an anti-oxidating property; for I have repeatedly found that, having fired upwards of twenty rounds with this percussion powder, and laid the piece by for a month without the least cleansing, it has been, at the expiration of that time, as perfectly free from the least speck of rust as the day it came new from the maker’s shop. This would certainly not be the case even with a common flint lock; but as for the common percussion powder, composed of superoxygenated muriate of potash, it actually corrodes the parts of a gun as much as a drop of nitric acid itself; in fact, upon combustion it evolves, and leaves a residuum of that active fluid upon the iron. The consequent rapid destruction of the parts is such as would, especially in military service, occasion great inconvenience.

I have often compared notes, and reflected upon the respective advantages belonging to the magazine and copper cap locks, either for military or sporting purposes. Of magazine locks hitherto invented, the best and simplest is that by Forsyth, with the magazine sliding upon a plane, in which is the touch-hole, being connected with the cock by a bridle, which causes it to follow or precede its motions. For military use, this lock has the advantage over the copper cap, inasmuch as it saves the time and attention required for priming; nothing else being required than to cock and pull the trigger. In rifle practice, the use of this lock will more than retrieve the small additional portion of time which it requires to push down even my rifle cartridge, above what it takes to drop a cartridge into a common musket, with all its windage. On horseback, the advantages of such magazine locks are still more evident and important; as every one knows what an awkward loss of time and powder the operation of priming a flint lock occasions to a horseman in motion; whereas, with the magazine, containing thirty or forty primings, and a swivel ramrod, a carbine or pistol may be loaded with the same speed and precision on horseback, at a trot or a gallop, as when sitting in a chair. It is certainly easier to put on a copper cap than to prime a flint lock; but, with the magazine, there is no priming operation at all. With the common corrosive percussion powder above spoken of, the magazine lock certainly becomes very unfit for military purposes; for after having fired a shot or two, without subsequent cleaning, the lock will be nearly immovable the day after. However, in the late Spanish campaign of 1823, I had several magazine rifles and pistols, and no other than the corrosive percussion powder; but the officers and men to whom I entrusted them were so proud and so careful of them, as to keep them always in the most perfect order. Anyhow, it is evident that, for cavalry officers at least, the percussion magazine locks are undoubtedly, to be preferred; and, for both officers and men, I will observe, en passant, that it is far better to have one double pistol, than two, or half a dozen, single ones; and that whether one or two pistols be used, they should, upon going into action, he secured by a thong to the sword-belt; so as, in case of need, to be instantly disposed of by being dropped over the left shoulder. By having only one pistol, one holster may be converted into a convenient pouch. It is essential that, in double pistols, carbines, or rifles, the axis of the barrels should be perfectly parallel from breech to muzzle. If this be strictly attended to, it is not of much consequence whether they be disposed as in a fowling-piece, or, as it is called, “under and over.” One “under and over” pistol, eight inch barrels (the upper one rifled), nineteen bore, swivel ramrod, with a movable spring butt, to be kept in the other holster when not in use, is an excellent weapon for an officer. The movable butt must also serve the purpose of a mallet in loading the rifled barrel. Three or four slight taps will send the ball home: for, particularly on horseback, a rifle-barrelled pistol cannot well be loaded by pushing with so small a ramrod. With the smooth barrel, the party may fire away, either with ball or buck-shot cartridges, as fast as he pleases.

The copper cap offers the advantage of somewhat greater simplicity, and consequently less liability to derangement; and above all, it is, with the application of wax as hereafter described, perfectly water-proof. For the rifle service, therefore, it might perhaps, in one point of view, be preferable to the magazine; and certainly it is so in every respect for fowling pieces; in the use of which protection from the rain is of much more importance than the gain of a few seconds in loading, and where none of the inconveniences of priming on horseback are experienced. Duelling pistols should decidedly be copper caps. With such pistols there is no occasion whatever for a magazine; and I have found that a delicate trigger cannot be subjected to the slightest casual pull or strain of the magazine stirrup, without great liability to accident.

A remarkable defect in all the rifle-shooting that I have ever seen, is the improper construction of the ramrod, which is much too light. From this it results, that either the bullet is inserted with too little constriction to ensure its revolving on its axis to the end of an extensive flight; or, upon a tighter fit being attempted, much time and awkward exertion are expended in driving it properly “home.”

The friction to be overcome in forcing a bullet into a rifle is, in some respects, analogous to that of a wedge or a nail in entering a piece of wood. Nobody would think of driving a nail or a wedge by mere pressure or pushing, which would not effect the object with a thousand times the force that would suffice in the shape of percussion or impingement. To load a rifle with a mallet is out of the question, especially for military purposes; but I find that the very best effect is produced by having the ramrod of solid brass, considerably heavier than the iron ones of the government rifles. I have also a bit of hard wood, turned into the shape of a pestle, acutely convex at the thick end; and to qualify it for hasty use, I fasten it by a string to the button of my jacket. With this I give the ball a smart tap, which drives it below the centre of its circumference into the grooves of the barrel. If the latter be perfectly clean, the bullet will go down all the way by mere pushing; but this will not be the case after a few shots have been fired, unless the bullet be smaller than it should be. Any how, the ramrod ought always to be flung down once or twice, in conclusion—as the particular ring or jar, so produced, furnishes the only true criterion of the bullet being really “home.”

The ramrod being of the proper weight, and the end applied to the bullet being nearly equal to its calibre and well countersunk, the bullet will be moved by it with a few easy percussions; and should the barrel be ever so foul towards the breech, one or two flings with such a ramrod will send the bullet “home” with the assured ring. Neither a wooden nor a light metal ramrod will produce this effect after a few shots.

The ramrods I have had constructed for my own use are of solid brass, of about half an inch diameter except the end applied to the bullet, which, for a couple of inches, is so large as just to fit easily into the barrel. This large end is bored conically out, so as to contain between two and three drachms of powder, which, in leisure shooting, serves to introduce the charge with the rifle reversed. The ball-drawer, when required, screws into the other end of the rod.

The government rifle ramrods, might, for economy’s sake, be made of iron; but they should be much heavier than they are. It is absolutely necessary to good and quick rifle shooting, that the bullet should be driven into the mouth of the piece by a stroke of some sort or other, previously to the use of the ramrod. Should the little wooden pestle mentioned above be deemed inconvenient in military practice,—which I opine it is not,—a similar effect might be produced by a tap with the round button-like end of the present rifle ramrods; though, for the sake of the barrel, I would recommend that this button should be of soft copper. Were it made more convex, it would drive the bullet further in.

It is evident, that for actual service, the practice cannot be rendered too simple. So I only just mention, en passant, that in my own cartridge pouch, twelve cartridges, to be used first, are made with thicker cotton, which, for distinction’s sake, is red or blue. So, as the barrel becomes foul, I get to the other cartridges, of somewhat easier introduction. I have found it very pleasant even to divide my cartridges into three different fits—red, blue, and white. A rifle, however, deteriorates in accuracy of shooting, in proportion to the number of shots fired without cleaning the barrel. For the foulness accumulating mostly towards the breech, forms there a certain degree of constriction and obliteration of the grooves, into which part the bullet being forced, no longer fits the other and greater portion of the barrel, so to ensure its spinning upon its axis to the end of a long range. After twenty-five shots, without cleaning, at 315 yards, in very dry weather, I have found the bullets begin to deviate a little; as they no longer struck the target on the side which had come foremost from the barrel.

With respect to the rifleman’s cartridge-pouch, it should certainly be placed in front, buckling round the waist with a broad strap. The great thickness or projection which is given to the English rifle-pouches has many inconveniences; one of which is, that the weight, being concentrated into one almost cubic mass, causes great fatigue and annoyance, and perhaps injury, to the bearer. So far from having any such shape, I have found that the pouch ought to be so flat, as only to contain one row of tin tubes for cartridges, twenty-four of which occupy a space of about fourteen inches from hip to hip. The tubes being about five inches long, open at each end, but divided in the middle by a diaphragm, contain two cartridges each. When the uppermost row is consumed, to get at the others, it is only required to draw out the tubes, and reverse them in the pouch. If the cartridges are closed up, according to the method recommended in another part of this Treatise, they may, from the increased diameter of the folded end, be made to stick more or less firmly in the reversed half of the tubes, when these are drawn out to be turned. The pouch covers up with a flap of flexible leather, saturated with linseed oil, and secured at pleasure with a round button and loop. At one or both ends of the pouch is a little leathern bag, which may contain one or more packets of spare cartridges. I prefer, however, the method I have observed amongst the Calabrians and Corsicans, who, had they rifles, would be the most formidable skirmishers in the world. Their pouches go all round the body; though sometimes it is, as it were, a double pouch, with only small intervals at each hip, occupied by a bayonet on one side, and a middling-sized pistol on the other. From having only one row of tubes, these pouches are so little protuberant, as to be scarcely more perceptible, under or over the jacket, than a simple belt would be. When the cartridges are exhausted in front, the pouch is easily slipped round as much as required. Moreover, the weight being so distributed all round the body, gives scarcely any incumbrance; and I have found it a further improvement to partially support it by braces, worn under the jacket or waistcoat. Slips from the usual trouser suspenders will answer the purpose.

I must yet add a few words, by way of recommending some essential alterations in the method of exercising the troops to the use of that weapon, which will in most respects apply to the musket, carbine, and pistol.

In all the rifle or musket practice that I have ever seen or heard of, the men are made to fire at a target of about three feet diameter, placed before a bank or mound of earth, which receives all the missing bullets. Nothing can be more ineffectual in the way of instruction than this method! Every shot which misses the target, might as well have been fired vertically in the air, for any instruction it can have afforded to the firer! Even those bullets which do strike the target, will furnish no precise criteria of experience, unless the actual mark of each be immediately pointed out to the man who fired it.

The butt, or rather wall, for teaching rifle or musket shooting, should be at least twelve feet square, or rather twelve feet broad and twenty high. It should be covered entirely with cast-iron plates, of about three quarters of an inch thick. A convenient movable butt may be composed of a rectangular frame of wood, traversed like a window-frame, by pieces of wood at right angles or diagonally, having holes at the intersections for the admission of flat-headed bolts, by which the four corners of the cast-iron plates, corresponding to the size of the square divisions, will be secured to the frame, in close connexion with each other. Such a butt being set up endways, need only be connected, by a pulley at the top, to a couple of poles fixed in the earth, or to the top of a movable triangle. Any inclination, either forwards or backwards, may be given to it by means of the pulley. If it be inclined backwards at an angle of eighty to eighty-five degrees, the bullets, at medium and short ranges, will be reflected upwards nearly perpendicularly in the air.

The ground in front of the butt should be well levelled to the distance of about thirty yards, and covered with sifted road-scrapings, in preference to turf, gravel, or sand.

As unnecessary waste should in all cases be avoided, there is no reason why the recovery of the bullets should not be attended to. The best way to insure this, is to give the surface of the butt an inclination forward, of about ten degrees upon the horizontal line, which will cause the bullets to be reflected downwards upon the smooth ground in front. The recovered lead might be given as the perquisite of the marker, or to the best shot at the drill.

A little on one side, and about five yards in advance of the butt, there should be a little screen, or epaulement, behind which a man might safely stand to perform the office of marker. This marker must be provided with a pot of lamp-black and water, with a brush affixed to a long stick, and a pot of whitewash. He must also have a bit of chalk, or a box of various coloured wafers, to mark the shots. To prepare the butt for shooting, it must be blackened all over. An object is then to be designated in the middle, either with whitewash, or with one or more sheets of white paper, according to the distance, and to the proficiency of the men who are to practise.

Instead of a circular object or target, I recommend, for military practice, a perpendicular parallelogram of two, four, six, twelve, or more inches broad, and one, two, three, or five feet high. If such a figure be made with whiting on the black butt, the bullets will make very distinct marks upon it, while those which miss it will leave white ones on the butt. If paper be used, care must be taken that it be not moved about by the wind. Pieces of thick wrought iron, of the shape and dimensions last described, to suit the different distances, &c., whitened and hung up against the butt, form excellent targets, especially for distant shooting. A loud gong-like clang announces the stroke of a bullet, while the marker may pretty well indicate, with a stick blackened at the end, its precise situation. He will also point out the site of those unresponsive shots which do not hit the mark. The presiding officer should use a telescope. This method will obviate the necessity of perpetually walking up to the target, which occasions much loss of time, confusion, and danger.

As I have always observed that it gives most satisfaction to the firer, when he sees the object fired at actually knocked down from its situation, this result might easily be obtained either with plates of plaster of Paris, or with metal ones. It may be also well to observe, that a bright red is undoubtedly the colour which can be seen at the greatest distance, and consequently the properest for a bull’s-eye.

Every shot being marked, and pointed out to the man who fired it, he will always be able to form a criterion by which to regulate his next attempt. Men might as well be made to shoot at a bottle in the dark, as to practise without knowing where the bullet strikes—except when they may chance to hit the bull’s-eye! I will venture to assert, that five shots fired with care, comparison, and reflection, will produce more improvement than fifty expended in the usual irrational manner.

It is particularly requisite to attend to the perpendicular line; and that no shot be allowed to count, which strikes the butt at more than five feet from the ground. In service, it is far better that the bullet should fall rather short, than that it should go over the adversary’s head; as, in the former case, if it be on tolerably level ground, and in the right perpendicular direction, there is a great probability of its hitting him by the ricochet.

Both in rifle and pistol-shooting, an absurd custom prevails, of pointing the piece upwards, and bringing it down to a level with the object to be fired at. Instead of this practice, to which there are many objections, the piece should, previously to being cocked, be pointed downwards, at less than a yard from the foot of the firer. It is then to be steadily raised up in the line of the object, and when within a certain distance from the proposed level, the trigger (if not a detent) should be gradually pressed, according to the knowledge which the firer has of it, so that it may just go off without any pull at the desired moment. While the piece is in motion upwards, the perpendicular line described will be true and steady; and the quicker the motion the truer the line. When the perpendicular motion ceases, the horizontal vacillation begins. The aim, therefore, should not be prolonged beyond the arrival of the sight at the intended level; but whenever it is so, the piece must be lowered below it, and brought up again.

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I have invented, says the Colonel, a simple method of rendering copper caps perfectly water proof. It consists in dipping the open rim, or base of the cap, into green taper wax, melted in a plate over a lamp. The melted wax must not be so deep as to spread into the cap up to the percussion powder at its extremity, but only so high as to form a slight lining of the wax around its inner base. This will suffice to cause the cap to close hermetically over the nipple; so that, provided it be not cracked, and the gun have no lateral vent-hole (which it ought not to have), the loaded piece may be put, over the lock, into a pail of water, without affecting either the cap or the charge. For sporting purposes, it is sufficient to have a few such caps in store, for wet weather. For military use, the whole of the caps might be so prepared at the laboratories.

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Two rifle guns of the manufactory, the one valued at a hundred, the other at twenty-five guineas, were next loaded, and fired by General Beaumont and another person against my rifle, called Caroline, the distance agreed on being one hundred yards. General Beaumont’s first shot hit the bull’s eye, upon which he was highly complimented; mine in return was an inch from it, and high odds were consequently in favour of the General. The succeeding shots were as follows:—

General Beaumont’s second shot missed, and went over the iron plate three feet square.

Colonel Thornton’s ditto near the bull’s eye.

General B’s third shot below the iron, and struck the ground.

Colonel T’s ditto hit the bull’s eye.

General B’s fourth shot struck to the left of the plate thirteen inches from the mark.

Colonel T’s ditto near the mark.

General B’s fifth shot went over the mark.

Colonel T’s ditto within one inch of the bull’s eye.

The other rifle, shot by a person belonging to the manufactory, did not succeed better than General Beaumont, and the decision was consequently given in my favour. The rifle I shot with on this occasion, was the workmanship of Mr. Sluden, of Cockspur Street.

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During the late war in 1775, a company of riflemen, formed from the backwoodsmen of Virginia, was quartered here (Lancaster in New England), for some time. Two of them alternately held a board, only nine inches square, between his knees, while his comrade fired a ball through it from a distance of one hundred paces. The board is still preserved, and I am assured, by several who were present, that it was performed without any manner of deception.—Maccerone—Thornton, &c.

RIGID, a. Stiff, not to be bent, unpliant, inflexible.

RING, s. A circle; a circle of gold or some other matter worn as an ornament; a circular course; a circle made by persons standing round; a number of bells harmonically tuned; the sound of bells or any other sonorous body; a sound of any kind; a hunting term.

RINGBONE, s. A hard callous substance growing in the hollow circle of the little pastern of a horse; it sometimes grows quite round like a ring.

RINGDOVE, CUSHAT, or QUEST, (Columba palumbus, LINN.; Le Pigeon ramier, BUFF.) s. A kind of pigeon.

This is the largest of all the pigeon tribe, and measures above seventeen inches in length. The bill is of a pale red colour; the nostrils are covered with a mealy red fleshy membrane; the eyes are pale yellow; the upper parts of the body are of a bluish ash-colour, deepest on the upper part of the back, the lower part of which, the rump, and forepart of the neck and the head, are of a pale ash-colour; the lower part of the neck and are of a vinous ash-colour; the belly, thighs, and vent are of a dull white; on the hinder part of the neck there is a semicircular line of white (whence its name) above and beneath which the feathers are glossy, and of a changeable hue in different lights; the greater quills are dusky, and all of them, excepting the outermost, edged with white; from the point of the wing a white line extends downwards, passing above the bastard wing; the tail is ash-colour, tipped with black; the legs are red, and partly covered with feathers; the claws black.

The ring dove is very generally diffused throughout Europe; it is said to be migratory; but that it does not leave us entirely we are well convinced, as we have frequently seen them during the winter on the banks of the Tyne, where they constantly breed in the spring. The nest is composed of small twigs, so loosely put together, that the eggs may be seen through it from below.

The female lays two white eggs, and is generally supposed to have two broods in the year. They feed on wild fruits, herbs, and grain of all kinds; they likewise are very fond of the roots of the pernicious weeds so well known to farmers under the name of whickens; the Triticum repens, or couch-grass, is the principal one; their flesh is very delicious when they have fed upon these, but it soon acquires an unpleasant flavour when they have lived upon turnips, which, from necessity, they are driven to eat in severe winters. The ring dove has a louder and more plaintive sort of cooing than the common pigeon, but is not heard except in pairing time, or during fine weather.

The ring dove or wood pigeon is the largest species in England, weighing about twenty ounces, and is too well known to need particular description as to its plumage.

The major part of them, in respect to this kingdom, are emigrants, departing elsewhere at the latter end of the year, and returning early in the spring. In the beginning of winter they assemble in large flocks, and leave off their plaintive cooing, which they commence in March, when they pair; they chiefly inhabit the woods, and build in the tops of trees, making a large, loose, and flat nest, with dry sticks and bents; they breed twice in the year, first in April; the second brood appears most numerously in August; they seldom lay more than two eggs, larger but alike in colour to other pigeons, and sit fourteen days before the young are hatched. Wood pigeons are excellent eating, except when they feed on turnips and rape. They are useful in coverts that are made preserves for pheasants, by immediately taking alarm if any person enters them after they have roosted, and quitting the trees upon which they had settled for the night, they fly about in great commotion. The gamekeepers know how to profit by this sort of intelligence in their search after intruders.—Daniel.

RING OUSEL, (Turdus Torquatus, LINN.; Le Merle à Plastron Blanc, BUFF.) s.

This bird very much resembles the blackbird; its general colour is of a dull black or dusky hue; each feather is margined with a greyish ash colour; the bill is dusky; corners of the mouth and inside yellow; eyes hazel; its breast is distinguished by a crescent of pure white, which almost surrounds the neck, and from which it derives its name; its legs are of a dusky brown. The female differs in having the crescent on the breast much less conspicuous, and in some birds wholly wanting, which has occasioned some authors to consider it as a different species under the name of the rock ouzel.

Ring ousels are found in various parts of this kingdom, chiefly in the wilder and more mountainous districts of the country. Their habits are similar to those of the blackbird; the female builds her nest in the same manner, and in similar situations, and lays four or five eggs of the same colour; they feed on insects and berries of various kinds, are fond of grapes, and Buffon observes during the season of vintage are generally fat, and at that time are esteemed delicious eating. The same author says that in France they are migratory. In some parts of this kingdom they have been observed to change places, particularly in Hampshire, where they are known generally to stay not more than a fortnight at one time.

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On the 13th of April, I went to the sheep-down, where the ring-ousels have been observed to make their appearance at spring and fall, in their way perhaps to the north or south; and was much pleased to see three birds about the usual spot. We shot a cock and a hen; they were plump and in high condition. The hen had but very small rudiments of eggs within her, which proves they are late breeders; whereas those species of the thrush kind that remain with us the whole year, have fledged young before that time. In their crops was nothing very distinguishable, but somewhat that seemed like blades of vegetables nearly digested. In autumn they feed on haws and yew-berries, and in the spring on ivy-berries. I dressed one of these birds, and found it juicy and well-flavoured. It is remarkable that they make but a few days’ stay in their spring visit, but rest near a fortnight at Michaelmas. These birds, from the observations of three springs and two autumns, are most punctual in their return; and exhibit a new migration unnoticed by the writers, who supposed they never were to be seen in any of the southern counties.—Bewick—White’s Selborne.

RINGSTREAKED, a. Circularly streaked.

RINGTAIL, s. A kind of kite.

RINSE, v. To wash, to cleanse by washing. In case of canine bite, to instantly wash the wound in water, is the very simplest and most effective preventative.

RIPPLING, s. A moving roughness on the surface of a running water.

RIVER, s. A land-current of water larger than a brook.

The rivers in England amount to three hundred and twenty-five, though others enlarge their number to four hundred and fifty.

Shooting Wildfowl on a River, &c.—For killing common wild ducks that frequent a river, you have only to go a little before sunset; place yourself against any dark bush or bank, and there wait patiently, and out of sight, till they come down and fly round you, which they will generally do several times before they drop into the stream or marshes.

As wild ducks most frequently betake themselves to the springs and rivers about dusk, you have no occasion to wait for them longer than just the last hour, or half, before dark; but if they have been much disturbed or shot at, they will not always fly sufficiently early to be seen, though you may plainly hear the shrill and somewhat melancholy sound of their wings. If, however, the twilight is followed by a full moon, these birds will often withhold coming to the river till the moon has completely risen, in which case you might have to wait till an hour or two after dusk; but then the sport is considerably better, and will last much longer, with the additional advantage of your having continued good light for shooting.

Wild ducks generally come to the same place, unless they have been shot at, or there should be a change of wind and weather.

It often happens that wild ducks, dunbirds, and other fowl, come down at night to large rivers, ponds, or lakes, which are so deeply surrounded by floating reeds, that no one can approach the water; and the birds, aware of this, do not lower their flight till they come near them. So far from this defying the shooter, it is one of the finest opportunities that can be afforded for death and destruction. Let him sit in a small punt or canoe, fore and aft among the rushes, where towards dusk he will be so completely hid, that he may either shoot at birds flying within pistol shot, or wait for a good chance on the water; from whence (his boat being hid on each side, and foreshortened to the only point of view) he will be pretty sure to escape the observation of the birds.—Hawker.

RIVET, s. A fastening pin clinched at both ends.

RIVULET, s. A small river, a brook, a streamlet.

ROACH, s. A fish peculiar to fresh water.

Roach is a handsome fish either in, or fresh out of the water; it inhabits many of our deep, still rivers; affecting, like the others of this genus, quiet waters; it is gregarious, keeping in large shoals; it has a small head, a leather mouth, which is round, and also small, with the teeth in the throat; large eyes, the circle of which resembles gold colour, and the iris red; the roach is deep, but thin, and the back elevated; the scales are large, and easily fall off; the fins are in general red, particularly whilst in perfection; as they may also be known to be by the smoothness of the scales, which, when out of season, feel like the rough side of an oyster-shell: the side-line bends much on the middle, towards the belly, and the tail is a little forked. It is so silly a fish, that it has acquired the name of the water sheep.

Many ways are recommended to catch this fish by angling, when in deep waters, near piles of bridges, flood-gates, &c.: in hot weather, a May or ant-fly is to be sunk by a little lead, within a few inches of the hook, near the sides of these posts or piles; this is to be pulled up very leisurely; a roach will generally attend the fly to the surface, there gaze on it for a moment, and then take it.

Stern fishing, is by fixing a boat (for without, roach of any size are hardly to be caught,) to the stern of a vessel returned from a voyage, whose bottom is foul, and furnished with insects, which the fish greedily devour. The line should not exceed four feet, the float be within a foot of its top, and the rod very short; the bait to be three or four gentles, and dropt close to the ship’s sides, not allowing the bait to swim more than eight or nine feet; begin at the first of the ebb-tide, and for two hours the roach will bite freely.—Daniel.

ROAD, s. Large way, public path; ground where ships may anchor.

ROADSTER, s. A hackney, a horse kept for the road.

The hackney, more than any other variety of horse, adds to our health and comfort; we ride him for amusement, and he transports us long distances on our personal avocations. On some only of these occasions speed is desirable; but on all safety is indispensable; and next to that, is the ease with which his motions are performed. These requisites remove the hackney still further than the hunter from that form which best suits the purposes of the racer. In the hackney, therefore, we scrutinise his fore quarters with the same attention that we pay to the hinder parts of the racer; for, as to the purposes of the latter, the fore parts are subordinate to the hinder, so in the hackney, speed being infinitely less important than either ease or safety, and particularly the latter, it is essential that his fore parts be so formed as to ensure these properties. And here it may not be irrelevant to inquire, on what does the safety of action mainly depend? Is it on any particular care of the animal himself in his progression? or does it necessarily arise out of certain peculiarities in his formation, dependent on such an elevation of his feet as will ensure his not stumbling by any erroneous placing of them? The close observer, I think, will answer, that both are concerned: many horses go safely, and yet by no means elevate their legs high; but such are attentive to their steps; and when they see stones or other risings in their path, carefully avoid them. In my early practice I was called on to examine a horse intended for the French court, at the stables of that veteran dealer Choppin. I objected to the horse that he went close to the ground, which even his owner could not deny: but he still argued, that, although he appeared to go near the ground, yet that he was particularly safe in all his paces; and, as a lure to the purchase, would have offered a bet, that on the roughest ground he would not make one trip. As the animal in all other respects was desirable, ground purposely stony in the extreme was chosen, over which he was tried; and it was singular to remark, that in every pace he accommodated the elevation of his feet exactly to the elevations of surface they were to pass over; but it was with a kind of frightful nicety to the observer. On the same ground, many high actioned horses, from inattention to the matters on it, might have tripped by meeting any unusual rising; or, by placing one of the feet on a rolling stone, might have fallen altogether. But it is not hence meant to argue, that the most careful hackney, which does not naturally elevate his feet, is a desirable one. Horses, it is true, are in a great degree crepuscular, and see in a very moderate light. But would such a horse be safe to ride at a brisk trot along an uneven road in a dark night? Or even in a long day, might not fatigue bring his feet down without his usual caution?

The fore-hand of the hackney, therefore, should be elevated, and his shoulder by all means must be oblique; so that he may not only lift up his feet, but also ride pleasantly and lightly in hand, as it is termed by horsemen. To which latter valuable quality it is also essential that he have a neck of just proportions, and that his head be particularly well placed on it, so as to afford him room for flexing himself to the action of the bridle, which, in the hands of a good rider, will sometimes constrain him to throw himself on his haunches, and at others to carry himself forward for more speedy progression. The remainder of the fore limbs ought to present a perfectly vertical line to the pastern, which should have such length and obliquity, and such only, as shall bring the toe directly under the point of the shoulder. The body should be circular, neither long nor very short; his saddle-placing good, his flank on a plane nearly with the rest of his carcass, his loins wide, and his croup gently curved only, to allow of a graceful setting on of the tail. From hence downwards, the principles already laid down when treating on the exterior formation generally, will apply; particularising only, that for this variety of horse a good foot ought never to be dispensed with. Height is not so essential in the hackney as in the hunter; it need never to exceed fifteen hands two inches: in most cases it may, with more propriety, range between fourteen hands three inches, and fifteen hands one inch. Altogether, his frame should be compact, without being in the least clumsy; and with this form, the more breeding he shows, short of full blood, the better.—Blaine.

ROAN, a. Bay or sorrel, with grey or white spots interspersed.

The roans, of every variety of colour and form, are composed of white mixed with bay, or red, or black. In some it seems to be a natural mixture of the colours; in others it appears as if one colour was powdered or sprinkled over another. They are pretty horses for ladies or light carriages, and many of them easy in their paces, but they do not usually display much blood, nor are they celebrated for endurance. If they should have white fore legs, with white hoofs, they are too often tender-footed, or become so with even a little hard work.—The Horse.

ROAR, v. To cry as a lion or other wild beast; to cry in distress; to sound as the wind or sea; to make a loud noise.

ROARING, s. A disease in horses.

The causes of roaring, which I shall here use as a type of the whole, are remote and proximate. The remote causes are mostly inflammation, acute or chronic, in the tracheal tube itself. Occasionally it is brought on by the effects of inflammation on other parts, as of the salivary glands in strangles, or of those abscesses which not unfrequently occur in violent catarrh in the vicinage of the pharynx. Structural alteration in the lungs, as hepatisation, has occasioned it (Percivall’s Lectures, vol. ii. p. 256). Obstructions accidentally formed by exostoses, cicatrisations, &c., or extraneous substances lodged in the cavities leading to the trachea, may any of them occasion it. Barriere notices a case of roaring dependent on the lodgment of a piece of riband within one of the nasal fossæ; and Godine another, brought on by a displaced molar tooth. The proximate cause might, with propriety, include these accidental obstructions, but they are mainly to be looked for in an extravasation, partial or extensive, of coagulable lymph; which, becoming organised, forms a permanent obstruction. When it is extensively spread over the larynx, it produces wheezing; when it constringes the rimaglottis, a whistling sound is the consequence, and is often heard in our own respirations under catarrh, or in the ordinary respirations of some asthmatic persons. Whoever has handled the throats of many old horses, must have observed the hardened state of the larynx, which almost resisted all attempts to what is termed ‘cough them.’ This ossification of the laryngeal cartilages is not an uncommon cause; and a similar state in the cartilages of the trachea is productive of it also. A very common case also of roaring is a band of lymph stretched across the tracheal tube; at others, an internal ring of the same matter simply diminishes its diameter. The obstruction is sometimes so considerable as to excite piping or roaring on the slightest exertion; in general cases, however, roaring is only exerted when forcible inspirations and expirations are made; for it is, I believe, equally produced by the one as by the other. Mechanical obstructions to free respiration may eventually be productive of roaring: the custom of tightly reining in our carriage-horses, there is reason to think, produces it often; and Mr. Sewell is of opinion, that the practice of using tight throat-lashes, or neck-straps, may lead to it. In furtherance of which opinion, it may be recollected, that horsemen have a very general supposition that crib-biting ends in roaring, in thick wind, or in broken wind: may not the tight collar-strap also here tend to the former of these affections? The custom of ‘coughing’ horses, and so frequently as it is practised in fairs, may be readily supposed as a cause. A horse passes from fair to fair, having his unfortunate throat brutally pinched thirty or forty times each day. Is it to be wondered at if inflammation take place, and adhesive deposit follow?

The treatment must be regulated by circumstances, but the principal indication is to remove the remote causes in the early stages, and to obviate the effects in the latter. If active inflammation be going on, bleed and blister; and if tumefaction of the neighbouring parts have occasioned it, attempt their reduction. Elevate the head as much as may be. Mr. Sewell recommends a seton in the neighbourhood of the obstruction when known; and in desperate cases he observes, that tracheotomy has been performed with considerable advantage; but the extreme difficulty of detecting the exact situation of the obstruction, will prevent its being generally adverted to.—Blaine.

ROCK-DOE, s. A species of deer.

ROCK PIGEON, s. (Columba livia, BRISSON.)

Ornithologists seem to differ in opinion concerning the rock and stock pigeon; though it appears almost impossible to conceive them a distinct species. In those described under such names there seems to be so much similitude, except what may be expected from a species half reclaimed, and frequently returning to their natural wild habits again, that we cannot but consider them as one and the same species.

The rock dove is considered to be the origin of our tame pigeons, as it is said to possess the white on the lower part of the back, in which part the stock dove is described to be ash-coloured, and that this last is rather larger. But these variations we have observed in pigeons killed in their native haunts amongst the rocks on our coasts; and our dove-cote pigeons frequently have no white on the back. It is therefore probable many of our common species, after having been bred in a pigeon-house contiguous to such rocky situations, return to their natural habits, and there produce some variation in colour.

The bird now before us we killed on the cliffs in Cauldy Island, in South Wales. It weighed eleven ounces; length thirteen inches and a half; breadth twenty-two; the bill is brown, inclining to purplish-red; point dusky; irides light yellow; the head dark bluish ash-colour; neck and breast glossed with green and copper, as viewed in different lights, most conspicuous on the sides and back of the neck; the upper part of the back and wing coverts pale ash-colour; across the middle of the greater coverts is a broad band of black, and another of the same on the ends of the secondary quills, running into each other on those feathers nearest the body; the greater quills are dusky, dashed with ash-colour, the outer ones darkest, and all of them most so towards the tips, slightly edged on their exterior webs with white; the lower part of the back white; the rump and tail dark bluish ash-colour, the ends of the latter black; the two exterior feathers whitish on the outer webs towards the base; the sides under the wings, and under wing coverts, white; the belly bluish ash-colour; legs red.

These birds have sometimes appeared in prodigious flocks in winter, frequenting our beech woods for the sake of the mast or seed of that tree. These flights, however, are less numerous and less frequent of late years. Sometimes they are seen in company with our common pigeons, at the barn doors, in severe winters; and are said to be known by their inferior size and darker colour.

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The only place where I have ever seen the rock dove in a wild state, was at Howford, near Mauchlane, in Ayrshire, where two or three pairs nestled on the cliffs of the romantic rocks overhanging the river, but in situations so inaccessible, that I never knew them robbed by the most daring boys. It would be hard to say whether these had strayed from some neighbouring dove-cote, or had originally come thither from some wild brood; though the former is not so probable, as instances, I believe, are rare, of domestic pigeons voluntarily deserting their birth place.—Montagu—Rennie.

ROCKET, s. An artificial firework.

ROCKSALT, s. Mineral salt.

ROD, s. A long twig; anything long and slender; an instrument for measuring; an instrument of correction made of twigs; an implement for angling.

The wood for fishing rods should be cut about Christmas (and some insist that if left in the open air for twelve months afterwards it will season better, than if stowed in a dry place). Hazel is the wood generally procured for this purpose, and of all the sorts that of the cob-nut grows to the greatest length, and is, for the most part, straight and taper; the butt-end should rather exceed an inch in diameter; but of whatever wood the rod is composed, the shoots for stocks, middle pieces, and tops, must be of proper size, well-grown, and as free from knots as possible. The tops should be the best rush-ground shoots, without knots, and proportionally taper; the excrescent twigs are to be cut off, but not close, for fear of hurting the bark, which ought never to be touched with a knife or rasp; for, although they will dress neater, it considerably weakens them: these pieces are to be kept free from wet until the beginning of the following autumn, when such as are wanted to form a rod should be selected, and, after being warmed over a gentle fire, set as straight as possible, and laid aside for two or three days, when they must be rubbed over with a piece of flannel and linseed oil, which will polish and fetch off any superfluous bark; they are then to be bound tight to a straight pole, and so kept until the next spring, when they will be seasoned for use; (some, however, prefer keeping them from eighteen months to two years, before they are made up); they are then to be matched together in just proportion, in three, four, or more parts, according to the width of the water, or the wish of the maker; taking care that the different joints fit so nicely, if ferruled, that the whole rod may move as if it were but one piece. If the parts are not ferruled, observe, that they must be cut to join each other with the utmost exactness, and neatly spliced with glue, boiled very gently in strong quick lime-water, keeping it stirred until it becomes smooth and all alike, and then are to be whipped over the glued part with waxed thread.

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Elder, holly, yew, mountain ash, and hip briar, are all natives; the former, prepared as follows, is by some thought to excel any of the latter; a branch of the elder tree of three years’ growth is to be cut about the third week in November; it is then with a saw to be separated at every joint; sometimes, when the branch is exactly straight, a length of two joints may be made, for the two shoots which spring from each joint grow alternately from the different sides; these double lengths should be taken from the biggest end of the branch, and will be near three quarters of a yard long; one of these will make the thick end of the top; the other joints are split into four, shaving off the bark and the pith, and every joint tied by itself; the thick end of every piece should be placed towards the butt of the rod; after being split, the pieces should be tied together, and kept a year at least to season; when wanted, they should be first planed and rasped taper, and square; the edges then filed off exactly round and smooth; the splice must be rubbed very thin with shoe-makers’ wax, filling the outside of the joint so, that when wrapped close with fine white silk, the splice may not be bigger than the joint is, an inch above it. The hip briar is easily found in hedges of old inclosures, which have not been plashed for many years; but it should be thoroughly seasoned before it is split, or the small pieces will be apt to warp in drying; it is cut into lengths of eight or ten inches for tops, spliced or glued together; after which they are properly tapered with planes and fine rasps, finished off with sandpaper, and the joints wrapped with silk well waxed; a small piece of whalebone is added to the wood, spliced and wrapped in a similar manner; to this finish, however, some gentlemen object, and wonder at the prevalent custom of loading rods with eight or ten inches of whalebone at the top, since that particular part should be light and elastic; and they contend, that the whalebone is dull, heavy, and much too flexible; the Scotch fishing rod makers use tortoise shell at the end of their tops, and it is lighter and springs better than whalebone.

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The reed or cane rod, on account of its lightness and elasticity, is the best for fishing at the bottom, whether with a running line or float, especially when angling for those fish which bite tenderly, as roach and dace; of these some are contrived to go into the butt, and make a walking stick, others are composed of many short joints; all of which are inclosed in a bag. The tackle shops have a variety of these; but in purchasing a reed or cane rod, be careful that it strikes well, and that the bark which grows round the joints, is not rasped into; a very common fault which the rod makers are guilty of; and the consequence of which is, that it is thereby rendered weaker at the joints than elsewhere, and there being no bark to repel the wet, it soon rots, and whenever a large fish is hooked, certainly breaks. Another thing to be observed is, that the medium between the ferrule and the joint that goes in, is not cut too fine; if it is, and a good fish is struck, it is odds but a part of the rod, line, and fish, are all lost together.

* * * * *

The rod composed of the hazel will not do for fly-fishing, the least wet being apt to warp and render it crooked.

* * * * *

Another rod for fly-fishing, is recommended to be of two parts, without ferrules, and the lower longer than the upper, with the small end of the former, and the large end of the latter, cut long, and to fit nicely as for splicing; it may be tied together at the water side with common shoemakers’ common waxed thread; this is by far the best, for throwing the line with freedom and accuracy; and for easing it in playing the fish when hooked, the spring will be superior, if properly made, to that of the other sort of rods: upon leaving off fishing the rod should be untied, and the string wrapped round the two parts, for carrying it more conveniently.

* * * * *

Yew, especially the white of it, makes a fine top, and the best forest yew is to be got in Wales; but unless very well chosen, frequently turns out brittle, from its numerous knots. Holly is liable to the same objection; all kinds of wood should be cut in winter when the sap is descended into the root, and kept a year or two, oiling them now and then with linseed oil, and placing them in such a position, that they acquire no bend, which should they do, it may be rectified by holding them over a gentle fire. Of foreign woods, the hiccory from America, will work into handsome and good tops; but the bamboo, or hollow cane, from the West Indies, is to be preferred; in making a top of the latter, care should be taken to preserve the outside, that being its most elastic part; at the extremity of all tops, there should be a loop of hair or a ring for fastening the line to.

* * * * *

A rod of twelve feet, unless the wind be extremely unfavourable, will cast a fly-line of fourteen yards, but if it is to carry a reel line, fourteen feet will be preferable; it is useless to encumber yourself with an unnecessary weight of wood, as the great advantage of a light rod is, that with either hand you can use it, and thus be enabled to cast your fly under bushes, hollow banks, &c., where the best trout generally lie, without endangering the tackle; the shorter the joints, of course it will be more portable, but the fewer there are, the better it will open a fly line.

* * * * *

The great defect in most rods is, that the play is in the middle, owing to that part being too weak, and like a waggon whip; with a rod of this kind, it is impossible to strike or command a fish of any size.

* * * * *

Rods should not be kept in too dry a room; the practice of steeping them in water before using, is bad, and will soon spoil them; the rubbing the tops with sweet oil twice or thrice in the season will preserve them in a serviceable state, and if the rod be hollow, tie a rag to the end of a stick, dip it in linseed oil, and rub it well about the inside of the different joints.—Daniel.

ROE, s. A species of deer; the female of the hart; the eggs of fish; that of the male fish is called the soft or melt; that of the female the hard or spawn.

ROLLER, s. Anything turning on its own axis, as a heavy stone to level walks; bandage; in saddling, the broad fillet, with two or more straps and buckles to secure the saddle or sheet.

ROLLYPOOLY, s. A corruption of roll ball into the pool, a sort of game, in which when a ball rolls into a certain place it wins.

ROOD, s. The fourth part of an acre in square measure; a pole, a measure of sixteen feet and a half in long measure.

ROOK, s. A bird resembling a crow; it feeds not on carrion but grain; a piece at chess.

This bird is about the size of the carrion crow, and, except its more glossy plumage, very much resembles it. The base of the bill and nostrils, as far as the eyes, is covered with a white scabrous skin, in which it differs from all the rest, occasioned, it is said, by thrusting its bill into the earth in search of worms; but as the same appearance has been observed in such as have been brought up tame, and unaccustomed to that mode of subsistence, we are inclined to consider it as an original peculiarity. We have already had occasion to observe, that they are useful in preventing a too great increase of that destructive insect the chafer, or dor-beetle, and thereby make large recompense for the depredations they may occasionally commit on the corn-fields. Rooks are gregarious, and fly in immense flocks, at morning and evening, to and from their roosting places, in quest of food. During the breeding time they live together in large societies, and build their nests on trees close to each other, frequently in the midst of large and populous towns. These rookeries, however, are often the scenes of bitter contests; the new-comers are frequently driven away by the old inhabitants, their half-built nests torn in pieces, and the unfortunate couple forced to begin their work anew, in some more undisturbed situation. Of this we had a remarkable instance in Newcastle: in the year 1783, a pair of rooks, after an unsuccessful attempt to establish themselves in a rookery at no great distance from the Exchange, were compelled to abandon the attempt. They took refuge on the spire of that building, and although constantly interrupted by other rooks, built their nest on the top of the vane, and brought forth their young, undisturbed by the noise of the populace below them; the nest and its inhabitants turning about with every change of the wind. They returned and built their nest every year on the same place, till 1793, soon after which the spire was taken down.

* * * * *

The minute description of rooks is needless; the rooks may always be known from the carrion crow, by their being in flocks, whereas the crows go only in pairs; and also by the white colour of the bill, and from their being bare of feathers upon that part in which the crow is well clothed.

The rook is a gregarious bird, being sometimes seen in numbers so as almost to darken the air in their flight, which they regularly perform morning and evening, except in the breeding time, when the daily attendance of both male and female is required for incubation, or feeding the young; and it is observed they do both alternately. They begin to build in March; one bringing materials, while the other watches the nest, lest it should be plundered by its brethren: they lay five or six eggs, of a pale green colour, marked with small brownish spots. After the breeding season, rooks forsake their nest-trees, going to roost elsewhere; but return to them in August, and again in October, when they repair their nests. The young birds are very good when skinned, steeped in milk, and afterwards put into a pie. Hawker recommends cold water instead of milk.

* * * * *

There is one trait in the character of the rook which is, I believe, peculiar to that bird, and which does him no little credit; it is the distress which they exhibit when one of them has been killed or wounded by a gun, while they have been feeding in a field or flying over it. Instead of being scared away by the report of the gun, leaving their wounded or dead companion to his fate, they show the greatest anxiety and sympathy for him, uttering cries of distress, and plainly proving that they wish to render him assistance, by hovering over him, or sometimes making a dart from the air close up to him, apparently to try and find out the reason why he did not follow them.

“While circling round and round, They call their lifeless comrade from the ground.”

If he is wounded, and can flutter along the ground, the rooks appear to animate him to make fresh exertions by incessant cries, flying a little distance before him, and calling to him to follow them. I have seen one of my labourers pick up a rook so wounded, which he shot at for the purpose of putting him up as a scare-crow in a field of wheat; and while the poor wounded bird was still fluttering in his hand, I have observed one of his companions make a wheel round in the air, and suddenly dart past him so as almost to touch him, perhaps with a last hope that he might still afford assistance to his unfortunate mate or companion. Even when the dead bird has been hung, in terrorem, to a stake in the field, he has been visited by some of his former friends, but as soon as they found that the case was hopeless, they have generally abandoned that field altogether.

When one considers the instinctive care with which rooks avoid any one carrying a gun, and which is so evident, that I have often heard country-people remark that they can smell gunpowder, one can more justly estimate the force of their love or friendship in thus continuing to hover round a person who has just destroyed one of their companions with an instrument, the dangerous nature of which they seem fully capable of appreciating.

Rooks are not easily induced to forsake the trees on which they have been bred, and which they frequently revisit after the breeding season is over. This is shown in Hampton Court Park, where there is an extensive rookery among the fine lime-trees, and where a barbarous and unnecessary custom prevails of shooting the young rooks. As many as a hundred dozen of them have been killed in one season, and yet the rooks build in the avenue, though there is a corresponding avenue close by in Bushy Park, which they never frequent, notwithstanding the trees are equally high and equally secure. I never hear the guns go off during this annual slaughter without execrating the practice, and pitying the poor rooks, whose melancholy cries may be heard to a great distance, and some of whom may be seen, exhausted by their fruitless exertions, sitting melancholy on a solitary tree waiting till the sport is over, that they may return and see whether any of the offspring which they have reared with so much care and anxiety are left to them; or, what is more probable, the call for assistance of their young having ceased, they are aware of their fate, and are sitting in mournful contemplation of their loss. This may appear romantic, but it is nevertheless true; and whoever, like myself, has observed the habits and manners of the rook, and witnessed their attachment to each other and to their young,—and is convinced, as I am, that they have the power of communication by means of a language known to themselves, and are endowed with a knowledge and foresight most extraordinary, will take as much interest in them as I have confessed that I do.

* * * * *

A gentleman in this neighbourhood had two milk-white rooks in one nest. A booby of a carter, finding them before they were able to fly, threw them down, and destroyed them, to the regret of the owner, who would have been glad to have preserved such a curiosity in his rookery. I saw the birds myself nailed against the end of a barn, and was surprised to find that their bills, legs, feet, and claws were milk-white.

* * * * *

Passage hawks are also used for rooks. These birds sometimes mount like herons, but their flight is in general much lower. They must be found in an open country; and the wood, which is their place of retreat, must be so situated as to oblige them to fly against the wind to gain in.—Bewick—Daniel—Jesse—White’s Selborne—Sebright.

ROOKERY, s. A nursery of rooks.

ROOST, s. That on which a bird sits to sleep; the act of sleeping.

ROOST, v. To sleep as a bird.

ROPE, s. A cord, a string, a halter.

ROPY, a. Viscous, tenacious, glutinous.

ROSIN, s. Inspissated turpentine.

ROSIN, v. To rub with rosin.

ROSTRUM, s. The beak of a bird; the beak of a ship. _Rostrum cultratum_ (LINN.), in ornithology, is a term used when the edges of the bill are very sharp, as in that of the crow. When the bill is notched near the tip, as in shrikes, thrushes, &c., it is called by Linnæus rostrum emarginatum.

ROT, v. To make putrid, to bring to corruption.

ROT, s. A distemper among sheep in which their lungs are wasted; putrefaction; putrid decay.

ROTARY, a. Whirling as a wheel. A motion peculiar to the flight of the hawk tribe.

ROUGE ET NOIR, s. A game.

Rouge et noir, or red and black, is a modern game, so styled, not from the cards, but from the colours marked on the tapis or green cloth with which the table is covered.

The first parcel of cards played is usually for noir, the second for rouge, though sometimes the cards are cut to determine which shall begin. All the terms of this game are French, and that language is used in playing. Any number of persons may play, and the punters may risk their money on which colour they please, placing the stakes in the outer semicircle; but after the first card is turned up, no other stakes can be laid for that coup.

The tailleur and croupier seat themselves opposite each other, with a basket for receiving the cards of every coup after dealing, which is placed on the middle of the table. The tailleur then passing round six packs of cards to be shuffled and mixed confusedly all together by the company, afterwards finally shuffles them, and inserts all the end cards into various parts of the 312, till he meets with an honour, which being placed upright at the end, is offered to a punter, who, putting the same into any part of the pack, the tailleur there separates it, and lays that part which was below the said honour uppermost, and taking therefrom a handful of cards, and placing a weight upon the remainder, proceeds to deal, taking afterwards other parcels from the heap as they may be wanted, till all are dealt out. He looks at the first card, and puts its face downwards; two others, one red, the other black, are then laid back to back, and that placed conspicuously uppermost which is of a similar colour with the first card; these two cards are turned according to the colour of the card which afterwards may be first dealt in each succeeding coup. When the stakes are deposited, the tailleur cries noir, turns the top card, and places each succeeding one in a row, till the points of those so turned shall exceed thirty; he then declares the numbers at trente and une, one and thirty; or, if above that, up to forty he only says, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and when forty, quarante.

Another parcel is then dealt in a similar mode for rouge, and the punters win who had staked on that colour, the points for which were thirty-one or nearest to it, which the tailleur declares, by saying rouge gagne, red wins; or rouge perd, red loses. These two parcels, one for each colour, make a coup. When the same number is dealt for each, the tailleur says, apres, after, which forms un refait, or doublet, by which neither party loses, except it is un refait trente et un, one-and-thirty, when the tailleur wins half the stakes punted on each colour, which half the punters may either pay, or have their stakes moved into the middle semicircles of the colour they then choose, called la première prison, the first prison, to be determined by the next event, whether they lose all or are set at liberty; but if un refait second trente and un, a second doublet of one and thirty, should occur in the next succeeding deal, the punters lose only one half of their remaining moiety, making three-fourths of their original stakes, and are removed into the smallest semicircle, styled la seconde prison, the second prison, and the next coup determines whether the punter loses all, or is to be removed again into la première prison.

Punters after winning may paroli, &c., and pursue their luck up to a soixante, as at faro; but as no livrets are used at rouge et noir, they cannot make either paix or pont.

At this game a banker cannot refuse any stake not exceeding his fund; which the punter declares, by saying je va la banque, va la banque, or va banque, I aim at the bank. Bankers generally furnish punters with slips of card paper, ruled in columns, each marked N. or R. at the top on which accounts are kept by pricking with a pin, and when un refait happens, the same is denoted by running the pin through the middle line. Some bankers give up the profit of le refait during the first deal.

The odds against le refait being deals, are reckoned sixty-three to one, but bankers expect it twice in three deals, and there are generally from twenty-nine to thirty-two coups in each deal.—Hoyle.

ROUGHRIDER, s. One that breaks horses for riding.

ROUSING, s. The action of a hawk when she shakes herself.

ROW, v. To impel by oars. To use the oar.

ROWEL, s. The points of a spur turning on an axis; a seton, a roll of hair or silk put into a wound to hinder it from healing, and provoke a discharge.

Rowels are seldom so convenient or so useful as setons. They are formed by making an incision in the skin, where it is rather loose, as in the chest, about an inch in length. This being done, the finger is to be introduced, or an instrument called a cornet, that is, the crooked end of a small horn made for the purpose, and the skin separated from the parts underneath all around for the space of about an inch. Into the cavity thus made a round piece of leather, with a hole in the middle, wrapped in tow and smeared with digestive ointment, is to be introduced. The orifice in the skin is then to be plugged up with tow, and kept there until suppuration takes place, that is, four or five days. The tow is then to be taken out, when a great deal of matter will flow from the orifice. The rowel is afterwards to be moved daily and kept clean.—White.

ROWEL, v. To pierce through the skin, and keep the wound open by a rowel.

ROWER, s. One that manages an oar.

RUB, v. To clean or smooth anything by passing something over it; to scour, to wipe; to move one body upon another; to remove by friction; to touch hard; to rub down, to clean or curry a horse.

RUBBER, s. One that rubs; the instrument with which one rubs; a coarse file; a game, a contest; two games out of three.

RUBY, a. Of a red colour.

RUD, s. A fish.

The body of the rud is broader than the carp, more like that of the bream, but much thicker; the head is small, the palate and teeth like the carp, on the covers of the gills are spots of a blood colour; the irides are yellow, varying in some almost to redness; the nostrils large, and by some said to be double on each side; the back is arched, sloping off suddenly at the two extremities; the scales are very large, like the carp; the side line is slightly incurvated: the back is of an olive; the sides and belly are of a gold colour, with certain red marks; the ventral, anal fins, and the tail (which is forked), are generally of a deep red, and the dorsal fin is darker than the rest; the usual length of this fish is from ten to sixteen inches. It lives on insects and grass, and is preyed on by the voracious fish and the anseres. In rivers the rud’s haunts are in deepish gentle streams and deep still water, where the bottom is a kind of slimy mud sand, or fine gravel, and also among weeds.

They are always in season, except at the time of spawning, which is in April, when the male fish have small white spots about their heads, and the scales of both sexes feel more rough; they swim in shoals, casting their spawn upon and among the aquatic plants, to the number according to the Elements of Natural History, of 91,000 ova.

Their flesh is exceedingly wholesome, and holds a distinguished rank for its fine flavour; but they are very scarce.

Mr. Pennant believes the shallow of the Cam, which grows to the length of thirteen inches, and spawns in April, to be no other fish than the rud.

The angler will find the rud worth his attention; the tackle must be strong, but fine, with a quill float, and a hook proportioned to the bait; the same ground-bait is to be used as for carp and chub, fishing about the same depths as for the latter, except on the ground, for they feed naturally near the surface; they will in this way take red-worms, gentles, wasp-maggots, caddis, and red-paste. Some use a ground-bait of boiled malt, and prefer a small red worm to any other bait. In fishing among weeds, have neither float nor shot, and let the worm, or other bait sink a little under water: at top they are taken either with natural or artificial flies, by whipping with a long, and dibbing or bobbing with a short line. In warm, bright weather, the rud will bite early and late; when coolish, the fore and afternoons; and in winter, the middle of the day; when hooked this fish struggles hard, and requires time in landing, and is so tenacious of life, as to retain it after being taken out of the water a considerable time.—Daniel.

RUDDOCK, s. A kind of bird.

RUDDY, a. Approaching to redness, pale red; yellow.

RUFF, s. A puckered linen ornament formerly worn about the neck; a bird.

The male of this curious species is called the ruff, and the female the reeve: they differ materially in their exterior appearance; and also, what is remarkable in wild birds, it very rarely happens that two ruffs are alike in the colours of their plumage. The singular, wide-spreading, variegated tuft of feathers which, in the breeding season, grows out of their necks, is different in all. The tuft, or ruff, a portion of which stands up like ears behind each eye, is in some black, in others black and yellow, and in others again white, rust colour, or barred with glossy violet, black and white. They are, however, more nearly alike in other respects: they measure about a foot in length, and two in breadth, and when first taken weigh about seven ounces and a half; the female seldom exceeds four. The bill is more than an inch long, black at the tip, and reddish yellow towards the base; the irides are hazel: the whole face is covered with reddish tubercles, or pimples; the wing coverts are brownish ash colour; the upper parts and the breast are generally marked with transverse bars, and the scapulars with roundish-shaped glossy black spots, on a rusty coloured ground; quills dusky; belly, vent, and tail coverts white; the tail is brown; the four middle feathers of it are barred with black; the legs are yellow. The male does not acquire the ornament of his neck till the second season, and, before that time, is not easily distinguished from the female, except by being larger. After moulting, at the end of June, he loses his ruff and the red tubercles on his face, and from that time until the spring of the year, he again, in the plumage, looks like his mate.

These birds leave Great Britain in the winter, and are then supposed to associate with others of the tringa genus, among which they are no longer recognised as the ruff and reeve. In the spring, as soon as they arrive again in England, and take up their abode in the fens where they were bred, each of the males (of which there appears to be a much greater number than of the females) immediately fixes upon a particular dry and grassy spot in the marsh, about which he runs round and round, until it is trodden bare; to this spot, it appears, he wishes to invite the female, and waits in expectation of her taking a joint possession, and becoming an inmate. As soon as a single female arrives, and is heard or observed by the males, her feeble cry seems as if it roused them all to war, for they instantly begin to fight, and their combats are described as being both desperate and of long continuance: at the end of the battle she becomes the prize of the victor. It is at the time of these battles that they are caught in the greatest numbers in the nets of the fowlers, who watch for that opportunity: they are also, at other times, caught by clap, or day-nets, and are drawn together by means of a stuffed reeve, or what is called a stale bird, which is placed in some suitable spot for that purpose.

The ruff is highly esteemed as a most delicious dish, and is sought after with great eagerness by the fowlers, who live by catching them and other fen birds for the markets of the metropolis, &c. Before they are offered for sale, they are commonly put up to feed for about a fortnight, and during that time fed with boiled wheat, and bread and milk mixed with hempseed, to which sugar is sometimes added: by this mode of treatment they become very fat, and are often sold as high as two shillings and sixpence each. They are cooked in the same manner as the woodcock.

The female, in the beginning of May, makes her nest in a dry tuft of grass in the fens, and lays four white eggs, marked with rusty spots.

These birds are common in the summer season in the fens of Denmark, Sweden, and Russia, and are also found in other more northern regions, even as far as Iceland.

The trade of catching ruffs is confined to a very few persons. They live in obscure places on the verge of the fens, and are found out with difficulty; for few, if any birds, are ever bought, but by those who make a trade of fatting them for the table; and they sedulously conceal the abode of the fowlers; so much so, that by no art could we obtain from any of them where they resided; and in order to deceive us, after evading our entreaties, they gave us instructions that led us quite a contrary direction. The reason of all this was obvious; for after much labour and search in the most obscure places, (for neither the innkeepers, nor other inhabitants of the towns, could give any information, and many did not know such a bird was peculiar to their fens,) we found out a very civil and intelligent fowler, who resided close to Spalding, at Fengate, by name William Burton (we feel a pleasure in recording his name, not only from his obliging nature, but for the use of others in similar pursuits); and, strange to say, that although this man had constantly sold ruffs to Mr. Towns, a noted feeder, hereafter more particularly noticed, as also to another feeder at Cowbit, by the name of Weeks, neither of those persons could be induced to inform us even of the name of this fowler. The reason, however, was evident, and justly remarked by Burton, for he obtained no more than ten shillings per dozen, whereas Weeks demanded thirty shillings for the like number he had the same day bought of Burton. The season was far advanced, and we were obliged to buy some at that price of Weeks, for Burton could not then catch us as many as were required.

At this time we were shown into a room where there were about seven dozen males and a dozen females, and of the former there were not two alike. This intrusion to choose our birds, drove them from their stands, and compelling some to trespass upon the premises of others, produced many battles.

By this feeder we learned, that two guineas a dozen was now the price for fattened ruffs; and he never remembered the price under thirty shillings, when fit for table.

Mr. Towns, the noted feeder at Spalding, assured us his family had been a hundred years in the trade, and boasted they had served George the Second, and many noble families in the kingdom. He undertook, at the desire of the late Marquess of Townsend, when that nobleman was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to take some ruffs to that country, and actually set off with twenty-seven dozen from Lincolnshire; left seven dozen at the Duke of Devonshire’s, at Chatsworth; continued his route across the kingdom, to Holyhead; and delivered seventeen dozen alive in Ireland; having lost only three dozen in so long a journey, confined and greatly crowded as they were in baskets, which were carried upon two horses.

The manner of taking these birds is somewhat different in the two seasons; in the spring, the ruffs hill, as it is termed; that is, they assemble upon a rising spot of ground, contiguous to where the reeves propose to deposit their eggs; there they take their stand, at a small distance from each other, and contend for the females; the nature of polygamous birds. This hill, or place of resort for love and battle, is sought for by the fowler, who, from habit, discovers it by the birds having trodden the turf somewhat bare, though not in a circle as usually described.

When a hill has been discovered, the fowler repairs to the spot before the break of day, spreads his net, places his decoy birds, and takes his stand at the distance of about one hundred and forty yards, or more, according to the shyness of the birds.

The net is what is termed a single clap-net, about seventeen feet in length, and six wide, with a pole at each end; this, by means of uprights fixed in the ground, and each furnished with a pulley, is easily pulled over the birds within reach, and rarely fails taking all within its grasp; but in order to give the pull the greatest velocity, the net is, (if circumstances will permit) placed so as to fold over with the wind: however there are some fowlers, who prefer pulling it against the wind for plovers. As the ruffs feed chiefly by night, they repair to their frequented hill at the dawn of day, nearly all at the same time, and the fowler makes his first pull according to circumstances, takes out his birds, and prepares for the stragglers who traverse the fens, and who have no adopted hill; these are caught singly, being enticed by the stuffed birds.

Burton, who was before mentioned, never used anything but stuffed skins, executed in a very rude manner; but some fowlers keep the first ruffs they catch for decoy birds; these have a string of about two feet long tied above the knee, and fastened down to the ground. The stuffed skins are sometimes so managed as to be moveable by means of a long string, so that a jerk represents a jump, (a motion very common amongst ruffs, who at the sight of a wanderer flying by, will leap or flirt a yard off the ground,) by that means inducing those on the wing to come and alight by him.

The stuffed birds are prepared by filling the skin with a wisp of straw tied together, the legs having been first cut off, and the skin afterwards sewed along the breast and belly, but with no great attention to cover the straw beneath: into this straw a stick is thrust, to fix it into the ground, and a peg is also thrust through the top of the head, and down the neck into the stuffing or straw body, and the wings are closed by the same process. Rough as this preparation is, and as unlike a living bird as skin and feathers can be made, it answers all the purpose.

When the reeves begin to lay, both those and the ruffs are least shy, and so easily caught, that a fowler assured us he could with certainty take every bird on the fen in the season. The females continue this boldness, and their temerity increases as they become broody; on the contrary, we found the males at that time could not be approached within the distance of musket shot, and consequently were far beyond the reach of small shot.

We were astonished to observe the property that these fowlers have acquired, of distinguishing so small an object as a ruff at such an immense distance, which, amongst a number of tufts or tumps, could not by us be distinguished from one of those inequalities; but their eyes had been in long practice of looking for the one object.

The autumnal catching is usually about Michaelmas, at which time few old males are taken, from which an opinion has been formed that they migrate before the females and young. It is, however, more probable, that the few which are left after the spring fowling, like other polygamous birds, keep in parties separate from the female and her brood till the return of spring. That some old ruffs are occasionally taken in the autumnal fowling we have the assertion of experienced fowlers, but we must admit that others declare none are taken at this season. It must, however, be recollected, that in the autumn the characteristic long feathers have been discharged, and consequently young and old males have equally their plain dress; but the person who assured us that old birds were sometimes taken at that season, declared it was easy to distinguish them from the young of that summer.

It does not appear to be the opinion of fowlers, that the males are more than one season arriving at maturity, because the ruffs taken in the spring, destitute of the characteristic long feathers, which constitute their principal distinction, are comparatively few to those possessing the ruff: the opinion, therefore, that those ruffless males are birds of a very late brood of the preceding season, is a reasonable conjecture.

The long feathers on the neck and sides of the head, in the male, that constitute the ruff and auricles, are of short duration, for they are scarcely completed in the month of May, and begin to fall the latter end of June. The change of these singular parts is accompanied by a complete change of plumage; the stronger colours, such as purple, chestnut, and some others, vanish at the same time, so that in their winter dress they become more generally alike from being less varied in plumage; but we observed that those which had the ruff more or less white, retained that colour about the neck after the summer or autumnal moulting was effected.

The females, or reeves, begin laying their eggs the first or second week in May; and we have found their nests with young as early as the third of June. By this time the males cease to hill.

The nest is usually formed upon a tump in the most swampy places, surrounded by coarse grass, of which it is also formed.

The eggs are (as usual with its congeners) four in number; these are so nearly similar in colour to those of the snipe and redshank, both of which breed in the same wet places, and make similar nests, that some experience is required to discriminate them; they are, however, superior in size to the former, and are known from the latter by the ground being of a greenish hue instead of rufous white; but individuals assimilate so nearly to each other as not to be distinguished, especially as the dusky and brown spots and blotches are similar. The weight of the eggs is from five drachms twenty-five grains, to five drachms fifty grains.—Montagu.

RUFFE, s. A fish.

The ruffe somewhat resembles a perch, though the form is more slender, and the length rarely exceeds six inches; the teeth are very small, and disposed in rows; it is marked on the jaws with a double course of half circles; the upper part of the eye is of a dark-brown; the lower part somewhat yellow, and the globe of it black: the first rays of the dorsal fin (which is spotted with black) are like those of the perch, strong, sharp, and spiny; the others soft; the body is covered with rough compact scales; the back and sides are of a dirty green; the last, as well as the belly, inclining to yellow, but both spotted, with the tail marked with transverse bars of black. Their principal spawning-time is the beginning of April, but some are said to spawn again in October; and, in the Elements of Natural History, are said to deposit 75,000 ova. To the young angler the ruffe yields good sport; they associate in great numbers; their haunts are in recluse places, where the water is deep, and runs quietly, with a loamy or muddy bottom, and also in still water; the tackle should be fine, the hook No. 7, and a quill float; the bait (a small, well scoured red-worm) must just run on the ground, and either throw in some clay-balls, with worms, as directed in perch fishing, or if the water be clear, use common mud-balls to colour it; three rods may be easily managed, the baits touching the bottom; when there is a bite, strike directly, for they gorge so hastily, that the disgorger, or a knife, must frequently be used to get out the hook; by thus angling for them, six or eight dozen are often caught at a standing. Either in the spring or summer, with a brisk, warm wind, they will bite all day; and will sometimes in cold weather take the bait very freely. The ruffe, for the delicacy and richness of its flavour, as well as for its being considered very nourishing, is more admired than the perch. They are to be dressed in the same manner.—Daniel.

RUFFING, s. When the hawk strikes without trussing its prey.

RUM, s. A kind of spirit distilled from molasses.

RUMINATE, v. To chew over again; to muse on, to meditate over and over again.

RUNNER, s. One that runs, a racer; a messenger; a shooting sprig; one of the stones of a mill; a bird.

RUNT, s. Any small animal below the natural growth of the kind; a pigeon.

RUPTURE, s. The act of breaking, state of being broken; preternatural eruption of the gut.

RUSSET, a. Reddishly brown; Newton seems to use it for grey; rustic.

RUSSIAN DOG (Canis Russianus), s.

This dog is of a large size, being considerably superior, in point of strength, to the Newfoundland dog. He was originally produced by a cross between the Newfoundland and the Siberian, and has now assumed the characteristics of a distinct race: his head is large, with moderately long ears, and his tail bent over his back, like that of most of the boreal varieties; his hair is very long and curled, being from seven to nine inches in length; and in colour he varies from white with black patches, to pure white, and sometimes is entirely black. He has an expressive and intelligent countenance, and possesses all those qualities for which the Newfoundland dog is famous. In Russia this animal is employed for watching property, which he defends with all the assiduity of a mastiff or Newfoundland dog. He is sometimes also used in hunting the wolf and wild boar, for which he is admirably adapted, from his great strength, and from possessing considerable swiftness. His feet are semi-webbed, and he swims with great ease, and is accordingly often used in shooting aquatic birds, which he fetches out of the water when killed.

The dogs of Russia are not so quarrelsome amongst themselves as the British, probably owing to their never being encouraged to fight: and I am informed by a gentleman who resided twelve years in that country, that he never even heard of a dogfight there.—Brown.

RUST, s. The red incrustation of iron; the tarnished or corroded surface of any metal.

RUST, v. To gather rust; to have the surface tarnished or corroded.

Three ounces of black lead, half a pound of hog’s lard, one quarter of an ounce of camphor, boiled upon a slow fire; the gun-barrels to be rubbed with this, and, after three days, wiped off with a linen cloth: twice in a winter will keep off the rust, which the salt-water is otherwise sure to be continually bringing out from the iron.

* * * * *

To protect guns from rust in the humid climate I have been latterly accustomed to, I found nothing answer well but strong mercurial ointment. On the Western coast, oil, no matter how good in quality, is useless, but for cleaning. Those who are acquainted with the localities of that country know that turf is of trifling value. No limit is consequently placed upon its consumption; it is calculated only by the stack or the boat-full, and hence more fuel was wasted in my lodge, than would supply three moderate houses. Yet so penetrating is the damp from the ocean breeze, that the house-arms rusted above the fire-places, and the pistols I kept upon my table would spot if not frequently examined, and dry-rubbed with a flannel cloth.—Hawker—Wild Sports.

RUT, s. Copulation of deer; the track of a cart-wheel.

RYE, s. A coarse kind of bread corn.

RYEGRASS, s. A kind of strong grass.

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SACCADE, s. obs. A violent check the rider gives his horse by drawing both the reins suddenly.

SACK, s. A bag, a pouch, commonly a large bag; the measure of three bushels; a kind of sweet wine now brought chiefly from the Canaries.

SADDLE, s. The seat which is put upon the horse for the accommodation of the rider.

SADDLE, v. To cover with a saddle; to fix the saddle on.

SADDLEBACKED, a. Horses saddlebacked have their backs low, and a raised head and neck.

SADDLEGALL, s. An injury on the horse’s back, arising from a defective or ill-fitted saddle.

Saddle or harness galls may be considered as bruises, and when it can be done should be poulticed, until the swelling has been dispersed or has suppurated. If the matter has not sufficient vent, the opening may be enlarged or the sinus laid open, if there is any. It must then be dressed with digestive ointment, and when it has been reduced to the state of a clear open sore, the cure may be finished by the astringent paste.—White.

SADDLER, s. One whose trade is to make saddles.

SAFFRON, a. Yellow, having the colour of saffron.

SAGACIOUS, a. Quick of scent; quick of thought; acute.

SAGITTAL, a. Belonging to an arrow.

SAKERET, s. The male of a sakerhawk.

SALINE, a. Consisting of salt.

SALIVA, s. Every thing that is spit up; but it more strictly signifies that juice which is separated by the glands called salival.

SALIVATE, v. To purge by the salival glands.

Dogs, when fully salivated, lose their teeth very early, and their breath continues offensive through life. The whole of the feline tribe are also easily affected by mercury. I was requested to inspect the very large lion that so long graced Pidcock’s menagerie. It may be remembered by many, that this noble animal’s tongue constantly hung without his mouth; which arose from his having been injudiciously salivated, many years before, by a mercurial preparation applied by the keeper for the cure of mange. The submuriate of mercury (calomel) is, likewise, very irregular in its action on dogs; I have seen eight grains fail to open the bowels of a small one, while, on the contrary, I have been called to a pointer fatally poisoned by ten grains. It forms however, a useful auxiliary to purgatives, in doses of three or four grains; and as it not unfrequently acts on the stomach, so it may be used with advantage as an emetic in some cases, particularly in conjunction with tartarised antimony (tartar emetic). When, therefore, a purgative is brought up again, in which calomel was a component part, it may be suspected to arise from this source, and, if it is necessary to repeat the purge, the mercurial should be omitted.—Blaine.

SALMON, s. The king of freshwater fish.

At the latter end of the year, and some in November, salmon begin to press up the rivers as far as they can reach, in order to spawn; when that period approaches, and they have accommodated themselves with a fit place, nature supplies the male with a bony excrescence, growing out of the end of the lower jaw, to the length of half an inch or more: this, it is said, aids him in the removal of the gravel, but both male and female assist in forming a proper receptacle for the spawn, in the sand or gravel, about eighteen inches deep. In this the ova and milt are deposited, and carefully covered by the parent fish, who afterwards hasten to cleanse and recover themselves (the male loses the gristle at the jaw); for, after spawning, they become very poor and lean, and then are called kipper. At their first entrance into the fresh water, salmon are observed to have abundance of insects adhering to them, especially above the gills: these animals denote the fish to be in high season, and die and drop off soon after the salmon’s leaving the sea.

The spawn lies buried until spring, and, without any other care, is nourished and brought to perfection, if not disturbed by violent floods, or by depredations from other fish, of which the eel, roach, dace, and grayling, are dangerous neighbours. About the latter end of March, the spawn begins to exclude the young, which gradually increase to four or five inches in length, and are then termed smelts, or smouts; about the beginning of May the river seems to be alive, and there is no framing an idea of the numbers without seeing them. A seasonable flood, however, hurries them to the sea, very few being left in the river. About the middle of June the earliest fry commence their return from the sea into the river (at that period from twelve to sixteen inches long), and progressively augment in number and size, until about the end of July, which is, at Berwick, the height of the grilse time (the name there given to the fish of that age). Early in August they lessen in number, but advance in bigness, some being from six to as high as nine pounds’ weight. This increase appears surprisingly quick; yet a gentleman of Warrington has given an instance of still more rapid growth: a kipper salmon, weighing seven pounds three quarters, taken on the 7th of February, was marked with scissors on the back fin and tail, and turned into the river; he was again taken on the 17th of the following March, and then weighed seventeen pounds and a half. In this case the remark of Walton seems to have been more than verified, “that the samlet becomes a salmon in as short a time as a gosling becomes a goose.”

* * * * *

The salmon in Lough Erne increase in size wonderfully, and young ones, which were caught and marked when going into the lake, have been caught on their return, and found so large, that they must have increased at the rate of one pound per week.

* * * * *

The migratory habits of the salmon, and the instinct with which it periodically revisits its native river, are curious circumstances in the natural history of this fish. As the swallow returns annually to its nest, as certainly the salmon repairs to the same spot in which to deposit its ova. Many interesting experiments have established this fact. M. De Lande fastened a copper ring round a salmon’s tail, and found that for three successive seasons it returned to the same place. Dr. Bloch states, that gold and silver rings have been attached by eastern princes to salmon, to prove that a communication existed between the Persian Gulf and the Caspian and Northern Seas, and that the experiment succeeded. Shaw, in his Zoology, mentions that a salmon of seven pounds and three quarters was marked with scissors on the back fin and tail, and turned out on the 7th of February, and that it was retaken in March of the succeeding year, and found to have increased to the amazing size of seventeen pounds and a half. This statement, by the by, is at variance with the theory of Dr. Bloch, who estimates the weight of a five or six year old salmon at but ten or twelve pounds.

That the salmon should lose condition rapidly on quitting the sea for the fresh water, may be inferred from a fact agreed upon by naturalists, that during the period of spawning the fish neglects feeding. In this peculiar habit the salmon is not, however, singular; animals of the Phocæ tribe, in breeding-time, exercise a similar abstinence. On opening a salmon, at any season, no food will be discovered, and the contents of the stomach will be confined to a small quantity of yellowish fluid and tape-worms, which are generated there. Sir Humphry Davy believes that occasionally food may be found. I have seen thousands opened preparatory to being salted, and I never observed anything but this fluid and tape-worms. Another circumstance may be stated as a curious proof of health, as well as of the period of time the salmon has been resident in a river. When the fish leaves the sea, and of course is in its best condition, insects (the Lernæ Salmoneæ of Linnæus) will be perceived firmly adhering to the skin. Immediately on entering the fresh water, these insects begin to detach themselves from the salmon, and after a short time they gradually drop off and disappear.

* * * * *

Ireland (particularly the north) abounds with salmon; the most considerable fishery is at Crarma, on the river Ban, near Coleraine. (Some account of this fishery is mentioned in the list of the rivers, &c. of this country.) The nets used are eighteen score, or three hundred and sixty yards long, and are continually drawing, night and day, the whole season (nearly four months), two sets of sixteen men each alternately relieving one another. The best drawing is when the tide is coming in.

The salmon are cured by being first split, and rubbed with fine salt; and, after laying in pickle, in great tubs or reservoirs, are packed up with layers of coarse brown Spanish salt, in casks, six of which make a ton. These are exported to Leghorn and Venice.

* * * * *

Immediately near to Katrineberg, at a hamlet called Deje Forsa, there is a valuable fishery for salmon, ten or twelve thousand of these fish being taken there annually. They are, however, of a small size, the largest of them rarely exceeding twenty pounds in weight; one with another, indeed, they probably do not average more than six or seven pounds a-piece.

These salmon are bred in the Wenern lake, but, in consequence of the considerable cataracts at Deje, they never have access to the sea; from this cause, they are said to be inferior, in point of flavour, to those found in most other rivers.

I subjoin a statement of the numbers taken in eight successive years:—

1820 21,817 1821 11,751 1822 10,103 1823 9,823 1824 14,313 1825 8,884 1826 5,800 1827 10,500 —————— 92,991 —————— 11,624 average.

* * * * *

In the river Beaulie, below the falls, is a valuable salmon fishery, and in the months of July and August many of these come to the foot of the falls. When a flood occurs, they endeavour to get up the stream, but as the water in which they swim is constantly agitated and frothy, on account of the height from which it descends, they cannot see before them, often mistake their direction, and leap upon the dry rock. It is a constant practice with the people in the neighbourhood to lay branches of trees along the side of the water, to prevent the fish tumbling back into the river. Twenty salmon have by these means been frequently taken in a morning. The last Lord Lovat is said to have performed a curious experiment here. He made a fire upon the rock, and placed on it a large pot of water; speedily a salmon, making a leap, tumbled into the pot where it was soon boiled, and no doubt eaten. This was done that his lordship might be enabled to boast in the south of the wonders that existed in the Highlands, which were then little known, and to say that in his country provisions abounded so much, that if a fire was made, and a pot set to boil on the banks of the river, the salmon would of themselves leap into the pot to be boiled, without requiring to be caught by a fisherman.

* * * * *

The fifteenth of February, 1809, Harry Fenn, a fish-salesman at Billingsgate, sold an uncrimped Severn salmon, weighing nineteen pounds, for the immense sum of one guinea per pound to Phillips, the fishmonger in Bond Street. N.B. It was the only salmon at market.

* * * * *

La Fontaine gives an anecdote of a gourmand, who having despatched an entire salmon with the exception of the jowl, was taken so ill that the physician pronounced his recovery to be impossible. “Is it so?” said the dying fish-fancier—the doctor gave a desponding nod—“Bring me then the remainder of my salmon.”

* * * * *

Salmon Colour.—Take two ounces of annotto, tie it up in a bag, then throw it into clean cold water, and squeeze it in the rag often, till you melt a quantity of it down; pour off some of this liquor into your dye-pot, put in your stuff and boil it, and if it is pretty red, put in some madder, a little at a time, and if you see it is come to the colour, draw, squeeze out the remainder, put it into your pot, and sparingly add more madder. By using Brazil instead of madder, you will get flesh colour.

* * * * *

Salmon fishing.—In salmon fishing you must alter your manner of moving the fly. It must not float quietly down the water; you must allow it to sink a little, and then pull it back by a gentle jerk, not raising it out of the water, and then let it sink again till it has been shown in motion, a little below the surface, in every part of your cast.

* * * * *

Salmon often in this season haunt the streams in pairs; but so far from rising again after being pricked, they appear to me to learn when they have been some time in the river, that the artificial fly is not food, even without having been touched by the hook. In the river at Galway, in Ireland, I have seen above the bridge some hundreds of salmon lying in rapid streams, and from five to ten fishermen tempting them with every variety of fly, but in vain. After a fish had been thrown over a few times, and risen once or twice and refused the fly, he rarely ever took any notice of it again in that place. It was generally nearest the tide that fish were taken, and the place next the sea was the most successful stand, and the most coveted; and when the water is low and clear in this river, the Galway fishermen resort to the practice of fishing with a naked hook, endeavouring to entangle it in the bodies of the fish; a most unartist-like practice. In spring-fishing, I have known a hungry, half-starved salmon rise at the artificial fly a second time, after having been very slightly touched with it; but even this rarely happens, and when I have seen it the water has been coloured.

* * * * *

I made several unsuccessful casts—“A bad look out, friend Julius; Heaven forefend that the cook has placed any dependence on the angle!” Again I tried the pool, and, like all disappointed fishermen, began to prognosticate a change of weather. “I had remarked mares’ tails in the sky yesterday evening, and there was rain over head, for a hundred.” My cousin smiled; when suddenly my nebulous speculations were interrupted by a deep sluggish roll at the dropper. “Monamondiaoul!” exclaimed Mortien Beg, as he caught a momentary glance of the broad and fan-like tail, “he is fifteen pound weight!” Obedient to the directions of my Mentor, I left the spot the salmon leaped in, and commenced casting a dozen yards below it. Gradually I came over him again. “A light cast, Frank, and you have him.” I tried, and succeeded gallantly. I sent the fly across the water with the lightness of the thistle’s down—at the same moment the breeze eddied up the stream, and curled the surface deliciously. A long, dull ruffle succeeded. Whish, span the wheel: wish-h-h-h-h, whish-h-h, whish—I have him!

Nothing, my dear George, can be more beautiful than the play of a vigorous salmon. The lubberly struggles of a pond fish are execrable to him who has felt the exquisite pleasure that attends the conquest of “the monarch of the stream.” His bold rushes—his sudden and rapid attempts to liberate himself from the fisher’s thrall—the energy with which he throws his silver body three or four feet above the surface of the water, and the unwearied and incessant opposition he makes until his strength is exhausted by the angler’s science. All this must be experienced, to be adequately conceived. In ten minutes I mastered my beautiful victim; and Mortien Beg gaffed and landed a splendid summer fish, which, if the cook’s scales be correct, weighed thirteen pounds and seven ounces.

* * * * *

Salmon laws.—The Scotch in early times had most severe prohibitions against the killing of the salmon. In the Regiam Majestatem are preserved several laws relating to their fisheries, couched in terms expressive of the simplicity of the times. From Saturday night until Monday morning they were obliged to leave a free passage for the fish, which is called the “Saterdaye’s sloppe.”

Alexander I. enacted “that the streame of the water sal be in all parts swa free, that ane swine of the age of three years, well feed, may turn himself within the stream round about, swa that his snowt nor taile sal not tuch the bank of the water.” By a law of James IV. the third offence was made capital (before that, the offender had power to redeem his life). “Slayers of reide fish, or smoltes of salmond, the third time are punished with death; and sic like he quha commands the samine to be done.” Salmon were in the reign of Henry VI. thought a present worthy of a crowned head, for in that reign, the Queen of Scotland sent to the Duchess of Clarence ten casks of salted salmon, which Henry directed to pass duty free.

Salmon Rod.—The salmon rod is, all but the top, made of ash, as being the lightest wood. The structure of the trout or fly rod has been variously recommended; the most ancient is, the butt to be made of yellow deal, seven feet long; next, a straight hazel, of about six feet; and then a delicate piece of fine-grained yew, exactly tapered, and ending in a point of whalebone, both making about two feet: to colour the stock, a feather dipped in aquafortis, and rubbed into the deal, gives it a cinnamon colour; for a nut-brown colour, a quartern of spirit lacquer, half an ounce of gamboge, the like quantities of gum sandarach and dragon’s-blood (the three last to be powdered very fine), and as much of each of them as will lie upon a sixpence, put into the spirit lacquer, which must be kept stirring, until properly mixed: the phial must be warmed as well as the wood, and the mixture gradually laid on with a camel’s-hair brush; after it is dried, a second and third coat is to be applied. To make the colour redder put double the quantity of dragon’s-blood; to make the rod mottled, get green copperas and dissolve in spring water; dip linen tape in the liquid, and while wet twist it round about, and let it remain on the rod eight or ten hours in the cool; unbind the tape, which will be dry, and use the above-mentioned varnish, which will give the desired effect. The varnish also preserves the rings and the bindings that fix them to the rod. To fasten a fly rod of the above make properly, a piece of shoemaker’s wax was rubbed upon each splice; a handle of a knife, or any hard thing, was rubbed over them, until they were smooth; they were then tied neatly together, and were as firm as any part of the rod.

* * * * *

The following comparison is made by Sir Humphry Davy, between trout and salmon:—The salmon is broader, has a tail rather more forked, and teeth in proportion are rather smaller. The trout, likewise, has larger and more black-brown spots on the body; and the head of the trout is a little larger in proportion. The salmon has fourteen spines in the pectoral fins, ten in each of the ventral, thirteen in the anal, twenty-one in the caudal, and fifteen in the dorsal. The salmon measures thirty-eight inches and a half in length, and twenty-one inches in girth; and his weight, as you see, is twenty-two pounds and a quarter. The trout has one spine less in the pectoral, and two less in the anal fin, and measures thirty inches and a quarter in length, and sixteen inches in girth, and his weight is eleven pounds. When opened, the stomach of the salmon contains nothing but a little yellow fluid, and, though the salmon is twice as large, does not exceed much in size that of the trout. The stomach of the trout, unlike that of the salmon, will be found full of food.—Daniel—Wild Sports—Lloyd—Davy, &c.

SALMON-TROUT, s. A trout that has some resemblance to a salmon.

The salmon trout is handsome in its form, is more richly adorned, and is longer, thicker, rounder in proportion than a salmon; the scales are small, beautifully intermixed on both sides of the lateral line, and also the covers of the gills, with spots; the fins are strong, and the tail shorter, but not so much forked as the salmon’s; the flesh is exceedingly rich, and in some countries better esteemed than any fish of the salmon kind; they are generally from two to six pounds weight, some run larger; they are often taken when angling for salmon or large trout, their haunts being the same. Early in the spring they enter the rivers, are in prime season from the end of April until July, and spawn chiefly in September; but that period varies in different waters; the rod should be as for salmon, the reel line strong, and foot length about three yards of fine twisted silkworm gut, or the strongest single, with the knots well whipped.—Daniel.

SALT, s. Salt is a body whose two essential properties seem to be solubility in water and a pungent sapor.

SALT, a. Having the taste of salt, as salt fish; impregnated with salt; abounding with salt.

SALT, v. To season with salt.

SALTCAT, s. A contrivance to attach pigeons to their dovecot.

The last dietetic, or rather, perhaps, medicinal article necessary to be described, is the saltcat, so called from an old fancy of baking a real cat with spices for the use of pigeons, which, however, I never observed to eat animal food. In compliance with this custom, I caused to be placed in the middle of the pigeon loft a dish of the following composition:—Loam, sand, old mortar, fresh lime, bay-salt, cummin, coriander, caraway seed, and allspice, moistened into a consistence with urine. The pigeons were constantly pecking at this, and were in a constant state of good health; how much of which may be attributed to the use of the cat I cannot determine; but certainly they are extremely fond of it, and if it have no other merit, it prevents them from pecking the mortar from the roof of the house, to which otherwise they are much inclined. The cat was mixed and heaped up in the dish, a piece of board being placed upon the summit to prevent the birds from dunging upon it; when become too hard it was occasionally broken for them.

The regular old formula for this cat is as follows: gravel or drift-sand, unctuous loam, the rubbish of an old wall, or lime, a gallon of each—should lime be substituted for rubbish, a less quantity of the former will suffice—one pound of cummin-seed, one handful of bay-salt; mix with stale urine. Inclose this in jars, corked or stopped, holes being punched in the sides, to admit the beaks of the pigeons. These may be placed abroad—Moubray.

SALTPETRE, s. Nitrate of potash. The chief ingredient in the composition of gunpowder.

SALTWATER, s. The water of the sea.

When on the sea, always use linseed oil for every part of your gun, except the works of the locks; because sweet oil has not body enough to repel the effect of the salt water.

If the salt water should have stained your barrels, you will, I think, find yellow soap and warm water the best recipe to restore their colour.—Hawker.

SALVE, s. A glutinous matter applied to wounds and hurts, a plaster.

SAMLET, s. A little salmon; a par. Vide PAR.

SANABLE, a. Curable, susceptive of remedy.

SANDBLIND, a. Having a defect in the eyes, by which small particles appear before them.

SANDCRACK, s. A disease in the horse’s hoof.

This is an accident that happens to dry brittle hoofs, and is in fact a breaking or fracture of the horn in the weakest part, that is, at the upper part of the inner quarter. A sandcrack almost always extends to the sensible parts, and can seldom be cured if the horse is kept in work. The first thing to be done is to open the crack with a drawing knife, for it generally runs obliquely under the horn, and cut out every hollow part completely, however far it may extend under the crust. Every particle of horn that is hollow or detached from the sensible parts must be completely cut away; some tar ointment should then be applied, or at first a solution of blue vitriol. If there is much lameness or inflammation in the foot, it should be poulticed for several days or a week, and then the horse should be turned to grass without shoes, or with a bar shoe, for three weeks at least, or until an inch of new hoof appears above the crack. A little blister ointment just above the crack often does good, and tar ointment on the crack and adjacent horn. Observe, too, that the quarter where the crack is must be rasped away as thin as possible. In this way sandcracks may be always cured without difficulty. The brittle state of the hoof, however, must be corrected when the horse returns from grass, by paring the soles rather thin, applying a wide hollow shoe, and keeping the foot stopped, not with cow-dung or clay, as has been advised, but with the tar ointment; this will be absorbed through the horn, stimulate the secreting vessels, and cause a plentiful effusion of that odorous vapour which is constantly escaping from the bottom of the foot. The vessels being thus unloaded, the temperature of the foot will be reduced, and the secretion of horn will be at the same time so increased, that the horse will soon be able to go with a narrower shoe.—White.

SANDERLING, TORVILLEE, or CURWILLET (Charadrius Calidris, LINN.; Maubeche, BUFF.) s. A bird.

This bird weighs almost two ounces, is about eight inches in length, and fifteen in breadth from tip to tip. The bill is an inch long, slender, black, and grooved on the sides nearly from the tip to the nostril; the brow, to the eyes, white; the rest of the head, pale ash-colour, mottled in brown streaks from the forehead to the hinder part of the neck, and on each side of the upper part of the breast; back scapulars and greater coverts brownish ash, edged with dull white, and irregularly marked with dark brown spots. The pinions, lesser coverts, and bastard wings, dark brown; the quills, which extend beyond the tail, are of the same colour on the exterior webs and points, except four of the middle ones, which are white on the outer webs, forming, when the wing is closed, a sharp wedge-shaped spot; the inner webs brownish ash; the secondary quills brown, tipped with white; the rump and tail coverts are also brown, edged with dirty white; the tail feathers brownish ash edged with a lighter colour—the two middle ones much darker than the rest; the throat, fore part of the neck, breast, belly, thighs, and vent, are white; the toes and legs black, and bare a little above the knees. This bird is of a slender form, and the plumage has a hoary appearance among the stints, with which it associates on the sea shore in various parts of Great Britain. It wants the hinder toe, and has, in other respects, the look of the plover and dotterell, to which family it belongs.

Latham says, this bird, like the purre, and some others, varies considerably, either from age or the season; for those he received in August had the upper parts dark ash-coloured, and the feathers deeply edged with ferruginous colour; but others sent to him in January were of a plain dove-coloured grey. They differ also in some other trifling particulars.

SANDPIPER, s. A bird.

The tongue of the sandpiper is slender; toes divided, or very slightly connected at the base by a membrane; hinder toe weak; their bills are nearly of the same form as those of the preceding species, but shorter: their haunts and manner of life are also very similar. Latham has enumerated thirty-seven species and nine varieties of this genus, seventeen of which are British, exclusive of those which, in this work, are placed among the plovers; but the history and classifications of this genus are involved in much uncertainty.

Common Sandpiper. (Tringa hypoleucus, LINN.; La Guignette, BUFF.)—This bird weighs about two ounces, and measures seven inches and a half in length. The bill is about an inch long, black at the tip, fading into pale-brown towards the base. The head, and hinder part of the neck, are brownish-ash, streaked downwards with dark narrow lines: the throat is white, and a streak of the same colour surrounds and is extended over each eye; the cheeks and auriculars are streaked with brown; the forepart of the neck, to the breast, is white, mottled and streaked with spots and lines of a brown colour, pointing downwards; in some the breast is plain white; belly and vent white. The ground-colour of all the upper parts of the plumage is ash, blended with glossy olive bronze; the coverts, scapulars, lower part of the back, and tail-coverts, are edged with dull white, and most elegantly marked with transverse dark-coloured narrow, waved lines; the first two quills are plain brown; the next nine are marked on the middle of their inner webs, with white spots; the secondaries are also marked in the same manner, on both webs, and tipped with white. The tail consists of twelve feathers; the four middle ones are of an olive brown, dark at the tips; those next to them, on each side, are much lighter coloured, mottled with dark-brown and tipped with white; the two outside ones are edged and tipped in the same manner, but are barred on their webs with dark-brown; legs pale dull-green, faintly blushed with red.

This elegant little bird breeds in this country, but the species is not numerous; yet they are frequently seen in pairs during the summer months; and are well known by their clear piping note, by their flight, by jerking up their tails, and by their manner of running after their insect prey on the pebbly margins of brooks and rivers. The female makes her nest in a hole on the ground near their haunts; her eggs, commonly five in number, are much mottled and marked with dark spots, on a yellowish ground. They leave England in the autumn; but whither they go is not particularly noticed by ornithologists. Buffon says they retire far north; and Pennant and Latham, that they are met with in Siberia and Kamtschatka, and are also not uncommon in North America.

Brown Sandpiper. (Fusca.)—Pennant describes this bird, which, he says, was bought in a London market, and preserved in the collection of the late M. Tunstall, Esq., of Wycliffe:—Size of a jacksnipe; the bill is black; the head, upper part of the neck, and back, are of a pale-brown, spotted with black; coverts of the wings dusky, edged with dirty white; under side of the neck white, streaked with black; the belly white; tail cinereous: legs black.

Greenwich Sandpiper. (Greenovicensis.)—Size of the redshank; weight nearly eight ounces; length twelve inches and a half; bill an inch and a half long, black; crown of the head reddish-brown, streaked with black; nape, cheeks, and neck, ash-colour; the middle of the feathers dusky, down the shaft; lower part of the neck and back, black; the feathers margined on the sides with pale ferruginous, and some of those of the back at the tips also; chin nearly white; forepart of the neck very pale ash-colour, as far as the breast, which is a dusky white; belly, sides, vent, and upper tail-coverts on each side, and the whole of the under ones, white; lesser wing-coverts ash-colour; the greater, the same, obscurely margined with pale ferruginous; greatest tipped with white; under wing coverts pure white; prime quills dusky, the shafts more or less white; secondaries and scapulars nearly the colour of the back; the secondaries and primaries very little differing in length; the lower part of the back, rump, and middle of the tail-coverts, ash-colour; tail a little rounded at the end, brownish ash-colour, somewhat mottled with brownish near the tips, and fringed near to the end with pale ferruginous; legs dusky olive-green, bare an inch above the knee; the outer and middle toe connected at the base.

Black Sandpiper. (Tringa cinerea.)—Size of a thrush; the beak short, blunt at the point, and dusky; nostrils black; the irides yellow: the head small, and flattened at the top; the colour white, most elegantly spotted with grey; the neck, shoulders, and back, mottled in the same manner, but darker, being tinged with brown; in some lights these parts appeared of a perfect black, and glossy; the wings were long; the quill feathers black, crossed near the base with a white line; the throat, breast, and belly white, with faint brown and black spots of a longish form, irregularly disposed, but on the belly become larger and more round; the tail short, entirely white, except the two middle feathers, which are black; legs long and slender, and of a reddish brown colour.

Spotted Sandpiper. (Tringa macularia, LINN.; La Grive d’Eau, BUFF.)—This bird measures about eight inches in length; the bill is black at the tip, and fades into a reddish colour towards the base; a white streak is extended over each eye, and a brownish patch between them and the bill; the whole upper part of the plumage is of a glossy lightish brown, with green reflections; the head and neck are marked with longish small dark spots; on the back, scapulars, and wing coverts, the spots are larger, and of a triangular shape; the rump is plain; the greater quills are dusky; secondaries tipped with white, as are also the greater and lesser coverts, which form two white oblique lines across the extended wings; the two middle feathers of the tail are greenish brown; the sides ones white, crossed with dusky lines; the breast, belly, and vent, are white, but in the female spotted with brown; legs of a dirty flesh colour. This species is not common in England.

Red-legged, Sandpiper. (Tringa erythropus.)—This bird measures from the tip of the beak to the end of the tail ten inches; the bill is an inch and three-eighths long, black at the tip, and reddish towards the base; the crown of the head is spotted with dark brown, disposed in streaks, and edged with pale brown and grey; a darkish patch covers the space between the corners of the mouth and eyes; the chin is white; the brow and cheeks pale brown, prettily freckled with small dark spots; the hinder part of the neck is composed of a mixture of pale brown, grey, and ash, with a few distinct dusky spots; the forepart and breast are white, clouded with a dull cinnamon colour, and sparingly and irregularly marked with black spots, reflecting a purple gloss; the shoulder and scapular feathers are black, edged with pale rust colour, and have the same glossy reflections as those on the breast; the tertials are nearly the same length as the quills; the ridges of the wings are a brownish ash colour; the coverts, back, and rump, are nearly the same, but inclining to olive, and the middle of each feather is of a deeper dusky brown; the primary quills are deep olive brown; the exterior webs of the secondaries are also of that colour, but lighter, edged and tipped with white, and the inner webs are mostly white towards the base; the tail coverts are glossy black, edged with pale rust colour, and tipped with white, but in some of them a streak of white passes from the middle upwards nearly the whole length. The tail feathers are lightish brown, except the two middle ones, which are barred with spots of a darker hue; the belly and vent are white; legs bare above the knees, and red as sealing-wax; claws black. The female is less than the male, and her plumage more dingy and indistinct; an egg taken out of her previous to stuffing was surprisingly large considering her bulk, being about the size of that of a magpie, of a greenish white colour, spotted and blotched with brown, of a long shape, and pointed at the smaller end. This bird is a constant inhabitant of the fens, and is known to sportsmen by its singular notes, which are very loud and melodious, and are heard even when the bird is beyond the reach of sight.

The description of this bird, which, it seems, is common in the fen countries, has been more particularly attended to, because it has not been described in any of the popular works on ornithology; at least not so accurately as to enable a naturalist to distinguish it by the proper name.

Red Sandpiper, Aberdeen Sandpiper. (Tringa Icelandica, LINN.)—Latham describes this bird in the following manner:—Length from eight to ten inches; bill brown, one inch and a half long, and a little bent downwards; head, hinder part of the neck, and beginning of the back, dusky, marked with red; forepart of the neck and breast cinereous, and mixed with rust colour, and obscurely spotted with black; lesser wing coverts cinereous; quills dusky; secondaries tipped with white; the two middle tail feathers dusky; the other cinereous; legs long and black.

Ash-coloured Sandpiper. (Tringa Cinerea, LINN.)—This bird weighs between four and five ounces, and measures ten inches in length, and about nineteen in breadth. The whole upper parts of the plumage are of a brownish ash-colour: the head is spotted, and the neck streaked with dusky lines: the feathers of the back, scapulars, and wing coverts, are elegantly marked or bordered on their ridges and tips, with two narrow lines of dull white, and dark brown. Some specimens have black spots on the breast, but most commonly the whole under parts are pure white; the tail is cinereous, edged with white, and its coverts are barred with black; legs dirty green; toes edged with a fine narrow scalloped membrane.

The ash-coloured sandpiper, it is said, breeds in the northern parts of both Europe and America. Pennant says they appear in vast flocks on the shores of Flintshire in the winter season; and Latham, that they are seen in vast numbers on the Seal Islands, near Chateau Bay; and also that they breed and remain the whole summer at Hudson’s Bay, where they are called by the natives sasqua pisqua nishish.

Shore Sandpiper. (Tringa Littorea, LINN.; Le Chevalier Variée, BUFF.)—Under this name Latham describes this bird, which it is said migrates from Sweden into England at the approach of winter. He makes it a variety of the last species, and says it does not differ materially from it. “The spots on the back are ferruginous instead of white: the shaft of the first quill is white, as in the green sandpiper; and the secondaries have white tips: the legs are brown.” Brunnich mentions a further variety, wherein the first quill has a black shaft, and the spots on the back and wings are less; and observes, that they differ in age and sex.

Green Sandpiper. (Tringa Ochropus, LINN.; Le Becasseau, ou Cul-blanc, BUFF.)—This bird measures about ten inches in length, to the end of the toes nearly twelve, and weighs about three ounces and a half: the bill is black, and an inch and a half long: a pale streak extends from it over each eye; between which and the corners of the mouth; there is a dusky patch. The crown of the head and hinder part of the neck are of a dingy brownish ash-colour, in some specimens narrowly streaked with white; the throat white; fore part of the neck mottled or streaked with brown spots, on a white or pale ash-coloured ground. The whole upper parts of the plumage are of a glossy bronze, or olive brown, elegantly marked on the edge of each feather with small roundish white spots; the quills are without spots, and are of a darker brown; the secondaries and tertials are very long; the inside of the wings are dusky, edged with white grey; and the inside coverts next the body are curiously barred, from the shaft of each feather to their edges, with narrow white lines, formed nearly of the shape of two sides of a triangle. The belly, vent, tail coverts, and tail, are white; the last broadly barred with black, the middle feathers having four bars, and those next to them decreasing in the number of bars towards the outside feathers, which are quite plain: the legs are green.

This bird is not any where numerous, and is of a solitary disposition, seldom more than a pair being seen together, and that chiefly in the breeding season. It is a scarce bird in England, but is said to be more common in the northern parts of the globe as far as Iceland. It is reported that they never frequent the sea shores, but their places of abode are commonly on the margins of the lakes in the interior and mountainous parts of the country.—Bewick—Latham.

SANGUINE, a. Red, having the colour of blood; abounding with blood more than any other humour.

SAP, s. The vital juice of plants, the juice that circulates in trees and herbs.

SARCELLE, (Clangula Glacialis, FLEM.) s. A bird of the duck tribe.

This species is about the size of a widgeon, length twenty-two inches, including the long feathers of the tail; the bill is black; down the middle and across the tip, orange; irides red; the fore part and sides of the head are reddish grey; on each side of the neck, just below the head, is an oval black spot; the hind part of the head, the throat, and remaining part of the neck and breast, white; back and rump black; sides of the upper tail coverts white, the middle black; the lower belly and vent white; the scapulars white long, and pointed; the wings chiefly black, with a mixture of chestnut; the four middle tail feathers are black, the others white; the two middle ones are narrow, and exceed the others three inches and a half; legs of a dull red; claws black.

Such is the description of the male; but in some the black spots are more or less of a chocolate colour, and the spot on the neck occupies half of it. The length of the tail also varies.

The female has been described by some authors for a different species. The bill, however, which is the same in this sex, seems to be an unerring guide. The sides of the head are white, behind cinereous; the rest of the head, the neck, breast, and back, dusky black; the lower part of the breast and scapulars chestnut; belly white; upper tail coverts and wings like the male; legs dusky reddish brown. This sex is also subject to some variation; most commonly, the middle tail-feathers are not much longer than the rest. It is seldom met with in England, but is frequent in the north of Scotland and the Orkneys in winter, where they assemble in large flocks; it is common in Sweden, Lapland, and Russia, and is said to breed in Greenland and at Hudson’s Bay, where it makes a nest of grass near the sea, and lays ten or more bluish-white eggs. The down of this bird is said to be as valuable as that of the eider duck.—Montagu.

SAVAGE, a. Wild, uncultivated; uncivilised, barbarous.

SAVIN, s. A plant formerly used in veterinary and canine diseases.

SCAB, s. An incrustation formed over a sore by dried matter; the itch or mange of horses.

SCABBED, a. Covered or diseased with scabs; paltry, sorry.

SCAD, s. A kind of fish, probably the same as shad.

SCALE, s. A balance, a vessel suspended by a beam against another; the small shells or crusts which, lying one over another, make the coats of fishes; anything exfoliated; a thin lamina; regular gradation; anything marked at equal distances.

SCALE, v. To climb as by ladders; to measure or compare; to take off a thin lamina; to pare off a surface; to clean fishes.

SCALED, a. Squamous, having scales like fishes.

SCALLOP, s. A fish with a hollow pectinated shell.

SCALP, v. To deprive the skull of its integuments.

SCALY, a. Covered with scales.

SCAPULA, s. The shoulder blade.

SCAPULARS, s. In ornithology, are feathers which take their rise from the shoulders, and cover the sides of the back.

SCAR, s. A mark made by hurt or fire, a cicatrix.

SCAR, v. To mark as with a sore or wound.

SCARFSKIN, s. The cuticle; the epidermis.

SCARIFICATION, s. Incision of the skin with a lancet, or such like instrument.

SCARLET, a. Of the colour of scarlet.

SCATE, s. A kind of wooden shoe on which people slide; a fish of the species of thornback. Scates are exceedingly abundant on the Irish coasts: they are a coarse fish, and little valued.

SCATE, v. To slide on scates.

SCATING, a. The art of sliding.

SCAUP DUCK, or SPOONBILL DUCK (Nyroca marila, FLEM.), s.

The length of this species is about twenty-one inches; weight sometimes as much as thirty-five ounces; the bill is broad, and not so much compressed as usual in this genus; colour bluish-lead; nail black; irides light gold-colour; the head and upper part of the neck black, glossed with green, and, from being well clothed with feathers, appears large; the lower part of the neck and breast black; back and scapulars pale grey, undulated with innumerable small transverse lines of black; the wing coverts the same, but minutely small; lower part of the back, rump, and vent, black; the primores are dusky, lightest on their inner webs, and black at the ends; the secondary quills, except a few next the body, are white tipped with black, forming a broad bar of white across the wing; the under part of the body is white, sprinkled between the thighs with dusky; the tail is composed of dusky-black feathers; legs lead-colour. In some we have seen, the white in the wing is edged with rust-colour: it is also subject to other varieties.

The scaup duck is not uncommon in most parts of this kingdom in winter, and is frequently found in fresh waters. It is supposed to take its name from feeding on broken shells called scaup. This, like most of the genus, breeds in the more northern parts; is common in Russia, Sweden, Norway, and Lapland; and is found at Hudson’s Bay, in the warmer months.—Montagu.

SCENT, s. The power of smelling; the smell; the object of smell; chace followed by the smell.

Scent cannot be ascertained by the air only, it depends also on the soil. Doubtless, the scent most favourable to the hound, is when the effluvia constantly perspiring from the game as it runs, is kept by the gravity of the air to the height of his breast; for then it is neither above his reach, nor need he stoop for it: this is what is meant when scent is said to be breast high. Experience tells us that difference of soil alters the scent. When the leaves begin to fall, and before they are rotted, scent lies ill in cover—a sufficient proof that it does not depend on the air only. Scent also varies by difference of motion; the faster the animal goes the less scent it leaves. When game has been ridden after, and hurried on by imprudent sportsmen, hounds will with difficulty pick out the scent; and one reason may be, that the particles of scent are then more dissipated: but if the game should have been run by a dog not belonging to the pack, very seldom will any scent remain.

Scent frequently alters in the same day; and without asserting what scent exactly is, it may be said to depend chiefly on two things—the condition of the ground, and the temperature of the air, which should be moist without being wet. When both are in this state, the scent is then perfect; and vice versa, when the ground is hard and the air dry, there seldom will be any scent. It scarce ever lies with a north or an east wind; a southerly wind without rain, and a westerly one that is not rough, are the best. Storms in the air seldom fail to destroy scent. A fine sunshiny day is not good for hunting; but a day warm without sun, is generally a perfect one: there are not many such in a whole season. In some fogs scent lies high, in others not at all, depending, probably, on the quarter the wind is then in. It sometimes lies very high in a mist, when not too wet; but if the wet continues to hang upon the boughs and bushes, it will fall upon the scent and deaden it. When the dogs roll, and also when cobwebs hang on the bushes, there is seldom much scent. During a white frost, the scent lies high, as it also does when the frost is quite gone; at the time of its going off (which is a critical minute for hounds, in which their game is frequently lost), scent never lies. In a hard rain, with the air mild, scent will sometimes be very good. A wet night often produces the best chases, game not then liking to run the cover or the roads. In heathy countries, where the game brushes as it goes along, scent seldom fails; yet, from the inclosures of poor land surrounding them, the scent is, at times, very difficult for hounds; the sudden change from a good to a bad scent confuses their noses; a scent therefore which is less good, but less unequal, is more favourable to hounds. When the ground carries the scent is bad for an obvious reason, which hare-hunters who pursue their game over greasy fallows and dirty roads have great cause to complain of. A remark has been generally made, that scent lies best in the richest soils, and those countries which are favourable to horses are not so to hounds; and it has likewise been observed in some particular spots in almost every country, let the temperature of the air be as it may, that hounds can never carry a scent across them.

The morning is the part of the day which usually affords the best scent, and the animal itself, which you are at this time more than ever desirous of killing, is then least able to escape; the want of rest, added perhaps to a full belly, give hounds a decided superiority over an early found fox.—Daniel.

SCENT, v. To smell, to perceive by the nose; to perfume, or to imbue with odour good or bad.

SCHOONER, s. A vessel with two masts.

Schooners, within the last twenty years, have gradually come into general use, and have, in a great degree, superseded the smaller sized brigs and large sloops which were formerly employed as coasters. They are found more manageable and weatherly, and in sailing qualities infinitely superior to either.

The Americans are celebrated for the size of their schooners, and the beauty of their mould. In the late war, numbers of these vessels were fitted out as privateers; and from their extraordinary sailing properties, their success was unexampled.

In the Royal Yacht Club there are a good number of vessels of this class; but the cutter rig appears to be the favourite.

The common tonnage of schooners ranges from 80 to 150; but some of the Baltimore privateers admeasured 300 tons.

SCIRRHUS, s. An indurated gland.

SCIRRHOUS, a. Having a gland indurated.

SCISSORS, s. A small pair of shears, or blades moveable on a pivot, and intercepting the thing to be cut. Scissors with very fine points are indispensable to fly-tiers.

SCOLLOP, s. A pectinated shell fish.

SCOLOPAX, (ILLIGER,) s. The snipe, a genus thus characterised:—

Bill long, straight, compressed, slender, soft, bulged at the point; the two mandibles furrowed about the half of their length; the point of the upper mandible longer than the under, the bulged part forming a hook; ridge elevated at its base and salient; nostril, at the sides of the base, slit lengthwise, near the edges of the mandible, covered by a membrane; legs of mean length, slender, the naked space above the knee very small; three toes before entirely divided, the middle and the outer ones rarely united; one toe behind; wings of mean length, the first quill of equal length, or a little shorter than the second, which is the longest in the wing.

This division of the numerous scolopax genus of Linnæus amounts, according to Latham, to about twenty species, besides varieties, of which only the woodcock, common snipe, and judcock, and their varieties, are accounted British birds.

Pennant has placed the woodcock after the curlews, as the head of the godwits and snipes; and others are of opinion that the knot, from the similarity of its figure to that of the woodcock, ought to be classed in this tribe. In the subdivisions, ornithologists may vary their classification without end. As in a chain doubly suspended, the rings of which gradually diminish towards the middle, the leading features of some particular bird may point it out as a head to a tribe; others, from similarity of shape, plumage, or habits, will form, by almost imperceptible variations, the connecting links; and those which may be said to compose the curvature of the bottom, by gradations equally minute, will rise to the last ring of the other end, which, as the head of another tribe, will be marked with characters very different from the first.—Montagu.

SCOTER, BLACK DUCK, or BLACK DIVER, (Anas Nigra, LINN.; _La Macreuse_, BUFF.) s. A kind of duck.

The scoter is less than the velvet duck, weighing generally about two pounds nine ounces, and measuring twenty-two inches in length, and thirty-four in breadth.

In severe winter the scoters leave the northern extremities of the world in immense flocks, dispersing themselves southward along the shores of more temperate climates. They are only sparingly scattered on the coasts of England.

The scoters seldom quit the sea, upon which they are very nimble, and are indefatigable expert divers; but they fly heavily, near the surface of the water, and to no great distance, and are said to walk awkwardly erect on the land.—Bewick.

SCRAY, s. A bird called the sea-swallow.

SCREECH, v. To cry out as in terror or anguish; to cry as a night owl.

SCREECHOWL, s. An owl that hoots in the night.

SCREEN, s. Anything that affords shelter or concealment; a riddle to sift sand. An artificial erection to cover the shooter’s approach when stealing upon wildfowl.

SCREW, s. One of the mechanical powers; a kind of twisted pin or nail which enters by turning; bolts which secure a gun-lock.

SCREW, v. To turn by a screw; to fasten with a screw; to deform by contortions.

SCREWDRIVER, s. An implement to turn screws.

SCRUPLE, s. Doubt; perplexity; twenty grains, the third part of a drachm.

SCULK, v. To lurk in hiding-places, to lie close.

SCULL, s. The bone which incases and defends the brain; the arched bone of the head; a small boat; one who singly rows a boat; a shoal of fish.

SCULLER, s. A boat in which there is but one rower; one that rows a boat, singly.

SCURF, s. A kind of dry miliary scab; soil or stain adherent; anything sticking on the surface.

SCUT, s. The tail of those animals whose tails are very short, as the hare, rabbit, &c.

SEA, s. The ocean, the water opposed to the land; a collection of water.

SEA-FISHING, s. The pursuit of sea-fish.

This water-sport is unknown ‘to the many,’ and yet to him whose hands are not unacquainted with rope and oar, it affords, at times, an admirable amusement.

The coal-fishing requires a stiff breeze, and if there be a dark sky it is all the better. In its detail it is perfectly similar to mackerel-fishing, only that the superior size of the coal-fish makes stronger tackle and a heavier lead indispensable.

An eel of seven or eight inches long is the bait. The head being removed, the hook is introduced as in a minnow, and the skin brought three or four inches up the snoud. This latter is a fine line of two or three fathoms length, affixed to the trap-stick and lead, the weight of which latter is regulated by the rate of sailing.

The coal-fish, in weight, varies from two to fourteen pounds; it is finely shaped, immensely rapid, uniting the action of the salmon with the voracity of the pike. If he miss his first dash, he will follow the bait to the stern of the boat, and I have often hooked them within a fathom of the rudder.

Four or five knots an hour, is the best rate of sailing for killing coal-fish, and upon a coast where they are abundant, the sport, at times, is excellent.

Like the pike the coal-fish is very indifferent to the tackle used, which is generally very coarse. Not so the mackerel; he requires much delicacy of line and bait to induce him to take.

In light winds, or when the fish are out of humour, I have killed mackerel by substituting a salmon casting line of single gut, for the hempen snoud commonly employed by fishermen, which with a newly-cut bait of phosphoric brilliancy, commonly overcame his resolve against temptation. But there are times when a change of weather, or some inexplicable phenomena of sea or sky, render these fish dull and cautious—for usually it requires but trifling art to kill them.

A little experience is necessary. The bait must be cut from the freshest mackerel, and assimilated in size and shape to the herring-fry, which they generally follow—and the way of the boat must be so regulated, as to preserve the deception by a sufficient velocity, without breaking by its rapidity the mackerel’s hold. The mouth of this fish is particularly tender—and if care be not taken many will drop from the hook before they can be secured on board.—Wild Sports.

SEAFOWL, s. A bird that lives at sea.

Shooting Seafowl.—To venture after fowl at sea you must have a large boat with good bearings, that will carry plenty of canvass. Rowing after them scarcely ever answers; but when it blows fresh a fast sailing boat may often run in upon geese, and sometimes other birds, before they can take wing; and after a coast has been for some time harassed by the gunning punts, I have seen more birds killed under sail from a common boat, than by any other manner of day shooting. But, to do the business well, a stanchion gun must be fixed in the boat, and this, by all means, contrived so as to go back with the recoil, or you run the risk of staving your boat, and therefore of being really in danger. Recollect when you get on the outside of the harbour an accident is no joke; and you have, as Dr. Johnson observes, but one plank between you and eternity.

A boat for this work should have plenty of bearings, and have as little keel as she can well go to windward with, in order to get, at times, within shot of the mud and sands, and also to run through a harbour at spring tides without getting aground. You should therefore, for this sport, always make choice of a day when the wind is off the land, and a time when the tide is flowing; as you have then no danger of filling your boat with the hollow sea of a lee shore, or running her so fast aground as not to be able to get her off immediately. In following wild fowl under sail, command, as much as you can, a windward berth, in order to bear down on them at pleasure; and if they rise out of shot against wind, as they usually do, luff up directly, and try to head them for a cross shot. As the gun, when on one tack, is in the way of the jib, you must have the man who attends the jib-sheets always in readiness to haul the weather one to windward; but this must be done only just before you want to fire, or you deaden the boat’s way. Take care also to let the sheet be under the barrel of the gun, in order that your line of aim may be clear of every thing. In this pursuit, when the more wind sometimes the more sport, never go with less than three good hands; and be careful in squally weather not to make too fast the mainsheet, as nine-tenths of the misfortunes that we hear of, have occurred from this very circumstance.—Hawker.

SEAGREEN, a. Resembling the colour of the distant sea, cerulean.

SEAGULL, s. A sea bird. Vide GULL.

SEAHOG, s. The porpoise.

SEAL, s. A stamp engraved with a particular impression, which is fixed upon wax; the seacalf, or phoca.

Seals are very numerous on the coast, and at this season a number may be seen any warm day you make an excursion up the Sound of Achil. We shoot them occasionally; the skin makes a waterproof covering, and the fat affords an excellent oil for many domestic purposes. It is difficult, however, to secure the animal, for numbers are shot and few gotten. The head is the only place to strike them, for even when mortally wounded in the body, they generally manage to escape. This fact we have ascertained, from finding them dead on shore many days after they were wounded, and at a considerable distance from the place where they had received the bullet. I shot one last autumn at the mouth of the river, and a fortnight afterwards he was taken up in the neighbourhood of Dhuhill. There could be no doubt as to the identity of the creature, for on opening him to extract the oil, a rifle-ball, such as I use, of the unusually small size of fifty-four to the pound, was found lodged in his lungs. Unless when killed outright, they sink instantly; and I have seen the sea dyed with blood to an extent that proved how severely the seal had been wounded, but never could trace him farther.

Formerly, when seal-oil and skins were of value, some persons on the coast made the pursuit of the animal a profession. There is one of these persons living near the Sound, a miserable, dwarfish, red-bearded wretch, whom you would consider hardly equal to grapple with a salmon, and yet he secures more seals than any hunter in the district. His method of effecting it is singular; he uses neither gun nor spear, but kills the animal with a short bludgeon, loaded at the end with lead.

Adjacent to the seal-killer’s residence there is a large rock, uncovered at half-tide, and this appears the most favourite haunt for the animal to bask upon. The rock is easily approached from the main land, and on a sunny day, when the wind favours the attempt, the hunter, undressed, and armed with his bludgeon, silently winds among the stones, and steals upon his sleeping prey. Wary as the creature is, the Red Dwarf seldom fails in surprising him, and with astonishing expertness generally despatches him with a single blow.—Wild Sports.

SEAMEW, s. A fowl that frequents the sea; one of the gull tribe.

SEAR, v. To burn, to cauterise.

SECONDARY, s. In ornithology, the second feather in the wing.

SEDGE, s. A growth of narrow flags, a narrow flag.

SEDGY, a. Overgrown with narrow flags.

SEER, s. A gunlock spring.

SEINE, s. A net used in sea-fishing.

SERPENTINE, a. Resembling a serpent; winding like a serpent.

SERRATED, a. Formed with jags or indentures, like the edge of a saw.

SETON, s. A seton is made when the skin is taken up with a needle, and the wound kept open by a twist of silk or hair, that humours may vent themselves. Farriers call this operation in cattle, rowelling.

Setons consist of tape, threads, or lamp cotton passed under the skin, and smeared with digestive ointment. The instrument employed for conveying these under the skin is named a seton needle, and may be purchased at the instrument makers. When lamp cotton is used, it can be withdrawn gradually, thread by thread, which on some occasions is desirable. Setons are preferable to rowels, being more convenient and equally efficacious.—White.

SETTER, s. One who sets; a dog who beats the field, and points the bird for the sportsmen.

The Old English Setter. (Canis Index, variety α.)—This breed was originally produced between the Spanish pointer and the large water spaniel, and was famous on account of his steadiness and exquisite sense of smelling; the hair over the whole body was much more curled than that of the present breed, which has been considerably lightened by the additional cross of the springer; he was also much more steady than the improved variety, but then he had not the same speed to recommend him. Fine dogs of this kind were also produced by a cross with the stag and blood hounds. They united great strength, considerable swiftness, and were used for the chace in some few instances.

The English Setter (Canis Index, variety β), is a breed produced between the Spanish pointer, the English water spaniel and springer, which, by careful cultivation, has attained a high degree of perfection as a sporting dog. He has an elegant figure, and a very pleasing diversity of colour; added to this, his skin is covered with beautifully curled hair, very villous on the lower margin of the tail; being altogether an extremely handsome dog, and quite unrivalled by any of the canine species.

The setter has all the excellent qualities of the pointer, with a greater degree of speed and natural vivacity of temper; he, however, is not so easily broken in as the pointer, and requires a certain degree of training every year, to make him continue staunch. There are, however, various instances of setters being self-taught, as the following example will show:—The black and tan small setter bitch which I have (says Mr. Torry), was originally out of the Duke of Bedford’s breed, and both she and her mother inherit the utmost natural sagacity as sporting dogs. At ten months old, and before she had got a lesson in breaking, or had seen game killed, she was taken to the moors for the first time, and on finding a bird, was perfectly steady at her point, backed, and did not run the game. The gentleman who was with me wounded a bird, and it fell at a considerable distance. The pup, unknown to us, had kept her eye upon it, and, to our astonishment, after we had loaded, and again ordered our dogs to range, she went direct to the spot where the bird fell, found and fetched it to my friend’s feet. This happened in August, 1825.

The setter ranges with great speed, and is a very hardy dog. Many prefer him to the pointer, and if water is plentiful, he is certainly more useful, for his feet are much better defended against the sharp cutting of the heath than those of the pointer, as he has a great deal of hair growing between the toes and round the ball of the foot, of which the latter is almost destitute. Besides, he unquestionably ranges much faster, and can endure much more fatigue. He can also serve in thick coverts, where a pointer will not enter; and, on this account, is useful in woodcock shooting, where springers or cockers are not kept.

Formerly the setter was used for the purpose of taking partridges with a draw-net, and was generally taught to squat down when the game was within a proper distance—hence the name setter. They are now, however, trained to point in the same manner as the spaniel. It is said that Robert Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, was the first person who broke a setter to the net.

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There is not a country in Europe that can boast of finer setters than Ireland; they are there called English spaniels, and differ widely from the setters of England and Scotland. They are not esteemed in Ireland unless their colour be either a deep chestnut and white, or all red; a black and white setter, or any colour but red, or red and white, would not be looked upon or reputed well bred, allowing them to be ever so good. It matters not whether they are all red, or red and white; but those esteemed most have a black nose, and a black roof to their mouth,—as most sportsmen conceive the black nose to be finer and superior to any other. Sir William Barker, Mr. Oliver of Castle Oliver, Mr. Macarthy of Spring House, and many other gentlemen in Ireland, have the most beautiful and steady of this kind. A circumstance occurred, with respect to the steadiness and discipline of some of this breed, which the compiler was an eye-witness to:—Colonel Macdonald being on a visit at Mr. Oliver’s, during the grousing season, and going out one day, took out with him five brace of setters; on getting to the mountains, one of the dogs found some birds, all the rest backed in at once, upon which Colonel Macdonald called to the last dog to take the lead, and in that manner he drew the dogs alternately, until the last became first, and fixed the birds, which had run nearly a mile. These dogs in general fetch a long price; Mr. Macarthy got two hundred guineas for a brace of them, and a gentleman in the north of Ireland was known once to have given, for a dog and bitch of this sort, to his tenant, the renewal of a lease of a farm for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, which if this lease had expired, would have cleared to the landlord above two hundred and fifty pounds a year. The compiler himself sold a brace of setters, in the year 1801, for two hundred guineas, to a Captain Baggot.—Brown—Thornhill.

SETTINGDOG, s. A dog taught to find game, and point it out to the sportsmen.

SHAD, s. A kind of fish.

SHAFT, s. An arrow, a missile weapon; a narrow, deep, perpendicular pit; anything straight.

SHAG, SKART, SCARFE or GREEN CORMORANT, (Pelicanus graculus, LINN.; Le petit Cormorant, ou le Nigaud, BUFF.) s.

The form, the aspect altogether, the outward conformation of all the parts, the character, manners, and habits, and places of abode, of this species, are nearly like those of the cormorant; but they do not associate, and these make their nests on the rugged, shelvy sides and crevices of the rocky precipices or projecting cliffs which overhang the sea, while the others make theirs on the summits above them; and these are at once distinguished from the others by the greenness of the upper, and brownness of the under plumage, and also in being of a much less size—the largest shags weighing only about four pounds, and measuring nearly two feet six inches in length, and three feet eight in breadth. The bill is of a more slender make, but nearly as long as that of the cormorant; the head, in the male, is crested in the same manner; the middle claw is serrated; and its tail, consisting of twelve stiff feathers stained with green, is also of the same form and hoary or dirty appearance as that of the cormorant; the crown of the head, hinder part of the neck, lower back, and rump, are of a plain black, or very dark green, shining like satin; the upper back, or shoulders, together with the scapulars and wings, are nearly of the same colour, but with a tinge of bronze brown, and each feather is distinctly edged with purple glossed black; the under parts are clouded with dusky dirty white, and brown.—Bewick.

SHAGGY, a. Ruggedly hairy, rough, rugged.

SHAGREEN, s. The skin of a kind of fish, or skin made rough in imitation of it.

SHAMBLING, a. Moving awkwardly and irregularly.

SHANK, s. The middle joint of the leg, that part which reaches from the ankle to the knee; the bone of the leg; the long part of any instrument; long part of a fishhook.

SHEEP, s. The animal that bears wool.

SHEEP, s. The animal that bears wool.

To break a Sheep-biting Dog.—Take some wool off a sheep’s rump, steep it in train oil, put it in the dog’s jaws, and sew up his mouth. For killing poultry, boil a chicken in its feathers, take it hot from the boiler, squeeze the water from it and put it into his jaws, and tie them together.

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“I have a fine pointer,” said a gentleman to his friend, “staunch as can be at birds, but I cannot break him from sheep.” His reply was, that the best way would be to couple him to the horns of an old ram, and leave him in a stable all night, and the discipline he would receive would prevent his loving field-mutton again. The same person meeting the owner of the dog some time afterwards, accosted him thus: “Well, sir, your pointer is now the best in England, no doubt, from my prescription.” “Much the same, sir, for he killed my ram, and ate a shoulder!”—Sporting Anecdotes.

SHELDRAKE, or BURROUGH DUCK, (Anas Tudorna, LINN.; La Tudorne, BUFF.) s.

The male of this prettily marked species is somewhat larger than the mallard, measuring about two feet in length, three and a half in breadth, and weighing, commonly, two pounds ten ounces. The bill is red, with the nail and nostrils black; the upper mandible is broad, flat, and grooved on the edges towards the point, where it has rather a cast upwards; it is also depressed in the middle, and raised into a knob or tubercle at the base. The head and upper part of the neck are of a glossy dark or bottle green; the lower part of the neck, to the breast, is encircled with white, and joined by a broad band of bright orange bay, which is spread over, and covers the breast and shoulders. The back, wing-coverts, rump, upper tail-coverts, and sides of the belly, to the vent and tail, are white; a dusky stripe, tinged with rufous, runs along the middle from the breast, the whole length of the belly; part of the scapulars next the wings are black, and those next the body white; the bastard wing, and some of the first primary quills, are black; the exterior webs of the next adjoining ones are glossed with gold green, which forms the speculum or beauty-spot of the wings; this spot is bounded and partly covered by the orange webs of the three succeeding quill-feathers, which separate it from the scapulars. The tail is white, but some of its feathers are tipped with black; the legs pale red.

The female is less than the male, and her plumage is not so vivid and beautiful. She makes her nest, and rears her young, underground, in the rabbit-holes which are made in the sand-hills near the sea shore: it is chiefly formed of the fine down plucked from her own breast: she lays from twelve to sixteen roundish white eggs, and the incubation lasts about thirty days. During this time, the male, who is very attentive to his charge, keeps watch in the day-time, on some adjoining hillock, where he can see all around him, and which he quits only when impelled by hunger, to procure subsistence. The female also leaves the nest, for the same purpose, in the mornings and evenings, at which times the male takes his turn, and supplies her place. As soon as the young are hatched, or are able to waddle along, they are conducted, and sometimes carried in the bill, by the parents, to the full tide, upon which they launch without fear, and are not seen afterwards out of tide-mark until they are well able to fly; lulled by the roaring of the flood, they find themselves at home amidst an ample store of their natural food, which consists of sand-hoppers, sea-worms, &c. or small shell-fish, and the innumerable shoals of the little fry which have not yet ventured out into the great deep, but are left on the beach, or tossed to the surface of the water by the restless surge.

If this family in their progress from the nest to the sea, happen to be interrupted by any person, the young ones, it is said, seek the first shelter, and squat close down, and the parent birds fly off; then commences that truly curious scene dictated by an instinct analogous to reason, the same as has been already noticed in the mallard and the partridge; the tender mother drops at no great distance from her helpless brood, trails herself along the ground, flaps it with her wings, and appears to struggle as if she were wounded, in order to attract attention, and tempt a pursuit after her. Should these wily schemes, in which she is also aided by her mate, succeed, they both return when the danger is over, to their terrified motionless little offspring, to renew the tender offices of cherishing and protecting them.

These birds are sometimes watched to their holes, which are dug up to the nest, whence the eggs are taken and hatched, and the young reared by a tame duck.

In this way many gentlemen, tempted by the richness of their garb, have their ponds stocked with these beautiful birds; but as they are of a roving disposition, and are apt to stray, or to quit altogether such limited spots, it is generally found necessary to pinion or disable a wing to secure them. The sheldrake has been known to breed with the common duck; but it is not well ascertained whether the hybrids thus produced will breed again or not.

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This species is dispersed in greater or less numbers, over the warm as well as the cold climates, in various parts of the world; they are met with as far north as Iceland in the spring, and in Sweden and the Orkney Islands in the winter. Captain Cook notices them, among other sea fowl, on the coast of Van Diemen’s Land; and they have been seen in great numbers at the Falkland Islands. Although they are not numerous on the British and the opposite shores, yet they are common enough in the British Isles, where they remain throughout the year, always in pairs, and occasionally straggle away from the sea coasts to the lakes inland.—Bewick.

SHELL, s. The hard covering of anything; the external crust; the covering of a testaceous or crustaceous animal; the covering of the seeds of siliquous plants; the covering of kernels; the covering of an egg.

SHELLFISH, s. Fish invested with a hard covering, either testaceous, as oysters, or crustaceous, as lobsters.

SHERRY, s. A kind of sweet Spanish wine.

SHETLAND PONY, s. A horse peculiar to the Shetland isles.

Although the Shetland ponies are exceedingly diminutive in size, they are in other respects excellent. There have been instances of these animals whose height from the foot to the shoulder scarcely exceeded three feet, and a man of ordinary size and strength can lift one of them from the ground with great ease.

The general form of these ponies is very elegant, and their body is thicker and more compact than that of a blood-horse; they have small legs and large manes, their bones are exceedingly small, as is also their head, and that part of the neck which joins to it, the most common colours are grey, bay, and black. The latter are esteemed the hardiest, whilst those that are pied seldom prove good. They sometimes live to the age of thirty years and upwards, notwithstanding the little care that is bestowed on them in sheltering them from the cold, which, in the climate of the Shetland Islands, is peculiarly severe in the winter: but from the circumstance of their being compelled to live out of doors during even the severest months of the year, great numbers are occasionally frozen to death. At this season, when the ground is entirely covered with snow, the wretched animals are compelled to seek subsistence on the sea-weeds, which, once in every twelve hours, are left exposed by the tide.—Illustrations of Natural History by Le Keux.

SHIN, s. The forepart of the leg.

SHINGLES, s. A kind of tetter or herpes that spreads itself round the loins.

SHIP, s. A ship may be defined a large hollow building made to pass over the sea with sails; a vessel with three masts. Vide YACHT.

SHITTLECOCK, s. A cork stuck with feathers, and driven by players from one to another with battledoors.

SHOAL, s. A crowd, a multitude, a throng; a shallow, a sand bank; a number of fishes.

SHOALY, a. Full of shoals, full of shallow places.

SHOCK DOG (Canis Fotor), s. A lady’s dog.

This variety is probably a breed betwixt the king Charles’s dog and the small water spaniel, to which last it seems most nearly allied. It has long and slightly curled hair, and its eyes are almost hid in the curls. It is of a small size, and is used in this country and on the continent as a lap-dog. It is a useless little animal, seeming to possess no other quality than a faithful attachment to its mistress.

I have never seen one of these diminutive little creatures which would take the water, although they possess all the requisites for swimming. This may probably be accounted for from the frequency of their immersion in that element, contrary to their inclination, for the purpose of washing them.

SHOE, s. The cover of the foot; the iron plate which defends a horse’s hoof.

SHOE, v. To fit the foot with a shoe; to cover at the bottom.

SHOEING, v. To affix the shoe to the hoof.

The Preparation of the Foot.—We will suppose that the horse is sent to the forge to be shod. If the master would occasionally accompany him there, he would find it much to his advantage. The old shoe must be first taken off. We have something to observe even on this. It was retained on the foot by the ends of the nails being twisted off, turned down, and clenched. These clenches should be first raised, which the smith seldom takes the trouble thoroughly to do; but after going carelessly round the crust, and raising one or two of the clenches, he takes hold first of one heel of the shoe, and then of the other, and by a violent wrench separates them from the foot, and by a third wrench, applied to the middle of the shoe, he tears it off. By this means he must enlarge every nail hole, and weaken the future hold, and sometimes tear off portions of the crust, and otherwise injure the foot. The horse generally shows by his flinching that he suffers by the violence with which this preliminary operation is performed. The clenches should always be raised or filed off; and where the foot is tender, or the horse is to be examined for lameness, each nail should be partly punched out. Many a stub is left in the crust, the source of future annoyance, when this unnecessary violence is used.

The shoe having been removed, the smith proceeds to rasp the edges of the crust. Let not the stander-by object to the apparent violence which he uses, or fear that the foot will suffer. It is the only means he has, with safety to his instruments, to detect whether any stubs remain in the nail-holes, and it is the most convenient method of removing that portion of the crust into which dirt and gravel have insinuated themselves.

Next comes the important process of paring out, with regard to which it is almost impossible to lay down any specific rules. This, however, we can say with confidence, that more injury has been done by the neglect of paring, than by carrying it to too great an extent. The act of paring is a work of much more labour than the proprietor of the horse often imagines; the smith, except he be overlooked, will give himself as little trouble about it as he can; and that, which in the unshod foot would be worn away by contact with the ground, is suffered to accumulate month after month, until the elasticity of the sole is destroyed, and it can no longer descend, and the functions of the foot are impeded, and foundation is laid for corn, and contraction, and navicular disease, and inflammation. That portion of horn should be left on the sole, which will defend the internal parts from being bruised, and yet suffer the external sole to descend. How is this to be measured? The strong pressure of the thumb of the smith will be the best guide. The buttress, that most destructive of all instruments, being banished from the respectable forge, the smith sets to work with his drawing knife, and he removes the growth of horn until the sole will yield, although in the slightest possible degree, to the very strong pressure of his thumb. The proper thickness of horn will then remain.

If the foot has been previously neglected, and the horn is become very hard, the owner must not object if the smith resorts to some means to soften it a little; and if he takes one of his flat irons, and, having heated it, draws it over the sole, and keeps it a little while in contact with it. When the sole is thick, this rude and apparently barbarous method can do no harm, but it should never be permitted with the sole that is regularly pared out.

The quantity of horn to be removed in order to leave the proper degree of thickness will vary with different feet. From the strong foot a great deal must be taken. From the concave foot the horn may be removed until the sole will yield to a moderate pressure. From the flat foot little need be pared; while the pumiced foot will spare nothing but the ragged parts.

The paring being nearly completed, the knife and the rasp of the smith must be a little watched, or he will reduce the crust to a level with the sole, and thus endanger the bruising of the sole by its pressure on the edge of the seating. The crust should be reduced to a perfect level all round, but left a little higher than the sole.

The heels will require very considerable attention. From the stress which is thrown on the inner heel, and from the weakness of the quarter there, it usually wears considerably faster than the outer one; and if an equal portion of horn were pared from it, it would be left lower than the outer heel. The smith should, therefore, accommodate his paring to the comparative wear of the heels, and be very careful to leave them precisely level.

If the reader will recollect what we have said of the intention and action of the bars, he will readily perceive that the smith should be checked in his almost universal fondness for opening the heels, or, more truly, removing that which is the main impediment to contraction. That portion of the heels between the inflection of the bar and the frog should scarcely be touched, at least nothing but the ragged and detached parts should be cut away. The foot may not look so pretty, but it will last longer without contraction.

The bar likewise should be left fully prominent, not only at its first inflection, but as it runs down the side of the frog. The heel of our shoe is designed to rest partly on the heel of the foot, and partly on the bar, for reasons that have been already stated. If the bar is weak, the growth of it should be encouraged, and it should be scarcely touched at the shoeing until it has attained a level with the crust. We recal to the recollection of our readers the observation which we have before made, that the destruction of the bars not only leads to contraction by removing a powerful impediment to it, but by adding a still more powerful cause in the slanting direction which is given to the bearing at the heels, when the bar does not contribute to the support of the weight.

It will also be apparent that the horn between the crust and the bar should be carefully pared out. Every horseman has observed the relief which is given to the animal lame with corns when this angle is well thinned; a relief, however, which is but temporary, for when the horn grows again and the shoe presses upon it, the torture of the animal is renewed.

The degree of paring to which the frog must be subjected will depend on its prominence, and on the shape of the foot. The principle has already been stated, that it must be left so far projecting and prominent, that it shall be just within and above the lower surface of the shoe, it will then descend with the sole sufficiently to discharge the functions which we have attributed to it. If it be lower it will be bruised and injured; if it be higher it cannot come in contact with the ground, and thus be enabled to do its duty. The ragged parts must be removed, and especially those occasioned by thrush, but the degree of paring must depend entirely on this principle.

It appears, then, that the office of the smith requires some skill and judgment in order to be properly discharged; and the horse proprietor will find it his interest occasionally to visit the forge and complain of the careless, or idle, or obstinate, and reward, by some trifling gratuity, the expert and diligent. He should likewise remember that a great deal more depends on the paring out of the foot than on the construction of the shoe; that few shoes, except they press upon the sole, or are made outrageously bad, will lame the horse; but that he may be very easily lamed from ignorant and improper paring out of the foot.

The putting on of the Shoe.—The foot being thus prepared, the smith looks about for a shoe. He should select one that as nearly as possible fits the foot, or may be altered to the foot. He will sometimes care little about this, for he can easily alter the foot to the shoe. The toe-knife is a very convenient instrument for him, and plenty of horn can be struck off with it, or removed by the rasp, to make the foot as small as the shoe; while he cares little, although by this destructive method the crust is materially thinned where it should receive the nail, and the danger of puncture is increased, and the danger of pressure upon the sole is increased, and a foot so artificially diminished in size will soon grow over the shoe, to the hazard of considerable or permanent lameness.

While choosing the shoe we must once more refer to the shape of our pattern shoe; the web is of equal thickness from toe to heel. A shoe, thinner at the heel than at the toe, by letting down the heel too low, is apt to produce sprain of the flexor tendon, and a shoe thicker at the heels than at the toe is fit only to elevate the frog, to the destruction of its function, and to its own certain disease, and also to press upon and to batter and to bruise that part of the foot which is soonest and most destructively injured.

The Hinder Shoe.—In forming the hinder shoe it should be remembered that the hind limbs are the principal instruments in progression, that in every act of progression, except the walk, the toe is the point on which the whole frame of the animal turns, and from which it is propelled. This part, then, should be strengthened as much as possible; and, therefore, the hinder shoes are made broader at the toe than the fore ones, and the toe of the foot, which is naturally broader than that of the fore-foot, is still further widened by rasping. Another good effect is produced by this, that the hinder foot being shortened there is less danger of overreaching or forging, and especially if the shoe be wider on the foot surface than on the ground one; and thus the shoe is made to slope inward, and is a little within the toe of the crust.

The shape of the hinder foot is somewhat different from that of the fore foot; it is straighter in the quarters, and the shoe must have the same shape. For carriage and draught horses generally, calkins may be put on the heels, because the animal will be thus enabled to dig his toe more firmly into the ground, and urge himself forward, and throw his weight into the collar with greater advantage. But the calkins must not be too high, and they must be of an equal height on each heel; otherwise, as has been stated with regard to the fore feet, the weight will not be fairly distributed over the foot, and some part of the foot or of the leg will materially suffer. The nails in the hinder shoe may be placed nearer to the heel than in the fore shoe, because, from the comparative little weight and concussion thrown on the hinder feet, there is not so much danger of contraction.

Different kinds of Shoes.—The shoe will vary in substance and weight with the kind of foot, and the nature of the work. A weak foot should never wear a heavy shoe, nor any foot a shoe that will last longer than a month. Here, perhaps, we may be permitted to caution the horse-proprietor against having his cattle shod too much by contract, unless he binds down his farrier or surgeon to remove the shoes once at least in every month; for if the contractor, by a heavy shoe and a little steel, can cause five or six weeks to intervene between the shoeings, he will do so, although the feet of the horse must necessarily suffer. The shoe should never be heavier than the work requires. An ounce or two in the weight of the shoe will sadly tell before the end of a hard day’s work. This is acknowledged in the hunter’s shoe, which is narrower and lighter than that of the hackney with even smaller feet than the hunter; and it is more decidedly acknowledged in the racer, who wears a shoe only sufficiently thick to prevent it from bending when used.

The Hunting Shoe.—The hunter’s shoe is different from that of the hackney in shape as well as weight. It is not so much bevelled off as the common concave seated shoe. Sufficient space alone is left for the introduction of a picker between the shoe and the sole, otherwise, in going over heavy ground, the clay will get in, and by its tenacity loosen, and even tear off the shoe. The heels likewise are somewhat shorter, that they may not be torn off by the toe of the hind-feet when galloping fast, and the outer heel is frequently and injudiciously turned up to prevent slipping. The reader will remember what we have just said of this. If calkins are necessary, let, at least, both heels have an equal bearing.

The Bar-Shoe.—A bar-shoe is a very useful contrivance. It is the continuation of the common shoe round the heels, and by means of it the pressure may be taken off some tender part of the foot and thrown on another which is better able to bear it, or more widely and equally diffused over the whole foot. It is principally resorted to in cases of corn, the seat of which it perfectly covers—in pumiced feet, the soles of which may be thus elevated above the ground and secured from pressure—in sand-crack, when the pressure may be removed from the fissure and thrown on either side of it—in thrushes, when the frog is tender, or is become cankered, and requires to be frequently dressed, and the dressing can by this means alone be retained. In these cases the bar-shoe is an excellent contrivance, if worn only for one or two shoeings, or as long as the disease requires it to be worn, but it must be left off as soon as it can be dispensed with. If it be used for the protection of a diseased foot, however it may be chambered and laid off the frog, it will soon be flattened down upon it; or if the pressure of it be thrown on the frog to relieve the sand-crack or the corn, that frog must be very strong and healthy which can long bear the great and continued pressure. More mischief is often produced in the frog than previously existed in the part which was relieved. It will be plain that in the use of the bar-shoe for corn or sand-crack, the crust and the frog should be precisely on a level, and the bar should be the widest part of the shoe, to afford as extended bearing as possible on the frog, and therefore less likely to be injurious. Bar-shoes are evidently not safe in frosty weather; they are never safe when much speed is required from the horse, and they are apt to be wrenched off in a heavy, clayey country.

Tips are short shoes reaching only half round the foot, and worn while the horse is at grass to prevent the crust being torn by the occasional hardness of the ground, or by the pawing of the animal; and the quarters at the same time being free, the foot disposed to contract has a chance of expanding and regaining its natural shape.

The Expanding Shoe.—Our subject would not be complete if we did not describe the supposed expanding shoe. It is either seated or concave like the common shoe, with a joint at the toe, by which the natural expansion of the foot is said to be permitted, and the injurious consequences of shoeing prevented. There is, however, this radical defect in the jointed shoe, that the nails occupy the same situation as in the common shoe, and prevent, as do the nails of the common shoe, the gradual expansion of the sides and quarters, and allow only of a hinge-like motion at the toe. This is a most imperfect accommodation of the expansion of the foot to the action of its internal parts, and even this accommodation is afforded in the slightest possible degree, or rather can scarcely be afforded at all. Either the nails fix the sides and quarters as in the common shoe, and then the joint at the toe is useless; or, if that joint merely opens like a hinge, the nail-holes in the shoe can no longer correspond with those in the quarters which are unequally expanding at every point; and, therefore, there will be more stress on the crust at these holes, which will not only enlarge them, and destroy the fixed attachment of the shoe to the hoof, but will often tear away portions of the crust. This has, in many cases, been found to be the effect of the jointed shoe: the sides and quarters of the foot have been broken until it has become difficult to find nail-hold. This shoe, to answer the intended purpose, should consist of many joints, running along the sides and quarters, which would make it too complicated and expensive, and frail for general use.

While the shoe is to be attached to the foot by nails, we must be content with the concave seated one, taking care to place the nail-holes as far from the heels, and particularly from the inner heel, as the state of the foot and the nature of the work will admit; and where the country is not too heavy nor the work too severe, even omitting the nails on the inner side of the foot. Shoes nailed on the outer side, and at the toe, are more secure than some would imagine, while the inner quarter will be left free, to prevent contraction, or to arrest its progress.

The attempt, however, to lessen the evils produced by shoeing is most praiseworthy; and men like Mr. Bracey Clark deserve the respect and thanks of the public, although their labours may not be crowned with success. Every contrivance permanently to fix the shoe on the foot without the use of nails, has failed; but a make-shift shoe has been contrived, and is to be procured at most saddlers, which is easily carried in the pocket, and put on in a minute or two if a shoe is lost in hunting or on the road; and which will remain securely attached to the foot, and prevent injury to it, during a journey of thirty or forty miles.

Felt or Leather Soles.—When the foot is bruised or inflamed, the concussion or shock produced by the hard contact of the elastic iron on the ground gives the animal much pain, and causes a short and feeling step, or even lameness, and aggravates the injury or disease. A strip of felt or leather is sometimes placed between the seating of the shoe and the crust, which, from its want of elasticity, deadens, or materially lessens the vibration or shock, and the horse treads more freely, and is evidently relieved. This is a very good contrivance while the inflammation or tenderness of the foot continues, but a very bad practice if constantly adopted. The nails cannot be driven so surely or so securely when this substance is interposed between the shoe and the foot; the contraction and swelling of the felt or leather, from the effect of moisture or dryness, will soon render the attachment of the shoe less firm; there will be too much play upon the nails; the nail-holes will enlarge, and the crust will be broken away.

After wounds or extensive bruises of the sole, or where the sole is thin and flat and tender, it is sometimes covered with a piece of leather, fitted to the sole, and nailed on with the shoe. This may be allowed as a temporary defence of the foot; but there is the same objection to its permanent use from the insecurity of fastening, and the strain on the crust, and the frequent chipping of it: and there are these additional inconveniences, that if the hollow between the sole and the leather be filled with stopping and tow, it is exceedingly difficult to introduce them so evenly and accurately as not to produce some partial or injurious pressure—that a few days’ work will almost invariably so derange the padding as to produce partial pressure—that the long contact of the sole with stopping of almost every kind will produce, not a healthy, elastic horn, but horn of a scaly, spongy nature; and that if the hollow be not thus filled, gravel and dirt will insinuate themselves, and cause unequal pressure, and eat into and injure the foot.—The Horse.

SHOOT, v. To discharge anything so as to make it fly with speed or violence; to discharge from a bow or gun; to let off; to perform the act of shooting; to germinate; to be emitted; to protuberate; to jut out; to pass as an arrow; to feel a quick pain.

Instructions in Shooting—But (to be brief, which is here my study) allow me to suggest an humble attempt for the instruction of the complete novice, first, let him take a gun that he can manage, and be shown how to put it to his shoulder, with the breach and sight on a level, and make himself master of bringing them up to a wafer.

Then, with a wooden or bone driver (instead of a flint) let him practise at this mark; and when he thinks he can draw his trigger without flinching, he may present the gun to your right eye, by which you will see, at once, if he is master of his first lesson. In doing this he must remember, that the moment the gun is brought up to the centre of the object, the trigger should be pulled, as the first sight is always unquestionably the best.

Then send him out to practise at a card with powder, till he has got steady, and afterwards load his gun, occasionally, with shot, but never let the time of your making this addition be known to him; and the idea of it being, perhaps, impossible to strike his object, will remove all anxiety, and he will soon become perfectly collected.

The intermediate lesson of a few shots at small birds may be given; but this plan throughout must be adopted at game, and continued, in the first instance, till the pupil has quite divested himself of all tremor at the springing of a covey, and observed in the last, till most of his charges of shot have proved fatal to the birds. If he begins with both eyes open, he will save himself the trouble of learning to shoot so afterwards. An aim thus, from the right shoulder, comes to the same point as one taken with the left eye shut, and it is the most ready method of shooting quick.

Be careful to remind him (as a beginner) to keep his gun moving, as follows: before an object, crossing; full high for a bird rising up, or flying away very low; and between the ears of hares and rabbits running straight away. All this, of course, in proportion to the distance; and if we consider the velocity with which a bird flies, we shall rarely err by firing, when at forty yards, at least five or six inches before it. Till the pupil is au fait in all this, he will find great assistance from the sight, which he should have precisely on the intended point, when he fires. He will thus, by degrees, attain the art of killing his game in good style, which is to fix his eyes on the object, and fire the moment he has brought up the gun. He may then ultimately acquire the knack of killing snap shots, and bring down a November bird the moment it tops the stubble, or a rabbit popping into a furze-brake, with more certainty than he was once used to shoot a young grouse in August, or a partridge in September.

Many begin with very quick shooting, and kill admirably well, but are often apt not to let their birds fly before they put up their guns, and therefore dreadfully mangle them, and, I have already observed, are not such every-day shots as those who attain their rapid execution on a slow and good principle.

* * * * *

As shots in the field, at game, Mr. Jenkins, near Petworth, Sussex, and Cottingham, who was formerly gamekeeper to Lord Roos, are perhaps the best. The former has killed twenty brace of partridges in a day, at forty shots, without selecting the shots, but took them fairly as they happened; and in four days’ shooting, has never missed. The latter I was out with when he killed, in two days, forty-three successive shots (many of them in covert) at partridge, pheasant, woodcock, and hare; and his style of shooting, when open, and he could give time, was most regularly deliberate.

* * * * *

Should different guns be employed, the shooter should have all the locks made, if possible, to require exactly the same pull to bring them to action; there is nothing deceives or disconcerts him more than shooting one day with a stiff, and the next with an easy going lock; the transition from that which goes off with a slight, to that where a hard touch is necessary, will often cause the most expert to miss his bird.

* * * * *

If a rival shooter (some stranger) races to get before you, push him hard for a long time, always letting him have rather the advantage, and then give him the double without his seeing you. Having done this, go quietly round (supposing you have been beating up wind); and, on reaching the place where you began, work closely and steadily the whole of the ground or covert that you have both been racing over, and you will be sure to kill more game than him, who is beating and shooting in haste, through fear of your getting up to him; and (if the wind should rise) driving the dispersed, and consequently closest lying birds to your beat, as fast as he finds them.

* * * * *

Beware of the muzzle of the gun being kept hanging downwards; when so carried, the shot is apt to force its way from the powder, especially in clean barrels; if it happens that a space of sixteen or eighteen inches is thus obtained, and the gun fired with its point below the horizon, it is ten to one but the barrel bursts. There are other perilous consequences besides those that generally accompany the disruption of a barrel, for the men, horses, and dogs, are in perpetual danger of being shot when a gun is carried in the before-mentioned pendent manner.

* * * * *

When a gun begins to exhibit symptoms of having done its work, the sooner a man discards it the better. An injured barrel or enfeebled lock may prove fatal to the owner or his associates. Accidents every day occur, and very lamentable consequences proceed, from a culpable neglect in retaining arms which should be declared unserviceable and disused.

I had once a favourite gun, which from constant wear and tear exhibited unequivocal weakness in the locks, and which I had been earnestly recommended by a veteran sportsman to condemn. On a cold and rainy day, I was with my friend O’M——, shooting woodcocks in the heath, and having sprung several, which from the severity of the weather were wild as hawks, we marked them into a ravine, and determined to tie up the dogs and endeavour to steal upon them. To keep my gun dry I placed it under the skirt of my jacket, with the muzzle pointing downwards. My companion and our attendant were busy coupling the dogs, when the gun exploded, and the charge passing between O’M——’s bosom and the back of a dog he was in the act of securing, buried itself at the foot of the keeper, covering him with mud and gravel. From the close manner in which we were all grouped, how the shot could have entered the ground without killing men or dogs, or both, was miraculous. I was desperately frightened, and from that moment forswore for ever, the use of weakened locks and attenuated barrels.

* * * * *

In March, 1799, Sir John Swinborne, having flashed off his gun, which was single barrelled with a patent antechambered breech, proceeded to the dog-kennel; in his opinion, at least five minutes must have elapsed before he began to load; having primed, he poured the charge from the top of the flask into the barrel, when the whole copper flask, containing nearly a pound of gunpowder, instantly exploded. A large piece of copper struck the right eye, and injured the bone above, so that it continued to exfoliate for two years. The lock remained at half bent, and it cannot be doubted that some tow, which had been left in the barrel or chamber, continued on fire from the time of flashing off, and occasioned the misfortune.

In every instance but one, where the particulars have been ascertained, of the numerous accidents of the above description, the explosion has happened upon the second time of pouring powder into the barrel on that day; which is strong evidence of the cause here suggested.

* * * * *

The following sporting precepts may be serviceable to inexperienced shooters:—

First—If you or your dog should, at any time, get a severe blow, let the wounded part be instantly fomented with water, as hot as can be borne, for at least half an hour, and you will thereby reduce your suffering, or impediment from sport, to at least half its duration.

Secondly—If you burn yourself in shooting, or otherwise, wrap the part affected immediately in cotton, the application of which, it has been proved, acts like magic with a burn.

Thirdly—If you should take cold, bathe your feet in hot water; if a little salt or bran is, or both are, added, so much the better. Get into a bed warmed, with a little brown sugar sprinkled on the coals, and take some whey, or whatever you can get to promote perspiration.

Fourthly—Never fast too long, and avoid, whenever you can, fagging too hard.

Fifthly—Never go out with quite an empty stomach, to wait for wild fowl, particularly in the morning. Should you wish to start before any one is up, you might always have left for you over night, a crust of bread, or a biscuit, with a glass of milk, which, with a little sugar, nutmeg, ginger, and the yolk of an egg, may be good in a moment, and this is better than what is called a “doctor,” (rum and milk), because you then dispense with taking spirit in a morning, the very bad habit of which, should always be avoided, except in a country where the chances of ague might justify your taking a little purl.

Sixthly—Never sit down in wet feet, or with wet clothes on any part of your body, but, if a change is not at hand, keep in motion, or go to bed, till one can be procured. Or, if you want to start again, when refreshed, first wet your feet with either spirits or essence of mustard, and then be as quick as possible in taking your refreshment. Many people prefer applying the spirit to the inside, instead. This is not so well, because spirit alone always flies to the head, while strong beer, on the contrary, would warm the body.

I shall here conclude, under this head, with the multum in parvo advice of the great Dr. Boerhaave; keep the body open, the head cool, and the feet warm.—Hawker—Daniel—Wild Sports.

SHOOTER, s. One who shoots; an archer, a gunner.

SHORTWINGED, a. Having short wings. So hawks are divided into long and short winged.

SHOT, s. The act of shooting; the flight of a shot; the charge of a gun; bullets or small pellets for the charge of a gun; anything discharged from a gun, or other instrument; a sum charged, a reckoning.

Shot.—The choice of this article is highly worthy of the sportsman’s care. It should be equal, round, and void of cavities. The patent milled shot is, at this time, to be preferred to all other sorts, and is in such general use, that the instructions which here follow on the size of shot to be adopted in the different chases, must be understood to relate to the patent shot only.

The difference, however, which subsists between the sizes of patent and of common shot, will be hereafter shown by means of a table, denoting the number of pellets contained in a given weight of each, so that in cases where the former cannot be procured, it will be easy to adopt the rules there laid down, to the latter, by only taking the same number of grains in the common, as directed to be used for the patent shot.

It is extremely important for the success of the chase, that the sportsman should proportion the size of his shot, as well to the particular species of game he means to pursue, as the season of killing it. Thus in the first month of partridge-shooting, shot No. 1, should be used; for since, at this time, the birds spring near at hand, and we seldom fire at more than the distance of forty yards, if the shooter takes his aim but tolerably well, it is almost impossible for a bird at this distance to escape in the circle or disk which the shot forms.

Hares also, at this season of the year, sit closer, and being at the same time thinly covered with fur, may easily be killed with this sized shot at thirty or thirty-five paces.

In snipe and quail-shooting this sized shot is peculiarly proper, for, in using a larger size, however true the sportsman may shoot, yet he will frequently miss, the objects being so small that they have great chance of escaping in the vacant spaces of the circle or disk. Yet there are many sportsmen who shoot snipes, quails, and fieldfares, in countries where they abound, with the sizes six and seven of the common shot, the last of which is called mustard-seed.

About the beginning of October, at which time the partridges are stronger in the wing, No. 3 is the proper shot to be used. This size seems to be the best of any; it preserves a proper medium between shot too large and that which is too small, and will kill a hare from the distance of thirty-five or forty paces, and a partridge at fifty, provided the powder be good. It will serve also for rabbit-shooting. In short, it is excellent for all seasons, and many sportsmen use no other the season round.

It is true that distant objects are frequently missed for want of large shot, but then these bear no proportion to the number that are daily missed, by using shot of too large a size, especially with the feathered game. If a man was to shoot constantly with shot number five, for one partridge which he might chance to kill with a single pellet at the distance of eighty paces, he would miss twenty birds at eighty paces, which would in such case escape in the vacant spaces of the circle. But if the sportsman expressly purposes to shoot wild ducks or hares, then indeed he had better use the number five. However, in shooting with a double barrel gun, it may be prudent to load one of the barrels with large shot for the necessary occasions, and if in any case large shot is required, number five will be found to be better than any other, for its size is not so large as to prevent it from garnishing or being equally spread in the circle, and it can at the same time perform, in effect, all that a larger sized shot can do, which garnishes but very little, if any at all.

In order, therefore, to show clearly, and at one view, the comparative difference in garnishing of shot of different sizes, we here subjoin a table which indicates the number of pellets precisely composing an ounce weight of each sort of shot, the patent and the common, commencing at the smallest size in each.

PATENT SHOT.

Pellets. No. 8 1 ounce 620 7 — 480 + — 300 1 — 220 2 — 180 3 — 157 4 — 105 5 — 83

COMMON SHOT.

Pellets. No. 7 1 ounce 350 6 — 260 5 — 235 4 — 190 3 — 140 2 — 110 1 — 95

Shot compared according to Hawker:—

MOULD SHOT.

No. of pellets to 1 oz. L G 5½ M G hardly 9 S G 1 S S G 15 S S S G 17

PATENT SHOT.

No. of pellets to 1 oz. A A 40 A 50 B B 58 B 75 1 82 2 112 3 135 4 177 5 218 6 280 7 341 8 600 9 984 10 1726

The pleasure of using and counting the dust shot I leave to those who recommend it.

The shot of different manufacturers varies much in size: for example, an ounce of No. 7, from Messrs. Walker and Parker, amounts to 341 pellets; and the same weight, from Mr. Beaumont (late Preston), 398; and in some places the numbers are reversed.

Many sportsmen recommend the use of unglazed shot; others wet their shot with oil. I have tried both these plans repeatedly, but could not find sufficient advantage in either to justify my recommending them. The object of both is to prevent the gun from leading; and as they can do no harm, I should if a choice readily offered, prefer using the shot unglazed, or oiled, for the chances of any trifling advantages which may be thereby derived.

* * * * *

If I mistake not, you are shooting grouse with No. 4.

Agilis. I was told that so large a bird required large shot.

Peritus. No doubt there is greater difficulty in reaching a vital part through a large opposing substance than a small one; but you must remember that at this season the whole plumage of birds has not yet grown, the muscles and sinews are not yet so strong and firm as they will be; and the flight of all birds is slower than in winter; on such account I would use much smaller shot now than later in the season; and indeed you will find sevens now as efficient as fours will be in two months’ time. You must remember that to bring down a bird you must either strike it in a vital part, or impede its flight, and the fewer the shots that strike, the less likely you are to attain that object. I once fired a small bullet through a black cock, and he flew so far that he was only found by accident afterwards. But I will repeat to you my ideas as to the sizes of shot best calculated both for England and Scotland, as we are upon the subject:—

Partridge, hare.—From September 1 to October 1, No. 7.

Partridge, hare, woodcock, rabbit, pheasant.—From October 1 to the end of the season, No. 6.

Ducks.—No. 5 or 4.

Roe deer.—B B at all times.

Grouse—From August 12 to September 1, No. 7; from September 1 to September 25, No. 6; from September 25 to the end of the season, No. 5.

Black game.—From August 20 to September 1, No. 7; from September 1 to September 10, No. 6; from September 1 to October 10, No. 5; from October 10 to the end of the season, No. 4 or 5, as the gun may shoot close or scatter: if it scatter, the smaller shot of the two.

* * * * *

The greater or lesser diameter of the bore cannot produce any sensible difference in the closeness or wideness with which the shot is thrown, provided the charge he the same in both pieces. We have subjected this matter to the test of experiment, and the result has accordingly been that a barrel of 22 or 24, which is the largest calibre usually employed in fowling-pieces, threw its shot as closely as one of the smallest calibre, viz. of 30 or 32.

There is a curious circumstance attending the shot of barrels, which is, that sometimes the grains of lead, instead of being equally distributed over the space they strike, are thrown in clusters of ten, twelve, fifteen, or more, whilst several considerable spaces have not a single grain in them; sometimes a cluster of this kind consists of one-third or one-half of the charge, and it also happens sometimes, though more rarely, that the whole charge collects itself into one mass, so as to pierce a board near an inch thick, at the distance of forty or forty-five paces. Small barrels are said to be more liable to this than large ones, and M. de Marolles says that this is especially the case when barrels are new, and when they are fresh washed. He mentions a double-barrelled piece of 52 calibre, which was particularly liable to this clustering and lumping of the shot, but adds that the same thing did not happen to him with other barrels of 26 and 28 calibre, which he had used before. The lumping also may perhaps depend upon the wadding employed.

With regard, then, to the extraordinary closeness with which some pieces are said to throw the shot, we certainly shall not take it upon us to assert that persons who speak of them wish to deceive us; but we do most firmly believe that they deceive themselves, and that their accounts proceed either from their belief that a gunsmith, by superior skill and care, is able to make such, or from their once having seen a piece accidentally lump its shot in the manner described above. The result of our experience, however, is very unfavourable to this prevailing opinion, for we do affirm that after having fired at a mark times without number, we have never yet found a barrel, which, at the distance of fifty paces, would throw its whole charge with regularity, we will not say into the breadth of a hat, but into a space of three feet square.

* * * * *

Patent Shot.—It is a fact stated to have been determined by repeated observation, that a bird killed with patent shot will turn green twenty-four hours sooner than one killed at the same time with the common shot; and this accelerated putrefaction is said to arise from the quantity of copperas used in preparing the lead for this particular manufacture.—Essay on Shooting—Hawker—Hints to Grown Sportsmen.

Shot Belt.—Always have the tops of your shot belts made to fit nicely into the muzzle of your gun; by which means, in the process of drawing your charge, you can empty your shot into them without losing a grain.—Hawker.

SHOTTEN, a. Having ejected the spawn.

SHOVELBOARD, s. A long board on which they play by sliding metal pieces at a mark.

SHOUGH, s. A kind of shaggy dog, a shock.

SHOULDER, s. The joint which connects the arm to the body; the upper joint of the foreleg of a beast; the upper part of the back; the shoulders are used as emblems of strength.

SHOULDERBELT, s. A belt that comes across the shoulder.

SHOULDERSHOTTEN, a. Strained in the shoulder.

SHOULDERSLIP, s. Dislocation of the shoulder.

SHOVELLER, s. A bird of the duck tribe.

Blue Wing Shoveller, Kertlucock, or Broad Bill (Anas Clypeata, LINN.; Le Souchet, BUFF.)—The shoveller is less than the wild duck, commonly weighing about twenty-two ounces, and measuring twenty-one inches in length. The bill is black, three inches long, very broad or spread out, and rounded like a spoon at the end, with the nail hooked inward, and small.

The female is smaller than the male, from which she also differs greatly in the colours of her plumage, the coverts and spangle-spot on her wings being less brilliant, and the other parts composed of white, grey, and rusty, crossed with curved dusky lines, giving her much the appearance of the common wild duck. She makes her nest, lined with withered grasses, on the ground, in the midst of the largest tufts of rushes or coarse herbage, in the most inaccessible parts of the shaky marsh. She lays ten or twelve pale, rusty-coloured eggs; and as soon as the young are hatched, they are conducted to the water by the parent birds, who watch and guard them with the greatest care.

They are at first very shapeless and ugly, for the bill is then almost as broad as the body, and seems too great a weight for the little bird to carry. Their plumage does not acquire its full colours until after the second moult.

It has not yet been ascertained whether the shoveller breeds in England, where, indeed, it is a scarce bird.

This species is of so wild, shy, and solitary a disposition, that all attempts hitherto made to domesticate them have failed.

The anas muscaria of Linnæus (Le Souchet à ventre blanc of Brisson) differs only from this in having the belly white, and is considered merely as a variety of the same species.

Red-breasted Shoveler.—Size of a common duck. This species is sometimes taken in the decoys of Lincolnshire.—Bewick.

SHREWMOUSE, s. A mouse of which the bite was anciently supposed venomous.

SHRILL, a. Sounding with a piercing, tremulous, or vibratory sound.

SHRIMP, s. A small crustaceous vermiculated fish; a little wrinkled man, a dwarf.

SHRUB, s. A small tree; spirit, acid, and sugar, mixed.

SHUFFLECAP, s. A play at which money is shaken in a hat.

SHUTTLECOCK, s. A cork stuck with feathers, and beaten backward and forward.

SHY, a. Cautious; keeping at a distance, unwilling to approach.

SICKLY, a. Not healthy, disordered; faint, weak, languid.

SIDESADDLE, s. A woman’s seat on horseback.

SIEVE, s. Hair or lawn strained upon a hoop, by which flour is separated from bran; an implement to winnow corn.

SIFT, v. To separate by a sieve; to separate, to part.

SIGHT, s. Perception by the eye, the sense of seeing; act of seeing or beholding; eye, instrument of seeing; aperture pervious to the eye, or other points fixed to guide the eye, as the sight of a quadrant, gun, &c.

SILICIOUS, a. Made of hair.

SILKEN, a. Made of silk; soft, dressed in silk.

SILVER, s. A white and hard metal, next in weight to gold. It is harder but not so malleable: it ignites before it melts, and requires intense heat to fuse it.

SILVER, a. Made of silver; white like silver; having a pale lustre; soft of voice.

SINEW, s. A tendon, the ligament by which the joints are moved.

SINEWED, a. Furnished with sinews; strong, firm, vigorous.

SINEWY, a. Consisting of a sinew; nervous, strong, vigorous.

SIPHON, s. A pipe through which liquors are conveyed.

SIRE, s. A father; it is used of beasts, and particularly horses.

SITTER, s. One that sits; a bird that broods.

SIZE, s. Bulk, comparative magnitude; condition; any viscous or glutinous substance.

SKATE, s. A flat sea fish; a sort of shoe armed with iron, for sliding on the ice.

SKEGGER, s. Skeggers are the produce of such sick salmon as might not go to sea.

SKEIN, s. A knot or thread of silk wound; a knot of gimp or gut.

SKIN, s. The natural covering of the flesh; hide, pelt, that which is taken from animals to make parchment or leather.

SKIN, v. To flay or divest of the skin.

SKIRT, v. To border, to go along the edge, as to skirt a cover.

SKITTISH, a. Shy, easily frighted; wanton, volatile; changeable, fickle.

SKITTLE, s. A piece of wood like a sugar loaf used in the play of skittles.

SKITTLES, s. A game called ninepins.

SKUA (Lestris catarractes, TEMMINCK), s. A species of eagle.

This species is rather superior in size to the raven; weight three pounds; length two feet; the bill is an inch and three quarters long, black, and much hooked at the end; is covered, for more than half its length, with a kind of black cere; the upper part of the head, neck, back, and wings, deep brown; the feathers margined with ferruginous; about the forehead and chin tinged with ash-colour; the breast, and all beneath, pale dusky ferruginous; the quills are brown, white at the base; tail deep brown; roots and shafts white; the legs are black, rough, and scaly; talons black, strong, and much hooked.

This is a bold rapacious bird, and preys on the lesser gulls, as well as fish; it is said to attack the eagle, and even man, if he approaches their nest. It breeds in the Orkney Islands, and is much esteemed in the Isle of Foulah, from a supposition that it defends the flocks from the eagle: it is rarely seen in the south. One in the museum of Dr. Latham, was killed at Greenwich; and the only other instance we are furnished with, of this species being observed in the south of England, was shot at Sandwich, in Kent, in the winter of 1800.—Montagu.

SKULK, v. To hide, to lurk in fear or malice.

SKULL, s. The bone that encloses the head; a shoal of fishes, herrings particularly.

SKYCOLOUR, s. An azure colour, the colour of the sky.

SKYLARK (Alauda arvensis, LINN.), s. A lark that mounts and sings.

The length of this species is seven inches; bill dusky; the base of the upper mandible yellowish; the feathers on the top of the head are dusky, bordered with rufous brown; they are rather long, and erectable in form of a short crest; the hind part is plain, inclining to ash-colour; on the upper parts of the body the feathers are reddish brown, darker in their middle, their edges pale; the under parts are dirty buff-colour, darkest on the neck and breast, which parts are streaked with dusky; quills brown, lighter on the outer webs and tips; the tail is dusky brown, the two middle feathers darkest, with light rufous margins; the outer feather is white on the outer web and tip of the inner; the second feather white on the outer web only; the third is inclining to white on the margin of the outer web; legs dusky in old birds, but lighter in young; claws dusky; the hind one very long and straight.

This bird is common in the greater part of this kingdom, but most plentiful in the more open and highest cultivated situations abounding with corn, and rarely seen on the extended moors at a distance from arable land. The nest is placed on the ground, amongst grass or corn; it is formed of dry grass and other vegetable stalks, lined with a fine dry grass.—Montagu.

SKYROCKET, s. A kind of firework, which flies high, and burns as it flies.

SLAM, v. To win all the tricks in a hand at whist.

SLAVER, s. To be smeared with spittle; to emit spittle.

SLED, s. A carriage drawn without wheels, generally used upon the ice.

SLEDGE, s. A large heavy hammer; a carriage without wheels, or with very low wheels.

SLEEK, a. Smooth, glossy; the state of a horse’s or dog’s skin when in condition.

SLEEP, s. Repose, rest, suspension of the mental powers, slumber.

Sleep of Birds.—Like horses and some other quadrupeds, a great number of birds sleep standing; the perchers, (Insessores, VIGORS,) for example, usually sleep standing on one leg upon some tree, bush, or other elevation, with the head turned behind, and the bill thrust under the feathers on the back, or under the wing. Indeed, these appear to be the general habits of the whole race of birds, in regard to their mode of resting and sleep; for the duck and goose, although they do not perch, will frequently sleep standing on one leg upon the ground, with their heads turned round, and the bills under the wing. Poultry, although they invariably perch, if a perch can be obtained, do not, when sleeping, rest usually on one leg; but they sink down with their bodies upon the perch, having their legs compressed under them. The sky lark sleeps upon the ground with his legs also similarly compressed. It is probable also that all the tribes of birds, even the perchers, occasionally sink down with their bodies resting on the perch during their soundest sleep. What is very remarkable in the structure of their feet and legs is, that the greater the weight upon the muscles, the more firmly the claws grasp whatever they lay hold of; hence the cause that birds do not fall down in sleep, although most of their senses are dormant.

The motion of the branches of trees produced by the wind increases, doubtless, the disposition for sleep in many birds; this may be exemplified in the common fowl; for placing its bill under the wing, even in broad day-light, and swaying it to and fro in the hand for a very short time, will produce sleep. Most of the tribe of birds sleep during the night; but there are many exceptions to this. Owls in particular are, during the night, much more active than in the day; their sight, similar to that of cats, appears to serve them best in the dark. Many of the duck tribe are not only wakeful, but feed during the night; so also do the nightjars. The nightingale, and a few other song-birds, are also wakeful while in song, during at least some portion of the night.—Montagu.

SLIME, s. Viscous mire, any glutinous substance.

SLIMY, a. Overspread with slime; viscous, glutinous, as the skin of an eel.

SLING, s. A missile weapon made by a strap; a kind of hanging bandage.

SLING, v. To throw by a sling; to throw, to cast; to hang loosely by a string; the strap attached to a rifle, and used by the marksman to steady his aim when a rest is not to be had.

SLIP, v. To let loose; to throw off anything that holds one; to unloose a greyhound.

SLIP, s. The act of slipping, a false step; mistake; a twig torn from the main stock; a leash or string in which a dog is held; an escape; a long narrow piece.

SLIPKNOT, s. A bow knot, a knot easily untied.

SLOOP, s. A small ship.

SLOT, s. The track of a deer.

SLOUGH, s. A deep miry place; the skin which a serpent casts off at his periodical renovation; the part that separates from a foul sore.

SLOW, a. Not swift, not quick of motion; late, not happening in a short time; not ready, not quick; dull, inactive.

SLUG, s. An idler, a drone; a kind of slow creeping snail; a cylindrical or oval piece of metal shot from a gun.

SMELL, v. To perceive by the nose; to find out by mental sagacity.

SMELL, s. Power of smelling; the sense of which the nose is the organ; scent.

SMELT, s. A small sea fish. It is of the salmon species, and in the spawning season ascends the rivers in great numbers.

The smelt derives its name from having, in the opinion of some, the scent of a violet, of others, that of a cucumber; they are met with in the seas that wash our coasts the whole year, and seldom go far from shore, except when they ascend the rivers, which they do with the tide; and in certain of which it is remarked, that they appear a long time before they spawn, being taken in abundance in the Thames and Dee in November and two succeeding months; in other rivers not until February, and in March and April they spawn, and are very prolific; after which they all return to the salt water, and are not seen in the rivers until the next season. It has been observed, that they never come into the Mersey so long as there is any snow water in its current; and that in the spring and beginning of summer they will run further up than in the decline of the year; they are also to be met with in the docks that are opened for the reception of ships. The smelt is of a very beautiful form and colour, the head is transparent, and the skin in general so thin that with a good microscope the circulation of its blood may be seen; the irides are silvery, the pupil of a full black, the under jaw is rather prominent, in the front of the upper are four large teeth, those in the sides of both are small; in the roof of the mouth are two rows, and on the tongue two others of large teeth; the colour of the back is whitish, with a cast of green, beneath which it is varied with blue, and then succeeds a beautiful gloss of a silvery hue; the scales are small and readily drop off; the tail is forked; the flesh is tender, and of a delicate taste. These fish vary greatly in size, the largest Mr. P. ever heard of was thirteen inches long, and weighed half a pound; they are often sold in the London streets under the name of dried sparlings, being split and dried, and are recommended by the gentlemen who take their gills of a morning, as adding to the wine a particular relish.

The smelt is to be angled for (when the tide runs up is preferable) with a paternoster line, having five or six hooks as many inches from each other, and baited differently. The best bait is very small fresh shrimps (not boiled), or the tail of a boiled one; next to these are gentles and red paste; also that made of boiled shrimps, fine white bread, and a little honey; cadis, blood-worms; and they will sometimes take a bit of their own species; some crumbs of bread steeped in water should be now and then thrown in to keep them together.

Walton mentions, that, many years since, in the month of August, such vast quantities of smelts came up the Thames, that women and children became anglers for them; and that in one day, between London bridge and Greenwich, not fewer than 2,000 persons were thus employed.

SMERLIN, s. A fish.

SMITH, s. One who forges with his hammer; one who works in metals.

SMITHY, s. The workshop of a smith.

SNAFFLE, s. A bridle which crosses the nose; a kind of bit for a bridle.

SNAFFLE, v. To bridle, to hold in bridle, to manage.

SNAKE, s. A serpent of the oviparous kind, distinguished from the viper. The snake’s bite is harmless.

SNAP, v. To break at once; to break short; to bite; to catch suddenly and unexpectedly.

SNAP, s. The act of breaking with a quick motion; a quick eager bite; a catch.

SNAPPISH, a. Eager to bite; peevish; sharp in reply.

SNARE, s. Anything set to catch an animal, a gin, a net; anything by which one is entrapped or entangled. The wire by which hares and rabbits are poached; horsehair loops to take small birds.

SNARE, v. To entrap, to entangle.

SNARL, v. To growl, as an angry animal.

SNET, s. obs. The fat of a deer.

SNIPE, s. A small fen fowl with a long bill.

The weight of this species is about four ounces; length near twelve inches; the bill three inches long, dusky; in some the base is lighter, flattish, and rough at the end; irides dusky; crown of the head black, with a longitudinal light rufous line down the middle; from the base of the upper mandible another line of the same colour passes on each side over the eyes; between the bill and eye is a dusky line; the throat white; cheeks, neck, and upper breast, mottled with black and light ferruginous; the back and scapulars are black, barred with ferruginous-brown, and striped with yellowish buff-colour, in longitudinal lines; the quills are black, the first edged with white; the secondaries tipped with the same; those next the body are, with their coverts, striated, and barred with light ferruginous; lower breast and belly white; vent brown; upper tail coverts brown, barred with black; the tail consists of fourteen black feathers, barred and spotted with dull orange-red towards the end, with a narrow bar of black near the tip, where it is pale rufous; legs vary; in some dusky or lead-colour, others green.

This is a plentiful species in most parts of England; and is found in all situations, in high as well as low lands, depending much on the weather. In very wet times it resorts to the hills; at other times frequents marshes, where it can penetrate its bill into the earth after worms, which are its principal food.

Some few remain with us the whole year, and breed in the more extensive marshes and mountainous bogs. We have frequently taken the young before they could fly, in the north of England, and in Scotland. Near Penryn, in Cornwall, there is a marsh where several breed annually, and where we have taken their eggs, which are four in number, of an olivaceous colour, blotched and spotted with rufous-brown; some with dusky blotches at the larger end. The nest is made of the materials around it; coarse grass, and sometimes heath. It is placed on a stump or dry spot, near a plash or swampy place; the eggs like those of the lapwing, placed invariably with their ends inwards, being much pointed; their weight three drachms and a half.

In the breeding season, the snipe changes its note entirely from that it makes in the winter. The male will keep on wing for an hour together, mounting like a lark, uttering a shrill, piping noise; it then descends with great velocity, making a bleating sound, not unlike an old goat, which is repeated alternately round the spot possessed by the female, especially while she is sitting on her nest. This bird has been met with in almost every part of the world.

Great Snipe, (Scolopa Media).—Size between the woodcock and snipe; weight eight ounces; length sixteen inches; bill four inches long, and like that of the woodcock; crown of the head black, divided down the middle by a pale stripe; over and beneath each eye another of the same; the upper part of the body very like the common snipe; beneath white; the feathers edged with dusky black on the neck, breast, and sides; and those of the belly spotted with the same, but the middle of it is plain white; quills dusky; tail reddish, the two middle feathers plain, the others barred with black; legs black. He adds, “this is a rare species.” A fine specimen of it was shot in Lancashire, now in the Leverian Museum, said also to have been met with in Kent.

* * * * *

There are a good many snipes in the vicinity of that place; the marshes, however, frequented by those birds, are not very extensive, and may easily be hunted in much less than a day; but if a person be well acquainted with the ground, better snipe shooting is hardly to be met with in any country. As a proof of this, I have bagged upwards of thirty brace of those birds in seven or eight hours. These were either the common or double snipe, as I was careless of wasting my powder and shot about the jack or half snipe.

The double or solitary snipe, I usually found singly, or at most in pairs. They were generally so fat as hardly to be able to fly; indeed, if flushed, their flight was usually very short, and they presently settled again. They were nearly twice as large as the common snipe, and from their heavy and steady flight they presented the easiest mark possible. They are considered to be most delicious eating; four couple was the greatest number of those birds that I ever killed in Sweden in any one day. They were by no means plentiful in the vicinity of Gottenburg.

* * * * *

The double snipe is a bird of passage, and among those which arrive the latest; in colour speckled grey, with a long bill. At the end of July, when the meadows are mowed, the shooting of these birds with the pointer commences, and continues till towards the end of September. They may also be shot during the spring; but I have observed this has diminished the autumn shooting. In the whole round of sporting, this affords one of the greatest pleasures. These birds are easy to shoot; and in some places, fifty or sixty, and considerably more, may be shot in a day, particularly in autumn, when they are so fat that they almost burst their skins. They are most delicious eating.

* * * * *

In the heather surrounding a small lake in the island of Hoy, in the Orkneys, I found in the month of August, in 1817, the nests of ten or twelve couple of snipes. I was grouse shooting and my dog continually pointed them, and as there were sometimes three young ones and two old ones in the nest, the scent was very powerful.

Snipes are usually fattest in frosty weather, which I believe is owing to this, that in such weather they haunt only warm springs, where worms are abundant, and they do not willingly quit these places, so that they have plenty of nourishment and rest, both circumstances favourable to fat. In wet open weather they are often obliged to make long flights, and their food is more distributed. The jack-snipe feeds upon smaller insects than the snipe, small white larvæ, such as are found in black bogs, are its favourite food, but I have generally found seeds in its stomach, once hempseed, and always gravel. I know not where the jack-snipe breeds, but I suspect far north. I never saw their nests or young ones in Germany, France, Hungary, Illyria, or the British Islands.

In 1828, in the drains about Labach, in Illyria, common snipes were seen in the middle of July. The first double snipes appeared the first week in September, when likewise woodcocks were seen; the first jack-snipe seen, did not appear until three weeks later than the 29th of September. I was informed at Copenhagen, that the jack-snipe certainly breeds in Zealand, and I saw a nest with its eggs, said to be from the island of Sandholm, opposite Copenhagen, and I have no doubt that this bird and the double snipe sometimes make their nests in the marshes of Holstein and Hanover. An excellent sportsman and good observer informs me, that in the great royal decoy, or marsh preserve, near Hanover, he has had ocular proof of double snipes being raised from the nest there; but these birds require solitude and perfect quiet, and, as their food is peculiar, they demand a great extent of marshy meadow. Their stomach is the thinnest among birds of the scolopax tribe, and, as I have said before, their food seems to be entirely the larvae of the tribuæ, or congenerous flies.

Snipe Shooting.—Snipes when plenty afford very excellent sport, it being allowed to be the pleasantest, on account of the quick succession of shots; this is also the best shooting for practice, seldom failing to make indifferent shots most excellent ones. There is no shooting that presents such a variety of shots, scarcely any two being alike.

These birds usually fly against the wind, therefore every snipe-shooter should walk down it, as by that means the bird, if he rises before him, will fly back, and coming round him, describe a kind of circle; or at least his flight, for a certain distance, will not lengthen the shot, allowing him a certain time to cover the bird and take good aim; for if he gets up before him, and should by chance go down the wind, or from him, it is then the most difficult shot. It will be proper, in this case, to let the bird get a little distance from him, as then he will fly steadier and the slightest grain will fetch him to the ground.

* * * * *

When shooting snipes in the vicinity of Gottenburg, one’s sport mainly depends on the weather. If it blows hard from the westward, a strong current sets into the river from the North Sea; this impedes its course, and causes it to overflow its bounds, in which case many of the marshes become partially overflown, when the snipes, from finding little shelter, usually lie light, and are difficult to approach. If, on the countrary, the wind should be moderate, or from the eastward, and the water consequently low, those birds have abundance of cover, and it is easy therefore to get within range of them.

* * * * *

Pointers are made use of by many in shooting this species of birds, and, what is very singular, although these birds are so diminutive, in comparison with game which pointers are most accustomed to, yet they will stand equally staunch to them; even to the jack-snipe, which is the smallest of these birds. If you make use of a pointer it ought to be a very old staunch one, for two reasons; the first is, that this diversion not only spoils young ones, but slacks their mettle, as the points come so fast upon them, that if they become habituated to snipes, they will not look for other game, by reason of their getting a number of points without any exertion; secondly, a young pointer will be too quick for the snipe,—on the contrary, an old one would not be able to go out of a very slow pace, and, if under good command, will give the most satisfaction. When these birds are very plenty, the snipe-shooters never make use of a dog, as they always walk them up, which is found to answer best, and afford the most sport.

A pointer that is much used for grouse or partridge, should never be taken out snipe or pheasant shooting; for if he once gets accustomed to snipes, he will often baulk you on the moors in the grousing season; for as snipes are frequently met with at that time on them, if he points one, he may often give you a good walk and trouble, before you get to him, supposing it is game, and you are not a little mortified to find it only a snipe: and if accustomed to pheasants, he will be always puzzling about hedges, and not beat his ground as he ought to do. An old pointer may also be made use of for pheasants, as well as snipes.

The jack-snipe (Vide JUDCOCK) is esteemed the most difficult shot, although he seldom, on rising, makes any twistings or twinings, and will alight or pitch again, after being fired at, within a couple of hundred yards. Every sportsman that has been much accustomed to snipe-shooting, will allow, that a jack-snipe will suffer himself to be fired at twenty times in the same field, and will pitch each time so close to the shooter, that he frequently conceives that he has wounded him. They lie so close, that a staunch pointer might remain at his point until the moon changed, as this bird will not rise until forced to do so. A most curious circumstance which occurred respecting a jack-snipe that was sprung several times by a Mr. Molloy, formerly a quarter-master of the 64th regiment, while he was quartered at Geneva barracks, Ireland, is well worth relating: he regularly, after his duty was done, or if he could possibly obtain leave for a day, used to equip himself for shooting, and always sprung this jack-snipe, at which he fired and followed, and the bird used to pitch so close to him at times, that he was confident he had shot it, and used to run to take it up, when, to his great surprise, it would rise and fly a little farther; he actually acknowledged he fired, one day, eighteen times at this bird, and after shooting at it for the whole season, he happened to be crossing the bog it lay in, when he put it up, and exclaiming, “there’s my old friend,” threw his stick at it, and killed it on the spot. Whenever, after, any of his brother officers found a jack-snipe, they were always sure to say, “there goes Quartermaster Molloy.”

In Ireland, in the bottoms of the county of Limerick, about Charleville, these birds are in the greatest abundance, as it is not uncommon to hear of a person shooting twenty brace of them in the morning. The late Sir George Dunbar, of the 14th regiment of Light Dragoons, when quartered at Charleville, won a considerable wager by shooting forty-three brace between ten o’clock in the morning and four in the afternoon; and what appears still more extraordinary is, that although there are so many sportsmen about that place, who follow these birds, and others who net them, yet you find always enough of sport the day following; for there seem to be as many snipes, after two months’ destruction, as there were at the beginning of the season. The compiler himself has shot twenty brace, frequently, in a day, in the county of Cork; and, in the county of Limerick, has fired so often, that he has been forced to wait for the barrel of the gun to cool, before he durst attempt to reload.—Thornville—Daniel—Lloyd—Latham—Grieff.

SNORT, v. To blow through the nose, as a high-mettled horse.

SNOUD, s. The finer part of the line to which, in sea-fishing, the hook is immediately attached.

SOAP, s. A substance used in washing.

SOAR, v. To fly aloft, to tower; to fly without visible action of the wings.

SOAR, s. Towering flight; the flight of the eagle and falcon.

SOAR HAWK, s. So termed from the time she leaves the eyrie until she mews her feathers.

SOCIABLE, s. A kind of phaeton, with two seats facing each other, and a box for the driver.

SOIL, s. Dirt, spot, foulness; land, country; dung, compost; cut grass given to cattle; to take soil, in hunting; to go into water.

SOLDER, v. To unite or fasten with any kind of metallic cement; to mend, to unite anything broken.

SOLDER, s. Metallic cement.

SOLE, s. The bottom of the foot; the bottom of the shoe; the part of any thing that touches the ground; a kind of sea fish. Soles will take a bait freely; but they are generally taken with a trawl net.

SOLID, a. Not fluid; not hollow, compact, dense.

SOLUBLE, a. Capable of dissolution or separation of parts.

SOLUND or SOLAN GOOSE, s. A fowl in bigness and feather very like a tame goose, but his bill longer. Vide PUFFIN.

SONG, s. Anything modulated in the utterance; a ballad, a poem, lay, strain; poetry, poesy; notes of birds; an old song, a trifle.

Song of Birds.—As the song of birds is not allowed to be the effect of love, by an honourable author on the subject of singing birds (Daines Barrington), we shall endeavour to elucidate this matter from experiments on birds in their natural wild state; and also endeavour to prove that their notes are innate, contrary to that author’s opinion. That confined birds will learn the song of others they are constantly kept with, there is no doubt; but then it is generally blended with that peculiar to the species. In the spring, the very great exertions of the male birds in their vociferous notes are certainly the calls to love; and the peculiar note of each is an unerring mark for each to discover its own species. If a confined bird had learned the song of another, without retaining any part of its natural notes, and was set at liberty, it is probable it would never find a mate of its own species; and even supposing it did, there is no reason to believe the young of that bird would be destitute of its native notes; for if nestling birds have no innate notes peculiar to the species, and their song is only learned from the parent bird, how are we to account for the invariable note each species possesses, when it happens that two different species are bred up in the same bush, or in one very contiguous, or when hatched or fostered by a different species.

* * * * *

Although there appears considerable force in these arguments of Montagu, I am disposed to be of opinion, that birds sing most frequently from joy and buoyancy of spirits, and not unfrequently in triumphant defiance of rivalry or attack. I have a red-breast at present, who will sing out whenever I snap my fingers at him; and the sedge-bird sings when a stone is thrown into the bush where he may be.

Syme’s remarks upon the songs of birds, are worth quoting. The notes, he says, of soft-billed birds, are finely-toned, mellow, and plaintive; those of the hard-billed species are sprightly, cheerful, and rapid. This difference proceeds from the construction of the larynx; as a large pipe of an organ produces a deeper and more mellow-toned note than a small pipe, so the trachea of the nightingale, which is wider than that of the canary, sends forth a deeper and more mellow-toned note. Soft-billed birds, also, sing more from the lower part of the throat than the hard-billed species. This, together with the greater width of the larynx of the nightingale and other soft-billed warblers, fully accounts for their soft, round, mellow notes, compared with the shrill, sharp, and clear notes of the canary and other hard-billed songsters. In a comprehensive sense, the complete song of birds includes all the notes they are capable of uttering; and, taken in this sense, it is analogous to the speech of man. It is the vehicle through which these little creatures communicate and convey to each other their mutual wishes and their wants. It may be divided into six distinct separate sounds or parts, each of which is very expressive, even to us, of the feelings which agitate the bird at the moment. To describe their song more fully, we shall divide it in the following manner:—

First—The call-note of the male in spring.

Second—The loud, clear, ardent, fierce notes of defiance.

Third—The soft, tender, full, melodious, love warble.

Fourth—The notes of fear or alarm, when danger approaches the nest.

Fifth—The note of alarm, or war-cry, when a bird of prey appears.

Sixth—The note the parent-birds utter to their brood, and the chirp or note of the young.

The note of the young may be again divided into two; that which they utter while in the nest, and the chirp after they have left it; for they are very distinct sounds or notes; to which may be added, a soft, murmuring kind of note, emitted by the male, while he is feeding the female in the nest; and also by her while she is receiving the food. The call-note; the warble of love; and the notes of defiance, or prelude to battle, seem only to be understood by birds of the same species, at least in a wild state. Perhaps, in a state of domestication, birds of different genera, if nearly allied, may partially comprehend these notes, as the canary bird does the notes of the siskin, the goldfinch, and the linnet.

* * * * *

All the notes comprised in the song of birds convey delight to the mind of a lover of nature; but the bird-fanciers only prize their love warble, and notes of defiance; these notes, and these only, he considers to be their song. The musical notes of birds, whether of love or war, are sweet, and really charming in themselves; but they perhaps pour on the mind a greater degree of pleasure than mere sound is capable of conveying—we mean the recollections of youthful days, of endearing incidents, or of scenes connected with country pleasure. We ourselves prefer the mellow, plaintive melody of the soft-billed species; but others give the palm to the cheerful warble of the hard-billed tribe; which of these two styles is the sweetest melody we cannot determine. Both warbles may be equally fine; and the preference, perhaps, may depend on taste and feeling. But it is allowed, by all who have an ear for music, or rather, we should say, who have an ear and love for simple natural melody, that the song or warble of birds is truly delightful; but all their musical notes cease as soon as the brood is hatched.—Montagu—Syme—Rennie.

SOPORIFIC, a. Causing sleep, opiate.

SOREL, s. A buck of the third year.

SOUP, s. Strong decoction of flesh for the table.

Hawker’s recipe for a mountain soup is simple and excellent—Probatum est.—ED.

Three pounds of meat, a large carrot, two onions, and two turnips. (The Frenchman adds also a cabbage; here John Bull may please himself.) Put them into two quarts of water, to simmer away till reduced to three pints. Let him season the soup to the taste, with pepper, salt, herbs, &c. He must then cut off square, a pound of the fattest part of the meat, and put it aside, letting the rest boil completely to pieces. After he has well skimmed off the fat, and strained the soup, let him put it by till wanted.

On your return, while seeing your dogs fed, which every sportsman ought to do, let the soup be put on the fire for twenty minutes, with some fresh vegetables, (if you like to have them,) and, for the last ten minutes, boil again the square piece of meat which was reserved. Another necessary part of the recipe also should be prescribed, lest the dish should fall into disrepute. To prevent the deputy cook from helping himself, and filling it up with water, let him have a partnership in the concern, and when he has occasion to quit the room, he should either lock the door, or leave one of your relay dogs for a sentry.

You will then have a good wholesome gravy-soup to begin with, and afterwards some tender meat, which, if eaten with mustard, a little raw parsley chopped fine, and a few anchovies, you will, it is presumed, find an excellent dish. A pot of anchovies might easily be carried in a portmanteau, being, of all the luxuries from an oil-shop, one of the most portable and most useful.—Hawker.

SOW, s. A female pig, the female of a boar; an oblong mass of lead; an insect, a millepede.

SPADE, s. The instrument of digging; a suit of cards.

SPADILLE, s. The ace of spades at ombre and quadrille.

SPANCOUNTER, or SPANFARTHING, s. obs. A play at which money is thrown within a span or mark.

SPANIEL, s. A dog used for sport in the field, remarkable for sagacity and obedience.

Anatomical Character of Spaniels.—The head very moderately elongated; the parietal bones do not approach each other above the temples, but diverge and swell out so as to enlarge the forehead and the cerebral cavity. This group includes the most useful and intelligent dogs.

Var. E—Spaniel, Can. fam. extrarius, LINN. The name of the spaniel race is derived from its supposed original country, Spain.

The sub-varieties are—a, The smaller spaniel, with a small round head, the ears and tail covered with long hair; b, King Charles’s spaniel, Can. brevipilis, LINN.; c, La Pyrame, BUFF.; d, The Maltese, Bichon, BUFF.; e, The lion dog, Can. leoninus, LINN.; f, the Calabrian dog; g, The hunting spaniel or cocker, which yields the setter, Can. index, LINN. Addenda—The Newfoundland dog; The Alpine spaniel.

Var. F—The water spaniel, Canis aquaticus, LINN.; chien barbat, BUFF.

Sub-varieties—a, small water spaniel, petit barbet, BUFF.; chien griffon, a dog between the water spaniel and the shepherd’s dog.—Blaine.

SPAR, v. To fight like cocks with prelusive strokes; to box with gloves.

SPARK, s. A small particle of fire, or kindled matter; anything shining; anything vivid or active.

SPARROW (Passer domesticus, ALDROVAND), s. A small bird.

This well-known species weighs near seven drachms; length about six inches; the bill is dusky; irides hazel; the crown of the head ash-colour; round the eye, and between that and the bill, is black; behind the eyes, surrounding the back part of the head, bay; cheeks, white; chin and under part of the neck, black, mixed with grey; belly, dirty white; the coverts of the wings are chestnut and black mixed, with a whitish bar across them; the back a mixture of black and rufous; quills dusky, with rufous edges; tail dusky, edged with grey; legs brown. The bill of the female is lighter; behind the eye a line of white; the head and whole upper parts are brown, the under dirty white, dashed with ash-colour; no black on the chin or neck. In the country the sparrow exhibits a gloss and intermixture of colours rarely to be seen in those inhabiting large towns, which soon become of a dingy and almost uniform hue, from the accumulation of dust and smoke upon their plumage.

The sparrow is well known in every part of England; it inhabits the dwellings of the rich and the poor, taking possession of the humble thatched cottage in preference to the sumptuous palace. It is rarely seen far from the habitation of man, as it delights in the fruits of his labour; the highest cultivated parts producing the greatest quantity. It might be said of this bird, as of some species of water fowl, which remaining always within soundings, warn the mariner of his approach to land; so on the extensive and dreary mountains, not a sparrow is ever to be seen, and the sight of one bespeaks some habitation near. It makes a nest conformable to the place it chooses for incubation, whether in a hole of a wall, in thatch, or under the tiles of a house, or in a window swallow’s nest, it must conform to the size of the place; but when the nest is made in a tree, it is of large size, and covered at top, composed of hay and straw, lined warmly with feathers and fragments of thread or worsted, bits of cloth, or any refuse material of that sort, found about houses.

This accommodation of the structure of the nest to the locality where it is built, is in no instance, with which we are acquainted, more conspicuous than in the proceedings of the house-sparrow. Dr. Darwin mentions, seemingly as an extraordinary circumstance, that “in the trees before Mr. Levet’s house, at Litchfield, there are annually nests built by sparrows, a bird which usually builds under the tiles of houses or the thatch of barns;” but if he had been acquainted with the works of Bonnet, he would have learned that in Switzerland, at least, the sparrow “most usually (pour l’ordinaire) builds near the tops of trees,” while its nestling under tiles is an accidental exception. In the vicinity of London also, we venture to say that three pair of sparrows build on trees to one pair that nestle in holes; and so commonly is this noticed, that the tree-sparrow is popularly supposed to be a different species from the house-sparrow. The tree-sparrow (Passer montanus) of Yorkshire is indeed a different species, which lays pale brown eggs without spots; but the London ones, which build either on trees or in holes, have not a shade of difference.

It is worthy of notice, that they always proportion the quantity of materials to the size of the nest hole, which is generally packed close, leaving only a sufficient cavity for hatching the eggs and rearing the young. I have one of these nests, for example, which could almost be hid in the hollow of the hand, and another, built about a yard from it, which would fill a hat. When the nest is built on a tree, however, it is always nearly of the same dimensions, about a foot in diameter each way. From the bird nestling occasionally in holes, it might be imagined that when it made choice of a tree, it would be on account of thus obtaining a canopy of thick boughs to form a roof; but, on the contrary, sparrows, for the most part, select a high, exposed branch, as if they were more anxious to be out of the reach of cats, than of cold winds. When sparrows build in the ivied wall of a house, as they often do, they do not consider the thick clustering of the leaves above the nest as a sufficiently warm coping; and in such cases usually, if not always, construct a dome of straw, though much more slight than in nests built on the exposed branches of trees.

From its anxiety to procure shelter, the sparrow indeed seizes upon any convenience it can find best adapted to its purpose, whether that be accidental or have been prepared by some other bird. One very cogent reason for this appears to be its looking forward prospectively to the winter, for sparrows occupy their nests at night throughout the year, and though they are hardy birds, they require a warm shelter during severe frosts.

I am not aware that any contrivance is resorted to in Britain, to entice birds to build in particular places, except in the case of the house-sparrow. In the vicinity of London more particularly, pots of unglazed delft ware of a sub-oval shape, with a narrow hole for an entrance, are fixed upon the walls of houses, several feet below the eave, and the sparrows finding a domicile so suited to their habits, very soon took possession of every pot thus provided for them. But those who are so careful to accommodate the sparrows, do it not because they are fond of their neighbourhood or their yelping concerts, but to prevent their nestling under the eaves, where they dig out the mortar with their strong bills, when they do not find holes large enough for their accommodation. It probably never struck those wise persons, that by thus encouraging the sparrows to breed, they are promoting the increase of the race, and unless they multiply their sparrow pots yearly, they may be almost certain that the supernumeraries will resort to eaves nearest their birth-place. In Holland, square boxes are placed on the house-tops, to entice the stork (Ardea ciconia) to build; and for the same purpose it was customary in France, in Belon’s time, to place wheels there, a practice said to be still followed in some parts of Germany.

The sparrow lays six eggs of a whitish colour, spotted with dusky brown or ash-grey, and varying much in the shades as well as the thickness of the spots; each weighs from forty-three to forty-eight grains. Accidental varieties occur, such as white, black, and yellowish.

Sparrow Shooting.—If, however, there are persons who still think the practice of shooting swallows to be of assistance in acquiring the art, we will venture to recommend another mode which is nearly similar, but, in our opinion, much better. This is, by putting small pieces of white paper round the necks of sparrows, or other small birds, by the means of a hole cut in the middle of the paper, then throwing a single bird into the air, the young shooter may deliberately take his aim, for by this device the flight of the bird is rendered less rapid and more regular, and at the same time presents a much better mark for practice, besides it affords an excellent diversion in seasons when game cannot be pursued, or in wet weather from underneath the shelter of a shed or a barn-door. Some of the first shots in the kingdom have been perfected by this mode.—Montagu—Art of Shooting.

SPARROWHAWK (Accipiter fringillarius, RAY), s. The female of the musket-hawk.

The Sparrowhawk. (Falconisus, LINN.; L’Epuvier, BUFF.)—The length of the male is twelve inches; that of the female fifteen. Its bill is blue, furnished with bristles at the base, which overhang the nostrils; the colour of the eye is bright orange; the head is flat at the top, and above each eye is a strong bony projection, which seems as if intended to secure it from external injury: from this projection a few scattered spots of white form a faint line running backward towards the neck: the top of the head and all the upper parts of the body are of a dusky brown colour; on the back part of the head there is a faint line of white; the scapulars are marked with two spots of white on each feather; the greater quill feathers and the tail are dusky, with four bars of a darker hue on each; the inner edges of all the quills are marked with two or more large white spots; the tips of the tail feathers are white; the breast, belly, and under coverts of the wings and thighs are white, beautifully barred with brown; the throat is faintly streaked with brown; the legs and feet are yellow; claws black.

The above is the description of a female; the male differs both in size and colour; the upper part of his body is of a dark lead colour; and the bars on his breast are more numerous.

The female builds her nest in hollow trees, high rocks, or lofty ruins, sometimes in the old nest of a crow, and generally lays four or five eggs, spotted with reddish spots at the longer end.

The sparrow-hawk is very numerous in various parts of the world, from Russia to the Cape of Good Hope. It is a bold and spirited bird; but is obedient and docile, and can be easily trained to hunt partridges and quails; it makes great destruction among pigeons, young poultry, and small birds of all kinds, which it will attack and carry off in the most daring manner.—Bewick.

SPARROW-OWL, s. (Noctua passerina, SAVIGNY.)

The sparrow owl is a very rare species in England. In France it is said to frequent ruined edifices. It makes a nest in the holes of rocks and walls, and lays five or six eggs, spotted with yellowish and white. It is said to fly by day, and to give chace to small birds; but its principal food is mice. It is said to build in chimneys in Carniola; and Mr. Edwards mentions two having been taken in England by coming down chimneys. In 1808, one was shot by Mr. Comyns, in North Devon.—Montagu.

SPAVIN, s. This disease in horses is a bony excrescence, or crust as hard as a bone, that grows on the inside of the hough.

Bony spavin consists of a small bony enlargement on the inside of the hock, which often is not very observable. It occasions, however, a peculiar kind of lameness, which cannot well be mistaken, that is, a quick catching up of the leg, especially in trotting. This lameness is of course in various degrees, and sometimes scarcely observable except on first starting, and sometimes in confirmed and bad spavins; the lameness diminishes, and sometimes appears to go off by exercise, but after resting for some time the horse becomes very stiff and lame. The only remedy for this complaint is firing, and blistering immediately after. The horse should then be turned into a box for a short time, and afterwards to grass; in about a month he may be put to work. I have been informed that introducing a seton over the diseased part of the hock is now practised at the Veterinary College, in preference to firing. I have never tried this remedy, being satisfied that firing is the best, and indeed the only remedy where the disease is curable. The hot iron should be carried through the skin immediately over, and a little way into, the bony excrescence.

Bog spavin and thorough pin is a swelling on the inside of the hock, rather towards the fore part; the large vein which is so conspicuous on the inside of the leg passing over it. It depends either upon a distension, or rupture of the membranes which form the synovial cavity, or bursa mucosa, through which the great flexor tendon passes. The swelling is soft and yielding to the pressure of the finger, but rises again as soon as the pressure is removed. Sometimes, however, there is a swelling on the outside of the hock also, and in that case the fluid or synovia which the swelling contains, may be forced from one to the other. It is generally produced by hard work, or violent exertion for a short period, generally in breaking in a colt and putting him upon his haunches, as it is termed, at too early an age. It seldom occasions lameness, unless considerable, and then makes a horse go very stiff, especially after working much. The only remedy is firing, and sufficient rest; and when it is so considerable as to cause any degree of stiffness, it is advisable to have recourse to this operation. It often exists however in a slight degree, and without occasioning any inconvenience, and then it is better to leave it alone.—White.

SPAWN, s. The eggs of fish or of frogs; any product or offspring.

SPAWN, v. To produce as fishes do eggs; to generate, to bring forth.

SPAWNER, s. The female fish.

SPAY, v. To castrate female animals.

Spaying is performed by making an opening in the flank on one side, when the ovaria, being enlarged by pregnancy, are readily distinguishable, and may be drawn out and cut off, first one and then the other; securing the ends by a ligature lightly applied to each surface, but leaving the threads without the wound, which is to be closed by stitches and bandaging. Farriers often apply no ligature, but content themselves with simply sewing up the wound, and no ill consequence seems to ensue. Bitches, after they have been spayed, become fat, bloated, and spiritless, and commonly prove short-lived.—Blaine.

SPEAR, s. A long weapon with a sharp point, used in thrusting or throwing; a lance; a lance generally with prongs to kill fish.

SPEAR, v. To kill or pierce with a spear.

SPECIES, s. A sort, a subdivision of a general term; class of nature, single order of beings.

SPECIFIC, s. A specific medicine.

SPEED, s. Quickness, celerity, haste, hurry, despatch; the course or pace of a horse.

Speed of the Horse.—Common report says that Flying Childers could run a mile in a minute, but there is no authentic record of this. He ran over the Round Course of Newmarket (three miles, six furlongs, and ninety-three yards) in six minutes and forty seconds; and the Beacon Course (four miles, one furlong, and one hundred and thirty-eight yards), in seven minutes and thirty seconds. In 1772, a mile was run by Firetail, in one minute and four seconds. In October 1741, at the Curragh meeting in Ireland, Mr. Wilde engaged to ride 127 miles in nine hours. He performed it in six hours and twenty-one minutes. He employed ten horses, and allowing for mounting and dismounting, and a moment for refreshment, he rode for six hours at the rate of twenty miles an hour. Mr. Thornhill, in 1745, exceeded this, for he rode from Stilton to London and back, and again to Stilton, being 213 miles, in eleven hours and thirty-four minutes, which is, after allowing the least possible time for changing horses, twenty miles an hour for eleven hours, and on the turnpike road and uneven ground. Mr. Shaftoe, in 1762, with ten horses, and five of them ridden twice, accomplished fifty miles and a quarter in one hour and forty-nine minutes. In 1763, Mr. Shaftoe won a more extraordinary match. He was to procure a person to ride one hundred miles a day, on any one horse each day, for twenty-nine days together, and to have any number of horses not exceeding twenty-nine: he accomplished it on fourteen horses, and one day he rode 160 miles, on account of the tiring of his first horse. Mr. Hull’s Quibbler, however, afforded the most extraordinary instance on record of the stoutness as well as speed of the race-horse. In December, 1786, he ran twenty-three miles round the flat at Newmarket, in fifty-seven minutes and ten seconds.

Speed is sportingly applicable to horse, hound, or greyhound. There are two modes of trial for speed, according to the present reformed mode of English racing; the one is to run a mile, which is termed running for speed; the other, of going off at score, and absolutely racing the whole four miles, which is called running for speed and bottom. Flying Childers, whose speed was almost proverbial, went one third of a mile in twenty seconds. Firetail and Pumpkin ran a mile in a few seconds more than a minute and a half. Childers ran the distance of four miles in six minutes and forty-eight seconds, carrying nine stone, two pounds; he made a leap of thirty feet upon level ground; and he covered a space of twenty-five feet at every stroke when racing. It was formerly known that any horse who could run four miles in eight minutes, would prove a winner of plates: this is, however, very materially refined, by judicious crosses in blood, or improvements in training; as Bay Malton ran four miles over York in seven minutes, forty-three seconds and a half. Eclipse ran the same distance over York in eight minutes, with twelve stone, though going only at his rate, without any inducement to speed.—Sporting Directory.

SPEEDINESS, s. The quality of being speedy.

SPEEDY, a. Quick, swift, fast.

SPELTER, s. A kind of semi-metal.

SPERM, s. Seed, that by which the species is continued.

SPERMACETI, s. A species of whale; an oily substance found in the head of the Physeter Macrocephalus.

SPICE, s. A vegetable production, fragrant to the smell and pungent to the palate; an aromatic substance used in sauces.

SPIKE, s. An ear of corn; a long nail of iron or wood, a long rod of iron sharpened; a smaller species of lavender.

SPILLET, s. A long line used for sea-fishing.

Did a man wish to moralise upon the unrealities of human expectations, let him hang over a spillet, and be interested in its success. Conceive an eternity of line, with a thousand hooks at given distances; as every snoud is placed a fathom apart, a person less conversant with figures than Joe Hume, may guess the total. This endless continuity of hemp must be carefully taken up. Do it slowly, and the thing is worse than a penance to Lough Dergh; and if you attempt rapidity, the odds are, that the back-line breaks, and a full hour will scarcely remedy the mischief.

It would puzzle a philosopher to determine the state of affairs in ten fathom of water; and if you shoot in foul ground, you will probably lose the spillet, or, with a world of labour, disentangle a moiety from rocks and sea-weed. Should it, however, have escaped those casualties, after a two hours’ probation, while you listen to a drimindhu from the skipper, and the exact state of the herring-market from the crew, you proceed to raise it. Up it comes—that vibratory motion announces that a fish is fast upon the snoud; conjecture is busily at work, and there is a difference of opinion, whether ‘the deceived one’ be a codling or red gurnet. It appears—a worthless, rascally, dog-fish! A succession of line comes in—star-fish, and, “few and far between,” some solitary plaices and flounders—at last a victim—heavy and unresisting. An indistinct glance of a dark object, broad as a tea-tray, brings the assistant spilleteer, gaff in hand, to the quarter. Alas! the turbot in expectation, turns out to be a ray! Often have I shot a spillet under favourable circumstances, and in approved ground, and lost time, hooks, and snouds, and my whole reward was a boat-load of skates and dog-fish.—Wild Sports.

SPINAL, a. Belonging to the back bone.

SPINE, s. The back bone.

Spine of Birds.—The back-bone of birds, unlike that of some other animals, is immoveable, though they have the power of bending the neck.—Montagu.

SPINOUS, a. Thorny, full of thorns.

SPIRACLE, s. A breathing hole, a vent, a small aperture, a pore.

SPIRIT, s. Breath, wind in motion; ardour; courage; that which gives vigour or cheerfulness to the mind; an inflammable liquor raised by distillation.

SPIRITED, a. Lively, full of fire.

SPIRITLESS, a. Low, deprived of vigour, depressed.

SPITTER, s. obs. A young deer.

SPLAYFOOTED, a. Having the foot turned inward.

SPLEEN, s. The milt, one of the viscera; anger, spite, ill-humour.

SPLENT, s. Splent is a callous hard substance, or an insensible swelling, which breeds on or adheres to the shank-bone, and when it grows big spoils the shape of the leg.

A horse often becomes lame when throwing out a splent; but that state of the bone which causes the lameness seldom continues long; nor does it ever produce permanent lameness. If any remedy is applied, a blister is always sufficiently strong. A new method of treating splents has been lately introduced; that is, passing a seton under the skin and immediately over the splent. It is said to be an improvement. I once tried it in a case of old bone spavin, but it did no good; nor did firing, which was tried soon after, though the hot iron was passed through the skin, and into the bony excrescence. The old method of rubbing or bruising a splent, puncturing it, and rubbing in some blistering preparation, will often produce a considerable swelling of the whole limb, and do a great deal of mischief. Lameness from a splent may sometimes be removed by placing a pledget of old linen, wet with goulard or saturnine lotion on it, and confining it with a bandage kept constantly wet. I have seen a good effect from diluted vinegar also.

SATURNINE LOTION.

Superacetate of lead 1 oz. Vinegar 4 oz. Water 1 pint. Mix.—White.

SPLICE, v. To join the two ends of a rope or line without a knot.

SPLINT, s. A thin piece of wood used by surgeons to hold the bone newly set.

SPONGE, s. A soft porous substance remarkable for sucking up water.

SPOONBILL (Platalea leucorodia, LINN.), s.

Weight about three pounds and a half; length two feet eight inches; the bill is near seven inches long, and three quarters of an inch broad in the narrowest part; two inches towards the points in the largest part of the spoon; colour black, sometimes brown, with an orange-coloured spot near the tip of the upper mandible; it is also crossed with several indentations and dotted protuberances; the irides in some grey, others reddish; the lore, and round the eyes and throat, the skin is bare and black. The whole plumage is white; sometimes the quills are tipped with black; the legs are black, six inches long; thighs bare about half way; toes connected by a small web, extending as far as the second joint of the outer, and first joint of the inner toe.

The spoonbill is rarely met with in England. Mr. Pennant mentions that a flock of these birds migrated into the marshes near Yarmouth, in Norfolk, in April, 1774. We have also been assured it is sometimes seen on the coast of Devonshire in the winter.—Montagu.

SPORT, s. Play, diversion; diversion of the field, as of fowling, hunting, fishing.

SPORT, v. To play, to game; to trifle, to enjoy field amusements.

SPORTSMAN, s. One who pursues the recreation of the field.

SPOT, s. A blot, a mark made by discoloration; a taint; a disgrace.

SPRAIN, v. To stretch the ligaments of a joint without dislocating the bone.

SPRAIN, s. Extension of ligaments without dislocation of the joint.

SPRAT, s. A small sea fish.

SPRING, v. To arise out of the ground; to grow, to thrive; to bound, to leap; to fly with elastic power; to rise from a covert; to issue from a fountain; to shoot; to start; to rouse game; to discharge a mine.

SPRING, s. The season in which plants spring and vegetate; an elastic body, which, when distorted, has the power of restoring itself; elastic force; any active power; a leap, a violent effort; a fountain. Mainspring, the principal spring in a gun-lock.

If the mainspring be too strong, in proportion to that of the hammer, the cock is often broken for want of resistance, and if the hammer or feather spring be too stiff, or should shut down with too much force, it becomes difficult to throw it, even with a strong mainspring. Here, till very lately, most of the gunmakers were in the dark; as nothing was more admired in a lock, than the hammer shutting down with great velocity. This, not only for the reason already mentioned, is a sad fault, but the hammer by thus coming down escapes, in a certain degree, from the influence of the spring, and, consequently, loses its pressure on the pan; by which the priming is not so closely covered, and the hammer is apt to re-act instead of obeying the mainspring. In a word let your hammer shut down dull and fly back smart. The mainspring, to be well regulated, should at first pull up hard, and then draw progressively easier: because it requires an accession of force after it has recovered the first sudden escape from the scear-spring, otherwise it will go slow with a flint, and be liable either to cause a snap, or allow the cock to be blown back with a detonater.—Hawker.

SPRINGE, s. A gin, a noose which catches by a spring or jerk.

SPRINGER, s. One who springs or rouses game.

SPRINGER or SPRINGING SPANIEL (Canis extrarius, LINN.), s.

There are two different dogs which usually pass under this denomination; one being considerably larger than the other, and known by the name of the springing spaniel; it is applicable to every kind of game in any country.

The springer is supposed to have originated in Great Britain, although it is now widely diffused over every quarter of the globe. He is much and eagerly sought after in the wild sports of the East.

The true English-bred springing spaniel differs but little in figure from the setter, except in size; their chief difference consists in the former having a larger head than the latter in proportion to the bulk of his body; they vary also in a small degree in point of colour, from red, yellow, or liver colour and white, which seems to be the invariable standard of the breed. They are nearly two-fifths less in height and strength than the setter, their form being more delicate, their ears longer, very soft and pliable, covered with a coat of long waving and silky hair; the nose is red or black, the latter being the surest mark of high breeding; the tail is bushy and pendulous, and is always in motion when employed in pursuit of game.

Differently from other dogs used in shooting, both the springer and the cocker give tongue the moment they either smell or see game; and this gives intimation to the sportsmen, who generally station themselves on the skirts of the wood or covert to which woodcocks, snipes, and pheasants are known to fly when started.

Both this dog and the cocker are frequently used as finders in greyhound-coursing, and are no less eager to start a hare, which they pursue with as much ardour as they do winged game.

From the time the springer is thrown off in the field, he gives evident proofs of the pleasure he experiences in being thus employed, by the perpetual motion of his tail, which is termed feathering amongst sportsmen; and upon the increasing vibration of which the experienced fowler well knows that he is getting nearer to the object of attraction.

The nearer he approaches the game, the more energetic the dog becomes in his endeavours to succeed; tremulous whispers escape him, as a symptom of doubt; but the moment this doubt is dispelled, and the game is found, his clamorous raptures break forth in full force. He expresses his gratification by loud and quick barking, which may be relied on as a proof that he has not sought in vain; leaving the happy owner exultingly to boast, that “he is in possession of at least one faithful domestic, who never tells a lie.”—Brown.

SPRINGHALT, s. A lameness by which the horse twitches up his legs.

SPRING WAGTAIL (Budytes flava, CUVIER), s.

There appears no doubt but many authors have confounded this species with the grey wagtail, which we have remarked more fully in the history of that bird.

The male of this species, it is said, possesses a few black spots on the throat, but such a mark we have never observed in more than a hundred specimens. It must therefore be rare, if not a mistake, in describing the grey wagtail for this. If no other mark of distinction were to be found but the length and straitness of the hind claw in this, it would be sufficient to know it from the grey wagtail, which is very short and crooked. The tail of this bird is also an inch shorter, and has only two feathers on each side, partly white. The under parts of the male are of a much fuller yellow, and the upper parts never possess any of the cinereous colour.

The spring wagtail visits us about the time the other departs, and migrates again in September. It frequents arable land, especially in the more champaign parts; sometimes uncultivated ground interspersed with furze; it is also partial to bean fields; in all such places it breeds, and does not seem to regard water so much as either of the other species. It is said to be found in Russia and Siberia in summer, and to continue in France the whole year.—Montagu.

SPROUT, s. A shoot of a vegetable; a branch of a deer’s horn.

SPUR, s. A sharp point fixed on the rider’s heel; incitement, a stimulus; the sharp points on the legs of a cock; anything standing out.

SPUR, v. To prick with the spur; to incite; to urge forward.

SPURGALLED, a. Hurt with the spur.

SPURIOUS, a. Not genuine, counterfeit; adulterine; not legitimate, bastard.

SPURLING, s. A small sea fish.

SPURRIER, s. One who makes spurs.

SPURRY, s. A plant.

SQUAB, a. Unfeathered, newly hatched; fat, thick and stout; awkwardly bulky. obs.

SQUAMOUS, a. Scaly, covered with scales.

SQUARE, a. Cornered, having right angles; forming a right angle.

SQUARE, s. A figure with right angles and equal sides.

SQUAT, v. To sit cowering, to sit close to the ground.

SQUEAK, v. To cry with a shrill acute tone.

SQUEAK, s. A shrill quick cry.

SQUIB, s. A small pipe of paper filled with wildfire.

SQUILL, s. A plant; a fish; an insect.

SQUIRREL, s. A small animal that lives in woods, leaping from tree to tree.

Within the memory of some of the old persons residing in Richmond Park, squirrels were in such vast numbers, that parties of fifty or sixty persons have come from the metropolis and its neighbourhood, for the purpose of killing them. They were furnished with short sticks, with lead at one end, with which they knocked the animals down. These squirrel hunts occasioned many fights with the keepers, in one of which a keeper, of the name of Bishop, was nearly killed. The squirrels were in consequence destroyed, and it is now but seldom that one is seen.

* * * * *

Cat and Squirrels.—A boy has taken three little young squirrels in their nest, or drey as it is called in these parts. These small creatures he put under the care of a cat who had lately lost her kittens, and finds that she nurses and suckles them with the same assiduity and affection as if they were her own offspring. This circumstance corroborates my suspicion, that the mention of exposed and deserted children being nurtured by female breasts of prey who had lost their young, may not be so improbable an incident as many have supposed; and therefore may be a justification of those authors who have gravely mentioned what some have deemed to be a wild and improbable story.

So many persons went to see the little squirrels suckled by a cat, that the foster mother became jealous of her charge, and in pain for their safety; and therefore hid them over the ceiling, where one died. This circumstance shows her affection for these fondlings, and that she supposes the squirrels to be her own young. Thus hens, when they have hatched ducklings, are equally attached to them as if they were their own chickens.

* * * * *

The squirrel’s nest is not only called a drey in Hampshire, but also in other counties; in Suffolk it is called a bay. The word “drey,” though now provincial, I have met with in some of our old writers.

In the north of Hampshire a great portion of the squirrels have white tails. None of this variety, as far as I can learn, reach the London Market. I was much surprised at hearing from a man who kept a bird and cage shop in London, that not less than twenty thousand squirrels are annually sold there for the menus plaisirs of cockneys, part of which come from France, but the greater number are brought in by labourers to Newgate and Leadenhall markets, where any morning during the season four or five hundred might be bought. He said that he himself sold annually about seven hundred: and, he added, that about once in seven years the breed of squirrels entirely fails, but that in other seasons they are equally prolific. The subject was introduced by his answering to a woman who came in to buy a squirrel, that he had not had one that season, but before that time in the last season he had sold five hundred. It appears that the mere manufacture of squirrel cages for Londoners is no small concern.—Mitford—White.

STABLE, a. Fixed, steady.

STABLE, s. A house for beasts. Vide APPENDIX.

STACK, s. A large quantity of hay, corn, or wood.

STAG, s. The male red deer; the male of the hind.

The stag or hart, whose female is called the hind, and the young a calf, differs in size and in horns from a fallow deer. He is much larger, and his horns round, whereas, in the fallow species, they are broad and palmated. By these the animal’s age is ascertained. During the first year the stag has no horns, but a horny excrescence, which is short and rough, and covered with a thin hairy skin, the next year the horns are single and straight, in the third they have two antlers, three the fourth, four the fifth, and five the sixth year, but this number is not always certain, for sometimes there are more, and often, less. After the sixth year the antlers do not always increase, and although in number they may amount six or seven on each side, yet the animal’s age is then estimated rather from the size of the antlers, and the thickness of the branch which sustains them, than from their variety. These horns, large as they seem, are, notwithstanding, shed every year, and new ones assume their place. The old horns are of a firm solid texture, and are extensively employed in making handles for knives and other instruments. But, while young, nothing can be more soft or tender, and the animal, as if conscious of his own imbecility, at those times, instantly upon shedding his former horns, retires from the rest of his species, and hides himself in solitudes and thickets, never venturing out to pasture except by night. During this time, which most usually happens in the spring, the new horns are very tender, and have a quick sensibility of any external impression. When the old horn has fallen off, the new one does not begin to appear immediately, but the bones of the skull are seen covered only with a transparent periosteum or skin, which covers the bones of all animals. After a short time, however, the skin begins to swell, and to form a sort of tumour, which contains a great deal of blood, and then it is covered with a downy substance, that to the touch resembles velvet, and which appears of nearly the same colour with the rest of the animal’s hair. This tumour daily increases from the point, like the graft of a tree, and, rising by degrees from the head, shoots out the antlers from either side, so that in a short time, in proportion as the animal is in condition, the entire horns are completed, but it should be observed, that the substance of which the horns are composed, begins to harden at the bottom, while the upper part remains soft and still continues growing; whence it appears that the horns of deer grow differently from those of sheep or cows, which latter always are seen to increase from the bottom. When, however, the horns have completed their full growth, the extremities then acquire solidity. The velvet-like covering, with its blood-vessels, dries up, and the former then begins to fall, and this the animal hastens by rubbing its antlers against the trees of the forest. In this manner the whole external surface being stripped off by degrees, the horns acquire their complete hardness, expansion, and beauty. It is also said that some hinds have horns.

It would be a vain task to inquire into the cause of the annual production of these horns; it is sufficient to observe, that if a stag be emasculated when the horns are fallen off, they will never grow again; and, on the contrary, if the same operation is performed when they are on, they will never fall off. If only one side is emasculated, he will want the horn on that side.

The old stags usually shed their horns first, which generally happens towards the latter end of February or the beginning of March.

Such as are between five and six years old shed their horns about the middle or latter end of March; those still younger in the month of April; and the youngest of all not till the middle or latter end of May.

They generally shed them in pools of water, whither they retire from the heat, and this has given rise to the opinion of their always hiding their horns. These rules, though true in general, are yet subject to many variations, and it is well known that a severe winter retards the shedding of the horns. A short time after they have gained their horns, they begin to feel the impression of the rut.

The old ones are the most forward, and about the end of August or beginning of September, they quit their thickets and return to the mountain or plain in order to seek the hind, to whom they call with a loud tremulous note. At this time their neck is swollen—they appear bold and ferocious—fly from country to country—strike with their horns against the trees and other obstacles—and continue restless and fierce until they have found the female, who at first flies from them, but is at last overtaken.

When two stags contend for the same female, however timorous they may appear at other times, they then seem agitated with an uncommon degree of ardour; they paw up the earth, and menace their opponent with their horns, bellowing with all their force, and striking in a desperate manner against each other, seeming determined upon death or victory. This combat continues till one of them is defeated or flies, and it oftentimes happens that the victor is obliged to fight several of these battles before he becomes the undisturbed master of the field. The old ones are generally the conquerors upon these occasions, as they have more strength and greater courage, and they are preferred by the hind to the younger, the latter being more feeble and less ardent.

In this manner the stag continues to range from one to the other for three weeks, the time the rut continues, during which he scarcely eats, sleeps, or rests, but continues to pursue, to combat, and enjoy. At the end of this period of madness, for such in this animal it seems to be, the creature that was before fat, sleek, and glossy, becomes lean, feeble, and timid. He then retires from the herd to seek replenishment and repose.

The stag or red deer is common in Europe, Barbary, the north of Asia, and North America; it abounds in the southern parts of Siberia, where it grows to an immense size, but is now extirpated in Russia. It lives in herds, and there is generally one male which is supreme in each herd. The colour of the stag is generally a reddish brown, with some black and white about the face, and a black line down the hinder part of the neck between the shoulders, and the belly white. Sometimes their colour is a pale yellow brown, sometimes a blackish brown, and lastly, instances occasionally occur of stags being found entirely white.

The stag possesses a fine eye, an acute smell, and excellent ear, like that of the cat and the owl; the eye of the stag contracts in the light, and dilates in the dark, but with this difference, that the contraction and dilatation are horizontal, while in the first mentioned animals they are vertical.

When deer are thirsty, they plunge their noses, like some horses, very deep under water while in the act of drinking, and continue them in that situation for a considerable time.

The number of teeth of the various species of deer and the antelope tribe, is generally thirty-two, namely, eight cutting teeth in the lower jaw, six molar teeth on each side of these, and six molar teeth on each side in the upper jaw; but there are frequent exceptions to this rule.

The cry of the hind or female is not so loud as that of the male, and is never excited but by apprehension for herself or her young. It need scarcely be mentioned that she has no horns, or that she is more feeble or unfit for hunting than the male. When once she has conceived she separates from the males, and then they both herd apart. The time of gestation continues eight months and a few days, and they seldom produce more than one at a birth. Their usual season for bringing forth is about the month of May, or the beginning of June. They take the greatest care to secrete their young in the most obscure thickets, nor is the caution without reason, as many creatures are their formidable enemies. The eagle, the falcon, the wolf, the dog, and all the rapacious family of the cat kind, are continually seeking to discover her retreat. But what is more unnatural still, the stag himself is a professed enemy, and she is obliged to use all her arts to conceal her young from him, as from the most dangerous of her pursuers. At this season, therefore, the courage of the male seems transferred to the female; she defends her young against her less formidable opponents by force, and, when pursued by the hunter, she offers herself to mislead him from the principal object of his concern. She flies before the hounds for half the day, and then returns to her offspring, whose life she has thus preserved at the hazard of her own.

Those persons who are fond of the pastime of hunting have their peculiar terms for the different objects of their pursuit. Thus the stag is called, the first year, a calf or hind calf, the second a knobber, the third a brock, the fourth a staggard, the fifth a stag, the sixth a hart. The female is called, the first year, a calf, the second a hearse, the third a hind.

In Britain the stag is become less common than formerly, its excessive viciousness during the rutting season inducing most people to dispense with this species, and rear the fallow deer, which is of a more placid nature, in its stead. Some attempts have, indeed, been made to render stags domestic, by treating them with the same gentleness as the Laplanders do their rein-deer; and it appears, in the Isle of France, where the Portuguese had introduced the European breed, they had so far succeeded, by degrees, as to render them quite domestic, many of the inhabitants keeping large flocks of them; but when the French took possession of that island, they destroyed most of these domesticated stags. Valmont de Bromere asserts that he saw in Germany, a set, or attelage, consisting of six stags, that were perfectly obedient to the curb and to the whip; and in the magnificent stables of Chantilly, in the year 1770, there were two stags that were occasionally harnessed to a small chariot, in which they drew two persons.

Stags are still found wild in the Highlands of Scotland, in herds of four or five hundred together, ranging at full liberty over the vast hills of the north, and some of them grow to a great size: Pennant says, upon the authority of Mr. Farquharson, that one of these wild stags weighed three hundred and fourteen pounds, exclusive of the entrails, head, and skin. Formerly the great Highland chieftains used to hunt with all the magnificence of eastern monarchs, assembling four or five thousand of their clan, who drove the deer into the toils, or to the station their lairds had placed themselves in. But as the chace was frequently used as a pretence for collecting their vassals for rebellious purposes, an act was passed prohibiting any assembly of this kind.

Stags are likewise met with on the moors that border on Cornwall and Devonshire, and Ireland, on the mountains of Kerry, where they add greatly to the magnificence of the romantic scenery of the lakes of Killarney.

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Stags are mostly kept in parks, with fallow deer. Dr. Johnson describes them as not exceeding the common deer in size, and that their flesh is of equal flavour. From a stag that had been committing depredations on the farmers’ corn during a whole summer, and which was accidentally hunted and killed, after a long run, a haunch weighing forty-six pounds, was allowed by very competent judges to be the highest flavoured and fattest venison they had ever tasted. The stag’s age is partly known by the horns, which he begins to shed about the end of February, and the new horns are complete and polished in July or August: at six years, the antlers amount to six or seven on each side; their number is uncertain, nor can the years be precisely ascertained beyond that period, as the new horns come like those last shed. The eye of the stag is peculiarly beautiful, soft, and sparkling, and is, for these attributes, frequently alluded to in Eastern poetry; he hears quickly, and his sense of smelling is highly perfect; his powers of leaping are often astonishingly exerted during the chase, and in the New Forest is a celebrated spot called the Deer Leap, where a stag was once shot, and in the agony of death, collecting his strength, gave a bound which so surprised those that saw it, that it is commemorated by two posts, fixed at the extremity of the leap: the space between them is something more than eighteen yards. The stag’s rutting season is in August, and continues about three weeks, when he becomes a dangerous animal: he then frequents rivers or pools of water, to cool his ardour; he swims with great power and facility, and to this element he always retreats, when hard pressed by the hounds. The hind, at the expiration of eight months and a few days, produces seldom more than one young, which she resolutely protects from every enemy, and carefully conceals from the stag, one of the worst. During the whole summer the fawn never quits the dam; and in winter the stags and hinds of all ages keep together in herds, which are more or less numerous, according to the mildness or rigour of the season. They separate in the spring; the hinds retire to bring forth, while none but the young ones remain together. Stags are gregarious, delight to graze in company, and are separated but by danger or necessity.

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While traversing a low range of moors, an incident occurred which, at this season, was unaccountable. A red-and-white setter pointed at the top of a little glen. The heathy banks on both sides of a mountain rivulet undulated gently from the stream, and caused a dipping of the surface; the ground seemed a favourable haunt for grouse, and our dogs were beating it with care. Observing the setter drop, his companions backed, and remained steady, when suddenly Hero rose from his couchant attitude, and next moment a wild deer of enormous size and splendid beauty crossed before the dog and sprang the birds he had been pointing. The apparition of the animal, so little expected, and so singularly and closely introduced to our view, occasioned a sensation I had never hitherto experienced. I rushed up the bank; unembarrassed by our presence, the noble deer swept past us in a light and graceful canter, at the short distance of some seventy or eighty yards. I might have fired at and annoyed him—but on a creature so powerful small shot could have produced little effect, and none but a cockney, under such circumstances, would waste a charge. To teaze without a chance of bringing down the gallant beast, would have been a species of useless mischief, meriting a full month upon the tread-mill. I gazed after him as he gradually increased his distance; his antlers were expanded as fully as my arms would extend; his height was magnificent, and compared with fallow-deer he seemed a giant to a dwarf. The sun beamed upon his deep bay side, as he continued describing a circular course over the flat surface of the moor, till reaching a rocky opening leading to the upper hills, he plunged into the ravine, and we lost sight of him.

What could have driven the red deer so low upon the heath was marvellous. Excepting when disturbed by a solitary hunter, or a herdsman in pursuit of errant cattle, or driven from the summit of the hills by snow and storm, those deer are rarely seen below the Alpine heights they inhabit. But the leisure pace of the beautiful animal we saw to-day, proved that he had not been alarmed in his lair, and led one almost to fancy, that in freakish mood, he had abandoned his mountain home to take a passing glance at men and things beneath him.

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I will not pretend to describe the anxious, nay agonising hour that I passed in this highland ambuscade. The deep stillness of the waste was not broken even by the twittering of a bird. From the place where I lay concealed, I commanded a view of the defile for the distance of some eighty yards, and my eye turned to the path by which I expected the deer to approach, until to gaze longer pained me. My ear was equally engaged; the smallest noise was instantly detected, and the ticking of my watch appeared sharper and louder than usual. As time wore on my nervousness increased. Suddenly a few pebbles fell—my heart beat faster—but it was a false alarm. Again, I heard a faint sound, as if a light foot pressed upon loose shingle—it was repeated—by Saint Hubert, it is the deer! they have entered the gorge of the pass, and approach the rock that covers me, in a gentle canter!

To sink upon one knee and cock both barrels was a moment’s work. Reckless of danger, the noble animals, in single file, galloped down the narrow pathway. The hart led the way, followed by the doe, and the old stag brought up the rear. As they passed me at the short distance of twenty paces, I fired at the leader, and, as I thought, with deadly aim; but the ball passed over his back, and splintered the rock beyond him. The report rang over the waste, and the deer’s surprise was evinced by the tremendous rush they made to clear the defile before them. I selected the stag for my second essay; eye and finger kept excellent time, as I imagined—I drew the trigger—a miss by every thing unfortunate! The bullet merely struck a tyne from his antler, and, excepting this trifling graze, he went off at a thundering pace, uninjured.

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The deer had separated—the hart and doe turned suddenly to the right, and were fired at by my cousin, without effect. The stag went right a-head; and while I still gazed after him, a flash issued from a hollow in the hill, the sharp report of Hennessey’s piece succeeded, and the stag sprang full six feet from the ground, and tumbling over and over repeatedly, dropped upon the bent-grass with a rifle-bullet in his heart.

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In addition to a herd of fallow deer, amounting to about one thousand six hundred, which are kept in Richmond Park, there is generally a stock of from forty to fifty red deer. Some stags from the latter are selected every year, and sent to Swinley, in order to be hunted by the king’s stag-hounds. When a stag, which has been hunted for three or four seasons, is returned to the park, to end his days there, he is generally more fierce and dangerous than any of the others at a particular season of the year. At that time it is sometimes not safe to approach him: and the keepers inform me that they have been obliged to fire at them with buck shot, when they have been attacked by them. They account for this ferocity, by the circumstance of the deer having been much handled, and consequently rendered more familiar with, and less afraid of, those whom they would naturally shun. It is sometimes very difficult to take stags for hunting. One fine stag was so powerful, and offered so much resistance, that two of his legs were broken in endeavouring to secure him, and he was obliged to be killed. One who had shown good sport in the royal hunt, was named ‘Sir Edmund,’ by his late Majesty, in consequence of Sir Edmund Nagle having been in at the ‘take’ after a long chase. This stag lived some years afterwards in the park; and it is a curious fact that he died the very same day on which Sir Edmund Nagle died. This deer herded with the cows, probably from having been so long separated from his usual companions.

Does are longer lived than bucks. One doe in Richmond Park lived to be twenty years old; and there are other instances of their having attained the same age.

A curious circumstance lately occurred, respecting the red deer in the park in question. In the year 1825, not a single calf was dropped by any of the hinds, though they had bred freely the preceding, and did the same in the subsequent year. I find an event recorded in the ‘Journal of a Naturalist,’ as having happened in the same year in regard to cows. It is there stated that, for many miles round the residence of the author, scarcely any female calves were born. This diminution of the usual breed of deer, and the increase of sex in another animal, is not a little remarkable.

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Of the stag’s longevity much has been asserted, which latter observations have refuted, and upon the received maxim, that animals live seven times the number of years that bring them to perfection, and this requiring six to arrive at its maturity, the stag’s age may be fixed at nearly forty years.

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Of the stag’s courage, when his personal safety requires it, the combat promoted by William, Duke of Cumberland, many years since, in an area where a stag was inclosed with a hunting tiger, and which made so resolute a defence that the tiger was at length obliged to give up, is a faithful record. It was in Ascot race week, and this novelty attracted an additional concourse of people. On a lawn by the road-side, a space was fenced in with very strong toiling, fifteen feet high, into which an old stag was turned, and shortly after the tiger was led in, hoodwinked, by two blacks who had the care of him, and his eyes and himself at once set at liberty. The instant he saw the deer, he crouched down on his belly, and creeping like a house-cat at a mouse, watched an opportunity of safely seizing his prey. The stag, however, warily turned as he turned, and this strange antagonist still found himself opposed by his formidable brow antlers. In vain the tiger attempted to turn his flanks, the stag had too much generalship, and this cautious warfare lasted until it became tedious, when his royal highness enquired, if, by irritating the tiger, the catastrophe of the combat might not be hastened; he was told it might be dangerous, but it was ordered to be done; the keepers went to the tiger, and did as they were ordered, when immediately, instead of attacking the deer, with a furious and elastic bounce, he sprang at, and cleared the toiling that enclosed him; great indeed was the confusion amongst the affrighted multitude, every one imagining him or herself the destined victim to the tiger’s rage, who, regardless of their fears, or their persons, crossed the road, and rushed into the opposite wood.

It happened a herd of fallow deer were feeding not far from the scene of action, on the haunch of one of them he instantly fastened, and brought it to the ground. His keepers, to whom he was perfectly familiarised, for some time hesitated to go near him; at length they ventured, cut the deer’s throat, and separating the haunch he had seized, which he never left from his hold for a moment, hoodwinked, and led him away with it in his mouth.

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Stag Hunting.—I hunted two winters at Turin: but their hunting, you know, is no more like ours, than is the hot meal you there stand up to eat to the English breakfast you sit down to here. Were I to describe their manner of hunting, their infinity of dogs, their number of huntsmen, their relays of horses, their great saddles, great bits, and jack-boots, it would be no more to our present purpose than the description of a wild boar chase in Germany, or the hunting of jackalls in Bengal. C’est une chasse magnifique, et voilà tout. However, to give you an idea of their huntsmen, I must tell you that one day the stag (which is very unusual) broke cover, and left the forest; a circumstance which gave as much pleasure to me as displeasure to all the rest—it put every thing into confusion. I followed one of the huntsmen, thinking he knew the country best; but it was not long before we were separated: the first ditch we came to stopped him. I, eager to go on, hallooed out to him, “Allons piqueur, sautez done.” “Non pardi,” replied he, very coolly, “c’est un double fossé—je ne saute pas des double fossés.” There was also an odd accident the same day, even to the king himself, you may think interesting; besides it was the occasion of a bon mot worth your hearing.—The king, eager in the pursuit, rode into a bog, and was dismounted: he was not hurt,—he was soon on his legs, and we were all standing round him. One of his old generals, who was at some distance behind, no sooner saw the king off his horse, but he rode up full gallop to know the cause, “Qu’est ce que c’est? qu’est ce que c’est?” cries the old general, and in he tumbles into the same bog. Count Kevenhuller, with great humour, replied, pointing to the place, “Voilà ce que c’est! voilà ce que c’est!”—Le Keux—Jesse—Wild Sports—White of Selborne—Beckford.

STAGECOACH, s. A coach that keeps its stages; a coach that passes and repasses on certain days for the accommodation of passengers.

STAGER, s. A player; an old cock grouse.

STAGHOUND (Canis Strenuus), s. A hound kept for hunting stags.

The stag-hound is now the largest and most powerful of all the dogs which go under the general term of hound. He is held higher in estimation than any other dog of chase, and has a most commanding and dignified aspect, blended with every mark of intellectual mildness.

It has been asserted by the most celebrated naturalists, that the hound, harrier, turnspit, water-dog, and spaniel, are originally of the same race; and there seem to be strong reasons for believing this to be the case, as their figures and instinctive properties are nearly allied in all of these kinds; the principal difference consisting in the length of their legs and the size of their ears, which are in all of them soft in their texture and pendulous. The hound and harrier are supposed to be the natives of Britain, France, and Germany, an opinion which is attended with some degree of reason, for when transported to warmer climates they quickly degenerate.

It seems extremely probable that this large, strong, and bony hound was the primeval stock from which all the collateral branches of this race have descended, and that all deviations from the original stem have been the result of crosses and improvements, during many centuries, by those skilled in rearing and breeding dogs of the chase, and varied in size and strength, according to the particular sport for which they are intended. At the present day there cannot be a doubt but that the practical breeder, by judicious crosses, can either enlarge or diminish the stature and strength of his pack in the course of three or four generations.

The stag-hounds exclusively devoted to that sport, in the royal establishment of this country, it is well known, have been an improved cross between the old English southern hound and the fleeter foxhound, grafted upon the bloodhound.

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Things gradually continue thus to improve in proportion as the face of the country becomes more cultivated, till animals of the chace are greatly reduced in number, so much so, that even the stag is now but seldom seen in a state of nature in this country, decreasing as the sequestered places of its abode become fewer. They are now only to be met with in a state of unrestrained freedom in those extensive moors upon the borders of Cornwall and Devonshire, and in some places of the Highlands of Scotland, and the mountains of Kerry in Ireland, in which last place they add greatly to the beauty and magnificence of the justly celebrated Lake of Killarney, where they are pursued with hound and horn.

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There is a fine breed of buck-hounds in Richmond Park, and their sagacity is very extraordinary. In taking the deer, according to annual custom, either for the royal hunt or for the fattening paddocks, a stag or a buck, which has been previously fixed upon, is ridden out of the herd by two or three of the keepers in succession, each of whom is closely followed by a hound, the young dogs only being kept in slips. As soon as the deer has been separated from his companions, the dogs have the requisite signal given to them, and they immediately follow in pursuit. The scene is then highly interesting. A strong deer will afford a very long chase, but when he comes to bay the dogs generally seize him by the throat or ears; the keepers come up, take him by the horns, and after having strapped his hind and fore legs together, put him into a cart which follows for the purpose, and he is then disposed of as he may be wanted. I have seen an active young keeper throw himself from his horse upon a deer at bay, which he had come up to at full gallop, and hold his horns till assistance arrived. Some danger, however, attends this sport; as, when a deer has been hard pressed, I have seen him, in more than one instance, suddenly turn upon the horsemen and injure the horses, and in one case wound the leg of the horseman. The dogs are so well trained, and are so soon made aware which buck is intended to be caught, that they seldom make a mistake, even if the deer regains the herd after having been driven from it, but press him through it, till they have again separated him from it. It is well known that when a hard pressed deer tries to rejoin his companions, they endeavour to avoid and get away from him as much as possible, or try to drive him away with their horns. So severe is the chase in Richmond Park in taking deer, especially when the ground is wet, that three or four good horses may be tired by a single horseman in one day’s deer taking, if each deer is ridden out of the herd, and followed till he is taken. When dogs are in slips, the man who holds them merely rides as near as he can to the person who is endeavouring to single out the deer, and awaits his signal for slipping the dog. These dogs who are a large, rough sort of greyhound, and very powerful and sagacious, are soon taught not to injure the deer when they come to them. The cry of ‘hold them,’ made use of by the keepers in urging them forward, seems to be perfectly understood by the dogs.—Brown—Jesse.

STAGGARD, s. A four-year-old stag.

STAGGERS, s. A kind of horse apoplexy; madness.

STAGNATE, v. To lie motionless, to have no course or stream.

STAIN, v. To blot, to spot, to dye.

STAKE, s. A post or strong stick fixed in the ground; a piece of wood; anything placed as a palisade or fence; the post to which a beast is tied to be baited; anything pledged or wagered; the state of being hazarded, pledged, or wagered.

STALK, v. To walk with high steps; to walk behind a stalking horse or cover; to follow deer.

STALKINGHORSE, s. A horse, either real or fictitious, by which a fowler shelters himself from the sight of the game.

STALL, s. A crib in which an ox is fed, or where any horse is kept in the stable.

STALLFED, a. Fed not with grass but dry feeding.

STALLION, s. A horse kept for mares; a horse not castrated.

STANCH, v. To stop blood, to hinder from running.

STAND, s. A station; a place where one waits standing; station; a stop; a halt; stop, interruption; the act of opposing; highest mark; stationary point.

STANDHOUSE, s. A building erected on a racecourse, to accommodate the subscribers or company generally.

STAR, s. One of the luminous bodies that appear in the sky; the pole star; mark on the forehead of a horse.

STARE, v. To be rough in the coat, as a horse.

STARFISH, s. A fish branching out into several points.

STARHAWK, s. A kind of hawk.

STARLING or STARE, (Sturnus vulgaris, LINN.; L’Etourneau, BUFF.) s. A bird that may be taught to whistle, and articulate words.

The length of this bird is somewhat less than nine inches. The bill is straight, sharp-pointed, and of a yellowish brown; in old birds deep yellow; the nostrils are surrounded by a prominent rim; the eyes are brown; the whole plumage is dark, glossed with green, blue, purple, and copper, but each feather is marked at the end with a pale yellow spot; the wing-coverts are edged with yellowish-brown; the quill and tail-feathers dusky, with light edges; the legs are of a reddish-brown. From the striking similarity, both in form and manners, observable between this bird and its congeners, we have no scruple in removing it from its usual place, as it evidently forms a connecting link between them, and in a variety of points seems equally allied to both. Few birds are more generally known than the stare, it being an inhabitant of almost every climate; and as it is a familiar bird, and easily trained in a state of captivity, its habits have been more frequently observed than those of most other birds. The female makes an artless nest in the hollows of trees, rocks, or old walls, and sometimes in cliffs overhanging the sea; she lays four or five eggs, of a pale greenish-ash colour; the young birds are of a dusky-brown colour, till the first moult. In the winter season these birds fly in vast flocks, and may be known at a great distance by their whirling mode of flight, which Buffon compares to a sort of vortex, in which the collective body performs a uniform circular revolution, and at the same time continues to make a progressive advance. The evening is the time when the stares assemble in the greatest numbers, and betake themselves to the fens and marshes, where they roost among the reeds; they chatter much in the evening and morning, both when they assemble and disperse. So attached are they to society, that they not only join those of their own species, but also birds of a different kind, and are frequently seen in company with red-wings, fieldfares, and even with crows, jackdaws, and pigeons. Their principal food consists of worms, snails, and caterpillars; they likewise eat various kinds of grain, seeds, and berries, and are said to be particularly fond of cherries. In a confined state they eat small pieces of raw flesh, bread soaked in water, &c.; are very docile, and may easily be taught to repeat short phrases, or whistle tunes with great exactness, and in this state acquire a warbling superior to their native song.

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The time to shoot starlings by wholesale is just before the dusk of the evening, when they come down to roost among the reeds. Here they assemble in swarms, that darken the air; and for some time keep up a chatter, which even surpasses that of Frenchmen in their warmest political debates.

Having swept down some dozens with your duck-gun, let their heads be immediately pulled off; as this will, in a great degree, prevent their having a bitter taste.

Starlings are very good when stewed with rice, or made into a curry.

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Before I conclude under the head of starlings, I must ask leave to become my own trumpeter, in order to name a shot that I made at these birds, which will give some idea as to the manner in which they swarm together. Happening, in the early part of last winter, to have put my punt afloat on Lord Rodney’s pond, at Alresford, I loaded my new double swivel-gun with a pound of small shot in each barrel, and a little before day-light paddled across to a retired part of the pond, where the reeds were literally swarming with these birds. Having placed the punt “stern on,” so as to command the eastern light, and shoot well clear of the reeds, I gave a little signal, as previously agreed on, to Mr. Macilwain (who, with Captain Hill, was in another punt behind) to discharge both barrels of my little double gun. On hearing this report up sprung the whole army, consisting I should say of every starling in Hampshire, and making the valley echo like a peal of thunder. No sooner had they cleared the reeds than I opened my battery, and cut such a lane through them, as I could scarcely have thought possible, and the quantity of feathers which came flying back to leeward, I could compare to nothing but a fall of black snow. What number were killed and wounded we never could ascertain, from the extreme difficulty of getting the birds that fell among the reeds and quagmires, but we fairly bagged two hundred and forty-three, as fast as they could be picked up, and the workmen, when the reeds were cut down, declared that they found between two and three hundred more; for this, however, I have only their word, though there is no reason to doubt it, as we all felt confident that at least five hundred fell in this one volley.—Bewick—Hawker.

STARRED, a. Marked with stars.

STARSHOOT, s. A supposed emission from a star.

START, v. To feel a sudden and involuntary twitch or motion of the animal frame; to wince; to deviate; to set out from the barrier at a race; to set out upon any pursuit; to alarm.

START, s. A motion of terror; a sudden twitch or contraction of the frame; a sudden rousing of an animal; a quick spring or motion; first emission from the barrier; act of setting off.

Start in Racing.—The person appointed to start the horses shall mark in his list the time when the horses in each race actually started; and if there have been any false starts, the first of them shall be considered as the time of starting for that race. And he shall make a report thereof to the keeper of the match-book in the afternoon of the day the races are run. And if any delay beyond the allowed time shall have taken place, he shall state by whom, or by what cause, the delay was occasioned. He shall regulate his watch by the coffee-room clock, which shall be considered as the true time for this purpose.—Turf Expositor.

STARTLE, v. To fright, to impress with sudden terror.

STARVELING, s. An animal thin and weak for want of nourishment.

STEEL, s. Steel is a kind of iron, refined and hardened, of great use in the making of tools and instruments of all kinds; chalybeate medicines.

STEEL, v. To point or edge with steel; to make hard or firm.

STEELYARD, s. A kind of balance, in which the weight is moved along an iron rod, and grows heavier as it is removed farther from the fulcrum.

STEEPLE CHACE, s. A race over the country by hunters.

STEER, s. A young bullock.

STEM, v. To oppose a current, to pass across or forward notwithstanding the stream.

STERN, s. The hinder part of anything; the tail of a dog.

STERN (Sterna nigra, LINN.), s.

This species is less than the common tern; weight about two ounces and three-quarters; length ten inches; bill black; irides dusky; forehead, sides of the head, beneath the eyes, throat, and fore part of the neck white; the rest of the head, back of the neck, and under part of the body, black; back, wings, and tail, deep ash-colour; vent and under tail-coverts white; the tail is less forked than in either of the other species; the outer feathers edged with white; legs dull red, the webs much indented or semipalmated. In some the forehead and fore part of the neck are mottled with black; and as most authors have omitted, or at least have not made mention of any white on the forehead, such is probably another variety. The female has no white about the head.—Montagu.

STERNA (LINN.), s. Tern, a genus thus characterised:—

Bill as long, or longer than the head, almost straight, compressed, fringed, cutting and pointed; the mandibles of equal length, the upper slightly inclined towards the point; nostrils towards the middle of the bill, slit lengthwise, and pierced from part to part; legs small, naked to above the knee; shank very short; four toes, the three fore ones reunited by a cut membrane, the hind toe free; claws small and arched; tail more or less forked; wings very long and pointed, the first quill the longest.

STEW, v. To seeth anything in a slow moist heat.

STEW, s. A storepond, a small pond where fish are kept for the table.

STICKLEBACK, s. The smallest of fresh water fish; applied to a horse means heavy, lazy, not flippant.

The stickleback is the smallest fish in this country, and is called by several names in different parts of it; they are not worthy the angler’s notice, except as baits with the prickles cut off (which kills the fish), for which purpose they are equal to the minnow, or superior in pond fishing for perch; they may be taken with the least sized hook, and a bit of small red worm, and are found in little inlets of streams, and also in stagnated waters. Walton considers the stickleback preferable to the minnow, as being capable of whirling round quicker, which is the perfection of this sort of fishing: to acquire this velocity, the hook is to be put in at the mouth and out at the tail, and having first tied him with white thread a little above the tail, and placed him in such a manner on the hook as he is likely to turn quick, his mouth is then sewed up to the line; should he not whirl so speedily as is wished, the tail should be more or less turned towards the inner part, or side of the hook, or put somewhat more crooked or straight on the hook, until it turns both true and fast: in a swift stream any great trout will be tempted; the loach will have the same effect, provided it be small.—Daniel.

STIFF, a. Rigid, inflexible; stiff country, heavy soil, much enclosed, difficult to ride over or pass through.

STIFLE, s. The bone of a horse.

The upper bone of the thigh is united to the lower by a somewhat complicated joint. It terminates by two round prominences behind, which are received into slight depressions on the upper surface of the lower bone; and in front is a curious groove over which plays a small irregular bone, the patella or stifle bone. The whole is called, by farriers, the stifle joint.

The stifle joint is not often subject to sprain. The heat and tenderness will guide to the seat of injury. Occasionally, dislocation of the patella has occurred, and the horse drags the injured limb after him, or rests it on the fetlock: the aid of a veterinary surgeon is here requisite. The muscles of the inside of the thigh, generally, have sometimes been sprained; this may be detected by diffused heat, or heat on the inside of the thigh above the stifle: rest, fomentations, bleeding, and physic, will be the proper means of cure.—The Horse.

STILTS, s. Supports or poles by which water may be crossed.

STIMULATE, v. To excite by some pungent motive; in physic, to excite a quick sensation, with a derivation towards the part.

STINT, v. To bound, to limit, to confine, to restrain; to impregnate a mare.

STIRRUP, s. An iron hoop suspended by a strap, in which the horseman sets his foot when he mounts or rides.

STOAT, s. An animal of the weasel tribe.

This animal, which is equally agile and mischievous with the weasel in pursuit and destruction of the hare, and all other sorts of game, poultry, and eggs, has, from its habits and the small difference in shape from the weasel, been often described under the same denomination. Its height is about two inches; the tail five and a half, very hairy, and at the points tipped with black; the edges of the ears and ends of the toes are of a yellowish white; in other respects it perfectly resembles the weasel in colour and form. In the most northern parts of Europe the stoat regularly changes its colour in winter, and becomes perfectly white, except the end of the tail, which remains invariably black. It is then called the ermine: the fur is valuable, and sold in the country where caught, from two to three pounds sterling per hundred. The animal is either taken in traps, made of two flat stones, or shot with blunt arrows.

The stoat is sometimes found white during the winter season in Great Britain, and is then commonly called the white weasel. Its fur, however, having neither the thickness, the closeness, nor the whiteness, of those which come from Siberia, is, with us, of little value.

To destroy these worst of all four-footed vermin to game in its infant state, the following mode is recommended:—Provide small square-made steel traps, with a small chain and iron peg to fix them down; get two drachms of musk, shoot some small birds, and dip the tail of these birds in the musk; tie one on the plate of each trap, and set in the hedges, or where it is suspected they frequent: this will soon reduce the number, should it be ever so considerable: if it so happen, that no musk is immediately to be got, the trap must be baited with a bit of rabbit; and it should be remembered that this bait cannot be too stale.

* * * * *

Some time since, as Mr. Clarke, of Horndean, was going a few miles on foot, in the forest of Bere, to visit a friend, he observed a hare come into the green road before him, which seemed to be listening, and looking back for something which pursued her. He stood still, and hearing no dog, was curious to discover the cause of her alarm; when, to his great surprise, he discovered the object of it to be a small yellow red and white stoat, which hunted her footsteps with the utmost precision. He, wishing to know if so diminutive an animal could have a chance of coping with the great speed of the hare, retreated to a holm-bush hard by, where he was an attentive observer of this silent hunt for near two hours, during which, he is certain to have seen both hare and stoat at least forty times. They were frequently gone for five or ten minutes; but the hare, still unwilling to leave the place where she was found, came round again, and her little pursuer sometimes close at her heels. Towards the end of this remarkable chase, which became uncommonly interesting, the hare took advantage of the thickest covert the place afforded, and made use of all her cunning and strength to escape, but without effect; till at length, wearied out by the perseverance of the stoat, Mr. C. heard her cry for some time.

At last, the cries coming from one point, he concluded she was become the victim of the chase; on which he went to the spot, where he found the hare quite dead, and the stoat so intently fastened on her neck, as not to perceive his approach. The stoat, in its turn, now fell a victim to Mr. C’s stick; after which, he proceeded with both hare and stoat to the house of his friend.—Sporting Anecdotes.

STOCK, s. The trunk, the body of a plant; a log; a post; the handle of anything; a support of a ship while it is building; a close neckcloth; a race, a lineage, a family. Vide GUN.

STOCK, v. To store, to fill sufficiently; to fit a gun stock.

STOCKDOVE, s. The ringdove.

STOCKFISH, s. Dried cod, so called from its hardness.

STOMACH, s. The ventricle in which food is digested; appetite.

Stomach of Birds.—The stomach of birds forms them into two distinct natural classes: those with cartilaginous stomachs, covered with very strong muscles, called a gizzard; and those with membranaceous stomachs, more resembling that of carnivorous quadrupeds. The former is given to birds whose principal food is grain and seeds of various kinds, or other hard substances that require much friction to comminute, to assist which gravel is necessary; the latter is given to birds which feed upon flesh or fish, and whose digestion is accelerated more by the gastric juice than by the action of the stomach. Those of the first class digest or retain every substance swallowed; and those which eject or disgorge innutritious matter unavoidably taken in, such as feathers, fur, bones, &c., belong to the second class; as is conspicuous in the falcon (Falconidæ, LEACH), and owl (Strigidæ, Leach), and others that feed on fish. Granivorous birds seem to possess a power of retaining the small stones taken into the gizzard, or evacuating them when they become polished and less useful, but cannot disgorge them. In a state of nature the quantity of gravel taken in must be regulated, no doubt, by the sensation of the stomach; but, extraordinary as it may seem, in domesticated animals those instinctive faculties are deranged. We have known instances where the whole cavity of the gizzard has been filled with gravel stones. We once remember part of a brood of young ducks, half grown, taking in such a quantity of gravel, as not only filled the gizzard but the craw, and even the gullet; they soon after died. Many species of birds possess a reservoir for food, called a craw, or crop, which seems to answer the same purpose as the first stomach in ruminating animals, and here it is that the food is softened and prepared for the stomach, or carried to the young.

* * * * *

DISEASES OF THE STOMACH.

Flatulent colic, gripes, &c.—This is a disorder of considerable importance, and often terminates in inflammation of the bowels, entirely from the circumstance of not being sufficiently understood. The symptoms are well known. The horse is very uneasy, paws his litter, looks round to his flanks, sometimes endeavours to kick his belly, gathers up his hind legs, and falls down rather suddenly, rolls upon his back, suddenly gets up again, and appears in extreme pain. The pulse is in its natural state, and the inner surface of the eyelids is not unusually red. The disorder comes on suddenly, the animal being previously in good health. The horse is sometimes costive, but not often, and in some cases the dung is rather loose. Bleeding can scarcely be considered an essential remedy in this complaint, because it is often cured without it. But it is a safe practice, as the distension of the bowels by the confined air may otherwise produce inflammation before relief is afforded. It should never therefore be omitted. The next thing to be done is to give some carminative medicine; and about a pint of brandy or gin and water is as good a carminative as can be given: on all common occasions it may be considered the best, because it is the most innocent as well as effectual. There are cases, however, where the stomach has been so injured by ill treatment, that a more powerful medicine is required. The following tincture should then be given in the dose I shall soon name. Brandy and water, however, that is, from four to six ounces of brandy to twelve ounces of water, should always be preferred, because it is sufficiently strong, in almost all cases, to answer the purpose. For it should be known that the strong medicines usually employed in this disorder, especially oil of turpentine and peppermint, pepper, large doses of ginger and grains of paradise and opium, though they generally afford relief, are sure to increase the disposition to the disorder by weakening the stomach. The weakest stimulant, therefore, that will afford relief with certainty should be preferred, and its repetition avoided for the future, by avoiding the causes which produced the disorder, and these will soon be pointed out.

It sometimes happens, and not unfrequently, that there is an accumulation of excrement in the cœcum, by which the valvular orifice is so completely obstructed, that it cannot be overcome by any efforts of the stomach, though excited by opium and the most powerful carminatives. Clysters in this case will always afford relief, if properly administered; that is, by means of a large ox’s bladder and a long pewter pipe, not less than fourteen or fifteen inches in length. The only clyster required is from half a pound to a pound of salt, and five or six quarts of warm water. This will excite the whole of the large bowels to action, and dislodge the fæces from the cœcum. By this means the animals may always be relieved, and without it he will in such cases certainly die.

There are cases of flatulent colic, however, which are in their nature incurable, that is, first, when there is such a quantity of food taken into the stomach, and the digestive power of the organ has been so depressed by previous disorder, that no effort it can make, however powerfully it may be excited, can enable it to get rid of its contents. Secondly, when the horse is put to work, and into quick exercise in that state: such cases are by no means uncommon in post and coach horses, and rupture of the stomach is sometimes the consequence. When this happens, the horse breaks out into a profuse, but very cold perspiration, is extremely depressed, breathes quickly; the pulse can scarcely be felt, but is very quick. It is soon followed by death. The distension of the small intestines sometimes forces a portion of them through the mesentery, in such a manner that one coil of it becomes so completely tied that the included air cannot escape.

ANODYNE CARMINATIVE TINCTURES, RECOMMENDED FOR RELIEVING COLIC.

Turkey opium 1 oz. Cloves, bruised 2 oz. Ginger, ditto 3 oz. Brandy, rum, or gin 1 quart.

Or,

Turkey opium, cloves, and ginger, of each 1 oz. The best old brandy, rum, or gin 1 quart.

Let them be digested together in a well-corked bottle, and shaken several times a day for three or four weeks. It is then to be strained through blotting paper, and is fit for use. The medium dose is two ounces, which may be given in a little mild ale, or an infusion of some aromatic herb, such as peppermint, pennyroyal, camomile, &c. Mr. Bracey Clarke recommends a tincture made with allspice, bruised, half a pound; brandy, gin, or rum, two quarts. The following mixture has been found effectual.

Camphor ½ oz. Oil of turpentine 6 oz. Mix.

One half of this is a dose, and if the first dose does not afford relief, the second, it is said, has always been found effectual.

I am inclined to believe that flatulent colic is sometimes brought on by drinking largely of cold pump water, or hard water, in hot weather.

Stomach staggers, or sleepy staggers—Paralysis of the stomach.—The symptoms of this disorder are great heaviness and drowsiness, resting the nose in the manger, or inclining the head, and resting the cheek, or bearing against the wall. The head is forced against the manger, or rack, or the nose between the rack staves. In this way the eyes and face are often much bruised and swollen. The horse stands with his fore leg much under him, appearing to give way every now and then, as if he would fall. There is an appearance of convulsive twitching of the muscles of the neck and chest. There is, too, a great degree of yellowness, approaching to orange-colour, of the membranes of the eyes, and often a yellowness of the mouth also. Urine scarcely any, and high-coloured; sometimes none is voided, and sometimes it is discharged by a convulsive effort. Sometimes the disorder is attended with locked jaw, ending in paralysis and death. In the early stage of the disorder the horse is sometimes suddenly roused by opening the stable door, he lifts up his head, and sometimes neighs; but this is only a momentary effort. When the disease happens at grass, the animal is generally found forcing his head against the hedge, or a gate, or moving about in a state of stupor and apparent insensibility. Sometimes he is found struggling in a ditch, and in that situation he often dies.

As soon as stomach staggers are observed, the horse should be bled, in order to relieve the head in some degree; but the principal object is to enable the stomach to get rid of the load which oppresses it. Various remedies have been proposed for this purpose. The best I believe are purgatives joined with cordials and stimulants, and small quantities of warm water frequently, in order to soften the contents of the stomach. Clysters of salt and water are useful also, and should be thrown up several times a day. The disease is often incurable, probably from a want of early attention.

When medicine cannot be readily procured, two or three tablespoonfuls of flower of mustard, and three or four ounces of common salt may be tried.

DRENCH FOR THE STAGGERS.

No. 1.

Barbadoes aloes 6 dr. to 1 oz. Calomel 2 dr. Oil of peppermint 20 drops. Warm water 1 pint. Tincture of Cardamoms 2 oz.

Mix for one dose.

No. 2.

Common salt 4 oz. Ginger 2 dr. or 2 teaspoonfuls. Carbonate of soda 1 oz. Water 1 quart.

Mix for one dose.

About a quart of water may be given every now and then with a horn; and if a teaspoonful or two of compound spirit of ammonia (sal volatile) be added to it, the effect will be promoted. A tablespoonful or two of common salt may also be added three or four times a day. The horse should be drenched and clystered during the night as well as the day; in short, without unremitting attention success must not be expected.—Montagu—White.

STOMACHIC, s. A medicine for the stomach.

STONE, s. Stones are bodies insipid, hard, not ductile or malleable, not soluble in water; calculous concretion in the kidneys or bladder.

STONECHATTER, s. A bird; the wheatear.

STONEFLY, s. An insect.

STONEHAWK, s. obs. A kind of hawk.

STONEHORSE, s. A horse not castrated; a stallion.

STONEPLOVER, s. A bird, commonly called the red godwit.

STOOLBALL, s. obs. A play where balls are driven from stool to stool.

STOOP, v. To bend down; to bend forward; to submit; to descend from rank or dignity; to come down on prey as a falcon: to alight from the wing.

STOOP, s. Act of stooping; fall of a bird upon his prey.

STOP, v. To hinder from progressive motion; to teach dogs to stand to game.

Stopping for the Feet.—A mixture of clay and cowdung, or either of these separately, is commonly used for this purpose; and, by keeping the bottoms or soles of the feet moist and cool, often does good. In soles that are too thin and soft, or for the frogs when in that state, the following composition is more proper:

Tallow and tar, of each 1 lb. To be mixed by melting together.

Mr. Goodwin has contrived a kind of boot for keeping the feet cool and moist, as well as for applying the above composition.—White.

STORK, s. A bird of passage, famous for the regularity of its departure.

STRAGGLER, s. A wanderer; a rover; anything that separates from the rest, or stands singly.

STRAIN, v. To squeeze through something; to purify by filtration; to sprain, to weaken by too much violence; to put to its utmost strength.

STRAIN, s. An injury by too much violence; race, generation, descent.

STRAND, s. The verge of the sea or of any water; a division or portion of a rope.

STRANGLES, s. A disease incident to young horses.

The treatment of strangles is very simple. As the essence of the disease consists in the formation and suppuration of the tumour under the jaw, the principal, or almost the sole attention of the practitioner should be directed to the hastening of these processes; therefore, as soon as the tumour of strangles evidently appears, the part should be actively blistered. Old practitioners used to recommend poultices, which, from the thickness of the horse’s skin, must have very little effect, even if they could be confined on the part; and from the difficulty and almost impossibility of this, and their getting cold and hard, they must weaken the energies of nature, and delay the ripening of the tumour. Fomentations are little more effectual. A blister will not only secure the completion of the process, but hasten it by many days, and save the patient much pain and exhaustion; and it will produce another good effect—it will, previous to the opening of the tumour, abate the internal inflammation and soreness of the throat, and thus lessen the cough and wheezing.

If there is much fever, and evident affection of the chest, and which should carefully be distinguished from the oppression and choaking occasioned by the pressure of the tumour, it will be proper to bleed.

A few cooling medicines, as nitre, emetic tartar, and perhaps digitalis, may be given, as the case requires. The appetite, or rather the ability to eat, will return with the opening of the abscess. Bran-mashes, or fresh cut grass or tares, should be liberally supplied; which will not only afford sufficient nourishment to recruit the strength of the animal, but keep the bowels gently open. If the weakness be not great, no further medicine will be wanted, except a dose of mild physic, to prevent the swellings or eruptions which sometimes succeed to strangles. In cases of debility, a small quantity of tonic medicine, as camomile, and gentian with ginger, in doses of a couple of drachms, may be administered.—The Horse.

STRANGURY, s. A difficulty of urine, attended with pain.

STRAP, s. A narrow long slip of cloth or leather.

STRAW, s. The stalk on which corn grows, and from which it is threshed.

STRAWCOLOURED, a. Of a light yellow.

STREAM, s. A running water; the course of running water; current.

STRETCHER, s. Anything used for extension; the timber against which the rower plants his feet.

STRIDE, s. A long step, a wide stretch of the legs; the pace of a horse.

STRINGHALT, s. A sudden twitching and snatching up of the hinder leg of a horse much higher than the other.

STRIPE, s. A lineary variation of colour; a shred of a different colour; a weal, or discoloration made by a lash or blow; a blow, a lash.

STRUCTURE, s. Act of building, form, make; edifice, building.

Under the term Structure of the Eye, Mr. White, describing its anatomy and physiology, divides the subject into two parts, that is, the eye itself and its appendages. Under the latter head, he comprehends the eyelids, the muscles which move it, the eyelashes, the lachrymal gland, the puncta lachrymalia, and lachrymal duct, the caruncle of the eye, the haw, and the membrane named conjunctiva, and the muscles by which the eye is moved.

He then proceeds:—Having described the appendages, as they are termed, I shall proceed to a description of the eye itself, the structure and economy of which is most curious and interesting. It is said to be composed of coats and humours, and this perhaps is the best manner of considering it. The first coat that appears is the cornea, or glass of the eye, which forms the anterior part, and is beautifully transparent. It is not of a circular form, as in man, but of an irregular oval, or rather oblong form, when examined out of the socket; but in its natural situation in the living horse, that part which projects beyond the eyelids is of a regular oval, or rather of an oblong form, and corresponding in some degree with the form of the pupil. It forms a larger portion of the globe of the eye than in man, and, by its convexity, causes the rays of light which pass through it to converge towards the pupil. This convexity may be too great or too little, and in either case render vision somewhat imperfect, and cause starting. The convexity of the cornea is preserved by the fluid which it incloses, named aqueous humour. On puncturing the cornea this fluid escapes, and then the cornea becomes flat and wrinkled. On removing the cornea the iris appears, which is a thin delicate brown or blackish muscle, with an oblong hole in the centre, named pupil. The iris is composed of two orders of fibres; the one circular, which, by contracting, diminishes, and even closes the aperture in the centre, named pupil; the other radiated, which by contracting, opens or enlarges the aperture or pupil. The second humour of the eye is situated immediately behind the pupil, and is named crystalline humour, or crystalline lens. On taking it out it appears to be a solid and beautifully transparent double convex lens, the posterior surface of which is more convex than the anterior one. It is found to become denser and denser from the circumference to the centre, and the slightest pressure so deranges it as to lessen or destroy its transparency.

The crystalline humour may be considered as composed of numerous concavo-convex lenses, admirably fitted to each other; those of the largest size having their circumference or edge opposed to and nicely joined to each other, thus forming altogether a double convex lens. The point of union between the two largest lenses is embraced by a band of muscular fibres, disposed in a circular direction, and named the ciliary ligament. These, by contracting, assisted probably by the muscles of the eye, increase the convexity of the crystalline lens, or rather of the series of concavo-convex lenses, of which the eye is composed, in a manner so just and equal, as to adapt it to the distance of the object at which the animal is looking, while, by the relaxation of these muscular fibres, the convexity of the lens is diminished by its own elasticity. These changes take place with inconceivable rapidity and accuracy. There are other muscular fibres proceeding from the band of circular fibres named ciliary processes, in a straight, or rather radiated, direction, towards the second coat of the eye, named tunica choroides; these are so arranged as to be drawn into folds, by which disposition they are enabled to perform their office more easily, which is that of drawing the lens towards the optic nerve, and thereby increasing the intensity of vision, whereby the animal is enabled to see small objects distinctly. The crystalline lens is inclosed in a transparent capsule, which is not in contact with it, there being about one drop, as it is computed, of a transparent liquid interposed, which, from the anatomist’s name who first observed it, has been called ‘liquor Morgagnii.’

I have seen a case where the convexity of the lens has been so increased, by an unusual degree of contraction of the circular fibres, named ciliary ligament, that it burst the capsule, and was forced out of its situation. I found it lying with its posterior convex surface on the inferior margin of the iris; about half of it appearing in the anterior chamber of the eye, as it is termed. The transparency of the lens was not affected, at least, it appeared so to me, and I rather think the accident had occurred, just at the time I observed it, from twitching the horse violently. In cataract, a disorder in which the crystalline lens becomes opaque, it always becomes globular in its form from an irritable state of the band of circular fibres; the same effect may be observed in the circular fibres of the iris, causing the pupil to be small, even in a moderate light, while the inflammation is going on, which occasions the cataract; but when the opacity is such as to exclude the light from the posterior part of the eye, which contains the third or vitreous humour, with the choroid coat, retina, and optic nerve, then the circular fibres relax, and the radiated fibres draw up the iris somewhat irregularly, which adhering to the capsule of the opaque lens, the pupil remains permanently open.

All that part of the eye which is posterior to the iris, is chiefly occupied by the third, or vitreous humour, and it is in this humour that the crystalline lens is imbedded. The vitreous humour is perfectly transparent, and consists of a fluid, inclosed in numerous small transparent cells, all of which appear to be inclosed in one delicate transparent membrane, named tunica arachnoidea. If the vitreous humour is cut, by snipping it with scissors, a fluid, like water, drops from it freely, so that it appears to be nothing more than water, probably holding a little salt in solution, which escapes when the transparent cells are thus cut open.

That part of the vitreous humour in which the lens is imbedded is different from the other parts, and of the consistence of jelly. Immediately behind the ciliary ligament, as it is termed, the arachnoid coat may be inflated with a small blowpipe, and made to resemble a circular canal; this has been called from the name of the person who first observed it, the circular canal of Petit. It is supposed to be connected with the radiated fibres of the iris. I have seen the whole of this humour in the eye of a sheep that had an hydatid in the right ventricle of the brain, of the consistence of jelly.

It is now time to speak of the optic nerve, and its appendage, the retina, with the third coat of the eye, named tunica choroides. The retina is a delicate transparent membrane, which embraces the vitreous humour, and is supposed to be an expansion or production of the optic nerve, serving to receive the impressions of objects, in order that they may be conveyed by the optic nerve to the organ of vision, named thalamus nervi optici, or speaking of both organs, thalami nervorum opticorum. After death, the retina becomes opaque, and of a light grey colour. It is so delicate a membrane, that there is some difficulty in preserving it for exhibition unless the eye is quite fresh. Under the retina lies the choroid coat, which is nothing more than a plexus of blood vessels, covered with a mucus substance of different colours. In the human eye it is black, which is the cause of the human pupil, or apple of the eye, appearing black; but in the horse it is variegated with mucus of a purple, a blue, a green, and a black colour, which, blending together, causes the pupil to appear of a dark blue colour. This mixture of colours in the bottom of the eye, or choroid coat, has been named tappetum lucidum.

The last and most considerable coat of the eye is the sclerotic coat, which is a very strong thick membrane, including all the other coats and humours, except the cornea. The sclerotic coat forms the greater portion of the globe of the eye, and is intimately united towards the anterior part with the cornea, which may be viewed as bearing the same relation to the sclerotic coat, as the glass of a watch does to the case. By maceration in water the cornea separates from the sclerotic coat completely.

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Diseases of the eye.—Though the horse’s eye is commonly supposed to be subject to a variety of diseases, they may, without impropriety, be comprehended under two heads. That is, disorders which arise from internal causes, and such as are occasioned by blows, bites, and other accidents. The former are generally, I may say almost always, incurable; that is, they are incapable of a perfect cure, or, in other words, the eye is very rarely perfectly restored after being so affected, unless a complete cataract, or total blindness, takes place in one eye.—White.

STUB, s. A thick short stock left when the rest is cut off; a log, a horse nail.

STUB-BARREL, s. Vide BARREL.

STUBBLE, s. The stalks of corn left in the field by the reaper.

STUBBORN, a. Obstinate, stiff, inflexible; harsh, rough, rugged.

STUB-NET, s.

Stub-nets are very useful in catching carp or trout, when they flee to the banks. They should be made of very strong twine, inch and quarter mesh, be nine feet long, with cork and lead line; upon which there should be plenty of each: a few widenings should be thrown into the middle, so that there may be a little appearance of a bag; the net is then to be firmly fastened (so that it stands from lead to cork, three or four feet deep) to two ash pitchfork handles, shod with iron spikes at one end. In surrounding a stub, one spike is to remain fixed in the ground, whilst the other is thrust underneath the stub: the fish, thus annoyed, try to regain the deep water, and strike into the bosom of the net, which is then hoisted up, the fish taken out, and the net put down for other trials. If the stubs are very jagged, both spikes are to be stuck in the ground as close as possible to the harbour, and the parties grope with their hands, and those fish which escape their fingers are caught in the stub-net.

STUD, s. A post, a stake; a nail with a large head driven for ornament; a collection of breeding horses and mares.

STUMBLE, v. To make to trip or stop.

STUMBLE, s. A trip in walking.

STUMP, s. The part of any solid body remaining after the rest is taken away.

STUNT, v. To hinder from growth.

STUPE, s. Cloth or flax dipped in warm medicaments, applied to a hurt or sore.

STUPE, v. To foment, to dress with stupes.

STURGEON, s. A sea fish.

STURK, s. A young ox or heifer.

STURNIDÆ (VIGORS), s. Starlings, a family of perchers (Insessores, VIGORS).

STURNUS (LINN.) s. Starling, a genus thus characterised.

Bill strait, depressed, rather obtuse, and slightly awl-shaped, the base of the upper mandible advancing upon the front; the point depressed; nostrils at the sides of the base, and partly closed by a prominent rim; wings long, the first feather very short, the second and third the longest in the wing, and of nearly equal length; feet with three toes before and one behind, the middle toe being united to the outer one as far as the first joint.—Montagu.

STY, s. A cabin to keep hogs in; any place of low debauchery.

STY, v. To shut up in a sty.

STYPTIC, a. The same as astringent, but generally expresses the most efficacious sort of astringents, or those which are applied to stop hæmorrhages.

Styptics are medicines which constringe the blood-vessels when wounded, so as to stop an effusion of blood. Many preparations have been recommended for this purpose: but when the size of the wounded vessel is at all considerable, an adequate degree of pressure by means of bolsters and bandages is alone to be depended upon; and when that cannot be done, the vessel must be tied up above the wound and below, by which the bleeding will be effectually suppressed. No danger is to be apprehended from slight bleedings in the horse, as they always cease spontaneously.

The styptics commonly employed are oil of turpentine, diluted vitriolic acid, muriate of iron, absorbent earths, and flour.—White.

SUBLIMATE, s. Anything raised by fire in the retort; quicksilver raised in the retort.

SUCK, s. The act of sucking; milk given by females.

SUDATORY, s. Sweating.

SUDORIFIC, s. A medicine provoking sweat.

SUET, s. A hard fat, particularly that about the kidneys.

SULPHUR, s. Brimstone.

SULPHUROUS, a. Made of brimstone, having the qualities of brimstone; containing sulphur.

SUMMED, s. A term in falconry to describe the hawk’s condition when fully feathered, and ready to leave the mew.

SUMMER, s. The season in which the sun arrives at the hither solstice.

Summering Hunters.—Lest it should be supposed that I am averse to turning hunters out at all in the summer months, it will be better, perhaps, not to proceed farther without explaining myself on that head. So far from being averse to it, I would strongly recommend it, under favourable circumstances. In case of having recourse to blistering, it is most serviceable; and after firing, almost necessary; but then they should be turned out only at night, and into a place where there is but little grass, and have two, if not three feeds of corn a day, but nothing else to eat till they go out, unless it be a few vetches, for four or five days at a time, when they are young and tender, in the months of May or June; but this should not be repeated more than three or four times, as they tend to make horses very foul, and when in pod are most injurious to them. It is not every one who keeps hunters that has paddocks to turn them into; nor, indeed, do they fall to the lot of many; but when they are to be had the advantage is great, as a horse is safe in them, and the smaller they are, within reason, the better; for it is not the grass that we want, but the exercise and the moisture of the ground for their feet, and the bracing effects of the pure air. If only one or two hunters are turned into a large paddock, and the grass grows upon them, some sheep should be put in with them to keep it down. Their bite also sweetens the herbage, and makes it more nutritious; but paddocks should never be mown. Paddocks, however, are always to be made, and at a trifling expense. A small piece of ground—say thirty square yards—is sufficient. Let it be hurdled round, and then lined with fagots reared up from seven to eight feet high. A stallion may be kept in these places with the greatest safety as to his breaking out of them, for he will never attempt it so long as he cannot see through or over the fence. The fagots, so far from being worse, are better for the use they are put to; and they are within the reach of every one who resides in the country, at five shillings a score, if he do not grow them himself. The hurdle that lets the horse in and out should often be changed, and then he will be still less inclined to attempt to break out.

However beneficial this turning out a horse in the summer may be, it is comparatively trifling with the advantages that are reaped by a winter’s run. I have seen horses, as it were, renovated in their constitution, by being turned out for a winter; and, as far as relates to their legs and feet, it is, I think, the only time when anything effectual can be done for them, when the injury has been considerable.—

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It is said that the Earl of Plymouth first tried the plan of summering his hunters altogether within the stable, with little variation in their treatment; by which it is asserted their condition was fully preserved, and that, by this means, his horses entered on their hunting season in full wind, speed, and bottom. Others, to avoid this extreme, have soiled their hunters in the stable, or have given carrots; and some have gone a step further, and have pursued the in-door summering, not in stables, but in loose boxes. Still, in all these cases, regular exercise is required, or the feet must suffer, or the horses are apt to become pursy, thick-winded, roarers, or broken-winded. This exercise is apt to be severe, and then the wear on the limbs continues the deterioration which the hunting season had brought on. But if a sportsman had one, two, or three hunters only, and would use them gently every day as hacks, he might then summer them in this way without injury to the horses, provided they had not suffered much from strains or foot lamenesses; in which case absolute rest would of course be requisite. It would therefore seem from all this, that a medium plan, which should combine the renovating effects of air, mild exercise, moisture to the feet, and the relaxent effects of grass, might be followed with much more propriety and hope of general advantage than either total turning out on grass, or total confining within on hay.

The box summering of hunters, in my opinion, is of this kind, and consists in allowing each hunter his liberty in a loose box, having fly wire casements and closed doors during the day, in which he is to be moderately fed with corn and hay. At night, unless it be stormy or very cold, he is to be turned out into a small sheltered paddock, which affords only a short bite of upland grass, of which an acre is sufficient for each horse; but not more than three should be together, to avoid violent racing about amongst them, and other accidents. When the field is eaten quite bare, a similar plot may be substituted; but, in all cases, an open shed within each field, independent of the boxes, should afford a refuge against accidental storms and rain. At an early hour every morning the hunter should be taken to his box, from whence he is not again to come out till the evening, unless a very favourable gloomy day offers itself. Carrots may be substituted for part of the corn and hay with advantage in stable summering; which variation, and many others, will present themselves, and prove beneficial, when the true principles on which the subject should be considered form the basis of the determination. The treatment of the feet during this period must be regulated by circumstances; one or two quiet horses, used to each other, may be allowed to range together without removing the hinder shoes; but it is always a safer plan to take them off, unless the ground be very hard, or the box be paved. This latter circumstance can always be obviated, by allowing these boxes to be covered over either with tan, sod, or other soft matter; but boxes expressly built for this particular purpose would be better altogether unpaved; in which case, to avoid dust, and to keep the flooring cool, it might be moderately watered every morning. The fore feet may be tipped, particularly if at all inclined to contraction; or should they become hard, hot, and dry, such means must be made use of as the medical parts of the work direct, under diseases of the feet. The general state of the horse ought also be attended to, as his bowels, that they do not become costive; and the skin, that it do not become hide-bound or eruptive, or that a short dry cough may not steal a march unobserved on him. The careful and intelligent groom must watch over the health of his in-door summered horses with vigilance, and alter his plan according to circumstances; but the still more prudent owner would do well to have them inspected weekly by a well-informed veterinary surgeon.—Nimrod—Blaine.

SUPPLE, a. Pliant, flexible; fawning, bending.

SUPPURATE, v. To grow to pus.

SUPPURATION, s. The ripening of the matter of a tumour into pus.

SURCINGLE, s. A girth with which the saddle or sheet is secured.

SUREFOOTED, a. Treading firmly, not stumbling.

SURFEIT, v. To feed with meat or drink to satiety and sickness.

SURFEIT, s. A disease incident to horses and dogs.

Large pimples or lumps often suddenly appear on the skin of the horse, and especially in the spring; and occasionally they disappear as quickly as they come. Sometimes they seem to be attended with great itching, but in others they appear not in the least to annoy the animal. When they have remained a few days, the cuticle frequently peels off, and a small scaly spot, though rarely a sore, is left. This is called a surfeit, from its resemblance to some eruptions on the skin of the human being, when indigestible or unwholesome food has been taken. These lumps are, in some cases, confined to the neck; but they oftener spread over the sides, back, loins, and quarters.

Bleeding will always be beneficial—from three to five quarts may be taken, according to the strength of the horse, the extent of the eruption, and the degree of fever. Physic never does good. Alteratives will be found useful—and particularly the alterative which was recommended for hide-bound, and in the same doses. These should be given on several successive nights. The night is better than the morning, because the warmth of the stable will cause the antimony and sulphur to act more powerfully on the skin. The horse should be warmly clothed—half an hour’s walking exercise should be given, an additional rug having been thrown over him—such green meat as can be procured should be used in moderate quantities, and the chill should be taken from the water.

* * * * *

A cuticular eruption, called surfeit, is a fourth appearance that mange frequently assumes. It seems, in many cases, the consequence of some active inflammatory state of the constitution, frequently of some great local internal inflammation; in which cases it puts on something of an acute form. It sometimes breaks out suddenly in bitches after pupping; and in dogs newly recovered from distemper; in fact, any great vascular excitement may produce it; thus, when a dog travels during a great part of a very hot day, and becomes afterwards exposed to cold, a surfeit is oftentimes the consequence. It is usually seen in the form of partial blotches, it being seldom that it extends universally over the body. In some cases there is little appearance of elevated scab; but large patches show themselves, from which the hair has fallen, and left the skin bare and rough from the branny scaly eruption, which itches with more or less violence. Some sportsmen allege that a surfeit is sometimes occasioned by giving food in a hot state. Salt provisions have certainly brought it on; and long-continued feeding on oat or barley meal has done the same.—The Horse—Blaine.

SURGERY, s. The art of curing by manual operations.

SUTURE, s. A manner of sewing or stitching, particularly wounds.

SWALLOW (Hirundo, AUCTORES), s. A genus of perchers (Insessores, VIGORS), of which we have three species natives—the bank, the chimney, and the window swallow.

SWALLOW, s. A small bird of passage, or, as some say, a bird that lies hid and sleeps in winter.

Swallows are found in every country of the known world, but seldom remain the whole year in the same climate; the times of their appearance and departure in this country are well known: they are the constant harbingers of Spring, and on their arrival all nature assumes a more cheerful aspect. The bill of this genus is short, very broad at the base, and a little bent: the head is flat, and the neck scarcely visible; the tongue is short, broad, and cloven; tail mostly forked; wings, legs short.

Of all the various families of birds, which resort to this island for food and shelter, there is none which has occasioned so many conjectures respecting its appearance and departure as the swallow tribe. The habits and modes of living of this tribe are perhaps more conspicuous than those of any other. From the time of their arrival to that of their departure they seem continually before our eyes.

The swallow lives habitually in the air, and performs its various functions in that element; and whether it pursues its fluttering prey, and follows the devious windings of the insects on which it feeds, or endeavours to escape the birds of prey by the quickness of its motion, it describes lines so mutable, so varied, so interwoven, and so confused, that they hardly can be pictured by words.

Not many attempts have been made to preserve swallows alive during the winter, and of these few have succeeded. The following experiments, by Mr. James Pearson of London, we shall give nearly in his own words.

Five or six of these birds were taken about the latter end of August, 1784, in a bat fowling-net, at night; they were put separately into small cages, and fed with nightingales’ food; in about a week or ten days they took food of themselves; they were then put altogether into a deep cage, four feet long, with gravel at the bottom; a broad shallow pan with water was placed in it, in which they sometimes washed themselves, and seemed much strengthened by it. One day Mr. Pearson observed that they went into the water with unusual eagerness, hurrying in and out again repeatedly, with such swiftness as if they had been suddenly seized with a frenzy. Being anxious to see the result, he left them to themselves about half an hour, and on going to the cage again, found them all huddled together in a corner, apparently dead; the cage was then placed at a proper distance from the fire, when only two of them recovered, and were as healthy as before; the rest died. The two remaining ones were allowed to wash themselves occasionally for a short time only; but their feet soon after became swelled and inflamed, which Mr. P. attributed to their perching, and they died about Christmas; thus the first year’s experiment was in some measure lost. Not discouraged by the failure of this, Mr. P. determined to make a second trial the succeeding year, from a strong desire of being convinced of the truth respecting their going into a state of torpidity. Accordingly, the next season, having taken some more birds, he put them into the cage, and in every respect pursued the same methods as with the last; but to guard their feet from the bad effects of damp and cold, he covered the perches with flannel, and had the pleasure to observe that the birds throve extremely well; they sung their song through the winter, and soon after Christmas began to moult, which they got through without any difficulty, and lived three or four years, regularly moulting every year at the usual time. On the renewal of their feathers, it appeared that their tails were forked exactly the same as in those birds which return hither in the spring, and in every respect their appearance was the same. These birds, says Mr. Pearson, were exhibited to the Society for promoting Natural History, on the 14th day of February, 1786, at the time they were in a deep moult, during a severe frost, when the snow was on the ground. Minutes of this circumstance was entered in the books of the society. These birds died at last from neglect, during a long illness which Mr. Pearson had; they died in the summer. Mr. Pearson concludes his very interesting account in these words:—January 20, 1797. I have now in my house, No. 21, Great Newport-street, Long Acre, four swallows in moult, in as perfect health as any birds ever appeared to be when moulting.—Bewick.

SWALLOW, v. To take down the throat; to ingulf.

SWAMP, s. A marsh, a bog, a fen.

SWAMPY, a. Boggy, fenny.

SWAN, s. A large waterfowl.

Mute Swan. (Anas Cygnus Mansuetus, LINN.; Le Cygne, BUFF.)—The plumage of this species is of the same snowy whiteness as that of the wild swan, and the bird is covered next the body with the same kind of fine close down; but it greatly exceeds the wild swan in size, weighing about twenty-five pounds, and measuring more in the length of the body and extent of the wings. This also differs in being furnished with a projecting callous black tubercle, or knob, on the base of the upper mandible, and in the colour of the bill, which in this is red, with black edges and tips: the naked skin between the bill and the eyes is also of the latter colour: in the wild swan this bare space is yellow.

The manners and habits are much the same in both kinds, particularly when they are in a wild state; for indeed this species cannot properly be called domesticated; they are only as it were partly reclaimed from a state of nature, and invited by the friendly and protecting hand of man to decorate and embellish the artificial lakes and pools which beautify his pleasure grounds. On these the swan cannot be accounted a captive, for he enjoys all the sweets of liberty. Placed there, as they are the largest of all the British birds, so are they to the eye the most pleasing and elegant.

The swan, although possessed of the power to rule, yet molests none of the other water birds, and is singularly social and attentive to those of his own family, which he protects from every insult. While they are employed with the cares of the young brood, it is not safe to approach near them, for they will fly upon any stranger, whom they often beat to the ground by repeated blows, and they have been known by a stroke of the wing to break a man’s leg. But, however powerful they are with their wings, yet a slight blow on the head will kill them.

The swan for ages past has been protected on the Thames as royal property, and it continues at this day to be accounted felony to steal their eggs. By this means their increase is secured, and they prove a delightful ornament to that noble river. Latham says, in the reign of Edward IV. the estimation they were held in was such, that no one who possessed a freehold of less than the clear yearly value of five marks, was permitted even to keep any. In those times hardly a piece of water was left unoccupied by these birds, as well on account of the gratification they gave to the eye of their lordly owners, as that which they also afforded when they graced the sumptuous board at the splendid feasts of that period; but the fashion of those days is passed away, and swans are not nearly so common now as they were formerly, being by most people accounted a coarse kind of food, and consequently held in little estimation; but the cygnets (so the young swans are called) are still fattened for the table, and are sold very high, commonly for a guinea each, and sometimes for more: hence it may be presumed they are better food than is generally imagined.

The female makes her nest, concealed among the rough herbage, near the water’s edge; she lays from six to eight large white eggs, and sits on them about six weeks (some say eight weeks) before they are hatched. The young do not acquire their full plumage till the second year.

It is found by experience that the swan will not thrive if kept out of the water; confined in a court-yard he makes an awkward figure, and soon becomes dirty, tawdry, dull, and spiritless.

At the setting in of frosty weather the wild swans are said to associate in prodigious multitudes, and thus united, to use every effort to prevent the water from freezing: this they accomplish by the continual stir kept up amongst them; and by constantly dashing it with their extended wings, they are enabled to remain as long as it suits their convenience, in some favourite part of a lake or river which abounds with their food.

The swan is very properly entitled the peaceful monarch of the lake: conscious of his superior strength, he fears no enemy, nor suffers any bird, however powerful, to molest him; neither does he prey upon any one. His vigorous wing is as a shield against the attacks even of the eagle, and the blows of it are said to be so powerful as to stun or kill the fiercest of his foes. The wolf or the fox may surprise him in the dark, but their efforts are vain in the day. His food consists of the grasses and weeds, and the seeds and roots of plants which grow on the margin of the water, and of the myriads of insects which skim over, or float on its surface; also occasionally of the slimy inhabitants within its bosom.

The female makes her nest of the withered leaves and stalks of reeds and rushes, and lays commonly six or seven thick-shelled white eggs: she is said to sit upon them six weeks before they are hatched. Both male and female are very attentive to their young, and will suffer no enemy to approach them.

Wild Swan. (Anas Cygnus ferus, LINN.; Le Cygne Sauvage, BUFF.)—Measures five feet in length, and above seven in breadth, and weighs from thirteen to sixteen pounds. The bill is three inches long, of a yellowish white from the case to the middle, and thence to the tip, black; the bare space from the bill over the eye and eyelids is yellow; the whole plumage in adult birds is of a pure white, and, next to the skin, they are clothed with a thick fine down; the legs are black.

This species generally keep together in small flocks, or families, except in the pairing season, and in the setting in of winter. At the latter period they assemble in immense multitudes, particularly on the large rivers and lakes of the thinly inhabited northern parts of Europe, Asia, and America: but when the extremity of the weather threatens to become insupportable, in order to shun the gathering storm, they shape their course high in air, in divided and diminished numbers, in search of milder climates. In such seasons they are not uncommonly seen in various parts of the British isles, and in other more southern countries of Europe. The same is observed of them in the North American states. They do not, however, remain longer than till the approaching of the spring, when they again retire northward to the arctic regions to breed. A few, indeed, drop short, and perform that office by the way, for they are known to breed in some of the Hebrides, the Orkney, Shetland, and other solitary isles; but these are hardly worth notice: the great bodies of them are met with in the large rivers and lakes near Hudson’s Bay, and those of Kamtschatka, Lapland, and Iceland. They are said to return to the latter place in flocks of about a hundred at a time in the spring, and also to pour in upon that island from the north, in nearly the same manner, on their way southward in the autumn.

Swan-Goose. (Anas Cygnoides, LINN.; L’Oie de Guinée, BUFF.)—This species is more than a yard in length, and is of a size between the swan and the common-goose; it is distinguished from others of the goose tribe by its upright and stately deportment, by having a large knob on the root of the upper mandible, and a skin, almost bare of feathers, hanging down like a pouch, or a wattle, under the throat; a white line or fillet is extended from the corners of the mouth over the front of the brow; the base of the bill is orange; irides reddish-brown; a dark-brown or black stripe runs down the hinder part of the neck, from the head to the back; the fore part of the neck, and the breast, are yellowish-brown; the back, and all the upper parts, brownish-grey, edged with a lighter colour; the sides, and the feathers which cover the thighs, are clouded with nearly the same colours as the back, and edged with white; belly white; legs orange.

It is said that these birds originally were found in Guinea only; the breed has, however, now become pretty common, and they are widely dispersed, in a wild as well as a domesticated state, over various parts of the world, both in warm and in cold climates.

They are found wild about the lake Baikal, in the east of Siberia, and in Kamtschatka; and they are kept tame in most parts of the Russian empire.

These geese, like others of the tame kind, vary much both in colour of the bill, legs, and plumage, as well as in size; but they all retain the knob on the base of the upper mandible, and the pouch or wattle under the gullet.

They are kept by the curious in various parts of England, and are more noisy than the common goose; nothing can stir either in the night or in the day, without their sounding the alarm, by their hoarse cacklings, and loud shrill cries. They breed with the common goose, and their offspring are as prolific as those of any other kind. The female is of a smaller size than the male; the head, neck, and breast are fulvous; paler on the upper part; the back, wings, and tail, dull brown, with pale edges; belly white; in other respects they are like the male, but the knob over the bill is smaller.—Bewick.

SWARD, s. The skin of bacon; the surface of the ground.

SWARM, s. A great body or number of bees or other small animals; a multitude, a crowd.

SWART or SWARTH, a. Black, darkly brown, tawny.

SWEEPNET, s. A net that takes in a great compass.

SWEEPSTAKE, s. A man that wins all; a prize at a race.

SWIFT, a. Moving far in a short time, quick, fleet, speedy.

SWIFT, (Cypselus murarius, TEMMINCK,) s. A bird like a swallow.

This species is nearly an ounce in weight: length near eight inches: breadth about eighteen; the bill is black; irides dusky; the whole plumage is black, except the chin, which is whitish; the wings are extremely long in proportion, and the legs so short that it rises from the ground with difficulty; the tail is forked; legs and toes black. It has four toes, all placed forward. In this particular it deviates from one of the characters of the swallow genus.

In very warm weather these birds soar to a great height, but in cold or moist weather fly low in search of flies and other winged insects, which at that time cannot ascend.—Montagu.

SWIFTNESS, s. Speed, rapidity, velocity.

SWIM, v. To float on the water, not to sink; to move progressively in the water by the motion of the limbs; to be conveyed by the stream; to glide along with a smooth or dizzy motion; to be dizzy.

An accidental fall into water may be most dangerous to those ignorant of the art of swimming, by observing the directions here given, a person may save himself from drowning. If he falls into deep water, he will rise to the surface by floating, and will continue there if he does not elevate his hands, and the keeping them down is essential to his safety. If he moves his hands under the water, in any way he pleases, his head will rise so high as to allow him free liberty to breathe. And if, in addition, he moves his legs exactly as in the action of walking up stairs, his shoulders will rise above the water, so that he may use less exertion with his hands, or apply them to other purposes.

Swimming of Birds.—The superior velocity with which aquatic birds swim under water has not wholly escaped notice; but it is not entirely produced by the action of the wings, which are sometimes used as fins to accelerate the motion, but is occasioned by the pressure of the water above. In swimming on the surface a bird has two motions; one upward, the other forward, at every stroke of the feet; so that when covered with water, that force which was lost by the upward motion is all directed to the progressive, by which it is enabled to pursue its prey, or to escape an enemy with incredible speed. The otter and water rat swim much faster under water than they do upon the surface.—Montagu.

SWINE, s. A hog, a pig, a sow.

SWOOP, v. To fall at once as a hawk upon its prey; to prey upon; to catch up.

SWOOP, s. Fall of a bird of prey upon his quarry.

SYCAMORE, s. A tree.

SYLVAN, a. Woody, shady.

SYLVIA (LATHAM), s. Warbler, a genus thus characterised:—

Bill slender, rather awl-shaped, and straight; but with the point of the upper mandible slightly bent and notched; lower mandible straight; base more high than broad; nostrils at the sides of the base oval, and partly covered with a membrane: legs having the shank longer than the middle toe; toes three before and one behind, the outer toe being joined at its base to the middle one; wings with the first quill very short, sometimes indeed wanting; the second and third nearly of equal length; wing coverts and scapulars short.—Montagu.

SYMPATHETIC, a. Having mutual sensation, being affected by what happens to the other.

SYMPATHY, s. Fellow feeling, mutual sensibility, the quality of being affected by the affection of another.

Animals which are unable to associate with their own species will sometimes form most strange attachments. I had last year a solitary pigeon, who, being unable to procure a mate, attached itself to an old barn-door fowl, whose side it seldom left at night, roosting by him in the hen-house. The cock seemed sensible of the attachment of the pigeon, and never molested it, or drove it from him.

At Aston Hall, in Warwickshire, I remember to have seen a cat and a large fierce bloodhound, who were always together, the cat following the dog about the yard, and never seeming tired of his society. They fed together, and slept in the same kennel.

Some animals of the same species form also strong attachments for each other. This was shown in the case of two Hanoverian horses, who had long served together during the peninsular war, in the German brigade of artillery. They had assisted in drawing the same gun, and had been inseparable companions in many battles. One of them was at last killed; and after the engagement the survivor was picqueted as usual, and his food brought to him. He refused, however, to eat, and was constantly turning round his head to look for his companion, sometimes neighing, as if to call him. All the care that was bestowed upon him was of no avail. He was surrounded by other horses, but he did not notice them; and he shortly afterwards died, not having once tasted food from the time his former associate was killed. A gentleman who witnessed the circumstance assured me that nothing could be more affecting than the whole demeanour of this poor horse.—Jesse.

SYMPTOMATIC, a. Happening concurrently; betokening.

SYRINGE, s. A pipe through which any liquor is squirted.

Syringe, v. To spout by a syringe; to wash with a syringe.

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TABBY, a. Brinded, brindled; term applied to a cat.

TADPOLE, s. A young shapeless frog or toad, consisting only of a body and a tail.

TAGTAIL, s. A worm which has the tail of another colour.

TAIL, s. That which terminates the animal behind, the continuation of the vertebræ of the back hanging loose behind; the lower part; the hinder part of anything; to turn tail, to run away.

When a dog is cropped, it is usual also to cut off a portion of the tail. Dog fanciers, as they are termed, commonly bite it off; but it were to be wished that a larger portion was added to both their knowledge and humanity. The tail does not grow materially after cutting, therefore the length may be previously determined on with sufficient accuracy, and cut off with a pair of sharp scissors. If the ears and tail are cut off at the same time, it is prudent to tie a ligature about the tail, to prevent the effusion of blood, as sometimes the bleeding, from both ears and tail together, will weaken the animal too much, and early distemper may follow; but when the tail alone is cut, no ligature is necessary. When a ligature is used, neither tie it too tight, nor suffer it to remain more than twelve hours. On the twisting off either the ears or tail, I will waste no invective; for if the cruelty does not strike the performer, I am sure no assertion of mine, that it is far inferior in every point of view to excision, and has for ever deafened many it has been practised on, will be attended to.—Blaine.

TALLOW, s. The grease or fat of an animal, suet.

TALON, s. The claw of a bird of prey.

TAME, a. Not wild, domestic; crushed, subdued, depressed, spiritless, unanimated.

TAME, v. To reduce from wildness, to reclaim, to make gentle; to conquer.

TAN, v. To impregnate or imbue with bark; to imbrown by the sun.

TAN, s. A dark brown colour: the marks of a terrier.

TANSY, s. A plant.

This plant grows abundantly about the borders of fields; it has a strong bitter taste, and rather a pleasant odour. It may be employed in the form of a decoction as a vehicle for tonic or stomachic medicines. It has been said to possess an anthelmintic quality, but I believe there is no foundation for this opinion. It is used also in fomentations.—White.

TAR, s. Liquid pitch.

Tar Ointment.—This is a good remedy for thrushes, and other diseases of the frog. It appears to promote the growth of horn by gently stimulating the secretory vessels of that part.

The rotten parts of the frog having been carefully removed with a knife, and the rest well cleansed, the tar is to be melted and poured into the cleft or cavity; a pledget of tow is then to be laid on the part, and confined by some proper contrivance. In bad cases a small proportion of sulphuric acid should be carefully mixed with the tar; and when a thrush has degenerated into the disease termed canker, a larger proportion of the acid should be employed.

Tar mixed with oil of turpentine and cantharides forms a strong blister. Farriers sometimes employ tar as a remedy for cough; but it more frequently aggravates than relieves the complaint.

Tar, when mixed with verdigris, or finely powdered blue, or white vitriol, forms a good liniment or ointment for canker or thrushes. It may be occasionally employed also with alum. Tar is an excellent stopping for flat thin soles, mixed with tallow: in the latter form it makes a good hoof ointment, and when rubbed about the coronet and hoof, is said to render the hoof tough.—White.

TARGET, s. A kind of buckler or shield borne on the left arm.

TARPAWLING, s. Hempen cloth smeared with tar.

TARRIER, s. A sort of small dog that hunts the fox or otter out of his hole. In this sense it ought to be written and pronounced Terrier, which see.

TEAL (Anas Crecca, Linn.; La Petite Sarcelle, BUFF.), s. A wild fowl.

This beautiful little duck seldom exceeds eleven ounces in weight, or measures more, stretched out, than fourteen inches and a half in length, and twenty-three and a half in breadth.

The bill is a dark lead colour, tipped with black; irides pale hazel; a glossy bottle green patch, edged on the upper side with pale brown, and beneath with cream-coloured white, covers each eye, and extends to the nape of the neck: the rest of the head, and the upper part of the neck, are of a deep reddish chestnut, darkest on the forehead, and freckled on the chin and about the eyes with cream-coloured spots: the hinder part of the neck, the shoulders, part of the scapulars, sides under the wings, and lower belly, towards the vent, are elegantly pencilled with black, ash-brown, and white transverse waved lines; the breast, greatly resembling the beautifully spotted appearance of an India shell, is of a pale brown or reddish yellow, and each feather is tipped with a roundish heart-shaped black-spot: the belly is a cream-coloured white: back and rump brown, each feather edged with a pale colour: vent black: the primary quills, lesser and greater coverts, are brown; the last deeply tipped with white, which forms a bar across the wings; the first six of the secondary quills are of a fine velvet black; those next to them, towards the scapulars, are of a most resplendent glossy green, and both are tipped with white, forming the divided black and green bar or beauty spot of the wings.

The tail consists of fourteen feathers, of a hoary brown colour; with pale edges: the legs and feet are of a dirty lead colour. The female, which is less than the male, is prettily freckled about the head and neck with brown and white. She has not the green patch behind the eyes, but a brown streak there, which extends itself to the nape of the neck; the crown of the head is dark brown; the upper mandible yellow on the edges, olive green on the sides, and olive brown on the ridge; nail black, and the under bill yellow; breast, belly, and vent glossy yellowish white, spotted on the latter parts with brown; the upper plumage is dark brown, each feather bordered with rusty brown, and edged with grey: the wings and legs nearly the same as those of the male.

The teal is common in England in the winter months, but it is uncertain whether or not they remain throughout the year to breed, as is the case in France. The female makes a large nest, composed of soft dried grasses, (and, it is said, the pith of rushes) lined with feathers, cunningly concealed in a hole among the roots of reeds and bulrushes near the edge of the water, and some assert that it rests on the surface of the water, so as to rise and fall with it. The eggs are of the size of those of a pigeon, six or seven in number, and of a dull white colour, marked with small brownish spots; but it appears that they sometimes lay ten or twelve eggs, for Buffon remarks that that number of young ones are seen in clusters on the pools, feeding on cresses, wild chervil, &c., and no doubt, as they grow up, they feed, like other ducks, on the various seeds, grasses, and water plants, as well as upon the smaller animated beings with which all stagnant waters are so abundantly stored. The teal is highly esteemed for the excellent flavour of its flesh: it is known to breed, and remain throughout the year in various temperate climates of the world, and is met with as far northward as Iceland in the summer.

* * * * *

Of all the prizes that a wildfowl shooter could wish to meet with, a flock of teal is the very first. Independently of their being by far the best birds of the whole anas tribe, they are so much easier of access, and require such a slight blow, that no matter whether you are prepared for wild fowl, partridges, or snipes, you may at most times with very little trouble contrive to get near them; and this being once done, you have only to shoot straight to be pretty sure of killing.

I have seen teal “duck the flash,” though never but once, and then I had rather a slow shooting gun.

If you spring a teal, he will not soar up and leave the country like a wild duck, but most probably keep along the brook, like a sharp flying woodcock, and then drop suddenly down; but you must keep your eye on the place, as he is very apt to get up again and fly to another before he will quietly settle. He will frequently, too, swim down the stream the moment after he drops, so that if you do not quickly cast your eye that way, instead of continuing to look for him in one spot, he will probably catch sight of you and fly up, while your attention is directed to the wrong place. If the brook in which you find him is obscured by many trees, you had better direct your follower to make a large circle, and get a head of, and watch him, in case he should slily skim away down the brook, and by this means escape from you altogether. You should avoid firing at random, as this may drive him quite away from your beat.—Bewick—Hawker.

TENCH, s. A small pond-fish.

The tench is generally prized as a fine rich fish in England, but it is not so much esteemed on the continent: the Germans, in derision, call it the Shoemaker. They take red worms best in the spring; and gentles, not too much scoured, or sweet paste, in the hot months. Use a fine gut-line, quill-float, and No. 9 or 10 hook; fish close to the bottom, and ground-bait with small pellets of bread, or chewed bread, or bread and bran mixed; or throw in about half-a-dozen gentles, or pieces of worms, frequently, close to your float. When the large tench take a bait, especially in still waters, they take or suck it in slowly, and generally draw the float straight down; strike immediately it disappears.

The tench will breed in rivers, lakes, and ponds, but they thrive best in those ponds where the bottom is composed of loamy clay, or mud, and in foul and weedy waters; they will sometimes bite very free all day in summer, during warm, close, dark weather, particularly while small, misty rain descends; at other times, only late in the evening, or early in the morning.—Salter.

TENDON, s. A sinew, a ligature by which the joints are moved.

TENNIS, s. A play at which a ball is driven with a racket.

A tennis court is usually ninety-six or ninety-seven feet long, by thirty-three or four in breadth. A net hangs across the middle, over which the ball must be struck, to make any stroke good. At the entrance of a tennis-court there is a long covered passage before the dedans, the place where spectators usually are, into which, whenever a ball is played, it counts for a certain stroke. This long passage is divided into different apartments, which are called galleries, viz. from the line towards the dedans, is the first gallery; door, second gallery; and the last gallery, is what is called the service-side. From the dedans to the last gallery are the figures, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, each at a yard distance, marking the chaces, one of the most essential parts of this game. On the other side of the line is the first gallery; door, second gallery; and last gallery, what is called the hazard-side; every ball played into the last gallery on this side tells for a certain stroke, the same as into the dedans. Between the second and this last gallery are the figures 1, 2, marking the chaces on the hazard-side. Over this long gallery is the pent-house, on which the ball is played from the service-side to begin a set of tennis, and if the player should fail striking the ball (so as to rebound from the pent-house) over a certain line on the service-side, it is reckoned a fault; and two such faults following are counted for a stroke. If the ball pass round the pent-house, on the opposite side of the court, and fall beyond a particular described line, it is called passe, goes for nothing, and the player is to serve again.

On the right hand of the court from the dedans, a part of the wall projects more than the rest, in order to make a variety in the stroke, and render it more difficult to be returned by the adversary, and is called the tambour: the grill is the last thing on the right hand, in which if the ball be struck, it is reckoned 15, or a certain stroke.

A set of tennis consists of six games, but if what is called an advantage set be played, two successive games above five games must be won to decide; or in case it should be six games all, two games must still be won on one side to conclude the set.

When the player gives his service in order to begin the set, his adversary is supposed to return the ball, wherever it falls after the first rebound, untouched; for example: if at the figure 1, the chace is called at a yard, that is to say, at a yard from the dedans; this chace remains till a second service is given, and if the player on the service side should let the ball go after his adversary returns it, and the ball fall on or between any one of these figures, they must change sides, for he will be then on the hazard-side to play for the first chace, which if he win by striking the ball so as to fall, after its first rebound, nearer to the dedans than the figure 1, without his adversary being able to return it from its first rebound, he wins a stroke, and then proceeds in like manner to win a second stroke, &c. If a ball fall on a line with the first gallery, door, second gallery, or last gallery, the chace is likewise called at such or such a place, naming the gallery, &c. When it is just put over the line, it is called a chace at the line. If the player on the service-side return a ball with such force as to strike the wall on the hazard-side, so as to rebound, after the first hop, over the line, it is also called a chace at the line.

The chaces on the hazard-side proceed from the ball being returned either too hard, or not hard enough: so that the ball, after its first rebound, falls on this side the line which describes the hazard-side chaces, in which case it is a chace at 1, 2, &c. provided there be no chace depending, and according to the spot where it exactly falls. When they change sides, the player, in order to win this chace, must put the ball over the line, any where, so that his adversary does not return it. When there is no chace on the hazard-side, all balls put over the line from the service-side, without being returned, reckon.

The game, instead of being marked one, two, three, four, is called for the first stroke, fifteen; for the second, thirty; for the third, forty; and for the fourth, game, unless the players get four strokes each; then, instead of calling it forty all, it is called deuce, after which, as soon as any stroke is got, it is called advantage; and in case the strokes become equal again, deuce again; till one or the other gets two strokes following, to win the game.

The odds at this game are very uncertain, on account of the chances: and various methods of giving odds have been used to render a match equal.

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At the time when tennis play was taken up seriously by the nobility, new regulations were made in the game, and covered courts erected, wherein it might be practised without any interruption from the weather. In the sixteenth century tennis-courts were common in England, and the establishment of such places countenanced by the example of the monarchs.

We have undoubted authority to prove that Henry VII. was a tennis player. In a MS. register of his expenditures made in the thirteenth year of his reign, and preserved in the remembrancer’s office, this entry occurs:—“Item, for the king’s loss at tennis, twelve-pence; for the loss of balls, three-pence.” Hence one may infer, that the game was played abroad, for the loss of the balls would hardly have happened in a tennis court. His son Henry, who succeeded him, in the early part of his reign was much attached to this diversion; which propensity, as Hall assures us, “being perceived by certayne craftie persons about him, they brought in Frenchmen and Lombards to make wagers with hym, and so he lost muche money; but when he perceyved theyr crafte, he eschued the company and let them go.” He did not however give up the amusement, for we find him, according to the same historian, in the thirteenth year of his reign, playing at tennis with the Emperor Maximilian for his partner, against the prince of Orange and the marquis of Brandenborow: “the earl of Devonshire stopped on the prince’s side, and the lord Edmond on the other side; and they departed even handes on both sides, after eleven games fully played.”

James I., if not himself a tennis player, speaks of the pastime with commendation, and recommends it to his son as a species of exercise becoming a prince. Charles II. frequently diverted himself with playing at tennis, and had particular kind of dresses made for that purpose. So had Henry VIII. In the wardrobe rolls we meet with tenes-cotes for the king, also tennis-drawers and tennis-slippers.

A French writer speaks of a damsel Margot, who resided at Paris in 1424, and played at hand-tennis with the palm, and also with the back of her hand, better than any man; and what is most surprising, adds my author, at that time the game was played with the naked hand, or at best with a double glove.—Hoyle—Strutt.

TENT, s. A soldier’s movable lodging place, commonly made of canvass extended upon poles; any temporary habitation, a pavilion; a roll of lint put into a sore; a species of wine deeply red.

TEREBINTHINE, a. Consisting of turpentine, mixed with turpentine.

TERRIER, s. A dog that follows his game underground.

The Scotch Terrier. (Canis terrarius, variety α.)—It is now impossible to trace the origin of the terrier, but from the many characteristics peculiar to itself, we would almost be induced to consider it a primitive race. Certain it is, that this dog has been for many ages assiduously cultivated and trained to the particular sports to which nature seems to have so well adapted him. To the fox, hare, rabbit, badger, polecat, weasel, rat, mouse, and all other kinds of vermin, he is a most implacable enemy; he has also a strong natural antipathy to the domestic cat.

The name terrier seems to be derived from the avidity with which he takes the earth in pursuit of all those animals which burrow.

There are two kinds of terriers,—the rough haired Scotch and the smooth English.

The Scotch terrier is certainly the purest in point of breed, and the English seems to have been produced by a cross from him.

The Scotch terrier is generally low in stature, seldom more than twelve or fourteen inches in height, with a strong muscular body and short and stout legs; his ears small and half pricked; his head is rather large in proportion to the size of his body, and the muzzle considerably pointed; his scent is extremely acute; so that he can trace the footsteps of all other animals with certainty; he is generally of a sand colour or black; dogs of these colours are certainly the most hardy, and more to be depended upon; when white or pied, it is a sure mark of the impurity of the breed. The hair of the terrier is long, matted, and hard, over almost every part of his body. His bite is extremely keen.

There are three distinct varieties of the Scotch terrier, viz. the one above described; another about the same size as the former, but with the hair much longer and somewhat flowing, which gives his legs the appearance of being very short. This is the prevailing breed of the western islands of Scotland. The third variety is much larger than the former two, being generally from fifteen to eighteen inches in height, with the hair very hard and wiry, and much shorter than that of the others. It is from this breed that the best bull-terriers have been produced.

The terrier, amongst the higher order of sportsmen, is preserved in its greatest purity, and with the most assiduous attention; and it seems of the utmost importance not to increase its size, which would render him unsuitable for the purpose in which he is employed, that of entering the earth to drive out other animals from their burrows, for which his make, strength, and invincible ardour, peculiarly fit him. On this account he is the universal attendant upon a pack of fox hounds, and though last in the pursuit he is not the least in value. Indeed a brace of these dogs is considered indispensable in a complete fox-hunting establishment, and they are generally of different sizes, so that the smallest may enter an earth which will not admit the other. As soon as the hounds are thrown into covert, the terrier becomes the busiest in the field when endeavouring to find the fox; whenever the game is started, and the hounds running breast high, and at their utmost speed, this active little animal is seldom far behind, and is sure to be up at the first check. It is when the fox is supposed to have earthed, that the services of the terrier are most essentially required; he enters with the utmost eagerness, and soon informs the ear of the sportsman whether or not he is in, and at what distance from the mouth, when he is speedily dug out.

The principal objection to the reddish coloured terrier in a pack is, that by juvenile sportsmen, in the clamour of the chase, they are frequently hallooed off for a fox.

The English Terrier. (Canis terrarius, variety β.)—This is a handsome sprightly dog, and generally black on the back, sides, and upper part of the head, neck, and tail; the belly and the throat are of a very bright reddish brown with a spot of the same colour over each eye. The hair is short and somewhat glossy; the tail rather truncated, and carried slightly upwards; the ears are small, somewhat erect, and reflected at the tips; the head is little in proportion to the size of the body, and the snout is moderately elongated. This dog, though but small, is very resolute, and is a determined enemy to all kinds of game and vermin, in the pursuit and destruction of which he evinces an extraordinary and untaught alacrity. Some of the larger English terriers will even draw a badger from his hole. He varies considerably in size and strength, and is to be met with from ten to eighteen inches in height.

This dog, or the wire-haired Scotch terrier, is indispensably necessary to a pack of fox-hounds, for the purpose of unearthing the game. From the greater length of leg, from his general lightness, and the elegant construction of his body, he is more adapted for running, and of course better enabled to keep up with the pack than the Scotch terrier.

Mr. Daniel, in his Rural Sports, mentions a match against time with a terrier, which took place in 1794, in which a small dog ran six miles: the first mile in two minutes, the second in four, the third in six, the fourth in eight, and the fifth and sixth in eighteen minutes,—an immense falling off, considering his wonderful speed, and the known stoutness of the terrier. We doubt there has been some unsteadiness either in the watch or watch-holder. He afterwards ran six miles in thirty-two minutes.—Brown.

TESTACEA, s. Shell-fish, the third order of the class Vermes.

TESTACEOUS, a. Consisting of shells, composed of shells; having continuous, not jointed shells, opposed to crustaceous.

TETHER, s. A string by which cattle are held from pasturing too wide.

THAMES’ YACHTS, s. Small vessels of pleasure used by members of the river clubs.

The sailing clubs upon the Thames, comprise the Royal Sailing Society—the Royal Thames’ Yacht-club—the Clarence—British—Royal Yacht, and several minor associations. Throughout the season several cups and prizes are annually given; and the severe and spirited contests between the beautiful small craft which form these fancy fleets, are highly interesting.

The sailing matches on the river are divided into two classes—one above, and the other below the bridges. The smaller yachts, ranging from six to twenty-six tons, are commonly entered for the former, while a larger class contend for prizes sailed for between Greenwich and Gravesend.

These elegant and truly national amusements, appear to be rapidly gaining a prominent place in the list of fashionable recreations; and aquatic sports now occupy that dull and sombre season, from the period hunting ends, till russet autumn summons the sportsman to the field.

THIGH, s. The thigh includes all between the buttock and the knee.

THILL, s. The shafts of a wagon.

THILLHORSE or THILLER, s. The last horse that goes between the shafts.

THIRST, s. The pain suffered for want of drink, want of drink; eagerness, vehement desire.

THOROUGHBRED, a. Completely educated, completely taught; in sporting parlance, applied to racehorses of unblemished pedigree.

THOROUGHPIN, s. A swelling of the capsular ligament attendant on bog spavin.

There are placed in the neighbourhood of joints certain bags, containing a mucous fluid for the purpose of lubricating the parts, and these sometimes become inflamed and enlarge. A similar enlargement is found above the hock, between the tendons of the flexor of the foot, and the extensor of the hock. As from its situation it must necessarily project on both sides of the hock, in the form of a round swelling, it is called a thorough-pin. It is an indication of considerable work, but, except it be of very great size, it is rarely attended by lameness. The mode of treatment must resemble that recommended for wind-galls. Although thorough-pin cannot be pronounced to be unsoundness, yet it behoves the buyer to examine well a horse with thoroughpin, and to ascertain whether undue work may not have injured him in other respects.—The Horse.

THOWL, s. The pin or piece of timber by which the oar is kept steady in rowing.

THRAPPLE, s. The windpipe of any animal.

THROAT, s. The forepart of the neck; the main road of any place.

THROSTLE, s. A species of thrush, a small singing bird. It is said to have the breast darker and the tail shorter than this bird; but there are not sufficient grounds to believe it is distinct from the thrush.

THROTTLE, s. The windpipe.

THROTTLE, v. To choke.

THROW, v. To perform the act of casting; to cast dice; to cast a horse.

Horses are thrown down by means of hobbles. The hobble is about two feet in length, two inches and five-eighths in width, and about a quarter of an inch thick. It is formed by a strong piece of leather, about four feet in length, which, being doubled, has a strong iron buckle included at one end, and firmly sewed in. About four inches and a half further back, a large iron ring is to be sewed in, in the same manner, for the purpose of allowing a strong rope to pass through it easily. The ring, or rather the part so named, may be made straight where it is sewed into the leather, and the rest may be rounded. The remaining part of the leather is to be strongly sewed together, which will make the thickness of it what we have before described. Several holes are to be punched at this end of the hobble, to admit the tongue of the buckle when it is put round the horse’s leg. On the under side of the hobble, a piece of thinner and wider leather is to be fixed, extending from the part where the ring is attached to about half an inch beyond the extremity of the buckle; this is intended to prevent the latter from galling the horse’s leg. The rope should be strong, not twisted tight, but made flexible, like a bell-rope, and about six yards in length. One end of the rope is to be firmly and permanently attached to the ring of one of the hobbles, and this hobble must be placed on the fore-leg, opposite to the side on which the horse is to be thrown. If the hobble to which the rope is attached is placed on the left fore-leg, the other end of the rope is to be passed first through the ring of that on the left hind-leg, then through that on the right hind-leg, next through that on the right fore-leg, and lastly, through the ring, where the rope is attached, that is, the left fore-leg hobble.

By this contrivance it will be readily seen that the legs of the horse may be drawn together, so that if pushed or forced towards the right side, he must of necessity fall. Three men are generally required to pull the rope, in order to draw the legs together; and to render this more easy, the hind-legs should be placed under him as much as possible before any attempt is made to pull the rope. The horse should have blinds, or have his eyes covered with a piece of rug, before the hobbles are put on; it may be necessary, also, to twitch him, and hold up the fore-leg while the hind-leg hobble is putting on. But the twitch must be removed before he is thrown, and not used unless absolutely necessary. The men who are to pull the rope should stand within two yards of the horse, as they then pull with double the force they would at a distance of four yards, their power then having a tendency to draw the legs off the ground, and upwards, which causes him to fall more quickly. One man should stand at the rump, on the left side, to push him when the legs are drawn up together; and one man should hold him steadily by the head, standing in front of him; and as soon as the horse is down, that man should throw himself on the neck, and incline the nose upward, by lifting the halter; thus he can keep the head and neck down without difficulty.

M. Girard, in his Traité du Pied, has proposed an improvement in throwing horses, which is very simple, and should always be employed: but it requires an additional assistant, or two would still be better. If the horse is to be thrown on the right side, a long piece of web, or a rope, is to be fastened round the right fore arm, close up to the elbow. The other end is then to be passed over the withers, and held at a little distance by one or two men. The force which is applied in this way will cause the horse to fall more readily, and with more certainty, and exactly in the situation where he is required to be thrown. This contrivance, therefore, is extremely useful in confined places, where there is just room enough to throw a horse, and no more. The horse being thrown down, and his legs closely drawn together, the end of the hobble rope is to be passed under the hobble rings, between the fore and hind legs, and secured with a hitch, as it is termed, so that he cannot separate them again until the hobbles are unbuckled, and then they all may be taken away at once, and the horse suffered to get up.

In letting the horse get up again, the hobbles must be unbuckled cautiously, beginning with the under fore and hind one. These should be unbuckled gently, and not jerked, as that would cause the horse to struggle, and render it difficult to take them off, or the leg might get loose, and he may thus hurt one of the assistants, who happens to be standing incautiously within the stroke of his fore or hind leg. I have seen hobbles in which the tongues were movable, so that by drawing them out with a pair of pincers the hobbles were all taken off at once.

In performing operations upon the horse, it is not only necessary to throw him down as I have described, but in firing the outside of the fore leg, for example, in the pastern, the hobble must be taken off, and the leg secured by means of a web passed round the leg above the knee, and secured to the upper hind leg, immediately above the hock, or it may be secured to the under fore leg; perhaps both these contrivances would be found useful in strong horses that struggle much. In firing the inside of the fore leg, that is, the under fore leg, nothing more is necessary than to take it out of the hobble, and draw it forwards by means of a web passed round the hoof, or the pastern.

Horses, however, have sufficient power to extend even the under fore leg considerably, unless a man lies on the shoulder, which should always be avoided. It is better to restrain the leg, by passing a web round it above the knee, and fastening the other end to the hind leg above the hock. If then the other three legs are drawn backward, by means of the hobble rope, the under fore leg will be sufficiently exposed for any operation that may be required. In firing the upper hind leg in the pastern, it is necessary to take off the hobble; but the leg must first be secured by means of a web, fastened above the hock, and the other end brought forward, and, under a collar of web, passed round the neck, close to the shoulder. The leg may thus be effectually restrained; but, as an additional restraint, it may be tied also to the under hind leg.—White.

THRUSH, THROSTLE, GREY BIRD, or MAVIS, (Turdus musicus, LINN.; La Grive, BUFF.) s. A small singing bird.

This is larger than the redwing, but much less than the missel, to which it bears a strong resemblance both in form and colours. A small notch is observable at the end of the bill, which belongs to this and every bird of the thrush kind; the throat is white, and the spots on the breast more regularly formed than those of the missel thrush, being of a conical shape; the inside of the wings and the mouth are yellow, as are also the legs; the claws are strong and black.

The throstle is distinguished among our singing birds by the clearness and fulness of its note; it charms us not only with the sweetness, but variety of its song; which it begins early in the spring, and continues during part of the summer. This bold and pleasing songster, from his high station, seems to command the concert of the grove, whilst in the beautiful language of the poet,

“The jay, the rook, the daw, And each harsh pipe (discordant heard alone) Aid the full concert, while the stock-dove breathes A melancholy murmur through the whole.”

The female builds her nest generally in bushes; it is composed of dried grass, with a little earth or clay intermixed, and lined with rotten wood; she lays five or six eggs of a pale-blue colour, marked with dusky spots. Although this species is not considered with us as migratory, it has, nevertheless, been observed in some places in great numbers during the spring and summer, where not one was to be seen in the winter, which has induced an opinion that they either shift their quarters entirely, or take shelter in the more retired parts of the woods. The throstle is migratory in France. M. de Buffon says that it appears in Burgundy about the end of September, before the redwing and fieldfare, and that it feeds upon the ripe grapes, and sometimes does much damage to the vineyard. The females of all the thrush kind are very similar to the males, and differ chiefly in a less degree of brilliancy in the colours.

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Opposite my study windows at Lee, I observed last summer, a missel thrush fly boldly at a carrion-crow, and persecute him with bill and wing till he seemed glad to leave the field. This, however, is far outdone by the account M. Le Vaillant gives of a party of missel thrushes attacking and actually vanquishing an eagle.—Bewick—Rennie—Montagu.

THRUSH, s. Small, round, superficial ulcerations, which appear first in the mouth; they may affect every part of the alimentary duct, except the thick guts; a disease in a horse’s foot.

This is a disease of the frog, causing a discharge of matter from its division or cleft, not often productive of lameness, especially in the hind feet, where it is always a consequence of negligence in the groom, in permitting a horse to stand in his dung, or upon foul wet litter. This softens and rots the horny frog, the putrid and acrid fluids penetrate through the soaked and rotten horn, and inflame the sensible frog, causing it to discharge a fetid acrimonious matter, instead of secreting horn for its own defence, as it does in the healthy state.

Thrushes in the fore-feet are sometimes occasioned by contraction of the heels, but more frequently by the horny box or hoof, considered all together, becoming too thick, and consequently inelastic. In this case, the blood is principally distributed to the sensible frog; the arteries that supply this not being liable to compression, being lodged in that elastic substance of fatty membrane and cartilage, of which the body of the sensible frog is composed. This Lafosse supposes to be destitute of nerves, and that its covering or skin only is endued with sensibility. I believe this opinion is correct; for in this part sensibility is not only unnecessary, but would be injurious. This part forms a very curious spring, and is constructed in a manner that is truly wonderful. It is composed of fatty matter and cartilage, which are so distributed, that the more the frog is compressed, the nearer the cartilages approach each other; thus the frog becomes denser and denser, while its elasticity increases in a similar ratio. When it is compressed to the greatest degree, the effect is imparted to the lateral cartilages, and these bodies impart it to the heels, and quarters or sides of the hoof, and thus it is that the motions of the hoof are produced. To admit of this motion of the hoof, which is the only one that takes place, the elastic membranes yield in a very slight degree, which diminishes from the heel to the toe, but is sufficient for the economy of the foot. The treatment of thrush must depend altogether upon the cause which produces it. When in the hind foot, and occasioned by filthiness, the cause must be removed, and then the disorder may cease; but this is not always the case, for the thrush sometimes has proceeded so far as to produce ulceration of the sensible frog, which then requires to be dressed with a solution of blue vitriol, or oxymel of verdigris. Before this is done, the cleft of the frog should be thoroughly cleansed to the bottom by means of tow; and if there is any ragged horn covering a diseased part, it should be completely removed. One of these dressings, when it is properly done, is sufficient for the cure. Some tar, or hoof-ointment, such as has been prescribed in the chapter on contracted heels, may be applied hot, to promote the regeneration of horn, and to defend it from moisture. In cases where the frog has become very tender or rotten, I have found it necessary to apply a mixture of tar and sulphuric acid, which is made by adding one ounce, by weight, of sulphuric acid to one pound of melted tar, and stirring the mixture for some time. As to the thrush in the fore-feet, the treatment is different. Here also the cause must be first removed, which is, an undue determination of blood to the frog, in consequence of the compression the sensible foot suffers from a contraction of the heels; or from a superabundance of horny matter generally in the crust, and often in the sole also. The motion which I have described as constantly going on in the hoof, will now appear to be an essential provision in that part; for the heels, as they contract, become deficient in, and at length totally lose, their elasticity. When the frog, under this circumstance, comes down upon the ground and receives pressure, the pain the animal feels from the ineffectual attempt thus made to expand the inelastic and inflexible heels, causes him to lift the frog a little, and go principally on the toe; hence the stumbling and falling so common in this case. This kind of thrush then is to be considered rather as useful than otherwise; and by attempting to stop it by those preparations which are usually employed, the lameness is often increased. The only thing to be done is to rasp the heels and quarters, thin the soles, cover the frog with tar ointment, and wrap the foot in an emollient poultice; in slight cases, complete and permanent relief will be thus afforded. Should the thrush continue after the hoof has been well soaked with the poultice, and especially if the frog is very tender and rotten, apply the mixture of tar and sulphuric acid. Egyptiacum, either alone or with a small portion (a few drops to two ounces) of sulphuric acid, has been recommended. In old thrushes, physic may be useful, and some alterative medicine. Sometimes a run at grass is necessary in moist ground, and a horse may often be worked while he is thus kept. In bad cases, palliation only can be expected, unless a new hoof be obtained of a better kind, by rasping the quarters and thinning the sole, until spots of blood appear; and then, after stopping the feet with tar-ointment, turning the horse to grass.

Thrushes may happen in the fore-feet merely from filthiness, and may then be cured as they are in the hind-feet; but this is not a common occurrence.

The third kind of thrush I have to describe is not so common as the two former, and is no other than an incipient canker. It may always be cured by removing from the frog every bit of horn that is detached from the sensible frog, and by which a diseased part may be concealed, and then applying to the affected part a saturated solution of blue vitriol, or egyptiacum, with a few drops of sulphuric acid. Cleanliness must be carefully attended to; and when the disease of the frog has been cured, tar, or hoof-ointment, may be employed to promote the regeneration of horn.—White.

TICK, s. Score, trust; the case which holds the feathers of a bed; the louse of dogs or sheep.

To destroy ticks, rub the dogs over with oil. The oil operates by stopping up their spiracula, or breathing pores; a few drops of oil poured on a wasp so as to cover it, destroys it in a few seconds.—Blaine.

TIKE, s. A species of dog.

TILT, s. A tent, any covering over head; the cover of a boat; a military game at which the combatants run against each other with lances on horseback; a thrust. Vide STRUTT.

TIN, s. One of the primitive metals, called by the chemists Jupiter.

This metal is a good anthelmintic in dogs; and though not employed in veterinary practice, appears to be worth a trial. I have known great numbers of worms discharged from dogs, by giving filings or scrapings of pewter, which is composed principally of tin and lead. The dose about a drachm. Vide ANTHELMINTICS.—White.

TINCTURE, s. Colour or taste superadded by something; medical preparations made by infusing or digesting vegetables, &c. either in rectified or proof spirit.

Compound tincture of benzoin, commonly named Friar’s, or traumatic balsam, is made by digesting gum benzoin, aloes, &c. in rectified spirit. Tincture of opium is made by digesting opium in proof spirit. There are also tinctures made with vinegar, such as squill and meadow saffron. Compound spirit of ammonia likewise is sometimes employed, as in the volatile tincture of guaiacum, and fœtid spirit of ammonia.—WHITE.

TINDER, s. Anything eminently inflammable placed to catch fire.

TINGE, v. To impregnate or imbue with a colour or taste.

TINSEL, s. A kind of shining cloth; anything shining with false lustre, anything showy and of little value.

TIP, s. Top, point, end, extremity.

TIT, s. A small horse, generally in contempt; a woman, in contempt; a titmouse or tomtit, a bird.

TITLARK, s. A small bird; a name for the meadow pipit.

TITMOUSE, s. A small species of bird.

This diminutive tribe is distinguished by a peculiar degree of sprightliness and vivacity, to which may be added a degree of strength and courage which by no means agrees with its appearance. Birds of this class are perpetually in motion; they run with great celerity along the branches of trees, searching for their food in every little cranny, where the eggs of insects are deposited, which are their favourite food. During spring they are frequently observed to be very busy among the opening buds, searching for caterpillars, and are thus actively employed in preventing the mischiefs that would arise from a too great increase of those destructive insects, whilst at the same time they are intent on the means of their own preservation; they likewise eat small pieces of raw meat, particularly fat, of which they are very fond. None of this kind have been observed to migrate; they sometimes make short flittings from place to place in quest of food, but never entirely leave us. They are very bold and daring, and will attack birds much larger than themselves with great intrepidity.

These birds are very widely spread over every part of the old continent, from the northern parts of Europe to the Cape of Good Hope, as well as to the farthest parts of India, China, and Japan; they are likewise found throughout the vast continent of America, and in several of the West India islands. They are every where prolific, even to a proverb, laying a great number of eggs, which they attend with great solicitude, and provide for their numerous progeny with indefatigable activity.

All the titmice are distinguished by short bills, which are conical, a little flattened at the sides, and very sharp-pointed; the nostrils are small and round, and are generally covered by short bristly feathers, reflected from the forehead; the tongue seems as if cut off at the end, and terminated by short filaments; the toes are divided to their origin; the back toe is very large and strong.—BEWICK.

TIVY, a. A word expressing speed, from tantivy, the note of a hunting-horn.

TOAD, s. An animal resembling a frog; but the frog leaps, the toad crawls; the toad is accounted venomous.

I remember some years ago getting up into a mulberry-tree, and finding in the fork of the two main branches a large toad almost embedded in the bark of the tree, which had grown over it so much, that he was quite unable to extricate himself, and would probably in time be completely covered over with the bark. Indeed, as the tree increased in size, there seems to be no reason why the toad should not in process of time become embedded in the tree itself, as was the case with the end of an oak rail that had been inserted into an elm-tree, which stood close to a public footpath. This, being broken off and grown over, was, on the tree being felled and sawn in two, found nearly in the centre of it. The two circumstances together may explain the curious fact of toads having been found alive in the middle of trees, by showing that the bark having once covered them, the process of growth in the tree would annually convey the toad more nearly to the centre of it, as happened with the piece of oak-rail; and by showing that toads, and probably other amphibia, can exist on the absorption of fluids by the skin alone. This is confirmed by the following fact. A gentleman informed me that he put a toad into a small flower pot, and secured it so that no insect could penetrate into it, and then buried it in the ground at a sufficient depth to protect it from the influence of frost. At the end of twenty years he took it up, and found the toad increased in size, and apparently healthy. Dr. Townson, in his tracts on the respiration of the amphibia, proves, I think satisfactorily, from actual experiment, that, while those animals with whose economy we are best acquainted receive their principal supply of liquids by the mouth, the frog and salamander tribes take in theirs through the skin alone; all the aqueous fluid which they take in being absorbed by the skin, and all they reject being transpired through it. He found that a frog absorbed nearly its own weight of water in the short space of an hour and a half, and that by being merely placed on blotting-paper well soaked with water; and it is believed that they never discharge it, except when they are disturbed or pursued, and then they only eject it to lighten their bodies, and facilitate their escape. That the moisture thus imbibed is sufficient to enable some of the amphibia to exist without any other food, there cannot I think be a reasonable doubt; and if this is admitted, the circumstance of toads being found alive in the centre of trees is accounted for by this and the preceding facts related.

In additional proof however of what has been advanced, I may mention that the respectable proprietor of some extensive coal-mines in Staffordshire, informed me that his men, in working into a stratum of thick coal at a very considerable depth, found three live eels in a small deposit of water in the centre of a block of coal, which died as soon as they were taken out of it. Another case was mentioned to me by an eminent physician. A wet spot had always been observed on a freestone mantel-piece, which afterwards cracked at that place, and upon its being taken down, a toad was found in it, dead; but its death was probably owing to the want of that moisture which it had been enabled to imbibe when the stone was in the quarry, and which gradually lessened by the action of the fire, as from the moisture which appeared on that part of the mantel-piece, some time after it was put up, there seems but little reason to doubt that the toad was alive at that time.

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It is a curious fact that toads are so numerous in the island of Jersey, that they have become a term of reproach for its inhabitants, the word ‘Crepaud’ being frequently applied to them; while in the neighbouring island of Guernsey not a toad is to be found, though they have frequently been imported. Indeed, certain other islands have always been privileged in this respect. Ireland is free from venomous animals, of course by the aid of St. Patrick. The same was affirmed of Crete in olden times, being the birth place of Jupiter. The Isle of Man is said also to be free from venomous creatures. The Mauritius, and I believe one of the Balearic islands, enjoys the same immunity.—Jesse.

TOAST, v. To dry or heat at the fire; to name when a health is drunk.

TOD, s. A bush, a thick shrub; a certain weight of wool, twenty-eight pounds.

TOE, s. The divided extremities of the feet, the fingers of the feet.

TON, s. A measure of weight of twenty cwts.

TONIC, a. Being extended, being elastic; relating to tones or sounds; a medicine to strengthen the system.

Tonics, according to Murray, are those substances whose primary operation is to give strength to the system. Their operation is not mechanical, as was once conceived; they act not on the simple solids, increasing their tension or tone, but on the living fibre, and are merely powerful stimulants permanent in their operation. By producing a gradual excitement, they give vigour to the actions of the system, and as that excitement is gradually produced, it is in like manner gradually diminished, and the habitual stimuli continuing to operate, diminished action does not succeed. Where tonics however are given in excess, are used unnecessarily, or for too long a time, they weaken the powers of life.

Tonics may be divided into minerals and vegetables; the former are generally considered the most powerful, and I believe are at this time generally preferred, not only on account of their supposed superior efficacy, but likewise, probably, from their being less expensive, and the dose less bulky and inconvenient.

The following is the list of tonics given by Murray, as employed in veterinary medicine:

Tonics from the mineral kingdom.—Preparations of quicksilver or mercury; of iron; of zinc; of copper; of arsenic; of oxymuriate of potash.

From the vegetable kingdom.—Peruvian bark, pale, yellow, and red; Angostura bark; snake-root; contrayerva; canella alba; cascarilla; calumba; quassia; simarouba; gentian; camomile; wormwood; centaury; Seville orange peel; horehound. Minerals may be employed either separately, or in combination.

The following are examples:—

No. 1. Powdered arsenic from 5 to 10 gr. Powdered aniseed ½ oz. Opium ½ dr. Treacle enough to form the ball.

No. 2. Arsenic from 5 to 10 gr. Sulphate of copper ½ dr. Opium ½ dr. Powdered caraways ½ oz. Treacle enough to form the ball.

No. 3. Arsenic from 5 to 10 gr. Opium ½ dr. Sulphate of zinc 2 dr. Caraway seeds ½ oz. Treacle enough for the ball.

For the numerous formulæ of vegetable tonics vide WHITE, vol. ii.—White.

TOOTH, s. One of the bones of the mouth with which the act of mastication is performed; a tine, prong, a blade; the prominent part of wheels.

Decayed and tartared Teeth.—Sportsmen and persons living in the country, who are habituated only to healthy dogs, will smile at such a head line; but were they in London, or other large cities and towns, where dogs are petted and immured in hot apartments night and day; where also they are gorged with the richest food, and are not exercised but in a carriage; and withal are probably descended from a long lineage of parents equally unnaturally treated; they would see sufficient of these effects of an imperfect digestion, to make them aware that this article is perfectly in place; and the remarks which follow are in unison with the general intention of these pages, to let nothing pass unnoticed, which a long and critical attention to the habits and diseases of these animals renders necessary to be guarded against and remedied. In the dogs I have described, nothing is more common to find than carious teeth, insufferably fœtid; others displaced, preventing mastication; or an immense accumulation of tartar, which covers them, erodes the gums, and makes the animal insufferably offensive. The veterinarian will often be called on to remedy these evils: the decayed teeth he must remove, and the displaced ones also; the tartaric deposit he must likewise completely scale off with proper dental instruments; for the accumulation is not only most unpleasant to the owners, but injurious to the dogs, by its septic tendency, and its invariably ending in the destruction of the teeth. The ulcerations are best removed by touching them with a mixture of a proper strength made from the solution of the chloride of soda with water: by the use of this, these ulcers will quickly heal; and the continuance of it will do much to remove the remaining fœtor, and stop the further deposit of tartar, particularly if coupled with a corresponding improvement in the general treatment of the animal.—Blaine.

TOOTHACH, s. Pain in the teeth.

I have been lately told by a friend, who rarely errs in his prescriptions, that the best cure for a toothach is,

One tablespoonful of rum, Another of vinegar, A teaspoonful of salt.

Mixed together and then held in the mouth.—Hawker.

Nothing is more annoying in the mountains than an attack of this afflicting disease. Grouse shooters are particularly obnoxious to it, from unavoidable exposure to wet and sudden alterations of atmospheric temperature. I have known a sporting expedition embittered by this visitation, and as professional assistance was not procurable, the sufferer had no remedy but the old and slow one—patience. I recommend the worthy colonel’s nostrum for two reasons; the first, that I believe it to be efficacious; and the second, that it is easily compounded.—Ed.

TOP, s. The highest part of anything; the surface, the superficies; the extreme joint of a fishing-rod.

TOPHEAVY, a. Having the upper part too weighty for the lower—a great defect in a fishing-rod.

TORCH, s. A wax-light bigger than a candle; any large or portable light.

TOUCHHOLE, s. The hole through which the fire is conveyed to the powder in a gun.

TOUCHWOOD, s. Rotten wood used to catch the fire struck from the flint.

TOW, s. Flax or hemp beaten and combed into a filamentous substance.

TRAIN, v. To draw along; to entice; to draw by artifice or stratagem; to educate, to bring up.

TRAIN, s. Artifice, stratagem of enticement, the tail of a bird; a line of powder reaching to the mine.

TRAINING, p. The act of putting into condition for racing, pugilism, or other violent exercises.

Training Racehorses.—A month is the least time that can be allowed to draw the horse’s body clear, and to refine his wind to that degree of perfection that is attainable by art.

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