THE FIELD BOOK.
 

 
 THE 
 
 FIELD BOOK: 
 
 COMPILED FROM THE BEST AUTHORITIES, 
 
 ANCIENT AMD MODERN. 
 
 THE AUTHOR OF " WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST: 
 
 " The sylvan youth, 
 
 Whose fervent Wood boils into vehemence, 
 Must have the chace." THOMSON. 
 
 " What is a gentleman without his recreations ? " OLD PLAT. 
 
 LONDON : 
 PUBLISHED BY EFFINGHAM WILSON, 
 
 ROYAL EXCHANGE. 
 1833.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY BRADBURY AND EVANS, 
 WHITEFRIAKS.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IN presenting the FIELD BOOK to the Sporting World, some 
 explanation respecting the motives that led to its publication, are 
 deemed necessary. 
 
 An enthusiastic admirer of rural sports from boyhood, the 
 Compiler sought with avidity after any book connected with his 
 favourite recreations, from which either amusement or information 
 might be obtained. The older authors, with the exception of a few 
 pages of quaint and curious anecdote, were generally formed of 
 barbarous theories, whose absurdities had long since caused them to 
 be disregarded. The more modern, whether confined to a particular 
 subject, or professing to be repertories of British Sports, were too 
 frequently overloaded with hackneyed and unimportant matter, and 
 merely reprints of treatises for years before the public, and differ- 
 ing from their predecessors in nothing but the name. 
 
 But had there been nothing objectionable in the execution of 
 sporting works, as they appeared during the last century, the total 
 change in everything connected with the British field, would ren- 
 der them now of little value, but to point a contrast between the 
 past and present systems. Without reverting to the times when 
 jockeys rode in tie-wigs, and men would not venture to a trout- 
 stream unless furnished with a velvet cap ; when country gentlemen 
 
 2091 055
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 deserted their ladye-loves ere cock-crow, to see the sun rise above a 
 fox-cover; when no pond-fish could resist a bait prepared with a 
 dead-man's finger; and a sucking-mastiff, stuffed with snails and 
 judiciously roasted, was a sovereign remedy for a shoulder-slip ; 
 without reverting to these times, what changes have not occurred 
 within our own recollections ? The mystic arcana of old professors 
 have vanished before practical and scientific improvement, and the 
 Sporting World has undergone a total revolution, and produced a 
 new order of men and things. 
 
 While, however, expressing these convictions, the Compiler would 
 not undervalue many of the useful and intelligent writers and col- 
 lectors who have preceded him. With allowances for their times, 
 and the false theories then received, which modern science has ex- 
 ploded, where will more information be found than in the " Rural 
 Sports,"- "Thoughts on Hunting," "Essay on Sporting," and other 
 contemporaneous works ? It is of the copyists of these writers that 
 the Compiler would complain, who, adopting everything, good and 
 bad, from these originals, without a single addition of their own, have 
 dosed the public ad nauseam, re-vending the same wares again and 
 again, without even the redeeming grace of acknowledging the 
 sources of their spoliations. 
 
 To produce a short and lucid compendium of all matters connected 
 with the field, and which might be considered interesting to the sports- 
 man, has been the object of the present compilation. All that 
 appeared valuable in the old school, as far as was compatible with the 
 progress of modern science, has been retained ; while in established 
 improvements, the -more recent systems have only been attended to. 
 Where, however, ancient and modern principles were opposed, and 
 the point at issue was doubtful or consequential, authorities in sup- 
 port of the conflicting theories are quoted, and the reader can use a 
 discretionary power in his adoption. 
 
 To convey simple information and avoid scientific display, has 
 been the Compiler's wish; and the plainest of the received autho- 
 rities have accordingly been preferred. Hence, White of Exeter,
 
 INTRODUCTION. Vll 
 
 and Bewick, have been principally followed in the veterinary 
 and ornithological departments ; while the more erudite pages of 
 Elaine and Percivall, Cuvier, Montagu, and Rennie, have contri- 
 buted much that was valuable. In canine descriptions and diseases, 
 Brown and Elaine have been selected. On piscatory subjects 
 Daniel forms the text-book, while Davy and modern artistes of the 
 angle have not been overlooked. In sporting antiquities the Com- 
 piler has consulted Strutt; in falconry he has chosen Sebright. 
 Upon the breeding and management of game, Moubray has been his 
 Mentor. From Jesse and White of Selborne much that was curious 
 in natural history and animal economy has been extracted. In the 
 mechanical department he has received assistance from several lead- 
 ing gun-makers; and upon numerous subjects of general interest 
 to the sportsman, in Colonel Hawker he acknowledges a Magnus 
 Apollo. Finally, many anonymous works and writers, either not 
 essentially sporting or of minor name, have been extensively quoted 
 in the pages of the FIELD BOOK. 
 
 Having stated the principal sources from whence the compilation 
 has been made, it may be observed that as it was an object to em- 
 brace British sports generally, considerable difficulty arose in com- 
 pressing a necessary portion of information upon these varied pur- 
 suits, within the small compass of a single octavo. A second volume, 
 or one of larger size, was objectionable; and although the smallest 
 sized type consistent with comfort to the reader has been employed, 
 it is feared that many a sin of omission will be laid at the Compiler's 
 door. From the difficulty attendant on alphabetic arrangement, 
 some articles also were omitted in their proper place, and must be 
 sought for in the Appendix. All the compiler caii say in apology is, 
 that when the Field Book is found summary or imperfect, the neces- 
 sity of compression must be recollected, and a reference to a 
 competent authority will enable the reader to find all that he 
 requires. The Compiler would here remark, that the books and 
 authors mentioned above, will be found of infinite service in their 
 respective departments ; and many of them are indispensably ne- 
 cessary to him who would possess a well-appointed stable and a 
 healthy kennel.
 
 Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 One subject introduced into the pages of the Field Book, might 
 to some appear anomalous. Yacht-sailing has been slightly no- 
 ticed; and had the limits of the work permitted, it should have 
 held the prominent place to which it is so well entitled. While 
 hill or forest bounds the sporting adventurers of other lands, the 
 " deep, deep sea" is made subservient to the pastimes of Great 
 Britain ; and the flag, which in war bore "the battle and the breeze," 
 in peace sweeps over the blue wave which owns its power, and 
 would almost prove that the elements themselves cannot bound the 
 sportive enterprise of the true-born Briton. 
 
 London, April 8, 1833.
 
 THE FIELD BOOK; 
 
 OR, 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF THE BRITISH 
 ISLANDS. 
 
 ABDOMEN, s. A cavity commonly called the lower venter or belly. 
 
 Wounds of the Abdomen, or Belly, 
 may occur to horses in leaping hedges, or 
 pales, or be inflicted by the horns of a 
 cow. Sometimes the tendinous covering of 
 the belly is ruptured, while the skin remains 
 entire ; the gut then protrudes and forces 
 out the skin into a tumour. This is a 
 rupture of the belly, and is thought incu- 
 rable. I have known one very large rup- 
 ture cured by cutting out a piece of the skin 
 which covered it, and then sewing up the 
 wound and supporting it with a bandage. In 
 some accidents the skin also is divided, with 
 its peritoneal covering ; the gut then comes 
 out, and the wound is of a very dangerous 
 nature, and still more so if the gut itself is 
 wounded. The first thing to be done is to 
 
 ABERDEVINE, s. (Carduelis spinus, 
 
 Size of the redpole, (Fringilla linaria,) 
 or between that and the linnet. Length rather 
 more than five inches ; bill reddish- white, tip- 
 ped with blackish brown ; eyes, umber-brown ; 
 head, greenish black ; over each eye a pale 
 streak of ding}- primrose- yellow ; neck, back, 
 wings, and tail, oil-green, paler, and more yel- 
 low, on the lower parts of the back towards the 
 tail coverts. The feathers of the back and wings 
 are streaked down the middle with a tint formed 
 of blackish-green and hair-brown ; sides of the 
 head, throat, breast, and under parts, pale wax- 
 yellow, inclining to sulphur-yellow ; middle 
 of the parts below the breast very pale wine 
 yellow, passing into white ; across each wing 
 are two bands of primrose yellow, and between 
 them one of black; part of the quills and 
 
 put the gut back, taking care to remove any 
 dirt or other matter that may be sticking to 
 it ; for which purpose, should it be found 
 necessary, it may be washed with warm 
 water. If the gut cannot be returned, from 
 its being full of air, the opening in the belly 
 may be carefully enlarged to the necessary 
 size. After the gut is returned, the skin 
 only should be stitched up ; and a cushion of 
 several folds of old linen and tow being placed 
 on the wound, should be kept in its situation 
 by means of a wide bandage rolled round the 
 body, and carefully secured. The animal 
 should then be copiously bled, have his bowels 
 emptied by clysters, and his food restricted to 
 grass or bran mashes, and that in moderate 
 quantity. 
 
 CUVIER). 
 
 tail edged with pale gamboge-yellow : legs 
 and feet pale flesh-red. The head of the 
 female is of a brownish-colour, inclining to 
 grey where the male is black ; cheeks and 
 sides of the neck siskin green or oil green ; 
 and all the rest of her plumage is of a more 
 dingy colour than in the male. 
 
 These birds are of so mild, gentle, and 
 docile a disposition, that they become quite 
 tame almost immediately after they are taken. 
 They may be taught many pretty tricks, such 
 as to open the door of their cage, draw up 
 their food aud water, and come to the hand 
 to be fed at the sound of a little bell or a 
 whistle. Their food is the same as that of 
 canaries, and they are managed in the same 
 
 manner Montagu. 
 
 B
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Ass 
 
 ABSCESS, s. A morbid cavity in the body. 
 
 ABSORBENTS, s. Medicines which neutralise the acid matter in the bowels 
 or stomach. Potash, soda, magnesia, chalk, &c., are commonly em- 
 ployed. 
 
 .ABSTERGE, v. To cleanse by wiping. 
 
 ABSTERGENT, a. Cleansing ; having a cleansing quality. 
 
 ACACIA CATECHU, s. An extract from the inner wood of the acacia; 
 a powerful tonic and astringent, and useful in diarrhoea and diabetes. 
 
 ACCIDENT, s. That which happens unforeseen ; casualty, chance. ( Vide 
 GUN.) 
 
 ACCIPITER, s. A genus of the falcon family thus characterised. Bill short. 
 Nostrils somewhat oval. Shanks elongated and smooth. Shins plated 
 with scales, the sutures scarcely perceptible. Vigors. 
 
 ACETATE,*. The salt formed from a combination of acetic acid with alkalies 
 or metallic oxides. Acetates are largely used in veterinary practice, as 
 those of ammonia, lead, &c. 
 
 ACETATE OF ALUMINE (in dyeing) 
 
 Is prepared by pouring acetate of lead into 
 a solution of alum, on which a double de- 
 composition takes place ; the sulphuric acid 
 combines with the lead, and the sulphate of 
 lead precipitates in the form of an insoluble 
 powder, while the alumine combines with the 
 acetous acid, and remains in the liquor. 
 
 This mordant gives aricher colour than alum. 
 
 Lime is also sometimes employed as a mor- 
 dant, but it does not answer so well in general, 
 not giving so good a colour. It is used either 
 in acetate of lime water, or as a sulphate of 
 lime dissolved in water. 
 
 A solution of indigo in the sulphuric acid is 
 
 used for dyeing wool. This is called the Saxon 
 blue, and it gives a very beautiful colour. 
 
 To dye by the sulphate of indigo, dissolve 
 one part of indigo in four parts of concentrated 
 sulphuric acid ; add to the solution one part of 
 dry carbonate of potash, and dilute the whole 
 with eight times its weight of water. Boil 
 the wool for an hour in a solution of five parts 
 of alum, and three of tartar, for every thirty- 
 two parts of cloth. The wool is then to be 
 put in a bath of sulphate of indigo, diluted 
 according to the strength of shade required, 
 and kept till it has acquired the desired colour. 
 The use of the alum and tartar is not to act as 
 mordants, but to facilitate the decomposition 
 of the indigo ; and the alkali is added to the 
 sulphate for the same reason. 
 
 ACID, a. Sour, sharp. 
 
 ACIDS, s. In veterinary practice are divided into three classes, mineral, 
 
 vegetable, and animal. Mineral are sulphuric, nitric, and muriatic. 
 
 Vegetable, acetic (vinegar), and tartaric (cream of tartar). Muriatic 
 
 acid is commonly called spirit of salt. Sulphuric, oil of vitriol. 
 ACTION, s. The accordance of the motions of the body with the words 
 
 spoken. In sporting parlance, it is used to describe the movements of 
 
 a horse. 
 ADDER, *. A serpent, a viper, a poisonous reptile. 
 
 Adders or vipers are found in many parts 
 of Europe ; but the dry, stony, and in parti- 
 cular the chalky countries abound with them, 
 These animals seldom grow to a greater length 
 than two feet ; though sometimes they are 
 found above three. The ground colour of their 
 bellies is a dirty yellow ; that of the female 
 
 is deeper. The whole length of the back is 
 marked with a series of rhomboid black spots, 
 touching each other at the points ; the sides 
 with triangular ones ; the belly entirely black. 
 It is chiefly distinguished from the common 
 ringed snake by the colour, which in the latter 
 is more beautifully mottled, as well as by the
 
 ADH] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 head, which is thicker than the body; but 
 particularly by the tail, which, in the viper, 
 though it ends in a point, does not run taper- 
 ing off to so great a length as in the other. 
 When, therefore, other distinctions fail, the 
 difference of the tail can be discerned at a 
 single glance. 
 
 The adder differs from most other serpents 
 in being much slower, as also in excluding its 
 young completely formed, and bringing them 
 forth alive. The kindness of Providence 
 seems to be exerted not only in diminishing 
 the speed, but also the fertility, of this dan- 
 gerous creature. 
 
 The adder is capable of supporting very 
 long abstinence, it being a well ascertained 
 fact that some have been kept in a box six 
 months without food ; yet during the whole 
 time their vivacity was not abated. They 
 feed only a small part of the year, but never 
 during their confinement; for if mice, their 
 favourite diet, should at that time be thrown 
 into their box, though they will kill, yet they 
 will never eat them. When at liberty they 
 remain torpid throughout the winter; yet, 
 when confined, they have never been observed 
 to take their annual repose. 
 
 They are usually taken with wooden tongs, 
 by the end of the tail, which may be done 
 without danger ; for, while held in that posi- 
 tion, they are unable to wind themselves up 
 to hurt their enemy ; yet, notwithstanding 
 this precaution, the viper-catchers are often 
 bitten by them ; but, by the application of 
 olive oil, the effect is safely obviated. 
 
 William Oliver, a viper-catcher, at Bath, 
 was the first who discovered this admirable 
 remedy. On the first of June, 1735, in the 
 presence of a great number of persons, he 
 suffered himself to be bit by an old black 
 viper, brought by one of the company, upon 
 the wrist, and joint of the thumb of the right 
 hand, so that drops of blood came out of the 
 wounds. Being willing to satisfy the com- 
 pany thoroughly, and trusting to the speedy- 
 effects of his remedy, which was nothing more 
 than olive oil, he forbore to apply anything 
 till he found himself exceedingly ill, and 
 quite giddy ; in about an hour and a quarter 
 after the first of his being bit, a chafing dish 
 of glowing charcoal was brought in, and his 
 naked arm was held over it as near as he 
 
 could bear, while his wife rubbed in the oil 
 with her hand, turning his arm continually 
 round, as if she would have roasted it over 
 the coals; he said the poison soon abated, but 
 the swelling did not diminish much. Most 
 violent purgings and vomitings soon ensued ; 
 and his pulse became so low and so often 
 interrupted, that it was thought proper to 
 order him a repetition of cordial potions ; he 
 said he was not sensible of any great relief 
 from these ; but that a glass or two of olive 
 oil, drank down, seemed to give him ease. 
 Continuing in this dangerous condition, he 
 was put to bed, where his arm was again 
 bathed over a pan of charcoal, and rubbed 
 with olive oil, heated in a ladle over the char- 
 coal. From this last operation he declared 
 that he found immediate ease, as though by 
 some charm : he soon after fell into a pro- 
 found sleep, and, after about nine hours' sound 
 rest, awaked about six the next morning, and 
 found himself very well. 
 
 * 
 
 In every quarter of the globe but Europe, 
 dogs are exposed to the venomous attacks of 
 snakes, whose bite is instantly mortal. The 
 viper is the only animal of this kind in Britain 
 capable of inflicting a wound attended with 
 serious consequences, and to which dogs be- 
 come exposed when hunting. In these cases, 
 the bitten part swells enormously, and the 
 animal expresses great distress and suffering : 
 at length he becomes affected with torpor, or, 
 in some cases, with convulsions, when death 
 commonly ensues. But it is not often that 
 these bites are fatal, particularly when pro- 
 per means are resorted to for obviating the 
 effects. These means consist in freely rubbing 
 the bitten part with volatile alkali, or with 
 the spirit of hartshorn mixed with oil ; giving 
 also seven, ten, or twelve drops of the volatile 
 alkali, or otherwise forty drops to a large dog, 
 of the spirit of hartshorn, in a teaspoonful or 
 two of sweet oil, every hour, until the amend- 
 ment is evident. 
 
 * 
 
 The venomous stings of hornets, wasps, 
 and bees, may be relieved by applying the 
 vegetable blue used to colour linen. Lauda- 
 num also, or vinegar, or brandy, will, either of 
 them, often remove the pain and inflamma- 
 tion speedily Buffon Bluinc. 
 
 ADHESIVE, a. Sticking, tenacious. 
 
 ADHESIVE, or STICKING PLASTER, is made with diachylon, a small 
 portion of resin, and a still less of common turpentine or with diachylon 
 and galbanum. Sticking- plaster is employed to keep the edges of a 
 fresh wound together ; but in horses, when the wound is extensive, 
 this is done more effectiially by suture, that is, by sewing up the 
 wound. 
 
 B 2
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [AER 
 
 AERIE, s. A nest of hawks, or other birds of prey. 
 
 The following account of the robbery of an 
 aerie is given by Mr. Bullock : " On the 
 10th of June, 1812, they were seen in their 
 aerie on the tremendous cliff called the West 
 Craigs, in the Isle of Hoy, (one of the Ork- 
 neys,) the towering rocks of which rise to the 
 perpendicular height of 1200 feet from the 
 sea. About one third of the way down this 
 awful abyss, a slender pointed rock projected 
 from the cliff, like the pinnacle of a Gothic 
 building : on the extremity of this is a hollow 
 scarcely of a sufficient size for the purpose 
 for which these birds had fixed on it, t. ., a 
 place of security for rearing their young ; the 
 situation was such as almost to defy the power 
 of man to molest their habitation ; yet, with 
 the ;i*sistance of a short slender roj>e, made 
 of twisted hogs' bristles, did the well-known 
 adventurous climber, or rocksman, ' Woolly 
 Tomsou,' traverse the face of this frightful 
 precipice, and, for a trifling remuneration, 
 brought up the young birds. 
 
 " After a fatiguing scramble up the sides of 
 the mountain, we arrived at the place from 
 whence we could see the aerie beneath ; the 
 distance was so great that the young eagles 
 appeared no larger than pigeons. After plac- 
 ing us in a secure situation on a projecting 
 ledge of the rock, Tomson left us, carrying 
 his rope in his hand, and disappeared for 
 upwards of half an hour ; when, to our great 
 joy, we discovered him creeping on his hands 
 and knees up the spiry fragment, on which 
 lay the unfledged eaglets ; when, knowing he 
 was then in our sight, he knelt on the top, 
 
 and looking towards us, waved his hat. At 
 this time it was impossible to see the situation 
 he was in without trembling for his safety ; 
 the slender point of the rock on which he 
 knelt was at least 800 feet above the surges 
 of the Atlantic, which, with unbroken vio- 
 lence, were foaming beneath him. Yet he 
 deliberately took from his pocket a cord, and 
 tying the wings of the young birds, who made 
 some resistance with their bills and talons, he 
 put them into a basket, and began to descend, 
 and in a few minutes the overhanging masses 
 of stone hid him from our view. The old 
 birds were in sight during the transaction, and 
 made no attempt to defend, but, soaring a 
 quarter of a mile above, occasionally uttered a 
 short shrill scream, very different from their 
 usual barking noise. Had they attempted a 
 rescue, the situation of the climber would 
 have been extremely dangerous, as the slight- 
 est deviation or false step would have preci- 
 pitated him into eternity, a misfortune that a 
 few years since befel his brother on the same 
 spot, when in his company. 
 
 " After waiting in a most painful state of 
 suspense for near an hour, our climber sud- 
 denly made his appearance, and, laughing, 
 presented his prize." 
 
 * 
 
 " In Doomsday Book a hawk's aerie is 
 returned among the most valuable articles of 
 property ; which proves the high estimation 
 these birds were held in at the commence- 
 ment of the Norman conquest." Bullock 
 Strutt. 
 
 ^THIOP'S-MINERAL, s. A medicine so called, from its dark colour, made 
 
 of quicksilver and sulphur ground together in a marble mortar. 
 AGE, *. 
 
 Age of a Horse The age of a horse 
 may be discovered by certain marks in the 
 front teeth of the under jaw until he is eight 
 years old, about which period they are gene- 
 rally worn out. An experienced person can, 
 however, judge of a horse's age pretty nearly 
 by the countenance and general appearance of 
 the animal, as well as by the length of the 
 teeth and form of the tushes. Between the 
 second and third year a colt begins to change 
 his sucking or colt's teeth, as they are termed, 
 for permanent teeth, which are larger, and of 
 a different form and colour. The sucking 
 teeth are small, and of a delicate white colour. 
 When a colt is three years old, or between 
 the second and third year, he changes his 
 two front teeth, above and below; between 
 the third and fourth year the two next are 
 changed ; and between the fourth and fifth 
 year the two next, or corner teeth, are 
 
 changed. About the end of the fourth year, 
 or a little later, the tushes appear. Mares 
 have seldom any tushes. At five years old 
 the horse has a full mouth of permanent or 
 horse teeth, and the corner teeth are those by 
 which the age is ascertained after that period : 
 they have a remarkable hollow or shell-like 
 appearance when they first come up ; but by 
 the time the horse has completed his fifth 
 year they have acquired some size, and look 
 more like the other teeth. There is a cavity 
 on their upper surface, at this period, of a 
 dark or blackish colour. At six years old the 
 cavity is much diminished, and at seven it is 
 still less ; at eight it has entirely disappeared, 
 or if any mark remain, it resembles rather the 
 eye of a bean. The tushes at five years old 
 have two concavities withinside them, con- 
 verging upwards, and terminating in the point 
 of the tooth : at six, one of these concavities
 
 AIM] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 is lost ; that is, the one next the grinder : at 
 seven, the other is diminished, but not quite 
 gone : at eight, it is generally gone, but not 
 always : afterwards the tush gradually gets 
 more round and blunt. These are the changes 
 by which the horse's age is usually deter- 
 mined; but they are subject to variations, 
 and the only certain method of ascertaining 
 the age, after six, is by a reference to the 
 breeder. The length of the teeth is no cri- 
 terion whatever; nor can the countenance 
 be depended upon until the horse becomes 
 very old and grey. The marks in the upper 
 teeth have been thought to indicate the age : 
 the marks in the two front teeth disappearing 
 at eight, in the two next at ten, and in the 
 corner teeth at twelve. 
 
 
 
 The general signs of age, unconnected with 
 the animal's teeth, are easily distinguishable. 
 The head grows lean and fine ; the features 
 look more striking ; the hollows over the eyes 
 deeper ; the eyes themselves grow irritable, 
 and twinkle ; the cheeks become lank ; the 
 gums and soft palate pale and shrunk ; the 
 sub-maxiliary space is capacious ; and grey 
 hairs make their appearance in various places, 
 more particularly over the eyes and about the 
 face. In regard to the body generally, it also 
 makes a more striking display of its shapes, 
 than in any former part of life ; the neck 
 grows thin and fine ; the withers grow sharp, 
 and give an appearance of increased length 
 and obliquity to the shoulder; the back, 
 sinks ; the quarters assume a more blood- 
 like turn, and seem to lengthen ; tumors of 
 all kinds, spavins, splents, windgalls, &c. 
 generally become in part or wholly absorbed ; 
 the legs feel sinewy and free from puff, though 
 they may evince instability and weakness. 
 Now-a-days it is not often that we meet with 
 horses thus advanced in years ; still more 
 rarely with any that have grown decrepit 
 from age. 
 
 * 
 
 The horse, if properly treated, will live to 
 a great age. The best time of his life is 
 considered to be betwixt that of five and ten 
 
 years, although there have been instances 
 where he has proved highly serviceable until 
 twenty years ; and it is on record, that some 
 horses have wrought till upwards of thirty 
 years old. Mares are said to be aged at 
 seven years old, and horses at eight. 
 * * * 
 
 The Age of Dogs These animals do not, 
 
 like horses and cattle, present any exact cri- 
 terion of their age ; nevertheless, attention to 
 the following appearances will assist us in 
 determining the matter. At about four years, 
 the front teeth lose their points, and each of 
 them presents a flattened surface, which in- 
 creases as the age advances; they likewise 
 lose their whiteness. In dogs fed much on 
 bones, and in those who ''fetch and carry" 
 these teeth suffer very much, and are some- 
 times broken out while the dog is yet young. 
 The holders, or tusks, are also blunted by 
 the same causes. At seven or eight, the hair 
 about the eyes becomes slightly grey. Gra- 
 dually, likewise, a greyish tint extends over 
 the face ; hut it is not till ten, eleven, or 
 twelve years, that the eyes lose their lustre : 
 when they become dim, general decay proceeds 
 rapidly, though the life of some dogs is ex- 
 tended to fifteen, sixteen, or seventeen years ; 
 and I have seen a mother and son vigorous 
 at twenty and twenty-one years old. Although 
 such instances as the latter must be considered 
 as rare, yet even these have been exceeded, 
 if I might depend on my authority ; for I once 
 saw a small French dog, which I was assured 
 had reached his twenty-fourth year, and which, 
 at the time I saw him, was still vigorous and 
 lively. I am not aware that much difference 
 exists between the various breeds, as to the 
 age they arrive at : spaniels, however, I have 
 observed, are usually long lived ; while ter- 
 riers, on the contrary, I have seldom observed 
 very old. The usual life of the dog may be 
 considered as ranging between twelve and 
 fifteen years : domestication has tended, in 
 some degree, to curtail the period, but not so 
 much as might have been expected, considering 
 the powerful operation of artificial habits. 
 White Percival Brown Blaine. 
 
 AGED, a. Old, stricken in years. When horses pass that period of life 
 
 when their age is not discoverable by the teeth marks, they are 
 
 commonly termed aged. 
 AGISTOR, *. Anciently an officer who attended upon the king's woods 
 
 and forest lands, to receive and take in cattle, &c. by agistment ; 
 
 that is to depasture within the forest, or to feed upon the pannage, 
 
 &c. This officer was constituted by letters patent. 
 AIM, v. To endeavour to strike with a missile weapon.
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Am 
 
 AIM, s. The direction of a missile weapon ; the point to which the thing 
 
 thrown is directed. 
 
 AIR, v. To expose to the air; to take the air; to warm by the fire. 
 AIR-BLADDER, s. A bladder filled with air, and used in lake fishing to 
 
 buoy the ends of night lines and mesh nets. 
 AIR-CELLS OF BIRDS. . 
 
 The lungs of birds have several openings, 
 communicating with corresponding air-bags or 
 cells, which fill the whole cavity of the body 
 from the neck downwards, and into which the 
 air passes and re-passes in the process of 
 breathing. This is not all : the very bones of 
 birds are hollowed out with the design of 
 receiving air from the lungs, from which air- 
 pipes are conveyed to the most solid parts of 
 the body, and even into the quills and plume- 
 lets of the feathers, which are hollow or 
 spongy for its reception. As all these hollow 
 
 parts, as well as the cells, are only open on 
 the side communicating with the lungs, the 
 bird requires only to take in a full breath to 
 fill and distend its whole body with air, which, 
 in consequence of the considerable heat of its 
 body, is rendered much lighter than the air 
 of the atmosphere. By forcing this air out of 
 the body again, the weight becomes so much 
 increased, that birds of large size can dart 
 down from great heights in the air with aston- 
 ishing velocity. The structure of insects is 
 not a little analogous Jns. Trans. 
 
 AIR-GUN, s. A species of gun charged with air instead of powder. 
 
 The air-gun, although long known, has 
 never been much used, as its slight report is 
 the only advantage it can possess over fire- 
 arms, while its danger and inefficiency are 
 admitted. Fatal accidents have occurred in 
 charging it, and every attempt to remedy the 
 danger has been unsuccessful. In the old 
 principle, the globe or ball which forms the 
 receiver has frequently blown up while the air 
 was being pumped in, and loss of life or se- 
 vere injury resulted. Latterly, the attention 
 of several experimentalists has been directed 
 
 to its improvement. One of them, Mr. Laing, 
 of the Haymarket, imagined he had overcome 
 the great objection ; and by a very ingenious 
 alteration, in which the globe was done away 
 with, and the air-receiver transferred to the 
 stock of the gun, he hoped thus to have re- 
 moved the danger. But in this he was sadly 
 disappointed. While trying the improved air- 
 gun, the receiver burst, injured him severely, 
 and induced him to abandon any farther expe- 
 riments with this dangerous instrument. 
 Indeed, the manifest inferiority of the air-
 
 ALO] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 gun to the rifle, would, independently of its 
 danger, prevent it from coming into general 
 use. As an instrument, it is extremely trou- 
 blesome to shoot with, and liable to constant 
 derangement. Its power is very weak, and 
 in accuracy of aim the rifle is far superior. 
 Even the advantage of slight report in the dis- 
 charge is now comparatively done away with, in 
 consequence of the recent introduction of the 
 small-bore rifles for rook and rabbit shooting ; 
 which, from the trifling quantity of powder 
 used in charging, are scarcely louder than the 
 air-gun. 
 
 Purday, whose reputation as a rifle maker 
 is deservedly high, has brought them to great 
 perfection ; and some beautiful guns of this 
 description may be seen at his manufactory, 
 which, though so small in the gage as to re- 
 quire bullets eighty to the pound, are perfect 
 alike in execution and workmanship. 
 
 With respect to the Air-cane, though a 
 more recent invention, it is only necessary to 
 say, that it has all the disadvantages of the 
 air-gun, with much weaker power, and a 
 greater liability to get out of order. It is a 
 mere toy, and, certainly, a very dangerous 
 one. 
 
 Formerly, poachers were in the habit of 
 using air-guns to destroy pheasants in the pre- 
 serves. The instrument made no noise, and 
 the operator preferred the boisterous, rainy 
 night, when the moon was nearly at the full ; 
 the wet did not in the least affect the dis- 
 charge of this implement, and the keepers 
 knew a common gun could not be effectually 
 employed in such tempestuous weather ; be- 
 sides, the report caused immediate alarm, 
 and frequent detection. Vast numbers of 
 pheasants were earned off, before this prac- 
 tice was discovered. 
 
 The late Mr. Tyssen was partial to an air- 
 gun for shooting rooks, rabbits, &c., and was 
 using one at Donyland Park, in Essex, when 
 the screw of the valve gave way, as the ser- 
 vant was pumping the air into it ; the copper 
 ball fortunately took such a direction, that no 
 one was hurt; but, in passing through the 
 trees, it cut off some considerable branches. 
 This accident staggered his confidence in the 
 security of their principle, and from the best 
 informed persons he consulted upon the sub- 
 ject, he was convinced there was no certainty 
 of their being safe, and he wisely relinquished 
 the air-gun, with all its asserted superlative 
 properties Daniel. 
 
 AIRY, a. Composed of air ; relating to the air ; high in air ; light as air ; 
 
 gay, sprightly, full of mirth, lively. 
 ALCOHOL, s. A highly rectified spirit of wine. 
 ALKALI, s. Any substance which combines with an acid, and produces a 
 
 salt. 
 
 with them neutral salts and by rendering 
 oils miscible with water. Vegetable and mi- 
 neral alkalies, not being evaporable, except 
 in a high degree of heat, are termed fixed: 
 and ammonia, being evaporable in a low 
 temperature, obtains the name of volatile 
 alkali H hite. 
 
 Alkalies form one of the classes of saline 
 bodies, and are of three kinds : the veget- 
 able alkali kali, or potash, the mine- 
 ral alkali soda, or natron, and the vo- 
 latile alkali, or ammonia. Alkalies are dis- 
 tinguished by their changing blue vegetable 
 colours to a green, and yellow to orange ; by 
 combining rapidly with acids, and forming 
 
 ALKALINE, a. That which has the qualities of alkali. 
 
 ALLSPICE, s. Jamaica pepper, a powerful cordial and carminative ; the dose 
 from two to three or four drachms. Mr. Bracey Clarke, in a book he has 
 published on flatulent or spasmodic colic, or gripes, strongly recom- 
 mends a tincture of allspice in proof spirit, as an effectual remedy for 
 that disorder. The dose about 4 to 6 oz. in water. 
 
 ALLURE, v. To entice to any thing. 
 
 ALOES, s. A precious wood used in the east for perfumes, of which the 
 best sort is of higher price than gold ; a tree which grows in hot coun- 
 tries ; a medicinal juice extracted from the common aloes tree. 
 
 tive for horses. It is intensely bitter, and 
 
 Aloes is the inspissated juice of a plant 
 of the same name, and is an effectual purga- 
 
 strong and unpleasant to the smell.
 
 8 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [ALP 
 
 Socotrine aloes is grown in the island So- 
 cotra, and is safer in its operation than the 
 other kinds. It is of a dark reddish or brown 
 colour, opaque, and less disagreeable to smell 
 than the others. It formerly sold at a high 
 price, and was therefore liable to adulteration. 
 Barbadoes aloes is a coarser medicine, liable to 
 produce griping, and other unpleasant effects ; 
 but it is a safe and efficacious purgative. 
 It is darker coloured, less brittle, and of a 
 stronger and more disagreeable smell more 
 active than the Socotrine ; and considered 
 more certain in its operation. Every kind of 
 aloes is liable to produce bad consequences if 
 given too largely, or if the horse be treated 
 improperly while under its effect. There is 
 a peculiarity in the horse's intestines which 
 renders them more liable to be injured by 
 purgatives than those of other domestic ani- 
 mals, and therefore cathartic medicines should 
 be prepared by persons of judgment and expe- 
 rience. 
 
 Cape aloes is rather transparent, very brit- 
 tle, easily powdered, in this state of a bright 
 yellow colour; the odour arising from it is 
 not so strong as the Barbadoes, but stronger 
 and less agreeable than the Socotrine. This 
 kind is sold at a much lower price than the 
 others, but is so weak and uncertain in its 
 effect, that it is seldom employed in veterinary 
 medicine. The dose of Socotrine aloes is from 
 five to nine, Barbadoes from four to six, and 
 Cape from six to ten drachms. 
 
 Aloes operates more speedily when united 
 with soap, or any of the fixed alkalies. In 
 old books cream of tartar is prescribed with 
 aloes, under the supposition that it prevented 
 griping, but soap is preferable. 
 
 Aloes is sometimes given as an alterative in 
 doses of one or two drachms. It is also an 
 ingredient in Friar's balsam, and compound 
 tincture of myrrh ; preparations much used by 
 farriers White. 
 
 ALPINE SPANIEL (Canis Alpimts), s. 
 
 The spaniel of St. Bernard exceeds all 
 others of the same tribe in size and beauty. 
 He generally reaches two feet in height at the 
 shoulders, and is upwards of five feet from the 
 nose to the tip of the tail. His coat is much 
 more curled than that of either the springer 
 or the cocker, and his hair is very closely set, 
 with short woolly fur at the roots ; his feet 
 like those of all the dogs of cold climates, are 
 protected from the possibility of being cut by 
 
 the frost, by being covered with a thick fur, 
 which, besides, enables him to climb those 
 almost inaccessible ridges of ice which are so 
 numerous on the Great St. Bernard. There 
 is a peculiarity about the corners of the eyes 
 of this dog which is attributed to the snow, 
 and the high Alpine regions which he inhabits. 
 In point of intelligence, the Alpine spaniel 
 may be reckoned at least equal to any of the 
 species ; and he has the greatest aptitude for
 
 A MB] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 learning anything to which he may be trained. 
 He is peculiarly adapted to those stormy re- 
 gions, the Swiss Alps ; and Providence, in 
 the wisdom of its arrangements, seems to have 
 placed him where he was to be most ser- 
 viceable to mankind. 
 
 These dogs are kept by the monks of the 
 monasteries of the Swiss Alps for the express 
 purpose of searching, during heavy snow 
 storms, for travellers who may have fallen 
 into cavities or pits, in which situation, with- 
 out timely assistance, they would soon be 
 starved or frozen to death. The practice is to 
 send them out in pairs, and being perfectly 
 conversant with the nature of their employ- 
 ment, they traverse a great extent of the 
 adjoining country. By marks in the snow, 
 but principally from the scent formed from the 
 breath of persons so situated exhaling through 
 the drift, they discover the pit that contains 
 the buried traveller; in which case they 
 instantly return and give the alarm, when 
 assistance being procured, these sagacious 
 animals lead the benevolent monks to the 
 re lief of the unfortunate individual. 
 
 The following anecdote appears to be well 
 authenticated : In crossing the mountain St. 
 Gothard, near Airola, the Chevalier Gaspard 
 de Brandenberg and his servant were buried 
 by an avalanche; his dog, who escaped the 
 heap of snow, did not quit the place where he 
 had lost his master : this was fortunately not 
 far from the convent ; the animal howled, ran 
 to the convent frequently, and then returned ; 
 struck by his perseverance, the next morning 
 the people from the house followed him ; he 
 led them directly to the spot, scratched the 
 snow, and after thirty-six hours passed beneath 
 it, the Chevalier and his domestic were taken 
 out safe, hearing distinctly, during their con- 
 finement, the howling of the dog, and the dis- 
 course of their deliverers. Sensible that to 
 the sagacity and fondness of this creature he 
 owed his life, the gentleman ordered by his 
 will, that he should be represented on his 
 tomb with his dog ; and at Zug, in the church 
 of St. Oswald, where he was buried in 1 728, 
 they still show the monument, and the effigy 
 of the gentleman, with the dog lying at his 
 feet Brown Daniel. 
 
 ALTERATIVES, s. Gentle medicines which act gradually upon the con- 
 stitution. 
 
 Those commonly employed are nitre, anti- 
 mony, sulphur, resin, and ./Ethiop's mineral, 
 exhibited in combination. Laxative Altera- 
 tives are substituted for purgatives : diuretic 
 
 are recommended for reducing or preventing 
 swellings of the leg ; and diaphoretic to 
 increase insensible perspiration, and assist the 
 coating of the horse. 
 
 ALUM, *. A saline body, composed of sulphuric acid, alumine, and potash- 
 It is used internally as an astringent, in ' Alum is produced by placing a quantity of 
 diarrhoea, diabates, &c., and externally as a re- crude alum in an iron ladle, and keeping it 
 medy for grease. When burnt it is efficacious over a slow fire until the watery particles are 
 
 in cleansing ulcers, and for this purpose 
 usually combined with red precipitate. 
 
 evaporated, and the mass becomes a light and 
 pulverisable substance. 
 
 bleeding, but when of long standing it is 
 incurable. 
 
 ALUMINOUS, a. Relating to alum, or consisting of alum. 
 
 AMAUROSIS, s. A dimness of sight, not from any visible defect in the eye, 
 but from some distemperature in the inner parts, occasioning the repre- 
 sentations of flies and dust floating before the eyes. 
 
 In horses, this disease is caused by a pres- 
 sure of blood upon the nerve of the eye ; and 
 in the earlier stages may be relieved by 
 
 AMBLE, v. To move upon an amble, to pace ; to move easily ; to walk 
 
 daintily. 
 
 AMBLE, s. An easy pace. 
 AMBLER, s. A pacer. 
 AM BURY, s. A bloody wart on a horse's body. 
 
 The removal of amburies, or warts, is com- 
 monly effected by a tight ligature of silk ; but, 
 in every case, no matter where the wart may 
 be, the use of the knife is preferable. Some 
 
 farriers touch them with arsenic, mixed with 
 a little soft soap ; but this is a dangerous 
 method, and often produces a serious degree 
 of inflammation and sloughing.
 
 10 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [AME 
 
 Farriers generally endeavour to get rid of 
 wens by blistering, but this never answers ; 
 and sometimes they use arsenic and soap ; 
 but this is not only very dangerous, but 
 generally ineffectual also. The knife is the 
 
 remedy for wens, and every kind of encysted 
 tumour. When a considerable artery is opened 
 in cutting out a wen, the bleeding may be 
 stopped by tying it, by means of a tenaculum 
 or a crooked needle, or the bleeding vessel may 
 
 safest, most expeditious, and most effectual be laid hold of by a pair of forceps and tied. 
 
 AMERICAN GAME, $. 
 
 The woodcocks are, in all respects, like 
 those in England, except that they are only 
 about three-fifths of the size. They breed 
 here, and are in such numbers, that some 
 men kill twenty brace or more in a day. 
 Their haunts are in marshy places or woods. 
 The shooting of them lasts from the 4th of 
 July, till the hardish frosts come. Here are 
 five months of this sort, and pheasants and 
 partridges are shot from September to April. 
 
 The snipes are called English snipes, which 
 they resemble in all respects, and are found 
 in great abundance in the usual haunts of 
 snipes. 
 
 The grouse is precisely like the Scotch 
 grouse. There is only here and there a place 
 where they are found ; but they are, in those 
 places, killed in vast quantities, in the fall 
 of the year. 
 
 As to the wild ducks and other water-fowl, 
 which are come at by lying in wait, and 
 killed most frequently swimming or sitting, 
 
 they are slaughtered in whole flocks. An 
 American counts the cost of powder and shot. 
 If he is deliberate in everything else, this 
 habit will hardly forsake him in the act of 
 shooting. When the sentimental flesh-eaters 
 hear the report of his gun, they may begin to 
 pull out their white handkerchiefs, for death 
 follows the pull of his trigger, with perhaps 
 even more certainty than it used to follow the 
 lancet of Dr. Rush. 
 
 The plover is a fine bird, and is found in 
 great numbers upon the plains and in the cul- 
 tivated fields of the islands. Plovers are very 
 shy and wary, but they have ingenious ene- 
 mies to deal with. A waggon or carriage of 
 some sort is made use of to approach them, 
 and then they are easily killed. 
 
 Rabbits are very abundant in some places. 
 They are killed by shooting, for all here is 
 done with gun no reliance is placed upon a 
 dog Cobbett. 
 
 AMES-ACE, s. Two aces thrown at the same time on two dice. 
 
 AMMONIA, s. A volatile alkali, produced from bones or sal ammoniac, 
 and other mineral substances. Carbonate of ammonia, a stimulant and 
 cordial. Drop ammoniac, as an expectorant, is given successfully in 
 doses of two, three, and four drachms. 
 
 AMPHIBIOUS, a. That which can live in two elements. 
 
 ANAS, s. The generic name of the duck tribe. 
 
 The Duck, a genus thus characterised. 
 Bill middle size, strong, straight, more or less 
 depressed, covered with a thin skin, often 
 more raised than broad at the base, which is 
 either furnished with a fleshy substance or 
 quite smooth, always depressed towards the 
 point, which is rounded, blunt, and clawed, 
 margins of the two mandibles toothed with 
 plates, of either a flat or a conical form. 
 Nostrils almost at the surface of the bill, at 
 some distance from the base, somewhat oval, 
 half closed by the flat membrane which lines 
 the nostril. Legs short, feathered to the 
 knees, drawn back towards the belly ; three 
 toes before, wholly webbed; hind toe free, 
 articulated higher up on the flank, without a 
 membrane, or having only the rudiments 
 thereof. Wings of middle size; the first 
 quill either as long as the second or rather 
 shorter. 
 
 Temminck divides the genus into four 
 sections. 1 . The Goose ; 2. The Swan ; 
 3. The Duck. A. Ducks having the hind 
 claw naked. B. Ducks having the hind claw 
 covered with a loose membrane. 
 
 This genus, in which ornithologists have 
 included all the Swans, Geese, and Ducks, 
 amounts, according to the latest enumeration, 
 to ninety-eight species, and about fourteen 
 varieties ; thirty-three of the former, and one 
 of the latter, are accounted British birds. 
 
 From the swan downward to the teal, they 
 are all of a clean-plumaged, beautiful race of 
 birds, and some of them exquisitely so. Those 
 which have been reclaimed from a state of 
 nature, and live dependent on man, are ex- 
 tremely useful to him ; under his protection 
 they breed in great abundance, and without 
 requiring much of his time or care, lead their 
 young to the pool almost as soon as they are
 
 ANG] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 11 
 
 hatched, where they instantly, with instinc- 
 tive perception, begin to search for their food, 
 which at first consists chiefly of weeds, worms, 
 and insects; these they sift, as it were, from 
 the mud, and for that purpose their hills are 
 admirably adapted. When they are further 
 advanced in life, they pick up the sodden 
 scattered grain of the farm- yard ; which, but 
 for their assiduous searchings, would be lost. 
 To them also are allotted large quantities of 
 corn which are shaken by the winds from the 
 
 over-ripened ears in the field. On this clean 
 and simple food they soon become fat, and 
 their flesh is accounted delicious and nourish- 
 ing. 
 
 In a wild state, birds of various kinds pre- 
 serve their original plumage ; but when tamed 
 they soon begin to vary, and show the effects of 
 domestication :, this is the case with the tame 
 goose and the duck, which differ as much 
 from the wild of their respective kinds, as 
 they do from each other Bewick. 
 
 ANASARCA, s. A general dropsy, consisting of a watery fluid lodged 
 beneath the skin. 
 
 blood formed, not only from the state of the 
 grinding teeth, the gums, and the mouth in 
 general, which is such as to render mastica- 
 tion painful and imperfect, but from the 
 stomach sympathising with this state of the 
 mouth. This disorder in young colts is first 
 observed by dulness, disinclination to motion, 
 hanging the head, and indifference in grazing. 
 There are swellings also on the belly, chest, 
 sheath, or udder, which are sometimes very 
 considerable. When these symptoms are ob- 
 served, the colt should be taken up and bled 
 until he is quite faint, or drops down from 
 faintness. Nothing more is necessary, unless 
 it is turning him into a place where he can 
 have but little food and sufficient exercise. 
 Markham's drench has been given to colts 
 when affected with the Moor ill, as the dis- 
 order is termed, with success. 
 
 Anasarca arises from debility or inflamma- 
 tion. The former occurs to old horses when 
 turned out into poor or marshy pasture, and 
 is indicated by general swelling of the belly, 
 chest, and hind legs ; it generally ends fatally 
 unless strong diuretics and sudorifics are em- 
 ployed ; and these are combined in the cele- 
 brated old drench of Markham, which has 
 cured more horses of this disorder than any 
 other remedy ; and is considered in the low 
 country, about Glastonbury and Wedmoor, 
 where this disease is prevalent, an infallible 
 remedy. It consists of a decoction of worm- 
 wood in a gallon of ale, which is boiled down 
 to two quarts, and skimmed. In this one 
 ounce of Castile soap is dissolved, and then 
 there is to be stirred in six drachms of grains of 
 paradise, powdered, and the same quantity of 
 long pepper. The whole of this mixture is 
 given at once, fasting. The horse to be clothed 
 and rode about until he sweats and stales 
 profusely, which he soon does, and is then 
 relieved. The horse is often capable of doing 
 some work after his recovery ; but the consti- 
 tution of such horses is generally too far 
 broken to receive any permanent benefit from 
 this or any other treatment. The other kind 
 of dropsy, or that which depends on a high 
 degree of general inflammation, most commonly 
 attacks colts during the first, second, or third 
 year, or before they begin to change their 
 grinding teeth. At this period there is less 
 
 In dogs, this complaint very seldom occurs, 
 unless as an accompaniment of the ascites. 
 I have, however, now and then seen it, and, 
 in most of the cases, it was in old dogs who 
 had laboured under some previous debility. 
 In such instances, when any remaining sta- 
 mina affords a chance for recovery, the treat- 
 ment recommended for dropsy of the belly 
 may be resorted to : very small punctures 
 
 may also be made in the distended skin 
 
 White Elaine. 
 
 ANGLE, s. An instrument to take fish, consisting of a rod, a line and a 
 
 hook. 
 
 ANGLE, v. To fish with a rod and hook. 
 
 ANGLE-ROD, s. The stick to which the fisher's line and hook are hung. 
 ANGLER, s. He that fishes with an angle. 
 
 The Angler will take care, when he means 
 to fish at bottom, to have with him different 
 kind of lines neatly coiled up, strong single 
 hairs, hooks untied of divers sorts, and also 
 tied to bottom links of coarse and fine gimp 
 of twisted and single silk worm gut, of hog's 
 
 bristles, and of white and sorrel hair ; likewise 
 to be provided with cork and quill floats, and 
 spare caps. Shot split, and small pistol bul- 
 lets to poise the floats ; shoemaker's wax in a 
 piece of leather (if the wax be too stiff, tem- 
 per it with tallow) ; silk of various sizes and
 
 12 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [ANG 
 
 colours ; recollecting, that hooks for worm 
 fishing, and red paste, are usually tied on 
 with scarlet ; and those for gentles, yellow 
 paste, and grubs with straw-coloured silk ; a 
 plummet to ascertain the depth of the water 
 when a float is used ; a clearing ring to disentan- 
 gle the hook, which is used by running it along 
 and over the top of the rod, and gradually 
 down the line (holding it by a strong twine, 
 long enough for any such purpose) to where 
 the hook is fast, if at a stump or other im- 
 moveable substance; but if it be hung to 
 weeds, let the ring get below the hook, then 
 pull the twine, and the ring will break the 
 weeds, and thus save both line and hook ; in 
 the former case, if it does not release the 
 hook, it will enable the line to be broken 
 near to it, and prevent the line from being 
 strained in any other part. A sharp pen-knife, 
 a pair of scissors, a small whetstone about two 
 inches long and a quarter of an inch square, are 
 indispensible. A landing-net, the iron hoop 
 made with joints, and a socket to contain a 
 handle for it ; some use a light hook that 
 screws into a long staff, which not only se- 
 cures the taking of a large fish out of the water, 
 but also is a useful implement in disengaging 
 the line from weeds or boughs of trees. A 
 disgorger to put down the throat of a fish 
 when he has swallowed the hook, until it is 
 touched, when by pulling the line gently at 
 the same time that the instrument presses 
 down the hook, it will be freed. These may 
 be made of a piece of split cane five or six 
 
 inches long, and a quarter of an inch wide, 
 with a notch at each end. Baits should be 
 carried, the gentles, pastes, and natural flies, 
 in tin boxes ; for the latter, with holes punched 
 in the top to admit air. He will likewise not 
 be without worms of different sorts in canvass 
 and woollen bags, and a larger one for malt 
 or other ground bait : to hold the baits, it is 
 far better to have something like a fish- 
 woman's apron, with three or four partitions 
 (made as below), than to dangle the gentle- 
 case or worm-bags from a button. A piece 
 of coarse cloth, three quarters in length and 
 breadth, doubled to within three inches at 
 one side ; which three inches must be doubled 
 back again, and sewed all along close to the 
 , first doubling to receive a belt ; the great 
 doubling at each side is then to be sewed up, 
 so that the foreside may allow room for the 
 hand to go easily into the pockets, which will 
 be ten inches deep ; and when stitched in 
 three places, will leave four divisions, each 
 four inches broad. The fishbasket, pannier, 
 or creel, as they are made very neat and light 
 in wicker-work, should be large enough to 
 admit the fish to lie at full length ; they are 
 thus better preserved, both in appearance and 
 for use, than when bent and crushed together ; 
 some persons carry their pannier at their back, 
 others under the left arm, having the side 
 nearest them rather hollowed : in these bas- 
 kets are sometimes a partition at the top, for 
 holding night lines, &c Daniel. 
 
 ANGLING, p. The art of fishing with a rod and line. 
 
 Angling came into general repute in Eng- 
 land about the period of the Reformation, 
 when both the secular and regular clergy, 
 being prohibited by the common law from the 
 amusement of hunting, hawking, and fowling, 
 directed their attention to this recreation. 
 The invention of printing assisted in exciting 
 attention to this subject, and made known its 
 importance " to cause the helthe of your body, 
 and specyally of your soul," as the first trea- 
 tise quaintly concludes. Wynkin de Worde 
 gave the world, in 1496, a small folio repub- 
 lication of the celebrated Book of St. Albans. 
 It contained, for the first time, a curious 
 tract, entitled the Treatyse of Fysshinge with 
 an Angle ; embellished with a wood cut of the 
 angler. This treatise is imputed to Dame 
 Juliana Berners, or Barnes, prioress of a nun- 
 nery near St. Albans. " The angler," she 
 observes, "atte the least hath his holsom 
 walke and mery at his ease, a swete ayre of 
 the swete savoure of the meede flowers that 
 makyth him hungary ; he hereth the melody- 
 ous armony of the fowles, he seeth the yonge 
 swannes, heerons, duckes, cotes, and many 
 other fowles, with their brodes, whych me 
 
 seemyth better than alle the noyse of the 
 houndys, the blast of homys, and the serve of 
 fowles, that hunters, fawkeners, and fowlers, 
 can make. And if angler take fysshe, surely 
 thenne is there noo man merier than he is 
 in his spyryte?" The Book of St. Albans 
 contains " Treatises perteynynge to Hawkynge 
 and Huntynge," as well as " Fysshinge with 
 an Angle ; " and several editions of it were 
 printed in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 
 turies ; as that under the title of " The Gen- 
 tleman's Academic in 1595 ;" " The Jewel 
 for Gentrie in 1674." Mr. Haselwood, a 
 learned biographer, has recently favoured the 
 public with a well finished fac-simile reprint 
 of the work, but he disputes the claim of the 
 fair lady above mentioned to be the authoress 
 of the above treatise on angling, and only as- 
 signs her a small portion of the treatise on 
 hawking, the entire treatise on hunting, a 
 list of the beasts of chase, and another of 
 birds and fowls. 
 
 Walton's inimitable "Discourse on An- 
 gling" was first printed in 1653, in an elepmt 
 duodecimo, with plates of the most consider- 
 able fish cut in steel. This edition, and three
 
 ANG] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 13 
 
 subsequent ones, consisted wholly of what is 
 now called part the first of the " Complete 
 Angler," or Walton's individual portion of the 
 work. While engaged in 1676, being the 
 eighty-third year, of his age, in preparing the 
 fifth edition, he received from his friend, 
 Charles Cotton, Esq., a gentleman in Derby- 
 shire, " Instructions how to angle fora Trout 
 or Grayling in a clear Stream," as they were 
 first called, which afterwards became part the 
 second of this joint publication. 
 
 Angling has been thought of sufficient im- 
 portance to be protected by statute. This first 
 occurred in the reign of Edward I., when im- 
 prisonment and treble damages were awarded 
 against all that should trespass on the rights 
 of authorised fishers. By the 31 Hen. 
 VIII. c. 2, s. 2, it was enacted, " If any evil 
 disposed persons shall fish in the day time, 
 from six in the morning to six in the even- 
 ing, in any ponds, stews, or moats, with nets, 
 hooks, or bait, against the will of the owners, 
 they shall, on the conviction thereof, at the 
 suit of the king, or the party aggrieved, suffer 
 imprisonment for the space of three months, 
 and find security for their good behaviour. | 
 By the 5 Eliz., c. 21, s. 2, it is enacted, 
 " If any person shall unlawfully break or 
 destroy any head or dam of a fish pond, or 
 shall wrongfully fish therein, with intent to 
 take or kill fish, he shall, on conviction at the 
 assizes or sessions, at the suit of the king or 
 the party injured, be imprisoned three months 
 and pay treble damages ; and after the expi- 
 ration of the said three months, shall find 
 sureties for good behaviour for seven years to 
 come. 
 
 By the 22 & 23 Car. II. c. 25, s. 7, it 
 is enacted, " That if any person shall, at 
 any time, use any casting net, drag net, 
 shore net, or other net whatsoever ; or any 
 angle, hair, noose, troll, or spear ; or shall lay 
 any wears, pots, nets, fish-hooks, or other en- 
 gines ; or shall take any fish by any means 
 whatsoever, in any river, stew, moat, pond, 
 or other water, or shall be aiding thereunto, 
 without the consent of the owner of the water, 
 and be convicted thereof within one month 
 after the offence committed, such offender 
 shall give to the party injured such satisfac- 
 tion as a justice shall appoint, not exceeding 
 treble damages ; and pay the overseers of the 
 poor such sum, not exceeding 10s., as the 
 justice shall think fit : in default of payment, 
 the said penalties to be levied by distress ; or 
 the offender to be committed to the house of 
 ' correction fora term not exceeding one month, 
 unless he enter into a bond, with surety, in 
 a sum not exceeding 10, never to offend 
 in like manner." Justices are also authorised 
 to destroy all such articles as before recited 
 and adapted to the taking of fish, as may be 
 found in the po s session of offenders when 
 
 taken. Persons aggrieved may appeal to the 
 quarter sessions, whose judgment shall be 
 final. 
 
 And by the 4 & 5 William and Mary 
 it is enacted, "That no person (except 
 makers and sellers of nets, owners of a river 
 or fishery, authorised fishermen and their ap- 
 prentices) shall keep any net, angle, leap, 
 pike, or rather engine, for taking of fish. The 
 proprietor of any river or fishery, or persons 
 by them authorised, may seize, and keep to 
 his own use, any engine which shall be found 
 in the custody of any person fishing in any 
 river or fishery, without the consent of the 
 owner or occupier. And such owner, occu- 
 pier, or person authorised by either, sanctioned 
 by the consent of any justice, in the day 
 time, may search the houses or other places 
 of any unqualified person, who shall be sus- 
 pected of having such nets, or other engines 
 in his possession, and the same to seize and 
 keep to their own use, or cut in pieces and 
 destroy." Stealing fish in disguise is made 
 felony of by the 9 Geo. I. c. 22. " If 
 any person armed and disguised shall un- 
 lawfully steal, or take away, any fish out 
 of any river or pond, (whether armed or not,) 
 shall unlawfully and maliciously break down 
 the head or mound of any fish pond, whereby 
 the fish shall be lost and destroyed, or shall 
 rescue any person in custody for any such 
 offence, or procure any other to join him 
 therein, he shall be guilty of felony without 
 benefit of clergy." This (commonly called 
 the Black Act) is made perpetual by 31 
 Geo. II. c. 42. 
 
 By the 5 Geo. III. c. 14, s. 1, it is en- 
 acted, " That if any person shall enter into 
 any park or paddock enclosed, or into any 
 garden, orchard, or yard, belonging to, or ad- 
 joining to, any dwelling-house, wherein shall 
 be any river, pond, moat, or other water, and, 
 by any means whatsoever, (without the con- 
 sent of the owner,) steal, kill, or destroy, any 
 fish, bred, kept, or preserved therein, or shall 
 be assisting therein, or shall receive or buy 
 any such fish, knowing them to be such, shall, 
 upon conviction, be transported for seven 
 years. Persons making confession of such 
 offence, and giving evidence against an ac- 
 complice, who, in pursuance thereof, shall be 
 convicted, will be entitled to a free pardon." 
 And by the same act, section 3, it is provided, 
 "That if any person shall take, kill, or destroy, 
 or attempt to take, kill, or destroy, any fish in 
 any river or stream, pool, pond, or any other 
 water, (not being in any park or paddock en- 
 closed, or in any garden, orchard, or yard, 
 belonging or adjoining to a dwelling-house, 
 but in any other enclosed ground, being pri- 
 vate property,) such person being thereof con- 
 victed by confession, or the oath of one wit- 
 ness before a justice, shall forfeit five pounds
 
 14 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Am 
 
 to the owner of the fishery of such river or 
 other water ; and in default thereof shall be 
 committed to the house of correction for a 
 time not exceeding six months." 
 
 By the 1 Eliz. c. 17, "All fishermen are 
 forbidden to destroy the fry of fish, small 
 salmon and trout, under a penalty of twenty 
 shillings ;" and hy the 4 & 5 Anne, for the 
 protection of salmon in the counties of South- 
 ampton and Wilts, no salmon shall he taken 
 between the first of August and twelfth of 
 November. Statutes of Geo. I. and II., for- 
 bid the same fish to be taken in the rivers 
 
 Severn, Wye, Ware, Ouse, &c., under eighteen 
 inches long. 
 
 It is held that when the lord of the manor 
 has the soil on both sides of the river, as in 
 the case of the Severn, the right of fishing 
 goes with it; and he who intrudes thereon 
 must prove his claim of a free fishery ; but 
 when the tide ebbs and flows, and the river 
 is an arm of the sea, as in the case of the 
 Thames, the right is presumed to be common, 
 and he who claims a privilege must prove 
 it. Ency. Lon. ( Vide FISH, FISHING, &c. 
 &c.) 
 
 ANIMAL, s. A living creature. 
 
 ANIMAL, a. That belongs or relates to animals. 
 
 ANIMALCULE, s. A small animal. 
 
 ANISEED, s. A stimulant and cordial, much used in veterinary practice. 
 
 The essential oil is generally preferred. 
 ANKLE, *. The joint which joins the foot to the leg. 
 ANKLE-BONE, *. The bone of the ankle. 
 ANODYNE, a. That which has the power of mitigating pain. 
 
 ANODYNE BALL. 
 
 No. 1. Opium . . from J dr. to 1 dr. 
 Castile soap . . 2 dr. to 4 dr. 
 Powdered ginger . 1 dr. to 2 dr. 
 Powdered aniseed . \ oz. to 1 oz. 
 Oil of caraways . ^ dr. 
 
 Syrup, enough to form a ball. 
 
 ANODYNE CARMINATIVE TINCTURE. 
 No. 3. Best Turkey opium . 1 oz. 
 Cloves bruised . . 2 oz. 
 Jamaica ginger bruised 3 oz. 
 Old Cognac brandy . 1 quart. 
 Keep them together in a well-corked bottle 
 three or four weeks, frequently shaking it. 
 The dose two or three ounces in water. 
 
 The ball may be mixed with warm ale, if 
 the form of a drench be preferred to that of a 
 ball, and either of the receipts will be found a 
 good remedy in flatulent or spasmodic colic 
 White. 
 
 ANODYNE DRAUGHT, OR DRENCH. 
 No. 2. Tincture of opium from ^ oz. to 1 oz. 
 Spirit of nitrous ether 1 oz. to 2 oz. 
 Essence of peppermint 1 to 2 dr. 
 Water . . .1 pint. 
 
 ANOINT, v. a. To rub over with unctuous matter ; to consecrate by 
 
 unction. 
 ANSER, .?. The goose, a genus thus characterised. Bill shorter than 
 
 the head, a little conical, as are the marginal denticulations. Neck of 
 
 a middle length. 
 ANT, s. An emmet, a pismire. 
 
 An universal bustle and activity observed in 
 anthills may be generally regarded as a sign 
 
 motion together, and carry their eggs about 
 from place to place Foster. 
 
 of rain. The ants frequently appear all in 
 
 ANTHELMINTHICS, s. Medicines that destroy worms, or expel them from 
 the intestines. 
 
 The mercurial purgatives are generally 
 considered the most effectual anthelminthics. 
 A variety of vegetables have been thought 
 to possess this quality, but I believe without 
 foundation ; among these are box, rue, savin, 
 and wormwood. jEthiop's mineral, antimony, 
 sulphur, and tin, have also been considered as 
 anthelminthics. I believe tin has not been 
 
 fairly tried : and as it is an efficacious anthel- 
 minthic in dogs, it may probably be found use- 
 ful in horses. Of all the mercurial prepara- 
 tions, calomel is by far the best for this 
 purpose, and may be given with aloes, soap, 
 and some aromatic oil, with a little ginger. 
 Many prefer giving the calomel at night, and 
 the purgative the following morning. Aloes
 
 App] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 deserve the high character that was given of 
 it ; though, like salt or brine, it may some- 
 times have heen found an effectual anthel- 
 minthic White. {Vide WORMS.) 
 
 are a good anthelminthic. A saline substance 
 was some time ago introduced from India, as 
 a remedy for that species of worm termed bolts. 
 It seems to be composed of common salt and 
 liver of sulphur, hut it does not appear to 
 
 ANTHRAX, s. A scab or blotch which burns the skin. 
 
 ANTICOR, s. A preternatural swelling 1 in a horse's breast, opposite his 
 
 heart. 
 
 This is, I believe, an inflammatory disorder, 
 and requires bleeding and opening medicines, 
 with fomentations. It is said to happen fre- 
 quently, and often end fatally, in France and 
 Italy; but seldom in this country. It con- 
 
 sists in a painful swelling of the breast and 
 belly, sometimes ending in suppuration, some- 
 times in dropsy. After bleeding and opening 
 medicine, give mild diuretics and grass. 
 White. 
 
 ANTIDOTE, s. A medicine given to obviate the effects of poisons. 
 ANTIMONIAL, a. Made of antimony. 
 ANTIMONY, s. A metal. 
 
 Preparations of antimony are extensively 
 used in veterinary practice, generally in com- 
 bination. In fevers it is particularly useful, 
 
 and in a fluid preparation is recommended in 
 foul ulcers of the feet, cankers, &c. &c. 
 
 ANTISEPTICS, s. 
 
 Antiseptics are medicines which prevent 
 putridity, or remove it if begun. The most 
 efficacious are bark and other bitters ; opium, 
 wine, ether, ammonia, and camphor. 
 
 Horses do not appear to be subject to those 
 
 ANTISPASMODIC, a. That which has 
 ANTISPASMODICS, s. 
 
 Antispasmodics in veterinary practice possess 
 the power of allaying inordinate or painful 
 motions in the system, particularly those 
 involuntary contractions in parts which are 
 naturally subject to the command of the will. 
 
 Medical writers divide antispasmodics into 
 two kinds, viz. stimulants and sedatives. To 
 the former belong arsenic, preparations of 
 copper, zinc, and iron ; also, ammonia, ether, 
 essential oils, &c. The latter comprehends 
 opium, musk, camphor, and all the vegetable 
 narcotics. 
 
 Medicines of the fetid kind, such as galba- 
 num, assafoetida, &c., have also an antispas- 
 modic quality. 
 
 When spasm arises from irritation, sedatives 
 
 fevers which, in the human system, are termed 
 putrid. In gangrene, or mortification of the 
 external parts, antiseptic fomentations are 
 employed, which are made by boiling worm- 
 wood, rue, and other bitter herbs in water. 
 
 the power of relieving the cramp. 
 
 are to be given ; but when it depends merely 
 on debility, tonics are evidently proper. The 
 spasmodic complaints to which horses are 
 liable, are locked jaw and spasmodic or flatu- 
 lent colic, commonly named gripes, in which 
 the most efficacious antispasmodic is opium ; 
 but it is generally joined with others, such as 
 camphor, assafotida, ether, oil of peppermint, 
 juniper, caraways, or allspice, or other aro- 
 matics. 
 
 Spices and aromatic seeds, such as cinna- 
 mon, cloves, ginger, caraways, aniseed, &c., 
 are often joined with opium, either in powder 
 or infused with it in proof spirit, to form a 
 tincture, and will be found a good antispas- 
 modic in that form. 
 
 ANTLER, s. Branch of a stag's horn. 
 APERIENT, a. Gently purgative. 
 APEX, s. The tip or point. 
 APIARY, s. The place where bees are kept. 
 APOPLEXY, s. A sudden deprivation of all sensation. 
 APOSTUME, s. A hollow tumour filled with purulent matter. 
 APPARATUS, s. Those things which are provided for the accomplishment 
 of any purpose. ( Vide SHOOTING.)
 
 16 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 APPLICATION, s. The act of applying any thing to another ; the thing 
 
 applied. 
 
 AQUA-FORTIS, *. Weak nitric acid. 
 
 AQUILINE, a. Resembling an eagle; when applied to the nose, hooked. 
 ARAB, *. or ARABIAN. A horse bred in Arabia. 
 
 The Arabian Of all the countries in 
 
 the world where the horse runs wild, Arabia 
 produces the most beautiful breed the most 
 generous, swift, and persevering. They are 
 found, though not in great numbers, in the 
 deserts of that country, and the natives use 
 every stratagem to take them. Although they 
 are active and beautiful, yet they are not so 
 large as those bred up tame. They are of a 
 brown colour, their mane and tail very short, 
 and the hair black and tufted. Their swift- 
 ness is incredible ; the attempt to pursue them 
 in the usual manner of the chace, with dogs, 
 would be 'entirely fruitless : such is the rapi- 
 dity of their flight, that they are instantly out 
 of view, and the dogs themselves give up the 
 vain pursuit. The only method, therefore, 
 of taking them is by traps hidden in the sand, 
 which entangling their feet, the hunter at 
 length comes up, and either kills them or 
 carries them home alive. If the horse be 
 young, he is considered among the Arabians 
 as a very great delicacy, and they feast upon 
 him while any part is found remaining; but 
 if from his shape or vigour he promises to be 
 serviceable in his more noble capacity, they 
 take the usual methods of taming him by 
 fatigue and hunger, and he soon becomes a 
 useful domestic animal. But the horses thus 
 caught, or trained in this manner, are at pre- 
 sent very few ; the value of Arabian horses 
 all over the world has, in a great measure, 
 thinned the deserts of the wild breed, and 
 there are few to be found in those countries, 
 except such as are tame. 
 
 The Arabian breed has been diffused into 
 Barbary as well as Egypt, and into Persia also. 
 Those from the former country are usually 
 denominated " Barbs." 
 
 Let the Arab be ever so poor, he has 
 horses: they usually ride on the mares, ex- 
 perience having taught them that they bear 
 fatigue, hunger, and thirst, better than horses ; 
 they also are less vicious, more gentle, and 
 will remain, left to themselves, in great num- 
 bers, for days together, without doing the least 
 injury to each other. The Turks, on the 
 contrary, do not like mares, and the Arabians 
 sell them the horses which they do not keep 
 for stallions. 
 
 The Arabs have no houses, but constantly 
 live in tents, which serve them also for sta- 
 bles, so that the husband, the wife, and the 
 children, lie promiscuously with the mare 
 and foal. The little children are often seen 
 
 I upon the body or the neck of the mare, while 
 these continue inoffensive and harmless, per- 
 mitting them thus to play with and caress 
 them without injury. 
 
 The Arabs never beat their horses; they 
 treat them gently; they speak to them, and 
 seem to hold a discourse; they use them as 
 friends ; they never attempt to increase their 
 speed by the whip, nor spur them, but in cases 
 of necessity; however, when this happens 
 they set off with amazing swiftness, they leap 
 over obstacles with as much agility as a buck, 
 and if the rider happens to fall, they are so 
 manageable that they stand still in the midst 
 of their most rapid career. 
 
 The Arabian horses are of a middle size, 
 easy in their motions, and rather inclined to 
 leanness than fat. They are regularly dressed 
 every morning and evening, and -with such 
 care, that the smallest roughness is not left 
 upon their skins. They wash the legs, the 
 mane, and the tail ; the two latter they never 
 cut, and very seldom comb, lest they should 
 thin the hair. 
 
 They give them nothing to eat during the 
 day; they only give them to drink once or 
 twice, and at sunset they hang a bag to their 
 heads, in which there is about half a bushel 
 of clean barley : they continue eating the 
 whole night, and the bag is again taken away 
 the next morning. They are turned out to 
 pasture in the beginning of March, when the 
 grass is pretty high. When the spring is past 
 they take them again from pasture, and then 
 they get neither grass nor hay during the rest 
 of the year ; barley is their only food, except 
 now and then a little straw. The mane of 
 the foal is always clipped when about a year 
 or eighteen months old, in order to make it 
 stronger and thicker; they begin to break 
 them at two years old, or two years and a half 
 at farthest ; they never saddle or bridle them 
 till at that age, and then they are always 
 kept ready saddled at the door of the tent, 
 from morning till sunset, in order to be pre- 
 pared against any surprise. They at present 
 seem sensible of the great advantage their 
 horses are to the country; there is a law, 
 therefore, that prohibits the exportation of 
 the marcs, and such stallions as are brought 
 into England are generally purchased on the 
 eastern shores of Africa, and come round to 
 us by the Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 The Arabs preserve the pedigree of their 
 horses with great care, and for several ages
 
 ARC] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 17 
 
 back. They distinguish the races by different 
 names, and divide them into three classes; 
 the first is that of the nobles, the ancient 
 breed, and unadulterated on either side ; 
 the second, that of the horses of the anci- I 
 out race, but adulterated ; and the third the 
 common and inferior kind : the last they 
 sell at a low price, but those of the first 
 class, and even of the second, amongst which 
 are found horses of equal value to the former, 
 are sold extremely dear. They know, by long 
 experience, the race of a horse by his appear- 
 ance; they can tell the name, the surname, 
 the colour, and the marks properly belonging 
 to each. When the mare has produced the 
 foal, witnesses are called, and an attestation 
 signed, in which are described the marks of 
 the foal, and the day noted when it was 
 brought forth. These attestations increase j 
 the value of the horse, and are given to the 
 person who buys him. The most ordinary 
 mare of this race sells for five hundred 
 crowns ; there are many that sell for a thou- 
 sand, and some of the very finest kinds for 
 fourteen or fifteen hundred pounds. 
 
 * 
 
 Eighty or one hundred piastres are given j 
 for an ordinary horse, which is in general less j 
 valued than an ass or mule ; but a horse of a ! 
 well known Arabian breed will fetch any price, j 
 Abdallah, pacha of Damascus, had just given j 
 three thousand piastres for one. The history | 
 of a horse is frequently the topic of general 
 conversation. When I was at Jerusalem, the 
 feats of one of these steeds made a great noise. 
 The Bedouin, to whom the animal, a mare, 
 belonged, being pursued by the governor's 
 guards, rushed with her from the top of the 
 hills that overlooked Jericho. The marc 
 _ scoured at full gallop an almost perpendicular 
 declivity without stumbling, and left the sol- 
 diers lost in admiration and astonishment. 
 The poor creature, however, dropped down 
 dead on entering Jericho, and the Bedouin, 
 who would not quit her, was taken weeping 
 over the body of his companion. This mare 
 has a brother in the desert, who is so famous, 
 that the Arabs always know where he has 
 been, where he is, what he is doing, and how 
 he does. Ali Aga religiously showed me, in 
 the mountains near Jericho, the footsteps of 
 the mare that died in the attempt to save her 
 master, a Macedonian could not have beheld 
 
 those of Bucephalus with greater respect. 
 
 * * 
 
 The pure Arabians are somewhat smaller 
 than our race horses, seldom exceeding four- 
 teen hands two inches in height. Their heads 
 are very beautiful, clean, and wide between 
 
 the jaws ; the forehead is broad and square ; 
 the face flat ; the muzzle short and fine; tie 
 eyes prominent and brilliant; the ears sin;.; 
 and handsome ; the nostrils large and open ; 
 die skin of the head thin, through which may 
 be distinctly traced the whole of the veins; 
 the neck rather short than otherwise. The 
 body may, as a whole, be considered too 
 light, and the breast rather narrow; but 
 behind the arms, the chest generally swells 
 out greatly, leaving ample room for the lungs 
 to play, and with great depth of ribs. The 
 shoulder is superior to that of any other 
 breed ; the scapula, or shoulder-blade, in- 
 clines backwards nearly an angle of forty- 
 five degrees ; the withers are high and arched ; 
 the neck beautifully curved ; the mane and 
 tail long, thin, and flowing : the legs are fine, 
 flat, and wiry, with the posteriors placed 
 somewhat oblique, which has led some to sup- 
 pose that their strength was thereby lessened 
 but this is by no means the case-; the bone 
 is of uncommon density ; and the prominent 
 muscles of the fore arms and thigh, prove 
 that the Arabian horse is fully equal to all 
 that has been said of its physical powers. 
 The Arabian is never known, in a tropical 
 climate, to be a roarer, or to have curbs, the 
 shape, from the point of the hock to the fet- 
 lock, being very perfect. It is a remarkable 
 fact, that the skin of all the light-coloured 
 Arabians is pure black, or bluish black, which 
 gives to white horses that beautiful silvery 
 gray colour so prevalent among the coursers 
 of noble blood. Bay and chestnut are also 
 common, and considered good colours. It 
 has been remarked in India, that no horse of 
 a dark gray colour was ever known to be a 
 winner on the turf. If an Arabian horse 
 exceed fourteen and a half hands in height, 
 the purity of his blood is always doubted in 
 India. 
 
 Speaking of the docile character of the 
 Arab horse, the late Bishop of Calcutta 
 writes : " My morning rides are very plea- 
 sant. My horse is a nice, quiet, good- 
 tempered little Arab, who is so fearless, 
 that he goes, without starting, close to an 
 elephant, and so gentle and docile, that he 
 eats bread out of my hand, and has almost 
 as much attachment and coaxing ways as a 
 dog. This seems the general character of 
 the Arab horses, to judge from what I have 
 seen in this country. It is not the fiery, 
 dashing animal I had supposed, but with 
 more rationality about him, and more appa- 
 rent confidence in his rider, than the majority 
 of English horses." Le Keux Brown 
 Clarke Heber. 
 
 ARBALIST, s. A cross-bow. 
 
 ARCHER, s. He that shoots with a bow.
 
 18 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [ARC 
 
 AKCHERY, s. The use of the bow; the act of shooting with the bow; 
 the art of an archer. 
 
 Archery is the art or exercise of shooting ; 
 with a bow and arrow. 
 
 In this island, archery was greatly en- 
 couraged in former times, and many statutes 
 were made for the regulation thereof; whence 
 the English archers became the best in Eu- 
 rope, and obtained many signal victories. The 
 Artillery Company of London, though they 
 have long disused the weapon, are the remains 
 of the ancient bowmen or archers. Artillery 
 (artillerie) is a French term, signifying ar- 
 chery ; as the king's bowycr was in that lan- 
 guage styled arlillier du roy. And from that 
 nation the English seem to have learnt at 
 least the use of the cross-bow. William the 
 Conqueror had a considerable number of 
 bowmen in his army, when no mention is 
 made of such troops on the side of Harold. 
 And it is supposed that these Norman archers 
 shot with the arbalist, or cross-bow, in which 
 formerly the arrow was placed in a groove, 
 termed in French, a quarrel, and in English, 
 a bolt. Of the time when shooting with the 
 long-bow first began among the English, there 
 appears no certain accounts. Their chroni- 
 cles do not mention the use of archery till 
 the death of Richard I. ; who, in 1199, was 
 killed by an arrow at the siege of Limoges, 
 in Guienne, which Hemingford menti<u to 
 have issued from a i-ross-bow. After this, 
 there appears no notice of archery for nearly 
 
 one hundred and fifty years ; when an order 
 was issued by Edward III., in the fifteenth 
 year of his reign, to the sheriffs of most of the 
 English counties, for providing five hundred 
 white bows, and five hundred bundles of 
 arrows, for the then intended war against 
 France. Similar orders were repeated in the 
 following years, with this difference only, that 
 the sheriff of Gloucestershire is directed to 
 furnish five hundred painted bows, as well as 
 the same number of white. 
 
 Philip de Comines acknowledges what our 
 own writers assert, that the English archers 
 excelled those of every other nation ; and Sir 
 John Fortescue says " the safety of the realme 
 of England standyth upon archers." And 
 hence the superior dexterity of their archers 
 gave the English a great advantage over their 
 capital enemies, the French and Scots. 
 
 
 The Normans used the bow as a military 
 weapon ; and, under their government, the 
 practice of archery was not only much im- 
 proved, but generally diffused throughout the 
 kingdom. 
 
 In the ages of chivalry, the usage of the 
 bow was considered as an essential part of 
 the education of a young man who wished 
 to make a figure in life. 
 
 The ladies also were fond of this amuse- 
 ment ; and by a curious representation from
 
 ARC] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 19 
 
 an original drawing in a manuscript of the 
 fourteenth century, we see it practised by one 
 who has shot at a deer, and wounded it with 
 great adroitness; and in another previous 
 engraving, the hunting equipments of the 
 female archers, about the middle of the 
 fifteenth century, are represented. 
 
 It was usual, when the ladies exercised the 
 bow, for the beasts to be confined by large 
 inclosures, surrounded by the hunters, and 
 driven in succession from the covers to the 
 stands, where the fair sportswomen were 
 placed ; so that they might readily shoot at 
 them, without the trouble and fatigue of 
 rousing and pursuing them. It is said of 
 Margaret, the daughter of Henry VII., that 
 when she was on her way towards Scotland, 
 a hunting party was made for her amusement 
 in Alnwick Park, where she killed a buck 
 with an arrow. It is not specified whether 
 the long-bow or the cross-bow was used by 
 the princess upon this occasion : we are cer- 
 tain that the ladies occasionally shot with 
 both ; for when Queen Elizabeth visited Lord 
 Montacute, at Cowdrey, in Sussex, on Mon- 
 day, August 17th, 1591, " Her highness ! 
 tooke horse, and rode into the park, at eight | 
 o'clock in the morning, where was a delicate 
 bowre prepared, under the which were her 
 highness' musicians placed ; and a cross-bow, 
 by a nymph, with a sweet song, was delivered 
 into her hands, to shoote at the deere ; about 
 some thirty in number were put into a pad- 
 dock, of which number she killed three or 
 four, and the countess of Kildare one." 
 
 Roger Ascham, in his instructions to the 
 archer, first of all recommends a graceful atti- 
 tude. He should stand, says this writer, fairly, 
 and upright with his body, his left foot at a con- 
 venient distance before his right ; holding the 
 bow by the middle, with his left arm stretched 
 out, and with the three first fingers and the 
 thumb of the right hand upon the lower part 
 of the arrow affixed to the string of the bow. 
 In the second place, a proper attention was to 
 be paid to the nocking, that is, the application 
 of the notch at the bottom of the arrow to the 
 bow-string : we are told that the notch of the 
 arrow should rest between the fore-finger and 
 the middle finger of the right hand. Thirdly, 
 our attention is directed to the proper man- 
 ner of drawing the bow-string: in ancient 
 times, says Ascham, the right hand was 
 brought to the right pap ; but at present it is 
 elevated to the right ear, and the latter me- 
 thod he prefers to the former. The shaft of the 
 arrow, below the feathers, ought to be rested 
 upon the knuckle of the fore-finger of the left 
 hand ; the arrow was to be drawn to the head, 
 and not held too long in that situation, but 
 neatly and smartly discharged, without any 
 hanging upon the string. Among the requi- 
 site-, necessary to constitute a good archer, 
 
 are a clear sight, steadily directed to the 
 mark, and proper judgment to determine the 
 distance of the ground ; he ought also to 
 know how to take the advantage of a side- 
 wind, and to be well acquainted with what 
 compass his arrows would require in their 
 flight : courage is also an indispensable requi- 
 site, for whoever, says our author, shoots 
 with the least trepidation, he is sure to shoot 
 badly. One great fault in particular he com. 
 plains of, which young archers generally fall 
 into, and that is, the direction of the eye to 
 the end of the arrow, rather than to the 
 mark ; to obviate this evil habit, he advises 
 such as were so accustomed, to shoot in the 
 dark, by night, at lights set up at a proper 
 distance for that purpose. He then concludes 
 with observing, that " bad tutorage" was 
 rarely amended in grown-up persons; and 
 therefore he held it essentially necessary that 
 great attention should be paid to the teaching 
 of an archer properly, while he was young ; 
 "for children," says he, "if sufficient pains 
 are taken with them at the onset, may much 
 more easily be taught to shoot well, than 
 men," because the latter have frequently 
 more trouble to unlearn their bad habits, 
 than was primitively requisite to learn them 
 good ones. 
 
 Kings and princes have been celebrated for 
 their skill in archery, and among those of our 
 own country may be placed King Henry VII., 
 who in his youth was partial to this exercise, 
 and therefore it is said of him in an old poem, 
 written in praise of the Princess Elizabeth, 
 afterwards Queen to Henry VII. 
 
 See where he shoteth at the butts, 
 And with hym are lortles three : 
 He weareth a gowne of velvette blacke, 
 And it is coted aboYe the knee. 
 
 He also amused himself with the bow after 
 he had obtained the crown, as we find from 
 an account of his expenditures, where the 
 following memorandums occur : " Lost to my 
 Lord Morgan at buttes, six shillings and 
 eightpence :" and again, " Paid to Sir Edward 
 Boroughes thirteen shillings and fourpence 
 which the kynge lost at buttes with his cross- 
 bowe." Both the sons of King Henry fol- 
 lowed his example, and were excellent archers. 
 * 
 
 In a curious manuscript of the time of 
 Queen Elizabeth, is this account of an archer 
 and all his necessary appendages : " Captains 
 and officers should be skilful of that most 
 noble weapon, and see that their soldiers, ac- 
 cording to their draft and strength, have good 
 bows, well notched, well strynged, and every 
 strynge whippe in their noche ; and in the 
 myddes rubbed with wax, braser, and shoot- 
 ing glove ; some spare strynges trymed as afore- 
 said ; every man one shete of arrows, with a 
 C '_'
 
 20 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [ARC 
 
 case of leather defensible against the rayne ; 
 and in the same fower and twentie arrows, 
 whereof eight of them should be lighter than 
 the residue ; to gall or astonye the enemye 
 with the hail-shot of light arrows, before they 
 shall come within the danger of the harquc- 
 buss shot. Let every man have a brigandine 
 or a little cote of plate, a skull or huskyn, a 
 mawle of leade of five foote in lengthe, and a 
 fusee, and the same hanging by his girdle 
 with a hooke and a dagger ; being thus fur- 
 nished, teach them by musters to marche, 
 shoote, and retire, keeping their faces upon 
 the enemy's. Sum tyme put them into great 
 nowmbers, as to battle appertayncth ; and 
 thus use them oftentimes practised, till they 
 be perfecte ; for those men in battel or skir- 
 mish cannot be spared. No other weapon 
 maye compare with the same noble weapon." 
 * * 
 
 The Royal Company of Scotland, one of the 
 most ancient associations in the empire, is said 
 to owe its origin to the commissioners who 
 were originally appointed by James I., to super- 
 intend and regulate the exercise of archery 
 throughout the kingdom. These commissioners, 
 who were generally people of character and re- 
 spectability, picked out among the number of 
 men under their superintendence, the most ex- 
 pert archers ; and, in cases of emergency, made a 
 present of their services to the government, in 
 order that they might form the king's body- 
 guard. While in this situation, they gave re- 
 peated instances of their courage and dexterity. 
 Within seven miles of Edinburgh, the royal 
 company still claims the rank of the King's 
 Chief Body Guards. In the year 1677, this 
 company was known under the name and 
 title of His Majesty's Company of Archers ; 
 and in the same year, and by the same act of 
 the privy council, a piece of plate of the value 
 of twenty pounds was shot for at the annual 
 parades of the company, called Weapon-shaw- 
 ings; this plate was denominated the "King's 
 Prize." At the period to which we are at 
 present alluding, the Royal Company consisted 
 of the principal nobility of Scotland. But 
 the revolutionary principles to which they so 
 
 tenaciously adhered, almost annihilated their 
 consequence, and withheld the continuance of 
 the King's prize. Their original magnificence 
 was, however, revived on the accession of 
 Queen Anne to the throne ; but their attach- 
 ment to the unfortunate and ill-fated house 
 of Stuart, again proved the declension of their 
 splendour. But these differences, by the an- 
 nihilation of the family to whom they are 
 attached, have now subsided, and they are 
 now reinstated in all their former conse- 
 quence. In 1 788 the annual prize was re- 
 vived and shot for, in the presence of a nume- 
 rous body of spectators. We may here observe, 
 that the three principal bodies of archers in 
 England and Scotland, are now incorporated 
 in one ; by the union of the Woodmen of 
 Arden, the Toxopholites, and the Royal So- 
 ciety of Archers. The prizes, which properly 
 belong to the latter, and which are annually 
 shot for, are, first, a silver arrow, which was 
 presented by the town of Musselburgh, which 
 seems to have been shot for as far back as 
 the year 1603. Whoever gains this may take 
 charge of it for a year ; at the expiration of 
 which period it is returned with any device 
 that his imagination may suggest. Second, 
 a silver arrow, which, in A. D. 1626, was 
 granted by the town of Peebles. Third, a 
 silver arrow, given by the town of Edinburgh, 
 A. D. 1709. Fourth, a silver punch-bowl, 
 about the value of fifty pounds, made at the 
 expense of the company of Scotch silversmiths. 
 Fifth, the king's prize, which is the entire 
 property of the winner. These prizes are 
 shot for at what is called rovers : the marks 
 are placed at the distance of one hundred and 
 eighty-five yards. The uniform of the Royal 
 Company of Archers is tartan, lined with 
 white, and trimmed with green and white 
 fringes ; a white sash with green tassels, and 
 a blue bonnet with St. Andrew's feather and 
 cross. They have also two standards ; on one 
 of which is inscribed, "Nemo me impune 
 lacessit ;" on the other, " Dulce pro patria 
 periculum." Ascham Strutt JEncy. 
 Lon. 
 
 ARCUBALISTER, s. obs. A cross-bow man. 
 
 ARM, s. The limb which reaches from the arm to the shoulder ; the large 
 bough of a tree ; an inlet of water from the sea ; in sporting parlance, 
 that portion of the horse's fore-leg comprised between the shoulder and 
 the knee. 
 
 AROMATIC, a. Spicy ; fragrant, strong-scented. 
 
 AROMATICS, s. Spices ; stimulants, as cinnamon, cloves, &c. 
 
 ARQUEBUSE, s. obs. A hand gun. 
 
 ARRACK, ,v. A spirituous liquor.
 
 Asc] THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 ARROW, y. The pointed weapon which is shot from a bow. 
 
 " There are three essential parts in the 
 composition of the arrow," says Ascham, " the 
 etele or wand, the feathers, and the head. 
 The stele was not always made with the same 
 species of wood, but varied as occasion re- 
 quired, to suit the different manners of shoot- 
 ing practised by the archers;" he commends 
 sound ash for military arrows, and preferred 
 it to asp, w r hich in his day was generally used 
 for arrows belonging to the army ; but for 
 pastime, he thought that none were better 
 than those made of oak, hardbeam, or birch ; 
 " but after all," says he, " in this point I hold 
 it best to trust to the recommendation of an 
 honest fletcher." The feathers from the wing 
 of a goose, and especially of a grey goose, he 
 thought were preferable to any others for the 
 pluming of an arrow. 
 
 English arrows then had forked heads and 
 broad heads, but round pointed heads resem- 
 bling a bodkin were reckoned better. The 
 notch, or small hollow part at the bottom of 
 the arrow, made for the reception of the 
 bow-string, was varied as occasion required, 
 or at the will of the archer, being sometimes 
 deep and narrow, and sometimes broad and 
 not deep. 
 
 21 
 
 An arrow, weighing from twenty to twen- 
 ty-four pennyweights, made of yew, was 
 considered by archers to be the best that 
 could be made. The feathers of a goose 
 should be used ; and the bird from which 
 they are taken should be two or three years 
 of age. In an arrow, it is remarkable that 
 two out of three feathers are commonly 
 
 white, as they are plucked from the gander ; 
 but the third is usually brown or grey, being 
 taken from the goose ; and this difference of 
 colour shows the archer when the arrow is 
 properly placed. The expression of the " grey 
 goose's wing," in the old ballad of Chevy 
 Chase, is an allusion to this occurrence ; ori- 
 ginally, arrows were armed with flint or metal 
 heads ; latterly with iron of different forms 
 and names. Henry IV. ordained that all 
 arrows should be well boiled or brased, and 
 hardened at the points with steel. Arrows 
 were usually reckoned by sheaves ; a sheaf 
 consisting of twenty-four arrows. They were 
 carried in a quiver, called an arrow case, 
 which served for the magazine. In ancient 
 times, different species of combustible mate- 
 rials were attached to the heads of arrows, 
 and shot from long bows ; and even subse- 
 quently to the invention of gunpowder this 
 mode has been carried into execution. Ac- 
 cording to Neade, an archer may shoot an 
 ounce of fireworks from an arrow twelve 
 score yards. Among the stores at Berwick 
 and Newhaven, in the reign of Edward VI., 
 arrows with wildfire are enumerated. Some 
 slight opinion of the strength of an arrow in 
 its full flight, may be formed from the ac- 
 count given by Edward VI. in his journal : 
 he observes, that one hundred archers shot 
 arrows each before him, and afterwards alto- 
 gether ; that they shot at an inch board : some 
 pierced it through and stuck in the other 
 board, and others pierced it through with the 
 heads of their arrows Ascftam Strult. 
 
 ARSENICAL, a. Containing- arsenic. 
 
 ARSENIC, *. A mineral, the preparations for which are sometimes used in 
 veterinary practice. 
 
 farcy. Yellow arsenic, mixed with lard, is 
 used to remove warts, and in fistula and 
 poll-evil. 
 
 There are two kinds, white and yellow : 
 white arsenic is a powerful tonic, and has 
 been given with success in glanders and 
 
 ARTERIAL, a. That which relates to the artery ; that which is contained 
 
 in the artery. 
 ARTERY, *. An artery is a conical vessel, conveying the blood from the 
 
 heart to all parts of the body. 
 ARTICULAR, a. Belonging to the joints. 
 ASAFOETIDA, s. A very offensive-smelling gum. It has antispasmodic 
 
 qualities ; and in veterinary practice is said to be serviceable in coughs, 
 
 thick wind, and lock-jaw. 
 
 ASCARIDES, *. Little worms generally found in the rectum. 
 ASCITES, s. For this disease in horses and dogs, see White, Blaine, &c. 
 Vide ANASARCA.
 
 2-2 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [.\SH 
 
 till your stuff begins to strike, then add some 
 galls ; boil till it comes up near to what you 
 want, and then add some copperas, but very 
 sparingly. 
 
 ANOTHER METHOD. 
 
 Take a little fresh black-thorn bark and a 
 
 ASH-COLOUK, *. A colour between brown and gray. 
 
 Ash colour, pearl colour, or golden tin- ; few young tops of briar; boil them in water, 
 
 namon Take some walnut roots and boil and when you think all the dye is extracted, 
 
 take them out, and put in a small bit of your 
 stuff for trial, and, if you like the colour, 
 put in the whole when boiling, and boil till 
 it comes to your liking. Bush-thorn bark, 
 when ground, if fresh, will, in turmeric, 
 
 give a rich golden cinnamon. 
 
 ASH-COLOURED FALCON, s. This bird is smaller than the Hen Harrier 
 or Ringtail, with which it is frequently confounded. It is a scarce bird, 
 though Selby says he has taken it in Northumberland, where it breeds 
 on the open moors. Pennant calls it a variety of the Ringtail. 
 
 ASININE, a. Belonging to an ass. 
 
 Ass, s. An animal of burden. 
 
 This animal, though now so common in all 
 
 parts of these islands, was entirely lost among 
 
 us during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, for 
 
 Hollingshed informs us, that in his time " our 
 
 lande did yield no asses." Yet we are not to 
 
 suppose that so useful an animal was unknown 
 
 here before that period ; in fact, mention is 
 
 made of them as early as the time of King 
 
 Kthelred, above five hundred years preceding, 
 
 and again in the reign of Henry III., so that 
 it must have been owing to some accident 
 
 that the race was extinct during the reign of 
 Elizabeth. We are not certain as to the time 
 it was again introduced, probably in the suc- 
 ceeding reign, when our intercourse with 
 Spain was renewed, in which country this 
 animal was greatly used. 
 
 Their constitution is so hardy, that even in 
 the depth of winter, the most wretched hovel 
 is sufficient for them from the cold ; and so 
 temperate are they with respect to food, that 
 they can subsist on such vegetables as almost 
 any other animal would refuse to eat. The 
 thistle and plantain, which generally grow in 
 abundance on waste lands and along the sides 
 of roads, afford them a sufficient feast after 
 their day of toil is concluded. 
 
 When young they are sprightly, handsome, 
 light, and even graceful ; but they soon lose 
 those qualities, either from age or bad treat- 
 ment, and become slow, stubborn, and head- 
 
 strong. The ass is strongly attached to his 
 master, notwithstanding he is usually ill- 
 treated ; he will scent him at a great distance, 
 and distinguish him from any other person. 
 Of all the animals covered with hair he is 
 the least subject to vermin, which apparently 
 proceeds from the peculiar hardness and dry- 
 
 ness of the skin ; and for the same reason he 
 is less sensible than the horse to the whip, 
 and to the stinging of flies. 
 
 The milk of the ass is the lightest of all 
 milks, and is recommended by medical men 
 to persons of delicate stomachs. 
 
 The age of the ass is equal to that of the 
 horse, and even in some instances, exceeds it. 
 One which died in 1782 had been employed 
 in turning the water-wheel at a deep well in 
 Carisbrook Castle for forty years. 
 
 By far the largest breed of asses at this 
 time known in the world is in Spain ; they 
 are large, strong, elegant, and stately animals, 
 often fifteen hands or more in height. The 
 best of this breed sell there at very high 
 prices, sometimes for as much as a hundred 
 guineas each, and upwards. In other coun- 
 tries of Europe the ass is nearly as much 
 neglected as it is in Great Britain. In Sar- 
 dinia there is a race of asses that are very 
 little larger than dogs; they seldom exceed 
 two feet in height, and are in all respects pro- 
 portionately small. 
 
 As the skin of the ass is very hard, and 
 very elastic, it is used for different purposes, 
 such as to make drums, shoes, and thick 
 parchment for pocket-books, which latter is 
 slightly varnished over. It is also of ass's 
 skin that the orientals make their sagri, or, as 
 we call it, shagreen. Probably, too, the bones 
 of asses are harder than those of other ani- 
 mals, since the ancients made their best- 
 sounding flutes of them. In proportion to 
 his size, the ass can carry a greater weight 
 than any other animal ; he sleeps much less 
 than the horse, and never lies down for that 
 purpose, unless very much tired Le Keux. 
 
 ASTHMA, s. A frequent, difficult, and short respiration, joined with a 
 hissing sound and a cough.
 
 AST] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 ASTHMA IN DOGS. 
 
 The Canine Asthma is hardly ever ob- 
 served to attack any but old dogs, or those 
 who, by confinement, too full living, and 
 want of exercise, may be supposed to have 
 become diseased by these deviations from a 
 state of nature. It is hardly possible to keep 
 a dog very fat, for any great length of time, 
 without bringing it on. This cough is fre- 
 quently confounded with the cough that pre- 
 cedes and accompanies distemper ; but it may 
 be readily distinguished from this, by an 
 attention to circumstances as the age of the 
 animal, its not affecting the general health, 
 nor producing immediate emaciation, and its 
 less readily giving way to medicine. The 
 cure is often very difficult, because the dis- 
 ease has in general been long neglected before 
 it is sufficiently noticed by the owners. As 
 it is in general brought on by confinement, 
 too much warmth, and over-feeding, so it is 
 evident the cure must be begun by a steady 
 persevering alteration in these particulars. 
 The medicines most useful are alteratives, 
 and of those, occasionally, emetics are the 
 best. One grain of tartarised antimony (t. e. 
 tartar emetic), with two, three, or four grains of 
 calomel, is a very useful and valuable emetic. 
 This dose is sufficient for a small dog, and 
 may be repeated twice a week with great 
 success always with palliation. 
 
 * * 
 
 It derives its origin from the artificial mode 
 of life forced on pet and fancy dogs, whose 
 close confinement and over-feeding lead to 
 an extraordinary accumulation of fat : and ac- 
 cording to the degree in which these predis- 
 posing causes have been applied, the disease 
 appears earlier or later in life. In some it 
 comes on at three or four years old : in others, 
 rather less artificially treated, it may not ap- 
 pear until seven or eight. 
 
 In some cases, the irritation of the coui 
 and the accompanying hectic, emaciates and 
 wears down the animal : in others, the pul- 
 monary congestion stops respiration, and kills 
 by a sudden suffocation ; or the obstruction 
 the blood meets with in its passage through 
 the heart, occasions accumulation in the head, 
 and convulsive fits are the precursors of death 
 Now and then a rupture of the heart, or o 
 some large blood-vessel, suddenly destroys 
 but by far the most common termination o 
 the complaint is in dropsy, or serous collet 
 tions within the chest or belly, or both, bu 
 most frequently of the latter. In these cases 
 the limbs and external parts of the body 
 waste, but the belly increases in its size ; the 
 legs also swell ; the hair stares ; the breathin: 
 becomes very laborious ; and, in the end 
 suffocation ensues. 
 
 Of the various remedial plans I have pur 
 sued, none have appeared more uniforml 
 
 >eneficial than a course of emetics, steadily 
 ersisted in twice a week. In the intermedi- 
 te days alteratives were administered, with 
 lie occasional use of a purgative, provided the 
 og was strong, fat, and plethoric ; otherwise 
 liis was dispensed with : but it should be re- 
 membered, that this remedial plan must be 
 uniformly and long continued, to ensure per- 
 nanent benefit. The alterative is as fol- 
 
 ^alomel (submuriate of mer- 
 cury) . . . 4 gr. 
 
 \itre (nitrate of potash) . 5 gr. 
 ream of tartar (supertartrate 
 
 of potash) . . 10 gr. 
 
 Antimonial powder . . 2 gr Mix. 
 
 This may be given either as a powder, or it 
 may be made into a ball with honey ; this 
 lose being repeated once or twice a day, ac- 
 :ording to the urgency of the case : the quan- 
 itics may be also lessened or increased ac- 
 cording to the effect produced ; the recipe is 
 ntended for a dog of middling size. On the 
 morning that the emetic is given, the altera- 
 tive should be omitted ; and where the alter- 
 .tive is repeated night and morning, it will be 
 prudent to watch the mouth, that salivation 
 may not unexpectedly come on. If this 
 should happen, discontinue the medicine for 
 some days. Where also the calomel has been 
 found to disagree, I have substituted the fol- 
 lowing alterative with benefit : 
 
 Nitre (nitrate of potash) . 2 gr. 
 Tartar emetic (tartarised an- 
 timony . i g 1 "- 
 Powdered Foxglove (digitalis) | gr. Mix. 
 
 This may be given as the other, and alter- 
 nated with the emetic also, watching the 
 effect of the foxglove, through the medium of 
 the pulse, that they may not be too violent. 
 In some cases of long standing, where the 
 attendant cough has been very harsh, noisy, 
 and distressing, I have added ten, twenty, or 
 thirty drops of tincture of opium (laudanum), 
 or the eighth, sixth, or fourth part of a grain 
 of opium, to each alterative with advantage. 
 In other instances, the cough has been best 
 allayed by an evening opiate of double the 
 strength before prescribed. I have, now and 
 then, experienced benefit also from the use 
 of the balsamic gums, which may be all tried, 
 therefore, in obstinate cases. Relief has been 
 obtained likewise from the following, given 
 every morning : 
 
 Powdered squill 4 !? r - 
 
 Gum ammoniacum, powdered . 5 gr. 
 Balsam Peru . - 3 gr. 
 
 Benzoic acid . 1 S T - 
 
 Anisated balsam of sulphur to form a ball.
 
 24 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [AsT 
 
 Or, 
 
 Inspissated juice of the white gar- 
 den lettuce . * d''- 
 
 Tincture of balsam of Tolu . I dr. 
 
 Powdered gum arabie and extract 
 
 of liquorice . . . 1 oz. each 
 
 Make into balls, and give one night and 
 morning. 
 
 The following I have found to mitigate the 
 severity of several cases, and it deserves a 
 Hal : 
 
 Extract of cicuta . . ^ dr. 
 
 Extract of hyoscyamus . . 1 gr. 
 Powdered digitalis . . a scruple 
 
 Conserve of roses to make 1 0, 8, or 6 balls, 
 according to the size of the dog ; of which one 
 may be given night and morning ; increasing 
 the dose if it occasions no disturbance in the 
 system. Mr. Youatt has, 1 believe, found 
 benefit in asthmatic cases from the exhibition 
 of prussic acid : but the powerful nature of 
 this remedy requires professional assistance 
 when it is administered Elaine. 
 
 ASTRINGENT, a. Binding 1 , contracting. 
 
 Astringents are useful in suppressing unna- 
 tural evacuations in diarrluca, diabetes, &c. 
 Opium, bark, and preparations of copper, iron, 
 lead, and zinc, are principally employed in 
 combining astringent preparations. 
 
 ASTRINGENT RECIPES. 
 
 No. 1 For diarrhoea, diabetes, S[0. 
 
 Opium . . . to 1 dr. 
 Ginger . . H drs. 
 Prepared chalk . 3 dr. 
 Flour . . . 2 dr. 
 Mix into a ball with treacle, syrup, or 
 honey for one dose. 
 
 No. 2 Gum kino . . 2 dr. 
 
 Aromatic powder . 1 dr. 
 Or, Veterinary aromatic 
 
 powder . . 6 dr. 
 Carbonate of soda . 2 dr. 
 Treacle enough to form the mass. 
 No. 3 Powdered catechu . 2 to 4 dr. 
 Alum . . . 2 to 4 dr. 
 Powdered opium . 4 to 1 dr. 
 
 ginger . 1 to 2 dr. 
 
 Oil of cloves . .10 drops. 
 Treacle enough to form the ball. 
 
 Astringent Drench for diabetes. 
 
 Opium . . . 4 dr. 
 
 Powdered ginger . 2 dr. 
 
 Powdered oak bark . 1 oz. 
 
 To be given in a pint of oak bark decoction. 
 
 External Astringents. 
 
 POWDERS. 
 
 No. 1 Powdered alum - 4 oz. 
 
 Armenian bole . 1 oz. Mix. 
 
 No. 2 White vitriol . 2 oz. 
 
 Flowers of zinc . 1 oz. Mix. 
 
 LOTIONS. 
 
 No. 3 A strong goulard mixture. 
 No. 4 A. solution of blue vitriol, white vi- 
 triol, or alum. 
 No. 5 Muriate of iron . 1 oz. 
 
 Water . . 8 O z Mix. 
 
 OINTMENTS. 
 
 No. 1 Venice turpentine . 4 oz. 
 
 Bees' wax . . 1 oz. 
 
 Hog's lard . . 4 oz. 
 To be melted over a slow fire ; and when 
 rather cool, but while it is liquid, add sugar 
 of lead 1 oz. or alum finely powdered, 2 oz. 
 Stir the mixture until it is cold. 
 
 No. 2 Ointment of yellow 
 
 resin . . . 4 oz. 
 
 Oil of turpentine . 1 oz. 
 
 Sulphate of copper fine- 
 ly powdered . ^ oz Mix. 
 
 No. 3 Red nitrated mercury, commonly 
 named red precipitate, rubbed down 
 to a very fine powder 1 dr. 
 Calamine cerate, commonly named 
 Turner's cerate . 2 oz Mix. 
 Astringent powders and ointments are de- 
 signed chiefly as remedies for grease, after the 
 inflammation of the part has been in great 
 measure removed by proper poultices : but the 
 ointment is applicable only to those ulccra- 
 tions or cracks which are effects of that dis- 
 ease, or occurring from other causes. 
 
 ADDITIONAL RECIPES FOR INTERNAL 
 
 ASTRINGENTS. 
 
 For diabetes, or an excessive discharge of 
 urine : 
 
 No. 1 Catechu, or kino, . 2 to 4 dr. 
 
 Powdered ginger . J to 2 dr. 
 
 gentian . 2 to 3 dr. 
 
 Opium . . . 4 dr. 
 Oil of caraways . 20 drops. 
 Syrup enough to form the ball. One dose. 
 
 No. 2 Opium . . . to 1 dr. 
 
 Ginger . . 1 to 2 dr. 
 
 Cinchona, or Peruvian bark, or when 
 that cannot be had, powdered oak 
 bark . 1 oz. or more. 
 
 To be mixed with a decoction of oak bark, 
 or a strong infusion of camomile flowers, and 
 given as a drench. Either of these may be 
 given early in the morning, and repeated at 
 night, should it be found necessary White. 
 
 ATHLETIC, a. Belonging to wrestling- ; strong of body, vigorous, lusty, 
 robust.
 
 Avo] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 25 
 
 AUBURN, a. Brown, of a tan colour. 
 AUCUPATION, s. obs. Fowling-, bird-catching. 
 AUK, s. (Alca impennis, LINNAEUS). 
 
 This species appears to have become extremely 
 rare on the north coast of Britain. The natives 
 in the Orkneys informed Mr. Bullock, in his 
 late tour through those islands, that one male 
 only had made his appearance for a long time, 
 which had regularly visited Papa Westra for 
 several years. The female (which the na- 
 tives call the Queen of the Auks) was killed 
 just before Mr. Bullock's arrival. The King, 
 or male, Mr. Bullock had the pleasure of 
 chasing for several hours, in a six-oared boat, 
 but without being able to kill him, for though 
 he frequently got near him, so expert was the 
 bird in its natural element, that it appeared 
 impossible to shoot him. The rapidity with 
 which he pursued his course under water was 
 almost incredible. 
 
 The length is three feet. The bill is 
 black, very strong, compressed, and marked 
 with several furrows. The base of the upper 
 mandible is covered with short velvet-like 
 feathers ; between the bill and the eye is a 
 
 large patch of white ; the head, neck, back, 
 and wings, glossy black ; lesser quill-feathers 
 tipped with white ; legs black. 
 
 The smallness of the wings renders them 
 useless for flight, the longest quill-feather not 
 exceeding four inches in length. These, how- 
 ever, are admirably adapted to its mode of 
 life, and are of peculiar use in diving under 
 water, where they act as fins ; by whicli 
 means it pursues its prey with astonishing 
 velocity. 
 
 This bird is only found in the most north- 
 ern parts of the kingdom ; it is said to breed 
 in the isle of St. Kilda, from which Dr. Flem- 
 ing had one in 1822. Like the rest of this 
 genus it lays only one egg, white, sometimes 
 irregularly marked with purplish lines, or 
 blotched with ferruginous and black at the 
 larger end : length six inches. It feeds on 
 fish, but the young birds will eat rose root 
 (Rhodiola rosea), or other plants Mon- 
 tagu. 
 
 AURICULARS, s. (In Ornithology}. Feathers which cover the ears. 
 AVOIRDUPOIS, a. A kind of weight, of which a pound contains sixteen 
 
 ounces, and is in proportion to a pound Troy as 17 to 14. 
 AVOSET, Scooper, Crooked- Bill, or Yelper. s. (Recurvirostra Avosetta, 
 
 LINNAEUS. L'Avosette, BUFFON.) 
 
 This bird, which is the only British species 
 of Avosets, does not much exceed the lapwing 
 in the bulk of its body ; but from the length 
 of its legs it is much taller. It measures 
 about eighteen inches in length, to the end of 
 
 the toes twenty-two, and from tip to tip thirty ; 
 and weighs from twelve to fourteen ounces. 
 The bill is black, about three inches and a 
 half long, and of a singular conformation ; 
 looking not unlike flexible flat pieces of
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [AWN 
 
 whaleboue, curved upwards to the tip : the 
 hides are hazel ; the head round, black on 
 the upper part to below the nape of the neck : 
 above and beneath each eye, in most speci- 
 mens, there are small white spots ; but in the 
 one from which the above figure was taken, 
 a streak of that colour passed over each eye 
 towards the hinder part of the head. The 
 thighs are naked, and, as well as the legs 
 and feet, are of a fine pale blue colour. 
 The whole plumage of the Avoset is white, 
 intersected with black ; and, like most of the 
 variegated or piebald birds, the patches of 
 these colours are not placed exactly the same 
 in every individual ; therefore, as the bird 
 cannot be mistaken, a more minute descrip- 
 tion is unnecessary. 
 
 These birds are common in the winter 
 about the lakes, mouths of rivers, and marshes, 
 in the southern parts of England ; and they 
 assemble in large flocks on the fens, in the 
 breeding season. When the female is fright- 
 ened off her nest she counterfeits lameness ; 
 and when a flock is disturbed they fly with 
 their necks stretched out, and their legs ex- 
 tended behind over the head of the spectator, 
 much in the same way as the peewit or lap- 
 winpr, making a shrill noise, and uttering a 
 yelping cry of twit, twit, all the time. The 
 places where they have been feeding may be 
 traced out by the semicircular marks left in 
 the mud or sand by their bills, in scooping 
 out their food, which consists of spawn, worms, 
 
 insects, &c. Latham says, " They lay two 
 eggs, the size of those of a pigeon, an inch and 
 three quarters in length, of a cinereous grey, 
 singularly marked with deep brownish dark 
 patches, of irregular sizes and shapes, besides 
 some under markings of a dusky hue." They 
 keep near the shore, wading about, up to the 
 belly in the water, and sometimes swimming. 
 In all their motions they are smart, lively, 
 and volatile, and do not remain long station- 
 ary in one spot. 
 
 * 
 
 The Scooper is the only species found in 
 England. It breeds in the fens of Lincoln- 
 shire, and on Romiiey Marsh in Kent. It 
 does not migrate, like other birds of similar 
 habits, but is found at all seasons, though in 
 winter it chiefly frequents the sea-shore ; and, 
 besides on the coast of Kent, it is found about 
 the mouth of the Severn, in Gloucestershire, 
 as well as on the eastern coasts of Norfolk 
 and Suffolk, and sometimes in Shropshire. 
 During the breeding season, the Avosets are 
 seen in considerable numbers near Fossdike, 
 in Lincolnshire, and also in the fens of Cam- 
 bridgeshire, and similar localities. Tem- 
 minck says it is common in North Holland. 
 It seems, indeed, to be very widely diffused, 
 being found in Denmark, Sweden, Russia, 
 Siberia, the Caspian Sea, and particularly 
 about the Salt Lakes in the deserts of Tar- 
 tary Bewick Latham Montagu. 
 
 AWNING, s. A cover spread over a boat or vessel to keep off the weather. 
 AXLE, AXLE-TREE, s. The pin which passes through the midst of the 
 
 wheel, on which the circumvolutions of the wheel are performed. 
 AZURE, a. Blue, faint blue.
 
 THE BADGER. 
 
 JDABBLE, v. To open on a false scent. 
 BABILLARD, s. ( Curruca garrula, BRISSON.) 
 
 A species confounded by British naturalists shire or Corn-wall, 
 with the white-throat. (Vide MONTAGU.) 
 
 The babillard does not appear to be a plen- 
 tiful species in this country, and is confined to 
 the western parts of the kingdom, from Glou- 
 cestershire and Wiltshire, in both which 
 
 Selby even doubts its 
 
 existence ; but Sweet has kept them in a cage 
 for years. 
 
 In some seasons it is very plentiful about 
 London ; at other times much scarcer. I am 
 confident I have seen it in Ayrshire, and at 
 
 counties we have found them, and is probably < Musselburgh Haugh, near Edinburgh Ren- 
 in part of Somersetshire, but not in Devon- | nie. 
 
 BACK, s. The hinder part of the body ; the outer part of the hand when it 
 is shut ; the rear ; the place behind ; the part of any thing out of sight ; 
 the thick part of any tool, opposed to the edge. 
 
 BACK, v. To mount a horse ; to break a horse ; to place upon the back ; to 
 maintain ; to support ; to bet on. 
 
 BACKGAMMON, s. A play or game with dice and tables. 
 
 The game of tables is better known at pre- 
 sent by the name of Backgammon. This pas- 
 time is said to have been discovered about the 
 tenth century, and the name derived from two 
 Welsh words signifying " little battle." But 
 the derivation may be found nearer home. The 
 words are perfectly Saxon, as Bac, or Baec, and 
 Zamen, that is, Back Game ; so denominated 
 because the performance consists in the play- 
 
 ers bringing their men back from their an- 
 tagonist's tables into their own ; or because 
 the pieces are sometimes taken up and obliged 
 to go back, that is, re-enter at the table they 
 came from. 
 
 The most material circumstances in which 
 the game differed, at this remote period, from 
 the present method of playing it, was, first, in 
 having three dice instead of two, or reckoning
 
 28 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 a certain number for the third ; and secondly, 
 in placing all the men within the antagonist's 
 table, which, says an ancient writer, must bo 
 put upon his ace point. There is also another 
 game upon the tables, called Paume Carie, 
 which is played with two dice, and requires 
 four players, that is, two on either side ; or six, 
 and then three are opposed to three. The 
 came authority then speaks of a third game, 
 called Ludus Lombardorum, the Game of 
 Lombardy, and thus played : he who sits on 
 the side marked 13 24 has his men at 6, 
 and his antagonist has his men at 19; which 
 is changing the ace point in the English game 
 for the size point : and this alteration pro- 
 bably shortened the game. He mentions 
 the five following variations by name only ; 
 the Imperial game, the Provincial game, the 
 games called Baralie, Mylys, and Faylis. 
 
 At the commencement of the last century, 
 backgammon was a very favourite amusement, 
 and pursued at leisure times by most persons 
 of opulence, and especially by the clergy; 
 which occasioned Dean Swift, when writing 
 to a friend of his in the country, sarcastically 
 to ask the following question : " In what 
 esteem are you with the vicar of the parish : 
 can you play with him at backgammon ? " 
 But of late years this pastime is become un- 
 fashionable, and of course not so much prac- 
 tised. 
 
 * * 
 
 This game is played with dice upon a table 
 by two persons, upon which there are twenty- 
 four black and white spaces, called points. 
 Each adversary has fifteen men, black and 
 white, to distinguish them, and they are dis- 
 posed of in the following manner. Supposing 
 the game to be played into the right hand 
 table, two are placed upon the ace point in the 
 adversary's table, five upon the six point in 
 the opposite table, three upon the cinque 
 point in the hithermost table, and five on the 
 sixth point in the right hand table. The 
 grand object in this game is for each player to 
 bring the men round into his right hand table, 
 by throwing with a pair of dice those throws 
 that contribute towards it, and at the same 
 time prevent the adversary doing the like. 
 The first best throw upon the dice is esteemed 
 aces, because it stops the six point in the outer 
 table, and secures the cinque in the thrower's 
 table, whereby the adversary's two men upon 
 the thrower's ace point cannot get out with 
 cither quatre, cinque, or six. This throw is 
 an advantage often given to the antagonist by 
 the superior player. When he carries his 
 men home in order to lose no point, he is to 
 carry the most distant man to his adversary's 
 bar point, that being the first stage he is to 
 place it on ; the next stage is six points far- 
 ther, viz. in the place where the adversary's, 
 five men are first placed out of his tables. 
 
 He must go on this method till all his men 
 are brought home, except two, when, by losing 
 a point, he may often save the gammon, by 
 throwing two fours or two fives. When a hit 
 is only played for, he should endeavour to 
 gain either his own or adversary's cinque 
 point, and if that fails by his being hit by the 
 adversary, and he finds him forwarder than 
 himself, in that case he must throw more men 
 into the adversary's tables, which is done in 
 this manner : he must put a man upon his 
 cinque or bar point, and if the adversary fails 
 to hit it, he may then gain a forward game 
 instead of a back game ; but if the adversary 
 hit him, he should play for a back game, and 
 then the greater number of men which arc 
 taken up makes his game the better, because 
 by these means he will preserve his game at 
 home, and then he should endeavour to gain 
 both his adversary's ace and trois points, and 
 take care to keep three men upon the adver- 
 sary's ace point, that, in case he hits him from 
 thence, that point may remain still secure to 
 himself. A back game should not be played 
 for at the beginning of a set, because it would 
 be a great disadvantage, the player running 
 the risk of a gammon to win a single hit. 
 
 A variety of instructions with regard to this 
 curious game are given by Mr. Hoyle, who 
 calculates the odds of the game with great 
 accuracy. The following particulars, however, 
 may be of use to the generality of players. If 
 a player has taken up two of the adversary's 
 men, and happens to have two, three, or more 
 points made in his own tables, he should 
 spread his own men, that he may either take 
 a new point in his tables, or be ready to hit 
 the man which the adversary may happen to 
 enter. If he finds upon the adversary's enter- 
 ing, that the game is upon a par, or that the 
 advantage is on his own side, he should take 
 the adversary's man up whenever he can, it 
 being twenty-five to eleven that he is not hit, 
 except when he is playing for a single hit only, 
 then, if playing, the throw otherwise gives him 
 a better chance for it, he ought to do it. As 
 it is five to one against his being hit with 
 double dice, he should never be deterred from 
 taking up any one man of the adversary's. If 
 he has taken up one of the adversary's men, 
 and should happen to have five points in his 
 own tables, and forced to leave a blot out of 
 his tables, he should endeavour to leave it 
 upon doublets preferable to any other chance ; 
 because the odds are thirty-five to one that ho 
 is not hit, whereas it is only seventeen to one 
 but he is hit upon another chance. When 
 the adversary is very forward, a player should 
 never move a man from his own quatre, 
 trois, or deuce points, thinking to bear that 
 man from the point where he put it, as 
 nothing but high doublets can give him any 
 chance for the hit. Instead of playing an ace
 
 BAC] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 29 
 
 or a ileuco from any of these points, he should 
 play them from his own size or highest points, 
 so that throwing two fives or two fours, his 
 size and cinque points heing eased, would be a 
 considerable advantage to him, whereas, had 
 they been loaded, he must have been obliged 
 to play otherwise. It is the interest of the 
 adversary to take up the player as soon as he 
 enters. The blot should be left on the adver- 
 sary's lowest point, that is to say, upon his 
 deuce point, rather than upon his trois point, or 
 upon his trois point rather than upon his quatre 
 point, or upon his quatre point preferable to 
 his cinque point, for a reason before-mentioned ; 
 all the men the adversary plays upon his trois 
 or his deuce points are deemed lost, being 
 greatly out of play, so that those men not 
 having it in their power to make his cinque 
 point, and his game being crowded in on one 
 point, and open in another, the adversary 
 must be greatly annoyed by the player. If 
 the player has two of his adversary's men in 
 his tables, he has a better chance for a hit 
 than if he had more, provided his game is 
 forwarder than that of his antagonist, for if lie 
 had three or more of his adversary's men 
 in his tables, he would stand a worse chance 
 to be hit. When a player is running to save 
 the gammon, if he should have two men upon 
 his ace point, and several men abroad, although 
 he should lose one point or two in his putting 
 his men into his tables, it is his interest to 
 leave a man upon his adversary's ace point, 
 because it will prevent his adversary from 
 bearing his men to the best advantage, .and at 
 the same time the player will have a chance 
 of the adversary's making a blot which he 
 may chance to hit. However, if a player 
 finds, upon a throw, that he has a probability 
 of saving his gammon, he should never wait 
 for a blot, as the odds are greatly against his 
 hitting it, but should embrace that opportu- 
 nity. 
 
 The following are directions for calculating 
 the odds of saving or winning the gammon : 
 Suppose the adversary has so many men 
 abroad as require three throws to bring them 
 into his tables, and at the same time that the 
 players' tables are made up, and that he has 
 taken up one of the adversary's men, in this 
 case it is about an equal wager that the adver- 
 sary is gammoned. For, in all probability, 
 the player has borne two men before he opens 
 his tables, and when he bears the third man, 
 he will be obliged to open his size or cinque 
 point. It is then probable, that the adver- 
 sary is obliged to throw twice before he enters 
 his men in the player's tables, twice before he 
 puts that man into his own tables, and three 
 throws more to put the men which are abroad 
 into his own tables, in all seven throws. 
 Now the player having twelve men to bear, 
 he may be forced to make an ace or a deuce 
 
 twice before he can hear all his men, and 
 consequently will require seven throws in 
 bearing them ; so that, upon the whole, it is 
 about equal whether the adversary is gam- 
 moned or not. Suppose a player has three 
 men upon his adversary's ace point, and 
 five points on his own tables, and that the 
 adversary has all his men in his tables, three 
 upon each of his five highest points, has the 
 player a probability of gammoning his adver- 
 sary or not ? 
 
 POINTS. 
 For bearing three men from his sixth 
 
 point is . . -- .18 
 
 From his fifth point . .15 
 
 From his fourth point . .12 
 
 From his third point . . 9 
 
 From his second point . . 6 
 
 In all . . 60 
 
 Bringing his three men from the ad- 
 versary's ace point, to his size point 
 in his own tables, being eighteen 
 points each, and making together . 54 
 
 There must remain . 6 
 
 It is plain from this calculation, that the 
 player has much the best of the probability of 
 the gammon, exclusive of one or more blots 
 which the adversary is liable to make in 
 bearing his men, supposing at the same time 
 the throws to be upon an equality. Suppose 
 two blots are left, either of which cannot be 
 hit but by double dice, one must be hit by 
 throwing eight, and the other by throwing 
 nine, so that the adversary has only one die 
 to hit either of them. 
 
 The chances of two dice, being in all . 36 
 The chances to hit six, are six and two 
 
 twice . . .2 
 
 Five and three twice . . 2 
 
 Two deuces . . .1 
 
 Two fours . .1 
 
 The chances to hit nine are six and 
 
 three twice . .2 
 
 Five and four twice . . 2 
 
 Two trois . .1 
 
 For hitting in all .11 
 Chances for not hitting, remain 25 
 
 So that the odds are twenty-five to eleven 
 against hitting either of these blots. 
 
 This method may be taken to find out the 
 odds of hitting three, four, or five blots upon 
 double dice, or blots made upon double or 
 single dice at the same time. After knowing 
 how many chances there are to hit any of 
 those blots, they must be added together, and 
 then subtracted from the number thirty-six, 
 which are the chances of the two dices, and the 
 question is solved. 
 
 The laws of backgammon arc, first, If a 
 man is taken from any point, it must bo played,
 
 30 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [BAC 
 
 if two men are taken from it they also must 
 be played. Second, A man is not supposed to 
 be played till it is placed upon a point and 
 quitted. Third, If a player has only fourteen 
 men in play, there is no penalty inflicted ; be- 
 cause by his playing with a less number than 
 he is entitled to, he plays to a disadvantage 
 for want of the deficient man to make up his 
 tables. Fourth, If he bears any number of 
 men before he has entered a man taken up, 
 and which of course he was obliged to enter, 
 such men so borne must be entered again in 
 the adversary's tables, as well as the man 
 taken up. Fifth, If he has mistaken his 
 throw and played it, and his adversary has 
 thrown, it is not in the choice of either of the 
 players to alter it, unless they both agree so 
 to do. 
 
 The probable method of prolonging a hit 
 at backgammon, affords a case of instruction 
 as well as curiosity ; for there is a probability 
 of making the hit last by one of the players 
 for many hours, although they shall both 
 play as fast as usual. Suppose B to have 
 borne thirteen men, and that A has his 
 fifteen men in B's tables, viz. three men upon 
 his size point, as many upon his cinque, qua- 
 tre, and trois points, two upon his deuce 
 point; and one upon his ace point. A in this 
 situation can prolong it by bringing his fifteen 
 men home, always securing six close points 
 till B has entered his two men, and brought 
 them upon any certain point ; as soon as B 
 has gained that point A will open an ace, 
 deuce, or trois point, or all of them, which 
 done, B hits one of them, and A taking care 
 to have two or three men in B's tables, is 
 ready to hit that man, and also he being cer- 
 tain of taking up the other man, has it in his 
 power to prolong the hit almost to any length, 
 
 BACKSIDE, *. The hinder part of any thing ; the hind part of an animal. 
 BACK-SINEWS, strains in. 
 
 provided he takes care not to open such points 
 as two fours, two fives, or two sixes, but 
 always to open the ace, deuce, or trois points, 
 for B to hit him. We add the following two 
 critical cases for a back game. First, sup- 
 pose the fore game to be played by A, and 
 that all his men are placed as usual, B has 
 fourteen of his men placed upon his adver- 
 sary's are point, and one man upon his adver- 
 sary's deuce point, and B is to throw who has 
 the best of the hit ; answer, A has the best of 
 it, gold to silver, because, if B does not throw 
 an ace to take his adversary's deuce point, 
 which is twenty-five to eleven against him, A 
 will take up B's men in his tables either sin- 
 gly or make points, and then if B secures 
 either A's deuce or trois point, A will put as 
 many men down as possible, in order to hit 
 and thereby get a back game. It is evident 
 that the back game is powerful, consequently, 
 whoever practises it must become a greater 
 proficient at the game than he could by any 
 other means. Second, Suppose A to have five 
 men placed upon his size point, as many upon 
 his quatre point, and the same number upon 
 his deuce point, all in his own tables. At 
 the same time let us suppose B to have three 
 men placed upon A's ace point, as many upon 
 A's trois point, and the same number upon 
 A's cinque point, in his own tables, and three 
 men placed as usual out of his tables, who has 
 the best of the hit? Answer The game is 
 equal till B has gained his cinque and quatre 
 points in his own tables, which, if he can 
 effect, and by playing two men from A's cinque 
 point, in order to force his adversary to blot 
 by throwing a cane, which should B hit, lie 
 will have the best of the hit Strutt En- 
 cy. Lon Hoyle. 
 
 The symptoms are swelling, heat, and pro- 
 portionate degree of lameness. Bleeding and 
 rest are absolutely necessary, assisted by an 
 emollient poultice from the hoof to the knee. 
 
 BACON, s. The flesh a hog salted and 
 BADGER, s. A brock, an animal. 
 
 The usual length of the badger is two feet 
 six inches, exclusive of the tail, which is barely 
 six inches long, and covered with long hair, the 
 same as those of the body ; the weight from 
 fifteen to thirty-four pounds the last is rare, 
 but in the winter of 1 779, Mr. Pennant had a 
 male badger of that weight ; the eyes are 
 very small, the ears short and rounded ; the 
 neck thick, and the whole shape of the body 
 clumsy, and which being covered with long 
 coarse hairs, like bristles, adds to its awkward 
 
 A flannel bag, or large woollen stocking, se- 
 cured above the shoulder by a tape, is the 
 best mode of applying the poultice. All 
 movement of the knee should be avoided. 
 
 dried. 
 
 appearance ; each hair next the root is of a 
 dirty, yellowish white, the middle is black, 
 and the extremity grey ; hence arose the old 
 saying, " As grey as a badger." It has thirty- 
 four teeth, six cutting and two canine teeth 
 in each jaw the lower and upper have each 
 five grinders ; the nose, chin, and lower sides 
 of the cheeks are white ; each ear and eye is 
 inclosed in a pyramidal bed of black, the base 
 of which incloses the former, this point ex- 
 tends beyond the eye to the nose ; the throat
 
 BAD] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 31 
 
 and under parts of the body are black. This 
 is a singularity in the badger, for all other 
 animals have hair of a lighter colour upon 
 their bellies, than upon their backs. The 
 legs and feet of the badger are black, very 
 short, and strong; each foot is divided into 
 five toes, those in the fore feet are armed 
 with long claws, well adapted for digging its 
 subterraneous habitation, where, although 
 there is but one entrance from the surface, 
 it forms several apartments, and in the. breed- 
 ing season carries in grass in his mouth, to 
 form a bed for its young. It confines itself 
 to its hole during the day, feeding only at 
 
 BADGER-HUNTING, *. 
 
 Few creatures defend themselves better, or 
 bite with greater keenness, than the badger : 
 on that account it is frequently baited with 
 dogs trained for that purpose, and defends itself 
 from their attacks with astonishing agility and 
 success. Its motions are so quick, that a dog is 
 often desperately wounded in the moment of 
 assault, and obliged to fly. The thickness of the 
 badger's skin, and the length and coarseness of 
 its hair, are an excellent defence against the 
 bites of the dogs ; its skin is so loose as to 
 resist the impression of their teeth, and gives 
 the animal an opportunity of turning itself 
 round, and wounding its adversaries in their 
 tenderest parts. In this manner this singular 
 creature is able to resist repeated attacks both 
 of men and dogs, from all quarters, till, being 
 overpowered with numbers, and enfeebled by 
 many desperate wounds, it is at last obliged to 
 yield. 
 
 In hunting the badger, you must seek the 
 earths and burrows where he lies, and, in a 
 clear moonlight night, go and stop all the 
 burrows except one or two, and therein place 
 some sacks, fastened with drawing strings, 
 which may shut him in as soon as he strains 
 the bag. Some only place a hoop in the 
 mouth of the sack, and so put it into the hole ; 
 and as soon as the badger is in the sack, and 
 strains it, the sack slips from the hoop, and 
 secures him in it, where he lies trembling till 
 he is taken from his prison. 
 
 The sacks or bags being thus set, cast off 
 the hounds, beating about all the woods, 
 hedges, and tufts round about, for the com- 
 pass of a mile or two, and what badgers are 
 abroad, being alarmed by the hounds, will 
 soon betake themselves to their burrows. 
 Observe that the person who is placed to 
 watch the sacks, must stand close, and upon 
 a clear wind, otherwise the badger will dis- 
 cover him, and immediately fly some other 
 W'ay into his burrow. 
 
 But if the dogs can encounter him before he 
 can take his sanctuary, he will then stand at ' 
 
 night. It is so cleanly as never to obey the 
 calls of nature in its own burrow. It is said 
 the fox takes advantage of this uiceness, and 
 uses an obvious method to make the badger's 
 home unpleasant, of which he by this means 
 possesses himself. In walking, the badger 
 treads on his whole heel, like the bear, which 
 brings the belly very near the ground. Im- 
 mediately below the tail, between that and 
 the anus, there is a narrow transverse orifice, 
 from whence continually exudes a white sub- 
 stance of a very foetid smell : this seems 
 peculiar to the badger and the hyaena. 
 
 bay like a boar, and make good sport, vigorously 
 biting and clawing the dogs. In general, when 
 they fight, they lie on their backs, using both 
 teeth and nails; and, by blowing up their skins, 
 defend themselves against the bites of the dogs 
 and the blows given by the men. When the 
 badger finds that the terriers yearn him in 
 his burrow, he will stop the hole between him 
 and the terriers ; and if they still continue 
 baying, he will remove his couch into another 
 chamber or part of the burrow, and so from 
 one to another, barricading the way before 
 them as he retreats, till he can go no farther. 
 
 If you intend to dig the badger out of his 
 burrow, you must be provided with such tools 
 as are used for digging out a fox : you should 
 also have a pail of water ready to refresh the 
 terriers when they come out of the earth 
 to take breath and cool themselves. 
 
 It is no unusual thing to put some small 
 bells about the necks of the terriers, which, 
 making a noise, will cause the badger to bolt 
 out. 
 
 In digging, the situation of the ground must 
 be observed and considered ; or instead of 
 advancing the work, you probably may hinder 
 it. In this order you may besiege them in 
 their holds, or castles, and break their plat- 
 forms, parapets, and casemates, and work to 
 them with mines and countermines, till you 
 have overcome them. 
 
 We must do this animal the justice to 
 observe, that, though nature has furnished it 
 with formidable weapons of offence, and has 
 besides given it strength sufficient to use 
 them with great effect, it is, notwithstanding, 
 very harmless and inoffensive, and, unless 
 attacked, employs them only for its support. 
 
 The badger is an indolent animal, and 
 sleeps much : it confines itself to its hole 
 during the whole day, and feeds only in the 
 night. It is so cleanly as never to defile its 
 habitation with its ordure. Immediately be- 
 low the tail, between that and the anus, there 
 is a narrow transverse orifice, from whence a
 
 32 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [BAG 
 
 white substance, of a very foetid smell, con- 
 stantly exudes. The skin, when dressed 
 with the hair on, is used for pistol furniture. 
 Tts flesh is eaten : the hind quarters arc some- 
 times made into hams, which, when cured, 
 are not inferior in goodness to the best bacon. 
 The hairs are made into brushes, which are 
 used by painters to soften and harmonise 
 their shades. 
 
 In walking, the badger treads on its whole 
 heel, like the bear, which brings its belly 
 very near the ground. 
 
 Extraordinary Affection in the Badger. 
 Two persons were on a short journey, and 
 passing through a hollow way, a dog which 
 was with them, started a badger, which he 
 attacked, and pursued, till he took shelter in 
 a burrow under a tree. With some pains 
 they hunted him out, and killed him. Being 
 a very few miles from a village, called Cha- 
 pellatiere, they agreed to drag him there, as 
 the commune gave a reward for every one 
 which was destroyed ; besides, they purposed 
 
 selling the skin. Not having a rope, they 
 twisted some twigs, and drew him along the 
 road by turns. They had not proceeded 
 far, when they heard a cry of an animal 
 in seeming distress, and stopping to see 
 from whence it proceeded, another badger 
 approached them slowly. They at first threw 
 stones at it, notwithstanding which it drew 
 near, came up to the dead animal, began to 
 lick it, and continued its mournful cry. The 
 men, surprised at this, desisted from offering 
 any further injury to it, and again drew the 
 dead one along as before ; when the living 
 badger, determining not to quit its dead com- 
 panion, lay down on it, taking it gently by one 
 ear, and in that manner was drawn into the 
 midst of the village ; nor could dogs, boys, or 
 men, induce it to quit its situation by any 
 means, and, to their shame be it said, they 
 had the inhumanity to kill it, and afterwards 
 to bum it, declaring it could be no other than 
 a witch. Buffon Daniel. 
 
 BAG, *. A sack, a pouch ; that part of animals in which some particular 
 
 juices are contained, as the poison of vipers. 
 BAG, v. To put into a bag. In sporting parlance, to kill. 
 BAGATELLE, s. A trifle; a game. 
 BAIT, v. To put meat to tempt animals. 
 
 BAIT, s. Meat set to allure animals to a snare; a temptation; an entice- 
 ment ; a refreshment on a journey. In Fishing, worms, paste, &c. 
 BALANCE, s. A pair of scales; the overplus of weight ; equipoise. 
 BALANCE, v. To weigh in a balance ; to counterpoise. 
 BALD, a. Without hair ; without natural covering. 
 BALK,*. A ridge of land left unploughed; disappointment when least 
 
 expected. In Hunting, a term used when a horse refuses his leap. 
 BALK, v. To disappoint ; to frustrate. In Hunting, to swerve off from a 
 
 fence ; to refuse a jump. 
 
 BALL, s. Anything made in a round form; a round thing to play with, 
 a hand-ball, a billiard-ball. 
 Balls (in farriery) are boluses given to 
 horses, and should not exceed in size a hen's egg. 
 Though named balls, they are generally rolled 
 up in a cylindrical form, about one inch in diame- 
 ter, and two and a half in length ; but the form 
 of an egg is preferable. There is sometimes 
 difficulty in giving balls, without using a ball- 
 ing iron ; and there are horses that will not 
 
 take a ball by any other means. In giving 
 it, the horse's tongue is drawn out on the off 
 or right side, and held firmly with the left 
 hand, while with the right the ball is passed 
 over the tongue into the pharynx, or top of 
 the gullet. The hand should be kept as near 
 to the roof of the mouth as possible ; there 
 
 will then be much less danger of being 
 wounded by the teeth. The moment the 
 right hand is withdrawn from the mouth, the 
 tongue is let loose, and the ball generally 
 swallowed. 
 
 Balls should be made at the time they are 
 wanted ; as by keeping they become so hard 
 as to be insoluble in the stomach, and pass 
 through the intestines unchanged. By keep- 
 ing they also lose much of their strength, 
 particularly when the ingredients are evapor- 
 able in the common temperature of the atmos- 
 phere, which is the case with camphor, am- 
 monia, essential oils, &c. But the most 
 serious inconvenience which arises from giving
 
 BAM] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 33 
 
 balls that have been kept until they become 
 very hard, is, that they are liable to stick in 
 the throat or gullet, and thereby endanger 
 the horse's life. 
 
 Balls cannot be conveniently given unless 
 wrapped up in paper : but for this purpose 
 the softest and thinnest should be chosen. 
 
 In holding the tongue with the left hand 
 while the ball is introduced, great care is 
 required, as the rough and violent manner in 
 which this is sometimes done, injures the 
 tongue or lacerates the under part of it, named 
 the bridle. The muscles by which swallow- 
 ing is effected may also be seriously injured 
 in this way. In violent colds, strangles, &c. 
 there is so much soreness of the throat as to 
 render swallowing very painful and difficult ; 
 in such cases neither balls nor drenches should 
 be given, as they are sure to do mischief by 
 irritating the throat, and may even suffocate 
 the animal by getting into the wind-pipe. 
 
 When a ball is found to ezceed the proper 
 
 size, it should be divided and given at twice, 
 as much injury has been done by giving balls 
 too large, especially when they have become 
 dry and hard, or been wrapped in thick paper. 
 In making balls, the dry ingredients should 
 be finely powdered and well mixed, and the 
 liquid for forming them should be adapted to 
 the nature of the other ingredients. When a 
 ball contains any acrid, or 'very powerful in- 
 gredient, such as sublimate or arsenic, flour 
 and paste may be employed for mixing it up, 
 and a small bran mash should be given a little 
 before or after it. After giving a ball, grooms 
 sometimes press or pinch the throat for the 
 purpose of making the horse swallow it ; but 
 this should never be done, as it is apt to ex- 
 cite coughing, by which swallowing is pre- 
 vented. The only thing necessary after the 
 hand is withdrawn is to keep the mouth shut, 
 and press the nose downwards, in a moderate 
 degree, towards the chest White. 
 
 BALLING-IRON, s. An instrument used in administering balls to horses, 
 It is intended to keep the mouth open while the ball is being introduced, 
 and answers the double purpose of assisting the groom in the operation, 
 and saving his hand from injury from the horse's teeth. In its use, it 
 should be carefully covered with cloth, to prevent the tongue of the 
 animal from being lacerated. 
 
 BALM, *. The sap or juice of a shrub, remarkably odoriferous, and of healing 
 qualities ; any valuable or fragrant ointment ; anything that soothes or 
 mitigates pain. 
 
 BALSAM, s. A thick fluid soluble in spirit of wine. 
 
 Balsams are a kind of resinous juice, 
 united with some of the extractive matter of 
 the various plants they are obtained from, in 
 combination with an essential oil. All the 
 balsams are occasionally in use in veterinary- 
 medicine, and were formerly in very high 
 estimation, for their supposed salutary action 
 in chronic diseases of the lungs. They were 
 also considered as a sovereign vulnerary for 
 abraded urinary passages. It is the modern 
 doctrine to think their efficacy overrated, and 
 which is probably in some respects true, par- 
 ticularly as regards their expectorant quali- 
 ties : nevertheless they are far from being 
 inert ; on the contrary, they appear to act 
 favourably in some instances, as a warm tere- 
 binthinated stimulant. The principal balsams 
 dispensed in veterinary practice are these : 
 
 Balsam of Canada A strong diuretic, 
 used in chronic cough and diseases of the 
 lungs. 
 
 Balsam of Copaiba, or Capivi Possesses 
 similar properties to that of Canada. 
 
 Balsam of Friars Now called Tincture 
 of Benjamin, an excellent traumatic. 
 
 Balsam of Gilead Similar in its proper- 
 ties to Copaiba. 
 
 Balsam of Peru A stimulant ; used 
 externally to irritable ulcers. 
 
 Balsam of Tolu. Same properties and 
 uses as Peru. 
 
 Balsam of Sulphur An expectorant; 
 in inflammatory coughs, however, its use is 
 dangerous. 
 
 Outlines of Vet. Art White. 
 
 BALSAMIC, a. Unctuous, mitigating. 
 BAMBOO, s. An Indian plant of the reed kind.
 
 34 THE FIELD BOOK. [BAN 
 
 BANDALEERS, *. Small wooden cases covered with leather, each of them 
 
 containing powder that is a sufficient charge for a musket. Obs. 
 BANDOG, (Canis Villaticus,) s. A mastiff. 
 
 
 This variety is lighter, smaller, and more 
 active than the mastiff, from which he is 
 descended by a cross with the foxhound. He 
 is not near so powerful a dog as the former, 
 but is more fierce in his natural disposition. 
 From his descent, he possesses a finer sense 
 of smelling than that dog. His hair is rougher, 
 generally of yellowish or sandy grey, streaked 
 
 with shades of black or brown, and semi- 
 curled almost over his whole body ; his legs, 
 however, are smooth. Although he generally 
 attacks his adversary in front, like the mastiff 
 and bull dog, it is not his invariable practice, 
 for he is sometimes seen to seize cattle by 
 the flank. His bite is said to be severe and 
 dangerous Brown. 
 
 BANDY, *. A club turned round at bottom for striking a ball. 
 
 BANDY-LEG, #. A crooked leg. 
 
 BANE, s. Poison, mischief. 
 
 BANK SWALLOW, RIVER SWALLOW, BANK MARTIN, or SAND SWAL- 
 LOW, s. This is the smallest species of British Swallow ; length four 
 inches and three quarters. The whole upper parts of the plumage are 
 of a mouse-coloured brown ; the under parts white, except across the 
 breast, which is brown ; legs dusky, a little feathered behind ; bill dusky ; 
 irides hazeL The Bank Swallow is not near so plentiful, and is more 
 local than the other species. Montagu. 
 
 BANTAM, s. 
 
 The Bantam, a well-known small breed, 
 originally from India, is chiefly valued for its 
 grotesque figure and delicate flesh. 
 
 There has been lately obtained a variety of 
 bantams, extremely small, and as smooth 
 legged as a game fowl. From their size and 
 
 delicacy, they are very convenient, as they 
 may always stand in the place of chickens, 
 
 when small ones are not otherwise to be had. 
 They are also particularly used for sitting 
 upon the eggs of partridges and pheasants, 
 being good nurses, as well as good layers. 
 Sir John Sebright, M.P. for Herts, is one of 
 the chief amateurs of this breed. Sir John's 
 breed are beautifully striped and variegated. 
 In addition, there is a South American
 
 BAR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 35 
 
 variety, either from Brazil or Buenos Ayres, 
 which will roost in trees. They are very beau- 
 tiful, partridge-spotted and streaked ; the eggs 
 
 small, and coloured like those of the pheasant ; 
 both the flesh and eggs are fine flavoured 
 and delicate Moubray. 
 
 BAR, s. A piece of wood laid across a passage to hinder entrance ; a bolt to 
 fasten a door ; any obstacle ; a rock or bank at the entrance of a har- 
 bour ; anything used for prevention ; a moveable piece of timber used in 
 the menage to teach horses to leap. 
 
 BARB, s. Anything that grows in the place of the beard ; the points that 
 stand backward in an arrow. 
 
 BARB, s. A Barbary horse. Vide ARAB and HORSE. 
 
 BARB, v. To jag arrows and fishing-hooks. 
 
 BARBADOES TAR, s. A bituminous substance of strong diuretic power. 
 It is used in chronic coughs, and externally employed in strains and 
 bruises. 
 
 BARBECUE, s. A hog dressed whole. 
 
 BARBED, a. Bearded ; jagged with hooks. 
 
 BARBEL, s. A kind offish found in rivers. 
 
 The Barbel is one of the coarsest fishes. 
 In England they are deemed the worst of 
 fresh- water fish, and seldom eaten but by the 
 poorest sort of people, who sometimes boil 
 them with a piece of bacon to give them a 
 relish. The roe is very noxious, affecting 
 those unwarily eating it with a vomiting, 
 purging, and a slight swelling. 
 
 The Barbel takes its name from the barbs, 
 or wattels, at his mouth. They begin to run 
 up the rivers in March and April. When 
 they spawn, they keep together in companies, 
 making holes in the gravel wherein they cast 
 it. 
 
 The head of the barbel is smooth, the nos- 
 trils are near the eyes; it has a leather 
 mouth, which is placed below ; on each cor- 
 ner is a single beard, and another on each 
 side of the nose ; the shape is long, round, 
 and handsome ; the dorsal fin is armed with 
 a remarkably strong spine, sharply serrated ; 
 with which it can inflict a severe wound on 
 the uncautious handler, and do much damage 
 to the net. The side fin is straight; the 
 scales are not large, and of a pale gold 
 colour, edged with black ; the belly white, 
 the tail is a little bifurcated, and of a deep 
 purple. It is sometimes found three feet in 
 D2
 
 36 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [BAR 
 
 length, and weighing eighteen pounds. Ac- 
 cording to the accounts in the Elements of 
 Natural History, it is met with from two to 
 fifteen feet long, grows quickly, is very tena- 
 cious of life, and lives to a great age. 
 
 If there be any difference in the taste of 
 
 their flesh, they are most in season the latter 
 end of the summer ; but in fact they are not 
 worth noticing, except for the sport the angler 
 derives from the catching of them, and which, 
 from their being so strong and determined a 
 fish when hooked, is very great Daniel. 
 
 BARGE, *. A boat for pleasure ; a boat for burthen. 
 
 BARGER, s. A river-keeper ; the manager of a barge. 
 
 BARK, s. The rind or covering of a tree ; a small ship. 
 
 BARK, r. To strip treesof their bark ; to makethe noise which a dog makes. 
 
 BARK, PERUVIAN, or CINCHONA, s. A tonic and febrifuge medicine. Its 
 
 effects upon the horse are trifling; it is useful chiefly in diabetes. There 
 
 are three qualities, pale, red, and yellow. The first is best. 
 BARK, OAK, .?. An excellent substitute for Penivian. 
 BARLEY, *. A grain of which malt is made. 
 BARM, *. Yeast ; the ferment put into drink to make it work. 
 BARN, *. A place or house for laying up any sort of grain, hay, or straw. 
 BARNACLE, .9. A kind of shellfish which attaches itself to timber floating 
 
 at sea ; a bird, vide BERNACLE. 
 BAROMETER, s. A machine for measuring the weight of the atmosphere, 
 
 and the variations in it, in order chiefly to determine the changes of the 
 
 weather. 
 
 Barometer There is no instrument now 
 
 more generally used for ascertaining the coming 
 weather than the barometer. It may how- 
 ever be remarked, that it is more from its 
 rising or falling, than from its height or low- 
 ness that we are to infer fair or foul weather. 
 Generally speaking, the rising of the mercury 
 presages clear fair weather, and its falling, foul 
 weather ; as rain, snow, high winds, and storms. 
 
 In very hot weather, the falling ot the 
 mercury indicates thunder. 
 
 In winter the rising indicates frost, and in 
 frosty weather, if the mercury fall three or 
 four divisions, there will follow a thaw ; but 
 in a continued frost, if the mercury rise, it 
 will snow. 
 
 When foul weather happens soon after the 
 falling of the mercury, expect but little of it; 
 and, on the contrary, expect but little fair 
 weather when it proves fair shortly after the 
 mercury has risen. 
 
 In foul weather, when the mercury rises 
 much and high, and so continues for two or 
 three days before the foul weather is over, then 
 
 expect a continuance of fair weather to 
 follow. 
 
 In fair weather, when the mercury falls 
 much and low, and thus continues for two or 
 three days before the rain comes, then expect 
 a great deal of wet, and probably high winds. 
 
 The unsettled motion of the mercury de- 
 notes uncertain and changeable weather. 
 
 The words engraved on the register plate 
 of the barometer, it may be observed, cannot 
 be strictly relied upon to correspond exactly 
 with the state of the weather ; though it will 
 in general agree with them as to the mercury 
 rising and falling. 
 
 When the thermometer and barometer rise 
 together in summer, with rain in large drops, 
 a wholesome state of the atmosphere is at hand. 
 
 A great and sudden rising of the barometer, 
 that is to say, a great accession of atmospheri- 
 cal pressure, will, in some persons, occasion a 
 slight temporary difficulty of hearing and tin- 
 gling in the ears, similar to that which is 
 experienced in descending from high moun- 
 tains, or from the air in balloons Foster. 
 
 BARREL, .. A round wooden vessel to be stopped close; a vessel contain- 
 ing liquor ; anything hollow, as the barrel of a gun ; a cylinder. 
 
 Barrel-malting has occupied the attention 
 of gun manufacturers from the first invention 
 of fire-arms to the present time. Experi- 
 ments in the material a well as the construc- 
 
 tion of barrels, have been extensively tried 
 by the artists of every country. A gradual 
 and progressive improvement was the result, 
 until the stub-barrel of the present day has
 
 BAR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 37 
 
 superseded every other kind, and seems to 
 have reached the utmost perfection that hu- 
 man ingenuity can accomplish. 
 
 The peculiar formation of barrels at differ- 
 ent periods, and by different artists, will be 
 interesting to sportsmen generally. 
 
 Spanish barrels have always been held in 
 great esteem, as well on account of the quality 
 of the iron-r-which is generally considered the 
 best in Europe as because they possess the 
 reputation of being forged and bored more per- 
 fectly than any others. It should be observed, 
 however, that of the Spanish barrels, those 
 only that are made in the capital are accounted 
 truly valuable; in consequence of which a 
 great many have been made at other places, 
 especially in Catalonia and Biscay, with the 
 names and marks of the Madrid gunsmiths. 
 They are also counterfeited at Liege, Munich, 
 &c. ; and a person must be a good judge not 
 to be deceived by these spurious barrels. 
 
 These barrels were formerly in such high 
 repute, that the price of them was enormous. 
 Those of Belen, Fernandez, and Bez, sold in 
 France for a thousand livres, or 43/. 15s. ; 
 while the barrels of artists of lesser name 
 produced three hundred, or 1 3/. sterling. 
 
 After the barrels of Madrid, those of Bus- 
 tindui and St. Olabe, at Placentia, in Biscay, 
 and of Jean and Clement Pedroesteva, Eudal 
 Pous, and Martin Marechal, at Barcelona, are 
 the most esteemed; these usually sell in 
 France for eighty French livres, or 3/. 10s. 
 sterling. 
 
 Almost all the barrels made at Madrid are 
 composed of the old shoes of horses and mules, 
 collected for the purpose. They are all welded 
 longitudinally, but instead of being forged in 
 one plate or piece, as in other countries, they 
 are made, like the English twisted barrels, in 
 five or six detached portions, which are after- 
 wards welded one to the end of another, two 
 of them forming the breech or reinforced part 
 of the barrel. We may form some idea of the 
 very great purity to which the iron is brought 
 in the course of the operation, when we are 
 told, that to make a barrel, which, rough from 
 the forge, weighs only six or seven pounds, 
 they employ a mass of mule-shoe iron, weigh- 
 ing from forty to forty-five pounds ; so that 
 from thirty-four to thirty-eight pounds are 
 lost in the heatings and hammerings it is made 
 to undergo before it is forged into a barrel. 
 
 Notwithstanding the great reputation of the 
 Spanish barrels, however, they are little used 
 in France, and still less in England, their 
 awkward form and their great length and 
 weight being strong objections to them, 
 especially since they have begun to make 
 their pieces so very light and short in these 
 countries; and from our own experience of 
 the Spanish barrels, we are convinced that 
 the avidity with which they are sought after 
 
 by some persons, and the extravagant prices 
 that are given for them, proceed more from a 
 fancied than from any real superiority they 
 possess over those made in this country. 
 
 * * 
 
 The Spanish gunsmiths pique themselves 
 upon the very high polish they give to the 
 inside of their barrels. We have our doubts 
 about the advantage derived from this, and 
 are still of opinion that if a barrel is so smooth 
 as not to lead, it is better to take it as it 
 comes from the hand of the manufacturer, 
 than allow the gunsmith to practise any farther 
 operation upon it. In support of this opinion, 
 Mons. de Marolles informs us, that he has 
 seen a barrel rough from the borer throw a 
 charge of shot deeper into a quire of paper, 
 than another barrel that was highly polished 
 within, although the length, the bore, and 
 the charge, were the same in both. 
 * * * 
 
 The canons a ruban, or riband barrels of 
 the French, very much resemble the English 
 twisted barrels. The process pursued in their 
 formation is very troublesome, and seems to 
 possess no countervailing advantage. A plate 
 of iron about the twelfth part of an inch in 
 thickness is turned round a mandril, and 
 welded its whole length in the same manner 
 as a plain barrel : upon this small and light 
 barrel, which is called lining, a stripe or plate 
 of iron, about an inch in breadth, and bevelled 
 off at the edges, is rolled in a spiral direction, 
 by means of successive heats this spiral is 
 termed the riband, and its thickness must 
 correspond with the part of the barrel it is to 
 constitute. As a riband of sufficient length to 
 cover the lining from one end to the other 
 would be very difficult to manage, it is formed 
 in several pieces, and so soon as one piece is 
 nearly rolled on, another is welded to the end 
 of it, and the operation continued until the 
 whole of the lining is covered. The edges 
 are bevelled so much, that one edge overlaps 
 the other about a quarter of an inch. When 
 the riband is all rolled on, the barrel is heated 
 by two or three inches at a time, and the 
 turns of the spiral united to each other and to 
 the lining, by being welded in the same man- 
 ner as a twisted or plain barrel, but requiring 
 more care and accuracy in the operation. It 
 is afterwards bored, so that almost the whole 
 of the lining is cut out, and scarcely anything 
 left except the riband with which it was 
 covered. 
 
 * * 
 
 Lazarini Barrels, so called after the 
 maker, were formerly celebrated throughout 
 the greatest part of Europe. They were very- 
 long, and of a very small calibre. Lazarini 
 lived at Brescia, about a hundred and fifty 
 years ago. He did not forge these barrels 
 himself, but he finished them with great ami-
 
 38 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [BAR 
 
 racy, and ornamented them in a rich and ele- 
 gant manner. At the time, however, when 
 these harrels were in high estimation, there 
 were numerous counterfeits bearing the name 
 and mark of Cominazzo, and it requires some 
 acquaintance with the genuine barrels not to 
 be deceived by the spurious ones. The true 
 Lazarini are now to be found only in the 
 repositories of the curious. 
 
 The vanity of possessing something that is 
 singularly curious, the false idea that what- 
 ever is expensive must necessarily be good, 
 and sometimes, though rarely, the laudable 
 desire of improvement, have all in their turns 
 been the causes of a variety of experiments 
 made in the manufacture of barrels. An ar- 
 tist in London, who wrought a great deal of 
 Spanish iron, forged barrels from old scythes, 
 from wire, from needles, and a great many 
 other articles suggested by the whim of the 
 customers who made barrels with a lining of 
 steel, and formed others with a double spiral of 
 steel andiron alternately confessed after these 
 numerous trials, that " stub iron wrought into 
 a twisted barrel is superior to every other." 
 Whenever steel was employed, he found that 
 the barrel neither welded nor bored BO per- 
 fectly as when iron alone was used. 
 * * 
 
 The English stub barrels are deservedly 
 celebrated for their superior elegance and 
 strength, as well as for the accuracy with which 
 they throw their ball or shot. The iron em- 
 ployed in them is formed of stubs, which are 
 old horse-shoe nails, procured from country 
 farriers, and from poor people who gain a sub- 
 sistence by picking them up on the great roads 
 leading to the metropolis. These are origi- 
 nally formed from the softest, toughest iron 
 that can be had, and this is still farther puri- 
 fied by the numerous heatings and hammerings 
 it has undergone in being reduced from a bar 
 into the size and form of nails. They cost 
 about ten shillings the hundred weight, and 
 twenty-eight pounds are required to make a 
 single barrel of the ordinary size. A hoop 
 of iron about an inch broad, or six or seven 
 inches diameter, is placed perpendicularly, 
 and the stubs, previously freed from dirt by 
 washing, are neatly piled in it, with their heads 
 outermost on each side, until the hoop is quite 
 filled and wedged tight with them, the whole 
 resembling a rough circular cake of iron. This 
 is put into the fire, until it has acquired a 
 white heat, when it is hammered either by the 
 strength of the arm, or by the force of ma- 
 chinery, until it coalesces, and becomes one 
 solid mass of iron. The hoop is then re- 
 moved, and the heatings and hammerings 
 repeated, until the iron, by being thus wrought 
 and kneaded, is freed from every impurity, 
 and rendered very tough and close in the 
 grain. The workmen then proceeds to draw 
 
 it out into pieces of about twenty-four inches 
 in length, half an inch or more in breadth, 
 and half an inch in thickness. 
 
 * 
 
 Damascus barrels are thus described by 
 Hawker : I saw the process of making them, 
 the mixture of iron and steel for which is beat 
 out in long bars, and then, previously to being 
 wound round the anvil, twisted by a kind of 
 turning lathe, (similar to wringing clothes 
 when wet), and then beat flat again. Although 
 these are by far the dearest barrels that are 
 made, yet the price of one in Birmingham 
 is very trifling, viz. : 
 
 Forging - - - \ 10 
 
 Boring and grinding - 050 
 
 Filing and patent breech - Oil 
 Proof - - - - 1 6 
 
 2 7 6 
 
 The stub barrels, which are generally used 
 for best guns, cost about sixteen shillings 
 each." 
 
 The Damascene barrels are now unfashion- 
 able, and never had anything to recommend 
 
 them, but as being a pretty novelty. 
 
 * ' 
 
 On boring of barrels there has been 
 much diversity of opinion; and if Colonel 
 Hawker's theory be correct, the bore should 
 not be perfectly cylindrical. 
 
 With respect to the common sized guns, 
 which are usually made for the sports of the 
 field, there are two good ways of boring ; the 
 one is, to leave a cylinder for about three- 
 fourths of the barrel, (always taking care, 
 however, to preserve a tightness for a little 
 friction just where the shot first moves), and 
 let the remaining part be gradually relieved 
 to the muzzle. For instance ; suppose a bar- 
 rel to be two feet eight inches long, we would 
 say (beginning at the breech end) about six 
 inches tight, twenty-one inches a cylinder, 
 and the remaining five inches relieved to 
 the muzzle. All this must be done with 
 the most delicate possible gradation, and in so 
 small a degree, that even some gun-makers 
 could scarcely discover it. How natural, then, 
 is it, that many sporting authors should be 
 so far deceived, as to fancy the best guns are 
 bored a true cylinder, and therefore, argue in 
 its favour. This relief has the effect of 
 making the gun shoot as close as it can do, 
 compatibly with the strength and quickness 
 required, which should, however, be increased 
 as much as possible by the best constructed 
 breechings. 
 
 The other plan is, to make the barrel 
 regularly tighter all the way down, so that, 
 in firing, the shot goes progressively easier as 
 it approaches the muzzle. All this relief 
 must be given in a very trifling degree, be- 
 cause, should the barrel be too much opened
 
 BAT] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 39 
 
 in any part, it would admit of the powder 
 escaping between the wadding and the sides I 
 of the calibre, by which the shooting of the 
 gun would be rendered weak. For this 
 reason, I should even object to having a hole 
 through the wadding that covers the powder, 
 which many do to prevent the confined air 
 from resisting the ramrod. 
 
 The imperfections to which a barrel is 
 liable in forging, are of three kinds, viz., the 
 chink, the cracA:, and the flaw. The chink is 
 a solution of continuity running lengthwise 
 of the barrel. The crack is a solution of 
 continuity more irregular in its form than the 
 chink, and running in a transverse direction, 
 or across the barrel. The flaw differs from 
 both ; it is a small plate or scale, which ad- 
 heres to the barrel by a narrow base, from 
 which it spreads out as the head of a nail 
 does from its shank, and, when separated, 
 leaves a pit or hollow in the metal. 
 
 With regard to the soundness of the barrel, 
 the chink and flaw are of much greater im- 
 portance than the crack, as the effort of the 
 powder is exerted upon the circumference, 
 and not upon the length of the barrel. In a 
 sword or bow, the very reverse of this takes 
 
 place, for if a crack, though but of a slight 
 depth, occurs in either, it will break at that 
 place, when bent but very little, because the 
 effort is made upon the fibres disposed longi- 
 tudinally, whereas, if the fault be a chink, or 
 even a slight flaw, the sword or bow will not 
 give way. The flaw is much more frequent 
 than the chink, the latter scarcely ever 
 occurring but in barrels forged as above, in 
 which the fibres of the metal run longitudi- 
 nally. When external and superficial, they 
 are all defects in point of neatness only, but 
 when situated within the barrel, they are of 
 material disadvantage, by affording a lodgment 
 to moisture and foulness that corrode the 
 iron, and thus continually enlarge the exca- 
 vation, until the barrel bursts, or becomes 
 dangerous to use. * * * 
 
 Colonel Hawker says, " that a barrel may 
 be pretty good, and perfectly safe, and yet 
 not able to bear the scientific inspection, of a 
 first-rate maker or judge. That is, to hold 
 the barrel up to the window, and gradually 
 raise it, till the shade from above the window 
 runs along its surface, by which inspection 
 you will easily discover the most trifling want 
 of finish." Essay on Shooting. 
 
 BASILICON, *. An ointment ; called also tetrapharmacon. It is now called 
 
 ointment of yellow resin ; it is a digestive. 
 BASIN, s. A small pond ; a part of the sea enclosed in rocks ; a dock 
 
 for repairing and building ships. 
 BASKET-HILT, s. A hilt of a weapon, so made as to contain the whole 
 
 hand. 
 
 BASSET, s. A game at cards. 
 BASTARD, *. Any thing spurious. 
 BASTARD, a. Spurious, supposititious, adulterate. 
 BAT, s. A heavy stick ; an implement used in playing cricket ; an animal 
 
 having the body of a mouse, and the wings of a bird ; not with feathers, 
 
 but with a sort of skin which is extended. It brings forth its young 
 
 as mice do, and suckles them. 
 
 Bats flitting about late in the evening, in 
 spring and autumn at which seasons they 
 are most commonly seen foretel a fine day 
 on the morrow ; as do door-beetles, and some 
 
 other insects. On the contrary', when bats 
 return soon to their hiding-places, and send 
 forth loud cries, bad weather may be expected. 
 Foster, 
 
 BAT-FOWLING, s. Bird-catching in the night time. 
 
 bell in your other hand, and of a great big- 
 ness, made in the manner of a cow-bell, but 
 still larger ; and you must ring it always after 
 one order If you carry the bell, you must 
 have two companions with nets, one on each 
 side of you ; and what with the bell, and 
 what with the light, the birds will be so 
 amazed, that when you come near them, they 
 will turn up their white bellies : your com- 
 
 This sport we call in England, most com- 
 monly bird-batting, and some call it low-bell- 
 ing ; and the use of it is to go with a great 
 light of cressets, or rags of linen dipped in 
 tallow, which will make a good light ; and 
 you must have a pan or plate made like a 
 lantern, to earn- your light in, which must 
 have a great socket to hold the light, and 
 carry it before you, on your breast, with a
 
 40 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [BAT 
 
 pardons shall then lay their nets quietly upon 
 them, and take them. But you must con- 
 tinue to ring the bell ; for if the sound shall 
 cease, the other birds, if there be any more 
 
 near at hand, will rise up and fly away 
 This is an excellent method to catch larks, 
 woodcocks, partridges, and all other land- 
 birds Burton. 
 
 BATH, s. A bath is either hot or cold, either of art or nature ; a vessel of 
 hot water, in which another is placed that requires a softer heat than 
 the naked fire. 
 
 BATHE, v. To wash in a bath ; to supple or soften by the outward applica- 
 tion of warm liquors ; to wash with any thing. 
 
 Both the warm and the cold bathings of 
 dogs are attended, in many cases, with the 
 happiest effects. When a warm bath is used 
 for a dog, the heat should be regulated ac- 
 cording to the case. In inflammations it should 
 be considerable, and in rheumatisms also ; but 
 it must be remembered that, from habit, 
 many persons can bear, -without inconveni- 
 ence, a heat that would be most distressing to 
 a dog; consequently, when it is attempted to 
 ascertain the heat by the hand alone, this 
 circumstance should be considered. 
 
 The water bath should come all over the 
 animal, except the head ; and when any one 
 particular part is more especially affected, 
 that part ought to be rubbed during the 
 bathing, with the hand. The dog being re- 
 moved from the water, the utmost care should 
 be observed to avoid his taking cold by ex- 
 posure. He should be first rubbed as dry as 
 may be by a change of cloths, and then be 
 put into a clothes-basket, wrapped up in a 
 blanket, and there confined till thoroughly 
 dry. 
 
 Cold bathing is also, in some instances, 
 very useful, particularly in the spasmodic 
 
 twitchings that succeed distemper ; and in 
 some other cases of habitual weakness, as 
 rickets, &c. : but for dogs in health, I am 
 convinced that bathing is not so salutary as is 
 often supposed Blaine. 
 
 * * 
 
 In Falconry Hawks should bathe every 
 five or six days, in a clear stream, or pool, of 
 water, that is shallow at the edge ; but when 
 these are not at hand, eyesses may be made 
 to bathe in pans sufficiently large for the 
 purpose. 
 
 A moderate quantity of food is to be given 
 to the hawk, before he is taken to the stream ; 
 a creance is to be tied to the leash, and fas- 
 tened to the ground ; he is then to be un- 
 hooded, and placed near the water. The 
 falconer must then retire to a distance. 
 When the hawk has bathed, he should be 
 left to plume himself on the beach, as long 
 as he remains quiet, but he must be cautiously 
 taken up the moment he shows signs of un- 
 easiness, lest he should bait in the creance 
 with a full crop, which is always to be pre- 
 vented by eveiy possible precaution Se- 
 
 bright. 
 
 BATOON, s. A staff or club. 
 
 BATTLE-DOOR, s. An instrument with a round handle and a flat blade, to 
 
 strike a ball or shuttlecock. 
 BATTU, s. The shooting of preserved game by a numerous company. 
 
 Those huntsmen who are so fond of un- 
 necessarily getting blood and wasting foxes, 
 would doubtless have been much gratified 
 at the hunting match given by the Prince 
 Esterhazy, Regent of Hungary, upon the 
 signing the treaty of peace with France a 
 day's sport that bids fair to vie, in point of 
 blood (if the King of Naples' slaughter be 
 excepted), with any of those recorded in 
 modern history; as there were killed, 160 
 deer, 100 wild boars, 300 hares, and 80 foxes. 
 The king had a larger extent, and a longer 
 period for the exercise of his talents, and it 
 was proved that during his journey to Vienna, 
 in Austria, Bohemia, and Moravia, he killed 
 5 bears, 1820 boars, 1960 deer, 1145 does, 
 1625 roebucks, 1121 rabbits, 13 wolves, 17 
 
 badgers, 16,354 hares, and 354 foxes; the 
 monarch had likewise the pleasure of doing 
 a little in the bird way, by killing, upon the 
 same expedition, 15,350 pheasants, and 
 
 12,335 partridges. 
 
 
 
 After leaving Lucknow, we directed our 
 course towards Baraeech ; our kafeela con- 
 sisted of about 40,000 men, and 20,000 
 beasts, composed of 10,000 soldiers, 1000 
 cavalry, and near 150 pieces of cannon ; 
 1500 elephants, 3000 hackeries, and an in- 
 numerable train of camels, horses, and bul- 
 locks ; a great number of ruts, filled with 
 the Nawalis women ; many large and small 
 boats carried on carts, drawn by fifty, forty, 
 thirty, or twenty bullocks ; tigen?. leopards,
 
 BEA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 41 
 
 hawks, fighting-cocks, quails, and nightin- 
 gales ; pigeons, dancing- women, and boys ; 
 singers, players, huffoons, and mountebanks. 
 In short, his excellency had everything, every 
 object which could please or surprise, cause a 
 smile, or raise a sneer, attract admiration, fix 
 with wonder, or convulse with laughter ; cap- 
 tivate the eye, lull the ear, or tickle the 
 palate. Above five hundred coolies were 
 employed to carry his shooting apparatus, 
 guns, powder, shot, and et ceteras ; he had 
 above a thousand double-barrelled guns, the 
 finest that Manton and Nock could make, and 
 single-barrels, pistols, swords, and spears, 
 without number. 
 
 After a gay scene of every species of orien- 
 tal amusement and dissipation, we returned 
 to this place, having killed in our excursion 
 eight tigers, six elephants, and caught twenty- 
 one. To enumerate the other kinds of game 
 would require a sheet as ample as the petition 
 which was presented to Yenghis Khan, and 
 might perhaps be treated by you in the man- 
 ner that conqueror treated the petition 
 * 
 
 Ashbridge Castle, Hertfordshire, the seat 
 of the Earl of Bridgewater, was lately a scene 
 of great gaiety. The sports of the field, on 
 the three days of the Duke of York's sojourn, 
 were never before equalled. The Duke of 
 Wellington's double-barrelled gun brought 
 down everything before it. During the last 
 four days, a party of gentlemen killed 623 
 head of game. Killed from eight guns, in 
 three days, 1093 head 'of game: 
 
 BAWREL, s. A kind of hawk. Obs. 
 BAWSIN, s. A badger. Obs. 
 BAY, a. A colour. 
 
 Of the bays, there are many varieties, and 
 they include the very best of our horses of 
 every description. The bright yellow bay, al- 
 though very beautiful, and especially if his 
 mane and tail are black, is the least valuable, 
 because the lightness of his colour seems to 
 give him some tenderness of constitution. The 
 
 1st day, 7 guns, 627 shots, 326 killed. 
 
 2nd .'. 9 .. 956 .. 511 .. 
 
 3rd .. 8 .. 388 .. 251 .. 
 The best shots were, the Duke of York, the 
 Duke of Wellington, Lord Bridgewater, and 
 Lord Verulam. The Duke of York killed, 
 on the first day, forty-seven head of game. 
 
 * 
 
 In October, 1807, at Up Park, Sussex, the 
 seat of Sir H. Featherstonhaugh, the extra- 
 ordinary quantity of five hundred and one 
 brace of game was shot, from Wednesday 
 morning, the 7th, to Saturday night, the 10th 
 instant, by a party visiting at the above man- 
 sion. 
 
 * 
 
 Lord Rendlesham and party killed three 
 thousand seven hundred and seventy-five head 
 of game, during the last week in the season 
 
 of 1807. 
 
 * * 
 
 On the clay before one of the annual par- 
 ties at Clumber broke up, two sets went out, 
 each consisting of three persons, and a bet 
 was laid which should kill most game. It 
 was computed that, on an average, each man 
 of the six got sixty shots ; total, three hun- 
 dred and sixty. The winning triumvirate 
 killed three birds ! The shooters were, Lord 
 Lincoln, General Philips, Captain (afterwards 
 General) Lascelles, Reverend Mr. Lascclles, 
 Mr. Cotton, and Lieutenant Colonel Stric- 
 land. Here the game had a complete triumph 
 over their adversaries Daniel Sporting 
 Anecdotes. 
 
 proper bay, with no white about him, and 
 black from the knees and the hocks to the feet, 
 is the most desirable of all colours; he has 
 generally a good constitution, naturally good 
 feet, and, if his conformation is not faulty, will 
 turn out a valuable horse for almost every 
 purpose The Horse. 
 
 BAY, s. An opening in the land ; the state of anything surrounded by 
 
 enemies ; a tree. 
 
 BAY, v. To bark, as a dog, at the rnoon ; to shut in. 
 BAY SALT, s. Salt made of sea water, which receives its consistence from 
 
 the heat of the sun, and is so called from its brown colour. 
 BAYARD, s. A bay horse. 
 BEACH, s. The shore ; the strand. 
 BEADLIC, s. In forestry, is an officer that warns all the courts of the 
 
 forest, executes process, makes all proclamations, &c. &c.
 
 42 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 BEAGLE, s. A small hound, with which hares are hunted. 
 
 s raJ 
 
 ^ ^ - >. " 
 
 V- "^H -' 
 
 ^'^nsSS^: 
 
 This is the smallest of the dogs of the 
 chase which go under the general denomina- 
 tion of hound ; meaning that kind which have 
 the innate property of finding their game and 
 pursuing it by what sportsmen call scent, 
 which seems to be an impregnation of the 
 atmosphere with certain effluvia issuing from 
 the pores of the skin, and acting upon the 
 olfactory membrane of the dog's nose. 
 
 Although the beagle is far inferior in point 
 of speed to the harrier, yet his sense of 
 smelling a hare is equally exquisite, and he 
 pursues her with indefatigable vigilance, ener- 
 gy, and perseverance. Every winding and all 
 the mazes are. traced by him with a degree of 
 exactness which must be seen to be properly 
 understood and justly estimated, while the 
 soft and melodious tones of his voice afford 
 ecstatic pleasure to the lovers of the chase, 
 and is thus finely described by Somerville : 
 
 " Hark ! from yon covert, where those tower- 
 ing oaks 
 
 Above the humble copse aspiring rise, 
 What glorious triumphs burst in every gale 
 Upon our ravish'd ears ! The hunters shout, 
 The clanging horns swell their sweet winding 
 
 notes, 
 
 The pack wide opening load the trembling air 
 With various melody ; from tree to tree 
 The propagated cry redoubling bounds, 
 And winged zephyrs waft the floating joy 
 Through all the regions near. 
 The puzzling pack unravel, wile by wile, 
 Maze within maze." 
 
 Much emulation prevailed in former times 
 among sportsmen in the breeding of beagles, 
 and it was then the greatest merit to rear 
 dogs of the smallest growth. Amongst ama- 
 
 teurs of hunting, beagles were so carefully 
 selected in point of size, that they seldom 
 exceeded ten or eleven inches in height ; and 
 they were so well matched with respect to 
 speed, that during the chase a good pack 
 might be covered with a sheet. This is with 
 all kinds of hounds a sure mark of excel- 
 lence. 
 
 Although beagles are slow in speed, they 
 are uncommonly eager ; for, if the scent lies 
 well, a hare has little chance of escape from 
 them. Their slowness, however, is the prin- 
 cipal reason of their being almost totally dis- 
 continued in packs, and that they are now 
 seldom to be met with beyond a few couples, 
 used in some of the southern counties of 
 England to ensure finding more certainly in 
 greyhound coursing. 
 
 Hunting with the beagle was admirably 
 adapted for ladies and gentlemen up in years ; 
 and, besides, afforded much amusement to 
 rustics, and other pedestrian hunters; for 
 there were few male persons of any activity 
 who could not keep up with them. 
 
 The late Colonel Hardy once had a pack 
 of beagles amounting to ten or twelve couples, 
 and so diminutive in size, that they were 
 always carried to and from the sporting field 
 in a large pair of panniers slung across a 
 horse. This curious pack was lost to the 
 colonel in a rather singular manner. It was 
 kept in a barn which was one night broken 
 open, when all the hounds and the panniers 
 were stolen ; and, notwithstanding the most 
 diligent search, no trace of either could ever 
 be discovered Brown.
 
 BKA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 BEAK, *. The bill or horny mouth of a bird. 
 
 BEAN, *. The common garden bean ; the horse bean. 
 
 Beans contain but five hundred and seventy 
 parts of nutritive matter, yet they add mate- 
 rially to the vigour of the horse. There are 
 many horses that will not stand hard work 
 without beans being mingled with their food, 
 and these not horses whose tendency to purge 
 it may be necessary_to restrain by the astrin- 
 gency of the bean. There is no traveller who 
 is not aware of the difference in the spirit and 
 continuance of his horse if he allows or denies 
 him beans on his journey. They afford not 
 merely a temporary stimulus, but they may 
 be daily used without losing their power, or 
 producing exhaustion. Two pounds of beans 
 may, with advantage, be mixed with the chaff 
 of the agricultural horse, during the winter. 
 In summer, the quantity may be lessened, or 
 the beans altogether discontinued. Beans are 
 
 BEAN GOOSE, *. 
 
 generally given whole. This is very absurd ; 
 for the young horse, whose teeth are strong, 
 seldom requires them ; while the old horse, to 
 whom they are in a manner necessary, is scarce- 
 ly able to masticate them, swallows many of 
 them whole which he is unable to break, and 
 drops much corn from his mouth in the inef- 
 fectual attempt to break them. Beans should 
 not be merely split, but crushed ; they will 
 even then give sufficient employment to the 
 grinders of the animal. Some postmasters use 
 chaff with beans instead of oats. With hardly- 
 worked horses they may possibly be allowed ; 
 but in general cases, the beans, without oats, 
 would be too binding and stimulating, and 
 would produce costiveness, and probably me- 
 grims or staggers The Horse. 
 
 This species differs very little in its general 
 appearance from the grey lag goose, the chief 
 distinction between them being in the bill ; 
 which in this is small, much compressed near 
 the end, whitish, and sometimes of a pale red 
 in the middle, and black at the base and 
 nail : the latter is shaped somewhat like a 
 horse-bean, from which it has obtained the 
 name of Bean Goose. 
 
 These birds arrive in the fen counties in 
 the autumn, and take their departure in 
 May. They are said to alight in the corn- 
 fields, and to feed much upon the green 
 wheat while they remain in England. 
 
 They are reported to breed in great num- 
 bers in the Isle of Lewis, and no doubt on 
 others of the Hebrides, and also at Hudson's 
 Bay Bewick. 
 
 BEAR,*. A rough savage animal. Bearward, s. A keeper of bears. Obs. 
 BEARD, .y. The hair that grows on the lips and chin ; sharp prickles 
 growing upon the ears of corn ; a barb of an arrow.
 
 44 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 BEAST, s. An animal distinguished from birds, insects, fishes, and man ; 
 
 an irrational animal, opposed to man. In forestry, there are five beasts 
 
 which are properly beasts of forest, or venery ; viz. the hart, hind, hare, 
 
 boar, and wolf. 
 BEAT, s. A stroke, or a striking. In sporting phraseology, it means the 
 
 place or country a man passes over in pursuit of game. 
 BEAT, v. To move in a pulsatory manner ; to dash, as a flood or storm. 
 
 To look for game. 
 BEATER, *. An instrument with which any thing is beaten ; a person 
 
 attending a sportsman, as in pheasant or cock-shooting, to beat the 
 
 covers and flush the birds. 
 BEE, s. The insect that makes honey. 
 BEE-EATER, s. (Merops apiaster, LINN.) A bird that feeds upon bees. 
 
 Of this genus only one species is British. Montagu. 
 BEE-HIVE, s. The case or box in which bees are kept. 
 BEES-WAX, s. Much used in forming ointment. 
 BEECH, s. A tree. Beechen, a. Consisting of the wood of the beech. 
 BEEF, *. The flesh of black cattle prepared for food ; an ox, bull, or cow. 
 BEER, s. Liquor made of malt and hops ; a useful vehicle for tonics and 
 
 cordials. When good it is an excellent restorative for a fatigued horse. 
 
 Heated with spirits and ginger it relieves colic, gripes, &c. 
 BEET, *. The name of a plant. 
 BEETLE, s. An insect distinguished by having hard cases, or sheaths, 
 
 under which he folds his wings ; a heavy mallet. Beetles flying about 
 
 late in an evening often foretel a fine day on the morrow. Foster. 
 BELLADONNA, s. Nightshade ; a powerful narcotic. 
 
 Mr. Youatt considers this to have some 
 prophylactic powers against rabies, but par- 
 ticularly when in union with the scutellaria, 
 or skull-cap. He begins "with a drachm ball 
 to a moderate-sized dog, containing two scru- 
 ples of the scutellaria, and about two and a 
 
 BELLOW, v. To make a noise as a bull ; to make any loud and violent 
 outcry. 
 
 BELLY, *. That part of the body which reaches from the breast to the 
 thighs, containing the bowels. Belly-bound, a. Costive. 
 
 BELLMETAL, *. The metal of which bells are made. 
 
 BELT, *. A girdle ; a cincture. 
 
 BELLWETHER, *. A sheep which leads the flock with a bell hung on his 
 neck. 
 
 BENZOIN, s. Called also GUM BENJAMIN. It is a yellow resinous sub- 
 stance, and from it Flowers of Benjamin are extracted. It is used as an 
 ingredient in Friar's Balsam and Paregoric Elixir. 
 
 half grains of the belladonna, to be given 
 night and morning : on the second week two 
 balls are given ; on the third, three ; and this 
 continued for six weeks." The nightshade is 
 also a general sedative The Horse.
 
 BIL] THE FIELD BOOK. 45 
 
 BERNACLE, *. A bird like a g-oose, fabulously supposed to grow on trees. 
 
 The Bernacle, (Anas Erythropus, LINN. 
 La Bernacle, BUFF.) weighs about five 
 pounds, and measures more than two feet in 
 length, and nearly four and a half in breadth. 
 The bill, from the tip to the comers of the 
 mouth, is scarcely an inch and a half long, 
 black, and crossed with a pale reddish streak 
 on each side ; a narrow black line passes from 
 the bill to the eyes, the irides of which are 
 brown ; the head is small, and, as far as the 
 crown, together with the cheeks and throat, 
 white ; the rest of the head and neck, to the 
 breast and shoulders, is black ; the upper part 
 of the plumage is prettily marbled or barred 
 with blue, grey, black, and white ; the fea- 
 thers of the back are black, edged with white, 
 
 and those of the wing coverts and scapulars, 
 blue grey, bordered with black near the mar- 
 gins, and edged with white ; the quills black, 
 edged a little way from the tips with blue 
 grey ; the under parts and tail coverts white ; 
 the thighs are marked with dusky lines or 
 spots, and are black near the knees; the tail 
 is black, and five inches and a half long ; the 
 legs and feet dusky, very thick and short, and 
 have a stumpy appearance. 
 
 In severe winters these birds are not un- 
 common in this kingdom, particularly on the 
 northern and western parts, where, however, 
 they remain only a short time, and depart 
 early in the spring to their northern wilds, to 
 breed and spend the summer Bewick. 
 
 BETTER, s. One that lays bets or wagers. 
 
 BEVY, s. A flock of quails. 
 
 BILE, s. A thick, yellow, bitter liquor, separated in the liver, collected in 
 
 the gall bladder, and discharged by the common duct ; a sore angry 
 
 swelling. 
 
 BILL, s. The beak of a fowl ; a kind of hatchet with a hooked point. 
 BILLIARDS, s. A kind of play upon a flat surface, with cues, maces, and 
 
 balls. 
 
 In order to play billiards well, attention 
 must be given at first to the method of hold- 
 ing the mace ; to the position in which the 
 player should stand, and the manner of de- 
 livering the ball from the mace ; but these 
 are much more easily acquired by observation 
 or by the direction of a good player, than by 
 any possible written rules. A person who 
 
 plays with his right hand must stand with 
 his left foot foremost; and on the contrary 
 he who is left-handed must stand with his 
 right foot foremost, by which he will stand 
 more steady and firm. Immoderate bursts of 
 passion, and even fretting at trifling disap- 
 pointments in the game, are usually found 
 very prejudicial to the player ; his nerves,
 
 46 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Bit 
 
 being affected, it is impossible for him to 
 make tbe stroke with that steadiness and 
 nicety the game requires. 
 
 The games usually played till lately were 
 the white winning and the red winning caram- 
 bole games, but the winning and losing caram- 
 bole game is now very fashionable. 
 
 The different games of billiards are , 
 
 The white winning game, played with 
 two white balls, is twelve in number, when 
 two persons play, and fifteen when four play ; 
 scored (independently of forfeitures) from 
 winning hazards only. 
 
 The white losing game, also twelve in 
 number, played with two white balls, is the 
 reverse of the winning ; the points being 
 scored from losing and double, or winning 
 and losing hazards. 
 
 The while winning and losing game is a 
 combination of the two preceding ; all balls 
 put in by striking the adversary's ball first, 
 reckon towards the game. 
 
 The preceding games should be introduc- 
 tory to the knowledge of those with three or 
 more balls, which are more complicated and 
 difficult. 
 
 Choice of balls, in which the player 
 chooses his ball each time, an incalculable 
 advantage, generally played against the losing 
 and winning game. 
 
 The bricole game, signifies, being required 
 to strike a cushion, from whence the ball is to 
 rebound so as to hit that of the adversary, 
 reckoned equal to giving eight or nine points. 
 When both parties play bricole, the game is 
 ten, scored from bricole hazards, and for- 
 feitures. 
 
 The bar-hole game, so styled because the 
 hole which the ball should be played for is 
 barred, and the player strikes for another hole. 
 When this is played against the common 
 game, the advantage to the last-mentioned is 
 calculated at six points. 
 
 One-hole, in which all balls that go into 
 one hole are counted, and the player who best 
 lays his ball at the brink of that particular 
 hole, has the advantage. The lead should be 
 given from that end of the table where the 
 last hazard has been made. 
 
 Hazards, so styled as depending entirely 
 upon making hazards, no account being kept 
 of the game. Many persons may play at a table 
 with balls that are numbered, though to avoid 
 confusion seldom more than six play at once. 
 The person whose ball is put in pays a fixed 
 sum for each hazard to the player, and he 
 who misses pays half the same to him whose 
 ball he played at. The only general rule is 
 not to lay any ball a hazard for the next 
 player, which may best be done by always 
 playing upon him whose turn is next, and 
 either bringing his ball close to the cushion, 
 or putting it a distance from the rest. 
 
 The doublet game is ten in number, 
 played with two balls, most commonly against 
 the white winning game, and no hazard is 
 scored unless made by a reverberation from 
 the cushion, calculated as equivalent to giving 
 five points. 
 
 The commanding game, where the adver- 
 sary fixes upon the ball which the striker is 
 to play at, reckoned equal to having fourteen 
 points out of twenty-four : usually given by 
 a skilful player against the common game of 
 an indifferent one. 
 
 The limited game is very seldom played. 
 In it the table is divided by a line, beyond 
 which, if the striker pass his ball, he pays 
 forfeit. 
 
 The red or winning and losing caram- 
 bole game consists of twenty-one or twenty- 
 four points, reckoned from caramboles, and 
 from winning and losing hazards, equally ; 
 both white and red. Each of the white 
 hazards and the carambole counts two ; the 
 red hazard three points. 
 
 The winning carambole (or red) game is 
 sixteen or eighteen in number, obtained (in- 
 dependently of the forfeitures which every 
 game has peculiar to itself), by winning 
 hazards and carom only. 
 
 The losing carambole is nearly the re- 
 verse of the winning, and consists of sixteen 
 or eighteen points, made by caramboles, losing 
 and double hazards ; counted as in the win- 
 ning and losing game. 
 
 N.B. The simple carambole is only a 
 trifling variation from the above. 
 
 The carambole games are played with three 
 balls ; one red which is neutral, and termed 
 the carambole : the other two white : one 
 of them allotted to each player. The caram- 
 bole is placed upon a spot on a line even with 
 the stringing nail at the bottom of the table, 
 and after leading from the upper end the 
 striker is either to make the winning or losing 
 hazard, according to the particular game, or to 
 hit with his own ball the other two succes- 
 sively ; for which stroke, called a carambole 
 or carom, he obtains two points. 
 
 The Russian carambole varies from the 
 common carambole in the following particu- 
 lars : 
 
 The red ball is to be placed upon the usual 
 spot ; but the player, at the commencement of 
 the game, or after his ball has been holed, is 
 at liberty to place it where he pleases. The 
 leader, instead of striking at the red ball, 
 should lay his own gently behind the same, 
 and the opponent may play at either of them ; 
 if the said opponent play at and hole the red 
 ball, he scores three ; then the red ball is to 
 be replaced upon the spot, and the player 
 may take his choice again, always following his 
 stroke till both balls are off the table ; he 
 gains two points for every carambole ; but if
 
 BIL] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 47 
 
 in doing that he hole his own ball, then he 
 loses as many as otherwise he would have 
 obtained ; and if he strike at the red ball, and 
 should carambole and hole that ball and his 
 own, he loses five points ; and when he holes 
 all three balls he loses seven, which respective 
 numbers he would have won had he not holed 
 his own ball. 
 
 The Caroline or carline game is played 
 either on a round or square table with five 
 balls, two white, one red, another blue, and 
 the Caroline ball yellow. The red ball is to 
 be placed on its usual spot, the Caroline ball 
 exactly in the middle of the table, and the 
 blue ball between the two at the lower end 
 of the table. The striking spot is at the 
 upper end, in a parallel line with the three 
 balls. The game is 42, scored from caram- 
 boles and hazards ; the red hazard counts 
 three, the blue two, and the yellow, when 
 holed in the Caroline or middle pocket, is 
 reckoned at six points. 
 
 The four game consists of two partners on 
 each side at any of the common games, who 
 play in succession after every winning hazard 
 lost. 
 
 The cushion game consists in the striker 
 playing his ball from the top of the baulk 
 cushion, instead of following his stroke upon 
 the table, and is generally played in the win- 
 ning, or winning and losing game, reckoned 
 equal to giving six points. 
 
 Fortification Billiards, for an account of 
 which see Hoyle. 
 
 As the red, or winning and losing game, 
 is that most commonly played, and as its regu- 
 lations are, with trifling exceptions, applicable 
 to all the others, the following will be found 
 a correct code of the general laws of billiards. 
 For tables of the odds, and a description of 
 particular games, the reader is referred to the 
 later editions of Hoyle. 
 
 Rules <|-c. in the winning and losing 
 carambole game 1. The game commences 
 by stringing for the lead and choice of balls. 
 
 2. In stringing, the striker must place his 
 ball within the striking ring; and, if his 
 adversary desire it, must stand within the 
 limits of the corner of the table. 
 
 3. He who, after playing at the bottom 
 cushion, brings his ball nearest to the cushion, 
 at the upper or baulk end of the table, wins 
 the lead, and chooses his ball. 
 
 4. After the first person has strung for the 
 lead, if the adversary who follows should make 
 his ball touch the other, he loses the lead. 
 
 5. By holing his own ball, either in string- 
 ing or leading, the player loses the lead. 
 
 6. Should the leader follow' his ball, with 
 either mace or cue, beyond the middle hole, 
 it is no lead ; and his adversary may make 
 him lead again. 
 
 /. The leader must place his ball within 
 
 the ring, between the striking nails or spots 
 at the upper end of the table : and the same 
 must be observed after every losing hazard 
 has been got. 
 
 8. The red ball is to be placed on the 
 lower of the two spots, at the bottom of the 
 table. 
 
 9. When either of the white balls has 
 been holed, &c., it must be replaced in, and 
 played from the striking ring, as at the com- 
 mencement of the game. 
 
 10. When the red ball has been holed or 
 forced over the table, it must be replaced on 
 the same spot as at the beginning of the game, 
 and the present striker is bound to see it thus 
 replaced, otherwise he cannot win any points 
 while it is off the spot, and the stroke he may 
 make is deemed foul. 
 
 1 1. If the striker do not hit his adversary's 
 ball, he loses one point ; and if by the same 
 stroke he pocket his own ball, he loses three 
 points and the lead. 
 
 1 2. If the striker force either of the balls 
 over the table, he loses the lead. 
 
 1 3. If the striker force his own, or either 
 of the other balls over the table, after having 
 made a carambole or hazard, he gains nothing, 
 and also loses the lead. 
 
 14. If the striker hit both the red and his 
 adversary's ball with his own ball, this is 
 called a carambole or carom. 
 
 15. If the striker with his own hole his 
 adversary's ball, he wins two points. 
 
 16. If the striker hole the red ball, he 
 wins three points. 
 
 17. If the striker hole his own off his 
 adversary's ball, he wins two points. 
 
 18. If the striker hole his own off the red 
 ball, he wins three points. 
 
 19. If the striker hole both his adversary's 
 and the red ball, he wins five points. 
 
 20. If the striker, by playing at the red 
 ball, hole his own and the red ball, he wins 
 six points. 
 
 21. If the striker, by hitting the white ball 
 first, hole both his own and the adversary's 
 ball, he wins four points. 
 
 22. If the striker, by striking at the red 
 ball first, hole both his own and his adver- 
 sary's ball, he wins, five points : three for 
 holing his own ball off the red, and two for 
 holing the white ball. 
 
 23. If the striker play at his adversary's 
 ball first, and hole his own ball and the red, 
 he wins five points : two for holing his own 
 ball off the white, and three for holing the 
 red ball. 
 
 24. If the striker play at his adversary's 
 ball, and hole it, at the same time that he 
 pockets both his own ball and the red, he 
 wins seven points : two for holing his own 
 ball off the white, two for holing his adver- 
 sary's, and three for holing the red ball.
 
 48 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [BlL 
 
 25. If the striker play at the red, and hole 
 his own ball off the same, and the red ball, 
 and his adversary's ball, by the same stroke, 
 he wins eight points : three for holing his 
 own ball off the red, three for holing the red, 
 and two for holing the white ball. 
 
 26. If the striker make a carambole, and 
 by the same stroke pocket his adversary's ball, 
 he wins four points : two for the carambole, 
 and two for the white hazard. 
 
 27. If the striker make a carambole, and 
 pocket the red ball, he wins five points : two 
 for the carambole, and three for the red 
 hazard. 
 
 28. If the striker should carambole, and 
 hole both the red and his adversary's ball, he 
 gains seven points : two for the carambole, 
 two for the white, and three for the red ball. 
 
 29. If the striker make a carambole by 
 striking the white ball first, and hole his own 
 by the same stroke, he wins four points : two 
 for the carom, and two for the white losing 
 hazard. 
 
 30. If the striker make a carambole by 
 striking the red ball first, and by the same 
 stroke pocket his own ball, he wins five 
 points : two for the carambole, and three for 
 the red losing hazard. 
 
 31. If the striker play at the white ball 
 first, and should make a carambole, and also 
 hole his own and his adversary's ball, he wins 
 six points : two for the carambole, and two 
 for each white hazard. 
 
 32. If the striker play at the red ball first, 
 and carambole, and should likewise hole his 
 own and his adversary's ball, he gains seven 
 points : two for the carom, three for the red 
 hazard, and two for the white hazard. 
 
 33. If the striker should carambole by 
 playing first at the white ball, and also hole 
 his own and the red ball, he wins seven 
 points : two for the carom, two for the white 
 losing hazard, and three for the red winning 
 hazard. 
 
 34. If the striker should carambole by 
 striking the red ball first, and at the same 
 time hole his own, and the red ball, he wins 
 eight points : two for the carom, three for the 
 red losing, and three for the red winning 
 hazard. 
 
 35. If the striker should carambole by 
 striking the white ball first, and hole his own 
 and his adversary's, and the red ball, he wins 
 nine points : two for the carambole, two for 
 each of the white hazards, and three for the 
 red hazard. 
 
 36. If the striker should carambole by 
 striking the red ball first, and by the same 
 stroke hole his own and the red, and his 
 adversary's ball, he gains ten points : two for 
 the carambole, three for the red losing, three 
 for the red winning, and two for the white 
 winning hazard. 
 
 37- After the adversary's ball is off the 
 table, and the two remaining balls are either 
 upon the line, or within the stringing nails or 
 spots, at the upper end where the white balls 
 are originally placed in leading, it is called a 
 baulk ; and the striker, who is to play from 
 the ring, must strike the opposite cushion, to 
 make his ball rebound, so as to hit one of the 
 balls in the baulk which if he do not, he 
 loses one point. 
 
 38. It sometimes happens, after the red 
 ball has been holed or forced over the table, 
 that one of the white balls so occupies its 
 place, that it cannot be put upon its proper 
 spot without touching the same. In such a 
 case, the marker must hold the red ball in 
 his hand, while the striker plays at his adver- 
 sary's ball, and immediately afterwards replace 
 the red on its proper spot, so that it may not 
 prevent a carambole, &c. 
 
 39. If the striker play with the wrong ball, 
 it is a foul stroke. 
 
 40. If the striker be going to play with the 
 WTong ball, no person ought to discover it to 
 him, except his partner, when they are play- 
 ing a double match. 
 
 41. If the striker play with the wrong ball, 
 and his adversary should not discover it, he 
 may reckon all the points gained by the 
 stroke, and the marker is obliged to score 
 them. 
 
 42. If the striker, after having made a 
 hazard or carom, move with his hand or stick 
 either of the balls which remain upon the 
 table, the stroke is deemed foul. 
 
 43. If a ball be found to have been changed 
 during the game, and it is not known by which 
 player, the game must be played out with the 
 balls as they then are. 
 
 44. No one has a right to take up or other- 
 wise move a ball, without permission of the 
 adversary. 
 
 45. If a striker touch his ball with the 
 instrument twice, the stroke is foul. 
 
 46. If a striker be impeded in his stroke 
 by his adversary or a spectator, he has a right 
 to recommence the stroke. 
 
 47. If the striker should accidentally move 
 his own ball, without intending at the time to 
 make a stroke, he loses no point; but the 
 adversary may replace the ball. 
 
 48. If the striker touch his ball, and make 
 his mace or cue go over or past it, he loses 
 one point. 
 
 49. If either of the players, in the act of 
 striking, happen to move his own, the adver- 
 sary's, or the red ball, from the place it 
 occupied on the table, it is a foul stroke. 
 
 50. When the striker's, and either of the 
 other balls are so close as to touch, and in 
 playing the former off, the latter is moved 
 from its place, the stroke is considered foul. 
 
 51. If the striker, in attempting a stroke,
 
 BIL] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 49 
 
 do not touch his ball, it is no stroke, and he 
 must strike again. 
 
 52. If, when the halls are very near each 
 other, the striker should make his^ball touch 
 the other, it is to be considered a stroke, 
 though not intended as such. 
 
 53. If the striker play upon a hall which 
 is still running, the stroke is foul. 
 
 54. Whoever stops a ball when running, 
 loses the lead ; if his adversary do not like the 
 ball he has to play at the next stroke. 
 
 55. Whoever retains his adversary's cue or 
 mace, when in the act of striking, makes the 
 stroke foul. 
 
 56. If the striker interrupt the course of 
 his own ball, when running towards a hole, 
 after having made a miss, and it is the opinion 
 of the marker that it would have entered the 
 pocket, had it not been interrupted, he loses 
 three points. 
 
 57. And if the striker should interrupt, 
 stop, or put his adversary's ball out of its 
 course, when running towards or into a hole, 
 he is subjected to the same forfeiture. 
 
 58. If the striker, after having made a 
 hazard, or carambole, interrupt the course of 
 his own ball, the stroke is foul, and he can- 
 not score any of the points he may have thus 
 made. 
 
 59. He who blows upon a ball when 
 running makes the stroke foul ; and if his 
 own ball were running towards a hole, or 
 near a hole, and he be seen by his adversary 
 to blow upon it, he loses two points. 
 
 60. If the striker play with both feet off 
 the ground, the stroke is deemed foul. 
 
 61. Whoever strikes the table when the 
 ball is running, makes the stroke foul. 
 
 62. If the striker throws his mace or cue 
 upon the table so as to baulk his adversary, 
 he causes him to make a foul stroke. 
 
 63. If a ball be made to go extremely near 
 the brink of a hole, and after sensibly stand- 
 ing still, falls into it, the striker wins no- 
 thing, and the ball must be put on the same 
 brink where it stood before the adversary 
 makes his next stroke ; and if it should fall 
 into the hole at the instant the striker hath 
 played upon his ball, so as to prevent the 
 success of his stroke, the striker's and the 
 adversary's balls must be placed in the same 
 relative position, and the striker play again. 
 
 64. He who will not play the game out, 
 loses the same. 
 
 65. If a person agree to play with the cue, 
 he is obliged to play with it during the whole 
 of the game or match ; but if no agreement 
 have been made, he may at .any time change 
 it for the mace, and vice versa. But when 
 the parties agree to play mace against cue, 
 the mace player has no right to use a cue, 
 nor has the cue player any right to use a 
 mace, without permission. 
 
 66. When a person agrees to play with a 
 cue, he must play every ball within his reach, 
 with the point thereof ; and if he should azree 
 to play with the butt of the cue, he has nu 
 right at any time to play with the point with - 
 out permission. Also, when the parties agree 
 to play point and point of the cue, neither 
 of them has any right to use the butt : but 
 every person who plays with a cue, may use 
 occasionally a long one, and in such case he 
 may play with the point of a long cue or a 
 mace. 
 
 67. If the striker should make his mace or 
 cue touch both balls at the same time, it is 
 deemed a foul stroke, and if discovered by the 
 adversary, he wins nothing for any points he 
 might make by the stroke, and the adversary 
 may break or part the balls. 
 
 68. Whenever a foul stroke is made, it is 
 at the option of the adversary either to part 
 the balls, and play from the striking ring, as 
 at the beginning, or, if the balls happen to be 
 in a favourable position for himself, to suffer 
 the preceding striker to score the points ; 
 which the marker is obliged to do in every 
 case where the balls are not broken. 
 
 69. The adversary only is bound to see that 
 the striker plays fair, which, if he neglect, the 
 striker wins all the points he may have made 
 by that particular stroke, and the marker is 
 obliged to score them. 
 
 70. No person has a right to discover 
 whether a stroke be fair or foul until asked, 
 unless during a four match ; and in that case 
 none but the player or his partner has a right 
 to ask it. 
 
 71. Should a dispute arise between the 
 players concerning the fairness of a stroke, the 
 marker alone is authorised to decide, and from 
 his decision there is no appeal : but if he hap- 
 pen to be incompetent, the majority of the 
 disinterested company then present should 
 decide the dispute. 
 
 72. Whoever proposes to part the balls, 
 and his adversary agrees, the person who made 
 the proposal loses the lead. 
 
 73. No person in the room has a right 
 to bet more than the odds on a hazard or a 
 game ; but if he err through ignorance, he 
 
 ould appeal to the marker, or the table of 
 the odds. Each person who proposes a bet 
 should name the precise sum ; and also should 
 be extremely careful not to offer a bet when 
 the striker has taken his aim, or is going to 
 strike ; and no bet ought to be proposed on 
 any stroke, that may have any tendency to 
 influence the player. If A propose a bet 
 which is accepted by B, it must be confirmed 
 by A, otherwise it is no bet. If any bets be 
 laid on the hazard, and the striker should lose 
 the game by a miss, at the stroke in question, 
 it cannot be a hazard, the game being out by a. 
 miss. In all cases the betters are to abide by 
 E
 
 50 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [BlL 
 
 the determination of the players, and the 
 betters have a right to demand their money 
 when their game is over. 
 
 74. Every person ought to be very atten- 
 tive, and listen for the stroke, before lie opens 
 the door of a billiard-room. 
 
 75. The striker has a right to command his 
 adversary not to stand facing or near him, so 
 as to annoy or molest him in his stroke. 
 
 76. Each party is to take care of his own 
 game, and his adversary has no right to answer 
 any questions ; as, if the ball be close ? if he 
 touch the ball ? &c. 
 
 77. The marker should make those per- 
 sons who do not play stand from the table, and 
 give room for the players to pass freely round. 
 
 78. Those who play ought to be particu- 
 larly careful and attentive to their strokes, 
 when any bets are depending thereon : but 
 even should they play carelessly, the bets 
 must, in every case, be decided by the event. 
 
 79. No person has any right to discover to 
 the player in what manner he may play his 
 ball. And if it be done, and discovered by 
 the adversary, he may prevent the striker 
 from scoring the points he has made by the 
 stroke. Neither, after a stroke has been 
 played, has any one a right to detect any 
 error the striker may have committed. 
 
 * * * 
 
 The Dutch Baron A few years since 
 
 the gentlemen of the green cloth were put 
 out of cue, by a hero of the hazard table 
 imported from the continent by one of the 
 squad, who, while he pretended to be playing 
 the losing game, was shrewdly suspected of 
 going snacks in all that rolls into the pocket. 
 
 The Dutch baron was introduced by his 
 friend, who happened to have known him at 
 Hamburgh. He played in a crowd of billiard 
 amateurs and professors, many of whom were 
 raw, and lost about one hundred and fifty 
 guineas with the utmost sang froid. Upon 
 his retiring, his friend told the company he 
 was a fine pigeon, a Dutch baron, who had 
 emigrated from Holland, with immense pro- 
 perty, and who would as readily lose ten 
 thousand pounds as ten guineas. " Who is 
 he?" was eagerly inquired. "A Dutch 
 baron, as rich as a Jew," was answered in a 
 whisper. 
 
 No Batavian ever laid out an hundred and 
 fifty guineas so well as the Dutch baron. The 
 
 whole corps of riflemen flocked around him 
 like a swarm of fish at a piece of bread. But 
 
 little P , well known at Bath, who 
 
 thought he best knew how to make his mar- 
 ket, like a man of business, applied to the 
 baron's friend to have the first plucking. The 
 friend, as a great favour, engaged to use his 
 
 influence ; little P was at the billiard 
 
 table the first man in the morning, that he 
 might secure the play in his own hands. The 
 
 baron came : to it they went ; little P 
 
 kept back his play : the Dutch baron played 
 but poorly. Fair strokes he often missed ; 
 but whenever he was at an important point he 
 won as if by accident. On they went Ham- 
 
 bletonian and Diamond. Little P was 
 
 afraid of frightening the baron, by disclosing 
 the extent of his play ; the baron played so 
 as to persuade every one he knew little of the 
 game. The contest was who should play 
 worst at indifferent periods, and who, without 
 seeming to play well, should play best at 
 important points. The baron won all on 
 
 great occasions, till little P had lost 
 
 about .100. But the baron managed so 
 well that no one thought he could play at all, 
 
 and although little P was sickened, yet 
 
 the bait of 150 guineas found plenty of cus- 
 tomers. Some of them, the greatest adepts in 
 the kingdom, gave the baron, at starting, three 
 points in the game ; but the baron's accidental 
 good play was so superior, whenever a stake 
 was down, he at last gave three points to those 
 who had given him three points, and still beat 
 them by accident; and before the billiard 
 knowing ones at Bath would stop, the baron 
 had won nearly ten thousand pounds, with 
 which he made a bow, and came to London. 
 
 But this Dutch nobleman's fame travelled 
 almost as fast as himself, and he was found 
 out ; not, however, till he had sweated some 
 of the most knowing gentlemen of the cue. 
 
 He concealed his play so well, that no one 
 could form an idea of its extent. To the 
 best billiard players he gave points, and always 
 won on important occasions. He seemed to 
 be a very conjurer, commanding the balls to 
 roll as he pleased ; and there was nothing to 
 be named, that it is not supposed he could 
 accomplish. 
 
 And who was the Dutch baron ? In Ham- 
 burgh, he was the marker at a billiard table ! 
 Hoyle Ajuecdotes of Play. 
 
 BIN, s. A place where corn or wine is deposited. 
 
 BIPAROUS, a. Bringing- forth two at a birth. 
 
 BIPED, s. An animal with two feet. 
 
 BIPENNATED, a. Having two wings. 
 
 BIRD, s. A general term for the feathered kind, a fowl. 
 
 The term of life varies greatly in birds, and 
 does not seem to bear the same proportion to 
 
 the time of acquiring their growth, as has 
 been remarked with regard to quadrupeds.
 
 Bin] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 51 
 
 Most birds acquire their full dimensions in 
 the course of a few months, and are capable 
 of propagation the first summer after they are 
 hatched. In proportion to the size of their 
 bodies, birds possess more vitality, and live 
 longer, than either man or quadrupeds : not- 
 withstanding the difficulties which arise in 
 ascertaining the age of birds, there are in- 
 stances of great longevity in many of them. 
 Geese and swans have been known to attain 
 to the age of seventy and upwards ; ravens 
 are very long-lived birds they are said some- 
 times to exceed a century ; eagles are supposed 
 to arrive at a great age ; pigeons are known to 
 live more than twenty years; and even lin- 
 nets, and other small birds, have been kept 
 in cages from fifteen to twenty years. 
 
 * 
 
 Every part of their frame is formed for 
 lightness and buoyancy ; their bodies are 
 covered with a soft and delicate plumage, so 
 disposed as to protect them from the intense 
 cold of the atmosphere through which they 
 pass; their wings are made of the lightest 
 materials, and yet the force with which they 
 strike the air is so great, as to impel their 
 bodies forward with astonishing rapidity, 
 whilst the tail serves the purpose of a rudder, 
 to direct them to the different objects of their 
 pursuit. The internal structure of birds is 
 no less wisely adapted to the same purposes : 
 all the bones are light and thin, and all the 
 muscles, except those which are appropriated 
 to the purpose of moving the wings, are ex- 
 tremely delicate and light; the lungs are 
 placed close to the back-bone and ribs, the 
 air, entering into them by a communication 
 from the wind-pipe, passes through, and is 
 conveyed into a number of membranous 
 cells which lie upon the sides of the pericar- 
 dium, and communicate with those of the 
 sternum. In some birds these cells are con- 
 tinued down the wings, and extended even to 
 the pinions, thigh-bones, and other parts of 
 the body, which can be filled and distended 
 
 with air at the pleasure of the animal Vide 
 
 AIR CELLS. 
 
 * * * 
 
 It seems evident that this general diffusion 
 of air through the bodies of birds is of infinite 
 use to them, not only in their long and labo- 
 rious flights, but likewise in preventing their 
 respiration from being stopped or interrupted 
 by the rapidity of their motion through a 
 resisting medium. Were it possible for man 
 to move with the swiftness of a swallow, the 
 actual resistance of the air, as he is not pro- 
 
 vided with internal reservoirs similar to those 
 of birds, would soon suffocate him. 
 
 * 
 
 The migration of birds would appear mi- 
 raculous, did we not know their extraordinary 
 power of flight. Speaking of this, Bewick 
 says " If we can suppose a bird to go at the 
 rate of only half a mile in a minute, for the 
 space of twenty-four hours, it will have gone 
 over, in that time, an extent of more than 
 seven hundred miles, which is sufficient to 
 account for almost the longest migration ; 
 but, if aided by a favourable current of air, 
 there is reason to suppose that the same 
 journey may be performed in a much shorter 
 space of time. To these observations we may 
 add, that the sight of birds is peculiarly quick 
 and piercing; and from the advantage they 
 possess in being raised to considerable heights 
 in the air, they are enabled, with a sagacity 
 peculiar to instinctive knowledge, to discover 
 the route they are to take, from the appear- 
 ance of the atmosphere, the clouds, the 
 direction of the winds, and other causes ; so 
 that, without having recourse to improbable 
 modes, it is easy to conceive, from the velo- 
 city of their speed alone, that most birds may 
 transport themselves to countries lying at 
 great distances, and across vast tracts of 
 ocean." * 
 
 In speaking of the flight of birds, Mr. 
 Rennie says " Their capability of perform- 
 ing flights much longer than there is any 
 necessity for supposing, may be proved by 
 numerous facts. Even a sparrow has been 
 calculated to fly at the rate of not less than 
 thirty miles an hour, and many experiments 
 prove that the eider duck can fly ninety miles 
 in the same time. The common kite (falco 
 milvus) has been observed to pass, without 
 great exertion, over a space of a quarter of a 
 league, in a minute ; and it could fly, with 
 ease, from Cape Pruth to the Land's End, in 
 a single day. M. Audubon, the distinguished 
 ornithologist, has shot the passenger pigeon of 
 America, and on dissection, found its stomach 
 full of fresh rice, which, to have resisted the 
 digestive process, must have been swallowed 
 not many hours preceding its death, but 
 could not have been obtained within eight 
 hundred miles of the place where it was 
 killed. Though the nightingale, the willow- 
 wren, and other birds of passage, fly with only 
 half the swiftness, they may easily arrive in 
 most parts of the south of Europe, or the 
 north of Africa, in a few day?. Bewick 
 Rennie Montagu. 
 
 BIRD, v. obs. To catch birds. 
 
 BIRDBOLT, $. A small arrow with three heads, which was anciently dis- 
 charged at birds from a cross-bow. 
 
 E2
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Bm 
 
 BIRD-CATCHER, s. One that makes it his employment to take birds. 
 
 BIRD-CATCHING, s. The act of taking birds or wild fowl, whether for 
 food, for the pleasure of their song, or for their destruction, as being 
 pernicious to the husbandman, &c. The methods are by birdlime, nets, 
 decoys, &c. See BIRDLIME, DECOYS, NETS, &c. 
 
 In the suburbs of London there are many 
 persons, who, during the months of October 
 and March, get their livelihood by an ingeni- 
 ous, and we may add, a scientific, method of 
 bird-catching, which is totally unknown to 
 other parts of Great Britain. The reason of 
 this trade being confined to so small a com- 
 pass, arises from there being no considerable 
 sale for singing birds except in the metropo- 
 lis ; and as the apparatus for their purpose is 
 heavy, and must be carried on a man's back, 
 it prevents the bird-catchers going to above 
 three or four miles' distance. This method of 
 bird-catching must have been long practised, 
 as it is brought to a most systematic perfec- 
 tion, and is attended with very considerable 
 expense. The nets are a most ingenious 
 piece of mechanism, are generally twelve 
 yards and a half long, and two and a half 
 wide ; and no one, till he becomes eye-wit- 
 ness of the puller's success, would imagine 
 that a bird, which is so very quick in all its 
 motions, could be caught by the nets flapping 
 over each other. The wild birds fly, as the 
 bird-catchers term it, chiefly during the month 
 of October, and part of September and No- 
 vember, as the flight in March is much less 
 considerable than that of Michaelmas. The 
 several species of birds do not make their ap- 
 pearance precisely at the same time during 
 the months of September, October, and No- 
 vember. The pipet, a small species of lark, 
 but inferior to the others in singing, for ex- 
 ample, begins to fly about Michaelmas, and 
 then the woodlark, linnet, goldfinch, chaffinch, 
 greenfinch, and other birds of flight, succeed ; 
 all of which are not easily caught, or in any 
 numbers at any other time, and more particu- 
 larly the pipet and the woodlark. These 
 birds, during the Michaelmas and March flights, 
 are chiefly on the wing from day-break to 
 noon, though there is afterwards a small flight 
 from two till night, but this is so inconsider- 
 able, that the bird-catchers take up their nets 
 at noon. It well deserves the attention of 
 the naturalist whence these periodical flights of 
 certain birds arise. As the ground, however, 
 is ploughed during the months of October 
 and March for sowing the winter and spring 
 corn, it should seem that they are thus sup- 
 plied with a profusion both of seeds and in- 
 sects, which they cannot so easily procure at 
 any other season. It has been observed, too, 
 that, during their sitting, they fly always 
 against the wind ; hence, there is great con- 
 
 tention amongst the bird-catchers, who shall 
 gain that point. If, for example, it is westerly, 
 the bird-catcher who lays his nets most to 
 the east, is sure almost of catching every 
 thing, provided his call birds are good ; a 
 gentle wind to the south-west generally pro- 
 duces the best sport. The bird-catcher gene- 
 rally carries with him five or six linnets, of 
 which more are caught than any other sing- 
 ing-bird, two goldfinches, two greenfinches, 
 one woodlark, one redpole, a yellow hammer, 
 titlark and aberdevine, and perhaps a bull- 
 finch ; these are placed at small distances 
 from the nets, in little cages. He has be- 
 sides what are called slur-birds, which are 
 placed within the nets, are raised upon the 
 slur, and gently let down at the time the 
 wild bird approaches them. The slur is a 
 moveable perch to which the bird is tied, and 
 which the bird-catcher can raise at pleasure 
 by means of a long string fastened to it. The 
 slur-birds generally consist of the linnet, gold- 
 finch, and greenfinch, which are secured to 
 the slur by what is called a brace, which 
 secures the bird without injuring the plumage. 
 It is a sort of bandage, formed of a slender 
 silken string, fastened round the body, and 
 under the wings, so as to hinder the bird 
 from being hurt, let it flutter ever so much. 
 As it has been found that there is a superi- 
 ority in birds that are in song, the bird- 
 catchers contrive that their call-birds should 
 moult before the usual time. They there- 
 fore, in June or July, put them into a box, 
 quite close under two or three folds of blan- 
 kets, and leave their dung in the cage to raise 
 a greater heat, in which state they continue, 
 being perhaps examined but once a week to 
 have fresh water. As for food, the air is 
 so putrid, that they eat little during the 
 whole state of confinement ; which lasts about 
 a month. The birds frequently die under the 
 operation, and hence the value of a stopped 
 bird, as the bird-catchers style it, rises greatly. 
 When the bird has thus prematurely moulted, 
 he is in song whilst the wild birds are out of 
 song, and his note is louder and more piercing 
 than that of a wild one ; but it is not only in 
 his note he receives an alteration, the plumage 
 is also improved. The black and yellow in 
 the wings of the goldfinch, for example, 
 become deeper and more vivid, and acquire a 
 beautiful gloss, which is not to be seen in the 
 wild bird. The bill, which, in the latter, is 
 black at the end, in the stopped bird becomes
 
 Bml 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 53 
 
 white and more taper, as do its legs ; in 
 short, there is as much difference between a 
 wild and a stopped bird, as there is between a 
 horse kept in body-clothes, and one at grass. 
 When the bird-catcher has laid his nets, he 
 disposes his call-birds at proper intervals. 
 There is a most malicious joy in these call- 
 birds, to bring the wild ones into the same 
 captivity, which may likewise be observed 
 with regard to decoy ducks. (See DECOY.) 
 Their sight and hearing infinitely excel those 
 of the bird-catcher. The moment they see 
 a hawk they communicate the alarm to each 
 other by a plaintive note, nor will they then 
 jerk or call though the wild birds are near. 
 But at any other time, the instant that the 
 wild birds are perceived, notice is given by 
 one to the rest of the call-birds, as by the 
 first hound that hits on the scent, to the rest 
 of the pack, after which follows the same sort 
 of tumultuous joy. The call-birds, while the 
 bird is at a distance, do not sing as a bird does 
 in a chamber ; they invite the wild ones by 
 what the bird-catchers call short jerks, which, 
 when the birds are good, may be heard at a 
 great distance. The ascendancy by this call 
 is so great, that the wildest bird is stopped in 
 his flight ; and, if not a sharper, as the bird- 
 catchers style a bird acquainted with the nets, 
 lights boldly within twenty yards perhaps of 
 three or four bird-catchers, on a spot which, 
 otherwise, it would not have taken the least 
 notice of. Nay, it frequently happens, that 
 if only half a flock are caught, the remainder 
 will immediately after light in the nets, and 
 share the same fate, and should only one bird 
 escape, that bird will suffer itself to be pulled 
 at till it is caught, such a fascinating power 
 have these call-birds. 
 
 Here it is worth mentioning, that the bird- 
 catchers frequently lay considerable wagers 
 whose call-bird can jerk the longest, as that 
 determines the superiority. They place them 
 opposite to each other, by an inch of candle, 
 and the bird who jerks the oftenest before the 
 candle is burnt out, wins the wager. There 
 have been instances of a bird giving 1 70 jerks 
 in a quarter of an hour; and of a linnet, in 
 such a trial, persevering in its emulation till it 
 swooned from the perch. Birds, when near 
 each other, and in sight, seldom jerk or sing. 
 They either fight, or use short and wheedling 
 calls; the jerking of these call-birds, there- 
 fore, face to face, is a most extraordinary in- 
 stance of contention for superiority in song. 
 
 Various methods are used to catch different 
 kinds of birds. The bullfinch, though not 
 properly a singing bird, or a bird of flight, as 
 it does not move farther than from hedge to 
 hedge, yet, as it sells well on account of its 
 learning to whistle tunes, and sometimes flies 
 over where the nets are laid, the bird-catchers 
 have often a call-bird to ensnare it, though 
 
 most of them can imitate the call with their 
 mouths. It is remarkable that the female 
 bullfinch answers the purpose of a call-bird as 
 well as the male, which is not experienced in 
 any other species of bird taken by the London 
 bird-catchers. The nightingale is not a bird 
 of flight, in the sense in which the bird- 
 catchers use the term. Like the robin, WTen, 
 and many other singing birds, it only moves 
 from hedge to hedge, and does not take the 
 periodical flights in October and March. Those 
 who catch these birds make use of small trap- 
 nets, without call-birds, and are considered as 
 inferior in dignity to other bird-catchers, who 
 will not rank with them. The arrival of the 
 nightingale is expected by the trappers in the 
 neighbourhood of London, the first week in 
 April ; at the beginning, none but cocks are 
 taken, but in a few days the hens make their 
 appearance, generally by themselves, though 
 sometimes with a few males. The latter are 
 distinguished from the females, not only by 
 their superior size, but by a great swelling of 
 their vent, which commences on the first ar- 
 rival of the hens. They are caught in a net- 
 trap, the bottom of which is surrounded with 
 an iron ring; the net itself is rather larger 
 than a cabbage-net. When the trappers hear 
 or see them, they strew some fresh mould 
 under the place, and bait the trap with a meal- 
 worm. Ten or a dozen have been thus caught 
 in a day. The common way of taking larks 
 ( Vide LARK) is in the night, with nets called 
 trammels. These are usually made of thirty- 
 six yards in length, and about six yards over, 
 with six ribs of pack-thread, which at the 
 ends are put upon two poles about sixteen 
 feet long, and made lesser at each end. These 
 are to be drawn over the ground by two men, 
 and every five or six steps the net is made to 
 touch the ground, otherwise it would pass over 
 the birds without touching them. When they 
 are felt to fly up against the net, it is clapped 
 down, and then all are safe that are under it. 
 The darkest nights are best for this sport ; and 
 the net will not only take larks but all other 
 birds that roost on the ground. In the depth 
 of winter people sometimes take great num- 
 bers of larks by nooses of horse-hair. The 
 method is this : Take 100 or 300 yards of 
 pack-thread ; fasten at every six inches a noose 
 made of horse-hair ; at every twenty yards the 
 line is to be pegged down to the ground, and 
 so left ready to take them. The time to use 
 this is when the ground is covered with snow, 
 and the larks are to be allured to it by some 
 white oats, scattered all the way among the 
 nooses. They must he taken away as soon 
 as three or four are hung, otherwise the rest 
 will be frightened, but though the others are 
 scared away just where the sportsman comes, 
 they will be feeding at the other end of the 
 line, and the sport may be thus continued for
 
 54 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Bm 
 
 a long time. Those caught in the day are 
 taken in clap-nets of fifteen yards long, and 
 two and a half broad, and are enticed within 
 their reach by bits of looking-glass, fixed in a 
 piece of a wood, and placed in the middle of 
 the nets, which are put in a quick whirling 
 motion by the string the larker commands ; he 
 also makes use of a decoy-lark. These nets 
 are used only till the fourteenth of Novem- 
 ber, for the larks will not dare to frolic in the 
 air except in fine sunny weather, and of 
 course cannot be inveigled into the snare. 
 When the weather grows gloomy, the larker 
 changes his engine, and makes use of a tram- 
 mel-net, twenty-seven or twenty-eight feet 
 long, and five broad, which is put on two 
 poles eighteen feet long, and carried by men 
 under each arm, who pass over the field and 
 
 quarter the ground like a setting dog ; when 
 they hear or feel a lark hit the net, they drop 
 it down, and so the birds are taken. Lin- 
 naeus observes, that the male chaffinches 
 fly by themselves, and in the flight precede 
 the females, but this is not peculiar to them. 
 When the tit-larks are caught in the begin- 
 ning of the season, it frequently happens that 
 forty are taken and not one female among 
 them, and probably the same would be ob- 
 served as to other birds (as has been done 
 with relation to the wheatear) if they were 
 attended to. Experienced bird-catchers tell 
 us, that such birds as breed twice a year, gene- 
 rally have in their first brood a majority of 
 males, and in their second, of females, which 
 may, in part, account for the above observa- 
 tion. 
 
 BIRDING-PIECE, s. A gun to shoot birds with ; an ancient fowling-piece. 
 BIRDLIME, s. A glutinous substance spread upon twigs, by which the 
 birds that light upon them are entangled. 
 
 Birdlime is prepared in different ways. The 
 best birdlime is made of the middle bark of 
 the holly boiled seven or eight hours in water, 
 till it is soft and tender, then laid in heaps in 
 pits in the ground, and covered with stones, 
 the water being previously drawn from it, and 
 in this state left for two or three weeks to 
 ferment, till it is reduced to a kind of mucilage. 
 This being taken from the pit, is pounded in 
 a mortar, to a paste, washed in river water, 
 and kneaded, till it is free from extraneous 
 matters. In this state it is left four or five 
 days in earthen vessels, to ferment and purify 
 itself, when it is fit for use. It reddens tinc- 
 ture of litmus. Exposed to a gentle heat, it 
 liquifies slightly, swells in bubbles, becomes 
 grumous, emits a smell resembling that of 
 animal oils, grows brown, but recovers its 
 properties on cooling, if not heated too much. 
 The residuum contains sulphate and muriate 
 of potash, carbonate of lime, and alumina, 
 with a small portion of iron. 
 
 The mistleto affords a juice superior to that 
 of the holly; and if a young shoot of the 
 common alder be cut through, a stringy juice 
 will draw out in threads, and follow the knife 
 like birdlime, or the juice of the holly. 
 
 When birdlime is to be put in wet places, 
 the common birdlime is apt to have its force 
 soon taken away. It is necessary, therefore, 
 to have recourse to a particular sort, which, 
 from its property of bearing water unhurt, is 
 called water birdlime, and is prepared thus : 
 Take a pound of strong birdlime, wash it in 
 spring water till the hardness is all removed ; 
 then beat it well, that the water may be well 
 separated, so as not a drop remains ; then dry 
 it well, and put it into an earthen pot, add to 
 it as much grease as will make it run, with 
 
 two teaspoonfuls of strong vinegar, one spoon- 
 ful of oil, and a small quantity of Venice 
 turpentine ; let the whole boil for some 
 minutes over a moderate fire, stirring it all 
 the while ; then take it off, and, when there 
 is occasion to use it, warm it, and cover the 
 sticks well with it. This is the best sort of 
 birdlime for snipes, and other birds that fre- 
 quent wet places. 
 
 The most successful method of using bird- 
 lime is this : Cut down the branch of any 
 bushy tree, whose twigs are thick, straight, 
 and smooth. The willow and the birch tree 
 afford the best of this kind. Let all the 
 superfluous shoots be trimmed off, and the 
 twigs all made neat and clean ; they must all 
 be well covered with the birdlime, within 
 four inches of the bottom : no part of the 
 bark where the lime should come must be 
 left bare ; but it is a nice matter to lay it on 
 properly, for if it be too thick it will give the 
 birds a distaste, and they will not come near 
 it ; and if there be too little of it, it will not 
 hold when they come there. When the 
 bush is thus prepared, it must be set up in 
 some dead hedge, or among bushes near the 
 outskirts of a town, or the like, in the spring, 
 for these places are the resort of small birds 
 at that time. If it be used in summer, the 
 bush must be placed in the midst of a quick- 
 set hedge, or in whitethorn trees, near fields 
 of corn ; and, in the winter, the proper places 
 are about stacks of corn, hovels, bams, and 
 the like. When the lime-bush is thus planted, 
 the sportsman must stand as near it as he can 
 without being discovered, and with the mouth, 
 or otherwise, make such notes as the birds do 
 when they attack or call to one another. The 
 time of day for this sport is from sunrise to
 
 Bis] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 55 
 
 ten o'clock, and from one to sunset. Another 
 very good method of bringing the birds toge- 
 ther is by a stale. A bat makes a very good 
 stale, but it must be fastened so as to be in 
 sight at a distance. An owl is a still better 
 stale, for this bird never goes abroad but it is 
 followed by all the small birds. They will 
 gather together in great numbers about it, and 
 
 BIRDS, METHOD OF PRESERVING. 
 
 Various methods have been attempted for pre- 
 serving birds from putrefaction, so as to retain 
 their natural form and position, as well as the 
 beauty of their colours and plumage. A good 
 antiseptic for animal substances has been much 
 inquired after, as, for want of it, many curi- 
 ous animals, and birds particularly, from 
 foreign parts, entirely miscarry, and others of 
 the finest plumage are devoured by insects. 
 The following improved method by Dr. Lett- 
 som seems to be the least troublesome, and 
 the most complete. After opening the bird 
 by a longitudinal incision from the breast to 
 the vent, dissecting the fleshy parts from the 
 bones, and removing the entrails, eyes, tongue, 
 and brains, (which in large birds may be ex- 
 tracted through the eye-holes with a surgeon's 
 directar,) the cavities and inside of the skin 
 are to be sprinkled with the powders men- 
 tioned below. Glass eyes, which are prefer- 
 able to wax, are then to be inserted, and the 
 head stuffed with cotton or tow, and a wire 
 is to be passed down the throat through one 
 of the nostrils, and fixed on the breast bone. 
 Wires also to be introduced through the feet, 
 up the legs and thighs, and inserted into the 
 same bone ; next fill the body with cotton to 
 its natural size, and sew the skin over it ; the 
 attitude is lastly to be attended to, and what- 
 ever position the subject is placed in to dry, 
 it will be retained afterwards. The dyeing 
 compound is as follows : 
 
 Corrosive sublimate . . J Ib. 
 
 Saltpetre, prepared or burnt . | Ib. 
 
 Alum, burnt . . | Ib. 
 
 Flowers of sulphur . | Ib. 
 
 Camphor . . . | Ib. 
 
 Black pepper . 1 Ib. 
 
 Tobacco, ground coarse . 1 Ib. 
 
 Mix the whole, and keep it in a glass ves- 
 sel, stopped close. Small birds may be pre- 
 served in brandy, rum, arrack, or first run- 
 nings ; though the colour of the plumage is 
 liable to be extracted by the spirit. Large 
 sea-fowl have thick strong skins, and such 
 may be skinned; the tail, claws, head, and 
 feet are carefully to be preserved, and the 
 plumage stained as little as possible with 
 
 having no convenient place to sit on but the 
 lime-bush, many will be taken. If a living 
 owl or bat is not to be had, the skin stuffed 
 will serve the purpose, and will last twenty 
 years. Some have used the image of an owl 
 carved in wood, and painted in the natural 
 colours, and it has been found to succeed 
 very well. 
 
 blood. The inside of the skin may be stuffed 
 as above. Kuckahu observes, (in the Phil. 
 Trans, vol. ix. p. 319.) that "Baking is not 
 only useful in the fresh preservations, but 
 will also be of very great service to old ones, 
 destroying the eggs of insects ; and it should 
 be a constant practice, once in two or three 
 years, to bake them over again, and to have 
 the cases fresh washed with camphorated 
 spirit, or the sublimate solution, which would 
 not only preserve collections from decay, 
 much longer, but also keep them sweet." 
 But Dr. Lettsom remarks that, " Baking is 
 apt to crimp and injure the plumage, unless 
 great care be used, and, therefore, the proper 
 degree of heat should be ascertained by means 
 of a feather, before such subjects are baked." 
 And he prescribes as the best preservative, 
 boxes well glazed ; and he adds, " When the 
 subject is to be kept for some time in a hot 
 climate, it should be secured in a box filled 
 with tow, oakum, or tobacco, well sprinkled 
 with the sublimate solution. In Guiana, the 
 number and variety of beautiful birds is so- 
 great, that several persons in the colony ad- 
 vantageously employ themselves, with their 
 slaves and attendants, in killing and preserv- 
 ing these animals for the cabinets of natural- 
 ists in different parts of Europe. The me- 
 thod of doing this, as related by Mr. Bancroft, 
 (in his Nat. Hist, of Guiana,) is, to put the 
 bird which is to be preserved in a proper ves- 
 sel, and cover him with high wines, or the 
 first running of the distillation of rum. In 
 this spirit he is suffered to remain for twenty- 
 four or forty-eight hours, or longer, till it 
 has penetrated through every part of his body. 
 When this is done, he is taken out, and his 
 feathers, which are no ways changed by this 
 immersion, are placed smooth and regular. 
 It is then put into a machine, made for the 
 purpose, among a number of others, and its 
 head, feet, wings, tail, &c. are placed exactly 
 agreeable to life. In this position they are 
 placed in an oven, very moderately heated, 
 where they are slowly dried, and will ever 
 after retain their natural position without 
 danger of putrefaction Ency. Land. 
 
 BISCUIT, s. A kind of hard, dry bread, made to be carried to sea; a 
 composition of fine flour, almonds, and sugar.
 
 56 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Bis 
 
 BISHOP, s. A cant word for a mixture of wine, oranges, and sugar. 
 BISHOP, v. To bishop a horse, is to remove, by filing, the distinguishing 
 
 marks by which the teeth indicate the age. It was a very common 
 
 practice some years since, and is still resorted to by low horse dealers. 
 
 It will, however, by carefully observing other indicise of age, be easily 
 
 detected. See AGE OF HORSE. 
 BISTORT, s. A plant called snake-weed. The roots are a very powerful 
 
 astringent. It has also styptic properties. 
 
 BISTOURY, s. A surgeon's instrument, used in making incisions. 
 BIT, s. The iron part of the bridle which is put into the horse's mouth. 
 BIT, v. To put the bridle upon a horse. 
 BITCH, s. The female of the dog kind. 
 
 Bitches should he allowed to hreed, nor is it 
 good for their health to prevent it ; for nature 
 almost invariahly punishes extraordinary de- 
 viations from her established laws, of which 
 the reproductive system is one of the most 
 important. Breeding, therefore, is so much a 
 healthy and necessary process, that hitches 
 prevented from it rarely remain unaffected hy 
 disease. Bitches in heat are very cunning, 
 and often elude all hut the greatest vigilance 
 in their attempts to escape in search of a mate ; 
 and thus, for want of due caution, many frus- 
 trate the hopes of their owners in the desired 
 breed ; and many others meet their death by 
 becoming lined by a dog so extremely dispro- 
 portionate in size that the mothers are found 
 unable to bring forth. Impregnation takes 
 place sometimes at the first copulation, in 
 others not until the second, third, or fourth ; 
 and in some cases it has been known, from 
 decided proofs, that impregnation did not 
 ensue until the seventh warding. Dogs should 
 be suffered, therefore, to remain together 
 some days to insure prolific intercourse. It 
 is not easy to detect whether hitches are in 
 pup until the fourth or fifth week after ward- 
 ing ; about which time the teats enlarge, the 
 flanks fill, and the belly assumes a fulness 
 and rotundity unnatural to it at others. Pup- 
 ping usually comes on the sixty-second, sixty- 
 third, or, at farthest, on the sixty-fourth day. 
 A quarter or half an hour, and sometimes a 
 longer time, intervenes between the expulsion 
 of each foetus. 
 
 Dogs are certainly capable of superfoetation ; 
 that is, impregnation may take place at more 
 than one warding, and that by distinct mates. 
 It would appear that this mental impres- 
 sion, which is perhaps usually raised at some 
 period of oestrum, always recurs at that period, 
 
 and is so interwoven with the organisation 
 even, as to become a stamp or mould for some, 
 if not all, of her future progeny. I had a pug 
 bitch whose constant companion was a small 
 and almost white spaniel dog, of Lord Rivers' 
 breed, of which she was very fond. When 
 it became necessary to separate her, on account 
 of her heat, from this dog, and to confine her 
 with one of her own kind, she pined exces- 
 sively ; and notwithstanding her situation, it 
 was some time before she would admit of the 
 attentions of the pug dog placed with her. At 
 length, however, she did so ; impregnation 
 followed, and at the usual period she brought 
 forth five pug puppies, one of which was ele- 
 gantly white, and more slender than the 
 others. The spaniel was soon afterwards given 
 away, but the impression remained ; for at 
 two subsequent litters (which were all she had 
 afterwards) she presented me with a white 
 young one, which the fanciers know to be a 
 very rare occurrence. 
 
 The Rev. R. Lascelles, in his Letters on 
 Sporting, p. 250, relates a case of a grey- 
 hound bitch, intrusted to the care of a ser- 
 vant, which whelped one perfect greyhound 
 and six complete curs : the curs were the 
 likeness of the dog she domesticated with in 
 common ; the single one resembled the grey- 
 hound she was taken to during her heat. There 
 is little reason, therefore, to doubt that the 
 bitch had been previously lined by the cur, 
 and the single greyhound pup was the effect of 
 superfoetation. 
 
 Sportsmen incline to the opinion, that the 
 male pups are more strongly tinctured with 
 the external form of the father than of the 
 mother, and vice versa ,- but though instances 
 may occur to favour such a conclusion, it is not 
 a uniform occurrence Blaine. 
 
 BITE, v. To crush or pierce with the teeth ; to cut, or wound. 
 BITE, s. The seizure of anything by the teeth ; the act of a fish that takes' 
 the bait ; a cheat, a sharper.
 
 BIT] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 57 
 
 BITTERN; BOG BUMPER; BITTERN BUM, or MIRE DRUM; (Ardea 
 Stellaris, LINN. ; Le JButon, BUFF.) *. A bird with long legs, which 
 feeds upon fish. 
 
 The bittern is nearly as large as the com- 
 mon heron ; its legs are stronger, body more 
 plump and fleshy, and its neck is more thickly 
 clothed with feathers. The beak is strong 
 at the base ; straight, sharp on the edges, and 
 gradually tapers to an acute point ; the upper 
 mandible is brown, the under inclining to 
 green ; the mouth is wide, the gape extending 
 beyond the eyes, with a dusky patch at each 
 angle : the irides are yellow. The crown of 
 the head is somewhat depressed, and covered 
 with long black feathers; the throat is yel- 
 lowish white ; the sides of the neck pale rust 
 colour, variegated with black, in spotted, 
 waved, and narrow transverse lines, and on 
 the forepart the ground colour is whitish, and 
 the feathers fall down in less broken and 
 darker lengthened stripes. These neck- 
 feathers, which it can raise and depress at 
 pleasure, are long and loose, and, inclining 
 backwards, cover the neck behind ; those be- 
 low them, on the breast to the thighs, are 
 streaked lengthwise with black, edged with 
 yellowish white : the thighs, belly, and vent, 
 are of a dull pale yellow, clouded with dingy 
 brown. The plumage on the back and wings 
 is marked with black zigzag lines, bars, and 
 streaks, upon a ground shaded with rust colour 
 and yellow. The bastard wings, greater co- 
 verts, and quills, are brown, barred with black. 
 The tail, which consists only of ten feathers, 
 is very short ; the legs are of a pale green, bare 
 a little above the knees ; the claws, particu- 
 
 larly those on the hind toes, are long and sharp, 
 the middle ones serrated. 
 
 The female is less than the male ; her plu- 
 mage is darker, and the feathers on her head, 
 breast, and neck, are shorter, and the colours 
 not so distinctly marked. She makes an art- 
 less nest, composed chiefly of the withered 
 stalks and leaves of the high coarse herbage, 
 in the midst of which it is placed, and lays 
 from four to six eggs, of a greenish white 
 colour. 
 
 The bittern is a shy solitary bird ; it is never 
 seen on the wing in th'e day time, but sits, 
 commonly with the head erect, hid among 
 the reeds and rushes in the marshes, where it 
 always takes up its abode, and from whence it 
 will not stir, unless it is disturbed by the 
 sportsman. When it changes its haunts, it 
 removes in the dusk of the evening, and then 
 rising in a spiral direction, soars to a vast height. 
 It flies in the same heavy manner as the heron, 
 and might be mistaken for that bird, were it 
 not for the singularly resounding cry which it 
 utters from time to time while on the wing ; 
 but this cry is feeble when compared to the 
 hollow booming noise which it makes during 
 the night time, in the breeding season, from its 
 swampy retreat. 
 
 The bittern, when attacked by the buzzard, 
 or other birds of prey, defends itself with great 
 courage, and generally beats off such assail- 
 ants ; neither does it betray any symptoms of 
 fear, when wounded by the sportsman, but
 
 58 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [BIT 
 
 eyes him with a keen undaunted look, and, 
 when driven to extremity, will attack him 
 with the utmost vigour, wounding his legs, or 
 aiming at his eyes with its sharp and piercing 
 bill. It was formerly held in much estima- 
 tion at the tahles of the great, and is again re- 
 covering its credit as a fashionahle dish. 
 
 
 The Little Bittern, (Ardea Minuta, LINN. 
 Le Blongois, BUF.) in size is not much 
 larger than the throstle, measuring only about 
 fifteen inches in length. From the corners of 
 the mouth, a black stroke extends across the 
 under side of the cheeks ; and a patch of black, 
 glossed with green and edged with chestnut, 
 
 covers the crown of its head. On the back, 
 rump, and scapulars, the feathers are dark 
 brown, edged with pale rusty coloured red; 
 the sides of the neck, and the breast are of the 
 same colours, but the brown on the middle of 
 each feather is in narrower streaks. The belly 
 is white : the hinder part of the neck is bare, 
 but the long feathers on the forepart lie back 
 and cover it. The tail is short, and of a black 
 green colour, edged and tipped with tawny : 
 the legs dirty green. The little bittern has 
 seldom been met with in Great Britain. 
 
 The above drawing and description were 
 taken from an ill-stuffed specimen in the 
 Wycliffe Museum Bewick. 
 
 BITUMEN, s. A fat unctuous matter dug out of the earth, or scummed 
 
 off lakes. 
 
 BLACK, a. Of the colour of night; dark. 
 BLACK, $. A black colour ; mourning. 
 
 To dye a good black. First make your 
 stuff a very dark blue : then make a very 
 strong dye of strawall and walnut bark ; boil 
 the wool in this for six hours. Take out 
 the stuff, and clean out the dye-pot, and 
 make a fresh dye of strawall, logwood 
 dust, or a good quantity of chips, with some 
 madder and Brazil dust : boil in this two 
 hours, and pour off your liquor. Clean your 
 pot, and put in liquor again with the stuff, 
 and when hot, pour in a quart of urine, at 
 least eight days' old, and boil in this half an 
 hour. Having dissolved in some of the boil- 
 
 BLACKBIRD, s. The name of a bird. 
 
 ing liquor the size of a hazel-nut of copperas, 
 lift out your stuff, and pour in this liquor 
 boil it well, and all is done. If any brown or 
 purple should appear between you and the 
 light, put down some clean water, and boil it, 
 adding to it one, two, or three tea spoonfuls of 
 salt of tartar, and throw in your stuff for a 
 few minutes. This is a long way for black 
 dyeing, but the best for fishing. Let your 
 dye-pot be large, or it will run over when 
 you add the copperas ; keep your dye-pot con- 
 stantly full of water Ancient Recipe. 
 
 The length of the blackbird, or ouzel, 
 ( Turdus Merula, LINN Le Merle,BvFF.) 
 is generally about ten inches. Its plumage is 
 
 altogether black ; the bill, inside of the mouth, 
 and edges of the cyc-lids, are yellow, as are 
 also the soles of the feet ; the legs are of a
 
 BLA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 59 
 
 dirty yellow. The female is mostly brown, 
 inclining to rust colour on the breast and 
 belly ; the bill is dusky, and the legs brown ; 
 its song is also very different, so that it has 
 sometimes been mistaken for a bird of a dif- 
 ferent species. 
 
 The males, during the first year, resemble 
 the females so much, as not easily to be dis- 
 tinguished from them ; but, after that, they 
 assume the yellow bill, and other distinguish- 
 ing marks of their kind. The blackbird is a 
 solitary bird, frequenting woods and thickets, 
 chiefly of evergreens, such as holly, pines, 
 firs, &c., especially where there are perennial 
 springs, which together afford it both shelter 
 and subsistence. Wild blackbirds feed on 
 berries, fruits, insects, and worms ; they never 
 fly in flocks like thrushes ; they pair early, 
 and begin to warble nearly as soon as any 
 other of the songsters of the grove. 
 
 The female builds her nest in bushes, or 
 low trees, and lays four or five eggs, of a 
 bluish green colour, marked irregularly with 
 dusky spots. The young birds are easily 
 brought up tame, and may be taught to whis- 
 tle a variety of tunes ; for which their clear, 
 loud, and melodious tones are well adapted. 
 They are restless and timorous birds, easily 
 alarmed, and difficult of access. But Buf- 
 fon observes, that, " they are more restless 
 than cunning, and more timorous than sus- 
 picious, as they readily suffer themselves to 
 be caught with bird-lime, nooses, and all sorts 
 of snares. They are never kept in aviaries ; 
 for, when shut up with other birds, they pur- 
 sue and harass their companions in slavery 
 unceasingly : for which reason they are gene- 
 rally confined in cages apart. In some coun- 
 ties of England, this bird is called simply the 
 Ouzel Bewick. 
 
 BLACKCAP, s. A small singing bird. 
 
 BLACK COCK, s. (Tetrao tetrix, LINN.) Known also as the heath-cock and 
 heath-poult. 
 
 This species sometimes weighs as much as 
 four pounds ; length about twenty-three in- 
 ches, bill dusky, irides hazel ; the head, neck, 
 and whole body, are of glossy blue-black, 
 particularly about the neck, breast, and rump ; 
 over the eye the bare scarlet skin is granu- 
 lated ; the coverts of the wings dusky brown, 
 the four first quill feathers black, the next 
 white at the bottom, the lower half and tips 
 of the secondaries white, under wing coverts 
 white ; the thighs are dark brown, sometimes 
 marked with a few white spots ; the tail con- 
 sists of sixteen black /eathers ; the exterior 
 ones bend outwards, and are much longer than 
 those in the middle, which makes the tail 
 very forked ; the under tail coverts pure 
 white ; legs covered with hair-like feathers of 
 a dark brown, speckled with grey ; toes pec- 
 tinated. 
 
 The female weighs about two pounds ; the 
 plumage is very different from that of the 
 male ; the general colour is ferruginous, barred 
 and mottled, with black above, the under 
 parts paler, with dusky and brown bars ; the 
 tail-feathers are straight and even at the end, 
 variegated with ferruginous and black. 
 
 The black grous is at present confined to 
 the more northern parts of this kingdom, po- 
 pulation and culture having driven them from 
 the south, except in a few of the more wild, 
 uncultivated parts ; in the New Forest in 
 Hampshire, Dartmoor and Sedgmoor in De- 
 vonshire, and the heathy hills in Somerset- 
 shire, contiguous to the latter. It is also 
 found in Staffordshire, and in North Wales, 
 and again in the North of England ; but no 
 where so plentiful as in some parts of the 
 highlands of Scotland. The males are poly- 
 
 gamous, and fight desperately for the females. 
 
 In the month of April the male places 
 himself on an eminence as soon as it is light 
 in the morning, crows and claps his wings, on 
 which the females resort to his station. After 
 the courting season the males associate peace- 
 ably together, in small packs ; are fond of 
 woody, heathy and mountainous situations; 
 but will occasionally visit the corn-fields in 
 the autumn, retiring almost wholly to the 
 woods in the winter, and perching on trees. 
 
 The female lays six or seven dirty- white 
 eggs, blotched with rust-colour, about the 
 size of those of a pheasant. These are de- 
 posited amongst the highest heath, without 
 much appearance of a nest. 
 
 The young follow the female for some 
 time. The males are scarcely distinguishable 
 from the other sex till they are above half 
 grown, when the black feathers begin to ap- 
 pear first about the sides and breast. Their 
 food is chiefly the tops of heath and birch, 
 except when the mountain berries are ripe, at 
 which time they devour bilberries and cran- 
 berries most voraciously. 
 
 A supposed hybrid bird of this species 
 has been described under the following syno- 
 nimes : 
 
 Tetrao Hybridus, Tetra Tetrix, Spurious 
 Grous. 
 
 This bird has been described by Linnaeus 
 and others as a distinct species, or mixed 
 breed between the black and wood grous. It 
 is said to differ from the black grous in having 
 reddish spots on the neck, breast, wings, and 
 thighs, and in being of a superior size. It is 
 said to have been formerly met with in Scot- 
 land Montagu.
 
 60 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [BLi 
 
 BLACK-TAIL, s. The ruff or pope ; a small fish. 
 
 BLADDER, s. That vessel in the body which contains the urine ; a blister, 
 
 a pustule. 
 BLADE, *. The spire of grass ; the green shoots of corn. The sharp or 
 
 striking part of a weapon or instrument. 
 BLADEBONE, s. The scapula, or scapular bone. 
 BLADED, a. Having blades or spines. 
 BLAIN, s. A pustule, a blister. 
 BLANK, s. A void space. 
 BLANK-DAY, s. A sporting term, used when a cover is drawn without 
 
 success. It is also applied when shooters are kept in-doors by severity 
 
 of weather, tired dogs, &c. 
 BLAY, s. A small whitish river-fish ; a bleak. 
 
 BLAZE, s. A flame, the light of the flame ; a white mark upon a horse. 
 BLAZE, v. To blazon ; to inflame ; to fire. 
 BLEAK, s. A small river fish. 
 
 The bleak is seldom more than six inches 
 long ; the head is small, and the skull trans- 
 parent ; the eyes are large, with a blood co- 
 loured spot on the lower side ; the hides of a 
 pale yellow ; the under jaw the longest ; the 
 gills silvery ; the body is slender, greatly com- 
 pressed sideways, not unlike that of the sprat : 
 the back is green ; the sides and belly silvery ; 
 the fins pellucid ; the lateral line rather crook- 
 ed ; the scales are large, and fall off very ea- 
 sily ; the tail is much forked. 
 
 Some call the bleak the water swallow, on 
 account of its nimbleriess in catching flies; 
 they arc very restless, their haunts being some- 
 times in deep still water, at the sides aiid tails 
 
 of streams, where the water shelves off, and 
 makes a gentle eddy ; at others in the streams, 
 which may be observed by their swimming 
 near the surface, and their very active manner 
 of taking and diverting themselves with small 
 flies, and insects. In angling for the bleak, 
 the tackle must be very fine, with four or five 
 small hooks, so placed above each other as not 
 to entangle, and swimming by the assistance 
 of a small quill float, rather deeper than mid- 
 water, and baited variously, as with a gentle, 
 bloodworm, caddis, the house-fly, (or any fly 
 they are observed at the moment to feed upon,) 
 and a very small bit of red paste, throwing in 
 now and then some malt grains, or chewed
 
 BLE] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 bread, to keep them together ; always remem- 
 bering, wherever ground bait is used, it should 
 be inferior to the hook-baits : thus two or 
 three at a time may be taken, for they are so 
 eager as to leap out of the water at the bait. 
 Should the day be cold and cloudy, a single 
 gentle, or cadis, upon the hook is then best, 
 sunk about two foot under water. 
 
 Another way of taking bleak is by whipping 
 from a boat, or the bank-side in fresh streams, 
 with a rod six feet, and a line twice as long, 
 using an artificial black gnat, a fly of a very 
 sad brown colour, or the small dace-flies ; they 
 not only yield much sport, but are very in- 
 structive to the young fly-fisher Daniel. 
 
 BLEED, v. To lose blood; to run with blood; to drop as blood; to let 
 blood. 
 
 Bleeding This operation is frequently 
 
 required in the diseases of horses ; and if em- 
 ployed seasonably, and to a sufficient extent, 
 is the most efficacious remedy we are acquaints 
 ed with. When a horse appears dull and 
 heavy, and indifferent about his food, by bleed- 
 ing we often prevent a fever. If a horse is 
 bled at the commencement of a cold, the com- 
 plaint generally proves moderate, and of short 
 continuance. In all cases of internal inflam- 
 mation, or symptomatic fever, bleeding is the 
 most essential remedy, provided the operation 
 be performed at an early period, and the blood 
 drawn in sufficient quantity. In such cases I 
 have often taken away six quarts or more, and 
 repeated the operation the same or the follow- 
 ing day when it appeared necessary. By bleed- 
 ing copiously at first, those formidable diseases 
 are crushed at once ; while by suffering them 
 to proceed or become at all violent, which they 
 will do unless this practice is adopted (or if 
 only a small quantity of blood. is drawn), they 
 generally prove fatal : nor will bleeding then 
 be of any service. 
 
 Bleeding is either general or local : that is, 
 it is done either so as to affect the system in 
 general, or a particular part only. For gene- 
 ral bleeding, the jugular or neck vein is most 
 convenient. 
 
 When the vein is firmly pressed with the 
 fingers of the left hand, the blood is prevented 
 from descending, and that part of the vein 
 which is above the fingers is'considerably dis- 
 tended, and becomes very conspicuous. In 
 this state it may be easily opened with a lan- 
 cet held in the right hand. The vein will 
 continue to bleed as long as the pressure below 
 is continued. 
 
 Farriers bleed with ajleam, which, though 
 apparently a clumsy method of operating, is 
 certainly safer than the lancet in unskilful 
 hands. In topical bleeding, a vein is chosen 
 as near as possible to the affected part, or the 
 vessels covering the part are opened : in the 
 inflammation of the eye, for example, it is 
 done by scarifying the inner surface of the eye- 
 lid, or by opening a small vein which is easily 
 seen going from the inner corner of the eye 
 towards the nose. I do not think, however, 
 that either of these operations do any good ; 
 
 indeed that of scarifying the eyelids is often, 
 I believe, injurious. 
 
 A graduated tin vessel, capable of contain- 
 ing six or seven quarts, is very convenient for 
 the purpose of receiving the blood ; every pint 
 being marked on the inside of the vessel, so 
 that the quantity of blood that is taken off 
 may be exactly known. The blood should 
 always be preserved, that we may judge from 
 its appearance of the nature of the disease, and 
 whether it is proper or not to repeat the ope- 
 ration. When it continues fluid a considera- 
 ble time, it denotes an inflammatory state of 
 the system. Should a whitish or light buff- 
 coloured jelly appear on its surface, after it has 
 coagulated or settled, and should this jelly be 
 of considerable thickness, rather firm, not ea- 
 sily penetrated by the finger, we may be satis- 
 fied that the horse's complaint is inflammatory ; 
 that bleeding was a proper remedy ; and that, 
 if the symptoms continue, the operation may 
 be repeated with advantage : but if the blood 
 coagulates quickly, is uniformly of a dark li- 
 ver colour, loose and easily broken, with a 
 considerable quantity of water upon its surface, 
 it denotes debility, and shows that the disease 
 arises from a weakness of the system ; that 
 instead of bleeding, tonic and cordial medi- 
 cines are to be employed, with every thing that 
 may tend to restore the animal's strength. 
 
 In order to judge correctly by the appear- 
 ance of the blood, it should be drawn from a 
 large orifice, and not suffered to run down the 
 sides of the vessel which receives it. The first 
 quantity that is drawn should be put aside for 
 examination, and not shaken or disturbed in 
 any way until it has perfectly coagulated. 
 
 When bleeding is employed as a preven- 
 tive, or in any slight complaints, from two to 
 three quarts may be taken off, according to 
 the horse's strength and condition; but in 
 cases of internal inflammation, or fever, a 
 more copious evacuation is necessary. 
 
 When horses are taken from camp or grass, 
 and put into warm stables, they are very sub- 
 ject to inflammatory complaints and danger- 
 ous fevers : under those circumstances, mo- 
 derate bleeding now and then will prevent 
 such diseases. Horses that are getting into 
 condition, as it is termed, are liable to similar
 
 62 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [BLE 
 
 disorders, unless moderate bleeding is occa- 
 sionally employed. I am inclined to believe, 
 however, that it is a bad practice to bleed 
 often upon trifling occasions ; it is liable to in- 
 duce a plethora or fulness of habit, whereby 
 a horse is rendered more susceptible of dis- 
 ease than he would otherwise be. Moderate 
 purging and regular exercise, with a proper 
 regulation of diet and temperature, are fully 
 adequate to the prevention of disease on those 
 occasions ; but these are too often neglected. 
 
 It has been asserted that it is seldom neces- 
 sary to pin up the orifice, which is made in the 
 skin by bleeding. I grant there is not often 
 any danger to be apprehended from its bleed- 
 ing again ; but unless it is pinned up, that is, 
 unless the lips of the wound are brought into 
 contact, and kept in that situation, by passing 
 a pin through the edges of the skin, and 
 twisting a little tow round it, as is generally 
 done by farriers, inflammation and swelling 
 will sometimes take place in the wound, and 
 matter will form in consequence. The fleam 
 has been found upon many occasions, particu- 
 larly for opening the neck vein, a better in- 
 strument than the lancet ; the latter makes 
 an orifice in the skin, scarcely larger than the 
 vein ; and as the horse is generally a little 
 restless, the blood soon gets between the skin 
 and the vein, plugging up the orifice in the 
 latter, and sometimes diffusing itself in the 
 cellular membrane, so as to cause a swelling. 
 The lancet, however, in skilful hands is a 
 neater method, and more convenient for 
 horses that are very shy and difficult to be 
 bled in the common way. 
 
 Dogs may be conveniently bled by the ju- 
 gular or neck vein, with a fleam, or with a 
 common lancet ; but the latter is much prefer- 
 able. A ligature being put round the lower 
 part of the neck, and the head being held up, 
 the vein will swell and protrude itself on each 
 side of the windpipe, about one inch from it. 
 It will, however, be necessary previously to cut 
 the hair away, if it be very thick ; after which, 
 the puncture can be easily made with a lancet, 
 the operator leaning over the dog. Nothing is 
 necessary, in general cases, to stop the bleed- 
 ing, but to remove the ligature ; nor is any pin, 
 plaister, or bandage, requisite for the orifice. 
 When circumstances such as the want of a 
 regular operator, or when the amateur is call- 
 ed on to deplete his own dog suddenly, as in 
 the field, when the means of venesection by 
 the neck are not at hand ; in any such case the 
 ear may be punctured, or an incision may be 
 made on the inner side of the flap of it, choos- 
 ing, if possible, the course of a vein for the 
 puncture, but avoid passing the instrument 
 through the ear. Or the tail may be cut in 
 desperate cases ; but, when this is done, it is 
 better to cut off a small piece than to merely 
 make an incision underneath ; for I have seen, 
 when this has been injudiciously done, the 
 whole tail in a state of mortification. 
 
 The quantity of blood drawn should be re- 
 gulated by the size of the dog : for a very small 
 dog, one or two ounces are sufficient ; for a 
 middling sized dog, three or four ounces ; and 
 for a large dog, five, six, seven, or eight oun- 
 ces, according to the size and strength of the 
 patient, and the nature of the disease he la- 
 bours under White Elaine. 
 
 BLEMISH, v. To mark with any deformity ; to tarnish. 
 
 BLEMISH, s. A mark of deformity, a scar. 
 
 BLIGHT, s. Mildew ; anything- nipping- or blasting. 
 
 BLIND, a. Without sight, dark; a sconce. 
 
 BLINDNESS, s. Want of sight ; ignorance. 
 
 BLINK, v. To wink ; to see obscurely. A dog is termed blinked when 
 
 rendered useless in the field, from timidity occasioned by alarming him 
 
 by a shot, severity, or other ill-usage. 
 BLISTER, s. A pustule formed by raising the cuticle from the cutis ; any 
 
 swelling made by the separation of a film or skin from the other parts. 
 
 Blisters are medicines that inflame the skin, 
 and cause watery bladders to rise upon its 
 surface : the most useful of this kind is the 
 cantharis, or Spanish fly, (lytta vesicatoria) 
 which forms the principal ingredient in all our 
 blisters. There are others, however, which 
 are generally mixed with it as auxiliaries ; as 
 hellebore, euphorbium, turpentine, and subli- 
 mate. 
 
 Blisters are much used in veterinary medi- 
 cine, and are extremely efficacious in dis- 
 persing callous swellings, the consequence of 
 strains, bruises, &c. 
 
 In inflammation of parts remote from the 
 surface, they are of great service. When the 
 internal parts of the foot are inflamed, relief 
 is generally obtained by blistering the pastern, 
 provided the subordinate or auxiliary reme-
 
 BLI] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 dies arc not omitted, such as paring the sole, 
 soaking the horny part of the foot in warm 
 water, or applying a poultice to it, and giving 
 a dose of physic. When the lungs are in- 
 flamed, blistering the sides freely is an excel- 
 lent remedy, especially when we feel doubtful 
 as to the propriety of further bleeding. 
 
 Blistering is employed also for curbs, wind- 
 galls, spavins, &c. 
 
 Broken knees, unless skilfully treated, 
 leave a callous swelling on the part ; for the 
 removal of which, blistering is employed. 
 When blisters are properly made, and free 
 from any caustic ingredients^ such as subli- 
 mate, vitriolic acid, &c., there is no danger of 
 destroying the hair ; and if the first blistering 
 does not prove effectual, it may be repeated 
 until the desired effect is produced. 
 
 Before a blister is applied, the hair should 
 be closely cut off, or even shaved off, if the 
 situation of the diseased part will admit of its 
 being done without wounding the skin ; but 
 good scissors, or shears, if skilfully used, will 
 answer the purpose sufficiently. If the skin 
 is scurfy it may be washed with flannel, soap, 
 and warm water, and be made perfectly dry 
 before the blister is applied. Blisters are ge- 
 nerally employed in the form of ointment, but 
 on some occasions they are preferred of a 
 thinner consistence, or in the form of lini- 
 ment, or even still thinner or more fluid, and 
 are then named liquid blisters. Though a 
 variety of ingredients are used in blisters, 
 the cantharis or Spanish fly is the best ; and 
 if not injured by long keeping, or adulterated, 
 is the only blistering ingredient required for 
 common purposes. 
 
 The following formulae are recommended 
 by Mr. White. 
 
 BLISTER OINTMENT. 
 
 Hog's lard . . 4 oz. 
 
 Oil of turpentine . 1 oz. 
 
 Powdered cantharides . 1 oz Mix. 
 
 Melt the lard by a gradual heat ; remove 
 it from the fire, and stir in the turpentine, 
 then add the cantharides, and continue stir- 
 ring until it is cold, Or, 
 
 Hog's lard . . . . 6 oz. 
 
 Oil of rosemary . . i oz. 
 
 Oil of origanum . .2 dr. 
 
 Powdered cantharides . . 6 dr. 
 
 Solution of sublimate in muriatic acid, one 
 fluid drachm or sixty minims. 
 Mix as above. 
 
 Or, 
 
 Oil of turpentine . . 2 oz. 
 
 Sulphuric acid, by weight . 1 oz. 
 
 Mix cautiously, under a chimney, or in the 
 open air, and avoid the suffocating vapour 
 which will arise. When perfectly united, add 
 hog's lard, from six to eight ounces, or more, 
 according to the strength required. When a 
 blister is wanted, take two ounces of this 
 ointment, and rub up with it from two to 
 
 three or four drachms of recently powdered 
 cantharides. This ointment may be made 
 still stronger by the addition of a little calo- 
 mel or sublimate at the time it is wanted ; 
 but the latter must he used only in a small 
 proportion, and with caution, as it is apt to 
 ulcerate the skin, and cause sloughing and a 
 permanent blemish. It should therefore be 
 applied to a small surface only, as in bone 
 spavin or splent. Neither the cantharides nor 
 the calomel, or sublimate, should be kept 
 ready mixed with the above ointment, as it ia 
 probable they would undergo some change, 
 and be rendered inert after a little time. The 
 above recipes may he varied by substituting 
 mercurial ointment, oil of bay, or any other 
 unctuous substance for hog's lard, or oil of 
 origanum, for oil of turpentine. And if a 
 more solid form is desired, it may be obtained 
 by the addition of a little bees-wax, suet, or 
 resin. 
 
 BLISTERING LINIMENT. 
 
 Olive oil .4 oz. 
 
 Oil of turpentine . 1 ^ oz. 
 
 Oil of origanum . ^ oz - 
 
 Recently powdered 1 , ,..^ 
 
 cantharides. 
 
 Or. 
 
 4 oz. 
 1 oz. 
 
 Olive oil 
 
 Oil of turpentine 
 
 Oil of rosemary, and oil 1 ,. , , 
 
 ... " >- of each 4 oz. 
 
 of origanum. . J 
 
 Solution of sublimate . 1 dr. 
 
 Recently powdered cantharides . 1 oz. 
 
 Mix. 
 
 LIQUID BLISTER. 
 
 Boiling water . . 6 oz. to 8 oz. 
 
 Powdered cantharides . 1 oz. 
 
 Macerate for twenty-four hours, and then 
 add rectified spirit of wine, four ounces ; solu- 
 tion of corrosive sublimate in muriatic acid, 
 one drachm. To be kept well corked for two 
 or three weeks before it is used : it may then 
 be either strained through blotting paper, and 
 used as a transparent tincture, or merely 
 shaken up and employed as it is. The solu- 
 tion of sublimate should he added at the time 
 the blister is used. 
 
 Rectified spirit . . 2 oz. 
 
 Liquid ammonia . . 2 oz. 
 
 Oil of turpentine, origanum, or ) 
 rosemary (either) . j 
 
 Powdered cantharides . 6 dr. to 1 oz. 
 Mix. 
 
 After a blister has been applied to the legs 
 or hocks, the litter should be removed, and 
 the horse's head should be confined or tied to 
 the rack, to prevent his rubbing the part with 
 his nose ; but this may be done better by 
 putting what is termed a cradle or necklace 
 round his neck ; he may then be turned loose 
 into a box and exercise himself, which is very 
 desirable after blistering. It is necessary to 
 keep the cradle on for about a fortnight, as 
 
 1 oz
 
 64 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Bu 
 
 they are apt to gnaw the part or injure the 
 skin, when the effect of the blister is going 
 off, and an itching only remains. 
 
 The following is a convenient method of 
 making a blister, when the other ingredients 
 cannot be obtained : Take of the blistering 
 plaster, sold by druggists, two ounces, melt 
 or rather soften it by a gentle heat, and mix 
 with it oil of turpentine from half an ounce 
 to one ounce. 
 
 * * 
 
 Blistered Heel. If your heel should be- 
 come galled by walking in a water, or any' 
 other boot, you will immediately remedy the 
 inconvenience by applying a piece of gold- 
 beater's skin, and over that a little court 
 plaster, in order doubly to defend the part. 
 But even in this trifle there is a right and 
 wrong way of going to work. Instead of cut- 
 ting with scissors, and merely wetting the 
 plaster, let it be for a moment heated by the 
 fire, as well as wetted, being previously stamped 
 with a wadding punch ; by which means, from 
 having no angles, or corners, it will stick as 
 fast as your own skin ; provided that, when 
 on and dry, you put over it a little cold cream, 
 or any kind of grease, in order to repel the 
 damp. 
 
 The application that has been usually re- 
 commended to me by surgeons is a diachylon 
 plaster, which, in cold weather, curls up and 
 
 torments you so much in walking, that you 
 soon become lame again, and then wish the 
 doctor at Jericho. Go to Godfrey's or some 
 other first-rate chemist, in order to get the 
 sticking plaster in perfection, as many a one 
 has poisoned his skin by not having the genu- 
 ine article. 
 
 * * 
 
 I have been prevented by an accident from 
 accompanying the party ; and though my 
 wound be " not so deep as a well, nor so 
 wide as a church door," it still renders me 
 hors de combat. I blistered, or rather neg- 
 lected a blistered heel : and the fag of yes- 
 terday has so excoriated the surface, as to 
 make it imperative upon me to lie by for a little. 
 Antony engages to effect a perfect cure by to- 
 morrow ; and here I remain ttte-a-tite with 
 the otter-killer. 
 
 The old man proceeded skilfully enough ; 
 he lanced the blisters, and then applied the 
 cuticle which covers a sheep's kidney, and 
 whicli is very similar in appearance and effect 
 to what we call " gold-beaters' leaf." This 
 application prevented the heel from being 
 frayed by the stocking. To the remainder of 
 the foot, he rubbed a hot mixture of tallow 
 and whiskey ; and his remedy was " the sove- 
 reignest thing on earth," for in twelve hours 
 the cure was effected White Hawker 
 Blaine Wild Sports of the West. 
 
 BLISTER, v. To rise in blisters ; to raise blisters by some method. 
 BLOCK, s. A short heavy piece of timber ; a sea term for a pulley. 
 
 In Falconry, a solid piece of wood, shaped 
 like a sugar loaf, with the six upper inches 
 broken off, whereon the hawk perches, being 
 
 tied to it by the leash, which goes through the 
 last link of a small iron swivel fixed in its 
 side Campbell. 
 
 BLOOD, s. The red liquor that circulates in the bodies of animals. 
 BLOOD, v. To stain with blood ; to inure to blood, as a hound. 
 
 In essential characters and properties, blood 
 is the same in all animals : in some, it wants 
 the colouring matter, but it is invariably red 
 in the higher orders, though the intensity of 
 its hue varies with circumstances, the princi- 
 pal instance of which is that afforded between 
 the venous and arterial ; where it is, in the 
 former, almost purple, but in the latter a 
 bright scarlet. 
 
 The specific gravity of the blood is very 
 differently estimated, it being subject to in- 
 crease and decrease at different times. Dis- 
 ease and emaciation make it lighter, while in 
 the contrary states, from its more perfect or- 
 ganisation, it is found heavier. If water be 
 estimated at 1000, the specific gravity of 
 blood may be reckoned at 1050 ; from whicli 
 it may, however, be increased to 1120. Ve- 
 nous blood is heavier than arterial, as 1052 is 
 to 1049 ; but these data vary. 
 
 T*he temperature of the blood in the horse 
 is about 100; in the ox, 102; and in the 
 sheep, 103 : but various circumstances tend 
 
 to increase or decrease it. Arterial blood is 
 usually one or two degrees warmer than 
 venous : Mr. Vines, I believe, rates the dif- 
 ference much higher. Some diseases reduce 
 the heat of the blood, and ardent inflamma- 
 tions are also capable of augmenting it. The 
 quantity that an animal contains, in propor- 
 tion to his bulk, has been endeavoured to be 
 ascertained : but the results have been vari- 
 ous. Very fat animals are found usually to 
 have proportionally less than lean ones; and 
 in those in a state of close confinement, the 
 quantity is found to be smaller than in the 
 wild ; but it is evident, that as the calcula- 
 tion must be in a degree imaginary, from that 
 which will remain in the vessels, so the real 
 quantity is not easy to estimate. A medium 
 sized horse has lost forty-four pounds without 
 apparent injury, and most of them will lose one- 
 fifteenth of their total weight before life be- 
 comes extinct : it may, therefore, be pre- 
 sumed that it forms one-tenth of the whole : 
 Mr. Percivall thinks one-eighth.
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 65 
 
 BLOOD-HOUND (Canis Sanguinarius), s. A hound that follows by the 
 scent. 
 
 In the darker ages the blood-hound had the 
 fabulous reputation of pursuing naturally with 
 unerring precision, and of taking murderers, 
 robbers, and other depredators, if he were laid 
 on the footsteps of those intended to be pur- 
 sued, within a certain given time. We, how- 
 ever, cannot give our assent to the character 
 thus ascribed to him, although experience has 
 taught us, that all sorts of hounds may be 
 broken in to follow any kind of scent, when re- 
 solutely taught that they are to run on no other. 
 
 One of the principal uses in which the blood- 
 hound was. employed by our ancestors, was in 
 recovering game that had escaped wounded 
 from the hunter. And he was taught also to 
 pursue felons, which he would do through 
 thickets, and the most secret coverts ; and, if 
 they had lately escaped, they were almost cer- 
 tain of being retaken. For this reason there 
 was a law in Scotland, enacting, that whoever 
 denied entrance to one of these dogs, in pur- 
 suit of stolen goods, should be deemed an ac- 
 cessory. And they were also much used on 
 the borders, between England and Scotland, 
 which were greatly infested by robbers and 
 murderers ; and a tax was laid on the inhabi- 
 tants for keeping and maintaining a certain 
 number of these animals. The arm of justice 
 is now, however, so effectually extended over 
 Great Britain, and cultivation so general, that 
 there are no secret haunts where villany can 
 be concealed ; which renders this part of the 
 services of the blood-hound no longer neces- 
 sary. In Scotland this dog was called the 
 sleuth-hound. A few of this race are still kept 
 
 in the royal forests for the purpose of finding 
 deer that have been previously wounded ; and 
 even lately they have been employed in tra- 
 cing deer-stealers, which they do from the blood 
 which issues from the wounds of the animal. 
 
 The blood-hound is tall and most beauti- 
 fully formed, and is usually of a reddish or 
 brown colour, and exceeds in size, weight, 
 strength, and courage, every other variety of 
 hound. He possesses a kind of sagacious, or 
 serious solemn dignity, admirably calculated 
 to impress the marauder with dread and awe ; 
 and at one period, when he was destined to a 
 single pursuit, he was kept a stranger to every 
 other. Much care was taken to prevent those 
 dogs from following the sports of the field, and 
 they were scrupulously taught to trace the 
 footsteps of man alone. At the time they 
 were so much in use, deer-stealing was ex- 
 tremely prevalent in Great Britain, which ren- 
 dered a constant vigilance on the part of park- 
 keepers, necessary ; and when necessity re- 
 quired, in their nocturnal watching, to trace a 
 depredator, when once laid upon the scent, 
 they so closely and keenly pursued, that they 
 infallibly traced and discovered the offending 
 party. Somerville finely describes the man- 
 ner in which these animals pursue the nightly 
 poacher. 
 
 
 
 To try whether a young blood-hound was 
 well instructed, a nobleman caused one of his 
 servants to walk to a town four miles from 
 thence. The dog, without seeing the man he 
 was to pursue, followed him by the scent to 
 F
 
 66 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [BLO 
 
 the above-mentioned places, notwithstanding 
 the multitude of people going the same road, 
 and of travellers that had occasion to cross it. 
 When the hound came to the chief market- 
 town, he passed through the streets, without 
 noticing any of the people there, till he got to 
 the house where the man he sought was, and 
 there found him in an upper room. 
 
 
 Blood-hounds were formerly employed by 
 the Spanish chasseurs in the island of Cuba, 
 for hunting down maroons and fugitive slaves. 
 Mr. Dallas thus describes them : 
 
 " The dogs carried out by the Chasseurs del 
 Re are perfectly broken in, that is to say, they 
 will not kill the object they pursue, unless 
 resisted. On coming up with a fugitive, they 
 bark at him till he stops ; they then crouch 
 near him, terrifying him with a ferocious 
 growling, if he stirs. In this position they 
 continue barking, to give notice to the chas- 
 seurs, who come up and secure their prisoner ; 
 each chasseur, though he can hunt only with 
 two dogs, properly is obliged to have three, 
 which he maintains at his own cost, and that 
 at no small expense. These people live with 
 their dogs, from which they are inseparable. 
 
 At home the dogs are kept chained, and, 
 when walking with their masters, are never 
 unmuzzled, or let out of ropes, hut for attack. 
 They are constantly accompanied with one or 
 two small dogs, called finders, whose scent 
 is very keen, and always sure of hitting off a 
 track. Dogs and bitches hunt equally well, 
 and the Chasseurs rear no more than will 
 supply the number required. This breed of 
 dogs, indeed, is not so prolific as the common 
 kind, though infinitely stronger and hardier. 
 The animal is the size of a very large hound, 
 with ears erect, which are usually cropped at 
 the points ; the nose more pointed, but widen- 
 ing very much towards the upper part of the 
 jaw. His coat, or skin, is much harder than 
 that of most dogs, and so must he the whole 
 structure of the body, as the severe beatings 
 he undergoes in training would kill any other 
 species of dog. There are some, but not 
 many, of a more obtuse nose, and which are 
 rather squarer set. These, it may be pre- 
 sumed, have been crossed by the mastiff ; but 
 if by this the bulk has been a little increased, 
 it has added nothing to the strength, height, 
 beauty, or agility, of the native breed." 
 Brown Boyle Dallas. 
 
 BLOTCH, s. A spot or pustule upon the skin. 
 BLUE, a. One of the seven original colours. 
 
 To dye Blues and Greens. You must 
 have two pickling crocks that well hold eight 
 quarts each ; fill them with clean urine, let 
 them stand for eight days. Pound two ounces 
 of Spanish indigo, separate. Put it into a 
 small flannel bag, each ounce ; put a bag into 
 each crock, and carefully squeeze out the 
 indigo ; let it stand two or three days ; stir 
 it each day, and when you see a shining scum 
 on it, it is in order to work. It will dye fea- 
 thers, mohair, or hog's fur; any hackles, or 
 fur dyed with this must be brightened with 
 a solution of liquid blue made with boil- 
 ing water, with a little of the liquid poured 
 into it for each shade. 
 
 To make liquid blue A pound of the 
 oil of vitriol and an ounce of the best Spanish 
 indigo pounded very fine and sifted ; pour the 
 vitriol into a three-pint delft howl, put the in- 
 digo in, and stir it with a clean stick for half- 
 an-hour ; add of soft water by little and little 
 one pint, stirring it all the time till the fer- 
 mentation is over ; then bottle it for use. This 
 gives the finest blues and greens, but they 
 fade-; you are not to touch your blueing vat 
 with any tiling that is yellow. 
 
 For blues. You ought to get the finest 
 of whites, and prepare them well ; have the 
 urine vat in good order. Stir up the vat, 
 throw in the feathers in as many bunches as 
 
 you intend to have shades ; lift them out now 
 and then to strike the air. When a middling 
 bright blue, take out a bunch ; let the second 
 lie in for double the time and more, and air 
 them as directed. When you see a fine full 
 blue, take out another bunch. You may let 
 the third bunch lay in for two or three days ; 
 but as soon as you take out each bunch, you 
 should have about six drops of solution blue 
 in a bowl with a pint of boiling water ; rinse 
 them well in that, and it will clean them. 
 If you see it wants it, add in a few drops more, 
 and it will still add to the brightness. Put 
 them instantly into cold water, and wash them 
 well. Do the same three or four times ; thus 
 you will have fine deep blues, bright and fast. 
 
 Powder blues Follow the same process, 
 
 but do not leave them till done ; draw and 
 air them every half-hour ; and when of a 
 proper colour, have some boiling water, and 
 from four to six drops of solution to rise and 
 brighten them ; and if you see it requires 
 it, add a few drops more. Wash, &c., as 
 before. 
 
 A very bright blue Ground richly with 
 
 an archill. Wash in stale urine ; put your fea- 
 thers into the urine vat for half-an-hour ; take 
 out and air them, and do as with all the rest. 
 Boiling water, solution water, &c Old Re- 
 cipes, 
 
 BLUE-BOTTLE, s. A fly with a large blue belly.
 
 Boo] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 67 
 
 BLUENESS, s. The quality of being blue. 
 
 BLUE-STONE, BLUE VITRIOL, or SULPHATE OF COPPER, s. A mild 
 
 caustic, and, when dissolved, a mild detergent and astringent lotion. By 
 
 the addition of any of the mineral acids it becomes a strong caustic. 
 
 When in solution with vinegar and water, it makes a good wash for 
 
 the foot-rot in sheep. When very weak it may be applied to the eye. 
 
 It is a tonic used in diabetes and farcy. 
 BLUNT, a. Dull on the edge or point ; not sharp. 
 BOAR, s. The male swine. 
 BODY, s. The material substance of an animal ; matter ; strength as, 
 
 wine of a good body. The coating or wool of an artificial fly. 
 BOG, s. A marsh, a fen, a morass. 
 BOLE, s. The body or trunk of a tree. 
 BOLE ARMENIA, s. Little used but as an application to ulcers, where the 
 
 discharge is thin and acrimonious. 
 BOLT, s. An arrow ; a dart ; a thunderbolt. Bolt upright, that is, upright 
 
 as an arrow ; the bar of a door ; an iron to fasten the legs. 
 BOLT, v. To spring out with speed and suddenness. To gib, or diverge 
 
 from the course. 
 
 BOLUS, s. A medicine made up into a soft mass larger than pills. 
 BONE, s. The solid parts of the body of an animal. 
 
 The bones of birds are nearly all hollow, 
 and communicating with the lungs, are thence 
 filled with air, so as to render them more 
 buoyant for flight. The breast bone (ster- 
 num) extends much lower than in quadru- 
 
 peds, and is distinguished by a ridge like the 
 keel of a ship, except in the ostrich, &c., 
 which do not fly. The bones of the wings 
 are similar to the fore-legs of quadrupeds 
 Rennie. 
 
 to the river Creed, and Dr. Fleming tells us 
 that one was shot at Sunda, Orkney, in 1 805. 
 It is more frequent in some parts of the 
 European continent, particularly in Switzer- 
 land, and, as Temminck informs us, in Hol- 
 land Montagu. 
 
 BOOM, v. To rush with violence. To make a noise like a bittern. 
 BOONK (Ardea minuta, LINN.), s. 
 
 This is a very rare bird, and few instances 
 only are recorded of its being killed in Eng- 
 land. A male was shot near Bath, in the 
 autumn of 1789, perched on the stump of a 
 tree on the bank of the Avon. In the month 
 of May, 1808, a female was shot contiguous 
 
 BOOT, s. A covering for the leg. 
 
 All boots for going in the wet, answer much 
 better if kept at least half a year before they 
 are worn ; and they should afterwards never 
 be suffered to get too hard. Water boots 
 should be invariably worn over an extra pair 
 of coarse yarn stockings, without which you 
 do not give them a fair trial. 
 
 So far from being hard to the feet, they are 
 the softest possible wear, and may be made 
 very light. They should always be made to 
 draw, when required, very far above the 
 knees, in order to protect them from cold or 
 
 wet. 
 
 Various dressings are recommended, though, 
 perhaps, almost any grease may answer ; but 
 
 the first and most effectual application might 
 be tar, tallow, and bees' wax, melted, (not 
 too warm) and then poured into the boots ; 
 which, after having this shaken into every 
 part of them, should be hung up to let it run 
 out. By this dressing, and the sacrifice of 
 the first pair of stockings that follows it, we 
 may walk in the river with more comfort than 
 a Bond-street lounger would cross the street 
 after a shower. 
 
 This recipe, however, though a double 
 defence, I do not mean to say is absolutely 
 necessary. 
 
 As another good recipe, I should prefer the 
 following one : 
 
 F2
 
 68 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Boo 
 
 RECIPE. 
 
 Drying oil . . .1 pint. 
 
 Yellow wax . . .2 ounces. 
 
 Turpentine , . .2 ounces. 
 
 Burgundy pitch . . 1 ounce. 
 Melt those over a slow fire, and then add a 
 few drachms of essential oil of lavender (or 
 thyme). With this your hoots are to be 
 rubbed with a brush, either in the sun, or at 
 some distance from the fire. The application 
 must be repeated as often as the boots be- 
 come dry again, until they are fully saturated. 
 Melt three ounces of spermaceti in an 
 earthen vessel, over a slow fire, to which add 
 six drachms of India rubber cut into thin 
 slices, and when dissolved, add eight ounces 
 of tallow, two ounces of hog's lard, and four 
 ounces of amber varnish, which, when well 
 mixed, is fit for immediate use. Two or three 
 coats applied with a common shoe-brush makes 
 the leather water-proof, and produces a polish 
 
 equal to the best puffed-off blacking in the 
 
 kingdom. 
 
 * 
 
 Fishermen use a preparation for their hoots, 
 of bees- wax, burgundy pitch, and clean turpen- 
 tine, each two ounces, clear rendered tallow, 
 four ounces, all melted together, and applied 
 over a weak flame until the leather fills ; the 
 boots should he perfectly dry before being li- 
 quored, and apply the liquor by degrees so 
 that one portion may be dried in, before ano- 
 ther is laid on. 
 
 * 
 
 The following is an approved recipe : If 
 the boots are new, half a pound of bees wax, 
 a quarter of a pound of rosin, and the like 
 quantity of mutton suet or tallow ; boil them 
 up together, and anoint the boots well with the 
 preparation luke-warm. Should the hoots have 
 been used, beef suet is to be substituted for the 
 mutton. Harfl&er Sport. Mag. 
 
 BOOT OF A COACH, s. The place under the coach-box. 
 BOOT-HOSE, *. Stockings to serve for boots. 
 
 BORAX, *. An artificial salt, prepared from sal ammoniac, nitre, calcined 
 tartar, sea-salt, and alum, dissolved in wine. 
 
 Borax is sometimes applied in a solution of 
 water to the mouths of young horses when 
 
 cutting teeth, hut alum is cheaper and more 
 effectual. 
 
 BOTT, s. Small worms in the entrails of horses. 
 
 BOTTLE, s. A small vessel of glass, or other matter ; a quantity of wine 
 usually put into a bottle a quart ; a quantity of hay or grass bundled up. 
 
 BOTTOM, s. The lowest part of any thing ; the ground under the water ; 
 a ball of thread wound up together. The constancy or durability of a 
 man, horse, or dog. 
 
 BOUND, s. A limit, a boundary ; a leap, a jump, a spring. 
 
 BOUND, v. To jump, to spring. 
 
 BOURGEON, v. obs. To sprout, to shoot into branches. 
 
 Bow, *. To bend, or incline, in condescension. 
 
 Bow, v. An instrument of war, or of the chase ; a rainbow ; the instru- 
 ment with which stringed instruments are played upon. 
 
 The cross-bow is an instrument of great 
 antiquity, formerly used in projecting bolts or 
 short arrows, for which, in modem times, bul- 
 lets have been substituted. 
 
 Rooks, although pertaining to no species of 
 game, yet the custom of shooting them being 
 adopted by many gentlemen who use the cross- 
 bow for that purpose, and since upon the 
 proper regulation of this instrument, the whole 
 of its execution depends, directions are there- 
 fore here given to render it useful. 
 
 Cross-hows employed formerly as weapons 
 
 in war, and also to kill animals in the field, 
 (where great nicety of vision was required, to 
 find those sorts of game that kept upon the 
 ground, for the cross-bow was always used at 
 motionless objects), were of somewhat the 
 shape as those of the present day, at least those 
 that now throw what is termed a bolt. The 
 bullet-bows are of modern and much neater 
 construction, and their accuracy, when once set, 
 is astonishing ; the splitting a hall upon the 
 edge of a knife, however extraordinary it may 
 sound, is to be performed by a novice, at a dis-
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 69 
 
 taucc of from fifteen to twenty yards, and the 
 bow, once regulated, will throw the ball with 
 the same unerring certainty for fifty times suc- 
 cessively. 
 
 Directions When shooting where the 
 
 trees are lofty, try the bow at fourteen yards 
 upon a level, stopping all the holes in the sight 
 but one ; if it shoots too high, raise the bead 
 higher on the fork ; if too low, the contrary : 
 should it carry to the right, turn the bead 
 round to the right ; if to the left, the contrary. 
 
 When the ball does not come within the 
 notches of the fork, open another hole in the 
 sight ; if it shoots too high, open one lower ; if 
 too low, the reverse. 
 
 Should the spring witliin the lock liappen 
 to fail, take care to place the open part of the 
 new one toward the butt end of the bow ; if it 
 be put in the wrong end forward, the bow will 
 be useless. 
 
 Never keep the bow long in full tension, 
 rather shoot the ball waste. 
 
 If the string frets or unravels, close up the 
 defective places with bees-wax. 
 
 Care is necessary to hold the bow steady in 
 charging; if let slip whilst drawing up the 
 string, it will assuredly break the stock, and 
 probably the lath and string at the same time 
 Daniel. 
 
 distemper. Another is the result of bilious 
 inflammation. A third cause is the introduc- 
 tion of poisons. Super-purgation will bring 
 it on, as noticed with enteritis and diarrli.-ra : 
 the presence of worms will likewise occasion 
 it See WORMS. 
 
 BOWELS, s. Intestines, the vessels and organs within the body; the inner 
 parts of anything. 
 
 The bowels of the dog are very frequently 
 disordered. Dysentery, as an idiopathic af- 
 fection in dogs, is very rare ; but an irritation 
 productive of morbid and inordinate mucous 
 discharge is produced by various causes. A 
 principal one is the consequence of long- 
 continued diarrhaea, which is so common to 
 
 BOWL, *. A vessel to hold liquids ; the hollow part of anything ; a basin ; 
 
 a fountain. A round mass rolled along the ground. 
 BOWL, v. To play at bowls ; to throw bowls at anything. BOWLER, *. He 
 
 that plays at bowls. 
 
 BOWLING-GREEN, s. A level piece of ground, kept smooth for bowlers. 
 BOWMAN, s. An archer. 
 
 BOWSTRING, s. The string by which the bow is kept bent. 
 BOWYER, s. An archer ; one whose trade is to make bows. 
 Box, s. A tree ; the wood of it. A case made of wood, or other matter, 
 
 to hold any thing. 
 
 " A tin box is sometimes preferred for car- it, as they are in the book." Daniel. 
 rying fly tackle, as the flies are not pressed in 
 
 BRACE, v. To bind, to tie close with bandages ; to strain up. 
 BRACE, s. Cincture, bandage ; that which holds anything tight. 
 
 of a coach, thick straps of leather on which it hangs. 
 BRACK, s. A bitch hound. 
 BRACHIAL, a. Belonging to the arm. 
 BRAG, s. A game at cards. 
 
 Brag is not so much in vogue as formerly ; 
 it is played with a whole pack of cards, and 
 rather variously conducted by different par- 
 ties, but the following is given as one of the 
 most scientific methods : As many persons 
 as the cards, leaving a few for stock, will sup- 
 ply, may play at a time, all of whom are to 
 lay down three stakes a piece, one for the best 
 whist card turned up in the deal ; the second 
 
 Braces 
 
 for the best brag-hand, and the third for the 
 eldest hand obtaining thirty-one, or the next 
 number under that. The dealer is to give 
 three cards at once to every player turning up, 
 all round, the last card belonging to each 
 player, and the best card reckoning from ace 
 downwards amongst those so turned up, wins 
 the first stake ; if two or more superior cards 
 of a sort be turned up, the eldest hand, of
 
 70 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [BRA 
 
 course, has the preference, except in case of 
 the ace of diamonds, which at this part of the 
 game takes place of every other. 
 
 The second stake is won by the person 
 possessing the best brag-hand, or often rather 
 by the boldest bragger, who sometimes only 
 pretends to hold good cards, such as pairs, 
 flushes, sequences of flushes, and so on, simi- 
 lar to cribbage, excepting fifteens. In this 
 state of the game there are usually two fa- 
 vourite cards ; viz. the knave of clubs and the 
 nine of diamonds, which are reckoned with 
 any others to form pairs-royal or pairs ; that 
 is, the two favourites combined together with 
 one, or either of them with two aces, kings, 
 &c., are styled a pair royal of such cards, or 
 singly, either of the favourites with another 
 card ranks as a pair ; only natural pairs-royal 
 are to precede artificial ones, as three aces, 
 kings, &c., take place before a pair-royal, 
 formed by assistance of the two favourites, 
 though a natural pair does not supersede an 
 artificial one made by the help of a favourite, 
 ihto which situation only the knave of clubs 
 is admitted by some companies. The princi- 
 pal sport of the game is occasioned by any 
 player bragging that he holds a better hand 
 than the rest of the party, which is declared 
 by saying, I brag, and staking a sum of 
 money; if no one answer by a similar or 
 larger deposit, then the bragger wins the 
 second stake; but should any one reply, 
 either by putting down the same or a greater 
 sum, and the first bragger decline the contest, 
 
 BRAKE, s. Fern, brambles. A carriage for training horses. 
 
 BRAKY, a. Thorny, prickly, rough. 
 
 BRAMBLE,*. Blackberry-bush, dewberry-bush, raspberry-bush ; any rough 
 prickly shrub. 
 
 BRAMBLING, s. A bird, called also the mountain chaffinch. A small worm. 
 
 BRAN, s. The husks of corn ground. 
 
 BRANCH, s. The shoot of a tree from one of the main boughs ; any dis- 
 tinct article ; any part that shoots out from the rest ; a smaller river 
 running into a larger. The offspring, the descendant ; the antlers or 
 shoots of a stag's horn. 
 
 BRANCH, v. To spread in branches, to spread into separate parts ; to have 
 horns shooting out. 
 
 BRANCHER, s. One that shoots out into branches. In Falconry, a young 
 hawk. A young rook. 
 
 BRAND, s. A stick lighted, or fit to be lighted ; a mark made by burning 
 with a hot iron. 
 
 BRANDLING, s. A particular worm. 
 
 BRANDY, s. A strong liquor distilled from wine. 
 
 BRANK, s. Buckwheat. 
 
 the answerer then takes both the money put 
 down and the second stake : should the first 
 bragger go on, and he says Again, and ven- 
 tures another sum, whether similar to that 
 laid down by the opponent or not, is of no 
 consequence, provided it is not smaller ; and 
 if the other should reply in like manner again, 
 the parties continue betting, each putting down 
 a sum not less than that last ventured by his 
 adversary, till one or other of them, frightened, 
 gives up the contest, by which the player 
 holding out longest gains all the money wa- 
 gered, including the second stake; or either 
 party may lay down a stake, saying, Let me 
 see you, or /'// see it, in which case both the 
 hands are to be shown, and the strongest 
 wins. When more than one person wishes to 
 answer the first bragger, the eldest has the 
 preference. 
 
 The third stake is obtained by the eldest 
 player, who may hold, either from the cards 
 dealt, or obtain by drawing in addition from 
 the stock, thirty-one, or the highest number 
 under that ; each ace, king, queen, and knave 
 being calculated as ten, and the rest according 
 to their pips ; any one drawing above thirty-one 
 loses of course. 
 
 The player who is so fortunate as to gain 
 all the three stakes in one deal, is, strictly 
 speaking, entitled to three more from each of 
 his antagonists, though in some companies 
 this is declined, as savouring too much of 
 gambling Hoyle.
 
 BRE] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 71 
 
 BRASIL, or BRAZIL, s. An American dye-wood, commonly supposed to 
 
 have been thus denominated, because first brought from Brasil. 
 BRASS, s. A yellow metal made by mixing copper with lapis calaminaris ; 
 
 impudence. 
 BRAWN, *. The fleshy or muscular part of the body ; the arm, so called 
 
 from its being muscular ; bulk ; muscular strength ; the flesh of the 
 
 boar ; a boar. 
 
 BRAWNER, s. obs. A boar killed for the table. 
 BRAY, v. To pound, or grind small. To make a noise as an ass. 
 BRAZE, v. To solder with brass. 
 
 BREAD, s. Food made of ground corn 
 BREAK, v. To part in two ; to bruise 
 
 to open and discharge matter. 
 BREAKER, s. He that breaks dogs. 
 
 Breaking Dogs There are three kinds 
 commonly used in shooting; the setter, the 
 pointer, and the spaniel. It is not designed in 
 this work to enter into minute directions for 
 breaking them ; that is a province few gentle- 
 men choose to undertake, and very properly 
 have their dogs made to understand their 
 business, before they will take them into the 
 field ; however, a method will be here con- 
 cisely mentioned, and which the experience of 
 one, who has broke as many, and as capital 
 dogs as any man of his age, in this or any 
 other country, always led him to adopt. 
 
 For breaking a pointer or setter, get a check 
 collar, with a line nearly twenty yards long. 
 Peg the dog down, and give him the word 
 (" Take heed ! ") or any other, make him 
 drop, and let him lay a quarter of an hour, 
 walking round, and using the word; after- 
 wards walk up and give him a small piece of 
 cheese. Take the dog upon a slack line, drop 
 him, and act as above every morning for a 
 fortnight, until he perfectly knows the word ; 
 then hunt him at first single; when on a 
 strong haunt of birds, use the word, and stop 
 him ; reward him as above with a piece of 
 cheese, and so encourage him until he knows 
 his game : serve each dog in the same way 
 for fourteen days ; then take two or three dogs 
 upon check collars, peg down one before the 
 other, give the word, and make them back 
 each other four mornings successively ; after- 
 wards hunt them together. 
 
 To teach pointers or setters to bring their 
 game, get a rabbit's skin stuffed; begin by 
 throwing it in a room, and let the dog have 
 a small line on his collar; when he takes 
 up the skin, bring him to you with a gentle 
 pull, with the skin in his mouth ; encour- 
 age him three or four times, and then take 
 the line off; when the dog begins to enjoy it, 
 take a small line and run it through a pulley 
 
 corn in general, 
 by dashing, as waves upon a rock; 
 
 fixed at the top of a room ; tie the rabbit's 
 skin to one end of the line, keep the other 
 in hand, fire a pistol, and let the skin drop ; 
 the dog will soon be fond of the sport, and 
 readily bring every head of game that is shot. 
 Break all the dogs in this way, and then take 
 two or three together into a room, fire the 
 pistol, and order first one, and then another 
 dog, to bring the skin, and they will soon be 
 perfect. 
 
 To break a wild spaniel, fasten a wide 
 leather strap, about four feet long, to his col- 
 lar, with a swivel ; this he will tread on, and 
 throw himself over, and will, by that means, 
 soon be checked, and rendered handy and 
 obedient. Spaniels may be taught to bring 
 the game by the same mode of instruction as 
 the pointers or getters ; there should, how- 
 ever, be but one spaniel in a team that does 
 this ; if more, they will break the game in 
 
 struggling which shall carry it. 
 
 
 
 The keepers in the west of Ireland com- 
 monly break their dogs by using a pole of 
 about five feet long perforated with a small 
 bicket, about a foot from the end to this 
 bicket they affix the check -collar, and by 
 pegging the dog down, secure him at his point 
 as long as they please. By reversing the pole 
 when it is necessary to chastise the animal for 
 misconduct, the dog is effectually secured from 
 escape or resistance ; and, with this simple ap- 
 paratus, an Irish breaker will stop the wildest 
 setter, and subdue the most refractory. 
 * 
 
 Some sportsmen, however, object to the use 
 of the pole on the score of severity, and allege 
 that timid dogs are frequently blinked by using 
 it. But for a violent setter, nothing will con- 
 quer his obstinacy so soon or so effectually as 
 this implement Thornhill, S(C.
 
 72 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 BREAM, s. The name of a fish. 
 
 The bream is a well-known fish, and yields 
 good diversion to the angler ; it is found in slow 
 running, deep rivers, but is chiefly met with 
 in extensive ponds, where, although it grows 
 tardily, it will attain the weight of three or 
 four pounds (they have been known to weigh 
 eight), and if the water and air suit him, will 
 get very fat : they are great breeders, for it is 
 observed the melter has two melts, and the 
 spawner two large bags of spawn, from which 
 is deposited upwards of 130,000 ova. Very 
 few wish to stock their waters with them, as 
 they increase so rapidly, as to consume all the 
 sweet feed, and starve other fish, and are only 
 fit to be put into ponds as food for pike, 
 perch, &c. 
 
 The bream is broad, with a small head, 
 smooth at the top, big eyes, a small leather 
 mouth, no teeth, but a lozenge-like bone to 
 help its grinding ; the palate is soft and fleshy, 
 resembling that of the carp; it is covered 
 with curious net-work scales, on which it 
 sometimes has abundance of minute whitish 
 tubercles; has a hog back, of a colour be- 
 tween blue and black ; the sides of the largest 
 are yellowish, and the belly, inclining to red, 
 is extremely deep, and thin in proportion to 
 its length ; the tail is very large, and some- 
 thing in the form of a crescent. 
 
 The flesh is soft and clammy, yet by some 
 reckoned of easy digestion, and of better 
 nourishment than that of a carp ; the choice 
 parts are the belly and head ; what renders it 
 unpleasant for the table is the multitude of 
 bones, and the best way of preparing him is 
 by pickling it like salmon. The French, 
 however, esteem this fish highly, and prover- 
 
 bially say, " he that hath breams in his pond 
 is able to bid his friend welcome." 
 
 The baits used are the red paste ; also 
 paste made of brown bread and honey, gen- 
 tles, waspings, flag- worms ; and they are great 
 lovers of red-worms, especially such as are 
 found at the root of a great dock, and lie 
 wrapt up in a round clue : the common red- 
 worms should be used two small ones at a 
 time. Green flies under water, the grass- 
 hopper with the legs cut off in June and July; 
 but the best bait for the full-grown bream is 
 a large red worm without a knot, which is to 
 be found in garden walks or chalky commons 
 after rain ; put the worms with moss well 
 washed and picked, and the water squeezed 
 from it, into an earthen pot set dry ; change 
 the moss every four days for three weeks; 
 they will then be clear, lively, and at the 
 best. 
 
 The following directions have been gener- 
 ally given for taking the bream, and as being 
 also equally certain of tempting that shy fish 
 the carp. The bait to be a large red worm, 
 the rods long ; the lines silk, or silk and hair, 
 and the floats, goose or swan quills ; a piece 
 of lead of the form of an upright brass weight, 
 with a hole at the top, is to be fastened to 
 the low end of the lines; then fasten the 
 hook-link also to the lead, allowing ten inches 
 or a foot between lead and hook, which should 
 be No. 4 : the lead must be sufficiently heavy 
 to sink the float quite level with the surface, 
 and not for the float to bear up the lead, 
 which must lie on the ground ; by which 
 means the worm will crawl up and down so 
 far as the lead will allow, which to the fish is
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 73 
 
 a great enticement. The line for two yards 
 at bottom should be of strong round gut, and 
 the link next the hook as small as you dare 
 use, for fear of pike or perch (who will 
 assuredly visit the hooks), and till they are 
 taken, neither carp or bream will come near 
 to bite : this fineness will admit the worm to 
 draw the hook to and fro with less difficulty. 
 
 For the ground-bait, get a peck, or peck 
 and a half, according to the greatness of stream 
 and depth of water, of sweet gross ground malt, 
 or unground wheat, which is thought prefer- 
 able ; boil it very little, and strain it through 
 a bag : when cold, at night, cast in two parts 
 of it squeezed hard between the hands, so that 
 it may rest in the precise spot where you mean 
 to angle ; and if this be repeated for two- or three 
 times, it will more certainly attract the fish. 
 Recollect in a stream, to throw it at least a 
 yard above the place where you mean your 
 hook to be, or the stream will carry it too far 
 down ; some sew worms for the fish to feed on, 
 upon a turf of short grass, nearly to cover the 
 turf, which is then fastened to a round board, 
 with a hole through that and the turf, where 
 a cord runs, and is tied to a pole to let down to 
 the bottom. Bream generally choose the broad- 
 est and deepest part of a river, and in hot wea- 
 ther are easily seen swimming in shoals ; there, 
 or thereabouts, with a clear bottom, take the 
 exact depth, making some mark that shall ex- 
 plain if any rise or fall has taken place in con- 
 sequence of watermills, &c. 
 
 The ground thus baited, the worms and 
 tackling prepared, by three or four in the morn- 
 ing, with great caution approach the place, so 
 as not to be seen by the fish ; some of them 
 are frequently at the top of the water, whilst 
 the rest are feeding beneath. Having baited 
 the hook that the worm can move at bottom, 
 cast it, and by drawing it gently to you, let 
 the lead rest about the middle of the ground 
 bait ; a second rod should be a yard or two 
 above, and a third a yard or two below it ; re- 
 tire from the water so far as just to perceive 
 
 the top of the floats ; when there is a bite the 
 top of the float will sink suddenly ; remain 
 quiet until the line goes clear away, then creep 
 to the water-side, and give as much line as 
 possible ; if it be a good carp or bream it will 
 go to the farther side of the river, strike gently, 
 and hold the rod at the proper bend, that it 
 may tire him ; for if both pull together, either 
 line, hook, or hold, will break, and the fish 
 will be lost. The bream is strong, and runs 
 hard when first struck ; but after two or three 
 turns, he will fall on his side, which enables 
 you easily to land him : the carp is far stronger 
 and more mettlesome than the bream ; it is 
 advisable to use a reel upon the rods for carp, 
 barbel, or bream ; the length of line kills the 
 fish with ease, and increases the angler's 
 amusement. 
 
 This sport may be continued from four till 
 eight in the morning, and from four until the 
 same hour in the evening. The following 
 morning, for the same hours, your diversion 
 will be perhaps the best ; if it is gloomy and 
 windy, they will bite all day long, especially if 
 the water is a little thick after rains ; during 
 the time of fishing, and at that of quitting the 
 water, throw in more of the ground-bait. 
 After two or three days, the place should be 
 baited and left quiet ; the fish will otherwise 
 get too cunning to touch the hook-bait. 
 
 Another mode of catching the bream, is, 
 after plumbing the depth, put one or more shot 
 a foot below the float, to balance it, which is a 
 way to take the shyest flsh ; the bait a large 
 red- worm, which must be laid in, and let sink 
 very gradually to the ground-bait. When the 
 fish bites, strike gently that very instant. 
 
 A third is the running line, with a bullet 
 and hole through it, and a small shot to hin- 
 der the bullet falling on the hook ; let this 
 run on the bottom with the current into holes, 
 and equally as for the bream, it will be found 
 to answer for all other fish that bite at the 
 bottom. Daniel. 
 
 BREAST, *. The middle part of the human body, between the neck and the 
 belly ; the part of a beast that is under the neck, between the fore-legs. 
 
 BREATH, s. The air drawn in and ejected out of the body ; life ; respira- 
 tion. 
 
 BREATHE, v. To draw in and throw out the air by the lungs ; to live; to 
 rest ; to take breath. 
 
 BREECH, v. To fit any thing with a breech, as to breech a gun. 
 
 BREED, v. To procreate, to generate ; to bring up, to take care of. To 
 bring young ; to raise a breed. 
 
 BREED, s. A cast, a kind, a subdivision of species ; progeny, offspring ; a 
 number produced at once, a hatch.
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 BREEDER, s. One that produces any thing- ; a fernale that is prolific ; one 
 that takes care to raise a breed. 
 
 Breeding Dogs Never breed from an 
 old dog and old bitch ; if one party must be 
 aged, it had better be the latter; but age on 
 either side should be avoided if possible. 
 
 Winter whelps of all sorts of dogs are best, 
 although the difficulty in rearing the produce 
 and the loss of the use of the bitch for some 
 weeks, are strong reasons against it, in the 
 opinion of many ; but the few that survive 
 and are reared, amply recompense these ob- 
 stacles. At three or four days old, part of 
 the sterns should be twisted off, and the dew 
 claws be cut off with a sharp pair of scissors. 
 Puppies will soon learn to lap milk, which 
 will relieve the mother; at six weeks old 
 they may be separated, and should then be 
 wormed. 
 
 The dog, to be complete in his form, 
 should have round small feet, legs strong, 
 straight, and muscular ; the shoulders fall 
 properly into the back, not upright ; chest let 
 down ; loins good ; back not too long ; elbows 
 play finely in their action, and come well in ; 
 thighs and gaskings broad and strong. 
 
 
 In our selection of parents for multiplying 
 a breed a variety of circumstances should ne- 
 cessarily engage our attention ; as, whether we 
 are continuing a race already established, im- 
 proving a defective one, or altogether forming 
 a new variety. In either case, but particu- 
 larly in the two latter, one or two propaga- 
 tions are not sufficient to enable us to judge 
 of the merits or demerits of the products : 
 anomalies may occur, monstrosities appear, or 
 dogs may breed back. It should likewise be 
 always present to us, that, in despite of all 
 our care, and in face of the most favourable 
 opportunities for selection, still perfect speci- 
 mens to propagate from are unattainable ; and 
 as, therefore, we are necessarily to expect 
 defects, it should be our care to well examine 
 that we do not select our male and female 
 parents with each the same faulty form or 
 property ; for, however perfect they may be 
 in other respects, they are, in such a case, 
 totally unfit to breed from together. We 
 may, for instance, suppose an otherwise eligi- 
 ble pair of pointers, of the purest blood, but 
 that each, from early and constant confine- 
 ment, had contracted long, weak, spreading 
 phalanges or toes, instead of a round, cat-like 
 form of foot. By choosing a mate for each of 
 these whose feet were unusually small, round, 
 and firm, we might remedy this defect, and 
 preserve their excellencies ; but it would be 
 only propagating deformity to breed from 
 them together. We can only expect to prove 
 successful in rearing a superior race of any 
 domestic animal, when we make our selection 
 
 of parents with a careful reference to the 
 merits and defects in each, by balancing the 
 one against the other, and by thus combining 
 their different properties. It is by inattention 
 to these circumstances that so many persons, 
 after giving immense prices for animals of par- 
 ticular stocks, have found themselves foiled 
 in their attempts at rearing any thing beyond 
 mediocrity, which animals, under the judicious 
 management of a Russell, a Coke, or an Ell- 
 man, among cattle, or an Orford, a Meynell, 
 a Rivers, or a Topham, among dogs, would 
 have produced unrivalled forms. 
 
 Breeding In-and-in Among the prac- 
 tical and systematic breeders of all domestic 
 animals, and among none more than those 
 sportsmen who devote themselves to the im- 
 provement of the dog, a great diversity of 
 opinion has always existed on the subject of 
 consanguineous breeding, or of that between 
 near relations, characterised by the term In- 
 and-in* The conflicting authorities on the 
 subject are numerous, and the testimonies 
 contradictory; and it is more than probable 
 that they will remain so, until a long course 
 of experiment is undertaken by a body or 
 society of scientific and observant breeders on 
 various domestic animals, for the express pur- 
 pose of arriving at the truth in this particular. 
 
 Sir John Sebright says, " a breed cannot be 
 improved, or even continued in the degree of 
 perfection at which it has already arrived, but 
 by breeding from individuals, so selected as to 
 correct each other's defects, and by a judicious 
 combination of their different properties (a po- 
 sition that I believe will not be denied) ; it fol- 
 lows that animals must degenerate by being 
 long bred from the same family, without the 
 intermixture of any other blood, or from being 
 what is technically called bred in-and-in." 
 
 To Mr. Meynell's opinion to the contra- 
 ry, he replies " Mr. Meynell's fox-hounds 
 are quoted as an instance of the success of this 
 practice (i. e. the in-and-in) ; but, on speak- 
 ing to that gentleman upon the subject, I 
 found that he did not attach the meaning that 
 I do to the term in-and-in. He said, that he 
 frequently bred from the father and the daugh- 
 ter, and the mother and the son. This is not 
 what I consider as breeding in-and-in ; for the 
 daughter is only half of the same blood as the 
 father, and will probably partake, in a great 
 degree, of the properties of the mother." Again : 
 " I have tried many experiments by breeding 
 in-and-in upon dogs, fowls, and pigeons ; the 
 dogs became, from strong spaniels, weak and 
 diminutive lap-dogs ; the fowls became long in 
 the legs, small in the body, and bad breeders." 
 
 Sir W. C n, in his Treatise on Grey- 
 hounds, is unfavourable to breeding a-kin.
 
 BRE] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 75 
 
 He says, " If continued for some litters, a 
 manifest inferiority of size, and a deficiency of 
 bone, will soon be visible, as well as a want 
 of courage and bottom ; though the beauty of 
 
 BRENT GOOSE (Anas Bernicla, LINN. ; Le Cravant, BUFF.), s. 
 
 the form, with the exception of the size, may 
 
 not be diminished." Blaine Sir John 
 
 Sebright. 
 
 This is of nearly the same shape, hut some- 
 what less than the Bean Goose, from which it 
 differs in the colour of its plumage, being mostly 
 of a uniform brown, the feathers edged with 
 ash; the upper parts, breast and neck, are 
 darker than the belly, which is more mixed 
 and dappled with paler cinereous and gray : 
 the head and upper half of the neck are 
 black, excepting a white patch on each side 
 of the latter, near the throat : the lower part 
 of the back and rump are also black : the 
 tail, quills, and legs dusky : the bill is dark, 
 rather of a narrow shape, and only about an 
 inch and a half long : the irides are light hazel. 
 In the female and the younger birds, the 
 plumage is not so distinctly marked, and the 
 white spots on the sides of the neck are often 
 mixed with dusky ; but such varyings are 
 discernible in many other birds, for it seldom 
 happens that two are found exactly alike. 
 
 The brent geese, like other species of the 
 same genus, quit the rigours of the north in 
 winter, and spread themselves southward in 
 greater or less numbers, impelled forward, 
 according to the severity of the season, in 
 search of milder climates. They are then 
 
 met with on the British shores, and spend the 
 winter months in the rivers, lakes, and 
 marshes in the interior parts, feeding mostly 
 upon the roots, and also on the blades of the 
 long course grasses and plants which grow in 
 the water ; but, indeed, their varied modes of 
 living, as well as their other habits and pro- 
 pensities, and their migrations, haltings, breed- 
 ing-places, &c., do not differ materially from 
 those of the other numerous families of the 
 wild geese. Buffon gives a detail of the de- 
 vastations which they made, in the hard 
 winters of 1740 and 1765, upon the corn- 
 fields on the coasts of Picardy in France, 
 where they appeared in such immense swarms, 
 that the people were literally raised (en masse 
 we suppose) in order to attempt their extir- 
 pation, which, however, it seems they could 
 not effect, and a change in the weather only 
 caused these unwelcome visitants to depart. 
 
 The brent and the bernacle were formerly, 
 by some ornithologists, looked upon as being 
 of the same species ; later observers, how- 
 ever, have decided differently, and they are 
 now classed as distinct kinds Bewick. 
 
 BRET, s. A fish of the turbot kind. 
 
 BREW, v. To make liquors by mixing several ingredients ; to prepare by 
 mixing things together.
 
 76 THE FIELD BOOK. [Bui 
 
 BRIDLE, s. The headstall and reins by which a horse is restrained and 
 
 governed ; a restraint, a curb, a check. 
 BRIDLE, v. To guide by a bridle; to restrain, to govern. 
 BRIDLE-HAND, *. The hand which holds the bridle in riding. 
 BRIERY, a. Rough, full of briers. 
 BRIG, *. A square-rigged vessel with two masts. 
 
 This class of vessels are generally em- 
 ployed as merchantmen and cruisers ; and 
 from their sea-worthy qualities and handy 
 rig, are at once safe and easily 'worked. 
 Latterly they have been introduced into the 
 Eoyal Yacht Club ; and the proud boast of 
 having built one of the fastest and finest ves- 
 sels in the world, has been recently achieved 
 by the Earl of Belfast. 
 
 The Water Witch is 331 tons measure- 
 ment, and has more than realised all that a 
 builder could expect. She has, in every trial, 
 proved her superiority ; and in all weathers 
 maintained a decided advantage over every 
 antagonist. A letter from the noble owner, 
 elicited by some trifling misstatement, concern- 
 ing her model, &c., appeared in a late number 
 of the Sporting Magazine, and as it is 
 briefly descriptive of this beautiful brig, we 
 have transferred it from the periodical. 
 
 " Her stern is upright, and, consequently, 
 not so handsome as if it had more over-hung; 
 but being built for a man-of-war, the inten- 
 tion (which has completely succeeded) was to 
 enable her to run two guns out astern without 
 a platform, which most vessels are obliged to 
 have, and which is exceedingly inconvenient, 
 
 inasmuch as it takes up a considerable por- 
 tion of the quarter-deck. 
 
 " As regards the quantity of canvas, her saijs 
 are the same size as a ten-gun brig ; nor has 
 she any advantage in being without fittings 
 below, having all the bulk-heads up (with the 
 exception of the one that ought to divide the 
 captain's cabin from the gun-room), which 
 was omitted, to make a larger and more airy 
 cabin for my friends. 
 
 " Add to this, that she had her full weight 
 of stores, &c., on board, as if provisioned for 
 five months, with eight eighteen-pound car- 
 ronades, and two long six-pounders, three 
 boats, all spare spars, &c., on deck. 
 
 " I have only to add, that to this day she has 
 beaten everything that has ever attempted to 
 sail with her, both large and small ; and al- 
 though His Majesty's ship Vernon (two thou- 
 sand two hundred tons) had the advantage in 
 light breezes of her one day, by crossing to 
 windward of her, (after a trial of eight hours) 
 about a cable's length, she having started 
 half a cable's length to leeward of the Ver- 
 non, I understand she retaliated next day by 
 beating the Vernon (under double-reefed top- 
 sails and top-gallant sails and considerable
 
 BRO] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 77 
 
 head-sea) two or three miles. I can also pounders for four and twenty-pounders, and 
 state, she never took advantage of any of her t sail any square-rigged vessel (now built) in 
 opponents in starting ; and that I should not j England for whatever sum they please." 
 have the least objection to change her eighteen- | 
 
 BRIGANDINE, or BRIGANTINE, *. A light vessel, such as has been for- 
 merly used by corsairs or pirates. They are still used in the Mediter- 
 ranean. 
 
 BRIGHT, a. Shining, glittering, full of light ; clear. 
 
 BRILLIANT, a. Shining, sparkling. 
 
 BRIMSTONE, s. Sulphur. 
 
 BRINDED, a. Streaked, tabby. 
 
 BRINDLE, s. The state of being brinded. 
 
 BRINDLED, a. Brinded, streaked. 
 
 BRINE, s. Water impregnated with salt, the sea. 
 
 BRISKET, s. The breast of an animal. 
 
 BRISTLE, s. The stiff hair of swine. Hogs' bristles for fly tying are dyed 
 in the same manner as feathers and wool. They require, however, to be 
 kept longer in the dye-pot. 
 
 BRISTLE, v. To stand erect as bristles. 
 
 BRIT, s. The name of a fish. 
 
 BROACH, v. To spit, to pierce as with a spit ; to pierce a vessel in order 
 to draw the liquor. 
 
 BROCK, s. A badger. BROCKET, s. A red deer, two years old. 
 
 BROGUE, s. A kind of shoe; a corrupt dialect. 
 
 BROIL, v. To dress or cook by laying on the coals. 
 
 BROKE. Preterimperfect tense of the verb To break. Applied to a dog 
 when perfect in field discipline. 
 
 BROKEN KNEES, PASTE FOR. 
 
 Take pipe-clay and alum in equal parts ; 
 powder them, and reduce them in water to 
 the consistency of cream ; should the com- 
 position become dry, dilute it with water; 
 
 stronger applications, as red precipitate and 
 burnt alum, are occasionally necessary. 
 
 When the wound heals use any ointment 
 coloured with lamp-black. 
 
 BRONCHIAL, a. Belonging to the throat. 
 
 BRONCHOTOMY, s. The operation which opens the windpipe by incision, 
 
 to prevent suffocation. 
 BRONZE, s. Brass ; a medal. 
 BROOD, v. To sit on eggs to hatch them ; to cover chickens under the 
 
 wing. 
 BROOD, s. Offspring, progeny ; a hatch, the number hatched at once ; the 
 
 act of covering the eggs. 
 BROOD MARES. 
 
 No part of a racing establishment requires 
 stricter attention than the brood mares. They 
 
 should be kept, during the winter, in a pad- 
 dock well supplied with water; also with a
 
 78 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Bno 
 
 roomy hovel, with two wide entrances, to 
 prevent accidents. There should also be 
 rollers up each side of the door-way, as foals 
 are apt to have their hips knocked down in 
 striking them, or by getting squeezed against 
 them by the mares in passing in or out. Not 
 more than two mares should be kept in one 
 paddock. 
 
 In winter, brood mares should be fed with 
 the best hay ; and, if in low condition, should 
 have cold bran mashes twice a day. When 
 in foal, the greatest care should be taken that 
 their food be of the sweetest nature ; the 
 olfactory organs of a mare, during the period 
 of her gestation, being extremely sensitive, 
 and mouldy hay or straw has frequently 
 caused premature birth. Indeed, extraordi- 
 nary as it may appear, abortion has been 
 caused by a groom merely striking a mare on 
 the nose with his hand, which proves that, 
 during the time they are in foal, they cannot 
 be kept too quiet, or free from danger or ex- 
 citement of any sort. The smell of carrion, 
 or of animals fresh slaughtered, should be 
 carefully avoided ; for it is very provoking to 
 lose a fine foal, after the heavy expense in- 
 curred, by these apparently trifling circum- 
 stances, so easily guarded against. 
 
 Attention should be paid to the state of 
 the bowels of a newly dropped foal. If a 
 passage be not observed, the gut should be 
 carefully emptied by the hand. About a 
 month previous to foaling, mares should be 
 fed, at least twice a day, with cold bran 
 mashes, as also plentifully supplied with any 
 forward succulent food such as lucerne, tares, 
 clover, &c., but the two first are best. It is 
 desirable to have the mares foal as early as 
 possible, and when the mare is barren, she 
 may be covered as early in February as she 
 will take the horse, and if stinted she will 
 foal early in January thereby gaining a con- 
 siderable advantage over those foaled later in 
 the year. For instance, a colt dropped in 
 January is fifteen months old, when in racing 
 chronology he only reckons for twelve. It 
 must, however, be observed, that it is impos- 
 sible to have mares to foal every year in the 
 month of January, unless the mare were to 
 take the horse every year in February, as her 
 time of gestation is eleven months and some 
 days. Consequently, if she were to be co- 
 vered in January, she would foal (out of the 
 year) in December, as was the case with the 
 December filly. 
 
 When mares are near their time of foal- 
 ing, they should be carefully watched, for 
 they will always approach water at this time ; 
 and as they generally (though not invariably) 
 foal standing up, the produce may thus be 
 lost. Some mares should be watched from 
 another cause, as they will kill their foals as 
 soon as they are dropped. When a mare has 
 
 foaled, she should have a pail full of warm 
 gruel, and should live generously until there 
 is grass for her. The colt should also be fed 
 with oats (bruised) twice or three times a 
 day, which it will begin to eat at three days 
 old. 
 
 The covering season commences on the first 
 of February. Mares should be tried by the 
 teazer every ninth day until the end of the 
 season, which terminates in July. 
 
 Those mares which have foaled will be in 
 season on the third day after ; but it is not 
 advisable to put them to the horse until the 
 ninth, when they will probably be stinted. 
 A mare, with a foal at her foot, is quite as 
 likely to stand to the horse, if not more so, 
 than one which has never bred, or proved 
 barren the previous season ; as it is called 
 " missed the horse," though she might have 
 bred the year before. 
 
 Various have been the measures resorted to, 
 to stint mares to the horse, which have proved 
 barren for several years, or perhaps never bred 
 at all such as bleeding, immersing in cold 
 water, and putting them in motion after the 
 horse has retired ; but no great faith is to be 
 placed in any of them. It said that opium 
 has been administered with effect ; but in the 
 cases of Victoria and Echo, every possible 
 means tried, proved abortive. 
 
 Perhaps it would be better that stallions 
 which cover at a high price, should only 
 be suffered to serve a certain number of 
 mares, as in that case it would not be neces- 
 sary to pamper them to that degree generally 
 practised, to enable them to exceed their 
 natural powers. I have no hesitation in say- 
 ing, that, in the long run, their produce would 
 be greater, and I reason thus : A mare which 
 has missed three or four seasons together, is 
 put to an ass, and generally stands to him. 
 Now whatever may be the supposed increased 
 physical powers of this animal, the effect, in 
 this instance, is principally to be attributed to 
 the cool state of his blood. 
 
 It is usually the practice to keep stallions 
 very full of flesh, perpetually crammed with 
 corn, by which their blood must be in a con- 
 stant state of fever, and many of them have 
 died in consequence of this treatment. Eggs 
 are also frequently given them in the cover- 
 ing season. Some years since, a person in 
 Shropshire, who purchased a horse out of the 
 north, called " Young Roscius," at a conside- 
 rable price, not taking the precaution of crack- 
 ing the egg before he gave it to him, it got 
 across his gullet and killed him. If, instead 
 of having recourse to a common farrier, who 
 attempted to force it down with the butt-end 
 of a whip, he had sent for a veterinary sur- 
 geon, it might have been dissected out with 
 the greatest ease and safety, and his horse's 
 life preserved. Stallions, at the end of the
 
 Buc] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 79 
 
 season, should be physicked and turned out into 
 a paddock, with very little corn ; hut the first 
 day they are turned out, great precaution is 
 necessary. They should be walked out on 
 that day from five o'clock in the morning 
 until evening ; for if turned into the paddock 
 fresh from their stable, they would gallop 
 about for hours ; and some have been known 
 to do so until they have dropped down dead. 
 Early in November, they should be brought 
 into the stable again, physicked, moderately fed 
 
 at first ; well cleaned, and exercised every day 
 for two or three hours ; and this plan should 
 be continued until the commencement of the 
 next covering season. The air and exercise, 
 say an hour or two a day, at this time, would 
 invigorate their bodies, and conduce to their 
 general health. Groomg may object to this 
 system ; but it has reason on its side, which 
 they have not always on theirs Sporting 
 Repository. 
 
 BROOK,*. A running water ; a rivulet. 
 
 BROOM, s. A shrub ; a besom, so called from the matter of which it is 
 
 made. 
 
 BROTH, *. Liquor in which flesh is boiled. 
 BROWN, a. The name of a colour. 
 
 For a rich fiery Brawn Put down 
 
 some young fustic, about six chips, boil your 
 stuff in three or four quarts of water; this takes 
 a long time to give out the dye. If your fur 
 he very white, and free from black hairs, you 
 may draw two shades of fine bright yellows 
 from it ; yon should put the more fur on that 
 account. Then put down five or six more chips 
 and boil it on till you bring it to a very deep 
 orange; lift out your fur, and if you have 
 half a pound of it you must put down an ounce 
 of black grain, or half an ounce to a quarter 
 of a pound ; boil it and put in your stuff, and 
 
 boil on till you have a blood orange Lift 
 
 out your stuff, put in three teaspoonfuls of 
 brasil wood in powder, stir it up and put down 
 your stuff, boil till it comes to a light fiery 
 brown. If you see what brasil you have 
 added does not bring it to that shade, add 
 more, and when you are near it take out your 
 stuff, and have prepared in another vessel half 
 a tablespoonful of archill, by boiling it in 
 
 water, put half a noggin of this liquor into 
 your pot and boil your stuff in it, and then try 
 your shade, as I think you must be near it. 
 Put in a little stale urine, and if not dark 
 enough put in a little salt of tartar, throw in 
 your stuff and I think you have it. If you want 
 it darker, repeat the same quantity of salt of 
 tartar. If you wish you may have two shades 
 from this very process, or by drawing the fur 
 may get many fine shades of claret by using 
 double the quantity of black grain and more 
 archill. Be nice with the archill, as if you 
 darken too much with it, you can never dis- 
 charge it. 
 
 Brown Varnish Rectified spirits of wine 
 
 one quart, seed lac six ounces, dissolve the lac 
 in the spirits two days and it is done, you must 
 keep it the chief of the first day near the fire. 
 This is the best of all varnishes, it must not 
 
 be laid on any thing that is oiled Ancient 
 
 Recipes. 
 
 BROWSE, v. To eat branches or shrubs. 
 
 BRUISE, v. To crush or mangle with a heavy blow. 
 
 BRUISE, s. A hurt with something- blunt and heavy. 
 
 BRUSH, s. An instrument for rubbing. The tail of a fox. " To get the 
 
 brush," in sporting parlance, means to be foremost rider at the death. 
 BRUSH, v. To sweep or rub with a brush ; to strike with quickness ; to fly 
 
 over ; to skim lightly. 
 
 BRUSHER, *. He that uses a brush. A horse liable to speedy cut, fyc. 
 BRUSHWOOD, v. Rough, shrubby thickets. 
 BUBO, s. The groin, from the bending of the thigh to the scrotum ; all 
 
 tumours in that part are called buboes. 
 BUCK, s. The male of the fallow deer ; the male of rabbits, and other 
 
 animals.
 
 80 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Buc 
 
 BUCK, v. To copulate as bucks and does. 
 
 BUCKBEAN, s. A plant, a sort of trefoil, intensely bitter ; its properties 
 are tonic, diuretic, and purgative. 
 
 BUCKLE, s. A link of metal, with a tongue or catch, made to fasten one 
 thing to another. BUCKLE, v. To fasten with a buckle. 
 
 BUCKRAM, *. A sort of strong linen cloth, stiffened with gum. 
 
 BUD, s. The first shoot of a flower ; a germ. 
 
 BUD, v. To put forth young shoots or germs. 
 
 BUFF, s. Leather prepared from the skin of the buffalo, iised for waist- 
 belts, pouches, &c. ; a colour. 
 
 and you have, by boiling a sufficient length of 
 time, a light buff. Boil on and put in more 
 madder, and you will have a deeper ; if your 
 yellow is too faint put in more fustic, half an 
 hour before your next addition of madder. 
 
 To dye light shades of Buff, and other 
 
 colours To assist in mixing, the drakes are 
 
 said to be dyed by ivy and laurel alone; I do 
 not vouch for their being fast and yet they 
 may. 
 
 For Buffs Get some rich common fus- 
 tic chips, put down three or four of them in 
 three or four quarts of water with your stuff, 
 and when it comes to a pale yellow, put in 
 some pale madder, by a teaspoonful at a time, 
 
 By using young fustic chips and madder in 
 the same way, you will get nice rich colours, 
 something between a rich cinnamon and a light 
 brick red Old Recipe. 
 
 BULL, s. The male of black cattle ; a blunder. 
 BULLBAITING, *. The sport of baiting bulls with dogs. 
 BULL-DOG (Canis Molossus), s. A dog of particular form, remarkable for 
 his courage. 
 
 The bull-dog is low in stature, deep- 
 chested, and strongly made about the shoul- 
 
 ders and thighs, the muscles of both of which 
 are extremely developed. His head is broad,
 
 BUL] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 81 
 
 his nose short, and the under jaw projects 
 beyond the upper, which gives him a fierce 
 and disagreeable aspect. His eyes are distant 
 and prominent, and have a peculiar suspi- 
 cious-like leer, which, with the distension of 
 his nostrils, gives him also a contemptuous 
 look ; and from his teeth being always seen, 
 he has the constant appearance of grinning, 
 while he is perfectly placid. He is the most 
 ferocious and unrelenting of the canine tribe, 
 and may be considered courageous beyond 
 every other creature in the world, for he will 
 attack any animal, whatever be his magni- 
 tude. 
 
 The internal changes which determine the 
 external characters of this dog, consist in a 
 great development of the frontal sinuses, a 
 development which elevates the bones of the 
 forehead above the nose, and draws the cere- 
 bral cavity in the same direction. 
 
 But the most important quality, and that, 
 perhaps, which causes all the others, although 
 we cannot perceive the connexion, is the di- 
 minution of the brain. The cerebral capa- 
 city of the bull-dog is sensibly smaller than in 
 any other race ; and it is doubtless to the de- 
 crease of the encephalon that we must attri- 
 bute its inferiority to all others in every thing 
 relating to intelligence. The bull-dog is 
 scarcely capable of any education, and is fitted 
 for nothing but combat and ferocity. 
 
 This animal takes his name from his having 
 been employed, in former times, in assaulting 
 the bull, and he is used for the same purpose 
 at the present day, in those districts where 
 this brutal amusement is still practised. 
 
 Nothing can exceed the fury with which 
 the bull-dog falls upon all other animals, and 
 the invincible obstinacy with which he main- 
 
 BULL-HEAD, s. The name of a fish. 
 
 The bull-head seldom exceeds the length 
 of three inches and a half; the head is large, 
 broad, flat, and thin at its circumference, 
 being well adapted for insinuating itself under 
 stones ; on the middle part of the covers of 
 the gills is a small crooked spine turning in- 
 wards; the eyes are very small, the irides 
 yellow ; the body grows slender towards the 
 tail, and is very smooth ; the colour is as dis- 
 agreeable as its form, being dusky, mixed 
 with a dirty yellow ; the belly whitish. They 
 are found all the summer in holes, among 
 
 BULL TERRIER (Canis Pugilis), s. 
 
 This variety, which has now assumed a fixed 
 character, as its name implies, was produced 
 by a cross between the bull-dog and terrier, 
 and this variety proves to be a handsomer dog 
 than either of its progenitors. It is a spright- 
 ly and showy animal, and even better adapted 
 
 tains his hold. In attacking the bull, he 
 always assails him in front, and generally 
 fastens upon his lip, tongue, or eye, where he 
 holds and hangs on, in spite of the most 
 desperate efforts of the other to free himself 
 from his antagonist, which affords ample proof 
 of the amazing strength and power of this 
 animal. 
 
 Whenever a bull-dog attacks any of the 
 extremities of the body, it is invariably con- 
 sidered a mark of his degeneracy from the 
 original purity of blood. Puppies will assail 
 a bull, and thereby give a decided proof of 
 their breed, when only six months old; and, 
 if permitted, will rather suffer themselves 
 to be destroyed than relinquish the contest. 
 
 Although this trial is sometimes made 
 with the whelps of a particular litter, to de- 
 monstrate the purity of their descent, and 
 to prove that there has been no improper 
 cross by which the future fame of their pos- 
 terity may be affected, yet they are seldom 
 entered in a regular ring until from fifteen to 
 eighteen months old. But their ligaments 
 cannot be considered as at their full strength 
 until they are at least two years old. Indeed, 
 amateurs say, that they are not at their prime 
 until they have attained four or five years of 
 age. 
 
 The bull-dog is admitted by naturalists to 
 be one of the original and peculiar races of 
 Britain, and may be ranked, in point of origi- 
 nality, with the shepherd's dog and Irish grey- 
 hound. In various districts of England this 
 breed is still preserved in its native purity, 
 by that class of people who delight in bull- 
 baiting and fighting of dogs ; both of which 
 amusements, alike inhuman, are now happily 
 on the decline Brown. 
 
 mud and gravel, and among weeds and flat 
 stones in clear water, where they may be seen 
 sunning themselves in a hot day; put the 
 hook, with a small red worm, before them, 
 and they will instantly take it. Notwith- 
 standing the disgust which the form of the 
 bull-head creates, the largest, when the heads 
 are cut off, are very delicious eating ; they are 
 also good baits for other fish. Some anglers 
 think them, when their gill-fins are cut away, 
 preferable to the minnow Daniel* 
 
 for mischievous sport than either of the above 
 dogs. He is airy and pleasant tempered, but 
 possesses great fierceness when his energies 
 are called into action. 
 
 The full-sized bull terrier is larger than 
 either of his original parents, from which we 
 G
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [BUL 
 
 are inclined to think he has a dash of the 
 mastiff in him. He has rather a large square 
 head, short neck, deep chest, and very strong 
 legs. He possesses great strength of jaw, and 
 draws a badger with much ease. He is all 
 colours, and often white, with large black or 
 brown patches on different parts of his body. 
 His hair is short and stiff. 
 
 BULL TROUT, BULGER, or SCARF, 
 
 This species migrates, like the salmon, into 
 several of our rivers; they begin to run up 
 the rivers in May, and are most plentiful in 
 September and October, although the flesh is 
 not then so good (on account of their spawn- 
 ing) as in July and August ; when boiled, it 
 is of a pale red, and well flavoured, but drier 
 than that of the salmon. Mr. Pennant has 
 described one taken in June, 1769, in the 
 Tweed below Berwick. 
 
 The shape was thicker than the common 
 trout ; the irides silver, and the head thick, 
 smooth, and dusky, with a gloss of blue and 
 green ; the back of the same colour, growing 
 
 This variety has risen into great reputation 
 with gentlemen of the fancy, and consequently 
 good ones sell for a high price. Bull terriers 
 are to be had of every colour in the metropo- 
 lis and of late years, dealing in these and 
 other dogs has become a regular trade 
 Brown, fyc. 
 
 fainter towards the lateral line, which is 
 straight ; and the sides, as far as this line, are 
 marked with large irregular-shaped spots of 
 black ; the sides beneath the line and the 
 belly are white ; the tail is broad and even at 
 the end ; the weight was three pounds two 
 ounces. 
 
 The bull have the same haunts as the sal- 
 mon trout, and are sometimes met with in 
 gentle shallow streams, running between and 
 over rocks and stones, and are also found 
 about weirs, made across rivers. The baits 
 and tackle should be the same as for the sal- 
 mon trout Daniel. 
 
 nearly one-third of its length, which is re- 
 ceived by a corresponding angle in the upper 
 one ; in the latter there is a strong knob, of 
 great use in breaking the harder kinds of 
 seeds and kernels, on which it feeds. The 
 tongue is narrow, and tapers to a point like a 
 toothpick ; the first joint of the outer toe is 
 joined to that of the middle one Bewick. 
 
 BUMP, s. A swelling, a protuberance. 
 
 BUMPER, s. A cup filled. 
 
 BUNTING, ( Emberiza miliaria, LINN. ; Le Proyer, BUFF.) s. The name of 
 
 a bird. 
 
 The principal difference between this kind 
 and that of the passerine order, consists in the 
 formation of the bill, which in the bunting is 
 of a very singular construction. 
 
 The two mandibles are movable, and the 
 edges of each bend inwards ; the opening of 
 the mouth is not in a straight line as in other 
 birds, but at the base, the junction is formed 
 by an obtuse angle in the lower mandible, 
 
 BUOY, s. A piece of cork or wood tied to a weight. Dog or sheep skins 
 prepared with a coating of tar and tallow, are used for suspending spellits 
 and herring nets on the western and southern coasts of Ireland they are 
 called puckawns. 
 
 BUOY, v. To keep afloat. BUOYANCY, s. The quality of floating. 
 BUR, s. A rough head of a plant. 
 BURBOT, s. A fish full of prickles. 
 BURN, v. To consume with fire ; to wound with fire. 
 BURNISH, v. To polish. 
 BURNISHER, s. The person that burnishes or polishes ; the tool used it 
 
 is commonly a dog's tooth set in a stick. 
 BURROW, s. Holes made in the ground by rabbits. 
 BURROW, v. To mine as conies or rabbits. 
 BURST, v. To break suddenly. BURST, s. A cry of hounds.
 
 Bus] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 BURT, s. A flat fish of the turbot kind. 
 
 BUSH, s. A thick shrub. 
 
 BUSHEL, s. A measure containing eight gallons ; a strike. 
 
 BUSHY, a. Thick ; full of small branches ; full of bushes. 
 
 Buss, *. A vessel for fishing a herring boat. 
 
 BUSTARD, (Otis Tarda, LINN. ; L'Outarde, BUFF.) 
 
 Great Bustard This very singular bird, 
 
 which is the largest of our land birds, is about 
 four feet long, and weighs from twenty-five to 
 thirty pounds ; its characters are peculiar, and 
 with such as connect it with birds of the gal- 
 linaceous kind, it has others which seem to 
 belong to the ostrich and the cassowary. Its 
 bill is strong, and rather convex : its eyes red ; 
 on each side of the lower bill there is a tuft 
 of feathers about nine inches long ; its head 
 and neck are ash-coloured. In the one de- 
 scribed by Edwards there are on each side of 
 the neck two naked spots, of a violet colour, 
 but which appeared to be covered with fea- 
 thers when the neck was much extended. 
 The back is barred transversely with black 
 and bright rust-colour on a pale reddish 
 ground ; the quills are black, the belly white ; 
 the tail consists of twenty feathers; the 
 middle ones are rust-colour, barred with 
 black ; those on each side are white, with a 
 bar or two of black near the ends ; the legs 
 are long, naked above the knees, and dusky; 
 it has no hind toe, its nails are short, strong, 
 and convex both above and below ; the bottom 
 of the foot is furnished with a callous pro- 
 minence, which serves instead a heel. The 
 female is not much more than half the size of 
 the male : the top of her head is of a deep 
 
 orange, the rest of the head brown ; her 
 colours are not so bright as those of the male, 
 and she has no tuft on each side of the head. 
 There is likewise another very essential dif- 
 ference between the male and the female : 
 the former is furnished with a sack or pouch, 
 situated in the forepart of the neck, and 
 capable of containing about two quarts ; the 
 entrance to it is immediately under the 
 tongue. This singular reservoir was first 
 discovered by Dr. Douglas, who supposes 
 that the bird fills it with water as a supply in 
 the midst of those dreary plains where it is 
 accustomed to wander. It likewise makes a 
 farther use of it in defending itself against the 
 attacks of birds of prey. On such occasions, 
 it throws out the water with such violence, 
 as not unfrequently to baffle the pursuit of 
 its enemy. 
 
 Bustards were formerly more common in 
 this island than at present; they are now 
 found only in the open counties of the south 
 ancl east, in the plains of Wiltshire, Dorset- 
 shire, and in some parts of Yorkshire ; they 
 were formerly met with in Scotland, but are 
 now supposed to be extinct there. They are 
 slow in taking wing, but run with great ra- 
 pidity, and when young are sometimes taken 
 with grey-hounds, which pursue them with 
 G 2
 
 84 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Bur 
 
 great avidity : their chase is said to afford ex- 
 cellent diversion. The great bustard is gran- 
 ivjrous, but feeds chiefly on herbs of various 
 kinds, it is also fond of those worms which 
 are seen to come out of the ground in great 
 numbers before sun-rise in the summer ; in 
 winter, it frequently feeds on the bark of 
 trees ; like the ostrich, it swallows small 
 stones, bits of metal, and the like. The 
 female builds no nest, but making a hole in 
 the ground drops two eggs, about the size of 
 those of a goose, of a pale olive brown, with 
 dark spots. She sometimes leaves her eggs 
 in quest of food ; and if during her absence, 
 any one should handle, or even breathe upon 
 them, she immediately abandons them. 
 
 Bustards are found in various parts of 
 Europe, Asia, and Africa; but have not 
 hitherto been discovered on the new continent. 
 
 The Little Bustard, (Otis Tetrax, LINN. 
 La Petite Outarde, BUFF.) is in length only 
 seventeen inches. The bill is pale brown ; 
 irides red ; the top of the head is black, spot- 
 ted with pale rust colour ; the sides of the head, 
 the chin, and throat, are of a reddish white, 
 marked with a few dark spots ; the whole neck 
 is black, encircled with an irregular band of 
 white near the top and bottom ; the back and 
 wings are rust colour, mottled with brown, 
 and crossed with fine irregular black lines, the 
 under parts of the body, and outer edges of the 
 wings, are white : the tail consists of eighteen 
 feathers ; the middle ones are tawny, barred 
 
 with black, the others are white marked with 
 a few irregular bands of black, the legs are 
 grey. The female is smaller, and has not the 
 black collar on the neck ; in other respects she 
 nearly resembles the male. 
 
 This bird is very uncommon in this coun- 
 try : and we have seen only two of them, both 
 females. The figure was drawn from one sent 
 by W. Trevelyan, Esq. which was taken on 
 the edge of Newmarket heath, and kept alive 
 about three weeks in a kitchen, where it was 
 fed with bread and other things, such as poul- 
 try eat. It is very common in France, where 
 it is also a very shy and cunning bird ; if dis- 
 turbed it flies two or three hundred paces, not 
 far from the ground, and then runs away much 
 faster than any one can follow on foot. The 
 female lays her eggs in June, to the number 
 of three or four, of a glossy green colour : as 
 soon as the young are hatched, she leads them 
 about as the hen does her chickens : they be- 
 gin to fly about the middle of August. 
 
 Both this and the great bustard are excel- 
 lent eating, and, we should imagine, would 
 well repay the trouble of domestication : in- 
 deed, it seems surprising that we should suffer 
 these fine birds to run wild, and be in danger 
 of total extinction, which, if properly cultivat- 
 ed, might afford as excellent a repast as our 
 own domestic poultry, or even as the turkey, 
 (vide TURKEY) for which we] are indebted to 
 distant countries Bewick. 
 
 BUTT, s. The place on which the mark to be shot at is placed ; a vessel ; 
 a barrel containing one hundred and twenty-six gallons of wine ; the thick 
 or lower joint of a fishing rod ; the handle of a cue. 
 
 The Cornish men are spoken of as good 
 archers, who shoot their arrows to a great 
 length ; they are also, says Carew, " well 
 skilled in near shooting, and in well aimed 
 shooting : the butts made them perfect in 
 the one, and the roaving in the other, for the 
 prickes, the first corrupters of archery, through 
 too much preciseness, were formerly scarcely 
 known, and little practised." Other marks 
 are occasionally mentioned ; as the standard, 
 the target, hazel wands, rose garlands, and the 
 popinjay, which, we are told, was an artificial 
 parrot Strutt. 
 
 The marks usually shot at by archers, for 
 pastime, were " butts, prickes, and roavers." 
 The butt, we are told, was a level mark, and 
 required a strong arrow, with a very broad 
 feather ; the pricke was a " mark of compass," 
 but certain in its distance ; and to this mark 
 strong swift arrows, of one flight, with a mid- 
 dling sized feather, were best suited ; the 
 roaver was a mark of uncertain lengths. It 
 was, therefore, proper for the archer to have 
 various kinds of arrows, of different weights, 
 to be used according to the different change- 
 ments made in the distance of the ground. 
 
 BUTT, v. To strike with the head. 
 
 BUTTER, s. An unctuous substance, made by agitating the cream of milk 
 
 till the oil separates from the whey. 
 BUTTERFLY, *. A beautiful insect. 
 BUTTOCK, *. The rump, the part near the tail. 
 BUTTON, s. Any knob or ball ; the bud of a plant.
 
 Buz] THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 BUZZARD, s. A degenerate or mean species of hawk. 
 
 85 
 
 The Common Buzzard, or Puttock 
 
 (Falco Buteo, LINN. ; La Suse, BUFF.) 
 M. Buffon distinguishes the kites and the buz- 
 zards from the eagles and hawks, by their ha- 
 bits and dispositions, which he compares to 
 those of the vultures, and places them after 
 those birds. Though possessed of strength, 
 agility, and weapons to defend themselves, 
 they are cowardly, inactive, and slothful, they 
 will fly before a sparrow-hawk, and when over- 
 taken, will suffer themselves to be beaten, and 
 even brought to the ground, without resistance. 
 The buzzard is about twenty inches in length, 
 and in breadth four feet and a half. Its bill 
 is of a lead colour, eyes pale yellow : the up- 
 per parts of the body are of a dusky brown 
 colour; the wings and tail are marked with 
 bars of a darker hue ; the under parts pale, 
 variegated with a light reddish brown ; the legs 
 are yellow; claws black. But birds of this 
 species are subject to greater variations than 
 most other birds, as scarcely two are alike : 
 some are entirely white, of others the head 
 only is white, and others again are mottled 
 with brown and white. 
 
 This well-known bird is of a sedentary and 
 indolent disposition ; it continues for many 
 hours perched upon a tree or eminence, whence 
 it darts upon the game that comes within its 
 reach : it feeds on birds, small quadrupeds, 
 reptiles and insects. Its nest is constructed 
 with small branches, lined in the inside with 
 wool and other soft materials ; it lays two or 
 three eggs, of a whitish colour, spotted with 
 yellow. It feeds and tends its young with 
 great assiduity. Ray affirms, that if the fe- 
 male be killed during the time of incubation, 
 
 the male buzzard takes charge of them, and 
 patiently rears the young till they are able 
 
 to provide for themselves. 
 
 * 
 
 The Honey Buzzard (Falco Apivorus, 
 LINN. ; La Sondree, BUFF.), is as large as 
 the buzzard, measuring twenty-two inches in 
 length ; the wings extend above four feet. 
 Its bill is black, and rather longer than that 
 of the buzzard ; the eyes are yellow ; the 
 head large and flat, and of an ash-colour; the 
 upper parts of the body dark brown ; the 
 under parts white, spotted or barred with rusty 
 brown on the breast and belly ; tail brown, 
 marked with three broad dusky bars, between 
 each of which are two or three of the same 
 colour, but narrower ; the legs are stout and 
 short, of a dull yellow colour ; claws black. 
 
 This bird builds a nest similar to that of 
 the buzzard, and of the same kind of mate- 
 rials : its eggs are of an ash-colour, with 
 small brown spots. It sometimes takes pos- 
 session of the nests of other birds, and feeds 
 its young with wasps and other insects. It is 
 fond of field-mice, frogs, lizards and insects. 
 It does not soar like the kite, but flies low, 
 from tree to tree, or from bush to bush. It 
 is found in all the northern parts of Europe, 
 and in the open parts of Russia and Siberia, 
 but is not so common in England as the 
 buzzard. 
 
 Buffon observes that it is frequently caught 
 in the winter, when it is fat and delicious 
 eating. * * 
 
 The Moor Buzzard, Duck Hawk or White- 
 headed Harpy (Falco SEruginosus, LINN. ; 
 Le Busard, BUFF.) is in length above twenty.
 
 86 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [By 
 
 one inches. The hill is hlack ; cere and eyes 
 yellow ; the whole crown of the head is of a 
 yellowish white, lightly tinged with brown ; 
 the throat is of a light rust colour : the rest 
 of the plumage is of a reddish brown, with 
 pale edges ; the greater wing coverts tipped 
 with white. The legs are yellow ; claws black. 
 
 Birds of this kind vary much ; in some, 
 the crown and hack part of the head are yel- 
 low; and in one described by Mr. Latham, 
 the whole bird was uniformly of a chocolate 
 brown, with a tinge of rust colour. 
 
 The moor buzzard preys on rabbits, young 
 
 wild ducks, and other water-fowl ; and like- 
 wise feeds on fish, frogs, reptiles, and even 
 insects. Its haunts are in hedges and hushes 
 near pools, marshes, and rivers that abound 
 with fish. It builds its nest a little above the 
 surface of the ground, or in hillocks covered 
 with thick herbage : the female lays three 
 or four eggs of a whitish colour, irregularly 
 sprinkled with dusky spots. Though smaller, 
 it is more active and bolder than the common 
 buzzard, and, when pursued, it faces its an- 
 tagonist, and makes a vigorous defence 
 
 Bewick Latham. 
 
 BY-LAW, $. By-laws are orders made for the good of those that make 
 
 them, farther than the public law binds. 
 BY-WAY, s. A private obscure way. 
 BY- WORD, s. A saying-, a proverb ; a term of reproach.
 
 CARRION CROW. 
 
 v./ AB, s. A .contraction of cabriolet ; a two-wheeled carriage. 
 
 CACKLE, v. To make a noise, as a goose or hen. CACKLER, s. A fowl 
 
 that cackles. 
 CADDIS or CAD-BAIT, s. A kind of worm or grub. 
 
 The several kinds of cadews in their nym- 
 pha, or maggot state, thus house themselves ; 
 one sort in straw, called from thence straw- 
 worms ; others in two or more parallel sticks, 
 creeping at the bottom of brooks ; a third, in 
 a small bundle of pieces of rushes, duckweed, 
 &c. glued together, therewith they float on the 
 surface, and can row themselves about the wa- 
 ter with the help of their feet ; both these are 
 called cad-bait. It is a curious faculty that 
 these creatures possess, of gathering such bo- 
 dies as are fittest for their purpose, and then 
 so gluing them together, some to be heavier 
 than water, that the animal may remain at 
 bottom where its food is, and others to be so 
 buoyant as to float, and there collect its suste- 
 nance ; these houses are coarse, and show no 
 outward art, but are within well tunnelled and 
 have a tough hard paste, into which the hinder 
 part of the maggot is so fixed, that its cell can 
 be drawn after it without danger of leaving it 
 behind, and it can also thrust out its body to 
 reach the needful supplies, or withdraw into 
 its covering for protection and safety. 
 
 These insects inhabit pits, ponds, low run- 
 ning rivers, or ditches, in cases of different 
 forms, and composed of various materials; 
 some of them inclosed in a very rough shell, 
 found among weeds in standing waters, are 
 generally tinged green ; others are bigger than 
 a gentle, and of a yellowish hue, with a black 
 head ; they are an excellent bait, and are found 
 in most plenty in gravelly and stony rivulets, 
 and by the sides of streams, in large rivers 
 among stones. 
 
 To collect them, turn up the stones, and the 
 best will adhere to them ; when the quantity 
 wanted is obtained, put them into a linen bag for 
 five or six days, dip them, together with the bag, 
 into water once a day, and hang them up ; they 
 will then turn yellow, become tough, and fitter 
 for angling than when first got from the brook. 
 If meant to be kept long, they must be put into a 
 thick woollen bag, with some of the moist gra- 
 vel or sand from the same rivulet whence they 
 are taken ; they must be wetted twice a day, 
 but oftener in very hot weather ; when you 
 ! carry them abroad, fill the bag with water and
 
 88 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 holding the mouth of it close, let the water 
 run from them ; thus they have been kept 
 three weeks. Another way of preserving them 
 is, hy placing them in an earthen pot full of 
 river water, with some of the gravel they were 
 bred in at the bottom ; but the preceding me- 
 thod is preferable : some use bait pans of dif- 
 ferent sizes for insects, the tops punched full 
 of holes, not so large as to admit of their es- 
 caping when placed in the river, which not 
 only keeps them cool, but supplies them with 
 aliment in the fresh water ; some keep them 
 in moss in a woollen bag on a damp floor, tak- 
 ing care that the bag retains a proper moisture. 
 Another mode of preserving caddis, and also 
 grasshoppers, caterpillars, oak- worms, or natu- 
 ral flies, is to take the green withy bark from 
 a bough six or seven inches round, and about 
 a foot in length, turn both ends into the form 
 of a hoop, and fasten them with a large needle 
 and thread ; stop up the bottom with cork, 
 and bore the bark full of holes with a red hot 
 wire, tie over it a colewort leaf, and lay it in 
 
 the grass every night : in this manner caddis 
 may be preserved until they turn to flies. 
 When grasshoppers are to be preserved in the 
 case, some grass must be put into it. 
 
 In angling with caddis, the line, when all 
 out, should be as long as the rod, for three 
 lengths next the hook, of single hairs, with 
 the smallest float, and the least weight of lead, 
 that the swiftness of the stream will allow to 
 sink, and that may be aided by avoiding the 
 violence of the current, and angling in the re- 
 turns of a stream, or in the eddies betwixt two ; 
 which are also the most likely places wherein 
 to kill fish, either at the top or bottom. The 
 caddis may be at _times, with very good effect, 
 joined to a worm, and sometimes to an artifi- 
 cial fly, to cover the point of the hook, and 
 also two or three together may be put upon the 
 hook ; but it is always to be angled with at the 
 bottom, especially when by itself, with the 
 finest tackle, and at all seasons is a most hold- 
 ing bait for trout and grayling Daniel. 
 
 CAG, s. A barrel or wooden vessel, made to contain four or fire 
 
 gallons. 
 CAGE, *. An enclosure of twigs or wire, in which birds are kept ; a place 
 
 for wild beasts ; a prison for petty malefactors. 
 
 In Falconry, the cage is an oblong 
 frame, four feet six inches long and two feet 
 wide, made of light wood, the sides and ends 
 are of a proper size for hawks to perch upon, 
 and a little wadded, that it may not injure 
 their feet. It is supported, when placed on 
 the ground, by four legs, about a foot long. 
 Slight rods of hazel are fixed across each end, 
 to prevent the hawks from falling on the in- 
 side when they bait. A space of about twenty 
 
 inches in length is left in the middle of the 
 cage, in which the falconer places himself, 
 carrying it by two straps that pass over his 
 shoulders. The hawks are tied upon the cage 
 as upon a perch, and by this contrivance many 
 may be carried by one man. 
 
 Cages and other instruments used in fal- 
 conry, are well described in the plates of the 
 
 French Encyclopaedia, printed in 1751 
 
 Sebright. 
 
 CAGE, v. To enclose in a cage. 
 
 CAJEPUT OIL, s. Is highly stimulating; it is given internally as an anti- 
 spasmodic, and applied as an external remedy for strains and rheuma- 
 tism : it may be diluted with olive oil. 
 
 CALAMINE, {Lapis calaminaris,) s. A kind of fossil bituminous earth, 
 which, being mixed with copper, changes it into brass. 
 
 CALCINATION, s. Such a management of bodies by fire as renders them 
 reducible to powder : chemical pulverization. 
 
 CALCINE, v. To burn in the fire to a calx or substance easily reduced to 
 powder. 
 
 CALCULUS, s. The stone in the bladder. 
 
 CALF, *. The young of a cow or deer ; the thick, plump, bulbous part of 
 the leg. 
 
 CALIBRE, s. The bore, or diameter of the barrel of a gun.
 
 CAM] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 CALIDRIS, (Illiger,) s. Sanderling, a genus thus characterised: 
 
 Bill of middle length, slender, straight, 
 soft, flexible throughout; compressed from 
 the base ; at the point depressed, flattened, 
 and broader than in the middle, the nasal 
 groove being prolonged towards the point ; 
 
 nostrils at the sides slit lengthwise ; legs 
 slender, three toes directed forwards, and 
 almost entirely divided ; wings of middle 
 size, the first quill the longest Montagu. 
 
 CALIVER, s. obs. A hand-gun, or harquebuse ; an old musket. 
 CALL, v. To name ; to make a noise like quails and partridges. 
 CALL, s. An instrument to call birds. 
 
 The Call of Birds is, in most instances, each other, by strong reiterated strokes of 
 effected by the lungs and larynx ; but some 
 species of woodpecker, in the breeding season, 
 have a very extraordinary and peculiar call to 
 
 CALLOSITY, s. A kind of swelling without pain. 
 CALLOUS, a. Hardened, insensible. 
 CALLOW, a. Unfledged, naked, wanting feathers. 
 CALOMEL, s. Mercury six times sublimed. 
 
 their bill against the dead sonorous branch of 
 a tree. These calls seem to be a species of 
 song Montagu. 
 
 Calomel, or submuriate of mercury, is 
 the most useful of the mercurial preparations, 
 and composed of oxide of quicksilver and 
 muriatic acid. When prepared it is a fine 
 white powder, rather inclining to yellow, and 
 very ponderous. It is the most efficacious 
 anthelminthic we are acquainted with (see 
 ANTHELMINTHIC), and an excellent alterative. 
 When a brisk purgative is wanted, calomel 
 may be added to the common physic, which 
 is composed chiefly of aloes. 
 
 Though calomel possesses these useful 
 qualities, it must be given with caution, and 
 its effects carefully watched ; as it sometimes 
 acts very violently and unexpectedly on the 
 stomach and bowels, and induces a dangerous 
 degree of weakness. Salivation is sometimes 
 the effect of calomel, when given daily as an 
 alterative, or as a remedy for farcy or mange ; 
 the mouth becoming so sore, and the tongue 
 so swollen, as to prevent the horse's feeding. 
 When these accidents occur, the medicine 
 
 should be discontinued a short time, and the 
 horse allowed to drink plentifully of water- 
 gruel, linseed infusion, or any other mucila- 
 ginous drink. When the bowels are affected 
 by it, opium is the best remedy, should 
 arrow-root gruel or wheat-flour gruel prove 
 ineffectual. In some cases, where it has pro- 
 duced great irritation about the anus or blad- 
 der, opium should be given in the form of. 
 clyster. (See CLYSTERS.) If the mouth be- 
 comes very sore, let it be washed with a 
 solution of alum, by means of a syringe. 
 
 Whenever calomel is given, the horse must 
 be kept warm, drink warm water, and have 
 regular exercise. When calomel is given as 
 an anthelminthic, or as a purgative, the dose is 
 from one to two drachms; as an alterative, 
 from fifteen grains to half a drachm. Calomel 
 generally acts upon the kidneys, increasing 
 the discharge of urine. (See ALTERATIVES and 
 ANTHELMINTHICS.) White. 
 
 CALVE, v.- To bring forth a calf, spoken of a cow. To drop a fawn. 
 
 CALUMBA, s. A plant. The root is a good tonic and stomachic. 
 
 CALX, *. Any thing rendered reducible to powder by burning. 
 
 CAMBER, s. A piece of timber cut archwise. The bending of a gun-stock. 
 
 CAMLET, or CAMBLET, s. A kind of stuff, originally made by a mixture of 
 silk and camel's hair ; it is now made with wool and silk. It is much 
 used for shooting jackets, as it resists water well, and is light and strong. 
 
 CAMPHOR, s. A kind of resin produced by a chemical process from the 
 camphor tree. The tree from which camphor is extracted. 
 The following description of the properties modic, an anodyne, a febrifuge, and a seda- 
 
 of camphor was given me by an old M. D. 
 Camphor is at once an emollient, an antispas- 
 
 tive Condition of Hunters.
 
 90 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 CANARY, s. Wine brought from the Canaries; sack. 
 
 CANARY BIRD, (JFringilla canaria, LINN.) s. A much admired singing 
 bird. 
 
 In length this beautiful species is about 
 five inches and a half; the bill pale flesh- 
 colour, passing into reddish white ; eyes chest- 
 nut brown ; the whole plumage of a rich, deep 
 primrose colour, inclining to yellow ; edge of 
 the quills sometimes yellowish white; legs 
 and feet the same colour as the bill. The 
 female is distinguished from the male by the 
 plumage being of a paler colour; the yellow 
 round the bill, eye, and on the breast and 
 edge of the wing, being also of a paler yellow ; 
 she is likewise rather larger and less slender 
 in form towards the tail. 
 
 There are said to be upwards of thirty va- 
 rieties of the breeds of canaries, which can be 
 easily distinguished ; and the number is in- 
 creasing every year. In London, we have 
 societies for promoting the breeds, and a pre- 
 mium is awarded to the competitor who comes 
 nearest to the model of perfection given out 
 by the society the season prior to the com- 
 petition. 
 
 There are two distinct species of canaries, 
 the plain and the variegated, or, as they are 
 technically called, the gay spangles, or mealy ; 
 and jonks, or jonquils. These two varieties 
 are more esteemed by amateurs than any of 
 the numerous varieties which have sprung 
 from them ; and although birds of different 
 feathers have their admirers, some preferring 
 beauty of plumage, others excellence of song, 
 certainly that bird is most desirable where 
 both are combined. The first property of 
 these birds consists in the cap, which ought 
 to be of fine orange colour, pervading every 
 part of the body except the tail and wings, 
 and possessing the utmost regularity without 
 any black feathers, as, by the smallest speck, 
 it loses the property of a show-bird, and is 
 considered a broken-capped bird. The second 
 property consists in the feathers of the wing 
 and tail being of a deep black up to the quill, 
 as a single white feather in the wing or tail 
 causes it to be termed a foul bird ; the requi- 
 site number of these feathers in each wing is 
 eighteen, and in the tail twelve. It is, 
 however, frequently observed that the best 
 coloured birds are foul in one or two feathers, 
 which reduces their value, although they may 
 still be matched to breed with. 
 
 * * * 
 
 A small breeding cage is all that is required 
 for rearing these birds ; but where a room can 
 be allotted to the purpose, it ought to have 
 shrubs for them to roost and build, with 
 plenty of water to drink and bathe in, that 
 being indispensable for all birds. The light 
 should be admitted into the room from the 
 
 east, for the benefit of the morning sun, and 
 the windows should have wire cloth, that 
 they may enjoy the fresh air. The floor of 
 the apartment ought to be strewed with sand 
 or white gravel, and on that should be thrown 
 groundsel, chickweed, or scalded rapeseed ; but 
 when breeding, they should have nothing ex- 
 cept hard chopped eggs, dry bread, cake with- 
 out salt, and, once in two or three days, a 
 few poppy-seeds. Some bird-fanciers give 
 their breeding-birds plantains and lettuce- 
 seeds ; but this should be done sparingly, and 
 only for two days, lest it should weaken them. 
 
 About the 15th of April they ought to be 
 furnished with flax, soft hay, wool, hair, moss, 
 and other dry materials, for building the nest, 
 which usually occupies about three days : the 
 time of incubation is thirteen days ; but when 
 the hen has sat eight or nine days, it is 
 necessary to examine the eggs, holding them 
 carefully by the ends, against the sun or a 
 lighted candle, and to throw away the clear 
 ones. Some bird-fanciers substitute an ivory 
 egg until the last is laid, when the real ones 
 are replaced, that they may be hatched at the 
 same time. 
 
 When the young are to be reared by the 
 stick, they must be taken from the mother 
 on the eighth day, taking nest and all. Prior 
 to this, the food should consist of a paste 
 composed of boiled rapeseed, the yolk of an 
 egg, and crumbs of cake unsalted, mixed 
 with a little water ; this must be given every 
 two hours. This paste ought not to be too 
 wet, and must be renewed daily, until the 
 nestlings can feed themselves. The hen has 
 generally three broods in the year, but will 
 hatch five times in the season, each time 
 laying six eggs. 
 
 The process of moulting, which takes place 
 five or six weeks after they are hatched, is 
 frequently fatal to them. The best remedy yet 
 known is to put a small piece of iron into the 
 water they drink, keeping them warm during 
 the six weeks or two months which generally 
 elapse before they regain their strength. This 
 malady, to which they are all subject, is often 
 fatal to the hen after the sixth or seventh 
 year; and even the cock, though from superior 
 strength he may recover, and continue occa- 
 sionally to sing, and survivs his mate four or 
 five years, appears dull and melancholy from 
 this period, till he gradually droops, and falls 
 a victim to this evil. 
 
 ' If it is proposed to rear gay birds, the cock 
 and hen should be of the same deep colour ; 
 if mottled birds are required, both parents 
 should be mottled. When a gay bird and a
 
 CAN] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 91 
 
 fancy bird are matched, they are termed mule- 
 birds, because they are irregularly mottled in 
 their plumage, and therefore of no value, 
 although they be equally good singers. The 
 spangled or French canary cock, with a mealy 
 hen, often produces beautiful varieties. 
 * 
 
 The most common cause of disease in birds 
 proceeds from a superabundance of food, 
 which brings on repletion. In this case the 
 intestines descend to the extremities of the 
 body, and appear through the skin, while the 
 feathers on the part affected fall off, and the 
 poor bird, after a few days, pines and dies. 
 If the disease is not too far gone, putting 
 them in separate cages, and confining them to 
 the cooling diet of water and lettuce-seed, 
 may save the lives of many : they are also 
 subject to epilepsy, asthma, ulcers in the 
 throat, and to extinction of the voice. The 
 cure for the first is doubtful ; it is said that if 
 a drop of blood fall from the bill, the bird 
 will recover life and sense ; but if touched 
 prior to falling of itself, it will occasion death. 
 If they recover from the first attack, they fre- 
 quently live for many years without any 
 alteration in their note. Another cure is to 
 
 inflict a slight wound in the foot. Asthma ig 
 cured by plantain, and hard biscuit soaked in 
 white wine ; while ulcers, like repletion, must 
 be cured by cooling food. For extinction of 
 voice, the cure ought to be hard yolk of eggs, 
 chopped up with crumbs of bread, and for 
 drink a little liquorice-root, or a blade of saf- 
 fron in water. In addition to these evils, the 
 canary is infested by a small insect, if they 
 are kept dirty. To avoid this, they should 
 have plenty of water to bathe in, in a new 
 cage, covered with new cloth, and their seeds 
 well sifted and washed. These attentions, if 
 troublesome, are nevertheless necessary to 
 possess a thriving bird. When wild, it has 
 already been remarked, that all birds require 
 water, and to a canary this is so necessary, 
 that if a saucer or cup of snow be put into the 
 cage they will flutter against it with the ut- 
 most delight, even during the most severe 
 winters. They are bred in immense num- 
 bers, both for amusement and commerce, in 
 France, Tyrol, Germany, and in this country : 
 those from Germany are in the least esteem, 
 from their living only one or two years in this 
 country, although the cock of this variety is 
 I an approved songster Montagu. 
 
 CANCER, s. A crabfish ; a virulent swelling- ; a sore. 
 
 The virulent, dreadful ulcer, that is so fatal 
 in the human subject, and is called cancer, is 
 unknown in dogs ; yet there is very com- 
 monly a large scirrhous swelling of the teats 
 in bitches, and of the testicles (though less 
 frequent) in dogs, that as it sometimes be- 
 comes ulcerated, so it may be characterised 
 by this name. In the early state of this 
 
 disease, discutients prove useful ; as vinegar 
 with salt, and camphor and Spanish flies with 
 mercurial ointment, have sometimes suc- 
 
 ceeded, taking care to avoid irritating the part 
 so much as to cause blister. But when the 
 swelling is detached from the belly, and hangs 
 pendulous in the skin, it had better be re- 
 moved ; and, as a future preventative, suffer 
 the bitch to breed. Scirrhous testicles are 
 likewise sometimes met with ; for these no 
 treatment yet discovered succeeds, but the 
 
 removal of the part, and that before the sper- 
 matic chord becomes much affected, or it will 
 be useless White. 
 
 CANCEROUS, a. Having the virulence of a cancer. 
 
 CANDLE, s. A light made of wax or tallow, surrounding a wick of flax 
 or cotton. 
 
 wind also, are found to follow. The excres- 
 cences from the wicks called funguses also 
 denote rain and wind. Foster. 
 
 Candles, as well as lamps, often afford 
 good prognostics of weather. When the flames 
 of candles flare and snap, or burn with an 
 unsteady or dim light, rain, and frequently 
 
 CANE, s. A kind of strong reed ; the plant which yields the sugar ; a lance. 
 
 Canes are sometimes used for fishing-rods. 
 CANELLA-ALBA, s. An aromatic stimulant. 
 CANINE, a. Having the properties of a dog. 
 
 CANKER, s. A worm that preys upon, and destroys fruits ; a fly that preys 
 upon fruits ; any thing that corrupts or consumes ; an eating or corroding 
 humour ; corrosion, virulence ; a disease in trees. 
 
 Canker in the ear A common and trou- I cure it, boil two ounces of best shag tobacco 
 blcsome disease, to which dogs are liable. To | in a quart of water, until one pint is consumed ;
 
 92 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Cix 
 
 dip the dog's ears, as it is boiling hot, into the 
 tobacco water, until two inches above the can- 
 kered part ; repeat it three successive days. 
 To bring the hair again, burn some old shoe, 
 and mix with a quarter of a pound of hog's- 
 lard, and frequently anoint the ears ; but the 
 readiest and best way to rid dogs of cankers, 
 is to apply the rounding-iron. 
 
 * * 
 
 In the early stages, a wash composed of 
 half a drachm of superacetate (sugar) of lead, 
 dissolved in four ounces of rose or rain water, 
 is often all that is necessary. A small tea- 
 spoonful may be introduced (previously warm- 
 ed to a blood heat, to prevent surprise) night 
 and morning, rubbing the root of the ear at the 
 same time, to promote the entrance of the 
 wash into the cavities. In more obstinate 
 cases, it is prudent to add fifteen or twenty 
 grains of vitriolated zinc (white vitriol) to the 
 wash ; and if, instead of water, a decoction of 
 oak bark is made use of to form the wash, it 
 will greatly promote the end desired. In 
 some cases, acetate of copper (verdigris), 
 mixed with oil, has proved beneficial when 
 introduced in the same manner. In others, 
 submuriate of quicksilver (calomel) and oil 
 have produced amendment in the same way. 
 A very weak injection of the oxymuriate of 
 quicksilver (corrosive sublimate) has suc- 
 ceeded when every other application has 
 failed. A very mild injection of nitrate of 
 silver, as one grain to two ounces of water, 
 has done much good also. 
 
 * * 
 
 Canker on the outside of the ear consists 
 of an ill-disposed ulcer, which is usually 
 situated on the lower edge of the flap or pen- 
 dulous part of one or both ears, dividing it 
 into a kind of slit. It seems to itch intole- 
 
 rably, and is therefore kept in a continual 
 state of aggravation by the shaking of the 
 dog's head. An unguent, made with equal 
 parts of ointment of nitrated quicksilver and 
 calamine cerate, may be applied once a day, 
 carefully securing the ear from the injury 
 occasioned by the shaking of the head, by a 
 sort of head dress, during its use. Or the 
 following may be tried : 
 
 Oxymuriate of quicksilver 
 (corrosive sublimate) very 
 finely powdered . . 3 grains 
 
 Cerate of calamine (Turner's 
 
 cerate) . . .1 drachm 
 
 Sublimated sulphur (milk of) 1 scruple. 
 In some cases, the oxymuriate of silver has 
 become more efficacious in a wash, six grains 
 being dissolved in four ounces of water. 
 Strong astringent lotions are sometimes use- 
 ful ; as alum dissolved in a decoction of oak 
 bark. When the disease proves very obsti- 
 nate, excision must be resorted to, taking 
 care that the whole, not only of the imme- 
 diate cracked part, but also of its tumefied 
 edges, are included in the operation. 
 
 
 In tumefied flap of the ear, the tumour 
 ought either to be opened its full length, and 
 a pledget of lint introduced, to prevent too 
 hasty a union of the outer edges of the sac ; 
 or a seton should be introduced, embracing 
 the whole of the tumour, which should be 
 suffered to remain for a week or ten days. 
 By this means, instead of a discharge of 
 serum, healthy matter will form in a little 
 time ; the sides will granulate and unite, and 
 on the removal of the seton, the external 
 lips of the wound will close firmly and 
 healthily Elaine. 
 
 CANKER, v. To corrupt, to corrode ; 
 
 CANOA, or CANOE, s. A boat made 
 
 hollow vessel ; a very light boat. 
 
 The Poole canoe is built sharp at both 
 ends, on the plan of the Greenland whale- 
 boat, except being so flat at the bottom as to 
 draw only two or three inches of water, and 
 so light as to weigh only from sixty to two 
 hundred pounds. In making all canoes for gun- 
 ning, the builder should be careful to have the 
 bottoms of them a little rounded (say about 
 half an inch of convex " a-midships," for a bot- 
 tom three feet broad) ; and, what is of still more 
 consequence, a little "kammelled," or sprang; 
 that is, gradually rising "fore and aft," in 
 order to " give them life." They will, other- 
 wise, row miserably heavy, and, when they 
 get aground, suck the mud or sand so much, 
 that, in order to get them off again, you might 
 be forced to stand up, and this would frighten 
 
 to infect, to pollute. 
 
 by cutting the trunk of a tree into a 
 
 away the fowl. If, however, the bottom of a 
 canoe is too much kammelled, she will never 
 keep steady in going to birds. Some people, 
 for this reason, leave hollow grooves between 
 the bottom planks. I should say, that to every 
 five feet of plank I would give about one 
 inch of " kammel ;" so that the bottom of 
 the canoe being ten feet, would, by hold- 
 ing a string along the centre of the bottom, 
 outside, prove convex about two inches. If 
 a little more, she would be none the worse ; 
 perhaps the better, provided that she drew 
 water enough to give a bearing to every part ; 
 otherwise the ends that were sprung, would, 
 by being out of the water, " cluck" so much 
 as to make birds swim away in the night. In 
 short, let your draught of water be the chief
 
 CAP] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 93 
 
 guide to regulate the kammelling, or spring- 
 ing, of your punts and canoes. If not required 
 for rough work, or a fixed swivel-gun, I should 
 recommend all the planks to he not more than 
 three quarters of the thickness specified in the 
 plate ; as nothing, provided it he perfectly 
 safe, can be too light for getting to wild birds. 
 
 CANTER, s. A short gallop. 
 
 The chief paces for a hack to cany a gen- 
 tleman are the walk and the canter. A very 
 quick trot is a most ungentlemanlike pace, 
 and only fit for a butcher ; besides which, it 
 weal's out a horse much sooner than a canter, 
 from the weight being all thrown upon one 
 fore leg at the same time ; whereas, in the 
 canter, it is equally divided between both. 
 Added to this a canter is much more easy, as 
 
 It is the large size of a boat, not the sub- 
 stance of the wood, that makes her safe in a 
 sea. If the builder puts some oakum and tar 
 round the heads of the principal nails, before 
 
 he drives them in, so much the better 
 
 Hawker. 
 
 well as safer to the rider, the horse having 
 his haunches more under him than when he 
 trots, thereby more likely to recover himself 
 in case of making a mistake, which the best 
 is sometimes subject to. Fast trotting also 
 distresses a horse more than cantering, be- 
 cause in the one he is going up to the top of 
 his speed, and in the other much below it 
 Nimrod. 
 
 CANTHARIDES, s. Spanish flies, used to raise blisters. 
 
 These insects are found adhering to trees 
 of different kinds in France, Germany, and 
 Spain : those from the latter country are con- 
 sidered the best. 
 
 Cantharides are so very acrimonious, that 
 they inflame and excoriate the skin ; and hence 
 raise a more perfect blister than any other 
 substance: this property renders them ex- 
 tremely useful in veterinary practice, in which 
 a good blister is the most important of all 
 external remedies. Cantharides should be 
 finely powdered ; but previously to this opera- 
 tion they should he sifted, that they may be 
 free from a great deal of dust and useless mat- 
 ter, which we generally observe with them. 
 When powdered, they may be either formed 
 into an ointment, a liniment, or a spirituous 
 tincture ; but the former is the best form, and 
 most commonly used. (See BLISTERS.) 
 
 Cantharides are imported from Sicily and 
 Astracan, in sacks and small chests. The best 
 are of a lively fresh colour, a small size, and not 
 mouldy, nor mixed with the Melolontha vitis ; 
 an insect resembling them in some degree, but 
 possessing no vesicating property. It may he 
 distinguished by its form, which is more square 
 than that of the Spanish fly, and by its black 
 feet. If Spanish flies have been properly dried 
 and kept in a well-stopped glass bottle, they 
 retain their acrimony, and remain unchanged 
 a great length of time ; but sometimes they 
 are attacked by a small worm, which, how- 
 ever, feeds on the inactive part only of the fly, 
 reducing it to a powder that still possesses the 
 active quality of the entire insect. They soon 
 putrify when kept in a damp place, and there- 
 fore should he occasionally spread out to the 
 air Thomson's London Dispensatory, 
 
 CANTLE, s. A piece with corners. The hinder part of the saddle. 
 
 CAP, s. A strong covering for the head, formerly worn by huntsmen hats 
 
 are now preferred by gentlemen riders. Vide COPPER. 
 CAPARISON, s. A sort of cover for a horse ; generally horse furniture. 
 CAPELOT, s. A swelling on the hock ; it is harmless, but incurable. 
 CAPERCALZIE, (Urogallus vulgaris, FLEM.), s. 
 
 of one found in Scotland was placed on a Scotch 
 pine ; if so, it differs from all the genus, who 
 are known to lay their eggs on the bare ground. 
 It is not uncommon in the pine forests of 
 Norway, whence we have received it. It is 
 also found plentiful in Russia and Siberia, 
 in Italy, and several parts of the Alps. It 
 formerly frequented the fir woods of Ireland 
 and Scotland, and was last seen in 1760, in 
 the woods of Strathglass. It continued in 
 Strathspey till 1 745. Recent attempts have 
 been made to re-introduce the species from 
 Norway without success Montagu. 
 
 The male of this species is polygamous, 
 and lives separate from the females, except 
 in the breeding season. Their manner and 
 habits are very like those of the black grous, 
 except that this seems to be confined wholly 
 to forests of pine, on the tender shoots of 
 which it feeds. It was formerly to be met 
 with in Scotland and Ireland, but is now 
 extinct. 
 
 The female is said to lay from eight to six- 
 teen eggs, of a white colour, spotted with yel- 
 low, larger than those of our domestic fowl. 
 Dr. Latham says, he is well informed the nest
 
 94 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 such is the influence of audacity over all ani- 
 mals, that his borrowed courage completely 
 imposes on the cocks and hens, and prevents 
 them from disturbing him in the fulfilment of 
 his charge. At first, he is a li ttle awkward in 
 the exercise of his office. His amhition, in imi- 
 tating in his gait, the majesty and dignity of the 
 cocks, makes him carry his head too stiff, and 
 prevents him from seeing the chickens, which 
 he sometimes thus inadvertently tramples un- 
 der foot. But experience soon teaches him to 
 avoid such mishaps, and accidents of the same 
 kind do not occur again. Moubray. 
 
 CAPISTRUM, s. In ornithology, is a word used by Linnseus to express the 
 short feathers on the forehead just above the bill. In some birds these 
 feathers fall forward over the nostrils: they quite cover those of the crow. 
 
 CAP: vi, s. A balsam. It has been lately introduced into veterinary practice. 
 
 CAPON, s. A castrated cock. 
 
 The Chinese are said to he particularly skil- 
 ful in this operation, the outline of which, ac- 
 cording to their mode, I give as a matter of 
 curiosity. The wings of the fowl are folded 
 back till they meet, and the left foot of the 
 operator is placed upon them, the great toe of 
 his right foot pressing upon the legs to keep 
 them fast. After pulling the feathers, an in- 
 cision is made, one inch long, and one inch 
 from the spine, obliquely downward and for- 
 ward. 
 
 After the operation, instead of being melan- 
 choly, abashed, and humiliated, the capon as- 
 sumes a bold, lofty, and triumphant air ; and 
 
 CAPOT, s. Is when one party wins all the tricks of cards at the game of piquet. 
 CAPRIOLE, s. Caprioles, in the old menage, are leaps such as horses make 
 
 in one and the same place, without advancing forwards. 
 CAPSICUM, s. The pod from which cayenne pepper is produced ; a powerful 
 
 stimulant. 
 
 CAR, s. A small carriage of burden. 
 CARABINE, or CARBINE, s. A small sort of musket. 
 
 barrel and smaller in the bore. 
 CARAWAY, s. A plant. 
 
 The seeds are cordial and carminative, and 
 from them an essential oil is obtained for 
 veterinary purposes. The dose is from half a 
 drachm to a drachm, and may be mixed either 
 with ale, milk, or water, into a drench ; or 
 formed into a ball with powdered liquorice, 
 powdered ginger, and honey. 
 
 Caraway is a useful cordial and carmina- 
 tive. The dose of the seed is about an 
 ounce ; to which may be added a drachm or 
 two of powdered ginger. 
 
 From twenty to thirty drops of oil of cara- 
 way are a useful addition to aloes, making a 
 purgative ball ; or, as it is commonly termed, 
 a dose of physic. 
 
 Though the essential oil is the most con- 
 
 CARDAMOM-SEEDS, s. 
 
 There are two sorts of cardamoms, the 
 greater and lesser : the latter are commonly 
 sold in their shells or pods, from which they 
 are easily freed. These are preferred in medi- 
 cal practice, probably on account of their more 
 
 CARDS, s. 
 
 The general opinion respecting the origin 
 of playing-cards is, that they were first made 
 
 It is shorter in the 
 
 venient form for giving caraways, it is not 
 perhaps so grateful to the stomach, or likely 
 to produce so gradual or durable a stimulus as 
 the recently powdered seeds. Caraways lose 
 their power by long keeping, especially in 
 damp places. When the essential oil is em- 
 ployed, the best manner of mixing it is to rub 
 it in a mortar with sugar and treacle, and to 
 add the ale or water gradually. Or it may 
 be mixed in the proportion of one part of the 
 oil to two of spirit of wine, and kept as an 
 essence of caraway : this, when mixed with 
 ale or water, will be more uniformly diffused 
 through the liquor than the oil alone, which 
 
 will immediately float on the surface 
 
 White. 
 
 grateful smell and taste, hut the larger sort, 
 which are generally termed grains of paradise 
 (see GRAINS OF PARADISE), are better for vete- 
 rinary purposes, being a stronger stimulant, 
 and much cheaper White. 
 
 for the amusement of Charles VI. of France, 
 at the time he was afflicted with a mental
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 CAR] 
 
 derangement, which commenced in 1392, 
 and continued for several years. In proof of 
 this supposition, an article in the treasury 
 registers belonging to that monarch is quoted, 
 which states that a payment of fifty-six sols 
 was made to Jacquemin Gringonneur, painter, 
 for three packs of cards gilded and painted 
 with divers colours and different devices, to 
 be carried to the king for his diversion. 
 
 In Spain, as early as A.D. 1387, John I., 
 king of Castile, in an edict, forbade playing of 
 cards and dice in his dominions. The provost 
 of Paris, January 22, A.D. 1397, published 
 an ordinance, prohibiting the manufacturing 
 part of the people from playing at tennis, 
 dice, cards, &c. which has inclined several 
 modern writers upon this subject to refer the 
 invention of cards from France to Spain ; and 
 the names of some of the cards, as well as of 
 many of the most ancient games, being evi- 
 dently derived from the Spanish language, are 
 justly considered as strong corroborating ar- 
 guments in favour of such an opinion. 
 
 A very intelligent writer upon the origin 
 of engraving, Baron Heineken, asserts, that 
 playing-cards were invented in Germany, 
 where they were used towards the latter end 
 of the fourteenth century; but his reasons 
 are by no means conclusive. He says they 
 were known there as early as the year 1376. 
 
 At the time that cards were first introduced, 
 they were drawn and painted by the hand 
 without the assistance of a stamp or plate ; 
 
 95 
 
 it follows of course that much time was 
 required to complete a set or pack of cards ; 
 and the price they bore, no doubt, was ade- 
 quate to the labour bestowed upon them, 
 which necessarily must have enhanced their 
 value beyond the purchase of the under classes 
 of the people. For this reason it is, I pre- 
 sume, that card-playing, though it might have 
 been known in England, was not much prac- 
 tised until such time as inferior sets of cards, 
 proportionably cheap, were produced for the 
 use of the commonalty, which seems to have 
 been the case when Edward IV. ascended the 
 throne, for in 1463, early in his reign, an act 
 was established, on a petition from the card- 
 makers of the city of London, prohibiting the 
 importation of playing-cards ; and soon after 
 that period card-playing became a very general 
 pastime. 
 
 The increasing demand for these objects of 
 amusement, it is said, suggested the idea of 
 cutting the outlines appropriated to the dif- 
 ferent suits upon separate blocks of wood, and 
 stamping them upon the cards ; the interme- 
 diate spaces between the outlines were filled 
 up with various colours laid on by the hand. 
 This expeditious method of producing cards 
 reduced the price of them, so that they might 
 readily be purchased by almost every class of 
 persons. The common usage of cards was soon 
 productive of serious evils, which all the exer- 
 tions of the legislative power have not been 
 able to eradicate. 
 
 $ to 1 07. 
 
 1 dr. 
 
 CARMINATIVE, s. Carminatives are such things as dispel wind, and pro- 
 mote insensible perspiration. 
 
 Mix. 
 
 3. Tincture of opium . 
 Essence of peppermint 
 
 (see PEPPERMINT) . 
 Water 10 or 12 oz. 
 
 4. Oil of turpentine . . . 4 oz. 
 Gruel 10 or 12 oz. 
 
 Mr. Bracey Clark recommends, above all 
 other remedies, a tincture of allspice, made by 
 digesting one pound of bruised allspice in 
 three quarts of proof spirit. Of this he gives 
 four ounces in a little water every hour until 
 the horse is relieved. 
 
 The disorders for which carminatives are 
 employed are flatulent or spasmodic colic, 
 gripes, fret, and botts. 
 
 CARMINATIVE MIXTURES. 
 
 1. Best Cognac brandy . . 4 to 6 oz. 
 Hot water . . . . 10 or 12 oz. 
 
 Mix for one dose. 
 
 2. Anodvne carminative ) n . 
 
 > 2 to 4 oz. 
 tincture . . . $ 
 
 (The receipt for this tincture will be found 
 under the article ANODYNE.) 
 
 Hot water . . . . 8 or 10 oz. 
 
 CARMINATIVE, a. Belonging to carminatives. 
 
 CARNIVOROUS, a. Flesh-eating ; a term applied to birds and animals. 
 
 Carnivorous birds are distinguished by those 
 endowments and powers with which they are 
 furnished by nature for the purpose of pro- 
 curing their food. They are provided with 
 wings of great length, the muscles which move 
 them being proportionally large and strong ; 
 whereby they are enabled to keep long upon 
 the wing, in search of their prey. They are 
 armed with strong hooked bills, and sharp 
 
 and formidable claws. They have also large 
 heads, short necks, strong and brawny thighs, 
 and a sight so accurate and piercing, as to 
 enable them to view their prey from the 
 greatest heights in the air, upon which they 
 dart with inconceivable swiftness and undevi- 
 ating aim. Their stomachs are smaller than 
 those of the granivorous kind, and their intes- 
 tines are much shorter Bewick.
 
 96 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [CAR 
 
 CAROTID, s. Two arteries which arise out of the ascending trunk of the aorta. 
 CARP, s. A pond and river fish, very abundant in Great Britain. 
 
 N 
 
 The carp is the queen of rivers ; a stately, 
 a good and a very subtle fish ; that was not at 
 first bred, nor hath been long in England, but 
 is now naturalised. It is said, they were 
 brought hither by one Mr. Mascal, a gentle- 
 man that then lived at Plumsted in Sussex, 
 a county that abounds more with fish than 
 any in this nation. 
 
 Carps and loaches are observed to breed seve- 
 ral months in one year, which pikes and most 
 other fish do not. And this is partly proved 
 by tame and wild rabbits : and also by some 
 ducks which will lay eggs nine of the twelve 
 months ; and yet there be other ducks that 
 lay not longer than about one month. And 
 it is the rather to be believed, because you 
 shall scarce or never take a male carp without 
 a melt, or a female without a roe or spawn, 
 and for the most part very much, and espe- 
 cially all the summer season. And it is 
 observed, that they breed more naturally in 
 ponds than in running waters, if they breed 
 
 there at all ; and that those that live in rivers 
 are taken by men of the best palates to be 
 much the better meat. 
 
 I told you that Sir Francis Bacon thinks 
 that the carp lives but ten years : but Janus 
 Dubravius has writ a book Of Fish and 
 Fish Ponds, in which he says, that carps 
 begin to spawn at the age of three years, and 
 continue to do so till thirty : he says also, 
 that in the time of their breeding, which is 
 in summer, when the sun hath warmed both 
 the earth and water, and so apted them also 
 for generation, that then three or four male 
 carps will follow a female ; and that then, 
 she putting on a seeming coyness, they force 
 her through weeds and flags, where she lets 
 fall her eggs or spawn, which sticks fast to 
 the weeds ; and then they let fall their melt 
 upon it, and so it becomes in a short time to be 
 a living fish : and, as I told you, it is thought 
 that the carp does this several months in the 
 year Walton. 
 
 CARRIER, s. One who carries something ; a species of pigeons. 
 CARRION, s. The carcass of something not proper for food ; flesh cor- 
 rupted. Relating to carcasses. 
 CARRION CROW, (Corvus corone, LINN.; Le Corneille, BUFF.) s. 
 
 The carrion crow is less than the raven, 
 but similar to it in its habits, colour, and ex- 
 ternal appearance. It is about eighteen inches 
 in length ; its breadth about three feet. Birds 
 of this kind are more numerous and as widely 
 spread as the raven. They live mostly in 
 woods, and build their nests on trees. The 
 
 female lays five or six eggs, much like those 
 of a raven. They feed on putrid flesh of all 
 sorts; likewise on eggs, worms, insects, and 
 various sorts of grain. They live together in 
 pairs, and remain in England during the whole 
 year Bewick.
 
 CAR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 97 
 
 CARROT, s. A garden root. 
 
 The varieties of food, as I have termed 
 them, are such articles as, by their saccharine 
 matter, prove highly nutritious, although 
 their gluten is in small proportion. Carrots 
 stand foremost on this list, and hardly too 
 much can be said on their excellent qualities. 
 They appear particularly favourable to condi- 
 tion, as the skin and hair always look well un- 
 der their use : they are highly nutritious, as 
 we know from the fat accumulated when they 
 are used ; and so favourable are they to the 
 free exercise of the lungs, that horses have 
 
 been found even to hunt on them : and, in 
 conjunction with a certain portion of corn, 
 perhaps they would form as good a food as 
 could be devised for our coach and machine 
 horses, our hackneys, and, in fact, for all 
 horses not used on " fast work." In the 
 Museum Rustieum is an account of two 
 hunters fed with carrots and small loaves 
 made of barley and oatmeal mixed ; and these 
 horses were said to be the pride of the field. 
 Agricultural horses may be supported on them 
 wholly, when sliced and mixed with chaff. 
 
 CART, s. A wheel-carriage, used commonly for luggage. 
 
 CART-HORSE, s. A coarse unwieldy horse. 
 
 CARTILAGE, *. A smooth and solid body, softer than a bone, but harder 
 
 than a ligament. 
 CARTOUCH, *. A case of wood, three inches thick at the bottom, holding 
 
 balls. It it fired out of a small mortar. 
 CARTRIDGE, s. A case of paper or parchment filled with gunpowder, used 
 
 for the greater expedition in charging guns. 
 
 CASCARILLA, s. A tonic bark. Dose from one to three drachms. 
 CASE, s. Condition with regard to outward circumstances ; in physic, state 
 
 of the body ; condition with regard to leanness or health. 
 CASE, v. To put in a case or cover ; to cover as a case ; to strip off the 
 
 covering ; to unskin. 
 
 CASEWORM, s. A grub that makes itself a case. 
 CASSIA, s. A sweet spice. 
 CASSINO, s. A game at cards. 
 
 Cassino is generally played by four persons, 
 but occasionally by three or two ; the points 
 consist of eleven, and the lurch is six. 
 
 The points are thus calculated : 
 That party which obtains the great cassino, or 
 
 2 points. 
 
 1 
 
 ten of diamonds, reckons 
 Ditto little cassino (the deuce of 
 
 spades) .... 
 
 The four aces one point each 
 The majority in spades 
 The majority in cards 
 A sweep before the end of the 
 
 game, when any player can match 
 
 all on the board, reckons 
 
 In some deals at this game, it may so hap- 
 pen that neither party wins any thing, as the 
 points are not set up according to the tricks, 
 &c., obtained, but the smaller number is con- 
 stantly subtracted from the larger, both in 
 cards and points, and if they both prove equal, 
 the game commences again, and the deal goes 
 on in rotation ; when three persons play at 
 this game, the two lowest add their points 
 together and subtract from the highest ; but 
 
 when their two numbers together amount to 
 or exceed the highest, then neither party 
 scores. 
 
 LAWS. 
 
 The deal and partners are determined by 
 cutting, as at whist. The dealer gives four 
 cards, by one at a time, to every player, and 
 either regularly, as he deals, or by one, two, 
 three, or four at a time, lays four, face up- 
 wards, on the board, and after the first cards 
 are played, four others are to be dealt to each 
 person till the pack is out ; but it is only in 
 the first deal that any cards are to be turned 
 up. 
 
 The deal is not lost when a card is faced 
 by the dealer, unless in the first round, before 
 any of the four cards are turned up on the 
 table : but should a card be faced in the pack 
 before any of the said four are turned up, then 
 the deal must be begun again. 
 
 Any person playing with less than four 
 
 cards must abide by the loss, and should a 
 
 card be found under the table, the player 
 
 whose number is deficient is to take the same. 
 
 H
 
 98 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [CAS 
 
 Each person plays one card at a time, with 
 which he may not only take, at once, every 
 card of the same denomination on the table, 
 but likewise all that will combine therewith ; 
 as, for instance, a ten takes not only every 
 ten, but also nine and ace, eight and deuce, 
 seven and three, six and four, or two fives ; 
 and if he clear the board before the conclusion 
 of the game, he scores a point. When a player 
 cannot pair or combine, he is to put down a 
 card. 
 
 The number of tricks are not to be ex- 
 amined or counted before all the cards are 
 played, nor may any trick but that last won 
 be looked at, as every mistake must be chal- 
 lenged immediately. 
 
 After the pack is dealt out, the player who 
 obtains the last trick sweeps all the cards 
 remaining unmatched on the table. 
 RULES. 
 
 The principal objects are to remember what 
 has been played ; and when no pairs or com- 
 binations can be made, to clear the hand of 
 court cards, which cannot be combined, and 
 are only of service in pairing or in gaining the 
 final sweep: but should no court cards be 
 left, it is best to play any small ones, except 
 aces, as thereby combinations are often pre- 
 vented. 
 
 In making pairs and combinations a pre- 
 ference should generally be given to spades, 
 as obtaining a majority of them may save the 
 game. 
 
 CAST, v. To admit of a form by casting or melting ; to warp, to grow out 
 of form ; to direct the hunting of a dog. 
 
 When three aces are out, take the first 
 opportunity to play the fourth, as it then can- 
 not pair; but when there is another ace 
 remaining, it is better even to play the little 
 cassino, that can only make one point, than 
 to risk the ace, which may be paired by the 
 opponent, and make a difference of two points ; 
 and if great cassino and an ace bo on the board, 
 prefer the ace, as it may be paired or com- 
 bined, but great cassino can only be paired. 
 
 Do not neglect sweeping the board when 
 an opportunity offers ; always prefer taking 
 up the card laid down by the opponent, and 
 as many as possible with one card ; endeavoiir 
 likewise to win the last cards or final sweep. 
 
 While great or little cassino is in, avoid 
 playing either a ten or a deuce. 
 
 When you hold a pair, lay down one of 
 them, unless when there is a similar card on 
 the table, and the fourth not yet out. 
 
 Attend to the adversaries' score, and, if 
 possible, prevent them from saving their lurch, 
 even though you otherwise seemingly get less 
 yourself, particularly if you can hinder them 
 from clearing the board. 
 
 At the commencement of a game, combine 
 all the cards possible, for that is more difficult 
 than pairing; but when combination cannot 
 be made, do not omit to pair, and also care- 
 fully avoid losing opportunities of making 
 tricks Hoyle. 
 
 When hounds are at fault, staring about 
 and trusting to their eyes and ears, a forward 
 cast is the least likely to regain the scent ; the 
 place where they left is the most probable 
 spot for them to hit the scent, and hounds 
 knowing where they left the scent, will there 
 try to recover it, nor is a wide cast often to be 
 made without good reason ; the scent should 
 be tried to be retrieved by crossing the line of 
 it, and a huntsman, by attending to this, will 
 not fail to make a good cast, if he observes the 
 point of the fox. When hounds cannot hit 
 off a fault by themselves, the first cast should 
 be speedy ; the scent is then good, and hounds 
 not likely to go over it. Every huntsman 
 should adopt these rules ; with a good scent 
 his cast should be quick, with a bad scent, 
 slow, and when hounds are picking along a 
 
 cold scent, he is not to cast them at all. 
 
 * 
 
 Hounds that are all well taught will cast 
 forward to a hedge of their own accord. Time 
 ought always to be allowed them to make 
 their own cast ; it is impertinence in a hunts- 
 man to prevent them, and prudence should 
 induce him to humour his hounds in the cast 
 they seem inclined to make, and either to 
 stand still, or trot round with them, as cir- 
 cumstances may point out. Different coun- 
 tries require different casts ; in an open 
 country, wide casts are always necessary ; in 
 casting round a flock of sheep, the whipper-in 
 ought to drive them the other way, lest they 
 keep running on before the hounds ; in every 
 cast a huntsman should make it perfect one 
 way, before he tries another Daniel. 
 
 CAST, s. The act of casting or throwing : a throw ; state of any thing cast 
 or thrown ; the throw of dice ; chance from the cast of dice ; a mould, 
 a form ; a shade, or tendency to any colour ; manner, air, mien ; a flight 
 of hawks. 
 
 CASTER, s. A thrower, he that casts.
 
 CAS] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 99 
 
 CASTILE SOAP, s. A kind of soap. 
 CASTING-NET, s. A net to be thrown 
 
 The casting-net may be successfully Cm- 
 ployed in a certain depth of water, viz. gud- 
 geon net at four, and large meshed casting 
 net from six to eight feet : in the making 
 great attention must be paid to putting in the 
 widenings, or the net will never open freely, 
 however skilful the person that throws it. In 
 preparing it for casting, it must not be taken 
 upon the shoulder so short as to prevent the 
 leads having their proper swing, which is to 
 be aided by the corresponding turn of the 
 caster's body, at the exact moment of deliver- 
 ing it from his arm ; and the first object is, to 
 let the leads all break the surface at once. 
 Many persons jerk one part of the net high in 
 the air (which assists the spreading), whilst 
 the other part of the lead line drops close to 
 the caster's foot, making a variation of some 
 seconds in the fall of the different leads into 
 the water: fish must be very crowded, or 
 extremely sleepy, if they remain within the 
 curtailed range and slow sinking of a net so 
 cast. The nicety of the art is, to be able to 
 cover any particular spot, and to shape the 
 
 CASTLE, s. Vide CHESS. 
 
 CASTOR OIL, s. Oil made from the beaver. 
 
 A useful laxative in cases where it is 
 necessary to open the bowels, and at the 
 same time avoid irritation : it is therefore 
 extremely proper in fevers accompanied with 
 costiveness, particularly when there appears to 
 
 CASTRATE, v. To geld. 
 
 Castration is performed in various ways, 
 but in all it expresses the removal of the tes- 
 ticles : there are methods of rendering the 
 animal impotent without the actual ablation 
 of these organs ; for if by any other method 
 the secretion of the spermatic glands is pre- 
 vented, from which the uncontrollable sexual 
 excitements arise, the end is answered. 
 
 Castration by cauterization is the method 
 which has been principally practised among 
 us ; and as it is that taught at our alma 
 mater, we may naturally suppose it has proved 
 worthy of the patronage it has received. It 
 is that I always practised, and was successful 
 with it. But this by no means proves it the 
 best ; although good it must be, since I never 
 had an untoward case in it ; and the more, 
 as, when I was called on to perform it, it was 
 usually on adult horses, mostly on aged ones. 
 Other plans may be still better : it is my duty, 
 assuming as I do, to be a teacher, to bring 
 them forward to view, that they may be com- 
 pared together. A preliminary observation 
 should be made previously to castrating, to see 
 that the horse has no hernia or rupture : such 
 
 into the water by hand. 
 
 net accordingly ; and no one can be deemed a 
 proficient, unless he is an ambidexter, and 
 throws from either shoulder, as the turning 
 and holes in a river may require. 
 
 For carp or large fish, the mesh should be 
 an inch and three quarters, and the circum- 
 ference of the lead line not less than twenty- 
 four yards, and from that to twenty-eight ; if 
 made of silk, it will sink more speedily, and 
 of course will admit to be thrown with suc- 
 cess in deeper water and more weeds. By 
 baiting a place in ponds with grains, worms, or 
 graves, the fish' may be collected, and the 
 casting-net thrown over them : should there 
 be much mud, let the net remain quiet some 
 minutes, and the fish will rise from the mud, 
 into which they may have sunk themselves at 
 the noise of the net. 
 
 N. B A piece of crumb of bread put into 
 
 the stomach of either carp or tench suspected 
 to be tainted with the mud, will absorb all 
 the disagreeable taste, and should be taken 
 out before they are sent to table. 
 
 be pain and irritation in the bowels, and may 
 be given witli four or six ounces of Epsom 
 salts. 
 
 The dose is from half a pint to a pint, or a 
 pint and half. White. 
 
 cases have happened ; and as in our method 
 we open a direct communication with the 
 abdomen, when the horse rises it is not im- 
 probable that his bowels protrude until they 
 trail on the floor. 
 
 If a colt cannot be enticed with oats, &c., 
 he must be driven into a corner between two 
 steady horses, where, if a halter cannot be put 
 on, at least a running hempen noose can be 
 got round his neck ; but, whichever is used, it 
 should be flat, or the struggles, which are 
 often long and violent, may bruise the neck, 
 and produce abscess or poll evil. When his 
 exertions have tired him, he may be then led 
 to the operating spot : here his attention 
 should be engaged while the hobbles are put 
 on, if possible ; if not, a long and strong cart- 
 rope, having its middle portion formed into a 
 noose sufficiently large to take in the head 
 and neck, is to be slipped on, with the knotted 
 part applied to the counter or breast, and the 
 long pendent ends passed backwards between 
 the fore legs, and, as expressed by Mr. Per- 
 civall, ' extended obliquely backward, earned 
 round the hind fetlocks within the hollows of 
 H 2
 
 100 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [CA8 
 
 the heels, brought forward again on the out- 
 side, passed under the collar rope, and a 
 second time carried backwards over the out- 
 side of all, and extended to its full length in 
 a direct line behind the animal.' Thus fet- 
 tered, Mr. Percivall says his hind feet may be 
 drawn under him towards the elbows ; I have, 
 however, often found that, at the moment the 
 rope touches the heels, the colt either kicks 
 and displaces the rope, or altogether displaces 
 himself; but his attention can generally be 
 engaged by one fore leg being held up, or by 
 having his ear or muzzle rubbed, or even by 
 the twitch : if not, the rope may be carried 
 actually around each fetlock, which then 
 becomes a hobble ; and this rope may be gra- 
 dually tightened : in this way I have suc- 
 ceeded with very refractory colts ; but it 
 requires very able assistants, and, if possible, 
 the man who has been used to the individual 
 colt should be present. In either way, as 
 soon as the rope is fixed, with a man to each 
 end of it, behind the colt, let them, by a sud- 
 den and forcible effort in concert, approximate 
 his hind legs to his fore, and thus throw him. 
 Before the colt is cast, however, it should be 
 endeavoured to ascertain that he is free from 
 hernia: with an adult horse this is even more 
 necessary. 
 
 Being satisfied that no hernia exists on 
 either side, proceed to cast the horse, turning 
 him, not directly on the left side, but princi- 
 pally inclining that way; and if possible let 
 the croup be very slightly elevated: it is 
 usual to place him directly flat on the left 
 side, but I have found the above rather more 
 convenient. Every requisite being at hand, 
 and as Hurtrel D'Arborval, with his usual 
 minuteness, observes, the operator, having his 
 scalpel between his teeth, should place him- 
 self behind the horse, as the most convenient 
 way to perform his manipulations, and firmly 
 grasping the left testicle with his left hand, 
 and drawing it out so as to render the scrotum 
 tense, he should make an incision lengthways 
 of the bag, from its anterior to its posterior 
 part, or, as expressed by Hurtrel d'Arboval, in 
 the direction of the grand axis of the organ. 
 The incision may be carried at once through 
 the integuments, the thin dartos expansion, 
 and the vaginal coat of the testicles, by the 
 dexterous operator, with a sweep of the scal- 
 pel : but with one less an fait at the opera- 
 tion, it will be more prudent to make the first 
 incision through the scrotum and dartos only, 
 to the required extent, and then to do the 
 same by the vaginal coat, thus avoiding to 
 wound the testicle, which would produce vio- 
 lent resistance, and give unnecessary pain. 
 The testicle, if the opening be sufficiently 
 large, will now slip out ; but the operator 
 must be prepared, at the moment of so doing, 
 to expect some violent strugglings, more par- 
 
 ticularly if lie attempts to restrain the con- 
 tractions of the cremaster, and by main force 
 to draw out the testicle. Preparatory to this, 
 therefore, the twitch should be tightened ; 
 the attendants, especially the man at the 
 head, must be on the alert, and the testicle 
 itself, at the time of this violent retraction of 
 the cremaster, should be merely held, but not 
 dragged in opposition to the contraction, other- 
 wise peritonitis itself might be the result from 
 any such violence. If the clams have been 
 put on over the whole, according to Mr. Per- 
 civall's method, they will assist in retaining 
 the retracting parts ; but I must again offer a 
 caution, that they be not used with too much 
 pressure. The resistance having subsided, 
 provided the clams have been thus employed, 
 they must now be removed ; or, if they have 
 not been previously in use, they must now be 
 taken in hand, and, being wadded with tow, 
 ould be placed loosely on the cord, while 
 time is given to free the vas deferens, or 
 spermatic tube, which is seen continued from 
 the epididymis, from the grip of the pincers. 
 The Russians, Mr. Goodwin informs us, cut 
 it through when they operate. Hurtrel d'Ar- 
 boval does not note it in the French prac- 
 tice ; but humanity is much concerned in its 
 removal from pressure, from the excess of 
 pain felt when it is included. It is also 
 necessary, before the final fixing of the clams, 
 to determine on the part where the division 
 of the cord is to take place. To use Mr. 
 Percivall's words, " If it be left too long, it is 
 apt to hang out of the wound afterwards, and 
 retard the process of union;" indeed, I have 
 known the end of it swell into a fungous ex- 
 crescence, which greatly embarrassed the prac- 
 titioner to destroy : on the other hand, if it 
 be cut very short, and the arteries happen to 
 bleed afresh after it has been relieved from 
 the clams, the operator will find it no easy 
 task to recover it from the retraction of the 
 cremaster. The natural length of the cord, 
 which will mainly depend on the degree of 
 the descent of the gland, will be our best 
 guide in this particular. The place of section 
 determined on and marked, close the clams 
 sufficiently tight to retain firm hold of the 
 cord, and to effectually stop the circulation 
 within it. There are now two modes of 
 making the division ; the one is to sever it 
 with a scalpel, and then to sufficiently sear 
 the end of it so as to prevent a flow of 
 blood, avoiding, however, to burn it to a 
 cinder, as is sometimes done. The other, 
 and in some respects the preferable method, 
 is to employ an edged firing-iron, which is to 
 divide it by little crucial sawings, so that, 
 when the cord is separated, it shall not pre- 
 sent a uniform divided surface, but ragged 
 edges, which will more perfectly destroy the 
 mouths of the vessels, and tend to lessen the
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 101 
 
 chances of haemorrhage. This done, loosen 
 the clams sufficiently to observe whether there 
 be any flow of blood ; gently wipe the end of 
 the cord also with the linger, as sometimes an 
 accidental small plug gets within the vessel, 
 which afterwards is forced out, and therefore 
 had better be removed by this means and at 
 this time. Retain a hold on the clams a few 
 minutes longer ; and while loosening them 
 gradually, observing to have an iron in readi- 
 ness again to touch the end of the cord, if any 
 blood makes its appearance. Satisfied on this 
 point, sponge the part with cold water, but by 
 no means dash it over them, as has been done; 
 neither is any external application necessary, 
 still less any resin seared on the end of the 
 cord, which can only irritate, and will never 
 adhere. On the after-treatment much differ- 
 ence of opinion has existed, and even yet 
 exists. The powerful evidence of accumu- 
 lated facts has now convinced veterinarians 
 of both the necessity and propriety of some 
 motion for the newly-castrated horse as a 
 preventive of local congestion ; such practice 
 is common in most countries but our own, 
 and seems salutary in all. Hurtrel d' Arboval, 
 thus impressed, recommends the horse, imme- 
 diately after the operation, to be led out to 
 walk for an hour, and it is a general plan in 
 France to walk such horses in hand an hour 
 night and morning. Mr. Goodwin, in proof 
 of its not being hurtful, informs us, that 
 whole studs of horses brought to St. Peters- 
 burgh to be operated on, are immediately 
 travelled back a certain portion of the dis- 
 tance, night and morning, until they arrive at 
 home. I have, therefore, no hesitation in 
 recommending a moderate degree of motion 
 in preference to absolute rest, as practised 
 among us : it is a plan which has long been 
 followed with success among our own cutters; 
 and perhaps our not adopting it before has 
 arisen from prejudice against whatever was 
 practised by illiterate persons, without reflect- 
 ing that, illiterate as they are, their employers 
 are not all so ; and that, unless success at- 
 tended their practices, they would cease to be 
 employed. 
 
 For the French mode, twitching, &c., vide 
 GOODWIN, BLAINE, &c. 
 
 When a colt is to be g elded. In the 
 first or second week in June he should be 
 cut ; and when recovered he should be turned 
 out for the summer. 
 
 
 
 " I would not operate," says Mr. Percivall, 
 " during the season of changing the coat, nor 
 even just prior to that period, from fear of 
 interrupting the process, or checking it alto- 
 gether ; neither would I choose frosty or 
 sultry weather : but, above all, it is advisable 
 to suspend the operation when the flies abound. 
 If the subject have passed the colt period of 
 age, I would recommend a dose of aperient 
 medicine before the operation be undertaken, 
 unless he should be already living on green 
 food." -! 
 
 Each testicle should be taken out of the 
 scrotum separately, by an opening sufficiently 
 large, when a ligature should be applied, 
 moderately tight only, around the spermatic 
 chord, about an inch and a half beyond its 
 insertion into the testicle ; the separation 
 should then be effected by the scalpel or 
 knife, between the ligature and testis. It is 
 sometimes performed without the ligature, by 
 making the division of the chord with a red- 
 hot knife, but the other is the neatest and 
 safest mode. * * 
 
 The castration of cats is sometimes prac- 
 tised to keep them from roving, or to increase 
 their size. For this purpose nothing more is 
 requisite than to make a slight opening on 
 each side the scrotum, to slip out the two 
 testicles, and draw them away with the fin- 
 gers. The rupture alone of the spermatic 
 chord prevents haemorrhage in them, and no 
 future inconvenience is felt. It is often found 
 difficult to secure a cat for this operation; 
 but it may be easily managed in two ways : 
 one by putting the head and fore-quarters of 
 the animal into a boot ; the other by rolling 
 his whole body lengthways in several yards 
 of towelling; but the former is the most 
 secure and simple, for no animal is more 
 intractable, as a surgical patient, than grimal- 
 kin : though to administer medicines to a pig 
 beats the cat hollow, as an obstreperous ope- 
 i ration Blaine Nimrod Percivall. 
 
 CASTRATION, *. The act of gelding. 
 
 CASTERIL, or CASTREL, *. A mean or degenerate kind of hawk. 
 
 CAT, s. A domestic animal that catches mice. 
 
 The cat is a faithless domestic ; though 
 gentle and frolicsome when young, they even 
 then possess an innate cunning, and perverse 
 disposition, which age increases, and education 
 only serves to conceal. 
 
 The form and temperament of the cat's 
 body perfectly correspond with his disposition ; 
 
 he is handsome, light, adroit, cleanly, and 
 voluptuous ; he loves ease, and searches out 
 the softest places for rest and repose. The cat 
 is very amorous. The passion of the female 
 continues nine or ten days, and commonly 
 happens only twice a year, in the spring and 
 autumn, but sometimes three and even four
 
 102 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [CAT 
 
 times. They go with young 55 or 56 day8, 
 and they usually have from four to six at a 
 litter. As the males are apt to devour their 
 progeny, the females commonly conceal them- 
 selves when they litter, and if suspicious of a 
 discovery, they carry their young ones away 
 in their mouths and hide them in holes or 
 inaccessible places. After suckling them a 
 few weeks, the old one takes them mice or 
 small birds, to accustom them to eat ilesh ; 
 but by an unaccountable caprice, these very 
 mothers so tender and careful, become some- 
 times so cruel and unnatural, as to devour 
 their offspring themselves. 
 
 Cats are without docility, and their scent, 
 which, in the dog is so eminent a quality, is 
 very indifferent, and therefore they hunt by 
 the eye only ; neither do they properly pur- 
 sue, but rather lie in wait and attack the ani- 
 mals by surprise; and after having played 
 with, and tormented them a long time, they 
 kill them without any necessity, even when 
 well fed, and in no want of prey to satisfy 
 their appetites. 
 
 The most immediate physical cause of their 
 inclination to seize other animals by surprise, 
 comes from the advantage they receive from 
 the particular formation of their eyes. The 
 pupil in man, and many other animals, is 
 capable of a certain degree of contraction and 
 dilation ; it enlarges a little when the light is 
 faint, and contracts when it becomes too 
 strong; in cats and nocturnal birds, as owls, 
 &c., this contraction and dilation is so consi- 
 derable that the pupil, which in the dark is 
 large and round, becomes in the day long and 
 narrow like a line ; and therefore these ani- 
 mals see better in the night than in the day. 
 There is a perpetual contraction in the eye of 
 the cat during the day, and it is only by a 
 great effort that he can see in a strong light, 
 whereas, in the twilight, the pupil resumes 
 its natural form ; he sees perfectly, and pro- 
 fits from this superiority to know, attack, and 
 surprise his prey. 
 
 Cats have less attachment to persons than 
 to houses. When taken to the distance of 
 a league or two they will return to their for- 
 mer abode of their own accord. They fear 
 water, cold, and bad smells ; they love to be 
 in the sun, and to lie in warm places ; they 
 are very fond of perfumes, and willingly al- 
 low themselves to be taken and caressed by 
 those who make use of them. They do not 
 come to their full growth in less than fifteen 
 or eighteen months, but they are capable of 
 engendering before the end of the first year, 
 and they can procreate all their lives, which 
 seldom exceeds eight or nine years ; they are 
 notwithstanding, very lively and hardy, and 
 more nervous than most other animals which 
 live longer. 
 
 The wild cat couples with the domestic 
 one, and they consequently form but one spe- 
 cies. It is not uncommon for both males 
 and females to quit their houses, when 
 they are proud to go into the woods to seek 
 wild cats, and afterwards return to their 
 former habitations ; it is for this reason that 
 some of our domestic cats so entirely resem- 
 ble the wild ones. The greatest difference 
 between them is internally, the intestines of 
 the domestic cat being longer than those of 
 the wild cat, although the latter is much the 
 largest and strongest ; his lips are also always 
 Mack, his ears more stiff, his tail larger, and 
 his colour more uniform. 
 
 In general cats are not, like dogs, subject 
 to degenerate when transported into warm 
 climates. Their nature is indeed more con- 
 stant, and as their domestic state is neither so 
 entire, universal, nor perhaps so ancient as 
 that of the dog, it is not surprising that they 
 should have undergone less variation. 
 
 
 
 Besides this large and ferocious species, the 
 warrens upon the coast suffer much injury 
 from the common cat becoming wild and bur- 
 rowing in the rabbit-holes. They are some- 
 times surprised and shot in the sand-banks, 
 or taken in traps ; but they are generally too 
 wary to be approached and hunting only by 
 night, during the day they sleep in their dens, 
 and are rarely met abroad. 
 
 Some estimate of their numbers may be 
 formed, from the circumstance of five males 
 having been killed in a herdsman's outhouse 
 which joined the warren. They had been 
 attracted there by one of their own species, 
 and the noise having alarmed the peasant, he 
 guessed the cause, and cautiously managed to 
 stop the hole by which they gained entrance, 
 with a turf-cleave. Knowing the value of 
 the capture, he kept guard upon the prisoners 
 till morning, and then despatched information 
 to the Lodge. My cousin, with his followers, 
 promptly repaired to the place, and surround- 
 ing the barn with guns and greyhounds, bolted 
 the wild cats successively, until the whole 
 number were despatched. This chasse. was 
 not only novel, but profitable. After the 
 death of their persecutors, the rabbits in- 
 creased prodigiously ; but fears are entertained 
 that these destructive animals are become 
 once more abundant in the sand-banks. 
 
 * 
 
 Cats are said, when they wash their faces, 
 or when they seem sleepy and dull, to forctel 
 rain. The same is said of them when they 
 appear irritable and restless, and play with their 
 taiU Btijff'on Wild Sports Foster.
 
 CV] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 103 
 
 CATAPLASM, s. A poultice. 
 
 CATARACT,*. An inspissation of the crystalline humours of the eye; 
 
 sometimes a pellicle that hinders the sight. 
 CATARRH, *. A defluction of a sharp serum from the glands about the 
 
 head and throat. 
 
 CATERPILLAR, *. A worm sustained by leaves and fruits. 
 
 downwards. 
 
 CATHARTIC, s. A medicine to purge 
 
 Cathartics are a most important class of 
 medicines, and of all cathartics Barbadoes 
 aloes is the best. Cathartics improve diges- 
 tion and chylification, by cleansing the intes- 
 tines and unloading the liver, and if the 
 animal is afterwards properly fed, will improve 
 his strength and condition in a remarkable 
 degree. Cathartics are always useful when 
 the appetite and digestion are bad, and this is 
 known by a voracious or depraved appetite, 
 both for food and for water ; rumbling of the 
 bowels, and a frequent discharge of wind from 
 the anus. This is the case in a remarkable 
 degree with broken- winded horses, and gener- 
 ally in such as have chronic cough, or are 
 crib-biters. They should not bo given too 
 strong or too frequently, as they might there- 
 by weaken instead of strengthening the di- 
 gestive organs, and produce the effect they 
 were intended to remove. Cathartics should 
 always be made with soap, in the following 
 
 manner, and then, if given upon an empty 
 stomach, they will be carried off, and will not 
 be dissolved until they get into the large 
 bowels, where their effect is intended to be 
 produced : that is carrying off all the excre- 
 mentitious matter that may be lodged in 
 them. When given in this way they never 
 produce sickness or pain in the stomach, but 
 always operate without pain or danger. 
 
 CATHARTIC BALL. 
 
 Barbadoes aloes powdered, from 5 dr. to 1 oz. 
 Hard soap . . . 3 to 4 dr. 
 Ginger . . . . 1 dr. 
 Water . . . . 1 dr. 
 Oil of cloves . . ' . 10 drops. 
 
 Beat the soap, oil of cloves, and water toge- 
 ther in a mortar, so as to form a paste ; if 
 necessary use more water. Add the powdered 
 aloes and ginger, and beat the whole into a 
 ball. White. 
 
 CATTLE, s. Beasts of pasture, not wild or domestic. 
 
 CAVISSON, s. A head-stall provided with a nose-band and ring, to which 
 a long cord is attached. The cavisson is used in the earlier stages of 
 horse-breaking. 
 
 CAUF, s. A chest with holes, to keep fish alive in the water. 
 
 CAUSTICS, s. Medicaments which, by their violent activity, and heat, de- 
 stroy the texture of the part to which they are applied. 
 
 The most powerful is the actual, or hot 
 iron ; but there are many other caustics pos- 
 sessed of great strength, which speedily destroy 
 the parts to which they are applied. If a 
 solid caustic is wanted, nothing is more con- 
 venient than the lunar caustic (nitrate of sil- 
 ver). Milder caustics are more frequently 
 used ; such as sulphate of copper, red pre- 
 cipitate, (nitric oxide of mercury,) burnt 
 alum, &c. 
 
 Strong caustics are employed to destroy 
 unhealthy or diseased parts ; and for cleansing 
 foul ulcers, so as to produce a healthy state, 
 and render them curable by more simple 
 applications. Caustics, divided into liquid 
 and solid, arc strong and mild. The mild 
 are often called escharotics. 
 
 SOLID CAUSTICS, STRONG. 
 
 No. 1. The red-hot iron. (See FIRING.) 
 
 2. Pure potash with lime. 
 
 3. Nitrate of silver, or lunar caustic. 
 
 4. Nitrate of copper. 
 
 MILD CAUSTICS, SOLID. 
 
 No. 1. Acetate of copper, or distilled verdi- 
 gris. 
 
 2. Sulphate of copper, or blue vitriol. 
 
 3. Red nitrated quicksilver, red precipi- 
 
 tate, or nitric oxide of mercury. 
 
 4. Burnt alum. 
 
 5. Common verdigris. 
 
 The mild require to bo finely powdered 
 and sprinkled on the ulcer; and are some- 
 times mixed with digestive ointments to in- 
 crease their power.
 
 104 
 
 THK F1KLD BOOK. 
 
 STRONG CAUSTICS, LIQUID. 
 
 No. 1. The sulphuric and nitrous acids, which 
 must be used cautiously : they may 
 be diluted with a sufficiency of 
 water, to be applicable to the pur- 
 pose required. 
 
 2. Nitrous acid . . 1 oz. 
 
 Quicksilver . . J oz. 
 
 Place them in a large gallipot, or open 
 phial, and avoid the noxious fumes which 
 arise. When the quicksilver is perfectly dis- 
 solved, and the mixture cold, it may be put 
 into a pliial and corked. 
 
 This is a strong and efficacious caustic ; a 
 certain remedy for the foot-rot in sheep, and 
 effectual in canker of the horse's foot, pro- 
 vided these complaints are properly managed 
 in other respects. It is formed with melted 
 hog's lard into a strong detergent ointment, 
 or diluted with water. 
 
 No. 8. Nitrous acid . . 1 oz. 
 
 Verdigris . . oz Mix. 
 
 This caustic is similar to the former, and 
 applicable to the same purposes. 
 No. 4. Muriate of antimony, or butter of an- 
 timony. 
 
 5. Muriate of quicksilver, or subli- 
 mate . . . 1 dr. 
 Muriatic acid . . 2 dr. 
 This is a very powerful caustic, and always 
 requires dilution. Yellow arsenic mixed 
 with lime and grease, or hog's lard, is some- 
 times used as a caustic to destroy warts, or 
 cure fistula or poll-evil. 
 
 MILD CAUSTICS, LIQUID. 
 
 No. 1. Solution of blue vitriol. 
 
 2. Any of the stronger caustics, except 
 
 butter of antimony, diluted with an 
 equal quantity, or more, of water. 
 
 3. Muriatic acid. 
 
 4. Muriate of iron White. 
 
 CAUTERIZE, v. To burn with the cautery. 
 
 CAUTERY, s. Cautery is either actual or potential ; the first is burning by 
 
 a hot iron, and the latter with caustic medicines. 
 CAW, v. To cry as the rook or crow. 
 CELLULAR, a. Consisting of little cells or cavities. 
 CEMENT, s. The matter with which two bodies are made to cohere. 
 CERATE, s. A plaster made of wax. 
 CERE, s. (Cera, LINN.) A term in ornithology for the naked skin which 
 
 covers the base of the bill, as in the hawk kind. 
 CERECLOTH, *. Cloth smeared over with glutinous matter. 
 CERTIFICATE FOR KILLING GAME, s. The legal authority prescribed by 
 
 act of parliament. 
 
 certificate, to hold a deputation. 
 
 When demanded by any assessor, collec- 
 tor, land owner, commissioner, inspector, sur- 
 veyor, occupier of land, also gamekeeper, or 
 other person, provided the two latter produce 
 their certificates, previously to requiring yours, 
 
 Penalty for shooting without, 20/. 
 
 To be taken out annually, in the parish or 
 place where your assessed taxes are paid 
 costs, 31. 13s. 6V/.. and one shilling fee to 
 the collector. 
 
 Does not authorise unqualified persons to 
 kill game, but exempts them from the penalty 
 
 of 20/., and leaves them subject to that of 
 5/. for non-qualification, and also to that of 
 5/. a piece for every head of game found in 
 their possession. 
 
 For menial servants, hired as gamekeepers, 
 costs, I/. 5s., and a shilling fee to the col- 
 lector. 
 
 Persons, not menial servants, must have 
 a three and a half guinea certificate, and 
 should have, also, the common gamekeeper's 
 
 CERULEAN, a. Blue, sky-coloured. 
 CHAD, s. A sort offish. 
 
 penalty for refusing, 201. If you have not 
 your certificate to produce, your name, and 
 place of abode, may be asked. All certifi- 
 cates expire on the 5th of April in each 
 year. 
 
 If you have not a certificate to produce at 
 the time it is called for, your Christian and 
 surnames, and place of abode, may be de- 
 manded by any assessor, &c. &c., (aa before 
 mentioned) and the penalty for refusing them, 
 or giving a false name, is '201.
 
 CIIA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 105 
 
 CHAFFINCH, *. A bird so called, because it delights in chaff. 
 
 This bird is rather less than the sparrow. 
 The bill is bluish ; irides hazel ; the forehead 
 black ; crown of the head, back part, and 
 sides of the neck, bluish ash-colour; the 
 cheeks, under side of the neck, and breast, 
 dull pink ; back, chestnut-brown ; rump green- 
 ish ; belly, white, tinged with pink ; the bas- 
 tard wing and coverts of the primary quills 
 are black ; those of the secondary tipped with 
 white ; the smaller coverts black and greyish, 
 on which is a spot of white ; the quill-feathers 
 dusky, slightly edged with greenish yellow on 
 the outer webs, marked with white on both 
 webs at the base ; tail dusky ; the exterior 
 feather is obliquely marked with white, taking 
 in the whole of the outer web, the next is 
 
 tipped with white ; legs dusky. 
 
 The female is of a dull green above ; the 
 breast and belly of a brown or dirty white ; 
 the wings have the same markings as the 
 male, but less brilliant. 
 
 This bird makes a most elegant nest of 
 green moss, curiously studded with lichen, in- 
 terwoven with wool, and lined with feathers 
 and hair. It builds against the side of a tree, 
 particularly in ivy, or in some forked branch 
 of a bush ; but particularly in apple trees 
 overgrown with moss and lichen, and, like 
 many other birds, adapts the materials of its 
 nest to the surrounding colour ; an instinct of 
 no small importance Bewick. 
 
 CHAIN, s. A series of links fastened one within another ; a bond, a mana- 
 cle ; a fetter. 
 
 CHAISE, s. A carriage either of pleasure or expedition. 
 
 CHALDRON, or CHAUDRON, *. A dry English measure of coals, consist- 
 ing of thirty-six bushels heaped up. The chaldron should weigh two 
 thousand pounds. 
 
 CHALK, s. A white fossil, usually reckoned a stone, but by some ranked 
 among the boles. 
 
 CHALYBEATE, a. Impregnated with iron or steel. 
 
 CHAMBEL OF A HORSE, *. The joint or bending of the upper part of the 
 hind leg. 
 
 CHAMOIS, s. An animal of the goat kind, the skin of which made into 
 leather is called Shammy. 
 
 The chamois is a little larger than a goat, j addidit alas," and the fatigues of the pursuer 
 but much superior in power and agility ; the begin, who traverses the snows, and climbs 
 
 strongest man could not hold one of a month 
 old ; they bound from precipice to precipice to 
 a prodigious distance, gaining the loftiest sum- 
 mits, and precipitating themselves from the 
 steepest rocks without fear. The chase of 
 this animal occupies a great part of the moun- 
 tainous population, and many perish annually 
 in the hazardous pursuit. 
 
 Often the hunter, overtaken by a dark 
 mist, loses himself amongst the ice, and dies 
 of cold and hunger; or the rain renders the 
 rocks so slippery, that he is not able to re- 
 ascend them. In the midst of eternal snows, 
 braving all dangers, they follow the chamois 
 frequently by the marks of their feet ; when 
 one is perceived at a distance, the hunter 
 creeps along till within reach of his gun, which 
 he rests on a rock, and is almost always sure 
 of his prey : thus the innocent beast, which 
 tranquilly feeds, perhaps enjoys the last mo- 
 ments of its happy existence. But if his 
 watchful eye perceives the enemy, as is often 
 the case, he flies from rock to rock, " timor 
 
 the precipices, heedless of how he is to return. 
 Night arrives, yet the hopes of the morrow 
 reassure him, and he passes it under a rock. 
 There, without fire, without light, he draws 
 from his wallet a'little cheese and oaten bread, 
 which he is obliged to break with a stone, or 
 with the hatchet he carries to cut his path in 
 the ice. This repast finished, he falls asleep 
 on his bed of snow, considering what route 
 the chamois has probably taken. At break of 
 day he awakens, insensible to the charms of 
 a beautiful morning, to the glittering rays 
 which silver the snowy summits of the moun- 
 tains around him, and, thinking only of his 
 prey, seeks fresh dangers. Thus they fre- 
 quently remain many days in these horrible 
 deserts, while their wives and families scarcely 
 dare to sleep, lest they should behold the 
 spirits of their dead husbands; for it is believed 
 that a chasseur, after his death, always appears 
 to the person who is most dear to him, to 
 make known where lie his mangled remains, 
 to beg the rites of burial.
 
 106 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [C'H* 
 
 CHAMP, v. To bite with a frequent action of the teeth ; to devour. 
 CHANCE,*. Fortune, the cause of fortuitous events; the act of fortune; 
 
 accident ; possibility of any occurrence. 
 CHAP, s. The upper or under part of a beast's mouth. 
 CHAR, s. A fish found chiefly in Winandermeer in Lancashire. 
 
 The char is a most beautiful and excellent 
 fish, and is a fish of prey. They generally 
 haunt deep cool lakes, and are seldom found 
 at the surface till late in autumn. When 
 they are at the surface, however, they will 
 take either fly or minnow. I have known 
 some caught in both these ways, and have 
 myself taken a char, even in summer, in one 
 of those beautiful, small, deep lakes in the 
 Upper Tyrol, near Nazereet; but it was where 
 a cool stream entered from the mountains, 
 and the fish did not rise, but swallowed the 
 artificial fly under water. The char is always, 
 in its colour, a very brilliant fish, but in dif- 
 ferent countries tbere are many varieties in 
 the tint. I do not remember ever to have 
 seen more beautiful fish than those of Aussee, 
 
 CHAR, v. To burn wood to a black cinder. 
 
 CHARADRIUS (LiNN.) *. Plover, a genus thus characterised : 
 
 which, when in perfect season, have the lower 
 fins and the belly of the brightest vermilion, 
 with a white line on the outside of the pecto- 
 ral, ventral, anal, and lower part of the caudal 
 fin, and with vermilion spots, surrounded by 
 the bright olive shade of the sides and back. 
 The dorsal fin in the char has eleven spines, 
 the pectoral fourteen, the ventral nine, the 
 anal ten, and the caudal twenty. I have 
 fished for them in many lakes, without suc- 
 cess, both in England and Scotland, and also 
 amongst the Alps ; and I am told the only 
 sure way of taking them is by sinking a line 
 with a bullet and a hook having a live min- 
 now attached to it, in the deep water which 
 they usually haunt. Davy. 
 
 Bill shorter than the head, slender, straight, 
 compressed, nasal furrow prolonged more than 
 two-thirds ; mandibles bulged towards the tip. 
 Nostrils at the base, jagged, slit lengthwise in 
 the middle of a large membrane, which covers 
 the fosse. Legs long or of middle length, 
 slender, three toes directed forwards ; the 
 
 CHARCOAL, *. Coal made by burning wood. Charcoal poultices are 
 sometimes used to remove the fetid smell arising from greased heels. 
 
 outer toe joined to the middle one by a short 
 membrane ; the inner toe separate. Tail 
 slightly rounded or square. Wings of middle 
 size, the first quill a little shorter than the 
 
 second, which is the longest in the wing 
 
 Montagu.
 
 CHE] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 107 
 
 CHARGE, v. To accuse ; to command ; to fall upon, to attack ; to load a 
 
 gun. 
 CHARGE, s. Care, trust, custody; command, commission; imputation; 
 
 expense ; onset ; the quantity of powder and ball put into a gun ; a 
 
 preparation, or a sort of ointment applied to the shoulder-splaits and 
 
 sprains of horses. 
 
 2. Yellow rosin 
 Bees-wax 
 
 Common turpentine 
 Armenian bole, powdered 
 The first three are to be melted together, 
 and then the latter is to be added. The mix- 
 ture is to be constantly stirred until sufficiently 
 
 Charges arc plasters applied to the legs to 
 remove windgalls and lameness, previous to 
 turning the horse out. Those in common 
 use, are 
 
 Yellow rosin 
 Burgundy pitch 
 Barbadoes tar 
 Bees-wax 
 Red lead 
 
 2oz. 
 4 oz. 
 
 2 oz. 
 
 3 oz. 
 
 4 oz. 
 
 lib. 
 8 oz. 
 2oz. 
 4 oz Mix. 
 
 cold to be applied ; and if it prove too thick 
 when cold, it may be softened with a little oil 
 or lard. 
 
 CHARGER, s. an officer's horse. 
 
 CHARIOT, s. A carriage of pleasure, or state. 
 
 CHARMER, s. One that has the power of charms, or enchantments. 
 
 The Charmer That individuals have ex- 
 ercised a powerful and unaccountable influence 
 on the most unmanageable animals, by means 
 which still remain a mystery, is certain. The 
 most remarkable case on record, is that of an 
 Irish blacksmith, who, by an undiscovered 
 agency, could subdue the most vicious horses. 
 He asserted, that this was effected by merely 
 whispering in the animal's ear some potent spell, 
 and hence he gained the title of the charmer. 
 This power over the most desperate horses was 
 so often put to the test, that all doubt is idle. 
 He never refused to enter the stable of horses 
 that to all besides were unapproachable, and 
 after a short tete-a-tete, the animal would be 
 found trembling and subdued, and while every 
 limb appeared convulsed with terror the char- 
 mer would pass under his belly, lift his feet, 
 
 CHASE, v. To hunt, to pursue ; to drive. 
 
 CHASE, s. Hunting, pursuit of anything as game; fitness to be hunted; 
 
 pursuit of something as desirable ; hunting match ; the game hunted ; 
 
 open ground stored with such beasts as are hunted ; the chase of a gun, 
 
 is the whole bore or length of a piece. 
 CHASER, s. Hunter, pursuer, driver. 
 CHECK, s. Restraint, curb ; in falconry, when a hawk forsakes the proper 
 
 game to follow other birds ; the cause of restraint ; a stop. 
 
 When hounds divide and are in two parts, | should be silent, and stand still, the huntsman 
 
 or do any thing he was required, In his re- 
 peated experiments upon the most savage 
 horses, the charmer never received any in- 
 jury, or failed in subduing the animal. 
 
 Many attempts have been made to account 
 for the means by which this influence was ob- 
 tained. The general belief was, that some 
 powerful drug was passed by the exorciser into 
 the horse's ear ; but by what means was he 
 enabled to approach sufficiently close to a furi- 
 ous brute to administer it ? 
 
 It is singular that though the charmer was 
 a miserable and poverty-stricken wretch, no 
 bribe could induce him to communicate the 
 charm if it was one and though immense 
 sums of money were offered, he carried the 
 secret with him to the grave ! 
 
 the whipper-in must wait for the huntsman's 
 halloo before he stops either. If there are 
 many scents, and it is quite uncertain which 
 is the hunted fox, he should stop those hounds 
 that are the farthest down the wind, as they 
 ran hear the others, and will reach them 
 soonest. 
 
 When hounds arc at a check, every one 
 
 had better let the hounds alone, or content 
 himself with holding them forward, without 
 taking them off their noses. 
 
 If hounds come to a check on a high road, 
 by the fox being headed, in trying back they 
 have the best chance of hitting off the scent 
 again, as they may try on both sides at once. 
 Beckford. Daniel.
 
 108 THE FIELD BOOK. L<-'iu: 
 
 CHECKMATE, s. The movement on the chess-board, that puts an eud to 
 
 the game. 
 CHEEK, s. The side of the face below the eye ; a general name among 
 
 mechanics for almost all those pieces of their machines that are double. 
 CHERUP, v. To chirp, to use a cheerful voice. 
 CHESS, s. A nice and intricate game, in imitation of a battle between two 
 
 armies. 
 
 RULES FOR CHESS. 
 
 1. Move your pawns before your pieces, and 
 afterwards bring out the pieces to support 
 them ; therefore the king's, queen's and bi- 
 shops' pawns should be the first played, in 
 order to open the game well. 
 
 2. Do not, therefore, play out any of your 
 pieces early in the game, because you thereby 
 lose moves, in case your adversary can, by 
 playing a pawn, make them retire, and lie also 
 opens his game at the same time : especially 
 avoid playing your queen out, till your game 
 is tolerably well opened. 
 
 3. Avoid giving useless checks, and never 
 give any unless to gain some advantage, be- 
 cause you may lose the move, if the adversary 
 can either take or drive your piece away. 
 
 4. Never crowd your game by having too 
 many pieces together, so as to prevent your 
 men advancing or retreating as occasion may 
 require. 
 
 5. If your game should be crowded, endea- 
 vour to free it by exchanges of pieces or pawns, 
 and castle your king as soon as convenient ; 
 afterwards bring out your pieces, and attack 
 the adversary where weakest. 
 
 6. When the adversary plays out his pieces 
 before his pawns, attack them as soon as you 
 can with your pawns, by which you may crowd 
 his game and make him lose moves. 
 
 7. Never attack the adversary's king with- 
 out a sufficient force ; and if he attack yours, 
 and you cannot retaliate, offer exchanges ; and 
 should he retire, when you present a piece to 
 exchange, he may lose a move. It also may 
 sometimes be expedient to act in this manner 
 in case of other attacks. 
 
 8. Play your men in guard of one another, 
 so that if any be taken, the enemy may also 
 be captured by that which guarded yours, and 
 endeavour to have as many guards to your 
 piece, as your adversary advances others upon 
 it ; and, if possible, let them be of less value 
 than those he assails with. When you can- 
 not well support your piece, see if by attack- 
 ing one of his that is better, or as good, you 
 may not thereby save yours. 
 
 9. Never attack but when well prepared, 
 for thereby you open your adversary's game, 
 and prepare him to pour in a strong attack 
 upon you, as soon as your weaker one is 
 over. 
 
 1 0. Never play till you have examined whe- 
 
 ther you are free from danger by your adver- 
 sary's last move ; nor offer to attack till you 
 have considered what harm he would be able 
 to do you by his next moves, in consequence 
 of yours. 
 
 11. When your attack is in a prosperous 
 way, never be diverted from it by taking any 
 piece, or other seeming advantage, your adver- 
 sary may purposely throw in your way, with 
 the intent that, by your taking the bait, he 
 might gain a move which would make your 
 design miscarry. 
 
 12. When, in pursuing a well-laid attack, 
 you find it necessary to force your adversary's 
 defence, with the loss of some pieces ; if, upon 
 counting as many moves forward as you can, 
 you find a prospect of success, sacrifice a piece 
 or two to gain your end : these bold attempts 
 make the finest games. 
 
 13. Never let your queen stand so before 
 the king, as that your adversary, by bringing 
 forwards a rook or a bishop, might check your 
 king if she were not there, for you could hard- 
 ly save her, or perhaps at best must sacrifice 
 her for an inferior piece ; as for example : place 
 the white king on 61, the queen on 53; the 
 black king on 4, and the rook, on 16 : which 
 last, if moved to 1 3, must be taken by the 
 white queen, who in return would be taken 
 by the black king, because the white queen 
 could not otherwise be moved without putting 
 the king on check to the black rook. 
 
 14. Let not your adversary's knight fork 
 your king and queen, or king and rook, or 
 queen and rook, or your two rooks, at the same 
 time ; for in the two first cases, the king being 
 forced to go out of check, the queen or tho 
 rook must be lost ; and in the two last a rook 
 must be lost, at best, for a worse piece. Place 
 the white queen on 5, the rook on 7, and a 
 black knight on 37. The latter piece, if 
 moved to 22, will fork both the queen and 
 rook, .and consequently one of them must be 
 lost for the knight. 
 
 1 5. Take care that no guarded pawn of your 
 adversary's fork two of your pieces : knights 
 and rooks are particularly liable to this mode 
 of attack ; also guard against either a check by 
 discovery, or a stale-mate. 
 
 16. When the kings have castled on diffe- 
 rent sides of the board, attack with the pawn 
 you have on that side where the adversary has 
 castled, advancing the pieces, especially the
 
 CHF-! 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 queen and rooks to support them; and if the 
 adversary's king have three pawns on a line in 
 front, he should not stir them till forced to it. 
 17- Endeavour to have a move in ambus- 
 cade ; that is, place the queen, bishop, or 
 rook behind a pawn, or a piece, in such a 
 manner, as that, upon playing that pawn, or 
 piece, you discover a check upon your adver- 
 sary's king, and consequently may often get a 
 piece, or some other advantage by it. Sup- 
 pose the black king on 6, a white bishop on 
 41, and a pawn on 34 ; by moving the pawn 
 to 26, a check by the white bishop is dis- 
 covered upon the black king. 
 
 18. Never guard an inferior piece or pawn 
 with a better, if you can do it with a pawn, 
 because that better piece may in such a case 
 be, as it were, out of play. 
 
 19. A pawn pushed on, and well supported, 
 often costs the adversary a piece ; but one 
 separated from the others is seldom of any 
 value. And whenever you have gained a 
 pawn, or other advantage, and are not in 
 danger of losing the move thereby, make as 
 frequent exchanges as you can. 
 
 20. If each player have three pawns upon 
 the board, and no piece, and you have a pawn 
 on one side of the board, and the other two 
 on the other side, and your adversary's 3 are 
 opposite to your 2, march with your king to 
 take his pawns; and if he move to support 
 them, go on to queen with your single pawn ; 
 and if he attempt to hinder it, take his pawns, 
 and push yours to queen ; that is, to move a 
 pawn into the adversary's back row, in order 
 to make a queen, when the original is lost. 
 
 21. At the latter end of the game, each 
 party having only three or four pawns on dif- 
 ferent sides of the board, the kings are to 
 endeavour to gain the move, in order to win 
 the game : for example the white king placed 
 on 54, and the black king on 37, white would 
 gain the move by playing to 53, or black to 
 38, and in both cases the adverse king would 
 be prevented from advancing. 
 
 22. When the adversary has no more than 
 his king and one pawn on the board, and you 
 a king only, you can never lose that game if 
 you bring and keep your king opposite to 
 your adversary's, when he is immediately 
 either before or on one side of his pawn, and 
 only one house between the kings. This 
 must then either be a drawn game, or if the 
 opponent persist in his endeavours to win, he 
 will lose by a stale-mate, by drawing you 
 upon the last square. 
 
 23. When your adversary has one pawn on 
 the rook's line, with a king and bishop against 
 a king only, and his bishop is not of the co- 
 lour that commands the corner-house his 
 pawn is going to, if yon can get your king 
 into that corner, you cannot lose that game, 
 but may win by a stale-mate. 
 
 24. When you have only your queen left 
 in play, and your king happens to be in that 
 position of stale-mate, keep giving check to 
 your adversary's king, always taking care not 
 to check him where he can interpose any of 
 his pieces that make the stale : by so doing, 
 you will at last force him to take your queen, 
 and then you win the game by being in stale- 
 mate. 
 
 25. Never cover a check with a piece that 
 a pawn pushed upon it may take, for fear of 
 only getting that pawn for it : put a black 
 rook on 7, and a pawn on 40 ; the white king 
 on 63, and a knight on 61 : the white king 
 being on a check to the rook, if the check be 
 covered by moving the white knight to 56, 
 the black pawn could then be moved to 48, 
 and take the knight 
 
 26. Do not crowd your adversary's king 
 with your pieces, lest you inadvertently give 
 a stale-mate. 
 
 27. Do not be too much afraid of losing a 
 rook for an inferior piece ; though a rook is 
 better than any other, except the queen, yet 
 it seldom comes into play, so as to operate, 
 until the end of the game ; and it is generally 
 better to have a worse piece in play than a 
 superior out. 
 
 28. When you have moved a piece, which 
 your adversary drives away with a pawn, that 
 is a bad move, your enemy gaining a double 
 advantage. At this nice game no move can 
 be indifferent. Though the first move may 
 not be much, between equally good players, 
 yet the loss of one or two more, after the 
 first, makes the game almost irretrievable : 
 but if you can recover the move, or the at- 
 tack (for they both go together), you are in a 
 fair way of winning. 
 
 29. If ever your game be such, that you 
 have scarce any thing to play, you have either 
 brought out your pieces wrong, or, which is 
 worse, not at all ; for if yon have brought 
 them out right, you must have variety enough. 
 
 30. Do not be much afraid of doubling a 
 pawn : two in a direct line are not disadvan- 
 tageous when surrounded by three or four 
 others ; three together are strong, (as three 
 white pawns on 28, 35 and 37 ;) but four, 
 (as 44 in addition) that make a square, with 
 the help of other pieces, well managed, form 
 an invincible strength, and probably may pro- 
 duce you a queen : on the contrary, two 
 pawns, with an interval between (as on 35 
 and 37) are no better than one ; and if you 
 should have three over each other in a line 
 (as 26, 34, and 42) your game cannot be in a 
 worse situation. 
 
 31. When a piece is so attacked that it is 
 difficult to save it, give it up, and endeavour 
 to annoy your enemy in another place ; for it 
 often happens, that whilst your adversary is 
 pursuing a piece, you either get a pawn or
 
 110 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [CHE 
 
 two, or such a situation as ends in his de- 
 struction. 
 
 32. Supposing your queen and another 
 piece are attacked at the same time, and by 
 removing your queen, you must lose the 
 piece, if you can get two pieces in exchange 
 for her, rather do that than retire ; for the 
 difference is more than the worth of a queen ; 
 besides, you preserve your situation, which is 
 often better than a piece ; when the attack 
 and defence are thoroughly formed, if he who 
 plays first be obliged to retire by the person 
 who defends, that generally ends in the loss 
 of the game on the side of him who attacks. 
 
 33. Do not aim at exchanges without rea- 
 son ; a good player will take advantage of it, 
 to spoil your situation, and mend his own : 
 but when you are strongest, especially by a 
 piece, and have not an immediate check-mate 
 in view, then every time you exchange, your 
 advantage increases. Again, when you have 
 played a piece, and your adversary opposes 
 one to you, exchange directly, for lie wants 
 to remove you : prevent him, and do not lose 
 the move. 
 
 34. Every now and then examine your 
 game, and then take your measures accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 35. At the latter end of the game, espe- 
 cially when both queens are off the board, 
 the kings are capital pieces ; do not let your 
 king be idle ; it is by his means, generally, 
 you must get the move and the victory. 
 
 36. As the queen, rooks, and bishops 
 operate at a distance, it is not always neces- 
 sary in your attack to have them near your 
 adversary's king ; they do better at a distance, 
 cannot be driven away, and prevent a stale- 
 mate. 
 
 37. When there is a piece you can take, 
 and that cannot escape, do not hurry; see 
 where you can make a good move elsewhere, 
 and take the piece at leisure. 
 
 38. It is not always right to take your ad- 
 versary's pawn with your king, for very often 
 it happens to be a safeguard and protection to 
 him. Place a black rook on 5, with a pawn 
 on 45, and the white king on 53, and he will 
 be sheltered by the black pawn from the 
 attack of the rook. 
 
 39. When you can take a man with dif- 
 ferent pieces, consider thoroughly with which 
 you had beat take it. 
 
 APPLICATION TO SOME OF THE FOREGOING RULES. 
 
 1. Whether you play the open or close 
 game, bring out all your pieces into play be- 
 fore you begin the attack ; for if you do not 
 and your adversary should, you will always 
 attack, or be attacked, at a great disadvan- 
 tage ; this is so essential, that you had better 
 forego an advantage than deviate from it ; and 
 no person can ever play well who does not 
 strictly practise this. In order to bring out 
 your pieces properly, push on your pawns 
 first, and support them with your pieces, by 
 which your game will not be crowded, and all 
 your pieces will be at liberty to play and as- 
 sist each other, and so co-operate towards ob- 
 taining your end ; and either in your attack 
 or defence, bring them out so as not to bo 
 driven back again. 
 
 2. When you have brought out all your 
 pieces, which you will have done well, if you 
 have your choice on which side to castle ; 
 then consider thoroughly your own and ad- 
 versary's game, and not only resolve where to 
 castle, but likewise to attack where you ap- 
 pear strongest, and your enemy weakest. By 
 this it is probable you will be able to break 
 through your adversary's game, in which some 
 pieces must be exchanged. Now pause again, 
 and survey both games attentively, and do not 
 let your impetuosity hurry you on too far ; at 
 this critical juncture (especially if you still 
 find your adversary very strong) rally your 
 men, and put them in good order for a second 
 or third attack, still keeping them close and 
 connected, so as to be of use to each other. 
 For want of this method, and a little cool- 
 ness, an almost sure victory is often snatched 
 out of a player's hands, and a total overthrow 
 ensues. 
 
 3. At the last period of the game, observe 
 where your pawns are strongest, best connected, 
 and nearest to queen ; likewise mind how 
 your adversary's pawns are disposed, and com- 
 pare these things together ; and if you can 
 c;et to queen before him, proceed without he- 
 sitation ; if not, hurry on with your king to 
 prevent him : I speak now, as supposing all 
 the noblemen arc gone ; if not, they are to 
 attend your pawns, and likewise to prevent 
 your adversary from going to queen Vide 
 Hoyle Jones, Qc. 
 
 CHESS-BOARD, s. The board or table on which the game of chess is played. 
 
 CHESS-MAN, s. A puppet for chess. 
 
 CHEVAUX-DE-FRISE, s. A piece of timber traversed with wooden spikes, 
 
 pointed with iron, five or six feet long. 
 CHEW, v. To grind with the teeth, to masticate ; to meditate, or ruminate 
 
 in the thoughts ; to taste without swallowing.
 
 CHU] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 Ill 
 
 CHICK, CHICKEN, s. The young of a bird, particularly of a hen, or small 
 
 bird. 
 CHINE, *. The part of the back in which the back-bone is found; a piece 
 
 of the back of an animal. 
 CHIRP, s. The voice of birds or insects. 
 CHOP, v. To do any thing- with a quick motion ; to light or happen upon 
 
 any thing. To fall upon a scent. 
 CHOUGH, s. A bird which frequents the rocks by the sea. 
 
 This species weighs about fourteen ounces ; 
 length near seventeen inches. The bill is 
 longer and more slender than in any of the 
 genus, a little curved, of a deep orange red, 
 much resembling red coral, and is remarkably 
 brittle ; irides hazel. 
 
 The plumage is wholly black, glossed with 
 purple ; legs and feet red ; claws black, strong, 
 and much hooked. The female differs in not 
 
 being so large, and in the bill being shorter ; 
 the plumage in both sexes is alike. 
 
 This bird with us seems to be chiefly con- 
 fined to Devonshire, Cornwall, and Wales, 
 where it is found on most of the bold rocky 
 shores. It has been seen on the cliffs of Dover, 
 supposed to have escaped from confinement, 
 and stocked those rocks. But we believe the 
 breed in those parts is again lost. Montagu. 
 
 CHRONIC, a. Relating to time. A chronic distemper is of long duration. 
 
 Vide LAMENESS. 
 CHUB, *. A river fish. The cheven. 
 
 This fish takes its name from the head, 
 not only in our own but other languages ; we 
 call it chub, according to Skinner, and from 
 the old English cop, a head ; the French, 
 testard ; the Italians, capitome : in different 
 parts of England this fish is called cheven, 
 nob, or boiling ; he much resembles the carp, 
 but is of a longer form ; the body is oblong, 
 rather round, and of a pretty equal thickness 
 in the greater part of the slope; the scales 
 are large ; the irides silvery ; the cheeks of 
 the same colour ; the head and back of a 
 deep dusky green ; the sides silvery, but in 
 the summer, yellow; the belly white; the 
 
 pectoral fins of a pale yellow ; the ventral 
 and anal fins, red; the tail forked, of a 
 brownish hue, but tinged with blue at the 
 end ; it is altogether a handsome fish, will 
 sometimes weigh upwards of five pounds ; but 
 Salvianus speaks of them as increasing to 
 eight or nine. The flesh of the chub is not 
 in much esteem, being coarse, and when out 
 of season, full of small hairy bones ; the head 
 and throat are the best parts, taking care to 
 have the latter well washed and cleansed 
 from the grass and weeds usually in it. The 
 roe is exceedingly good, and this fish stewed 
 us carp, will, it is said, deceive a connoisseur.
 
 J12 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Cno 
 
 The haunts of the chub are in rivers whoso 
 bottoms are of sand or clay, or which are 
 bounded by clayey banks ; particularly in 
 deep holes, shaded by trees, weeds, &c. They 
 frequently float on the surface, and are some- 
 times in streams and deep waters where the 
 currents are strong ; in ponds fed by a rivulet 
 they grow to a large size. They spawn in 
 April, and are most in perfection in December 
 and January, having then very few of the 
 hairy bones aforementioned. 
 
 The chub does not afford the angler so 
 much diversion as the trout, from being so 
 dull a fish on the hook, and when once struck 
 becoming soon tired ; but he bites so eagerly, 
 that, when he takes the bait, his jaws are 
 heard to chop like those of the dog, and 
 having a very wide leather mouth, and his 
 teeth in his throat, there is little danger of his 
 breaking hold ; to fish for him, the angler should 
 have a stout long rod, a strong line (if he uses a 
 reel he will be enabled the better to fish under 
 bushes) with a yard or more of the best silk- 
 worm-gut at bottom, a book proportioned to 
 the bait used, a swan-quill float, and the line 
 so shotted, eight or ten inches from the hook, 
 as to sink the float to a quarter of an inch 
 above the surface ; the same ground-bait to be 
 used as for the carp, and the hook baited with 
 a sufficient quantity of salmon's roe (boiled a 
 little) to fill up the bend properly ; this rightly 
 done is a tempting bait. The large ones are 
 to be caught by dibbing, very early in the 
 morning, with the brown beetle or cock- 
 chafer : by day-break the angler should be at 
 the river, and after baiting his hook, let him 
 move it two or three times near the surface, 
 as in the act of flying ; then let it softly drop 
 on the water, shaking the rod gently, which 
 will cause the appearance of its struggling to 
 escape : this attracts the chub, who are so 
 fond of this bait that they will rise two or 
 three at a time to seize it ; the landing-net in 
 this fishing should never be forgotten, as the 
 places most likely for success in taking chub, 
 are those where the angler cannot get to the 
 water-side to land them with his hands. 
 
 Another way of dibbing is in a hot summer 
 day with a grasshopper. In any hole where 
 they haunt, many of them will be seen bask- 
 ing themselves near the surface ; the rod must 
 be both long and of considerable strength ; the 
 line strong, and in length about a yard. Bait 
 the hook with a grasshopper, and the angler 
 must conceal himself bebind some bush or 
 tree, and remain as motionless as possible, for 
 the chub is so fearful, that the smallest sha- 
 dow of a bird flying over, or of the rod, makes 
 him sink to the bottom, but he will soon rise 
 again. Having selected the largest chub, let 
 
 him move the rod with great slowness and 
 cuution, and drop the bait gently upon tho 
 water, three or four inches before it, and he 
 will infallibly take it : there is no danger of 
 securing the chub, if allowed play enough 
 before it is attempted to be taken out, being 
 one of the leather-mouthed fishes, wherein a 
 hook seldom loses its hold. 
 
 The chub will take gentles, wasps, maggots 
 (which must be baked in an oven before used). 
 Paste of fine new white bread (without being 
 made wet), worked up in the hand, and tinged 
 with vermilion as near as possible to the 
 colour of salmon's roe ; from the hook this 
 paste will not easily wash off, and is a most 
 killing bait ; but the best baits for bottom or 
 float-fishing for this fish, arc old Cheshire 
 cheese, (such as, without crumbling, will 
 mould in the hand), and the pith from tho 
 back bone of an ox, with the outward so care- 
 fully taken off as not to bruise the inward 
 skin. 
 
 At every season of the year, the former of 
 these is good ; but the latter end of summer, 
 and all the winter, are the preferable times for 
 both. In baiting with the cheese, put a round 
 lump, the size of a cherry, on a large hook, so 
 as to cover the bend, and some way up tho 
 shank ; fish six inches from the bottom, or in 
 cold raw weather the bait may lie on the 
 ground ; but if the hole has not been ground- 
 baited, the depth is immaterial ; when there is 
 abite, the float will very swiftly be drawn under 
 water, strike immediately and give him play, 
 holding a tolerable tight line, to keep the fish 
 clear of weeds and stumps, which at sight of 
 the angler he will endeavour to get at for 
 shelter, and if not properly managed, he will 
 break the tackle. In the spring of the year 
 the chub will take a marsh, or small red- 
 worm ; in May, June, and July, flies, beetles, 
 snails (the black ones with the belly slit to 
 shew the white ;) in August, pastes : the large 
 chiib will also take minnows, small dace, and 
 gudgeons, angled with in the same manner as 
 for perch ; and the latter bait used likewise in 
 trolling for pike, the hook not so heavily load- 
 ed upon the shank. They gorge immediately 
 upon taking the bait. Their biting times are 
 chiefly from before sunrise until nine in the 
 morning, and from four until after sunset in 
 the summer, (some will, by chance, take at 
 any time of the day when mild and cloudy) ; 
 and in the winter the middle of the day is 
 best ; remembering that in hot weather, they 
 are to be fished for at or near the top, and 
 not deeper than mid- water, and in cold, close 
 to or upon the bottom; and that the main 
 point in taking this fish is, the angler's keep- 
 ing himself out of sight Daniel. 
 
 CHUBBED, a. Big-headed, like a chub.
 
 Crr] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 113 
 
 CHUCK, v. To make a noise like a hen. 
 
 CHYLE,*. The white juice formed in the stomach by digestion of the 
 
 aliment. 
 CICATRICE, or CICATRIX, s. The scar remaining 1 after a wound; a mark, 
 
 an impressure. 
 CICATRIZE, v. To apply such medicines to wounds, or ulcers, as skin 
 
 them. 
 
 CIDER, s. The juice of apples expressed and fermented. 
 CILIARY, a. Belonging to the eyelids. 
 CILIATED (Lingua Ciliata, LINN.), a. In ornithology, a term used when 
 
 the tongue is edged with fine bristles, as in ducks. 
 CINGLE, s. A girth for a horse. 
 
 CINNABAR, *. Vermilion, a mineral consisting of mercury and sulphur. 
 CINNAMON, s. The fragrant bark of a low tree in the island of Ceylon. 
 
 To dye cinnamon colour Take about | hours boiling; divide that time as to the 
 three pints of right stone crottle, (com- I drawing each shade ; look at them every hour 
 
 mon lichen) about four or six chips of 
 young fustic, and a good flake of walnut- 
 bark ; put them down in eight quarts of 
 water; when your time of boiling is half 
 done, add a pint of crottle and eight or 
 ten fustic chips ; make four very thick can- 
 vass hags, ten inches broad and fourteen 
 or fifteen inches long wash them when 
 made, lest they should hurt your colour, 
 
 by lifting out a bag, and if you see a shade to 
 your eye, draw a part and put down your bag 
 again : in this case you should put half a 
 pound of fur in your bags. There are many 
 shades of cinnamon wanting in fishing. Thus 
 you have your colour nice and clean. The 
 reason of using the bags is the difficulty of 
 carding the crottle out of the fur; and the 
 reason of boiling so long, is, that the bag in 
 
 Divide one pound of fur into four parts, some degree prevents the dye. 
 
 and put a part into each bag; tie a leaden 
 weight to each bag, at both ends, allowing 
 two inches of string, to admit the bags to rise 
 that height from the bottom, lest they should 
 burn ; place them in the pot so that they may 
 not entangle with each other, put in your 
 frame without the lid, and fill the pot with 
 water. It will take from twelve to eighteen 
 
 You may get a more flaming cinnamon by 
 using the following dye-stuff : A quarter of 
 a pound of turmeric, half a table-spoonful of 
 brasil, and a flake of walnut-bark ; follow 
 the process of the other, as to the addition of 
 more dye-stuff, the bags, leads, &c Old 
 Receipt. 
 
 CINQUE, s. A five. 
 
 CIRCLE, v. To move round any thing ; to enclose, to surround ; to confine. 
 
 CIRCUMVOLATION, s. The act of flying round. 
 
 CIRRUS, s. A description of cloud. 
 
 rain will probably follow before long. 
 
 The tufts of cirrus, called mares' tails, are 
 
 Cirrus or Curlcloud When, after much 
 
 fine weather, this cloud appears like a white 
 line pencilled along on the azure sky, we may 
 generally reckon on a change; and if the 
 cloud increases, and others are added to it 
 latterly, or if it change to the wane-cloud, 
 
 known to he a sign of wind, which has fre- 
 quently been found to blow from the quarter 
 to which these curlclouds have previously 
 pointed Foster. 
 
 CIST, s. A case, a tegument, commonly the enclosure of a tumour. 
 CISTERN,*. A receptacle of water for domestic uses; a reservoir; an 
 
 enclosed fountain; any watery receptacle. 
 CITRON, s. A large kind of lemon. 
 CITRON-WATER, s. Aqua vitae, distilled with the rind of citrons.
 
 114 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 CLARET, s. A species of French wine 
 
 To dye claret colour Take any quantity 
 
 of stuff, put it down with some young fustic 
 chips, bring it up to as bright a shade as it 
 will give, and then put in some Hack grain ; 
 bring it up high with this, add some brasil 
 dust, and you will have a deep red. Have 
 a small quantity of boiling water and a little 
 stale urine in another vessel, dip a small bit 
 of wool in, and if you like the change dip 
 more ; have some archil liquor boiled and 
 strained, add this to the rest of your liquor 
 sparingly, as, if you darken too much at first, 
 you ruin all : thus you may draw two shades 
 between the different additions of the archil 
 and liquor; and if you wish it to be still 
 darker, take out your fur, and throw into the 
 
 pot a quarter of a tea-spoonful of salt of tar- 
 tar, and that will darken it sufficiently. 
 
 To dye good dark clarets, blood, and fiery 
 
 reds Get some bunches of the clearest red 
 
 hackles, ground them well in cochineal, then 
 add some brasil dust, and when they have 
 boiled a few minutes draw a hunch or two ; 
 add more brasil dust, boil and draw again. 
 If they are changed enough, then add in some 
 archil and boil them again. Never attempt 
 to ground iu yellow for this process, as at 
 best the hackles will appear but a dull ma- 
 hogany colour when placed between you and 
 the light. Never use young fustic in hackle- 
 dyeing, as it spoils the feathers Old Re~ 
 ceipt. 
 
 CLASS, s. A rank or order of persons or animals. 
 
 CLASS, v. To range according to some stated method of distribution. 
 
 CLAW, s. The foot of a beast or bird armed with sharp nails. 
 
 Puppies are frequently born with dew claws ; 
 sometimes they are double. Whether there 
 is any bony attachment or not, it is always 
 prudent to cut them off in a few days after 
 birth, otherwise they become very trouble- 
 some as the dog grows up ; for the claw or 
 nail attached to the end of each, frequently 
 turns in and wounds the flesh; or, by its 
 hook-like shape, it catches into every thing 
 the dog treads on. 
 
 The horny claws or nails of the true toes 
 are also subject, when dogs have not sufficient 
 
 CLEANLINESS, s. Freedom from dirt, 
 
 The following curious fact is mentioned 
 in a communication on the cleanliness of 
 animals (Jour. Roy. Institution,No. II.) 
 " Walking one day along the shore of Holy 
 Island, off the coast of Northumberland, I 
 disturbed an ash-coloured sanderling (Co/t- 
 dris islandica, STEPH.), which flew heed- 
 lessly, and as if injured. On shooting the 
 bird, I found that it was covered with vermin, 
 more especially about the head ; so much so, 
 that the poor thing must have fallen a victim 
 to their tormenting ravages. On further ex- 
 
 CLERGY, s. A man in holy orders, not a laic. 
 
 hawks and hounds with them. In the same 
 tale he severely reproaches the priests for their 
 
 exercise, to become preternaturally long, and, 
 by turning in, to wound these toes likewise, 
 and lame the dog. It is better to saw them 
 off with a very fine and hard cockspur saw, 
 and then to file them smooth ; avoiding to cut 
 them too close, or the vascular part may 
 be entered on, and much unnecessary pain 
 given to the animal. Some dogs require their 
 nails to be cut every two or three months, or 
 even oftener ; otherwise they become very 
 lame Elaine. 
 
 being clean. 
 
 amination, I found that it had lost one of its 
 legs, so that it was from its incapability to rid 
 itself of these insects that their extraordinary 
 increase was to be attributed. Poultry (the 
 same naturalist remarks) which run about in 
 stony or paved yards, wear away the points of 
 their claws by friction and digging, which 
 renders them unfit to penetrate their coating 
 of feathers ; they are, therefore, more covered 
 with vermin, and, in consequence, more sickly 
 than fowls from the country." Ainsworth. 
 
 The propensity of the clergy to follow the 
 secular pastimes, and especially those of hunt- 
 
 ing and hawking, is frequently reprobated by 
 the poets and moralists of the former times. 
 Chaucer, in his Canterbury Tales, makes the 
 monk much better skilled in riding and hunt- 
 ing, than in divinity. The same poet, after- 
 wards, in the Ploughman's Tale, takes occasion 
 to accuse the monks of pride, because they 
 rode on coursers like knights, having tlreir 
 
 dissolute manners, saying, that many of them 
 thought more upon hunting with their dogs, 
 and blowing the horn, than of the service they 
 owed to God. 
 
 The bishops and abbots of the middle ages 
 hunted with great state, having a large train 
 of retainers and servants ; and some of them 
 are recorded for their skill in this fashionable
 
 CLI] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 115 
 
 pursuit. Walter, bishop of Rochester, who 
 lived in the thirteenth century, was an excel- 
 lent hunter, and so fond of the sport, that at 
 the age of fourscore he made hunting his sole 
 employment, to the total neglect of the duties 
 of his office. In the succeeding century an 
 ahhot of Leicester surpassed all the sportsmen 
 of the time in the art of hare-hunting ; and 
 even when these dignitaries were travelling 
 from place to place, upon affairs of business, 
 they usually had both hounds and hawks in 
 their train. Fitzstephen assures us, that 
 Thomas a Becket, being sent as ambassador 
 from Henry II. to the court of France, assum- 
 
 ed the state of a secular potentate ; and took 
 with him dogs and hawks of various sorts, such 
 as were used by kings and princes. 
 
 At the time of the Reformation, the see of 
 Norwich, only, was in the possession of no less 
 than thirteen parks, well stocked with deer 
 and other animals for the chase. At the end 
 of a book of Homilies in MS., in the Cotton 
 Library, written about the reign of Henry VI., 
 is a poem containing instructions to priests in 
 general, and requiring them, among other 
 things, not to engage in " hawkynge, huntynge, 
 and dawnsynge." Strutt. 
 
 CLEW, s. Thread wound upon a button ; a guide. 
 
 CLICK, v. To make a sharp, successive noise. 
 
 CLIFF, or CLIFT, s. A steep rock, a rock. 
 
 CLIP, v. To cut with shears ; to curtail, to cut short. 
 
 CLIPPING, s. The part cut or clipped off; an operation performed on rough 
 
 or long-coated horses. Of its benefits and disadvantages very contrary 
 
 opinions have been given. 
 
 I should certainly prefer seeing a horse of 
 mine with a fine short coat without the aid of 
 clipping; but if that were not to be accom- 
 plished, I would certainly have him clipped. 
 
 * 
 
 " A very dangerous effect of debility, or 
 being out of condition," says Mr. Smith, p. 18, 
 " is, that the subject has a long rough coat, 
 which retains the perspiration excited by ex- 
 ercise; and even in cold weather, when the 
 exercise is not such as to excite sweat, the in- 
 sensible perspiration which is constantly issu- 
 ing from the extremities of the cutaneous 
 vessels is condensed among the hair, and ap- 
 pears on the surface like dew ; whereby cold 
 is produced on the surface of the body, occa- 
 sioning too great a determination of blood to 
 the lungs, and other important viscus, which is 
 always in proportion to the diminution of the 
 
 cutaneous perspiration." 
 
 * * 
 
 " I must own myself a very decided advo- 
 cate for the clipping of hunters, having ob- 
 served such horses to have had a most decided 
 advantage, during the last season, with the 
 Cheshire, Sir Richard Puleston's and Sir Tho- 
 mas Stanley's fox-hounds, as well as with the 
 Chester harriers, now under the very superior 
 management of Captain Puleston. Experience 
 and observation are, in this matter, worth a 
 bushel of a priori reasoning ; but scientific ar- 
 gument and rational explanation are not want- 
 ing to aid and enforce the practice of clipping. 
 In the first place and to begin with the most 
 trifling reason the horse is a pound lighter ; 
 and the coat affording little resistance to the 
 brush, your groom is not half so soon fatigued 
 
 in dressing, and lays double strength upon the 
 surface. This causes a greater determination 
 to the extreme vessels, and the insensible per- 
 spiration is proportionably increased. We in- 
 variably find a connexion between the action 
 of the skin and that of the intestines ; and this 
 is sufficiently evident in a well-groomed horse ; 
 the lacteals of the bowels seem to have a cor- 
 responding action communicated to them 
 they absorb and select the pabulum of the blood 
 with increased vigour the secreting vessels of 
 the stomach furnish the gastric solvent more 
 abundantly the liver more readily acts, and 
 separates those vitiated parts which have ful- 
 filled their duties in the circulation, and re- 
 quire to be thrown out of the system, but in 
 their transit, in the form of bile, perform other 
 important uses, in stimulating the intestines to 
 that regular peristaltic motion which secures a 
 change of particles to the vessels which absorb 
 the nourishment for the blood. But the ab- 
 dominal viscera do not alone benefit by the 
 more intimate friction which is admitted to the 
 skin of a clipped horse. The lungs are won- 
 derfully assisted the more the insensible per- 
 spiration is increased : the less work for them 
 to accomplish, the less will be the determina- 
 tion to the internal vessels ; and consequently 
 the less risk of congestion in the minute bron- 
 chial ramifications of the lungs. 
 
 
 
 Were I to give a good price for a promising 
 yonng horse for the purpose of making him a 
 hunter, and keeping him for my own use, and 
 a man were to come into my stable and tell 
 me he would give me one-third of bis value if 
 I would have him clipped, 1 would refuse his 
 I 2
 
 116 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 offer. I look upon clipping as nothing but a 
 bad substitute for good grooming, and an ope- 
 ration attended with several disadvantages. In 
 the first place, when once performed it must 
 always be repeated ; and in the second, it is a 
 constant eye-sore to a person who is fond of 
 seeing his horses looking well, as it effectually 
 destroys that bloom on the skin which is not 
 only so beautiful, but also so confirmatory of 
 the sound health of the animal ; and lastly, by 
 depriving him of the protection which a short 
 thick coat, lying close to the body, affords him 
 against the scratching of thorns and briars, it 
 very frequently causes a horse to refuse rough 
 places in a fence which he would not have re- 
 fused before. It is a remedy to be sure, or at 
 least a palliative ; but I had rather a horse of 
 mine should endure the disease it is intended 
 to relieve, until 1 could bring a better medi- 
 cine to his aid ; and were I to become possessed 
 of a hunter which required clipping, I would 
 put up with his long coat and evening sweats, 
 until, by strengthening his general system, I 
 
 god rid of the latter, to which the former is 
 by no means a certain contributor. It is quite 
 possible and I have an instance at this mo- 
 ment in my own stable for a horse to have a 
 long coat (and some horses at certain periods 
 will not wear a short coat), but still to look 
 very blooming to the eye, and dry immedi- 
 ately after a sweat, as is the case with the 
 horse I speak of. I am not weak enough to 
 suppose that clipping will not continue to be 
 practised because one individual disapproves of 
 it ; but I may be allowed to say, I will never 
 after this year practise it again. The horse I 
 had clipped last winter must now, I fear, be 
 clipped again, for I abhor the sight of him in 
 his present state his coat somewhat resem- 
 bling a poodle dog; but his evening sweats are 
 got rid of by the method I pursued with him 
 in the summer. Clipping may be all very 
 well for those who cannot, or will not, get 
 their horses into condition by other means ; 
 
 and to such only do I recommend it Nim- 
 
 rod Smith Equestris. 
 
 CLOSE, s. A small field enclosed ; the period when it is illegal to shoot or 
 
 fish ; the time of shutting up ; a grapple in wrestling. 
 CLOTHE, v. To invest with garments, to cover with dress. 
 CLOVE, s. A valuable spice brought from Ternate ; the fruit or seed of a 
 
 very large tree ; some of the parts into which garlick separates. 
 CLOVEN-FOOTED, or CLOVEN-HOOFED, a. Having the foot divided into 
 
 two parts. 
 
 CLOVER, s. A species of trefoil. 
 CLOUT, s. Anciently the mark of white cloth at which archers shot ; an 
 
 iron plate to an axletree. 
 CLOY, v. To satiate, to sate, to surfeit. 
 CLUB, $. A heavy stick ; the name of one of the suits of cards ; the shot 
 
 or dividend of a reckoning ; an assembly of good fellows. 
 CLUSTER, s. A bunch, a number of things of the same kind growing or 
 
 joined together ; a number of animals gathered together. 
 CLUTCH, 4. The gripe, grasp, seizure ; the paws, the talons. 
 CLYSTER, s. An injection into the anus. 
 
 Clysters of broth, gravy, or gruel, will af- 
 ford a very considerable quantity of nourish- 
 ment : a small proportion of opium, as twenty 
 drops of laudanum, may be given in each, to 
 assist in retaining it within the bowels. As- 
 tringent clysters, as starch, rice-water, alu- 
 mine whey, infusion of red roses, or of oak- 
 bark, are useful in violent loosenesses. Purg- 
 ing clysters may be made of veal or mutton 
 broth, with a portion of salt or moist sugar 
 added : the effect may be still further quick- 
 ened by adding castor oil or Epsom salts. 
 
 Clysters are very easily administered to 
 
 dogs, and no apparatus is so convenient for 
 the purpose as the patent syringe of Reid : a 
 good domestic apparatus is found in the com- 
 mon pipe and bladder also. The liquid used 
 should be warm, but not hot; the quantity 
 from three ounces, to six or eight, according 
 to the size of the dog, &c. : the pipe should 
 be greased previously to its introduction, and 
 the tail held down a minute or two after its 
 removal. 
 
 * * * 
 
 In flatulent colic it is essentially useful, and 
 it is from this circumstance being too little
 
 COB] 
 
 known, or not attended to, that flatulent colic 
 sometimes terminates in inflammation, and 
 death. (See CARMINATIVES.) In suppression 
 or retention of urine, or in difficulty of staling, 
 a clyster is the hest remedy that can be em- 
 ployed. In short there is scarcely a disease 
 to which horses are liable, in which clysters 
 may not be advantageously employed, either 
 as a principal remedy, or as an auxiliary to 
 others. The clyster syringes commonly em- 
 ployed are worse than useless, because they 
 sometimes prevent a clyster being given when 
 it is absolutely necessary, especially in flatu- 
 lent colic. The clyster-pipe and bladder is 
 the only effectual apparatus I have seen. 
 The pipe should be one inch in bore, and 
 fifteen inches in length. The quantity of 
 liquid employed should be five or six quarts, 
 and consist only of warm water, with half 
 a pound of salt dissolved in it. There 
 is sometimes difficulty found in introducing 
 the pipe, generally from hard excrement in 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 117 
 
 the straight gut ; sometimes, however, from 
 the bladder being distended with urine. In 
 such cases patience and care are necessary to 
 exhibit the clyster effectually, and it may 
 almost always be accomplished without raking 
 or drawing out the hard excrement with the 
 hand ; there is no objection, however, to this 
 operation, and when a clyster-pipe is not at 
 hand, it must be employed as a substitute for 
 a clyster. (See RAKING.) The simple emol- 
 lient clyster should be thin gruel, or warm 
 water only. The anodyne or opiate clyster 
 should be composed of three or four ounces 
 of tincture of opium in two quarts of gruel, 
 or warm water. Gibson gave half an ounce 
 of solid opium dissolved in water, as a clyster 
 to a horse in locked jaw, with success. Nou- 
 rishing clysters are composed of arrow-root, 
 or wheaUflour gruel with sugar, or broth 
 thickened with flour. Tincture of opium is 
 an useful addition to such clysters, especially 
 in locked jaw Blaine White. 
 
 COAL, s. The common fossil fuel; the cinder of burnt wood, charcoal. 
 
 COAL-BLACK, a. Black in the highest degree. 
 
 COAT, $. The upper garment; the covering- of any animal; any tegument. 
 
 COAT, v. To cover; to change the hair. 
 
 COAT-CARD, *. A card having a coat on it ; as the king, queen, or knave; 
 
 now corrupted into Court-card. 
 COB, *. A sort of sea-fowl ; a low but powerful horse ; a hack. 
 
 Perfection is seldom found in any living 
 being ; but certain it is, that of all animals in 
 
 which perfection, or as near to it as their na- 
 ture will admit, is required, it is in a horse to
 
 118 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Cos 
 
 carry a man or a woman on the road : and 
 were I requested by a friend to purchase a 
 good hack for him, I should consider him to 
 have given me a commission ten times more 
 difficulty than if he had requested me to 
 purchase half a dozen hunters. The qualifi- 
 cations of a good hack are so numerous as to 
 be almost disheatening to look for them : he 
 must have good fore legs as well as good hinder 
 
 ones: he must have perfect feet, a good 
 mouth, not given to start, safe on his legs, 
 gentle in his temper, and quiet to ride on all 
 occasions. A fidgetty hack, however good in 
 his nature, is very unpleasant, and in hot 
 weather insupportable. He is fit for nothing 
 but to ride to covert at the rate of twenty 
 miles in the hour Nimrod. 
 
 COBBLE, v. To mend any thing coarsely ; to do or make any thing 
 clumsily. 
 
 COBBLE, s. A punt used for wild-fowl shooting, fishing, &c. 
 
 COCHINEAL, *. An insect, from which a red colour is extracted. 
 
 COCK, s. The male to the hen ; the male of any small bird ; the weather- 
 cock that shows the direction of the wind ; a spout to let out water or 
 any other liquor at will ; the notch of an arrow ; the part of a lock of a 
 gun that strikes with the flint ; cock-boat, a small boat ; a small heap 
 the form of a hat. 
 
 of hay ; 
 
 Cock-fighting is a sport of great antiquity. 
 It is supposed to have first originated with the 
 Greeks ; and that at one period it became so 
 prevalent amongst them, that families of ex- 
 tensive property were reduced thereby to the 
 lowest ebb of fortune. 
 
 As the Romans were so fond of imitating 
 the Greeks, in their bad as well as good cus- 
 toms, it came to them as a mere gambling 
 sport. According to Herodian, the first cause 
 of contention between the two brothers, Bas- 
 sianus and Geta, sons of the Emperor Septi- 
 mus Severus, happened in their youth, about 
 cock-fighting, which they had probably seen 
 in Greece, whither they had often accom- 
 panied their father. 
 
 It is not known when this custom was first 
 introduced into England, but undoubtedly by 
 the Romans. The bird was here before the 
 landing of Julius Caesar ; but no notice of 
 cock-fighting occurs earlier than the time of 
 William Fitz Stephen, who wrote the life of 
 the Archbishop Becket in the reign of Henry 
 II., and describes it as a sport of school-boys 
 on Shrove Tuesday. From this time it con- 
 tinued in a fluctuating state ; sometimes in 
 vogue, at others, disapproved ; and prohibited, 
 39 Edward III. ; also in the reign of Henry 
 VIII., and in 1569. It has been termed a 
 royal diversion ; and the cock-pit at Whitehall 
 was erected by a crowned head for the more 
 magnificent celebration of it. There were 
 other pits in Drury Lane and Jewin Street. 
 It was prohibited by Oliver Cromwell, March 
 31, 1664. 
 
 With respect to the breed of game fowls, 
 the criterion of blood in these animals, before 
 trial, is " fineness of feathers," richness of 
 plumage, "cleanness of feet," and keenness 
 
 of aspect. But there have been introduced 
 of late years some varieties quite distinctly 
 marked from the game fowls of old times ; 
 viz., "top knots" and "muffy heads," which 
 were quite unknown to our ancestors. 
 
 The cock is in his prime at two years old, 
 and retains his vigour to his fifth year : the 
 hen somewhat longer. Cockers breed in- 
 and-in without scruple. The following is 
 Mr. Sketchley's description of a brood cock, 
 in full health and vigour : " A ruddy com- 
 plexion, feathers close and short, not cold or 
 dry : flesh firm and compact, full breasted, 
 yet taper and thin behind ; full in the girth, 
 well coupled, lofty and spiring, with a good 
 thigh ; the beam of his leg very strong, a 
 quick large .eye, strong beak, crooked, and 
 big at setting on." Such a one, not more 
 than two years old, to be put to early pullets, 
 or a blooming stag with two-year old hens ; 
 and when a cock, with pullets of his own 
 getting. Uniformity of colours is generally 
 sought for, and the hens selected of similar 
 plumage to that of the cock ; the same of 
 shape, which is a greater object in the hen, 
 than size ; only she should be lofty crested, 
 short and close feathered, with clean, sinewy, 
 blood-like legs. Shropshire and Cheshire 
 have long been famous for their breed of 
 game cocks ; and the Shropshire reds are in 
 particular high estimation. There was for- 
 merly in Staffordshire :i famous breed of 
 cocks, of a perfect jet black, gipscy faced, 
 black legs, and rather elegant than muscular ; 
 lofty in fighting, close in feather, and well 
 shaped. This breed soon degenerated ; and, 
 I presume, is now extinct. The following 
 procreative comparison of Mr. Sketchley speaks 
 volumes :
 
 Coc] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 119 
 
 Stags 1 
 
 Cock 2 
 
 Cock 2 
 
 Cock 3 
 
 Cock 4 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 with hens 2 
 
 with pullets 
 
 with hens 2 
 
 with hens 3 
 
 with hens 3 
 
 YEARS. 
 man 18 
 man 25 . 
 
 man 25 
 man 40 to 50 
 man 50 to 60 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 woman 22 
 
 woman 22 
 
 woman 22 
 
 woman 45 
 
 woman 45 
 
 It is said that a game cock that happened 
 to be on board Rodney's ship on the memo- 
 rable 12th of April, during that glorious 
 action, exhibited the most undaunted courage, 
 by crowing and clapping his wings Vide 
 Hoyle, article GAME COCK. 
 
 Cocks, when they crow at unwonted hours, 
 often foretel a change of weather. We have 
 often noticed this before rain. During the 
 calm, still, dry, dark, and warm weather, 
 sometimes occurring in the winter months, and 
 which may be called the halcyon days of our 
 climate, cocks keep a constant crowing all 
 night and day. There appear to be three 
 principal cock-crowings in ordinary weather, 
 namely, about midnight or soon after, about 
 three in the morning, and at daybreak ; the 
 latter is never omitted. We have noticed, 
 however, that when cocks crow all day, in 
 summer particularly, a change to rain has 
 frequently followed. 
 
 should be inclined to recommend the solid 
 cock which falls on its end, instead of being 
 stopped in the middle by the lock plate. It 
 will therefore admit of main springs as strong 
 as you please : and, by this means, add con- 
 siderably to quickness in firing. But if you 
 have very strong main springs, with the com- 
 mon cock, the resistance from the hammer 
 spring, to prevent its breaking, must be so 
 great, that you would soon wear out hammers, 
 by being obliged to use an immoderate quan- 
 tity of flints. With this another part of the 
 lock also is safer, because the solid cock is 
 received on a firm support annexed to the 
 pan ; while the one on the other construction 
 suddenly catches the lock-plate, and is there- 
 fore liable to jar, and break either the tum- 
 bler itself, or the pin of the tumbler. A 
 solid cock has many other advantages, from 
 its durability and strength : it is proof against 
 all awkward hands, and particularly desirable 
 on guns which are liable to meet with rough 
 usage in a boat Sporting Repository 
 Hawker Foster. 
 
 Cocks and hammers If the sportsman 
 has no objection to its clumsy appearance, I 
 
 COCK, v. To set erect, to hold upright ; to fix the cock of a gun for a 
 
 discharge ; to raise hay in small heaps. 
 COCKER,*. One who follows the sport of cock-fighting : a small spaniel. 
 
 The Cocker (Cants extrarius. Var. B. 
 LINN.) This dog is much smaller than the 
 springing spaniel, and is generally used for 
 woodcock and snipe shooting. His diminu- 
 tive size peculiarly fits him for ranging in low 
 and thick coverts, for which purpose nature 
 seems peculiarly to have adapted him. 
 
 The cocker differs from the springer in 
 having a shorter and more compact form, a 
 rounder head, and a shorter muzzle ; the ears 
 are very long, the limbs are short and strong ; 
 the tail is generally truncated and more bushy ; 
 and the hair of the cocker, over his whole 
 body, is more curled than that of the springer. 
 He varies in colour from liver and white, red, 
 red and white, black and white, all liver- 
 coloured, and not unfrequently black, with 
 tanned legs and muzzle. 
 
 This beautiful and lively dog seems to have 
 been produced, originally, by a cross between 
 the small water spaniel and the springer, for 
 he not only resembles the figure of the latter, 
 
 used in the sports of the field. He is ex- 
 tremely common in many parts of Sussex, 
 from which, in the south, he has obtained 
 the name of the Sussex Spaniel. There has 
 long been a beautiful breed of this dog in the 
 possession of the Duke of Marlborough and 
 his friends, which is preserved in great purity ; 
 these are invariably red and white, with very 
 long ears, short noses, and black and sparkling 
 eyes ; they are active and indefatigable in the 
 chase, and are consequently held in great esti- 
 mation among sportsmen. 
 
 General Maxwell, of Edinburgh, has long 
 had an extremely beautiful breed of cockers ; 
 most of them have been black, with tanned 
 cheeks and legs, and ears nearly seven inches 
 in length ; they are of a small size, but they 
 are lively and handsome little creatures. 
 
 In his general qualifications the cocker 
 differs but little from the springer, except 
 that he is decidedly more active : he appears 
 also to have a more acute sense of smelling, 
 
 but also has many of his habits, combined j and pursues game with an enthusiasm amount- 
 
 wit li the lively and active disposition of both. 
 From the beauty and temper of the cocker, 
 the breed has become very generally diffused 
 throughout the kingdom, and he is more fre- 
 quently a companion in the parlour than 
 
 ing to ecstacy. From his lively temperament, 
 he does not tire so soon as the springer, how- 
 ever long the labour of the day may be. 
 
 From an innate principle of this industri- 
 ous little animal, he gives the loudest proofs
 
 120 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Coc 
 
 of his ecstatic delight upon finding, or even 
 coming upon the scent, foot, or haunt of 
 game ; it is also his determined icsolution to 
 persevere until he has fairly driven them from 
 covert. Consequently all sportsmen who take 
 the field with cockers, are compelled to be on 
 the alert, and to keep pace with the progress 
 which the dogs make in the wood, otherwise 
 they are sure to lose the greater part of the 
 game. They may even travel many a weary 
 mile without obtaining a successful shot, as it 
 is the unalterable nature of these dogs to 
 spring, flush, or start all the game before 
 them ; and they pursue, without distinction, 
 hare, pheasant, partridge, woodcock, snipe, 
 quail, and plover. It thus becomes necessary 
 to hunt them within gun-shot of covert, and 
 bells or gingles should be placed inside the 
 collars, if the wood is extensive, to prevent 
 them from beating too wide, and to keep them 
 within call of the whistle. 
 
 The springer and cocker are more particu- 
 larly appropriated to pheasant and woodcock 
 shooting. The former may be considered the 
 
 most laborious, and the least entertaining of 
 all field sports, if we except the mode in 
 which it is practised in the extensive preserves 
 of Norfolk and Suffolk, and some few dis- 
 tricts in other counties, where the large tracts 
 of lofty wood-lands with thick and low under- 
 wood, contribute so materially to the safety 
 and increase of the game. 
 
 Spaniels of both descriptions are brought 
 into general use and domestic estimation, 
 from their handsome shape, their beautiful 
 sleek coats, their cleanly habits, insinuating 
 manner, incessant attendance, and faithful 
 obedience to their masters, qualities in which 
 they surpass all the other members of the 
 canine race. 
 
 Cockers are said to be more subject to 
 certain diseases than other dogs, as loss of 
 smell, and swelling of the glands in the neck, 
 which sometimes prevents their taking any 
 assistance till they die ; a disease of the ears, 
 like the mange, called formica? ; and lastly to 
 the mangeitself, which is most destructive of all 
 to their beauty, health, and quiet Thornhill. 
 
 COCKEREL, s. A young- cock. 
 COCKFIGHT, s. A match of cocks. 
 COCKPIT, *. The area where cocks fight. 
 COD, or CODFISH, s. A sea-fish. 
 
 The fishermen take the cod from the 
 depth of fifteen to sixty fathoms, according 
 to the inequality of the bank, which is re- 
 presented as a mountain under water, above 
 five hundred miles long, and near three hun- 
 dred broad, and that the approach to it is 
 known by the great swell of the sea, and the 
 thick mists that impend over it. 
 
 The largest cod ever taken on our coasts 
 was at Scarborough, in 1755, and weighed 
 seventy-eight pounds; the length was five 
 feet eight inches ; and the girth, round the 
 
 shoulders, five feet. It was sold for one 
 shilling. The general weight of these fish in 
 the Yorkshire seas, is from fourteen to forty 
 pounds. 
 
 A cod will not only live, but thrive well, 
 in fresh water, if properly fed. A respectable 
 fishmonger assured me that he had tried the 
 experiment and succeeded, and offered to 
 send me some live cod in a well-boat, for my 
 
 piscatorium in Bushy Park Daniel 
 
 Jesse. 
 
 CODLING, s. An apple ; a small codfish. 
 
 COFFEE, s. The berries of the coffee-tree ; a drink made by the infusion 
 
 of those berries in hot water. 
 COFFIN, s. Coffin of a horse, is the whole hoof of the foot above the 
 
 coronet, including the coffin-bone. 
 
 A sprain of the coffin joint is not an un- 
 usual occurrence ; and, like the former, con- 
 sists of violence applied to the tendinous and 
 ligamentous connexion of this joint. When 
 a horse becomes suddenly lame, and attentive 
 examination can discover no injury above, the 
 feet should be closely examined, when it is 
 very probable there will be found in one of 
 them some tenderness, and perhaps swelling, 
 particularly at the back part, towards the 
 
 upper portions of the heels, and in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the navicular bone, where the 
 part will be more hot than the others, and the 
 horse will express pain when the foot is bent 
 or extended, and he will generally also, 
 though not always, point the foot when in the 
 stable, or, as it is expressed, will stand favour- 
 ing. The treatment, if the heat be consider- 
 able, would be to put the whole foot into a 
 Goulard poultice for three or four days : in
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 121 
 
 very bad cases I have thinned the whole crust 
 of the hoof, and have drawn blood from the 
 toe with advantage. After the heat has in 
 
 some degree subsided, blister, as a milder 
 treatment will seldom avail here : frequently 
 it must be repeated also Elaine. 
 
 COG, v. To flatter ; to cog a die, to secure it, so as to direct its fall. 
 COHESION, s. The act of sticking together ; the state of union. 
 COIL, v. To gather into a narrow compass ; to collect a rope. 
 COIN, #. Money stamped with a legal impression ; payment of any kind. 
 COISTRBL, s. obs. A coward hawk. 
 
 COLIC, *. Is strictly a disorder of the colon ; hut loosely, any disorder of 
 the stomach or bowels that is attended with pain. 
 
 The causes are various : the sudden appli- 
 cation of cold either to the surface of the 
 skin when hot, or to the intestines under si- 
 milar circumstances, in the shape of cold 
 water drunk hastily, and when the horse has 
 been warm ; in which latter case, the attack 
 often soon follows. Costiveness will bring it 
 on. Tumours in the mesentery, and stric- 
 tures in the bowels are also the sources of 
 occasional colic ; and when a horse is found to 
 be subject to repeated attacks, something of 
 this kind, or otherwise calculous concretions, 
 may be suspected : and I have known many 
 instances where habitual colic was present, 
 dependent on these causes. Horses long con- 
 fined to dry food will sometime get it by sud- 
 denly gorging themselves with green meat ; 
 and with others, a constitutional tendency 
 from some occult cause, gives them a predis- 
 position to it 
 
 The symptoms of spasmodic colic are usu- 
 ally sudden in their appearance, and not 
 marked, as in inflammation of the bowels, by 
 previous indisposition ; but the horse is ob- 
 served to be at once attacked with considera- 
 ble uneasiness, shifting his position from side 
 to side, pawing his litter, and stamping with 
 his feet impatiently. After a few minutes 
 thus passed, the pain remits, and leaves the 
 horse tolerably easy ; while in enteritis no 
 perfect remission occurs, but all is one scene 
 of nearly equable pain and distress. As the 
 colic advances, the remissions are less perfect, 
 and less frequent : the horse now lies down 
 frequently, and on rising shakes himself, look- 
 ing round to his sides, which occasionally, in 
 desperate cases, he snaps at with his teeth ; 
 but more frequently he is seen to strike with 
 his hind feet at his belly, as though deter- 
 mined to remove by force the cause of his 
 pain. In enteritis this acuteness of sensation 
 or violence of temper is seldom seen. When 
 on the ground, it is not uncommon for the 
 horse to roll on his back ; sometimes he will 
 remain in this situation a few seconds, or he 
 will roll over ; neither of which are usually 
 done in simple inflammation. In colic the 
 pulse is seldom much altered from its natural 
 state, unless the colic have existed some 
 time, when it occasionally presents marks of 
 
 general irritation, and is not only quickened, 
 but also somewhat hardened. If felt also 
 during the intensity of the paroxysms, it will 
 likewise be often found to be disturbed even in 
 the early stage, but this is momentary only, 
 and ceases on the remission of the pain. The 
 extremities, as the legs and ears, in colic are 
 not often much affected, and they never re- 
 main intensely cold for a considerable period, 
 as in enteritis ; but the coat stares, and the 
 horse breaks out frequently into cold sweats. 
 In colic, also, relief is obtained by friction 
 and motion, but both aggravate the distress in 
 enteritis. Sometimes he is seen to attempt to 
 stale without effect, at others he stales fre- 
 quently, with momentary relief. 
 
 Treatment Having reason to believe that 
 
 the patient is labouring under simple spasm of 
 the intestines, unmixed with inflammatory 
 tendency, derived from idiopathic enteritis ; 
 or symptomatic irritation from inversion, in- 
 volution, invagination, or intussusception of 
 the intestinal track ; proceed at once to ad- 
 minister such one or more of the numberless 
 antispasmodic remedies as custom and experi- 
 ence have warranted the use of. Numerous 
 as these are, there is not one that has not its 
 advocate, and perhaps not one that does not 
 deserve it, so simple are the means sometimes 
 required; and so much is the constitution 
 prone, in some cases, to assist itself or our 
 efforts. While, at the same time, other cases 
 occur, sufficiently obstinate, and sufficiently 
 fatal, to require all our energies, and all our 
 discrimination in the choice of our remedies, 
 I can confidently speak to the antispasmodic 
 qualities of the following, which should one 
 or either of them be given as soon as possible, 
 and repeated in one, two, three, or four hours, 
 according to the violence of the symptoms, if 
 no benefit be apparent from the first dose : for 
 it must be remembered, that what we do we 
 must do quickly, to prevent inflammation, for, 
 of the fatal cases, four-fifths show evident 
 marks of enteritic attack on a post-mortem 
 examination. 
 
 1. Ground pepper . . . . | oz. 
 
 Spirit of turpentine . . . 2 oz. 
 
 Tincture of opium . . . 1 oz. 
 
 Sound ale . ... 4 oz. Mix.
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [COL 
 
 2. Spirit of vitriolic ather . . 1 oz. 
 Tinture of opium (laudanum) 2 oz. 
 
 Oil of peppermint .... 1 drachm. 
 Common gin, arid sound ale, 
 
 of each J of a pint. 
 
 3. Spirit of turpentine . . . 2 oz. 
 
 Oil of peppermint .... 1 drachm. 
 Castor oil, and watery tinc- 
 ture of aloes (Mat. Med.) 
 each 6 oz. 
 
 As a domestic remedy, and one which has 
 relieved at the moment, when other medi- 
 cines were not at hand, I would recommend 
 the following : 
 
 Ground pepper ... 1 tea-spoonful. 
 
 The juice of two or three 
 large onions 
 
 Common gin, and sound 
 
 ale, of each . . . J of a pint. 
 
 The antispasmodic having heen given, the 
 necessity of bleeding should be next taken 
 into consideration : if the case be one of very 
 acute features, I would recommend that it be 
 proceeded with without delay, and, according 
 to the degree of intensity, or duration of the 
 complaint, do it more or less liberally. Ex- 
 tensive bleeding, it should be remembered, is 
 one of the most powerful relaxers of spas- 
 modic constriction with which we are ac- 
 quainted, and instead of its being an antago- 
 nist to the antispasmodic treatment usually 
 adopted, by internal remedies, its relaxant 
 qualities are found to be infinitely increased in 
 efficacy when conjoined with large doses of 
 opium. I have had so many opportunities of 
 witnessing the effect of this combination, that 
 I cannot too strongly recommend it : and 
 although most of the ordinary cases of spas- 
 modic colic will yield to the common stimu- 
 lant treatment, and many would even go off 
 without any treatment at all, yet bleeding, in 
 mild cases even, is always safe and precau- 
 tionary against inflammation ; and in the more 
 aggravated, it is essentially necessary, both to 
 combat the inflammatory tendency, and to 
 promote the relaxation of the spasmodic irri- 
 tation on the muscular fibre. It is likewise 
 particularly indicated in these violent or pro- 
 tracted cases, to counteract the irritative qua- 
 lities of the antispasmodics used, which, though 
 in other instances of simple spasm are innocu- 
 ous, however large, yet may not prove so 
 
 when reaction is at hand, or already begun. 
 It should, however, be remembered, that 
 though I advocate bleeding, it is not that use- 
 less and non-medical practice of bleeding by 
 the palate or sublingual vessels ; and though, 
 with Mr. Peal, I would most strongly con- 
 demn violent, and particularly long-continued 
 exercise, yet I have so often experienced the 
 good effects of a brisk trot for ten minutes, 
 that I cannot but recommend its adoption. 
 Friction to the belly is also to be employed, 
 by means of a brush, or if with a heated coarse 
 woollen cloth it will be better ; but the prac- 
 tice of rubbing with a stick is, I apprehend, 
 worse than useless, and often hurtful. Fo- 
 mentations of very hot water are also some- 
 times singularly efficacious ; and in every case 
 we should, by means of the patent syringe, 
 throw up considerable quantities of relaxant 
 clysters ; and where costiveness is present, 
 until the bowels are relieved of their faecal 
 matter, the clysters should be of a mild 
 watery solution of aloes, or, by preference, of 
 a solution of sulphate of magnesia (Epsom 
 salts) in broth, gruel, &c. Afterwards the 
 clysters may be made media of applying an- 
 tispasmodics to the bowels, as decoction of 
 poppy heads, or even tinct. opii, largely diluted 
 with warm water, &c. Vide Outlines of 
 Vet. Art. 
 
 Dogs are subject to two kinds of colic ; one 
 arising from constipation of the bowels ; the 
 other is of a kind peculiar to dogs, apparently 
 partaking of the nature of rheumatism, and 
 also of spasm. From a sudden or violent 
 exposure to cold, dogs become sometimes 
 suddenly paralytic, particularly in the hinder 
 parts, having great tenderness and pain, and 
 every appearance of lumbago. In every 
 instance of this kind, there is consider- 
 able affection of the bowels, generally cos- 
 tiveness, always great pain. A warm bath, 
 external stimulants, but more particularly 
 active aperients, remove the colic. Colic, 
 arising from costiveness, is not in general vio- 
 lently acute from the pain it produces ; some- 
 times it appears accompanied with more spasm 
 than is immediately dependent on the con- 
 finement of the bowels. In the former give 
 active aperients, as calomel with pil. cochiae, 
 i. e. aloetic pill, and clysters ; in the latter, 
 castor-oil, with laudanum and ether Elaine. 
 
 COLLAR, s. A ring of metal put round the neck ; the harness fastened 
 about the horse's neck. A collar of brawn is the quantity bound up in 
 one parcel. 
 
 COLLAR-BONE, s. The clavicle ; the bones on each side of the neck. 
 
 COLOUR, s. The appearance of bodies to the eye ; hue, dye ; the appear- 
 ance of blood in the face ; in the plural, a standard, an ensign of war. 
 
 bodies of artificial flic?. Mixing the wools, or 
 
 A general name given to the dyed wools 
 and mohairs, which are used in forming the 
 
 producing, by a union of different colours, the
 
 COM] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 123 
 
 exact shade of the body of the insect to be 
 imitated, is justly reckoned the greatest diffi- 
 culty of the art; and I have known many 
 persons tie a fly with neatness and elegance, 
 who never could turn out a killing one. 
 Hence practical acquaintance with the ephe- 
 merae, which are imitated, is absolutely re- 
 quisite for tying, as without it, the hand- 
 somest fly is inefficient. 
 
 To this may be ascribed the inferiority of 
 the flies usually purchased in extensive fish- 
 ing shops. Though, possibly, an elegant simi- 
 litude of the intended insect in size and shape, 
 they are, in tint and colouring, untrue to na- 
 ture; and, as such, are easily discovered by 
 the keen eye of the invited victim, and as 
 certainly rejected. Without the precise co- 
 lour of the fly is obtained, the handsomest 
 production will be unsuccessful ; and the 
 neophyte will marvel that the basket of the 
 rustic fisherman is filled, while his own showy 
 imitations fail to rise a fish. 
 
 In choosing colours the brightness of the 
 tint is to be less regarded than the permanency 
 
 of the dye. To produce, at the same time, a 
 brilliant and lasting colour, requires time, 
 trouble, and experience. But for all the 
 disciple of Walton will be well repaid ; for 
 nothing can be more mortifying to an angler, 
 than to see the tints of his fly fade after a few 
 immersions in the water, and a short exposure 
 to the sunshine. 
 
 The receipts for dying wools and feathers, 
 recommended in the FIELD BOOK, were given 
 the compiler by Major Patrickson, an angler, 
 who, in scientific and practical knowledge is, 
 probably, second to none in Britain. They 
 may, perhaps, be undervalued by modem 
 philosophers ; but from these simple and anti- 
 quated recipes, my accomplished friend pro- 
 duced the most beautiful and permanent co- 
 lours; and I have, at this moment, in my 
 possession, flies bodied with his wools, which 
 have stood the test of water and weather, and 
 are still as brilliant in their hue, as when 
 they were first attached to the hook. Vide 
 FLY FISHING. 
 
 COLOUR, v. To mark with some hue or dye ; to palliate. 
 COLT, s. A young horse. 
 
 COLT'S-TOOTH, s. An imperfect tooth in young; horses. 
 COLUMBA, (LiNN.) s~ A dove or pigeon. Vide WOOD-PIGEON. 
 
 Bill (save at the point, which is bent down) 
 compressed and straight, the base of the up- 
 per mandible being covered with a soft gristly 
 substance, in which the nostrils are placed 
 towards the middle of the bill, forming a 
 
 cleft lengthwise. The feet having three toes 
 before entirely separated, with one hind toe 
 articulated on the heel. Wings of middle 
 size, the first quill rather shorter than the 
 second, which is the longest in the wing. 
 
 COLUMBARY, s, obs. A dove-cote. 
 
 COLYMBUS (LATHAM.) s. A diver ; a genus thus characterised : 
 
 Bill of middle size, strong, straight, much 
 pointed, compressed. Nostrils at the sides of 
 the base, concave, oblong, half shut by a 
 membrane, pierced from part to part. Legs 
 of middle length, drawn towards the belly 
 beyond the equilibrium of the body ; shanks 
 
 compressed ; three toes before, very long, en- 
 tirely webbed ; the hind toe short, articulated 
 upon the shank, carrying a small loose mem- 
 brane. Claws flat. Wings short; the first 
 quill the longest. Tail very short and 
 rounded Montagu. 
 
 COMB, s. An instrument to separate and adjust the hair ; the top or crest 
 of a cock ; the cavities in which the bees lodge their honey. 
 
 COMFORTER (Canis consolator), s. A 
 
 This beautiful little dog seems to be a cross 
 betwixt the Maltese and the smaller spaniel 
 described in the last section. His colour is 
 generally white, with black or brown patches ; 
 his ears are long, and his head broad on the 
 upper part, with an acute muzzle ; the hair is 
 long over the whole body, with the fore-legs 
 feathered. His tail is curled, and feathered 
 with very long hairs. This is the smallest of 
 
 species of dog. 
 
 any of the distinct races of dogs, frequently 
 not above a foot from the tip of the nose to 
 the point of the tail. 
 
 This elegant little animal is used as a lap- 
 dog, or as an attendant on the toilet or in the 
 drawing-room. He is most affectionate to all 
 the members of the family in which he re- 
 sides ; but is very snappish to strangers, whose 
 familiarity he will seldom permit Brown.
 
 124 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [COM 
 
 COMMERCE, s. A game at cards. 
 
 Of this game there are two distinct methods 
 of playing, the new and the old mode. The 
 new way is played by any number of persons, 
 from three to twelve, with a complete pack of 
 52 cards, bearing the same import as at whist, 
 only the ace is reckoned as eleven. Every 
 player has a certain quantity of counters, on 
 which a fixed value is put, and each, at every 
 fresh deal, puts down one for the stake. Some- 
 times the game is continued, or not finished, 
 till one of the players has lost all the counters 
 given at the commencement ; but in order to 
 prevent it from being spun out to an unplea- 
 sant length, or concluded too soon, it is often 
 customary to fix the duration to a determinate 
 number of tours, or times, so that the whole 
 party shall deal once each completely round. 
 
 After determining the deal, the dealer, 
 styled also the banker, shuffles the pack, which 
 
 is to be cut by the left-hand player ; then three 
 cards, either altogether or one by one, at the 
 dealer's pleasure, are given to each person, 
 beginning on the right hand, but none are to 
 be turned up. If the pack prove false, or the 
 deal wrong, or should there be a faced card, 
 there must be a fresh deal. There are three 
 degrees or ranks in this game. The first, 
 which takes place of all others, is what is called 
 the tricon, or three cards of the same denomi- 
 nation, similar to pair royal at cribbage ; the 
 next in rank is the sequence, or three follow- 
 ing cards of the same suit, like tierce at piquet ; 
 and the last, the point, being the greatest num- 
 ber of pips on two or three cards of a suit in 
 any one hand. As to all these parts, the 
 higher disannuls the lower. For the old 
 method &c. vide Hoyle. 
 
 COMMON, *. An open ground equally used by many persons. 
 COMMONAGE, s. The right of feeding on a common. 
 CONCAVE, a. Hollow, opposed to convex. 
 
 CONDITION, s. Quality, that by which any thing is denominated good or 
 bad ; natural quality of the mind, temper, temperament. 
 
 Condition, as regards horses, is a term con- 
 ventionally well understood ; but beyond the 
 precincts of the stable, it is neither precise nor 
 technical. The term, in common parlance, 
 might be supposed to imply nothing more 
 than the symptoms and appearances which 
 usually betoken health. Thus, when a horse 
 is in perfect health, he ought, under this view 
 of it, to be considered as in perfect condition; 
 and, on the contrary, when a horse is in any 
 respect out of heath, he should be considered 
 as out of condition ; that is, in a condition 
 that neither fits him for perfect service to his 
 owner, nor for perfect comfort to himself. 
 
 The accidental causes of this latter (morbid 
 condition) are various; a very common one 
 is found in injudicious feeding, both as to 
 quality and quantity. Any sudden alteration 
 in the articles of a horse's diet will frequently, 
 according to the term of horse amateurs, 
 " throw him out of condition," such as 
 removing him from the grass field or the 
 straw yard to a full allowance of dry hay and 
 corn, with a scanty supply of water " to draw 
 up his belly ," all which are perhaps done at 
 once, without the smallest preparation. In 
 these cases the alimentary canal, being hardly 
 yet in a state of digesting capacity, suffers 
 from the increased powers necessary to draw 
 nutriment from substances which, although in 
 themselves more nutritious, yet are, in this 
 instance, less digestible than those before in 
 use. Thence follow costiveness, heat, and 
 thirst ; as well as an unhealthy state of the 
 
 coat, which stares, and feels harsh and dry, 
 being a necessary consequence of the ordinary 
 sympathy between the stomach and the skin. 
 A sudden remove from a generous to a poor 
 diet is unfavourable to condition likewise ; 
 for in such case the chyle or nutritious pabu- 
 lum, from whence all the vital organs are re- 
 cruited, and all the vital energies derive their 
 vigour, cannot be separated in sufficient quan- 
 tities : the blood thereby becomes deteriorated ; 
 universal absorption takes place of the softer 
 parts, which produces lessened bulk ; while a 
 laxity of fibre in the remaining portions is pro- 
 ductive of langour and debility. The quality 
 of the food is also of considerable consequence 
 to the condition. Mow-burnt hay, by ex- 
 citing a partial diabetes, is very apt to " throw 
 a horse out of condition.' 1 '' Musty hay, also, 
 and oats highly kiln-dried, have an unfavour- 
 able effect on it also. The liquid aliments 
 should likewise be attended to in a considera- 
 tion of the condition. Mineral waters are 
 unfavourable to it in most cases; although 
 there is reason to believe that in some mor- 
 bid affections they are salutary. Sea-water 
 may be considered in the same light, but a 
 continued use of the brackish water found 
 near sea-bathing places, is unfavourable to the 
 condition of such horses as have not been 
 accustomed to it : to which, in union with the 
 bad care taken of them in most of the livery 
 stables of the sea-coast bathing, I attribute 
 the universal complaint of the ill-condition in 
 which they so frequently return- from thence.
 
 CON] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 125 
 
 Badly ventilated stables, excess of clothing, 
 and deprivation of water, are also frequent 
 causes of morbid condition, as I have often 
 witnessed : for, in some of these cases, after a 
 course of purgatives, followed by alteratives 
 and tonics, has failed, the more simple means 
 of succulent food, a proper quantity of water, 
 a well regulated but perfectly cool stable, with 
 a free access of air, and very moderate cloth- 
 ing, have created an immediate change. An 
 inordinate quantity of exertion, particularly if 
 continued unremittingly for several days, will 
 often produce morbid condition ; and this 
 in cases where the feeding has been, as sup- 
 posed, equal to the tasks required. It is par- 
 ticularly likely to happen to young horses, 
 and to such as have not been sufficiently pre- 
 pared : in which cases, it is clear that the 
 stomach, participating with the general debi- 
 lity, has a double task to perform in digesting 
 a larger quantity of nutriment than usual, to 
 make up the increased wants of the constitu- 
 tion ; and thus the evil is increased by adding 
 the further deterioration of this organ to the 
 ' others. I know of no state of morbid condi- 
 tion which often proves so obstinate as this ; 
 and which is often found at last only to give 
 way to a good salt-marsh run. Drastic pur- 
 gatives, or violent remedies, as the mineral 
 acids, when injudiciously continued, reduce 
 the condition very quickly, and sometimes 
 irrecoverably. Another principal cause of 
 want of condition is the alternation of heat 
 with cold. A sudden check to the natural 
 or acquired heat of the body, particularly if 
 aggravated by the evaporation of a perspiring 
 state, and great previous exertion, as a sudden 
 
 check after a severe burst with the hounds. 
 
 * 
 
 After a general enumeration of the causes 
 of morbid condition, Mr. Blaine continues : 
 But to proceed with this important subject 
 with gome regularity, I would direct that in 
 young plethoric horses, with much flesh on 
 them, and which are, of all others, the most 
 subject to take on this state of morbid con- 
 dition, that one or two moderate bleedings 
 may be premised, particularly in such as have 
 been full fed for some time previous. If the 
 inner surface of the eyelids, or of the nasal 
 membranes, show any tinges of red, it is still 
 more necessary to bleed ; and in such cases I 
 would repeat the same with moderation once 
 or twice more, or until this inflammatory 
 appearance should be removed. I have found 
 this, united with mashing, in many instances 
 sufficient to relax the hide and reduce the 
 rugous tumefaction of the lampas. In most 
 cases, however, some more active internal 
 remedies will be found necessary with a ytmng 
 and plethoric patient : thus one or two very 
 mild doses of physic, preceded by a nightly 
 mash, into which ten grains of submuriate of 
 
 mercury (calomel) has been mixed, are pro- 
 per. If there be joined to the affected hide, 
 and the swollen or clammy mouth of lampas, 
 any eruptions on the skin, or any cracks of 
 the heels, stable soiling, or even daily turn- 
 ing out to grass, are advisable ; but as these 
 cases usually happen when the animal is 
 either at present wanted, or is intended soon 
 to be used, so I have not mentioned turning 
 out altogether ; yet, if these appearances 
 prove obstinate, such a course will be advisa- 
 ble, provided the season and other circum- 
 stances are favourable to the proceeding. 
 But when neither the partial nor total turning 
 out to grass is convenient, and when soiling is 
 likewise not practicable, still the use of car- 
 rots as manger food can be Resorted to. To 
 this treatment may be added, after the admi- 
 nistration of the physic, a nightly alterative. 
 
 Crude antimony . ^ 
 
 Supertartrate of potash F of each 
 (cream of tartar) . C 2 or 3 drs. 
 
 Nitrate of potash (nitre) ) 
 Or, 
 
 Supertartrate of potash . 2 or 3 drs. 
 
 Nitrate of potash . do. 
 
 Powdered sulphur . J oz. 
 
 Both of these will gently stimulate both the 
 stomach and kidneys, and produce, by consent 
 of parts, a favourable effect on the skin, and 
 hair also. Violent diuretics are never advisa- 
 ble ; nor have ! seen their mildest form, 
 unaccompanied by other remedies, produce 
 much good, unless there have been, in addi- 
 tion to the other symptoms, swelled legs, 
 either with or without discharge. 
 
 When morbid condition arises in such hor- 
 ses as, from age, previous deprivations, severe 
 work, long confinement in bad stables, or 
 feeding on unwholesome provender, are not 
 to be supposed plethoric ; even then, if no 
 actual debility is present, I have often derived 
 great benefit by commencing the treatment 
 with a very mild dose of physic, the horse 
 being previously folly mashed, to make a 
 small quantity of aloes sufficient ; for I have 
 generally found that the stomach tonics to 
 be afterwards administered have had double 
 effect from this previous preparation of the 
 alimentary canal. But where the debility 
 has been extreme, or where there has been 
 already sufficient laxity of bowels, or perhaps 
 even superpurgation from drastic physic, begin 
 at once with either of the following tonics, or 
 of any of those detailed under that head in 
 the Materia Medica : 
 
 Socotrine aloes, in powder . 1 dr. 
 
 Winter's bark, ditto . . 2 drs. 
 
 -iErugo (verdigris) . 1 dr. 
 
 Treacle or honey to form a ball. 
 Or, 
 
 Oxide of arsenic (arsenic) . 8 grs. 
 Pimento (allspice) in powder . 1 dr.
 
 126 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Con 
 
 Extract of gentian . . ^ oz. 
 
 Make into a ball -with liquorice powder. Or, 
 
 Sulphate of copper . . 1 gr. 
 
 Sulphate of iron . . ditto 
 
 Powdered ginger . . 1 dr. 
 
 Horse turpentine to form a ball. 
 Either of these formulae may be given some 
 time in each day, at the convenience of 
 the practitioner or owner. It would, how- 
 ever, where practicable, be more prudent to 
 let it be given in the morning, fasting, allow- 
 ing the horse but a handful or two of hay for 
 an hour after its exhibition. If a liquid form 
 only can be got down, either of the above 
 mixtures may be dissolved and horned down 
 as a drink, with ale ; but active mineral 
 agents seem *o produce their effect best in 
 mass. In all cases of morbid condition, 
 marked with emaciation and debility, a full 
 allowance of carrots is advisable ; and in de- 
 fault of them, or alternating with them, malt 
 mashes or speared corn may be usefully 
 brought in aid of the other tonics. 
 * 
 
 When a horse returns from grass, or straw- 
 yard, both his external appearance, and the 
 internal state of his body, in general, require 
 considerable alteration before he can be said to 
 be fit for the uses to which he is applied by man. 
 
 To promote ' condition'' in a horse from 
 grass, his dieting and watering, the tempera- 
 ture to which he is removed, his clothing, 
 grooming, and exercise, are the circumstances 
 particularly to be attended to. Physicking 
 is also a usual and necessary appendage to the 
 other parts of the treatment. 
 
 It would be most imprudent to take a horse 
 from so moist a food as grass, and at once to 
 place before him hay and corn without caution 
 or limitation. Coming from a straw-yard, this 
 restraint is not so imperative ; yet even in this 
 case, little corn should be given at first : but 
 following the removal from grass, both corn 
 and hay should be allowed but sparingly, par- 
 ticularly the former. The hay given for the 
 first two or three days should likewise be mois- 
 tened, by sprinkling it with water ; the corn 
 allowed should also be mixed with bran, by 
 which the dangers of constipation and repletion 
 may be avoided. The constipating effects of 
 the removal from a moist to a dry course of 
 feeding, may be further obviated by a nightly 
 bran mash. The bran mashing may likewise 
 be extended to twice a day, or until the bow- 
 els be somewhat relaxed, if the horse be very 
 full in flesh, or have his skin at all tight, or 
 eruptive ; or if the legs be inclined to swell. 
 In all which cases it likewise tends to shorten 
 the process, and prevent that almost irrecove- 
 
 rable hide-binding, which often follows these 
 appearances, if succulent food, particularly car- 
 rots, be mixed with, or even wholly substi- 
 tuted for, hay. The privation of grass renders 
 it prudent that water should at first be given 
 in sufficient quantity : it is often withheld, 
 with a view to harden the flesh and get up the 
 belly : but this treatment at first is erroneous, 
 and by exciting heat, thirst, and indigestion, 
 frustrates its own intention. The tempera- 
 ture into which the newly-stabled horse is 
 removed, should not at first be much increased 
 beyond that to which he has been so long ac- 
 customed, or the sudden change may operate 
 unfavourably on his lungs ; and if it does not 
 produce inflammation, it may at least occasion 
 roaring, or broken wind. The most prudent 
 plan is, first to place the horse in an airy box, 
 which will not only prevent too great heat, 
 but also obviate the danger of swelled legs, and 
 heated feet. By degrees so much increase of 
 temperature may be kept up, as will promote 
 the fall of long hair, or the retention or re- 
 newal of the short : and in the degree to which 
 the artificial coating is wished to be carried, to 
 that degree should a temperate or an ardent 
 climate be imitated. The clothing and groom- 
 ing should, like the other parts of the condi- 
 tioning treatment, be at first very moderate : 
 the one produces extra heat, the other extra 
 irritation ; but by degrees both may be in- 
 creased according to the views of the owner, or 
 the purposes of the horse. Physicking is 
 found to assist the condition of horses ; for by 
 emptying the bowels thoroughly, absorption 
 of the extraneous fluids is promoted. One, 
 two, or three doses, according to the extent to 
 which the condition is intended to be carried, 
 are usually given to every horse, where this 
 process is conducted on the usual principles ; 
 and are certainly necessary, wherever conti- 
 nued and accelerated exertions are required. 
 Exercising a conditioning horse, like the 
 other aids, must be done with a due regard to 
 circumstances. At first, walking alone best 
 answers the purpose, and twice a-day is better 
 than once : the duration of each walk must be 
 regulated by the age, the fulness of habit, &c. 
 &c. As the condition improves, trotting and 
 gall oping may be employed, to benefit the wind, 
 draw up the carcass, and accustom the horse 
 to full work. It may be here remarked, that 
 I have seen all attempts to promote condition 
 fail in a horse removed from an old companion, 
 or when stabled alone. Horses are gregarious, 
 and often bear segregation badly : such a case 
 can only be treated by association Elaine 
 Outlines of the Vet. Art Nimrod on 
 Condition White, fyc. 
 
 CONGER, s. The sea-eel. 
 
 CONIROSTRES, (CuviER,) s. Birds having concave hills.
 
 Coo] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 127 
 
 CONTAGION, 5. The emission from body to body by which diseases are 
 
 communicated ; infection ; pestilence. 
 CONTAGIOUS, a. Infectious, caught by approach. 
 
 CONVULSE, v. To give an involuntary motion to the parts of any body. 
 CONVULSION, s. A convulsion is an involuntary contraction of the fibres 
 
 and muscles ; an irregular and violent motion, commotion. 
 CONEY, s. A rabbit, an animal that burrows in the ground. 
 Coo, v. To cry as a dove or pigeon. 
 COOKERY, s. The art of dressing victuals. 
 
 Cookery on the Moors No one merits or every thing beyond this in kitchen accom- 
 
 relishes a good dinner better than a grouse- 
 shooter. It delights me to see my companion eat 
 like a traveller ; and, to please me, he should 
 possess sufficient acumen to enable him to 
 appreciate the fare. I despise the man who 
 is cursed with a Spartan palate, and who 
 hardly knows the difference between beef and 
 mutton; and yet, in equal ratio, the gour- 
 mand is my abomination. There is a limit 
 in culinary lore beyond which, as I opine, the 
 sportsman should never travel. Like a sol- 
 dier, he will sometimes find it serviceable to 
 be able to direct the broiling of a steak, and 
 the combination of a stew. To fabricate a 
 
 plishments, is detestable. With one who 
 composed omelets, and talked scholarly of the 
 materiel of a plum-pudding and I once had 
 the misfortune to fall into a shooting party 
 afflicted with such a personage I would con- 
 sort no more upon the heath, than I would 
 shoot with a cook, or draw a cover with a 
 confectioner. And yet, with these antipa- 
 thies, I recommend the neophyte to make 
 himself in every thing as independent as he 
 can. A few practical lessons are worth a 
 world of precept : one week's cooking in the 
 moors will render him for life an adept ; and 
 if gun and angle fail him not, he will be able 
 to command a dinner, without owing to the 
 devil the compliment of a bad cook Wild 
 Sports. 
 
 curry, or even regulate a hash, may be tole- 
 rated ; and in wild countries, like Ballycroy 
 or the Scottish highlands, this knowledge will 
 frequently be " worth a Jew's eye ;" but 
 
 COOLNESS, s. Gentle cold, a soft degree of cold; freedom from passion. 
 COOMB, s. A measure of corn containing four bushels. 
 COOP, s. A cage, a pen for animals, as poultry or sheep. 
 COOT (Fulica, LINN.), s. A small black water-fowl. 
 
 Its characteristics are, bill strong, thick, 
 sloping to a point; the base of the upper 
 
 mandible rising far up into the forehead ; 
 both mandibles of equal length ; nostrils
 
 128 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Coo 
 
 inclining to oval, narrow, short; body com- 
 pressed ; wings and tail short ; toes long, 
 furnished with broad scalloped membranes 
 between each joint, on each side ; the inner 
 toe has two, the middle three, and the outer 
 four scallops ; and the hinder toe, one plain 
 membrane adhering to its whole length. 
 
 Bald Coot (Fulica atra, LINN Le 
 
 Foulque au Morelle, BUFF.) This bird 
 generally weighs, when in full condition, 
 about twenty-eight ounces, and measures fif- 
 teen inches in length. The bill is of a green- 
 ish white colour, more than an inch and a 
 quarter long : a callous white membrane, like 
 that of the water hen, but larger, is spread 
 over the forehead, which also, as in that bird, 
 changes its colour to a pale red in the breed- 
 ing season : irides red ; the upper part of the 
 plumage is black, except the outer edges of 
 the wings, and a spot under each eye, which 
 are white; the under parts are of a hoary 
 dark ash or lead colour. The skin is clothed 
 with a thick down, and covered with close 
 fine feathers; the thighs are placed far be- 
 hind, are fleshy and strong, bare, and yellow 
 above the knees ; the legs and toes are com- 
 monly of a yellowish green, but sometimes of 
 lead colour. 
 
 The common coot has so many traits in its 
 character, and so many features in its general 
 appearance like the rails and water hens, that 
 to place it after them, seems a natural and 
 easy gradation. Linnaeus and other ornitho- 
 logists, however, describe it as a genus distinct 
 from those birds, and from the waders in 
 general, on account of its being fin footed, 
 and its constant attachment to the waters, 
 which, indeed, it seldom quits. With it natu- 
 ralists begin the numerous tribe of swimmers, 
 and rank it among those that are the most 
 completely dependent upon the watery ele- 
 ment for their support : it swims and dives 
 with as much ease as almost any of them ; 
 and also, like those which seldom venture 
 upon land, it is a bad traveller, and may be 
 said not to walk, but to splash and waddle 
 between one pool and another, with a laboured, 
 ill balanced, and awkward gait. 
 
 These birds skulk and hide themselves dur- 
 ing the day among rushes, sedges, and weeds, 
 which grow abundantly in the loughs and 
 ponds, where they take up their constant abode : 
 they rarely venture abroad, except in the 
 dusk, and in the night, in quest of their food, 
 which consists of the herbage, seeds, insects, 
 and the slippery inhabitants of stagnant waters. 
 It is seldom that the sportsman and his dog 
 can force the coot to spring from its retreat ; 
 for it will, in a manner, bury itself in the 
 mud rather than take wing : and when it is 
 very closely pursued, and compelled to rise, 
 it does so with much fluttering and apparent 
 difficulty. 
 
 This species is met with in Great Britain 
 at all seasons of the year ; and it is generally 
 believed that it does not migrate to other 
 countries, but changes its stations, and re- 
 moves in the autumn from the lesser pools or 
 loughs, where the young have been reared, to 
 the larger lakes, where flocks assemble in the 
 winter. The female commonly builds her 
 nest in a bush of rushes surrounded by the 
 water ; it is composed of a great quantity of 
 coarse dried weeds, well matted together, and 
 lined within with softer and finer grasses : she 
 lays from twelve to fifteen eggs at a time, and 
 commonly hatches twice in a season : her eggs 
 are about the size of those of a pullet, and 
 are of a pale brownish white colour, sprinkled 
 with numerous small dark spots, which, at the 
 thicker end, seem as if they had run into 
 each other, and formed bigger blotches. 
 
 As soon as the young quit the shell, they 
 plunge into the water, dive, and swim about 
 with the greatest ease ; but they still gather 
 together about the mother, and take shelter 
 under her wings, and do not entirely leave her 
 for some time. They are at first covered with 
 sooty coloured down, and are of a shapeless 
 appearance : while they are in this state, and 
 before they have learned, by experience, to 
 shun their foes, the kite, moor buzzard, and 
 others of the hawk tribe, make dreadful 
 havoc among them ; and this, notwithstanding 
 the numerous brood, may account for the 
 scarcity of the species. 
 
 Greater Coot (Fulica aterrima, LINN ; 
 Le Grand Foulque au Morelle, BUFF.) 
 This is of a larger size than the last, 
 but differs not in the colour of the plumage, 
 except that it is blacker. Brisson distinguishes 
 the two by the colour of the bare forehead, 
 which is in this white ; and the garters, which 
 are of deep red. This bird is said to be found 
 in Lancashire and in Scotland. It should 
 seem to be a mere variety of the former, did 
 not authors join in advancing the contrary. 
 They are more plentiful on the continent, 
 being found in Russia and the western part of 
 Siberia very commonly, and are also in plenty 
 at Sologne and the neighbouring parts, where 
 they call it judelle. The people eat them on 
 maigre days, and the flesh is much esteemed. 
 Latham. * 
 
 A curious anecdote is related of a bald 
 coot that built her nest in Sir William Mid- 
 dleton's lake, at Belsay, Northumberland. 
 The rushes which contained it being after- 
 wards loosened by the wind, the nest was 
 driven about, and floated upon the surface of 
 the water, in every direction ; notwithstand- 
 ing which, the female continued to sit as 
 usual, and brought out her young upon her 
 moveable habitation. 
 
 Cleaning Coots The recipe for this, is, 
 
 after picking them, to take off all the black
 
 Coo] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 129 
 
 down, by means of powdered white rosin and 
 boiling water, and then to let them soak all 
 night in cold spring water ; by which they are 
 made to look as delicate as a chicken, and to 
 eat tolerably well ; but, without this process, 
 the skin, in roasting, produces a sort of oil, 
 with a fishy taste and smell ; and, if taken 
 off, the bird becomes dry, and good for no- 
 thing. After all, howevfer, these birds are in 
 no way delicate, except when skinned ; and 
 
 after being soaked twenty-four hours in cold 
 spring water, repeatedly changed, made into a 
 pudding, by which, as with all such birds, 
 when in puddings, pies, or soup, you can get 
 rid of their strong skins without losing the 
 juice of their flesh ; and their fishy taste is, 
 in a great measure, drawn off by steam. 
 
 Moor-hens may be cleaned in like manner, 
 and, if in good condition, they will then be 
 nearly equal to any wild fowl Hawker. 
 
 COPPER, s. One of the six primitive metals. 
 
 COPPER-CAP, j. A metallic covering fixed upon the nipple of a percussion 
 gun, containing a fulminating composition, which explodes by the action 
 of the cock and ignites the powder in the barrel. Vide PERCUSSION. 
 
 COPPERAS, s. A kind of vitriol. 
 
 COPPICE, s. Low woods cut at stated times for fuel. 
 
 COPSE, s. Short wood. 
 
 COPSE, v. To preserve underwood. 
 
 COPULATE, v. To come together as different sexes. 
 
 COPULATION, s. The congress or embrace of the two sexes. 
 
 CORACLE, s. A boat used in Wales by fishers. 
 
 CORDIAL, s. A medicine that increases the force of the heart, or quickens 
 the circulation ; any medicine that increases strength ; any thing that 
 comforts, gladdens, and exhilarates. Cordials are useful to give a tem- 
 porary energy to the stomach and bowels, and stimulate the nervous 
 system. 
 
 White says, " There is not a better cordial 
 than about half a pint of good strong beer, 
 with a little ginger grated into it. A wine- 
 glassful of brandy in half a pint of water is 
 stronger, and may, on some occasions, be more 
 useful ; but I wish to impress on the reader, 
 that, whenever a cordial appears necessary, we 
 should give one of no greater strength than 
 
 is sufficient to produce the desired effect ; 
 and it will be found, I think, that a much 
 better effect may be produced by three or 
 four small doses, or weak cordials, than by 
 giving only one large dose." 
 
 1. From half a pint to a pint of the best old 
 
 mild beer, with a little grated ginger. 
 
 2. Best Cognac brandy, from 2 to 4 oz. 
 Warm water . . . 6 to 12 oz. 
 
 2oz. 
 
 6 or 8 oz. 
 
 2 to 4 drs. 
 
 4 dr. to 1 oz. 
 
 3. Anodyne carminative tinc- 
 
 ture .... 
 Water .... 
 
 4. Allspice, powdered 
 Caraway seeds (fresh), pow- 
 dered 
 
 Treacle enough to form a ball. 
 
 5. Ginger, powdered . 1 dr. 
 Allspice, powdered . 2 drs. 
 Caraway seeds, powdered . 4 drs. 
 Treacle enough to form a ball. 
 
 The cordials No. 4 and 5 may be given as 
 a drench with a little water ; and if the cor- 
 dials 1, 2, and 3, were sweetened with treacle 
 or sugar, they would be more palatable to the 
 horse, and probably have a better effect. 
 The above cordials are as well suited to cattle 
 as to horses ; and, though much stronger 
 drenches are often given, those will be found, 
 I think, of sufficient strength White. 
 
 CORDIAL, a. Reviving, invigorating, sincere. 
 
 CORE, s. The heart ; the inner part of any thing ; the inner part of a 
 fruit, which contains the kernel ; the matter contained in a bile or sore. 
 CORIANDER, s. A plant.
 
 130 THE FIELD BOOK. [Coa 
 
 CORK, *. A glandiferous tree, in all respects like, the ilex, excepting- the 
 bark ; the bark of the cork-tree used for stopples ; the stopple of a 
 bottle. 
 
 CORMORANT, COLE GOOSE, or GREAT BLACK CORMORANT, (Pelicanus 
 Corbo, LINN. ; Le Cormoran, BUFF.) s. A bird that preys upon fish. 
 
 The weight of this species varies from four 
 to seven pounds, and the size from thirty-two 
 inches to three feet four or five in length, 
 and from four feet to four feet six inches in 
 breadth. The bill, to the corners of the 
 mouth, measures four inches, and on its ridge 
 two and three quarters ; it is of a dark horn 
 colour, and the tip or nail of the upper bill is 
 much hooked and sharp; from the base of 
 this it is furrowed on each side nearly to the 
 tip, without any visible appearance of nostrils ; 
 the lower bill is compressed, and covered, 
 about the gape of the mouth, with a naked 
 yellowish skin, extended under the chin and 
 throat, where it hangs loose, and forms a kind 
 of pouch, which, together with the springing 
 blade on each side, forming its rim, is capable 
 of distension to a great width, and enables the 
 bird to swallow prey apparently too large to 
 be admitted into its throat; the skin about 
 the eyes is also naked, and of the same colour 
 as the pouch ; the eyes, which have a remark- 
 able wild stare, and are placed near the bill, 
 look like two little greenish glass globes. 
 The crown of the head, and the neck, are 
 black ; on the hinder part of the former the 
 feathers appear elongated, and form a sort of 
 loose short crest. In some specimens the 
 
 throat is white, with a kind of stripe passing 
 from it, upwards, behind each eye ; in others 
 the cheeks and throat are mixed with brown 
 and white ; and again, in others the head and 
 neck are streaked with scratches of the latter 
 colour. The middle of the belly is white, 
 with a patch of the same colour over each 
 thigh ; all the under parts, however, together 
 with the back and rump, are commonly of a 
 glossy blue black, with green reflections : the 
 shoulders, scapulars, and wing-coverts, are of 
 a bronze brown, tinged and glossed with 
 green, and each feather is bordered with 
 shining blueish black ; the secondary quills 
 are nearly of the same colour; the coverts 
 and the primaries are dusky. The tail con- 
 sists of fourteen stiff husky feathers, which 
 look as if they were discoloured by being 
 dipped in mud or dirty kennel- water : the 
 legs are thick, strong, black, and coarse, about 
 two inches and a half long, and the outer toe 
 is more than four in length. 
 
 The cormorant is found in every climate. 
 In Greenland, where it is said they remain 
 throughout the year, the jugular pouch is 
 made use of by the natives, as a bladder to 
 float their fishing-darts, after they are thrown ; 
 their skins, which are tough, are used for
 
 COR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 garments, and their flesh for food ; " but the 
 eggs are too fetid to be eaten even by the 
 Greenlanders." 
 
 * * 
 
 These birds usually assemble in flocks on 
 the summits and inaccessible parts of the 
 rocks which overhang or are surrounded by 
 the sea, upon which the female makes her 
 nest of the withered sea-tang, weeds, sticks, 
 and grasses, which are cast on shore by the 
 waves : she lays four or more greenish- white 
 eggs, of the size of those of a goose, but of a 
 longer shape. There are writers who assert 
 that, in some parts of the world, they build 
 their nests on trees, like the rook and the 
 heron ; other authors, stricken with the sin- 
 gular conformation of the feet and serrated 
 claws, have ascribed properties to them which 
 they do not possess, and believe that they 
 hold their prey in one foot, while with the 
 other they push forward to the shore, or carry 
 it thither, in the same manner, on the wing ; 
 but this seems mere conjecture, for the feet 
 of this tribe are not fitted for any such pur- 
 pose ; they are, like those of all the expert 
 divers, placed far behind ; and while, by the 
 position of these, and the powerful strokes 
 from their broad webs, the bird is enabled to 
 pursue and overtake its slippery prey, the 
 hooked, sharp-edged beak is the only fit in- 
 strument both to catch and to secure it ; and 
 there is no need to use the awkward expedi- 
 ent of removing it afterwards to the foot. 
 
 At sea, or on the inland lakes, they make 
 terrible havoc. From the greatest height 
 they drop down upon the object of pursuit, 
 dive after it with the rapidity of a dart, 
 and, with an almost unerring certainty, seize 
 the victim ; then emerging with the fish 
 across the bill, with a kind of twirl, throw it 
 up into the air, and, dexterously catching it 
 head foremost, swallow it whole. 
 
 While at rest on the shore, commonly on 
 the ledge of a projecting rock, these birds sit, 
 more or less, in an erect posture, and are 
 propped up by the stiff feathers of the tail ; 
 and in places where they have not experi- 
 enced the fatal effects of the gun, they have 
 been known, however wary at other times, to 
 sit and receive repeated shots, without offer- 
 ing to move out of the danger. At other 
 times and places, while they sit in a dosing 
 and stupified state, from the effects of one of 
 their customary surfeits, they may easily be 
 taken, by throwing nets over them, or by 
 putting a noose around their necks, which 
 they avoid no further than by slipping the 
 head from side to side as long as they can. 
 
 Notwithstanding the natural wildness of 
 their dispsition, it seems, according to some 
 accounts, that certain species of these birds 
 have formerly been tamed and rendered sub- 
 servient to the purposes of man, both in this 
 
 and other countries. Among the Chinese it 
 is said they have frequently been trained to 
 fish, and that some fishermen keep many of 
 them for that purpose, by which they gain a 
 livelihood. " A ring placed round the neck 
 hinders the bird from swallowing ; its natural 
 appetite joins with the will of its master, and 
 it instantly dives at the word of command ; 
 when, unable to gorge down the fish it has 
 taken, it returns to the keeper, who secures it 
 to himself. Sometimes, if the fish be too big 
 for one to manage, two will act in concert, 
 one taking it by the head and the other by 
 the tail." In England, according to Wil- 
 loughby, " when they came to the rivers, 
 they take off their hoods, and having tied a 
 leather thong round the lower part of their 
 necks, that they may not swallow down the 
 fish they catch, they throw them into the 
 river. They presently dive under water, and 
 there for a time, with wonderful swiftness, 
 they pursue the fish ; and when they have 
 caught them, they arise presently to the top 
 of the water, and pressing the fish lightly with 
 their bills, they swallow them, till each bird 
 hath in this manner swallowed five or six 
 fishes ; then their keepers call them to the 
 fist, to which they readily fly, and, little by 
 little, one after another, vomit up all their 
 fish, a little bruised with the nip they gave 
 them with their bills. When they have done 
 fishing, setting the birds on some high place, 
 they loose the string from their necks, leaving 
 the passage to the stomach free and open, and 
 for their reward they throw them part of the 
 prey they have caught, to each, perchance, one 
 or two fishes, which they by the way, as they 
 are falling in the air, will catch most dexter- 
 ously in their mouths." 
 
 Whitelock tells us " That he had a cast of 
 them manned like hawks, which would come 
 to hand." He took much pleasure in them, 
 and relates, that the best he had was one pre- 
 sented to him by Mr. Wood, Master of the 
 Cormorants to Charles the First. 
 
 Dr. Heysham relates that, about the year 
 1759, one of these birds " perched upon the 
 castle at Carlisle, and soon afterwards re- 
 moved to the cathedral, where it was shot at 
 upwards of twenty times without effect ; at 
 length a person got upon the cathedral, fired 
 at, and killed it." " In another instance, a 
 flock of fifteen or twenty perched, at the 
 dusk of evening, in a tree on the banks of the 
 river Esk, near Netherby, the seat of Sir 
 James Graham. A person who saw them 
 settle, fired at random at them in the dark six 
 or seven times, without either killing any or 
 frightening them away : surprised at this, he 
 came again, at day-light, and killed one, 
 whereupon the rest took flight." Bewick 
 Latham Willoughby, Qc. 
 
 K 2
 
 132 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Cuo 
 
 CORN, s. The seeds which grow in ears, not in pods ; grain unreaped ; 
 grain in the ear, yet unthrashed ; an excrescence on the foot, hard and 
 
 painful. 
 
 round the coronet, and kept constantly wet. 
 The common practice of pairing out the com 
 and leaving the har and crust to be in contact 
 with the heel of the shoe, is doing no good, 
 nor would it afford even temporary relief, if 
 the shoe were not bent up or made to bear 
 off that quarter a little, as they term it ; yet 
 after riding a few miles the shoe is sure to 
 yield to the horse's weight, and bear upon the 
 tender heel. It is thus that corns are made 
 so troublesome as we find them, and many 
 horses are rendered nearly unserviceable, or 
 absolutely ruined by this improper treatment. 
 Matter is often formed within the heel from 
 this sort of management, and breaks out at 
 the coronet, frequently doing great mischief, 
 and even rendering the horse useless. When 
 corns have been suffered to go this length the 
 foot must be poulticed, and all the hollow 
 horn cut away. After the inflammation has 
 been thus completely subdued, the sensible 
 parts which have been laid bare may be 
 dressed with Friars' balsam and the tar oint- 
 ment. The radical cure of corns is always 
 practicable if taken early, but in old cases the 
 sensible parts will always remain in a tender 
 state, however carefully they may be treated, 
 and will always require the defence of the 
 bar shoe, applied as I have described. A run 
 at grass without shoes is a great relief to a 
 horse with corns, provided the tender heel is 
 cut down as I have described, and the heel 
 and quarter rasped very thin. When a radi- 
 cal cure is attempted, this is the most likely 
 means of effecting it White. 
 
 Corns are a very common and a very trou- 
 blesome disorder, and may truly be said to be 
 often occasioned by the smith, being generally 
 in consequence of bad shoeing. Corns most 
 commonly happen in white feet with weak 
 low heels ; but they are too common in feet 
 of all colours. They are occasioned by the 
 pressure of the heel of the shoe, either by its 
 bearing directly on the sole when it is too 
 thin to bear the pressure, or by its forcing the 
 heel of the crust inwards. In this way the 
 sensible sole and laminae are bruised, their 
 blood-vessels ruptured, and the blood pene- 
 trates into the pores of the horn, causing the 
 dark red appearance observable on removing 
 the shoe, and scraping off the surface of the 
 sole. This bruised part is exceedingly ten- 
 der, and incapable of bearing the pressure of 
 the shoe, and so are the crust and bar on each 
 side of it. In the treatment of this complaint 
 all this must be cut away, that is, all the 
 parts must be so cut down, crust, har, and 
 sole, that when a bar shoe is applied it may 
 be full half an inch distant from its surface. 
 In this way a horse will be able to do his 
 work, provided the shoe is removed, and the 
 heel pared down as often as is necessary. As 
 in this case the frog will be constantly receiv- 
 ing considerable pressure from the bar shoe, 
 it is necessary to take care that the heels are 
 not too thick and inflexible, in which case it 
 is necessary to rasp them; and whenever 
 there is a morbid degree of heat in the feet, 
 or dryness, they should b6 kept constantly 
 moist and cool in the stable, either by poul- 
 tice or by several folds of old woollen wrapped 
 
 CORNCRAKE. ( Vide LANDRAIL.) 
 
 CORNEOUS, a. Horny, of a substance resembling horn. 
 
 CORNET, s. Cornet of a horse, is the lowest part of his pastern that runs 
 
 round the coffin. 
 CORPULENT, a. Fleshy, bulky. 
 
 CORROBORANT, a. Having the power to give strength. 
 CORRODE, v. To eat away by degrees. 
 
 CORROSION, s. The power of eating or wearing away by degrees. 
 COSTIVE, a. Bound in the body ; close, unpermeable. 
 COSTIVENESS, s. The state of the body in which excretion is obstructed. 
 COT, s. A small house, a hut, a bed. 
 COTTON, s. The down of the cotton tree; a plant ; cloth or stuff made of 
 
 cotton. 
 COUCH, v. To lie down in a place of repose ; to lie down on the knees, as 
 
 a beast, to rest ; to lie down in ambush.
 
 COY] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 133 
 
 COUCHANT, a. .Lying down, squatting. 
 
 COVE, s. A small creek or bay ; a shelter, a cover. 
 
 COVER, v. To overspread any thing with something else ; to hide by arti- 
 ficial appearances ; to brood on ; to copulate with a female. 
 
 COVER, s. Any thing that is laid over another ; a concealment, a screen ; 
 shelter ; a wood, a thicket or place planted with furze or brushwood ; a 
 breeding place for foxes. To draw a cover to search it for foxes, by 
 sending the hounds through. 
 
 Judicious huntsmen will observe where 
 foxes like best to lie ; this must, of course, 
 vary in different countries, and a knowledge 
 of the country will best direct them in this 
 respect. Where there are large tracts of 
 cover, such observation will save time in find- 
 ing ; generally speaking, foxes prefer covers 
 that lie high, are dry and thick at the bottom, 
 that are out of the wind, and are on the 
 sunny side of hills. The cover where a fox 
 is found, when it has remained still any time, 
 will probably produce a second. In nutting 
 time, furze-brakes and two or three years' 
 coppices are the only quiet places for a fox to 
 kennel in ; when pheasant-shooting begins, 
 older covers are more likely. The season 
 when foxes are most wild and strong, is near 
 Christmas ; a huntsman must, at that season, 
 lose no time in drawing, and be as silent as 
 possible; three or four years' coppices, with 
 heath or furze at the bottom, are then most 
 
 likely. The male foxes, about Christmas, 
 
 travel miles after the females, and, when 
 
 hunted, generally run directly for the country 
 
 from whence they came ; the compiler has at 
 
 that season, in the course of three weeks, 
 
 killed two brace of dog-foxes from one cover, 
 
 where the least distance was twelve, and in 
 
 one of the four chases was extended to double 
 
 the number of miles, from the place of un- 
 kennelling, to the spot where the fox was killed. 
 When a string of small covers have plenty 
 
 of foxes in them, some caution is necessary 
 
 to prevent their being all disturbed in one 
 
 day. Foxes are said to go down wind to 
 
 their kennel, but, however that may be, the 
 
 huntsman should begin drawing at the farthest 
 
 cover down the wind, and proceed from cover 
 
 to cover up the wind, till he finds ; these ad- 
 vantages will attend it ; he will draw the covers 
 
 more speedily, there will be less difficulty in 
 
 getting hounds away, and as the fox most 
 
 likely will run to the covers already drawn, 
 there is the less probability of changing, and 
 the covers which are up the wind, beyond 
 where the fox is found, remain perfectly un- 
 disturbed. 
 
 Never hunt the small, until the large covers 
 have been well rattled ; for it would be bad 
 policy to drive from the former to the latter 
 
 to increase the number. If foxes are meant 
 to be thinned and dispersed, hounds must 
 throw off at the same cover, as long as a fox 
 can be found. Hounds that come away with 
 the first fox that breaks, do not disturb the 
 cover, and may expect to find there again the 
 next day ; but where foxes are scarce, the 
 same cover should never be drawn two days 
 following. 
 
 Furze covers cannot be drawn too close, and 
 if a fox is there found, he should never be 
 hallooed until quite clear of them ; from such 
 places, hounds are sure logo off well with him ; 
 and it would be the height of cruelty to head 
 him back into the hounds' mouths. 
 
 * 
 
 Much depends on the first finding a fox, 
 who, if well found, may be said to be half 
 killed. The huntsman should draw quietly, 
 and up the wind ; this is material ; the fox, by 
 drawing up the wind, does not hear the ap- 
 proach of the hounds, who by this means are 
 also within hearing ; besides, should the fox 
 turn down the wind, as most probably he will, 
 it lets the hounds all in. If covers are small, 
 and from which a fox cannot break unseen, 
 noise can then do no hurt, but late in the sea- 
 son foxes are wild, particularly in covers that 
 are often hunted ; and should there be any 
 noise, they will slink their kennels and get too 
 much advantage ; the whipper-in, where this 
 is suspected to happen, should get the opposite 
 side of the cover, before the hounds are thrown 
 
 into it. 
 
 * 
 
 When foxes are numerous, there is no oc- 
 casion for an early hour, and when they are 
 weak, by hunting late, they give better chases ; 
 when foxes are strong, hounds ought then to 
 have the advantage which hunting early af- 
 fords them. W r hen hounds go out late, they 
 should immediately proceed where it is likely 
 to find, which, for the most part, is that cover 
 where hounds have been least in ; if a fox is 
 not soon found, a long and tiresome day is 
 generally the consequence ; when the cover is 
 thick, particularly if it be furzy, it should be 
 drawn slowly ; a fox at a late hour will keep 
 his kennel until hounds come close upon him. 
 Beckford Daniel.
 
 134 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Cov 
 
 COVERT, s. A shelter, a defence. Coverts of the Tail, (Uropygium, 
 
 LINN.), in Ornithology, are feathers which cover the tail on the upper 
 
 side, at the base. 
 COVEY, s. A hatch, an old bird with her young ones ; a number of birds 
 
 together. 
 
 COUGH, s. A convulsion of the lungs. 
 COUGH, v. To have the lungs convulsed ; to make a noise in endeavouring 
 
 to evacuate the peccant matter from the lungs. 
 
 Chronic Cough It may appear strange 
 
 to a person unacquainted -with the animal 
 economy, that what is taken into the stomach 
 should affect the mucous memhrane of the 
 lungs, and that of the larynx, which is the 
 seat of chronic cough. It is in the following 
 manner : when the stomach is distended hy 
 hay, and especially if that hay is bad, it is 
 gradually weakened, and rendered incapable 
 of performing its office properly ; hence the 
 chyle is crude, and unfit for the purpose it 
 was intended for, that is, forming pure blood. 
 By this imprudent method of feeding them, 
 the blood is rendered impure, and of course 
 all the secretions become so likewise. Thus 
 it is that the bland mucous fluid, formed 
 upon the internal membrane of the wind-pipe 
 and its branches, for the purpose of defend- 
 ing and lubricating it, becomes saline and 
 acrimonious, and a source of constant irrita- 
 tion : hence arises the cough. It is commonly 
 observed, that horses with chronic cough have 
 immoderate appetites both for hay and water; 
 and though people have suspected some con- 
 nexion between this circumstance and the 
 cough, they have not perceived the entire 
 dependence of the cough upon it, which they 
 might easily have done by a very simple ex- 
 periment. Let a horse affected with chronic 
 cough be fed moderately upon green food 
 only, and it will generally be found that the 
 chronic cough will gradually go off. But let 
 the horse return to his former method of 
 feeding, and the disease will quickly reappear. 
 
 There is no occasion to say much on the 
 treatment and prevention of this disorder, 
 when arising from improper feeding. It may 
 be useful, however, to observe, that when the 
 appetite has been depraved, and the digestive 
 power weakened by long continued improper 
 feeding, they cannot be suddenly restored : 
 and it will often require a steady pereverance 
 in a careful system of feeding, and the use of 
 diuretic medicine, in such a way, however, as 
 to keep up only a moderate degree of in- 
 creased action in the kidneys, without injuring 
 those organs, or affecting the stomach : and 
 this may be accomplished by giving half an 
 ounce of nitre in a little corn twice or three 
 times a day, or the powder described after- 
 
 wards. If a horse is inclined to eat his litter, 
 he should be muzzled during the night, and 
 in the day time it should be taken from him. 
 
 Chronic cough is sometimes a consequence 
 of a violent attack of catarrh or strangles, 
 especially when there has been considerable 
 soreness and inflammation of the throat, ex- 
 tending, in some degree, perhaps, to the 
 larynx. Roaring often originates in the same 
 cause. I have known an obstinate chronic 
 cough cured by drenches composed of oxymel, 
 or a syrup made with treacle and vinegar ; 
 also by a decoction of garlic with linseed oil. 
 Barbadoes tar and oil, with balsam of sul- 
 phur, have also been employed as remedies 
 for cough. It is not improbable that these 
 drenches, by stimulating the throat, may 
 improve the secretion of the mucous mem- 
 brane of the larynx, or render it less irritable. 
 
 Blistering the throat externally may also 
 be of use. In the human subject, gargles, 
 made of infusion of Cayenne pepper, have 
 been employed in hoarseness, and a syrup 
 made from a decoction of horse-radish ; with 
 a view, probably, of improving the mucous 
 secretion of the larynx. Opium will fre- 
 quently put a stop to chronic cough for a day 
 or two; but its effect, I believe, is never 
 permanent. This seems to prove, however, 
 that the cough depends, in some measure, on 
 a morbid sensibility of the larynx. 
 
 REMEDIES. 
 COUGH BALL. 
 
 No. 1. Gum ammoniac . . 2 or 3 drs. 
 
 Powdered squills . 1 dr. 
 
 Camphor . . 1 dr. 
 
 Ginger . . 1 dr. 
 
 Castile soap . . 2 drs. 
 
 Oil of aniseed . . 20 drops. 
 Syrup and flour enough to form the ball. 
 No. 2. Strained turpentine . . 8 oz. 
 
 Yellow resin . 4 oz. 
 
 Olive oil . .2 oz. 
 
 Hard soap . . . 8 oz. 
 Put these in a pan over a slow fire, and, 
 when perfectly melted, stir in of powdered 
 ginger six ounces ; allspice, powdered, six 
 ounces ; liquorice powder, or linseed powder, 
 enough to form a mass fit for making balls. 
 The dose, from one and a half to two ounces,
 
 Coo] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 135 
 
 to be given for two or three successive morn- 
 ings, or until it acts as a diuretic. When a 
 horse, affected -with cough, becomes costive, a 
 clyster may be thrown up ; or he may be kept 
 chiefly on green food, or bran mashes, for a 
 few days. I have observed, in some cases, 
 that the cough-ball has been more efficacious 
 when preceded by a mild purgative with a 
 drachm of calomel. The following powder 
 has sometimes been found a good remedy for 
 coughs, especially when the horse's diet and 
 exercise have been carefully attended to ; and 
 in cases where the cough has appeared to be 
 confined to the larynx the following drench 
 has done good. Vide ELAINE. 
 
 Take of nitre, levigated antimony, and 
 powdered resin, of each two or three drachms ; 
 mix for one dose, and give it every morning 
 
 in a mash until it acts as a diuretic. When 
 cough happens to young horses, and the mem- 
 branes of the eye appear red, the loss of a 
 little blood, and a clyster, are likely to do 
 good. 
 
 DRENCH FOR COUGH. 
 
 Bruise three ounces of fresh squills in a 
 mortar, or four or five ounces of garlic ; and 
 macerate in twelve ounces of vinegar in a slow 
 oven, or on a hot plate, for an hour ; strain 
 off the liquid part, and add to it treacle or 
 honey one pound. The dose should be three 
 or four ounces in bad coughs; where there 
 appears great irritation in the larynx, two tea- 
 spoonfuls or one tablespoonful of tincture of 
 opium may be added to two or three doses. A 
 dose may be given every morning White. 
 
 COULTERNEB, (Fratcrcula arctica, BRISS.) s. 
 
 The weight of this species is between twelve 
 and thirteen ounces ; length exceeds twelve 
 inches. The bill is of a very singular form ; 
 it is about an inch and a half deep at the base, 
 much compressed sideways, and arched, but 
 ends in a point, where the upper mandible is a 
 little hooked : at the base of this mandible is 
 an elevated rim, full of small punctures of a 
 light colour ; next to which is a space of blue- 
 ish grey, at the bottom of which the nostrils 
 are lodged at the edge, which is a long narrow 
 slit ; from thence it is orange-coloured with 
 four oblique furrows ; the under mandible cor- 
 responds in colour, but has only three furrows ; 
 irides hazel, in some greyish ; orbits, red ; 
 above the eye is a triangular callous protube- 
 rance, beneath an oblong one ; the top of the 
 head and whole upper parts are black, passing 
 round the neck in a collar ; the sides of the 
 head and all the under parts are pure white ; 
 the chin in some is grey, in others white, and 
 the cheeks are grey ; quills dusky ; tail short, 
 and consists of sixteen feathers ; legs and feet 
 orange; claws black, the inner one much 
 hooked. 
 
 It is remarked that the bill of this bird va- 
 ries much according to age ; at first it has no 
 furrows, and is of a dusky-colour, the yellow 
 colour and furrows increasing with age. 
 
 These birds appear on many parts of our 
 rocky coasts about the middle of April, and 
 begin to breed about the middle of May. On 
 the stupendous cliffs of Dover, and such places, 
 they deposit their single eggs, in the holes and 
 crevices ; in other places they burrow like rab- 
 bits, if the soil is light ; but more frequently 
 take possession of rabbit-burrows, and lay 
 their egg many feet under ground. This is 
 the case on Priestholm Isle off the coast of 
 Anglesea, and other small islands off St. 
 
 David's-head, where the soil is sandy. 
 
 If the coulterneb is, however, a robber of 
 rabbit-burrows, it is too formidably armed to 
 allow of retaliation with impunity, and few 
 birds or beasts dare venture to attack it in its 
 retreat. Sometimes, however, as Jacobson 
 tells us, the raven makes bold to offer battle ; 
 but as soon as he approaches, the coulterneb 
 catches him under the throat with her beak, 
 and sticks her claws into his breast till he 
 screams out with pain and tries to get away ; 
 but the coulterneb keeps fast hold of him and 
 tumbles him about till both frequently fall 
 into the sea, where the raven is drowned, and 
 the coulterneb returns in triumph to her nest. 
 But should the raven, at the first onset, get 
 hold of the coulterneb's neck, he generally 
 comes off victorious, kills the mother, and 
 feasts on her eggs or her young." On St. 
 Margaret's Island, near St. David's, we have 
 seen the fishermen draw them out of their 
 holes in a singular manner ; by introducing the 
 hand into the hole, which is seized by the bird, 
 who suffers himself to be drawn out rather than 
 loose his hold. In other places they are 
 caught by ferrets, and the young are pickled. 
 
 About the latter end of August they retire 
 from our coast, and have all completely mi- 
 grated by the beginning of September, together 
 with the razor-bills and guillemots. 
 
 The egg is white, but is occasionally found 
 obscurely speckled with cinereous, about the 
 size of a hen's ; their principal food is small 
 fish, particularly sprats, with which they feed 
 their young. It is not known to what parts 
 they retire when they leave our coast, but 
 they have been found in abundance in various 
 parts of the southern and northern hemisphere. 
 Montagu. 
 
 COUNTER, s. A false piece of money used as a means of reckoning.
 
 136 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Cou 
 
 COUNTER, ad. Contrary to, in opposition to ; the wrong way ; contrary 
 
 ways. 
 COUPLE, s. A chain or tie that holds dogs together ; two, a brace ; a male 
 
 and his female. 
 
 COUPLE, v. To chain together ; to join to one another ; to join embraces. 
 COURSE, *. Race, career ; track or line in which a ship sails ; a tract of 
 
 ground set apart for horse-racing. 
 
 Two-year-old course .0 5 136 
 
 The following are the abbreviations used in 
 designating the different courses at Newmarket, 
 with their respective measurements; as also, 
 other abbreviations used, in describing races, 
 throughout the united kingdom. 
 
 M. F. Y. 
 
 B. C. The Beacon course .4 1 138 
 L. T. M. Last three miles of do. 3 45 
 D. I. From the ditch in . . 2 97 
 T. L. I. From the turn of the 
 lands in .... 5 184 
 C. C. Clermont Course . .1 5 217 
 A. F. Across the flat ... 1 1 44 
 
 T. Y. C. 
 Y. C. 
 R. C. 
 D. M. 
 A. M. 
 R. M. 
 T. M. M. 
 D. C. 
 F. C. 
 An. M. 
 B. M. 
 C. S. C. 
 M. D. 
 
 Yearling course . . 
 Round course ... 3 
 Ditch mile .... 
 Abingdon mile . . 
 Rowley mile ... 1 
 Two middle miles of B.C. 1 
 Duke's course. 
 Fox's course. 
 Ancaster mile. 
 Bunbury's mile. 
 Craven stakes cour.se. 
 Mile and distance B. C. 
 
 147 
 
 93 
 
 184 
 
 211 
 
 1 
 
 115 
 
 COURSE, v. To hunt, to pursue ; to pursue with dogs that hunt in view; 
 
 to put to speed, to force to run. 
 COURSER, s. A swift horse. 
 COURSING, s. The pursuit of hares with greyhounds. 
 
 The ancient Laws of Coursing established 
 by the Duke of Norfolk in queen Elizabeth's 
 reign, and agreed to by the nobility and gentry 
 who then followed the diversion, have been 
 always held authentic. 
 
 The Feuterer, or person who lets loose the 
 greyhounds, was to receive those that were 
 matched to run together into his leash, as soon 
 as he came into the field, and to follow next 
 to the hare finder, or him that was to start the 
 hare, until he came to the form, and no horse 
 or footmen were to go before, or on either side, 
 but directly behind for the space of about forty 
 yards. 
 
 A hare was not to be coursed with more 
 than a brace of greyhounds. 
 
 The hare finder was to give the hare three 
 soho's before he put her from her form, to 
 give notice to the dogs that they may attend 
 her starting. 
 
 The hare was to have twelve score yards 
 law before the dogs were loosed, unless the 
 small distance from the cover would not admit 
 it without danger of immediately losing her. 
 
 The dog that gave the first turn, and during 
 the course, if there was neither cote, slip, nor 
 wrench, won. 
 
 A cote is when the greyhound goes end- 
 ways by his fellow, and gives the hare a turn. 
 
 A cote served for two terms, and two trip- 
 pings or jerkins for a cote ; if the hare did not 
 
 turn quite about, she only wrenched, and two 
 wrenches stand for a turn. 
 
 If there were no cotes given between a brace 
 of greyhounds, but that one of them served 
 the other at turning, then he that gave the 
 hare most turns won ; and if one gave as many 
 turns as the other, then he that bore the hare, 
 won. 
 
 A go-by or bearing the hare was equivalent 
 to two turns. 
 
 If neither dog turns the hare, he that led 
 last to the cover won. 
 
 If one dog turned the hare, served himself 
 and turned her again, it was as much as a cote, 
 for a cote was esteemed two turns. 
 
 If all the course were equal, the dog that 
 bore the hare, won ; if the hare was not borne, 
 the cause was adjudged dead. 
 
 If a dog fell in a course, and yet performed 
 his part, he might challenge the advantage of 
 a turn more than he gave. 
 
 If a dog turned the hare, served himself, 
 and gave divers cotes, and yet in the end stood 
 still in the field, the other dog, if he ran home 
 to the cover, although he gave no turn, was 
 adjudged the winner. 
 
 If by accident a dog was rode over in his 
 course, the course was void, and he that did 
 the mischief was to make reparation for the 
 damage. 
 
 If a dog gave the first and last turn, and
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 137 
 
 was adjudged to have the hare for his trouble. 
 Those that were judges of the course, were 
 to give their decision before they departed out 
 of the field. 
 
 there was no other advantage betwixt them, 
 he that gave the odd turn won. 
 
 He that came first at the death, took up the 
 hare, saved her from being torn, cherished the 
 dogs, and cleansed their mouths from the wool, 
 
 Cow, s. The female of the bull. 
 
 CRAB, s. A shell-fish ; a wild apple, the tree that bears a wild apple. 
 
 CRABER, s. The water-rat. 
 
 CRACK, s. A sudden disruption ; chink, fissure, narrow breach ; the sound 
 
 of any body bursting or falling ; any sudden and quick sound ; any 
 
 breach, injury, or diminution ; a flaw. 
 
 Cracks or Ulcers in the Heels are very 
 plainful, ofteij cause lameness, and, from im- 
 proper treatment, often prove very obstinate. 
 An emollient poultice should be first ap- 
 plied, and continued for a few days, or until 
 the inflammation has completely subsided. 
 The crack, or ulcer, as well as all the hollow 
 part of the pastern or heel, should be covered 
 with the following paste, which is to remain 
 two or three days, and then washed off and 
 repeated. When the crack is perfectly healed 
 or dried up by this astringent paste, a little 
 salad oil or fresh hog's lard is often necessary 
 to supple the part. In obstinate cases it is 
 necessary to keep the horse perfectly at rest 
 until the crack is healed, and sometimes to 
 apply the following ointment, spread on a 
 pledget of tow, and confined by a bandage : 
 
 Take of litharge plaster . . 2 oz. 
 
 Best salad oil . . . 1 oz. 
 
 Melt slowly, and when removed from the 
 fire, continue stirring until it is cold. 
 
 Three of these dressings will generally cure 
 the disorder. During this treatment the 
 horse must not be taken out for exercise, but 
 be turned loose into a cool box or out-house, 
 where he may move himself about gently. 
 As he takes no exercise during this time, he 
 should be fed with bran mashes, and have 
 only very little hay, as his bowels would 
 
 otherwise be loaded with excrement, and much 
 mischief might thereby be done. Though 
 the disease is entirely local, it may not be 
 amiss to give half an ounce of nitre once or 
 twice a day in his mash. 
 
 Horses that are constantly kept trimmed 
 out in the heels, often lose the hair from the 
 part by the constant friction of the dirt in the 
 roads ; and, besides the deformity this occa- 
 sions, they are still more liable to those pain- 
 ful cracks. I have lately found the following 
 treatment successful. If the cracks are very 
 painful, poultice for one day and night, then 
 wash them three times a day with the follow- 
 ing lotion, for one or two days ; after this 
 apply the astringent ointment, which gene- 
 rally heals them in a short time : 
 
 LOTION. 
 Super-acetate of lead and sulphate 
 
 of zinc, of each . . 2 dr. 
 
 Water . . . . 8 oz. 
 
 Mix. 
 
 ASTRINGENT OINTMENT. 
 
 Super-acetate of lead, sulphate of zinc, 
 vinegar, of each two drachms, rub well to- 
 gether in a large mortar ; then add melted 
 hog's lard, four ounces, and continue stirring 
 briskly until perfectly incorporated and nearly 
 cold White. 
 
 fattf^, 
 
 ^^^*^round 
 grease, 
 
 CRAFT, s. Manual art; cunning ; small sailing vessels. 
 
 CRAG, s. A rough steep rock; the rugged protuberances of rocks; the 
 
 neck. 
 CRAM, v. To stuff, to fill with more than can conveniently be held; to fill 
 
 with food beyond satiety; to fatten fowls. 
 
 Barley and wheat meal are generally the 
 basis or chief ingredient, in all fattening mix- 
 tures for chickens and fowls ; but in Sussex, 
 ground oats are used, and in that county, I 
 think, oats are in higher repute for fattening 
 than elsewhere, many large hogs being there 
 'd with them. The food given them is 
 oats made into gruel, mixed with hogs' 
 grease, sugar, pot-liquor, and milk : or ground 
 
 oats, treacle, and suet, sheeps' plucks, &c. 
 The fowls are kept very warm, and crammed 
 morning and night. The pot liquor is mixed 
 with a few handfuls of oatmeal and boiled, 
 with which the meal is kneaded into crams 
 or rolls of a proper size. The fowls are put 
 into the coop, two or three days before they 
 are crammed, which is continued for a fort- 
 night, and they are then sold to the higglers.
 
 138 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 ton suet, treacle, or coarse sugar, and milk, 
 and they are found completely ripe in a fort- 
 night. If kept longer, the fever that is in- 
 duced by this continued state of repletion 
 renders them red and unsaleable, and fre- 
 quently kills them Moubray. 
 
 Those fowls, full grown, weigh seven pounds 
 each, the average weight five pounds, but 
 there are instances of individuals double the 
 weight. 
 
 The Worldngham method of feeding is to 
 confine the fowls in a dark place, and cram 
 them with a paste made of barley-meal, mut- 
 
 CRAMP, s. A spasm or contraction of the limbs; a piece of iron bent at 
 each end, by which two bodies are held together ; an implement for re- 
 moving or replacing the main-spring of a gun lock. 
 
 CRAMP, v. To pain with cramps or twitches ; to restrain ; to bind with 
 cramp-irons. 
 
 CRANE, s. A bird with a long beak ; an instrument made with ropes, pul- 
 leys, and hooks, by which great weights are raised. 
 
 CRAW, s. The crop or first stomach of birds. 
 
 CRAW-FISH, s. A small shell-fish found in brooks. 
 
 CREANCE, s. In Falconry, a long and light string, which must always be 
 tied to the leash when lessons are given to a young hawk. 
 
 CREST, s. Any tuft or ornament of the head. 
 
 CRESTED, a. Adorned with a plume or crest; wearing a comb. 
 
 CRETACEOUS, a. Abounding with chalk, chalky. 
 
 CREW, s. A company of people associated for any purpose ; the company 
 of a ship. 
 
 CRIB, a. The rack or manger of a stable ; the stall or cabin of an ox. 
 
 Crib-biting, though only a trick or habit 
 which a horse gets, and which he may teach 
 another that stands next him, especially a 
 young horse, may be considered as a disorder, 
 because it renders him very liable to indiges- 
 tion and flatulent colic. There is no doubt 
 that in crib-biting a horse swallows air, and I 
 have seen a horse distend his stomach and 
 bowels with it in an enormous degree, and he 
 would thereby often get the flatulent colic, 
 and sometimes swell himself that he could 
 
 CRIBBAGE, s. A game at cards. 
 
 Cribbage, a game differing from all others 
 by its immense variety of chances, and gene- 
 rally reckoned useful to instruct young people 
 in the science of calculation, is played several 
 ways, either by two, three, or four persons, 
 with five, six, or sometimes eight cards : the 
 rules also vary a little in different companies ; 
 but the following are those most generally 
 allowed. 
 
 The dealer may discover his own cards, 
 though if he show any of the adversary's, the 
 adversary is entitled to mark two points, and 
 is also at liberty to call a fresh deal. 
 
 Should too many cards be dealt to either 
 party, the non-dealer may score two points, 
 and likewise demand another deal, upon the 
 
 scarcely move. The only convenient method 
 of preventing crib-biting is to put a leather 
 strap round the neck, close to the jaws, which 
 prevents him from laying hold of the manger; 
 it may impede his feeding, however, and this 
 must be attended to. A muzzle sometimes 
 answers the purpose. 
 
 The compiler has known horses effectually 
 cured of crib-biting by merely leaving them 
 loose in the stable White. 
 
 error being detected previous to taking up the 
 cards ; but if he should not choose a new deal, 
 the extra cards must be drawn : and when 
 any player is observed to have in hand more 
 than the proper number of cards, the oppo- 
 nent may set up four points, and also call a 
 new deal. 
 
 If any player meddle with the cards after 
 dealing, till the period of cutting them for the 
 turn-up card, his opponent may score two 
 points. 
 
 When any player scores more than he is 
 entitled to, the other party may not only put 
 him back as many points as are overmarked, 
 but likewise score the same extra number for 
 his own game.
 
 Cm] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 139 
 
 Should either party meddle even with his 
 own pegs unnecessarily, the opponent may 
 take two points, and if any one take out his 
 front peg, he must place the same back behind 
 the other ; though when any are misplaced by 
 accident, a by-stander is to replace the same 
 according to the best of his judgment, but 
 never otherwise interfere. 
 
 When any player miscalculates, or neglects 
 to set up what he is entitled to, the adversary 
 is, in some companies, allowed to take the 
 points so omitted ; but in other companies 
 this rule is not observed, the inattentive player 
 being only prohibited from afterwards scoring 
 them. 
 
 when done with, on the pack. 
 
 In five-card cribbage, the cards are to he 
 dealt one by one alternately ; but when played 
 with six cards, it is customary to give three, 
 and if with eight cards, four at a time. 
 
 The non-dealer, at the commencement of 
 the game, in five-card cribbage, scores three 
 points, called taking three for last ; but in 
 six and eight-card cribbage this is not done. 
 
 Some parties permit flushes in play to be 
 reckoned, when three or more cards of a suit 
 are laid down successively ; that is, the per- 
 son playing the third card reckons three, and 
 the player laying down a fourth of the same 
 suit scores four, and so on if five, six, or more 
 can be played. 
 
 Each player may place his own cards, 
 
 CRICKET, s. An insect that chirps about ovens or fire-places ; a sport. 
 
 Of all the English athletic games, none per- 
 haps presents so fine a scope for bringing into 
 full and constant play the qualities both of the 
 mind and body as that of cricket. A man 
 who is essentially stupid will not make a fine 
 cricketer ; neither will he who is not essenti- 
 ally active. He must be active in all his fa- 
 culties he must be active in mind to prepare 
 for every advantage ; and active in eye and 
 limb, to avail himself of those advantages. 
 He must be cool-tempered, and, in the best 
 sense of the term MANLY, for he must be 
 able to endure fatigue, and to make light of 
 pain ; since, like all athletic sports, cricket is 
 not unattended with danger, resulting from 
 inattention and inexperience. The accidents, 
 however, attendant upon the players at cricket 
 commonly arise from unwatchfulness, or slow- 
 ness of eye. A short-sighted person is as un- 
 
 fit to become a cricketer, as one deaf would be 
 to discriminate the most delicate gradations 
 and varieties in tones; added to which, he 
 must be in constant jeopardy of serious injury. 
 This noble game is thoroughly British. Its 
 derivation is probably from the Saxon "cjiyce 
 a stick." Strutt, however, in his " Sports and 
 Pastimes," states that he can find no record 
 of the game under its present appellation " be- 
 yond the commencement of the last century, 
 where it occurs in one of the songs published 
 by D'Urfey." The first four lines of " Of a 
 noble race was Shenkin," run thus : 
 " Her was the prettiest fellow 
 At foot-ball or at cricket, 
 At hunting chase, or nimble race, 
 How featly her could prick it." 
 The same historian of our games doubts not 
 that cricket derived its origin from the ancient
 
 140 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Cm 
 
 game of club-ball, the patronymics of which 
 being compounded of Welsh and Danish 
 (clwppa and bol) do not warrant his conclu- 
 sion, the Saxon being an elder occupant of our 
 island. The circumstance, however, of there 
 being no illustration extant no missal illu- 
 minated with a group engaged in this king of 
 athletic games, as is the case with its plebeian 
 brother, the club-ball ; also from its constitu- 
 tion being of a more civil and complicated cha- 
 racter, we may rationally infer that it is the 
 offspring of a more polite, at all events of a 
 maturer age, than its fellow. The game of 
 club-ball appears to have been no other than 
 the present well-known bat-and-ball, which, 
 with similar laws and customs prescribed in the 
 playing at it, was doubtless anterior to trap- 
 ball. The trap, indeed, carries with it an air 
 of refinement in the " march of mechanism." 
 
 They who are acquainted with some of the 
 remote and unfrequented villages of England, 
 where the primitive manners, customs, and 
 games of our ancestors survive in the perfec- 
 tion of rude and unadulterated simplicity, 
 must have remarked the lads playing at a game 
 which is the same in its outline and principal 
 features as the consummate piece of perfection 
 that at this day is the glory of " Lord's," and 
 the pride of English athlete ; I mean the one 
 in which a single stick is appointed fora wicket, 
 ditto for a bat, and the same repeated, of about 
 three inches in length, for a ball. If this be 
 not the original of the game of cricket, it is a 
 plebeian imitation of it. 
 
 The constitution of this pastime has under - 
 gone considerable alterations and improvements 
 since it has become a favourite and fashionable 
 recreation. Even till as late as the year 1770, 
 for instance, the wicket had consisted of two 
 stumps, when a third, the centre one, was 
 added : a decided improvement ; seeing that 
 it multiplied the chances to the batter of being 
 bowled out, consequently increased the diffi- 
 culty of his position, and thereby exalted his 
 maintaining it for any length of time into the 
 greater merit : for, under the old system, if the 
 ball passed between the stumps, the batter 
 was not considered out ; under the improved 
 system, such an event cannot happen ; for the 
 three stumps are not pitched at so great a dis- 
 tance from each other as to allow of the tran- 
 sit of the ball without knocking off the bale, 
 which decides the fate and existence of the 
 bats-man. The bale too, which crowns the 
 stumps, formerly consisted of a single piece of 
 wood, and therefore required a considerable 
 concussion of the ball to remove it, without 
 which the batter cannot be declared out ; it 
 is now divided in the centre, and consequently 
 a very slight agitation of either of the outside 
 stumps will displace the one half resting upon 
 it ; and this is equally fatal to the batsman as 
 if the two were knocked off. 
 
 The formation of the bat has also under- 
 gone considerable change and improvement. 
 In an old code of " the Laws of Cricket, re- 
 vised at the Star and Garter, Pall-mall, on 
 February 25, 1774, by a committee of noble- 
 men and gentlemen," the rules and directions 
 are prefaced by a wood-cut of the bat then in 
 use, by which it appears that it was curved, and 
 the face flat. 
 
 The modern bat is not only perfectly up- 
 right, but its face is convex, which again in- 
 creases the difficulty to the player; for, in 
 striking the ball, unless he meet it directly in 
 the centre of his bat, the chances are many, 
 that, from the convexity in the face of the bat, 
 the ball will fly off in a diagonal line, and 
 the player may be caught out. The mode of 
 holding the bat has changed with its alteration 
 of form ; the chief injunction now being to a 
 young player to keep his bat as upright as 
 
 The regular and full game of cricket is 
 composed of twenty-two players, eleven in 
 each party. Each party also selects an um- 
 pire, to whom all disputes are referred ; who 
 decide whether a player be out or not ; and 
 from whose judgment there is no appeal. 
 
 The wickets are pitched opposite to each 
 other, upon the most level and advantageous 
 ground, and twenty-two yards asunder. They 
 must stand twenty-seven inches out of the 
 ground, and the bails must be eight inches in 
 length. In a line with the wickets, a mark 
 is cut in the turf, three feet in length, which 
 is termed the bowling crease ; and at right 
 angles with this is a short line, called the re- 
 turn crease. The bowler, in delivering his 
 ball, is compelled to have one foot before, and 
 the other behind this crease ; and if he fail, it 
 is the duty of the umpire at his wicket to call 
 out" No ball ! " in which case, the batter 
 may strike it, and obtain what advantage he 
 can, and if he be bowled out, it is not reck- 
 oned. A good bowler is a most valuable 
 member of the game, and one on whom suc- 
 cess mainly depends. The ball must not weigh 
 more than five ounces and three quarters, nor 
 less than five ounces and a half. 
 
 The bat must not be wider than four inches 
 and a half ; its height, exclusive of the handle, 
 should be twenty-one inches. There is no 
 absolute law respecting the height of the bat ; 
 this, however, is found to be the most conve- 
 nient. 
 
 The striker, or bats-man, is confined by a 
 line, cut parallel with his wicket, and four 
 feet distant from it. This line is termed the 
 popping crease. If he transgress this boun- 
 dary while the ball is in play, the wicket- 
 keeper, or any other player holding the ball, 
 is at liberty to put him out, by striking down 
 his wicket with the ball. This, however, 
 must always be done by means of the ball
 
 CRO] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 141 
 
 itself; either by throwing it, or, if near 
 enough, by keeping the ball in hand at the 
 time of putting down the wicket. 
 
 The wicket-keeper holds likewise an im- 
 portant station in the game. He stands oppo- 
 site to the bowler, and behind the wicket at 
 which the striker is playing. The duties of 
 the wicket-keeper are too various to be de- 
 tailed in this work, which, of course, affects 
 no more than to give an outline of the prin- 
 ciple of the game. 
 
 Besides the bowler and wicket-keeper, who 
 are the two most serviceable men in the 
 field ; there are the first short slip, who stands 
 near to the wicket-keeper, consequently be- 
 hind the wicket, yet diagonally in front of 
 the batter. 
 
 The point directly faces the striker. His 
 station is about seven yards from the popping- 
 crease. 
 
 The middle-wicket stands on the off side, 
 and about twenty- three yards from the striker's 
 wicket. 
 
 The leg or hip has his appointment about 
 sixteen yards from the popping-crease, be- 
 hind the batter. 
 
 The long-stop is placed behind the wicket- 
 keeper, to save the balls he may miss as they 
 come from the bowler ; for the batters may 
 take the advantage of running when a ball 
 has been over-thrown, or has not been stopped 
 
 CRIMP, v. To make several cuts across the spine of a fish when just taken 
 out of the water, by which it is rendered firmer when produced at table. 
 
 CRIMSON, s. Red, somewhat darkened with blue ; red in general. 
 
 CRINOSE, a. Hairy, full of hair. 
 
 CRIPPLE, v. To lame, to make lame. 
 
 CROAK, v. To make a hoarse low noise like a frog; to caw or cry as a 
 raven or crow. 
 
 CROOK, s. Any crooked or bent instrument ; a sheep-hook ; any thing bent. 
 
 CROP, s. The craw of a bird. 
 
 CROP, v. To cut off the ends of any thing ; to mow ; to cut off the ears. 
 
 after the bowler has delivered it, although it 
 may not have been struck. 
 
 The long slip stands in a line with the 
 striker, and between the point and short slip, 
 but farther out in the field. 
 
 A man to cover the middle- wicket and the 
 point, stands on the off-side of the striker. It 
 is his duty to save those balls that either of 
 the above may have missed. 
 
 The long field on the off-side, stands be- 
 tween the middle wicket and the bowler, but 
 at a considerable distance, to save the hard 
 hits. 
 
 The long field on the on-side, is stationed 
 at a great distance from the striker, and on 
 the other side of the bowler from the man last 
 mentioned. 
 
 After every four balls have been bowled, 
 the umpire calls " Over ! " when the whole 
 party, who are seeking out, (with the excep- 
 tion, of course, of the bowler and wicket- 
 keeper) change their positions to the opposite 
 quarters of the field. 
 
 [ yote The reader who may desire farther 
 
 information respecting the laws of this game, 
 with instructions to the young player, is re- 
 ferred to a little work entitled " The Young 
 Cricketer's Tutor, by John Nyren, who was 
 for many years a player in the celebrated old 
 Hambledon Club."] 
 
 Young dogs should not be cropped before 
 the fourth and fifth week of their age : when 
 the ears are cut earlier, they sprout again, and 
 the form of the crop cannot be so well directed 
 as when the ear is more developed. 
 
 In cropping terriers, begin at the hinder root 
 of the ear, close to the head, and when this 
 cut is carried through, one other cross cut from 
 the root at the front of the head, if managed 
 with dexterity, will be sufficient, and will 
 make an excellent fox crop, without torturing 
 the animal with numerous trimmings. The 
 
 less oblique the second cut is carried, the more 
 sharp and foxy will the crop prove : the por- 
 tion cut off, if laid on the remaining ear, will 
 serve to direct the operation in that also. A 
 rounded crop may be made at one cut. The 
 cropping of pug puppies is the most painful of 
 any ; the cuts must, in general, be repeated, 
 and carried close to the root of the ear ; as 
 upon the total absence of external ears (which 
 gives an appearance of roundness to the head) 
 is the beauty of the animal supposed to 
 consist. 
 
 CROPFUL, a. Satiated, with a full belly. 
 CROPSICK, a. Sick with excess and debauchery.
 
 142 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Cno 
 
 CROPPER, s. A kind of pigeon with a large crop. 
 CROSSBILL (Loxia curvirostra, LINN.), s. 
 
 This species weighs about an ounce and a 
 half; length near six inches and a half; bill 
 strong, both mandibles convex, and crossing 
 each other at the points, which are hooked ; 
 colour brown ; eyes small ; irides dusky. 
 
 The plumage of the male varies from a 
 heautiful red to orange-colour on the head, 
 neck, breast, hack, and rump; the wing 
 coverts rufous brown ; quills and tail dusky ; 
 vent almost white ; under tail coverts spotted 
 dusky ; tail forked ; legs short ; claws strong. 
 
 The females also vary somewhat in colour. 
 In general, they are of a dull olive-green on 
 those parts where the male is red ; but the 
 feathers on the back are mottled with dusky ; 
 the wings and tail similar to that of the male, 
 but not so dark. We have observed that the 
 crossing of the mandibles is not constantly on 
 the same side. 
 
 That rare bird, the crossbill, occasionally 
 visits the orchards in our neighbourhood, com- 
 ing in little parties to feed on the seeds of the 
 apple, and, seldom as it appears, it is always 
 noticed by the mischief it does to the fruit, 
 cutting it asunder with its well constructed 
 mandibles, in order to obtain the kernels. 
 A native of those extensive pine forests in the 
 neighbourhood of the Rhine, it makes excur- 
 sions into various parts of Europe in search of 
 change of food ; and though several instances 
 are recorded of its visits to our islands, I know 
 but one mentioned of its having bred in Eng- 
 land. A pair was brought to me very early 
 in August, and the breast of the female being 
 nearly bare of feathers, as is observed in sit- 
 ting birds, it is very probable that she had a 
 nest in the neighbourhood Knapp Mon- 
 tagu. 
 
 CROSS-BOW, s. A missive weapon formed by placing a bow athwart a stock. 
 CROSS-GRAINED, a. Having the fibres transverse or irregular; perverse, 
 
 vexatious. 
 CROTTLE, s. A lichen which grows principally on sand stone, used in dyeing 
 
 hackles and wools. 
 
 The power of crottle can never he known 
 but by length of boiling ; for which reason, 
 get the largest copper pot you can. It ought 
 to hold thirty or forty quarts ; then put three 
 quarts of crottle in, and fill it with water. 
 Separate the wool according to the number of 
 shades you wish for, put it into as many hags, 
 and let them hoil eight whole days, or as 
 long as you can stay out of bed. You may 
 draw a bag every six hours, and if you wish 
 lighter shades, sooner. You are to get a 
 round thin deal board, (see there is no tur- 
 pentine in it,) bore it with holes that will 
 receive your fingers, put your lid over that, 
 and be careful of keeping your pot full of 
 
 put in two quarts more crottle, to bring up 
 your dark shades. I followed this plan for 
 a whole six days, and I got the finest colours 
 my eyes ever saw. I got so high a shade as 
 a rich claret brown under ; and it was a very 
 rich cinnamon over head. The reason I have 
 mentioned eight days is on account of the 
 bags, which prevent the dye. I also mention 
 a copper pot, and you must use no other in any 
 dye. I never could clean the crottle properly 
 out of the fur for want of being in bags. 
 Strong muslin bags will answer much better ; 
 particularly as by using them the operator may 
 enjoy his bed four nights out of the eight 
 specified. Ancient Recipe. 
 
 water. After three days' boiling, you must 
 CROUP, s. The rump of a fowl ; the buttocks of a horse. 
 CROUPADES, s. obs. Are higher leaps than those of curvets. 
 CROW, s. A large black bird that feeds upon the carcases of beasts ; a piece 
 
 of iron used as a lever ; the voice of a cock, or the noise which he makes 
 
 in his gaiety. 
 
 This species weighs about nineteen ounces ; 
 length eighteen inches ; bill black ; irides 
 dusky. The whole plumage black, glossed 
 above with a purplish blue ; legs black. 
 
 Distinguished from the rook by the bill, 
 which is rather more convex towards the 
 end, and the nares, or reflected bristles, at the 
 base being always perfect; hut these are 
 only obvious in adults. In young birds the 
 
 note is the only criterion of distinction, which 
 in this is much more hoarse than that of the 
 rook. 
 
 The crow feeds on flesh, insects, and grain ; 
 but is particularly fond of carrion. It fre- 
 quently attacks the eyes of dying animals, 
 and destroys weakly lambs ; it will also pur- 
 sue birds on wing, when pressed by hunger. 
 We once saw this bird in pursuit of a pigeon,
 
 CUB] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 143 
 
 at which it made several pounces, like a hawk ; 
 but the pigeon escaped, hy flying in at the 
 door of a house. We have also seen it strike 
 a pigeon dead from the top of a harn. It is a 
 great destroyer of young game and poultry. 
 
 It is a bold bird, always at war with the 
 lesser species of hawks ; nor does the kite, the 
 buzzard, or the raven, approach its nest with- 
 out being attacked and driven away. At that 
 season, even the peregrine falcon is insulted, 
 who frequently at one pounce brings it to the 
 ground. 
 
 The eggs are four or five in number, of a 
 greenish colour, spotted with dusky and 
 ash-colour, their weight about five drachms. 
 Colonel Montagu observed two crows by the 
 
 sea-shore, busy in removing small fish beyond 
 the flux of the flowing tide, and depositing 
 them just above high-water mark, under the 
 broken rocks, after having satisfied the calls 
 of hunger. This species, like the magpie, is 
 extremely garrulous at the sight of a fox 
 or other small quadrupeds, and attacks and 
 makes prey of a half-grown hare. In a sum- 
 mer evening ramble, Colonel Montagu saw 
 one of these birds make repeated pounces at 
 some animal in a field where the grass was 
 nearly a foot high, which appeared to raise 
 itself on its hind legs, and defend itself stoutly ; 
 upon a nearer approach he discovered it to be 
 a young hare Rennie. 
 
 CROWNSCAB, s. A stinking filthy scab round a horse's hoof. 
 
 Crown Scab and Rat Tails are of the same 
 nature as mallenders, and may be cured by 
 the same means. They generally, however, 
 leave a blemish, consisting in a loss of hair 
 
 and thickening of the cuticle. Crown scab 
 occurs on the coronet, and rat tails in lines 
 on the back part of the leg, extending from 
 the fetlock upwards Vide MALLENDERS. 
 
 CRUDE, a. Raw, not subdued by fire ; not brought to perfection, imma- 
 ture. 
 
 CRUPPER, s. That part of the horse's furniture that reaches from the 
 saddle to the tail. 
 
 CRURAL, a. Belonging to the leg. 
 
 CRUST, s. Any shell, or external coat ; an incrustation, collection of matter 
 into a hard body ; the outer hard part of bread. 
 
 CRUSTACEOUS, a. Shelly, with joints; not testaceous. 
 
 CRY, v. To utter an inarticulate voice, as an animal ; to yelp, as a hound 
 on a scent. 
 
 CRY, s. Yelping of dogs ; yell, inarticulate noise ; a pack of dogs. 
 
 CRYSTAL, s. A clear transparent substance, like glass. 
 
 CRYSTAL, a. Consisting of crystal; bright, clear, transparent, lucid. 
 
 CRYSTALLINE HUMOUR, s. The second humour of the eye, that lies 
 immediately next to the aqueous, behind the uvea. 
 
 CUB, s. The young of a beast, generally of a bear or fox. 
 
 CUB, v. obs. To bring forth. 
 
 CUB-HUNTING. The pursuit or chace of young foxes dangerous for 
 horses, and destructive to game. 
 
 Previous to the month of November no man 
 who has any thing else to amuse himself with, 
 or who has a regard for his neck, or his horse, 
 
 should be seen by a covert's side, unless it be 
 on a hack cub-hunting, which after all is but 
 a melancholy recreation. 
 
 CUBE, s. A regular small body, consisting of six sqxiare and equal faces or 
 
 sides, and the angles all right, and therefore equal. 
 CUBEBS, *. A very efficient pepper. It has been lately much used in 
 
 medicine.
 
 144 THE FIELD BOOK. [Cue 
 
 CUCKOO, s. A bird which appears in the spring, and is said to suck the 
 eggs of other birds, and lay her own to be hatched in their place ; a name 
 of contempt. 
 
 Cuckoo, or Gowk. (Cuculus Canorus, 
 LINN. ; Le Coucou, BUFF.) Length fourteen 
 inches, breadth twenty-five ; its bill is black 
 and somewhat bent ; eyes yellow ; inside of 
 the mouth red; its head, neck, back, and 
 wing coverts are of a pale blue, or dove colour, 
 which is darkest on the head and back, and 
 palest on the fore part of the neck and rump ; 
 its breast and belly are white, elegantly crossed 
 with wavy bars of black ; the quill feathers 
 are dusky, their inner webs marked with 
 large oval white spots ; the tail is long ; the 
 two middle feathers are black, with white 
 tips ; the others dusky, marked with alternate 
 spots of white on each side the shaft : the legs 
 are short and of a yellow colour ; toes two 
 forward, and two backward ; claws white. 
 
 The cuckoo visits us early in the spring ; 
 its well-known cry is generally heard about 
 the middle of April, and ceases the latter end 
 of June ; its stay is short, the old cuckoos 
 being said to quit this country early in July. 
 Cuckoos build no nest; and, what is more 
 extraordinary, the female deposits her solitary 
 egg in the nest of another bird, by which it is 
 hatched. The nest she chooses for this pur- 
 pose is generally selected from the following, 
 viz., the hedge sparrows, water wagtails, tit- 
 larks, yellow hammers, green linnets, or the 
 winchats. Of these it has been observed that 
 she shows a much greater partiality to that of 
 the hedge sparrow than to any of the rest 
 Bewick. 
 
 CUP, v. To draw blood by applying cupping glasses. 
 CUR, *. A worthless degenerate dog. 
 
 CURB, *. An iron chain, made fast to the upper part of the branches of the 
 bridle, running over the beard of the horse ; restraint. 
 
 Curb is an enlargement at the back of the 
 hock, about three or four inches below the 
 point of the hock. It is either a strain in the 
 ring-like ligament which binds the tendons 
 down in their place, or in the sheath of the 
 tendons ; oftener, we are inclined to think, of 
 the ligament than of the sheath. Any sudden 
 action of the limb of more than usual violence 
 may produce it, and therefore horses are found 
 
 to ' throw out curbs' after a hardly contested 
 race, an extraordinary leap, a severe gallop 
 over heavy ground, or a sudden check in the 
 gallop. Young horses are particularly liable 
 to it, and horses that are cow-hocked or whose 
 hocks and legs resemble those of the cow, the 
 hocks being turned inward, and the legs form- 
 ing a considerable angle outwards. This is in- 
 telligible enough ; for in hocks so formed, the
 
 CUR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 145 
 
 annular ligament must be continually on the 
 stretch to confine the tendon. 
 
 Curbs are generally accompanied by consi- 
 derable lameness at their first appearance, but 
 the swelling is not always great ; indeed, it 
 sometimes presents so gradual a curve, that it 
 is scarcely perceivable when we stand behind 
 the horse, and both the horseman and the ve- 
 terinary surgeon have overlooked it. It is 
 best detected by observing the leg sideway. 
 
 The first object in attempting the cure is to 
 abate inflammation, and this will be most rea- 
 dily accomplished by cold evaporating lotions, 
 frequently applied to the part. Equal por- 
 tions of spirit of wine, water, and vinegar, will 
 afford an excellent application. It will be 
 almost impossible to keep a bandage on. If 
 the heat and lameness are considerable, it will 
 be prudent to physic the horse, and to bleed 
 from the subcutaneous vein. Whether the 
 injury be of the annular ligament, or the 
 sheath of the tendon, more active means will 
 be necessary to perfect the cure. Either a 
 liquid blister should be rubbed on the part, 
 consisting of a vinous or turpentine tincture 
 
 of cantharides, and this daily applied until some 
 considerable swelling takes place, which should 
 be allowed to subside, and then the liniment 
 again resorted to ; or, what is the preferable 
 plan, the hair should be cut off, and the part 
 blistered as soon as the heat has been subdued. 
 The blister should be repeated until the horse 
 goes sound, and the swelling has disappeared. 
 In severe cases it may be necessary to fire, 
 but we cannot recommend the indiscriminate 
 recourse to the hot iron in every case of curb, 
 and we would uniformly give a fair trial to 
 milder measures. If the iron be used, the 
 strokes should be in straight lines. 
 
 There are few complaints in which absolute 
 and long continued rest is more requisite, than 
 in curb. An injury so serious leaves the parts 
 very materially weakened, and, if the horse be 
 soon put to work again, the lameness will fre- 
 quently return. No horse that has had curbs 
 should be put even to ordinary work in less 
 than a month after the apparent cure, and even 
 then he should very gradually resume his for- 
 mer habits. A horse with a curb is manifestly 
 unsound. 
 
 CURB, v. To guide a horse with a curb ; to restrain ; to check. 
 CURD, s. The coagulation of milk. 
 CURE, s. Remedy, restorative ; act of healing. 
 CURE, v. To heal, to restore to health, to remedy. 
 
 CURLEW, (Scolopax arquata, LINN.; Le Courtis, BUFF.), s- A kind of 
 waterfowl. 
 
 The bill is long, equally incurvated, and 
 terminated in a blunt point ; nostrils linear, 
 and longitudinal near the base ; tongue short 
 
 and sharp-pointed ; and the toes are connected 
 as far as the first joint, by a membrane. 
 With the curlew, Linnaeus begins a nume- 
 L
 
 146 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [CUR 
 
 rous tribe of birds under the generic name of 
 scolopax, which, in his arrangement, includes 
 all the snipes and godwits, amounting, accord- 
 ing to Latham, to forty-two species and eight 
 varieties, spread over various parts of the 
 world, but nowhere very numerous. 
 
 Buffon describes fifteen species and varie- 
 ties of the curlew, and Latham ten, only two 
 or three of which are British birds. They 
 feed upon worms, which they pick up on the 
 surface, or with their bills dig from the soft 
 earth : on these they depend for their princi- 
 pal support ; but they also devour the various 
 kinds of insects which swarm in the mud, 
 and in the wet boggy grounds, where these 
 birds chiefly take up their abode. . 
 
 The curlew generally measures about two 
 feet in length, and from tip to tip above three 
 feet. The bill is about seven inches long, of 
 a regular curve, and tender substance at the 
 point, which is blunt. The upper mandible 
 is black, gradually softening into brown to- 
 ward the base ; the under one flesh-coloured. 
 The head, neck, upper part of the back, and 
 wing-coverts, are of a pale brown, the middle 
 of each feather black, edged and deeply in- 
 dented with pale rust colour, or light grey. 
 The breast, belly, and lower part of the beak, 
 are dull white, the latter thinly spotted with 
 black, and the two former with oblong strokes 
 more thickly set, of the same colour. The 
 quill-feathers are black, the inner webs crossed 
 or spotted with white ; the tail is barred with 
 black, on a white ground tinged with red ; 
 the legs are bare a little above the knees, of 
 a blueish colour, and the toes are thick, and 
 flat on the under side. 
 
 These birds differ much in size, as well as 
 in the different shades of their plumage ; 
 some of them weighing not more than twenty- 
 two ounces, and others as much as thirty- 
 seven. In the plumage of some the white 
 parts are much more distinct and clear than 
 in others, which are more uniformly grey, 
 and tinged with pale brown. 
 
 The female is so nearly like the male, that 
 any particular description of her is unneces- 
 sary : she makes her nest upon the ground, 
 in a dry tuft of rushes or grass, of such 
 withered materials as are found near, and lays 
 four eggs, of a greenish cast, spotted with 
 brown. 
 
 The curlew is met with by travellers in 
 most parts of Europe, from Iceland to the 
 Mediterranean islands. In Britain their sum- 
 mer residence is upon the large heathy, boggy 
 moors, where they breed. Their food con- 
 sists of worms, flies, and insects, which they 
 pick out of the soft mossy ground by the 
 marshy pools, which are common in such 
 places. In winter they depart to the sea-side, 
 where they are seen in great numbers, and 
 then live upon the worms, marine insects, 
 and other fishy substances which they pick up 
 on the beach and among the loose rocks and 
 pools left by the retiring tide. The flesh of 
 the curlew has been characterised by some as 
 very good, and of a fine flavour by others as 
 directly the reverse ; the truth is, that, while 
 they are in health and season, and live on the 
 moors, scarcely any bird can excel them in 
 goodness ; but when they have lived some 
 time on the sea shore, they acquire a rank 
 and fishy taste Bewick. 
 
 CURRICLE, s. An open two-wheeled chaise, made to be drawn by two 
 
 horses abreast. 
 CURRY, v. To dress leather ; to rub a horse with scratching instruments, 
 
 so as to clean his coat. 
 
 CURRYCOMB, s- An iron instrument used for currying horses. 
 CURVE, s. Anything bent, a flexure or crookedness. 
 CURVE, v. To bend, to crook, to inflect. 
 CURVET, v. To leap, to bound. 
 CUT, v. To penetrate with an edged instrument ; to make its way by 
 
 dividing obstructions ; to perform the operation of cutting for the stone. 
 CUT, *. The action of a sharp or edged instrument ; the impression or 
 
 separation of continuity made by an edge ; a wound made by cutting ; 
 
 a channel made by art ; the act or practice of dividing a pack of cards ; 
 
 form, shape. 
 
 CUTANEOUS, a. Relating to the skin. 
 CUTICLE, s. The first and outermost covering of the body, commonly called 
 
 the scarf-skin.
 
 Cur] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 147 
 
 CUTTER, s. An agent or instrument that cuts any thing ; the teeth that 
 cut the meat ; a fore and aft-rigged vessel with one mast and a running- 
 boltsprit. 
 
 Cutters have been always favourite vessels, 
 from their excellent sailing qualities, and, 
 consequently, are much employed as revenue 
 cruisers, smugglers, privateers, and packets, 
 and in any trade requiring much despatch. 
 A cutter under one hundred tons is suffici- 
 ently handy and manageable, but when the 
 size increases to that of the larger yachts and 
 cruisers, a very strong crew is necessary, as 
 the spars are immensely heavy, and a num- 
 ber of men requisite to set or shorten sail. 
 
 A single-masted vessel is objectionable, 
 because in the event of springing a spar, she 
 becomes perfectly helpless ; hence large cutters 
 are only used in short voyages, or as coasting 
 
 cruisers. Their peculiar qualities of beating 
 well to windward, and working on short 
 tacks, adapt them for channel cruising ; and 
 in case of accident, they can always manage to 
 reach some harbour or anchorage where they 
 can repair the damage they may have sus- 
 tained. 
 
 Some years back, large cutters were con- 
 fined principally to the navy and revenue, 
 but the Royal Yacht Club have not only 
 exceeded them in size, but also in beauty and 
 sailing. Some of the finest and fastest cut- 
 ters in the world are the property of this 
 celebrated and truly national club ; and two 
 of them, the Alarm (Mr. Wild's), and the 
 L2
 
 148 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Cvc 
 
 Arundel (the Duke of Norfolk's), measure 
 193 and 188 tons. 
 
 The inconvenient size of a cutter's boom 
 and mainsail has caused the introduction very 
 
 dition of a mizen, enables the boom to be 
 dispensed with, and reduces the mainsail con- 
 siderably. This rig, when the mizen stands 
 well, is very elegant, and, if a vessel is short- 
 
 generally of a ketch rig ; which, by the ad- I handed, exceedingly handy Vide YACHT. 
 
 CYGNET, *. A young swan. 
 
 Living on the banks of the Thames, I have 
 often been pleased with seeing the care taken 
 of the young swans by the parent birds. Where 
 the stream is strong, the old one will sink her- 
 self sufficiently low to bring her back on a 
 level with the water, when the cygnets will get 
 upon it, and in this manner are conveyed to 
 the other side of the river, or into stiller water. 
 Each family of swans on the river has its own 
 district ; and if the limits of that district are 
 encroached upon by other swans, a pursuit im- 
 
 mediately takes place, and the intruders are 
 driven away. Except in this instance, they 
 appear to live in a state of the most perfect 
 harmony. The male is very attentive to the 
 female, assists in making the nest, and when a 
 sudden rise of the river takes place, joins her 
 with great assiduity in raising the nest suffici- 
 ently high to prevent the eggs being chilled by 
 the action of the water, though sometimes its 
 rise is so rapid, that the whole nest is washed 
 away and destroyed Jesse. 
 
 CYGNETICS, s. obs. The art of hunting. 
 
 CYST, s. A bag containing some morbid matter.
 
 - 
 
 UAB, s. A kind of small flat fish. 
 
 DAB-CHICK, s. A water-fowl. 
 
 DACE, s. A small river-fish, resembling a roach. 
 
 Dace or Dare, is gregarious, is a great 
 breeder, very lively, and during summer is 
 fond of frolicking near the surface. Its head 
 is small, the irides of a pale yellow ; the 
 body long and slender ; its scales are smaller 
 than those of the roach, and is upon the whole 
 a handsomer fish ; the back is varied with 
 dusky, and a cast of yellowish green ; the 
 sides and belly silvery, the ventral, anal, and 
 caudal fins are sometimes of a pale red hue ; 
 the tail is very much forked. The dace is 
 seldom above ten inches long, although in a 
 list of fish sold in the London markets, with 
 the greatest weight of each, communicated to 
 Mr. Pennant, there is an account of one that 
 weighed a pound and half, and according to 
 Linnaeus, it grows to a foot and half in length. 
 
 The haunts of Dace are deep water, near 
 piles of bridges, where the stream is gentle, 
 over gravelly, sandy, and clayey bottoms ; 
 deep holes that are shaded, water-lily leaves, 
 and under the foam caused by an eddy ; in 
 the warm months they are to be found in 
 shoals on the shallows near to streams ; the 
 dace spawn in March, are in season about three 
 weeks after ; they improve, and are very good, 
 about Michaelmas, but are best in February, 
 
 and are said in that month, when just taken, 
 scotched, and broiled, to be more palatable 
 than a fresh herring. 
 
 This is a fish affording great sport to the 
 angler, indeed more pleasure than profit, for 
 the flesh is insipid, and full of bones. The 
 baits for dace are the red worm, brandling, 
 gilt-tail, cow-dung, and earth-bob, and indeed 
 any worm bred on trees or bushes, that is not 
 too big for his mouth, and almost every kind 
 of fly and caterpillar. Flesh flies upon the 
 surface with the hook put into the back, be- 
 tween the wings, 'the line from the middle 
 downwards of single hairs, and a trifle longer 
 than the rod, which ought to be eighteen feet 
 at least, and as light as possible ; the flies can 
 be kept in a phial ; fix three very small hooks 
 upon single hair links, not above four inches 
 along the line, and in a summer's evening, at 
 the smoothest part of the end of a mill- 
 stream, from seven or eight, so long as light 
 continues, the dace will yield diversion. In 
 the same manner, they will rise in the morn- 
 ing at the ant-fly, if used at the foot of a 
 current or mill-stream, or on a scour before 
 the sun comes on the water. 
 
 After rains, when the river is nearly level
 
 150 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [DAL 
 
 with its banks, use a caterpillar-fly, or a small 
 red palmer and yellow-gentle (the yellower 
 the better), run the hook through its skin, and 
 draw it up to the tail of the fly, then whip on 
 the surface, the dace will rise freely. 
 
 DALMATIAN, (Canis Dalmatianus), s. The coach-dog. 
 
 Another way to take this fish, from the 
 middle of April until the beginning of Octo- 
 ber, is by artificial fly-fishing, with a long 
 line Daniel. 
 
 This dog has been erroneously called the 
 Danish dog by some authors, and Buffon, and 
 some other naturalists, imagine him to he the 
 harrier of Bengal ; hut his native country is 
 Dalmatia, a mountainous district of European 
 Turkey. He has been domesticated in Italy 
 for upwards of two centuries, and is the com- 
 mon harrier of that country. 
 
 The Dalmatian is also used as a pointer, to 
 which his natural propensity more inclines him 
 than to be a dog of the chase ; he is said to he 
 easily broken, and to be very staunch. He is 
 handsome in shape, something betwixt the Bri- 
 tish foxhound and English pointer ; his head 
 is more acute than that of the latter, and his 
 ears fully longer : his general colour is white, 
 and his whole body and legs are covered \\ith 
 
 small irregular sized black or reddish brown 
 spots. He is. much smaller than the large 
 Danish dog. A singular opinion prevailed at 
 one time in this country, that this beautiful 
 dog was rendered more handsome by having 
 his ears cropped : this barbarous fancy is now 
 quickly dying away. 
 
 I have never heard of the Dalmatian being 
 trained to the sports of the field in Great Bri- 
 tain. His only use seems to be an elegant at- 
 tendant upon a carriage, for which the sym- 
 metry of his form and beauty of his skin pecu- 
 liarly fit him. A most erroneous notion has 
 prevailed among some breeders, that neither 
 this nor the great Danish dog has the sense of 
 smell. They have been indiscriminately called 
 the coach-dog Brown. 
 
 DAM, s. The mother ; a mole or bank to confine water. 
 
 DAMASCENE, s. Vide BARREL. 
 
 DAPPLE, a. Marked with various colours ; variegated. 
 
 DAPPLE, v. To streak, to vary. 
 
 DAR, or DART, s. A fish found in the Severn. 
 
 DARE, s. Vide DACE. DARE, v. To Dare Larks, to catch them by 
 
 means of a looking-glass. 
 DAW, s. A bird.
 
 DEC] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 151 
 
 DEAL, s. The art or practice of dealing- cards ; fir-wood ; the wood of 
 
 pines. 
 DEALER, s. A person who deals the cards ; one who buys and sells horses 
 
 and dogs. 
 
 A gownsman of Cambridge, anxious to 
 purchase a particular horse in the possession of 
 Mr. Fordham, horse-dealer of that place, called 
 upon him to make proposals, but disagreeing 
 as to price, the collegian waited upon him se- 
 veral times to see if he could possibly bring 
 him over to his terms In the interim, how- 
 
 ever, Mr. Fordham was taken dangerously ill 
 and died. Next day, the gownsman, unac- 
 quainted with the circumstance of his death, 
 called and asked a groom for his master 
 " My master is dead, sir, (said one of the 
 stable-boys) but he left word you should have 
 the horse." Sporting Anecdotes. 
 
 DECOCTION, s. The act of boiling any thing ; a preparation made by boil- 
 ing in water. 
 
 The vessel in which decoctions are made 
 should be covered, and when the substance 
 contains any aromatic or volatile principle, the 
 boiling should be continued only a short time. 
 
 OAK BARK. 
 
 Oak Bark, bruised . . . 2 oz. 
 
 Water 1 qt. 
 
 Boil gently for ten minutes ; a good vehicle 
 
 Decoctions should be strained while hot, as for tonic medicine, 
 some of them, Peruvian bark for example, de- i DECOCTION FOR FOMENTATION 
 
 posit some active and useful matter in cooling, j Is made by boiling bay leaves, camomile 
 Decoctions soon ferment, and are spoiled by ' flowers, wormwood, and southernwood in a 
 
 keeping ; they should be used therefore soon 
 after they are made. 
 
 
 
 A decoction of marsh-mallows, it is useful 
 in fevers as a vehicle for nitre or other medi- 
 cine ; also as an emollient clyster and fomen- 
 tation. 
 
 CAMOMILE. 
 
 Camomile flowers, dried 
 Caraway seeds, bruised 
 Ginger, bruised . . 
 Water 
 
 1 oz. 
 
 H oz. 
 
 li oz. 
 
 1 qt. 
 
 Boil for ten or fifteen minutes : a good sto- 
 machic drench. 
 
 sufficient quantity of water. 
 
 BARLEY. 
 
 Barley water is made by boiling pearl barley 
 in water. This may be used in fevers, either 
 alone, or as a vehicle for nitre or other medi- 
 cine. Various other decoctions are occasion- 
 ally employed, and sometimes preferred on 
 account of their cheapness, to more efficacious, 
 but more expensive medicines ; yet it must be 
 i recollected that some vegetables, such as pep- 
 permint, pennyroyal, &c. have their useful pro- 
 perries dissipated by much boiling, and should 
 therefore be only simmered for a few minutes, 
 or only infused White. 
 
 DECOY, v. To lure into a cage, to entrap. 
 
 The decoys now in use are formed by cut- 
 ting pipes, or tapering ditches, widened and 
 deepened as they approach the water ; in vari- 
 ous semicircular directions, through the swam- 
 py ground, into particular large pools, which 
 are sheltered by surrounding trees or bushes, 
 and situated commonly in the midst of the so- 
 litary marsh. At the narrow points of these 
 ditches farthest from the pool, by which they 
 are filled with water, the fowlers place their 
 funnel nets : from these the ditch is covered 
 by a continued arch of netting, supported by 
 hoops, to the desired distance ; and all along 
 both sides, skreens formed of reeds are set up 
 so as to prevent the possibility of the birds 
 seeing the decoyman ; and as these birds feed 
 during the night, all is ready prepared for this 
 sport in the evening. The fowler, then placed 
 on the leeward side, sometimes with the help 
 of his well-trained dog, but always by that of 
 his better trained tame decoy ducks, begins the 
 
 business of destruction. The latter, directed 
 by his well known whistle, or excited forward 
 by the floating hempseed, which he strews oc- 
 casionally upon the water, entice all the wild 
 ducks after them under the netting ; and as 
 soon as this is observed,, the man or his dog, as 
 the fitness of opportunity may direct, is from 
 the rear exposed to the view of the birds, by 
 which they are so alarmed that they dare not 
 offer to return, and are prevented by the nets 
 from escaping upwards : they therefore press 
 forward in the utmost confusion ta the end of 
 the pipe, into the purse nets there prepared to 
 receive them, while their treacherous guides 
 remain behind in conscious security. The sea. 
 son allowed by act of parliament for catching 
 these birds in this way, continues only from 
 the latter end of October till February. 
 
 Particular spots or decoys, in the fen coun- 
 tries, are let to the fowlers at a rent of from 
 five to thirty pounds per annum ; and Pennant
 
 152 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Dc 
 
 instances a season in which thirty-one thou- 
 sand two hundred ducks, including teals and 
 widgeons, were sold in London only, from ten 
 of these decoys near Wainfleet, in Lincoln- 
 shire. Formerly, according to Willoughby, 
 the ducks, while in moult and unable to fly, 
 were driven by men in boats, furnished with 
 long poles, with which they splashed the wa- 
 ter, between long nets, stretched vertically 
 
 across the pools, in the shape of two sides of a 
 triangle, into lesser nets placed at the point, 
 and in this way, he says four thousand were 
 taken at one driving in Deeping-fen ; and La- 
 tham has quoted an instance of two thousand 
 six hundred and forty-six being taken in two 
 days, near Spalding in Lincolnshire ; but this 
 manner of catching them while in moult is 
 now prohibited. 
 
 DECOY, s. Allurement to mischief. 
 
 DECOY-DUCK, s. A duck that lures others. 
 
 DEER, s. That class of animals which is hunted for venison. Vide FAL- 
 LOW, RED, and ROE DEER. 
 
 DEGENERATE, v. To fall from its kind, to grow wild or base. 
 
 DEMULCENT, a. Softening, mollifying. DEMULCENTS, s. Medicines of an 
 oily and mucilaginous nature, as lint and quince seed, gum, &c. 
 
 DEN, s. A cavern or hollow running horizontally ; the cave of a wild beast. 
 
 DEOBSTRUENT, s. A medicine that has the power to resolve viscidities. 
 
 DESTROY, v. To kill ; to put an end to. 
 
 It is not unfrequently a subject of inquiry, 
 how it may be possible to destroy a dog with 
 least pain to himself, and least shock to the 
 feelings of his owner. Although shooting 
 and hanging are not, in themselves, painful 
 deaths, yet the violence necessarily committed 
 is revolting to one's feelings. Whenever, 
 therefore, cases arise (and many such do occur) 
 where it would be infinitely more humane to 
 
 destroy an animal than to prolong a miserable 
 existence, and when the more usual modes 
 are objected to on account of the violence 
 and force necessary, either of these essential 
 oils, cherry laurel, and bitter almond, 
 dropped on the tongue, or a very small ball 
 made from the extract, will extinguish life 
 almost instantaneously, and without pain 
 Elaine. 
 
 DETERGE, v. To cleanse a sore. Vide CAUSTICS. 
 
 DETONATION, s. A noise somewhat more forcible than the ordinary crack- 
 ling of salts in calcination, as in the going off of the pulvis or aurum 
 fulminans. Vide PERCUSSION. 
 
 DETONATING POWDER, s. A chemical composition by which percussion- 
 guns are discharged. 
 
 I merely give the recipe, in case a sportsman 
 should be in a place where he cannot buy the 
 composition, as I presume, that no one in his 
 senses would run the risk of being blown up, 
 in order to make, perhaps indifferently, what 
 he could so cheaply purchase in perfection 
 Hawker. 
 
 We entirely agree with the colonel and 
 
 One of the recipes for making detonating 
 powder is : 
 
 One ounce of oxymuriate of potash, 
 One eighth of an ounce of superfine charcoal. 
 One sixteenth of an ounce of sulphur. 
 
 Mixed with gum-arabic water, and then dried. 
 It should be mixed up in wood, for fear of 
 accident. 
 
 Another, and, I am told, a far better pro- 
 portion, is : 
 
 Five of oxymuriate, Two of sulphur; and 
 One of charcoal. 
 
 caution insurance companies against gentle- 
 men who would attempt a home manufac- 
 ture. 
 
 DIABETES, s. A morbid copiousness of urine. 
 
 .Diafetes consists in an excessive discharge of very offensive smell. In slight or recent cases 
 urine, attended with great thirst, and sometimes 
 with a gradual loss of flesh and great debility. 
 The urine is sometimes limpid and transparent 
 
 like water ; at others high coloured, and of a 
 
 of diabetes a cure may generally be accom- 
 plished by the following ball, provided the 
 cause is removed, which is generally new hay, 
 
 new oats, musty hay or oats, or some other
 
 DIE] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 153 
 
 unwholesome provender. But in the con- 
 firmed diabetes, when the urine has become 
 stinking and high coloured, the cure is more 
 difficult. Rest, or voluntary exercise only, 
 and a light nutritious diet, are necessary. 
 
 BALL FOR DIABETES. 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 Opium . from 4 to 1 dr. 
 
 Ginger . . . 2 dr. 
 
 Gentian-root powder 3 or 4 dr. 
 
 Oil of caraways . 20 or 30 drops. 
 
 Syrup enough to form the ball. 
 To be given morning and evening for two 
 or three days, and should the disease then 
 continue, give the following : 
 No. 2. Sulphate of copper . 1 dr. 
 
 Ginger . . .1 dr. 
 
 Linseed powder and syrup enough to form 
 the ball. 
 
 To be given every morning and evening 
 until the disease is cured. 
 
 Sulphate of copper has been found an ex- 
 cellent tonic in horses. I have also found 
 the following a good tonic ball : 
 No. 3. Sulphate of iron . 2 to 3 or 4 dr. 
 Powdered ginger . 1 dr. 
 
 Powdered Gentian . 3 to 4 dr. 
 Treacle enough to form the ball. 
 
 I have seen an increased discharge of urine 
 brought on in draught horses by working 
 them beyond their strength ; this has been 
 attended with great weakness, especially of 
 the hind parts, and loss of appetite. I have 
 found great benefit in such cases from turn- 
 ing the horse to grass, and letting him re- 
 main there for some time, giving him a little 
 good hay, or some oats, when it appears 
 necessary White. 
 
 DIACHYLON, s. An ingredient in sticking plaster. 
 
 Diachylon (litharge or lead plaster) is made 
 by boiling olive oil nine parts, litharge five 
 parts, water two parts, over a slow fire, and 
 constantly stirring, until the oil and the 
 litharge unite, and acquire the consistence of 
 
 plaster. The water must be replaced as it 
 evaporates. Diachylon is an ingredient in 
 sticking plaster and charges, and is useful 
 when spread on leather, for defending a ten- 
 der part from pressure. 
 
 DIAPENTE, s. A compound powder, tonic and stomachic. 
 DIAPHORETIC, a. Sudorific, promoting perspiration. The most useful 
 in veterinary practice, are hot stimulants, combined with anti- 
 
 mony and u^ivm. 
 DICE, s. The plural of die. 
 
 DICE-BOX, s. The box from which the dice are thrown. 
 DICER, s. A player at dice, a gamester. 
 DIDAPPER, s. A small bird of the diver kind. 
 DIE, v. To tinge, to colour. 
 DIE, s. Colour, tincture, stain, hue acquired ; a small cube, marked on its 
 
 faces with numbers from one to six, which gamesters throw in play ; 
 
 hazard, chance ; any cubic body. 
 
 Recipes for Dyeing Hair (Dark water 
 colour.) Take a pint of strong ale, half a 
 pound of soot, a small quantity of the juice of 
 walnut leaves, and an equal quantity of alum 
 powdered fine ; mix them well, and boil them 
 in a pipkin half an hour ; when the mixture 
 is cold, put in the hair, and let it remain ten 
 or twelve hours. 
 
 * * 
 
 Some boil a quarter of a pound of soot in a 
 pint of strong alum water, with a little juice 
 of walnut leaves, for half an hour, and steep 
 the hair in it when nearly cold. 
 
 * * 
 
 For a brown, take some powdered alum, 
 boil it well until dissolved ; then add a pound 
 of walnut-tree bark, from the branches when 
 
 the sap is up, or the buds or green nuts ; boil 
 it in an hour, and let it stand. When after 
 skimming it for ten minutes, put in the gut 
 or hair for about a minute (stirring it round), 
 or until you like the colour. If it continues 
 too long, it will become quite dark and injure 
 the hair. The lighter it is tinged with this 
 colour, the better. Salt and ale will also give 
 hair a brownish cast that is steeped in it. 
 
 * * 
 
 For a blueish water colour, proceed as 
 above; only add logwood instead of the 
 walnut, and be careful not to colour it too 
 much. 
 
 * 
 
 Yellow The inner bark of a crab-tree 
 boiled in water with some alum, makes a fine
 
 154 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Dis 
 
 yellow, which is excellent when the weeds 
 rot, the line appearing of the same hue. 
 Another dye may be obtained from two quarts 
 of small ale, and three handfuls of walnut 
 leaves bruised therein ; the hair to remain in 
 
 it until tinged to your wish. 
 
 * * 
 
 Tawny is prepared from lime and water 
 mixed together, by steeping hair in it for four 
 or five hours, and then soaking it a whole day 
 
 in a tan pit. 
 
 * 
 
 Russet Take a pint of strong lye, half 
 
 a pound of soot, some juice of walnut leaves, 
 and a quart of alum water ; put them together 
 into a pan, boil them well, and when the 
 liquor is cold, steep the hair until it acquires 
 the colour you desire. 
 
 * 
 
 General Remark. The hair to be dyed, 
 should always be the best white : the seasons 
 for using dyed hair, are, September and two 
 following months ; the yellow, russet all the 
 winter, and until the end of April, as well in 
 rivers as in lakes ; for the same periods, the 
 brown and tawny should be used in blackish, 
 heathy, and moorish waters. 
 
 Dyeing or Staining Fishing-rods Red 
 
 is done by boiling the wood in water and 
 alum ; then taking it out, adding Brazil to the 
 liquor, and giving the wood another boil in it. 
 Black, by brushing it over with logwood, 
 boiled in vinegar, then washing it over with 
 a decoction of galls and copperas, till it be of 
 the hue required. Any other colour may be 
 given by squeezing out the moisture of horse- 
 dung through a sieve, mixing it with dissolved 
 roch alum and gum arabic, and to the whole 
 adding green, blue, or any other colour designed. 
 After standing two or three days, pear-tree or 
 other wood cut to the thickness of half-a-crown 
 is put into the liquor boiling hot, and suffered 
 to remain till it be sufficiently coloured. 
 
 In Dyeing Bone, Horn, or Ivory 
 Black is performed by steeping brass in aqua 
 fords till it be turned green ; with this, the 
 bone, &c., &c., is to be washed once or twice, 
 and then put in a warm decoction of logwood 
 and water. Green, is verdigris, sal ammoniac, 
 and white wine vinegar; keeping the material 
 therein till sufficiently green. Red is began 
 by boiling it in alum water, and finished by a 
 decoction in a liquor compounded of quick- 
 lime steeped in rain-water strained. To every 
 pint an ounce of Brazil wood is added : the 
 bone to be boiled therein till sufficiently 
 red Ancient Recipes. 
 
 DIET, s. Food, victuals ; food regulated by the rules of medicine. 
 DIG, v. To work with a spade. 
 
 Digging Foxes With respect to the i it, and in following the hole, by keeping he- 
 digging of foxes which hounds run to ground, | low its level, it cannot be lost Beckford. 
 
 if the hole be straight and earth slight, follow I 
 
 DIGEST, u. To generate matter as a wound. 
 
 DIGESTION, s. The act of concocting food ; the preparation of matter By 
 
 a chemical heat ; the act of disposing a wound to generate matter. 
 DIGESTIVES, s. Medicines which promote suppuration in ulcers, and cause 
 
 them to discharge a white healthy matter. 
 
 DIGESTIVE OINTMENT. 
 
 1. Hog's lard and strained tur- 
 
 pentine, of each . 4 oz. 
 
 Verdigris . " . 1 oz Mix. 
 
 2. Hog's lard and Venice tur- 
 
 pentine, of each . 4 oz. 
 
 Sulphate of copper (blue 
 
 vitriol), finely powdered 1 oz Mix. 
 
 3. Ointment of yellow rosin . 4 oz. 
 
 Oil of turpentine 
 
 Nitric oxide of mercury 
 (red precipitate), finely 
 powdered 
 
 4. Ointment of nitrated quick- 
 silver 
 
 Oil of turpentine 
 
 1 oz. 
 
 1 oz Mix. 
 
 4 oz. 
 
 1 oz Mix. 
 White. 
 
 DISEASE, s. Distemper, malady, sickness. 
 
 DISLOCATE, v. To put out of the proper place ; to put out of joint ; to 
 
 displace a bone. 
 DISMOUNT, v. To throw any one from on horseback ; to alight from a 
 
 horse.
 
 Dis] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 155 
 
 DISPENSATORY, *. A book in which the composition of medicines is 
 
 described and directed ; a pharmacopoeia. 
 DISTEMPER, s. A disease, a malady. 
 
 The Distemper No disorder is more 
 
 general or so destructive as that known by 
 the name of the distemper ; it is the most 
 fatal (the plague only excepted) that any 
 animal is subject to. 
 
 The symptoms of the distemper are not 
 invariably similar, although there are pre- 
 dominant ones which always occur. It gene- 
 rally cornea on with a dry husky cough, 
 dullness and want of appetite, a running from 
 the nose and eyes, and loss of flesh. As the 
 disease advances, the dog appears much ema- 
 ciated, and grows excessively weak, particu- 
 larly in the loins and hinder extremities ; 
 usually there is convulsive twitchings of 
 different parts, most commonly of the head, 
 attended with dimness of sight ; when the 
 disease proceeds, and takes on its more viru- 
 lent form, then the twitches degenerate into 
 continued convulsive fits, the dog foams at 
 the mouth, runs round, and expresses great 
 pain, has a constant disposition to dung, with 
 obstinate costiveness or incessant purging. 
 There is likewise great irritability of the 
 stomach, every thing being thrown up imme- 
 diately it is taken in, and the animal dies, 
 generally, in one of the spasmodic fits. From 
 this state of the disease hardly any dog re- 
 covers, unless from the powerful effect of 
 this gentleman's medicine, and even then he 
 admits its success doubtful, although he insists, 
 with the medicine early given, the disease 
 will never arrive to this height ; but, with 
 every deference to the efficacy of the above 
 medicine, the compiler has known Dr. James's 
 powder cure the most inveterate stages of the 
 disorder : the method of administering it will 
 be hereafter directed. In every part of this 
 disease a want of nervous energy, and a parti- 
 cular paralytic affection of the nerves, is appa- 
 rent, and, in some instances, remains long after 
 every other symptom has ceased, and in many 
 respects is not unlike the palsy of the human 
 frame. 
 
 The distemper, when existing in its worst 
 form, is very often mistaken for canine mad- 
 ness ; but a close attention to the following 
 points will with certainty show the difference. 
 Puppies are not so liable to madness as full- 
 grown dogs ; it is but seldom the animal will 
 drink freely in the distemper, never in mad- 
 ness yet they will now and then try to 
 drink ; the hydrophobia arrives likewise at 
 its height, in general, sooner than the dis- 
 temper, although the latter is sometimes 
 . equally sudden in its attack, and rapid in its 
 progress. In madness, all recollection of 
 places or persons is lost by the affected ani- 
 
 mal ; his home will be left, and he will bite 
 the hand that feeds him, indiscriminately with 
 any other. In the distemper, there is no loss 
 of reason but in the attack and actual con- 
 tinuance of the convulsion fits ; the animal 
 does not attempt to bite or rove abroad, and, 
 on recovery from the fit, resumes his facul- 
 ties. If, therefore, a young dog will drink 
 when the immediate effect of the spasmodic 
 restriction is removed, or, without evident 
 fear, will bear the sight of water, but more 
 particularly when his weakness is excessive, 
 and strongly apparent between the intervals 
 of the fits, it may be safely concluded that it 
 is the distemper, and not madness. These 
 circumstances, continues Mr. Blaine, should 
 be carefully remarked, as they are unerring, 
 and may save many a valuable animal from 
 destruction, and many a timid mind from the 
 most dreadful apprehension. 
 
 * 
 
 For the distemper, so soon as the symp- 
 toms appear, give an ounce of castor oil, and 
 after its operation has ceased, give the fol- 
 lowing powder, mixed up with butter, into a 
 bolus, every two hours, keeping the dog 
 warm, and supplying him frequently with 
 warm milk or water-gruel. Should the me- 
 dicine occasion sickness or purging, the quan- 
 tity and frequency of the doses are to be 
 abated. 
 
 Crocus metallorum finely levigated, and 
 white antimonial powder, each six grains, and 
 diaphoretic calx of antimony, ten grains for 
 one dose. 
 
 It is necessary to remark, that the above 
 dose is sufficient for a pointer or fox-hound, 
 of six or eight months old, and that the quan- 
 tity is to be varied according to the size and 
 age of the dog. 
 
 Rhubarb and jalap mixed, as much as will 
 lie on a shilling, is an excellent common phy- 
 sic. For dogs, foul within, five grains of 
 tartar emetic, given in a piece of hog's lard. 
 For a surfeit, one ounce of sulphur, half an 
 ounce of antimony, mixed together ; a small 
 ball in butter, to be given to the dog, and the 
 sore place well rubbed with a mixture of 
 white hellebore-root powdered, and hog's 
 lard; the dog to be kept from water if he 
 licks the ointment. 
 
 * 
 
 Doctor Darwin, has given the following 
 opinion upon the disorder, and how to coun- 
 teract its malignity. 
 
 " In dogs, the catarrh is generally joined 
 with symptoms of debility early in the dis- 
 ease ; the animals should be permitted to go
 
 156 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [DlT 
 
 about in the open air, the use of being as 
 much as may be in the air, is evident, because 
 all the air which they breathe, passes twice 
 over the putrid sloughs of the mortified parts 
 of the membrane, which lines the nostrils, 
 and the maxillary and frontal cavities; that 
 is, during inspiration and expiration, and must, 
 therefore, be loaded with contagious particles. 
 
 Fresh new milk, and fresh broth, should be 
 given them very frequently, and they should 
 be suffered to go amongst the grass, which 
 they sometimes eat for the purpose of an 
 emetic; and, if possible, they should have 
 access to a running stream of water, as the 
 contagious mucus- of the nostrils generally 
 drops into the water they attempt to drink. 
 
 Bits of raw flesh, if the dog will eat them, 
 are preferred to cooked meat, and from five to 
 ten drops of tincture of opium (according to 
 the size of the dog), may be given with ad- 
 vantage when symptoms of debility are evi- 
 dent, every six hours. If sloughs can be 
 seen in the nostrils, they should be moistened 
 twice a day with a solution of sugar of lead, 
 or of alum, by means of a sponge fixed on a 
 bit of whalebone, or by a syringe. The lo- 
 tion may be made by dissolving half an ounce 
 of sugar of lead, or of alum, in a pint of 
 water." * * 
 
 The following remedies have their advo- 
 cates, and, consequently, in some cases of the 
 disorder have been proved essential in its cure. 
 
 One grain and a half of calomel, and five 
 
 grains of rhubarb, to be repeated every other 
 day. 
 
 Four grains of Turbith's mineral, and one 
 grain of emetic tartar ; first bleeding the dog. 
 
 A tea-spoonful of jalap, half the quantity 
 of grated ginger, a table-spoonful of syrup of 
 buckthorn, made into a ball, or given liquid 
 in warm water. No milk, but water-gruel to 
 drink, and the dog must be kept very warm. 
 
 Gamboge, dragon's-blood, jesuit's-bark, of 
 each half an ounce, made into pills the size 
 of a hazel nut. To a full grown dog, one 
 pill to be given every morning until cured ; 
 to a whelp, three times a week, the dogs to 
 have liberty to run out. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Some rely entirely on purgatives : others 
 bleeding and physicking ; others on emetics ; 
 some put tar upon the nose, others a pitch 
 plaster, and some cauterize the nasals ; some 
 inject vinegar into the dose, others hellebore, 
 and others a solution of camphor ; some cut 
 off the tail, others the ears ; some give to- 
 bacco and olive oil, others the golden sul- 
 phuret of antimony; the keeper gives the 
 curpeth's mineral : the more scientific of these 
 gentry will knock down the disease, and the 
 dog too with arsenic. The gentleman will give 
 compound tincture of benzoin, the farmer 
 common salt ; the medical man sulphuric 
 ether, or emetics and sulphur, or emetics and 
 
 jalap, or emetics and scammony Youatt 
 
 Daniel Darwin. 
 
 DITCH, s. A trench cut in the ground usually between two fields ; any 
 
 long narrow receptacle of water. 
 DIVER, s. A bird; one that sinks voluntarily under water ; one that goes 
 
 under water to search for any thing. 
 DIURETICS, s. Medicines that excite and increase urinal discharge. 
 
 DIURETIC POWDER. 
 
 Powdered rosin and nitre, of each, 4 drs. 
 
 Mix for one dose, and let it be repeated 
 daily, or twice a day, if necessary', until a 
 sufficient effect is produced. 
 
 DIURETIC BALL. 
 
 Hard soap and common turpentine, of each, 
 4 drachms. 
 
 Powdered caraway seeds enough to form 
 the ball. Mix for one dose. 
 
 CORDIAL DIURETIC BALL. 
 
 Hard soap and common turpentine, 
 of each 4 dr. 
 
 Ginger 1 dr. 
 
 Opium i dr. 
 
 Powdered caraways enough to form the 
 ball. Diuretics should not be kept to be- 
 come hard, as they often are, but be given in 
 rather a soft state, and recently made. Diu- 
 retics should never be so given as to operate 
 while a horse is in work, as he may thereby 
 he prevented from staling when he has occa- 
 sion ; from neglecting this precaution, and 
 from their frequent and immoderate use, 
 arise those mischievous effects before alluded 
 to. The kidneys are often materially injured 
 by them as well as the bladder White. 
 
 DIURETIC, a. Having the power to provoke urine. 
 
 DOCK, *. The stump of the tail which remains after docking ; a place 
 where water is let in or out at pleasure, where ships are built or laid up.
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 157 
 
 DOCK, v. To cut off a tail ; to cut any thing short. 
 
 DOG, s. A domestic animal remarkably various in its species. 
 
 In ancient manuscripts we find the following 
 names for the dogs employed in the sports of 
 the field ; that is to say, raches, or hounds ; 
 running hounds or harriers, to chase hares; and 
 greyhounds, which were favourite dogs with the 
 sportsmen ; alauntes, or hull-dogs, these were 
 chiefly used for hunting the hoar; the mas- 
 tiff is also said to he " a good hounde " for 
 hunting the wild hoar ; the spaniel was of use 
 in hawking; " hys crafte," says the author, 
 " is for the perdrich or partridge, and the 
 quaile ; and, when taught to couch, he is 
 very serviceable to the fowlers, who take 
 those birds with nets." There must, I pre- 
 sume, have been a vast number of other kinds 
 of dogs known in England at this period ; 
 these, however, are all that the early writers, 
 upon the subject of hunting, have thought 
 proper to enumerate. In the sixteenth cen- 
 tury the list is enlarged ; besides those already 
 named, we find bastards and mongrels, lemors, 
 kenets, terrours, butcher's hounds, dunghill 
 dogs, trindel-tail'd dogs, " pryckeared " curs, 
 and ladies' small puppies. 
 
 There formerly existed a very cruel law, 
 which subjected all the dogs that were found 
 in the royal chases and forests, excepting such 
 as belonged to privileged persons, to be maimed 
 by having the left claw cut from their feet, 
 unless they were redeemed by a fine ; this 
 law probably originated with the Normans, 
 and certainly was in force in the reign of 
 Henry I. 
 
 * 
 
 Linnaeus, in his System of Nature, has 
 placed the dog as the second genus of the 
 third order of mammiferous animals, or those 
 which suckle their young by means of lactife- 
 rous teats. 
 
 The characters of the third order, FERS, 
 are as follows : The fore teeth are conic, 
 usually six in each jaw; the tusks are 
 longer, the grinders have conic projections ; 
 the feet have claws, which are usually subu- 
 late, or awl-shaped ; they feed on carcasses, 
 and prey on other animals. 
 
 The characters of the genus CANIS, or 
 DOG, are, six cutting teeth in the upper jaw ; 
 those at the sides longer than the intermediate 
 ones, which are lobated. In the under jaw 
 there are also six cutting teeth, the lateral 
 ones iobated ; there are four canine teeth, one 
 on each side, both above and below, and from 
 six to seven grinders. The specific characters 
 of the Cams Familiaris, or common dog, 
 are, the head is carinated, or keel-shaped on 
 the crown, the lower lip is hid by the upper, 
 indentated and naked at the sides ; the tongue 
 i* smooth; on the upper lip are five or six 
 
 rows of whiskers; the nostrils are turned 
 outwards into a crescent-shaped furrow ; the 
 upper margin of the ears is reflected and pos- 
 teriorly doubled ; the anterior margin is 
 three-lobed, and there are seven or eight 
 hairy warts on the face. There are ten teats, 
 four of them pectoral, and six abdominal ; 
 the feet are subpalmated, with claws on the 
 toes, which are long, a little curved, and not 
 retractile within the toes, as is the case with 
 those of the cat. 
 
 He has, besides the above anatomical dis- 
 tinctions, other general characters which are 
 peculiar to his tribe. 
 
 He delights in associating with man, feeds 
 on flesh, carcasses, and farinaceous vegetables, 
 digests bones, is vomited by eating grass, 
 which he does instinctively ; drinks by lap- 
 ping, runs obliquely, resting upon his toes ; 
 perspires by his tongue, which he lolls out 
 when warm ; when lying down turns often 
 round ; hears in his sleep, and dreams fre- 
 quently. Of all animals the most faithful ; 
 fawns at the appearance of his master, and 
 defends him ; runs before him in a journey, 
 and if the road divides, looks back and gene- 
 rally waits to see which he takes : will turn 
 to the branch to which he is directed from a 
 distance ; his sense of smell is exquisite. 
 
 Cuvier, in his Animal Kingdom, gives the 
 following generic character of the dog, which 
 differs but little from that of Linnaeus, except 
 in his new and more distinct terminology. 
 
 The upper cheek teeth are six on each 
 side, the three first are sharp, trenchant, 
 called by Cuvier false molars ; the follow- 
 ing, a carnivorous tooth, has two cutting 
 lobes, beyond which, on each side, are two 
 flat teeth. In the lower jaw there are seven ; 
 four false molars, a carnivorous tooth, has 
 two cutting lobes, beyond which, on each 
 side, are two flat teeth, and two tuberculous 
 teeth behind it. The length of the jaws and 
 muzzle vary greatly ; the tongue is smooth ; 
 the ears are extremely variable ; there are 
 five toes on the fore-feet, and four on those 
 behind, furnished with longish nails, obtuse, 
 and not retractile, and the mammae are ven- 
 tral ; the eye-pupils are circular and diurnal, 
 or formed for seeing by day. 
 
 
 
 Dogs exempt from Duty Whelps which 
 are not six months old at the time of return- 
 ing your list for taxes. Dogs belonging to 
 any of the royal family, who are exempt from 
 all duties on sporting. Poor persons, who are 
 not assessed for dwelling-houses, may keep 
 one dog, provided it be not a sporting dog.
 
 158 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [I)OR 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF BRITISH DOGS. 
 
 
 
 
 Hounds 
 which hunt 
 
 Terrier. 
 Harrier. 
 Foxhound, 
 
 
 Dogs 
 
 in packs. 
 
 Bloodhound. 
 
 
 of J 
 
 
 Irish Greyhounds. 
 
 
 Chase. 
 
 Hounds 
 
 Gazehound. 
 
 
 
 which hunt 
 
 Greyhound. 
 
 
 
 singly. 
 
 Leviner, or Lyemnier. 
 
 
 
 
 Tumbler. 
 
 
 1 Spaniel, or Springer. 
 Fowlers. -J Setter. 
 (^ Large Water Spaniel, or 
 
 Finder 
 
 Lap Dogs, -j Spanish Gentle, or Comforter. 
 
 Watch ( Shepherd's Dog. 
 < Mastiff. 
 
 
 Dogs. 1 T> 11 
 I Bull Dog. 
 
 
 fwrappe. 
 
 
 Turnspit. t 
 
 
 Dancer. 
 
 
 Although it is said by naturalists that there 
 are only thirty-seven varieties of the dog, yet 
 the fact is, that almost every nation on earth 
 
 intertropical, temperate, and polar, has its 
 own peculiar variety Brown Daniel 
 Cuvier. 
 
 DORMOUSE, s. A small animal which passes a part of the winter in sleep. 
 DOSSIL, s. A pledget, a nodule or lump of lint. 
 
 DOTTREL, (Charadrius morinellus, LINN.; Le Guignard, BUFF.) s. 
 The name of a bird. 
 
 The length of this bird is about nine inches. I its forehead is mottled with brown and white 
 Its bill is black ; eyes dark, large, and full ; | top of the head black ; over each eye an
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 159 
 
 The Ring Dotterel!. (Ring Plover, or 
 Sea Lark ; Charadrius Heaticula, LINN. ; 
 Le Petit Pluvier a collier, BUFF.) The 
 length is rather more than seven inches. The 
 hill is of an orange colour, tipped with black ; the 
 eyes are dark hazel ; a black hue passes from 
 the bill, underneath each eye, and spreads 
 over the cheeks ; above this a line of white 
 extends across the forehead to the eyes ; this 
 is bounded above by a black fillet across the 
 head ; a gorget of black 'encircles the neck, 
 very broad on the forepart, but growing nar- 
 row behind, above which, to the chin, is 
 white ; the top of the head is of a light brown 
 ash-colour, as are also the back, scapulars, 
 and coverts ; the greater coverts are tipped with 
 white ; the breast and the under parts are 
 white ; the quills are dusky, with an oval 
 white spot about the middle of each feather, 
 which forms, when the wings are closed, a 
 stroke of white down each ; the tail is of a 
 dark brown, tipped with white, the two outer 
 feathers almost white ; the legs are of an orange 
 colour ; claws black. In the female the white 
 on the forehead is much less ; there is more 
 white on the wings, and the plumage inclines 
 more to ash-colour. 
 
 These birds are common in all the northern 
 counties ; they migrate into Britain in the 
 spring, and depart in autumn : they frequent 
 the sea-shores during summer, and run nim- 
 bly along the sands, sometimes taking short 
 flights, accompanied with loud twitterings, 
 then alight and run again ; if disturbed, they 
 fly right off. They are said to make no 
 nest : the female lays four eggs, of a pale 
 ash-colour, spotted with black, which she 
 deposits on the ground Bewick. 
 
 DOUGHADOO, s. A colour used by fly-tiers on the Shannon. 
 
 DRAG, v. To pull along- the ground by main force; an artificial mode of 
 
 hunting 1 by substituting some strong smell in place of the animal scent. 
 DRAG, s. An instrument with hooks to catch hold of things under water; 
 
 a kind of car drawn by the hand. 
 DRAG-NET, s. A net which is drawn along the bottom of the water. 
 
 arched line of white passes to the hinder part 
 of the neck ; the cheeks and throat are white ; 
 the back and wings are of a light brown, in- 
 clining to olive, each feather margined with 
 pale rust colour; the quills are brown. The 
 forepart of the neck is surrounded by a broad 
 band of a light olive colour, bordered on the 
 under side with white. The breast is of a 
 pale dull orange ; middle of the belly black ; 
 the rest of the belly, thighs, and vent, are of 
 a reddish white ; the tail is of an olive brown, 
 black near the end, and tipped with white, 
 the outer feathers are margined with white. 
 The legs are of a dark olive colour. 
 
 The dotterel is common in various parts of 
 Great Britain, though in some places it is 
 scarcely known. They are supposed to breed 
 in the mountains of Cumberland and West- 
 moreland, where they are sometimes seen in 
 the month of May, during the breeding sea- 
 son; they likewise breed on several of the 
 Highland hills. They are very common in 
 Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Derbyshire, 
 appearing in small flocks on the heaths and 
 moors of those counties during the months of 
 May and June, and are then very fat, and 
 much esteemed for the table. It is said that 
 the dotterel is so very stupid a bird, as to be 
 taken with the most simple artifice, and that 
 it was formerly the custom to decoy them 
 into the net by stretching out a leg or an arm 
 which caught the attention of the birds, so 
 that they returned it by a similar motion of a 
 leg or a wing, and were not aware till the 
 net dropped and covered the whole flock. At 
 present the more sure method of the gun has 
 superseded this artifice. 
 
 In making a drag-net, the size of the 
 mesh should never be less than one inch and 
 a quarter ; there should be an extent of 
 three times in length, and twice in depth of 
 the plain net, before it is hung upon the cork 
 and lead lines (that is, if the drag is meant 
 to be twenty yards long, and twelve feet 
 deep, there must be sixty yards of net in 
 length, and twenty-four feet in depth for a 
 sheet-drag; if made with a cod, it must be 
 let in with great care as to the widenings, so 
 that in fishing, it keeps a proper open centre). 
 As drag-nets are usually hung, any one who 
 is in the water when they are used, will feel, 
 when the lines are hauled, the lead-line above 
 
 the calf of his leg, and frequently above his 
 knee, and that continued to very near the 
 bosom of the net. There is no occasion to 
 remark upon the chance of success such an 
 implement affords. 
 
 Always use two, if not three flews with 
 the drag : one or two flews can then be kept 
 forward for the drag to force to, and in fish- 
 ing every hole, back the drag with a flew ; that 
 is, after the drag approaches close to the first 
 flew, of course that will be pulled on one or 
 other side of the river. If any fish are in it 
 they should be taken out, and so soon as the 
 drag-net has passed, let the flew be pulled 
 back into its former station ; the fish that are
 
 160 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [D* 
 
 disturbed by the drag (from the different 
 manner in which their lead-lines have been 
 shown to keep a regular sweep at the bot- 
 tom), soon perceive an opening to escape be- 
 neath it, and in striking to their old harbours, 
 run head-long into the back flew ; the disco- 
 louring of the water, from the trampling of 
 the people in, together with the motion of 
 some part of the drag upon the mud, all con- 
 tribute to the success of this expedient, by 
 which the best fish will always be captured. 
 
 A drag-net should always be used up the 
 stream ; however low the water in a river 
 may be drained for the convenience of those 
 
 fishing in it, there will still be a current suffi- 
 cient to preserve the water clear enough for 
 stumps and hangs of various descriptions to 
 be avoided, besides the drain of the water 
 keeps the meshes of the net extended, and 
 enables it to fish with every advantage ; on 
 the contrary, when drawing down the stream, 
 the mudding of the water progressively pre- 
 vents the discovery of stubs, &c., that would 
 injure the net, and aid the escape of the fish, 
 and, moreover, drives the net into folds, which 
 the leaves of the weeds turning the same way, 
 not a little assist Daniel. 
 
 DRAKE, s. The male of the duck. 
 
 DRAM, s. In weight the eighth part of an ounce ; a small quantity ; such 
 a quantity of distilled spirits as is usually drank at once ; spirits, distilled 
 liquors. 
 
 DRASTICS, s. Violent purgatives. 
 
 DRAUGHT, s. The act of drinking ; a quantity of liquor drank at once ; the 
 act of drawing or pulling carriages ; the act of sweeping with a net ; the 
 quantity of fishes taken by once drawing the net ; the depth which a 
 vessel draws, or sinks into the water ; a bill drawn for the payment of 
 money. 
 
 Draughting This fishing is confined to 
 the estuary, where the river meets the sea. 
 Here, according to naturalists, the salmon 
 undergo a probationary course, before they 
 exchange the salt for the fresh water, as a 
 sudden change from either would be fatal to 
 the fish, and a temporary sojourn in water of 
 an intermediate quality (brackish), is supposed 
 to be requisite, before they can leave either 
 the ocean or the river. 
 
 The draughting is carried on at the last 
 quarter of the ebb, and during the first of the 
 flood ; five or six boats, with as many men in 
 each, are necessary. When the salmon are 
 seen, the nearest boat starts off, leaving a man 
 on shore, with a rope attached to one extre- 
 mity of the net, which is rapidly thrown 
 over, as the boat makes an extensive circle 
 round the place where the fish are supposed 
 to lie. Returning to the shore, the curve of 
 
 the net is gradually decreased. Stones are 
 flung in at each extremity, to prevent the 
 salmon from escaping ; the net reaches the 
 bank, the semicircle is complete, and all 
 within effectually secured. The fish are then 
 carefully landed, and at a single draught five 
 hundred salmon have been taken. This is, 
 however, an event of rare occurrence, and 
 unless the net were powerfully strong, and 
 the fishers skilful, a fracture, and conse- 
 quently a general escape, would be inevitable. 
 * * * * 
 
 It is extraordinary how much the flavour 
 and quality of the salmon depends on circum- 
 stances apparently of trifling moment. A sin- 
 gle day in the river will injure, and a flood 
 spoil their condition ; and a difference be- 
 tween a fish taken in the nets, and one killed 
 
 with a rod, will be easily perceptible Wild 
 
 Sports. 
 
 DRAYHORSE, s. A horse which draws a dray. 
 
 DREDGE, s. A kind of net ; the iron and bag net with which oysters, scal- 
 lops, &c., are lifted. 
 DREDGE, v. To gather with a dredge. 
 DREDGER, s. One who fishes with a dredge. 
 DRENCH, v. To saturate with drink or moisture ; to physic by violence. 
 
 Though an inconvenient method of giving occasions, on account of the medicine acting 
 medicine to horses, it is preferable, on some in much less time than in a solid form. In
 
 DRI] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 161 
 
 flatulent colic, or gripes, where the symptoms 
 are alarming, a proper drench will relieve the 
 animal, while a ball would be useless. 
 
 The best instrument for giving drenches is 
 the horn of an ox ; the opening being cut 
 obliquely, in the form of a spout. Bottles 
 are sometimes used, on an emergency, to give 
 drenches ; but they are attended with dan- 
 ger, and should be handled cautiously. In 
 giving a drench, the horse's tongue should be 
 held with the left hand ; and when the head 
 is sufficiently elevated, the medicine is to be 
 carefully poured into the throat, immediately 
 letting go the tongue, while the head is kept 
 up until the drench is swallowed. Drenches 
 are very seldom given with dexterity, and 
 a great part of the medicine is sometimes 
 wasted. Every groom should learn to give 
 them with facility, and always keep a proper 
 instrument in the stable. In giving a drench, 
 the head should not be kept so high as it 
 generally is, nor should the throat be pressed 
 or rubbed, as it often is, with a view to make 
 the horse swallow, as it is apt to excite cough- 
 ing. In severe colds or strangles, there is 
 often some degree of soreness or inflammation 
 of the throat, by which swallowing is rendered 
 difficult and painful. In such cases no attempt 
 should be made to give either a drench or a 
 
 ball, as the complaint would be increased by 
 it; and if at any time a horse happens to 
 cough or appear distressed, while taking a 
 drench, his head should be immediately let 
 down. Hot stimulating medicines, or such 
 as are very nauseous, are better given in the 
 form of balls than drenches. Drenches should 
 always be given with as much gentleness as 
 possible ; the horn may generally be intro- 
 duced with ease, merely by pressing down 
 the tongue with the fingers of the left hand, 
 instead of dragging it out, as is commonly 
 done. A small quantity only of the liquid 
 should be given at once ; about six or eight 
 ounces, or even less, when tincture of opium 
 or any powerful medicine is given ; and it is 
 of importance to be accurate in the dose, and 
 not to give either more or less than a certain 
 quantity. 
 
 In locked-jaw it is very difficult to give a 
 drench, unless a small horn is kept for the 
 purpose, and even then a good deal of dexte- 
 rity and perseverance are often required to 
 effect it. In some cases the jaws are so com- 
 pletely closed, and the muscles of deglutition 
 so affected, that a drench cannot be given ; 
 and then the only method of conveying the 
 medicine into the body is in the form of 
 clyster. (See CLYSTER.) White. 
 
 DRENCH, s. Physic for a brute ; physic that must be given by violence. 
 DRESS, s. Clothes, garments. 
 
 We all know that a jean, nankeen, or any 
 kind of thin jacket, is the pleasantest wear 
 for September, one of fustian for October, and 
 one of velveteen for the winter ; and that, 
 for a man, who at all times uses but one 
 kind of jacket, fustian would be about the 
 medium. After having tried almost every 
 thing that is commonly used, and some of 
 the wretched articles that are puffed by ad- 
 vertisement, I have found nothing so good for 
 a light summer jacket as what is made at 
 Manchester by the name of satteen, jeanet, 
 or florentine, which is printed on each side, 
 in imitation of cloth. This stuff far sur- 
 passes the others for lightness, comfort, dura- 
 bility, and every thing that can be required 
 for warm weather. 
 
 Shoes and Gaiters To say nothing of 
 being tormented with two or three dozen of 
 buttons every morning, and having your an- 
 kles and knees in a state of confinement 
 through a hard day's exercise, it need only 
 
 be observed, that, if you step in the least 
 puddle, you are wet ; if you tread in moist 
 ground, your shoe is pulled down at heel, and 
 you are often liable to be annoyed by your 
 shoes untying, and thorns and bits of stick, 
 &c., getting into them, or between the buttons 
 of your gaiters. How much more comfort- 
 able, then, is the dress here recommended ! 
 With lamb's- wool stockings and flannel draw- 
 ers, put on a pair of overall boots, and then 
 draw over them a pair of trowsers, which may 
 be made either of fustian or leather, and so 
 strongly defended inside the knees, that no 
 thorn can penetrate. Thus you are equipped 
 without trouble or loss of time, you have 
 your muscles perfectly at liberty for hard 
 exercise, and are free from every annoyance ; 
 not to say a word on the advantage and safety 
 you have in the stirrup, if on horseback, or 
 on the infallibility of this remedy against the 
 annoyance of harvest bugs in September.. 
 Hawker. 
 
 DRIVE, v. To force along by impetuous pressure ; to force or urge in any 
 direction ; to guide and regulate a carriage ; to make animals march 
 along under guidance. 
 
 M
 
 162 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [D R t 
 
 DRIVER, s. The person or instrument who gives any motion by violence ; 
 one who drives a carriage. 
 
 Driving, among sportsmen, is a method of 
 taking pheasant powts. The sportsman hav- 
 ing found out the haunts of these birds, and 
 fixed his nets there, he calls them together 
 with a pleasant call, imitating the voice of 
 the dam ; after this he makes a noise with 
 his driver, which will make them run a little 
 way forward in a cluster, and this he repeats 
 till he has made sure of them, by driving them 
 
 into his nets. * * 
 
 Drivers, among sportsmen, a machine for 
 driving pheasant powts, consisting of good 
 strong ozier wands, such as the basket makers 
 use, set in a handle, and twisted or bound with 
 small oziers in two or three places ; with this 
 instrument the sportsman drives the young 
 powts into his nets Ency. Land. 
 
 DROP, s. A globule of moisture; as much liquor as falls at once when there 
 
 is not a continual stream. 
 DROPPER, s. A dog of irregular breed. 
 
 what is very remarkable, if they are tolerably 
 good themselves their breed falls off wonder- 
 fully Thornton. 
 
 A breed between a pointer and a setter. It is 
 deemed by some to be a good cross, but I ne- 
 ver saw one of them that was worth much. 
 They are by sportsmen termed droppers, and, 
 
 DROVE, s. A body or number of cattle ; a number of sheep driven ; any 
 
 collection of animals. 
 DRUG, s. An ingredient used in physic, a medicinal simple ; anything 
 
 without worth or value, anything for which no purchaser can be found. 
 DUB, v. obs. To form the body of a fly. 
 DUCK, *. A water fowl, both wild and tame. Vide ANAS. 
 
 
 Bimaculated Duck Chicking Duck 
 
 (Anas glocitans.) Length twenty inches. 
 Taken in a decoy in England. Has been met 
 with along the Lena, and about the lake Bai- 
 kal. Has a singular note, somewhat like 
 clucking. 
 
 Long-tailed Duck or Swallow-tailed 
 
 Sheldrake (Anas Gfocia/w,LiNN.; Canard 
 de Miclon, BUFF.) This species is conside- 
 rably less than the last, and comes more nearly 
 to the size of the widgeon. The flocks whicli 
 visit the Orkney isles appear in October, and 
 continue there till April ; and " about sunset 
 they are seen in vast companies going to and
 
 Due] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 163 
 
 returning from the bays, in which they fre- 
 quently pass the night, making such a noise, 
 as in frosty weather may he heard some miles." 
 They are rather scarce in England, whither 
 they come only in very hard winters, and even 
 then but in small straggling parties. They fly 
 swiftly, but seldom to a great distance, making 
 a loud and singular cry. They are expert divers, 
 and are supposed to live chiefly uponshell-fish 
 
 Tufted Duck (Anas Fuligula, LINN. ; 
 Le Petit Morillon, BUFF.) This is a plump, 
 round, and short shaped species. 
 
 The male is distinguished by a pendent crest, 
 overhanging the nape of the neck, two inches 
 in length. The weight is about two pounds, 
 length eighteen inches. 
 
 The habits, manners, and haunts of this spe- 
 cies are much the same as those of the Golden- 
 eye, and they return northward about the same 
 
 time Vide GOLDEN EYE MORILLON 
 
 TEAL VELVET DUCK, &c. 
 
 
 
 The male bird is called mallard, and the 
 young ones flappers. To find a brood of 
 these, go, about July, and hunt the rushes 
 in the deepest and most retired parts of some 
 brook or trout stream ; where, if you spring 
 
 the old duck, you may be pretty sure that the 
 brood is not far off. When once found flap- 
 pers are easily killed, as they attain their full 
 growth before their wings are fledged ; and for 
 this reason, the sport is often more like hunt- 
 ing water rats than shooting birds. 
 
 If you leave the brood after having dis- 
 turbed them, the old bird will remove them to 
 another place long before the following day. 
 
 When the flappers take wing they assume 
 the name of wild ducks. About the month of 
 August they repair to the corn fields, till dis- 
 turbed by the harvest people. They then fre- 
 quent the rivers pretty early in the evening, 
 and show excellent sport to any one who has 
 patience to wait for them. Our sporting wri- 
 ters in general have given no further directions 
 for duck-shooting than to walk quietly up a 
 brook, and shoot them as they rise. In doing 
 this, if you have only a single gun, and should 
 spring a bird at an uncertain distance, halloo 
 out before you shoot, as there may be others 
 under a bank, and much closer to you, that 
 would spring on the discharge of your gun. 
 
 You need not be at a loss to know a wild 
 duck. The claws in the wild species are 
 black Latham Bewick Hawker. 
 
 DUCK-GUN, s. Gun for shooting ducks. 
 
 If a duck gun is too large in the calibre, in 
 proportion to its weight of metal, it will recoil 
 considerably; and if too small, it will not 
 have the desired effect of allowing the shot 
 to lie compactly together. 
 
 A gun fired from a rest is felt more than 
 if held out ; because the left hand, when 
 grasping it, checks the recoil. The stock of 
 a heavy duck-gun should be more bent than 
 that of a common gun as, when we are hold- 
 ing out a great weight, it is not so easy to 
 lower the head : and it should also be observed, 
 that the curve in the stock tends to lessen 
 the recoil. 
 
 I have of late years had the duck gun 
 stocks, which I used on the coast, made with 
 a pistol grip, and whipped with waxed-end 
 round the handle, similar to a cricket-bat, 
 which rather lessens the jar ; and the upper 
 part of the butt very much cut away, in order 
 to prevent it from hurting the shoulder-bone. 
 I also paint and varnish the stock, by which 
 means it does not get cracked, after being 
 wetted with salt-water. The gun-makers' 
 stocks I found were always a great plague on 
 this account, as well as from the trouble of 
 keeping them in order, after being exposed 
 to the spray of the sea. Add to which, they 
 recoil most unmercifully, and are, therefore, 
 only fit for light charges. 
 
 Trial at twelve sheets of thick brown paper, 
 to ascertain the difference between two com- 
 mon duck-guns, and a very superior double 
 
 gun, made by Mr. Joseph Manton. 
 
 POUNDS. FEET. INCHES. GAUGE. 
 
 Large duck-gun .14 4 6 7 
 
 Smallest, do. . 12| 4 5 7 
 
 Double gun .9 2 8 14 
 
 WITH NO. 2 SHOT. 
 
 IN THE 1ST THROUGH THE 
 YARDS. SHEET. 12TH SHEET. 
 
 Duck-guns . 60 32 25 
 
 Double gun 60 20 18 
 
 Duck-guns . 45 34 34 
 
 Double gun 45 26 26 
 
 The large guns were loaded with precisely 
 double the charge of the small gun, which is 
 one-fifth less than that with which they al- 
 ways killed best. 
 
 The paper was nailed up close to a sheet of 
 water, and two men placed to observe that 
 effect ; which was, that the outside shot (that 
 which flew wide of the paper) appeared to be 
 driven with much more force from the heavy 
 guns, and, of course, spread a much larger 
 surface. 
 
 This proves that although, if both accurately 
 levelled, the difference between a wild-fowl 
 gun and a small gun, is not so very consider- 
 able, at a single bird ; yet, from the immense 
 circle which the large gun spreads, you have 
 more chances of killing with an indifferent 
 aim ; and, of course, in a flock (as before 
 said) would kill many more birds at a shot 
 Hawker. 
 
 M 2
 
 JCjAGLE, *. A bird of prey. A name given to the larger species of the 
 Falcon family, differing in little but size from the true falcons. 
 
 There seem to be three well ascertained 
 native species ; the Golden Eagle, the Osprey, 
 and what we call Eagle, from its frequent 
 occurrence. 
 
 The Golden Eagle (Falco chrysatos, LINN. ; 
 Le grand Aigle, BUFF.) is the largest of the 
 genus ; it measures, from the point of the bill 
 to the extremity of the toes, upwards of three 
 feet; and iu breadth, from wing to wing, 
 above eight ; and weighs from sixteen to 
 eighteen pounds. The male is smaller, and 
 does not weigh more than twelve pounds. 
 The bill is of a deep blue colour ; the cere 
 yellow ; the eyes are large, deep, sunk, and 
 covered by a projecting brow ; the iris is of a 
 fine bright yellow, and sparkles with uncom- 
 mon lustre. The general colour is deep 
 brown mixed with tawny on the head and 
 neck ; the quills are chocolate, with white 
 shafts ; the tail is black, spotted with ash- 
 colour ; the legs are yellow, and feathered 
 down to the toes, which are very scaly ; the 
 claws are remarkably large the middle one 
 is two inches in length. 
 
 This noble bird is found in various parts of 
 Europe ; it abounds most in warmer regions, 
 and has seldom been met with farther north 
 than the fifty-fifth degree of latitude. It is 
 
 known to breed in the mountainous parts of 
 Ireland : it lays three and sometimes four 
 eggs, of which it seldom happens that more 
 than two are prolific. Mr. Pennant says there 
 are instances, though rare, of their having 
 bred in Snowdon Hills. Mr. Wallis, in his 
 Natural History of Northumberland, says 
 " it formerly had its aerie on the highest and 
 steepest part of Cheviot. In the beginning 
 of January, 1735, a very large one was shot 
 near Warkworth, which measured, from point 
 to point of its wings, eleven feet and a quar- 
 ter." 
 
 The Ring-tailed Eagle (Falco fulvus, 
 LINN. ; VAlgle commun, BUFF.) is the com- 
 mon eagle of Buffon, and, according to that 
 author, includes two varieties, the brown and 
 the black eagle ; they are both of the same 
 brown colour, distinguished only by a deeper 
 shade, and are nearly of the same size : in 
 both, the upper part of the head and neck is 
 mixed with rust colour, and the base of the 
 larger feathers marked with white ; the bill 
 is of a dark horn colour ; the cere of a light 
 yellow ; the iris is hazel ; and between the 
 bill and the eye there is a naked skin of a 
 dirty brown colour ; the legs are feathered to 
 the toes, which are yellow, and the claws
 
 EAG] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 165 
 
 black ; the tail is distinguished by a white 
 ring, which covers about two-thirds of its 
 length ; the remaining part is black. 
 
 The ring-tailed eagle is more numerous 
 and diffused than the golden eagle, and pre- 
 fers more northern climates. It is found in 
 France, Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, 
 and in America as far north as Hudson's Bay. 
 
 The White-tailed Eagle, Great Erne, or 
 Cinereous Eagle (Falco albicilla, LINN. ; 
 Le grand Pygargue, BUFF.) Of this there 
 appears to be three varieties, which differ 
 
 chieflv in size, and consist of the following : 
 
 . 
 the great erne, or cinereous eagle, of Latham 
 
 and Pennant ; the small erne, or lesser white- 
 tailed eagle ; and the white-headed erne, or 
 bald eagle. The first two are distinguished 
 by their size, and the last by the whiteness of 
 its head and neck. The white-tailed eagle is 
 inferior in size to the golden eagle. The 
 beak, cere, and eyes are of a pale yellow ; the 
 space between the beak and the eye is of a 
 blueish colour, and thinly covered with hair ; 
 the sides of the head and neck are of a pale 
 ash-colour, mixed with reddish brown ; the 
 general colour of the plumage is brown, 
 darkest on the upper part of the head, neck, 
 and back ; the quill feathers are very dark ; 
 the breast is irregularly marked with white 
 spots ; the tail is white ; the legs, which are 
 of a bright yellow, are feathered a little 
 below the knees ; the claws are black. 
 
 This bird inhabits all the northern parts of 
 Europe, and is found in Scotland and many 
 parts of Great Britain. It is equal in strength 
 and vigour to the common eagle, but more 
 furious ; and is said to drive its young ones 
 from the nest, after having fed them only a 
 very short time. It has commonly two or 
 three young, and builds its nest upon lofty 
 trees. 
 
 The Sea Eagle, [Falco ossifragus, LINN. ; 
 L'Orfraie, BUFF.) This bird is nearly as 
 large as the Golden Eagle, measuring, in 
 length, three feet and a half; but its ex- 
 panded wings do not reach above seven feet. 
 Its bill is large, much hooked, and of a blue- 
 ish colour ; hides in some light hazel, in 
 others yellow : a row of strong bristly feathers 
 hangs down from under his bill next to his 
 his throat, whence it has been termed the 
 Bearded Eagle : the top of the head and back 
 part of the neck are dark brown, inclining to 
 black ; the feathers on the back are variegated 
 by a lighter brown, with dark edges ; the 
 scapulars are pale brown, the edges nearly 
 white ; the breast and belly whitish, with 
 irregular spots of brown ; the tail feathers are 
 dark brown, the outer edges of the exterior 
 feathers whitish ; the quill-feathers and thighs 
 are dusky; the legs and feet yellow; the 
 claws, which are large, and form a complete 
 semicircle, are of a shining black. 
 
 It is found in various parts of Europe and 
 America. It is said to lay only two eggs 
 during the whole year, and frequently pro- 
 duces only one young bird ; it is, however, 
 widely dispersed, and was met with at Botany 
 Island by Captain Cook. It lives chiefly on 
 fish : its usual haunts are by the sea-shore ; 
 it also frequents the borders of large lakes 
 and rivers ; and is said to see so distinctly in 
 the dark, as to be able to pursue and catch 
 its prey during the night. The story of the 
 eagle, brought to the ground after a severe 
 conflict with a cat, which it had seized and 
 taken up into the air with its talons, is very 
 remarkable. Mr. Barlow, who was an eye- 
 witness of the fact, made a drawing of it, 
 which he afterwards engraved. 
 
 In their native districts these noble birds 
 are generally seen near the sea-shore, or upon 
 the rocky precipices on the margin of the in- 
 land lakes, from whence they pounce upon 
 the fish while swimming near the surface of 
 the water. Aquatic birds also become their 
 frequent prey. They generally choose the 
 most inaccessible cliffs for building their nests, 
 laying one and sometimes two eggs, entirely 
 white, and nearly the size of that of a goose ; 
 one of these, in Selby's possession, was laid 
 by a bird after it had been in confinement 
 twenty years. 
 
 Montagu, speaking of the cinereous or sea- 
 eagle, says, " The specimen from which this 
 description is taken, was killed by Sir Robert 
 Littleton's game-keeper in Shropshire. It 
 was accompanied by a letter from Sir Robert, 
 the purport of which was, that his sen-ant be- 
 ing out shooting, saw two large birds feeding 
 on the carcase of a sheep, which appeared re- 
 cently killed ; that having nothing but small 
 snipe-shot with him, he turned back, intend- 
 ing to go home for larger; that the eagles 
 then followed him, and frequently came so 
 near, that he concluded they meant either to 
 attack him or his dogs. Suddenly losing sight 
 of one, he judged it was very near him be- 
 hind, and being somewhat alarmed, turned 
 and shot at it in a hurry ; after which the 
 bird flew some hundred yards, and dropped. 
 On his approach it was vomiting blood ; and 
 he killed it after a struggle of half an hour." 
 He adds, that it was the larger of the two. 
 * 
 
 John Maxwell, Esq., of Ardbraccan, in 
 Ireland, favoured us with two young birds of 
 this species alive, taken the preceding year on 
 a mountainous precipice, or craggy cliff, called 
 Slieve Donard, impending over the sea, in the 
 county of Down. That gentleman informed 
 us that two men, covered with sackcloth and 
 armed, were lowered by ropes to the aerie 
 which, with considerable difficulty, they robbed 
 of two young, leaving only one addled egg 
 behind. The old eagles being so furious as
 
 166 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [EAG 
 
 to create serious alarm, neither the nest nor 
 colour of the egg were noticed. Some frag- 
 ments of flesh were in the nest. 
 
 The eaglets were covered with a glossy, 
 dark, murry-coloured down. A basket was 
 attached to the ropes that conveyed the men 
 down : into this the young birds were put ; 
 but from the violence and amazing strength of 
 the parent birds, they were with difficulty 
 carried off. These birds were not twelve 
 months old when we received them. On 
 their first moulting they became much darker, 
 particularly about the breast and thighs, the 
 latter almost wholly of a dusky black. At 
 two years old, the base of the bill became yel- 
 low ; in the third year there was not any ma- 
 terial change. At this time one of them 
 killed and devoured the other, probably from 
 some neglect in feeding them, as before that 
 event they lived together in perfect harmony. 
 * 
 
 From the astonishing height these and 
 some other birds fly, we are led to believe that 
 they are capable of living in a much lighter 
 atmosphere than any other animals. From 
 the top of some of the highest mountains in 
 Scotland, we have seen several of them soar- 
 ing together at so great a distance as to ap- 
 pear scarce larger than a swallow. It is said 
 to prey indiscriminately on land animals, 
 fish, and aquatic birds, and probably every 
 animal of inferior strength suffers from its ra- 
 pacity. 
 
 Two of this species contending in the air 
 over Loch Lomond, in the Scottish High- 
 lands, became so firmly grappled to each 
 other by their talons, that they were preci- 
 pitated into the water. The uppermost re- 
 gained the power of its wings, but the other 
 was taken alive by a Highlander, who wit- 
 nessed the scene, and who waited till the 
 wind had wafted him near the shore. This 
 curious account was received from an officer 
 who bought the eagle. * 
 
 Although this is an extremely bold bird, it 
 will not venture to contend with a dog or a 
 fox in its natural state. An eagle and a fox 
 
 were observed to be regaling themselves on 
 the carcase of a goat, that had fallen down a 
 precipice in the Highlands of Scotland. The 
 latter frequently obliged the other to desist, 
 and retreat a little, but it was not sufficiently 
 alarmed to prevent returning ; and it occasi- 
 onally threw itself into bold and picturesque 
 attitudes of defence, spreading the wings and 
 
 tail, and erecting every feather. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Montagu says, " Two living eagles were 
 sent to us from Ireland, and were, on their 
 arrival at Bristol, detained by an officer of 
 excise, upon a plea that there was a duty upon 
 all singing-birds. Had this happened on the 
 other side of the water, it might have been 
 termed an Irish story. The unfortunate birds 
 would, however, have been starved at the 
 custom-house, if application had not been 
 made to the head of that department in the 
 port of Bristol, offering to pay any demand 
 for their release, if legally detained for their 
 vocal abilities. By this officer it was most 
 wisely determined, after some consideration, 
 that eagles could scarcely be considered as 
 singing-birds." 
 
 The eagles in the Isle of Rum have nearly 
 extirpated the stags that used to abound 
 there. 
 
 They generally build in clefts of 'rocks 
 near the deer forests ; and make great havoc 
 among them, the white hares, and the ptar- 
 migans. Willoughby gives the following cu- 
 rious account of the nest of this species : 
 "In 1668, in the woodlands near the River 
 Derwent, in the peak of Derbyshire, was 
 found an eagle's nest, made of great sticks, 
 resting one end on the edge of a rock, the 
 other on two birch trees ; upon which was 
 a layer of rushes, and over them a layer of 
 heath, and upon the heath rushes again ; 
 upon which lay one young one and an addled 
 egg ; and by them a lamb, a hare, and three 
 heath poults. The nest was about two yards 
 square, and had no hollow in it." Bewick 
 Montagu Willoughby Selby Pen- 
 nant. 
 
 EAGLE-EYED, a. Sharp-sighted as an eagle. 
 
 EAGLET, g. A young eagle. 
 
 EAR, s. The whole organ of audition or hearing ; the spike of corn, that 
 
 part which contains the seeds. 
 EARWIG, s. A sheath-winged insect. 
 EARTH, v. To hide in earth ; to force an animal to his concealment or den 
 
 as to earth a fox or badger. 
 ECART, s. A game at cards. 
 
 Ecarte is played by two persons with a colours for the sake of distinction. The pack 
 pack of thirty-two cards, as at piquet. It is to be first dealt with is placed on the right 
 customary to have two packs, and of different hand of the dealer, and the other at his left.
 
 ECA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 J67 
 
 Though only two persons can play at the 
 same time, it is not unusual to admit one or 
 more into the game, the winner or loser, as 
 may be agreed, resigning his seat to the next 
 in rotation, and this is called playing a fool. 
 The game consists of five points, unless it be 
 otherwise agreed upon by the players. 
 
 OF CUTTING FOR THE DEAL. 
 
 1. He who cuts the highest card is entitled 
 -to the deal. In most games the lowest card 
 
 takes the deal, but it is the reverse at ecarte, 
 the deal being considered an advantage on 
 account of the king, of which we shall speak 
 hereafter. 
 
 2. He who does not show the card he 
 cuts, is considered as having cut the lowest in 
 the pack. 
 
 3. He who shows two cards in cutting is 
 considered as having cut the lowest of the 
 two. 
 
 4. The cut for the deal is good, even with 
 a defective pack. 
 
 5. In playing a rubber, the deal goes on 
 regularly as at all other games. 
 
 6. The order of the cards is as follows : 
 king, queen, knave, ace, ten, nine, eight, 
 seven. 
 
 OF THE DEAL, THE MISDEAL, AND THE TURN 
 UP CARD. 
 
 1. The person who gains the deal shuffles 
 the cards, presents them to his adversary to 
 cut, and then deals ten cards, five to his ad- 
 versary and five to himself. He distributes 
 them by three and two, or two and three, at 
 his option, beginning with his adversary, turns 
 up the eleventh card as the trump, and places 
 the remainder of the pack or stock, as it is 
 called, at his right hand. 
 
 2. The order of dealing observed at the 
 beginning of the game must be continued as 
 long as the game lasts. For instance, if the 
 dealer began with three and two, he cannot 
 change and give two and three ; and vice 
 versa. 
 
 3. If there be one or more faced cards in 
 the pack, and it be discovered before either 
 hand has been seen, the deal is void, unless 
 it be the eleventh card, which, being the one 
 that is to be turned up, can effect no alteration 
 in the game. 
 
 4. If it be not discovered till after the dis- 
 card has been put out, and the faced card or 
 cards come to the dealer, the deal is good, 
 and the faced card or cards must form a part 
 of his hand. If, on the contrary, a faced card 
 come to the elder hand, he may, at his option, 
 consider the deal good, or call a new deal ; 
 for this reason, that the fault being committed 
 by the dealer, the elder hand ought not to 
 suffer for it. 
 
 5. It sometimes happens, that the dealer 
 turns up one or more cards in dealing. If 
 they chance to be his own cards, the deal is 
 
 good, for the knowledge thus acquired by his 
 adversary, of one or more of the cards in his 
 hand, can be prejudicial only to himself, and 
 he ought to submit to the penalty of his fault : 
 if he turn his adversary's card, the deal goes 
 on, but it is optional with the adversary to 
 allow it to stand, or to call a new one. Some 
 persons contend, that the moment a card is 
 seen there ought to be a new deal. This is 
 by no means a just rule. An unfair or not 
 strictly scrupulous player, who might know 
 some of the cards in the pack, might perhaps 
 purposely turn up a card or two in dealing, if 
 he found he was giving good cards to his ad- 
 versary, and would incur no penalty hut the 
 trouble of dealing again. 
 
 6. When a player deals out of turn, and it 
 is discovered before the trump card is seen, 
 there must be a new deal : but if not dis- 
 covered till after the trump card is known, or 
 before the parties have discarded or played, 
 the pack, just as it is, is left for his next deal, 
 and the game proceeded in by the right per- 
 son dealing with the other pack : if the play 
 have commenced, or the discard been put out 
 before the discovery, the deal is good. 
 
 7. Should there be a misdeal, and it be 
 discovered before either party has seen his 
 hand, it may be made good by restoring the 
 cards to the order in which they would have 
 fallen had no misdeal been made. 
 
 8. If the elder hand perceive that the 
 dealer has not given him as many cards as he 
 asked for, and the mistake be discovered 
 before the dealer has seen the cards he has 
 to take in, it may be rectified in the same 
 manner as in the preceding case. 
 
 9. If the cards have been seen by both 
 parties, and the dealer should have a defi- 
 ciency, it is in the option of the adversary, 
 either to allow him to supply the deficiency, 
 from the uppermost cards of the stock, or 
 oblige him to lose the deal ; if the dealer 
 should have a card too many, his adversary 
 has the option of drawing a card from his 
 hand by chance, or obliging him to lose the 
 deal. 
 
 10. If the elder hand should have a defi- 
 ciency, it is optional with him to supply it 
 from the stock, or claim the deal ; if he have 
 too many cards, he may either discard them, 
 or claim the deal. 
 
 11. If however it can be proved, that the 
 fault did not originate with the dealer, as, for 
 instance, where the elder hand has asked for 
 three cards and has only discarded two, or 
 has asked but for two and discarded three, 
 then the elder hand shall lose one point, and 
 not be allowed to reckon the king. 
 
 12. He who after having taken in his cards 
 for his discard, plays with more than five cards, 
 loses a point, and also the right of marking 
 the king.
 
 168 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [ECA 
 
 1 3. When the dealer turns up two or more 
 curds, instead of one for the trump, it is 
 optional with the adversary to claim what 
 would have been the turn-up card, if the 
 order had not been deranged, or to place the 
 cards seen at the bottom of the stock and 
 have a new cut, or to call a new deal. 
 
 OF THE KING, AND THE TURN UP OR TRUMP 
 CARD. 
 
 1. He who turns up a king gains and marks 
 one point : he who holds the king of the suit 
 turned up, gains and marks one point. 
 
 2. The king must be declared before it is 
 played, by the holder of it saying, I hold the 
 king : it may also be declared after it has been 
 played ; but, in that case, it must be the lead- 
 ing card, and not have been covered by the ad- 
 versary's card ; for if covered before declared, 
 the point cannot be marked. 
 
 3. This rule applies only to the elder hand ; 
 the second player must always declare the king 
 before he plays it ; but it is his interest not to 
 declare it till after his adversary has played his 
 first card. 
 
 4. The suit of the turn up card, or trump, 
 is superior to all the other suits. 
 
 OF DISCARDING. 
 
 1. If the elder-hand be dissatisfied with his 
 cards, he proposes to exchange them in whole 
 or in part, by saying, I discard, or I propose, ' 
 or if you please, or any other equivalent phrase. ' 
 If the second player be also dissatisfied with I 
 his hand, he accedes to the proposal by saying, ! 
 How many ? He then gives the elder hand as ' 
 many cards as he demands, and afterwards takes 
 as many as he wants himself to the full number 
 of the whole hand, five cards each, if requisite. 
 
 2. He who has once proposed cannot refuse 
 the cards given him. 
 
 3. If after the first exchange the elder hand 
 be still not content with his cards, he may ask 
 for more three or four times successively, till 
 the thirty-two cards are exhausted, but the 
 dealer, from first to last, is always at liberty to 
 accept or refuse. 
 
 4. Each player before he takes in new cards, 
 must throw his discard on the table apart from 
 the stock, and the cards put out must all be 
 mixed together. The discard made, neither 
 player can demand more or less cards than he 
 requested, nor is he allowed to look at those 
 which have been discarded. 
 
 5. It sometimes happens, that, after several 
 exchanges have been made, the elder hand 
 having proposed again, and the dealer having 
 inconsiderately asked, Howmany, there are not 
 cards enough left to satisfy his" demand. Tn 
 this case he who has proposed is not the less 
 bound to have other cards ; but as he cannot 
 have them from the stock, there being no stock 
 left, he is obliged to supply the deficiency from 
 his last discard. 
 
 6. He who looks at his discard, after he has 
 made it, is obliged to play with his hand ex- 
 posed on the table. 
 
 7. When, after the first deal, the elder hand 
 proposes, and the other refuses, the one who 
 refuses loses two points, if he do not make 
 three tricks. 
 
 8. In the same manner when the elder hand 
 plays without proposing, he loses two points, if 
 he do not win three tricks. 
 
 9. If, in giving new cards to the proposer, 
 the dealer turn up a card for the trump, in 
 mistake as at the original deal, he cannot re- 
 fuse a second discard, should his adversary de- 
 mand it. 
 
 OF THE MANNER OF PLAYING. 
 
 1. The elder hand plays first. 
 
 2. The first player is bound to play in the 
 suit he names ; for instance, if he should say 
 hearts, and play clubs, or any other suit, he is 
 obliged, if his adversary insist on it, to take up 
 the card he has played, and to play in the 
 declared suit. 
 
 3. If the adversary deem the card played 
 more advantageous to his own hand than the 
 declared suit, he plays to it, and the card once 
 covered cannot be recalled in order to play a 
 different suit. 
 
 4. He who plays before his turn is only 
 obliged to take up his card again, if it have not 
 been played to ; but if it be covered, the trick 
 is good. In this case, as in the preceding one, 
 both players having been in fault, one for hav- 
 ing played and the other for having allowed 
 him to play out of turn, no penalty is incurred. 
 
 OF THE SCORE AND VOLE. 
 
 1. When both parties have done discarding, 
 he who wins three tricks reckons one point ; 
 if he win every trick he reckons two points, 
 and has won the vole. 
 
 2. Two points only can be made in the same 
 deal, unless you hold the king. To make two 
 points without the king or three with the king, 
 is called winning the vole. 
 
 OF THE REVOKE AND UNDER-FORCE. 
 
 1. It is not allowable to revoke, or to under- 
 force. 
 
 2. When one of the players has revoked or 
 under-forced, as soon as it is discovered the 
 cards are taken up and played over again ; but 
 the person in fault, if he win the vole, counts 
 only one point for it, and nothing if ho win the 
 point only. 
 
 GENERAL RULES. 
 
 1 . For the cut to be good, at this as at every 
 other game, two cards, at least, must be left 
 of the pack. 
 
 2. Each player has a right to ask for new 
 cards as often as he pleases. 
 
 3. When a player takes tricks that do not 
 belong to him, and reckons them a& his own,
 
 EKL] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 169 
 
 a bystander has a right to mention it ; and so 
 as to any other unfair play. 
 
 4. He who, under whatever pretence, looks 
 at his adversary's tricks, is bound to play out 
 the hand with his cards exposed on the table. 
 
 5. A card escaping from a hand, and falling 
 under the table, is not considered as played, 
 unless it has been played to, or has covered, 
 wholly or in part, the adversary's card. 
 
 6. If a player from mistake or ill humour 
 should throw down and mix his cards, the ad- 
 versary scores two points. 
 
 7. He who quits the game loses it ; but 
 should there be bets depending, the adversary 
 is bound to continue the game with some one 
 of the bystanders, for the benefit of the per- 
 sons so interested. 
 
 9. When the pack is defective, by consist- 
 
 ing of too many, or too few cards ; the deal in 
 which it is discovered is void, but the preced- 
 ing ones stand good. 
 
 OF BETTING. 
 
 1. He who bets on one of the players has a 
 right to advise him in playing the game. 
 
 2. He who wins a bet is bound to give his 
 adversary his revenge, but the loser is not 
 obliged to take it. 
 
 3. The players have the privilege of accept- 
 ing bets in preference to a bystander. 
 
 4. Betting being optional and not arbitrary, 
 the bets that are made must be mentioned at 
 every game. 
 
 5. Every case not provided for by the fore- 
 going rules ought always to be decided against 
 the player who is in fault Hoyle. 
 
 ECHINUS, s. A hedgehog- ; a shell-fish set with prickles. Vide HEDGEHOG. 
 EDDY, s. The water that, by some repercussion, or opposite wind, runs 
 
 contrary to the main stream ; generally a favourite cast in fly-fishing. 
 EEL, s. A serpentine slimy fish, that lurks in mud. 
 
 with the bait on the ground; they will be 
 felt to tug sharply when they seize the bait, 
 give time (which is necessary both in day and 
 night angling), and there will be no doubt of 
 sport from night-fall until day-break, when 
 they directly flee to their hiding places. 
 
 The largest eels are caught by night lines. 
 It is of little consequence where they are laid, 
 as they will succeed in streams (where the 
 eels rove in search of prey), as well as in 
 still waters, and they will take frogs, black 
 snails, worms, roach, dace, gudgeon, minnows 
 (which two last are best), loaches, bleaks, and 
 millers' thumbs. A sufficient quantity of links 
 of twelve hairs should be doubled, and a hook 
 tied to each link; these are to be noosed at 
 proper distances to pieces of cord of fifteen 
 feet long; bait the hooks by making an inci- 
 sion with the baiting needle under the shoulder 
 and thrusting it out at the middle of the tail, 
 drawing the link after it ; the point of the 
 hook should be upright towards the back of 
 the baitfish ; fasten one end to the bank or a 
 stub, and cast the other into the water, but not 
 to the extent of the line (as eels will run a little 
 before they gorge) : the lines should be taken 
 up early in the morning ; such of the lines 
 as have eels at them will be drawn very tight. 
 Dark nights in July, August, and September, 
 are the best for this kind of fishing. 
 
 Another method of taking eels, when the 
 water is clear and low, is called snigling, and 
 is performed with a stick about a yard long, 
 with a cleft at each end, and a strong needle 
 well whipped to a small whipcord line from 
 
 Very little is yet known of the natural his- 
 tory of the eel ; indeed, the element in which 
 they live almost precludes us from that ac- 
 cess to them which is necessary to enable us 
 to observe their habits and economy. The 
 eel is evidently a link between the fish and 
 serpent, but, unlike the former, it can exist a 
 long time' out of water, which its nocturnal 
 migrations prove, though probably a certain 
 degree of moisture on the grass is necessary 
 to enable it to do this. 
 
 The haunts of the eel are among weeds, 
 under roots, stumps of trees, in holes and 
 clefts of the earth, both in the banks, and 
 at the bottom in the plain mud, where they 
 lie with only their heads out, watching for 
 their prey ; they are also to be found under 
 great stones, old timber, about bridges, flood- 
 gates, weirs, and also mills, except when the 
 water is rendered thick by rains, for then they 
 come out, and will bite eagerly. They are in 
 best season from May until July : a running 
 line should be used, which must be very 
 strong, and the hook No. 3, or 4, with aplumb 
 or pistol bullet upon it. They are to be an- 
 gled for on the ground, and two or more rods 
 may be employed (if ground bait be thought 
 necessary, it should be the same as for the 
 barbel) ; the prime bait is the lob- worm, and 
 they bite eagerly all day, in dark cloudy wea- 
 ther, after showers, attended with thunder 
 and lightning, when the water is high and dis- 
 coloured ; but those who venture upon night 
 angling, will have far greater success when the 
 weather is warm and the night dark. They are 
 then to be angled for upon the shallows, 
 
 the eye down to the middle. In baiting, run 
 
 where there is a current, or by the side or tail I the head of the needle quite up into the head 
 of a stream, with a sandy or gravelly bottom, I of a lobworm, letting the point come about
 
 170 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [EEL 
 
 the middle ; then put the point of the needle 
 into the cleft at either end of the stick, and 
 taking both Btick and line together in one 
 hand, put the bait softly into holes under 
 walls, stones, &c., where eels hide themselves; 
 if there be an eel there, he will take the 
 worm and needle out of the cleft. Draw back 
 the stick gently (having slackened the line), 
 and give time for his swallowing the bait ; then 
 strike, and the needle will stick across his 
 throat. Let him tire himself with tugging, 
 previous to any attempt to pull him out, for 
 he lies folded in his den, and will fasten his 
 tail round anything for his defence. The 
 largest eels are generally taken about the hol- 
 low stone-work of old bridges (the angler 
 being in a boat), and are sometimes caught in 
 considerable numbers. 
 
 A third plan for taking eels is by what is 
 termed bobbing, which is best managed in a 
 boat. This is done by taking a quantity of 
 well-scoured lobworms ; have a long needle, 
 with three lengths of worsted slightly twisted 
 together ; put the needle lengthways through 
 the worms, and draw them down on the wors- 
 ted. When there is two yards thus prepared, 
 then fold them up in links, and tie them to 
 about two yards of good twine, and make a 
 knot on it eight inches from the worms ; and 
 slipping a piece of lead, with a hole in it 
 (weighing from a quarter to three quarters of 
 a pound, according to the current fished in), 
 down the line to the knot ; fasten the line to 
 a manageable pole, and let the lead lie on the 
 bottom in thick, muddy water, when the tide 
 runs up strong, or near the mouth of some 
 river. When the eels nibble at the bait, they 
 can be felt ; give some little time before it is 
 pulled up, which must be gently until near 
 the surface, and then hoist out quickly. The 
 worsted sticking in the eels' teeth, prevents 
 their loosening themselves until the line is 
 slackened by throwing them into the boat, or 
 on the ground. So soon as they are disen- 
 tangled, throw the bait in again. Frequently 
 great quantities are thus caught, especially of 
 grigs. Eels are also to be snared in the same 
 way as the pike, and in the fens numbers are 
 speared by an instrument with three or four 
 forks, or jagged teeth, which is struck at ran- 
 dom into the mud. 
 
 
 
 The most extraordinary peculiarity in the 
 natural history of the eel, is its double mi- 
 gration, one up and one down rivers, one 
 from and the other to the sea ; the first in 
 spring and summer, and the second in autumn 
 or early in winter. The first, of very small 
 eels, which are sometimes not more than two 
 or two and a half inches long ; the second, of 
 large eels, which sometimes are three or four 
 feet long, and weigh from ten to fifteen, or 
 even twenty pounds. There is great reason 
 
 to believe, that all eels found in fresh water 
 are the results of the first migration. They 
 appear in millions, in April and May, and 
 sometimes continue to rise as late even as 
 July and the beginning of August. I remem- 
 ber this was the case in Ireland, in 1823. It 
 had been a cold backward summer, and when 
 I was at Bally shannon, about the end of July, 
 the mouth of the river, which had been in 
 flood all this month, under the fall, was 
 blackened by millions of little eels, about as 
 long as the finger, which were constantly 
 urging their way up the moist rocks by the 
 side of the fall. Thousands died, but their 
 bodies remaining moist, served as the ladder 
 for others to make their way ; and I saw some 
 ascending even perpendicular stones, making 
 their road through wet moss, or adhering to 
 some eels that had died in the attempt. 
 Such is the energy of these little animals, 
 that they continue to find their way, in im- 
 mense numbers, to Loch Erne. The same 
 thing happens at the fall of the Bann, and 
 Loch Neagh is thus peopled by them : even 
 the mighty Fall of Schaffhausen does not pre- 
 vent them from making their way to the 
 Lake of Constance, where I have seen many 
 very large eels. 
 
 There are eels in the Lake of Neufchatel, 
 which communicates, by a stream, with the 
 Rhine ; but there are none in the Leman 
 Lake, because the Rhone makes a subterra- 
 neous fall below Geneva ; and though small 
 eels can pass by moss or mount rocks, they 
 cannot penetrate limestone, or move against 
 a rapid descending course of water, passing, 
 as it were, through a pipe. Again : no eels 
 mount the Danube from the Black Sea ; and 
 there are none found in the great extent of 
 lakes, swamps, and rivers, communicating 
 with the Danube, though some of these lakes 
 and morasses are wonderfully fitted for them, 
 and though they are found abundantly in the 
 same countries, in lakes and rivers connected 
 with the ocean and Mediterranean. Yet, 
 when brought into confined water in the 
 Danube, they fatten and thrive there. As 
 to the instinct which leads young eels to seek 
 fresh water, it is difficult to reason ; probably 
 they prefer warmth, and, swimming at the 
 surface in the early summer, find the lighter 
 water warmer, and likewise containing more 
 insects, and so pursue the courses of fresh 
 water, as the waters from the land, at this 
 season, become warmer than those of the sea. 
 
 Mr. J. Couch, (Lin. Trans, t. xiv. p. 70) 
 says, that the little eels, according to his obser- 
 vation, are produced within reach of the tide, 
 and climb round falls to reach fresh water from 
 the sea. I have sometimes seen them, in 
 spring, swimming in immense shoals in the 
 Atlantic, in Mount Bay, making their way to 
 the mouth of small brooks and rivers. When
 
 EEL] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 171 
 
 the cold water from the autumnal floods begins 
 to swell the rivers, this fish tries to return to 
 the sea ; but numbers of the smaller ones hide 
 themselves during the winter in the mud, and 
 many of them form, as it were, in masses to- 
 gether. Various authors have recorded the 
 migration of eels in a singular way, such as 
 Dr. Plot, who, in his History of Staffordshire, 
 says, that they pass in the night, across mea- 
 dows, from one pond to another : and Mr. 
 Arderon, (in Trans. Royal Soc.)givesa. dis- 
 tinct account of small eels rising up the flood- 
 gates and posts of the water works of the city 
 of Norwich; and they made their way to the 
 water above, though the boards were smooth 
 planed, and five or six feet perpendicular. He 
 says, when they first rose out of the water upon 
 the dry board, they rested a little which 
 seemed to be till their slime was thrown out, 
 and sufficiently glutinous and then they rose 
 up the perpendicular ascent with the same fa- 
 cility as if they had been moving on a plane 
 surface (Trans. Abr. vol.ix. p. 31 1.) There 
 can, I think, be no doubt, that they are assisted 
 by their small scales, which, placed like those 
 of serpents, must facilitate their progressive 
 motion : these scales have been microscopically 
 observed by Leuwenhoek. (Phil. Trans, vol. 
 iv.) Eels migrate from the salt-water of dif- 
 ferent sizes, but I believe never when they are 
 above a foot long and the great mass of them 
 are only from two and a half to four inches. 
 They feed, grow, and fatten in fresh water. In 
 small rivers they are seldom very large; but 
 in large deep lakes they become as thick as a 
 man's arm, or even leg ; and all those of a con- 
 siderable size attempt to run to the sea in Oc- 
 tober or November, probably when they expe- 
 rience the cold of the first autumnal rains. 
 Those that are not of the largest size, as I said 
 before, pass the winter in the deepest parts of 
 the mud of rivers and lakes, and do not seem 
 to eat much, and remain, I believe, almost 
 torpid. Their increase is not certainly known 
 in any given time, but must depend upon the 
 quantity of their food ; but it is probable they 
 do not become of the largest size from the 
 smallest in one or even two seasons : but this, 
 as well as many other particulars, can only be 
 ascertained by new observations and experi- 
 ments. Block states, that they grow slowly, 
 and mentions, that some had been kept in the 
 same pond for fifteen years. 
 
 As very large eels, after having migrated, 
 never return to the river again, they must 
 (for it cannot be supposed they all die imme- 
 diately in the sea) remain in salt water ; and 
 there is great probability, that they are then 
 confounded with the conger, -which is found 
 of different colours and sizes, from the small- 
 est to the largest, from a few ounces to one 
 hundred pounds in weight. The colour of 
 the conger is generally paler than that of the 
 
 eel ; but, in the Atlantic, it is said, that pale 
 congers are found on one side of the Wolf 
 Rock, and dark ones on the other. The 
 conger has breathing tubes, which are said not 
 to be found in the other eel ; but to deter- 
 mine this, would require a more minute ex- 
 amination than has yet been made. Both the 
 conger and common eel have fringes along the 
 air-bladder, which are probably the ovaria ; 
 and Sir E. Home thinks them hermaphrodite, 
 and that the seminal vessels are close to the 
 kidneys. I hope this great comparative ana- 
 tomist will be able to confirm his views by 
 new dissections, and some chemical researches 
 upon the nature of the fringes and the sup- 
 posed melt. If viviparous, and the fringes 
 contain the ova, one mother must produce 
 tens of thousands, the ova being remarkably 
 small ; but it appears more probable, that they 
 are oviparous, and that they deposit their ova 
 in parts of the sea near deep basins, which 
 remain warm in winter. This might be as- 
 certained by experiment, particularly on the 
 coast of the Mediterranean. I cannot find 
 that they haunt the Arctic Ocean, which is 
 probably of too low a temperature to suit their 
 feelings or habits ; and the Caspian and Black 
 Sea are probably without them, from their not 
 being found in the Volga or Danube ; these 
 being shallow seas, are perhaps too cold for 
 them in winter. From the time (April) that 
 small eels begin to migrate, it is probable that 
 they are generated in winter, and the preg- 
 nant eels should be looked for in November, 
 December, and January. I opened one in 
 December, in which the fringes were abundant, 
 hut I did not examine them under the mi- 
 croscope, or chemically. I trust this curious 
 problem will not remain much longer un- 
 solved. 
 
 * 
 
 An amazing number of eels are bred in the 
 two large ponds in Richmond Park, which is 
 sufficiently evident from the very great quan- 
 tity of young ones which migrate from those 
 ponds every year. The late respectable head- 
 keeper of that park assured me, that, at 
 nearly the same day in the month of May, vast 
 numbers of young eels, about two inches in 
 length, contrived to get through the pen-stock 
 of the upper pond, and then through the chan- 
 nel which led into the lower pond, from whence 
 they got through another pen-stock into a 
 water-course which led them eventually into 
 the River Thames. They migrated in one 
 connected shoal, and in such prodigious num- 
 bers, that no guess could be given as to their 
 probable amount. * 
 
 The winter retreat of eels is very curious. 
 They not only get deep into the mud, but in 
 Bushy Park, where the mud in the ponds is 
 not very deep, and what there is is of a sandy 
 nature, the eels make their way under the
 
 172 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [EFT 
 
 banks of the ponds, and have been found 
 knotted together in a large mass. 
 
 * 
 
 Eel-weirs are common in almost all the 
 rivers in Ireland. There are some large ones 
 at, or near Enniskillen, where great quantities 
 of these fish are caught ; they are not natives 
 of the lake, but come from the sea when very 
 young, and are intercepted in their return ; they 
 never take a bait, nor are ever known to eat 
 any kind of food. Lord Belmore has kept 
 some in boxes for a year, and found this to be 
 the case. 
 
 The country people catch them by extend- 
 ing across the water a band of hay, in which 
 the eels get so entangled, as not to be able to 
 disengage themselves, and by these means are 
 easily taken. 
 
 There is a very singular eel found in the river 
 Barrow near Carlow. It is like the gillaroo, 
 lias a gizzard. This eel is said to be particu- 
 larly delicious when introduced to table. 
 
 
 
 The common eel will grow to a large size, 
 sometimes to weigh twenty pounds, but that is 
 extremely rare ; in ] 799 one was taken out of 
 the Kennet, near Newbury, which weighed 
 fifteen pounds. As to instances brought by 
 Dale and others, of these fish increasing to a 
 superior magnitude, there is much reason to 
 suspect them to have been congers ; since the 
 enormous eels they describe, have all been taken 
 
 at the mouth of the Thames or Medway. 
 
 
 
 The following curious fact is recorded by 
 Mr. Swallow, some years since the British 
 Consul-General in Russia : Having occasion 
 to go from Petersburgh to Moscow, where 
 eels are a great rarity, he ordered some, to 
 carry as a present ; upon being taken out of 
 the water, they were thrown upon the ground 
 to be frozen, and soon appeared quite dead, 
 and almost a piece of ice ; they were then 
 packed in snow, and when arrived at Moscow, 
 which was four days after, the eels being put 
 into cold water, and so thawed, discovered 
 gradually signs of life, and soon perfectly re- 
 covered ! 
 
 * * 
 
 The eel was anciently said to possess the 
 power of enforcing sobriety upon the most 
 devoted subject of the jolly god. " If you 
 would some notorious drunkard and common 
 swil-bowle to loth and abhorre his beastlie 
 vice, and for ever after to hate the drinking 
 of wine, put an eele alyue into some wyde 
 mouthed potte with a couer, hauing in it suche 
 a quantitie of wine as may suffice of itselfe 
 to suffocate and strangle the eele to death ; 
 which doone, take out the dead eele, and let 
 the partie, whom you would have reclaymed 
 from his bibacitie, not knowing hereof, drinke 
 of that wine onely, euen as much as he list- 
 eth." Jesse Daniel Sir H. Davy, ^c. 
 
 EFT, s. A newt, an evet, a small lizard. 
 
 EGG, *. That which is laid by feathered animals, from which their young 
 is produced ; the spawn or sperm of creatures. 
 
 Eggs of Birds By experiment it appears 
 that birds do not instinctively know the ne- 
 cessary time of incubation. 
 
 Those who suppose a bird capable of pro- 
 ducing eggs at will, or that any bird is excited 
 to lay more eggs than usual by daily robbing 
 their nest, are certainly mistaken. In a do- 
 mesticated fowl it is probable the desire of in- 
 cubation may be prolonged by leaving little or 
 nothing in the nest to sit on. It will there- 
 fore lay the number allotted by nature, which 
 is determined before the first egg is produced. 
 
 It is but few birds, if any, that would pro- 
 duce a second lot of eggs in the same season 
 if unmolested ; but if their nests are destroyed, 
 it is probable three or four separate lots may 
 be produced. 
 
 The growth of an egg after impregnation is 
 exceedingly rapid ; the yolk only is formed in 
 the ovarium, where it remains till within 
 twenty-four hours of its being produced ; when 
 that part is fully matured, it separates and 
 falls down the oviduct into the uterus, where 
 the egg is perfectly formed ; first, the vitellus 
 or yolk is surrounded by the albumen or 
 
 white ; and lastly is covered \vith a calcareous 
 shell. The very expeditious growth of these 
 last appear to be an extraordinary exertion of 
 nature. The calcareous covering of an egg is 
 concreted and formed in a most expeditious 
 manner; a few hours only seem nccessaiy 
 for this work. Only one vitellus separates 
 from the ovarium at a time, (except as we 
 shall hereafter mention,) till the exclusion of 
 which no other succeeds. But this is a daily 
 production, with few exceptions, there is no 
 more time allowed for perfecting the albumen 
 and shell than twenty-four hours. 
 
 Colours of Eggs It was a notion of 
 Darwin's that the variety in the colours of 
 eggs, as well as in the colours of many ani- 
 mals, is adapted to the purposes of conceal- 
 ment from their natural enemies. Thus, he 
 remarks, that the eggs of the hedge-chanter 
 (Accentor modularis) are greenish blue, as 
 are those of magpies and crows, which are 
 seen from beneath in wicker nests, between 
 the eye and the blue of the firmament. 
 M. Gloger, a German naturalist, has followed 
 up this singular theory into some detail, and
 
 KCR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 173 
 
 considers it to be a remarkable provision of 
 nature, that birds whose nests are most ex- 
 posed, and whose eggs are most open to the 
 view of their enemies, lay eggs of which the 
 colour is the least distinguishable from that 
 of surrounding objects, so as to deceive the 
 eye of birds, or other plundering animals ; 
 while birds, the eggs of which have a bright 
 decided colour, and are consequently very 
 conspicuous, either conceal their nests in 
 hollows, or only quit their eggs during the 
 night, or begin to sit immediately. It is also 
 to be remarked that in the species of which 
 the nest is open, and the female brings up the 
 
 brood without the assistance of the male, 
 these females are generally of a different 
 colour from the male, less conspicuous, and 
 more in harmony with the objects around. 
 
 * 
 
 Eggs of Game Taking or wilfully de- 
 stroying the eggs of game, subjects the offen- 
 der to the following penalties for each egg : 
 Pheasant, partridge, swan . 1 
 Any wild-fowl, crane, bustard 
 (and one year's imprison- 
 ment for the offence) .018 
 Bittern, heron, shoveller .008 
 Rennie Montagu, Qc. 
 
 EGRET (Ardca garzetta, LINN.; Egrettu, BUFF.), s. 
 heron kind. 
 
 A fowl of the 
 
 The egret is one of the smallest, as well 
 as the most elegant of the heron tribe : its 
 shape is delicate, and its plumage as white as 
 snow ; but what constitute its principal beauty 
 are the soft, silky, flowing plumes on the 
 head, breast, and shoulders : they consist of 
 single slender shafts, thinly set with pairs of 
 fine soft threads, which float on the slightest 
 breath of air. Those which arise from the 
 shoulders are extended over the back, and 
 flow beyond the tail. These plumes were 
 formerly used to decorate the helmets of 
 warriors : they are now applied to a gentler 
 and better purpose, in ornamenting the head- 
 dresses of the European ladies, and the turbans 
 of the Persians and Turks. 
 
 The egret seldom exceeds a pound and a 
 
 half in weight, and rarely a foot and a half in 
 length. A bare green skin is extended from 
 the beak to the eyes, the hides of which are 
 pale yellow : the bill and legs are black. 
 Like the common heron, they perch and 
 build their nests on trees, and live on the 
 same kinds of food. 
 
 This species is found in almost every tem- 
 perate and warm climate, and must formerly 
 have been plentiful in Great Britain, if it be 
 the 8'Aine bird as that mentioned by Leland in 
 the list or bill-of-fare prepared for the famous 
 feast of Archbishop Nevil, in which one thou- 
 sand of these birds were served up. No 
 wonder the species has become nearly extinct 
 in this country Bewick.
 
 174 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [EOY 
 
 EGYPTIACUM, s. Liniment of verdigris. It is useful in diseases of the 
 frog and heel, and is formed by boiling five ounces of powdered verdigris, 
 one pound of honey, and seven ounces of vinegar, until they are incor- 
 porated. 
 
 EIDER DUCK, ST. CUTHBERT'S DUCK, or GREAT BLACK AND WHITE 
 DUCK (Anas mollissima, LINN. ; IS Eider, BUFF.), s. 
 
 This wild but valuable species is of a size 
 between the goose and the domestic duck, and 
 appears to be one of the graduated links of the 
 chain which connects the two kinds. The full- 
 grown old males generally measure about two 
 feet two inches in length, and two feet eight 
 in breadth, and weigh from six to above seven 
 pounds. The head is large ; the middle of the 
 neck small, with the lower part of it spread 
 out very broad, so as to form a hollow between 
 the shoulders, which while the bird is sitting 
 at ease, seems as if fitted to receive its reclin- 
 ing head. The bill is of a dirty yellowish horn 
 colour, darkish in the middle, and measures, 
 from the tip to the corners of the mouth, two 
 inches and a half : the upper mandible is forked 
 in a singular manner towards each eye, and is 
 covered with white feathers on the sides, as far 
 forward as the nostrils. The upper part of the 
 head is of a soft velvet black, divided behind 
 by a dull white stroke pointing downwards : the 
 feathers from the nape of the neck to the throat, 
 are long, or puffed out, overhanging the upper 
 part of the neck, and look as if they had been 
 clipped off at the lower ends ; they have the 
 appearance of pale pea-green velvet shag, with 
 a white line dropping downward from the au- 
 riculars on each side. The cheeks, chin, up- 
 per part of the neck, back, and lesser whig 
 
 coverts, are white ; the scapulars, and secon- 
 dary quills, next the body, dirty white : bas- 
 tard wings, and primary quills, brown ; the 
 secondaries and greater coverts are the same, 
 but much darker : the lower broad part of the 
 neck, on the front, to the breast, is of a buff 
 colour ; but in some specimens tinged with 
 rusty red : the breast, belly, vent, rump, and 
 tail coverts, are of a deep sooty black : tail 
 feathers hoary brown : legs short and yellow : 
 webs and nails dusky. The female is nearly 
 of the same shape, though less than the male, 
 weighing only between five and six pounds ; 
 but her plumage is quite different, the ground 
 colour being of a reddish brown, prettily crossed 
 with waved black lines : and in some speci- 
 mens the neck, breast, and belly, are tinged 
 with ash : the wings are crossed with two bars 
 of white: quills dark: the neck is marked with 
 longitudinal dusky streaks, and the belly is 
 deep brown, spotted obscurely with black. 
 
 The eider duck lays from three to five large, 
 smooth, pale olive-coloured eggs; these she 
 deposits and conceals in a nest, or bed, made 
 of a great quantity of the soft, warm elastic 
 down, plucked from her own breast, and some- 
 times from that of her mate. The ground- 
 work or foundation of the nest is formed of 
 bent grass, sea weeds, or such like coarse ma-
 
 ELO] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 175 
 
 terials, and it is placed in as sheltered a spot 
 as the bleak and solitary place can afford. 
 
 In Greenland, Iceland, Spitzbergen, Lap- 
 land, and some parts of the coast of Norway, 
 the eiders flock together, in particular breed- 
 ing places, in such numbers, and their nests 
 are so close together, that a person in walking 
 along can hardly avoid treading upon them. 
 The natives of these cold climates eagerly 
 watch the time when the first hatchings of the 
 eggs are laid : of these they rob the nest, and 
 also of the more important article, the down 
 with which it is lined, which they carefully 
 gather and carry off. These birds will after- 
 wards strip themselves of their remaining down, 
 and lay a second hatching, of which also they 
 are sometimes robbed ; but, it is said, that when 
 this cruel treatment is too often repeated, 
 they leave the place, and return to it no 
 more. 
 
 The eider birds build their nests on little 
 islands, not far from the shore, and sometimes 
 even near the dwellings of the natives, who 
 treat them with such kindness and circum- 
 spection as to make them quite tame. In the 
 beginning of June they lay five or six eggs, and 
 it is not unusual to find from ten to sixteen 
 eggs in one nest, with two females, who agree 
 remarkably well together. The whole time 
 of laying continues six or seven weeks, during 
 which time the natives visit the nest, for the 
 purpose of taking the down and eggs, at least 
 once a week. They first carefully remove the 
 female, and then take away the down and 
 part of the eggs ; after which she lays afresh, 
 covering her eggs with new down plucked from 
 her breast ; this being taken away, the male 
 conies to her assistance, and covers the eggs 
 with his down, which is left till the young are 
 hatched. One female, during the whole time 
 of laying, generally gives half a pound of 
 down. The down from the dead birds is ac- 
 counted of little worth, having lost its elas- 
 ticity. There are generally exported fifteen 
 hundred or two thousand pounds of down on 
 the company's account, exclusive of what is 
 
 privately sold The young ones quit the 
 
 nest soon after they are hatched, and follow 
 the female, who leads them to the water, 
 where, having taken them on her back, she 
 swims with them a few yards, and then dives, 
 and leaves them floating on the water : in this 
 situation they soon learn to take care of them- 
 selves, and are seldom afterwards seen on the 
 land, but live among the rocks, and feed on 
 insects and sea- weed. 
 
 " In my way hither," says Major C., " I 
 measured the flight of the eider ducks by the 
 following method ; viz., on arriving off Duck 
 Island, six miles distant from Henly Tickle, 
 I caused the people to lay on their oars ; and 
 when I saw the flash of the guns, which were 
 fired at a flock of ducks as they passed through 
 the latter, I observed by my watch how long 
 they were in flying abreast of us. The result 
 of very many observations, ascertained the 
 rate of their flight to be ninety miles in an 
 hour." 
 
 The extraordinary elasticity of the down 
 appears from what I have already said of three 
 quarters of an ounce filling a large hat ; and 
 Pontoppidan says, that two or three pounds of 
 it, though pressed into a ball, which may be 
 held in the hand, upon being allowed to ex- 
 pand, will fill the foot-covering of a large bed. 
 It is worthy of notice, however, that it is only 
 the down taken from the nests which has this 
 great elasticity, for what is taken from the 
 dead birds is much inferior, being, as Pontop- 
 pidan says, " fat, subject to rot, and far from 
 as light as what the female plucks to form a 
 bed for its young." It is on this account that 
 it is prohibited by the laws of Norway to kill 
 the eiders for their down. 
 
 The young have been taken from the Farn 
 Islands, in hopes of their becoming domesti- 
 cated, but all attempts have proved ineffectual ; 
 probably for want of proper food, which is 
 said principally to consist of shell-fish. 
 
 The native regions of this bird extend from 
 45 north, to the highest latitudes yet dis- 
 covered, both in Europe and America ; some 
 wandering pairs have been known to breed on 
 the rocky islands beyond Portland, in the 
 district of Mayne, which is, perhaps, the 
 most southern extent of their breeding place. 
 Greenland and Iceland abound with them, 
 and they are numerous on the coast of Labra- 
 dor. They associate together in flocks, gene- 
 rally in deep water, diving for shell-fish, re- 
 tiring frequently to the rocky shore to rest 
 themselves, particularly on the approach of a 
 storm. Their flesh is much esteemed by the 
 inhabitants of Greenland, but tastes strongly 
 of fish. Wilson says, that several attempts 
 have been made to domesticate them, but 
 
 hitherto without effect Bewick Von Trail 
 
 Montagu. 
 
 ELK, s. A large and stately animal of the stag- kind. 
 
 ELL, s. A measure containing a yard and a quarter. 
 
 ELM, s. The name of a tree. 
 
 ELOPS, s. obs. A fish, reckoned by Milton among the serpents.
 
 176 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Em 
 
 EM ACIATE, v. To lose flesh, to pine. 
 
 EMBROCATION, s. The act of rubbing any part diseased with medicinal 
 liquors ; the lotion with which any diseased part is washed. 
 
 Embrocations are of a stimulating nature, 
 and are greatly assisted by friction. Of this 
 kind are opodeldoc, soap liniment, &c. 
 
 MUSTARD EMBROCATION. 
 
 For inflammation of the Lungs. 
 
 Flour of mustard 4 oz. 
 
 Liquid ammonia . . 1^ oz. 
 
 Oil of turpentine 1 oz. 
 
 "Water, a sufficient quantity to bring it to the 
 consistence of cream. Flour of mustard mixed 
 into a thin paste with water only is a powerful 
 stimulant, and may be employed with good 
 effect in cases of internal inflammation either 
 of the bowels or lungs. 
 
 EMBROCATIONS. 
 
 For hard indolent Tumours. 
 No. 1. Olive oil . . . . 4 oz. 
 
 Camphor .... 4 dr. Mix. 
 2. Mercurial ointment . . . 2 oz. 
 Olive oil and camphor, of each. 2 dr. 
 Embrocations of a more stimulating kind 
 are sometimes employed in swellings of the 
 
 joints, old strains or other local affections, 
 such as soap liniment with liquid ammonia, 
 olive oil, oil of turpentine, and liquid ammo- 
 nia, but blisters in such cases are generally 
 more effectual. 
 
 Embrocations are often improperly em- 
 ployed, as in recent strains, or inflamed tu- 
 mours, and other cases where emollient or 
 cooling applications are required. Both strains 
 and bruises are, at first, attended with a de- 
 gree of inflammation, proportionate to the 
 violence of the injury, and the susceptibility 
 of the injured part ; therefore they require, at 
 first, such treatment as is calculated to sub- 
 due inflammation, that is, bleeding and purg- 
 ing with a suitable diet, and in strains, rest. 
 The local or topical remedies in the inflam- 
 matory stage, are poultices, but in these cases 
 bleeding and purging, immediately after their 
 occurrence, are an essential part of the treat- 
 ment White. 
 
 EMERY, s. An iron ore, useful in cleaning and polishing steel. 
 
 EMMET, s. An ant, a pismire. 
 
 EMOLLIENT, a. Softening, suppling. 
 
 EMOLLIENTS, *. Such things as sheathe and soften the asperities of the 
 humours, and relax and supple the solids. Vide POULTICE and FO- 
 MENTATION. 
 
 EMULSION, s. A form of medicine, by bruising oily seeds and kernels. 
 
 Emulsions are pectoral medicines, generally 
 mixtures of oil and water, by the interven- 
 tion of an alkali or mucilage, given alone in 
 coughs. 
 
 SIMPLE EMULSION. 
 
 Salad oil . 2 oz. 
 
 Clarified honey . 3 oz. 
 
 Soft water . . 1 pint 
 
 Sub-carbonate of potash 2 dr. Mix. 
 
 ENTER, v. To initiate in a business, 
 
 To enter hounds The first thing to be 
 attended to in young dogs of all kinds is to 
 make them understand their name well, and 
 answer to it, before training ; for which they 
 should be rewarded and caressed. After fox- 
 hounds have learned to follow freely, they 
 should be coupled, and led out among sheep, 
 deer, &c., and made to understand that such 
 is not their game ; but two dogs should never 
 be coupled together, as they are sure to 
 quarrel. A few at a time should be let loose 
 amongst sheep, and if they attempt to run after 
 them, should be severely chastised, and the 
 
 PECTORAL EMULSION. 
 
 Camphor . . 1 to 2 dr. 
 To be rubbed into a powder by means of 
 a few drops of spirit of wine. 
 
 Oil of aniseed 12 to 15 drops. 
 
 To this mix gradually from 12 oz. to a pint 
 of the simple emulsion. Nitrate of potash and 
 tincture of opium are added in irritability of 
 the bladder White. 
 
 method, or society. 
 
 I cry of ware sheep be often repeated to them ; 
 
 | which cry will, generally, on future occasions, 
 have the effect of stopping them from sheep- 
 running, without the necessity of using the 
 whip. Great care is necessary at the offset 
 to prevent them from worrying a sheep, which 
 they will sometimes do under the management 
 of careless trainers ; for if they be allowed to 
 taste the blood, it will be very difficult after- 
 wards to break them from this bad habit. 
 
 Young hounds should be often walked 
 about the courts of the kennel, followed by 
 the whipper in, who should rate them after
 
 EPI] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 177 
 
 the huntsman. They should also be fre- 
 quently taken out with people on foot, which 
 teaches them to be more tractable and atten- 
 tive, and much more manageable. It is better 
 to take them out to their walks in a country 
 where they are to be hunted^ as the sooner 
 they acquire a knowledge of it the better ; 
 and when they are thrown out, or left behind, 
 are more likely to find their way home. 
 
 In entering fox-hounds it should always be 
 at their own game ; although some are fool- 
 ish enough to begin them with hares, which 
 just requires a second training to break them 
 from that pursuit. Nothing is so good for 
 rendering young hounds obedient as walking 
 them frequently out amongst sheep, hares, 
 and deer, and restraining their pursuit of 
 these animals. This probation will teach 
 them to be steady. A fox-cub should then 
 be turned out before them, in the company 
 of some old hounds as leaders, which train 
 them in a short time instinctively, as it were, 
 to hunt themselves. After they have tasted 
 blood, it will be more difficult to repress their 
 ardour than to excite it. Every means of 
 encouraging them should be used in the ear- 
 lier stages of their training, and punishment 
 only administered after they have made some 
 progress. In flogging a hound for a fault, the 
 whipper-in should use his voice at the same 
 time ; this teaches him to know for what he is 
 beaten; and Mr. Daniel suggests the pro- 
 priety of introducing a live hare into the 
 kennel, and to flog the dogs soundly when- 
 ever they attempt to approach her. 
 
 To enter Hawks While the hawk is 
 waiting on at a proper height, his head being 
 turned inwards, a partridge tied to a creance 
 
 is to be thrown up ; and when the hawk has 
 taken it, he must be allowed to eat it on the 
 ground near the falconer, who is to walk round 
 him, and whistle to him as usual. 
 
 When this lesson has been repeated three 
 or four times, by throwing up partridges not 
 confined by the creance, the education of the 
 eyess may be considered as completed ; and 
 he may be taken into the field to be used in 
 the way that I shall endeavour to describe ; 
 but it will be necessary to give him every ad- 
 vantage in his first flights, and to have a live 
 partridge in the bag, ready to be thrown up to 
 him, should he fail in his first attempts to 
 take his game. 
 
 I have now described the mode of breaking 
 eyesses, as practised by the falconers ; but I 
 am of opinion that it might be better done, 
 and with infinitely less trouble, by using the 
 young hawk, when flying at hack, to feed al- 
 ways on the lure. 
 
 He would soon learn to fly to it, when 
 swung round in the air, and would thus be 
 taught to wait on. 
 
 The falconer should kneel down to the 
 hawk, when he is feeding on the lure, and 
 give him meat from the hand, by which means 
 he may not only be made tame, but may be 
 prevented from carrying. 
 
 When the season for hawking is at hand, 
 a few live partridges should be thrown up to 
 him, and he should be allowed to eat them 
 near the falconer. 
 
 I have no doubt but by this treatment a 
 young hawk would be fit for use as soon as 
 he was taken up, and that nothing more would 
 be required than to accustom him to stand to 
 the hood. Brown Sebright. 
 
 turned inwards, a partridge tied to a creance I the hood. Brown Sebright. 
 ENTERING, s. Entrance, passage into a place. 
 
 ENTIRE, a. Whole, undivided ; complete in its parts. ENTIRE HORSE : a 
 stallion. 
 
 E O, s. A game. 
 
 An E O table is circular in form, but of no 
 exact dimensions, though in general about 
 four feet in diameter. The extreme circum- 
 ference is a kind of counter or depot for the 
 stakes, marked all round with the letters E 
 and O ; on which each adventurer places 
 money according to his inclination. The in- 
 terior part of the table consists first, of a kind 
 of gallery, or rolling-place, for the ball, which, 
 with the outward parts, above called depot or 
 counter, is stationary or fixed. The most in- 
 terior part moves upon an axis, or pivot, and 
 is turned about vith handles, while the ball 
 is set in motion round the gallery. This part 
 
 EPHEMERA, s. An insect that lives only one day. 
 
 EPIDEMIC,.*. That which falls at once upon great numbers of people, as a 
 plague; generally prevailing, affecting great numbers of men or animals. 
 
 is generally divided into forty niches or inter- 
 stices, twenty of which are marked with the 
 letter E, and the other twenty with the letter 
 O. The lodging of the ball in any of the 
 niches, distinguished by those letters, deter- 
 mines the wager. The proprietors of the 
 tables have two bar holes, and are obliged to 
 take all bets offered either for E or O ; but if 
 the ball fall into either of the bar holes, they 
 win all the bets upon the opposite letter, and 
 do not pay to that in which it falls ; an 
 advantage in the proportion of two to forty, 
 or five per cent in their favour Hoyle.
 
 178 THE FIELD BOOK. [Epi 
 
 EPILEPSY, s. A convulsive motion of the whole body, or some of its parts, 
 with a loss of sense. Vide ELAINE, WHITE, PERCIVALL. 
 
 EQUESTRIAN, a. Appearing on horseback ; skilled in horsemanship ; be- 
 longing to a horse. 
 
 EQUERRY, s. Master of the horse. 
 
 EQUIPAGE, s. Furniture for a horseman ; carriage, vehicle ; attendance, 
 retinue ; accoutrements, furniture. 
 
 EQUIPOISE, 5. Equality of weight, equilibration. 
 
 ERGOT, s. A sort of stub, like a piece of horn, placed behind and below 
 the pastern joint. 
 
 ERRHINES, s. Powders which cause sneezing, by being blown up the nos- 
 trils. They are composed generally of hellebore, snuff, asarabacca, or 
 turbith mineral. 
 
 ERYSIPELAS, s. An eruption of a hot acrid humour. 
 
 ESCHAR, s. A hard crust or scar made by hot applications. 
 
 ESCHAROTIC, a. Caustic, having the power to sear or burn the flesh. 
 
 Escharotics are generally in the form of 
 powder. Such are nitric oxide of mercury 
 (red precipitate), exsiccated sulphate of alu- 
 mine (burnt alum), acetate of copper (crys- 
 tallised verdigris), sulphate of copper (blue 
 vitriol). These are applied, either separately, 
 or two or more of them are mixed together, 
 and finely powdered ; sometimes they are 
 mixed with bole armeniac or chalk, by which 
 they are rendered milder, or with lard or di- 
 gestive ointment. 
 
 ESCHAROTIC POWDERS. 
 
 No. 1. Exsiccated or burnt alum 2 dr. 
 
 Nitric oxide of mercury ^ oz Mix. 
 No. 2. Sulphate of copper . 1 oz. 
 
 Bole Armeniac . . 1 oz Mix. 
 No. 3. Acetate of copper . 1 oz. 
 
 Burnt alum . 2 dr Mix. 
 
 See CAUSTICS, ASTRINGENTS, DIGESTIVES, 
 and DETERGENTS. 
 
 ESCHAROTIC LINIMENT. 
 
 Honey . . . 8 oz. 
 
 Muriatic acid . 1 oz. 
 
 Verdigris . 1 oz. 
 
 Mix over a slow fire. 
 
 This liniment may be made stronger by 
 substituting nitrous acid for muriatic, or by 
 retaining the muriatic, and substituting for the 
 verdigris one drachm of sublimate. A weaker 
 liniment is made, and a very useful one, by 
 using two ounces of vinegar instead of the mu- 
 riatic acid. (See EGYPTIACUM). Escharotics 
 are applied to foul ulcers, and are employed 
 to destroy fungous or proud flesh White. 
 
 ESCULENT, s. Something fit for food. 
 
 ESSENCE, s. In medicine, the chief properties or virtues of any simple, or 
 
 composition, collected into a narrow compass. Essence of mustard, 
 
 composed of camphor, oil of rosemary, and oil of turpentine, is a good 
 
 stimulating embrocation. 
 ESSENTIAL, a. Necessary ; important in the highest degree, principal ; 
 
 pure, highly rectified. Essential oils are obtained by distillation from 
 
 mint, pennyroyal, peppermint, lavender, caraway seeds, anise-seeds, 
 
 juniper berries, lemon-peel, sandal-wood, &c. 
 ESTRAPADE, s. obs. The defence of a horse that will not obey, but rises 
 
 before, and yerks furiously with his hind legs. 
 ESTUARY, s. An arm of the sea ; the mouth of a lake or river in which the 
 
 tide ebbs and flows.
 
 Exp] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 179 
 
 ETHER, s. An element more fine and sxibtile than air; a chemical prepa- 
 ration. Sulphuric ether is a powerful stimulant, and must be given 
 with caution. White mentions an instance of two ounces destroying a 
 horse. 
 
 ETHIOP'S MINERAL, s. A preparation made by rubbing equal parts of 
 quicksilver and flower of sulphur together, until the mixture becomes 
 black, and the quicksilver invisible. 
 
 Ethiop's mineral, though generally con- 
 sidered as an inert medicine, is possessed of 
 considerable virtue, and is probabiy the best 
 mercurial in cases where it is necessary to 
 introduce mercury into the circulation, as in 
 farcy, glanders, obstinate mange, &c. It should 
 be given in a dose of two or three drachms in 
 the horse's corn, once or twice a day, until an 
 
 offensive smell is perceived in the horse's 
 breath, or he is found to stale more than 
 usual ; these symptoms indicate that the mer- 
 cury has got into the circulation. The dis- 
 order for which it is given may, at this period, 
 be expected to yield to the mercurial influ- 
 ence, and may not require a further continu- 
 ance of the medicine White. 
 
 EUPHORBIUM, *. A plant ; a gum resin that exudes spontaneously from a 
 large oriental tree. 
 
 Euphorbium is brought to us in small 
 drops, of a pale yellow colour, which are 
 generally mixed with woody and other ex- 
 traneous matter. It is used as an external 
 application, and generally employed in the 
 form of tincture ; sometimes it is mixed into 
 an ointment with hog's-lard, mercurial oint- 
 ment, oil of origanum, oil of bay, &c., being 
 previously reduced to a fine powder. It is 
 also frequently an ingredient in strong blis- 
 
 In whatever form euphorbium is employed, 
 it proves extremely acrimonious and stimu- 
 lating, and is useful in reducing callous swell- 
 ings of the back sinews, curbs, windgalls, &c. 
 The tincture is made by steeping one 
 ounce of the powder in four or six ounces of 
 rectified or proof spirit, frequently shaking 
 the bottle which contains the mixture, and 
 keeping it in a warm place ; after eight or ten 
 days to be strained off, and kept well corked. 
 
 ters, to which it proves a powerful auxiliary, i White. 
 
 EWE, s. The she sheep. 
 
 EXFOLIATION, s. The process by which the corrupted part of the bone 
 
 separates from the sound. 
 EXPECTORATION, s. The act of discharging from the breast ; the discharge 
 
 which is made by coughing. 
 EXPECTORANTS, s. Medicines that increase the discharge of mucus, and 
 
 thus relieve coughs and impeded breathing. In costive cases they should 
 
 be assisted by clysters and bran mashes. 
 
 Castile soap, softened by 
 being beaten up with 
 a little syrup . 2 oz. 
 
 To be beaten into a mass fit for making balls. 
 The dose from one ounce to one ounce and a 
 half daily, or twice a day. 
 
 3. Barbadoes aloes . 1 dr. 
 
 Assafoetida . . 1 dr. 
 
 EXPECTORANT BALLS. 
 
 Gum ammoniacum . 2 to 4 dr. 
 Powdered squill . 1 to 2 dr. 
 
 Castile soap . . 3 dr. 
 
 Oil of aniseed . . 30 drops. 
 
 Ginger . . 1 dr. 
 
 Syrup enough to form a ball. 
 
 Gum ammoniacum 
 Powdered squills 
 Powdered ipecacuana 
 Powdered opium 
 Powdered ginger 
 Powdered allspice 
 Oil of aniseed 
 Balsam of sulphur 
 
 2 oz. 
 
 1 oz. 
 
 ^ oz. 
 
 I oz. 
 
 1 oz. 
 
 1 oz. 
 
 4 oz. 
 
 4 oz. 
 
 Liquorice powder and syrup enough to'form 
 the ball. One to be given daily until the 
 bowels are a little opened, or the cough is 
 cured. 
 
 4. Gum ammopiacum . 2 dr. 
 
 Powdered squills . 1 dr. 
 
 Ipecacuana . . dr. 
 
 Castile soap . . 2 dr. 
 
 N2
 
 180 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Exp 
 
 Syrup and liquorice powdei enough to form 
 the ball. One to be given daily, or twice a 
 day,. 
 
 Dr. Paris, in his Pharmacologia, remarks, 
 that more is to he gained by the combination 
 of these remedies, than can be obtained by 
 any of them separately. 
 
 DRENCH. 
 
 Garlic bruised . . 4 oz. 
 
 Boiling vinegar . . 12 oz. 
 
 EXPLODE, v. To drive out with noise and violence. 
 
 EXPLOSION, s. The act of driving out anything with noise and violence. 
 
 Macerate near the fire three or four hours, 
 then press out the fluid part, and mix with it 
 six ounces of honey. This is sufficient for 
 two doses, and may he given morning and 
 evening. It cannot, perhaps, be too often 
 repeated, that, unless the horse's diet is care- 
 fully attended to, medicine will avail but 
 little, either in chronic cough or imperfect 
 wind White. 
 
 atoms. Mr. Savers luckily escaped with no 
 injury, except a slight scratch on his fingers. 
 Accidents similar to the above may be effec- 
 tually prevented by using pieces of pasteboard, 
 felt, or leather, to charge, with instead of soft 
 paper Daniel. 
 
 In January, 1809, Mr. Sayers, of Cuck- 
 field, was reloading his fowling-piece; the pow- 
 der ignited (supposed from a latent spark left 
 by the paper wadding in the barrel), and drove 
 the powder flask, which was copper, to a con- 
 siderable height in the air, and shattered it to 
 
 EXTENSOR, s. The muscle by which any limb is extended. 
 
 EXTIRPATION, s. The act of rooting out, excision. 
 
 EXTRACT, v. To draw out of something ; to draw by chemical operation. 
 
 EXUVIAE, s. Cast skin, cast shells; whatever is shed or cast off by animals. 
 
 EYAS, s. A young hawk just taken from the nest. Vide HAWK. 
 
 EYASMUSKET, s. obs. A young unfledged male musket hawk. 
 
 EYE, s. The organ of vision ; any thing formed like an eye ; any small 
 
 perforation ; a small catch into which a hook goes ; bud of a plant. 
 EYE, v. To watch, to keep in view. 
 EYEBALL, s. The apple of the eye. 
 EYESORE, s. Something offensive to the sight. 
 EYESPOTTED, a. Marked with spots like eyes. 
 EYETOOTH, s. The tooth on the upper jaw next on each side to the 
 
 grinders, the fang. 
 EYEWATER, s. 
 
 No. 1. Super-acetate of lead (sugar 
 
 of lead) . . . 2 dr. 
 Vinegar . . . 2 to 4 oz. 
 
 Soft water . . . 14 oz. 
 
 Mix. 
 
 No. 2. Sulphate of zinc . . 1 dr. 
 Diluted sulphuric acid . ^ dr. 
 Water . ... l^pint. 
 3. Super-acetate of lead . 2 dr. 
 Sulphate of zinc . . 5 scrup. 
 Water . . .1 pint. 
 
 Mix and strain through blotting paper. 
 In severe attacks of inflammation of the 
 eye, it is often in so irritable a state as to ad- 
 mit only of the application of warm water, 
 
 above eye waters with an equal quantity of 
 warm water ; but when the inflammation has 
 abated, they may be made stronger, and ap- 
 plied cold. Should the above formulae be 
 found ineffectual, let one, two, or three ounces 
 of tincture of opium be added, or a larger 
 proportion of vinegar to No. 1 than is directed. 
 The vinous tincture of opium (vinum opii), 
 undiluted, has often done good, applied by 
 means of a small camel hair pencil brush, or 
 squeezed into the inner corner of the eye, by 
 means of a small bit of clean sponge. A 
 solution of the extract of belladonna, in white 
 wine, or diluted spirit, may also be tried. 
 Vide BLAINE, PERCIVALL, and WHITE. 
 
 or milk and water ; then dilute either of the 
 
 EYRE, s. obs. In Forestry, the court of justice itinerant. 
 EYRY, s. The place where birds of prey build their nests and hatch. Vide 
 AERIE.
 
 THE FALCON. 
 
 JL ALCO, (LiNN.), s. A genus thus characterised : 
 
 Head covered with feathers, bill strong, 
 short, generally bending from its base, which 
 is covered with a naked and coloured cere. 
 Nostrils round or oval, lateral, and placed in 
 the cere. Tongue in most species fleshy and 
 divided by a slit. Upper orbit of the eye pro- 
 
 FALCON, s. A hawk trained for sport ; 
 
 It is recorded, that a falcon belonging to a 
 Duke of Cleves, flew out of Westphalia into 
 Prussia in one day; and in the county of 
 Norfolk, a hawk has made a flight at a wood- 
 cock near thirty miles in an hour. 
 
 But what are these compared to the actual 
 velocity and continuance of the flight of a 
 falcon, that is recorded to have belonged to 
 Henry IV., King of France, which escaped 
 from Fontainbleau, and in twenty-four hours 
 after was found in Malta, a space computed 
 to be not less than 1350 miles? a velocity 
 
 jecting. Legs feathered to the toes, or naked. 
 Toes three forwards and one behind, the mid- 
 dle toe connected with the outer one, as far as 
 the first joint. Claws short and very hooked, 
 strong and retractile. Female superior in size 
 to the male. Montagu. 
 
 a bird of immense flight. Vide HAWK. 
 
 equal to fifty-seven miles an hour, supposing 
 the hawk to have been on wing the whole 
 time. But as such birds rfever fly by night, 
 and allowing the day to be at the longest, or 
 to be eighteen hours light, this would make 
 seventy-five miles an hour. It is probable, 
 however, that he neither had so many hours 
 of light in the twenty-four to perform the 
 journey j nor that he was retaken the moment 
 of his arrival, so that we may fairly conclude 
 much less time was occupied in performing 
 that distant flight Vide FLIGHT OF BIRDS. 
 
 FALCONER, s. One who breeds and trains hawks. 
 
 The village of Falconswaerd, near Bois le native of Falconswaerd. 
 Due, in Holland, has for many years furnished 
 
 falconers to the rest of Europe. I have known 
 many falconers in England, and in the ser- 
 vice of different princes on the Continent, but 
 1 never met with one of them who was not a 
 
 It has been the practice of these sober and 
 industrious men to stay with their employers 
 during the season for hawking, and to pass 
 the remainder of the year with their families 
 at home. * * *
 
 182 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 F,L] 
 
 A falconer, whose province it was to tame, 
 manage, and look after falcons and other 
 hawks, was formerly as great and conspicu- 
 ous a character as the most celebrated hunts- 
 man of the present day. The influence of 
 fashion and the changes wrought by time have, 
 
 however, so obscured both sport and sports- 
 men in this way, that neither hawk, falcon, or 
 falconer, are to he seen or heard of, unless in 
 the northern parts of the kingdom, where it 
 is also nearly buried in oblivion Sebright 
 Daniel. 
 
 FALCONRY,*. Vide HAWKING. 
 
 FALLOW, a. Pale red, or pale yellow ; unsowed, left to rest after the years 
 
 of tillage ; ploughed, but not sowed ; unploughed, uncultivated. 
 FALLOW DEER, s. The domestic or park deer. 
 
 No two animals can make a more near 
 approach to each other than the stag and the 
 fallow deer, and yet no two animals keep 
 more distinct, or avoid each other with more 
 fixed animosity ; they never herd or inter- 
 mix together, and consequently never give 
 rise to an intermediate race. It is even rare, 
 unless they have been transported thither, to 
 find fallow-deer in a country where stags are 
 numerous. 
 
 The fallow-deer is easily tamed, and feeds 
 upon many things which the stag refuses ; he 
 also preserves his venison better : nor does it 
 appear that the rutting, followed by a long and 
 severe winter, exhausts him, but he continues 
 nearly in the same state throughout the year. 
 He browses closer than the stag, for which 
 reason he is more prejudicial to young trees, 
 and often strips them too close for recovery. 
 The young deer eat faster and with more 
 avidity than the old. At the second year 
 they seek the female, and, like the stag, are 
 fond of variety. The doe goes with young 
 eight months and some days ; she commonly 
 
 produces one fawn, sometimes two, hut very 
 rarely three. They are capable of engender- 
 ing, from the age of two years to that of 
 fifteen or sixteen; and in short they resemble 
 the stag in all his natural habits, and the 
 greatest difference between them is the dura- 
 tion of their lives. From the testimony of 
 hunters it has been remarked, that stags live 
 to the age of thirty-five or forty years, and 
 from the same authority we understand that 
 the fallow-deer does not live more than 
 twenty. As they are smaller than the stag, 
 it is probable that their growth is sooner 
 completed. 
 
 * * 
 
 If some curious gentleman would procure 
 the head of a fallow-deer, and have it dis- 
 sected, he would find it furnished with two 
 spiracula, or breathing places, besides the nos- 
 trils ; probably analogous to the puncta la- 
 chrymalia in the human head. 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
 
 FAR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 183 
 
 situation for a considerable time ; but, to ob- 
 viate any inconveniency, they can open two 
 vents, one at the inner corner of each eye, 
 having a communication with the nose. Here 
 seems to be an extraordinary provision of na- 
 ture worthy our attention; and which has not, 
 that I know of, been noticed by any naturalist. 
 For it looks as if these creatures would not 
 
 FALSE QUARTER, s. 
 
 False Quarter is a defect in the hoof of a 
 horse, originally occasioned by some injury 
 producing a destruction of parts, as quitter, 
 canker, wounds, treads, bruises, or such for- 
 mation of matter by which a part of the hoof 
 has been unavoidably destroyed, or necessarily 
 taken away. In the regeneration of parts, i 
 the incarnation (from the rigid and horny 
 nature of the hoof) is irregular and imperfect, | 
 forming a sort of cleft (or artificial union) 
 with the sound part upon the surface, pro- 
 ductive of a sensible weakness underneath. 
 This imperfect and defective junction renders 
 such quarter, as it is called, inadequate to the 
 
 FARCY, s. The leprosy of horses. 
 
 Farcy is intimately connected with glan- 
 ders ; they will run into each other, or their 
 symptoms will mingle together, and before 
 either arrives at its fatal termination its asso- 
 ciate will almost invariably appear. An ani- 
 mal inoculated with the matter of farcy will 
 often be afflicted with glanders, while the 
 matter of glanders will frequently produce 
 farcy. They are different types or stages of 
 the same disease. There is, however, a very 
 material difference in their symptoms and pro- 
 gress, and this most important of all, that 
 while glanders are generally incurable, farcy, 
 in its early stage and mild form, may be suc- 
 cessfully treated. 
 
 Veterinary writers tell us that it is a disease 
 of the absorbents in the skin, and therefore 
 the first indication of this disease, even before 
 any drooping, or loss of condition, or of appe- 
 tite, is generally the appearance of little tu- 
 mours farcy buds close to some of the 
 veins, following the course of the veins, and 
 connected together by a kind of cord, which 
 farriers call corded veins. When they are 
 few and small they may possibly exist for 
 several weeks without being observed ; but at 
 length they increase in number and in size, 
 and become painful and hot, and some of 
 them begin to ulcerate. They appear usually 
 about the face or neck, or inside of the thigh, 
 and in the latter case there is some general 
 enlargement of the limb, and lameness. 
 
 In some cases, however, the horse will 
 droop for many a day before the appearance 
 of the buttons or farcy buds ; his appetite 
 will be impaired ; his coat will stare ; he 
 
 be suffocated, though both their mouths and 
 nostrils were stopped. This curious formation 
 of the head may be of singular service to 
 beasts of chase, by affording them free respir- 
 ation : and no doubt these additional nostrils 
 are thrown open when they are hard run.. 
 Buffon White's Selborne. 
 
 weight it is destined to bear ; in which case 
 much judgment is required, and may be ex- 
 erted, in the palliation, as perfect qure is not 
 to be expected. Care must be taken in 
 forming the shoe to relieve the tender part 
 from the pressure, by hollowing it at that 
 particular spot, and letting the bearing be 
 fixed entirely upon the sound parts. By con- 
 stant attention in reducing the prominent 
 edges of the irregular projection with the fine 
 side of the rasp, and a few occasional impreg- 
 nations with fine spermaceti oil, the hoof may 
 be sometimes restored to its original forma- 
 tion Taplin. 
 
 will lose flesh. The poison is evidently at 
 work, but has not gained sufficient power to 
 cause the absorbents to swell. In a few in- 
 stances these buds do not ulcerate, but become 
 hard and difficult to disperse. The progress 
 of the disease is then suspended, and possibly 
 for many months the horse will appear to be 
 restored to health ; but he bears the seeds of 
 the malady about him, and, all at once, the 
 farcy assumes a virulent form, and hurries him 
 off. These buds have sometimes been con- 
 founded with the little tumours, or lumps of 
 surfeit. They are generally higher than these 
 tumours ; not so broad ; have a more knotty 
 feel, and are principally found on the inside 
 of the limbs, instead of the outside. 
 
 Few things are more unlike, or more per- 
 plexing, than the different forms which farcy 
 assumes at different times. One of the legs, 
 and particularly one of the hinder legs, will 
 suddenly swell to an enormous size. At 
 night the horse will appear to be perfectly 
 well, and, in the morning, one leg will be 
 three times the size of the other, with con- 
 siderable fever, and scarcely the power of 
 moving the limb. 
 
 At other times the head will be subject to 
 this enlargement the muzzle will particu- 
 larly swell, and a stinking discharge will issue 
 from the nose. Sometimes the horse will 
 gradually lose flesh and strength ; he will be 
 hide-bound mangy eruptions will appear in 
 different parts ; the legs will swell ; cracks 
 will appear at the heels, and the inexperienced 
 person may conceive it to be a mere want of 
 condition combined with grease.
 
 184 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [FAU 
 
 Farcy, like glanders, springs from infection, 
 or from bad stable management. It is pro- 
 duced by all the causes which give rise to 
 glanders ; but with this difference, that it is 
 more frequently generated, and is sometimes 
 strangely prevalent in particular districts. 
 
 The treatment of farcy varies with the form 
 it assumes. In the button or bud farcy, a 
 mild dose of physic should be first adminis- 
 tered. The buds should be then carefully 
 examined, and if any of them have broken, 
 the budding iron, of a dull red heat, should 
 be applied to them ; or if matter should be 
 felt in them, showing that they are disposed 
 to break, they should be penetrated with the 
 iron. These wounds should be daily inspected, 
 and if, when the slough of the cautery comes 
 off, they look pale, and foul, and spongy, and 
 discharge a thin matter, they should be fre- 
 quently washed with a lotion, composed of a 
 drachm of corrosive sublimate dissolved in an 
 ounce of rectified spirit ; the other buds should 
 likewise be examined, and opened with the 
 iron as soon as they evidently contain matter. 
 When the wounds begin to look red, and the 
 bottom of them is even and firm, and they 
 discharge a thick white or yellow matter, the 
 friar's balsam will speedily heal them. As, 
 however, the constitution is now tainted, local 
 applications will not be sufficient, and the dis- 
 
 ease must be attacked by internal medicines, 
 as soon as the physic has ceased to operate. 
 The corrosive sublimate will be the best alter- 
 ative, and may be given in doses of ten grains, 
 gradually increased to a scruple, with two 
 drachms of gentian and one of ginger, and 
 repeated morning and night until the ulcers 
 disappear, unless the horse is violently purged, 
 or the mouth becomes sore, when a drachm 
 of blue vitriol may be substituted for the cor- 
 rosive sublimate. During this, the animal 
 should be placed in a large box, with a free 
 circulation of air ; and green meat, or carrots, 
 the latter more particularly, should be given 
 him, with a fair allowance of corn. If he 
 could be turned out during the day, it would 
 be advantageous ; but at all events he should 
 be daily exercised. It is related by Mr. Blaine, 
 that a horse so reduced as not to be able to 
 stand, was drawn into a field of tares, and 
 suffered to take his chance : the consequence 
 was, that when he had eaten all within his 
 reach, he was able to rise and search for more, 
 and eventually recovered. In an early stage 
 of the disease, and if glanders have not ap- 
 peared, this treatment will frequently succeed. 
 If, after the wounds have healed, the absor- 
 bents should continue to be corded, a blister, 
 or light 'firing, will probably be serviceable 
 The Horse. 
 
 FAULT, s. Offence ; defect ; puzzle, difficulty ; a term in hunting. 
 FAVOURITE, s. A person or thing beloved. In racing, the term is used 
 
 to express supposed superiority, as " first favourite for the Leger." 
 FAWN, s. A young deer. 
 FAWN, v. To bring forth a young deer ; to court by frisking before one as 
 
 a dog. 
 FEATHER, s. The plume of birds ; upon a horse, a sort of natural frizzling 
 
 hair. 
 
 At the root of the first quill in each wing 
 of the woodcock, is a small pointed narrow 
 feather, very elastic, and much sought after 
 by painters, by whom it is used as a pencil. 
 
 FEATHER, v- To dress in feathers ; to fit with feathers ; to tread as a cock ; 
 
 to strike feathers from a bird fired at. 
 
 FEBRIFUGE, s. Any medicine serviceable in fever. Vide FEVER. 
 FEED, v. To supply with food ; to graze ; to consume by cattle ; to take 
 
 food ; to prey. 
 
 FEED,*. Food, that which is eaten ; a certain portion of corn given to a horse. 
 FEEDER, *. One that gives food ; one that eats ; a kennel servant. 
 FEELER, s. One that feels ; the horns or antennae of insects. 
 FEET, s. The plural of foot. 
 
 A feather of a similar kind is found in the 
 whole of this tribe, and also in every one of 
 the tringas and plovers which the author has 
 examined Bewick. 
 
 Feet of Birds Technical terms : 
 
 Pinnatus. Finfooted or scalloped, a term 
 
 applied to the feet of coots. 
 
 PCS lobatus Applied when the toes are
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 185 
 
 furnished with broad plain membranes, as in 
 the foot of the red-necked grebe. 
 
 Semi-palmatus Semi-palmated : when 
 the middle of the webs reach only about 
 half the length of the toes. 
 
 When the middle toe claw is notched like 
 a saw, it is called serrated ; and pectinated 
 
 when toothed like a comb. 
 
 * 
 
 The large crooked talons of birds of prey, 
 and their hooked beaks, are well formed 
 for securing and tearing their victims. The 
 formation of the feet of the woodpeckers, 
 the toes being placed two forward and two 
 backward, is well calculated for climbing, 
 and the cuneiform shape of the extremity 
 of their bills is suited to the purpose of cut- 
 ting holes in decayed trees ; their tongue is 
 also wonderfully contrived to search out 
 insects beyond the reach of their bill, by its 
 great length, which is double that of the 
 tongue at least. The wryneck has this sin- 
 gularity, as well as the like formation of toes ; 
 which last is also found in the cuckoo : but 
 neither of these birds is seen to climb up the 
 bodies of trees, nor have either the stiff sharp- 
 pointed feathers in the tail, as in the wood- 
 pecker, so admirably adapted to support them 
 when in the act of hewing. This agrees with 
 the observations of an ingenious living natur- 
 alist, the Rev. Revett Shepherd. " The 
 cuckoo," says he, " is furnished with two toes 
 before and two behind, and yet is never 
 known actually to climb, a convincing proof 
 that such conformation does not necessarily 
 bring with it the power of climbing, more es- 
 pecially when we consider that the nuthatch 
 (Sitta Europeea), and the creeper (Certhia 
 familiaris), have their toes placed in the 
 usual manner, and yet run up and down trees 
 with as much facility as the woodpeckers. 
 The use of the pedes scansorii, as they evi- 
 dently in this case conduce not to climbing, 
 I judge to be this ; it is well known that this 
 bird will oftentimes sit by the half-hour to- 
 gether on the bough of a tree, vociferating its 
 loud and pleasing note ; in doing this, it sits 
 remarkably forward, and appears in constant 
 agitation, continually moving its body up and 
 down with great elegance ; now, as it sits so 
 forward, while using this exertion, it would 
 be liable to lose its balance and quit its hold, 
 had it only one toe behind ; whereas, by the 
 contrivance of two, it is enabled strongly to 
 adhere to the branch. 
 
 The legs and feet of aquatic birds are won- 
 derfully formed for accelerating their motion 
 in that element, which is their greatest secu- 
 rity. The bone of the leg is sharp, and vastly 
 compressed sideways : the toes, when the foot 
 is brought forward, close in behind each other 
 in such a manner as to expose a very small 
 surface in front, so that, in the action of swim, 
 
 ming, very little velocity is lost in bringing 
 the legs forward ; this is very conspicuous in 
 the diver. Some aquatic birds are web-footed 
 before the whole length of the toes, as in the 
 ducks ; others only half the length of the toes, 
 like the avoset. Some again have all four 
 toes webbed, as in the cormorant ; others 
 whose feet are furnished with a fin-like mem- 
 brane OP each side of the toes ; these are 
 either plain, as in the grebe, or lobed, as 
 in the coot and phalai-ope. There are 
 also some who swim and dive well, whose 
 toes are long and slender, and not furnished 
 with webs or fins, such as the water-hen and 
 rail ; but these live as much on land as in 
 water. The gulls and terns, although web- 
 footed, seem incapable of diving ; the latter, 
 indeed, we never observed to settle on the 
 water ; the former is so buoyant that it floats 
 elegantly on the surface. The avoset, whose 
 feet bespeak it an inhabitant of the water, 
 does not seem to have the power of swim- 
 ming ; the water-ouzel, on the other hand, 
 has not the least appearance of an aquatic, 
 nor can it swim ; but it will dive, and remain 
 a long time under water. The serrated claw 
 in the heron and nightjar is a singular struc- 
 ture, which we have not discovered the use 
 of. The bill as well as the feet of birds, 
 makes one of the strong natural divisions ; 
 but these are described under the head of 
 each genus. 
 
 * * 
 
 Of Horses Contraction is the most general 
 evil among the feet of our horses, and some 
 breeds appear more liable to it than others : it is 
 peculiarly the case with blood-horses. Colour 
 also seems to have some influence in contracting 
 the feet ; hence I have observed dark chest- 
 nuts particularly prone to it. A good foot 
 should exhibit a proper line of obliquity : 
 when the horn is very upright, however wide 
 and open the heels, such feet soon become 
 defective. This is but seldom attended to, 
 even among those who esteem themselves 
 judges ; but no rule admits of fewer excep- 
 tions, than that such a foot soon becomes 
 faulty. There should also be a proper height 
 of horn : when there is too much, it disposes 
 I to contraction : when too little, the heels, 
 quarters, and soles must, of necessity, be 
 weak, and tenderness in going must be the 
 consequence. 
 
 The heels should be particularly attended 
 to; they must be wide, and the frog healthy, 
 firm, yet pliable and elastic. Contraction of 
 their cleft is their most common defect, and is 
 frequently accompanied with a general lessen- 
 ing of the circumference of the foot. Such 
 a foot will probably feel hotter than natural ; 
 the frog also will be compressed and small, 
 and very likely thrushy. 
 
 When a horse's foot is held up, the sole
 
 186 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Fas 
 
 should present a concave surface : if it be less 
 concave than natural, that sole is weak, and 
 will not bear much pressure ; and it is more 
 than probable it will continue lessening in con- 
 cavity until it becofiies a plane, when every 
 subsequent shoeing will endanger the laming 
 of the animal. White feet are very objec- 
 tionable on this account, for they are particu- 
 larly liable to become flat in the sole : their 
 quarters, also, are commonly weak, and fall 
 in ; and when neither of these evils take place, 
 they yet have seldom strength enough to re- 
 sist contraction : and it may be determined 
 on, that, when there are three dark and one 
 white foot, in nineteen instances out of twenty, 
 the white foot becomes defective sooner than 
 the dark ones. 
 
 Another very serious complaint is a brittle- 
 ness of hoof, which may be generally be de- 
 tected by the marks of the fragile parts de- 
 taching themselves from every old nail-hole. 
 This kind of foot, particularly in hot weather, 
 breaks away, till there is no room for the nails 
 to hold, when the horse, of course, becomes 
 useless. In an examination of the foot, the 
 eye should also be directed to the wearing of 
 the shoe : if it be unequally worn, particularly 
 if the toe be worn down, such a horse is pro- 
 bably a stumbler, and does not set his foot 
 evenly on the ground, either from defective 
 feet or natural gait. 
 
 * * 
 
 The feet of horses being the very basis 
 of support, upon which the safety and expe- 
 dition of the frame entirely depends, they 
 are entitled to every possible degree of care 
 and attention ; more particularly in the win- 
 ter season, when, from neglect, so many ills 
 and inconveniences are known to arise. The 
 injuries, accidents, and diseases, to which the 
 feet are constantly liable, consist of cracks in 
 the heels, scratches or lacerations, stubs and 
 bruises of the outer sole, or upon the verge 
 of the coronet between hair and hoof, corns, 
 sandcracks, thrushes, canker, quitter, ring- 
 bone, and footfounder ; exclusive of the fre- 
 quent injuries sustained in shoeing, by the 
 ignorance, indolence, or obstinacy of those 
 smiths who, having no professional reputation 
 to support, are too innately confident in their 
 own ability to bear instruction. 
 
 As the defects thus enumerate!! will be 
 found individually enlarged upon under dis- 
 tinct and separate heads, it becomes only ne- 
 cessary here to lay down such general rules 
 for the regular management of the feet, as 
 may (properly attended to) prove the means 
 of prudent prevention ; not more in respect to 
 the trouble and expense of disease, than of 
 the most mortifying and repentant anxiety. 
 These defects and disquietudes are seldom 
 found but in the stables where the master 
 rarely or ever condescends to obtrude his per- 
 
 son and commands upon the tenacious dignity 
 of a self-important groom ; the preserving in- 
 dustry of whose careful endeavours, and the 
 pliability and elasticity of whose joints, if 
 properly exerted, would prove the truest and 
 most infallible preventive of swelled legs and 
 cracked heels, in preference to all the nos- 
 trums ever yet brought into private practice 
 or public use. And those who unfortunately 
 encounter these ills, may generally, and with 
 justice, attribute them much more to the 
 constitutional tardiness of the professed groom 
 (or occasional strapper) than any defect in 
 the constitution of the horse. 
 
 The feet of different horses vary exceed- 
 ingly in what may be termed the texture or 
 property of the hoof, and this is in general 
 regulated by the colour of the legs and feet. 
 There are few horses with white heels but 
 what have white hoofs also; and these are 
 always more liable to, and susceptible of, 
 defects and weakness, than those of an oppo- 
 site description. The sound, firm, dark- 
 coloured hoof of the bay, brown, or black 
 horse, is seldom found defective ; but those of 
 other coloured horses are most subject to 
 weak, thin soles, displaying a prominence on 
 each side the frog occasioned by a too feeble 
 and inadequate resistance to the force of the 
 membranous mass within ; feet of which de- 
 scription are also frequently found to have the 
 corresponding concomitant of a brittle hoof, 
 the edges of which are incessantly splitting, 
 and throwing out a constant threatening of 
 sandcracks, with the additional mortification 
 of being subject to inveterate thrushes, or an 
 almost constantly diseased or putrefied state 
 of the frog. 
 
 Feet so exceedingly different in the nature 
 of their construction, must certainly require 
 as different a mode of treatment, according to 
 such circumstances as happen to exist. To 
 preserve feet perfectly sound, and free from 
 the ills to which they are subject, cleanliness 
 is the leading step. After exercise or use, 
 so soon as the body is drest, the dirt or 
 gravel should be carefully taken from under 
 the shoes with a picker, the feet well washed, 
 the legs and heels rubbed dry, the bottom 
 stopped with cow-dung, and the hoofs oiled 
 with a brush impregnated with spermaceti 
 oil. Horses left with wet legs and heels after 
 a severe chase, or long journey, particularly 
 in sharp easterly winds, or during frost and 
 snow, constitute cracks or scratches to a cer- 
 tainty. So severe a regidity is occasioned in 
 the very texture of the integument, and it 
 becomes partially ruptured or broken in vari- 
 ous places, upon being brought into expe- 
 ditious action ; which, with the friction and 
 irritation then occasioned by the sharp par- 
 ticles of gravel in dirty roads, soon produce 
 lacerations of the most painful description.
 
 F E v] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 187 
 
 The state of the shoes should be constantly 
 attended to. Permitted to remain too long 
 upon the feet, the growth of the hoof brings 
 the shoe forward, rendering it too short at the 
 heel, when it begins to indent, and sinking 
 upon the foot, soon presses npon the outer 
 sole, constituting pain or disquietude in some 
 horses, laying the foundation of corns in 
 others. Horses in moderate work require 
 new shoes once a month upon an average, 
 never varying more than two or three days 
 from that time: indeed, it is not right that 
 they should go longer. The penurious plan 
 of removing shoes half worn, is truly ridicu- 
 lous ; they never render service adequate to 
 the expense, and the practice only tends 
 to a more frequent destruction of the hoof. 
 
 Thrushes should be counteracted upon their 
 first appearance, without being permitted to 
 acquire a corroding virulence. Swelled legs 
 are hardly ever seen in stables where a proper 
 course of discipline and regular routine of 
 business is observed; they proceed from a 
 viscid, sizy state of the blood, a languor in 
 the circulation, a want of exercise out of the 
 stable, or a sufficiency of friction, leg-rubbing, 
 care, and attention within. 
 
 * * 
 
 Pointers' and setters' feet, particularly the 
 former, are frequently chafed ; their feet should 
 always, after being hunted, be thoroughly 
 washed with salt and water, and, half an hour 
 afterwards, be well rubbed with hog's-lard 
 Montagu Elaine Taplin Thornhill. 
 
 FELINE, a. Like a cat, pertaining- to a cat. 
 
 FELL, *. The skin, the hide. 
 
 FELLOE, s. The circumference of a wheel. 
 
 FELLOW, s. An associate, one united in the same affair; one of the same 
 
 kind or litter. 
 
 FELT, s- Cloth made of wool united without weaving- ; a hide or skin. 
 FEMALE, *. A she, one of the sex which brings young. 
 FEMORAL, a. Belonging- to the thigh. 
 FEN, s. A marsh, flat and moist ground, a moor, a bog. 
 FENBERRY, s. A kind of blackberry. 
 FENCE, s. Guard, security ; enclosure, mound, hedge. 
 FENCER,*. One who teaches or practises the use of weapons ; a horse that 
 
 leaps. 
 
 FERINE, a. Wild, savage. 
 FERMENTATION, *. A slow motion of the intestine particles of a mixed 
 
 body, arising usually from the operation of some active acid matter. 
 FERN, s. A plant. 
 FERNY, a. Overgrown with fern. 
 
 FERRET, s. A quadruped of the weasel kind, used to catch rabbits. 
 FERRET, v. To drive out of lurking places; to hunt rabbits with a ferret. 
 FETLOCK, s. A tuft of hair that grows behind the pastern joint. 
 FETTER, s. Chains for the feet. 
 FEVER, s. A disease in which the body is violently heated, and the pulse 
 
 quickened, or in which heat and cold prevail by turns. It is sometimes 
 
 continual, sometimes intermittent. 
 
 In horses fever begins frequently with a cold 
 or shivering fit, although this is not essential to 
 fever. The horse is dull, unwilling to move, 
 with a staring coat, and cold legs and feet. 
 This is succeeded by warmth of the body : 
 unequal distribution of warmth to the legs ; 
 one hot, and the other three cold, or some 
 
 unnaturally warm, and others unusually cold, 
 although not the deathy coldness of inflam- 
 mation of the lungs ; the pulse quick, soft, 
 and often indistinct ; breathing somewhat la- 
 borious ; but no cough, or pawing, or looking 
 at the flanks. The animal will scarcely eat, 
 and is very costive. While the state of pure
 
 188 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [FlB 
 
 fever lasts, the shivering fit returns at nearly 
 the same hour every day, and is succeeded by 
 the warm one, and that often by a very slight 
 sweating one ; and this goes on for several 
 days until local inflammation appears, or the 
 fever gradually subsides. No horse ever died 
 of pure fever ; if he is not destroyed by in- 
 flammation of the lungs, or feet, or bowels 
 succeeding to the fever, he gradually recovers. 
 What we have said of the treatment of 
 local inflammation will sufficiently indicate 
 that which we should recommend in fever. 
 Fever is general increased action of the heart 
 and arteries, and therefore evidently appears 
 the necessity for bleeding, regulating the 
 quantity of blood taken by the degree of 
 fever, and usually continuing to take it (the 
 finger being kept on the artery) until some 
 impression is made upon the system. The 
 bowels should he gently opened ; but the dan- 
 ger of inflammation of the lungs, and the 
 uniformly injurious consequence of purgation 
 in that disease, will prevent the administra- 
 tion of an active purgative. One drachm and 
 a half of aloes may he given morning and 
 night with the proper fever medicine, until 
 the bowels are slightly relaxed, after which 
 
 nothing more of an aperient quality should 
 be administered. Digitalis, emetic tartar, and 
 nitre, should be given morning and night, in 
 proportions regulated by the circumstances of 
 the case, and these should give way to white 
 hellebore in doses of half a drachm twice in 
 the day, if symptoms of inflammation of the 
 lungs should appear. The horse should be 
 warmly clothed, hut be placed in a cool and 
 well- ventilated stable. 
 
 Symptomatic fever is generally increased 
 arterial action, proceeding from some local 
 cause. No organ of consequence can be long 
 disordered or inflamed without the neighbour- 
 ing parts being disturbed, and the whole sys- 
 tem gradually participating in the disturbance. 
 Inflammation of the feet or of the lungs 
 never existed long to any material extent, 
 without being accompanied by some degree of 
 fever. 
 
 The treatment of symptomatic fever should 
 resemble that of simple fever, except that 
 particular attention should be paid to the state 
 of the part originally diseased. If the inflam- 
 mation which existed there can be subdued, 
 the general disturbance will usually cease 
 Elaine. 
 
 FIBULA, s. The outer and lesser bone of the leg, smaller than the tibia. 
 FIELD, s. Ground not inhabited, not built on ; cultivated tract of ground ; 
 
 the open country ; horsemen collected at a hunt ; horses collectively. 
 FIELDFARE, (Turdus Pilarus, LINN. ; La Litorne, ou Tourdelle, BUFF.) 
 
 *. A bird. 
 
 This is somewhat less than the missel-thrush ; 
 its length is ten inches. The bill is yellow ; 
 each corner of the mouth is furnished with a 
 few black bristly hairs ; the eye is light brown ; 
 the top of the head and back part of the neck 
 are of a light ash-colour ; the former spotted 
 with black ; the back and coverts of the wings 
 are of a deep hoary brown ; the rump ash-co- 
 loured ; the throat and breast are yellow, re- 
 gularly spotted with black ; the belly -and 
 thighs of a yellowish white ; the tail brown, in- 
 clining to black; the legs dusky yellowish 
 brown ; in young birds yellow. 
 
 We have seen a variety of this bird, of which 
 the head and neck were of a yellowish white ; 
 the rest of the body was nearly of the same 
 colour, mixed with a few brown feathers ; the 
 spots on the breast were faint and indistinct : 
 the quill feathers were perfectly white, except 
 one or two on each side, which were brown ; 
 the tail was marked in a similar manner. 
 
 The field-fare is only a visitant in this island, 
 making its appearance about the beginning of 
 
 October, in order to avoid the rigorous winters 
 of the north, whence it sometimes comes in 
 great flocks, according to the severity of the 
 season, and leaves us about the latter end of 
 February or the beginning of March, and re- 
 tires to Russia, Sweden, Norway, and as far as 
 Siberia and Kamtschatka. Buffon observes 
 that they do not arrive in France till the be- 
 ginning of December, that they assemble in 
 flocks of two or three thousand, and feed on 
 ripe crevises, of which they are extremely fond ; 
 during the winter they feed on haws and other 
 berries ; they likewise eat worms, snails, and 
 
 Field-fares seem of a more sociable dispo- 
 sition than the throstles or the missels : they 
 are sometimes seen singly, but in general form 
 very numerous flocks, and fly in a body ; and 
 though they often spread themselves through 
 the fields in search of food, they seldom lose 
 sight of each other, but, when alarmed, fly off, 
 
 and collect together upon the same tree 
 
 Bewick. 
 
 FIELDMOUSE, s. A mouse that burrows in banks. 
 
 An extraordinary instance of the rapid in- 
 crease of mice, and of the injury they some- 
 
 times do, occurred a few years ago in the new 
 plantations made by order of the crown in
 
 FIR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 189 
 
 Dean Forest, Gloucestershire, and in the New 
 Forest, Hampshire. Soon after the formation 
 of these plantations, a sudden and rapid in- 
 crease of mice took place in them, which threat- 
 ened destruction to the whole of the young 
 plants. Vast numbers of these were killed, 
 the mice having eaten through the roots of 
 five-year-old oaks and chestnuts, generally just 
 below the surface of the ground. Hollies also, 
 which were five and six feet high, were barked 
 round the bottom ; and in some instances the 
 mice had crawled up the tree, and were seen 
 feeding on the bark of the upper branches. 
 
 
 The following account will show the num- 
 bers of mice caught in the different inclosures 
 in Dean Forest in three months, from Septem- 
 ber to January, with the number of acres, and 
 
 the proportion between the long and the short- 
 tailed mice. Short- Long- 
 tailed tailed 
 
 Acres. Mice. Mice. Total. 
 Hay wood Inclosure. 418 12,850 8 12,858 
 Oiley Hill ditto . . 41 1,161 11 
 Crabtree Hill do. . 372 
 Park Hill ditto . . 113 
 Shutcastle ditto . . 163 
 Sallow Vallets do. 386 
 Barnhill ditto . . SO 
 Birchwood ditto . 50 
 
 WhitemeadParkdo. 100 
 
 7,851 
 2,665 
 
 484 33 
 1,361 
 70 
 3 
 1,559 15 
 
 1,172 
 7,851 
 2,665 
 517 
 1,361 
 70 
 3 
 1,574 
 
 Total Acres 1,693 Total Mice, 28,071 
 
 I should not forget to mention that, in New 
 Forest, foxes were frequently seen hunting, after 
 the mice, and eating them greedily. Jesse. 
 
 FILLY, *. A young mare; opposed to a colt or young horse. 
 
 FILM, s. A pellicle or thin skin. 
 
 FILTER, v. To clear by drawing off liquor by depending threads; to strain ; 
 
 to percolate. 
 
 FIN, s. The wing of a fish. 
 
 FIN-FOOTED, a. Having feet with membranes between the toes. 
 FINCH (Fringilla), s. A small bird ; of which we have three kinds, the 
 
 goldfinch, the chaffinch, and bullfinch. 
 
 this tribe many are distinguished as well for 
 the liveliness of their song, as for the beauty 
 and variety of their plumage, on wliich ac- 
 counts they are much esteemed. They are 
 very numerous, and assemble sometimes in 
 immense flocks, feeding on seeds and grain of 
 various kinds, as well as on insects and their 
 eggs. Bewick. 
 
 The transition from the bunting to the finch 
 is very easy, and the shade of difference be- 
 tween them, in some instances, almost imper- 
 ceptible ; on which account they have been fre- 
 quently confounded with each other. The 
 principal difference consists in the beak, which 
 in the finch is conical, very thick at the base, 
 and tapering to a sharp point : in this respect 
 it more nearly resembles the grosbeak. Of 
 
 FINGER, s. The flexible member of the hand by which men catch and hold; 
 
 a small measure of extension. 
 FIR, s. The tree of which deal boards are made. 
 FIRE-ARMS, s. Arms which owe their efficacy to fire ; guns. 
 FIRE, v. To set on fire ; .to kindle ; to inflame the passions ; to discharge 
 
 any fire-arms. 
 FIRING, jo. The application of a red hot iron to the skin, so as to burn 
 
 without penetrating through it ; to cauterise a horse. 
 
 The violent inflammation firing occasions, 
 rouses the absorbent vessels into action, by 
 which callous or even bony swellings are some- 
 times dispersed. The diseases in which it is 
 most efficacious are spavins, ring-bones, and 
 callous swellings about the hack sinews, the 
 consequences of strains and windgalls. Firing 
 draws blood to the affected part, thickens and 
 strengthens it, and makes the skin act as a 
 permanent bandage. A blistei is often applied 
 
 to the part immediately after firing, or on the 
 following day, to render it more effectual. It 
 is necessary to observe that the milder reme- 
 dies should be tried before this severe opera- 
 tion is had recourse to. Firing has been re- 
 commended for the purposes of strengthening 
 the back sinews and hocks of colts, to prevent 
 strains, and what is termed breaking-down. 
 
 It has been erroneously asserted, that when 
 firing is employed to a callus of the back
 
 190 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [FlR 
 
 sinews, the swelling should be previously re- ' mation, certainly firing will do harm, there- 
 
 duced by blistering ; that firing would then fore it must be first removed by the frequent 
 
 prevent a return ; whereas if the firing were ! application of a cooling lotion, such as diluted 
 
 performed in the first place, it would fix the i vinegar, in which a little sugar of lead has been 
 
 swelling, and render it incurable. In inflarn- ! dissolved Percival. 
 
 FIRELOCK, s. A soldier's gun ; a gun discharged by striking steel with 
 
 flint. 
 FISH, s. An animal that inhabits the water. 
 
 FISH, v. To be employed in catching 
 
 Fishes in general are male and female ; the 
 former possessing the melt and the latter the 
 roe, although some individuals of the cod and 
 sturgeon are said to contain both. The spawn 
 of the greater number of fishes is deposited in 
 the sand or gravel ; and in that state, it is pro- 
 bable that the roe and melt are mixed to- 
 gether. A fish whose weight, at twenty years 
 old, shall be thirty pounds, generates the first 
 or second year, when perhaps it does not 
 weigh more than half a pound ; and it is cer- 
 tain that the male seems more attached to the 
 eggs than the female, for when she ceases to 
 drop them, the male instantly abandons her, 
 and with ardour follows the eggs which are 
 carried down by the stream, or dispersed 
 amongst the waves by the wind, passing and 
 repassing many times over every spot where 
 he finds the eggs. 
 
 Summer is the usual spawning time, because 
 at that season the water is tepified by the 
 beams of the sun, and is therefore bettei adapt- 
 ed for quickening the eggs into life. How the 
 eggs of fishes are impregnated is wholly un- 
 known. All that obviously offers is, that in 
 ponds, the sexes are often seen together among 
 the long grass at the edge of the water ; that 
 there they seem to struggle, and are in a state 
 of suffering, as they grow thin, lose their ap- 
 petite, whilst their flesh becomes flabby, and 
 in some, the scales grow rough and lose their 
 lustre ; on the contrary, when the time of 
 coupling is over, their appetite returns, their 
 natural agility is resumed, and their scales be- 
 come brilliant an'd beautiful. The spawn con- 
 tinues in the state of eggs a longer or shorter 
 period, but this is for the most part propor- 
 tioned to the size of the animal. The young 
 animal remains in the form of an egg from 
 December until April in the salmon kind ; 
 the carp not above three weeks, and the gold 
 fish from China is produced in a still less time. 
 With all the advantages of minuteness and agi- 
 lity when excluded from the egg, there is not 
 one, perhaps, of a thousand, that survives the 
 dangers of its youth. Among the spinous 
 fishes there is no trace of parental affection ; 
 they abandon their eggs to be hatched by the 
 warmth of the season, and if they ever return 
 to the spot where their young first received 
 life, the parents that gave them birth, become 
 
 fish. 
 
 their most formidable enemies. 
 
 By the rapacity of one another although the 
 fishes perish by millions, yet they have other 
 destroyers. Many of the quadrupeds and a 
 great proportion of the sea fowls, either feed 
 on fish, are the merciless invaders of the small 
 fry, or devour the spawn. In a savage state, 
 numbers of the human race wander round the 
 lakes and rivers, whence a considerable pro- 
 portion of their sustenance is derived, and 
 among those nations whom arts and agricul- 
 ture have rendered less dependent on this 
 precarious support, superstition has usurped 
 the place of want, and given a new edge to 
 their avidity for this species of food ; but the 
 munificent Author of nature, notwithstand- 
 ing the annual consumption of fishes is con- 
 stant and immense, has made a kind provi- 
 sion for his creatures, in which the glory of 
 his providence is remarkable in a twofold 
 manner. First, by giving fishes at certain 
 fixed seasons of the year, a particular inclina- 
 tion to approach the land ; and this always at 
 a time when they are the fattest, and not ema- 
 ciated by breeding; as the salmon in the 
 spring, mackerel about midsummer, herrings 
 in the autumn, cod in the winter, &c. Se- 
 condly, by the amazing fertility which he has 
 conferred on this class of beings. The fecun- 
 dity of fishes far surpasses that of any other 
 animals ; if we should be told of a being so 
 prolific, that it would bring forth in one sea- 
 son as many of its kind as there are inhabit- 
 ants in England, our surprise would be deeply 
 excited, yet upwards of 9,000,000 of ova have 
 been found in the spawn of a single cod. 
 1,357,400 have been taken from the belly 
 of a flounder ; the mackerel, carp, tench, 
 and a variety of others, are endowed with 
 a fertility but little inferior. Such an as- 
 tonishing progeny, were it allowed to arrive 
 at maturity, would soon overstock the element 
 allotted them; but their numbers, by the 
 means above-mentioned, are considerably les- 
 sened, and thus two important purposes are 
 answered in the economy of nature ; by the 
 extraordinary fruitfulness of fishes, amongst a 
 host of foes it preserves the species, and fur- 
 nishes the rest with an aliment adapted to 
 their nature.
 
 Fw] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 191 
 
 Fishes are the most voracious animals in 
 nature. Many species prey indiscriminately 
 on everything digestible that comes in their 
 way, and devour not only other species of 
 fishes, hut even their own. As a counter- 
 balance to this voracity, they are amazingly 
 prolific. Some bring forth their young alive ; 
 others produce eggs. The viviparous blenny 
 brings forth 200 or 300 live fishes at a time. 
 Those which produce eggs are all much more 
 prolific, and seem to proportion their stock to 
 the danger of consumption. Leuwenhoek af- 
 firms that the cod spawns above 9,000,000 in 
 a season. The flounder produces above 
 1,000,000, and the mackerel above 500,000. 
 Scarcely one in a hundred of these eggs, how- 
 ever, is supposed to come to maturity ; hut 
 two wise purposes are answered by this amaz- 
 ing increase : it preserves the species in the 
 midst of numberless enemies, and serves to 
 furnish the rest with a sustenance adapted to 
 their nature. 
 
 * * * 
 
 How long a fish, that seems to have scarce 
 any bounds put to its growth, continues to 
 live, is not ascertained ; the date prescribed as 
 the age of man, would not perhaps be suffi- 
 cient to measure the life of the smallest. In 
 the royal ponds at Marli, in France, there are 
 some fishes that have been preserved tame 
 since the time, it is said, of Francis the First, 
 and which have been individually known to 
 the persons who have succeeded to the charge 
 of them, ever since that period. These have 
 now attained a size much beyond the common 
 bulk of fishes of the same kind ; and although 
 there are certain peculiarities distinguishing 
 them from younger fishes, yet they evince no 
 symptoms of that decrepitude and disease,which 
 inevitably accompany a life protracted much 
 beyond the usual space, among quadrupeds. 
 
 * * * 
 
 When any fish is hog-backed, with a small 
 head, this is a sure sign of that fish being in 
 season, of whatever sort it is. 
 
 * * 
 
 Very little is known of the habits and eco- 
 nomy of fish from the nature of the element 
 in which they live. When I resided in Bu- 
 shy Park, I caused the sides and bottom of a 
 place to be bricked, through which a stream 
 of very clear water ran, and stocked it with 
 most of the varieties of our English fresh- water 
 fish, supplying them abundantly with food ; 
 hut though I constantly watched them, and 
 could see all they did at any time of the day, 
 the result of my observations was far from 
 being satisfactory. The perch were the bold- 
 est and most familiar of any of the fish, as I 
 found no difficulty in soon getting them to come 
 with eagerness to take a worm out of my hand. 
 The barbel were the shyest, and seemed most 
 impatient of observation, although in the spring, 
 
 when they could not perceive any one watch- 
 ing them, they would roll about and rub them- 
 selves against the brickwork, and show con- 
 siderable playfulness. There were some large 
 stones in my piscatorium, round which they 
 would wind their spawn in considerable quan- 
 tities. The trout appeared to bear their con- 
 finement with less philosophy than any of the 
 others, making high leaps against the grating 
 which admitted the water, and seeming at all 
 times out of sorts and out of condition. The 
 chub were also very restless, being continually 
 on the move, but they never could resist a 
 cockchafer when thrown to them. My floun- 
 ders only moved at night, and the eels always 
 made their escape, but in what way I never 
 could conjecture, except, indeed, they had the 
 power of crawling up the brickwork, which 
 was about five feet from top to bottom, and 
 generally two feet above the edge of the wa- 
 ter. They certainly could not get through the 
 grating, which was sufficiently close to confine 
 bleak and gudgeons ; and some of the eels were 
 of a large size. The pike, of which I had eight 
 of about five pounds' weight each, kept up their 
 character for voracity. Out of 800 gudgeons, 
 which were brought to me by a Thames fisher- 
 man, and which I saw counted into the reser- 
 voir, some few of which however died, there 
 were scarcely any to be seen at the end of three 
 weeks, though I should mention that the three 
 large barbel I had, and six good-sized perch, 
 
 probably partook of them. 
 
 * * 
 
 The author of the Wild Sports of the 
 West, in speaking of the immense Loughs 
 Masks and Corrib, says " It would appear, 
 that in these lakes the fish are commensurate 
 to the waters they inhabit. It is no unusual 
 event for pikes of thirty pounds weight to be 
 sent to their landlords by the tenants ; and 
 fish of even fifty pounds have not unfre- 
 quently been caught with nets and night- 
 lines. The trouts in those loughs are also 
 immensely large. From fifteen to sixteen 
 pounds is no unusual size, and some have 
 been found that reached the enormous weight 
 of thirty. The perch tribe appear the small- 
 est in the scale of relative proportion. These 
 seldom exceed a herring size ; but they too 
 have exceptions, and perch of three or four 
 pounds weight have been sometimes seen. 
 Within fifty years this latter fish has increased 
 prodigiously, and in the lakes and rivers where 
 they abound, trouts have been found to dimi- 
 nish in an equal ratio. 
 
 * * 
 
 Pike and perch were almost unknown in 
 the rivers of Belcarra and Minola, and the 
 chain of lakes with which they communicate, 
 and these waters were then second to none 
 for trout-fishing. Within ten years, my cou- 
 sin tells me that he often angled in them,
 
 192 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Fis 
 
 and that he frequently killed from three to 
 six dozen of beautiful middle-sized red trouts. 
 Now fly-fishing is seldom practised there. 
 The trout is nearly extinct, and quantities of 
 pike and perch infest every pool and stream. 
 The simplest methods of taking fish will he 
 here found successful, and the lakes of West- 
 meath will soon be rivalled by the loughs of' 
 Mayo. 
 
 * * 
 
 It is a curious fact, that the loughs where 
 the party angled, though situate in the same 
 Yalley, and divided only by a strip of moor- 
 land not above fifty yards across, united by 
 the same rivulet, and in depth and soil at 
 bottom, to all appearance, precisely similar, 
 should produce fish as different from each 
 other as it is possible for those of the same 
 species to be. In the centre lake, the trout 
 are dull, ill-shaped, and dark-coloured ; the 
 head large, the body lank, and though of 
 double size, compared to their neighbours, are 
 killed with much less opposition. In the ad- 
 jacent loughs, their hue is golden and pellucid, 
 tinted with spots of a brilliant vermilion. The 
 scales are bright, the head small, the shoulder 
 thick, and from their compact shape, they 
 prove themselves, when hooked, both active 
 and vigorous. At table they are red and firm, 
 and their flavour is particularly fine while 
 the dark trout are white and flaccid, and have 
 the same insipidity of flavour which distin- 
 guishes a spent from a healthy salmon. 
 
 * * 
 
 It is remarkable that only three kinds of 
 fish have been transported from foreign parts 
 into Great Britain the carp, the tench, and 
 the gold-fish. * 
 
 Maxims on fishing The following hints 
 are quaint and useful. 
 
 " Do not imagine that, because a fish does 
 not instantly dart off on first seeing you, he 
 is the less aware of your presence ; he almost 
 always on such occasion ceases to feed, and 
 pays you the compliment of devoting his 
 attention to you, whilst he is preparing for a 
 start whenever the apprehended danger be- 
 comes sufficiently imminent. 
 
 " If you pass your fly neatly and well 
 three times over a trout, and he refuses it, do 
 not wait any longer for him ; you may be 
 sure he has seen the line of invitation which 
 you have sent over the water to him, and 
 does not intend to come. 
 
 " Remember that, in whipping with the ar- 
 tificial fly, it must have time, when you have 
 drawn it out of the water, to make the whole 
 circuit, and to be at one time straight behind 
 you, before it can be driven out straight be- 
 fore you. If you give it the forward impulse 
 too soon, you will hear a crack : take this as 
 a hint that your fly is gone to grass. 
 
 " It appears to me that, in whipping with 
 
 an artificial fly, there are only two cases in 
 which a fish taking the fly will infallibly 
 hook himself without your assistance, viz. : 
 1st, when your fly first touches the water at 
 the end of a straight line : 2d, when you arc 
 drawing out your fly for a new throw. In 
 all other cases, it is necessary that, in order to 
 hook him when he has taken the fly, you 
 should do something with your wrist which 
 is not easy to describe. 
 
 " If your line should fall loose and wavy 
 into the water, it will either frighten away the 
 fish, or he will take the fly into his mouth, 
 without fastening himself; and when he finds 
 that it does not answer his purpose, he will 
 spit it out again before it has answered yours. 
 " Never mind what they of the old school 
 say about ' playing him till he is tired.' Much 
 valuable time, and many a good fish, may be 
 lost by this antiquated proceeding. Put him 
 into your basket as soon as you can. Every 
 thing depends on the manner in which you 
 commence your acquaintance with him. If 
 you can at first prevail upon him to walk a 
 little way down the stream with you, you will 
 have no difficulty afterwards in persuading 
 him to let you have the pleasure of seeing 
 him at dinner. 
 
 " Do not leave off fishing early in the 
 evening, because your friends are tired. After a 
 bright day, the largest fish are to be caught by 
 whipping between sunset and dark. Even, 
 however, in these precious moments, you will 
 not have good sport, if you continue throw- 
 ing after you have whipped your fly off. Pay 
 attention to this ; and, if you have any doubt 
 after dusk, you may easily ascertain the point, 
 by drawing the end of the line quickly through 
 your hand, particularly if you do not wear 
 gloves. 
 
 " When you have got hold of a good fish 
 which is not very tractable, if you are mar- 
 ried, gentle reader, think of your wife, who, 
 like the fish, is united to you by very tender 
 ties, which can only end with her death, or 
 her going into weeds. If you are single, the 
 loss of the fish, when you thought the prize 
 your own, may remind you of some more 
 serious disappointment. 
 
 " Never angle in glaring-coloured clothes ; 
 perhaps green is that which the fish discern 
 least, as varying less from those objects, such 
 as trees, and herbage on the sides, to which 
 they are familiarised. The angler should 
 shelter himself (unless the water is muddy 
 from rain) far from the bank, or behind a 
 bush or tree, where he can just see the float, 
 and so that his shadow does not, at any time, 
 lie upon the water, especially where it is 
 shallow, and the gravelly bottom can be dis- 
 cerned. 
 
 
 
 The angler should always have the wind at
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 193 
 
 his back, the sun or moon before him, as 
 much as possible; in cold, windy weather espe- 
 cially, he should be on the weather-shore, 
 where the fish then resort for warmth, and 
 the calmness of the water. The east wind, 
 for angling, has been universally execrated, 
 but probably this may not hold good in rivers 
 running from east to west. 
 
 * 
 
 At the conflux of rivers that ebb and flow, 
 it is best angling at the ebb ; sometimes, 
 when the tide is not strong, they will bite at 
 flood, but very rarely at high water. 
 
 
 
 Deep waters are best to angle in, as the 
 fish are not then disturbed by wind or wea- 
 ther. 
 
 The best periods are from April to Octo- 
 ber ; from three until nine in the morning, 
 and from three in the afternoon, so long as 
 there is light ; the later, the better sport. In 
 winter, the weather and times are much alike ; 
 the warmest is most preferable. 
 
 
 
 During the summer, even when the water 
 is quite low and clear, no wind stirring, and 
 the sun shining in its utmost lustre, and in 
 the hottest part of the day, it is insisted, 
 trout may be taken (although very few an- 
 glers are disposed to credit it), with a small 
 wren's-tail, grouse, smoky dun, and black 
 hackles, fishing straight down the water by 
 the sides of streams and banks ; keeping out 
 of sight, and with as long a line as can con- 
 veniently be managed, with the foot-length 
 
 very fine : they may be often seen with their 
 fins above water, at which time they will 
 eagerly snap at the abovementioned flies ; and 
 though upon hooking one the rest will fly 
 off, they will soon be composed, and return 
 for two or three times. 
 
 Right of Fishing It has been held that 
 where the lord of the manor hath the soil on 
 both sides of the river, it is a good evidence 
 that he hath right of fishing ; and it puts the 
 proof upon him who claims liberam piscariam ; 
 but, where a river ebbs and flows, and is an 
 arm of the sea, there it is common to all, and 
 he who claims a privilege to himself, must 
 prove it; for if the trespass is brought for 
 fishing there, the defendant may justify that 
 the place is brachium maris, in quo unusquique 
 subditus domini regis habet et habere debet 
 liberam piscariam. In the Severn the soil 
 belongs to the owners of the land on each 
 side ; and the soil of the river Thames is in 
 the king, but the fishing is common to all. 
 He who is owner of the soil of a private river, 
 hath separata piscaria ; and he that hath libera 
 piscaria, hath a property in the fish, and may 
 bring a possessory action for them ; but com- 
 munis piscaria is like the case of all other com- 
 mons. One that has a close pond, in which 
 there are fish, may call them pisces suas, in 
 an indictment, &c. ; but he cannot call them 
 bona et catalla, if they be not in tanks. There 
 needs no privilege to make a fish-pond, as there 
 
 doth in case of a warren Ency. Brit 
 
 Daniel Jesse Wild Sports, Qc. 
 
 FISH-HOOK, s. A hook for catching fish. 
 FISH-POND, s. A small pool for fish. Vide POND. 
 FISHER, s. One who is employed in catching- fish. 
 FISHERMAN, s. One whose employment and livelihood is to catch fish. 
 FISHERY, *. The business of catching fish. 
 FISHING, s. Commodity of taking fish. 
 FISHING-ROD, s. An implement for angling. Vide ROD. 
 FISHY, a. Consisting of fish ; having the qualities of fish. 
 FISTULA, s. A sinuous ulcer callous within. 
 FISTULOUS, a. Having the nature of a fistula. 
 
 FIT, s. A paroxysm of any intermittent distemper ; any short return after 
 intermission. 
 
 For a dog that has fits when hunting, 
 Strike him smartly with a whip or stick until 
 he is roused; the stimulus from the blows 
 
 will recover as well as letting blood, and pre- 
 vent a too great effusion, which is often the 
 case when bled in the field. 
 
 FITCHAT or FITCHEW, s. A stinking little beast, that robs the henroost 
 and warren. 
 
 FIVES, s. A kind of play with a ball ; a disease of horses. 
 
 O
 
 194 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 FIXTURE, s. The place where hounds meet. 
 
 FIZGIG, s. A kind of dart or harpoon, with which seamen strike a fish. 
 
 FLAGWORM, s. A grub bred in watery places among flags or sedge. 
 
 FLAME, s. Light emitted from fire ; a stream of fire. 
 
 FLANK, s. The part of the side of a quadruped near the hinder thigh ; in 
 
 men, the latter part of the lower belly. 
 FLAP, s. Any thing that hangs broad and loose. 
 FLASK, s. A bottle, a vessel, a powder-horn. 
 FLAW, s. A crack or breach in any thing ; a fault, a defect ; a sudden 
 
 gust ; a violent blast. 
 FLAX, $. The fibrous plant of which the finest thread is made; the fibres 
 
 of flax cleansed and combed for the spinner. 
 
 FLAY, v. To strip off the skin ; to take off the skin or surface of anything. 
 FLEA, s. A small insect. Vide VERMIN. 
 
 Hares are very subject to fleas. Linnaeus attract these insects, and preserve the wearer 
 tells us, that cloth made of their fur will from their troublesome attacks. 
 
 FLEAM, s. An instrument to bleed cattle. 
 
 FLEDGED, a. Full feathered, able to fly. 
 
 FLEDGE, v. To furnish with wings, to supply with feathers. 
 
 FLEW, s. The large chaps of a deep-mouthed hound ; a kind of net. 
 
 Flews may be described as of two kinds, 
 the one for drawing, the other to be placed 
 either as a stop to a drag-net, or to be set and 
 left quietly standing in a pond or river, to in- 
 tercept the fish. Those for drawing should 
 be made of stouter materials, and the lint of 
 all should be of silk. The expense is greater at 
 the first ; but the compiler has had silk flews 
 of both sorts, where the lint has outlasted 
 three sets of walling, and still remained per- 
 fectly good. It must, however, be understood, 
 that great care was observed in the washing 
 and drying his nets ; for silk has no peculiar 
 power, any more than hemp, to defend itself 
 against the heat, which a few hours will ge- 
 nerate when thrown together full of mud and 
 weeds ; and both, by such slovenly inattention, 
 are as quickly spoiled : yet carefully managed, 
 a silk net will endure to the utmost wishes of 
 the proprietor ; and such is the quality of the 
 silk, when wet, that the fish which touches it 
 is sure to be entangled; the texture is so 
 pliant, that a fish is enveloped before being 
 sensible of it, and the more he struggles the 
 faster he is confined. 
 
 For a dragging-flew, the lint two inches 
 and a quarter mesh, seventy meshes deep, and 
 fifty-two yards in length (to be hung twenty 
 yards long and eight feet deep), it will take 
 four pounds and a half of silk. 
 
 FLEWED, a. Chapped, mouthed. 
 
 For a setting flew, of a similar mesh, and 
 ninety deep, with the same length of lint and 
 depth of hanging, five pounds and a quarter 
 of silk ; from these may be calculated any 
 larger or smaller size. Never tan or colour 
 flews, it renders them easier to be discerned 
 by the fish. 
 
 The walls or trammels of flews should be 
 at least eighteen inches square (but two feet 
 is preferable), those of nine or twelve inches, 
 hung diamond fashion, are only calculated to 
 receive a fish that strikes point blank ; it is 
 impossible for a good sized fish to get in side- 
 ways, (whereby they are more entangled than 
 by touching the flew in any other direction), 
 besides, these small wallings render a net 
 more cumbersome, and are, for the most part, 
 useless. Flews should be very lightly leaded, 
 the floats or corks nicely adjusted, and where 
 the fish run very large, the mesh of the lint 
 may be extended ; always recollecting that in 
 thread nets, the materials for the lint must be 
 three twisted, and cannot be too strong or too 
 fine. 
 
 In carp-fishing, drawing with flews is the 
 most killing mode yet devised, they slide so 
 lightly over the mud, and hamper the fish in 
 their progress through the water, which the 
 drag-net does not.
 
 Fw] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 195 
 
 FLEXOR, s. The general name of the muscles which act in contracting- the 
 joints. 
 
 FLIGHT, *. The act of using wings ; removal from place to place by means 
 of wings ; a flock of birds flying together ; the birds produced in the same 
 season, as the harvest flight of pigeons ; the space passed by flying. 
 
 FLINT, s. A kind of stone used in firelocks ; any thing eminently or pro- 
 verbially hard. 
 
 None are better than the most transparent 
 of the common black flints. Great quantities 
 (considered as good as any) come to London 
 from Lord Cadogan's estate at Brandon. They 
 should be put in with the flat side upwards, 
 and stand well clear of the hammer, and yet 
 be long enough to throw it. Screw them in 
 with leather, as lead strains the cock, and 
 cloth is dangerous from being liable to catch 
 
 fire. If very particular about the neat ap- 
 pearance of your gun, get a punch for stamp- 
 
 ing the leathers, and change them as often as 
 you put new flints. 
 
 To make a flint strike lower you have only 
 to reverse the usual way of putting it in ; 
 but, if you want to strike higher, you must 
 either put a very thick leather, or screw the 
 flint in with a bit of something under it. 
 This temporary way of regulating a lock, BO 
 as to make the hammer fall, is worth know- 
 ing, as it often saves vexation and loss of time. 
 Hawker. 
 
 FLIX, s. Down, fur, soft hair. 
 
 FLOAT, v. To swim on the surface of the water ; to pass with a light irre- 
 gular course. 
 
 FLOAT, s. The act of flowing ; any body so contrived or formed as to swim 
 on the water ; the cork or quill by which the angler discovers the bite. 
 
 Floats are of many kinds ; of swan, goose, 
 muscovy duck, and porcupine quills. The 
 first is preferable, when light baits are used 
 in rivers or deep waters, and the others for 
 slow streams and ponds, where the water is 
 not very deep, and where the baits are pastes, 
 &c. The quills of the bustard some anglers 
 use, believing that the small black spots with 
 which they are (erroneously) said to be mot- 
 tled, appear to the fish as so many little flies, 
 and attract them by this deception. For heavy 
 fishing with worm or minnow, and in rapid 
 eddies, the cork float is best, and is made by 
 taking a cork free from flaws, and with a small 
 red hot iron bore a hole lengthways through 
 the centre ; it is then to be cut across the 
 grain with a sharp knife, about two-thirds of 
 the length, and the remaining third (which is 
 the top of the float) rounded with it, and then 
 neatly finished with pumice stone, the whole 
 resembling in shape a child's peg top. For 
 pike, barbel, and large chub, the cork should 
 be the size of a small bergamot pear ; for trout, 
 perch, eels, not bigger than a walnut when the 
 green rind is removed. A quill is fitted to 
 the hole, and used formerly to be cut off close 
 to the cork at each end of it. Some direct 
 cork floats to be proportioned to the number 
 of hairs the line is made of, and no larger 
 than a horsebean for a single hair; but so 
 diminutive a cork is of no use, and the quill 
 floats will answer better. 
 
 Some recommend the shape of a cork like 
 
 a pear, and not to exceed the size of a nut- 
 meg, and the quill that passes through it not 
 to be more than half an inch above and below 
 the cork ; they are now made with a cap at 
 the top, and wire for the line to pass through 
 at the bottom. The advantage the cork float 
 has over the bare quill is that it allows the 
 line to be loaded so heavily, that the hook 
 sinks almost as soon as put into the water ; 
 whereas, when lightly loaded, it does not reach 
 the bottom until near the end of the swim. 
 * * * 
 
 Quill floats are thus made : the barrel part 
 is cut off from that where the feathers grow, 
 the inside cleared from the film, and a small 
 piece of pitch fixed close to the end ; a piece 
 of cotton is then introduced, and upon that 
 another piece of pitch, which not only confines 
 the cotton, but assists in making the float dis- 
 cernible in water. A piece of soft wood, the 
 size of the quill, about two inches long, of 
 which nearly one inch is to be introduced into 
 the quill, after being dipped into a melted ce- 
 ment of bees-wax, resin, and chalk, in equal 
 quantities ; the lower end of this plug is to be 
 tapered, with a fine awl, a piece of brass twisted 
 wire, with a round eye at the end, is to be 
 passed as a screw into the plug, with a pair of 
 pliers, turning round in the float; the line 
 passes through this eye of the wire, and the 
 upper part of the quill is fastened to the line 
 by a hoop made of a larger sized quill, so as to 
 admit the thickness of the line, and which 
 O2
 
 196 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Fto 
 
 ought to fasten nearly an inch from the top of 
 the quill. (These caps should be secured by 
 fine waxed silk, varnished over, which pre- 
 vents their splitting ; as also should the end of 
 the quill round the plug, which will greatly 
 preserve the float.) These hoops upon the 
 top of the float may be dyed red (which will 
 render them more conspicuous), by putting as 
 much powdered Brazil wood into stale cham- 
 ber-ley as will make it a deep red, which may 
 be seen by applying it upon a piece of white 
 paper ; then take some spring- water, and put a 
 handful of salt and a small quantity of argal 
 into it ; stir them until they are dissolved, and 
 boil them well in a saucepan ; when the water 
 is cold, scrape the quills, and steep them a lit- 
 tle time in the mixture ; afterwards let them 
 remain in the chamber-ley for a fortnight, and, 
 after drying, rub them with a woollen cloth, 
 and they will be transparent. 
 
 If two quills are wanted to be joined toge- 
 ther, it may be done by a plug a little thicker 
 in the middle than at the ends, which is to go 
 
 into the mouth of the quills ; dip the two ends 
 into the above cement warmed, and fix the 
 quills upon it, or by dipping the two ends of 
 both quills, without the plug, into the cement, 
 and inserting one into the other while tho- 
 roughly warm, the cement, when cold, will 
 strongly fix them ; rub the float all over with 
 wet coal-dust and a woollen cloth, dry it with 
 one of linen, and, after that, dry coal-dust will 
 polish it effectually. Quill floats should be 
 so leaded as to just suffer their tops to appear 
 above the surface, that the slightest nibble 
 may be perceived ; if either a cork or a quill 
 float fall on one side, the lead is either on the 
 ground, or insufficient to keep them in a pro- 
 per position. 
 
 In fishing with a float, the line should be 
 a foot shorter than the rod; if longer, it is 
 inconvenient when a fish is wanted to be dis- 
 engaged ; and the rod should be fourteen or 
 fifteen feet long, light, stiff, and so smart in 
 the spring as to strike at the extremity of the 
 whalebone Daniel Fisher's Guide, fyc. 
 
 FLOCK, s. A company of birds or beasts ; a company of sheep, distinguished 
 
 from herds, which are of oxen ; a lock of wool. 
 FLOCK, t?. To gather in crowds or large numbers. 
 FLOG, v. To lash, to whip. 
 
 FLOOD, s. A body of water ; a deluge, an inundation ; flow, flux, not ebb. 
 FLOP, v. To clap the wings with noise. 
 FLOUNDER, s. The name of a small flat fish. 
 
 The flounder inhabits every part of the half that weight is not common. Flounders 
 British sea, and is found, although at a great 
 distance, in all the rivers that communicate 
 with it ; numbers of them that are not taken, 
 lose themselves, continuing and breeding with 
 
 vast fecundity in the rivers, and those grow 
 to be the largest and best flavoured. They will 
 likewise live in ponds, and are a profitable 
 fish to stock them with, as they soon get fat, 
 will live many hours out of their element, 
 and consequently may he carried to a great 
 distance ; but they will not breed when con- 
 fined. The colour of the upper part of the 
 body is a pale brown^ sometimes marked with 
 a few spots of dirty yellow ; the belly is white. 
 It may easily be distinguished from the plaice, 
 or any other fish of this genus, by a row of 
 sharp small spines that surround its upper 
 sides, and are placed just at the juncture of 
 the fins with the body ; another row marks 
 the side line, and runs half way down the 
 back. Mr. Pennant mentions hearing of one 
 that weighed six pounds; but a flounder of 
 
 spawn in May and June, and are in season 
 the rest of the year. They swim in shoals, and 
 bite freely at all hours of the day, but parti- 
 cularly on the rise of the water by flood or 
 tide, and in warm weather, with a little wind, 
 
 and are to be fished for with a strong line and 
 good gut at the bottom, as some of them are 
 large, and struggle much. The best places to 
 angle for them, are by the sides and at the 
 tails of deep streams, where the bottom con- 
 sists of fine gravel, sand, or loam, or in still 
 places of the same quality near the banks ; 
 two or three rods may be used, with a bullet 
 on the lines, to lie on the ground in streams; 
 and when in still water, a shot or two on the 
 line, and the hook small. Brandlings that 
 are taken from rotten tan, well scoured, are 
 the best baits. They will take the lobworm, 
 and even the minnow ; a flounder weighing 
 twenty-three ounces being caught in 1799 
 with the latter. 
 
 FLOUNDER, v. To struggle with violent and irregular motions. 
 
 FLOUR, s. The edible part of the corn, or any grain reducible to powder. 
 
 FLUE, s. A small pipe or chimney to convey air; soft down or fur.
 
 FLY] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 197 
 
 FLUID, g. In physic, an animal juice; any thing that flows. 
 FLUSH, v. To colour, to redden ; to elate ; to spring birds. 
 FLUSH, s. Afflux, sudden impulse, violent flow; cards all of a sort. 
 FLUTTER, v. To take short flights with great agitation of the wings ; to 
 
 move irregularly. 
 FLY, v. To move through the air with wings ; to pass through the air ; 
 
 to pass swiftly ; to fly at ; to burst asunder with a sudden explosion ; to 
 
 shiver ; to run away; to attempt to escape. 
 FLY, *. A small winged insect ; that part of a machine which, being put 
 
 into a quick motion, regulates the rest. 
 
 From my own experience I should suppose 
 
 that in all the habitable parts of the globe, 
 certain water-flies exist wherever theri 
 running water. Even in the most ardent 
 temperature, gnats and musquitoes are found, 
 which lay their congeries of eggs on the water, 
 which, when hatched, become, first worms, 
 afterwards small shrimp-like aurelia, and, 
 lastly, flies. There are a great number of 
 the largest species of these flies on stagnant 
 waters and lakes, which form a part of the 
 food of various fishes, principally of the carp 
 kind; but the true fisherman's fly those 
 which are imitated in our art -principally 
 belong to the northern, or at least temperate 
 parts of Europe, and I believe are nowhere 
 more abundant than in England. It appears 
 to me, that since I have been a fisherman, 
 which is now the best part of half a century, 
 I have observed in some rivers where I have 
 been accustomed to fish habitually, a diminu- 
 tion of the numbers of flies. There were 
 always some seasons in which the tempera- 
 ture was favourable to a quantity of fly ; for 
 .instance, fine warm days in spring for the 
 grannam, or brown-fly ; and like days in May 
 and June for the alder-fly, May-fly, and stone- 
 fly : but I should say, that within the last 
 twenty years I have observed a general dimi- 
 nution of the spring and autumnal flies, 
 except in those rivers which are fed from 
 sources that run from chalk, and which are 
 perennial such as the Wandle, and the 
 Hampshire and Buckinghamshire rivers ; in 
 these streams the temperature is more uniform, 
 and the quantity of water does not vary much. 
 I attribute the change of the quantity of flies 
 in the rivers to the cultivation of the country. 
 Most of the bogs or marshes which fed many 
 considerable streams are drained ; and the 
 consequence is, that they are more likely to 
 be affected by severe droughts and great 
 floods the first killing, and the second wash- 
 ing away the larvae and aurelias. May-flies, 
 thirty years ago, were abundant in the upper 
 part of the Teine river, in Herefordshire, 
 where it receives the Clun: they are now 
 rarely seen. 
 
 In December and January there are a few 
 small gnats or waterflies on the water in the 
 middle of the day, in bright days, or when 
 there is sunshine. These are generally black, 
 and they escape the influence of the frost by 
 the effects of light on their black bodies, and 
 probably by the extreme rapidity of the mo- 
 tions of their fluids, and generally of their or- 
 gans. They are found only at the surface of the 
 water, where the temperature must be above 
 the freezing point. In February a few double- 
 winged water-flies which swim down the 
 stream are usually found in the middle of the 
 day such as the willow-fly ; and the cow- 
 dung fly is sometimes carried on the water by 
 winds. In March there are several flies found 
 on most rivers. The grannam or green-tail 
 fly, with a wing like a moth, comes on gene- 
 rally morning and evening, from five till eight 
 o'clock, A. M. in mild weather in the end of 
 March and through April. Then there are 
 the blue and brown, both ephemeral, which 
 come on, the first in dark days, the second in 
 bright days ; these flies, when well imitated, 
 are very destructive to fish. The first is a 
 small fly with a palish yellow body, and slen- 
 der, beautiful wings, which rest on the back 
 as it floats down the water. The second, 
 called the cob in Wales, is three or four 
 times as large, and has brown wings, which 
 likewise protrude from the back, and its 
 wings are shaded like those of a partridge, 
 brown and yellow-brown. These three kinds 
 of flies lay their eggs in the water, which pro, 
 duce larvae that remain in the state of worms, 
 feeding and breathing in the water till they 
 are prepared for their metamorphosis and quit 
 the bottoms of the rivers, and the mud and 
 stones, for the surface, and the light and air. 
 The brown fly usually disappears before the 
 nd of April, likewise the grannam ; but of 
 the blue dun, there is a succession of different 
 ints, or species, or varieties, which appear in 
 the middle of the day,, all the summer and 
 autumn long. These are the principal flies 
 on the Wandle th best and clearest stream 
 near London. In early spring these flies have
 
 198 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [FLY 
 
 dark olive bodies ; in the end of April and 
 beginning of May they are found yellow ; 
 and in the summer they become cinnamon- 
 coloured ; and again, as the winter approaches, 
 gain a darker hue. I do not, however, mean 
 to say that they are the same flies, but more 
 probably successive generation of ephemera of 
 the same species. The excess of heat seems 
 equally unfavourable as the excess of cold, to 
 the existence of the smaller species of water 
 insects, which, during the intensity of sun- 
 shine, seldom appear in summer, but rise 
 morning and evening only. The blue dun 
 has, in June and July, a yellow body ; and 
 there is a water-fly which in the evening is 
 generally found before the moths appear, 
 called the red spinner. Towards the end of 
 August, the ephemera appear again in the 
 middle of the day a very pale, small ephe- 
 mera, which is of the same colour as that 
 which is seen in some rivers in the beginning 
 of July. In September and October, this 
 kind of fly is found with an olive body, and it 
 becomes darker in October, and paler in No- 
 vember. There are two other flies which 
 appear in the end of September, and continue 
 during October, if the weather be mild ; a 
 large yellow fly with a fleshy body and wings 
 like a moth, and a small fly with four wings, 
 with a dark or claret-coloured body, that when 
 it falls on the water has its wings like the 
 great yellow fly, flat on its back. This, or a 
 claret-bodied fly, very similar in character, 
 may be likewise found in March or April, on 
 some waters. In this river I have often 
 caught many large trout in April and the 
 beginning of Ma}-, with the blue dun, having 
 the yellow body ; and in the upper part of 
 the stream below St. Alban's, and between 
 that and Watford, I have sometimes, even as 
 early as April, caught fish in good condition ; 
 but the true season for the Colne is the sea- 
 son of May-fly. The same may be said of 
 most of the large English rivers containing 
 large trouts, and abounding in May-fly : such 
 as the Test and the Kennet ; the one running 
 by Stockbridge, the other by Hungerford. 
 But in the Wandle at Carshalton and Bed- 
 dington, the May-fly is not found : and the 
 little blues are the constant, and, when well 
 imitated, killing flies on this water ; to which 
 may be joined a dark alder fly, and a red 
 evening fly. In the Avon, at Ringwood and 
 Fordingbridge, the May-fly is likewise a kill- 
 ing fly ; but as this is a grayling river, the 
 other flies, particularly the grannam and blue 
 and brown, are good in spring, and the alder- 
 fly or pale blue later, and the blue dun in 
 September and October, and even November. 
 In the streams in the mountainous parts of 
 Britain, the spring and autumnal flies are by 
 far the most killing. The Usk was formerly 
 a very productive trout stream, and the fish 
 
 being well fed by the worms washed down by 
 the winter floods, were often in good season, 
 cutting red in March and the beginning of 
 April : and at this season the blues and 
 browns, particularly when the water was a 
 little stained after a small flood, afforded the 
 angler good sport. 
 
 * * 
 
 * 
 
 As we are on the subject of tying, I must 
 observe, that the advantage one derives from 
 being able to construct his own flies is wonder- 
 ful ; in fact, without attaining this accomplish- 
 ment in the ' gentle art,' no one can fish com- 
 fortably or successfully. No stock, however 
 extensive, will afford a supply adapted for 
 every change of weather and water, and a man 
 may lose a day overlooking an interminable 
 variety of kinds and colours, in a vain search 
 after one killing fly. Not so the artist : the 
 favourite insect being once ascertained, he 
 speedily produces an imitation and fills his 
 basket, while his less fortunate neighbour is 
 idly turning the pages of his over-stocked fish- 
 ing-book. 
 
 I had two sporting friends, who were excel- 
 lent instances of this. Colonel S was an 
 
 ardent, and, I may add, a very tolerable an- 
 gler. No one went to more trouble and ex- 
 pense in procuring the most approved flies ; he 
 never tied, or attempted to tie one, and he 
 assured me he had many hundred dozens in 
 his possession. To find a new fly, was with 
 him sometimes the labour of a day : and when 
 about to try another water, he would spend 
 hours toiling through his immense variety, 
 before he could succeed in discovering the ne- 
 cessary colour and description. I have seen 
 him with Job-like patience, labouring through 
 endless papers and parcels in search of a pal- 
 try insect, that I could fabricate in five mi- 
 nutes. 
 
 His companion, Captain B , ran into 
 
 an opposite extreme. He rarely had a second 
 casting line, and seldom a second set of flies. 
 Did the day change, or the river fill or lower, 
 he sat down on the bank, ripped wings and dub- 
 bings from his hooks, and prepared a new out- 
 fit in a twinkling. I never met an angler who 
 was so certain of filling a basket as my friend 
 B . His system, however, I would to- 
 tally disapprove of, Without burthening one- 
 self with enough to furnish out a tackle-shop, 
 a small and effective collection is desirable, 
 and it is absurd to lose a fortunate half-hour 
 tying on the river bank, what could be more 
 conveniently fabricated during the tedium of 
 a wet day within doors. An accident may rob 
 the most discreet angler of his flies, and surely 
 it is necessary to have a fresh relay to put up ? 
 But though I take a sufficiency along with me, 
 I never leave home without being provided 
 with the materials for constructing new ones. 
 An hour may bring ephemerae on the waters,
 
 FLY] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 199 
 
 which you must imitate, or you will cast in 
 vain ; before evening they will have vanished, 
 and given place to some new variety of the in- 
 sect world. Thus far, at least, the tier pos- 
 sesses an advantage over him who cannot pro- 
 duce a fly, that no collection which human 
 ingenuity can form will compensate. 
 * 
 
 FLIES IN GENERAL USE. 
 
 February Dark fox, hare's ear and claret, 
 
 dark greyhackle,plain black hackle, grey sooty. 
 
 March Plain black hackle, plain wren, 
 
 dark brownrail, dark olive camel, fox half a 
 shade lighter than last month, dark brown ca- 
 mel, latter end of the month brown coughlin, 
 dark red hackles' bodies with brown coughlin, 
 dirty tawny bodied with hare's ear, green 
 cowdung, grey sooty. 
 
 April. Grey coughlin, light olive camel, 
 
 light brown rail, ash fox-blow for latter end of 
 the month, orange cow dung, blue blow, tipped 
 wing black, plain black midge, hare's ear and 
 yellow, hare's ear and green, plain red hackle 
 orange bodied, do. tipped black hackle, plain 
 black hackle, blue bodied black hackle, buff 
 fox, grey sooty, all kind of wren hackles, grey 
 hackles. This list will bring you into May, 
 and some of them into June. 
 
 May Hawthorn fly, yellow may fly, gol- 
 den sooty, light fox, cream camel, brown rail, 
 fancy hackle flies, caterpillars, green beetles, 
 black do., golden palmers, yellow and orange 
 palmers, stone fly, plain and brown beetles. 
 
 June All the may flies, and green fox 
 
 come in now, and with light fox continues all 
 the summer, light rail, blue bodied black hac- 
 kle, orange bodied red, fancy wrens, gold pal- 
 mer, green beetle, scaldcrow midge, and night 
 moth. 
 
 July and August The above flies, and 
 the cinnamon called the cadbait fly. 
 
 September Muddy green fox, green rail 
 
 with plain red hackle, orange body do., light 
 rail, plain and fancy wrens ; small cadbait 
 breasted with woodcock hackle and double 
 wings, last during the fishing season. 
 
 
 In fly-fishing, the angler should recollect to 
 take with him some portion of all the different 
 materials for fly-making : so whimsical some- 
 times are trouts, that they may be seen to take 
 insignificant flies greedily, which at other times 
 they would not look at. When this happens, 
 catch one of such flies, and try how nearly art 
 can imitate nature, by framing one as similar 
 as can be Davy Wild Sports Daniel. 
 
 FLYCATCHER, s. One that hunts flies ; a bird. 
 
 Of the birds which constitute this class, we 
 find only two kinds that inhabit this island, 
 and these are not the most numerous of the 
 various tribes with which this country abounds. 
 
 The characters of this genus with us are 
 somewhat equivocal, and not well ascertained ; 
 
 neither do we know of any common name in 
 our language by which it is distinguished. Mr. 
 Pennant describes it thus : " Bill flatted at 
 the base, almost triangular, notched at the 
 end of the upper mandible, and beset with 
 bristles at its base." Bewick.
 
 200 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 FLYFISH, v. To angle with a hook baited with a fly. 
 
 FOAL, s. The offspring of a mare, or other beast of burden. 
 
 FOAL, v. To bring forth a foal. 
 
 FOAM, s. The white substance which agitation or fermentation gathers on 
 
 the top of liquors ; froth, spume. 
 
 FOAM, v. To froth, to gather foam ; to be in rage ; to be violently agitated. 
 FODDER, s. Dry food stored for cattle against winter. 
 FOLD, s. The ground in which sheep are confined; the place where sheep 
 
 are housed; the flock of sheep ; a double, a complication. 
 FOMENTATION, s- Partial bathing, called steeping ; the lotion prepared to 
 
 foment the parts. 
 
 Fomentations are divided into emollient 
 and anodyne. 
 
 EMOLLIENT FOMENTATION. 
 
 Boil marshmallows in water for some time, 
 strain off the liquor, and bathe the affected 
 parts with it while warm. 
 
 ANODYNE FOMENTATION. 
 
 1. White poppy heads broken, two dozen. 
 Hemlock, two handfuls. 
 
 Boil for two hours gently in six quarts of 
 water. 
 
 2. Wormwood dried, and camomile 
 
 flowers of each . . . 4 oz. 
 Rue . . . . . 3 oz. 
 Bay leaves . . . . 2 oz. 
 Boil them for one hour in a gallon of 
 water. 
 
 The efficacy of a fomentation depends on 
 its being properly applied : therefore, the 
 liquid should be only as hot as the part can 
 bear without pain. Large flannel cloths 
 should be dipped into the fomentation, lightly 
 wrung out, and spread over the affected part, 
 and be renewed before they become cold ; this 
 ought to be continued for half an hour at least, 
 and repeated three or four times a day. 
 
 Emollient fomentation is adapted to in- 
 flamed swellings, from whatever cause they 
 may arise ; and, in the absence of others, warm 
 water alone will be found an useful substitute. 
 
 Warm water, if used assiduously, and at a 
 proper temperature, is an excellent fomenta- 
 tion. In inflammation of the eye, it should 
 not be above 98 ; in inflamed and painful 
 swellings it ; should seldom exceed 100. In 
 strains of the back sinews, vinegar is prefera- 
 ble ; and as the injury is deeply seated, the 
 fomentation may be applied hotter. 
 
 When employed for inflammation of the 
 bowels, it should be still hotter, so hot, in- 
 deed, that the hand cannot feel it without 
 pain. The best mode of application is by 
 a long piece of woollen cloth, with the ends 
 joined, that it may be wrung out of the boil- 
 ing liquor by placing a stick through each 
 end. When thus applied, it may be called 
 a steam fomentation. A man on either 
 side the horse is required to apply this fomen- 
 tation effectually. Where the injury is not 
 extensive, the fomentation may be applied 
 with a large sponge, or a thick woollen cloth, 
 or old rug or blanket White. 
 
 FOOT, #. The part upon which we stand; that by which any thing is sup- 
 ported ; the base ; a measure containing twelve inches. 
 
 FORAGE, *. Search of provisions ; provisions sought abroad ; provisions in 
 general ; food for horses. 
 
 FORCEPS, *. Properly signifies a pair of tongs, but is used for an instru- 
 ment in chirurgery to extract any thing out of wounds. 
 
 FORD, s. A shallow part of a river. 
 
 FORD, v. To pass without swimming. 
 
 FOREHAND, s. That part of a horse which is before the rider. 
 
 Forehand implies that part of a horse ex- 
 tending from the ears to the withers ; which 
 to be handsome should be long, and rise gra- 
 dually from the upper point of the shoulder 
 blade to the very extremity of the ear. A 
 
 forehand of this description adds greatly t 
 the majestic appearance and value of a horse- 
 But a horse low before, with a short forehand, 
 and indented crest, can never become an ob- 
 ject of attraction Taplin.
 
 Fow] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 201 
 
 FOREHEAD, s. That part of the face which reaches from the eyes upwards 
 to the hair : impudence, confidence, assurance. 
 
 To observe the form and effect of the fore- 
 head, it will be necessary to get before the 
 horse. It is the space extending from the 
 roots of the ears, and between the eyes, which 
 being broad and flat, having a feather or star 
 in the centre, constitutes a degree of beauty, 
 and may be supposed to have a cross of the 
 
 Arabian in the blood. If a horse having a 
 wide flat forehead, has the advantage of a full 
 prominent spirited eye, they at the first ap- 
 proach afford no small indication of excellence ; 
 and, upon nearer inspection, a corresponding 
 symmetry is expected to follow. Taplin. 
 
 FORELEGS, s. That part of a horse beginning- at the lower extremity of the 
 shoulder blade before, and the elbow behind. 
 
 The forelegs consist of what are termed 
 the arms (or thighs), which extend to each 
 knee; the shank-bone from the knee to the 
 fetlock joint ; the fetlock bone is continued 
 from thence to the coronary bone, in part fills 
 the cavity, or box of the hoof, being lodged 
 in the coffin-bone, supported by the nut-bone 
 behind ; these last are deposited in the mem- 
 braneous mass denominated the inner sole, 
 
 the whole being terminated by the bottom of 
 the hoof, the frog, and the outer sole. The 
 forelegs, to be uniform (in a front view), 
 should be wide at the upper part next the 
 breast, strong and broad in the arm, bony 
 below the knee, free from splents, a broad 
 sound hoof, firm sole, and a frog without 
 thrushes Taplin. 
 
 FORELOCK, s. The hair that grows from the forepart of the head. 
 FOREST, s. A wild uncultivated tract of ground, with wood. 
 FORESTER, s. An officer of the forest ; an inhabitant of the wild or woody 
 country. 
 
 The forester is an officer sworn to preserve 
 the vert and venison within his walk, and not 
 to conceal but to attach all offenders, to pre- 
 
 sent the offences and attachments in the next 
 court of attachments, or swainmote, and to 
 take care of the lawing of dogs. 
 
 FORESTER, s. A pony bred in the forest. 
 
 The New Forest ponies were supposed to 
 be the produce of the Spanish jennets, driven 
 ashore on the coast of Hampshire, in the dis- 
 persion of the Invincible Armada in the reign 
 of Elizabeth. 
 
 The ponies of the New Forest, Dorsetshire, 
 although private property, run wild in their 
 extensive domain, as if in a state of nature, 
 and are often, in the summer season, seen feed- 
 ing like deer in herds of a score or two. 
 Their colts, when wanted, are either hunted 
 down by horsemen, or caught by stratagem. 
 With few exceptions, these foresters are ill 
 
 made and ordinary, but useful for almost every 
 kind of employment, and they have the qua- 
 lity of being very sure-footed. 
 
 Nearly the same remarks may also be ap- 
 plied to the horses of Exmore Forest, in 
 Devonshire. When the general utility of 
 those inferior races of the horse is considered, 
 it may be submitted whether it would not be 
 generally advantageous, and individually pro- 
 fitable, to improve their form and quality by 
 a proper choice of breeding stock, without 
 
 attempting to increase their height Le 
 
 Keux. 
 
 FORGE, s. The place where iron is beaten into form ; a place where horses 
 
 are shod. 
 
 FORGE, v. To form by the hammer. 
 FOWL, *. A winged animal, a bird. 
 FOWL, v. To kill birds for food or game. 
 FOWLER,*. A sportsman who pursues birds. 
 FOWLING-PIECE, s. A gun for birds.
 
 202 THE FIELD BOOK. [Fox 
 
 Fox, s. A wild animal of the dog kind, remarkable for his cunning. 
 
 The fox is a native of almost every quarter 
 of the globe, and is of such a mid nature, 
 that it is impossible fully to tame him. He 
 is esteemed the most sagacious and most crafty 
 of all beasts of prey. The former quality he 
 shows in his mode of providing himself an 
 asylum, where he retires from pressing dan- 
 gers, where he dwells, and where be brings 
 up his young : and his craftiness is discovered 
 by his schemes to catch lambs, geese, hens, 
 and all kinds of small birds. The fox, if pos- 
 sible, fixes his abode on the border of a wood, 
 in the neighbourhood of some farm or village : 
 he listens to the crowing of the cocks, and the 
 cries of the poultry ; he scents them at a dis- 
 tance ; he chooses his time with judgment ; he 
 conceals his road as well as his design ; he 
 slips forward with caution, sometimes even 
 trailing his body, and seldom makes a fruitless 
 expedition. If he can leap the wall, or get 
 in underneath, he ravages the court-yard, puts 
 all to death, and retires softly with his prey, 
 which he either hides under the herbage, or 
 carries off to his kennel. He returns in a few 
 minutes for another, which he carries off and 
 conceals in the same manner, but in a differ- 
 ent place. In this way he proceeds till the 
 progress of the sun, or some movements per- 
 ceived in the house, advertise him that it is 
 time to suspend his operations, and to retire 
 to his den. He plays the same game with the 
 catchers of thrushes, woodcocks, &c. He 
 visits the nets and bird-lime very early in the 
 morning, carries off successively the birds 
 which are entangled, and lays them in differ- 
 ent places, especially by the sides of highways, 
 in the furrows, under the herbage or brush- 
 
 wood, where they sometimes lie two or three 
 days ; but he knows perfectly where to find 
 them when he is in need. He hunts the 
 young hares in the plains, seizes old ones in 
 their seats, digs out the rabbits in the warrens, 
 discovers the nests of partridges and quails, 
 seizes the mother on the eggs, and destroys 
 a vast quantity of game. He is exceedingly 
 voracious, and, when other food fails him, 
 makes war against rats, field-mice, serpents, 
 lizards, and toads. Of these he destroys vast 
 numbers, and this is the only service that he 
 appears to do to mankind. 
 
 When urged by hunger, he will also eat 
 roots or insects ; and the foxes near the coasts 
 will devour crabs, shrimps, or shell-fish. In 
 France and Italy they do incredible mischief, 
 by feeding on grapes, of which they are ex- 
 cessively fond. 
 
 We are told by Buffon, that he sometimes 
 attacks bee-hives, and the nests of wasps, for 
 the sake of what he can find to eat : and that 
 he frequently meets with so rough a recep- 
 tion, as to force him to retire, that he may 
 roll on the ground and crush those that are 
 stinging him ; but having thus rid himself of 
 his troublesome companions, he instantly re- 
 turns to the charge, and obliges them at length 
 to forsake their combs, and leave them as a 
 reward of his victory. When pressed by ne- 
 cessity he will devour carrion. " I once," 
 says M. Buffon, " suspended on a tree, at the 
 height of nine feet, some meat, bread, and 
 bones. The foxes had been at severe exer- 
 cise during the night ; for next morning the 
 earth all round was beaten, by their jumping, 
 as smooth as a barn-floor."
 
 Fox] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 203 
 
 The fox exhibits a great degree of cunning 
 in digging young rabbits out of their burrows. 
 He does not enter the hole, for in that case he 
 would have to dig several feet along the ground, 
 under the surface of the earth ; but he follows 
 their scent above, till he comes to the end, 
 where they lay, and then scratching up the 
 earth, descends immediately upon, and de- 
 vours them. 
 
 Pontoppidan informs us, that when the fox 
 observes an otter go into the water to fish, he 
 will frequently hide himself behind a stone, 
 and when the otter comes to shore with his 
 prey, he will make such a spring upon him, 
 that the affrighted animal runs off, and leaves 
 his booty behind. A certain person, con- 
 tinues this writer, was surprised on seeing a 
 fox near a fisherman's house, laying a parcel 
 of storks' heads in a row : he waited the 
 event ; the fox hid himself behind them, and 
 made a booty of the first crow that came for 
 a bit of them. 
 
 The fox prepares for himself a convenient 
 den, in which he lies concealed during the 
 greater part of the day. 
 
 This is so contrived, as to afford the best 
 possible security to the inhabitant, being si- 
 tuated under hard ground, the roots of trees, 
 &c. and is besides furnished with proper out- 
 lets, through which he may escape in case of 
 necessity. This care and dexterity in con- 
 structing for himself a habitation, is, by M. 
 BufFon, considered as alone sufficient to rank 
 the fox among the higher order of quadrupeds, 
 since it implies no small degree of intelli- 
 gence. 
 
 The fox, (says he,) knows how to ensure 
 his safety, by providing himself with an asy- 
 lum to which he retires from pressing dangers, 
 where he dwells, and where he brings up his 
 young. He is not a vagabond, but lives settled 
 in a domestic state. This difference, though 
 it appears even among men, has greater effects, 
 and supposes more powerful causes, among the 
 inferior animals. The single idea of a habit- 
 ation, or settled place of abode, the art of 
 making it commodious, and concealing the 
 avenues to it, imply a superior degree of sen- 
 timent. 
 
 He is one of those animals that, in this 
 country, are made objects of diversion in the 
 chase. When he finds himself pursued, he 
 generally makes towards his hole, and pene- 
 trating to the bottom, lies till a terrier is sent 
 in to him. If his den is under a rock, or the 
 roots of trees, which is often the case, he is 
 safe, for the terrier is no match for him there ; 
 and he cannot be dug out by his enemies. 
 When the retreat to his kennel is cut off, his 
 stratagems and shifts to escape are as surpris- 
 ing as they are various. He always takes to 
 the most woody parts of the country, and pre- 
 fers the paths that are most embarrassed with 
 
 thorns and briers. He runs in a direct line 
 before the hounds, and at no great distance 
 from them ; and, if hard pushed, seeks the 
 low wet grounds, as if conscious that the scent 
 does not lie so well there. When overtaken, 
 he becomes obstinately desperate, and bravely 
 defends himself against the teeth of his adver- 
 saries, even to the last gasp. 
 
 Dr. Goldsmith relates a remarkable in- 
 stance of the parental affection of this animal, 
 which, he says, occurred near Chelmsford : 
 " A she fox that had, as it should seem, but 
 one cub, was unkennelled by a gentleman's 
 hounds, and hotly pursued. The poor ani- 
 mal, braving every danger rather than leave 
 her cub behind to be worried by the dogs, 
 took it up in her mouth, and ran with it in 
 this manner for several miles. At last, tak- 
 ing her way through a farmer's yard, she was 
 assaulted by a mastiff, and at length obliged 
 to drop her cub ; this was taken up by the 
 farmer." And we are happy to add that the 
 affectionate creature escaped the pursuit, and 
 got off in safety. 
 
 Of all animals the fox has the most signi- 
 ficant eye, by which is expressed every pas- 
 sion of love, fear, hatred, &c. He is remark- 
 ably playful, but, like all savage creatures 
 half reclaimed, will on the least offence bite 
 even those with whom he is most familiar. 
 
 He is never to be fully tamed; he lan- 
 guishes when deprived of liberty, and if kept 
 too long in a domestic state he dies of cha- 
 grin. When abroad, he is often seen to amuse 
 himself with his fine bushy tail, running 
 sometimes for a considerable while in circles 
 to catch it. In cold weather he wraps it 
 about his nose. 
 
 In the northern countries there is a black 
 fox, a variety of the common fox. The Kam- 
 schatdales informed Dr. Grieve that these 
 were once so numerous with them that when- 
 ever they fed their dogs, it was a difficult 
 piece of labour to prevent them from partak- 
 ing. The doctor says, that when he was in 
 Kamschatka, they were in such plenty near 
 the forts, that in the night they entered them 
 without any apparent apprehension of danger 
 from the dogs of the country. 
 
 One of the inhabitants, he informs us, 
 caught several of them in the pit where he 
 kept his fish. 
 
 The mode usually adopted by the inhabi- 
 tants for taking them is by traps baited with 
 live animals ; and, for the greater security, 
 two or three of these traps are placed upon 
 one hillock, that, whatever way the foxes ap- 
 proach, they may fall into one of them. This 
 is found necessary, since those which have 
 been once in danger, ever afterwards go so 
 cautiously to work, as frequently to eat the 
 bait without being seized. But, with all their 
 cunning, when several traps are employed, it
 
 204 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Fox 
 
 is difficult for them to escape. Their skins 
 are very valuable. 
 
 
 
 Foxes, Anecdotes of. Near the Falls of 
 Clyde, on the summit of an awful precipice, 
 a spot is shown where a fox once exhibited 
 extraordinary cunning. Being hard pressed 
 by the dogs, he seized in his teeth a fast hold 
 of some pendulous shrub growing on the 
 verge, threw himself across the brow of the 
 precipice, and after remaining there until the 
 scent was strong, he recovered the ground, 
 and jumped into an adjoining thicket. Three 
 couple of the leading hounds, in the eagerness 
 of pursuit, actually rushed over the bank, and 
 were dashed to atoms. It is said that the 
 fox escaped. The anecdote is told and cre- 
 dited in the neighbourhood. 
 
 * * 
 
 The old Duke of Grafton had his hounds 
 at Croydon, and occasionally had foxes taken 
 in Whittlebury forest, and sent up in the 
 venison-cart to London ; the foxes thus 
 brought, were carried the next hunting morn, 
 ing in a hamper behind the duke's carriage, 
 and turned down before the hounds. In the 
 course of this plan, a fox was taken from a 
 coppice in the forest, and forwarded as xisual. 
 Some time after a fox was caught in the same 
 coppice, whose size and appearance was so 
 strikingly like that got at the same spot, that 
 the keepers suspected it was the fox they had 
 been in possession of before, and directed the 
 man who took him to London, to inquire 
 whether the fox hunted on such a day was 
 killed, or escaped ; the latter having been 
 the case, the suspicion of the keepers was 
 strengthened. Some short time after, a fox 
 was again caught in the same coppice, which 
 those concerned in the taking were assured 
 was the fox they had bagged twice before ; to 
 be, however, perfectly able to identify their 
 old acquaintance, should another opportunity 
 offer, "previous to his third journey to town, 
 he had one ear slit, and some holes punched 
 through the other. With these marks he 
 was despatched to London, was again hunted, 
 and escaped, and within a very few weeks 
 was retaken in the same coppice ; when his 
 marks justified the keeper's conjectures, in 
 spite of the seeming improbability of the fact. 
 It is with some concern, that the conclusion 
 of this singular account is added, which ter- 
 minates in the death of poor reynard, who 
 was killed after a very severe chase, bearing 
 upon him the signals of his former escapes, 
 and which ought to have entitled him to that 
 lenity and privilege which was formerly 
 granted to a stag who had beat his royal 
 pursuers. 
 
 * * 
 
 Some curious instances have been related 
 to me of the cunning evinced by foxes, not 
 
 only in the preservation of their lives, but in 
 procuring themselves food. A fox, which had 
 been frequently hunted in Leicestershire, was 
 always lost at a particular place, where the 
 hounds could never recover the scent. This 
 circumstance having excited some curiosity, it 
 was discovered that he jumped upon, and ran 
 along a clipped hedge, at the end of which 
 was an old pollard oak tree, hollow in the 
 middle. He crept into this hollow, and lay 
 concealed till the alarm was over. His re- 
 treat, however, being discovered, he was driven 
 from it and killed. Another fox selected a 
 magpie's nest as a place of retreat, and was 
 discovered in consequence of a labouring man 
 having observed a quantity of bones, feathers 
 of birds, &c., on the ground under the nest. 
 The following fact may be relied upon, extra- 
 ordinary as it may appear. I received it from 
 a gentleman of the strictest veracity, who 
 communicated it to me very recently, on his 
 return from the south of France, where he 
 had been residing for some months. A friend 
 of his, with whom he passed much of his 
 time there, was in the habit of shooting in a 
 part of the country where there was much 
 wild and rocky ground. Part of this rocky 
 ground was on the side of a very high hill, 
 which was not accessible for a sportsman, and 
 from which both hares and foxes took their 
 way in the evening to the plain below. There 
 were two channels or gullies made by the 
 rains, leading from these rocks to the lower 
 ground. Near one of these channels, the 
 sportman in question, and his attendant, sta- 
 tioned themselves one evening, in hopes of 
 being able to shoot some hares. They had 
 not been there long, when they observed a 
 fox coming down the gully, and followed by 
 another. After playing together for a little 
 time, one of the foxes concealed himself under 
 a large stone or rock, which was at the bottom 
 of the channel, and the other returned to the 
 rocks. He soon, however, came back, chasing 
 a hare before him. As the hare was passing 
 the stone where the first fox had concealed 
 himself, he tried to seize her by a sudden 
 spring, but missed his aim. The chasing fox 
 then came up, and finding that his expected 
 prey had escaped, through the want of skill in 
 his associate, he fell upon him, and they both 
 fought with so much animosity, that the par- 
 ties who had been watching their proceedings 
 
 came up and destroyed them both. 
 
 * 
 
 Stratagems of foxes to take water-fowl. 
 Amongst the devices of the fox to catch 
 his prey, is that of sliding under water like a 
 frog, only leaving his nostrils above the sur- 
 face to take breath, in such places as that de- 
 scribed by White, where he has observed 
 water-fowl resort. This appears to me to have 
 given origin to a curious legend which I have
 
 Fox] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 205 
 
 traced to Albertus Magnus, the celebrated na- 
 turalist of the middle ages. " When the 
 fox," says he, " is troubled with gnats or fleas, 
 he taketh a mouthful of straw or soft hay, or 
 hair, and so goeth into the water, dipping his 
 hinder parts by little and little, then the in- 
 sects betake themselves to his head, which he 
 keepeth out of the water, which the fox feel- 
 ing, dippeth or diveth also the same under 
 
 FOXCASE, *. A fox's skin. 
 
 FOXCHASE, s. The pursuit of the fox with hounds. 
 
 FOXHOUND (Canis celer}, s. A hound famous for the pursuit of foxes. 
 
 water to his month, wherein he holdeth the 
 hay as aforesaid, whereunto the flies run for 
 sanctuary or dry refuge, which the fox per- 
 ceiving, suddenly casteth it out of his mouth, 
 and runneth out of the water, by this means 
 easing himself of all those enemies." Jesse 
 Buffon White of Selborne Sporting 
 Anecdotes. 
 
 The muzzle of the fox-hound is rather 
 long, and his head small in proportion to his 
 body ; his ears long and pendulous, though 
 not so much as those of the blood-hound or 
 stag-hound. His legs are very straight, his 
 feet round and not too large, his chest deep, 
 and breast wide, his back broad, his neck thin, 
 his shoulders lie well back, his tail thick and 
 bushy, and carried high when in the chase. 
 His colour is generally white, variously patch- 
 ed with black in different parts of the body. 
 
 Mr. Daniel makes the following remarks 
 on the choice of hounds. Most sportsmen 
 have their prejudices as to the colour of their 
 dogs. In an old distich it is said. 
 
 " So many men, so many minds, 
 
 So many hounds, so many kinds ;" 
 and the choice of hounds in former times, as 
 to colour and other points, is no bad commen- 
 tary upon it ; for we are gravely told, that 
 white coloured dogs, especially those that were 
 pupped without any spot upon them, although 
 not generally good for all sorts of game, were 
 excellent for the stag ; that people from ex- 
 
 perience valued them, because of their natural 
 instinct, being curious hunters, with admira- 
 ble noses, and very good at stratagems ; and, 
 moreover, that they were less subject to dis- 
 eases, by reason of a predominancy of phlegm 
 which gave them a good temperament of 
 body. 
 
 Black hounds were not to be rejected, es- 
 pecially when marked with white and not 
 red spots, the whiteness proceeding from the 
 phlegmatic constitution, which was supposed 
 to ensure memory. They were at the same 
 time more obedient, and were said to be good 
 hunters, not frightened at water and so hardy 
 as seldom to require the doctor. 
 
 Grey coloured hounds (supposing all sus- 
 picion of mongrelism to be removed) were to 
 be coveted, on account of their cunning, never 
 faltering, nor being discouraged in their quest. 
 It is allowed that their noses were not the 
 best, but being indefatigable, they pushed 
 themselves forward ; and it is presumed, from 
 the above failing, that nine times out of ten 
 they did more harm than good.
 
 206 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Fox 
 
 Yellow hounds, which are defined to be 
 those having red hair, inclining to brown, pos- 
 sess too much choler to be much prized ; 
 were too giddy and resolute to hunt any ani- 
 mals that turned too much in their chase ; 
 were with difficulty taught, and not easily cor- 
 rected ; and, from their impatient temper, 
 which hurried them beyond then: strength, 
 were very liable to diseases. 
 
 No country in Europe can boast of fox- 
 hounds equal in swiftness, strength and agility, 
 to those of Britain, where the utmost atten- 
 tion is paid to their breeding, education, and 
 food. The climate also seems congenial to 
 their nature; for, when taken to France or 
 Spain, and other southern countries of Europe, 
 they quickly degenerate, and lose all the ad- 
 mirable qualities they possess in this country : 
 
 In thee alone, fair land of liberty, 
 Is bred the perfect hound in scent and speed 
 As yet unrivall'd, while in other climes 
 Their virtue fails, a weak degenerate race. 
 
 SoMERVILLE. 
 
 creased ardour, down to the present day. Cer- 
 tainly there is no country that can boast of 
 such expensive and convenient receptacles for 
 the maintenance of fox-hounds as Great Bri- 
 tain. The kennel of the Duke of Richmond, 
 at Goodwood, cost 19,000/. and Mr. Noel's 
 pack of hounds was sold to Sir William Low- 
 ther, Bart, for the large sum of 1 ,000 guineas. 
 * 
 
 The chief excellence in a pack of fox- 
 hounds is the head they carry, taken collec- 
 tively ; and on this and the fineness of their 
 noses depend their speed. Mr. Beckford says, 
 " that hounds should go, like the horses of 
 the sun, all abreast." Five and twenty couple 
 are a sufficient force at any time to be taken 
 into the field ; they are a match for any fox, 
 supposing them steady and their speed nearly 
 equal : too heavy dogs always do more mis- 
 chief than service. Hounds that are meant 
 to run well together should never have too 
 many old ones amongst them. Five or six 
 seasons are sufficient to destroy the speed of 
 most dogs, although this depends much on 
 constitution. We are informed of a spayed 
 bitch, called Lilly, which ran at the head of 
 Mr. Paxton's harriers at Newmarket, for five 
 seasons ; a singular instance of undiminished 
 speed Daniel Beckford Brown. 
 
 It is a trait in our national character to be 
 fond of hunting. It was the occupation of 
 our forefathers from the remotest posterity, 
 and seems to have descended, with even in- 
 
 Fox HUNTER, s. A man whose chief ambition is to show his bravery in 
 
 hunting foxes. 
 
 FOXTRAP, s. A gin or snare to catch foxes. 
 
 FRACTURE, s. Separation of continuous -parts ; the breaking of a bone. 
 FRACTURE, v. To break a bone. 
 FRINGILLA (Illiger), s. The finch, a genus thus characterised : 
 
 Bill straight and perfectly conical, short, 
 hard, and sharp at the point ; the ridge of the 
 upper mandible rounded, and frequently ad- 
 vancing in an angle upon the forehead, the 
 cutting edges of the under mandible bending 
 a little inwards. Nostrils situated behind the 
 
 horny bulging base of the bill, round, and 
 hidden by the small frontal feathers. Wings 
 short, having the third or fourth quill-feather 
 the longest. Legs with the shank as short as, 
 or shorter than, the middle toe, and with the 
 toes divided Montagu. 
 
 FROG, s. A small animal with four feet, of the amphibious kind ; the hol- 
 low part of the horse's hoof. Vide FEET. 
 
 FROST, s. Tb.% last effect of cold, the power or act of congelation. 
 FROSTBITTEN, a. Nipped or withered by the frost- 
 
 This effect of frost upon birds, took place 
 in February, 1809, when a boy in the service 
 of Mr. W. Newman, miller, at Legbourne, 
 near Mailing, went into a field, called the 
 Forty Acres, and saw a number of rooks on 
 the ground, very close together. He made 
 a noise to drive them away, but they did not 
 appear alarmed ; he threw snow-balls to make 
 them rise, still they remained. Surprised at 
 this apparent indifference, he went in among 
 them, and actually picked up twenty-seven 
 rooks, and also in several parts of the same 
 field, ninety larks, a pheasant, and a buzzard 
 
 hawk. The cause of the inactivity of the 
 birds, was a thing of rare occurrence in this 
 climate ; a heavy rain fell on Thursday after- 
 noon, which, freezing as it came down, so com- 
 pletely glazed over the bodies of the birds, 
 that they were fettered in a coat of ice, and 
 completely deprived of the power of motion. 
 Several of the larks were dead, having perished 
 from the intenseness of the cold. The buz- 
 zard hawk being strong, struggled hard for his 
 liberty, broke his icy fetters, and effected his 
 escape.
 
 Fns] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 207 
 
 FROSTNAIL, s. A nail with a prominent head driven into the horse's shoes, 
 
 that it may pierce the ice. 
 FRY, s. The swarm of little fishes just produced from the spawn; any 
 
 swarm of animals. 
 FULICA, (BRISSON,) s. The coot, a genus thus characterised : 
 
 Bill of middle size, strong, conical, straight, 
 compressed, higher than broad at the base ; 
 ridge advancing upon the forehead, and ex- 
 panding into a naked plate ; points of both 
 mandibles compressed and of equal length, 
 the upper slightly curved, and widened at the 
 base. Nostrils at the side, in the middle of 
 the bill, slit lengthwise, half closed by a mem- 
 
 brane which covers the widening, pierced from 
 part to part. Legs long, slender, naked above 
 the knee ; three toes before and one behind ; 
 all the toes very long, and re-united at their 
 base, and furnished on the sides with a seal- 
 lopped membrane. Wings of middle size, 
 the first quill shorter than the second and third, 
 which are the longest in the wing. Montagu. 
 
 FULVOUS, a. A colour which may be described as brownish. 
 
 FUMIGATE, v. To smoke, to perfume by smoke or vapour ; to medicate or 
 
 heal by vapours. 
 FUMIGATION, s. Scents raised by fire; the application of medicines to 
 
 the body in fumes. 
 
 lowing fumigation may be employed ; the 
 number of pans in which the materials are 
 placed being adapted to the size of the stable. 
 
 Common salt . 8 oz. 
 
 Magnesia, powdered . 6 oz. 
 
 Let them be well mixed, and placed in an 
 earthen dish ; then pour on, gradually, four 
 ounces of sulphuric acid. As soon as the 
 latter is added, shut the door and windows. 
 
 Fumigations are used to prevent the spread- 
 ing of epidemic distempers. When a stable 
 is contaminated with glanders, the best means 
 are to remove litter, hay, dust, &c., carefully, 
 as well as the pail, collar, and every thing 
 belonging to the infected horse. The rack 
 and manger are to be well scraped, and after- 
 wards washed with hot water and soft soap. 
 
 After this, the manger, &c. should be well 
 
 washed with water ; the floor or pavement of 
 the stall is also to be carefully washed and 
 swept, and finally the whole to be washed with 
 slaked lime, and a solution of glue. Before 
 horses are admitted into the stable, the fol- 
 
 During the whole day the stable door and 
 windows are to be kept shut ; but at night 
 they may be thrown open, that there may 
 be no danger in entering the stable the next 
 morning White. 
 
 FUNDAMENT, s. The back part of the body ; the aperture from which the 
 excrements are ejected. 
 
 FUNGUS, s. Strictly a mushroom ; a word used to express such excres- 
 cences of flesh as grow out upon the lips of wounds, or any other 
 excrescence from trees or plants not naturally belonging to them. 
 
 FUR, s. Skin with soft hair, with which garments are lined for warmth ; 
 soft hair of beasts found in cold countries ; hair in general. 
 
 FUSE, v. To melt, to put into fusion. 
 
 FUSIL, s. A firelock, a small neat musket. 
 
 FUSTIAN, s. A kind of cloth made of linen and cotton. 
 
 FUSTIC, s. A sort of dye-wood brought from the West Indies.
 
 VJADFLY, s. A fly that stings cattle. 
 
 GADWALL, or GRAY, (Anas strepera, LINK. ; Le Chipeau, BUFF.), s. 
 
 a bird. 
 
 The gadwall is less than the mallard, mea- 
 suring about nineteen inches in length, and 
 twenty-three in breadth. 
 
 Birds of this species breed in the desert 
 marshes of the north, and remain there 
 throughout the spring and summer. On the 
 approach of winter they leave the European 
 and Siberian parts of Russia, Sweden, &c., 
 and, aided by the first strong north-east wind, 
 commonly make their appearance about the 
 month of November, on the French, British, 
 and other more southern shores, where they 
 
 remain till the end of February, and then 
 return to their northern haunts. They are 
 very shy and wary birds, feeding only in the 
 night, and lurking concealed among the rushes 
 in the watery waste during the day, in which 
 they are seldom seen on the wing. 
 
 These birds show themselves expert in 
 diving as well as in swimming, and often dis- 
 appoint the sportsman in his aim ; for the in- 
 stant they see the flash of the pan, they dis- 
 appear, and dive to a distant secure retreat. 
 Bewick. 
 
 GAFF, s. A harpoon, or large hook. 
 
 GAGGLE, v. To make a noise like a goose ; s. a flock of geese. 
 
 GALBANUM, s. A kind of gum. 
 
 GALL, s. The bile, an animal juice remarkable for its supposed bitterness ; 
 the part which contains the bile ; any thing extremely bitter; a slight 
 hurt by fretting off the skin ; an astringent medicine. 
 
 Galls are lacerations occasioned by the too enlightened ; experience having taught both 
 
 tight pressure and friction of an uneasy and how to appreciate prevention. The pru- 
 
 ill-fittcd saddle, or heavy harness. They dent sportsman will never take his horse to 
 
 are seldom seen with either the judicious or the field, nor the humane driver his carriage-
 
 GAL] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 209 
 
 horse to the road, till personal examina- 
 tion has convinced him the necessary appa- 
 ratus is not only firm, hut proportionally 
 easy ; and this should become the more pre- 
 dominant in memory because it is natural to 
 conclude, no man existing would, by neglect 
 or inattention, give pain to the very animal 
 from whose exertions he is to derive his own 
 pleasure. 
 
 Injuries of this description, if unexpectedly 
 sustained, should be immediately attended to; 
 a repetition, and that so soon, upon the part 
 so injured, is frequently productive of trouble, 
 expense, loss of time, and disappointment. 
 When the side of a horse is galled, as it some- 
 times is, by the girth buckle having been most 
 improperly placed upon the edge of the pad, 
 
 GALL, v. To hurt by fretting- the skin. 
 GALLINACEOUS BIRDS, s. 
 
 A large portion of these seem to have left 
 their native woods to crowd around the dwell- 
 ings of man, where, subservient to his pur- 
 pose, they subsist upon the pickings of the 
 farm-yard, the stable, or the dung-hill ; a 
 
 it is not unlikely, for want of early or proper 
 attention, to terminate in a sitfast, and then 
 can only be completely cured by extirpation 
 with the knife. The withers being affected 
 in the same way, and the saddle, or harness, 
 continued in use, by which the injury is ori- 
 ginally occasioned, the foundation of fistula 
 may be laid, and will be likely to ensue. In 
 all slight and superficial galls, two or three 
 moistenings of the part with cold vinegar, will 
 allay the inflammation, and harden the sur- 
 face ; hut where the long-continued heat and 
 friction has occasioned a destruction of parts, 
 it must be dressed and managed as a wound, 
 which can only be completely cured by in- 
 carnation White. 
 
 she is most assiduous in showing them ; on 
 this account she generally makes her nest on 
 the ground, or in places easy of access to her 
 young brood. 
 
 The habitudes of the domestic breed of 
 
 cheerful, active race, which enliven and adorn I poultry cannot possibly escape observation ; 
 
 the rural scene, and require no other care 
 than the fostering hand of the house-wife to 
 shelter and protect them. Some kinds, such 
 as the partridge, the pheasant, and the like, 
 are found only in cultivated places, at no 
 great distance from the habitations of men ; 
 and, although they have not submitted to his 
 dominion, they are nevertheless subject to his 
 controlling power, and are the objects of his 
 keenest pursuit : whilst others, taking a wider 
 range, find food and shelter in the deepest re- 
 cesses of the woods and forests, sometimes 
 subsisting upon wild and heathy mountains, 
 or among rocks and precipices the most diffi- 
 cult of access. 
 
 The characters of the gallinaceous genus 
 are generally well known : most of the species 
 are distinguished above all others for the 
 whiteness of their flesh; their bodies are 
 large and bulky, and their heads compara- 
 tively small ; the bill in all of them is short, 
 strong and somewhat curved ; their wings are 
 short and concave, and scarcely able to sup- 
 port their bodies, on which account they sel- 
 dom make long excursions : their legs are 
 strong, and are furnished with a spur or a 
 knob behind. 
 
 Birds of this kind are extremely prolific 
 and lay a great number of eggs : the young 
 follow the mother as soon as hatched, and 
 immediately learn to pick up the food, which 
 
 and every one must have noticed the fierce 
 jealousy of the cock. It should seem that 
 this jealousy is not confined to his rivals, but 
 may sometimes extend to his beloved female ; 
 and that he is capable of being actuated by 
 revenge, founded on some degree of reasoning 
 concerning her conjugal infidelity. An inci- 
 dent which happened at the seat of Mr. B , 
 near Berwick, justifies this remark. " My 
 mowers," says he, " cut a partridge on her 
 nest, and immediately brought the eggs (four- 
 teen) to the house. I ordered them to be 
 put under a very large beautiful hen, and her 
 own to be taken away. They were hatched 
 in two days, and the hen brought them up 
 perfectly well till they were five or six weeks 
 old. During that time they were constantly 
 kept confined in an outhouse, without having 
 been seen by any of the other poultry. The 
 door happened to be left open, and the cock 
 got in. My housekeeper, hearing her in dis- 
 tress, ran to her assistance, but did not arrive 
 in time to save her life ; the cock, finding her 
 with the brood of partridges, fell upon her 
 with the utmost fury, and put her to death. 
 The housekeeper found him tearing her 
 both with his beak and spurs, although she 
 was then fluttering in the last agony, and 
 incapable of any resistance. The hen had 
 been, formerly, the cock's greatest favourite. 
 Bewick. 
 
 GALLINULA ^LATHAM), s. A genus thus characterised :- 
 
 vancing upon the forehead and dilating in some 
 species into a naked plate ; point of both man- 
 
 Bill shorter than the head, compressed!, co- 
 nical, higher than broad at the base ; ridge ad-
 
 210 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [GAL 
 
 dibles compressed, and of equal length ; the 
 upper slightly curved, the nasal groove very 
 large, the under forming an angle. Nostrils 
 at the sides, in the middle of the bill, slit 
 lengthways, half shut by a membrane which 
 covers the nasal groove, and pierced from part 
 to part. Legs long, naked above the knee ; 
 
 three toes before and one behind, the fore 
 toes long, divided, and furnished with a very 
 narrow border. Wings of middle size, the first 
 quill shorter than the second and third, which 
 are the longest in the wing. The latter does 
 not hold in some foreign species Montagu. 
 
 GALLOP, v. To move forward by leaps, so that all the feet are off the 
 ground at once ; to move fast. 
 
 Gallop is one pace of the horse, well known I peculiar horse may or can go with ease at his 
 
 by that general name; though it will admit 
 of gradational distinctions. A canter is the 
 slowest gallop, in which a horse bears most 
 upon his haunches, but lightly on the bit : it 
 is a pace which spirited good-tempered horses 
 seem to enjoy, and is peculiarly calculated for 
 the accommodation of a lady. A rating gallop 
 is the increase of action to such pace as the 
 
 rate in common strokes, without being exerted 
 to speed ; and this is the hunting gallop of 
 thorotigh-bred horses, who will always lay by 
 the side of hounds at it, without being in the 
 least distressed. A brushing gallop upon the 
 turf, implies an increased degree of velocity, 
 but not equal to utmost speed Taplin. 
 
 GALLOP, s. The motion of a horse when he runs at full speed. 
 
 GALLOPER, s. A horse that gallops. 
 
 GALLOWAY, s. A horse not more than fourteen hands high. 
 
 symmetry, uniform strength, and adequate ac- 
 tion ; but, if well bred, their qualifications 
 and endurance of fatigue exceed description. 
 
 Galloway is the name given to that useful 
 kind of small horse from thirteen to fourteen 
 hands high ; they are rarely to be seen of exact 
 
 GAMBET, (Fringa Gambetta, LINN. 
 
 This is the Chevalier Rouge of Brisson, 
 and the Red-legged Horseman of Albin. For 
 want of a specimen of this bird, the following 
 description is borrowed from Latham : 
 
 " Size of the Greenshank : length twelve 
 inches, bill of a reddish colour, with a black 
 tip ; the irides yellowish green ; head, back, 
 and breast cinereous brown, spotted with dull 
 yellow; wing coverts and scapulars cinere- 
 ous, edged with dull yellow; prime quills 
 
 La Gambette, BUFF.) *. A bird. 
 
 dusky; shaft of the first white ; tail dusk}', 
 bordered with yellow ; legs yellow. This in- 
 habits England, but is not common ; has been 
 shot on the coast of Lincolnshire. Known in 
 France ; but is there a rare bird. Has a note 
 not unlike the whistle of a woodcock ; and 
 the flesh is esteemed. Inhabits Scandinavia 
 and Iceland ; called in the last Stelkr. It 
 has also been taken in the Frozen Sea between 
 Asia and America." Bewick. 
 
 GAMBREL, s. The hind leg of a horse. 
 
 GAME, s. Sport of any kind; jest, opposed to earnest; merriment ; a sin- 
 gle match at play ; field sports, as the chase ; animals pursued in the 
 field. 
 
 In choosing game, young birds may be dis- 
 tinguished by the softness of their quills, 
 which in older ones will be hard and white. 
 The females are, in general, preferable to the 
 males ; they are more juicy, and seldom so 
 tough. For example, a hen pheasant or a 
 duck is to be preferred to a cock pheasant or 
 mallard. The old pheasants may be distin- 
 guished by the length and sharpness of their 
 spurs, which, in the younger ones, are short 
 and blunt. Old partridges are always to be 
 known, during the early part of the season, 
 by their legs being a pale blue, instead of a 
 yellowish brown ;. so that, when a Londoner 
 
 receives his brace of blue-legged birds in Sep- 
 tember, he should immediately snap their 
 legs, and draw out the sinews, by means of 
 pulling off the feet, instead of leaving them 
 to torment him, like so many strings, when 
 he would be wishing to enjoy his repast. 
 This remedy of making the leg tender removes 
 the objection to old birds, provided the wea- 
 ther will admit of their being sufficiently 
 kept; and indeed they are then often pre- 
 ferable, from having a higher flavour. 
 
 If birds are overkept their legs will be dry, 
 their eyes much sunk, and the vent will be- 
 come soft and somewhat discoloured. The
 
 GAM] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 211 
 
 King of Tunis, who landed at Naples to have 
 an interview with Charles the Emperor. 
 They were stuffed with odoriferous drugs and 
 spices to such an expense, that the cooking of 
 one peacock and two pheasants, dressed after 
 this fashion, amounted to a hundred ducats, 
 and when they were carved, not only the din- 
 ing-room, hut all the apartments of his palace, 
 and even the adjoining streets, were filled with 
 the aromatic vapour, which was not presently 
 di spersed Ha tcker Da niel. 
 
 GAMECOCK, #. A cock bred to fight. 
 
 GAME-EGG, s. An egg from which fighting cocks are bred. 
 
 GAMEFOWL, s. Game cocks and hens. 
 
 Game fowls are too well known to require to the very smallest individuals ; these rival 
 
 first place to ascertain if they are beginning to 
 be high is the inside of their bills, where it is 
 not amiss to put some heather straw or spice, 
 if you want them to keep for any length of 
 time. Birds that have fallen in the water, 
 or have not had time to get cold, should never 
 be packed like others, but sent openly, and 
 dressed as soon as possible. 
 
 * * * 
 
 A peculiar culinary mode of perfuming 
 their birds was observed at the table of the 
 
 a particular description. Their plumage, par- 
 ticularly the red, is most beautiful and rich ; 
 their size somewhat below the common, and 
 their symmetry and delicacy of limbs to be 
 compared with those of the race-horse and 
 the deer, or in more strict analogy, with the 
 wild .species of their own genus. The an- 
 cients kept gamecocks for the same purpose 
 as the moderns, and there is a game breed at 
 present existing in India; but I have not 
 hitherto obtained any information as to the 
 origin of our game breed, which has been 
 established during many centuries in this 
 country. Their flesh is of the most beautiful 
 white, and superior to that of all other breeds 
 of domestic fowls, for richness and delicacy 
 of flavour ; but the extreme difficulty of 
 rearing the chickens, from their natural pug- 
 nacity of disposition, which shows itself at 
 the earliest possible period, deters most breed- 
 ers, excepting those who breed for the cock- 
 pit. I have many times had whole broods, 
 scarcely feathered, stone-blind from fighting, 
 
 couples moping in corners, and renewing their 
 battles on obtaining the first ray of light. On 
 this account few can be reared, and as this 
 disposition, to a certain degree, prevails in the 
 half-bred, it prevents crossing with the game 
 cock, otherwise a great improvement. The 
 game eggs are smaller than common, finely 
 shaped, and extremely delicate. 
 
 Philanthropists are in the habit of declaim- 
 ing much against the practice of cock-pit bat- 
 tles, but, on reflection, the cruelty of that 
 sport will be found among the least, wherein 
 the feelings of animals are concerned ; since 
 fighting, in the gamecock, is a natural and 
 irresistible passion, and can never take place 
 against his will ; and since those engaged in 
 regular combat upon the arena would do so 
 voluntarily, and with equal ardour, did they 
 meet in the desert. Another and similar 
 mistake is the supposed additional cruelty of 
 arming the heels of the cock with steel, 
 which, on the contrary, conduces to shorten 
 the period of their sufferings Moubray. 
 
 GAMEKEEPER, s. A person who looks after game, and sees it is not de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 Gamekeepers are subject to the full penal- 
 ties of unqualified and unlicensed persons, as 
 well as to actions of trespass, if they outstep 
 the bounds of the manor for which they are 
 appointed. 
 
 Only one can be appointed to each manor. 
 
 Deputation of a Gamekeeper. The de- 
 putation granted to a gamekeeper must be re- 
 gistered with the clerk of the peace, within 
 twenty days after it was granted, and a certi- 
 ficate taken of the same, under penalty of 20/. 
 The deputation for one gamekeeper holds 
 good till another is appointed. If a new 
 gamekeeper is appointed within the year, the 
 game certificate of the former keeper, may be 
 transferred to him for the remainder of the 
 year, and this must be done free of all ex- 
 pense, by the clerk to the commissioners of 
 the district. 
 
 Form of a Deputation (To be written 
 on a II. I os. stamp). 
 
 Know all men, by these presents, that I 
 of , in the county 
 
 of , Esquire, lord of the manor 
 
 of , in the same county, have 
 
 nominated, deputed, and appointed, and by 
 these presents do nominate, depute, and ap- 
 point of , yeoman, 
 to be gamekeeper of and within my said ma- 
 nor of with full power, license, 
 and authority to pursue, take, and kill any 
 hare, pheasant, partridge, or other game what- 
 soever, in and upon my said manor of , 
 for my sole and immediate use and benefit, 
 and also to take and seize all such guns, bows, 
 greyhounds, setting dogs, lurchers, ferrets, 
 trammels, lowbells, trays, or other nets, hare- 
 pipes, snares, or other engines, for the pursu- 
 P'2
 
 212 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [GAM 
 
 ing, taking, or killing of hares, rabbits, phea- 
 sants, partridges, or other game, as shall be 
 used within the precincts of iny said manor, 
 by any person or persons, who by law are 
 prohibited to keep or use the same. In wit- 
 ness whereof I have hereunto set my hand 
 
 GAME-LAWS, s. 
 
 Hares may be killed at any time of the 
 year. Pheasants from the 1st of October to 
 the 1st of February. Partridges from the 1st 
 of September to the 1 st of February ; penalty 
 for killing them at other times &l. Grouse 
 from the 12th of August to the 10th of 
 December. Black game (in Devonshire, 
 Somersetshire, and the New Forest) from the 
 1st of September to the 10th of December. 
 Black game (everywhere else) from the 20th 
 of August to the 10th of December. Bus- 
 tards from the 1st of September to the 1st of 
 March ; penalty for killing at other times 20/., 
 or not less than 10, for the first offence, and 
 for every subsequent offence 30/., or not less 
 than 20/. 
 
 Any person taking or killing game on Sun- 
 days or Christmas-days to forfeit, for the first 
 offence, not more than 20. nor less than 101. ; 
 for the second offence from 30/. to 20/., and 
 for the third and every subsequent offence 
 50/. 
 
 An unqualified person, killing, can only be 
 convicted of one penalty in a day. That is, 
 an unqualified person, or even a poacher, 
 would have no more to pay for killing fifty 
 head of game in the same day, than he would 
 for killing one. Though the poacher, or un- 
 qualified person, would be liable to the other 
 penalties, viz. 51. each for every head of game 
 which he sold, offered for sale, or which had 
 even been found in his possession ; and if a dog 
 or gun (or any other engine) was used in the 
 destruction of game, he would also be liable 
 to 20/. penalty, provided he had not taken 
 out a sporting certificate. 
 
 and seal this day of ,18 
 
 (Signature and seal.) 
 
 Sealed and delivered in presence of 
 (The signature of one witness, spe- 
 cifying his place of abode, is suffi- 
 cient). 
 
 If a person go in pursuit of game with a 
 dog and gun, he can only be charged with 
 one offence, arid convicted in one penalty for 
 both. (7 Term Reports, 152.) 
 
 Killing from seven o'clock at night to six 
 in the morning, between the 12th of October 
 and 12th of February, and from nine at night 
 to four in the morning, from the 12th of Fe- 
 bruary to the 12th of October, (besides the 
 other penalties before named) first offence, 
 not more than 20/. nor less than 101.; second 
 offence from' 30/. to 201. ; third and subse- 
 quent, 50/. 
 
 Servant of a lord of a manor may kill, 
 and yet the lord of the manor may not, un- 
 less he is qualified. 
 
 Informations for penalties, relative to the 
 game laws, should be brought so far as the 
 conviction to take place within three months. 
 
 A penalty may be either recovered by in- 
 formation before a justice of peace, or sued 
 for in any of the courts of record at West- 
 minster. In the latter case, the action must 
 be brought within six months after the offence 
 committed. 
 
 Rabbits, woodcocks, snipes, quails, and 
 landrails, are made game only so far as relates 
 to shooting them, for which, therefore, a cer- 
 tificate is required ; but one without a certi- 
 ficate may catch, sell, or have them in his 
 possession. 
 
 Wild fowl any one may shoot on the coast, 
 from a public path, &c., &c. 
 
 A person, with neither qualification nor 
 license, has a right to carry a gun, provided 
 he does not use it for the destruction of game. 
 
 GAME, PRICE OF. 
 
 Crane, 
 Heron, 
 Mallard, 
 Teal, 
 Widgeon, 
 Shoveller, 
 Woodcock, 
 Lapwing, 
 Seagulls,(black- 
 headed gulls,) 
 Sturts, (purrs,) 
 Quail, 
 
 Snipes, 
 
 Anno, 1512. 
 
 Sixteen pence. 
 
 Twelve pence. 
 
 Two pence. 
 
 One penny. 
 
 One penny. 
 
 Sixpence. 
 
 One penny or three half-pence. 
 
 One penny. 
 
 Sixpence a dozen. 
 Two pence. 
 
 Three pence a dozen. 
 
 Anno, 1833. 
 
 Three to four shillings. 
 
 Three to five shillings. 
 
 Two shillings, to three shillings. 
 
 Eighteen pence to three shillings. 
 
 Three to ten shillings. 
 
 Nine pence to a shilling a couple. 
 
 One penny to three half-pence. 
 
 Three pence each. 
 
 Two to three shillings. 
 
 { One shilling to two shillings 
 
 ! each.
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 Partridge, 
 Redshank, 
 Bittern, 
 Pheasant, 
 
 Rey, (land rails,) 
 
 Curlew, 
 Peacock, 
 
 Ruffs and Reeves, 
 
 Knot, 
 Dottrell, 
 Bustard, 
 Terns, 
 Small Birds, 
 
 Anno, 1512. 
 Two pence. 
 One penny. 
 Twelve pence. 
 Twelve pence. 
 
 Two pence. 
 
 Twelve pence. 
 Twelve pence. 
 
 One penny. 
 One penny. 
 
 Four pence a dozen. 
 Twelve pence a dozen. 
 
 213 
 
 Anno, 1833. 
 
 Eighteen pence to three shillings. 
 One shilling to fifteen pence. 
 Five to seven shillings. 
 Four to eight shillings. 
 
 Two to five shillings. 
 
 f Two shillings (stone curlew 
 
 ( three shillings). 
 Ten to twenty shillings. 
 
 | Four shillings if fatted, one 
 -C shilling to two shillings if 
 
 I shot. 
 
 Two to three shillings. 
 Two shillings each. 
 One to three guineas. 
 
 GAMMON, s. The buttock of a hog salted and dried ; a term at backgam- 
 mon for winning the game. 
 
 GANDER, s. The male of the goose. 
 
 GANGRENE, s. A mortification, a stoppage of circulation followed by putre- 
 faction. 
 
 GANGRENE, v. To corrupt to mortification. 
 
 GANGRENOUS, a. Mortified, or betokening mortification. 
 
 GANNET, GAN, SOLAND, or SOLAN GOOSE, (Pelicanus bassamts, LINN.; 
 Le Fou de Bassan, BUFF.) s. 
 
 The gannet is generally about seven pounds 
 in weight, three feet in length, and six in 
 breadth. The bill is of a pale or lead-coloured 
 blue, six inches long, a little jagged on the 
 edges, strong and straight to the tip, which is 
 
 inclined a little downwards ; the upper bill 
 is furnished with a distinct rib or ridge, run- 
 ning along from the tip nearly to its base, on 
 each side of which it is furrowed, without any 
 visible appearance of nostrils ; the tongue is
 
 214 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 small, and placed far within the mouth, all 
 the inside of \vnich is black ; a darkish line 
 passes from the hrow over the eyes, which are 
 surrounded with a naked blue skin, and, like 
 those of the owl, are set in the head so as to 
 look nearly straight forward, and the extreme 
 paleness of the hides gives them a keen Mild 
 stare. The gape of the mouth is very wide, 
 and seems more lengthened by a slip of naked 
 black skin, which is extended on each side 
 from the corners beyond the cheeks; these 
 features of its countenance, altogether give it 
 the appearance of wearing spectacles. A loose 
 black, bare, dilatable skin, capable of great 
 distension, hung from the blades of the under 
 bill, and extended over the throat, serves it 
 as a pouch to carry provisions to its mate or 
 its young. The body is flat and well clothed 
 with feathers ; the neck long ; the crown of 
 the head, nape, and, in some specimens, the 
 hinder part of the neck, are of a buff colour ; 
 greater quills and bastard wings black, and 
 the rest of the plumage white. The tail is 
 wedge-shaped, and consists of twelve tapering 
 sharp-pointed feathers, the middle ones the 
 longest. The legs and feet are nearly of the 
 same colour and conformation as those of the 
 cormorant, but they are curiously marked by 
 a pea-green stripe, which runs down each 
 shin, and branches off along eveiy one of the 
 toes. The male and female are nearly alike, 
 but the young birds, during the first year, ap- 
 pear as if they were of a distinct species, for 
 their plumage is then of a dusky colour, 
 speckled all over with triangular white spots. 
 
 The female makes her nest in the caverns 
 and fissures, or on the ledges of the lowering 
 precipice, as well as on the plain surface of 
 the ground ; it is formed of a great quantity 
 of withered grasses and sea- weeds of various 
 kinds, gathered with much labour from the 
 barren soil, or picked up floating about upon 
 the water. She lays three eggs, of a white 
 colour, and somewhat less than those of a 
 goose, although ornithologists assert that she 
 will lay only one egg, if left to herself undis- 
 turbed, and that when this egg is taken away 
 she then lays a second, and in like manner a 
 third, which she is generally permitted to 
 hatch, and rear the young one. 
 
 The male and female hatch and fish by 
 turns ; the fisher returns to the nest with five 
 or six herrings in its gorget, all entire and un- 
 digested, which the hatcher pulls out from the 
 throat of its provider, and swallows them, 
 making at the same time a loud noise. 
 
 These birds are common on the coasts of 
 Norway and Iceland, and are said to be met 
 with in great numbers about New Holland, 
 and New Zealand ; they breed also on the 
 coasts of Newfoundland, and migrate south- 
 ward along the American shores as far as 
 South Carolina ; they are noticed, indeed, by 
 
 navigators, as being met with, dispersed over 
 both hemispheres, which are probably one 
 great family spread over the whole globe ; 
 but their greatest known rendezvous is the 
 Hebrides and other solitary rocky isles of 
 North Britain, where their nests, in the 
 months of May and June, are described as so 
 closely placed together, that it is difficult to 
 walk without treading upon some of them ; 
 and it is said that the swarms of the old birds 
 are so prodigious, that when they rise into the 
 air, they stun the ear with their noise, and 
 overshadow the ground like the clouds. 
 
 At the small island of Borea, Martin says, 
 " The heavens were darkened by those flying 
 above our heads ; their excrements were in 
 such quantity, that they gave a tincture to 
 the sea, and at the same time sullied our boat 
 and clothes." Besides this small island of 
 Borea, and St. Kila, noticed by Martin, Pen- 
 nant and other waiters mention the isle of 
 Ailsa, in the Frith of Clyde ; the Stack of 
 Souliskerry, near the Orkneys ; the Skellig 
 Isles, off the coast of Kerry, Ireland ; and the 
 Bass Isle, in the Frith of Forth. This last- 
 mentioned isle is farmed out at a considerable 
 rent, for the eggs of the various kinds of 
 water-fowl with which it swarms; and the 
 produce of the solan geese forms a large por- 
 tion of this rent ; for great numbers of their 
 young ones are taken every season, and sold 
 in Edinburgh for about twenty-pence each, 
 where they are esteemed a favourite dish, 
 being generally roasted, and eaten before din- 
 ner. On the other bleak and bare isles, the 
 inhabitants, during a great part of the year, 
 depend for their support on these birds and 
 their eggs, which are taken in amazing quan- 
 tities, and are the principal articles of their 
 food. From the nests placed upon the ground 
 the eggs are easily picked up one after another, 
 in great numbers, as fast as they are laid ; but 
 in robbing the nests built in the precipices, 
 chiefly for the sake of the birds, the business 
 wears a very different aspect: there, before 
 the dearly earned booty can be secured, the 
 adventurous fowler, trained to it from his 
 youth, and familiarised to the danger, must 
 first approach the brow of the fearful preci- 
 pice, to view and to trace his progress on the 
 broken pendent rocks beneath him : over 
 these rocks, which (perhaps a hundred fathoms 
 lower) are dashed by the foaming surge, he is 
 from a prodigious height about to be sus- 
 pended. After addressing himself in prayer 
 to the Supreme Disposer of events, with a 
 mind prepared for the arduous task, he is let 
 down by a rope, either held fast by his com- 
 rades, or fixed into the ground on the summit, 
 with his single cord, his pole-net, his pole- 
 hook, &c ; and thus equipped, he is enabled, 
 in his progress, either to stop, to ascend or 
 descend, as he sees occasion. Sometimes by
 
 GAR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 215 
 
 swinging himself from one ledge to another, 
 with the help of his hook, he mounts upwards, 
 and clambers from place to place ; and, at 
 other opportunities, by springing backwards, 
 he can dart himself into the hollow caverns 
 of the projecting rock, which he commonly 
 finds well stored with the objects of his pur- 
 suit, whence the plunder, chiefly consisting of 
 the full-grown young birds, is drawn up to 
 the top, or tossed down to the boat at the 
 bottom, according to the situation, or concur- 
 ring circumstances of time and place. In 
 these hollows he takes his rest, and some- 
 times remains during the night, especially 
 when they happen to be at such vast and stu- 
 pendous heights. To others of less magnitude 
 the fowlers commonly climb from the bottom, 
 with the help of their hooked poles only, by 
 
 which they assist, and push or pull up each 
 other from hold to hold, and in this manner 
 traverse the whole front of the frightful scar. 
 To a feeling mind the very sight of this 
 hazardous employment, in whatever way it is 
 pursued, is painful ; for, indeed, it often hap- 
 pens that these adventurous poor men, in this 
 life-taking mode of obtaining their living, slip 
 their hold, are precipitated from one projection 
 to another, with increasing velocity, and fall 
 mangled upon the rocks, or are for ever buried 
 in the abyss beneath. 
 
 * 
 
 The sailors sometimes catch these birds by 
 fastening a fresh herring on a floating plank, 
 against which the gannet's neck is broken, 
 
 when furiously pouncing on his prey 
 
 Bewick Martin. 
 
 GARGANEY, (Anas querquedula, LINN.; Le Sarcelle, BUFF.)*. 
 
 This species, which is only a little bigger 
 than the teal, is clothed with an elegant plum- 
 age, and has altogether a most agreeable and 
 and sprightly look. It measures about seven- 
 teen inches in length, and twenty-eight in 
 breadth. The bill is of a dark lead colour, 
 nearly black ; the irides light hazel. From 
 the crown of the head, over the nape of the 
 neck downwards, it fe of a glossy brown, chin 
 black; brow, cheeks, and the upper fore part 
 of the neck, reddish chestnut, with vinous re- 
 flections, and sprinkled all over with numer- 
 ous small pointed white lines. A white stripe 
 passes over each eye, and slanting backwards, 
 falls down on each side of the neck, the lower 
 part of which, with the breast, is light brown, 
 pretty closely crossed with semicircular bars 
 
 of black ; the shoulders and back are marked 
 nearly the same, but on a darker ground : the 
 scapulars are long and narrow, and are striped 
 with ash-colour, black, and white. The belly 
 in some, is white ; in others, pale reddish yel- 
 low ; the lower part of it, and the vent, mot- 
 tled with dusky spots ; the sides are freckled 
 and waved with narrow lines of ash-coloured 
 brown, more and more distinctly marked to- 
 wards the thighs ; behind which, this series of 
 feathers terminates in a riband, striped with 
 ash, black, white, and lead-coloured blue. 
 
 The coverts of the wings are of an agreeable 
 bluish ash, margined with white ; next to this, 
 the exterior webs of the middle qnills are 
 glossy green, tipped with white, and form the 
 beauty-spot or spangle of the wings, to which
 
 216 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 the white tips make a border; the primary a brownish ash colour, not unlike the female 
 
 quills are ash-brown, edged with white ; tail teal ; but the wing wants the green spot, which 
 
 dusky ; legs lead colour. The foregoing de- sufficiently distinguishes these birds, 
 scription was taken from a male bird in full It has not yet been noticed whether any of 
 
 and perfect plumage. This sex is furnished this species ever remain to breed in England, 
 
 with a labyrinth. where, indeed, they are rather a scarce bird. 
 
 The female has an obscure white marked Bewick. 
 over each eye ; the rest of the plumage is of 
 
 GARGLE, v. To wash the throat with some liquor not suffered immediately 
 
 to descend. 
 
 GARGLE, *. A liquor with which the throat is washed. 
 GARLICK, #. A plant, sometimes used in chronic cough. 
 GARRAN, s. A small horse, a hobby ; a wretched horse. (An Iricism.) 
 GASH, v. To cut deep, so as to make a gaping- wound. 
 GASH, s. A deep and wide wound ; the mark of a wound. 
 GASP, v. To open the mouth wide to catch breath ; to emit breath by 
 
 opening the mouth convulsively. 
 GASP, s. The act of opening the mouth to catch breath ; the short catch 
 
 of the breath in the last agonies. 
 GATE, s. A frame of timber upon hinges to give a passage into enclosed 
 
 grounds ; a moveable part of a fence made of iron or timber. 
 GAUDY, a. Showy, splendid, tinselled. 
 GAUGE, s. A measure, a standard. 
 GAUNT (Podiceps cristatus, LATHAM), s. A species of bird. 
 
 A full-grown male gaunt weighs between 
 two and three pounds ; length about two feet. 
 The bill is two inches and three quarters long, 
 dusky brown along the ridge of the upper 
 mandible and at the point ; the rest reddish 
 flesh-colour; irides and lore crimson. The 
 head is much enlarged by a crest of a dusky 
 colour, standing up on each side ; the cheeks 
 and throat are surrounded by long feathers of 
 a ferruginous colour ; from the bill to the eye 
 is a black line, above which is a white one ; 
 the chin is white ; the hind part of the neck, 
 and upper part of the body and wings, dusky 
 brown ; the under part of the neck, breast, 
 and all beneath, beautiful glossy white ; the 
 
 GAZEHOUND, s. A hound that pursues not by the scent, but by the eye ; 
 
 an ancient name of the greyhound. 
 GEAR, s. Furniture, accoutrements, dress ; the traces by which horses or 
 
 oxen draw ; stuff. 
 GELD, v. To castrate, to deprive of the power of generation ; to deprive of 
 
 any essential part. Vide CASTRATION. 
 
 primary quill-feathers dusky; some of the in- 
 ner ones tipped with white, the rest are nearly 
 all white, which, when the wing is closed, 
 makes an oblique bar of that colour across it ; 
 legs dusky on the outside ; some wholly dusky 
 green. 
 
 This bird is indigenous to England ; it breeds 
 in the meres of Shropshire and Cheshire, and 
 in the fens of Lincolnshire. The nest is large, 
 composed of a variety of aquatic plants ; it is 
 not attached to any thing, but floats amongst 
 the reeds and flags, penetrated by the water. 
 The female lays four white eggs, about the 
 size of that of a pigeon Montagu. 
 
 Castration has a strange effect : it emascu- 
 lates both man, beast, and bird, and brings 
 them to a near resemblance of the other sex. 
 Thus eunuchs have smooth unmuscular arms, 
 thighs, and legs ; and broad hips, anrt beard- 
 
 less chins, and squeaking voices. Gelt-stags 
 and bucks have hornless heads, like hinds and 
 does. Thus wethers have small horns, like 
 ewes; and oxen large bent horns, and hoarse 
 voices when they low, like cows ; for bulls
 
 GIB] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 217 
 
 have short straight horns ; and though they 
 mutter and grumble in a deep tremendous 
 tone, vet they low in a shrill high key. Ca- 
 pons have small combs and gills, and look pal- 
 lid about the head like pullets ; they also walk 
 without any parade, and hover chickens like 
 hens. Barrow-hogs have also small tusks like 
 sows. 
 
 Thus far it is plain that it puts a stop to the 
 growth of those appendages that are looked 
 upon as its insignia. But the ingenious Mr. 
 
 Lisle, in his book on husbandry, carries it 
 much farther ; for he says, that the loss of those 
 insignia alone has sometimes a strange effect : 
 he had a boar so fierce and amorous, that to 
 prevent mischief, orders were given for his 
 tusks to be broken off. No sooner had the 
 beast suffered this injury than his powers for- 
 sook him, and he neglected those females to 
 whom before he was passionately attached, and 
 from whom no fences could restrain him 
 White of Selborne. 
 
 GELDING, *. Any animal castrated, particularly a horse. 
 
 GELID, a. Extremely cold. 
 
 GELLY, s. Any viscous body ; viscidity, glue, gluey substance. 
 
 (TENDER, s. A kind, a sort, a sex. 
 
 GENDER, v. To beget; to produce, to cause; to copulate, to breed. 
 
 GENET, ,v. A small well-proportioned Spanish horse. 
 
 GENTLE, s. A maggot used in angling. 
 
 Those who live in or near London may buy 
 them in proper condition for the day on which 
 they wish to use them, but for the accommo- 
 dation of those who reside in the country, re- 
 mote from such convenience, the best modes 
 of breeding them will be here mentioned, in 
 order to prevent disappointment. 
 
 Coarse fish, such as chub and roach, may be 
 laid in an earthen pot in the shade, and will 
 soon be fly-blown. When the gentles are of a 
 proper size (but not before), put some oatmeal 
 and bran to them, and in two days they will 
 be well scoured and fit to fish with, in about 
 four more they become hard, assume a pale red 
 colour, and soon after change to flies. The red 
 ones should not be thrown away, as frequent- 
 ly roach and dace take these with a white one 
 in preference to all other baits. Some have 
 recommended a piece of liver suspended by a 
 stick over a barrel of clay, into which the gen- 
 tles fall and cleanse themselves ; but clay will 
 not scour them, and besides they fall from the 
 liver before they have attained their full size. 
 The aforementioned is a less disgusting plan ; 
 
 for a short time after oatmeal and bran are put 
 to the gentles the fish in which they are bred 
 will be found perfect skeletons, and may be 
 thrown away. However, if they are to be bred 
 from liver, it should be scarified deeply in 
 many parts, and then hung up and nearly co- 
 vered over, as in that way the flies will blow 
 it better than when wholly exposed ; in two or 
 three days the gentles will be seen alive. The 
 liver is then to be put into an earthen pan and 
 there remain until the first brood are of full 
 growth, a sufficient quantity of fine sand and 
 bran (letting the liver remain) is then to be 
 put into the pan, and in a few days they will 
 come from the flesh, and scour themselves in 
 it. The liver should then be hung across the 
 pan and the latter brood will soon drop out and 
 be fit for use ; and by thus breeding them in 
 October, and keeping them a little warmer than 
 those bred in summer, until they arrive at 
 their full growth, and afterwards putting them 
 in the same pan into a dampish vault, they may 
 be preserved for winter fishing. Daniel. 
 
 GENTLE, a. Soft, mild, tame, peaceable ; soothing ; pacific. 
 
 GENUS, s. In science, a class of beings comprehending under it many 
 species ; as quadruped is a genus comprehending under it almost all 
 terrestrial beasts. 
 
 GERM, s. A sprout or shoot. 
 
 GESTATION, s. The act of bearing the young in the womb. 
 
 GET, v. To beget upon a female. 
 
 GETTER, *. One who procures or obtains ; one who begets on a female. 
 
 GIBBOUS, a. Convex, protuberant, swelling into inequalities ; crooked- 
 backed.
 
 218 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [GlE 
 
 GIER-EAGLE, s. obs. An eagle of a particular kind. 
 
 GIG, s. Anything that is whirled round in play ; a two-wheeled vehicle ; 
 
 a light boat. 
 
 GIGOT, s. The hip joint. 
 GILLS, s. The aperture at each side of the fish's head ; the flaps that hang 
 
 below the beak of a fowl ; the flesh under the chin. 
 GILL, *. A measure of liquids containing the fourth part of a pint. 
 GIMP, s. A kind of silk twist used in angling. 
 GIN, *. The spirit drawn by distillation from juniper berries and wheat. 
 
 The Hollands Geneva is principally distilled in the neighbourhood of 
 
 Rotterdam ; English is produced from the oil of turpentine and malt 
 
 spirits. 
 GINGER, s. An Indian root ; the flower consists of five petals, shaped like 
 
 those of the iris. 
 
 There are two sorts kept in the shops ; the i relaxing the skin. Joined with bitters, it 
 black and the white ginger : the latter is 
 stronger, and preferred for culinary purposes, 
 on account of its more pleasant flavour, but 
 the former is considered cheaper, easily pow- 
 dered, and more frequently used as a horse 
 medicine. 
 
 I consider ginger as the most useful stimu- 
 lant in the veterinary materia medica : when 
 joined with aromatics, such as allspice, cara- 
 way seed, aniseed, cummin seed, &c., or their 
 essential oils, it forms an efficacious cordial, 
 and with emetic tartar and opium an excellent 
 diaphoretic, for giving gloss to the coat, and 
 
 makes a good stomachic ; with squills an ex- 
 pectorant, often relieving obstinate coughs. 
 
 Ginger is extremely beneficial in weakness 
 and flatulency of the stomach ; and assisted 
 by other remedies, such as warm beer, it sel- 
 dom fails of curing the flatulent colic, or 
 gripes. See CARMINATIVES. 
 
 The dose is from one drachm and a half to 
 three drachms. 
 
 It should be recently powdered when used ; 
 but in a well-stopped bottle the powder may 
 be kept a considerable time without losing its 
 strength White. 
 
 GIZZARD, s. The name given to the strong, muscular, and cartilaginous 
 portion of the stomach in birds which feed on grain, which is so differ- 
 ent from the membranous stomach of birds of prey (raptores). The 
 gizzard receives the food which has previously been taken into the crop. 
 
 GLADE, s. A lawn or opening into a wood. 
 
 GLAIR, s. The white of an egg. 
 
 GLANCE, v. To shoot obliquely. 
 
 GLANDERS, s. A disease incident to horses. 
 
 liquids. After this opinion had been published, 
 some English farriers made trial of it, and by 
 others detergent lotions were poured into the 
 nostrils ; the nose being drawn up for the pur- 
 pose by means of a pulley. Attempts were 
 also made to cure it by arsenical fumigations, 
 
 This is a contagious disorder, and one that 
 is generally thought incurable. The great 
 number of horses that have been destroyed by 
 glanders, especially in the army, and in esta- 
 blishments where great numbers of horses are 
 kept, has excited particular attention to the 
 subject, especially in France and Italy, where 
 
 many attempts were made, in the beginning of 
 the last century, to discover a remedy for it. 
 Lafosse, an eminent French veterinarian, con- 
 sidered it as a local disease, and thought he 
 had discovered a successful mode of treating it, 
 which consisted in perforating the bones which 
 cover the frontal and nasal sinuses, and inject- 
 ing through the openings astringent and other 
 
 and by burning out the swollen glands under 
 the jaws, or sloughing them out by caustics. 
 The various preparations of mercury, copper, 
 iron, and arsenic, have likewise been tried, and 
 after all the general opinion is that the glan- 
 ders is incurable. 
 
 That the glanders is contagious has been 
 clearly and indisputably proved by numerous 
 experiments ; and the manner in which it is
 
 GLA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 219 
 
 propagated has likewise been satisfactorily de- 
 monstrated. At the same time it is generally 
 believed that the glanders takes place also in- 
 dependent of contagion ; but from what causes 
 or circumstances it is then produced, no author 
 has attempted to state precisely. 
 
 It has been said, in a general way, that close 
 unwholesome stables, hard work, and bad pro- 
 vender, sudden changes from cold and wet 
 weather to hot close stables, hard work, and 
 insufficient keep, and, in short, any thing that 
 will weaken the animal considerably, is likely 
 to produce glanders or farcy. Hence post and 
 stage horses are particularly obnoxious to this 
 disease. 
 
 Mr. Russel, of Exeter, had, for many years, 
 some glandered teams of horses constantly 
 working from Plymouth to Exeter. But they 
 were worked with moderation, well fed, and 
 taken great care of. I attended these teams 
 for several years, the horses generally looked 
 well, and in excellent condition. Many of 
 them lasted four or five years ; and some fell 
 off after a few months. 
 
 The symptoms of glanders are 1 st, A dis- 
 charge of glairy matter from one or both nos- 
 trils ; generally from one only, and more fre- 
 quently from the left than from the right nos- 
 tril. 2d, A swelling of the glands or kernels 
 under the jaw, or between the branches of the 
 lower jaw, and generally on the side of the jaw 
 corresponding with the affected nostril. In all 
 other respects the animal is generally in health, 
 and often sleek and in good condition. 
 
 Sometimes, however, the glanders is accom- 
 panied by a disorder of the skin, named farcy, 
 and then the horse's general health is often 
 affected. Farcy has been considered, by many 
 authors, as a distinct disorder. I have there- 
 fore noticed it in a separate article (see FARCY), 
 though of opinion that it is always a symptom 
 of glanders, whether it appear in a local, or in 
 a constitutional form. 
 
 Glanders has been divided into two stages, 
 the acute and the chronic, or the first and se- 
 cond stage. The acute glanders is generally 
 attended with acute farcy, such as chancrous 
 ulceration about the lips, face, or neck, with 
 considerable and painful swellings on different 
 parts, some of the swellings appearing as a cord- 
 ed vein : ulceration and swelling of the hind 
 leg or sheath, or testicles, and sometimes of the 
 fore leg, with corded veins, and farcy buds on 
 the inside of the limb. The acute glanders 
 often spreads rapidly, and either destroys the 
 animal, or renders him such a pitiable and 
 hopeless object, that the proprietor is generally 
 induced to have him knocked on the head. 
 
 Chronic glanders is generally very mild in 
 the first stage of the disorder, and does not af- 
 fect the appetite, or the general health and ap- 
 pearance of the animal. Such horses, when 
 properly fed and taken care of, and worked 
 
 with moderation, will often continue in regu- 
 lar work for several years. 
 
 I have been in the habit of attending several 
 teams of glandered horses since I left the army, 
 and have known them last four or five years. 
 Sometimes, however, they would go oft in a 
 few months ; and whenever a glandered horse 
 fell off much, and became unequal to his work, 
 he was destroyed. Many glandered horses 
 have been known to get rid of the disorder 
 while working in these teams; and sound horses 
 that have been put in occasionally, to fill up 
 the teams, especially old horses, have escaped 
 the disorder. It is this circumstance, as I have 
 before stated, that has led many to believe that 
 the glanders is not contagious. 
 
 The second stage of glanders is marked by 
 ulceration within the nostrils, or an appear- 
 ance in the matter which indicates ulceration, 
 though sometimes too high up to be seen. 
 The matter is in larger quantity, more glu- 
 tinous, sticking about the margin of the nos- 
 tril and upper lips, and sometimes obstructing 
 the passage of air, so that the horse makes a 
 snuffling noise in hreathing. The matter is 
 sometimes streaked with blood, and the horse 
 sometimes bleeds from the nostrils in work- 
 ing. When this happens in the first stage of 
 the disorder, however early it may be, it in- 
 dicates the approach of the second stage. The 
 matter begins to have an offensive smell, 
 which it scarcely ever has in the first stage, 
 though an offensive smell is by many sup- 
 posed to be a decisive mark of glanders. In 
 the second stage the matter generally runs 
 from both nostrils ; the glands under the jaw 
 become larger, harder, and fixed more closely 
 to the jaw-bone. They are also generally 
 more tender than in the first stage ; the inner 
 corners of the eyes are mattery. The horse 
 loses flesh and strength, stales more than 
 usual, coughs, and at length dies in a miser- 
 able condition, generally farcied as well as 
 glandered. It is with this disease as it was 
 formerly with small pox inoculation, and is 
 now with vaccination. If a person happens 
 to meet with one or two cases, or suppose it 
 were half a dozen, of a horse escaping the 
 glanders after standing in a stable with one 
 that is glandered, he thinks himself fully 
 warranted in concluding that the disease is 
 not contagious. Satisfied with this decision, 
 he gives himself no further trouble about it, 
 and pays no attention to any thing that may 
 be said or written in opposition to his own 
 opinion. 
 
 It is a remarkable circumstance, that glan- 
 ders cannot be communicated by applying, the 
 matter which is discharged from the nose of a 
 glandered horse to the nostrils of a sound 
 horse, even though a piece of lint soaked in 
 the matter be put up the nostrils, and kept in 
 contact with the pituitary membrane for a
 
 220 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [GLA 
 
 short time ; or even if the matter be thrown 
 up the nostrils with a syringe. But, if the 
 smallest quantity of matter be applied in the 
 way of inoculation, either to the membrane of 
 the nostrils, or to any part of the body, a 
 glanderous ulcer will be produced, from which 
 farcy buds and corded lymphatics will pro- 
 ceed. After a few weeks the poison will get 
 into the circulation, and the horse will be 
 completely glandered. The circumstance of 
 glanders not being communicated by applying 
 matter to the nostril, enables us to account 
 for a horse escaping the disorder, as he some- 
 times does, after being put into a glandered 
 stable, or standing by the side of a glandered 
 horse. I believe, however, that glanders is 
 frequently communicated by (accidental) in- 
 oculation; and that there is only one other 
 way in which it can be communicated, that is, 
 by swallowing the matter which flows from 
 
 the nose of a glandered horse Vide BLAINE. 
 
 A horse affected with glanders may inocu- 
 late himself, and thereby produce the farcy. I 
 have known this happen to a horse while at 
 grass. The horse had an itching in his hind 
 leg, which led him to rub and bite the part, 
 and, at the same time, rub on it the glander- 
 ous matter which flowed from his nostril. 
 The possibility of this circumstance taking 
 place may be easily proved by inoculating a 
 glandered horse, in any part of his body, with 
 some of his own matter. There are many 
 ways in which a sound horse may be accidentally 
 inoculated with the matter of glanders, for the 
 slightest scratch in any part of the body is 
 sufficient. Horses that are cleaned with a 
 curry comb are very liable to be scratched in 
 those parts where the bones are prominent, 
 such as the inside of the hock or knee, the 
 shank bones and the head. To such scratches 
 glanderous matter may be applied by the 
 hands of the groom after he has been exam- 
 ining the nose of a glandered horse, or wiping 
 off the matter from his nostrils ; or by the 
 horse himself transferring glanderous matter 
 from the nose of a diseased horse, or from the 
 manger, or other part where any matter has 
 been deposited, for horses are very fond of 
 
 GLARE, v. To shine so as to dazzle the eyes. 
 
 GLARE, s. Overpowering lustre, splendour, such as dazzles the eye ; a 
 fierce piercing look. 
 
 GLASS, s. An artificial substance made by fusing salts and flint or sand 
 together, with a vehement fire ; a glass vessel of any kind ; a looking- 
 glass ; a glass to help the sight ; an hour-glass, a glass used in measur- 
 ing time by the flux of sand ; a cup of glass used to drink in ; the quan- 
 tity of wine usually contained in a glass ; a perspective glass. 
 
 GLASSY, a. Vitreous ; resembling glass, as in smoothness, lustre, or brit- 
 tleness. 
 
 rubbing their noses against the manger or 
 stall, and a glandered horse will generally 
 try to rub off the matter from his nose 
 against the manger, the rack, the stall, or 
 against another horse ; and if a sound horse 
 happen to stand by one that is glandered, 
 they will often be seen nabbing or gently 
 biting each other, or rubbing noses. In short, 
 having proved that glanders is thus commu- 
 nicated, we can conceive a variety of ways in. 
 which a horse may be accidentally inoculated. 
 
 The reader may form some idea of the ex- 
 tent of such losses when informed that large 
 inn-keepers have been nearly ruined by them. 
 I had occasion to condemn eight horses at one 
 time, in one establishment, which, added to 
 those already lost, amounted in value to five 
 hundred pounds. In one regiment fifty glan- 
 dered horses were shot in one day. The 
 twenty-third French dragoons, when quartered 
 in Italy, in March, 1809, had seventy-six 
 horses at one time affected with glanders and 
 farcy, or suspected of being so affected. 
 
 As I have demonstrated the manner in 
 which glanders is communicated, it is needless 
 to say any thing of the mode of prevention, 
 except briefly observing, that it can only be 
 accomplished by preventing any glanderous 
 matter from coming near a horse, or mixing 
 with his food or water ; and that the only 
 method of purifying an infected stable, is to 
 remove every thing on which glanderous mat- 
 ter may have fallen, and to wash and scrape 
 the fixtures, such as the rack and manger, 
 thoroughly. I have in a former edition ad- 
 vised a fumigation with the gas which arises 
 from a mixture of common salt, manganese, 
 and oil of vitriol ; because I have found that 
 glanderous matter which has been exposed to 
 this gas is rendered quite innocent, though an 
 ass be inoculated with it ; and I have directed 
 the stable to be first thoroughly cleansed, be- 
 cause if any dry hard glanderous matter should 
 remain, the water employed in cleansing the 
 stable will have moistened it, and thereby en- 
 able the fumigation to mix with it, and destroy 
 its poisonous quality White.
 
 GOD] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 221 
 
 GLEAD, s. A kind of hawk. 
 
 GLEN, s. A valley, a dale. 
 
 GLIRES, s. The fourth order of the class Mammalia in the Linnsean 
 
 system. It includes animals with two foreteeth, a cutting one in each 
 
 jaw, no tusks, and claws formed for running, as the hare, rabbit, &c. 
 GLOW-WORM, s. A small creeping insect with a luminous tail. 
 GLUE, s. A viscous cement. The best is made from the parings of hides 
 
 and other offals, by boiling them well in water, then straining off all 
 
 impurities, and, lastly, boiling them again. 
 GLUE, v. To join with a viscous cement ; to unite. 
 GLUTE, s. The slimy substance in a hawk's pannel. 
 GLYN, s. A hollow between two mountains. 
 GNARL, v. To growl, to murmur, to snarl. 
 GNASH, v. To grind or collide the teeth. 
 GNAT, s. A small winged stinging insect. 
 GNAW, v. To exercise the teeth. 
 GOAR, s. Any edging sewed upon cloth. 
 
 GOAT, s. An animal that seems a middle species between deer and sheep. 
 GODWIT, s. A bird of particular delicacy. 
 
 Buffon enumerates eight species of this 
 division of the scolopax genus, under the 
 name of barges, including the foreign kinds ; 
 and Latham makes out the same number of 
 different sorts, all British. They are a timid, 
 
 shy, and solitary tribe ; their mode of sub- 
 sistence constrains them to spend their lives 
 amidst the fens, searching for their food in 
 the mud and wet soil, where they remain 
 during the day, shaded and hidden among
 
 222 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [GOL 
 
 reeds and rushes, in that obscurity which their | 
 timidity makes them prefer. They seldom 
 remain above a day or two in the same place, 
 and it often happens that in the morning not 
 one is to be found in those marshes where 
 they were numerous the evening before. They 
 remove in a flock in the night, and when there 
 is moonlight, may be seen and heard passing 
 at a vast height. 
 
 Their bills are long and slender, and, like 
 the common snipe's, are smooth and blunt at 
 the tip ; their legs are of various colours, and 
 long. When pursued by the sportsman, they 
 run with great speed, are very restless, and 
 spring at a great distaace, and make a scream 
 as they rise. Their voice is somewhat extra- 
 ordinary, and has been compared to the smo- 
 thered bleating of a goat. They delight in 
 salt marshes, and are rare in countries remote 
 from the sea. Their flesh is delicate and ex- 
 cellent food. 
 
 Common Godwit, Godwyn, Yarnhelp 
 
 or Yarnhip (Scolopax cegocephala, LINN. 
 
 La grande Barge Grise, BUFF.) 
 
 The weight of this bird is about twelve 
 ounces ; length about sixteen inches ; the bill 
 is four inches long, and bent a little upwards, 
 black at the point, gradually softening into a 
 
 pale purple towards the base ; a whitish streak 
 passes from the bill over each eye ; the head, 
 neck, back, scapulars, and coverts, are ofa 
 dingy pale brown, each feather marked down 
 the middle with a dark spot. The fore part 
 of the breast is streaked with black ; the 
 belly, vent, and tail, are white, the latter 
 regularly barred with black ; the webs of the 
 first six quill feathers are black, edged on the 
 interior sides with reddish brown ; the legs 
 are in general dark coloured, inclining to a 
 greenish blue. 
 
 The godwit is met with in various parts of 
 Europe, Asia, and America ; in Great Britain, 
 in the spring and summer, it resides in the 
 fens and marshes, where it rears its young, 
 and feeds upon small worms and insects. 
 During these seasons it only removes from 
 one marsh to another ; but when the winter 
 sets in with severity, it seeks the salt marshes 
 and the seashore. 
 
 The godwit is much esteemed by epicures 
 as a great delicacy, and sells very high. It is 
 caught in nets, to which it is allured by a 
 stale or stuffed bird, in the same manner, and 
 in the same season, as the ruffs and reeves. 
 Bewick. 
 
 GOLD, s. The purest, heaviest, and most precious of all metals ; money. 
 To dye fine brioht Gold Colours First shade. If the first two of them should n 
 
 To dye fine bright Gold Colours First 
 dye a very bright yellow with turmeric, lift 
 out your stuff, and add a teaspoonful of mad- 
 der ; return it, and boil it about three minutes, 
 and draw a part for the first shade ; then put 
 in a tablespoonful of turmeric, boil it up 
 smartly; lift out your stuff and add better 
 than a teaspoonful of madder; put it into 
 the pot again, and boil it about seven minutes, 
 and draw the second shade. For the third 
 do the same, only adding some turmeric as 
 before, and two teaspoonfuls of madder; or, 
 if you see there is not a proper difference 
 between the shades, add more madder, boil 
 the wool in this ten minutes, and draw for 
 the third shade. Add more turmeric, and 
 three or four more teaspoonfuls of madder, or 
 more, till you bring it near to a blood orange. 
 
 The lightest of these shades mixes the olive 
 camel, the second the light rail, the third the 
 dark rail and brown coughlan, and the fourth 
 mixes the golden sooty. This is the best way 
 to dye gold colours. Any man who is not a 
 regular dyer can only be called a fancy dyer, 
 and therefore can give no regular rules. If 
 you are a judge of these colours, you will 
 know by your eye when you get the proper 
 
 shade. If the first two of them should not 
 be enough of the gold, add more madder by 
 pinches, lest you should overpower it. Di- 
 vide each shade of the colours into two parts, 
 for fine olives, bordering on muscle's-beard. 
 Put down a clean vessel with clean water, and 
 put your lightest shade into it, first boiling in 
 it about the size of a horse-bean of copperas. 
 Throw in your stuff, be smart in passing it 
 under your liquor, and in an instant you have 
 a fine golden olive. Put in the size of a pea 
 more of copperas, and put your next shade, 
 and so on till all is done. You are to put in 
 as much as two peas in the last. A little of 
 the dark shade helps the March olive camel, 
 and I have mixed out of these, with a little 
 brown sable, a very good olive camel. All 
 turmeric dyes, when put with binding stuff, 
 stand well. Be careful your turmeric and 
 madder be sound, if not, all is lost. Sound 
 turmeric is very bright, and of a sweet smell. 
 Sound madder is of an oily feel and a sweet 
 smell, and is bright in colour ; that which 
 resembles brick-dust is bad, and gives no 
 colour. The madder that is the best may be 
 
 discovered easily by the taste Ancient 
 
 Recipe. 
 
 GOLDEN, a. Made of gold, consisting of gold ; shining ; yellow, of the 
 colour of gold ; valuable.
 
 GOL] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 223 
 
 GOLDEN EAGLE. Vide EAGLE. 
 
 The golden eagle is said to be not unfre- 
 quent in the mountainous parts of Ireland and 
 Scotland. It breeds in the most inaccessible 
 rocks, and lays three or four white eggs, 
 Selby says two, of a greyish white colour, 
 clouded with spots of reddish brown. 
 
 Smith, in the History of Kerry, says, a 
 poor man in that county got a comfortable 
 subsistence for his family, during a summer of 
 famine, out of an eagle's nest. 
 
 Pennant informs us it is frequent in Scot- 
 land, and adds, that it is very destructive to 
 deer, which it will seize between the horns, 
 and, by incessantly beating it with its wings, 
 soon makes a prey of the harassed animal ; 
 that it builds in cliffs of rocks near the deer 
 forests, and makes great havoc not only 
 amongst them, but also the white hares and 
 ptarmigans. 
 
 Willoughby gives a curious account of the 
 nest of this species found in the woodlands, 
 near the river Derwent, in the Peak of Der- 
 byshire. He says it was made of large sticks, 
 lined with two layers of rushes, between 
 which was one of heath ; that in it was one 
 young and an addle egg, and by them a lamb, 
 a hare, and three heath-poults. 
 
 Instances have been recorded of infants 
 being carried to their nests; and in the Ork- 
 
 neys there is a law which entitles any person 
 killing one of these birds, to a hen out of 
 every Tiouse in the parish in which it is killed. 
 They are remarkable for their longevity, and 
 abstinence from food. Pennant mentions one 
 enduring hunger for twenty-one days. 
 
 As we were sporting in the neighbourhood 
 of Ben-Lomond, on the summit of the lesser 
 mountains that form its base, a grouse, (Te- 
 trao Scoticus), was wounded, and flew with 
 difficulty eighty or a hundred paces. An 
 eagle, apparently of this species, perceiving the 
 laborious flight of the grouse, descended with 
 rapid wing from the adjacent lofty cliffs, before 
 our guns were re-loaded, and, in defiance of 
 the shouts made to deter him, carried off his 
 prey. 
 
 In another part of the Western Highlands 
 of Scotland, we had an opportunity of wit- 
 nessing the power of the flight of this bird in 
 pursuit of its quarry. An old black-cock 
 (Tetrao tetrix) was sprung, and was instantly 
 pursued by the eagle, (who must have been 
 on a neighbouring rock unperceived,) across 
 the glen, the breadth of which was at least two 
 miles. The eagle made several unsuccessful 
 pounces, but as there was no cover and the 
 bird large, it probably fell a victim in the end. 
 Smith- Pennant Montagu. 
 
 GOLDEN-EYE (Anas clangula, LINN. ; Le Garrot, BUFF.) s. 
 
 ,. _ ,, ~ ^rlM^j^^ 
 
 v .r-. ^V\ /B'f WftT-lt'ZjfEJZiS 
 
 " ?/?< .^X-v,;>^' /-,'&?.- -.T- 
 
 The weight of this species varies from 
 twenty-six ounces to two pounds. The length 
 is nineteen inches, and the breadth thirty-one. 
 The bill is bluish-black, short, thick, and 
 
 elevated at the base ; the head large, slightly 
 crested, and black, or rather of a glossy bottle- 
 green, with violet reflections ; a large white 
 spot is placed on the space on each side be-
 
 224 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [T.or, 
 
 tween the corners of the mouth and the eyes, 
 the irides of which are of a golden- yellow ; 
 the throat, and a small portion of the upper 
 part of the neck, are of a sooty or velvet- 
 black ; the lower, to the shoulders, the hreast, 
 belly, and vent, white ; but some of the side- 
 feathers, and those which cover the thighs, 
 are tipped with black ; the scapulars white 
 and deep black ; of the latter colour are also 
 the adjoining long tertial feathers, and those 
 on the greater part of the back ; the first 
 fourteen primary quills, with all the outside 
 edge of the wing, including the ridge and a 
 portion of the coverts, are brownish black ; 
 the middle part of the wing is white, crossed 
 by a narrow black stripe, which is formed by 
 the tips of the lesser coverts ; tail dark, hoary 
 brown ; legs short, of a reddish yellow colour, 
 with the webs dusky ; the inner and hinder 
 toes are furnished with lateral webs ; on the 
 latter these webs are large and flapped. Wil- 
 lotighby says, " the windpipe hath a labyrinth 
 at the divarication, and besides, above swells 
 out into a belly or puff-like cavity." 
 
 These birds do not congregate in large 
 flocks, nor are they numerous on the British 
 shores, or on the lakes in the interior. They 
 are late in taking their departure northward 
 
 GOLDEN ORIOLE ( Oriolus galbula, 
 
 This is the only species ever found in Eng- 
 land, a few instances of which only are on re- 
 cord. It is about the size of a blackbird : 
 length nine inches and a half. The bill is 
 brownish red ; irides red. General colour of 
 the plumage fine golden yellow ; between the 
 bill and eye a streak of black ; the wings 
 black, marked here and there with yellow, 
 and a patch of the same in the middle of the 
 wing ; the two middle feathers of the tail are 
 black, inclining to olive at the base, the very 
 tips yellow ; the base half of the others black, 
 the rest yellow; legs lead-colour; claws black. 
 
 in the spring, the specimens before mentioned 
 being shot in April. In their flight they make 
 they air whistle with the vigorous quick 
 strokes of their wings ; they are excellent 
 divers, and seldom set foot on the shore, upon 
 which, it is said, they walk with great appa- 
 rent difficulty, and, except in the breeding 
 season, only repair to it for the purpose of 
 taking their repose. 
 
 The attempts which were made by M. 
 Baillon to domesticate these birds, he informs 
 the Count de BufFon, quite failed of success. 
 
 
 An extraordinary occurrence took place, 
 March, 1810, near Drumburgh, a fisherman, 
 placed a flounder-net in the river Eden, which 
 is subject to the flux and reflux of the tide, 
 and on his returning to take up his net, in- 
 stead of finding fish, he found it loaded with 
 wild ducks ; during his absence, a fleet of these 
 birds had alighted below the net, and on the 
 flowing of the tide, were carried, from the 
 contraction of the channel, with great impe- 
 tuosity into the net, and were drowned. He 
 caught one hundred and seventy golden-eyed 
 wild ducks, supposed to be from the Orkneys, 
 as very rarely any of that species frequent 
 that part of the country Bewick. 
 
 LlNN.), s. 
 
 The female is of a dull greenish brown in 
 those parts where the male is black. Wings 
 dusky ; tail dirty green ; all but the two mid- 
 dle feathers yellowish white at the ends. 
 
 This beautiful bird is not uncommon in 
 France, where it breeds. The nest is curi- 
 ously constructed, in shape like a purse : it is 
 fastened to the extreme forked branches of 
 tall trees, composed of fibres of hemp, or 
 straw mixed with fine dry stalks of grass, 
 and lined with moss and liverwort. She is 
 said to be so tenacious of her eggs as to suffer 
 herself to be taken on the nest Montagu. 
 
 GOLDFINCH, (Carduelis communis, CUVIER,) s. A singing bird. 
 
 This beautiful bird is rather less than the 
 chaffinch. The bill is white, with a black 
 point ; irides dusky ; the forehead and chin 
 rich scarlet ; top of the head black ; cheeks 
 white, bounded with black ; hind part of the 
 head white ; breast pale tawny brown ; the 
 coverts of the wings black; quill feathers 
 dusky black, barred across with bright yellow; 
 tips white ; belly white ; the tail feathers 
 black ; most of them marked with a white 
 spot near their ends ; legs whitish. 
 
 The female differs very little in plumage 
 from the male : in general, the smaller coverts 
 of the wings are not so black. Young birds 
 are brown about the head for some time after 
 
 they leave the nest, and are by some called 
 grey-pates. 
 
 The goldfinch is subject to variety in con- 
 finement ; sometimes wholly black ; others 
 black and white, or quite white. A variety 
 is sometimes taken by the birdcatchers with 
 white spots under the throat : such is termed 
 a cheverel. It makes a very elegant nest, 
 formed externally of bents, moss, and liver- 
 wort, woven together with wool ; lined some- 
 times with wool or hair, covered with thistle 
 down, or willow cotton. 
 
 These birds will in general take the mate- 
 rials for building, which they can most easily 
 procure. On the tenth of May I observed a
 
 Goo} 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 225 
 
 pair of goldfinches beginning to make their 
 nest in my garden ; they had formed the 
 ground-work with moss, grass, &c., as usual, 
 but on my scattering small parcels of wool in 
 different parts of the garden, they, in a great 
 measure, left off the use of their own stuff, 
 and employed the wool. Afterwards, I gave 
 them cotton, on which they rejected the wool 
 and proceeded with the cotton ; the third day 
 I supplied them with fine down, on which 
 they forsook both the other and finished their 
 work with this last article. The nest, when 
 completed, was some what larger than is usually 
 made by this bird, but retained the pretty 
 roundness of figure and neatness of workman- 
 ship, which is proper to the goldfinch. The 
 nest was completed in the space of three days, 
 and remained unoccupied for the space of four 
 days; the first egg not being laid till the 
 seventh day from beginning the work. The 
 eggs are four or five in number, of a bluish 
 white, with a few spots, chiefly at the larger end. 
 The goldfinch is easily tamed and easily 
 taught, and its capability of learning the notes 
 of other birds is well known ; but the tricks 
 it may be taught to perform are truly astonish- 
 ing. A few years ago the Sieur Roman ex- 
 hibited his birds, which were goldfinches, lin- 
 nets, and canaries. One appeared dead, and 
 was held up by the tail or claw without ex- 
 hibiting any signs of life ; a second stood on 
 its head with its claws in the air ; a third imi- 
 tated a Dutch milkmaid going to market, with 
 pails on its shoulders ; a fourth mimicked a 
 Venetian girl looking out at a window ; a fifth 
 appeared as a soldier, and mounted guard as 
 
 a sentinel ; and the sixth acted as a cannoneer 
 with a cap on its head, a firelock on its shoul- 
 der, and a match in its claw, and discharged a 
 small cannon. The same bird also acted as 
 if it had been wounded. It was wheeled in a 
 barrow, to convey it, as it were, to the hos- 
 pital ; after which, it flew away before the 
 company : the seventh turned a kind of wind- 
 mill : and the last bird stood in the midst of 
 some fireworks which were discharged all 
 round it, and this without exhibiting the least 
 symptom of fear. 
 
 They may also be taught to draw- up little 
 buckets or cups with food and water. To 
 teach them this, there must be put round 
 them a narrow soft leather belt, in which 
 there must be four holes two for the wings, 
 and two for the feet. The belt is joined a 
 little below the breast, where there is a ring, 
 to which the chain is attached, that supports 
 the little bucket or cup. We have seen both 
 the goldfinch and lesser redpole perform this 
 action, but in a different manner. Their cage 
 had no wires, only a back-board, a bottom- 
 board, and one perch. To one foot of the 
 bird was attached a light slender chain, which 
 allowed it more exercise than it could have 
 had in the common wire cage ; at the outer 
 edge of the bottom-board was a ring, through 
 which ran the chain, to each end of which 
 were fastened the little buckets that held the 
 food and water, which the bird drew up with 
 its foot and bill ; and as one bucket was drawn 
 up, the other sunk, thus lessening the diffi- 
 culty, and lightening the task Montagu 
 
 Bolton Syme. 
 
 GOOSANDER (Mergus merganser, LINN.), s. a species of diver. 
 
 *v*0/. 
 
 \ 
 
 This is the largest species of merganser ; | weight about four pounds ; length two feet 
 
 Q
 
 226 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Goo 
 
 four inches. The bill three inches long, nar- 
 row, serrated, or toothed, on the edges of both 
 mandibles ; the tip of the upper hooked ; co- 
 lour red : irides the same ; the head and upper 
 part of the neck glossy greenish black ; the 
 feathers on the crown and back of the head 
 are long and loose; the rest of the neck, 
 breast, and under parts, white; the sides, 
 above the thighs, undulated with dusky lines ; 
 the upper part of the back black ; lower part 
 of the back, rump, and tail coverts, brownish 
 ash-colour; the lesser wing coverts white ; 
 the rest ash-colour, with some white; the 
 greater quill feathers are black, with ash-co- 
 lour on the interior webs of some of the inner 
 ones ; the secondaries white, margined with 
 greenish black on the outer webs ; the scapu- 
 lars nearest the body black, the others white ; 
 the tail consists of eighteen ash-coloured fea^ 
 thers, with dusky shafts ; legs orange ; in some 
 
 specimens the breast is of a rosy buff-colour. 
 
 The goosander sometimes visits our rivers 
 and lakes in severe winters, but retires to the 
 more northern latitudes of Greenland and 
 Iceland, where it breeds. In the Orkneys 
 and Hebrides it is found the whole year round, 
 while in the other districts it is only a winter 
 visitant. It is not uncommon on the conti- 
 nent of Europe and Asia, but most plentiful 
 towards the north. It is a winter inhabitant 
 of the sea shore, and fresh water lakes of 
 America, where they usually associate in small 
 parties of six and eight. They disappear from 
 that country in the month of April, and re- 
 turn in November. Its food consists entirely 
 of fish, for which it dives with great celerity, 
 and holds its slippery prey with great security, 
 by means of its toothed bill, which is admir- 
 ably adapted to the purpose. Montagu. 
 
 GOOSE, s. A large waterfowl. Vide ANSER. 
 
 Canada Goose, ( Anas Canadensis 
 LINN.; L'Oie a cravate, BUFF.) This 
 is less than the swan goose, but taller and 
 longer than the common goose, and may 
 be considered as the connecting link between 
 that species and the swan. Their average 
 weight is about nine pounds, and the length 
 about three feet six inches. The bill is black 
 and two inches and a half long : irides hazel : 
 the head and neck are also black, with a cre- 
 scent shaped white band on the throat, which 
 tapers off to a point on each side below the 
 cheeks, to the hinder part of the head : the 
 whiteness of this cravat is heightened by its con- 
 trast with the dark surrounding plumage, and 
 it looks very pretty : this mark also distinguishes 
 
 it from others of the goose tribe. All the 
 upper parts of the plumage, the breast, and a 
 portion of the belly, are of a dull brown, some- 
 times mixed with grey : the lower part of the 
 neck, the belly, vent, and upper tail coverts, 
 white ; quills and tail black ; legs dingy blue. 
 The English of Hudson's Bay depend great- 
 ly on geese, of these and other kinds, for their 
 support ; and, in favourable years, kill three or 
 four thousand, which they salt and barrel. 
 Their arrival is impatiently attended ; it is the 
 harbinger of the spring, and the month named 
 by the Indians the goose-moon. They appear 
 usually at our settlements in numbers, abut 
 St. George's day, O. S. and fly northward to 
 nestle in security. They prefer islands to the
 
 Goo] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 227 
 
 continent, as further from the haunts of men 
 Thus Marble Island was found, in August, t 
 swarm with swans, geese, and ducks ; the ol 
 ones moulting, and the young at that time in 
 capable of flying. 
 
 The English send out their servants, as we] 
 as Indians, to shoot these birds on their pa: 
 sage. It is in vain to pursue them ; they there 
 fore form a row of huts made of boughs, a 
 musket shot distance from each other, anc 
 place them in a line across the vast marshe 
 of the country. Each hovel, or, as it i 
 called, stand, is occupied by only a single per 
 son. These attend the flight of the birds, and 
 on their approach, mimic their cackle so we! 
 that the geese will answer, and wheel and com< 
 nearer the stand. The sportsman keeps mo- 
 tionless, and on his knees, with his gun cock- 
 ed, the whole time ; and nevers fires till he has 
 seen the eyes of the geese. He fires as they 
 are going from him, then picks up another gun 
 that lies by him, and discharges that. The 
 geese which he has killed he sets upon stick 
 as if alive, to decoy others ; he also makes ar- 
 tificial birds for the same purpose. In a good 
 day (for they fly in very uncertain and un- 
 equal numbers) a single Indian will kill two 
 hundred. Notwithstanding every species of 
 goose has a different call, yet the Indians are 
 admirable in their imitation of every one. 
 
 The vernal flight of the geese lasts from the 
 middle of April until the middle of May. 
 Their first appearance coincides with the thaw- 
 ing of the swamps, when they are very lean. 
 The autumnal, or the season of their return 
 with their young, is from the middle of Au- 
 gust to the middle of October. Those which 
 are taken in this latter season, when the frosts 
 usually begin, are preserved in their feathers 
 and left to be frozen for the fresh provisions of 
 the winter stock. The feathers constitute an 
 article of commerce, and are sent into England. 
 Common Wild Goose Grey Lag Goose, 
 (Anas anser, LINN. ; L 1 Oie Sauvage, BUFF.) 
 This wild goose generally weighs about ten 
 pounds, and measures two feet nine inches in 
 length, and five in breadth. The bill is thick 
 at the base, tapers towards the tip, and is of a 
 yellowish red colour, with the nail white : the 
 head and neck are of a cinereous brown, tinged 
 with dull yellow, and from the separations of 
 the feathers, the latter appears striped down- 
 wards : the upper part of the plumage is of a 
 deep brown, mixed with ash-grey; each feather 
 is lighter on the edges, and the lesser coverts 
 are tipped with white : the shafts of the pri- 
 mary quills are white, the webs grey, and the 
 tips black : the secondaries black, edged with 
 white : the breast and belly are crossed and 
 clouded with dusky and ash on a whitish 
 ground ; and the tail coverts and vent are of 
 a snowy whiteness : the middle feathers of the 
 tail are dusky, tipped with white : those ad- 
 
 joining more deeply tipped, and the exterior 
 ones nearly all white : legs pale red. 
 
 This species is common in this country, and 
 although large flocks of them, well known to 
 the curious, in all the various shapes which 
 they assume in their flight, are seen regularly 
 migrating southward in the autumn, and north- 
 ward in the spring, yet several of them are 
 known to remain and breed in the fens of Lin- 
 colnshire and Cambridgeshire, and, it is said, 
 in various other parts of Great Britain. Pen- 
 nant says they reside in the fens the whole year, 
 breed there, and hatch about eight or nine 
 young ones, which are often taken, easily made 
 tame, and much more esteemed for the excel- 
 lent flavour of their flesh than the domestic 
 goose. 
 
 Egyptian Goose (Anas JEgyptiaca, 
 
 LINN. ; UQie d? Egypte, BUFF.) This beau- 
 tifully variegated species is nearly the size of 
 the grey lag, or the common wild goose. The 
 bill red, about two inches in length, tip black, 
 and nostrils dusky; eyelids red, and the irides 
 pale yellow ; the throat, cheeks, and upper 
 part of the head, are white ; a rusty chestnut- 
 coloured patch, on each side of the head, sur- 
 rounds the eyes. About two-thirds of the 
 neck, from the head downwards, is of a pale 
 reddish bay colour, darker at the lower end ; 
 a broad deep chestnut-coloured spot covers the 
 middle of the breast ; the shoulders and sca- 
 iulars are of a reddish brown, prettily crossed 
 with numerous dark waved lines ; the wing 
 coverts are white ; the greater ones barred 
 near the tips with black; the secondary quills 
 are tinged with reddish bay, and bordered 
 with chestnut ; those of the primaries, which 
 oin them, are edged with glossy green, and 
 he rest of the first quills are black ; the lower 
 (art of the back, the rump, and tail, are black ; 
 he belly is white, but all the other fore-parts 
 ind sides of the body, from the neck near the 
 ent, are delicately pencilled with narrow rust- 
 oloured zigzag lines on a pale ash-grey ground; 
 ach wing is furnished on the bend with a 
 hort blunt spur. The colours of the female 
 re pretty much the same as those of the 
 male, but not by any means so bright or dis- 
 inctly marked. This kind is common in a 
 vild state in Egypt, at the Cape of Good 
 lope, and in various parts of the intermediate 
 erritories of Africa, whence they have been 
 rought into, and domesticated in this and 
 ther civilised countries, and are now an ad- 
 mired ornament on many pieces of water con- 
 Iguous to gentlemen's seats. 
 
 Red-breasted Goose (Siberian Goose; 
 Anser riificollis.) The red-breasted goose 
 neasures above twenty inches in length, and 
 s extended wings three feet ten in breadth, 
 'he bill is short, of a brown colour, with the 
 ail black ; irides yellowish hazel ; the cheeks 
 nd brow are dusky, speckled with white ; an 
 Q 2
 
 228 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [GOB 
 
 oval white spot occupies the space between 
 the bill and the eyes, and is bounded above, 
 on each side of the head, by a black line 
 which falls down the hinder part of the neck ; 
 the chin, throat, crown of the head, and hin- 
 der part of the neck to the back, are black ; 
 two stripes of white fall down from behind 
 each eye on the sides of the neck, and meet 
 in the middle ; the other parts of the neck, 
 and the upper part of the breast, are of a 
 deep rusty red, and the latter is terminated 
 by two naiTow bands of white and black ; the 
 back and wings are dusky ; the greater coverts 
 edged with grey ; sides and lower part of the 
 breast black ; belly, upper and under tail co- 
 verts, white ; legs "dusky. 
 
 This beautiful species is a native of Russia 
 and Siberia, whence they migrate southward 
 in the autumn, and return in the spring ; they 
 are said to frequent the Caspian Sea, and are 
 supposed to winter in Persia. They are very 
 rare in this country. 
 
 White-fronted Wild Goose {Laugh- 
 ing Goose; Anas albifrons; L? Oie ri- 
 euse, BUFF.) This species measures two 
 feet four inches in length, and four feet six in 
 the extended wings, and weighs about five 
 pounds. The bill is thick at the base, of a 
 yellowish red colour ; the nail white ; from 
 the base of the bill and corners of the mouth 
 a white patch is extended over the forehead ; 
 the rest of the head, neck, and upper parts of 
 the plumage, are dark brown ; the primary 
 and secondary quills are of the same colour, 
 but much darker, and the wing coverts are 
 tinged with ash ; the breast and belly are 
 dirty white, spotted with dusky ; the tail is 
 of a hoary ash-coloured brown, and surrounded, 
 like the lag goose's, with a white ring at the 
 base ; the legs yellow. 
 
 These birds form a part of those vast tribes 
 which swarm about Hudson's Bay, and the 
 north of Europe and Asia, during the summer 
 
 months, and are but thinly scattered over the 
 other quarters of the world. They visit the 
 fens and marshy places in England in small 
 flocks in the winter months, and disappear 
 about the beginning of March. It is said 
 that they never feed in the corn fields, but 
 confine themselves wholly to such wilds and 
 swamps as are constantly covered with water. 
 * 
 
 Wild geese are very destructive to the 
 growing corn in the fields where they happen 
 to halt in their migratory excursion. In 
 some countries they are caught at those sea- 
 sons in long nets, resembling those used for 
 catching larks : to these nets the wild geese 
 are decoyed by tame ones, placed there for 
 that purpose. Many other schemes are con- 
 trived to take these wary birds ; but, as they 
 feed only in the day time, and betake them- 
 selves to the water at night, the fowler must 
 exert his utmost care and ingenuity in order 
 to accomplish his ends : all must be planned 
 in the dark, and every trace of suspicion re- 
 moved, for nothing can exceed the vigilant 
 circumspection and acute ear of the sentinel, 
 who, placed on some eminence, with out- 
 stretched-neck, surveys every thing that 
 moves within the circle of the centre on 
 which he takes his stand ; and the instant he 
 sounds the alarm, the whole flock betake 
 themselves to flight. 
 
 The time that wild geese feed in this coun- 
 try is by night, and particularly during moon- 
 light. I have never known them either 
 netted or decoyed ; and all the shooter has to 
 
 rely upon is patience and a long barrel. 
 
 * * 
 
 M. Cuvierhas published a brief description 
 of a bird produced between a swan and a 
 goose, which in fact amounts to its being a 
 perfect goose, in every thing but size like its 
 
 mother, which it greatly exceeds Bewick 
 
 Wild Sports. 
 
 GORGE, s. The throat, the swallow ; that which is gorged or swallowed ; 
 
 the craw or crop. 
 GORGE, v. To fill up to the throat, to glut, to satiate ; to swallow, as the 
 
 fish has gorged the hook. 
 GORSE, s. Furze, a thick prickly shrub. 
 
 Furze-covers cannot be too much encou- 
 raged, for there cubs are safe. They have 
 also other advantages attending them : they 
 are certain places to find in ; foxes cannot 
 break from them unseen, nor are you so 
 liable to change as in other covers. 
 
 A fox, when pressed by hounds, will seldom 
 go into a furze-brake. Rabbits, which are 
 the fox's favourite food, may also be encou- 
 
 raged there, and yet do little damage. Were 
 they suffered to establish themselves in your 
 woods, it would be difficult to destroy them 
 afterwards. Thus far I object to them as a 
 farmer: I object to them also as a fox-hunter; 
 since nothing is more prejudicial to the breed- 
 ing of foxes than disturbing your woods late 
 in the season, to destroy the rabbits Beck- 
 ford.
 
 Cos] THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 GOSHAWK, s. A hawk of a large kind. 
 
 229 
 
 This is a large species, superior in size to 
 the buzzard; length twenty-two inches or 
 more ; the bill is blue, tip black ; cere yel- 
 lowish green ; hides yellow. 
 
 The head, hind part of the neck, back, and 
 wings, deep brown ; over the eye is a white 
 line, and a broken patch of the same colour 
 on the side of the neck ; the breast and belly 
 marked with numerous transverse bars of 
 black and white ; the tail is long, and ash-co- 
 loured, with four or five dusky bars; legs 
 yellow ; claws black. 
 
 The goshawk is rarely found in England, 
 but is not uncommon in the wild and moun- 
 tainous parts of Scotland, where it is known 
 to breed in the forest of Rothemurchus, and 
 on the woody banks of the Dee. They are 
 said to be numerous in the Orkney Islands, 
 where they breed in the rocks and sea cliffs. 
 They more generally build however in lofty 
 fir trees, and lay from two to four eggs, of a 
 bluish white, marked with streaks and spots 
 of reddish brown. Its flight is described to 
 be very rapid, generally low, and it strikes its 
 prey on the wing, near the ground, being in- 
 capable of mounting. If its prey take refuge, 
 it will wait patiently on a tree, or a stone, 
 until the game, pressed by hunger, is induced 
 to move ; and as this hawk is capable of great 
 abstinence, it generally succeeds in taking it. 
 Colonel Thornton informs us, that he flew one 
 at a pheasant, which got into cover, and the 
 hawk was lost ; at ten o'clock next morning 
 the falconer found her, and just as he caught 
 her the pheasant ran and rose. According to 
 Meyer, it will prey on its own young, but its 
 
 principal food is wild ducks, hares, and rabbits. 
 In the young, the head, neck, and belly, are 
 of a rufous colour, with long brown spots, and 
 tips of the tail white. In this plumage they 
 have been termed gentil falcons. In the days 
 of falconry, they were held in high repute for 
 hunting cranes, geese, and the larger sorts of 
 game, and were considered by falconers, the 
 best and most courageous of the short- winged 
 hawks. 
 
 The goshawk is common in France, Ger- 
 many, and Russia ; it is also found in Ame- 
 rica, but is rare in Holland. 
 
 * , * 
 
 The goshawk is taken by a net about eight 
 feet deep, and of sufficient length to inclose 
 a square of nine or ten feet. It is suspended 
 to upright stakes, by notches cut upwards, so 
 that it may be disengaged from them, when 
 the hawk strikes against it. This inclosure 
 is left open at the top, and in the middle a 
 pigeon is to be tied to the ground for a bait. 
 The meshes of this net should not be too 
 small, and the colour should be as much as 
 possible like that of the surrounding objects. 
 
 The goshawk is termed a hawk of the fist, 
 because it is from thence, and not from the 
 air, that he flies at his game. He is never to 
 be hooded unless for a short time when first 
 taken, or to keep him quiet in travelling. 
 The resting-place of short-winged hawks is 
 called a perch. It is a pole of about an inch 
 and a half in diameter, fixed horizontally about 
 four feet from the ground. It is to be placed 
 under a tree in fine weather, and in some 
 sheltered place when it rains. To the perch
 
 230 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Cos 
 
 is suspended a piece of cloth, or of matting, 
 hanging like a curtain, which assists the hawk 
 in regaining the perch when he has baited off, 
 and prevents him from twisting the leash 
 round it by passing under. The swivel that 
 is fixed to the leash is to he tied close to the 
 top of the perch, and is attached to the jesses 
 by a short leash, six or eight inches long, in 
 such a manner as to be easily taken off when 
 the hawk is to be prepared for flying. He is 
 then to be held on the fist by the jesses, in 
 the same way as the slight falcon. 
 
 As the goshawk is carried without a hood, 
 and as he is not to be brought down by the 
 lure, but must come to the fist at the falconer's 
 call, it is essential that he should be made as 
 tame as possible, and this can only be done by 
 almost constant carriage, and by allowing 
 him frequently to pull upon a stump or 
 pinion, from which he can get but little meat. 
 He will soon learn to come from the perch 
 
 to the fist, if held close to him when allured 
 by meat. By persevering in this practice, 
 and by cautiously increasing the distance, he 
 will at length be brought to come to the fist, 
 when he is thirty or forty yards off. It is 
 hardly necessary to say, that a creance must 
 always be attached to the leash when these 
 lessons are given, until the hawk is suffici- 
 ently reclaimed to be trusted at large, and 
 with this precaution too much must not be 
 required of him at a time. In breaking 
 hawks, and all other animals, much additional 
 trouble is occasioned, and much time is lost 
 in endeavouring to get them on too fast. 
 When the goshawk will come freely to the 
 fist, not only from the perch, but from the 
 ground, and from low trees (on which he 
 should frequently be placed), it will only be 
 necessary to give him a few live partridges in 
 the way that I have described, and he will be 
 ready for the field Montagu Sebright. 
 
 GOSLING, s. A young- goose, a goose not yet full-grown. 
 
 GOURDINESS, s. A swelling in a horse's leg. 
 
 GOURNET, s. A sea-fish, commonly pronounced Gurnet. Of this fish the 
 red is excellent, while the grey sort is coarse and insipid. 
 
 GRAIN, s. A single seed of corn ; corn ; the seed of any fruit ; any minute 
 particle ; the smallest weight ; anything proverbially small ; the direc- 
 tion of the fibres of wood, or other fibrous matter. 
 
 GRAINED, a. Rough, made less smooth. 
 
 GRAINS, s. The husks of malt exhausted in brewing ; the prongs of a 
 fish-spear. 
 
 GRALLA, s. That order of birds which Linnaeus classifies as having obtuse 
 bills, and long legs, as the crane, stork, &c. 
 
 GRAMINIVOROUS, a. Grass-eating. 
 
 GRANIVOROUS, a. Eating grain. 
 
 Granivorous birds Birds may be dis- 
 tinguished, like quadrupeds, into two kinds or 
 classes granivorous and carnivorous; like 
 quadrupeds, too, there are some that hold a 
 middle nature, and partake of both. Grani- 
 vorous birds are furnished with larger intes- 
 tines, and proportionally longer, than those of 
 the carnivorous kind. Their food, which con- 
 sists of grain of various sorts, is conveyed 
 whole and entire into the first stomach or 
 craw, where it undergoes a partial dilution by 
 a liquor, secreted from the glands, and spread 
 over its surface; it is then received into 
 another species of stomach, where it is fur- 
 ther diluted ; after which it is transmitted 
 into the gizzard, or true stomach, consisting of 
 two very strong muscles, covered externally 
 with a tendinous substance, and lined with a 
 thick membrane of prodigious power and 
 strength ; in tliis place the food is completely 
 
 triturated, and rendered fit for the opera- 
 tion of the gastric juices. The extraordinary 
 powers of the gizzard in comminuting the 
 food, so as to prepare it for digestion, would 
 exceed all credibility, were they not supported 
 by incontrovertible facts, founded upon expe- 
 riments. 
 
 In order to ascertain the strength of these 
 stomachs, the ingenious Spallanzani made the 
 following curious and very interesting experi- 
 ments : 
 
 Tin tubes, full of grain, were forced into 
 the stomachs of turkeys, and after remaining 
 twenty hours, were found to be broken, com- 
 pressed, and distorted in the most irregular 
 manner. 
 
 In proceeding further, the same author re- 
 lates, that the stomach of a cock, in the space 
 of twenty-four hours, broke off the angles of a 
 piece of rough jagged glass, and upon examin-
 
 GRA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 231 
 
 ing the gizzard, no wound or laceration ap- 
 peared. 
 
 Twelve strong needles were firmly fixed in 
 a ball of lead, the points of which projected 
 about a quarter of an inch from the surface ; 
 thus armed, it was covered with a case of pa- 
 per, and forced down the throat of a turkey ; 
 the bird retained it a day and a half, without 
 showing the least symptom of uneasiness ; the 
 points of all the needles were broken off close 
 to the surface of the ball, except two or three, 
 of which the stumps projected a little. The 
 same author relates another experiment, seem- 
 ingly still more cruel ; he fixed twelve small 
 lancets, very sharp, in a similar ball of lead, 
 which was given in the same manner to a tur- 
 key cock, and left eight hours in the stomach ; 
 at the expiration of which the organ was opened 
 but nothing appeared except the naked ball, 
 the twelve lancets having been broken topieces, 
 the stomach remaining perfectly sound and en- 
 
 tire. From these curious and well-attested 
 facts we may conclude, that the stones BO often 
 found in the stomachs of many of the feathered 
 tribes, are highly useful in comminuting grain 
 and other hard substances which constitute 
 their food. 
 
 Granivorous birds partake much of the na- 
 ture and disposition of herbivorous quadrupeds. 
 In both the number of their stomachs, the 
 length and capacity of their intestines, and the 
 quality of their food, they are very similar ; they 
 are likewise both distinguished by the gentle- 
 ness of their tempers and manners. Contented 
 with the seeds of plants, with fruits, insects, 
 and worms, their chief attention is directed to 
 procuring food, hatching and rearing their off- 
 spring, and avoiding the snares of men, and the 
 attacks of birds of prey, and other rapacious 
 animals. They are a mild and gentle race, 
 and are in general so tractable as easily to bo 
 domesticated Bewick. 
 
 GRANULATE, v. To grain ; to break into small masses. 
 
 GRAPE, s. The fruit of the vine, growing in clusters. 
 
 GRASP, v. To hold in the hand, to gripe ; to seize, to catch at. 
 
 GRASP, s. The gripe or seizure of the hand ; hold ; power of seizing. 
 
 GRASS, s. The common herbage of fields on which cattle feed. 
 
 GRASSY, a. Covered with grass. 
 
 GRATE,*. A partition made with bars placed near to one another, to 
 
 prevent fish escaping from a pond ; the range of bars within which 
 
 fires are made. 
 
 GRAVE, v. To carve on any hard substance ; to impress deeply. 
 GRAVITATING STOPS. 
 
 Gravitating Stops An insurance from 
 accidents, with a double gun, is completely ef- 
 fected by Mr. Joseph Manton's gravitating 
 stops, which act of themselves, to remedy the 
 serious danger of loading with a barrel cocked ; 
 and, with these stops, you may, by holding the 
 gun downwards, carry both barrels cocked, 
 through a hedge-row, with little or no danger, 
 if any circumstance could justify such deter- 
 
 mined preparation. 
 
 The gravitating stops, I should not omit to 
 mention, require to be kept very clean, as, 
 with rust or dirt under them, they will not 
 fall so readily, and thereby prevent the gun 
 from going off. This I name as a caution to 
 a slovenly shooter, and not as an imperfection 
 in the plan Hawker. 
 
 GRAY, s. White, with a mixture of black ; white or hoary with old age ; 
 dark, like the opening or close of day. 
 
 The iron grey is usually a larger horse ; 
 higher in the withers, deeper and thinner in 
 the carcass, more angular in all his propor- 
 tions, and in many cases a little too long in 
 the legs. Some of these greys make good 
 hackneys and hunters, and especially the Irish 
 horses ; but they are principally used for the 
 
 Grey horses are of different shades, from 
 the lightest silver to a dark iron grey. The 
 silver grey reminds the observer of the pal- 
 frey, improved by an admixture of Arab 
 blood. He does not often exceed fourteen 
 hands and a half high, and is round carcassed 
 light legged with oblique pasterns, calcu- 
 lated for a light carriage, or for a lady's riding 
 seldom subject to disease but not very 
 fleet, or capable of hard work. 
 
 carriage. They have more endurance than 
 the flatness of the chest would promise ; but 
 their principal defect i their feet, which are
 
 232 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 liable to contraction, and yet that contraction 
 is not so often accompanied by lameness as in 
 many other horses. 
 
 The dappled grey is generally a handsomer 
 and a better horse : all the angular points of 
 the iron grey are filled up, and with that which 
 not only adds to symmetry, but to use. Whe- 
 ther as a hackney, or, the larger variety, a 
 carriage-horse, there are few better, especially 
 since his form has been so materially im- 
 
 GRAYLING, *. The umber, a fish. 
 
 proved, and so much of his heaviness got rid 
 of by the free use of foreign blood. There 
 are not, however, so many dappled greys as 
 there used to be, since the bays have been 
 bred with so much care. The dappled grey, 
 if dark at first, generally retains his colour to 
 old age. 
 
 Some of the greys approach to a nutmeg, 
 or even bay colour. Many of these are hand- 
 some, and most of them are hardy. 
 
 Grayling are never found in streams that 
 run from glaciers at least near their source ; 
 and they are killed by cold or heat. I once 
 put some grayling from the Teme, in Septem- 
 ber, with some trout, into a confined water, 
 rising from a spring in the yard at Dawnton ; 
 the grayling all died, but the trout lived. And 
 in the hot summer of 1825, great numbers of 
 large grayling died in the Avon, below Ring- 
 wood, without doubt killed by the heat in 
 July. 
 
 The grayling lies deeper and is not so shy a 
 fish as the trout ; and, provided your link is 
 fine, is not apt to be scared by the cast of flies 
 on the water. The fineness of the link, and 
 of the gut to which your flies are attached, is 
 a most essential point, and the clearer the 
 stream the finer should be the tackle. I have 
 known good fishermen foiled by using a gut of 
 ordinary thickness, though their flies were of 
 the right size and colour. Very slender trans- 
 parent gut of the colour of the water, is one of 
 the most important causes of success in gray- 
 ling fishing. 
 
 He is to be fished for at all times, for he is 
 rarely so much out of season as to be a bad 
 fish ; and when there are flies on the water, he 
 
 will generally take them : but as the trout 
 may be considered as a spring and summer fish, 
 so the grayling may he considered as a winter 
 and autumnal fish. 
 
 Grayling do not refuse large flies ; and in 
 the Avon and Test May flies, and even moths, 
 are greedily taken in the summer by large 
 grayling. Flies, likewise, that do not inhabit 
 the water, but are blown from the land, are 
 good baits for grayling. There is no method 
 more killing for large grayling, than applying 
 a grasshopper to the point of a leaded hook, 
 the lead and shank of which are covered with 
 green and yellow silk, to imitate the body of 
 the animal. This mode of fishing is called 
 sinking and drawing. I have seen it practised 
 in this river with as much success as maggot 
 fishing, and the fish taken were all of the 
 largest size ; the method being most success- 
 ful in deep holes, where the bottom was not 
 visible, which are the natural haunts of such 
 fish. In the winter, grayling rise for an hour 
 or two in bright and tolerably warm weather, 
 and at this time the smallest imitations of black 
 or pale gnats that can be made, on the small- 
 est sized hook, succeed best in taking them. 
 In March, the dark-bodied willow fly may be
 
 ORE] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 233 
 
 regarded as the earliest fly ; the imitation of 
 which is made by a dark claret duhbing and 
 a dun hackle, or four small starlings' wing 
 feathers. The blue dun comes on in the 
 middle of the day in this month, and is imi- 
 tated by dun hackles for wings and legs, and 
 an olive dubbing for body. In mild weather, 
 in morning and evening in this month, and 
 through April, the green tail, or grannon, 
 comes on in great quantities, and^is well imi- 
 tated by a hen pheasant's wing feather, a grey 
 or red hackle for legs, and a dark peacock's 
 harle, or dark hare's ear fur, for the body. 
 The same kind of fly, of a larger size, with 
 paler wings, kills well in the evening, through 
 May or June. The imitation of a water in- 
 sect called the spider-fly, with a lead-coloured 
 body and woodcock's wings, is said to be a 
 killing bait on this and other rivers, in the 
 end of April and beginning of May, but I 
 never happened to see it on the water. The 
 darker alder fly, in May and June, is taken 
 greedily by the fish ; it is imitated by a dark 
 shaded pheasant's wing, black hackle for legs, 
 and a peacock's harle, ribbed with red silk, 
 for the body. At this season, and in July, 
 imitations of the black and red palmer worms, 
 which I believe are taken for black or brown, 
 or red beetles or cockchafers, kill well ; and 
 in dark weather there are usually very light 
 duns on the water. In August, imitations of 
 the house fly and blue bottle, and the red and 
 black ant fly, are taken, and are particularly 
 killing after floods in autumn, when great 
 quantities of the fly are destroyed and washed 
 down the river. In this month, in cloudy 
 days, pale blue duns often appear, and they 
 are still more common in September. Through- 
 
 out the summer and autumn, in fine calm 
 evenings, a large dun fly, with a pale yellow 
 body, is greedily taken by grayling after sun- 
 set, and the imitation of it is very killing. 
 In the end of October, and through Novem- 
 ber, there is no fly fishing but in the middle 
 of the day, when imitations of the smaller 
 duns may be used with great success ; and I 
 have often seen the fish sport most, and fly 
 fishing pursued with great success in bright 
 sunshine, from twelve till half past two o' 
 clock, after severe frosts in the morning ; and 
 I once caught under these circumstances a 
 very fine dish of fish on the 7th of November. 
 It was in the year 1816 ; the summer and 
 autumn had been peculiarly cold and wet, and, 
 probably in consequence of this, the flies were 
 in smaller quantity at their usual season, and 
 there were a greater proportion later in the 
 year. 
 
 Grayling, if you take your station by the 
 side of a river, will rise nearer to you than 
 trout, for they lie deeper, and therefore are 
 not so much scared by au object on the bank ; 
 but they are more delicate in the choice of 
 their flies than trout, and will much oftener 
 rise and refuse the fly. Trout, from lying 
 nearer the surface, are generally taken before 
 grayling where the water is slightly coloured, 
 or after a flood ; and in rain trout usually rise 
 better than grayling, though it sometimes hap- 
 pens, when great quantities of flies come out 
 in rain, grayling, as well as trout, are taken 
 with more certainty than at any other time. 
 The artificial fly, in such cases, looks like a 
 wet fly, and allures even the grayling, which 
 generally is more difficult to deceive than trout 
 in the same river Sir Humphry Davy. 
 
 GREASE, s. The soft part of the fat ; a swelling and gourdiness of the legs, 
 which generally happens to a horse after his journey. 
 
 Swelled legs, although distinct from grease, 
 are apt to degenerate into it. This disease, 
 therefore, comes next under our consideration. 
 It is an inflammation of the skin of the heel, 
 sometimes of the fore, but oftener of the hind 
 foot. It is not a contagious disease, although 
 when it once appears in a stable it frequently 
 goes through it, for it is usually to he traced 
 to bad stable management. The skin of the 
 heel of the horse somewhat differs from that 
 of any other part. There is a great deal of 
 motion in the fetlock, and to prevent the skin 
 from excoriation or chapping, it is necessary 
 that it should be kept soft and pliable ; there- 
 fore, in the healthy state of the part, the skin 
 of the heel has a peculiar greasy feel. Under 
 inflammation, the secretion of this greasy mat- 
 ter is stopped the heels become red, dry, 
 and scurfy ; and being almost constantly in 
 motion, cracks soon succeed : these sometimes 
 
 extend, and the whole surface of the heel 
 becomes a mass of soreness, ulceration, and 
 fungus. 
 
 The first appearance of grease is usually a 
 dry and scurfy state of the skin of the heel, 
 with redness, heat and itchiness. The heel 
 should be well washed with soap and water ; 
 as much of the scurf should be detached as is 
 easily removable : white ointment composed 
 of one drachm of sugar of lead, rubbed down 
 with an ounce of lard, will usually supple and 
 cool, and heal the part. 
 
 When cracks appear, the mode of treat- 
 ment will depend on their extent and depth. 
 If they are but slight, a lotion composed of a 
 solution of two drachms of blue vitriol, or 
 four of alum, in a pint of water, will often 
 speedily dry them up and close them. But 
 if the cracks are deep, with an ichorous dis- 
 charge, and the lameness considerable, it will
 
 234 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [GRE 
 
 be necessary to poultice the heel. A poultice 
 of linseed meal -will be the most effectual, 
 unless the discharge is thin and offensive, 
 when an ounce of finely powdered charcoal 
 should be mixed with the linseed meal, or a 
 poultice may be made with carrots boiled 
 soft, and mashed. The efficacy of a carrot 
 poultice is seldom sufficiently appreciated in 
 cases like these. 
 
 When the inflammation and pain have 
 evidently subsided, and the cracks discharge 
 good matter, they may be dressed with an 
 ointment composed of one part of resin, and 
 three of lard, melted together, and one part 
 of calamine powder added, when these begin 
 to get cool. The healing will be quickened 
 if the cracks are occasionally washed with 
 either the vitriol or alum solution. A mild 
 diuretic may here be given every third day, 
 but a mild dose of physic will form the best 
 medicine that can be administered. 
 
 After the chaps or cracks have healed, 
 the legs will sometimes continue gorged and 
 swelled. A flannel bandage evenly applied 
 over the whole of the swelled part will be 
 very serviceable ; or, should the season admit 
 of it, a run at grass, particularly spring grass, 
 should be allowed. A blister is inadmissible, 
 
 from the danger of bringing back the inflam- 
 mation of the skin, and discharge from it; 
 but the actual cautery, taking especial care 
 not to penetrate the skin, must occasionally 
 be resorted to. 
 
 There will be great danger in suddenly stop- 
 ping this discharge. Inflammation of a more 
 important part has rapidly succeeded to the inju- 
 dicious attempt. The local application should 
 be directed to the abatement of the inflam- 
 mation. The poultices just referred to should 
 be diligently used night and day, and especi- 
 ally the carrot poultice ; and, when the heat 
 and tenderness and stiffness of motion have 
 diminished, astringent lotions may be applied ; 
 either the alum lotion, or a strong decoction 
 of oak bark, changed, or used alternately, but 
 not mixed. The cracks should likewise be 
 dressed with the ointment above mentioned ; 
 and the moment the horse can bear it, a flan- 
 nel bandage should be put on, reaching from 
 the coronet, to three or four inches above the 
 swelling. 
 
 Walking exercise should be resorted to as 
 soon as the horse is able to bear it, and this 
 by degrees may be increased to a gentle trot. 
 The Horse. 
 
 GREASY, a. Oily, fat, unctuous ; smeared with grease. 
 
 GREAVES, s. The offal of chandlers ; the animal matter which remains 
 
 after the tallow has been extracted. Greaves mixed with oatmeal 
 
 make excellent feeding for dogs. 
 GREBE, s. A water-fowl. 
 
 The bills of this genus are compressed on 
 the sides, and though not large, are firm and 
 
 strong, straight and sharp pointed : nostrils 
 linear ; a bare space between the bill and the
 
 GRE] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 235 
 
 eyes ; tongue slightly cloven at the end ; body 
 depressed ; feathers thickly set, compact, very 
 smooth, and glossy ; wings short, scapulars 
 long; no tail; legs placed far behind, much 
 compressed, or flattened on the sides, and ser- 
 rated behind with a double row of notches ; 
 toes furnished on each side with membranes ; 
 the inner toes broader than the outer ; the 
 nails broad and flat. 
 
 This genus is ranked by Ray and Linnaeus 
 with the diver and guillemot ; but as the 
 grebes differ materially from those birds, 
 Brisson, Pennant, and Latham, have separated 
 them. The grebes are almost continually 
 upon the water, where" they are remarkable 
 for their agility : at sea they seem to sport 
 with the waves, through which they seem to 
 dart with the greatest ease, and, in swimming, 
 slide along, as it were without any apparent 
 effort upon the surface, with wonderful velo- 
 city ; they also dive to a great depth in pur- 
 suit of their prey. They frequent fresh- water 
 lakes and inlets of rivers as well as the ocean, 
 to which they are obliged to resort in severe 
 seasons, when the former are bound up by the 
 ice. No cold or damp can penetrate their 
 thick, close plumage, which looks as it were 
 glazed on the surface, and by which they are 
 enabled, while they have open water, to brave 
 the rigours of the coldest winter. They can 
 take wing from the water, or drop from an 
 eminence, and fly with great swiftness to a 
 considerable distance ; but when they happen 
 to alight on the land, are helpless, for they 
 cannot either rise from the flat surface of the 
 ground, or make much progress in walking 
 upon it. On shore they sit with the body 
 erect, commonly upon the whole length of 
 their legs, and, in attempting to regain the 
 water, they awkwardly waddle forward in the 
 same position ; and, if by any interruption 
 they happen to fall on their belly, they sprawl 
 with their feet, and flap their short wings as 
 if they were wounded, and may easily be taken 
 by the hand, for they can make no other de- 
 fence than by striking violently with their 
 sharp-pointed beak. They live upon fish, and 
 it is said, also upon fresh water and sea- weeds. 
 They are generally very fat and heavy in pro- 
 portion to their size. 
 
 The females generally build their nests in 
 the holes of the rocky precipices which over- 
 hang the sea-shores ; and those which breed 
 on lakes, make theirs of withered reeds and 
 rushes, &c., and fix it among the growing 
 stalks of a tuft, or bush, of such like herbage, 
 close by the water's edge. They lay from 
 two to four eggs at one hatching. 
 
 The skins of these birds are dressed with 
 the feathers on, and made into warm beauti- 
 ful tippets and muffs ; the under part only is 
 used for this purpose, and a skin of one of the 
 species sells as high as fourteen shillings. 
 
 Great Crested Grebe (Greater crested 
 
 Douker, Car Goose, Ash-coloured Loon, 
 or Gaunt, Colymbus cristatus, LINN.; 
 Le Grebe huppe, BUFF.) This bird is the 
 largest of the grebes, weighing about two 
 pounds and a half, and measuring twenty-one 
 inches in length, and thirty in breadth. The 
 bill is about two inches and a quarter long, 
 dark at the tip, and red at the base ; the bare 
 stripe, or core, between the bill and eyes, is 
 in the breeding season red, afterwards change 
 to dusky ; irides fine pale crimson. The head, 
 in adult males, is furnished with a great 
 quantity of feathers, which form a kind of 
 ruff, surrounding the upper part of the neck ; 
 those on each side of the head, behind, are 
 longer than the rest, and stand out like ears : 
 this ruff is of a -bright ferruginous colour, 
 edged on the under side with black. The 
 upper parts of the plumage are of a sooty or 
 mouse-coloured brown ; the under parts of a 
 glossy or silvery white ; the inner ridge of the 
 wing is white ; the secondaries of the same 
 colour, forming an oblique bar across the 
 wing when closed : the outsides of the legs 
 are dusky, the inside and toes of a pale 
 green. 
 
 This species is common in the fens and 
 lakes in various parts of England, where they 
 breed and rear their young. The female con- 
 ceals her nest among the flags and reeds which 
 grow in the water, upon which it is said to 
 float, and that she hatches her eggs amidst 
 the moisture which oozes through it. It is 
 made of various kinds of dried fibres, stalks, 
 and leaves of water plants, and (Pennant 
 says) the roots of bugbane, stalks of water- 
 lily, pond- weed, aud water- violet ; and he 
 asserts, that when it happens to be blown 
 from among the reeds, it floats about upon the 
 surface of the open water. 
 
 These birds are met with in almost every 
 lake in the northern parts of Europe, as far as 
 Iceland, and southward to the Mediterranean ; 
 they are also found in various parts of Ame- 
 rica. 
 
 Tippet Grebe, Greater Dabchick, or 
 
 Greater Loon ( Colymbus urinator, LINN. 
 
 Le Grebe, BUFF.) This bird differs from the 
 last only in being somewhat less, in having 
 its neck, in most specimens, striped down, 
 ward on the sides with narrow lines of dusky 
 and white, and in having no crest. 
 
 Modem ornithologists begin to suspect, that 
 the tippet grebe is the female of the great 
 crested grebe, or a young bird of that species, 
 Latham says, " It is with some reluctance, 
 that we pen our doubts concerning the iden, 
 tity of this, as a species, at least as being dis- 
 tinct from the great crested giebe, in contra- 
 diction to what former authors have recorded 
 on the subject. It is certain that the last- 
 named bird varies exceedingly at different
 
 236 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 periods of life ; and we are likewise as certain, 
 that the birds which have been pointed out to 
 us as the Geneva grebes, have been no other 
 than young ones of the great crested, not 
 having yet attained the crest; and whoever 
 will compare Brisson's three figures of the 
 birds in question, will find (the crest excepted) 
 that they all exactly coincide, allowing for 
 their different periods of ages." 
 
 Eared Grebe This bird measures about 
 
 twelve inches in length, and twenty two from 
 tip to tip of the wings. The bill is black, in- 
 clining to red towards the base, rather slender, 
 nearly an inch long, and slightly bent upwards 
 at the point, lore and irides red ; the head is 
 thickly set and enlarged with feathers of a 
 sooty black colour, except two large loose and 
 spreading orange-coloured tufts, which take 
 their rise behind each eye, flow backwards, 
 and nearly meet at their tips, the neck and up- 
 per parts of the plumage are black, the under 
 parts of a glossy white ; the sides a rusty chest- 
 nut colour ; legs greenish black. The male 
 and female are nearly alike, only the latter is 
 not furnished or puffed up about the head with 
 such a quantity of feathers. 
 
 This species is not numerous in the British 
 isles. Pennant says they inhabit and breed 
 in the fens near Spalding in Lincolnshire, and 
 that the female makes a nest not unlike that 
 of the crested grebe, and lays four or five 
 small white eggs. The eared grebe is found 
 in the northern regions of Europe, as far as 
 Iceland, and also met with in southern cli- 
 mates. The circumnavigator Bougainville 
 says, it is called the " Diver with spectacles," 
 in the Falkland Islands. 
 
 Dusky Grebe, Black and While Dabchick, 
 (Colymbus nigricans, LINN. La petite Grebe 
 BUFF.) This species measures about an inch 
 less in length, and two in breadth, than the 
 last. The bill is more than an inch long, and 
 of a pale blue colour, with reddish edges ; lore 
 and orbits red ; irides bright yellow : the up- 
 per part of the head, hinder part of the neck, 
 scapulars, and rump, are of a dark sooty or 
 a mouse-coloured brown ; the feathers on 
 the back are nearly of the same colour, but 
 glossy, and with greyish edges ; the ridge of 
 the wings and secondary quills are white, the 
 rest of the wing dusky. There is a pale spot 
 before each eye ; the cheeks and throat are 
 white; the fore part of the neck is light 
 brown ; and the breast and belly are white 
 and glossy like satin ; the thighs and vent are 
 covered with dirty white downy feathers ; the 
 legs are white behind, dusky on the outer 
 side, and pale blue on the inner sides and shins ; 
 the toes and webbed membranes are also blue 
 on the upper sides, and dark underneath. 
 
 Red-necked Grebe ( Colymbus subscrista- 
 tus, LeJougris, BUFF.) This bird measures, 
 from the bill to the rump, seventeen inches ; 
 
 to the end of the toes twenty-one ; and weighs 
 eighteen ounces and three quarters. The bill 
 is about two inches long, dusky or hom- 
 coloured on the ridge and tip, and on the 
 sides of it, towards the corners of the mouth, 
 of a reddish yellow; the underside of the 
 lower mandible is also of the latter colour : 
 lore dusky ; irides dark hazel ; the cheeks 
 and throat are of a dirty or greyish white ; 
 the upper part of the head is black, with a 
 greyish cast, and the feathers are lengthened 
 on each side, on a line with the eyes back- 
 ward, so as to look like a pair of rounded 
 ears these it can raise or depress at pleasure : 
 the fore part and sides of the neck are of a 
 dingy brown, mixed with feathers of a bright 
 rusty red ; the upper parts of the plumage are 
 of a darkish mouse-coloured brown, lightest 
 on the wing-coverts, deepest on the scapulars 
 and rump, and edged with grey on the shoul- 
 ders ; the under parts are of a glossy white, 
 like satin, mottled with indistinct brownish 
 spots : primary quills brownish tawny, with 
 dark-coloured tips ; secondaries white : outer 
 sides of the legs dusky, inner sides sallow 
 green; webs of the outer toes flesh colour, 
 middle ones redder, and the inner ones 
 orange. 
 
 Pennant supposes the red-necked grebe to 
 be only a variety of the great crested grebe ; 
 but Latham, who has been furnished with 
 several specimens, is of opinion that it is a 
 distinct species. He describes the adult males 
 in full feather, as having their necks of an 
 uniform reddish chestnut ; and the younger 
 birds, when they have not obtained their full 
 plumage, to be only partially spotted on their 
 necks with that colour. 
 
 Little Grebe, Dab-chick, Small Doucher, 
 Dipper, or Didapper (Colymbus minuius, 
 LINN.; Le Castagneaux, BUFF.) This is 
 the least of the grebe tribe, weighing only 
 between six and seven ounces, and measuring, 
 to the rump, ten inches, to the end of the toes 
 thirteen, and about sixteen from tip to tip of 
 the wings. The bill is scarcely an inch long, 
 of a dusky reddish colour ; irides hazel ; the 
 head is thickly clothed with a downy kind of 
 soft feathers, which it can puff up to a great 
 size, or lay down flat at pleasure ; the cheeks 
 are mostly of a bay colour, fading towards the 
 chin and throat into a yellowish white. The 
 neck, breast, and all the upper parts of the 
 plumage, are of a brown or chestnut colour, 
 tinged with red, lightest on the rump : the 
 belly is white, clouded with ash-colour, mixed 
 with red : thighs and vent grey : greater 
 quills dark brown ; the lesser white on their 
 inner webs : legs dirty olive green. 
 
 The little grebe is a true aquatic, for it 
 seldom quits the water, nor ventures beyond 
 the sedgy margins of the lake where it has 
 taken up its abode. It is a most excellent
 
 ORE] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 237 
 
 diver, and can remain a long while under 
 water, in pursuit of its prey, or to shun dan- 
 ger. It is found in almost every lake, and 
 sometimes upon rivers, but seldom goes out 
 to sea. Its food is of the same kind, and its 
 habits much the same as those of the other 
 grebes. 
 
 This species of the grebe is an inhabitant of 
 
 both Europe and America. 
 
 Black-chin grebe This bird is described 
 as being larger than the last. Chin black ; 
 forepart of the neck ferruginous ; hinder part 
 mixed with dusky ; belly cinereous and silver 
 intermixed. Inhabits Tiree, one of the He- 
 brides Latham. 
 
 GREEDY, a. Ravenous, voracious, hungry ; eager. 
 
 GREEN, a. Having a colour formed by compounding- blue and yellow ; 
 
 flourishing-, fresh ; new, fresh, as a green wound ; unripe, immature, 
 
 young 1 . 
 GREEN, *. One of the seven original 
 
 To dye green Boil your stuff to a very 
 
 rich yellow, in turmeric, lift it, and add near 
 a teaspoonful of best madder ; boil it for five 
 minutes, and draw what you want for the first 
 shade ; add a teaspoonful and a half of mad- 
 der, and boil for the same length of time, 
 and for as many shades as you want ; follow 
 the same plan to four or five shades ; wash 
 them well in water, then in urine, as in the 
 other recipes. Wring them and green them, 
 one by one, in the greening- vat ; beginning 
 
 colours ; a grassy plain. 
 with the lightest, which will green in a very few 
 minutes. You will destroy the greens if they 
 take too much of the blue : you must attend 
 them closely till you finish. These are the 
 richest of all greens, and fast colours. The 
 lightest of them, or the next, are used for the 
 green rail and September-green fox. If you 
 want your greens finer, put less madder, and 
 do not boil so long ; you must here be guided 
 by your eye Old Recipe. 
 
 GREEN, v. To make green. 
 GREENFINCH, s. A small bird. 
 
 GREENSHANKED GODWIT, or GREENLEGGED HORSEMAN, (Scolopax 
 glottis, LINN. ; La Barge variee, BUFF.), s. 
 
 The greenshank is of a slender and elegant 
 shape, and its weight small in proportion to its 
 
 length and dimensions, being only about six 
 ounces ; although it measures from the tip of
 
 238 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [ORE 
 
 its beak to the end of its tail fourteen inches, 
 and to the toes twenty, and from tip to tip of 
 the wings twenty-five. The hill is ahout two 
 inches and a half long, straight and slender : 
 the upper mandible black ; the under reddish 
 at its base. The upper parts of its plumage 
 are pale brownish ash colour ; but each fea- 
 ther is marked down the shaft with glossy 
 bronze brown; the under parts, and rump, 
 are of a pure white : a whitish streak passes 
 over each eye ; the quill-feathers are dusky, 
 plain on the outer webs - ; but the inner ones 
 are speckled with white spots : the tail is 
 white, crossed with dark waved bars : the legs 
 
 are long ; bare about two inches above the 
 knees, and of a dark-green colour : the outer- 
 toe is connected by a membrane to the middle 
 one, as far as the first joint. 
 
 This species is not numerous in England, 
 but they appear in small flocks in the winter 
 season, on the sea-shores and the adjacent 
 marshes ; their summer residence is in the 
 northern regions of Russia, Siberia, &c., where 
 they are said to be in great plenty ; they are 
 also met with in various parts of both Asia and 
 America. Their flesh, like all the rest of this 
 genus, is well flavoured, and esteemed good 
 eating Bewick. 
 
 GREGARIOUS, a. Going in flocks or herds. 
 
 GREYHOUND, s. A tall fleet dog that chases by sight. Of this species the 
 
 varieties are numerous, and are generally named after the countries 
 
 to which they originally belong. 
 
 
 The Irish greyhound. (Cam's Grains 
 Hibernicus, RAY.) This is one of the 
 largest of the canine race, with an air at once 
 beautiful, striking, and majestic. He has been 
 known to grow to the extraordinary height of 
 four feet, although the general standard is 
 about three feet. 
 
 In shape, the Irish greyhound somewhat re- 
 sembles the common greyhound, only that he 
 is much larger, and more muscular in his for- 
 mation ; clumsy in all his different parts, and 
 is quite unserviceable for hunting either the 
 stag, fox, or hare. His chief use, in former 
 times, was in clearing the country of wolves 
 and wild boars, for which his great size and 
 strength peculiarly adapted him. 
 
 The colour of the Irish greyhound is a pale 
 cinnamon or fawn. His aspect is mild, and 
 his disposition gentle and peaceable. It is 
 
 said he is greatly an overmatch for either the 
 mastiff or bull dog ; and when he fights, he 
 generally seizes his antagonist by the back, and 
 shakes him to death, which his great strength 
 enables him to do with ease. 
 
 M. Buffon supposes the great Danish dog to 
 be only a variety of the Irish greyhound ; and 
 Mr. Pennant was of opinion that the French 
 matin and the Albian dog were also varieties of 
 the same. 
 
 The Irish greyhound is now rarely to be 
 met with even in his native country. 
 
 Aylmer Bourke Lambert, Esq., one of the 
 vice-presidents of the Linnaean Society, took 
 the measurement of one of the Marquis of 
 Sligo's dogs, which was as follows : " From 
 the point of the nose to the tip of the tail, six- 
 ty-one inches; tail, seventeen and a half inches 
 long ; from the tip of the nose to the back part
 
 ORE] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 239 
 
 of the skull, ten inches ; from the back part of 
 the skull to the beginning of the tail, thirty- 
 three inches ; from the toe to the top of the fore- 
 shoulder, twenty-eight inches and a half; length 
 of the leg sixteen inches ; from the top of the 
 hind toes to the hind shoulders, thirteen inch- 
 es ; from the point of the nose to the eye, four 
 inches and a half; the ears, six inches long; 
 round the widest part of the belly, (about three 
 inches from the forelegs,) thirty-five inches ; 
 twenty-six inches round the hinder part, close 
 to the hind legs ; the hair short and smooth ; 
 the colour of some brown and white, of others 
 black and white. 
 
 They seemed good-tempered animals, but, 
 from the accounts Mr. Lambert received, it is 
 obvious that they must have degenerated, par- 
 ticularly in point of size. 
 
 Dr. Goldsmith says he has seen a dozen of 
 these dogs, and assures us the largest was about 
 four feet high, and as tall as a calf of a year 
 old. 
 
 Scottish Highland Greyhound or Wolf 
 Dog, (Canis Caledonius.) This is a large 
 and powerful dog, nearly equal in size to the 
 Irish greyhound. His general aspect is com- 
 manding and fierce ; his head is long, and muz- 
 zle rather sharp ; his ears pendulous, but not 
 long ; his eyes large, keen, and penetrating, 
 half concealed among the long, stiff, bristly 
 hair with which his face is covered ; his body 
 is very strong and muscular, deep-chested, ta- 
 pering towards the loins, and his back slightly 
 arched ; his hind-quarters are furnished with 
 large prominent muscles; and his legs are long, 
 strongboned, and straight, a combination of 
 qualities which gives him that speed and long 
 duration in the chase for which he is so emi- 
 nently distinguished. His hair is shaggy and 
 wiry, of a reddish colour, mixed with white : 
 his tail is rough, which he carries somewhat 
 in the manner of a stag-hound, but not quite 
 so erect. 
 
 This is the dog formerly used by the high- 
 land chieftains of Scotland in their grand hunt- 
 ing parties, and is in all probability the same 
 noble dog used in the time of Ossian. 
 
 The Scotch Highland greyhound will either 
 hunt in packs or singly. 
 
 The Russian Greyhound, ( Canis Grains 
 Borealis.) This is a large and powerful dog, 
 nearly equal in strength to the Irish greyhound, 
 which he also resembles in shape ; his hair is 
 long and bushy, and his tail forms a spiral curl, 
 but which in the chase stands nearly straight 
 behind him. The colour of the Russian grey- 
 hound is generally of a dark umber brown, 
 but sometimes black : his coat is rough and 
 shaggy. 
 
 When the Russian greyhound loses sight of 
 the hare, he runs by the scent. Indeed, when 
 parties go out a coursing, this dog even endea- 
 vours to find game. He is a very powerful 
 
 animal, and is frequently used either in small 
 packs, or with other dogs, to hunt the wild 
 boar, deer, or wolf, the latter of which a good 
 hound will kill singlehanded. But it is the 
 deer principally that he hunts. When used 
 in coursing, he is slipped in the same manner 
 as is practised in this country. 
 
 The Scotch Greyhound, (Canis Grains 
 Scotius.) This dog, in point of form, is si- 
 milar in all respects to the common grey-hound, 
 differing only in its being of a larger size, and 
 the hair being wiry, in place of that beautiful 
 sleekness which distinguishes the coat of the 
 other. Their colour for the most part is of a 
 reddish brown or sandy hue, although they are 
 sometimes to be met with quite black. I saw 
 some powerful animals of this description in 
 the north of Ireland, in possession of the small 
 farmers and peasants of the mountainous dis- 
 tricts. They are said to be the only dogs which 
 are capable of catching the hares which inha- 
 bit those mountain ranges, the common grey- 
 hound wanting strength for such a laborious 
 chace. These dogs in Ireland are almost uni- 
 versally dark iron grey, with very strong 
 grizzly hair, and are much superior in many 
 respects to any I have seen in Scotland. I re- 
 mark a peculiarity in those Irish hounds, which 
 was that of having very small but extremely 
 brilliant and penetrating hazel-coloured eyes ; 
 their teeth were also very strong and long. 
 
 We are informed by Topsel, that the dog was 
 used for tracing thieves in Scotland, and also on 
 the borders of England, and that he had an 
 excellent sense of smelling. Even at the pre- 
 sent day he has the sense in a more acute state 
 than the common greyhound ; and it is proba- 
 ble that in early times he was still more dis- 
 tinguished by an active power of scent. 
 
 The Italian Greyhound, (Canis Grains 
 Italianus.) Is about half the size of the 
 common greyhound, and is perfectly similar 
 in form. His shape is exquisitely beautiful, 
 and he has a most delicate appearance. The 
 general colour of this handsome dog is a pale 
 mouse brown, sable, or white. The skin is 
 very sleek, and the hair extremely fine and 
 short. He does not thrive well in Great 
 Britain, the climate being too cold for his de- 
 licate constitution. 
 
 The Italian greyhound is too small to have 
 sufficient speed for taking a hare, and is in con- 
 sequence never employed in the chace, his 
 principal use being an attendant on the great. 
 In Italy, men of rank are frequently seen either 
 walking or riding followed by several of these 
 dogs. 
 
 Turkish Greyhound, (Canis Egyptius, 
 LINN.) This is a diminutive variety of the 
 greyhound, probably reduced to its smallest 
 size from the influence of climate. It is little 
 more than half the bulk of the Italian grey- 
 hound, and like the same animal, both in this
 
 240 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Cm 
 
 country and in Italy, is an attendant on people 
 of rank, and usually kept as a pet. 
 
 The Turkish greyhound is quite naked, 
 with only a few scattered hairs on its tail. 
 The colour of the skin is leaden or black, and 
 has all the appearance of leather. His ears 
 are long and erect. This dog is said to pos- 
 sess great attachment to his master. We have 
 heard of one which belonged to a pacha who 
 was beheaded, that laid itself down on the 
 body of his murdered master and expired. 
 
 It is said that the greyhound of Great Bri- 
 tain when taken to Turkey, quickly degene- 
 rates, and becomes a poor spiritless animal, 
 without the least desire for sporting. This is 
 not peculiar to the greyhound, but extends to 
 all dogs brought from temperate climates. 
 
 Sonnini, who travelled through the Otto- 
 man empire, mentions that he endeavoured 
 
 by every means in his power to ascertain whe- 
 ther this singular dog was really a native of 
 Turkey, but that he had sought in vain for it 
 in that country. He further remarks, that it 
 is not in the temperate climate of Turkey 
 that dogs lose their hair, nor even under the 
 burning sun of Egypt. 
 
 
 
 The breeding of the greyhound is recom- 
 mended to be from the well tried and best 
 bitches, as an indifferent dog was supposed 
 from such a cross, to get better whelps than if 
 the excellence was inverted, and the bitch but 
 tolerable ; the surest way to have the whelps 
 excellent, is to have both sire and dam good, 
 and not to exceed four years old ; if any in- 
 equality in their age, it is recommended to 
 be on the bitch's side, provided the dog be 
 young Brown. 
 
 GRIG, s. A small eel. 
 
 GRIMALKIN, s. A cat. 
 
 GRIN, v. To set the teeth together, and withdraw the lips ; to fix the teeth 
 
 as in anguish. 
 GRIPE, v. To hold with the fingers closed ; to catch eagerly ; to seize ; to 
 
 clutch. 
 
 GRISTLE, s. A cartilage. 
 GRISTLY, a. Cartilaginous. 
 GRIT, s. The coarse part of meal ; oats husked, or coarsely ground ; sand; 
 
 rough hard particles ; a kind of fish. 
 GRIZZLE, s. A mixture of white and black ; grey. 
 GRIZZLED, a. Interspersed with grey. 
 GROAT, *. A piece valued at fourpence ; groats, oats that have the hulls 
 
 taken off. 
 GROGGINESS, s. A disease incident to horses. 
 
 The peculiar knuckling over of the fetlock 
 joint, and tottering of the whole of the fore- 
 leg, known by the name of grogginess, and 
 which is so often seen in old and over- worked 
 horses, is seldom an affection of either the fet- 
 lock or the pastern-joints simply, although 
 these have their full share in the mischief 
 that has been produced by tasking the poor 
 animal beyond his strength. Sometimes it is 
 difficult to fix on any particular joint; at 
 others, it seems to be traced to a joint deep 
 
 in the foot, where the flexor tendon runs over 
 the navicular bone. It seema oftenest to be a 
 want of power in the ligaments of the joints 
 generally, produced by frequent and severe 
 sprains, or by ill-judged and cruel exertion ; 
 and, in the majority of cases, admits of no re- 
 medy ; especially as dissection often discovers 
 ulceration within the joints, and of the mem- 
 brane which lines the cartilage, and even of 
 the cartilage itself, which it was impossible to 
 reach or to remove. 
 
 GROOM, s. A servant that takes care of the stable. 
 
 GROOVE, *. A deep cavern or hollow ; a channel or hollow cut with a tool. 
 GROSS, a. Thick, corpulent ; inelegant ; coarse, rough, opposite to delicate. 
 GROUND-BAIT, s. A bait made of barley or malt boiled, thrown into the 
 
 place where fish are to be collected. 
 GROUNDLING, s. A fish which keeps at the bottom of the water.
 
 GRO] THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 GROUSE, s. A kind of fowl, a heathcock. 
 
 241 
 
 The Wood Grouse, Cock of the Wood, 
 
 or Capercalzie ( Tetrao vroffallus, LINN. 
 
 LegrandCoqde Bruyere, BUFF.) This bird 
 is as large as the turkey, is about two feet nine 
 inches in length, and weighs from twelve to 
 fifteen pounds. The bill is very strong, con- 
 vex, and of a horn colour ; over each eye there 
 is a naked skin, of a bright red colour ; the eyes 
 are hazel ; the nostrils are small, and almost hid 
 under a covering of short feathers, which ex- 
 tend under the throat, and are there much 
 longer than the rest, and of a black colour ; the 
 head and neck are elegantly marked with 
 small transverse lines of black and grey, as are 
 also the back and wings, but more irregularly; 
 the breast is black, richly glossed with green 
 on the upper part, and mixed with a few- 
 white feathers on the belly and thighs ; the 
 sides are marked like the neck, the tail con- 
 sists of eighteen feathers, which are black, those 
 on the sides are marked with a few white spots ; 
 the legs are very stout, and covered with brown 
 feathers ; the toes are furnished on each side 
 with a strong pectinated membrane. The fe- 
 male is considerably less than the male, and 
 differs from him greatly in her colours; her 
 throat is red ; the transverse bars on the head, 
 neck, and back, are red and black ; the breast 
 is of a pale orange colour ; belly barred with 
 orange and black, the top of each feather 
 white ; the back and wings are mottled with 
 reddish brown and black ; the scapulars tipped 
 with white ; t^/e tail is of a deep rust colour, 
 barred with black, and tipped with white. 
 
 This beautiful kind is found chiefly in high 
 mountainous regions, and is very rare in Great 
 
 Britain. Mr. Pennant mentions one, as art 
 uncommon instance, which was shot near 
 Inverness. It was formerly met with in Ire- 
 land, but is now supposed to be extinct there. 
 In Russia, Sweden, and other northern coun- 
 tries, it is very common : it lives in the forests 
 of pine with which those countries abound, 
 and feeds on the cones of fir trees, which, at 
 some seasons, give an unpleasant flavour to its 
 flesh, so as to render it unfit for the table ; it 
 likewise eats various kinds of plants and ber- 
 ries, particularly the juniper. Early in the 
 spring the season for pairing commences ; 
 during this period the cock places himself on 
 an eminence, where he displays a variety of 
 pleasing attitudes ; the feathers on his head 
 stand erect, his neck swells, his tail is dis- 
 played, and his wings trail almost on the 
 ground ; his eyes sparkle, and the scarlet patch 
 on each side of his head assumes a deeper dye ; 
 at the same time he utters his well-known cry, 
 which has been compared to the sound pro- 
 duced by the whetting of a scythe ; it may be 
 heard at a considerable distance, and never 
 fails to draw round him his faithful mates. 
 The female lays from eight to sixteen eggs, 
 which are white, spotted with yellow, and 
 larger than those of the common hen : for 
 this purpose she chooses some secret spot, 
 where she can sit in security : she covers her 
 eggs carefully over with -leaves, when she is 
 under the necessity of leaving them in search 
 of food. The young follow the hen as soon 
 as they are hatched, sometimes with part of 
 the shell attached to them. 
 
 The Black Grouse, Black Game, or 
 R
 
 242 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 Black Cock (Tetrao Tetrlv, LINN.; Le 
 
 Coy de Bruyere a queue fourchue, BUFF.) 
 Tliis bird, though not larger than the com- 
 mon hen, weighs nearly four pounds : its 
 length is about one foot ten inches, breadth 
 two feet nine. The bill is black, the eyes 
 dark blue ; below each eye there is a spot of 
 dirty white colour, and above a larger one, of 
 a bright scarlet, which extends almost to the 
 top of the head ; the general colour of the 
 plumage is a deep black, richly glossed with 
 blue on the neck and rump ; the lesser wing 
 coverts are dusky brown ; the greater are white, 
 which extends to the ridge of the wing, form- 
 ing a spot of that colour on the shoulder when 
 the wing is closed ; the quills are brown, the 
 lower parts and tips of the secondaries are 
 white, forming a bar of white across the wing ; 
 there is likewise a spot of white on the bastard 
 wing ; the feathers of the tail are almost square 
 at the ends, and, when spread out, form a curve 
 on each side ; the under tail coverts are of a 
 pure white ; the legs and thighs are of a dark 
 brown colour, mottled with white ; the toes 
 are toothed on the edges like those of former 
 species. In some of our specimens the nos- 
 trils were thickly covered with feathers, whilst 
 in others they were quite bare, probably owing 
 to the different ages of the birds. 
 
 These birds, like the former, are found 
 chiefly in the high situations in the northern 
 parts of our island ; they are common in Rus- 
 sia, Siberia, and other northern countries : 
 they feed on various kinds of berries and other 
 fruits, the produce of wild and mountainous 
 places : in summer they frequently come 
 down from their lofty situations for the sake 
 of feeding on corn. They do not pair, but, on 
 the return of spring, the males assemble in 
 great numbers at their accustomed resorts, on 
 the tops of the high and heathy mountains, 
 when the contest for superiority commences, 
 and continues with great bitterness till the 
 vanquished are put to flight : the victors, being 
 left in possession of the field, place themselves 
 on an eminence, clap their wings, and with 
 loud cries give notice to their females, who 
 immediately resort to the spot. It is said 
 that each cock has two or three hens, which 
 seem particularly attached to him. The fe- 
 male is about one-third less than the male, 
 and differs from him considerably in colour, 
 her tail is likewise much less forked. She 
 makes an artless nest on the ground, where 
 she lays six or eight eggs of a yellowish colour, 
 with freckles and spots of a rusty brown. The 
 young cocks, at first, resemble the mother, 
 and do not acquire their male garb till towards 
 the end of autumn, when the plumage gradu- 
 ally changes to a deeper colour, and assumes 
 that of a bluish black, which it afterwards 
 retains. 
 
 Red Grouse, Red Game, Gorcock or 
 
 Moorcock ( Tetrao Scoticus, LINN.; UAl- 
 tagas, BUFF.) The length of this bird is fif- 
 teen inches; the weight about nineteen ounces. 
 The bill is black ; the eyes hazel ; the nostrils 
 shaded with small red and black feathers ; at 
 the base of the lower bill there is a white spot 
 on each side ; the throat is red : each eye is 
 arched with a large naked spot, of a bright 
 scarlet colour; the whole upper part of the 
 body is beautifully mottled with deep red and 
 black, which gives it the appearance of tor- 
 toise-shell ; the breast and belly are of a pur- 
 plish hue, crossed with small dusky lines ; the 
 tail consists of sixteen feathers of equal length, 
 the four middlemost barred with red, the others 
 black ; the quills are dusky ; the legs are 
 clothed with soft white feathers down to the 
 claws, which are strong, and of a light colour. 
 The female is somewhat less ; the naked skin 
 above each eye is not so conspicuous, and the 
 colours of her plumage in general are much 
 lighter than those of the male. 
 
 This bird is found in great plenty in the 
 wild, heathy, and mountainous tracts in the 
 northern counties of England : it is likewise 
 common in Wales and the Highlands of Scot- 
 land. Mr. Pennant supposes it to be peculiar 
 to Britain ; those found in the mountainous 
 parts of France, Spain, Italy, and elsewhere, 
 as mentioned by M. Buffon, are very probably 
 varieties of this kind, and no doubt would 
 breed with it. It is to be wished that attempts 
 were more frequently made to introduce a 
 greater variety of these useful birds into this 
 country, to stock our waste and barren moors 
 with a rich fund of delicate and wholesome 
 food ; but till the legislature shall alter or 
 abrogate our very unequal and injudicious 
 game laws, there hardly remains a single hope 
 for the preservation of such birds of this spe- 
 cies as we now have. 
 
 Red grouse pair in spring ; the female lays 
 eight or ten eggs on the ground. The young 
 ones follow the hen the whole summer; as 
 soon as they have attained their full size, they 
 unite in flocks of forty or fifty, and are then 
 exceedingly shy and wild. 
 
 White Grouse, White Game or Ptar- 
 migan ( Tetrao Lagopus, LINN. ; La La- 
 ffopide, BUFF.) This bird is nearly the same 
 size as the red grouse. Its bill is black ; the 
 upper parts of its body are of a pale brown 
 or ash colour, mottled with small dusky spots 
 and bars ; the bars on the head and neck are 
 somewhat broader, and are mixed with white ; 
 the under parts are white, as are also the 
 wings, excepting the shafts of the quills, which 
 are black. This is its summer dress, which 
 in winter is changed to a pure white, except- 
 ing that in the male there is a black line be- 
 tween the cill and the eye. The tail consists 
 of sixteen feathers ; the two middle ones are 
 ash-coloured in summer and white in winter ;
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 243 
 
 the next two are slightly marked with white 
 near the ends ; the rest are wholly black ; 
 the upper tail coverts are long, and almost 
 cover die tail. The white grouse is fond of 
 lofty situations, where it braves the severest 
 cold ; it is found in most of the northern parts 
 of Europe, even as far as Greenland. In this 
 country it is not to be met with on the sum- 
 mits of some of our highest hills, chiefly in 
 the Highlands of Scotland, in the Hebrides 
 and Orkneys, and sometimes, but rarely, on 
 the lofty hills of Cumberland and Wales. 
 Buffon, speaking of this bird, says that it 
 avoids the solar heat, and prefers the biting 
 frosts on the tops of mountains; for as the 
 snow melts on the sides of the mountains, it 
 constantly ascends till it gains the summit, 
 where it forms holes and burrows in the snow. 
 They pair at the same time as the red grouse ; 
 the female lays eight or ten eggs, which are 
 white spotted with brown. She makes no 
 nest, but deposits them on the ground. In 
 winter they fly in flocks, and are so little ac- 
 customed to the sight of man, that they are 
 easily shot or taken in a snare. They feed on 
 the wild productions of the hills, which some- 
 times give the flesh a bitter but not unpalatable 
 taste ; it is dark-coloured, and, according to 
 M. Buffon, has somewhat the flavour of the 
 hare. 
 
 Hunting for grouse during the basking hour 
 of the day, is rigidly prohibited by all gentle- j 
 men who compile sporting directories ; and ; 
 yet every shooter knows, that at these pro- j 
 scribed hours himself is commonly on the 
 moors. Morning and evening, when the birds I 
 
 are on foot in search of food, is undoubtedly 
 preferable to the duller portion of the day, 
 when they are accustomed to indulge in a 
 siesta. But, generally, some considerable dis- 
 tance must be travelled before the sportsman 
 can reach his beat from his quarters. The 
 morning is consumed on horseback or in the 
 shooting-cart; the same road must be again 
 accomplished before night; and hence the 
 middle of the day is, of necessity, the portion 
 devoted to pursuit of game. 
 
 To find the birds when, satisfied with food, 
 they leave the moor to bask in some favourite 
 haunt, requires both patience and experience ; 
 and here the mountain-bred sportsman proves 
 his superiority over the less-practised shooter. 
 The packs then lie closely, and occupy a small 
 surface on some sunny brow or sheltered hol- 
 low. The best nosed dogs will pass within a 
 few yards, and not acknowledge them ; and 
 patient hunting, with every advantage of the 
 wind, must be employed to enable the sports- 
 man to find grouse at this dull hour. 
 
 But if close and judicious hunting be neces- 
 sary, the places to be beaten are comparatively 
 few, and the sportsman's eye readily detects 
 the spot where the pack is sure to be discov- 
 ered. He leaves the open feeding-grounds for 
 heathery knowes and sheltered valleys; and 
 while the uninitiated wearies his dogs in vain 
 over the hill-side, where the birds, hours be- 
 fore, might have been expected, the older 
 sportsman profits by his experience, and sel- 
 dom fails in discovering the dell or hillock, 
 where, in fancied security, the indolent pack is 
 reposing Bewick Wild Sports. 
 
 GRUB, s. A small worm that eats holes in bodies; a thick short man. 
 GRUEL, s. Food made by boiling oatmeal in water. 
 
 Gruel is a useful drink for horses on many 
 occasions, and, when made carefully, sweetened 
 with treacle or sugar, and sometimes seasoned 
 with salt, they will often drink it, and save the 
 trouble of drenching. It is a good vehicle for 
 such medicines as are of a stimulating or acri- 
 monious nature, such as oil of turpentine. 
 Gruel is made either with oatmeal or grits, 
 barley meal or pearl barley, fine wheat flour or 
 arrow root ; it may be made also with sago, 
 salep or tapioca ; either of these to be boiled 
 in water, and, for some purposes, in milk and 
 broth. 
 
 Gruel is often made merely by stirring some 
 oatmeal into warm water, but it is better when 
 boiled : and when grits or pearl barley are 
 employed, it should be boiled a short time, and 
 the first water thrown away ; the gruel will 
 then be free from an unpleasant taste which 
 these substances contract by keeping : when 
 they are first crushed or bruised, the gruel is 
 richer, and more expeditiously made. Gruel 
 is a useful restorative for weak or convalescent 
 
 horses, being very nutritious and easy of diges- 
 tion ; perhaps nothing is more nutritious than 
 wheat flour gruel made with milk and sweet- 
 ened with sugar. In India it is a common 
 practice to give horses strong broths, thickened 
 with grain or flour, and seasoned with pepper 
 or other spices, when they work hard, or as a 
 restorative cordial. Infusion of malt makes a 
 good nutritive drink for horses ; but good 
 sweet grits make an excellent gruel. Oat- 
 meal is sometimes musty, and gruel made with 
 it has often some degree of bitterness. When 
 gruel is given as a cordial restorative after hard 
 work, a little beer and ginger may, on some 
 occasions, be added. Horses are very nice 
 in their drinking, therefore the gruel should 
 be made in a clean saucepan, free from the 
 smell of meat, smoke, or fat. For some pur- 
 poses, or where it is inconvenient to boil the 
 gruel, a little oat, barley, or wheat meal, may 
 be stirred into warm or cold water. This in 
 Ireland is termed a white drink White. 
 
 R2
 
 244 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 GRU 
 
 GRUNT, r. To murmur like a hog. GRUNTER, s. A kind of fish. 
 GUAIACUM, -s. A physical wood ; lignum vitae. 
 
 A resinous looking substance, extracted 
 from a very dense wood of a tree growing in 
 the West Indies, called Guiqcum qfficinale. 
 
 GUDGEON, s. A small fish of the carp kind, found in brooks and rivers. 
 GUERNSEY PARTRIDGE (Perdrix rufa, RAY), s. 
 
 This bird is rather larger than the common 
 species. Bill, irides, and legs red ; the upper 
 part of the head is red-brown ; greyish on the 
 forehead; chin and throat white, encircled 
 with black ; over each eye a hand of white ; 
 fore part and sides of the neck cinereous, 
 spotted with black ; back, -wings, and rump, 
 grey-brown ; breast pale ash-colour ; belly 
 rufous ; sides marked with linular streaks of 
 black, white, and orange ; the tail composed 
 of sixteen feathers of a rufous-colour, except 
 the six middle ones, which are more or less 
 grey-brown. 
 
 The habits of this species differ somewhat 
 from the common partridge. This frequently 
 perches on a tree, and will breed in confine- 
 ment, which the other is never known to do. 
 
 Mr. Daniel says that they are now plentiful 
 near Oxford, the Marquis of Hertford having 
 imported many thousand eggs, which were 
 hatched under hens, and liberated ; and so 
 early as 1777, he says he saw a covey, con- 
 sisting of fourteen of these birds, several of 
 which he shot ; many coveys may be found 
 in the neighbourhood of Ipswich, on preserved 
 manors, where they seem to prefer the waste 
 heathy ground to corn-fields, the favourite 
 haunts of the common species. 
 
 It is a curious fact, that the Guernsey part- 
 ridge should be so much changed in its nature 
 
 GUINEA-HEN, s. A small Indian hen. 
 
 The Pintada, or Guinea Hen, has been 
 said to unite the character and properties of 
 the pheasant and the turkey. It is about the 
 size of the common hen, but standing high 
 upon its legs gives it the appearance of a 
 larger size. The back is round, with the tail 
 turned downwards, like the partridge. It is 
 an active, restless, and courageous bird, and 
 will even attack the turkey, although so much 
 above its size. The Guinea fowls assimilate 
 perfectly with the common species, in habits 
 and in kinds of food ; but have this peculi- 
 arity, that the cocks and hens are so nearly 
 alike, it is difficult to distinguish them. 
 They have also a peculiar gait and cry, or 
 chuckling. The head is covered with a kind 
 of casque, with wattles under the bill, and 
 the whole plumage is either black or dark 
 grey, speckled with regular and uniform white 
 spots. The pintada is generally supposed to 
 
 It is little used in veterinary prescriptions 
 Ure. 
 
 by passing the British Channel from Picardy 
 to Kent, not above the third of a degree in 
 difference of latitude, and yet, prolific as they 
 are on the south side of the Channel, they 
 become less inclined to propagation, even in 
 the same sort of soil, in the north, which has 
 rendered every exertion to naturalise them to 
 any extent ineffectual. 
 
 This species is very plentiful in Spain and 
 Portugal, frequenting the vineyards, especially 
 in winter. Bechstein informs us that they 
 have been found in Austria and Bohemia, 
 where, however, they are, as with us, very 
 rare in a wild state. Woody and mountain- 
 ous countries, he adds, seem to please them 
 more than the plains. Wheat and corn of 
 all sorts, with the leaves of several plants, 
 and insects in turn, furnish them with their 
 food ; they never become so familiar as the 
 quail, but sufficiently so to breed in the 
 aviary. 
 
 Why this should be called Guernsey part- 
 ridge we cannot imagine, since we are credibly 
 informed it is very rare in that island. The 
 common species breed there, but are scarce ; 
 whether this ever bred there is uncertain, 
 though they are known to breed in the island 
 of Jersey. It is also found in various parts of 
 Asia and Africa, and is called by the name of 
 the Red-legged Partridge Montagu. 
 
 be a native of Guinea, whence its additional 
 name ; but it is in equal plenty in America. 
 In those countries it perches on trees, and, in 
 a wild state, makes its nest in the holes of 
 the palm tree. It is gregarious, and often 
 found in large flocks. Like the peacock, it 
 may be said to be universally domesticated. 
 
 There is sometimes, but not invariably, a 
 distinction of colour in certain parts, between 
 the cock and hen pintada ; the manner and 
 gait of the cock, however, soon distinguish 
 him. However long domesticated, these birds 
 retain some part of their original wild habits, 
 and will stray in search of a place in which 
 to drop their eggs, without any apparent soli- 
 citude as to their security. They lay an 
 abundance of eggs, smaller than those of the 
 common hen, speckled, resembling wild, 
 rather than common, eggs. It sometimes 
 happens that they are everlasting layers, in
 
 GUN] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 245 
 
 which case, and indeed generally, it is most 
 profitable to hatch pintadas under a common 
 hen, which will cover an additional number 
 of those small eggs. The chicks are ex- 
 
 tremely tender, and should not be hatched 
 too early in the spring ; a sudden change of 
 the -wind in March, to the north-east, has 
 destroyed many a brood of them Moubray. 
 
 GUINEA-PIG, s. A small animal with a pig's snout. 
 
 GULF, s. A bay, an opening into land ; an abyss, an immeasurable depth ; 
 
 a whirlpool ; a sucking eddy. 
 GULL (Larus canus, LINN.), s. A sea bird. 
 
 This species weighs fifteen or sixteen 
 ounces ; length about seventeen inches ; bill 
 yellow; irides hazel. The head, neck, tail, 
 and under parts of the body, white ; the back, 
 scapulars, and wing coverts, ash-colour the 
 former tipped with white ; the primary quills 
 black ; the two or three first have a spot of 
 white across the ends, but the tips are black 
 the rest are tipped with white ; the seconda- 
 ries, like the back, tipped with white ; legs dull 
 white, or tinged with green. 
 
 This is one of the most plentiful species 
 found on our coast. They breed upon the 
 ledges of the rocks close to the sea-shore, 
 sometimes not far above the water. 
 
 The eggs are two or. three in number, of a 
 dull olive-brown, blotched with dusky, the size 
 of a small hen's. When disturbed they are ex- 
 ceedingly clamorous, and not much alarmed 
 by being shot at. They are frequently seen 
 in winter, at a considerable distance from the 
 coast, and in severe weather they flock with 
 the rooks. They follow the plough for the 
 sake of the larvae of the chaffer (Scarabaus 
 melolontha), and of worms. The young are 
 brown, mottled with white, the tail having a 
 brown bar near the end ; the white commences 
 in the second year, and the spots on the wing 
 
 and the bar on the tail gradually disappear 
 
 Montagu, 
 
 GULLET, s. The throat, the meat-pipe. 
 
 GUM, s. A vegetable substance, differing from a resin in being more viscid, 
 and dissolving in aqueous menstruums ; the fleshy covering which con- 
 tains the teeth. 
 
 GUMMY, a. Consisting of gum, of the nature of gum ; overgrown with 
 gum ; soft, flaccid. 
 
 GUN, s. The general name of fire-arms ; the instrument by which shot is 
 discharged by fire. 
 
 Agills. You seem very decided as to your 
 opinion of the relative value between London- 
 made guns, and those at a much less price 
 manufactured in the country. In what qua- 
 lities do you suppose the advantages to con- 
 sist, and how do you prove these qualities may 
 not exist as well in a country as a London- 
 made gun ? Pray state your opinion at length. 
 I have never heard the matter fully discussed, 
 though I have certainly seen much confidence 
 shown by the advocates of each. 
 
 Peritus. The value is derived from four 
 causes : goodness of raw material, temper, 
 close fitting, and adaptation of the several 
 parts to each other, in shape, position, and 
 substance, as fittest to fulfil the duties for 
 which they are separately and collectively in- 
 tended, in the production or convenience, per- 
 manence, and effect. 
 
 Let us consider this in the same light in 
 which we should view any other branch of 
 merchandise ; first, it must be conceded, that 
 wherever the best maker may be, there the 
 highest quality of produce wilf be found ; it is 
 
 likely, therefore, that the material offered to 
 the London maker will be superior to that 
 brought for sale to the comparatively small 
 consumer (in price if not in quantity) in the 
 country ; the well-known competition existing 
 between all London makers, renders it pro- 
 bable that he will use his utmost exertions to 
 secure this advantage in the highest degree. 
 Secondly : with regard to temper there are 
 two things to be considered, namely, the de- 
 gree of hardness required to prevent a move- 
 ment from wearing itself away; and next, 
 with reference to its action upon other parts 
 in contact with it, as in some machines we 
 have wheels bushed with brass to diminish 
 friction. Great tact is requisite in this mat- 
 ter ; first, to know the temper required ; se- 
 condly, to give it. The workman who can 
 effect this, is valuable in proportion to his 
 knowledge; is he likely to remain in the 
 country at low wages, or to become the ser- 
 vant of the highest bidder? Close-fitting: 
 an accurate eye and practised hand are abso- 
 lutely necessary to effect this, which is a main
 
 246 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 10 
 
 cause of permanence in a guu-lock, as thereby 
 all parts bear their even proportion of stress, 
 and (the temper and position of all parts being 
 correct) an even wear is the result. But the 
 most practised workman requires an extension 
 of time, in some degree proportionate to the 
 goodness of his work, comparing it with that 
 of others less skilful, and this adds to the 
 price; the London maker can best afford to 
 pay that price. 
 
 Lastly, the fitness of the parts for the du- 
 ties they have to fulfil. It may be said here, 
 that the greater the quantity of material ma- 
 nufactured, the greater degree of knowledge 
 must be attained by the manufacturer. As- 
 suming then that the superiority of material 
 is shown, we have to prove that the cheap 
 manufacturer either cannot, by quantity, ob- 
 tain such a knowledge of the requisite shape 
 of the parts of a gun, as, when put together, 
 shall make it equal to that of a London ma- 
 ker ; or, if in possession of that knowledge, 
 cannot, in the same degree, avail himself of 
 it. Supposing, then, that he does take the 
 pattern of the most approved shape for his 
 guide (a circumstance we find not to be com- 
 monly the case), or even in the absence of 
 equal opportunities of comparison, that great 
 spur to improvement, can invent a better shape 
 than others, this can only refer to the hand- 
 ling of the gun ; its working, as before shown, 
 depending so much upon material, temper, 
 and putting together, that it possesses the form 
 of goodness only, without the reality ; and as 
 
 from the best makers, and procuring the most 
 for your money ; and you may be certain, that 
 although large manufactories can be canned 
 on with greater advantage in the country, in 
 circumstances where moderate ability is re- 
 quired, and many hands used, and machinery 
 can also be called into play upon the same 
 terms, yet superior manual dexterity will 
 always overcome the difference of dearness of 
 living and present itself where there is and 
 ever must be the greatest mart, and most 
 continued as well as highest bidders for it ; 
 to wit, in that place where the manufacture 
 to be produced is in the highest credit and 
 perfection. And as these two will, therefore, 
 continue to operate upon each other, the de- 
 mand for guns and the perfection of their ma- 
 nufacture, will draw the best workmen, and 
 they will again produce the most perfect guns : 
 and London will thus continue the best mart 
 for the buyer as well as the seller, until some 
 other city spring up, where the purchasers of 
 the article become more numerous, and the 
 talents of the workmen more appreciated. 
 * 
 
 That our times should be as far distin- 
 guished for increased effect and superior ele- 
 gance in the formation of fire-arms, as for 
 any other mechanical improvement, will be 
 admitted by all but the most prejudiced of 
 the old school. Antique gunners may still be 
 found, who are obstinate in preferring the 
 flint to the percussion plan. But any person 
 who has suffered the disappointments that the 
 
 well might you expect to procure an article of | best guns on the former principle will entail 
 dress equally convenient, lasting, and fitting, upon those who carry them, and particularly 
 of a country tailor, as that which may be had in wet and stormy weather, will freely admit 
 of a first-rate workman in London, as procure the wonderful advantages that simple and ef- 
 an article of the nature of a gun of the same 
 degree of excellence in the country as in town. 
 Agilis. Have you not omitted the consi- 
 
 deration, that all workmen can work cheaper 
 in the country, from the diminished price of 
 food and house-rent, than in large towns ; as 
 also the enormous profits made by London 
 gun-makers ? 
 
 Peritus. The advantage you here men- 
 tion, does not come into play it is a matter 
 of consideration for the workman alone. I 
 would admit it, did I consider that the work- 
 man himself was ill-paid, but the contrary is 
 the fact. It has already been conceded, that, 
 although a gun progresses in value as it pro- 
 gresses in price, yet not in an equal ratio, and 
 part of the difference consists in the greater 
 (I might most say undue) pay, in proportion 
 to his labour, which a first-rate workman can 
 procure ; and secondly, in the great credit 
 which any one maker may obtain over others 
 from the known excellence of his work : 
 these latter are two little monopolies, and must 
 be paid for while they exist"; but it is your 
 business to fix a limit upon ^this by selecting 
 
 fective invention, the copper-cap, confers upon 
 the modern sportsman. The misery entailed 
 upon the man who in rain and storm attempts 
 to load and discharge a flint gun, may be 
 
 reckoned among the worst upon the human 
 catalogue ; and if he who has suffered re- 
 peated disappointments of eternal misses and 
 dilatory explosions from a thick flint and a 
 damp pan, tried the simple and elegant im- 
 provement now in general use, he would 
 abandon the stone gun for ever. 
 
 It has been said that gun-making is only 
 brought to perfection in London, and that the 
 Irish are not able to compete with their Eng- 
 lish rivals. I am, I confess, decidedly partial 
 to a London gun ; and while I admit that I 
 have occasionally met with excellent fire-arms 
 produced by Dublin makers, yet they are, in 
 finish and elegance, generally behind those 
 which one gets from any of the leading artists 
 in the great metropolis. To point to any par- 
 ticular name among the host of London makers, 
 would be absurd. From more than a dozen a 
 person will be certain of obtaining a first-rate 
 implement; and from the Mantons, Purdy,
 
 Gun] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 247 
 
 Egg, and many others, guns of the most effi- 
 cient qualities and beautiful finish will be pro- 
 cured. 
 
 * * 
 
 Trialbetween French and English Guns. 
 We then made trial of some guns of the ma- 
 nufactory, and it may be reasonably supposed 
 the best were selected. I had only brought 
 two of my own, one of which was my coach 
 gun, not more than two feet long, but even this 
 far surpassed those produced by the manufac- 
 tory. They made some shots at the distance 
 of ninety-eight yards, but did not succeed. 
 
 It was afterwards agreed to have a full and 
 fair trial of my guns against the manufactory, 
 and each party was naturally anxious for suc- 
 cess. The Poker, or Bonaparte, as the gun 
 is termed, opened the ball, and she threw her 
 shot so exactly, that the French admitted, 
 " une niouche ne pouvoit pas 1'echapper." 
 
 Theirs in return failed, after which they as- 
 sayed about four others. The next was my air 
 gun, at ninety-three yards, against their rifle. 
 I shot within an inch of their mark though it 
 was not fully pumped ; the day was extremely 
 sultry, and yet my next shot was still more 
 exact. 
 
 The next trial was my double rifle, which 
 was, apparently, greatly in their favour, as the 
 sight to a single rifle is far more accurate. On 
 preparing to reload, I found that, owing to some 
 mistake, the loader and the bullet moulds 
 were either lost or mislaid. However, some 
 bullets were found to fit, and, after loading with 
 powder merely by guess, I made eight shots, 
 each sufficient to pierce through a deer's head, 
 and one even touched the edge of the white. 
 
 We had several other trials both with rifles 
 and air guns, but the result afforded a convinc- 
 ing proof of the superiority of the English ma- 
 nufactures : several bets were made on this oc- 
 casion, and general Beaumont, the appointed 
 judge, decided impartially in favour of my guns, 
 but, out of respect for the civilities I had re- 
 ceived, I ordered a single and double barrelled 
 gun of the best make. 
 
 * 
 
 The mounting of their gnns at Versailles is 
 certainly excellent, and the carving of their 
 stocks is most beautifully conceived and is ca- 
 pitally executed, but their barrels are not fitted 
 in that workman-like manner which constitutes 
 a striking excellence in the English manufac- 
 tories. They are also very inferior to my 
 countrymen in the art of browning, and in the 
 construction of their locks. 
 
 The manufactory at Versailles was under 
 the patronage of the First Consul, and he fre- 
 quently ordered the most costly pieces, as pre- 
 sents for foreign princes, or general officers ; one 
 gun was produced which was then completing 
 for the Consul, at the price of eight hundred 
 guineas. The sum was certainly very great, 
 
 but I remember receiving a fowling piece as a 
 present from Lord Rockingham, which cost his 
 lordship four hundred guineas, in consequence 
 of my having killed a sparrow, which had 
 perched on the top of Wentworth house. 
 
 * * 
 
 Anno 1712, a brass gun was advertised to 
 be shot for, at Hoxton, which was in the shape 
 of a walking cane, might be used either as a gun 
 or pistol, and which contained a telescope, a 
 dial on the head, and a perpetual almanac. 
 
 * 
 
 Directions for cleaning guns Let your 
 barrels be first washed perfectly clean with 
 cold, and then fill each of them with hot 
 water ; which, by the time it has nearly run 
 out at the touch-holes, will accelerate their 
 being wiped dry, as much as though boiling 
 water had been used ; and before they have 
 completely discharged the water, stop the muz- 
 zles and touch-holes ; and after shaking it up 
 and down in the barrels, turn it out at the 
 muzzles, by which means you will effectually 
 stir up and expel any extraneous matter that 
 may have lodged in the bottom of the cham- 
 bers. To ascertain this, hold them with the 
 touch-holes towards the window, and (with the 
 breechings which I have recommended) you 
 will, by looking into each muzzle, plainly per- 
 ceive the light in the chamber appearing like 
 one dot surrounded by two (and sometimes 
 three) rings. I have recommended washing 
 guns with cold water, from having found that 
 it always more readily removes the foulness 
 occasioned by the powder, which, from sudden 
 heat, is apt, at first, to dry and adhere more 
 closely to the calibre : whereas, with cold 
 water, it remains in a moist state, and imme- 
 diately mixes. 
 
 In cleansing barrels, a little fine sand may 
 not be amiss, and will generally answer in re- 
 moving the lead. If hot water should be re- 
 quired for this purpose, the gun may be scoured 
 with it, after having been washed with cold. 
 
 Gun-makers generally apply hot water to 
 clean the barrels if much leaded, and after- 
 wards finish with cold ; but cold water is best, 
 and the tow being strewed over with steel- 
 filings, will better remove the lead, and at the 
 same time do no injury to the inside polish of 
 the barrel. 
 
 Every shooter should have the breeches of 
 his guns taken out at least twice a year. To 
 undo them without springing the barrels, let 
 him use tallow and wax mixed, and anoint the 
 threads; steeping the barrels in warm water 
 before trying to unscrew them ; any fault may 
 be easily discovered by thus inspecting the 
 barrels. 
 
 
 
 If a stupid fellow wedges dry tow into your 
 gun, with the cleaning rod, pour boiling water 
 on it, and the rod may then be turned round
 
 248 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Gun 
 
 ami drawn out. I remember this occurred 
 with a large puiit-gun, at which I caught four 
 men hauling away most unmercifully, but to 
 no effect ; I luckily came by and saved the 
 destruction of the cleaning-rod, if not the in- 
 jury of the barrel, by suggesting tlds simple 
 contrivance. 
 
 * * 
 
 TECHNICAL TERMS USED BY GUN-MAKERS. 
 
 Bolts Pieces of iron, which fasten the 
 barrel to the stock. 
 
 Bridle The polished piece of steel, which 
 caps the tumbler ; it is secured by two screws, 
 and also the scear-screw. 
 
 Cap The covering for the worm of the 
 ramrod. 
 
 Chain or Swivel A little catch attached 
 to the neek of the tumbler, which receives 
 the end of the mainspring. 
 
 Chamber Centre tube in breeching. Ante- 
 chamber is the smaller tube, leading from this 
 to the touch-hole. 
 
 Cock-screw That which fastens the flint. 
 
 Cup The concave at the top of the improved 
 breechings. 
 
 Escutcheons, ornamental Pieces of silver, 
 to prevent bolts from wearing the stock ; and 
 also the shield on which the crest and cipher 
 are engraved. 
 
 Face of the Hammer The part which, by 
 coming in contact with the flint, strikes fire. 
 
 False Breeching The part where the nose 
 of the breechings hook in, before the barrels 
 can be laid in the stock. 
 
 False Breech-screw Passes through the 
 stock into the trigger-plate, and screws them 
 together. 
 
 Fence The part between cock and pan, on 
 which is received the solid cock. 
 
 Guard Curved plate to defend the trig- 
 gers. 
 
 Hammer-spring That on which the hammer 
 is moved. 
 
 Hammer-bridle A part which the tail of 
 the hammer works in. 
 
 Heel-plate The plate with which the butt 
 is tipped. 
 
 Jaw Lips of the cock, to hold the flint. 
 
 Lock-plate Plate to which all the lock is 
 screwed. 
 
 Loops Eyes to receive the bolts that fasten 
 the barrel to the stock. 
 
 Mainspring That spring by which the tum- 
 bler is worked with the cock. 
 
 Nipple The iron pillar on which the cop- 
 per cap of a detonating-gun is placed. 
 
 Pipes Tubes to receive the ramrod. 
 
 Rib Piece of iron which strengthens tho 
 barrel, and on which the ramrod rests. 
 
 Scroll-guard An extension from the guard 
 to steady the hand. 
 
 Scear That which catches the tumbler for 
 half or whole cock, and which, being pushed 
 up by the trigger, lets the cock fall. 
 
 Scear-spring The spring which holds the 
 ecear in the notches of the tumbler, at half or 
 whole cock. 
 
 Side-nail A screw which fastens on the 
 locks. 
 
 Sight The piece of metal, attached to the 
 end of a gun-barrel, to assist the eye in taking 
 aim at an object. 
 
 Spring-cramp A small instrument for dis- 
 secting locks. 
 
 Tail The shoulder of a hammer. 
 
 Top-piece Elevated rib, along which is di- 
 rected the line of aim. 
 
 Trigger-plate Plate in which the triggers- 
 work. 
 
 Trigger-springs Small springs to keep the 
 triggers constantly pressing close to scear. 
 
 Tumbler The moveable centre piece of a 
 lock, which falls with the cock. 
 
 Tumbler-screw The screw which fastens 
 on the cock. 
 
 Vent-hole A small hole at the side of the 
 breeching in detonating-guns, to let out tho 
 gas, and lessen the recoil. 
 
 Worm Screw at the end of ramrod 
 
 Hints to Sportsmen Thornton Daniel 
 Hawker Wild Sports. 
 
 GUNPOWDER, s. The powder put into guns to be fired. 
 
 intimate and equal throughout the whole 
 The mixture is occasionally sprinkled 
 
 Gunpowder is composed of very light char- 
 coal, sulphur, and well refined saltpetre. The 
 powder used by sportsmen in shooting game is 
 generally composed of six parts of saltpetre, 
 one of charcoal, and one of sulphur ; but these 
 proportions, as well as the introduction of other 
 ingredients, and the sizes of the grains, are 
 undoubtedly varied by the different manufac- 
 turers in the composition of the powders of 
 the same denominations, and are always kept 
 profoundly secret. 
 
 The materials are put into a wooden trough, 
 where they are ground together, to render the 
 contact of the nitrous and combustible particles 
 
 mass. 
 
 with water to form an amalgam, which 
 afterwards granulated, and to prevent the finer 
 particles of the sulphur and the charcoal from 
 flying off, which would necessarily alter the 
 proportion of the composition. The powder- 
 makers employ more or less time in the ope- 
 ration of grinding, in proportion to the quan- 
 tity and quality of the saltpetre. When they 
 conceive that the ingredients are properly 
 mixed together, they from the paste form 
 these little grains, which, being dried, obtain 
 the name of gunpowder.
 
 GUN] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 249 
 
 There are two general methods of examin- 
 ing gunpowder, one with regard to its purity, 
 the other with regard to its strength. 
 
 Its purity is known by laying two or three 
 little heaps near each other upon white paper, 
 and firing one, of them. For if this takes fire 
 readily and the smoke rises upright, without 
 leaving any dross or feculent matter hehind, 
 and without burning the paper, or firing the 
 other heaps, it is esteemed a sign that the sul- 
 phur and nitre were well purified, that the 
 coal was good, and that the ingredients were 
 thoroughly incorporated together ; but if the 
 other heaps also take fire at the same time, it 
 is presumed, that either common salt was 
 mixed with the nitre, or that the coal was not 
 well ground, or the whole mass not well beat 
 or mixed together ; and if either the nitre or 
 sulphur be not well purified the paper will he 
 black or spotted. 
 
 To determine the strength of powder, dry 
 it perfectly and ascertain how many sheets of 
 paper it will drive the shot through at the 
 distance of ten or twelve yards. In this trial 
 we should be careful to employ the same sized 
 shot in each experiment the quantity both 
 of the shot and the powder being regulated 
 by exact weight, otherwise we cannot, even in 
 this experiment, arrive to any certainty in 
 comparing the strength of different powders, 
 or of the same powder at different times. 
 
 Mr. Daniel, in 'speaking of gunpowder, 
 gives the following recipe for increasing its 
 strength. We entirely coincide in his opinion 
 that it is quite unnecessary to augment the 
 force of modern gunpowder, and insert the 
 directions rather for the experimentalist than 
 the sportsman. 
 
 " The following method of increasing the 
 force of gunpowder one-third in proportion to 
 its original goodness, was discovered by a phy- 
 sician of Fogano, in Tuscany, whose name 
 was Francesco. To every pound of powder 
 add four ounces of quick lime, fresh and well 
 pulverised ; let the whole be shaken until the 
 mixture is perfect, and afterwards kept for 
 use in a closei stopped vessel. To the che- 
 mists is left to decide upon what principle the 
 lime acts in strengthening the powder. The 
 experiment is said to be certain. It is neces- 
 sary to add, that the powder used in priming 
 must be unmixed with lime. Without artifi- 
 cially augmenting the strength of gunpowder, 
 that made by Messrs. Pigou and Andrews 
 will be found excellent ; and it is to be feared, 
 
 if a gentleman cannot kill with the above, no 
 chemical preparation will much assist his en- 
 deavours." 
 
 The concluding observations are taken from 
 a very clever and ingenious work, published 
 many years ago, and entitled " An Essay on 
 Shooting." 
 
 Powder ought to be kept very dry ; every 
 degree of moisture injures it. Good powder, 
 however, does not readily imbibe moisture ; 
 and, perhaps, there is no greater proof of the 
 bad quality of powder, than its growing damp 
 quickly when exposed to the air. This readi- 
 ness to become moist, depends upon the salt- 
 petre employed in the composition not having 
 been freed from the common salt it contains 
 in its crude state, and which, in consequence, 
 has a very strong attraction for watery par- 
 ticles. 
 
 Powder may acquire a small degree of 
 dampness, and be freed from it again by dry- 
 ing, without much injury to its quality. But 
 if the moisture is considerable, the saltpetre 
 is dissolved, and the intimate mixture of the 
 several ingredients thereby entirely destroyed. 
 Drying powder with too great a heat also in- 
 jures it ; for there is a degree of heat, which, 
 although not sufficient to fire the powder, will 
 yet dissipate the sulphur, and impair the com- 
 position by destroying the texture of the grains. 
 The heat of the sun is, perhaps, the greatest 
 it can with safety be exposed to, and, if pro- 
 perly managed, is sufficient for. the purpose ; 
 when this cannot be had, the heat of a fire, 
 regulated to the same degree, may be em- 
 ployed ; and for this end, a heated pewter 
 plate is perhaps as good as anything, because 
 pewter retains so moderate a heat, that there 
 can be little danger of spoiling the powder by 
 producing the consequences before-mentioned. 
 
 It is observable that damp powder pro- 
 duces a remarkable foulness in the fowling- 
 piece after firing, much beyond what arises 
 from an equal quantity of dry powder ; and 
 this seems to arise from the diminution of the 
 activity of the fire in the explosion. 
 
 Unless the sportsman is very particular 
 indeed in the mode of keeping his powder, we 
 would recommend him always to air it and 
 his flask before he takes the field. 
 
 Flasks made of copper or tin are much 
 better for keeping powder in than those made 
 of leather, or than small casks ; the necks of 
 these should be small, and well stopped with 
 cork Wild Sports. 
 
 GUNSHOT, s. The reach or range of a gun. 
 GUNSHOT, a. Made by the shot of a gun. 
 GUNSMITH, s. A man whose trade is to make guns. 
 GUNSTICK, s. obs. The rammer.
 
 250 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [f.Vi 
 
 GUNSTOCK, s. The wood to which the barrel of a gun is fixed. Vide 
 STOCK. 
 
 To repair a broken stock See then, 
 I first put a little glue between the frac- 
 tured parts, and then tie them strongly round. 
 Hand me that gimlet. Now we have a hole 
 right through, at right angles with the grasp ; 
 -dip that peg in glue, and hand it over to 
 me so now we have it driven tight in. I 
 let loose the string at one end, and begin to 
 bind the stock with this waxed thread, leav- 
 ing the glue that has oozed from the sides of 
 
 the wood to lay hold of the thread so now it 
 is finished off like a cricket-bat. Let us bor- 
 row a small strip of ribband of the hostess, to 
 bind over and prevent our friend's hand from 
 being stuck to the stock. Enough ; I will 
 venture to say that the bandage would remain 
 firm much longer than it will be left there ; and 
 though the grasp of the gun is a little thicker, 
 it will not much matter, and it is but a make- 
 shift after all Hints to Grown Sportsman. 
 
 GURGITTING, s. In falconry, act of suffocation in hawks. 
 
 GUST, *. A sudden violent burst of wind. 
 
 GUT, s. The long pipe reaching- with many convolutions from the stomach 
 
 to the vent ; the stomach, the receptacle of food. 
 GUT, v. To eviscerate, to draw ; to take out the inside. 
 GYMNASTIC, a. Relating- to athletic exercises. 
 
 GYRATION, s. The act of turning any thing round ; the ascent of a hawk. 
 GYRE, s. A circle described by anything going in an orbit. 
 GWINNIAD, s. The name of a fish. 
 
 The gwinniad, although a fish, is not im- 
 mediately within the list of those that are 
 objects of the angler's attention, yet it is 
 noticed as being a native of peculiar parts of 
 this country. It is found, according to Pen- 
 nant, in one of the lakes of Ireland Lough 
 Neagh, where it is called the pollen ; in 
 Lough Mabcn, in Scotland, where it is termed 
 
 the vangis ; and the Scotch have a tradition, 
 that it was there first introduced by their 
 beauteous queen, the unhappy Mary Stuart. 
 
 They are taken in nets, but never by any 
 bait, keeping on the bottom of the lake, and 
 feeding on small shells, and the leaves of the 
 water gladiole, a plant peculiar to these moun- 
 tain lakes Daniel.
 
 
 JTLAAK, S. A fish. 
 
 HACK, v. To turn hackney ; to abuse. 
 
 HACKLE, *. Raw silk, any filmy substance unspun. 
 
 To Prepare Hackles First, pick and 
 
 bunch them, and be careful they are the fea- 
 thers of old cocks, otherwise they will not be 
 worth a farthing when dyed, as they will all 
 curl in on each edge, and shrivel up in the 
 points. Bunch each colour by themselves, 
 and throw them into a basin of hot water. 
 Take them out one by one, and rub soap on 
 them downwards, dipping them occasionally 
 in the water till you see they are clean ; dip 
 them in a weak solution of alum water, and 
 then wash them very well in clean water, and 
 they are done. 
 
 Every shade of red will come out of the 
 dye, differing in colour, whether olive or cin- 
 namon. For olives, ground richly in turme- 
 ric, and throw into the same liquor the size 
 of a hazel nut of best madder. Boil in that a 
 quarter of an hour, and throw in a small bit of 
 copperas, first lifting out your hackles till the 
 copperas is dissolved, and when the liquor 
 boils, throw in your feathers for an instant, 
 and you have fine olives. Black hackles dyed 
 in this way, become a rich green olive, or 
 dooghadoo. For cinnamons ground richly in 
 
 turmeric, all red hackles ; then put in two 
 teaspoonfuls of cochineal, ground or powdered, 
 boil them in that for a quarter of an hour, 
 then put in one teaspoonful of best brazil 
 dust, and boil for a quarter of an hour, and 
 you have fine cinnamons. Any dirty tawneys, 
 or grizzle hackles may be dyed in this, and 
 it will improve them much. There is a sort 
 of reddish cuckoo hackle that may be dyed in 
 turmeric and madder, as in the olive hackle 
 process, but not to have any copperas. There 
 is also a yellowish white with a black vein in 
 the middle, and edged with black. All whites, 
 natural yellows, or yellowish whites for the 
 drakes. There is a scald whitish cuckoo hac- 
 kle with very little black in it have nothing 
 to do with them. All those marked as above 
 should be dyed in the following way : 
 
 Take one chip of young fustic, and two or 
 three seedy sprigs of French weed ; boil in 
 this till they come to a faint yellow : draw 
 them, if you wish a bunch of that colour, and 
 if not, put in one pinch of turmeric, and one 
 of madder ; boil in this for a quarter of an 
 hour, and I think you will have fine hackles
 
 252 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 for the drakes. You have no richness from 
 the weed, but when you add the turmeric 
 and madder you have. In every instance ex- 
 cept this, I condemn and forbid the dyeing 
 with turmeric and young fustic, as it will 
 ruin every thing that is dyed in it it gives so 
 bad a colour. 
 
 To stain hackles of a fine rich Gold 
 Colour Ground strongly in turmeric, then 
 
 add a tea-spoonful of best madder, boil well 
 for fifteen minutes, and draw them. Add 
 then two spoonfuls more of madder, and boil 
 for the same time, and draw again. Then 
 add three more, and boil as before ; and, lastly, 
 add six spoonfuls of madder, and boil for half 
 an hour, and you have four fine shades of gold 
 colours Ancient Recipes. 
 
 HACKNEY, s. A hired horse ; a hireling ; any thing let out for hire ; a 
 
 horse of small value used to ride to cover. 
 
 HACKNEY, v. To practise in one thing ; to accustom to the road. 
 HADDOCK, s. A sea fish of the cod kind. 
 
 The haddock, one of the commonest fishes 
 in the London markets, begins to be in roe 
 in the middle of November, and so continues 
 until the end of January ; from that time until 
 May they are thin tailed, and much out of 
 season. The grand shoal of haddocks comes 
 periodically on the Yorkshire coasts. 
 
 Fishermen assert, that when the sea is 
 rough, haddocks sink down into the ooze and 
 sand at the bottom, and there shelter them- 
 selves until the storm subsides ; their reason 
 for this assertion is, that in boisterous weather 
 they take none, and those that are caught im- 
 mediately after a storm, have their backs 
 covered with mud. The bulk of the haddock 
 
 is seldom known to exceed fourteen pounds ; 
 these are uncommon, and extremely coarse, 
 the best for the table weighing from two to 
 three pounds. The black spot beyond the 
 gills, is the mark which superstition interprets 
 to be the impression left by the finger and 
 thumb of St. Peter, when he took the tribute 
 money out of the mouth of a fish of this spe- 
 cies, and which has been ever since that mira- 
 cle continued to the whole race of haddocks. 
 
 The haddock taken on the Irish coasts are 
 much superior to what is found in the English 
 markets. Those of seven or eight pounds 
 weight are preferred to smaller fish, being 
 considered finer and firmer Daniel, <${C. 
 
 HAFT, s. A handle, that part of an instrument that is taken into the 
 hand. 
 
 HAGGARD, a. Wild, untamed, irreclaimable ; lean ; rugged, deformed. 
 
 HAGGARD, *. Any thing wild or irreclaimable ; a species of hawk. 
 
 HAIL, s. Drops of rain frozen in their falling ; a provincial name for shot. 
 
 HAIR, s. One of the common teguments of the body ; a single hair; any 
 thing proverbially small ; small filaments issuing out of the pores of the 
 skins of animals, and serving for the most part as a covering. The con- 
 stituent parts of hair are animal matter, oil, silex, sulphur, carbonate of 
 lime, &c. Crabbe. 
 
 should be again sorted, and the best done up 
 five or six score together, with then- root^ends 
 quite equal, and tied round with thread at 
 both ends and in the middle, and should be 
 kept in a dry place. Hair must not touch 
 oil, which will make it hollow and soon de- 
 cay ; it ought to be kept in parchment. Dip- 
 ping it in water every two or three months, 
 and afterwards slowly drying it, will preserve 
 it for years. 
 
 Hair that is most proper, is that taken 
 from a young, healthy, grey, or white stallion, 
 and which is of a pale transparent water-colour ; 
 that from the middle of the tail is the best. 
 The ban's should be sorted singly, and the 
 biggest, roundest, and freest from blemishes, 
 made up into small bundles ; the next sized 
 hairs, and all that are sound and good, are to 
 be alike sorted and parcelled out ; they are 
 then to be laid in clean spring water for twelve 
 hours ; after that, washed well, and dried either 
 with bran, or by hanging them in a room where 
 the heat of a fire or sun comes (they must not 
 be placed too near a fire); when dry, they 
 
 Sorrel, chestnut, or brown-coloured hairs 
 are best for ground angling, especially in 
 muddy waters, as they nearly resemble the
 
 HAN] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 253 
 
 colour of the water ; white, grey, or darkish 
 white hair, is for clear streams. Some use a 
 pale watery green for weedy rivers in summer. 
 Black will only do for rivers immediately 
 
 flowing from mosses. 
 
 * 
 
 To make the hair grow in horses 
 
 When the surfeit or sharp humour prevents 
 the wound healing, take a piece of fresh butter 
 and boil it in a spoon, to which, add a common 
 charge of gunpowder; mix well, and anoint 
 the part at night ; wash off the ointment with 
 vinegar in the morning ; repeat this for two or 
 three times. 
 
 HAIRCLOTH, s. Stuff made of hair ; it is useful in cleansing a horse's 
 skin of impurities. 
 
 circulation, and stands in the stead of exercise. 
 This practice of rubbing would prove an ex- 
 cellent substitute for washing in many cases, 
 particularly where water proves injurious, 
 which it sometimes does to delicate dogs.- 
 
 It is also assistant to health, that confined 
 dogs should have their hides rubbed every 
 day with a hair cloth, or a wisp of straw ; this 
 dislodges the furfuraceous matter of the skin, 
 and prevents its adhesion, which forms the 
 first step to mange : it also assists general 
 
 Elaine. 
 
 HALE, a. Healthy, sound, hearty. 
 
 HALF-BRED, s. Any horse not thorough hred ; half-bred, imperfect. 
 
 HALIBUT, s. A sort of fish. 
 
 HALLOO, interj. A word of encouragement when dogs are let loose on 
 
 their game. 
 HALLOO, v. To cry as after dogs; to encourage with shouts ; to chase with 
 
 shouts; to call or shout to. 
 HALM, s. Straw. 
 
 HALT, v. To limp, to be lame ; to stop in a march. 
 HALTER, s. A rope to hang malefactors; a cord ; a manger rope. 
 HALTER, v. To bind with a cord ; to catch in a noose. 
 HAMMER, s. The instrument, consisting of a long handle and heavy head, 
 
 with which any thing is forced or driven ; a part of a gun cock. 
 
 If a hammer is too hard, the flint will i rate, and the sparks, before they are extin- 
 make scarcely any impression on it ; and if too quished, pause in the pan, and occasion a 
 soft, it soon becomes dented, like lead ; but whizzing noise. Hawker. 
 when of good temper, the impression is mode- 
 
 HAMMER, v. To beat with a hammer ; to forge or form with a hammer. 
 HAMMOCK, s. A swinging bed, generally used in vessels ; a hempen cloth 
 
 bag to sleep on, six feet long and three feet wide. 
 HAMSTRING, s. The tendon of the ham. 
 HAMSTRING, v. To lame by cutting the tendon of the ham. 
 HAND, s. That member of the body which reaches from the wrist to the 
 
 fingers' end ; measure of four inches ; cards held at a game ; pressure of 
 
 the bridle. 
 HANDER, s. Conveyer in succession ; the person who manages the cock 
 
 when fighting. 
 
 HANDFUL, s. As much as the hand can gripe or contain ; a small quantity. 
 HANDGALLOP, 5. A slow easy gallop. 
 HANDGUN, s. obs. A gun wielded by the hand. 
 HANDLE, s. That part of any thing by which it is held in the hand.
 
 254 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 HANDY, a. Ready, dexterous, skilful, convenient. 
 
 HANK, s. A skein of thread ; a skein of gut containing 100 threads. 
 
 HARBOUR, s. A port or haven for shipping; an asylum; a shelter; the 
 lair or haunt of a dog. 
 
 HARBOUR, v. To entertain, to shelter, to secure; to trace a deer to cover. 
 
 HARDY, a. Brave, stout, daring ; strong, hard, firm. 
 
 HARE, s. A small quadruped, remarkable for timidity, vigilance, and fe- 
 cundity. 
 
 The generic character of the hare consists 
 in its having two front teeth, both above and 
 below ; and the upper pair duplicate, two small 
 interior ones standing behind the others : the 
 forefeet with five, and the hinder with four 
 toes. 
 
 These animals live entirely on vegetable food, 
 and are all remarkably timid. They run by a 
 kind of a leaping-pace, and in walking they use 
 their hind feet as far as the heel. Their tails 
 are either very short (called in England scuts), 
 or else they are entirely without. 
 
 
 
 The Common Hare This little animal 
 is found throughout Europe, and indeed in 
 most of the northern parts of the world. Be- 
 ing destitute of weapons of defence, it is en- 
 dowed by Providence with the passion of fear. 
 Its timidity is known to every one : it is at- 
 tentive to every alarm, and is, therefore, fur- 
 nished with ears very long and tubular, which 
 catch the most remote sounds. The eyes are 
 so prominent, as to enable the animal to see 
 both before and behind. 
 
 The hare feeds in the evenings, and sleeps 
 in his form during the day ; and as he generally 
 lies on the ground, he has the feet protected 
 both above and below, with a thick covering of 
 hair. In a moonlight evening, many of them 
 may frequently be seen sporting together, leap- 
 ing about and pursuing each other : but the 
 least noise alarms them, and they then scam- 
 per off, each.in a different direction. Their 
 pace is a kind of gallop, or quick succession of 
 leaps ; and they are extremely swift, particu- 
 larly in ascending higher grounds, to which, 
 when pursued, they generally have recourse, 
 here their large and strong hind legs are of sin- 
 gular use to them. In northern regions, where, 
 on descent of the winter's snow, they would, 
 were their summer fur to remain, be rendered 
 particularly conspicuous to animals of prey, 
 they change in the autumn their yellow grey 
 dress, for one perfectly white ; and are thus 
 enabled, in a great measure, to elude their 
 enemies. 
 
 In more temperate regions, they choose in 
 winter a form exposed to the south, to obtain 
 all the possible warmth of that season : and in 
 summer, when they are desirous of shunning 
 the hotrays of the sun, they change this for one 
 
 with a northerly aspect : but in both cases they 
 have the instinct of generally fixing upon a 
 place where the immediately surrounding ob- 
 jects are nearly the colour of their own bodies. 
 In one hare that a gentleman watched, as 
 soon as the dogs were heard, though at the dis- 
 tance of nearly a mile, she rose from her form, 
 swam across a rivulet, then lay down among 
 the bushes on the other side, and by this means 
 evaded the scent of the hounds. When a hare 
 has been chased for a considerable length of 
 time, she will sometimes push another from its 
 seat, and lie down there herself. When hard 
 pressed, she will mingle with a flock of sheep, 
 run up an old wall, and conceal herself among 
 the grass on the top of it, or cross a river se- 
 veral times at small distances. She never runs 
 in a line directly forward, but constantly dou- 
 bles about, which frequently throws the dogs 
 out of the scent ; and she generally goes against 
 the wind. It is extremely remarkable that 
 hares, however frequently pursued by the dogs, 
 seldom leave the place where they were brought 
 forth, or that in which they usually sit; and 
 it is a very common thing to find them after 
 a long and severe chase, in the same place the 
 following day. 
 
 The females have not so much strength and 
 agility as the males ; they are, consequently, 
 more timid, and never suffer the dogs to ap- 
 proach them so near, before they rise as the 
 males. They are likewise said to practise more 
 arts, and double more frequently. 
 
 This animal is gentle, and susceptible even 
 of education. He does not often, however, 
 though he exhibits some degree of attachment 
 to his master, become altogether domestic : for 
 although taken very young, brought up in the 
 house, and accustomed to kindness and atten- 
 tion, no sooner is he arrived at a certain age, 
 than he generally seizes the first opportunity 
 of recovering his liberty, and flying to the 
 fields. 
 
 Whilst Dr. Townson was at Gottingen, he 
 had a young hare brought to him, which he took 
 so much pains with, as to render it more fami- 
 liar than these animals commonly are. In the 
 evenings it soon became so frolicsome, as to 
 run and jump about his sofa and bed ; some- 
 times in its play it would leap upon, and pat 
 him with his forefeet, or whilst he was reading,
 
 HAR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 255 
 
 even knock the book out of his hand. But 
 whenever a stranger entered the room, the lit- 
 tle animal always exhibited considerable alarm. 
 
 Mr. Borlase saw a hare that was so familiar 
 as to feed from the hand, lie under a chair in 
 a common sitting room, and appear, in every 
 other respect, as easy and comfortable in its 
 situation as a lap-dog. It now and then went 
 out into the garden, but after regaling itself 
 always returned to the house as its proper ha- 
 bitation. Its usual companions were a grey- 
 hound and a spaniel, both so fond of hare- 
 hunting, that they often went out together, 
 without any person accompanying them. With 
 these two dogs this tame hare spent its even- 
 ings : they always slept on the same hearth, 
 and very frequently would rest itself upon 
 them. 
 
 Hares are very subject to fleas. Linnasus 
 tells us, that cloth made of their fur will at- 
 tract these insects, and preserve the wearer from 
 their troublesome attacks. In India the hare 
 is hunted for sport, not only with dogs, but 
 with hawks, and some species of the cat genus. 
 The flesh, though in esteem among the Romans, 
 was forbidden by the Druids, and by the Bri- 
 tons of the early centuries. It is now, though 
 very black, and dry, and devoid of fat, much 
 esteemed by the Europeans, on account of its 
 peculiar flavour. 
 
 The female goes with young about a month ; 
 she generally produces three or four at a litter, 
 and this about four times in a year. The eyes 
 of the young ones are open at birth : the dam 
 suckles them about twenty days, after which 
 they leave her, and procure their own food. 
 They make forms at a little distance from each 
 other, and never go far from the place where 
 they were brought forth. The hare lives about 
 eight years. 
 
 * 
 
 Some believe that hares propagate but once 
 a year, but, in the author's opinion, they breed 
 from February to the end of harvest. The 
 doe chooses some thick dry brake, high grass, 
 clover, or standing corn, to kindle in ; her 
 paps come forwarder under her belly, than 
 those of almost any quadruped ; she does not 
 long suckle her young ; if she did, and had 
 many, the udder would be drawn too big, and 
 be inconvenient whilst the hare was running; 
 she brings forth differently from the rabbit, 
 her offspring being completely formed and 
 quick-sighted the instant they are dropped. 
 Among naturalists it is a received notion that 
 the hare, especially the buck, seldom lives 
 beyond seven years, and that when either is 
 killed, another succeeds to occupy its place ; 
 whence is derived the proverb" The more 
 hares you kill, the more you will have to hunt ;" 
 for when the buck and doe live undisturbed 
 together a little time, they suffer no stranger 
 to reside within their limits. It is also a well 
 
 experienced truth, that some places are re- 
 markable for being seldom without hares, and 
 others (although as likely, in all appearance, 
 to harbour them) rarely with any. Whether 
 it is any particular excellence in the feed, in 
 the situation for forming advantageously, for 
 warmth, hearing, or seeing, that induces them 
 to prefer certain spots to others, or that on the 
 death of a buck or doe, another succeeds, and 
 they possess their usual circle, cannot be as- 
 certained, but the fact is perfectly established. 
 * 
 
 The first ring a hare takes is generally the 
 foundation of the ensuing pastime, all the 
 doubles she afterwards makes are in a great 
 measure like the first ; a hare will go over 
 great part of trailed land, and visit her works 
 of the preceding night and morning; some- 
 times a buck will take endways over fresh 
 ground, without offering to return ; the doe 
 usually runs in a circle, unless with young, or 
 having recently kindled ; at such times she 
 often runs forward, and scarcely ever escapes 
 with life, being naturally unfit for fatigue: 
 however, both sexes greatly regulate their 
 conduct according to the season and weather. 
 After a rainy night, in a woody countrv, 
 neither buck nor doe will keep the cover, 
 owing to the drops of wet hanging on the 
 spray ; they therefore run the highways or 
 stony lanes, for as the scent naturally lies 
 strong, they hold the roads which take the 
 least ; not that a hare judges upon what soil 
 the scent lies weakest; it is her ears that 
 chiefly direct her, for the hounds being 
 oftener at fault on the hard paths than the 
 turf, she finds herself not so closely pressed, 
 and is not so much alarmed with the conti- 
 nual cry of the dogs at her heels. The 
 louder the cry, the more she is terrified, and 
 flies the swifter; the certain effect of which 
 is, a heart broken sooner than with a pack 
 equal in number and goodness, but who spend 
 their tongues less free. The same principle 
 directs the hare to run to the covers in autumn ; 
 when the ground is dry, and the wind cold at 
 north or east ; she then keeps the paths that 
 are covered with leaves, which are so con- 
 tinually falling and blowing about, that the 
 best hounds can carry no scent ; her alarms 
 are consequently short, and she rests contented 
 where she is least disturbed. 
 
 * 
 
 When a hare rises out of form, if she erects 
 her ears, and at first runs slowly, with her 
 scut cast over her back, it is surely old and 
 crafty. When a hare is hunted to her form, 
 along the hard highways, and feeds far away 
 from cover, and that her doublings and cross- 
 ings are wide and large, it is a buck ; for the 
 does generally keep close to the side of some 
 cover, and, when going to feed in the corn- 
 fields, seldom cross over the furrows, but
 
 256 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [HAR 
 
 follow the track of them : when hunted they 
 turn frequently, use many stratagems, and 
 rarely leave the country round their seat, 
 whilst the buck, after two or three turns about 
 his form, runs straight forward four or five 
 miles, and then probably squats in some place 
 where he has before preserved himself. A 
 buck or jack hare may also be known by his 
 head being shorter, his ears more grey, his 
 shoulders redder, and the body being smaller 
 than the doe, and, at his first starting, by the 
 whiteness of his hinder parts. 
 
 They who make a business of hare-finding 
 (and a very advantageous one it is, in some 
 counties), are enabled to find them in any 
 weather, by observing the direction of the 
 wind. People frequently do not find hares, 
 from not knowing them in their forms. A 
 gentleman coursing with his friends, was 
 shown a hare that was found sitting : " Is 
 that a hare?" he cried; " then, by Jove, I 
 
 found two this morning as we rode along." 
 
 
 
 According to the season of the year, the 
 hare is to be looked for : if it be spring, upon 
 fallows or green corn ; during the autumn, in 
 stubbles or turnips ; in winter they will seat 
 themselves near houses, in brambles and tufts 
 of thorns. * * 
 
 Hares will certainly, when hard pressed, 
 go to vault ; that is, take the ground like a 
 rabbit. * 
 
 Fecundity of Hares A male and female 
 
 hare were put together by Lord Ribblesdale, 
 for a year, when the offspring amounted to 
 sixty-eight. A couple of rabbits, inclosed for 
 the same period, produced about three hun- 
 dred. * * 
 
 Feet of Hares Tender feet in dogs are 
 owing to the softness of that fleshy substance 
 called the ball of the foot ; but nature has to 
 the hare been singularly liberal in this part by 
 supplying her with such feet as are not subject 
 to, and indeed scarcely susceptible of hurt, so 
 as to incommode her in running. The balls 
 of her feet, instead of hard flesh, are covered 
 with strong coarse fur, suited so well for the 
 purpose, that she never treads easier or to 
 more advantage than on the hardest beaten 
 track, or rugged, stony road ; the very sur- 
 face which cripples a dog she glides over with 
 pleasure. In a frost she has an evident su- 
 periority to most creatures ; the horse does 
 not at that season take his gallops for fear of 
 foundering ; the greyhound or hound would 
 in running start all their claws, and tear their 
 soles to pieces, whilst the hare treads as soft as 
 if she went on wool. 
 
 Hare Warren The warren should be 
 paled, and the mouses made of brick ; but to any 
 person making a warren, Mr. Beckford recom- 
 mends examining the traps, boxes, and stoppers, 
 all of which have peculiarities not easy to be 
 
 described. His town warren is in a wood of near 
 thirty acres, and is cut into many walks ; a 
 smaller warren, which would perhaps answer 
 as well, should have only one walk, and that 
 round the outside of it. No dog must ever be 
 allowed to enter it, and traps for stoats and 
 polecats should be constantly set. Parsley 
 sown in it will induce the hares to keep at 
 home. When hares at the end of a season 
 become shy of the traps from having been 
 often caught, it will be necessary to drive them 
 in with spaniels. The warren hares will be 
 found very thick round the warren, for they 
 will be unwilling to leave it, and when dis- 
 turbed by dogs will immediately go in. The 
 number of hares which a warren will supply 
 is hardly to be conceived ; but Mr. B. prefers 
 a warren in the midst of an open country 
 (which might be stopped close on hunting 
 days), to the catching hares in traps, and then 
 turning them down. A warren so situated 
 would supply the whole country with hares, 
 which, after one turn round it, would most 
 probably run straight on end. 
 
 
 
 The Varying Hare This species has a 
 very soft fur, which in summer is grey, with a 
 slight mixture of tawny; the tail is always 
 white. The ears are shorter, and the legs 
 more slender than those of the common hare, 
 and the feet more closely and warmly furred. 
 In size this animal is somewhat smaller. 
 
 Besides other cold parts of Europe, the 
 varying hare is found on the tops of the high- 
 est Scotch hills, never descending to the plains. 
 It never mixes with the last species, though 
 common in the same neighbourhood. It does 
 not run fast, and when alarmed takes shelter 
 in clefts of the rocks. 
 
 In September it begins to change its grey 
 coat and resume its white winter dress, in 
 which only the tips and edges of the ears 
 and the soles of the feet are black. In the 
 month of April it again becomes grey. It 
 is somewhat singular that although this animal 
 be brought into a house, and even kept in 
 stoved apartments, yet it still changes its colour 
 at the same period that it does among its na- 
 tive mountains. 
 
 # 
 
 Hounds for hunting box hares should not 
 be too fleet, and they are to be hunted like a 
 pack of fox hounds, as a trap hare runs very 
 much in the same manner, and will even top 
 the hedges ; Mr. B. concludes his remarks 
 upon the running of trap hares, with the me- 
 thod recommended by a gentleman to insure 
 them to run straight, which was tying a piece 
 of riband to their ears. 
 
 The hounds mostly used for hare hunting, 
 are the deep-tongued, thick-lipped, broad and 
 long hung southern hounds. 
 
 The fleet, sharp-nosed dog, ears narrow,
 
 UAH] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 deep-chested, with thiu slioulders, showing a 
 
 his shoulders. 
 
 The rough or smooth beagle.- 
 Buffon, $c. $c. 
 
 -Daniel 
 
 quarter cross of the fox hound. 
 
 The rough wire-haired hound, thick quar- 
 tered, well hung, and not too much flesh on 
 
 HARELIP, s. A fissure in the upper lip, with want of substance. 
 HARNESS, *. The leather gear, &c., used to attach horses to carriages. 
 HARNESS, v. To fix horses in their traces. 
 HARPOON, s. A bearded dart with a line fastened to the handle, with 
 
 which whales are struck and caught. 
 
 HARQUEBUSS, s. obs. Fr. Arquebuse. A handgun; a musquet. 
 HARRIER, HEN HARRIER, (Circus Pygargus, FLEMING), s. A small 
 
 sized hawk. It is generally believed by ornithologists to be the same 
 
 species as the Ringtail. 
 HARRIER, s. A dog for hunting hares. 
 
 This dog is now almost universally used in 
 Great Britain for hare hunting. He was ori- 
 ginally generated in a douhle cross, between 
 the small beagle, the southern hound, and the 
 dwarf fox. 
 
 There are, however, various harriers pro- 
 duced by crosses introduced in breeding, dic- 
 tated by knowledge and experience, and de- 
 pending on the kind of country they hunt in, 
 and the wish or fancy of the owner of the 
 pack ; all of which are a great alteration in 
 the blood. 
 
 The harrier pursues the hare with great 
 eagerness and speed, allowing her but little 
 time to breathe or double. The keenest 
 sportsmen often find it difficult to keep up 
 with this dog, and with a strong hare it is 
 rather fatiguing work. There is a great deal 
 of melody and cheerful harmony in the voices 
 of harriers during the chase. 
 
 Mr. Beckford, who was justly esteemed 
 one of the best judges of dogs in Britain, en- 
 
 deavoured, as far as possible, to breed his har- 
 riers with much boue and strength within a 
 small compass, and, at the same time, of a 
 handsome make. These respective qualities 
 he obtained ; and his hounds ran remarkably 
 well together, went fast, had all the alacrity 
 that could be desired, and would hunt the 
 coldest scent. 
 
 Although the harrier is the best adapted for 
 hare hunting, yet there are situations where he 
 is too weak, being ill-suited for swampy and 
 marshy lands, such as those of Lancashire and 
 Lincolnshire, and many other places. The 
 large low southern hound seems best calcula- 
 ted for such localities. Harriers which are of a 
 larger description, and crossed for the purpose 
 of speed, are only superior in open countries, 
 where, for want of covert, the hare will run 
 five or six miles right out without a single 
 turn. In such cases the pleasure of the chase 
 may be compared to those of fox-hunting.
 
 258 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 Harriers, in Mr. Beckford's judgment, to be 
 good, must be kept to their proper game. 
 Hounds cannot be perfect unless used to one 
 scent, and one style of hunting ; to run fox 
 with them teaches them to skirt, and is of 
 
 great disservice to them. The high scent 
 which a fox leaves, the straightness of his 
 course, the eagerness of the pursuit, and the 
 hallooing that usually accompanies it, all con- 
 tribute to spoil a harrier Brown Daniel. 
 
 HARRY, v. In Scotland, signifies to rob, plunder, or oppress ; destruction 
 
 of game by birds of prey. 
 
 HART, s. A he-deer of the large kind; the male of the roe. 
 HARTSHORN, *. A volatile alkali, originally drawn from the horn of a stag, 
 
 called by modern chemists subcarbonate of ammonia. 
 HASLET, or HARSLET, s. The heart, liver, and lights of a hog, with the 
 
 windpipe and part of the throat to it. 
 
 HATCH, v. To produce young from eggs ; to quicken the eggs by incuba- 
 tion. 
 HATCH, s. A brood excluded from the egg ; the act of exclusion from the 
 
 egg ; the half-door ; in the plural, the doors or openings by which they 
 
 descend from one deck or floor of a ship to another. 
 HATTOCK, *. A shock of corn. Provincial. 
 HAUL, v. To pull, to draw, to drag by violence, to draw a net. 
 HAUL, s Pull, violence in dragging; a draught of fishes. 
 HAUM, s. Straw. 
 
 HAUNCH, s. The thigh, the hind hip ; the hind part of a deer. 
 HAUNT, v. To frequent, to be much about any place. 
 HAUNT, s. Place in which game feed and are found. 
 HAW, s. The berry and seed of the hawthorn ; a hedge ; an excrescence 
 
 in the eye ; a small piece of ground adjoining to a house. 
 HAWTHORN, s. The thorn that bears haws ; the white thorn. 
 HAWTHORN, a. Belonging to the white thorn; consisting of white thorn. 
 HAWK, s. A bird of prey, used much anciently in sport to catch other 
 
 birds. 
 
 Hawks (Accipitrina, VIGORS) are birds of 
 prey, belonging to the falcon family (Falco- 
 nldce, LEACH), and characterised by the wings 
 being short, and, when closed, scarcely reaching 
 to the end of the tail ; the first quill feather very | 
 short, the third nearly equal to the fourth, which | 
 is the longest in the wing ; shanks plaited, long, , 
 and slender ; middle toe greatly exceeding the \ 
 two lateral ones in length ; claws much hooked, ' 
 and very sharp ; flight rapid and direct. They 
 pounce upon their prey on the wing, and are 
 so bold as to attack much larger birds than 
 themselves. * * * 
 
 Breaking of Hawks When the hawk 
 
 is placed upon the fist with his hood on, he 
 will at first bait, (flutter oft ,) when he is to 
 be replaced gently by the hand ; but he will 
 very soon learn to sit still. He must be 
 carried on the fist during the greater part of 
 
 the day frequently, and stroked with a feather 
 on his back and legs. 
 
 When he is to be fed, the hood must be 
 taken off. At first, this is best done at night, 
 with a candle so placed as to give no more 
 light than is absolutely necessary; but in two 
 or three days this precaution will not be re- 
 quired, and he may be unhooded, and fed by 
 daylight. 
 
 He must now be brought, by degrees, to 
 stand quiet when the hood is to be put on. 
 
 The brail is used for this purpose. This is 
 a thong of soft leather, with a slit running 
 longitudinally along the middle, of such a 
 length as to admit the pinion joint. 
 
 When the pinion joint has been introduced 
 into the slit, the lower end of the thong is 
 brought backwards under the wing, and tied 
 to the other end above it.
 
 HAW] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 259 
 
 The wing is thus confined, and in such a 
 way as to remove it but little from its natural 
 position, and so that it can receive no injury. 
 
 Another very effectual way to make a, 
 hawk stand quiet is, by causing water to 
 stream upon him, from a wisp of hay or 
 straw, until he is thoroughly drenched. This 
 should always be done in the morning, and 
 he should be carried on the fist until he is 
 dry, with his wing brailed, be stroked with 
 a feather, and hooded and unhooded very 
 frequently. 
 
 When he has become a little accustomed 
 to the hood, neither the brail nor the drench- 
 in;,' will be necessary, but he must be carried 
 almost all day upon the fist. The hood is to 
 be occasionally taken oft', and he may then be 
 kllowed for a short time to pull upon a stump 
 or pinion from which he can get but little 
 meat. 
 
 A few mouthfuls should always be given 
 to him the moment the hood is put on. 
 
 Hawks, when hooded, are always quiet. 
 In the field the hood prevents them from 
 baiting when birds rise, and, at other times, 
 from being alarmed at any thing that may 
 approach them. 
 
 It may, perhaps, appear paradoxical to assert, 
 that hawks, by being kept hooded, are brought 
 nearer to their natural habits, but this is un- 
 doubtedly the case, for by this treatment they 
 are induced to remain at rest when they are 
 not either feeding, or in pursuit of game ; and 
 such are their habits in a wild state, when 
 left undisturbed. 
 
 When the hawk is become tolerably tame, 
 he may be unhooded, and, after having eaten 
 a few mouthfuls, be placed on the block, and 
 enticed to come from thence to the fist when 
 held near him. He will soon learn to fly to 
 it when it is presented to him at the distance 
 of several feet, the fist being, of course, 
 always well garnished with meat. 
 
 When he has been practised in this man- 
 ner for a few days, if he be unhooded on the 
 fist, and a small piece of meat be thrown on 
 the ground, to the distance of two or three 
 feet, he will fly down to it, and having eaten 
 it, fly back to the fist, enticed, as usual, by 
 the offer of food. 
 
 * * 
 
 The sport of hawking is generally placed at 
 the head of those amusements that can only 
 be practised in the country, and probably it 
 obtained this precedency from its being a 
 pastime so generally followed by the nobility, 
 not in this country only, but also upon the 
 continent. Persons of high rank rarely ap- 
 peared without their dogs and their hawks; 
 the latter they carried with them when they 
 journeyed from one country to another, and 
 sometimes even when they went to battle, 
 and would not part with them to procure their 
 
 own liberty when tuken prisoners. Sometimes 
 they fo lined part of the train of an ecclesiastic. 
 
 These birds were considered as ensigns of 
 nobility : and no action could be reckoned 
 more dishonourable to a man of rank than to 
 give up his hawk. 
 
 I cannot trace the origin of hawking to an 
 earlier period than the middle of the fourth 
 century. Julius Firmicus, who lived about 
 that time, is the first Latin author that speaks 
 of falconers, and the art of teaching one spe- 
 cies of birds to fly after and catch others. 
 
 The grand fauconnier of France was an offi- 
 cer of great eminence ; his annual salary was 
 four thousand florins; he was attended by fifty 
 gentlemen, and fifty assistant falconers ; he 
 was allowed to keep three hundred hawks ; he 
 licensed every vender of hawks in France, 
 and received a tax upon every bird sold in 
 that kingdom, and even within the verge of 
 the court ; and the king never rode out upon 
 any occasion of consequence without this offi- 
 cer attending him. 
 
 Edward III., according to Froissart, had 
 with him in his army when he invaded France, 
 thirty falconers on horseback, who had charge 
 of his hawks ; and every day he either hunted, 
 or went to the river for the purpose of hawk- 
 ing, as his fancy inclined him. 
 
 We may also here notice, that the ladies 
 not only accompanied the gentlemen in pur- 
 suit of this diversion, but often practised it by 
 themselves ; and, if we may believe a contem- 
 porary writer, in the thirteenth century, they 
 even excelled the men in knowledge and ex- 
 ercise of the art of falconry, which reason, he 
 very ungallantly produces, in proof that the 
 pastime was frivolous and effeminate. Hawk- 
 ing was forbidden to the clergy by the canons 
 of the church ; but the prohibition was by no 
 means sufficient to restrain them from the 
 pursuit of this favourite and fashionable 
 amusement. On which account, as well as 
 for hunting, they were severely lashed by the 
 poets and moralists ; and, indeed, the one was 
 rarely spoken of without the other- being in. 
 eluded ; for those who delighted in hawking 
 were generally proficients in hunting also. 
 
 When the hawk was not flying at her game, 
 she was usually hood- winked, with a cap or 
 hood provided for that purpose, and fitted to 
 her head ; and this hood was worn abroad as 
 well as at home. All hawks taken upon 
 " the fist," the term used for earning them 
 upon the hand, had straps of leather, called 
 jesses, put upon their legs. The jesses were 
 made sufficiently long for the knots to appear 
 between the middle and the little fingers of 
 the hand that held them, so that the lunes, 
 or small thongs of leather, might be fastened 
 to them with two tyrrits, or rings ; and the 
 lunes were loosely wound round the little 
 finger. It appears that some.imes the jesses 
 S2
 
 260 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [HAY 
 
 were of silk. Lastly, their legs were adorned 
 with bells, fastened with rings of leather, 
 each leg having one ; and the leathers, to 
 which the hells were attached, were denomi- 
 nated bewits ; and to the bewits was added, 
 the creance, or long thread, by which the bird 
 in tutoring, was drawn back, after she had 
 been permitted to fly ; and this was called the 
 reclaiming of the hawk. The bewits, we are 
 informed, were useful to keep the hawk from 
 " winding when she bated," that is, when she 
 fluttered her wings to fly after her game. 
 
 Respecting the bells, it is particularly re- 
 commended that they should not be too heavy, 
 to impede the flight of the bird ; and that they 
 should be of equal weight, sonorous, shrill, 
 and musical ; not both of one sound, but the 
 one a semitone below the other; they ought 
 not to be broken, especially in the sounding 
 part, because, in that case, the sound emitted 
 
 HAY, s. Grass dried to fodder cattle in winter. 
 
 and the smell and colour afford a test of its 
 quality not to be mistaken. 
 
 HAZARD, s. Chance, accident ; chance of danger ; a game at dice. 
 
 would be dull and unpleasing. " There is, 
 says the book of Saint Alban's, great choice of 
 sparrow-hawk bells, and they are cheap enough ; 
 but for goshawk bells, those made at Milan, 
 are called the best ; and, indeed, they are ex- 
 cellent ; for they are commonly sounded with 
 silver, and charged for accordingly. But we 
 have good bells brought from Dordreght 
 (Dort), which are well paired, and produce a 
 very shrill, but pleasant sound." 
 
 * 
 
 The person who carried the hawk was pro- 
 vided with gloves for that purpose, to prevent 
 their talons from hurting his hand. In the 
 inventories of apparel belonging to King 
 Henry VIII. such articles frequently occur; 
 at Hampton Court, in the jewel house, were 
 
 seven hawkes' gloves embroidered Montagu 
 
 Sebright Strutt. 
 
 Much in a horse's condition depends on the 
 quality of his hay ; good hay is easily chosen, 
 
 Any number of persons may play hazard. 
 The person who takes the box and dice, throws a 
 main, that is to say, a chance for the company, 
 which must be above four, and not exceed 
 nine, otherwise it is no main, consequently 
 he must keep throwing till he brings five, six, 
 seven, eight, or nine ; this done, he must 
 throw his own chance, which may be any 
 above three, and not exceeding ten: if he 
 throw two aces or trois-ace (commonly called 
 crabs), he loses his stakes, let the company's 
 chance, called the main, be what it will. If 
 the main should be seven, and seven or eleven 
 be thrown immediately after, it is what is 
 called a nick, and the caster (the present 
 player) wins out his stakes : also, if eight be 
 the main, and eight or twelve thrown imme- 
 diately after, it is also called a nick, and the 
 caster wins his stakes. The caster throwing 
 any other number for the main, such as is 
 admitted, and bringing the same number 
 directly afterwards, that is likewise termed 
 a nick, and he then also wins whatever stakes 
 he has made. 
 
 Every three successive mains the caster 
 wins, he is to pay half a guinea to the box or 
 furnisher of the dice. 
 
 The meaning of a stake or bet at this game 
 differs somewhat from the other. If a person 
 choose to lay a sum of money with the 
 thrower or caster, he must put his cash upon 
 the table, within a circle which is described 
 for that purpose ; when he has done this, if 
 the caster agree to it, he knocks the box upon 
 the table at the person's money with whom 
 he intends to bet, or particularly mentions at 
 
 whose money he throws, which is sufficient, 
 and he is obliged to answer whatever sum is 
 down, unless the staker calls to cover ; in 
 that case the caster is obliged to stake also, 
 otherwise the bets would be void. It is optional 
 in the person who bets with the thrower, to bar 
 any throw which the caster may be going to 
 cast, provided neither of the dice be seen ; if 
 one die should be discovered, the caster must 
 throw the other to it, unless the throw is bar- 
 red in proper time. 
 
 The common odds, which are absolutely 
 necessary to be understood, before any person 
 attempts to play or bet at this game, are as 
 follow : if seven be thrown for the main, and- 
 four the chance, it is 2 to 1 against the per- 
 son who throws ; if six to four be thrown, 5 
 to 3 ; if five to four, 4 to 3 ; seven to nine, 
 
 3 to 2 ; seven to six, 3 to 2, barring the two 
 trois ; with the two trois, only six to five ; 
 seven to five, 3 to 2 ; six to five, an even bet, 
 barring the doublets or the two trois ; with 
 the trois, 5 to 4 ; eight to five, an even bet, 
 barring the two fours ; five to four with the* 
 two fours ; nine to five, even ; nine to four, is 
 
 4 to 3 ; the nick of seven is 7 to 2, but often 
 laid but 10 to 3 ; and five to one you do not 
 nick six or eight. 
 
 To illustrate these calculations still more 
 clearly, the following table will be service- 
 able : 
 
 TABLE OF THE ODDS. 
 
 7 to 4 is 2 to 1.) 
 6 .. 4.. 5.. 3. ( 
 
 tne caster - 
 
 7.. 9.. 3.. 2.
 
 I TEA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 261 
 
 7 1 fi J 3 to 2, barring the two trois. 
 
 1 6 . . 5, with the two trois. 
 5. .2. . 
 
 . f even, hairing the two trois. 
 ( 5 . . 4 with the two trois. 
 even, hairing the two fours 
 5 . . 4 with the two fours. 
 
 7 
 6. .5 
 
 8. .5 
 
 even. 
 3 
 
 The nick of seven is 7 to 2, often laid 1 
 to 3. 
 
 The nick of six and eight is 5 to 1. 
 
 It is necessary to be perfectly master of 
 
 these odds, in order to play the prudent game, 
 and to make use of them by way of insuring 
 bets in what is called hedging, in case the 
 chance happens to be unlikely ; for, by taking 
 the odds a ready calculator secures himself, 
 and often stands part of his bet to a certainty. 
 For example, if seven be the main, and four the 
 chance, and he should have 5/. depending on 
 the main, by taking 61. to 3/. he must either 
 win 21. or 11. ; and on the contrary, if he 
 should not like his chance, by laying the odds 
 against himself, he must save in proportion to 
 the bet he has made Hoyle. 
 
 HAZARD, v. To expose to chance. 
 
 HAZE, s. Fog, mist. 
 
 HAZEL, s. A nut-tree. 
 
 HAZEL, a. Light hrown, of the colour of hazel. 
 
 HEAD, s. The part of the animal that contains the brain or the organ of 
 sensation and thought ; chief, principal person, one to whom the rest are 
 subordinate ; state of a deer's horns, by which his age is known ; the 
 top of anything bigger than the rest ; the forepart of anything, as of a 
 ship ; that which rises on the top of liquors ; upper part of a bed ; source 
 of a stream. 
 
 proved breeds, is small and angular, the 
 eyes prominent, the ears spirited, small, and 
 pointed ; the forehead wide, straight, and 
 sometimes slightly curved inwards at the 
 lower part : in them the facial angle is about 
 25, whereas, in the heavy breed, it is more 
 generally 23 : its junction with the neck, 
 also, is less easy and elegant than in the im- 
 proved kind Blaine. 
 
 The head of the horse is a very important 
 part, considered with a view to the beauty of 
 the animal; and in no part is an improvement 
 in the breed so soon detected as in this. Can 
 any thing be conceived more dissimilar than 
 the small inexpressive features attached to 
 the enormous head of a cart-horse, compared 
 with the bold striking lines which grace that 
 of the blood-horse? The head, in the im- 
 
 HEAD, v. To lead ; to direct ; to behead ; to kill by taking away the head ; 
 to lop trees at the top ; to get before a deer or fox, to make him take 
 another course. 
 
 HEADLAND, s. Promontory, cape ; ground under hedges. 
 
 HEADSTALL,*. Part of the bridle that covers the head. 
 
 HEADSTRONG, o. Unrestrained ; violent, ungovernable. 
 
 HEAL, v. To cure ; to restore from sickness or wounds. 
 
 HEALING, a. Mild, mollifying ; assuasive. 
 
 HEALTH, s. Freedom from bodily pain or sickness ; strength. 
 
 HEALTHY, a. In health, free from sickness; in good condition. 
 
 HEARING, s. The sense by which sounds are perceived : reach of the ear. 
 
 HEART, s. The muscle which by its contraction and dilatation propels the 
 blood through the course of circulation, and is therefore considered as 
 the source of vital motion. It is situated in the thorax, and divided 
 externally into the base, the superior and inferior surface, and the ante- 
 rior and posterior margin. Internally it comprises two ventricles called 
 the right and left.
 
 262 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [lit* 
 
 HEARTLESS, a. Without courage, spiritless, out of condition. 
 
 HEARTY, a. Sincere, warm ; in full health ; vigorous, strong. 
 
 HEAT, *. The sensation caused by the approach or touch of fire ; hot 
 weather ; state of any body under the action of fire ; a term in racing- 
 In gun-making three degrees of heat are employed ; blood-red heat, the 
 lowest flame ; white heat, the second ; and sparkling or welding heat, 
 the most intense. 
 
 HEATH, *. A plant ; a place overgrown with heath. 
 
 HEATHCOCK, *. A large fowl that frequents heaths. Vide GROUSE. 
 
 HEATHPEAS, s. A species of bitter vetch. 
 
 HEDGE, *. A fence made round grounds with prickly bushes. 
 
 HEDGE, v. To enclose with a hedge ; to encircle ; to shut up within an 
 enclosure. In betting, hedging means to bet upon and against the same 
 event. 
 
 HEDGEHOG, *. An animal set with prickles like thorns in a hedge. 
 
 \ 
 
 V 
 
 Hedgehogs abound in my gardens and fields. 
 The manner in which they eat the roots of 
 the plantain in my grass walk is very curious : 
 \vith their upper mandible, which is much 
 longer than their lower, they bore under the 
 plant, and so eat the root off upwards, leaving 
 the tuft of leaves untouched. In this respect 
 they are serviceable, as they destroy a very 
 troublesome weed ; but they deface the walks 
 in some measure by digging little round holes. 
 It appears, by the dung that they drop upon 
 the turf, that beetles are no inconsiderable 
 part of their food. In June last I procured a 
 litter of four or five young hedgehogs, which 
 appeared to be about five or six days old ; 
 
 they, I find, like puppies, are born blind, and 
 could not see when they came to my hands. 
 No doubt their spines are soft and flexible at 
 the time of their birth, or else the poor dam 
 would have but a bad time of it in the critical 
 moment of parturition : but it is plain that 
 they soon harden ; for these little pigs had 
 such stiff prickles on their backs and sides as 
 would easily have fetched blood, had they not 
 been handled with caution. Their spines are 
 quite white at this age ; and they have little 
 hanging ears, which I do not remember to be 
 discernible in the old ones. They can, in 
 part, at this age draw their skin down over 
 their faces; but are not able to contract them-
 
 Ilttl] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 263 
 
 selves into a ball, as they do, for the sake of 
 defence, when full grown. The reason, I sup- 
 pose, is, because the curious muscle that ena- 
 bles the creature to roll itself up into a ball 
 has not then arrived at its full tone and 
 firmness. Hedgehogs make a deep and warm 
 hybernaculum with leaves and moss, in which 
 they conceal themselves for.the winter : but I 
 never could find that they stored in any winter 
 provision, as some quadrupeds certainly do. 
 
 
 Jesse says, " I had also a tame hedge-hog, 
 which nestled before the fire, on the stomach 
 of an old lazy terrier dog, who was much 
 attached to it, and the best understanding 
 existed between them." 
 
 * * 
 
 Sagacity of the Hedgehog During the 
 summer of 1818, as Mr. Lane, gamekeeper 
 
 to the Earl of Galloway, was passing by the 
 wood of Glascaden, near Garlieston, in Scot- 
 land, he fell in with a hedgehog, crossing the 
 road at a small distance before him, carrying 
 on its back six pheasant's eggs, which upon 
 examination he found it had pilfered from a 
 pheasant's nest hard by. The ingenuity of 
 the creature was very conspicuous, as several 
 of the remaining eggs were holed, which must 
 have been done by it, when in the act of roll- 
 ing itself over the nest, in order to make as 
 many adhere to its prickles as possible. After 
 watching the motions of the urchin for a short 
 time longer, Mr. Lane saw it deliberately 
 crawl into a furze bush, where its nest was, 
 and where the shells of several eggs were 
 strewed around, which had at some former 
 period been conveyed thither in the same 
 manner White's Selborne Jesse. 
 
 HEDGEROW, s. The series of trees or bushes planted for enclosures. 
 HEDGESPARROW, or CHANTER, (Accentor Modularis, CUVIER), s. 
 
 sparrow that lives in bushes. 
 
 This well known species, commonly called 
 hedge sparrow, needs little description. The 
 length is five inches and three quarters ; weight 
 near six drams. Bill dusky ; hides light hazel ; 
 head and neck brown, mixed with ash-colour ; 
 back and wing coverts darker brown, edged 
 with rufous brown ; throat and breast dull ash- 
 colour ; belly dirty white ; sides and vent taw- 
 ny brown. The female has less ash-colour 
 about the head and breast. 
 
 The hedge sparrow is found in all parts of 
 England ; has a pleasing song, which it begins 
 with the new year, if the weather is mild ; 
 
 breeds early, making a nest in March, com- 
 posed of green moss and wool, and lined with 
 hair, which is placed in some low evergreen 
 shrub, thick brush, or cut hedge ; frequently 
 builds in faggot piles. The eggs are four or 
 five in number, blue ; their weight about 
 twenty-eight grains. 
 
 This bird is one of the few of the warbler 
 tribe that remains with us the whole year. 
 The food is insects and worms ; but like the 
 redbreast, it will, in defect of these, pick up 
 crumbs of bread ; and seems to prefer situa- 
 tions near the habitation of man Montagu. 
 
 HEEL, s. The part of the foot that protuberates behind. 
 
 HEIFER, s. -A young cow. 
 
 HEELER, s. A cock that strikes well with his heels. 
 
 HEMORRHAGE, s. A violent flux of blood. 
 
 HEN, s. The female of a house cock ; the female of any bird. 
 
 HENROOST, s. The place where the poultry rest. 
 
 HERB, s. Herbs are those plants whose stalks are soft, and have nothing 
 
 woody in them, as grass and hemlock. 
 
 HERBACEOUS, a. Belonging to herbs ; feeding on vegetables. 
 HERBAGE, s. Herbs collectively ; grass, pasture. 
 HERD, s. A number of beasts together ; it anciently signified a keeper of 
 
 cattle, as goat-herd. 
 
 HERD, v. To run in herds or companies ; to associate. 
 HERDSMAN, s. One employed in tending herds. 
 HERMAPHRODITE, s. An animal uniting two sexes. 
 HERNIA,*. Any kind of rupture.
 
 264 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Hr* 
 
 HERON, COMMON HERON, HERONSEWGH, or HERONSHAW, (Ardea 
 Major, LINN. ; Le Heron huppe, BUFF.) s. A bird that feeds on fish. 
 
 Although the lieron is of a long, lank, 
 awkward shape, yet its plumage gives it, on 
 the whole, an agreeable appearance ; but when 
 stripped of its feathers, it looks as if it had 
 been starved to death. It seldom weighs more 
 than between three and four pounds, notwith- 
 standing it measures about three feet in 
 length, and in the breadth of its wings, from 
 tip to tip, above five. The bill is six inches 
 long, straight, pointed, and strong, and its 
 edges are thin and slightly serrated ; the up- 
 per mandible is of a yellowish horn co- 
 lour, darkest on the ridge, the under one 
 yellow ; a bare skin, of a greenish colour, 
 is extended from the beak beyond the 
 eyes; the irides of which are yellow, and 
 
 give them a fierce and piercing aspect 
 
 The brow and crown of the head are white, 
 bordered above the eyes by black lines, which 
 reach the nape of the neck, where they join a 
 long flowing pendent crest of the same colour. 
 The upper part of the neck, in some, is white, 
 in others pale ash, the forepart lower down is 
 spotted with a double row of black feathers, 
 and those which fall over the breast are long, 
 loose, and un webbed ; the shoulders and scapu- 
 lar feathers are also of the same kind of tex- 
 ture, of a grey colour generally streaked with 
 white, and spread over its down-clothed back. 
 The ridge of the wing is white ; coverts and 
 secondaries lead colour ; bastard wings and 
 quills of a bluish black, as are also the long, 
 soft feathers, which take their rise on the sides 
 under the wings ; and, falling down, meet at 
 their tips, and hide all the under parts : the 
 
 latter, next the skin, are covered with a thick, 
 matted, dirty-white down, except about the 
 belly and vent, which are almost bare. The 
 tail is short, and consists of twelve feathers of 
 a cinereous or brownish lead-colour ; the legs 
 are dirty-green, long, bare above the knees, and 
 the middle claw is jagged on the inner edge. 
 
 The female has not the long flowing crest, 
 or the long feathers which hang over the 
 breast of the male, and her whole plumage is 
 more uniformally dull and obscure. In the 
 breeding-season they congregate in large so- 
 cieties ; and, like the rooks, build their nests 
 on trees, with sticks, lined with dried grass, 
 wool, and other warm materials. The female 
 lays from four to six eggs, of a pale, greenish- 
 blue colour. 
 
 The heron is described by Buffon as exhi- 
 biting the picture of wretchedness, anxiety, 
 and indigence, condemned to struggle perpetu- 
 ally with misery and want, and sickened by 
 the restless cravings of a famished appetite, &c. 
 However faithful this ingenious naturalist may 
 have been in pourtraying the appearance of the 
 heron, yet others are not inclined to adopt his 
 sentiments in describing its habits and man- 
 ners, or to agree with him in opinion that it is 
 one of the most wretched of animated beings. 
 It is probable that it suffers no more than other 
 birds, many species of which employ equal at- 
 tention in looking for their prey, and it is not 
 unlikely that the heron derives pleasure from 
 it instead of pain. This bird, however, is of a 
 melancholy deportment, a silent and patient 
 creature; and will, in most severe weather,
 
 HER] 
 
 stand motionless a long time in the water, fixed 
 to a spot, in appearance like the stump or root 
 of a tree, waiting for its prey, which consists of 
 frogs, waternewts, eels, and other kinds of fish ; 
 and it is also said that it will devour field-mice. 
 
 The heron traverses the country to a great 
 distance in quest of some convenient or favou- 
 rite fishing spot, and in its aerial journeys soars 
 to a great height, to which the eye is directed 
 bv its harsh cry, uttered from time to time 
 while on the wing. In flying it draws the head 
 between the shoulders, and the legs stretched 
 out, seem, like the longer tails of some birds, 
 to serve the office of a rudder. The motion 
 of their wings is heavy and flagging, and yet 
 they get forward at a greater rate than would 
 be imagined. 
 
 In England herons were formerly ranked 
 among the royal game, and protected as such 
 by the laws ; and whoever destroyed their eggs 
 was liable to a penalty of twenty shillings for 
 each offence. Heron hawking was at that time 
 a favourite diversion among the nobility and 
 gentry of the kingdom, at whose tables this 
 bird was a favourite dish, and was as much es- 
 teemed as pheasants and peacocks. 
 
 Great White Heron. (Ardtaalba, LINN. ; 
 Le Heron blanc, BUFF.) The great white 
 heron is of nearly the same hulk as the common 
 heron, but its legs are longer. It has no crest, 
 and its plumage is wholly white ; its bill yel- 
 low, and its legs black. 
 
 Its character and manner of living are the 
 same as those of the common heron, and it is 
 found in the same countries, though this spe- 
 cies is not nearly so numerous. It has rarely 
 been seen in Great Britain. Pennant, in his 
 Arctic Zoology, says it is found in the Russian 
 dominions, about the Caspian and Black Seas, 
 the lakes of Great Tartary, and the river Ir- 
 tisch, and sometimes as far north as latitude 
 53. Latham says it is met with in New York, 
 in America, from June to October ; at diffe- 
 rent seasons of the year it is found in Jamaica, 
 and in the Brazils : and our circumnavigators 
 have met with it at New Zealand. 
 
 The Night Heron, Lesser Ash-coloured 
 Heron or Night Raven. (Ardea Nyctico- 
 rax, LINN. ; Le Bihoreau, BUFF.) The 
 length of this bird is about twenty inches ; the 
 bill is three inches and three quarters long, 
 slightly arched, strong, and black, inclining to 
 yellow at the base : the skin from the beak 
 round the eye is bare, and of a greenish co- 
 lour ; irides yellow. A white line is extended 
 from the beak, over each eye a black patch, 
 glossed with green, covers the crown of the 
 head and nape of the neck, from, which three 
 long narrow white feathers tipped with brown, 
 hang loose and waving : the hinder part of the 
 neck, coverts of the wing, sides and tail, are 
 ash-coloured ; throat white, forepart of the 
 neck, breast, and belly, yellowish white or buff ; 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 265 
 
 the back black, the legs a greenish yellow. 
 The female is nearly of the same size as the 
 male, but she differs considerably in her plu- 
 mage, which is less bright and distinct, being 
 more blended with clay or dirty white, brown, 
 grey, and rusty ash-colour, and she has not the 
 delicate plumes which flow from the head of 
 the male. 
 
 The night heron frequents the sea shores, 
 rivers, and inland marshes, and lives upon 
 crickets, slugs, frogs, reptiles, and fish. It re- 
 mains concealed during the day, and does not 
 roam abroad until the approach of night, when 
 it is heard and known by its rough, harsh, and 
 disagreeable cry, which is by some compared 
 to the noise made by a person straining to 
 vomit. Some ornithologists affirm that the fe- 
 male builds her nest on trees, others that she 
 builds it on rocky cliffs : probably both ac- 
 counts are right. She lays three or four white 
 eggs- 
 
 This species is not numerous, although 
 widely dispersed over Europe, Asia, and Ame- 
 rica. 
 
 The bird is indeed very uncommon in this 
 country. Latham mentions one in the Leve- 
 rian Museum, which was shot, not many miles 
 from London, in May 1782. 
 
 ' * 
 
 Voracity of the Heron In the month of 
 April 1818, as a person was walking a short 
 distance from the river Mole, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Cobham Park, Surrey, where 
 H. C. Combe, Esq. has a heronry, he was sur- 
 prised by a pike in weight full 21bs. dropping 
 from the air immediately before him : on look- 
 ing up, he perceived a large heron hovering 
 over him, which had no doubt dropped the fish 
 from its beak. And also, during the same 
 month, another individual near the above spot, 
 saw a heron take a fish from the water, and 
 after carrying it to a bank insert its bill into 
 the vent of the fish, beginning to suck its en- 
 trails ; he drove away the bird, and on taking 
 up the fish, found it to be a pike weighing a 
 
 pound and upwards. 
 
 
 
 Some hawks will not attack a heron, when 
 it is first shown to them; but they may 
 generally be brought to it by flying them at 
 a cock, of a light colour, and by tying meat 
 upon a heron's back, and allowing them to 
 feed there. Small pieces of elder are put 
 upon the heron's beak, to prevent him from 
 wounding the hawk in training. The herons 
 are caught by a slip-knot at the end of a long 
 string, so arranged round their nests as to be 
 drawn about their legs when they come upon 
 their eggs. This is best done about sun-set ; 
 and the man who is to draw the string, must 
 place himself to leeward of the nest. Herons 
 will not feed when they are first taken ; it is 
 therefore necessary to cram them with food,
 
 266 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [HER. 
 
 and to tie a piece of mat round their necks, 
 to prevent them from throwing it up again. 
 
 * * * 
 
 A well-stocked heronry in an open country 
 is necessary for this sport. The herons go 
 out in the morning to rivers and ponds at a 
 very considerable distance, in search of food, 
 and return to the heronry towards the even- 
 ing. 
 
 It is at this time that the falconers place 
 themselves in the open country, down wind of 
 the heronry ; so that when the herons are 
 intercepted on their return home, they are 
 obliged to fly against the wind to gain their 
 place of retreat. When a heron passes, a cast 
 (a couple) of hawks is let go. The heron dis- 
 gorges his food when he finds that he is pur- 
 sued, and endeavours to keep above the hawks 
 by rising in the air ; the hawks fly in a spiral 
 direction to get above the heron, and thus the 
 three birds frequently appear to be flying in 
 different directions. The first hawk makes 
 his stoop as soon as he gets above the heron, 
 who evades it by a shift, and thus gives the 
 
 second hawk time to get up and to stoop in his 
 turn. In what is deemed a good flight, this is 
 frequently repeated, and the three birds often 
 mount to a great height in the air. When 
 one of the hawks seizes his prey, the other 
 soon binds to him, as it is termed, and buoy- 
 ant from the motion of their wings, the three 
 descend together to the ground with but little 
 velocity. The falconer must lose no time in 
 getting hold of the heron's neck when he is on 
 he ground, to prevent him from injuring the 
 hawks. It is then, and not when he is in the 
 air, that he will use his beak in his defence. 
 Hawks have, indeed, sometimes, but very 
 rarely, been hurt by striking against the heron's 
 beak when stooping, but this has been purely 
 by accident, and not (as has been said) by the 
 heron's presenting his beak to his pursuer as a 
 means of defence. 
 
 When the heron flies down wind, he is 
 seldom taken, the hawks are in erreat danger 
 of being lost, and as the flight is in a straight 
 
 line, it affords but little sport Bewick 
 
 Penna n t Sel right. 
 
 HERONRY, or HERONSHAW, s. A place where herons breed. 
 
 Belon mentions it as one of the extraordi- 
 nary feats performed by the divine king Fran- 
 cis I., that he formed two artificial heronries 
 at Fontainebleau, "the very elements them- 
 selves," he adds, " obeying the commands of 
 this divine king (whom God absolve ! ! !), for to 
 force nature is a work partaking of divinity." 
 In order to enhance the merits of these French 
 heronries, he undertakes to assert, that they 
 were unknown to the ancients, because they 
 are not mentioned in any of their writings ; 
 and for the same reason he concludes that there 
 are none in Britain. Before Belon's time, 
 on the contrary, and before the " Divine" con- 
 structor of heronries in France was born, there 
 were express laws enacted in England for the 
 protection of herons, it being a fine of ten shil- 
 lings to take the young out of the nest, and 
 six shillings and eight-pence for a person, with- 
 out his own grounds, killing a heron, except 
 by haw T king, or by the long-bow ; while in sub- 
 sequent enactments, the latter penalty was in- 
 
 HERPES, .?. A cutaneous inflammation. 
 HERRING, *. A small sea-fish. 
 
 creased to twenty shillings, or three months' 
 imprisonment. At present, however, in con- 
 sequence of the discontinuance of hawking, 
 little attention is paid to the protection of he- 
 ronries, though, I believe, none of the old sta- 
 tutes respecting them have been repealed. 
 Not to know a hawk from a heron-shaw (the 
 former name for a heron) was an old adage, 
 which arose when the diversion of heron- 
 hawking was in high fashion : it has since been 
 corrupted into the absurd vulgar proverb, " not 
 to know a hawk from a hand-saw." 
 
 In the breeding season they congregate, and 
 make their nests very near each other. Mr. 
 Pennant mentions having seen eighty nests on 
 one tree. We once saw a heronry on a small 
 island in a lake in the north of Scotland, 
 whereon there was only one scrubby oak tree, 
 which not being sufficient to contain all the 
 
 nests many were placed on the ground Se- 
 
 briffht Montagu. 
 
 Of all migrating fish, the herring and the 
 pilchard take the most adventurous voyages. 
 
 This mighty army begins to put itself in 
 motion from the Icy Sea early in the spring : 
 this body is distinguished by that name, for 
 the word herring is derived from the German 
 heer, an army, to express their number, which 
 is so vast, that were all the men in the world 
 loaded with herrings, they could not carry 
 the thousandth part away. No sooner, how- 
 ever, is their asylum quitted, but millions of 
 
 enemies collect to thin their squadrons. The 
 fin fish and cacholot swallow barrels at a 
 yawn ; the porpoise, the grampus, the shark, 
 and the whole numerous tribe of dog-fish, de- 
 sist from making war upon each other, and 
 make the herring their easy prey. The un- 
 numbered flocks of sea fowl, that chiefly in- 
 habit near the pole, watch the outset of their 
 migration and spread extensive ruin. In this 
 exigence the defenceless emigrants find no 
 other safety but by crowding closer together,
 
 HER] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 267 
 
 and leaving to the outermost the danger of 
 being first devoured. Thus, like frighted 
 sheep (which ever ran together in a body), 
 each finding some protection in being but one 
 of many that are equally liable to invasion, 
 they separate into shoals : those to the west 
 visit the American shores, while those holding 
 to the east pour down towards Europe, en- 
 deavouring to evade their merciless pursuers 
 by approaching the first shore that presents 
 itself, which is that of Iceland, in the begin- 
 ning of March. Upon their arrival on that 
 coast, this phalanx, notwithstanding its dimi- 
 nutions, is still of amazing extent, depth, and 
 closeness, covering an extent of shore as large 
 as the island itself; the whole water seems 
 alive, and by their foes the herrings are cooped 
 up so closely, that any hollow vessel put into 
 it takes them out of the water without further 
 trouble. The power of increasing in these 
 animals exceeds our idea, as it wo\ild iu a very j 
 short time outstrip all calculation. A single 
 herring, it is affirmed, if suffered to multiply 
 unmolested and undiminished for twenty years, 
 would show a progeny greater in bulk than ten 
 such globes as that we live upon ; but happily 
 the balance of nature is exactly preserved, 
 and their consumption is equal to their fecun- 
 dity. Upon this account, we must consider the 
 fish and fowl that so incessantly attack them, 
 not as plunderers, but as the benefactors of 
 mankind : without their aid the sea would 
 soon be overcharged with the burden of its 
 own productions, and that element, which at 
 present distributes health and plenty to the 
 shore, would but load it with putrefaction. 
 
 These collective masses that come upon our 
 coasts, begin to appear off the Shetland Isles 
 in April and May ; these are only the fore- 
 runners of the grand shoal which comes in 
 June, and their arrival is marked by the num- 
 bers of birds, such as gannets and others, which 
 follow them as their prey. But when the 
 main body approaches, its breadth and depth 
 alters the very appearance of the ocean. They 
 divide into distinct columns of five or six 
 miles long, and three or four broad, while the 
 water before them ripples as if forced out of 
 its bed ; sometimes they sink for ten or fifteen 
 minutes, then rise again to the surface, on 
 which in bright weather they reflect a variety 
 of splendid colours, like a field bespangled 
 with the most precious gems, in which, or 
 rather in a much more valuable light, should 
 this stupendous gift of Providence be consi- 
 dered by the inhabitants of the British Isles. 
 The fishermen are ready prepared for their 
 reception, and by nets made for the occasion 
 they sometimes take above two thousand bar- 
 rels at a single draught. 
 
 After this check from the Shetland Isles, 
 which divide the army into two parts, one 
 wing takes to the eastern shores of Great Bri- ] 
 
 tain, and fills every bay and creek with its 
 numbers ; the other pushes on towards Yar- 
 mouth, the great and ancient mart of herrings; 
 they then pass through the British Channel, 
 and after that in a manner disappear. Those 
 which take to the west, after offering them- 
 selves to the Hebrides, where the great sta- 
 tionary fishery is, proceed towards the north 
 of Ireland, where being interrupted they make 
 a second division ; that to the western side is 
 scarcely perceived, being soon lost in the im- 
 mensity of the Atlantic, whilst the other, 
 wlu'ch passes into the Irish Sea, rejoices and 
 feeds the inhabitants of most of the coasts 
 that border upon it. 
 
 * 
 
 The herring is always found in shoals, and 
 on some occasions are crowded so close toge- 
 ther, as to fill the sea, at least so far as our 
 implements can reach, from top to bottom, 
 Ships are said to have been retarded in their 
 course in passing through these shoals, and 
 instances are recorded where these little fishes 
 have been left by the ebbing of the tide in 
 heaps three feet deep upon the shores for 
 many miles in extent. It is universally cre- 
 dited among those conversant in the herring 
 fishery, that no other fish will go into the 
 middle of a shoal. The whale, to whom they 
 are a favourite repast, and who swallows a 
 thousand at once, never ventures into the 
 shoal, but hovers about the skirts of it, and 
 regularly follows their course. The dog-fish, 
 which in vast troops assiduously attend the 
 herrings wherever they go, carefully keep 
 aloof from the great mass of them ; so it is 
 with other fishes, who delight in the herring 
 as a prey, but as a body seem to dread their 
 multitudes. 
 
 * 
 
 Herring Fishing To approach the fleet 
 was a task of some difficulty. The nets, ex- 
 tended in interminable lines, were so. fre- 
 quent, that much skill was necessary to pene- 
 trate this hempen labyrinth, without fouling 
 the back ropes. Warning cries directed our 
 course, and with some delay we treaded the 
 crowded surface, and, guided by buoys and 
 puckawns, found ourselves in the very centre 
 of the flotilla. 
 
 It was an interesting scene ; momently the 
 boats glided along the back ropes, which were 
 supported at short intervals by corks, and at 
 greater by inflated dog-skins, and raising the 
 curtain network, which these suspended, the 
 herrings were removed from the meshes, and 
 deposited in the boats. Some of the nets 
 were particularly fortunate, obliging their 
 proprietors to frequently relieve them of the 
 fish ; while others, though apparently stretched 
 within a few yards, and consequently in the 
 immediate run of the henings, were favoured 
 with but a few stragglers ; and the indolent
 
 268 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [HER 
 
 fisherman had to occupy himself with a sor- 
 rowful ditty, or in moody silence watched the 
 dark sea " like a strange soul upon the Stygian 
 hanks staying for waftage." 
 
 The darkness of the night increased the 
 scaly brilliancy which the phosphoric proper- 
 ties of these beautiful fish produce. The bot- 
 tom of the boat, now covered with some 
 
 thousand herrings, glowed with a living light, 
 which the imagination could not create, and 
 the pencil never imitate. The shades of gold 
 and silvery gems were rich beyond descrip- 
 tion : and much as I had heard of phosphoric 
 splendour before, every idea I had formed fell 
 
 infinitely short of its reality Buffon 
 
 Wild Sports. 
 
 HERRING GULL (Larus fuscus, LINN.) s. A genus thus characterised : 
 
 with the others when disturbed. The nests 
 were on the top of the island, amongst the grass 
 and loose stones, composed of a small quan- 
 tity of long dry grass, the eggs, which were 
 two in number, of a dark olive-brown, with 
 dusky blotches. Like others of the genus, 
 this bird feeds indiscriminately on fish, and 
 various other productions of the sea, particu- 
 larly the star-fish. It is sometimes observed 
 to trample the soft sand, by moving its feet al- 
 ternately in the same place : for what purpose 
 this singular action is intended, we cannot say, 
 unless it is to force up the sand eels or other 
 hidden prey, as the one mentioned above did 
 the worms Montagu. 
 
 This species weighs about thirty-three oun- 
 ces ; length twenty-three inches ; bill yellow ; 
 on the lower mandible a reddish-orange spot ; 
 irtdes light yellow ; orbits red. Head, neck, 
 tail, and under parts, white ; back, scapulars, 
 and wing coverts, ash-colour ; quill-feathers, 
 dusky, the five first black towards their ends, 
 with a white spot near the tip ; legs pale flesh- 
 
 colour. 
 
 
 
 Whether these immatured birds breed we 
 cannot be certain, but are inclined to think they 
 do, as we saw a great many of them inter- 
 mixed with the perfect ones in the gullery on 
 an island off St. David's, where the nests were 
 innumerable : they seemed equally clamorous 
 
 HIDE, s. The skin of any animal, either raw or dressed ; the human skin. 
 HIDEBOUND, u. A horse is said to be hide-bound, when his skin sticks so 
 
 hard to his ribs and back, that you cannot with your hand pull up or 
 
 loosen the one from the other ; in trees, being in the state in which the 
 
 bark will not give way to the growth. 
 HIGHLAND, s. Mountainous region. 
 HIGHWAY, s. Great road, public path. 
 HILL, s. An elevation of ground less than a mountain. 
 HILLOCK, s. A little hill. 
 HILLY, a. Full of hills, unequal in the surface. 
 HIND, s. The she to a stag ; a servant ; a peasant, a boor. 
 HIP, 5. The joint of the thigh ; the fleshy part of the thigh; the fruit of 
 
 the briar. 
 
 HIP, v. To sprain or shoot the hips. 
 HIPSHOT, a. Sprained or dislocated in the hip. 
 HIRUNDO, s. Swallow, a genus thus characterised: 
 
 slender, three before and one behind ; the 
 outer toe united to the middle one as far as 
 the first joint ; tail of twelve feathers, gene- 
 rally forked ; wings long and acuminated, the 
 first quill being the longest Montagu. 
 
 Bill short, much depressed, and wide at the 
 base ; the upper mandible being keeled and 
 bent at the tip ; gape extending as far back- 
 wards as the eyes ; nostrils at the base of the 
 bill, oblong, and partly covered by a mem- 
 brane; legs with the shank short; the toes 
 
 HIT, v. To strike, to touch with a blow ; to touch the mark, not to miss ; 
 
 to reach the point ; a lucky chance ; a game at backgammon. 
 HITCH, s. A knot or noose taken on a rope.
 
 HOL] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 269 
 
 HIVE, s. The habitation or cell of bees; the bees inhabiting 1 a hive. 
 HOAR, a. White ; grey with age ; white with frost. 
 HOBBY, s. A species of hawk ; an Irish or Scottish horse. 
 
 The Hobby. (Falco subluteo, LINN.; 
 Le Hobereau, BUFF.) The length of the 
 male is twelve inches ; hreadth ahout two 
 feet. The bill is hlue ; cere and orbits of the 
 eyes yellow ; the irides orange ; over each 
 eye there is a light-coloured streak ; the top 
 of the head and back are of a bluish black ; 
 the wing coverts the same, but in some edged 
 with rust colour ; the hinder part of the neck 
 is marked with two pale yellow spots ; a black 
 mark from behind each eye, forming almost a 
 crescent, is extended downwards on the neck ; 
 the breast and belly are pale, marked with 
 dusky streaks ; the thighs rusty, with long 
 dusky streaks ; the wings brown ; the two 
 middle feathers of the tail are of a deep dove 
 colour, the others are barred with rusty and 
 tipped with white. The female is much larger, 
 and the spots on her breast more conspicuous 
 than those of the male ; the legs and feet are 
 yellow. 
 
 The hobby breeds with us, but is said to 
 emigrate in October. It was formerly used \ 
 
 HOCK, s. The joint between the knee 
 HOE, s. An instrument to cut up the 
 HOG, s. The general name of swine ; 
 
 To prepare Hog's Fur Take according 
 
 to the quantity of fur you have : if a pound, 
 four quarts of water ; cut down into it two 
 ounces of soap with a noggin of stale urine ; 
 throw in your fur, and let it come to a high 
 scald, and while it is coming to that, keep it 
 constantly under the liquor. Lay it by to 
 cool, and when cool enough gently squeeze and 
 press with your hands, and throw it into cold 
 water. Then in some clean water, about two 
 
 in falconry, chiefly for larks and other small 
 birds, which were caught in a singular man- 
 ner : when the hawk was cast off, the larks, 
 fixed to the ground through fear, became an 
 easy prey to the fowler, who drew a net over 
 them. Buffon says that it was used in taking 
 partridges and quails. 
 
 A male hobby perceiving a goldfinch in a 
 cage, within a window which happened to be 
 open, dashed at the imprisoned bird, notwith- 
 standing several persons were in the room; 
 but being alarmed at the natural vociferations 
 of some young ladies for the safety of their 
 darling, the intruder mistook the passage by 
 which he entered, and flew against the glass, 
 when his retreat was cut off, and he was se- 
 cured. 
 
 This species was formerly trained for hawk- 
 ing, but more commonly used for taking par- 
 tridges and larks with a net, which was termed 
 daring, that is, the hobby was cast off, which 
 so frightened the birds, that they readily suf- 
 fered a net to be drawn over them Montagu. 
 
 and fetlock; old strong Rhenish. 
 
 earth. 
 
 a castrated boar. 
 
 quarts, dissolve about the size of two walnuts 
 of alum, and when it boils throw in your fur, 
 press it well, and throw it into clean water ; 
 press it, and throw off the water, pour in 
 more, and do the same at least three times. 
 You must open your fur before you can dye 
 it, as this process will cement it together. As 
 to mohair it needs nothing more than washing 
 with soap and water, to be boiled as above in 
 alum, and washed Old Recipe. 
 
 HOGGEREL, s. A two-years-old ewe. 
 
 HOGSHEAD, s. A measure of liquids containing sixty gallons ; any large 
 
 barrel. 
 HOG'S LARD, s. An article of some importance in veterinary surgery, 
 
 being the basis of almost every ointment. 
 
 Hog's lard possesses a laxative quality, and 
 may be given to the extent of half a pound, 
 melted or mixed with warm water or pepper- 
 mint water, as a substitute for castor oil, olive 
 oil, or linseed oil, when neither of those can 
 
 be procured. Fresh hog's lard melted, and 
 mixed with a little salad oil, forms a good 
 softening ointment for horses' heels that are 
 subject to cracks White. 
 
 HOLD, s. The act of seizing ; gripe, grasp, seizure ; something to be held ; 
 
 hold of a ship, all that part which lies between the keelson and the lower 
 
 deck ; a lurking-place. 
 HOLE, s. A cavity narrow and long ; a cave, hollow place; cell of an animal.
 
 270 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 HOLLOW, v. To shout, to hoot. View hollow ! The hunter's halloo ! given 
 when the game is viewed by the hounds. 
 
 HOLLY, s. A tree. 
 
 HONEY, s. A thick, viscous, luscious substance, which is collected and pre- 
 pared by bees. Honey is divided into three kinds ; virgin honey, the 
 first produce of the swarm, obtained by drawing, without pressing the 
 comb ; a second, or thicker kind, produced by pressure , and a third and 
 worst description extracted by heating, and then pressing the comb. 
 
 HONEYCOMB, s. The cells of wax in which the bee stores her honey. 
 
 HONEYCOMBED, a. Flawed with little cavities ; a term used to describe the 
 injuries produced by rust on cannon and gun barrels. 
 
 HOOD, s. Anything drawn upon the head, and wrapping round it ; a cap 
 of leather put on the hawk's head immediately after he is taken. It is 
 so constructed as to prevent him from seeing, but to allow him to feed ; 
 and may be put on or taken off at pleasure. To hood a hawk requires a 
 degree of manual dexterity that is not easily acquired. 
 
 HOOD, v. To blind as with a hood. 
 
 HOODED or ROYSTON CROW (Corvus comix, LINN. ; La Corneille man- 
 telee, BUFF.) s. 
 
 This bird is somewhat larger and more bulk'y 
 than the rook, measuring twenty-two inches 
 in length. Its hill is Hack, and two inches 
 long ; the head, fore part of the neck, wings, 
 and tail, are black ; the back and all the un- 
 der parts are of a pale ash-colour ; legs black. 
 
 These birds arrive with the woodcock, and 
 on their first coming frequent the shores of 
 rivers. They depart in the spring to breed in 
 other countries, but it is said that they do not 
 all leave us, as they have been seen during 
 
 the summer months in the northern quarters 
 of our island, where they frequent the moun- 
 tainous parts of the country, and breed in the 
 pines. In more northern parts of the world 
 they continue the whole year, and subsist on 
 sea-worms, shell-fish, and other marine pro- 
 ductions. With us they are seen to mix with 
 and to feed in the same manner as the crow. 
 During the breeding season they live in pairs, 
 lay six eggs, and are said to be much attached 
 to their offspring Bewick,
 
 Hoo] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 271 
 
 HOODED GULL, (Laru-s atricilla, LINN.) s. 
 
 The bill and feet are deep lake red ; hood ; black on the head ; the others were mottled 
 
 all over with brown. We also saw two others 
 near Hastings, in Sussex. It is found in 
 
 of dark bluish ash-colour ; quill feathers all 
 black, and two inches longer than the tail ; 
 length of the shank one inch and three-fourths. 
 
 In the month of August, 1774, we saw five of 
 them together feeding in a pool upon the shin- 
 gley flats near Winchelsea ; two only were 
 
 Russia and America, and, according to Nat- 
 terer, on the coasts of the Mediterranean and 
 the Adriatic Montagu Temminck. 
 
 HOODWINK, v. To blind with something' bound over the eyes. 
 HOOF, s. The hard horny substance which composes the feet of several 
 sorts of animals. 
 
 Hoof Ointment Tar and tallow in equal 
 
 parts : when melted let the mixture be re- 
 moved from the fire, and stirred until it is 
 
 cold. This ointment is applied to the coronet 
 and heels, when dry and cracking While. 
 
 HOOK, s. Any thing- bent so as to catch hold ; the bended wire on which 
 the bait is hung for fishes, and with which the fish is pierced ; a snare, 
 a trap ; a sickle to reap corn ; an iron to seize the meat in the caldron ; 
 an instrument to cut or lop with ; the part of the hinge fixed to the 
 post. 
 
 In the choice of hooks, those should be 
 preferred that are longish in the shanks, 
 strong, and rather deep in the bend, the point 
 fine and straight, and as true as it can be set 
 to the level of the shank (which, for fly mak- 
 ing, should be tapered off to the end, that the 
 fly may be the neater finished), the point 
 should be sharp and the barb of a proper 
 length ; many experienced anglers, who have 
 impartially tried both kinds, consider these to 
 be more sure than the crooked hooks, that 
 they cause a smaller orifice, and are less liable 
 to break their hold. At Limerick, in Ireland, 
 the best of these hooks are manufactured. A 
 hook, whose point stands outwards, ought ne- 
 ver to be chosen, as it frequently scratches the 
 fish without laying hold ; if the points were 
 somewhat shorter, and the barbs a trifle wider, 
 the hooks of every maker would be improved. 
 When hooks are blunt, a small whetstone will 
 restore their sharpness much better than a file, 
 which always leaves them rough and jagged. 
 
 
 I find, by sad experience, that in hook-mak- 
 ing the Irish are far before us ; our workmen 
 either do not understand the method of form- 
 ing and tempering hooks, or they do not take 
 sufficient pains in their manufacture. It is 
 strange, that when so much of the angler's 
 pleasure and success depends upon the quality 
 of his hooks, that more attention is not be- 
 stowed upon their fabrication. The art of 
 forming, and the process of tempering them, 
 appears simple enough ; and that little diffi- 
 culty is required to attain it, is evident from 
 the fact that many fishermen make their own 
 hooks. For my own part, however, I consi- 
 der hook-making to be an unnecessary accom- 
 
 plishment for the angler, as the best hooks in 
 the world can be procured without trouble, and 
 at a trifling expense, from O'Shaughnessy of 
 Limerick. 
 
 I have even made a hook, which, though a 
 little inferior in form, in other respects, I tliink 
 I could boast as equal to the Limerick ones. 
 
 I never used any hooks for salmon-fishing 
 except those which I am sure have been made 
 by O'Shaughnessy of Limerick ; for even 
 those made in Dublin, though they seldom 
 break, yet they now and then bend ; and the 
 English hooks, made of cast-steel, in imitation 
 of Irish one?, are the worst of all. 
 * * 
 
 Hooks, to whip on When hooks are 
 
 armed, especially to hair, it should be done 
 with small but strong silk, well rubbed with 
 shoemaker's wax, after having smoothed the 
 shank with a whetstone, to hinder its fretting ; 
 from a straw's breadth below the top of the 
 hook, wrap the silk about the bare shank un- 
 til it comes to the top, which will prevent its 
 slipping, or cutting the line from frequently 
 using ; then lay the hair or gut on the inside 
 and whip the silk downwards almost to the 
 bend of the hook ; the colour of the arming 
 silk should be as near that of the baits used as 
 may be, and its size be regulated by the thick- 
 ness of the wire, hair, or gut, to which it is 
 joined. In whipping on a hook, it is to be 
 held in the left hand, and the silk whipped 
 down to within four turns of its bend ; the 
 shank is then to be taken between the fore 
 finger and thumb of the left hand, and the 
 end of the silk close to it, holding them both 
 tight, and leaving the ends of the silk to hang 
 down ; the other part of the silk is then to be
 
 272 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 drawn into a large loop, and with the right 
 hand, turning backwards, continue the whip- 
 ping for four turns, and draw the end of the 
 
 silk,which has hung down underthe left thumb, 
 close, and cut it off. Salmoitia Wild 
 Sports Daniel. 
 
 HOOK, v. To catch with a hook ; to entrap ; to draw as with a hook. 
 HOOKED, a. .Bent, curvated. 
 
 HOOKNOSED, a. Having- the aquiline nose rising- in the middle. 
 HOOP, s. Anything- circular by which something- else is bound, particularly 
 casks or barrels. 
 
 The hoop net is a very destructive engine. 
 For large and deep waters the mesh should 
 be an inch and three quarters, the length full 
 nine feet, and the hoops (of which that in the 
 centre should be iron, rounded like a curtain 
 rod, and painted red to prevent its rusting) 
 should be strong and three feet high. In lay- 
 ing hoop nets, place them where the water 
 gets tolerably deep from a gravelly scour. All 
 the infallible attraction of brass candlesticks, 
 
 yellow ribands, flowers, and looking-glasses, 
 are superseded by the arcanum of encircling 
 a live fish brought from other waters in each 
 hoop net; whether the old inhabitants ap- 
 proach the stranger out of vengeance or curi- 
 osity remains a mystery, but that they will 
 run into the hoop net to get at him, Mr. Daniel 
 positively insists. It was a secret which an 
 old gamekeeper would not impart, until after 
 being in his service for many years Daniel. 
 
 HOOP, v. To bind or enclose with hoops ; to encircle ; to clasp. 
 
 HOOT, v. To shout in contempt ; to cry as an owl. 
 
 HOP, s. A plant, the flowers of which are used in brewing. Hops were 
 introduced into England in the sixteenth century, from the Netherlands. 
 
 HORN, s. The hard pointed bodies which grow on the heads of some quad- 
 rupeds, and serve them for weapons ; an instrument of wind music, made 
 of horn ; the extremity of the waxing or waning- moon ; the feelers of a 
 snail ; a drinking- cup made of horn. 
 
 HORNET, s. A very large, strong, stinging fly. 
 
 HORNOWL, s. A kind of horned owl. Vide OWL. 
 
 HORSE, s. A quadruped used in war, draught, and carriage. 
 
 The generic character of horses, according 
 to Linnaeus, is, that the fore-teeth are twelve 
 
 in number, the upper six erect and parallel, 
 the lower six more prominent ; the tusks ure
 
 HOR] 
 
 THE FIKLD BOOK. 
 
 solitary, included, remote ; teats two, ingui- 
 nal : they fight by biting, and kicking with 
 the hind feet ; and they have the singular 
 property of breathing only through the nos- 
 trils, and not through the mouth. 
 
 Cuvier places the horse in the class Mam- 
 malia, which contains those animals that suckle 
 their younsr, and forms the ninth genus of his 
 sixth order, called Pachydermata, of which 
 order the following are characters : Skin very 
 thick ; some of the genera are partially with- 
 out teeth, others with three sorts of teeth ; 
 quadrupedal, generally with hoofs, and the 
 toes varying in number ; stomach simple, and 
 they do not ruminate ; without clavicles, or 
 collar-bones. They are either herbivorous or 
 omnivorous, and their habits are various. They 
 generally inhabit the temperate and torrid zone. 
 
 The genus Equus is subdivided by Cuvier 
 into six species, and thus defined : Incisory 
 teeth, six in the upper jaw, and six in the un- 
 der ; two canines, one above and one below, on 
 each side of the cutting or incisory teeth, (the 
 females of some of the species with no canine 
 teeth,) and six cheek teeth, or grinders, on 
 each side, on both jaws ; they are furrowed on 
 both sides with flat crowns and several ridges 
 of enamel. Between the canines and cheek 
 teeth is a void space; the upper lip is suscep- 
 tible of considerable motion ; the eyes are 
 large ; the pupil oblong-ovate, placed later- 
 ally ; their sight excellent, and, although not 
 formed for seeing in the night, they can dis- 
 tinguish objects very clearly in the dark; 
 ears rather small, pointed, and erect, having 
 great mobility in the external conch, so that 
 their hearing is very acute, and is the sense 
 which, in all probability, they possess in the 
 greatest perfection ; feet, with a single appar- 
 ent toe, covered with a thick hoof; the tail 
 is furnished with long hair, or with a tuft at 
 the extremity ; mammae two, inguinal ; the 
 stomach is simple and membranaceous, and 
 the intestines and cacum very large. 
 
 The six species of this genus are the horse, 
 ass, common zebra, zebra of the plains, quag- 
 ga, dzhiggtai, with the mule, which may be 
 regarded as a sub-species. 
 
 Of all quadrupeds, the horse possesses, 
 along with grandeur of stature, the greatest 
 elegance and proportion of parts. By com- 
 paring him with the animals a'bove or below 
 him, we find that the ass is ill made, and that 
 the head of the lion is too large ; that the 
 limbs of the ox are too slender, and too short 
 in proportion to the size of his body ; that the 
 camel is deformed ; and the grosser animals, 
 as the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and ele- 
 phant, may be considered as rude and shape- 
 less masses. The great difference between 
 the head of man and that of the quadruped, 
 consists in the length of his jaws, which is 
 the most ignoble of all characters. But. 
 
 although the jaws of the horse be very Ion:;, 
 he has not, like the ass, an air of imbecility, 
 nor, like the ox, of stupidity. The regularity 
 and proportion of the parts of his head, give 
 him a light and sprightly aspect, being grace- 
 fully attached to his finely archea neck, 
 which is well supported by the beauty of his 
 chest. He elevates his head, as if anxious to 
 exalt himself above the condition of other 
 quadrupeds. In this noble attitude he regards 
 man, face to face. His eyes are open, lively, 
 and intelligent ; his ears handsome, and of a 
 proper height, being neither too long, like 
 those of the ass, nor too short, like those of 
 the bull. His mane adorns his graceful neck, 
 and gives him the appearance of strength and 
 courage. His long bushy tail covers, and 
 terminates with advantage, the extremity of 
 his body. His tail, very different from the 
 short tails of the deer, elephant, and hippopo- 
 tamus, and from the naked tails of the ass, 
 camel, and rhinoceros, is formed of long, thick 
 hairs, which seem to rise from his crupper, 
 because the trunk from which they proceed 
 is very short. He cannot, like the lion, 
 elevate his tail ; but, though pendulous,- it 
 becomes him better; and as he can move it 
 from side to side, it serves him to drive off 
 the flies, which incommode him ; for though 
 his skin is very firm, and well garnished with 
 close hair, it is, nevertheless, very sensible. 
 * * 
 
 Brown says, the head of the horse should 
 not be too long, and it ought to be rather thin 
 than otherwise. The front should be narrow, 
 and a little convex ; the eye-pits well filled, 
 and the eye-lids thin ; the eyes large and 
 prominent, clear, lively, and sparkling -with 
 fiery glances ; the pupil should be large ; the 
 under jaw should be a little thick, but not 
 fleshy ; the nose slightly arched ; the nostrils 
 open and deep, and divided by a thin septum 
 or partition ; the ears should be small, erect, 
 and narrow, but not too stiff, and placed on 
 the upper part of the head, at a proper dis- 
 tance from each other, but not too wide, as 
 this always gives a horse a disagreeable aspect ; 
 the mouth should be delicate, and moderately 
 split ; the withers sharp and elevated ; the 
 shoulders flat and not confined ; the back 
 equal, a little arched lengthwise, and raised 
 on each side of the spine, which should have 
 the appearance of being slightly sunk; the 
 flanks short and full ; the crupper round and 
 plump; the haunches well furnished with 
 muscular flesh ; the dock, or fleshy part of 
 the tail, firm and thick ; the thighs large and 
 muscular ; the hough round before, broad on 
 the sides, and tendinous behind ; the shank 
 thin before, and broad on the sides ; the tendo 
 Achillis prominent, strong, and well detached" 
 from the leg-bone ; and the fetlock somewhat 
 prominent, and furnished with a small tuft (,(
 
 274 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [TIOK 
 
 long hair behind ; the pasterns should be of a 
 middling length, and pretty large ; the coronet 
 a little elevated ; the hoof black, solid, and 
 shining ; the instep high ; the quarters round ; 
 the heels broad, and a little prominent ; the 
 frog thin and small, and the sole thick and 
 concave Vide ARABIAN HUNTER ROAD- 
 STER, RACE HORSE, &c. 
 
 The horse is considered to have been ori- 
 ginally a native of what is called the old world, 
 and by the industry of man to have been 
 planted in the new. It appears from the sa- 
 cred records, that his subjugation did not take 
 place until many years after that of the camel 
 and the ass. 
 
 At what precise time foreign horses were 
 brought into Britain is uncertain ; but it is not 
 improbable that it was a very early one, since 
 history informs us they were sufficiently nu- 
 merous, and their uses well known, when 
 Julius Caesar invaded the island. Whether 
 these early horses were the entire produce of 
 Britain, or whether they had already been 
 mixed, it is likely that their intercourse with 
 the Roman cavalry would introduce new 
 races, as diversified as the countries from 
 whence the Romans themselves drew their 
 own immense supplies. Freed from their 
 conquerors, the English cultivated the arts of 
 peace, and were consequently not unmindful 
 of the horse, which was become, as early as 
 A.D. 930, so valuable that Athelstan prohibited 
 their exportation. 
 
 William the Conqueror brought with him the 
 means of greatly improving the island horse ; 
 and the barons who accompanied him, being 
 spread over the kingdom, in their newly ac- 
 quired estates, rapidly diffused a valuable 
 mixture among the native breeds. One of 
 these nobles (Roger de Belesme, Earl of 
 Shrewsbury) is particularly celebrated for in- 
 troducing Spanish stallions into his Welsh 
 possessions. 
 
 In 1121, the first Arabian horse on record 
 was imported into England, and the crusades, 
 which soon succeeded, were the means of in- 
 troducing a large accession of eastern horses 
 from the Levant. The traffic in horses now 
 began to assume much of its future character : 
 Smithfield was established as a horse-market ; 
 and the dealing in this animal was already 
 become a regular profession, as well as already 
 garnished with much of its trickery. 
 
 To Edward the Second the breed of English 
 horses owes much of its early improvement : 
 he procured cavalry horses from Lombardy, 
 Italy, and Spain, and heavy draught horses 
 from Flanders. From this time the public 
 attention appears to have been particularly 
 directed to the necessity of improving the 
 breed of horses ; and many public ordinances 
 were promulgated to that effect. In the 
 reigns of Henry VII. and VIII. it became 
 
 common to import foreign stallions for this 
 purpose from Barbary and Spain ; and, in the 
 two following reigns, others were imported 
 from Belgium, Flanders, and Denmark ; and 
 as the former were intended to improve the 
 speed, spirit, and beauty, these latter added 
 greatly to the size of the future breeds. As 
 early as the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, 
 there were horse-races in England ; but these 
 appear to have been principally confined to 
 trials of speed and continuance over uncertain 
 grounds between native horses. In the reign 
 of Henry VIII., horses either procured from 
 Barbary, or bred from such, were expressly 
 used for this purpose ; and we may date the 
 systematic improvement in the breed, by the 
 admixture of what we call blood, to have its 
 origin about tbis time. 
 
 James the First pursued the system, and 
 imported from Barbary a set of the finest 
 mares, for purity of breed and excellence of 
 form, which could be procured : these, known 
 significantly as the Royal Mares, greatly 
 assisted the general purpose. James also im- 
 ported an Arabian, whose own qualities, as 
 well as those of his produce, not answering to 
 the expectations raised, the breed for many 
 years became in disrepute. Regular race- 
 courses were now established, and racing was 
 conducted on fixed principles, and confined 
 within rules. Charles the First encouraged 
 these sports, and to him we owe the establish- 
 ment of the Newmarket course ; and in such 
 estimation were they, as connected with the 
 national good, that even the fanaticism of 
 'Cromwell gave way to it, for he also had his 
 stud of race-horses. The Restoration gave a 
 new impulse to racing, and a new impetus to 
 the improvements meditated. The Arabian 
 was again resorted to, and, on the renewed 
 trials, his proceeds justified the former ex- 
 pectations. From that time to the present, 
 by a judicious mixture of crossings of the 
 native and the eastern horses, in different de- 
 grees of consanguinity, according to the dif- 
 ferent purposes for which they are required, 
 we now stand unrivalled among nations ; and 
 we now send our breeds back to eastern 
 countries, to meliorate that blood which we 
 originally borrowed from them. 
 
 * * 
 
 It would appear that the ancient Irish 
 horses were held in high estimation : 
 
 " Horses they have of pace easie, in running 
 wonderful swift. Therefore they make of 
 them great store, as wherein at times of need 
 they repose a great piece of safetie. 
 
 " I heard it verrified by honourable to ho- 
 nourable, that a nobleman offered (and was 
 refused) for one such horse, an hundred kyne, 
 five pound lands, and an aery of hawks yearly 
 during seven years." Brown Blame 
 Stru It Ca mplon.
 
 Hot:] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 275 
 
 HORSE, v. To mount upon a horse ; to cover a mare. 
 
 HORSEBACK, *. The seat of the rider, the state of being on a horse. 
 
 HORSEBEAN, .?. A small bean usually given to'horses. 
 
 HORSEBREAKER, s. One whose employment is to tame horses to the saddle. 
 
 HORSECHESTNUT, s A tree, the fruit of a tree. 
 
 HORSECOURSER, s. obs. One that runs horses, or keeps horses for the race ; 
 a dealer in horses. 
 
 HORSEHAIR, s. The hair of horses. Vide HAIR. 
 
 HORSELEECH, *. A leech that bites horses ; a farrier. 
 
 HORSEMAN, s. One skilled in riding- ; one that serves in wars on horse- 
 back ; a rider, a man on horseback. 
 
 HORSEMANSHIP, *. The art of riding, the art of managing a horse. 
 
 HORSEPOND, s. A pond for watering horses. 
 
 Pond water, from a clay bottom, is by some 
 preferred to running water ; but in summer 
 
 stagnant water often becomes putrid and nau- 
 seous, and is consequently highly injurious. 
 
 HORSERACE, s. A match of horses in running. Vide RACING. 
 HORSESHOE, s. A plate of iron nailed to the feet of horses ; an herb. 
 
 Vide SHOE. 
 
 HOSTLER, s. One who has the care of horses at an inn. 
 HOT, a. Having the power to excite the sense of heat ; fiery ; ardent, 
 
 vehement, eager. 
 HOUGH, s. The lower part of the thigh. HOUGH, v. To hamstring, to 
 
 disable by cutting the sinews of the ham. 
 HOUND, s. A dog used in the chase. 
 
 The old English hound or Talbot. ( Ca- 
 nis Sagax, LINN.) This is undoubtedly the 
 origin of those famous hounds for which Great 
 Britain is celebrated above all other countries. 
 In former times this dog was of a pure white, 
 but is now generally of a white and black co- 
 lour, and tanned over the eyes. 
 
 This majestic animal is distinguished by 
 his great size and strength ; his body is long, 
 his chest deep, and his ears long and sweeping, 
 with great gravity of expression. From the 
 particular formation of his organs, or from the 
 extraordinary moisture which always flows 
 from his nose, or from some other unknown 
 cause, he is endowed with the most exquisite 
 sense of smelling, and can discover scent hours 
 after other dogs have given up. 
 
 Although the talbot hunts with great cer- 
 tainty, yet he becomes tedious from the slow- 
 
 ness of his motions ; this, however, enables 
 him to receive more distinctly the directions 
 of the huntsman. And he can trace with a 
 cold scent, which he is too apt to make so by 
 his want of speed. 
 
 The talbot, in the " History of Manchester," 
 is stated to be the original breed of this island, 
 used bv.the ancient Britons in the chase of 
 
 larger kinds of game, with which the country 
 at one time abounded. They were common 
 in all parts of the kingdom, and were much 
 larger than they are at present ; and have 
 been gradually declining in consequence of 
 mixing them with lighter dogs for the purpose 
 of increasing their speed. We have no doubt 
 that, from this cause, the breed will eventually 
 become extinct. 
 
 It is said, that the tone of his voice is pecu- 
 liarly deep, sonorous, powerful, and mellow. 
 
 
 Among sportsmen it is generally understood 
 that hounds of the middle size are the most 
 proper, all animals of that description being 
 stronger than such as are either very small 
 or very large. The shape ought to be parti- 
 cularly attended to ; for, if the hound be not 
 well proportioned, he can neither run fast 
 nor do much work. His legs ought to be 
 straight, his feet round and not very large, his 
 shoulders back, his breast rather wide than 
 narrow, his chest deep, his back broad, his 
 head small, his neck thin, his tail thick and 
 bushy and well carried. None of those young 
 hounds which are out at the elbows, or such 
 as are weak from the knee to the foot, should 
 T 2
 
 276 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Hou 
 
 ever be taken into the pack. That the pack 
 may look well, the hounds should be as much 
 as possible of a size ; and if they be also hand- 
 some, the pack will then be perfect. This, 
 however, contributes nothing to the goodness 
 of a pack, for very unhandsome packs, consist- 
 ing of hounds entirely different in size and co- 
 lour, often afford very good sport. 
 
 It is only necessary that they should run 
 well together ; to which indeed a uniformity 
 in size and shape seems to contribute. The 
 pack that can run ten miles, or any other con- 
 siderable space, in the shortest time, may be 
 said to go fastest, though the hounds taken se- 
 parately might be considerably inferior to 
 others in point of swiftness. A pack of hounds 
 considered in a collective body, go fast in pro- 
 portion to the excellence of their noses and 
 the head they carry. Packs composed of 
 hounds of various kinds seldom run well. 
 When the packs are very large, the hounds 
 are seldom sufficiently hunted to be good ; 
 twenty or thirty couple, therefore, or at most 
 forty, will be sufficient for the keenest sports- 
 man in this country, as thus he may be ena- 
 bled to hunt three and even four times a week. 
 The number of hounds to be kept must how- 
 ever, in a considerable degree, depend on the 
 strength of the pack, and the country in which 
 they hunt. They should be left at home as 
 seldom as possible ; and too many old hounds 
 should not be kept. None ought to be kept 
 above five or six seasons, though this also is 
 somewhat uncertain, as we have no rule for 
 judging how long a hound will last. In breed- 
 ing hounds, considerable attention ought to 
 be paid to the dog from which you breed. All 
 such are to be rejected as have a tender nose, 
 or are babblers or skirters. An old dog should 
 never be put to an old bitch. January, Fe- 
 bruary, and March, are the best months for 
 breeding ; late puppies seldom thrive. After 
 the females begin to grow big with young, 
 it will not be proper to let them hunt any 
 more, or indeed to remain for a much longer 
 time in the kennel. Sometimes these ani- 
 mals will have an extraordinary number of 
 whelps. Mr. Beckford informs us, that lie 
 has known a bitch have fifteen puppies at a 
 litter ; and he assures us, that a friend of his 
 informed him, that a hound in his pack brought 
 forth sixteen, all alive. In these cases it is 
 proper to put some of the puppies to another 
 bitch, if you want to keep them all ; but, if 
 any are destroyed, the best coloured ought to be 
 kept. The bitches should not only have plenty 
 of flesh, but milk also; and the puppies 
 should not be taken from them till they arc 
 able to take care of themselves ; their mothers 
 will be relieved when they learn to lap milk, 
 which they will do in a short time. After 
 the puppies are taken away from their mother, 
 the litter should have three pwging balls 
 
 given them, one every other morning, and 
 plenty of whey the intermediate day. If a 
 bitch bring only one or two puppies, and you 
 have another that will take them, by putting 
 the puppies to her, the former will soon be fit 
 to hunt again. She should, however, be first 
 physicked, and it will also be of service to 
 anoint her dugs with brandy and water. 
 Whelps are liable to the distemper, to which 
 dogs in general are subject, and which fre- 
 quently makes great havoc among them at 
 their walks. Young hounds should be fed 
 twice a day, as they seldom take kindly to the 
 kennel-meat at first, and the distemper is 
 most apt to seize them at this time. It is im- 
 possible to determine how many young hounds 
 ought to be bred in order to keep up the 
 pack, as this depends entirely on contingen- 
 cies. The deficiencies of one year must be 
 supplied by the next ; but it is probable, that 
 from thirty to thirty-five couple of old hounds, 
 and from eight to thirty-five couple of young 
 ones will answer the purpose, where no more 
 than forty couple are to be kept. A consider- 
 able number, however, ought always to be 
 bred ; for it is undoubtedly and evidently true, 
 that those who breed the greatest number of 
 hounds must expect the best pack. After 
 the hounds have become acquainted with the 
 huntsman, and answer to their names, they 
 ought to be coupled, and walked out among 
 sheep; and two dogs should not be coupled 
 together, when you can avoid it. As young 
 hounds are awkward at first, a few ought only 
 to be sent out at a time, with people on foot, 
 and they will soon afterwards follow a horse. 
 With regard to the first entering of hounds 
 to a scent, our author gives the following di- 
 rections : " You had better enter them at 
 their own game ; it will save you much trou- 
 ble afterwards. Many dogs, I believe, like 
 that scent best which they were first blooded 
 to : but, be this as it may, it is most certainly 
 reasonable to use them to that which it is 
 intended they should hunt. Hounds ought 
 to be entered as soon as possible, though the 
 time must depend on the nature of the country 
 in which they are. In corn countries hunting 
 may not be practicable till the corn is cut 
 down ; but you may begin sooner in grass 
 countries, and at any time in woodlands. 
 Hounds at their first entrance cannot be en- 
 couraged too much. When they are become 
 handy, love a scent, and begin to know what 
 is right, it will then be soon enough to chas- 
 tise them for what is wrong ; in which case 
 one severe beating will save a great deal of 
 trouble. When a hound is flogged, the whip- 
 per in should make use of his voice as well 
 as his whip. They should be low in flesh 
 when you begin to hunt, the ground being 
 generally hard at that time, so that they are 
 very liable to be shaken. Sometimes the
 
 Hou] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 277 
 
 huntsman turns down a cat before them, 
 
 Flasher 
 
 Lively 
 
 Ringwood 
 
 which they kill ; and, when the time of hunt- 
 
 Fleecer 
 
 Lofty 
 
 Risker 
 
 ing approaches, he turns out young foxes or 
 
 Flippant 
 
 Lovely 
 
 Rockwood 
 
 badgers ; taking out some of the most steady 
 
 Foamer 
 
 M. dogs. 
 
 Rouser 
 
 of his old hounds to lead on the young ones. 
 
 Forward 
 
 Marksman 
 
 Rover 
 
 Small covers and furze brakes are drawn with 
 
 F. bitches. 
 
 Marplot 
 
 Rumbler 
 
 them to use them to a halloo, and to teach 
 
 Faithful 
 
 Match'em 
 
 Rusher 
 
 them obedience. If they find improper game, 
 
 Fairmaid 
 
 Meddler 
 
 R. bitches. 
 
 and hunt it, they are stopped and brought 
 
 Fearless 
 
 Mendall 
 
 Racket 
 
 back ; and as long as they will stop at a rate, 
 
 Fickle 
 
 Merlin 
 
 Rapid 
 
 they are not chastised. To render fox-huut- 
 
 Fidget 
 
 Messmate 
 
 Rattle 
 
 ing complete, no young hounds should be 
 
 Fire tail 
 
 Monarch 
 
 Ruin 
 
 taken into the pack the first season ; a requi- 
 
 Flighty 
 
 Motley 
 
 Rummage 
 
 site too expensive for most sportsmen. The 
 
 Flourish 
 
 Mounter 
 
 S. dogs. 
 
 pack should consist of about forty couple of 
 
 Fretful 
 
 Mungo 
 
 Samson 
 
 hounds, that have hunted one, two, three, four, 
 
 Frisky 
 
 M. bitches. 
 
 Saunter 
 
 or five seasons. The young pack should con- 
 
 Frolic 
 
 Madcap 
 
 Scalper 
 
 sist of about twenty couple of young hounds, 
 
 Fury 
 
 Magic 
 
 Scamper 
 
 and an equal number of old ones. They 
 
 G. dogs. 
 
 Minion 
 
 Scourer 
 
 should have a separate establishment, and the 
 
 Gainer 
 
 Mischief 
 
 Scramble 
 
 two kennels should not be too near one an- 
 
 Gallant 
 
 Music 
 
 Scuffler 
 
 other. When the season is over, the best of 
 
 Gimcrack 
 
 N. dogs. 
 
 Sharper 
 
 the young hounds should be taken into the 
 
 Glancer 
 
 Nestor 
 
 Shifter 
 
 pack, and the draft of old ones exchanged for 
 
 Glider 
 
 Nettler 
 
 Singer 
 
 them. Many must be bred to enable a 
 
 Growler 
 
 Newsman 
 
 Skirmish 
 
 sportsman to take in twenty couple of young 
 
 Grumbler 
 
 Nimrod 
 
 Smoker 
 
 hounds every season. It will always be easy 
 
 G. bitches. 
 
 Noble 
 
 Songster 
 
 to keep up the number of old hounds, for, 
 
 Gavless 
 
 Nonsuch 
 
 Soundwell 
 
 when your own draft is not sufficient, drafts 
 
 Giddy 
 
 N. bitches. 
 
 Spanker 
 
 from other packs may be obtained, and at a 
 
 Gladsome 
 
 Nimble 
 
 Spinner 
 
 small expense. When young hounds are 
 
 Graceful 
 
 Noisy 
 
 Spoiler 
 
 hunted together for the first season, and have 
 
 H. dogs. 
 
 Novice 
 
 Sportsman 
 
 not a sufficient number of old ones along with 
 
 Hardy 
 
 P. dogs. 
 
 Squabbler 
 
 them, it does more harm than good." Vide 
 
 Havoc 
 
 Pealer 
 
 Squeaker 
 
 BEAGLE, HARRIER, Fox and STAG-HOUND. 
 
 Hazard 
 
 Perfect 
 
 Steady 
 
 * * 
 
 Headstrong 
 
 Phoebus 
 
 Stickler 
 
 NAMES OF HOUNDS. 
 
 Hearty 
 
 Pilgrim 
 
 Stringer 
 
 A. dogs. Buxom Crazy 
 
 Hector 
 
 Pilot 
 
 Stripling 
 
 Antic C. dogs. Crony 
 
 Hero 
 
 Piper 
 
 Striver 
 
 Ardent Captain D. dogs. 
 
 Hopeful 
 
 Playful 
 
 Stroker 
 
 A. bitches. Carver Damper 
 
 Hotspur 
 
 Prattler 
 
 Struggler 
 
 Active Charon Danger 
 
 H. bitches. 
 
 Presto 
 
 Sturdy 
 
 Airy Chaser Dasher 
 
 Hasty 
 
 Primate 
 
 Sylvan 
 
 B. dogs. Chanter Dashwood 
 
 Handsome 
 
 Prowler 
 
 S. bitches. 
 
 Bachelor Chieftain Driver 
 
 Harlot 
 
 Prosper 
 
 Sappho 
 
 Bellman Chimer Duster 
 
 Helen 
 
 P. bitches. 
 
 Skilful 
 
 Blaster Clinker D. bitches. 
 
 J. dogs. 
 
 Patience 
 
 Speedy 
 
 Bluecap Comrade Dainty 
 
 Jingler 
 
 Placid 
 
 Spitfire 
 
 Bouncer Comus Darling 
 
 Jockey 
 
 Pliant 
 
 Sportful 
 
 Bowler Constant Dashaway 
 
 Jolly 
 
 Precious 
 
 Sprightly 
 
 Bravo Coxcomb Dauntless 
 
 Judgment 
 
 Priestess 
 
 Stately 
 
 Brazen Crasher Dian 
 
 J. bitches. 
 
 Prudence 
 
 Strumpet 
 
 Brilliant Crowner Dulcet 
 
 Joyful. 
 
 R. dogs. 
 
 Sybil 
 
 Brasher Cruiser E. dogs. 
 
 L. dogs. 
 
 Racer 
 
 ' T. dogs. 
 
 Bustler Crusty Eager 
 
 Lasher 
 
 Rambler 
 
 Tackier 
 
 B. bitches. Cryer Earnest 
 
 Leader 
 
 Random 
 
 Tamer 
 
 Bashful C. bitches. E. bitches. 
 
 Lictor 
 
 Ranger 
 
 Tangent 
 
 Beauty Careless Easy 
 
 Lifter 
 
 Ransack 
 
 Tartar 
 
 Beldam Charmer Endless 
 
 Lightfoot 
 
 Ranter 
 
 Tattler 
 
 Blowsy Chantress F. dogs. 
 
 Lounger 
 
 Rattler 
 
 Taunter 
 
 Bluebell Clio Factor 
 
 Lustv 
 
 Rector 
 
 Teaser 
 
 Brimstone Comely Fervent L. bitches. 
 
 Render 
 
 Terror 
 
 Busy ('ratty Finder , Lawless 
 
 Rifler 
 
 Tlirasher
 
 278 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Hou 
 
 Thumper 
 Thwackcr 
 
 Trueboy 
 Trueman 
 
 Trollop 
 Truelass 
 
 Voucher 
 V. bitches. 
 
 Wellbred 
 Whynot 
 
 Wagtail 
 Wanton 
 
 Tickler 
 
 Trusty 
 
 Tuneful 
 
 Vanquish 
 
 Wil'dair 
 
 Warfare 
 
 Tomboy 
 
 Trvall 
 
 V. dogs. 
 
 Venomous 
 
 Wildman 
 
 Warlike 
 
 Topper 
 
 Tuner 
 
 Vagrant 
 
 Vicious 
 
 Wilful 
 
 Waspish 
 
 Torrent 
 
 Twig'em 
 
 Valid 
 
 Vivid 
 
 Woodman 
 
 Watchful 
 
 Touchstone 
 
 T. bitches. 
 
 Vaulter 
 
 Vixen 
 
 Workman 
 
 Welcome 
 
 Trampler 
 
 Tattle 
 
 Venture 
 
 Vocal 
 
 Wrangler 
 
 Whimsey 
 
 Trimbush 
 
 Telltale 
 
 Vexer 
 
 W. dogs. 
 
 Wrestler 
 
 Wildfire 
 
 Trimmer 
 
 Tempest 
 
 Victor 
 
 Warbler 
 
 W. bitches. Wishful 
 
 Trojan 
 
 Termagant 
 
 Vigorous 
 
 Warrior 
 
 Waggery 
 
 Worry 
 
 Trouncer 
 
 Testy 
 
 Viper 
 
 Wayward 
 
 Waggish 
 
 Wrathful. 
 
 Truant 
 
 Trifle 
 
 Volant 
 
 Brown Whitaker Beckford, Qc. 
 
 HOUND, v. To set on the chase ; to hunt, to pursue. 
 
 HOUR, *. The twenty-fourth part of a natural day ; the space of sixty 
 
 minutes. 
 HOURGLASS, s. A glass filled with sand, which, running through a narrow 
 
 hole, marks the time. 
 HOUSE, v. To harbour, to admit to residence ; to shelter, to keep under a 
 
 roof; to take shelter, to keep the abode. 
 HOUSEDOG, s. A mastiff kept to guard the house. 
 HOUSING, *. Cloth originally used to keep off dirt, now added to saddles 
 
 as ornamental. 
 
 HOWL, v. To cry as a wolf or dog ; to utter cries in distress. 
 HOWL, s. The cry of a wolf or dog ; the cry of a human being in horror. 
 HOY, s. A large boat, sometimes with one deck. 
 HUCHO, s. A fish of the genus Salmo. 
 
 The hucho is the most predatory fish of the | in Bavaria ; yet the huchoes in the collection 
 
 sal mo genus, and is made like an ill-fed trout, 
 but longer and thicker. He has larger teeth, 
 more spines in the pectoral fin, a thicker skin, 
 a silvery belly, and dark spots only on the 
 back and sides. I have never seen any on 
 the fins. The ratio of his length to the girth 
 is as eight to eighteen, or, in well-fed fish, as 
 nine to twenty ; and a fish, eighteen inches 
 long by eight in girth, weighed 16,215 grains. 
 Another, two feet long, eleven inches in girth, 
 and three inches thick, weighed 41bs. 2oz. 
 Another, twenty-six inches long, weighed albs. 
 
 at Munich have it not. The hucho is found 
 in most rivers tributary to the Danube in 
 the Save and Laybach rivers always ; yet the 
 general opinion is, that they run from the 
 Danube twice a year, in spring and autumn. 
 I can answer for their migration in spring, 
 having caught several in April, in streams 
 connected with the Save and Laybach rivers, 
 which had evidently come from the still dead 
 water into the clear running streams, for they 
 had the winter leech, or louse, of the trout 
 upon them ; and I have seen them of all sizes 
 
 5oz. Of the spines in the fins, the anal has in April in the market at Laybach, from six 
 
 nine, the caudal twenty, the ventral nine, the 
 dorsal twelve, the pectoral seventeen : having 
 numbered the spines in many, I give this as 
 correct. The fleshy fin belonging to the genus 
 is, I think, larger in this species than in any 
 I have seen. Bloch, in his work on fishes, 
 states, that there are black spots on all the 
 fins, with the exception of the anal, as a charac- 
 ter of this fish : and professor Wagner informs 
 me, he has seen huchoes with this pecu- 
 liarity ; but, as I said before, I never saw any 
 fish whh spotted fins ; yet, I have examined 
 those of the Danube, Save, Drave, Mur, and 
 I/ar : perhaps, this is peculiar to some stream 
 
 inches to two feet long; but they are found 
 much larger, and reach thirty, or even forty 
 pounds. It is the opinion of some naturalists 
 that it is only a fresh- water fish ; yet this I 
 doubt, because it is never found beyond cer- 
 tain falls as in the Traun, the Drave, and 
 the Save ; and, there can be no doubt, comes 
 into these rivers from the Danube ; and pro- 
 bably in its largest state, is a fish of the Black 
 Sea. Yet it can winter in fresh water ; and 
 does not seem, like the salmon, obliged to 
 haunt the sea, but falls back into the warmer 
 waters of the great rivers ; from which it 
 migrates in spring, to seek a cooler tempera-
 
 HUN] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 279 
 
 ture, and to breed. The fishermen at Gratz 
 say they spawn in the Mur, hetween March 
 and May. In those I have caught at Laybach, 
 which, however, were small ones, the ova 
 were not sufficiently developed to admit of 
 their spawning that spring. Marsigli says 
 that they spawn in the Danube in June. You 
 have seen how violently they pursue their 
 prey ; I have never taken one without fish in 
 his stomach ; yet, when small, they will take 
 a fly. In the Kleingraben, which is a feeder 
 to the Laybach river, and where they are 
 found of all sizes from twenty pounds down- 
 wards the little ones take a fly, but the 
 large ones are too ravenous to care about so 
 insignificant a morsel, and prey like the largest 
 trout, often hunting in company, and chasing 
 the small fish into the narrow and shallow 
 streams, and then devouring them. 
 
 The hucho, as you have seen, preys with 
 great violence, and pursues his object as a fox- 
 hound or a greyhound does. I have seen 
 him in repose ; they lie like pikes, perfectly 
 still, and I have watched one for many 
 minutes, that never moved at all. In this 
 respect their habits resemble those of most 
 carnivorous and predatory animals. It is pro- 
 bably in consequence of these habits, that they 
 are so much infested by lice, or leeches, which 
 I have seen so numerous in spring as almost 
 to fill their gills, and interfere with their re- 
 spiration, in which case they seek the most 
 rapid and turbulent streams to free themselves 
 from these enemies. They are very shy, and, 
 after being hooked, avoid the baited line. 
 I once saw the hucho, for which I was fishing, 
 follow the small fish, and then the lead of 
 the tackle ; it seemed as if this had fixed his 
 attention, and he never offered at the bait 
 afterwards. I think a hucho that has been 
 pricked by the hook becomes particularly 
 cautious, and possesses, in this respect, the 
 same character as the salmon. In summer, 
 
 when they are found in the roughest and most 
 violent currents, their fins (particularly the 
 caudal fin) often appear worn and broken ; at 
 this season they are usually in constant motion 
 against the stream, and are stopped by no ca- 
 taract or dam, unless it be many feet in height, 
 and quite inaccessible. In the middle of Sep- 
 tember, I have caught huchoes perfectly clean 
 in rapid cool streams, tributary to the Laybach 
 and the Save rivers ; and, from the small de- 
 velopment of their generative system at this 
 time, I have no doubt that they spawn in 
 spring. On the 13th of September, 1828, I 
 caught, by spinning the small dead fish, three 
 huchoes that had not a single leech upon their 
 bodies, and they were the first fish of the kind 
 I ever saw free from these parasites. 
 
 They migrate generally when the water is 
 foul, and, except in the spring and autumn, 
 do not so readily run at the bait. I was once 
 nearly a month seeking for one in rivers in 
 which they are found, between the end of 
 June and that of July, without being able to 
 succeed in even seeing one alive ; and, as far 
 as my information goes, the two places where 
 there is most probability of taking them, are 
 at Laybach and Ratisbon, in the tributary 
 streams to the Save, and in the Danube ; and 
 the best time, in the first of these situations, is 
 in March and April, and, in the second, in 
 May. I am told, likewise, that the Izar, 
 which runs by Munich, is a stream where 
 they may be caught, when the water is clear : 
 and I have seen in the fish market at Munich 
 
 very large huchoes. 
 
 * * 
 
 I am inclined to believe that the hucho is 
 to be found in some of the mountain loughs 
 in Connaught. Certainly I have seen fish 
 of the salmo genus, taken in rivers commu- 
 nicating with deep lakes in the hills, which 
 strikingly resemble the fish described by Sir 
 Humphry Salmonia Editor. 
 
 HUE, s. Colour, dye ; a clamour, a legal pursuit. 
 
 HULK, s. The body of a ship ; anything bulky and unwieldy. 
 
 HUMBLEBEE, s. A buzzing wild bee ; an herb. 
 
 HUMOUR, s. Moisture ; the different kinds of moisture in man's body. 
 Humours of the eye are these the aqueous or watery, which lies in 
 the forepart of the globe ; the crystalline, next to the aqueous ; and the 
 vitreous or glassy humour, which is larger than the rest, and fills the 
 backward cavity of the eye. Crabbe. 
 
 HUNT, v. To chase wild animals ; to pursue, to follow close ; to search for ; 
 to direct or manage hounds in the chase. 
 
 Hunting among the Britons is of great anti- j who tilled no ground, but lived upon the de- 
 quity. Dio Nicseus, speaking of the inhabit- j predations they committed in the southern dk- 
 ants of the northern parts of this island, tells j tricts, or upon the food they procured by hunt- 
 us, they were a fierce and barbarous people, ! ing. Strabo also says, that the dogs bred in
 
 280 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [lllN 
 
 Britain were highly esteemed upon the conti- 
 nent, on account of their excellent qualities 
 or hunting; and these qualities, he seems to 
 hint, were natural to them, and not the effect 
 of tutorage by their foreign masters. 
 
 After the expulsion of the Danes, and dur- 
 ing the short restoration of the Saxon mo- 
 narchy, the sports of the field still maintained 
 their ground. Edward the Confessor, whose 
 disposition seems rather to have been suited 
 to the cloister than to the throne, would join 
 in no other secular amusements ; but he took 
 the greatest delight, says William of Malms- 
 bury, " to follow a pack of swift hounds in pur- 
 suit of game, and to cheer them with his voice." 
 During the tyrannical government of Wil- 
 liam the Norman, and his two sons who suc- 
 ceeded him, the restrictions concerning the 
 killing of game were increased. The privi- 
 lege of hunting in the royal forests was con- 
 fined to the king and his favourites ; and, to 
 render these receptacles for the beasts of the 
 chase more capacious, or to make new ones, 
 whole villages were depopulated, and places 
 of divine worship overthrown. 
 
 King John was particularly attached to the 
 sports of the field ; and his partiality for fine 
 horses, hounds, and hawks, is evident, from 
 his frequently receiving such animals, by way 
 of payment, instead of money, for the renewal 
 of grants, fines, and forfeitures, belonging to 
 the crown. 
 
 Edward III. took so much delight in hunt- 
 ing, that even at the time he was engaged in 
 war with France, and resident in that country, 
 he had with him in his army sixty couple of 
 stag hounds, and as many hare hounds, and 
 every day he amused himself with hunting or 
 hawking. 
 
 James I. preferred the amusement of hunt- 
 ing to hawking or shooting. It is said of this 
 monarch, that he divided his time betwixt his 
 staiidish, his bottle, and his hunting ; the last 
 had his fair weather, the two former his dull 
 and cloudy. 
 
 It would be a needless task, to quote the 
 passages in the poetical and prose writings of 
 the last three centuries, which prove that this 
 favourite pastime has lost nothing of its relish 
 in modern times, but, on the contrary, seems 
 to be more generally practised. 
 
 * 
 
 If you have the w r hole country to yourself, 
 and can hunt on either side of your house, as 
 you please, never (when you can help it) fix 
 your place of hunting till you see what the 
 weather is. 
 
 Before a huntsman goes into the kennel to 
 draft his hounds, let him determine within 
 himself the number of hounds he intends to 
 take out ; as likewise the number of young 
 hounds that he can venture in the country 
 whtre he js going to hunt. Different coun- 
 
 tries may require different hounds : some may 
 require more hounds than others. It is not 
 an easy matter to draft hounds properly ; nor 
 can any expedition be made in it without some 
 method. 
 
 When the place of meeting and time are 
 fixed, every huntsman ought to be as exact to 
 them as it is possible for him to be. On no 
 account is he to be before the time ; yet, on 
 some occasions, it might be better, perhaps, for 
 the diversion, were he permitted to be after it. 
 The course your huntsman intends to take in 
 drawing ought always to be well understood 
 before he leaves the kennel. 
 
 If your huntsman, without inconvenience, 
 can begin drawing at the farthest cover down the 
 wind, and so draw from cover to cover up the 
 
 wind till you find, let him do it Vide COVER. 
 
 While hounds are drawing for a fox, let 
 your people place themselves in such a man- 
 ner that he cannot go off unseen. I have 
 known them lie in sheep's scrapes on the side 
 of hills, and in small bushes, where hunts- 
 men never think of looking for them ; yet, 
 when they hear a hound, they generally shift 
 their quarters, and make for closer covers. 
 Gentlemen should take this necessary part of 
 fox-hunting on themselves, for the whipper-in 
 has other business to attend to. 
 
 Huntsmen, whilst their hounds are draw- 
 ing, or are at fault, frequently make so much 
 noise themselves, that they can hear nothing 
 else : they should always have an ear to a 
 halloo. I once saw an extraordinary in- 
 stance of the want of it in my own hunts- 
 man, who was making so much noise with 
 his hounds, which were then at fault, that a 
 man hallooed a long while before he heard 
 him ; and when he did hear him, so little did 
 he know whence the halloo came, that he rode 
 a couple of miles the wrong way, and lost the fox. 
 Though a huntsman ought to be as silent as 
 possible at going into a cover, he cannot be too 
 noisy at coming out of it again ; and if at any 
 time he should turn back suddenly, let him 
 jive as much notice of it as he can to his 
 liounds, or he will leave many of them behind 
 him ; and should he turn down the wind, he 
 may see no more of them. 
 
 There are times when hounds should be 
 helped, and at all times they must be kept 
 forward : hounds will naturally tire on a cold 
 scent, when stopped by sheep, or other impe- 
 diments ; and when they are no longer able 
 to get forward, will oftentimes hunt the old 
 scent back again, if they find that they can 
 junt no other. It is the judicious encourag- 
 ing of hounds to hunt when they cannot run, 
 and the preventing them from losing time by 
 Hinting too much when they might run, 
 that distinguishes a good sportsman from a bad 
 one. Hounds that have been well taught will 
 cast forward to a hedge of their own accord :
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 but you may assure yourself this excellence is 
 never acquired by such as are left entirely to 
 themselves. 
 
 Though I like to see fox-hounds cast wide 
 and forward, and dislike to see them pick a 
 cold scent through flocks of sheep to no pur- 
 pose, yet I must beg leave to observe, that I 
 dislike still more to see that unaccountable 
 hurry which huntsmen will sometimes put 
 themselves into the moment their hounds are 
 at fault. Time ought always to be allowed 
 them to make their own cast ; and if a hunts- 
 man is judicious, he will take that opportu- 
 nity to consider what part he himself has next 
 to act ; but instead of this, I have seen hounds 
 hurried away the very instant they came to a 
 fault, a wide cast made, and the hounds at 
 last brought back again to the very place from 
 whence they were so abruptly taken, and 
 where, if the huntsman had had a minute's 
 patience, they would have hit off the scent 
 themselves. 
 
 When your huntsman makes a cast, I hope 
 he makes it perfect one way before he tries 
 another, as much time is lost by going back- 
 wards and forwards. You will see huntsmen, 
 when a forward cast does not succeed, come 
 slowly back again : they should return as fast 
 as they can. 
 
 In large covers, if there are many roads, in 
 bad scenting days, when these roads are dry, 
 or after a thaw, when they carry, it is neces- 
 sary your huntsman should be near to his 
 hounds to help them, and hold them forward. 
 Foxes will run the roads at these times, ant 
 hounds cannot always own the scent. When 
 they are at fault on a dry road, let not your 
 huntsman turn back too soon ; let him noi 
 stop till he can be certain that the fox is noi 
 gone on. The hounds should try on both 
 sides the road at once : if he perceives tha 
 they try on one side only, on his return le 
 him try the other. 
 
 If a fox runs up the wind when first found 
 and afterwards turns, he seldom, if ever, turn 
 again. This observation may not only be o 
 ue to your huntsman in his cast, but may b 
 of use to you, if you should lose the hounds. 
 When you are pursuing a fox over a coun 
 try, the scent being bad, and the fox a Ion 
 way before, without ever having been pressec 
 if his point should be for strong earths tha 
 are open, or for large covers, where game is i 
 plenty, it may be acting wisely to take off th 
 hounds at the first fault they come to ; fo 
 the fox will go many miles to your one, an 
 probably will run you out of all scent ; but 
 he should not, you will be likely to change a 
 the first cover you come into : when a fox ha 
 been bard pressed, it is my opinion, that h 
 never should be given up. 
 
 A perfect knowledge of his country cer 
 tainly is a great help to a huntsman : if your 
 
 as yet, has it not, great allowance ought to be 
 made. 
 
 In a country where there are large earths, 
 fox that knows the country, and tries any of 
 icm, seldom fails to try the rest. A hunts- 
 man may take advantage of this ; they are 
 ertain casts, and may help him to get nearer 
 o his fox. 
 
 Great caution is necessary when a fox runs 
 nto a village : if he is hallooed there, get 
 orward as fast as you can. Foxes, when tired, 
 will lie down anywhere, and are often lost 
 >y it. A wide cast is not the best to recover 
 a tired fox with tired hounds : they should 
 mnt him out, inch by inch, though they are 
 :ver so long about it. 
 
 A huntsman must take care, where foxes 
 ire in plenty, that he does not run the heel ; 
 or it frequently happens that hounds can run 
 ;he wrong way of the scent better than they 
 can the right, when one is up the wind, and 
 the other down. 
 
 When a huntsman hears a halloo, and has 
 Ive or six couple of hounds along with him, 
 the pack not running, let him get forward 
 with those which he has : when they are on 
 the scent, the others will soon join them. 
 
 Let him lift his tail hounds, and get them 
 forward after the rest : it can do no hurt. 
 But let him be cautious how he lifts any 
 hounds to get them forward before the rest : 
 it always is dangerous, and foxes are some- 
 times lost by it. 
 
 When hounds are hunting a cold scent, and 
 point towards a cover, let a whipper-in get 
 forward to the opposite side of it. Should the 
 fox break before the hounds reach the cover, 
 stop them, and get them nearer to him. 
 
 When a fox persists in running in a strong 
 cover, lies down often behind the hounds, and 
 they are slack in hunting him, let the hunts- 
 man get into the cover to them : it may make 
 the fox break ; it may keep him off his toil ; 
 or may prevent the hounds from giving him up. 
 It is not often that slow huntsmen kill 
 many foxes : they are a check upon their 
 hounds, which seldom kill a fox but with a 
 high scent, when it is out of their power to 
 prevent it. Activity is the first requisite in a 
 huntsman to a pack of fox-hounds : a want 
 of it no judgment can make amends for ; but 
 the most difficult of all his undertakings is 
 the distinguishing betwixt different scents, and 
 knowing with any certainty the scent of his 
 hunted fox. Much speculation is here re- 
 quired ; the length of time hounds remain at 
 fault ; difference of ground ; change of wea- 
 ther ; all these contribute to increase the dif- 
 ficulty, and require a nicety of judgment, and 
 a precision, much above the comprehension of 
 most huntsmen. 
 
 When hounds are at fault, and cannot make 
 it out of themselves, let the first cast be
 
 282 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [HUN 
 
 quick; the scent is then good, nor are the 
 hounds likely to go over it : as the scent gets 
 worse, the cast should be slower, and be more 
 cautiously made. This is an essential part of 
 hunting, and which, I am sorry to say, few j 
 huntsmen attend to. 1 wish they would re- : 
 member the following rules, viz. : that, with j 
 a good scent, their cast should be quick ; with | 
 a bad scent, slow ; and that, when the hounds 
 are picking along a cold scent, they are not to i 
 cast them at all. 
 
 When hounds are making a good and regu- \ 
 lar cast, trying for the scent as they go, suffer , 
 not your huntsman to say a word to them : it j 
 cannot do any good, and probably may make | 
 them go over the scent. 
 
 When hounds come to a check, a huntsman i 
 should observe the tail hounds : they are ! 
 least likely to over-run the scent, and he may 
 see by them how far they brought it. In most 
 packs there are some hounds that will show i 
 the point of the fox, and, if attended to, will 
 direct his cast. When such hounds follow 
 unwillingly, he may be certain the rest of the : 
 pack are running without a scent. 
 
 Different countries require different casts : | 
 such huntsmen as have been used to a wood- j 
 land and inclosed country, I have seen lose : 
 time in an open country, where wide casts are 
 always necessary. 
 
 When you want to cast round a flock of ', 
 sheep, the whipper-in ought to drive them the 
 other way, lest they should keep running on 
 before you. 
 
 Most huntsmen like to have all their hounds 
 turned after them, when they make a cast : 1 i 
 wonder not at them for it, but I am always 
 sorry when I see it done ; for till I find a 
 huntsman that is infallible, I shall continue to 
 think the more my hounds spread the better : 
 as long as they are within sight or hearing, it 
 is sufficient. Many a time have I seen an ob- 
 stinate hound hit off the scent, when an 
 obstinate huntsman, by casting the wrong way, 
 has done all in his power to prevent it. Two 
 foxes I remember to have seen killed in one 
 day by skirting hounds, whilst the huntsman 
 was making his cast the contrary way. 
 
 When your hounds are divided into many 
 parts, you had better go off with the first fox 
 that breaks. The ground will soon get tainted, 
 nor will hounds like a cover where they are 
 often changing. 
 
 The heading a fox back at first, if the cover 
 be not a large one, is oftentimes of service to 
 hounds, as he will not stop, and cannot go off 
 unseen. When a fox has been hard run, I 
 have known it turn out otherwise ; and hounds 
 that would easily have killed him out of the 
 cover, have left him in it. 
 
 When a fox has been often headed back on 
 one side of a cover, and a huntsman knows 
 there is not any body on the other side to hal- 
 
 loo him, the first fault his hounds come to, let 
 him cast that way, lest the fox should be gone 
 off; and if he is in the cover, he may still re- 
 cover him. 
 
 Suffer not your huntsman to take out a 
 lame hound. If any are tender-footed, he will 
 tell you, perhaps, that they will not mind it 
 when they are out : probably they may not ; 
 but how will they be on the next day ? A 
 hound, not in condition to run, cannot be of 
 much service to the pack ; and taking him out 
 at that time may occasion him a long confine- 
 ment afterwards. Put it not to the trial. 
 
 All hounds go fast enough with a good 
 scent ; but it is the particular excellence of a 
 fox-hound, when rightly managed, to get on 
 faster with an indifferent scent than any other 
 hound, and it is the business of a huntsman to 
 encourage this. Every minute you lose is 
 precious, and increases your difficulties ; and 
 while you are standing still the fox is running 
 miles. 
 
 When hounds flag from frequent changes 
 and along day, it is necessary for a huntsman 
 to animate them as much as he can : he must 
 keep them forward, and press them on ; for it 
 is not likely, in this case, that they should 
 over-run the scent : at these times the whole 
 work is generally done by a few hounds, and 
 he should keep close to them. 
 
 The many chances that are against you in 
 fox-hunting ; the changing frequently ; the 
 heading of the foxes ; their being coursed by 
 sheep-dogs ; long faults ; cold hunting, and 
 the dying away of the scent ; make it neces- 
 sary to keep always as near to the fox as you 
 can ; which should be the first and invariable 
 principle of fox-hunting. Long days do great 
 hurt to a pack of fox-hounds. I set out one 
 day last winter from the kennel at half-past 
 seven, and returned home a quarter before 
 eight at night, the hounds running hard the 
 greatest part of the time. The huntsman 
 killed one horse and tired another, and the 
 hounds did not recover it for more than a 
 week. 
 
 
 
 The whole system of hunting is so revolu- 
 tionised that the preparation which a horse 
 now requires is very different to what it was 
 in former times. The hour of meeting is sel- 
 dom before eleven : the find generally quick 
 and certain ; and horses are often not more 
 than five or six hours from their stables after 
 ! the best day's sport ; and the ground they go 
 over is frequently not so much as a plating 
 race horse performs in contending three or 
 four-mile heats. Having said this, I see no 
 reason to doubt the propriety of feeding, sweat- 
 ing, and muzzling the hunter much in the 
 same manner as the race horse, only making 
 due and proper allowance for the relative na- 
 ture of their work ; particularly as to not
 
 HUN] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 283 
 
 stripping the hunter too much of his flesh ; or 
 losing sight of the natural difference between 
 the thorough-bred horse and the cock-tail. 
 
 * * 
 
 There is certainly no country in the world 
 where the sport of hunting on horseback is 
 carried to such a height as in Great Britain at 
 the present day, and where the pleasures of a 
 fox-chase are so well understood, and con- 
 ducted on such purely scientific principles. It 
 is considered the beau ideal of hunting by 
 those who pursue it. There can be no doubt 
 that it is infinitely superior to stag-hunting, 
 for the real sportsman can only enjoy that 
 chase when the deer is sought for, and found 
 like other game which are pursued with 
 hounds. In the case of finding an outlying 
 fallow-deer, which is unharboured in this man- 
 ner, great sport is frequently afforded ; but 
 this is rarely to be met with in Britain. So 
 that fox-hunting is now the chief amusement 
 of the true British sportsman ; and a noble 
 one it is : the artifices and dexterity employed 
 by this lively, crafty animal, to avoid the dogs, 
 are worthy of our admiration, as he exhibits 
 more devices for self-preservation than any 
 other beast of the chase. 
 
 In many parts of this and the sister island, 
 hare-hunting is much followed, but fox- 
 hunters consider it as a sport only fit for women 
 and old men. But although it is less arduous 
 than that of the fox-chase, there are charms 
 attached to it which compensate for the hard 
 
 riding of the other. 
 
 * 
 
 The hunting match given by the Prince Es- 
 terhazy, Regent of Hungary, upon the signing 
 the treaty of peace with France, was a day's 
 sport, that bids fair to vie in point of blood (if 
 the King of Naples' slaughter be excepted) with 
 any of those recorded in modern history, as 
 there were killed, 160 deer, 100 wild boars, 
 300 hares, and 80 foxes. The king had a larger 
 extent and a longer period for the exercise of 
 his talents, and it is proved that during his 
 journey to Vienna, in Austria, Bohemia, and 
 Moravia, he killed five bears, 1820 boars, 
 1950 deer, 1145 does, 1625 roebucks, 1121 
 rabbits, 13 wolves, 17 badgers, 16,354 hares, 
 and 354 foxes ; the monarch had likewise the 
 pleasure of doing a little in the bird way, by 
 killing upon the same expedition, 15,350 phea- 
 sants, and 12,335 partridges. 
 
 * 
 
 Anecdotes of Hunting The late Duke 
 of Grafton, when hunting, was thrown into a 
 ditch ; at the same time a young curate, call- 
 ing out " Lie still, my lord," leaped over him, 
 and pursued his sport. Such an apparent want 
 of feeling, we may presume, was properly re- 
 sented. No such thing : on being helped out 
 by his attendant, his grace said, " That man 
 shall have the first good living that falls to my 
 
 disposal ; had he stopped to have taken care of 
 me, I never would have given him any thing ;" 
 being delighted with an ardour similar to his 
 own, or with a spirit that would not stoop to 
 flatter. 
 
 * * * 
 
 " In this pursuit I (Colonel Thornton) sunk 
 more than once, into a quagmire, where the 
 prince's whipper-in some years since, was he- 
 sitating whether he should go to the assistance 
 of some hounds which had got an old stag at 
 hay, but on his master's asking if he were afraid, 
 he immediately dashed in and sunk to rise no 
 more. It is indeed reported, that neither him- 
 self nor his horse were ever found. 
 
 * 
 
 One of the sons of Gosden, whose father 
 was celebrated as the bold rider of Datchett, 
 was out upon his favourite poney with the 
 king's stag hounds ; he came to a part where 
 
 the present D of C r d, was refusing 
 
 a leap, when the bolder son of Nimrod, 
 without thinking of the importance and rank 
 of the person he was addressing, exclaimed, 
 " Stand away, and let me take it, a pretty sort 
 of a duke you are." 
 
 
 
 He (the huntsman) died, some time since, at 
 Duffry-hall, the seat of Caesar Colclough, Esq. 
 at the advanced age of ninety-six, near sixty 
 years of which he passed in the Colclough fa- 
 mily. He acted in the triple capacity of 
 huntsman, steward, and master of the family. 
 During the rebellion in 1798, he and his fa- 
 mily acted with uncommon fidelity to their 
 employers, as one of his sons, when Mr. C. 
 was obliged to fly, came down to protect the 
 house and property, and he never quitted his 
 post. Another of his spns brought off horses 
 and clothes to his master, at the risk of his 
 life, when he was informed where to find him, 
 and during that period the old man buried a 
 large quantity of the family plate, which he 
 afterwards conveyed to a place of safety. 
 
 Until the last year of his life he regularly 
 went out with the hounds, and his voice re- 
 tained its clearness and sweetness. He was 
 well known to all sportsmen in that part of 
 Ireland. 
 
 * 
 
 The celebrated Saunderson, professor of 
 mathematics, at Cambridge, who was entirely 
 destitute of sight, continued to hunt until a 
 very advanced stage of life ; his horse was ac- 
 customed to follow that of his servant, and the 
 satisfaction of Saunderson was extreme when 
 he heard the cry of hounds and the huntsmen, 
 and which he used to express with all the ea- 
 gerness of those who, possessing their eye-sight, 
 could consequently be more gratified by the 
 
 incidents of the chase Strutt Beckford 
 
 Brown Thornton 4" c - 4" c>
 
 284 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 HUNT, s. A pack of hounds ; a chase 
 HUNTER, s. One who chases animals 
 or beasts of prey; a horse employed 
 To obtain a useful hunter, let the person 
 purchase a well-bred mare, not so much re- 
 garding her size as her points of action parti- 
 cularly requiring that she have a sound consti- 
 tution and good legs. Let him send her to a 
 horse of good form, with freedom of action 
 and a sound constitution ; also being particular 
 as to the state of his legs and feet. Never let 
 him breed from a naturally infirm horse, whose 
 legs have shown more than ordinary weakness ; 
 and, above all, let him fix upon one which 
 has what the veterinary profession call a short 
 canon ; that is, the bone extending from the 
 knee to the fetlock, commonly called the shank 
 bone. Let him begin to breed from his mare 
 before she is much injured by work ; as in 
 that case, if she does not breed to please him 
 with her first and second foal, he can dis- 
 pose of her and purchase another. 
 
 A very celebrated fox-hunter has observed, 
 that " the goodness of the horse generally 
 goes in at the mouth." Let the breeder, 
 then, bear this in mind, and take care that the 
 foal be dropped early, and the dam well fed 
 for the first two months with bran mashes, 
 carrots, &c., till the spring grass arrives. If 
 the mare should prove a good nurse, the colt 
 will not require corn till he is weaned, which 
 on no account should be delayed beyond the 
 first or second week in September. Here the 
 grand mistake has arisen, to which we are 
 indebted for such numbers of mis-shapen 
 horses as this country abounds in. Farmers, 
 in general, never think of weaning their colts 
 till after Michaelmas, long before which period 
 there is little or no virtue in grass, but, on 
 the contrary, it is sour and unwholesome. 
 
 From weaning time to the following May, 
 the colt should be well kept on a full allow- 
 ance of sweet hay, with at least two good feeds 
 of oats per day, and he should be kept warm. 
 He should have a head collar on, with a small 
 strap hanging down to his knees, which will 
 admit of his being handled every day ; and 
 every two months his toes should be rasped, 
 and his heels opened a little with the draw- 
 ing knife. In March or April he should have 
 two mild doses of physic, which will cause 
 him to grow ; and when the weather is warm 
 he should be turned out into a good upland 
 pasture for the summer, with plenty of shade 
 and water, but taken up every month to have 
 his legs examined and his toes rasped. The 
 second week in September he should be 
 housed again for the winter, when his belly 
 should be the measure for his corn. When 
 docked, his tail should be left eight inches in 
 length, which will preclude the disagreeable 
 
 ; pursuit. 
 
 for pastime ; a dog 1 that scents game 
 in hunting. 
 
 necessity of having the operation repeated. 
 
 Early in the following spring, when turned 
 two years old, he should be broken, but not 
 backed; and physicked as before directed. 
 In the first or second week in June he should 
 be cut; and when recovered he should be 
 turned out for the summer. When taken up 
 again for the winter, he should have two mild 
 doses of physic, and be very well kept, giving 
 him a few carrots, or a large bran mash once 
 a week. Very early in the spring he should 
 have a little more very mild physic ; and in 
 a fortnight afterwards he should be backed, 
 and taught his paces by a person who under- 
 stands his business. Idleness, from this time 
 forth, will be an enemy to him ; and as soon 
 as he is perfect in his paces, he should do 
 what in the training stables is called " a little 
 work." Exercise will strengthen his legs, 
 enlarge his muscles, improve his form, and 
 make him grow. From this time forth he 
 should be treated as a horse in every respect 
 but in his work, which should be moderate till 
 the fifth year ; but previously to that time a 
 customer will always be ready for him, and if 
 his owner is disposed to part with him, his 
 average price will be from one to two hun- 
 dred sovereigns. 
 
 When I say a colt should be treated as a 
 horse after the third year, I mean, of course, 
 that he should be treated after the system I 
 have laid down for hunters, and not allowed 
 his summer's run at grass. Hard meat will 
 make him powerful and handsome : grass 
 will render him, comparatively speaking, 
 heavy, pot-bellied, and shapeless. 
 
 I omitted to mention one very essential 
 part of the education of a colt designed for a 
 hunter. His action particularly that of his 
 shoulders will be greatly benefited by rid- 
 ing him up and down hill, and trotting him 
 gently in deep ground. He should also be 
 taught to leap at three years old. If there 
 should be the least appearance of a curb, the 
 iron should at once be applied. 
 
 * * 
 
 The hunter should be taken up certainly 
 not later than the twentieth of July. Soon 
 after this period the nights begin to get chilly, 
 and his coat would receive a check if exposed 
 to them. It would lose that soft, silky feel, 
 which it generally has if the horse is in perfect 
 health previously to that sime. When first 
 taken to house he should be kept as cool as 
 possible, and, if it can be avoided, there should 
 not be more than one horse in every other 
 stall, be the stable ever so large. As his 
 bowels will be relaxed by the grass he has
 
 HUN] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 2S5 
 
 been eating, his physic should be milder than 
 usual ; but that must depend upon previous 
 knowledge of the constitution of the horse. 
 Generally speaking, five drachms and a half 
 would he sufficient, if well prepared by bran 
 mashes beforehand. I do not approve of 
 strong physic; because it is useless to give it, 
 when mild, with proper preparation, will do 
 what is required of it ; but it is not in the 
 power of a drachm or two of good aloes to 
 destroy a horse. 
 
 By the time he is ready for his second dose, 
 he will be in some measure reconciled to the 
 change of temperature from the open air to 
 that of a confined stable and a little more 
 caution is necessary during the operation of it. 
 Unless the weather happens to be very warm, 
 he should have a hood on him if he goes out 
 early in the morning, and, at all events, one 
 warm body cloth, or his coat may receive a 
 check which it will not recover for some time. 
 If he has had his first dose, a day or two after 
 he was taken up say the 20th of July al- 
 lowing seven clear days between the setting 
 of each dose, he will be through it all by 
 about the 1 7th of August, up to which time, 
 and for a week afterwards, he should have 
 nothing but gentle walking and trotting exer- 
 cise, of about an hour and a half at a time, 
 before heat of the day; and by no means 
 should a brush be laid upon him, as it opens 
 the pores of his skin, and renders him more 
 susceptible of cold. Indeed, all the grooming 
 he requires at this time is to have his legs well 
 rubbed particularly with the hand three or 
 four times a day, and oftener if the circulation 
 be languid, and his body well wisped with a good 
 solid hay wisp,alittledamped. Shouldahorse 
 have had some physic at grass in the summer, 
 or late in the spring, before he was turned 
 out, and not appear foul, it may be better to 
 stop a fortnight or three weeks between his 
 second and third dose : and, if a bit of soft 
 ground can be found, to give him a little 
 work in the time. If his two other doses did 
 not work him hard, it will be advisable to add 
 half a drachm of aloes to the third dose, as it 
 will take more to move his bowels now than 
 it did before he got the hard meat into him, 
 and had a little work. 
 
 The condition of a horse must proceed by 
 slow degrees : it is the work of time ; and it 
 i> in vain to expect it on any other terms than 
 as the result of a long course of preparation, 
 followed by severe work. In a clear fort- 
 night after he has had his last dose of physic, 
 he should begin to do some work ; for with- 
 out it no progress can be made. This, how- 
 ever, should be gradual ; and for the first 
 month should consist of long protracted exer- 
 cise, rather than what is called " good work." 
 He should be kept out of his stable for three 
 or four hours in the course of the dav ; and if 
 
 ridden gently across a country, and now and 
 then with a pack of harriers (weather permit- 
 ting), it will greatly promote his condition, by 
 hardening his flesh, increasing his strength, 
 and improving his wind. At this time the 
 use of alteratives is indispensable. By their 
 mild and gradual impression a healthy action 
 of the bowels is obtained, and thereby what 
 in stable language is called " fog," (but which 
 might more properly be termed debility, or 
 depression of strength,) is got rid of, and the 
 general appearance and condition of the ani- 
 mal much improved. Indeed, without the 
 use of alterative medicines exclusively of 
 physic no hunter can be got into blooming 
 condition ; that is to say, to look well in his 
 skin, to dry immediately after a sweat, and to 
 be in full vigour of body. Of these medi- 
 cines there are several sorts in use ; but the 
 diuretic and diaphoretic are in my opinion the 
 best. It is almost needless to observe, that 
 the latter act upon the skin : but as sensible 
 perspiration in the horse is not to be obtained 
 by medicine without difficulty, and having 
 recourse to larger doses than may be safe or 
 convenient for him to take when at work, and 
 it is insensible perspiration that we wish to 
 obtain, these alteratives should be combined ; 
 for it is from their gradual and almost imper- 
 ceptible operation that we are to look for the 
 effect we wish to produce. Antimony forms 
 the principal diaphoretic ; and from its weight 
 a sufficient quantity one ounce divided into 
 four parts may be given him every day in 
 his corn for eight days together; but this 
 should be given when the weather is warm, 
 or danger from catching cold may arise, from 
 the pores of the skin being relaxed. With 
 proper precautions^ owever, none is to be ap- 
 prehended, and the effect on the general 
 health and appearance of the horse is strik- 
 ing. If the diaphoretic alterative, in the 
 quantity above stated, be not given before the 
 horse begins to work, and the weather be- 
 comes cold and wet, it is better to combine it 
 with the diuretic, by giving him a very mild 
 urine ball twice a week, for three weeks in 
 succession, with half an ounce of antimony, 
 finely levigated, in each ball. These medi- 
 cines combined will check that excitement of 
 the general habit which always accompanies a 
 transition from rest to work, purify the blood, 
 and give tone and vigour to the system. 
 Nitre has been much used by grooms as a 
 cooling diuretic, and a preventive of disease 
 from such causes ; but it must be borne in 
 mind that nitre is a strong repel Ian t, and of a 
 debilitating nature. 
 
 All this, however, without a good stable, 
 and good stable mangement, is of no avail. 
 
 Speaking next of feeding, Nimrod says: 
 Formerly wheat was given to race horses, 
 as more nourishing than oats ; but now the
 
 286 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Hux 
 
 latter form the chief food for all descriptions 
 of horses. Beans, however, have for some 
 time been allowed to hunters, and when given 
 with discretion are most beneficial. Two sin- 
 gle handfuls in each feed of corn is the allow- 
 ance for a hunter who is fed (as he ought to 
 be) five times a day. 
 
 About eight pounds a-day of hay, or one truss 
 a- week, is considered sufficient for a hunter 
 that will eat five feeds of corn per day. A 
 larger quantity is found to increase the size, 
 consequently the weight of the carcase, to in- 
 jure the wind, and destroy the digestive 
 powers. If one handful of good hay be found 
 in his rack, he should have no more till next 
 stable time, when his appetite will be sharp. 
 If given to eat his straw, the setting muzzle, 
 in this case, must be made use of. 
 
 Hunters are not always to be fed alike : al- 
 lowance should be made for the distance to 
 covert ; for when a horse has to go twelve or 
 fourteen miles in a morning to meet hounds, 
 he may be allowed a little more hay over- 
 night, than if he had but four or five, as he 
 will empty his stomach on the road, and there 
 is reason to expect a long day. As to whe- 
 ther a hunter should have any water on the 
 morning of hunting, that is a point not so 
 much considered as it ought to be, for we 
 should be guided by his constitution. If he 
 is apt to scour, and throw off his meat on the 
 road, I should recommend his having none ; 
 but if, on the other hand, he holds his meat 
 well in him, has some distance to go, and is 
 not called on till ten or eleven o'clock in the 
 day, he should have six or eight swallows, or 
 godowns, as the grooms call them, between 
 five and six in the morning. This quantity 
 of water, or more, is always given to the race 
 horse on the day he runs his race, as it makes 
 him enjoy his food, and digest it afterwards, 
 and it is all absorbed by the time he is called 
 upon to run. Nothing is so apt to make 
 horses scour as change of food and water ; for 
 which reason it is advisable that a hunter 
 should go from his own stable to meet hounds, 
 if the distance does not exceed fifteen or six- 
 teen miles, rather than sleep out, and be sub- 
 ject to the effects alluded to. If, however, he 
 does sleep out, and is affected by the change, 
 he should be watered before he leaves home, 
 and have very little where he sleeps, which 
 will in some measure counteract the evil. 
 
 Speaking of stable management, Nimrod 
 says : As no man can make good work with- 
 out good tools, so no servant can do his duty 
 by a stud of hunters without proper mate- 
 rials to go to work with. He must have a 
 good stable, some loose boxes, and a good 
 saddle-room with fire-place : he must have 
 lots of horse-clothes of all descriptions, ban- 
 dages, hot water, gruel, lancets, tweezers, and 
 a few drugs the very best old hay and corn, 
 
 good exercising ground, and, above all, plenty 
 of strength in his stable ; for there are two 
 ways of dressing a horse one to warm him, 
 and the other to starve him. Dressing a 
 horse vigorously removes obstructions in the 
 smaller vessels, promotes the circulation of 
 the blood, and in bad weather is a substitute 
 for exercise. 
 
 With regard to a horse coming round after 
 a hard day, even supposing him to be ii> the 
 hands of the best of grooms, that must, in 
 some measure, depend on the stuff he is made 
 of; but, generally speaking, he should come 
 out about the sixth day after the severest run. 
 If his legs have received no injury, he should 
 come out three times in a fortnight, at least 
 during the open weather ; and he will be the 
 better for being out twice a week if there have 
 been no tiring days. Some horses require 
 much more work than others ; but none of 
 them can go the pace, and continue it over a 
 country, unless they are in strong work. 
 
 General rules cannot be individually ap- 
 plied ; but there is one respecting a hunter 
 which I have held inviolable ; and that is, 
 that, under all circumstances, whether the in- 
 tervals between his hunting have been long or 
 short, he should have a sweat, and go for a 
 mile nearly at the top of his speed on the day 
 before hunting. I have generally adopted the 
 following plan : 
 
 Let some heavy clothes be put on him, 
 and, with a light weight on his back, let him 
 go at a gentle rate six or eight times around a 
 large field that rides a little deep, till he 
 sweats kindly. Let him be followed to the 
 place by a man with some dry clothes and a 
 scraper, and, taking him into some building, 
 or under a warm hedge, let him be well 
 scraped, and have on his dry clothes. Then, 
 if short of work, let him have a good gallop 
 for a mile, and walk home. This treatment, 
 with proper care, is unattended with any dan- 
 ger of catching cold, and, if followed by a 
 proper allowance of hay and water, will give 
 him a wonderful advantage over those horses 
 which have not been doing what he has done, 
 provided he drop into a quick thing with the 
 hounds the next day. I have seen hunters 
 led to be sweated by a boy riding a hack ; but 
 however great an advocate I may be for pre- 
 serving horses' 1 legs by keeping weight off 
 them as much as possible, yet a horse cannot, 
 in my opinion, be worthy the name of a hun- 
 ter if he cannot carry a boy in his exercise. 
 
 Having laid some stress upon the words, 
 proper allowance of hay and water on the 
 day before hunting, I will proceed to state 
 what I consider that allowance to be. In the 
 first place, if a horse will eat his corn in the 
 morning without water, he should have none 
 till he comes in from exercise, and is done up, 
 which should be bv ten o'clock' at farthest.
 
 HUN] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 287 
 
 He should then have half a pail of water, 
 and a proportion of his hay, which should not 
 exceed, for a moderately-sized horse, ten 
 pounds a day. He should then be shut up 
 till four, when, before he is dressed over, he 
 should have another half pail of water, and 
 no more until he returns from hunting the 
 next day, unless it he a few swallows on the 
 morning he hunts, when his groom first comes 
 to him. If this quantity of hay is not sufficient 
 to satisfy his appetite, and there is an appear- 
 ance in the morning of straw in the manger, as 
 if he had been eating it, the setting-muzzle 
 should be put on him at ten o'clock, and should 
 remain on him for the night, but his groom 
 should be with him by five in the morning, to 
 relieve him. He should then have his two 
 feeds, at an interval of an hour, and proceed 
 to the covert at a gentle pace. If, when there, 
 provided he have been treated in the way I 
 have prescribed, he cannot carry his rider as 
 he ought to do, we must conclude nature for- 
 bids it, as he will have had every assistance 
 from art. 
 
 * 
 
 When I first began to keep hunters, we 
 knew nothing of those great restoratives in 
 the stable flannel bandages, hot water for 
 the legs, and gruel. Except in case of illness 
 they were never thought of. An old writer 
 on farriery, the Sieur la Fosse, speaks of 
 " the great advantage of keeping horses' legs 
 warm, as preventing glanders and other acci- 
 dents ;" but it is only within these few years 
 that bandages have been applied as part of the 
 clothing of a hunter ; the benefit of which is, 
 in my opinion, incalculable. By their use 
 circulation is kept up in those parts where it 
 is apt to be most languid ; and the practice of 
 washing legs in very warm water, and swath- 
 ing them in large folds of flannel, takes off 
 soreness and inflammation from blows and 
 other injuries, which all hunters are liable to 
 in a run over a strong country. Another ad- 
 vantage attending them is, that they admit of 
 a horse being shut up in half the time it for- 
 merly required to clean him, which enables 
 him to lie down, or roll, which he will always 
 
 do if in a loose house, before he gets stiff from 
 his work. 
 
 There is a cleanliness in not letting a hun- 
 ter be taken into his stable until the rough 
 dirt which hangs about him is removed ; for 
 which purpose he should be taken under a 
 shed or into another stable ; and the quickest 
 method of removing it is by the means of a 
 birch-broom. Three minutes will accomplish 
 this. He should then be taken into his own 
 stable, have two or three quarts of tepid 
 gruel, and his feet and legs above his knees 
 and houghs should be well washed in water 
 nearly hot. When sponged well with strained 
 sponges, one set of bandages should be swathed 
 around them. His head and body should be 
 well dried, which, if he is full of hard meat, 
 will not occupy more than an hour, when he 
 should be shut up in a loose house, well lit- 
 tered down, and a small feed of corn allowed 
 him. In about two hours his groom should 
 come to him again ; his bandages should be 
 taken off, his legs well wisped and hand- 
 rubbed, his head and body lightly brushed 
 over, and a dry set of bandages put on. A 
 lukewarm mash, with a feed of oats in it, and 
 three parts of a pail of tepid water, with a 
 very small quantity of hay, will make him 
 comfortable for the night ; and on the follow- 
 ing morning he should go to exercise as soon 
 as it is light, and be walked for an hour with 
 an extra cloth and a hood. He should have 
 tepid water all that day, and a liberal allow- 
 ance of it, with his usual oats if he will eat 
 them, but no beans. If his appetite fails him, 
 and does not return before shutting-up time 
 that evening, he should have half a cordial and 
 half a diuretic-ball mixed together; which, 
 with a liberal allowance of tepid water, and an 
 .hour and a half walking exercise on the third 
 day, will so far recover him as to enable him 
 to return to his former high feed on the 
 fourth ; on the fifth or sixth have a sweat ; 
 and on the seventh be fit for business again 
 (as far, at least, as his constitution is con- 
 cerned) after the hardest day, and will carry 
 his rider with more ease to himself than if he 
 had not gone through it Nimrod. 
 
 HUNTINGHORN, s. A bugle, a horn used to cheer the hounds. 
 HUNTRESS, s. A woman that follows the chase; a mare used in hunting-. 
 HUNTSMAN, s. One who delights in the chase ; the servant whose office it 
 is to manage the chase. 
 
 It is the opinion of a great sportsman, that 
 it is as difficult to find a perfect huntsman as 
 a good prime minister. Without taking upon 
 me to determine what requisites may be ne- 
 cessary to form a good prime minister, I will 
 describe some of those which are essentially 
 necessary towards making a perfect huntsman ; 
 
 qualities which, I will venture to say, would 
 not disgrace more brilliant situations : such 
 as a clear head, nice observation, quick appre- 
 hension, undaunted courage, strength of con- 
 stitution, activity of body, a good ear, and a 
 good voice Beckford.
 
 288 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Hri 
 
 HUNTSMANSHIP, s. The qualifications of a hunter. 
 HURL, v. To throw with violence ; to play at a kind of game. 
 HURL, s. Tumult, riot ; a kind of game ; the bat used in hurling. 
 HURLER, 5. One that plays at hurling. 
 
 Hurling is the national game of Ireland, 
 and much practised in the southern and west- 
 ern counties. It differs from cricket in its 
 being a mere contest between the opposing 
 parties, as to which shall force the ball between 
 barriers placed at some distance from each 
 other. The ball is thrice the size of a cricket- 
 ball, the hurl differently shaped, and the game 
 
 of a wilder and less methodical character, as 
 it affords a liberty for each individual to exert 
 himself as he pleases. Hence the " melee " 
 of a hurling-match has rather the appearance 
 of hostile encounter than rustic sport, and is 
 therefore better adapted to the rude and mar- 
 tial people who practise it, than the more 
 scientific but less exciting game of cricket. 
 
 HUSK, *. The outmost integument of some sorts of fruit. 
 
 HYBRID, s. Any animal whose sire is of one kind and dam of another. 
 
 HYBRIDOUS, a. Begotten between animals of different species ; produced 
 
 from plants of different kinds. 
 HYDROPHOBIA,*. Dread of water; a malady destructive to the human 
 
 and canine races. 
 
 Hydrophobia in medicine is a disease gener- 
 ally communicated to man by the bite of a 
 rabid dog, and is so called because one of its 
 principal symptoms is the inability of the pa- 
 tient to swallow water or any other liquid. 
 It is called by some writers canine madness, 
 and seldom makes its appearance till a consi- 
 derable time after the bite of the rabid ani- 
 mal. In some few instances it has commenced 
 in seven or eight days from the accident, but 
 generally the patient continues in health for 
 twenty, thirty, or forty days, or even much 
 longer. The bite will in general be healed 
 long before that time, frequently with the 
 greatest ease, though sometimes it resists all 
 kinds of healing applications, and forms a 
 running ulcer, which discharges a quantity of 
 matter for many days. The approach of the 
 disease is known by the cicatrix of the wound 
 becoming high, hard, and elevated, and by a 
 peculiar sense of prickling at the part ; pains 
 shoot from it towards the throat ; sometimes 
 it is sureounded with livid or red streaks, and 
 seems to be in a state of inflammation ; though 
 often there is nothing remarkable to be ob- 
 served. The patient becomes melanchol y, loves 
 solitude, and feels sickness at the stomach. 
 Sometimes the peculiar symptoms, the dread of 
 water, comes on all at once ; sometimes the 
 disease begins like a common sore throat, and 
 the soreness daily increasing, the hydrophobic 
 symptoms appear like a convulsive spasm of 
 the muscles of the fauces. In others the mind 
 is first affected, and a real dread of water 
 arises before the patient tries whether he can 
 swallow it. But in whatever manner this 
 symptom comes on, the most painful sensa- 
 tions accompany every attempt to swallow 
 liquids. Nay, the bare sight of water, or any- 
 
 thing clear, will give the utmost uneasiness, or 
 even throw the patient into convulsions. The 
 patient, however, is not as yet deprived of 
 reason ; some have, merely by the dint of 
 resolution, conquered the dread of water, 
 though they never could overcome the con- 
 vulsive motions which the contact of liquids 
 occasioned : and yet this has been of no avail ; 
 for the convulsions and other symptoms in- 
 creasing have always overpowered the indivi- 
 dual at last, and a great flow of viscid saliva 
 into the mouth now- takes place, and it has the 
 same effect upon the fauces that other liquids 
 have. This therefore is blown off with vio- 
 lence, which in a patient of Doctor FothergiH's 
 occasioned a noise like the barking of a dog. 
 Patients then have an insatiable thirst, but 
 are unable to get down any drink without the 
 utmost difficulty, though sometimes they can 
 swallow bread soaked in liquids, slices of 
 oranges, or other fruits. There is a pain un- 
 der the scrobiculus cordis, as in the tetanus. 
 But the symptoms are so various, that they 
 cannot be enumerated, for we seldom read 
 two cases of hydrophobia which do not differ 
 very remarkably. Sometimes every member 
 is convulsed by fits, but most violently from 
 the navel up to the breast and oesophagus. 
 The fit comes on perhaps every quarter of an 
 hour ; the fauces are not red, nor the tongue 
 dry ; the pulse is not at all feverish ; and, 
 when the fit is over, nearly like a sound pulse. 
 The face grows pale, then brown, and during 
 the fits almost black, the lips livid ; the head 
 is drowsy, and the ears tingling; the urine 
 limpid. At last the patient is weary, the fits 
 are less violent, the pulse becomes weak, in- 
 termittent, and not very quick ; and at last 
 the whole body becomes cold. If the patient
 
 HYD] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 289 
 
 can get sleep, so lie will expire. The blood 
 drawn before death appears good in every 
 respect. The hydrophobia seems to be a 
 symptom peculiar to the human race ; for the 
 mad animals which communicate the infec- 
 tion do not seem to have any dread of water. 
 If the disease once exhibits its symptoms in 
 a human patient, the chances for recovery are 
 small indeed; there having never been one 
 well authenticated case of the recovery of a 
 really hydrophobous person. Prevention is 
 the only chance, and removal of the contagi- 
 ous matter the only fair hope of preserving 
 life. Of all the means of removal, the cut- 
 ting out the part to which the tooth had been 
 applied is unquestionably the most effectual. 
 This therefore should not be delayed ; one 
 quarter of an hour's hesitation will sometimes 
 prove fatal. But besides cutting away the 
 part, careful washing may be used. Cold 
 water should be poured upon the wound from 
 a considerable height, that the matter may be 
 washed away with some force. Even after 
 removal by the knife, careful washing is still 
 proper. And after' both these, to prevent, as 
 far as can be, the possibility of any contagious 
 matter lurking about the wounded part, it 
 should not be allowed to heal, but a discharge 
 of matter should be supported for several 
 weeks by ointment with cantharides, or simi- 
 lar applications ; by these means there is the 
 best chance of removing the matter at a suffi- 
 ciently early period. Prevention may also be 
 obtained by the destruction of the contagious 
 matter at the part ; and where there is the 
 least reason to think that a complete removal 
 has not been obtained, these should always be 
 had recourse to. With this intention the ac- 
 tual cautery, and burning with gunpowder, 
 have been employed ; and fire is doubtless 
 one of the most powerful agents that can be 
 used for this purpose. Recourse has also been 
 had to washing, both with acids and alkalies. 
 Of the former vinegar has been chiefly used, 
 but more may be expected from the latter, 
 particularly from the caustic alkali, so far di- 
 luted that it can be applied with safety ; for 
 from its influence as a solvent of animal mu- 
 cus, it gives a better chance of a complete 
 removal of the poison. 
 
 * * 
 
 The injured part must be destroyed, or be 
 cut out. Destroying it is the most safe and 
 certain, and the best applications for that pur- 
 pose are the lapis infernalis and the butter of 
 antimony. These are preferable to a hot 
 iron, which the ancients used, because a hot 
 iron forms a crust that acts as a defence to 
 the under parts instead of destroying them. 
 The lapis infernalis is much better than any 
 other caustic, as it melts and penetrates dur- 
 ing its application. The bitten part must be 
 destroyed to the bottom, and where there is 
 
 any doubt that the bottom of the wound is 
 not sufficiently reached, butter of antimony 
 should be introduced occasionally as deep as 
 possible, and incisions should be made, if ne- 
 cessary, to lay open every part to the influence 
 of the caustic. In desperate cases incisions 
 sliould be made round the wound to prevent 
 the virus from spreading. The wound is to 
 be dressed for some time with poultices, to 
 assuage the inflammation caused by the caus- 
 tics, and afterwards with acrid dressings and 
 hot digestives, to create a discharge and drain 
 the injured parts. 
 
 * * * 
 
 It is my practice, and I recommend it to 
 others when called to patients bitten by a 
 mad dog, to try them immediately, and from 
 time to time, with water, slopping it first 
 into a pewter pot, and from thence back to 
 the basin a few times, in order to detect as 
 earh' as possible the hydrophobia, or first de- 
 cided symptom produced by the poison of a 
 mad dog. * * 
 
 An Italian surgeon of the hospital at Mos- 
 cow, being in the Ukraine in 1813, was re- 
 quested to give assistance to fifteen persons, 
 who had received the bite of a mad dog. A 
 deputation of elders waited upon him, and 
 entreated him to administer help to the un- 
 fortunate persons through a peasant, who, dur- 
 ing several years, had acquired great reputa- 
 tion for curing hydrophobia. M. Marochetti 
 consented upon certain conditions. The coun- 
 try doctor then administered to fourteen of 
 the persons confided to him in a peculiar way. 
 The fifteenth, a young girl of fifteen, was 
 treated in the ordinary manner, for the pur- 
 pose of proving the effect of both modes of 
 treatment. To each of the fourteen he gave 
 daily one pound and a half of the decoction 
 of the buds of yellow broom flowers, and he 
 examined twice a day under the tongue the 
 place where, according to his statement, little 
 swellings were formed containing the virus of 
 madness. These swellings rose on the third 
 or ninth day, and were seen by M. Marochetti. 
 Very soon after they appeared, they were 
 touched with a red hot needle, after which the 
 patient gargled the part with the decoction of 
 broom. The result of this treatment was 
 that the fourteen patients were cured in six 
 weeks, whilst the young girl, treated differ- 
 ently, died on the seventh day in the convul- 
 sions of madness. Three years after M. 
 Marochetti paid a visit to the fourteen persons, 
 and they were all doing well. The same phy- 
 sician being at Padolia, in 1818, had a new 
 opportunity of confirming this interesting dis- 
 covery. The happy result of this mode of 
 treatment was the same with twenty-six per- 
 sons, who had all been bit by a mad dog 
 Gazette de Santi Gilman Darw 
 Jfarocfalti. 
 
 U
 
 JACK, s. The diminutive of John ; an instrument to pull off boots; an 
 engine which turns the spit ; a young pike ; a cup of waxed leather ; a 
 small bowl thrown out for a mark to the bowlers ; the male of some 
 animals ; a support to saw wood on ; the colours or ensign of a ship. 
 
 JACKDAW, ( Corvus monedula, LINN.; Le Choucas, BUFF.) s. A small 
 species of crow. 
 
 This bird is considerably less than the rook, 
 only thirteen inches in length, and about 
 twenty-eight in breadth. Its bill is black, 
 eyes white ; the hinder part of the head and 
 
 neck are of a hoary grey colour ; the rest of 
 the plumage is of a fine glossy black above ; 
 beneath it has a dusky hue ; the legs are 
 black. 
 
 The daw is very common in England, and 
 remains with us the whole year: in other 
 countries, as in France and various parts of 
 Germany, it is migratory. They frequent 
 churches, old towers, and ruins, in great flocks, 
 where they build their nests : the female lays 
 five or six eggs, paler than those of the crow, 
 
 and smaller ; they rarely build in trees ; in 
 Hampshire they sometimes breed in the rab- 
 bit burrows. They are easily tamed, and may 
 be taught to pronounce several words ; they 
 
 will conceal part of their food, and with it 
 small pieces of money, or toys. They feed 
 on insects, grain, fruit, and small pieces of 
 flesh ; and are said to be fond of partridges, 
 eggs. 
 
 There is a variety of the daw found in 
 Switzerland, having a white collar round its 
 neck. In Norway, and other cold countries, 
 they have been seen perfectly white. 
 
 Bewick. 
 
 JACKET, *. A short coat ; a close waistcoat. 
 JACKSNIPE. Vide JUDCOCK. 
 JACOBINE, $. A pigeon with a high tuft. 
 
 JACOBUS, s. A gold coin of James I., current at 20s., 23s., and 25*. 
 Crabbe.
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 291 
 
 JACULATION, s. The act of throwing missile weapons. 
 
 JADE, v. To tire, to harass, to dispirit, to weary. 
 
 JALAP, s. A purgative root. It is the root of a West Indian plant of the 
 convolvulus kind, is black on the outside, and reddish within, with resi- 
 nous veins. It takes its name from Xalapa, a town in New Spain. Its 
 constituent parts are chiefly resin and starch. 
 
 JAMAICA PEPPER or ALLSPICE, s. A good carminative and cordial, given 
 in doses from half an ounce to an ounce, in flatulency of the stomach 
 and bowels, and used as an ingredient in cordial medicines. 
 
 The following tincture is strongly recom- 
 mended by Mr. Bracey Clark, as a remedy 
 for flatulent colic, gripes, &c. : 
 Jamaica pepper . 1 Ib. 
 
 Proof spirit . . 6 pints Mix. 
 
 Let the allspice be powdered, and mixed 
 
 with the spirit ; the bottle to be well corked 
 and frequently shaken. In two or three 
 weeks the tincture will be fit for use. The 
 dose about four ounces diluted with water, 
 and repeated every hour until the horse is 
 relieved White. 
 
 JAMES'S POWDER, s. A powder composed chiefly of antimony. 
 
 James's Powder is composed chiefly of 
 antimony, and similar to that which is sold in 
 the shops by the name of Antimonial Powder. 
 As a horse medicine, the latter is as useful 
 and efficacious as James's Powder. It is an 
 excellent medicine in fevers of every kind ; 
 and, though usually given in the small dose 
 of a scruple, or half-a-drachm, may be ex- 
 hibited with perfect safety, and better effect 
 in a much larger quantity. White says, he 
 never gave less than two drachms, and some- 
 times three; aud has seen even one ounce 
 
 given at a dose without the least inconvenience. 
 It appears to act on the skin like tartar eme- 
 tic, promoting insensible perspiration ; its effect 
 is not so certain. It is sometimes joined with 
 opium, camphor, nitre, or ginger, according to 
 the nature of the disease : with ginger it is 
 prescribed for horses that are hide-bound ; 
 but this compound is not proper in fevers, or 
 any complaint arising from inflammation. It 
 is most commonly given with nitre and cam- 
 phor ; and some practitioners prefer it, as a 
 fever medicine, to tartar (emetic) White. 
 
 JAPAN, v. To varnish, to embellish with gold and raised figures ; to black 
 
 shoes. 
 JAR, v. To strike together with a kind of short rattle ; to strike or sound 
 
 untuneably. 
 JAUNDICE, s. A distemper from obstructions of the glands of the liver. 
 
 A peculiar yellowness of the membranes of 
 the eyes and mouth sometimes attends cer- 
 tain disorders, which have on that account 
 been named yellows, or jaundice. Those dis- 
 orders consist in great heaviness of the head, 
 a peculiar languor and disinclination to mo- 
 tion, yellowness, or a yellowish redness of the 
 inner surface of the eyelids, while little or no 
 dung is voided, and that little has mucus or 
 slime on its surface ; the urine is scanty, and 
 high-coloured ; in short there is great torpor 
 in all the organs of the body. This disorder 
 generally happens towards autumn, or the 
 latter part of summer, and may be caused, in 
 some measure, by the heat of the weather, as 
 well as by feeding immoderately, especially 
 upon hay, when it happens to be remarkably 
 good and sweet, such hay always tempting a 
 horse to eat immoderately : but it is produced 
 
 by immoderate feeding upon any kind of hay, 
 or even of corn. By this excess of food, as- 
 sisted by the heat of the weather, the stomach 
 is weakened, and the bowels become torpid ; 
 the large bowels are in consequence loaded 
 with excrement, and the mesenteric veins with 
 blood. Hence the liver also becomes loaded 
 with blood, and performs its office imperfectly ; 
 the bile therefore seems to be forced back upon 
 the circulation, or re-absorbed, and thus the 
 blood and all the secretions are tinged of a yel- 
 low colour. The high colour of the membrane 
 of the eye is caused by the determination of 
 blood to the head, when the blood is forced 
 into vessels which in health convey only a co- 
 lourless and transparent fluid ; and as the whole 
 mass of blood is loaded with bile, it appears in 
 those minute vessels of a yellow colour : and 
 generally that yellowness in the membranes 
 U 2
 
 292 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [JAW 
 
 under the eyelids approaches towards redness, oppressed with blood than any thing else, but 
 
 or the colpur of an orange. Bleeding is the in a full quantity, that is, to the extent of from 
 
 first remedy in this disorder ; nor should blood one to two gallons, or until the horse becomes 
 
 be taken off in small quantities at a time, from faint. The bowels should then be unloaded 
 
 a fear of increasing the animal's apparent weak- by means of clysters and a purgative ball, 
 ness, which depends more upon the brain being 
 
 JAW, s. The bone of the mouth in which the teeth are fixed ; the mouth. 
 JAY, (Corvus glandarius, LINN. ; Le Geai, BUFF.) s. A bird. 
 
 This beautiful bird is not more than thir- 
 teen inches in length. Its bill is black, eyes 
 white ; the feathers on the forehead are white, 
 streaked with black, and form a tuft which it 
 can erect and depress at pleasure; the chin is 
 white, and from the corners of the hill on 
 each side proceeds a broad streak of black, 
 which passes under the eye ; the hinder part 
 of the head, the neck, and the back, are of a 
 light cinnamon colour ; the breast is of the 
 same colour, hut lighter ; lesser wing coverts 
 bay ; the belly and vent almost white ; the 
 greater wing coverts are elegantly barred with 
 black, fine pale blue and white alternately ; 
 the greater quills are black, with pale edges, 
 the bases of some of them white ; lesser quills 
 black; those next the body, chestnut; the 
 rump is white ; tail black, with pale brown 
 edges ; legs dirty pale brown. 
 
 The jay is a very common bird in Great 
 Britain, and is found in various parts of Eu- 
 rope. It is distinguished as well for the 
 beautiful arrangement of its colours, as for its 
 harsh grating voice, and restless disposition. 
 Upon seeing the sportsman, it gives by its 
 cries the alarm of danger, and thereby defeats 
 his aim and disappoints him. The jay builds 
 
 in woods, and makes an artless nest, composed 
 of sticks, fibres, and tender twigs ; the female 
 lays five or six eggs, of a greyish ash colour, 
 mixed with green, and faintly spotted with 
 brown. Mr. Pennant observes, that the young 
 ones continue with their parents till the fol- 
 lowing spring, when they separate to fonn 
 new pairs. Birds of this species live on acorns, 
 nuts, seeds, and various kinds of fruits ; they 
 will eat eggs, and sometimes destroy young 
 birds in the absence of the old ones. When 
 kept in a domestic state they may be rendered 
 very familiar, and will imitate a variety of 
 words and sounds. We have heard one imi- 
 tate the sound made by the action of a saw so 
 exactly, that though it was on a Sunday, we 
 could hardly be persuaded that the person 
 who kept it, had not a carpenter at work in 
 the house. Another, at the approach of cattle, 
 had learned to hound a cur dog upon them, 
 by whistling and calling upon him by his 
 name : at last, during a severe frost, the dog 
 was, by that means, excited to attack a cow 
 big with calf, when the poor animal fell on 
 the ice, and was much hurt : the jay was com- 
 plained of as a nuisance, and its owner was 
 obliged to destroy it Bewick. 
 
 ICHTHYOLOGY, s. The doctrine of the nature of fish. 
 
 JENNET, s. A Spanish horse. 
 
 JERK, s. A smart quick lash ; a sudden spring ; a quick jolt that shocks 
 or starts. 
 
 JESSES, *. Slips of light leather, seven or eight inches long, and a quarter 
 of an inch wide, made fast to each of the hawk's legs. These are to be 
 secured to a small swivel, fixed to the end of a thong of leather, three or 
 four feet long, called a leash, so as easily to be detached from the swivel 
 when the hawk is required to fly. The jesses are seldom removed from 
 the bird's legs when once they have been put on. 
 
 JET, s. A very beautiful fossil of a fine deep black colour ; a spout or shoot 
 of water. 
 
 JETTY, a. Made of jet ; black as jet. 
 
 IGNITE, v. To kindle, to set on fire. 
 
 IGNITION, s. The act of kindling, or of setting on fire. 
 
 IGNITIBLE, a. Inflammable, capable of being set on fire.
 
 INC] THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 JIGOT, s. A leg; as, ajigot of mutton. 
 JILL, s. A measure of liquids. 
 ILIAC, a. Relating to the lower bowels. 
 IMBROWN, v. To make brown, to darken. 
 IMPING, s. 
 
 This curious process consists in attaching to 
 the part that remains an exact substitute for 
 the piece lost. For this purpose the falconer 
 is always provided with pinions, (right and 
 left,) and with tail-feathers of hawks, or with 
 the feathers separated from the pinion, care- 
 fully preserved and numbered, so as to pre- 
 vent mistake in taking a true match for the 
 injured feather. He then with a sharp knife 
 gently parts the web of the feather to be re- 
 paired, at its thickest part, and cuts the shaft 
 obliquely forward, so as not to damage the 
 web on the opposite edge. He next cuts the 
 substitute feather as exactly as possible at the 
 
 corresponding point, and with the same slope. 
 For the purpose of uniting them, he is pro- 
 vided with an iron needle, with broad trian- 
 gular points at both ends ; and after wetting 
 the needle with salt and water, he thrusts it 
 into the centre of the pith of each part, as 
 truly straight, and as nearly to the same 
 length in each as may be. When this opera- 
 tion has been skilfully performed, the junc- 
 tion is so neat that an inexperienced eye would 
 hardly discern the point of union ; and as the 
 iron rusts, from having been wetted with 
 brine, there is little or no danger of separa- 
 tion Sebright. 
 
 IMPOSTHUME, s. A collection of purulent matter in a bag or cyst. 
 
 INBRED, a. Produced within ; hatched or generated within. 
 
 INCAGE, v. To coop up, to shut up ; to confine in a cage, or any narrow 
 
 space. 
 
 INCH, s. The twelfth part of a foot. 
 
 INCISION, s. A cut, a wound made with a sharp instrument. 
 INCISOR, *. Cutter, tooth in the forepart of the mouth. 
 INCORPORATE, v. To mingle different ingredients so as they shall make 
 
 one mass ; to unite, to associate, to embody. 
 INCUBATION, s. The act of sitting upon eggs to hatch them. 
 
 Incubation It is probable birds are en- 
 dowed with an instinctive power of regulating 
 the necessary heat for this purpose ; of course, 
 should the heat of the air, together with the 
 natural warmth of the body, on the close con- 
 tact of the bird to the eggs, be too great, her 
 feelings would dictate the necessity of leaving 
 them for a time to cool. At the early period 
 of incubation birds quit their eggs more fre- 
 quently than at the time the fetus is more per- 
 fect. Yet, in the advanced state, the embryo 
 young is not in more danger of being destroyed, 
 if so much ; for we have frequently found a 
 living foetus in an egg that has been taken from 
 the nest two days. If, however, the young is 
 within a few hours of being excluded, and the 
 egg is suffered to be some time cold, it either 
 dies, or becomes so weak as not to be able to 
 extricate itself from the shell. Various de- 
 grees of heat will enlarge the embryo young, 
 but regular heat seems necessary to its pro- 
 duction ; and yet artificial heat, regulated by 
 the brooding of a bird, will not produce young 
 with such certainty. In Egypt, a vast quan- 
 tity of eggs are hatched by artificial beat in 
 
 stoves. It is probable, however, one third or 
 one fourth miscarry. The necessary heat for 
 this purpose is about ninety-six degrees of 
 Fahrenheit's thermometer, or thirty-two of 
 Reaumur's scale. Birds frequently turn and 
 change the situation of their eggs in the nest ; 
 besides this, it is possible that the moisture 
 of the bird's body may assist the natural 
 growth of the fetus and the production of the 
 young. 
 
 The male birds of some species supply the 
 place of the female on the nest ; but then it is 
 of short duration, and rarely, if ever, when the 
 eggs are near hatching ; at that time the female 
 is frequently fed by the male. This is not 
 common to all species, but very conspicuous 
 in the rook, the pigeon, and many others. 
 Many species of birds possess a reservoir for 
 food, called a craw, or crop ; this seems to an- 
 swer the same purpose as the first stomach in 
 ruminating animals. Here it is the food is sof- 
 tened and prepared for the stomach ; from this 
 reservoir it is by some ejected for the purpose 
 of feeding their young ; conspicuous in the 
 pigeon.
 
 294 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [luc 
 
 The rook has a small pouch under the 
 tongue, in which it carries food to its young. 
 It is probable the use of the craw may be ex- 
 tended further than is generally imagined ; for 
 besides the common preparation of the food to 
 assist its digestion in the stomach, there are 
 eome species that actually secrete a lacteal 
 substance in the breeding season, which, mix- 
 ing with the half-digested food, is ejected to 
 feed and nourish the young. The mammae, 
 from which this milky liquor is produced, are 
 situated on each side the upper part of the 
 breast, immediately under the craw. In the 
 female turtle dove we have met with these 
 glands tumid with milky secretion, and we 
 believe it common to both sexes of the dove 
 genus. The cormorant or pelican genus pos- 
 sess no craw ; but, to supply its place, they have 
 a loose skin at the base of the under mandi- 
 bles, capable of great distension, in which they 
 carry fish to their young. The bustard is said 
 to possess a bag of an astonishing size, for the 
 purpose of retaining water ; but the most un- 
 accountable and extraordinary formation in the 
 trachea of many of the males of the duck ge- 
 nus, called a labyrinth, is beyond our reach to 
 discover the use of, as well as the singular 
 flexure in the windpipe of the hooping swan 
 and crane. * * 
 
 Attention during Inclination There is 
 this distinction in the hen : in some, the de- 
 sire of sitting or incubation is predominant, 
 which they will repeat to the fifth or sixth 
 time in the year, to their emaciation or almost 
 destruction : in others the desire is so slight, 
 that they will probably sit but twice, or even 
 once in the season, and then not steadily. It 
 is for the skilful breeder to take advantage of 
 this variation of quality, the one kind furnish- 
 ing plenty of eggs for the other to sit upon. 
 
 It is proper to place corn and water beside 
 the sitting hen, whenever it may appear ne- 
 cessary, withdrawing them as soon as she is 
 satisfied, not only to encourage steadiness 
 of incubation, but to support the constitu- 
 tions of those in which the natural excite- 
 ment is so powerful, that they will remain 
 several successive days upon the nest, at the 
 risk of famishing. I have had instances of 
 hens of this description fainting outright, and 
 appearing as dead, on their finally leaving the 
 nest with the chickens, in a state of total 
 emaciation, having, probably, not eaten or 
 drank more than once in three or four days, 
 during the term of their incubation, twenty- 
 one days. The plan of feeding on the nest 
 should be invariably pursued with all frequent 
 sitters Montagu Moubray. 
 
 INCURABLE, a. Not admitting 1 remedy, not to be removed by medicine ; 
 
 irremediable, hopeless. 
 INDIAN RUBBER, or CAOUTCHOUC, s. An elastic gum procured from a 
 
 South American tree, called the Syphonia Uastica. It is mostly brought 
 
 into Europe in the shape of bottles, which are formed by spreading- the 
 
 gum over moulds of clay. 
 INDIGO, s. A plant, by the Americans called anil, used in dyeing for a blue 
 
 colour. 
 INFECT, v. To act upon by contagion ; to fill with something hurtfully 
 
 contagious. INFECTION, *. Contagion, mischief by communication. 
 INFLAME, v. To kindle, to set on fire ; to heat the body morbidly with 
 
 obstructed matter ; to fire with passion. 
 INFLAMMATION, s. The act of setting on flame ; the heat of any morbid 
 
 part occasioned by obstruction. 
 
 Inflammation is a disorder of the blood-ves- 
 sels, depending upon their having too much 
 blood in them, or upon that blood being im- 
 pure and acrimonious, or upon the blood ves- 
 sels themselves being in a diseased state. 
 
 Cool air is always of service in inflamma- 
 tory diseases, and cold air is sometimes still 
 
 better ; even turning the horse out, if the wea- 
 ther is dry, is perhaps the best situation of any. 
 Inflammation may be general or local. Ge- 
 neral inflammation is fever, of which there is 
 but one kind in the horse, and that may al- 
 most always be cured by early and copious 
 bleeding White. 
 
 INFLAMMATORY, a. Having the power of inflaming. 
 INFUSION, s. The act of pouring in, instillation ; the act of steeping any 
 thing in moisture without boiling ; the liquor made by infusion.
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 295 
 
 INJECTION, s. The act of casting in ; any medicine made to be injected by 
 a syringe, or other instrument, into any part of the body. 
 
 INNINGS, s. Lands recovered from the sea ; term in cricket. 
 
 INOCULATION, s. The practice of transplanting the small-pox, by infusion 
 of the matter from ripened pustules into the veins of the uninfected. 
 
 INSECT, *. Insects are so called from a separation in the middle of their 
 bodies, whereby they are cut into two parts, which are joined together 
 by a small ligature, as we see in wasps and common flies. 
 
 INSNARE, v. To entrap, to catch in a trap, gin, or snare. 
 
 INSTINCT, s. The power which determines the will of brutes ; a desire or 
 aversion in the mind, not determined by reason or deliberation. 
 
 They who write on natural history cannot 
 too frequently advert to instinct, that wonder- 
 ful limited faculty, which, in some instances, 
 raises the brute creation as it were above rea- 
 son, and in others leaves them so far below it. 
 
 It has been remarked that every species of 
 bird has a mode of nidification peculiar to it- 
 self; so that a schoolboy would at once pro- 
 nounce on the sort of nest before him. This 
 is the case among fields and woods and wilds ; 
 but, in the villages round London, where 
 mosses and gossamer, and cotton from vegeta- 
 bles, are hardly to be found, the nest of the 
 chaffinch has not that elegant, finished appear- 
 ance, nor is it so beautifully studded with lich- 
 ens, as in a more rural district ; and the wren is 
 obliged to construct its house with straws and 
 dry grasses, which do not give it that rotun- 
 dity and compactness so remarkable in the 
 edifices of that little architect. Again, the 
 regular nest of the house martin is hemisphe- 
 ric ; but where a rafter, or a joist, or a cornice, 
 may happen to stand in the way, the nest is 
 so contrived as to conform to the obstruction, 
 and becomes flat, or oval, or compressed. 
 
 In the following instances instinct is per- 
 fectly uniform and consistent. There are three 
 creatures, the squirrel, the field-mouse, and 
 the bird called the nuthatch (Sitta Europeea) 
 which live much on hazel-nuts ; and yet they 
 open them each in a different way. The 
 first, after rasping off the small end, splits the 
 shell in two with his long fore-teeth, as a man 
 does with his knife ; the second nibbles a hole 
 with his teeth, as regular as if drilled with a 
 wimble, and yet so small that one would won- 
 der how the kernel can be extracted through 
 it : while the last picks an irregular ragged 
 hole with its bill : but as this artist has no 
 paws to hold the nut firm while he pierces it, 
 like an adroit workman, he fixes it, as it were, 
 in a vice, in some cleft of a tree, or in some 
 crevice ; when, standing over it, he perforates 
 the stubborn shell. We have often placed 
 nuts in the chink of a gate-post where nut- 
 hatches have been known to haunt, and have 
 
 always found that those birds have readily 
 penetrated them. While at work they make 
 a rapping noise that may be heard at a consi- 
 derable distance. 
 
 It is no doubt exceedingly difficult, and per- 
 haps impossible, to define where instinct ends, 
 and reason begins, in animals. But that some 
 of them are endowed with a faculty which 
 does not come under the usual notion of in- 
 stinct, by whatever other name we may choose 
 to call it, will, I think, hardly allow of a dis- 
 pute. This, as it strikes me, appears in the 
 different degrees of intelligence which we are 
 accustomed to recognize as elevating one spe- 
 cies of animal above another, as the half- 
 reasoning elephant for instance, and the friend 
 of man, the dog, above numberless others. 
 Now, instinct of one tribe, one would think, 
 as much as in another, must be full and per- 
 fect, and would not admit of our considering 
 the degree of intelligence manifested in one 
 species as higher or lower than that possessed 
 by another. Again : much more must we 
 conceive that the proper instinct of any spe- 
 cies will be fully, and therefore equally, pos- 
 sessed by all individuals of that species. How, 
 then, upon the notion of mere instinct, shall 
 we account for that superiority of intelligence, 
 which is found in one individual, to others of 
 the same species, and which is familiar to those 
 who are employed about, or in any way in the 
 habit of conversing with, animals ? But the 
 observation which appears to me most de- 
 cidedly to carry the faculties of animals to 
 something exceeding the measure and charac- 
 ter of instinct, is that of the new and ingeni- 
 ous contrivances to which they will often have 
 recourse in situations, and upon occasions, 
 much too accidental and peculiar to admit of 
 our imagining that they could have been con- 
 templated and provided against in the regular 
 instinct of the whole species. This we should 
 naturally be disposed to conceive must have 
 been given to regulate the ordinary habits of 
 the animals, and adapted to those exigencies 
 of their mode of life which are continually
 
 296 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [INS 
 
 occurring, not to sncli as do rarely, and might, 
 one would be tempted to say, never occur. A 
 few instances will, perhaps, better explain 
 what I mean, and carry more persuasion than 
 my argument. 
 
 I was one day feeding the poor elephant 
 (who was so barbarously put to death at 
 Exeter 'Change) with potatoes, which he took 
 out of my hand. One of them, a round one, 
 fell on the floor, just out of the reach of his 
 proboscis. He leaned against his wooden bar, 
 put out his trunk, and could just touch the 
 potato, but could not pick it up. After se- 
 veral ineffectual efforts, he at last blew the 
 potato against the opposite wall with sufficient 
 force to make it rebound, and he then, with- 
 out difficulty, secured it. Now it is quite 
 clear, I think, that instinct never taught the 
 elephant to procure his food in this manner ; 
 and it must, therefore, have been reason, or 
 some intellectual faculty, which enabled him 
 to be go good a judge of cause and effect. 
 Indeed, the reflecting power of some animals 
 is quite extraordinary. I had a dog who was 
 much attached to me, and who, in consequence 
 
 of his having been tied up on a Sunday morn- 
 ing, to prevent his accompanying me to church, 
 would conceal himself in good time on that 
 day, and I was sure to find him either at the 
 entrance of the church, or, if he could get in, 
 under the place where I usually sat. 
 
 A gentleman, a good shot, lent a favourite 
 old pointer to a friend who had not much to 
 accuse himself of in the slaughter of par- 
 tridges, however much he might have fright- 
 ened them. After ineffectually firing at some 
 birds which the old pointer had found for him, 
 the dog turned away in apparent disgust, went 
 home, and never could be persuaded to ac- 
 company the same person afterwards. 
 
 I have been often much delighted with 
 watching the manner in which some of the 
 old bucks in Bushy Park contrive to get the 
 berries from the fine thorn-trees there. They 
 will raise themselves on their hind legs, give 
 a spring, entangle their horns in the lower 
 branches of the tree, give them one or two 
 shakes, which make some of the berries fall, 
 
 and they will then quietly pick them up 
 
 White's Selborne Jesse. 
 
 INSULAR, a. Belonging to an island. 
 
 INTERMEW, *. The change of a hawk's colour from red to white the second 
 year. 
 
 INTESTINA, s. An order in the Linnaean system of the class Vermes, in- 
 cluding earthworms and leeches. Crabbe. 
 
 INTESTINES, s. The guts, the bowels. 
 
 JOCKEY, s. A person that rides horses in the race ; a man that deals in 
 horses. 
 
 JOCKEY, v. To jostle by riding against one ; to cheat, to trick ; to ride ; 
 to ride unfairly. 
 
 JOINT, *. Articulation of limbs, juncture of moveable bones in animal 
 bodies ; hinge ; a knot in a plant. Out of joint, luxated, slipped from 
 the socket, or corresponding part where it naturally moves. 
 
 JOURNEY, *. The travel of a day ; travel by land. 
 
 IPECACUANHA, s. An Indian plant. 
 
 Ipecacuanha is sometimes employed as an 
 expectorant in chronic cough and asthmatic 
 
 affections, and I believe with good effect when 
 joined with squills, ammoniacum, &c White. 
 
 IRIS, s. The rainbow ; the circle round the pupil of the eye, which is 
 striped and variegated. 
 
 Hanging from the upper edge of the pupil 
 of the horse, are found two or three round 
 black bodies, as large as millet seeds. When 
 the horse is suddenly brought into an intense 
 light, and the pupil is closed, these bodies pre- 
 sent a singular appearance, being squeezed out 
 from between the edges of the iris. An equal 
 number, but much smaller, are attached to the 
 edge of the lower portion of the iris. Their 
 
 general use is probably to intercept portions of 
 light which would be troublesome or inju- 
 rious ; but their principal function is accom- 
 plished during the act of grazing. They are 
 larger on the upper edge of the iris, and are 
 placed on the outer side of the pupil, evi- 
 dently to obstruct the light in those directions 
 in which it would come with greatest force, 
 both from above and even from below, while
 
 ITC] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 297 
 
 at the same time, the field of view is per- 
 fectly open, so far as it regards the pasture on 
 which the horse is grazing. 
 
 The colour of the iris is, in some unknown 
 
 IRISH HORSE, s. 
 
 In some of the rich grazing counties, as 
 Meath and Roscommon, a large long blood 
 horse is reared of considerable value, but he 
 seldom has the elegance of the English horse ; 
 he is larger headed, more leggy, ragged-hipped, 
 angular, yet with great power in the quarters, 
 much depth beneath the knee, stout and hardy, 
 full of fire and courage, and the best leaper in 
 the world. 
 
 The Irish horse is generally smaller than 
 the English. He is stinted in his growth, for 
 the poverty and custom of the country have 
 imposed upon him much hard work, at a time 
 when he is unfit for labour of any kind. For 
 
 way, connected with this black point behind. 
 Wall-eyed horses, whose iris is white, have 
 no uvea Tht Horse. 
 
 this reason, too, the Irish horse is deficient in 
 speed. There is, however, another explana- 
 tion of this. The Irish thorough-bred horse 
 is not equal to the English. He is compara- 
 tively a weedy, leggy, worthless animal, and 
 very little of him enters into the composition 
 of the hunter or the hackney. 
 
 For leaping, the Irish horse is unrivalled. 
 It is not, however, the leaping of the English 
 horse, striding as it were over a low fence, and 
 stretched at his full length over a higher one ; 
 it is the proper jump of the deer, beautiful to 
 look at, difficult to sit, and, both in height and 
 extent, unequalled by the English, horse. 
 
 IRON, s. A hard, fusile, malleable metal. 
 
 Iron is found in every part of the globe, in | to 3. No. 2, 1 draehm to 2 or 3. No. 3, 2 
 the soil, in the water, and as a constituent of j drachms to 4. No. 4, 3 drachms to 5. No. 5, 
 vegetable and animal bodies. The prepara- I 4 drachms to 6. No. 6, 2 drams to 4. No. 7, 
 
 tions of iron, used in medicine, are, 1st, sul- 
 phate of iron, or salt of steel ; 2d, muriate 
 of iron ; 3d, subcarbonate of iron ; 4th, tar- 
 tarised iron ; 5th, red oxide of iron, or col- 
 cothar of vitriol ; 6th, rust of iron ; and, 
 7th, scales of iron. They are all powerful 
 tonics in the human body, but not often given 
 
 2 drams to 4, finely powdered. Preparations 
 of iron are generally mixed with aromatics, 
 and sometimes with soda. Metallic prepara- 
 tions should be used with great caution. Iron 
 is the most innocent, and possessed of conside- 
 rable tonic power ; but, before it is employed, 
 wholesome food, moderate exercise, and good 
 
 to horses. The dose of No. 1, is from 1 drachm I grooming, should have a fair trial. 
 
 IRON, a. Made of iron ; resembling iron in colour; hard, impenetrable. 
 
 IRONWOOD, s. A kind of wood extremely hard, and so ponderous as to sink 
 in water. 
 
 ISINGLASS, s. A fine kind of glue made from the intestines of a large 
 fish resembling a sturgeon. It is chiefly made from dried sounds of 
 codfish. 
 
 ISLAND, s. A tract of land surrounded by water. 
 
 ISSUE, s. The act of passing out ; termination ; a vent made in a muscle 
 for the discharge of humours ; evacuation ; progeny, offspring. 
 
 ITCH, s. A cutaneous disease extremely contagious ; the sensation of un- 
 easiness in the skin which is eased by rubbing ; a constant teasing desire. 
 Itch is supposed to be caused by a small insect of the acarus tribe. On 
 microscopic examination it appears to be white with red legs, and will 
 be found in the small pellucid vesicles which are observable on the parts 
 infected. 
 
 ITCH, v. To feel that uneasiness in the skin which is removed by rubbing; 
 to long. 
 
 ITCHY, a. Infected with the itch.
 
 298 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [JfD 
 
 JUDCOCK, JACKSNIPE, GID or JETCOCK, (Scolopax gallinu/a, LINN.; 
 La Petite Becassine, BUFF.) *. A bird. 
 
 The judcock, in its figure and plum- 
 age, nearly resembles the common snipe ; 
 but it is only about half its weight, seldom 
 exceeding two ounces, or measuring more, 
 from the tip of its beak to the end of its 
 tail, than eight inches and a half : the bill 
 is black at the tip, and light towards the base, 
 and rather more than an inch and a half in 
 length. A black streak divides the head 
 lengthwise from the base of the bill to the nape 
 of the neck, and another, of a yellowish co- 
 lour, passes over each eye to the hinder part 
 of the head : in the midst of this, above the 
 eye, is a narrow black stripe running parallel 
 with the top of the head from the crown to 
 the nape. The neck is white, spotted with 
 brown and pale red. The scapulars and ter- 
 tials are very long and beautiful ; on their ex- 
 terior edges they are bordered with a stripe of 
 yellow, and the inner webs are streaked and 
 marked with bright rust colour on a deep 
 
 brown, or rather bronze ground, reflecting in 
 different lights a shining purple or green. The 
 quills are dusky. The rump is of a glossj 
 violet or bluish purple ; the belly and vent 
 white. The tail consists of twelve pointed 
 feathers of a dark brown, edged with rust co- 
 lour ; the legs are of a dirty or dull green. 
 
 The judcock is of nearly the same character 
 as the snipe, it feeds upon the same kinds of 
 food, lives and breeds in the same swamps and 
 marshes, and conceals itself from the sports- 
 man with as great circumspection, among the 
 rushes or tufts of coarse grass. It, however, 
 differs in this particular, that it seldom rises 
 from its lurking place until it is almost trampled 
 upon, and, when flushed, does not fly to so great 
 a distance. It is as much esteemed as the snipe, 
 and is cooked in the same manner. 
 
 The eggs are not bigger than those of a lark ; 
 in other respects they are very like those of 
 the snipe Bewick. 
 
 JUGULAR, a. Belonging to the throat. 
 
 JUGULARES, s. That order of fishes, according to Linnaeus, which have the 
 ventral fins placed before the pectoral, as cod, haddock, and whiting.
 
 THE KESTREL. 
 
 IYALENDAR, 5. An account of time. 
 
 KAW, v. To cry as a raven, crow, or rook. 
 
 KAYLE, s. Ninepins ; nine holes. 
 
 KEEN, a. Sharp, well edged : severe, piercing 1 ; eager, vehement ; acrimo- 
 nious ; bitter of mind. 
 
 KEG, s. A small barrel, commonly used for a fish barrel. 
 
 KELL, s. The omentum, that which inwraps the guts. 
 
 KENNEL, s. A cot for dogs ; a number of dogs kept in a kennel ; the hole 
 of a fox, or other beast; the water-course of a stream. 
 
 lead of most others in the kingdom. Taste 
 and fashion may go a great way in the exter- 
 nal glare of such establishments ; but health 
 and convenience should always prove the most 
 predominant considerations. It is universally 
 
 Kennel. Is the place where hounds are 
 kept ; upon the judicious construction of which, 
 their health, safety, and preservation, are 
 known greatly to depend. Those who take to, 
 or become possessed of, kennels ready built, fre- 
 quently continue them in the form they fall 
 into their hands ; but such as encounter the 
 expense of new erections, cannot do better than 
 take a previous survey of the most approved 
 plans ; amongst which the Duke of Bedford's 
 at Woburn Abbey ; the Duke of Richmond's 
 at Goodwood, in Sussex ; and Sir William 
 Rawley's at Tendring Hall, Suffolk, are sup- 
 posed, for extent and convenience, to take th 
 
 admitted, by all who have a practical know- 
 ledge of this subject, that in large and regu- 
 larly hunted packs, two kennels are indispen- 
 sably necessary to the success and well doing 
 of the whole. When there is but one, it can 
 in the winter season be but seldom cleaned ; 
 and even then the hounds are in a comfortless 
 state, from the dampness of the situation so 
 long as it remains. Cleanliness is so essen-
 
 300 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [K'KN 
 
 tially necessary In every apartment and depart- 
 ment of a kennel, that no continuance of 
 health in the hounds, or excellence in the field, 
 can be expected without it. They are indivi- 
 dually innately clean ; and will never, if they 
 can avoid it, dung near where they lie. Air, 
 fresh straw, and ample room for the occasional 
 expansion of their weary limbs, are requisite 
 for the invigoration of the frame, and the pre- 
 servation of health. Hounds confined in a 
 body are more liable to disease than the same 
 animal single, and in a state of unrestrained 
 liberty ; hence the necessity for counteraction, 
 by every means the most prudent precaution 
 can adopt. Hounds thus subject to, and con- 
 stantly attacked with disease, and even mad- 
 ness, under the best and most judicious ma- 
 nagement, must be evidently much more so 
 if surrounded with filth and nastiness. 
 
 That some idea may be formed of the gran- 
 deur of the buildings, and the liberal scale, oT 
 the most celebrated hunting establishments, it 
 is only necessary, to introduce a few explana- 
 tory remarks upon the kennels of eminence 
 already mentioned. The superb edifice of the 
 Duke of Richmond is said (and probably with 
 great truth) to have cost 10,000, in its erec- 
 tion ; to which his Grace contributed no small 
 proportion of personal assistance. He is re- 
 ported to have been his own architect and 
 builder ; to have dug his own flints, burnt his 
 own lime, made his own bricks, and framed 
 the woodwork in his own shops. The dog 
 kennel, abstracted from all other buildings, 
 stands alone, in such part of the park as to 
 form a grand and striking object from the prin- 
 cipal rooms of the mansion ; the materials are 
 flints, finished at all the angles by a light grey- 
 brick, like the Lymington white stock. 
 
 The distribution of the building is into five 
 compartments : two of them thiity-six feet 
 by fifteen, and three more thirty by fifteen ; 
 these are called kennels, to which are an- 
 nexed two feeding rooms, twenty-eight by fif- 
 teen. In each of these are openings at top, 
 for the admission of external air when neces- 
 sary, and stoves to qualify the air when too 
 cold. There are supplies of water, and drains 
 into a tank a considerable depth below, full of 
 rain water, from the surface of which to the 
 rise of the arch is eleven feet, so that no in- 
 convenience arises from smell, and the whole 
 can be occasionally cleared off by drains to 
 more dependent depths and dung pits, where 
 it becomes contributory to the purposes of 
 agriculture. Round the whole building is a 
 pavement five feet wide ; airing yards, places 
 for breeding, and other conveniences, making 
 a part of each wing. To constitute a uni- 
 formity of elegance, neatness, and perfection, 
 the huntsman and whipper-in have each a 
 parlour, kitchen, and sleeping-room, appro- 
 priated to their own particular purpose. 
 
 The Duke of Bedford's is an immense 
 establishment, upon a scale of too much ex- 
 tent for particular description, as it includes 
 tennis court, riding-house, &c., &c., in one 
 stone-fronted building, of 266 feet in length, 
 with two wings of stables, containing stalls for 
 thirty-six hunters; and eleven loose houses 
 for horses sick and lame. As the dog ken- 
 nel, however, is the only part entitled to 
 notice under this head, it will create no sur- 
 prise that the richest subject should possess 
 the most complete in England. 
 
 It is in length 405 feet, having the boiling 
 house in the centre, with feeding rooms ad- 
 joining, and a granary behind. On the right 
 of the centre are apartments for two kennel- 
 keepers, two long lodging rooms for the hunt- 
 ing hounds, with flues running along the wall 
 to preserve an equal temperature in the seve- 
 rity of the winter season ; spacious yards to 
 each, furnished with a fountain in the middle, 
 for the dogs to drink at ; and water-cocks fixed 
 at proper distances to cleanse the pavement 
 when it may be required ; adjoining to these 
 are seven hospitals for sick and lame hounds, 
 with yards to each. On the left are divisions 
 for litter, straw, &c. ; eleven apartments for 
 bitches and puppies, with yards to each ; eleven 
 ditto for bitches in pup, with yards also ; and 
 a large division for bitches at heat. In the 
 front is a large reservoir of water, which sup- 
 plies the fountains and different cocks in the 
 several yards within. Behind the whole is a 
 large airing-ground, flesh-house, and all requi- 
 site conveniences. The huntsman's dwelling- 
 house is a handsome building adjoining. The 
 number of hunting hounds kept in the kennel 
 are usually from sixty to seventy couple. 
 
 The kennel of Sir William Rawley is by 
 no means equal to the external grandeur of 
 the two already described, but replete with 
 every internal convenience that an establish- 
 ment upon a somewhat smaller scale can pos- 
 sibly require. It is situate about half a mile 
 from the family mansion, from the garden of 
 which it constitutes a picturesque appearance. 
 It is erected in a valley of the park, a spot 
 well adapted to the purpose, being equally 
 defended from the cutting easterly winds, and 
 the heat of the sun in its meridian, by a thick 
 skirting of the park and forest trees. Not 
 having the advantage of a rivulet to the water 
 courts, that want is amply supplied by a pump 
 which, by means of different cocks, turns the 
 water to even,' part of the premises, consisting 
 of the hunting kennel, or principal lodging- 
 room, which is twenty feet by eighteen in the 
 clear, eighteen feet high, and paved with flag- 
 stones. The beds or benches which cover 
 almost the whole area, are of original and 
 most admirable contrivance, being lathed like 
 some bedsteads, and are made to fold up with 
 joints, for the convenience of washing the
 
 Kra] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 301 
 
 floor beneath them. This room, hy means 
 of a flue of a peculiar construction, is heated 
 to any required temperature ; and the hounds 
 after severe chases and in wet weather are 
 rendered dry and comfortable in a much less 
 time than they could be by any other means. 
 
 There is also a kennel or lodging room for 
 the young hounds, of the same dimensions as 
 the former, and possessing the same conveni- 
 ences except the flue, which here would have 
 been superfluous. Several small kennels for 
 hitches in a state of gestation, as well as a 
 proportional number for those with puppies ; 
 a paved court to the hunting kennel ; a feed- 
 ing house, one-half of which is open, the 
 other under cover ; a paved court to the ken- 
 nel for the young hounds ; a pump and a 
 stone water cistern ; a large grass yard for 
 airing the hounds belonging to the hunting 
 kennel, containing about an acre and three- 
 quarters, in which are a variety of lime, chest- 
 nut, and other trees, forming an excellent 
 shade for the hounds during the summer sea- 
 son ; the young hounds have a similar con- 
 venience. To these are annexed twelve small 
 kennels for puppies, well constructed for the 
 purpose. The hunting hounds generally con- 
 sist of about thirty-six couple, and the estab- 
 lishment is conducted in such a style of 
 punctuality, order, and excellence, that it is 
 universally acknowledged equal to any and 
 inferior to none upon a similar scale, from 
 one extremity of the kingdom to the other. 
 
 Next to the choice of a proper spot for, and 
 a judicious as well as a convenient structure 
 of the kennel, the management of the hounds, 
 when there, becomes a matter of serious con- 
 sideration, and requires a feeder of strict 
 sobriety, indefatigable industry, invariable 
 punctuality, great humanity, personal fidelity 
 to his employer, and a constant attention to 
 the business in which he is engaged, as upon 
 him in a great degree depends the health and 
 preservation of the hounds. Mr. Beckford 
 observes (in great proof of his practical know- 
 lenge and personal experience) that no part 
 of the hunting establishment goes on so well 
 as when the master becomes an occasional 
 superintendent of his own concerns. He says, 
 as the sport in the field depends on the exqui- 
 site sense of smelling so peculiar to the hound, 
 so care should be taken to preserve it, and 
 cleanliness is the surest means. The keeping 
 of the kennel sweet and clean, cannot there- 
 fore be too strongly inculcated and impressed 
 upon the mind of the feeder; if he seems 
 habitually disposed to deviate from which, he 
 is not at all calculated for the office he has 
 undertaken. 
 
 The preparation for feeding, as boiling the 
 meat, mixing the meal, and getting it ready 
 at the hours agreed on, is a matter that the 
 huntsman will of course take care (on his 
 
 part) never to have neglected ; but there are 
 other considerations equally important, which 
 become entitled to attention. Hounds cannot 
 be properly fed by a single person; two are 
 (for a variety of reasons) unavoidably neces- 
 sary, and those two should be the feeder and 
 the huntsman, as hounds should be drafted 
 and fed according to their state of flesh and 
 condition. Some are much more voracious 
 than others, and will require a greater portion 
 of food ; others look and work well with half 
 the quantity. The eye of the huntsman 
 should discriminate between the opposite de- 
 scriptions ; in want of which attention the 
 pack will never be of equal appearance. When 
 any of the hounds are observed to be low in 
 flesh, off their appetites, bad feeders, or kept 
 under by the old and master hounds, it will 
 be a matter of advantage to draft them, and 
 let them feed under less restraint. Young 
 and impatient feeders fall into the very com- 
 mon fault of feeding hounds with their meat 
 too hot ; it is both a prevalent and injurious 
 error that should be totally abolished. 
 
 Mr. Beckford is of opinion, that hounds 
 poorer than the rest should be fed again, and 
 that they cannot be fed too often ; as well as 
 that those hounds which become too fat, if 
 any, should be drafted off, and not permitted 
 to fill themselves. All hounds (particularly 
 young ones) should be often called over in 
 kennel ; their names become more familiar to 
 them, and it teaches them obedience ; this 
 lesson is practised, or should be, at the time 
 of feeding. Hounds should all be let out 
 into the airing ground to empty themselves 
 after feeding, to prevent an unnecessary accu- 
 mulation of filth and consequent effluvia in 
 the kennel. It may be a custom with some 
 to shut up the hounds for two or three hours 
 after they return from hunting, before they 
 are fed ; if so, it is more entitled to contempt 
 than imitation. No plea can justify the prac- 
 tice ; they should have their meat ready for 
 feeding immediately on their return; once 
 gratified they enjoy their rest undisturbed, 
 the best and most natural foundation for re- 
 novation of strength. Plenty of vegetables, 
 boiled in the meat copper onqe a week, is a 
 custom in most kennels, as it is also to throw 
 in a pound or two of sulphur (in proportion 
 to the number), particularly in the summer 
 season, when there is a greater tendency in 
 the blood to morbidity, particularly to cuta- 
 neous diseases. 
 
 During the hot months, when hounds do 
 not work, they require but a small proportion 
 of substantial food, compared to what is ne- 
 cessary in the severity of the hunting season ; 
 flesh may then be given very sparingly ; the 
 less it is used in the summer, the less likeli- 
 hood there will be of seeing that malignant and 
 unwelcome visiter, the mange, amongst them.
 
 302 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [KEN 
 
 Various opinions has been promulgated upon 
 the best, cheapest, and most nutritious food 
 for the support of the hounds in general ; but 
 experience seems to have justified the consis- 
 tency of occasional changes, according to the 
 different seasons, and the different degrees of 
 work ; without adhering too closely to one par- 
 ticular mode, unassisted by such deviations as 
 circumstances may render not only prudent 
 and proper, but sometimes unavoidable. Horse- 
 flesh, sheep's trotters, raspings, greaves, bul- 
 locks' paunches, (in a scarcity of flesh,) oat- 
 meal, and barley meal, constitute the principal 
 articles upon which hounds are known to sub- 
 sist ; although they are differently prepared, 
 and differently administered, according to the 
 judgment, experience, whim, or caprice, of the 
 parties concerned. It is, however, universally 
 admitted, after a number of fair and impartial 
 trials, that, in respect to the two meals, they 
 act much more profitably and advantageously, 
 when used in a mixed state of nearly equal pro- 
 portions, than when either is given alone. 
 
 Mr. Beckford says, his feeder, who was a 
 good one, and of much experience, mixed the 
 ineal in equal quantities ; that the oatmeal he 
 boiled for half an hour ; and then put out the 
 fire, adding the barley meal, and mixing both 
 together ; his reason for boiling one, and not 
 the other, was, that boiling made the oatmeal 
 thick, and the barley meal thin ; and that when 
 
 he fed with the barley meal only, it should not 
 be put into the copper, but mixed up with the 
 scalding liquor in a proper tub, or hogshead, 
 kept for the purpose. There are many little 
 things within the department of the feeder, 
 which, if neglected, become of serious conse- 
 quence. Nice observation should be made 
 upon the state of the bitches at all times ; upon 
 the least indication of their going to heat, they 
 should be instantly removed ; a few hours' delay 
 may be the destruction of some of the best 
 hounds in the kennel. After their return on 
 a hunting day, he should ascertain whether 
 there are any hounds who have sustained in- 
 juries in the feet by thorns, flints, &c., in which 
 case a fomentation of warm pot liquor (or bran 
 water), followed by a washing of cold vinegar, 
 or salt and water, will generally effect a speedy 
 cure. Hounds, seriously lame, or palpably 
 sick, should be separated from the rest, and 
 placed where they can be more at ease, and 
 have better attention. 
 
 
 
 Kennel, is a sporting term for the den in 
 which a fox deposits himself after his noctur- 
 nal depredations, and to which he retires about 
 the dawn of day : being found by the hounds 
 in drawing covert, he is then said to be un- 
 kennelled, and the chase begins. When safe 
 in some burrow, or hole, below the surface, he 
 is then said to lie at earth Taplin.i 
 
 KENNEL, v. To lie, to put or keep in kennel. 
 
 KESTREL, STONEGALL, STANNEL HAWK, or WINDHOVER, (Falco Tin- 
 nunculus, LINN. ; La Cresserelle, BUFF.), s. A kind of bastard hawk. 
 
 The male of this species differs so much from 
 the female, that we have given a figure of it from 
 one we had in our possession, probably an old 
 one. Its length is fourteen inches ; breadth two 
 feet three inches : its bill is blue ; cere and eye- 
 lids yellow ; eyes black, the forehead dull yel- 
 low; the top of the head, back part of the neck, 
 and sides as far as the points of the wings, are of 
 a lead colour, faintly streaked with black ; the 
 cheeks are paler ; from the corner of the mouth 
 on each side there is a dark streak pointing 
 downwards ; the back and coverts of the wings 
 are of a bright vinous colour, spotted with 
 black ; quill feathers dusky, with light edges ; 
 all the under part of the body is of a pale rust 
 colour, streaked and spotted with black ; thighs 
 plain ; the tail feathers are of a fine blue grey, 
 with black shafts ; towards the end there is a 
 broad black bar both on the upper part and 
 under sides ; the tips are white : the legs are 
 yellow, and the claws black. 
 
 The kestrel is widely diffused throughout 
 Europe, and is found in the most temperate 
 parts of North America : it is a handsome bird ; 
 its sight is acute, and its flight easy and grace- 
 ful : it breeds in the hollows of trees, and in 
 
 the holes of rocks, towers, and ruined build- 
 ings it lays four or five eggs, of a pale reddish 
 colour: its food consists of small birds, field- 
 mice, and reptiles ; after it has secured its prey, 
 it plucks the feathers very dexterously from 
 the birds, but swallows the mice entire and 
 discharges the hair, in the form of round balls 
 from its bill. This bird is frequently seen 
 hovering in the air, and fanning with its wings 
 by a gentle motion, or wheeling slowly round, 
 at the same time watching for its prey, on 
 which it shoots like an arrow. It was formerly 
 used in Great Britain for catching small birds 
 and young partridges. 
 
 The Female Kestrel. This beautiful bird 
 is distinguished from every other hawk by its 
 variegated plumage : its bill is blue ; cere and 
 feet yellow ; eyes dark coloured, surrounded 
 with a yellow skin ; its head is rust coloured, 
 streaked with black : behind each eye there is 
 a light spot ; the back and wing coverts are 
 elegantly marked with numerous undulated 
 bars of black ; the breast, belly, and thighs are 
 of a pale reddish colour, with dusky streaks 
 pointing downwards, vent plain : the tail is 
 marked by a pretty broad black bar near the
 
 Km] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 303 
 
 end; a number of smaller ones, of the same 
 colour, occupy the remaining part ; the tip is 
 pale. * 
 
 This is one of our most common species, 
 being very generally spread throughout the 
 kingdom, especially in the more rocky situa- 
 tions and high cliffs on our coast, where they 
 breed. The nest is made of a few sticks, 
 loosely put together, and lined with wool and 
 
 KIBE, *. An ulcerated chilblain, a chap in the heel. 
 
 KID, s. The young of a goat ; a bundle of heath or furze. 
 
 KID, v. To bring forth kids. 
 
 KIDNEY, s. One of the two glands that separate the urine from the blood. 
 
 KILDERKIN, s. A small barrel of eighteen gallons, capacity. 
 
 KING CHARLES'S DOG (Canis Brevipilis, LINN.), s. 
 
 other soft materials, built in trees, in some 
 crevice, or projecting rocky shelf, and some, 
 times they content themselves with the de- 
 serted nest of a crow or magpie. It lays four 
 or five eggs of a dirty white, blotched over 
 with rust-colour of various shades ; sometimes 
 wholly covered with a deep rusty red ; these 
 are rather inferior in size to those of the 
 sparrow hawk Bewick Montagu. 
 
 This beautiful little animal is much smaller 
 than the cocker, to which he is similar in 
 shape and other characteristics ; he has, how- 
 ever, longer ears, and the tail is also longer 
 in proportion to the size of his body. Like 
 the cocker and springer, he is extremely fond 
 of pursuing birds of all kinds, and, like them, 
 too, always gives tongue in pursuit. He is 
 seldom used for field sports, from his diminu- 
 tive size, being easily tired, and is too short in 
 the legs to get through swampy ground. 
 
 This dog is found of all colours ; but those 
 which are black, with tanned cheeks and legs, 
 are considered the purest breed. He gets the 
 name of King Charles's dog from the extreme 
 liking the second monarch of that name had 
 for this animal, as he never went out without 
 being followed by eight or a dozen of them. 
 They were also introduced into most of the 
 portraits of himself and family, and particu- 
 
 larly in that by Vandyke. They were also his 
 constant companions in the palace. 
 
 The use of this variety at present is as a lap- 
 dog, and they are consequently prized in pro- 
 portion to the diminutiveness of their size. 
 
 The sense of smelling in this little spaniel 
 is very remarkable. The following anecdote 
 is related by Brown to instance it : 
 
 In 1792, a gentleman who lived in Vere 
 Street, Clare Market, went, with his family, 
 to the pit of Drury Lane theatre, at about 
 half-past five in the evening, leaving a small 
 spaniel of King Charles's breed locked up in 
 the dining room, to prevent it from being 
 lost in his absence. At eight o'clock his son 
 opened the door, and the dog immediately 
 went to the playhouse, and found out his 
 master, though the pit was unusually crowded, 
 and its master seated near the centre. 
 
 Brown.
 
 304 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 KINGFISHER, s. A species of bird. 
 
 [K.N 
 
 King-fisher. (Alcedo ispida, LINN.; Le 
 Martin-ptcheur, BUFF.^ This splendid lit- 
 tle bird is rather of a clumsy shape, the head 
 being large in proportion to the size of the body, 
 and the legs and feet very small. In length 
 it is only seven inches, in breadth eleven ; and 
 its weight is about two ounces and a quarter. 
 The bill, measured from the corners of the 
 mouth, is two inches long, vertically compressed 
 on the sides, strong, straight, and tapering to a 
 sharp point: the upper mandible is black, 
 fading into a red-colour towards the base ; the 
 under one, as well as the inside of the mouth, 
 is of a reddish orange : the irides are hazel, 
 inclining to red. A broad stripe passes from 
 the bill over the eye to the hinder part of the 
 neck, a bright orange colour, but margined on 
 the side of the mouth, and crossed, below the 
 eye, by a narrow black stroke, and it is ter- 
 minated behind the auriculars with a slanting 
 wedge-shaped white spot. The throat is white ; 
 the rest of the head and wing coverts are of a 
 deep shining green, spotted with bright light 
 blue : the scapulars and exterior webs of the 
 quills are of the same colour, but without spots. 
 The middle of the back, the rump, and the 
 coverts of the tail- are of a most resplendent 
 azure : the tail, which consists of twelve short 
 feathers, is of a rich deep blue, and the whole 
 under part of the body of a bright orange. The 
 legs and toes are of a red-colour, and are pe- 
 culiar in their shape and conformation, the three 
 forward toes being unconnected from the claws 
 to the first joints, from whence they appear as 
 if grown into each other ; and the inner and 
 hinder ones are placed in a line on the inside 
 of the foot, whereby the heel is widened and 
 -it-ems pressed out. 
 
 The suspension of this bird by a thread, 
 under the notion that its breast will always 
 turn to the north, is as fabulous as that it will 
 preserve woollen cloth from the moth. 
 
 " I have once or twice," says Mrs. Char- 
 lotte Smith, " seen a stuffed bird of this spe- 
 cies hung up to the beam of a cottage ceiling, 
 and imagined that the beauty of the feathers 
 had recommended it to this sad pre-eminence, 
 till, on inquiry, I was assured that it served 
 the purpose of a weather-vane ; and, though 
 sheltered from the immediate influence of the 
 wind, never failed to show every change, by 
 turning its beak to the quarter whence the 
 wind blew." The learned, but somewhat cre- 
 dulous author of the " Physicse Curiosae," 
 says the same, upon the testimony of his own 
 observation. " Father Athanasius Kircher," 
 he says, " had one of these birds sent him as 
 a present by a friend, and being disembow- 
 elled and dried, it was suspended from the 
 ceiling of his celebrated museum, from 1640 
 to 1655, when I left Rome ; and though all 
 the doors and windows were shut, it constantly 
 turned its bill towards the wind, and this I 
 myself observed with admiration and pleasure 
 almost every day for the space of three 
 years ! !" 
 
 It is difficult to conceive why ornithologists 
 have classed the kingfisher with land birds, as 
 its habits and manner of living are wholly 
 confined to the waters, on the margins of 
 which it will sit for hours together on a pro- 
 jecting twig or a stone, at one while fluttering 
 its wings and exposing its brilliant plumage to 
 the sun ; at another, hovering in the air, like 
 the kestrel, it waits the moment when it may 
 seize its prey, on which it darts with almost
 
 KIN] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 305 
 
 unerring certainty : often it remains for seve- 
 ral seconds under the water, before it has 
 gained the object of its pursuit, then brings 
 up the little fish, which it carries to the land, 
 beats to death, and swallows. 
 
 The female commonly makes her nest by 
 the sides of rivers or brooks, in a hole made 
 by the mole, or the water-rat : this she en- 
 larges or contracts to suit her purpose ; and it 
 is conjectured, from the difficulty of finding 
 the nest, that frequently the hole which leads 
 to it is under water. 
 
 Kingfishers are not so numerous as might 
 be expected from the number of eggs found 
 in their nests ; owing, probably, to the young 
 
 KING DUCK, (Somateria spectabilis, 
 
 This species is not much inferior in size to 
 the eider duck. The bill is almost two in- 
 ches long, of an orange-colour ; at the base of 
 the upper mandible is a ridged protuberance, 
 flat on the top, and compressed on the sides, 
 but divided into two, the elevated parts vel- 
 vety black, passing on each side to the eyes ; 
 the crown of the head and nape are pale ash- 
 colour ; at the base of the upper mandible the 
 feathers are pea-green, passing backwards on 
 each side the neck, and taking in half the eye; 
 beneath which, and round to the chin, the 
 feathers are of a dirty white; but here the 
 two colours are blended, and the white is 
 lost by degrees in the green ; under the chin 
 is a black mark, diverging like the letter V 
 inverted : the rest of the neck and breast are 
 
 KING'S HOUNDS, s. 
 
 His majesty's stag-hounds pass under this 
 denomination, as a part of the royal esta- 
 blishment continued in every successive reign 
 without variation. The kennel in which I 
 they are kept is situate near the race course 
 upon Ascot Heath ; at the distance of two 
 short miles from which is Swinley-lodge, the 
 official residence of the master of the stag- 
 hounds, an appointment seldom conferred but 
 upon one of the peerage, and is considered an 
 office of honour, with a salary of 2,000/. per 
 annum. The presence of the master of the 
 stag-hounds in the field is not a matter of ne- 
 cessity, but choice, except when his majesty 
 hunts, and then his personal attendance is in- j 
 dispensable ; his badge of office is a pair of gold i 
 dog couples, which hang suspended from a belt j 
 on his left side. The huntsman has a hand- > 
 some residence at the kennel, with a salary of ] 
 125/. a year ; to whom there are six assistants, i 
 
 KING'S PLATE, s. 
 
 Those called king's-plates are a free gift from 
 his majesty, of 100 guineas each ; and, it is 
 believed, were originally granted as a means of 
 
 being destroyed by the floods, which must 
 j often rise above the level of the holes where 
 j they are bred. 
 
 Except in the breeding-season, the bird is 
 usually seen alone, flying near the surface of 
 the water with the rapidity of an arrow, like 
 a little brilliant meteor, by which appearance 
 the eye is enable to follow its long-continued 
 ! course. Considering the shortness of its wings, 
 j the velocity with which it flies is surpris- 
 | ing. 
 
 Ornithologists inform us that kingfishers are 
 found in almost every part of the globe ; but 
 it does not appear that more than this one 
 species has ever been seen in Europe. 
 
 FLEMING,) s. 
 
 whitish ; the middle of the back, the belly, 
 and vent, black ; wings dusky ; on the middle 
 of the coverts is a patch of white; quills 
 black ; the secondaries curve downwards over 
 the quills ; the shafts deep ferruginous, on 
 each side the outer ones a patch of white ; the 
 tail is cuneiform, short, and black ; legs dusky ; 
 the windpipe, according to Captain Sabine, is 
 precisely like that of the eider duck. 
 
 The female is less ; the protuberance on the 
 bill not so large, nor so high-coloured, but 
 the feathery ridge on the top is broader; the 
 whole plumage brown, the middle of each 
 feather dusky ; six of the lesser quills are 
 tipped with white, which forms a line of 
 white on the wing ; the rest of the quills and 
 tail brown Montagu. 
 
 (called yeomen prickers) each having a salary 
 of 104/. with the royal livery richly orna- 
 mented, and an annual supply of saddles, 
 bridles, horse-clothes, and the necessary stable 
 appendages ; but they find their own horses. 
 
 The hunting season commences on Holy- 
 rood day, the 25th of September, and conti- 
 nues every Tuesday and Saturday till the first 
 week in May ; with the exception of Christmas 
 and Easter weeks, when they hunt three times 
 in each. Holyrood day and Easter Monday, 
 are two grand days of the year for company, 
 when the field is extremely numerous. His 
 majesty has also a pack of harriers, which are 
 kept at the Little Park Lodge, near Windsor, 
 and these he hunts constantly in Windsor 
 Great Park, and the surrounding neighbour- 
 hood ; they are, however, a private concern of 
 his majesty's, and not included in the regular 
 Crown establishment. 
 
 probably tend to national advantage (by an 
 additional influx of company) to such cities 
 and towns as eniov the roval favour. New- 
 
 t-xciting such a degree of emulation, as would i market, as the superior spot of sporting cele- 
 
 X
 
 306 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [K.N 
 
 brity, is particularly honoured, having two in 
 the first Spring, and one in the first October 
 me* tings. 
 
 King's-plates are also given at Newcastle- 
 upon-Tyne, Guildford, Winchester, Ipswich, 
 Burford, Chelmsford, Nottingham, Lewes, 
 Edinburgh, York, Canterbury, Warwick, Lich- 
 field, Richmond (Yorkshire), Lincoln, Salis- 
 bury, Ayr, Carlisle, and Ascot Heath ; the 
 whole of which, except the last, are run for 
 by horses or mares of different ages, carrying 
 such weights as shall be appointed by the 
 master of the horse, or whoever he may de- 
 legate for that purpose. 
 
 The king's-plate, of 100 guineas, given at 
 Ascot, and always run for on the first day, 
 (invariably Whit Tuesday fortnight) is only 
 for horses which have regularly hunted with 
 his majesty's stag-hounds the preceding sea- 
 son, and must have been well up with the 
 hounds, at their running up to, taking, or kill- 
 ing, ten deer, as an indispensable qualification, 
 without having which they cannot be per- 
 mitted to start. At the conclusion of the 
 chase, when the deer is secured, those who in- 
 tend to qualify for the plate, apply to the 
 huntsman, and a ticket is delivered to the 
 rider, bearing the arms of the master of the 
 stag-hounds, and the seal of the royal hunt ; 
 when which ten tickets are obtained the 
 horse has secured his qualification, may then 
 be withdrawn from the field, and is not 
 obliged to appear again till the day of entrance 
 at Sunning Hill Wells, where the tickets 
 must be produced, in confirmation of his 
 being duly qualified to start. For the ac- 
 commodation of the sporting world at large, 
 horses of all ages are permitted to run, carry- 
 ing the following weights : four years' old, 
 list. 21b. ; five years' old, list. 91b. ; six 
 years' old, list. 121b. ; and aged, 12st. Mares 
 allowed 41b. The best of three four-mile 
 
 heats Vide RACING. 
 
 The following rules are, by his majesty's 
 command, to be strictly observed by the 
 owners and riders of all such horses, mares, 
 or geldings, as shall run for his majesty's 
 plates at Newmarket : 
 
 KING'S-PLATE ARTICLES. 
 Every person that putteth in a horse, mare, 
 or gelding, for the said plate, is to show such 
 horse, mare, or gelding, with the marks, name, 
 and name of the owner, to be entered at the 
 king's stables in Newmarket, the day before 
 they run, and shall then produce a certificate 
 under the hand of the breeder, specifying his 
 exact age the grass before. 
 
 Every horse, mare, or gelding, that runneth, 
 is to start between the hours of one and four 
 in the afternoon ; and to be allowed half an 
 hour between each heat to rub. 
 
 Every horse, mare, or gelding, that runneth 
 on the wrong side the posts or flaars, or is 
 
 distanced in any of the heats, shall have no 
 share of the said plate, nor be suffered to start 
 again. 
 
 The horse, mare, or gelding, that winneth 
 any two heats, winneth the plate ; but if three 
 several horses, mares, or geldings, win each 
 of them a heat, then those three, and only 
 they, to run a fourth ; and the horse, mare, 
 or gelding, that winneth the fourth heat, shall 
 have the plate. 
 
 And each horse, mare, or gelding's place, 
 as he or they come in by the ending post each 
 heat, as first, second, or third, &c., shall be 
 determined by such judges as shall be ap- 
 pointed for that purpose by the Master of the 
 Horse. And in case any horse, mare, or 
 gelding, shall be then, or after prove to be, 
 above the age certified the grass before, the 
 owner or owners of such horse, mare, or geld- 
 ing, shall be rendered incapable of ever run- 
 ning for any of the king's plates hereafter. 
 
 As many of the riders as shall cross, jostle, 
 or strike, or use any other foul play, as shall 
 be judged by such person or persons as shall 
 be appointed by the Master of the Horse, such 
 rider shall be made incapable of ever riding 
 any horse, mare, or gelding, for any of his 
 majesty's plates hereafter ; and such owners 
 shall have no benefit of that plate ; but such 
 owners may be permitted to run any horse, 
 mare, or gelding, for any other of his ma- 
 jesty's free plates in future. 
 
 Every rider shall, immediately after each 
 heat is run, be obliged to come to the ending 
 post with his horse, mare, or gelding, then 
 and there to alight, and not before, and there 
 to weigh to the satisfaction of the judges ap- 
 pointed for that purpose. 
 
 And in case of neglect or refusal thereof, 
 such winners and riders shall be immediately 
 declared incapable of running or riding any- 
 more for this or any of his majesty's plates in 
 future. 
 
 And should any difference arise relating to 
 their ages, or in their running, or to these his 
 majesty's orders, the same to be determined 
 by such person or persons as shall be ap- 
 pointed by the Master of the Horse. And 
 these articles are to continue in force, unless 
 altered by command of his majesty. 
 
 For the better and more certain prevention 
 of any fraud or misapplication, the winner of 
 a king's plate is to receive from the clerk of 
 the course, a certificate signed by the steward 
 of the race where such plate is won, counter- 
 signed by himself also, which being presented 
 to the lord lieutenant of the county, it obtains 
 his signature likewise : when thus sanctioned, 
 it becomes payable at sight to bearer (if pro- 
 perly endorsed by the winner,) at the office of 
 the clerk of his majesty's stables, in the 
 King's Mews, London. The lord lieutenant 
 of a county being out of the kingdom, the
 
 KNE] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 307 
 
 signature of any person regularly deputed by 
 him is sufficient. The certificate of winning 
 
 of the master of his majesty's stag hounds, 
 instead of the lord lieutenant of the county. 
 
 the plate at Ascot requires only the signature 
 
 KITE, s. A bird of prey that infests the farms, and steals the chickens ; a 
 fictitious bird made of paper. 
 
 This bird is easily distinguished from the 
 buzzard by its forked tail, which is its peculiar 
 and distinguishing feature. Its length is 
 about two feet; its bill is of a horn colour, fur- 
 nished with bristles at the base ; its eyes and 
 cere are yellow ; the feathers on the head and 
 neck are long and narrow, of a hoary colour, 
 streaked with brown down the middle of each ; 
 those on the body are of a reddish brown co- 
 lour, the margin of each feather pale ; the 
 quills are dark brown, the legs yellow, and 
 the claws black. It is common in England, 
 where it continues the whole year. It is 
 found in various parts of Europe, in very 
 northern latitudes, whence it retires towards 
 Egypt before winter, in great numbers ; it is 
 said to breed there, and return in April to 
 
 Europe, where it breeds a second time, con- 
 trary to the nature of rapacious birds in gene- 
 ral. The female lays two or three eggs of a 
 whitish colour, spotted with pale yellow, and 
 of a roundish form. Though the kite weighs 
 somewhat less than three pounds, the extent 
 of its wings is more than five feet ; its flight 
 is rapid, and it soars very high in the air, fre- 
 quently beyond the reach of our sight ; yet, 
 at this distance, it perceives its food distinctly, 
 and descends upon its prey with irresistible 
 force : its attacks are confined to small ani- 
 mals and birds ; it is particularly fond of 
 young chickens, but the fury of their mother 
 is generally sufficient to drive away the 
 robber Bewick. 
 
 KITTEN, s. a young cat. 
 
 KITTEN, v. To bring forth yoxing cats. 
 
 KNEE, s. The joint of the leg where the leg is joined to the thigh ; a 
 
 knee is a piece of timber growing crooked, and so cut that the trunk 
 
 and branch make an angle. 
 
 Knee of a Horse is the central joint of frequently happens, and, if attended with a 
 
 the leg, where the fore thigh is united to the blemish, very much reduces the previous value 
 
 shank bone. Its formation is of such strength, of the horse. Prominences in a pavement, 
 
 that a lameness, by twist, distortion, or any or rolling stones upon a road, are sometimes 
 
 other injury, is hardly ever sustained in this the occasion of such misfortunes, even to those 
 
 part, but by the accident of falling, which who are in general exceedingly sure -footed, and 
 
 X 2
 
 308 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [KNO 
 
 of the most valuable description. Custom 
 has, however, introduced of late years such 
 an unprecedented degree of precaution in an 
 examination of the knees, that the slightest 
 touch cannot be expected to pass unnoticed 
 amidst so much scrutinising inspection ; and 
 if once appearances are sufficient to justify a 
 doubt, the object immediately sinks in estima- 
 tion, however superior he may be in other 
 respects and qualifications. This being so 
 great a disadvantage when a horse is to be sold, 
 it evidently points out the absolute necessity 
 of a minute examination before he is bought, 
 as a want of it may produce considerable loss 
 and serious reflection. Loss of hair upon the 
 knees, when not too seriously affected, may 
 sometimes be restored by a daily application 
 of very strong camphorated liniment. 
 
 
 The knee of the horse corresponds with the 
 human wrist. Like the joints generally, it 
 should be large, by which the surface of mus- 
 cular and ligamentous contact becomes in- 
 
 KNOT, s. A complication of a cord or string not easily to be disentangled ; 
 a hard part in a piece of wood ; a confederacy, an association, a small 
 band ; intricacy ; a cluster, a collection ; a fen bird. Knot is the divi- 
 sion of the log-line answering to half a minute as a mile does to an 
 hour. 
 
 creased, and the stability of the limb in pro- 
 portion augmented ; by this form, also the 
 tendinous insertions are further removed from 
 the centre of motion, and thereby their power 
 is increased. The knee should be carefully 
 examined, to see whether the skin has been 
 broken by falls ; and great caution is neces- 
 sary in tills, for the hair sometimes grows so 
 well over the scar as to leave it hardly dis- 
 cernible. Horse dealers likewise hide the 
 blemish by blackening the part. It does not, 
 however, follow that a mark or scar always 
 indicates a stumbler ; and persons are too apt 
 to forget that the safest horse may by an un- 
 avoidable accident fall; but which circum- 
 stance will never influence his future manner 
 of going, unless the cicatrix should be of such 
 extent as to interfere with the motion of the 
 joint ; if, therefore, the arm and fore-arm be 
 strong, the fore-hand high, and the horse show 
 good action, he should not be rejected wholly 
 for an accidental blemish. Elaine. 
 
 These birds, like others of the same genus, 
 differ considerably from each other in their 
 appearance in different seasons of the year, as 
 well as from age and sex. The specimen from 
 which the above drawing was taken measured 
 from the point of the bill to the tip of the 
 tail eight inches and a half; the extended 
 
 wings about fifteen ; and it weighed two ounces 
 eight drachms. The bill is one inch and 
 three-eighths long, black at the tip, and dusky, 
 fading into orange towards the base ; tongue 
 of nearly the same length, sharp, and horny 
 at the point : sides of the head, neck, and 
 breast, cinereous, edged with ash-coloured
 
 KNU] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 309 
 
 grey; the chin white, and a stroke of the 
 same colour passed over each eye. All the 
 upper parts of the plumage were darkish- 
 brown, but more deep and glossy on the crown 
 of the head, back, and scapulars, and each 
 feather was edged with ash or grey ; the under 
 parts were a cream-coloured white, streaked 
 or spotted with brown on the sides and vent ; 
 the greater coverts of the wings tipped with 
 white, which formed a bar across them when 
 extended ; the legs reddish yellow and short, 
 not measuring more than two inches and one- 
 eighth from the middle toe nail to the knee ; 
 the thighs feathered very nearly to the knee ; 
 toes divided without any connecting mem- 
 brane. 
 
 This bird is caught in Lincolnshire and the 
 other fenny counties in great numbers by nets, 
 into which it is decoyed by carved wooden 
 figures painted to represent itself, and placed 
 within them, much in the same way as the 
 ruff. It is also fattened for sale, and esteemed 
 by many equal to the ruff in the delicacy of 
 the flavour. The season for taking it is from 
 August to November, after which the frost 
 compels it to disappear. 
 
 This bird is said to have been a favourite 
 dish with Canute, King of England; and Cam- 
 den observes that its name is derived from 
 his Knute or Knoute, as he was called, which 
 in process of time has been changed to Knot. 
 Bewick. 
 
 KNOT, v. To complicate in knots ; to entangle, to perplex ; to unite. 
 KNOTTY, a. Full of knots ; hard, rugged; intricate, perplexed. 
 KNUCKLE, s. The joints of the fingers, protuberant when the fingers close ; 
 the joint of a calf; the articulation or joint of a plant.
 
 THE LAND-RAIL. 
 
 JLJACE, s. A string, a cord; a snare, a gin. 
 
 LACERATION, *. The act of tearing or rending; the breach made by tear- 
 ing. 
 
 LAIR, s. The couch of a boar, or wild beast ; the place where deer harbour 
 by day. 
 
 LAKE, s. A large diffusion of inland water ; a small plash of water ; a mid- 
 dle colour betwixt ultramarine and vermilion. 
 
 LAME, a. Crippled, disabled in the limbs. 
 
 LAMENESS, s. The state of a cripple, loss or inability of limbs ; imperfec- 
 tion, weakness. 
 
 Lameness in Horses Proceeds from a 
 
 variety of causes, and requires much patient 
 investigation to ascertain, to a certainty, the 
 exact seat of injury ; for want of which judi- 
 cious precaution, mischief frequently follows. 
 Horses are sometimes persecuted, blistered, 
 and fired for a lameness in one part, which 
 ultimately proves to be in another, and this 
 alone sufficiently points out the absolute ne- 
 cessity of a deliberate discrimination. As lame- 
 ness proceeds from different causes, so it is of 
 different kinds, and requires various modes of 
 treatment, equally opposite to each other. 
 This cannot be more forcibly elucidated, than 
 by adverting to the difference between a lame- 
 
 ness originating in a relaxation of the sinews, 
 and a ligamentary injury sustained by a sudden 
 turn, twist, or distortion, of some particular 
 joint. These require a very different mode of 
 treatment ; and yet it is too much, and too 
 unthinkingly the custom to treat every kind 
 of lameness in the same way. From either a 
 want of patience in the owner, or a want of 
 prudence in the practitioner, the favourite ope- 
 ration of blistering is thought applicable to 
 every case without exception ; and being often 
 resorted to before the inflammation of the part 
 has sufficiently subsided, occasions a perma- 
 nent enlargement, with a thickening of the in- 
 tegument, and consequent stiffness, rendering
 
 LAM] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 311 
 
 the remedy equally injurious with the original 
 defect. 
 
 In all lamenesses occasioned by a relaxation 
 of the tendons, blistering, and even firing, are 
 admitted to have a forcible effect, provided 
 they are brought into use at a proper time ; 
 but not before the inflammation (-which is ge- 
 nerally attendant upon such case) has previ- 
 ously subsided. In all ligamentary injuries 
 blistering is seldom, if ever, known to be pro- 
 ductive of permanent advantage ; and is, per- 
 haps, upon most occasions, so immediately 
 adopted, because a single application is of so 
 much less personal trouble, than a daily per- 
 severing hour bestowed in a hot fomentation, 
 and stimulative embrocations. 
 
 Upon the subject of lameness in general, it 
 is necessary to remark, that injuries sustained 
 in tendons (commonly called the back sinews) 
 are more frequently relieved, and a lasting 
 cure obtained, than in a lameness of the joints ; 
 where, after patient and persevering medical 
 
 LAMPASS, s. A lump of flesh, about 
 horse's mouth. 
 
 Lampass Called also lampers, and lam- 
 
 pards, is a spongy, elastic enlargement of the 
 roof of a young horse's mouth, just behind the 
 nippers of his upper jaw, which frequently ac- 
 quires such a luxuriance in growth, as to be 
 equal with, or to exceed, the surface of the 
 teeth, and is supposed to occasion pain to 
 such horses in the mastication of their corn. 
 Whenever the lampass are found so protube- 
 
 LAMPBLACK, *. Is made by holding 
 and as it is furred striking- it with 
 ing it with gum water. 
 
 LAMPREY, s. A kind of eel. 
 
 The sight of a large square slab of white 
 marble at a trifling distance from the main road 
 on this mountain, excited my curiosity some 
 days ago. It contained a modern Latin in- 
 scription of great length, which for its singu- 
 larity I would send you, but I wish to save 
 postage. The traveller is desired to pause, 
 in order to behold an ocular demonstration of 
 the cruelty and impiety of the ancient pagans, 
 exhibited in the fish-ponds of A. Pollio, Esq. 
 who, says the marble, was particularly fond of 
 lampreys fed with human blood ; and who to 
 gratify this inhuman sort of gluttony, had 
 these ponds built at an immense expense, and 
 caused the wretched victims of his corrupt 
 palate to be thrown into them. Accepting the 
 pious invitation, I entered the farm pointed out 
 by the inscription, and actually found the farm- 
 house to consist of some modern masonry en- 
 grafted upon a solid stock of ancient reticu- 
 lated architecture. At the back of the build- 
 inp a small door opened into the ponds, which 
 
 applications, and a corresponding portion of 
 rest, a renewal of work hag almost immedi- 
 ately produced a relapse. 
 
 
 
 Lameness, from -whatever cause arising, is 
 unsoundness. However temporary it may 
 be, or however obscure, it lessens the utility 
 of the horse, and renders him unsound for 
 the time. How far his soundness may be 
 afterwards affected, must depend on the cir- 
 cumstances of the case. A lame horse is for 
 a time an unsound one. 
 
 Lameness in Dogs During the hunting 
 
 or shooting season, dogs are very liable to sore 
 
 feet : they should be frequently washed with 
 
 strong brine, pot liquor, or salt and vinegar,^ 
 
 | a handful of the former to a pint of the latter. 
 
 ! But as it will be found easier to prevent than 
 
 I cure the affection, this is best done by wash- 
 
 ' ing their feet every day, when returning from 
 
 the field, with pot-liquor or brine The 
 
 1 Horse Brown. 
 
 the bigness of a nut, in the roof of a 
 
 rant as to justify an opinion, or produce a proof, 
 that they occasion pain in mastication, it is 
 then time enough to pass the point or edge of 
 a sharp penknife, or lancet, transversely and 
 longitudinally over the puffy and prominent 
 part, so as to let it bleed in that state for a few 
 minutes ; then let it be washed with a solu- 
 tion of alum in water, and no further inconve- 
 nience need be apprehended White. 
 
 a torch under the bottom of a basin, 
 a feather into some shell, and grind- 
 
 even now appeared to be abundantly supplied 
 with water, rising to the height of about eight 
 or ten feet, from the door downwards, and co- 
 vered by an arched vault nearly as high from 
 the top of the door : the sides were lined with 
 a stucco, as hard, if not harder than stone. 
 The whole fabric was in perfect preservation, 
 and well worth the attention of an antiquary ; 
 but my conductor was unable to add anything 
 to the information given by the inscription, 
 which, I confess, appeared to me very proble- 
 matical. The neat and impenetrable covering 
 of stucco, would rather induce me to take it 
 for a reservoir, or large cistern for water, than 
 i a pond for lampreys : and supposing it to have 
 j been the latter, where is the evidence of human 
 j bodies having supplied their food ; and suppos- 
 j ing the Roman laws to have been lax enough 
 j to allow such a diabolical practice, what sto- 
 1 mach could relish such a dainty ? Letters 
 \ from the Campagna Felice.
 
 312 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [LAM 
 
 LA.MPRON, s. A kind of sea-fish, a long eel. 
 
 LANCE, v. To pierce, to cut ; to open chirurgically, to cut in order to a 
 
 LANCET, j. A small pointed chirurgical instrument. 
 LAND, v. To set on shore ; to secure a fish. 
 LANDMARK, s. Anything set up to preserve boundaries. 
 LANDRAIL, or DAKER HEN, CORNCRAKE, (Rallus crex, LINN.; LeRale 
 de Genet, BUFF.) s. A bird. 
 
 The female lays ten or twelve eggs on a 
 nest made of a little moss or dry grass, care- 
 lessly put together ; they are of a pale ash- 
 colour, marked with rust-coloured spots. The 
 young crakes are covered with black down ; 
 they soon find the use of their legs, for they 
 follow the mother immediately after they have 
 
 Length rather more than nine inches ; the 
 bill is light brown ; the eyes hazel ; all the 
 feathers on the upper parts of the plumage are 
 of a dark brown, edged with pale rust colour ; 
 both wing coverts and quills are of a deep 
 chestnut ; the fore part of the neck and the 
 breast are of a pale ash colour ; a streak of 
 the same colour extends over each eye from 
 the bill to the side of the neck ; the belly is of 
 a yellowish white ; the sides, thighs, and vent, 
 are marked with faint rusty coloured bars; 
 the legs are of a pale flesh colour. 
 
 We have ventured to remove this bird from 
 the usual place assigned to it among those to 
 whom it seems to have little or no analogy, 
 and have placed it among others to which in 
 most respects it bears a strong affinity. 
 
 It maks its appearance about the same time 
 as the quail, and frequents the same places, 
 whence it is called in some counties the king 
 of the quails. Its well known cry is first 
 heard as soon as the grass becomes long enough 
 to shelter it, and continues till the grass is 
 cut : but the bird is seldom seen, for it con- 
 stantly skulks among the thickest part of the 
 herbage, and runs so nimbly through it, wind- 
 ing and doubling in every direction, that it is 
 difficult to come near it ; when hard pushed 
 by the dog, it sometimes stops short and 
 squats down, by which means its too eager 
 pursuer overshoots the spot, and loses the 
 trace. It seldom springs but when driven to 
 extremity, and generally flies with its legs 
 hanging down, but never to a great distance ; 
 as soon as it alights it runs off, and before the 
 fowler has reached the spot, the bird is at a 
 considerable distance. 
 
 The corncrake leaves the island before the 
 winter, and repairs to other countries in search 
 of its food, which consists principally of slugs, 
 of which it destroys prodigious numbers; it 
 likewise feeds on worms and insects, as well 
 as on seeds of various kinds. It is very com- 
 mon in Ireland, and is seen in great numbers 
 in the Island of Anglesea on its passage to that 
 country. On its first arrival in England, it 
 SB so lean as to weigh less than six ounces, 
 from which one would conclude that it must 
 have come from distant parts ; before its de- 
 parture, however, it has been known to exceed 
 eight ounces, and is then very delicious eating. 
 
 burst the shell. 
 
 * 
 
 This is deemed a bird of passage by all 
 the writers : yet from its formation seems to 
 be poorly qualified for migration ; for its wings 
 are short, and placed so forward, and out of 
 the centre of gravity, that it flies in a very 
 heavy and embarrassed manner, with its legs 
 hanging down ; and can hardly be sprung a 
 second time, as it runs very fast, and seems 
 to depend more on the swiftness of its feet 
 than on its flying. 
 
 When we came to draw it, we found the 
 entrails so soft and tender, that in appearance 
 they might have been dressed like the ropes 
 of a woodcock. The craw or crop was small 
 and lank, containing a mucus ; the gizzard 
 thick and strong, and filled with small shell 
 snails, some whole, and many ground to 
 pieces through the attrition which is occasioned 
 by the muscular force and motion of that 
 intestine. We saw no gravels among the 
 food : perhaps the shell snails might perform 
 the function of gravels or pebbles, and might 
 grind one another. * 
 
 That it is a bird of passage there can be 
 little doubt, though one would think it 
 poorly qualified for migration, on account of 
 the wings being short, and not placed in the 
 exact centre of gravity : how that may be I 
 cannot say, but I know that its heavy slug- 
 gish flight is not owing to its inability of 
 flying faster, for I have seen it fly very swiftly, 
 although in general its actions are sluggish. 
 Its unwillingness to rise proceeds, I imagine, 
 from its sluggish disposition, and its great 
 timidity, for it will sometimes squat so close 
 to the ground as to suffer itself to be taken 
 up by the hand, rather than rise; and yet 
 it will at times run very fast. 
 
 What Mr. White remarks respecting the 
 small shell snails found in its gizzard, con- 
 firms my opinion, that it frequents corn fields, 
 seed clover, and brakes or fern, more for the
 
 LN] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 313 
 
 sake of snails, slugs, and other insects which 
 abound in such places, than for the grain or 
 
 seeds ; and that it is entirely an insectivorous 
 bird Bewick White's Selborne Wood. 
 
 LANE RET, s. A little hawk. 
 
 LANIGEROUS, a. Bearing wood. 
 
 LANIUS (LiNN.), s. Shrike, a genus thus characterised : 
 
 Bill of middle size, strong, much com- , hairs ; feet with the shank longer than the 
 
 pressed ; the upper mandible strongly curved 
 towards the point, where it forms a hook ; the 
 base without a cere, but furnished with coarse 
 hairs directed forward ; nostrils at the side of 
 the base, almost round, half shut by a vaulted 
 membrane, often in part concealed by the 
 
 LANNER, (Falco lanarius, LINN. ; Le Lanier, BUFF.) s. A species of 
 hawk. 
 
 middle toe ; three toes before and one behind, 
 quite divided ; wings, the first quill of middle 
 length, the second a little shorter than the 
 third and fourth, which are the longest in the 
 wing Montagu. 
 
 This bird is somewhat less than the buz- 
 zard. Its bill is blue; cere inclining to green; 
 eyes yellow : the feathers on the Upper part 
 of the body are brown, with pale edges ; above 
 each eye there is a white line, which runs 
 towards the hinder part of the head, and be- 
 neath it is a black streak pointing downwards 
 towards the neck ; the throat is white ; the 
 breast of a dull yellow, marked with brown 
 spots ; thighs and vents the same ; the quill 
 
 LANSQUENET, s. A common foot-soldier ; a game at cards. 
 
 This game may be played by almost any | which he places in the middle of the table for 
 
 feathers are dusky, marked on the inner webs 
 with oval spots of rust colour ; the tail is 
 spotted in the same manner; the legs are 
 short and strong, and of a bluish colour. 
 
 The lanner is not common in England ; it 
 
 ! breeds in Ireland, and is found in various parts 
 
 | of Europe. It derives its name from its mode 
 
 I of tearing its prey into small pieces with it* 
 
 bill White. 
 
 number of people, although only one pack of 
 cards is used at a time, during each deal. The 
 dealer, who has rather an advantage, begins by 
 shuffling the cards, and having them cut by 
 any other person of the party ; after which he 
 deals out two cards on his left hand, turning 
 them up ; then one for himself and a fourth, 
 
 f 
 
 the company, called the rejouissance card. 
 Upon this card any, or all of the company, 
 except the dealer, may put their money, either 
 a limited or unlimited sum, as may be agreed 
 on, which the dealer is obliged to answer, by 
 staking a sum equal to the whole that is put 
 upon it by different persons. He continue*
 
 314 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [LAN 
 
 dealing, and turning the cards upwards, one 
 by one, till two of a sort appear ; for instance 
 two aces, two deuces, &c., which, in order to 
 separate, and that no person may mistake for 
 single cards, he places on each side of his own 
 card ; and as often as two, three, or the fourth 
 card of a sort come up, he always places them 
 in the same manner, on each side of his own. 
 Any single card the company has a right to 
 take and put money upon, unless the dealer's 
 own card happens to be double, which often 
 occurs by this card being the same as one of 
 the two cards which he first of all dealt out on 
 his left-hand. Thus he continues dealing till 
 he brings either their cards, or his own. As 
 
 long as his own card remains undrawn he wins ; 
 and whichever card comes up first loses. If 
 he draw or deal out the two cards on his left, 
 which are called the hand-cards, before his 
 own, he is entitled to deal again ; the advan- 
 tage of which is merely his being exempted 
 from losing when he draws a similar card to 
 his own immediately after he has turned up 
 one for himself. 
 
 This game is often played more simply 
 without the rejouissance card, giving every 
 person round the table a card to put money 
 upon. Sometimes it is played by dealing only 
 two cards, one for the dealer and another for 
 the company Hoyle. 
 
 LANTERN, s. A transparent case for a candle ; a lighthouse ; a lig-ht hung 
 
 out to guide ships. 
 
 LAP, v. To wrap or twist round anything- ; to involve in anything-. 
 LAPDOG, s. A little dog-, fondled by ladies in the lap ; generally a common 
 
 nuisance. 
 
 In one of the ships of the fleet, that sailed 
 lately from Falmouth, for the West Indies, 
 went passengers, a lady and her seven lap- 
 dogs, for the passage of each of which she 
 paid thirty pounds, on the express condition, 
 that they were to dine at the cabin-table, and 
 
 LAPWING, BASTARD PLOVER, or PEEWIT, (Tr'mga vanellus, LINN. ; 
 Le Vanneau, BUFF.) s. A clamorous bird with long wings. 
 
 lap their wine afterwards. Yet these happy 
 dogs do not engross the whole of their good 
 lady's affection ; she has also, in Jamaica, 
 forty cats and a husband Country News- 
 paper. 
 
 This bird is about the size of a pigeon. Its 
 bill is black ; eyes large and hazel ; the top of 
 the head is black, glossed with green ; a tuft 
 of long, narrow feathers issues from the back 
 part of the head, and turns upwards at the 
 
 end ; some of them are four inches in length ; 
 the sides of the head and neck are white, 
 which is interrupted with a blackish streak 
 above and below the eye ; and the back part 
 of the neck is a very pale brown ; the fore-
 
 LAR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 315 
 
 part, as far as the breast, is black ; the back 
 and the wing coverts are of a dark green, 
 glossed with purple and blue reflections ; the 
 quills are black, the first four tipped with 
 white ; the breast and belly are of a pure 
 white; the upper-tail coverts and vent pale 
 chestnut; the tail is white at the base, and 
 the rest of it is black, with pale tips ; the 
 outer feathers almost wholly white, the legs 
 are red ; claws black ; hind-claw very short. 
 
 This bird is a constant inhabitant of this 
 country ; but as it subsists chiefly on worms, 
 it is forced to change its place in quest of 
 food, and is frequently seen in great numbers 
 by the sea-shore, where it finds an abundant 
 supply. It is everywhere well known by its 
 loud and incessant cries, which it repeats 
 without intermission whilst on the wing, and 
 from which, in most languages, a name has 
 been given it, imitative of the sound. The 
 peewit is a lively, active bird, almost continu- 
 ally in motion ; it sports and frolics in the air 
 in all directions, and assumes a variety of at- 
 titudes ; it remains long upon the wing, and 
 sometimes rises to a considerable height ; it 
 runs along the ground very nimbly, and 
 springs and bounds from spot to spot with 
 great agility. The female lays four eggs of a 
 dirty olive, spotted with black : she makes no 
 nest, but deposits them upon a little dry 
 grass hastily scraped together : the young birds 
 run very soon after they are hatched : during 
 this period the old ones are very assiduous in 
 their attention to their charge; on the ap- 
 proach of any person to the place of their de- 
 posit they flutter round his head with cries of 
 the greatest inquietude, which increase as he 
 draws nearer to the spot where the brood are 
 squatted ; in case of extremity, and as a last 
 resource, they run along the ground as if 
 lame, in order to draw off the attention of 
 the fowler from any farther pursuit. The 
 young lapwings are first covered with a black- 
 ish down, interspersed with long white hairs, 
 which they gradually lose, and about the lat- 
 ter end of July, they acquire their beautiful 
 plumage. At this time they assemble in 
 flocks, which hover in the air, saunter in the 
 meadows, and after rain disperse among the 
 ploughed fields. In October the lapwings are 
 
 very fat, and are then said to be excellent 
 eating. Their eggs are considered as a great 
 delicacy, and are sold in London at three shil- 
 lings a dozen. 
 
 The following anecdote communicated by 
 the late Rev. J. Carlyle, is worthy of notice, 
 as it shows the domestic nature of this bird, 
 as well as the art with which it conciliates the 
 regard of animals differing from itself in na- 
 ture, and generally considered as hostile to 
 every species of the feathered tribe. Two of 
 these birds, given to Mr. Carlyle, were put into 
 a garden, where one of them soon died ; the 
 other continued to pick up such food as the 
 place afforded, till winter deprived it of its 
 usual supply : necessity soon compelled it to 
 draw nearer the house, by which it gradually 
 became familiarised to occasional interruptions 
 from the family. At length one of the ser- 
 vants, when she had occasion to go into the 
 back-kitchen with a light, observed that the 
 lap wing always uttered his cry ' pee wit' to ob- 
 tain admittance. He soon grew more familiar ; 
 as the winter advanced he approached as far 
 as the kitchen, but with much caution, as that 
 part of the house was generally occupied by a 
 dog and a cat, whose friendship the lapwing at 
 length conciliated so entirely, that it was his 
 regular custom to resort to the fireside as soon 
 as it drew dark, and spend the evening and 
 night with his two associates, sitting close by 
 them, and partaking of the comfort of a warm 
 fireside. As soon as spring appeared, he left 
 off coming to the house, and betook himself 
 to the garden ; but on the approach of winter 
 he had recourse to his old shelter and his old 
 friends, who received him very cordially. Se- 
 curity was productive of insolence ; what was 
 at first obtained with caution, was afterwards 
 taken without reserve : he frequently amused 
 himself with washing in the bowl which was 
 set for the dog to drink out of, and while he 
 was thus employed, he showed marks of the 
 greatest indignation if either of his companions 
 presumed to interrupt him. He died in the 
 asylum he had chosen, being choked with 
 something he had picked up from the floor. 
 During his confinement, crumbs of wheaten 
 bread were his principal food, which he pre- 
 i ferfed to any thing else. 
 
 LARD, *. The grease of swine ; the chief ingredient in composing oint- 
 ments. 
 LARK, s. A small singing bird. 
 
 From the peculiar construction of the hinder ! the weasel, stoat, &c., which destroy great num- 
 claws, which are very long and straight, larks j bers of them. The cuckoo, likewise, which 
 generally rest upon the ground ; those which makes no nest of its own, frequently substi- 
 
 frequent trees perch only on the larger branches. 
 They all build their nests upon the ground, 
 which exposes them to the depredations of the 
 smaller kinds of voracious animals, such as 
 
 tutes its eggs in the place of theirs. The ge- 
 neral characters of this species are thus de- 
 scribed : 
 
 The bill is straight and slender, bending a
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 little towards the end, which is sharp pointed; 
 the nostrils are covered with feathers and bris- 
 tles : the tongue is cloven at the end ; tail 
 somewhat forked ; the toes divided to the ori- 
 gin ; claw of the hinder toe very long, and al- 
 most straight ; the fore claws very short, and 
 slightly curved. 
 
 Twirling for larks is a species of amuse- 
 ment peculiar to the French, and is thus de- 
 scribed : 
 
 These birds are attracted to any given spot 
 in great numbers, by a singular contrivance, 
 called a mirror. 
 
 This is a small machine, made of a piece 
 of mahogany, shaped like a chapeau bras, and 
 highly polished, or else it is made of common 
 wood, inlaid with small bits of looking-glass, 
 so as to reflect the sun's rays upwards ; it is 
 fixed on the top of a thin iron rod, on an up- 
 right spindle, dropped through an iron loop, or 
 rine, attached to a piece of wood to drive into 
 the ground. By pulling a string, fastened to the 
 spindle, the mirror twirls, and the reflected 
 light unaccountably attracts the larks, who 
 hover over it, and become a mark for the 
 sportsman. In this way, says an old sports- 
 man, I have had capital sport. A friend of 
 
 mine actually shot six dozen before breakfast ; 
 while he sat on the ground he pulled the 
 twirler himself, and his dogs fetched the 
 birds as they dropped. However, I go on in 
 the common way, and employ a boy to work 
 the twirler. Ladies often partake of the 
 amusement, on a cold dry morning, not by 
 shooting, but by watching the sport : so many 
 as ten or a dozen parties are sometimes out to- 
 gether, firing at a distance of five or six hun- 
 dred yards, and in this way the larks are con- 
 stantly kept on the wing. The most favourable 
 mornings are when there is a gentle light frost, 
 with little or no wind, and a clear sky ; for 
 when there are clouds, the larks will not ap- 
 proach. One would think the birds themselves 
 enjoyed their destruction, for the fascination of 
 the twirler is so strong, as to rob them of the 
 usual fruits of experience ; after being fired at 
 several times, they return to the twirler, and 
 form again into groups, above it ; some of 
 them even fly down, and settle upon the 
 ground within a yard or two of the astonish- 
 ing instrument, looking at it this way and 
 that way, and all ways together, as if nothing 
 had happened Sporting Anecdotes Be- 
 wick. 
 
 LARVA, #. The enica or caterpillar. 
 
 LARUS (Attctores), s. Gull, a genus thus characterised. 
 
 Bill long or middle sized, strong, hard, j shank long ; three toes before, wholly webbed: ; 
 compressed, cutting, curved towards the point, 1 the hind toe free, short, and jointed high 
 the under mandible forming a saliant angle, i upon the shank. Tail with the feathers of 
 Nostrils at the sides, in the middle of the i equal length ; wings long, the first quill 
 
 bill, slit lengthwise, straight, pierced from part ! almost of equal length with the second 
 
 to part. Legs slender, naked to the knee; ; Montagu. 
 
 LASH, s. A stroke with anything- pliant and tough ; the thong or point of 
 
 the whip ; a leash, or string in which an animal is held. 
 LAUDANUM, *. A soporific tincture ; liquid opium. 
 LAUGHING GULL (Larus ridibundus, LEISLER), s. 
 
 Length fifteen, breadth thirty-seven inches; 
 weight ten ounces. Bill and feet rich ver- 
 milion ; irides hazel ; round the eyes a few 
 white feathers ; lower part of the neck, tail, 
 and belly white ; the back and wings grey ; 
 primores white, the first with the outer margin 
 black ; the second tipped with black, and 
 marked with a black spot on the inner web. 
 In winter the head is white, with a black patch 
 on the ear, and another in front of the eyes ; 
 under the wing blackish grey. Female simi- 
 lar. Nest, according to Wilson, in meadows 
 and islands in fresh water lakes. Eggs three, 
 olive, with dusky blotches. It leaves Scotland 
 in winter, but is a permanent resident in 
 England. 
 
 These birds appear to be subject to great 
 variety, either from age or from rhanjre of 
 season, and in those changes they have been 
 
 described as different species. The red-legged 
 gull of authors is only this bird before it is 
 arrived at maturity ; and there seems no doubt 
 but the old birds lose the black on the head 
 in the winter, and do not assume it again, till 
 the breeding season ; but there is generally a 
 little black about the ears ; the bill and legs 
 also lose their bright colour. 
 
 We have seen hundreds of these birds to- 
 gether in the winter, but have never seen one 
 with a black head at that season. They appear 
 in great abundance in the autumn, on the 
 coast of Caermarthen and Glamorganshire, 
 particularly about the mouths of rivers. At 
 that time the head is white, in some mottled 
 with brown, with a dusky spot behind the 
 ear ; the back and wing coverts in young 
 birds are mottled with brnwn and white; th 
 tail crossed with a dusky bar at the end ; the
 
 LAX] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 317 
 
 bill and legs scarcely tinged with red. Towards 
 spring the back begins to assume the ash-co- 
 lour ; then the wing coverts, and the bill and 
 legs, obtain their proper colour; the black 
 behind the ears spreads and meets behind, 
 and on lifting up the feathers of the crown 
 about the month of March, the stubs of the 
 black feathers are to be observed. At this 
 time also some few black feathers appear on 
 the throat; but the perfect black head is not 
 assumed during their stay in those parts. In 
 Devonshire we have seen them complete in 
 feather later in the spring, but never remember 
 to have observed the same appearance in 
 winter. 
 
 The laughing gull is said to breed in Lin- 
 colnshire in the fens, and in other parts of 
 England, upon the borders of rivers. 
 * * * 
 
 Dr. Plott assures us, in his History of Staf- 
 fordshire, that in his time these birds annually 
 visited a pool in Staffordshire. He also assures 
 us that they would not breed on any other 
 
 land than that of the proprietor of the before- 
 mentioned place ; and that on the death of 
 the owner, they deserted the pool for three 
 years, but only retired to another estate be- 
 longing to the next heir. 
 
 The young birds were accounted good eat- 
 ing, and were taken by driving them into nets 
 before they could fly ; that fifty dozen were 
 taken at a driving, and that five shillings per 
 dozen was the usual price. 
 
 The young were kept alive and fattened on 
 offal. It is also added that three drivings 
 were generally made in a seasdn ; and that 
 anciently as many were taken as produced a 
 profit of fifty or sixty pounds. 
 
 No author mentions their being seen in 
 winter, having at that time been made a dis- 
 tinct species under various denominations. 
 * 
 
 It makes a nest on the ground with rushes, 
 dead grass, and such like materials, and lays 
 three eggs, of an olivaceous brown, marked 
 with rusty brown blotches Montagu. 
 
 LAUNCEFISH, or SANDLANCE, s. A sea fish which buries itself, on the 
 recess of the tide, more than a foot deep in the sand. It is much used 
 for baits. 
 
 LAUNCH, v. To force into the sea ; to rove at large. 
 
 LAUREL, *. A tree, called also the cherry bay. 
 
 LAVARET, s. A bird ; a lake fish. 
 
 Lavaret is a fish known in England by the 
 name of shelley or fresh water herriug, in 
 Wales by that of gwinniad ; in Ireland by that 
 of pollan ; and in Scotland by that of vangis. 
 In colour it is most like a grayling, but with 
 broader and larger scales ; it is common in 
 the large lakes of most Alpine countries, and 
 is known at Geneva by the name of ferra ; 
 and I believe that the salmo ceruleus, or 
 wartmann of Bloch, or the gang-fisch of the 
 Lake of Constance, from a comparison that I 
 made of it with the ferra, is a variety of the 
 same fish. It sometimes is as large as two 
 pounds, and when quite fresh, and well fried 
 or boiled, is an exceedingly good fish, and 
 carves like grayling. The lavaret of different 
 lakes has appeared to me to vary in the num- 
 ber of the spines in the fins. One brought 
 me from the Lake of Zurich, thirteen inches 
 long and eight inches in girth, had twelve 
 spines in the dorsal fin, fifteen in the pectoral 
 
 fins, eleven in the ventral, thirteen in the 
 anal, and eighteen in the caudal. The gang- 
 fisch, from the Lake of Constance, which was 
 of a bluer colour, but I think decidedly 
 only a variety of the same fish, was seven 
 inches and three-quarters long* and four in 
 girth, had twelve spines in the dorsal fin, fif- 
 teen in the pectoral, eleven in the ventral, 
 twelve in the anal, and eighteen in the cau- 
 dal. A lavaret from the Traun See had twelve 
 spines in the dorsal fin, seventeen in the pec- 
 toral, thirteen in the ventral fin, twelve in 
 the anal fin, and twenty-four in the caudal 
 fin. One from the Hallstadt See was a larger 
 and broader fish, but did not differ from the 
 lavaret of the Traun See, except in having 
 two spines less in the tail. It is only taken 
 with nets. It feeds on vegetables, and in the 
 stomachs of those I have opened I have never 
 found either flies or small fishes. Salmonia, 
 
 LAWN, *. An open space between woods ; fine linen. 
 
 LAXATIVE, s. Medicines that open the bowels moderately, without stimu- 
 lating- them so much as to increase their secretions. They consist of 
 castor, olive, or linseed oils ; the neutral salts, common salt, and small 
 doses of aloes, as in the following formula:
 
 318 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [LAY 
 
 LAXATIVE DRENCH. 
 
 1. Castor oil . .1 pint. 
 
 2. Sweet oil, or linseed, or 
 
 rape oil .1 pint. 
 
 3. Epsom salt . . 6 to 12 oz. 
 Whey or gruel . 1 quart. 
 Castor oil . . 6tol2oz Mix. 
 
 4. Powdered aloes . 2 to 3 dr. 
 
 Carbonate of potash 
 5. Water 
 Castor oil 
 
 BALL. 
 Aloes 
 Soap 
 
 2 dr. 
 8 oz. 
 8 oz Mix. 
 
 3 to 4 dr. 
 3 to 4 dr. 
 
 Syrup enough to form a ball. 
 
 LAY, s- Grassy ground, meadow, ground unploughed. LEA, s. Ground 
 
 enclosed. 
 LEAD, 's. A soft heavy metal. 
 
 Many useful preparations are made from 
 this metal ; among which are the following : 
 
 Acetate, or super-acetate of lead, com- 
 monly called sugar of lead, is used in making 
 cooling lotions and eye-washes. 
 
 Red Lead, or Minium, is a red powder, 
 
 made by mixing lead in a high degree of heat. 
 It is used in the composition of plasters and 
 charges. 
 
 White Lead is often employed in the 
 composition of healing and softening ointment, 
 for horses that are subject to cracked heels. 
 
 LEAD, v. To fit with lead in any manner ; to lead lines. Vide LINES. 
 LEADER, s. One that leads or conducts ; commander ; one who goes first ; 
 
 foremost horse in a tandem or team. 
 LEAGUE, s. A measure of length, containing three miles. 
 LEAN, a. Meagre, wanting flesh ; out of condition. 
 LEAN, s. The part of flesh which consists of the muscle without the fat. 
 LEAP, v. To pass over or into by leaping. 
 LEAP, s. Bound, jump, act of leaping ; space passed by leaping ; an assault 
 
 of an animal of prey ; embrace of animals. 
 LEASH, *. A brace and a half ; a leather thong, by which a falconer holds 
 
 his hawk, or a courser leads his greyhound ; a band wherewith to tie 
 
 anything in general. 
 
 Leash is a sporting term in use to imply 
 the number three ; as exceeding one, and 
 not reaching two brace ; for instance, a brace 
 of hares, a leash of pheasants, and two brace 
 of partridges. A brace of pointers, a leash of 
 greyhounds, and two brace of spaniels. Cus- 
 tom, however, in this, as in most other things, 
 admits of deviation and exception ; in proof 
 of which we say a brace of spaniels, a couple 
 
 and a half of hounds, and two brace of 
 pointers ; a brace of snipes, a couple and a 
 half of woodcocks, and two couple of rabbits. 
 It is therefore consistent and sportsman-like 
 to say a leash of birds (partridges), a leash of 
 pheasants, a leash of hares, or any other arti- 
 cle where two are termed a brace ; but im- 
 proper to call three a leash, where two of the 
 kind are called a couple. 
 
 LEATHEH, s. Dressed hides of animals. 
 
 LEECH, s. A physician, a professor of the art of healing; a kind of small 
 
 water serpent, which fastens on animals, and sucks the blood. 
 LEEWARD, a. Under the wind, on the side opposite to that from which 
 
 the wind blows. 
 LEG, s. The limb by which animals walk, particularly that part between 
 
 the knee and the foot in men. 
 
 The part of the limb between the knee and two smaller or splint bones behind. The 
 and the fetlock consists of three bones a shank-bone is rounded in front, and flattened, 
 large one before, railed the cannon or shank, or even concave behind. It is the straightest
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 319 
 
 of the long bones, as well as the most super- 
 ficially situated, for in some parts it is covered 
 only by the skin. The upper head is flat, 
 with slight depressions corresponding with the 
 lower row of the bones of the knee. The 
 lower head is differently and curiously formed. 
 It resembles a double pulley. There are 
 three elevations, the principal one in the cen- 
 tre, and one on each side ; and between them 
 are two slight grooves ; and these so precisely 
 correspond with deep depressions and slight 
 prominences in the upper head of the larger 
 pastern, and are so enclosed and guarded by 
 the elevated edges of that bone, that when 
 the shank-bone and the pastern are fitted to 
 each other, they form a perfect hinge : they 
 admit of the bending and extension of the 
 
 limb, but of no lateral or side motion ; which 
 is a circumstance of very great importance in 
 a joint so situated, and having the whole 
 weight of the horse thrown upon it. 
 
 The smaller bones are placed behind the 
 larger on either side ; a slight projection only 
 of the head of each can be seen in front. The 
 heads of these bones are enlarged, and receive 
 part of the weight conveyed by the lower 
 row of the bones of the knee. They are 
 united to the larger bone by the same kind of 
 substance which is found in the colt between 
 the bone of the elbow and the main bone of 
 the arm ; and which is designed, like that, 
 by its great elasticity, to lessen the concussion 
 or jar when the weight of the animal is thrown 
 on them. 
 
 LENITIVE, a. Anything applied to ease pain ; a palliative. 
 
 LEPIDOPTERA, s. An order of insects which have their wings imbricated 
 with scales, as moths, butterflies, &c. &c. 
 
 LEPORINE, a. Belonging to a hare, having the nature of a hare. 
 
 LEPROSY, s. A loathsome distemper, which covers the body with a kind 
 of white scales. 
 
 LETHARGY, s. A morbid drowsiness, a sleep from which one cannot be 
 kept awake. 
 
 LEVEL, v. To aim at, to bring the gun and arrow to the same direction 
 with the mark. 
 
 LEVERET, s. A young hare. 
 
 LICK, v. To pass over with the tongue ; to lap, to take in by the tongue. 
 
 LIGAMENT, s. A strong compact substance which unites the bones in arti- 
 culation ; anything which connects the parts of the body ; bond, chain. 
 
 LIGATURE, s. Anything bound on ; bandage ; the act of binding; the state 
 of being bound. 
 
 LIGHTS, s. The lungs, the organs of breathing. 
 
 LIMB, s. A member, a jointed or articulated part of animals. 
 
 LIME, s. A viscous substance drawn over twigs, which catches and entan- 
 gles the wings of birds that light upon it ; matter of which mortar is 
 made ; the linden tree ; a species of lemon. 
 
 LIMEWATER, s. Is made by pouring water upon quicklime. 
 
 Lime-water is recommended in diabetes. 
 It is made by mixing lime with a large pro- 
 portion of boiling water, stirring the mixture 
 
 for some time, and afterwards pouring off the 
 transparent liquor, which is to be carefully 
 excluded from the air. 
 
 LIMPIT, *. A kind of shell-fish. 
 
 LINCHPIN, s. An iron pin that keeps the wheel on the axletree. 
 
 LINE, s. Longitudinal extension ; a slender string used in angling. 
 
 The most easy method of making hair into of a large horizontal wheel, and three very 
 
 lines is, by a small engine, which is sold at 
 most of the fishing-tackle shops. It consists 
 
 small ones, inclosed in a brass box, about a 
 quarter of an inch thick, and two inches in
 
 3-20 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [LlN 
 
 diameter ; the axis of each of the small wheels 
 is continued through the under side of the 
 box, and is formed into a hook ; by means of 
 a strong screw, it may be fixed on any post 
 or partition, and is set in motion by a small 
 winch in the centre of the box ; the process is 
 soon acquired, and it is thus used : Take as 
 many hairs as you purpose the line shall con- 
 tain, and divide them into three parts ; each 
 of these is to be tied to a piece of fine twine 
 doubled, and fixed to the hooks which depend 
 from the machine ; then take the piece of 
 lead which has a hook at its top, and after 
 tying the three parcels of hair together at the 
 loose end, hang the weight thereon : after 
 this, cut three grooves in the inside of a cork 
 at equal distances, and in each groove place a 
 division of the hairs, that, by gently turning 
 the engine, the links may turn with a greater 
 evenness to the lead. As the links grow 
 tighter, move the cork slowly upwards, and 
 when the whole is sufficiently twisted, take 
 out the cork and tie the link into a knot, and 
 so proceed till the quantity of links wanted 
 for a line are completed ; observing to lessen 
 the number of hairs in each link in such 
 proportion as that the line may be taper. 
 The links should then be laid for an hour 
 into cold water; some persons, whether a 
 hair starts or not, retwist them before they 
 are made into a line, and more particularly 
 when there is an odd hair in the number 
 twisted. Some put the hair for ten minutes 
 into warm water before working it into links. 
 
 In making lines, every hair in every link 
 should be equally big, round and even, that 
 the strength may be so proportionate that 
 they will not break singly, but altogether : 
 by carefully choosing the hairs, they will 
 stretch and bear a much stronger force than 
 when a faulty hair is included. Never 
 strain the hair before twisting; the best will 
 easily be selected by the eye, and two or 
 three inches of the bottom part of the hair 
 should be cut off, as it is generally defective. 
 The links should be twisted very slowly, and 
 not lie harsh, but so as to twine one with ano- 
 ther, and no more, for a hard twisted line is 
 always weak : by mixing chestnut, black, or any 
 other coloured hair, the line may be varied at 
 pleasure. 
 
 * 
 
 Lines of silk or hemp may be coloured by 
 a strong decoction of oak bark, which it is 
 believed resists the water, and adds to their 
 durability : an)' shade of an excellent russet 
 brown may be obtained according to the time 
 they remain in the decoction, which should 
 be used cold. 
 
 
 
 In leading of lines great care is needful to 
 balance the floats so nicely that a very small 
 touch will sink them. Some use for this pur- 
 pose lead shaped like a barleycorn, but shot 
 is better ; and for fine fishing have a number 
 of small in preference to a few large shot on 
 the line; the lowest of either ought to be 
 nine or ten inches from the hook. 
 
 LINE, v. To cover on the inside ; to put anything in the inside ; to cover 
 
 a bitch. 
 
 LING, s. Heath ; a kind of sea-fish. 
 LINIMENT, s. An application of a consistence rather thicker than oil, or 
 
 transparent preparations, such as soap liniment. 
 
 The following formulae are given as ex- 
 amples : 
 
 SOAP LINIMENT. 
 
 Hard soap . . . 1 oz. 
 
 Camphor . . 1 oz. 
 
 Oil of rosemary . 1 oz. 
 
 Rectified spirit . . 1 pint. 
 
 Cut up the soap, and let it stand with the 
 spirit until dissolved, then add the rest. 
 
 AMMONIA, OR VOLATILE LINIMENT. 
 
 Strong solution of ammonia I oz. 
 
 Olive oil . .2 oz Mix. 
 
 To this, camphor, or oil of turpentine is 
 sometimes added ; and the solution of am- 
 monia is joined, for some purposes, to the 
 soap liniment. The soap liniment is the 
 same as the celebrated opodeldoc, and may be 
 either solid or fluid, according to the propor- 
 
 with soft soap, and is then fluid with a larger 
 proportion of soap Vide EGYPTIACUM. 
 
 LINIMENT OF CAMPHOR, COMPOUND. 
 
 Camphor . 2 oz. 
 
 Spirit of lavender . 1 pint. 
 
 Solution of ammonia . 6 oz Mix. 
 Solution of ammonia is named also liquid 
 ammonia, and strong spirit of sal ammoniac. 
 See EMBROCATIONS. 
 
 LINIMENT FOR BAD THRUSHES AND CANKER. 
 
 1. Tar . . 4 oz Melt, and add 
 
 Muriatic acid 6 dr. 
 
 Verdigris . 4 dr. 
 
 Mix, and continue stirring until it is cold. 
 
 2. Tar, melted . . . 1 Ib. 
 Strong sulphuric acid, by weight 2 oz. 
 
 Stir them well together for some time, and 
 
 tion of soap used ; but it may be made also immediately before the mixture is used.
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 321 
 
 LINK, #. A single ring of a chain ; anything doubled and closed together ; 
 a chain, anything connecting ; any single part of a series or chain of 
 consequences ; a torch made of pitch and hards ; a thread of gut or 
 horse-hair. 
 
 LINNET (Linaria linota, CUVIER), s. A small singing bird. 
 
 This species is subject to much variety 
 with respect to the red markings which, at 
 certain ages and seasons, arc found upon the 
 head and breast, and this has occasioned it to 
 be multiplied into two distinct species by 
 various ornithologists, all of whom seem to 
 agree that the general colour of both are alike, 
 but assert that the greater redpole has none 
 of this colour upon the breast. On com- 
 paring the various authors who have given 
 this as a distinct species, we find they all 
 make it nearly the same as the redpole, but 
 not quite so rufous on the upper parts. The 
 principal distinction seems to be in the breast 
 being of a fine crimson colour, and none of 
 that colour on the head. 
 
 The male in full plumage has the bill 
 bluish; hides hazel; the head light brown; 
 the feathers on the crown darkest in their 
 middle ; sides of the neck inclining to ash- 
 colour; the forehead rosy red ; the back, sca- 
 pulars, and coverts of the wings, fine deep 
 rufous brown, lightest on the rump, and palest 
 on the margin of each feather ; the breast is 
 brown, with more or less spots like that on 
 the head; belly light rufous brown; vent 
 almost white ; quill-feathers dusky black, 
 with more or less white on the exterior and 
 interior webs, which forms a conspicuous bar 
 of that colour on the wing ; the tail is forked, 
 the feathers, like those of the quills, black, 
 margined with white, which colour predo- 
 minates on the inner webs; coverts of the 
 tail black, edged with grey ; legs brown. The 
 weight of the male is about five drachms, that 
 of the other sex rather less. The plumage 
 of the female is more dusky brown ; the 
 coverts of the wings rufous-brown ; sides of 
 the throat plain dirty white, the middle part 
 streaked ; breast and sides pale brown, with 
 dusky streaks; quills and tail like the other 
 sex, but the former not so deeply margined 
 with white, and of course no perceptible bar 
 on the wing. 
 
 These birds fly in flocks during winter, at 
 which time the males have little or none of 
 the red markings which, on the return of 
 spring, they put forth. 
 
 This linnet is very common throughout 
 Britain, extending as far as the Orkneys, 
 where it is abundant. During the summer 
 it resorts to waste land and commons, in the 
 upper parts of the country, where it breeds. 
 Furzy commons seem to he the favourite 
 resorts of these birds during that season ; the 
 
 bushy furze being admirably adapted to con- 
 ceal the nest from the prying eye, and some- 
 times a quickset or gooseberry-bush answers 
 the purpose. The nest is composed of moss 
 woven with wool, and lined with wool and 
 hair, very neatly put together ; the eggs are 
 four in number, of a bluish white, with a few 
 purplish specks and short lines ; their weight 
 from twenty-four to thirty grains. In the 
 month of April they pair, and commence 
 building their nest, and in May the first 
 broods are hatched ; but if the nest should 
 be destroyed, they will build another as late 
 as the month of August, appearing dissatisfied 
 until the object of their visit is accomplished. 
 During the time of nidification, and until the 
 young are hatched, the song of the linnet, 
 although short, possesses much sweetness. 
 At once brilliant and soft, the song of the 
 linnet consists of many irregular notes, taste- 
 fully put together in a clear and sonorous 
 tone, which continues during the whole year, 
 except at the moulting season. Besides its 
 own natural note, it will soon acquire the 
 notes of other birds, particularly the nightin- 
 gale ; and may be taught in a very short time 
 to imitate any of our tunes, if they are whis- 
 tled to it. After describing the mature bird, 
 Bechstein says, " a male of three years old is 
 distinguished in the spring, by the name of the 
 red linnet (Linotte Sanguine) ; the forehead is 
 then of a bright blood-red colour; the re- 
 mainder of the head being of a reddish ash- 
 colour; the top a little speckled with black. 
 After the moulting in autumn, we no longer 
 see the red upon the forehead, that colour 
 being hid by the white feathers ; the coverts 
 of the breast then assume a deep brown- 
 colour, and blackish spots begin to appear; 
 the interior feathers on the breast, which 
 were formerly red, are now of a brownish 
 grey, mixed with red. In this plumage it is 
 known by the name of the grey linnet. 
 
 " After the time of its second moulting, if 
 we part the reddish grey feathers on the fore- 
 head and breast, we find that they are still 
 red at the tips, and only hid by the yellowish 
 white borders of the new feathers." 
 
 In this state it is the rock or mountain 
 linnet (Linotte de Roche). 
 
 I have even," he adds, "had these birds 
 with the forehead and breast of a rich reddish 
 yellow." To this variety bird catchers give 
 the name of the yellow linnet. These va- 
 rieties of plumage do not occur with the
 
 322 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [LlN 
 
 female, which is besides considerably smaller. 
 In addition to these, there are many changes 
 produced by season and age ; for instance, as 
 
 LINSEED, s. The seed of flax. 
 
 Linseed, or flax-seed, abounds with oil and 
 mucilage, and is useful in the composition of 
 those emollient drinks given in inflammations 
 of the bladder and bowels, or complaints of 
 the urinary passages. A strong mucilaginous 
 drink may be made without bruising the 
 seeds, either by decoction or infusion. 
 
 Linseed Cake is that part of the linseed 
 which remains after the oil has been pressed 
 out. It is employed to fatten cattle, and is 
 
 11 . i -ITTI a 
 
 the bird increases in age, the red colour on 
 the head increases also Bechstein Selby 
 Montagu. 
 
 it is sold as linseed meal and linseed powder, 
 and often used in the composition of poultices. 
 Linseed Oil is sometimes employed as a 
 laxative, and, though very inferior to castor, 
 and even olive oil, may be occasionally sub- 
 stituted for it, on account of its being much 
 less expensive. It is used in making pectoral 
 emulsions, liniments, and ointments ; but 
 even for these purposes olive oil is preferable, 
 on account of the drying quality of linseed 
 oil. 
 
 given, occasionally, to horses. When ground 
 
 LINT, s. The soft substance commonly called flax ; linen scraped into soft 
 woolly substance to lay on sores. 
 
 LIP, s. The outer part of the mouth, the muscles that shoot beyond the 
 teeth ; the edge of anything. 
 
 LITTER, s. A kind of portable bed ; a carriage hung between two horses ; 
 the straw laid under animals ; a brood of young ; any number of things 
 thrown skittishly about ; a birth of animals. 
 
 LITTER, v. To bring forth, used of beasts ; to cover with things negli- 
 gently ; to cover with straw. 
 
 LIVER, *. One who lives ; one who lives in any particular manner ; one of 
 the entrails. LIVERGROWN, a. Having an increased liver. 
 
 LIZARD, s. An animal resembling a serpent, with legs added to it. 
 
 LOACH, s. A little fish. 
 
 This little fish is found in small brooks 
 among the gravel, or where there is a soil of 
 
 mud and gravel together, with weeds, and in 
 several of our rivers by the sides of sharp
 
 Loc] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 323 
 
 streams ; it seldom rises to the top of the 
 water, keeping at the bottom on the gravel, 
 upon which it feeds, and is, on that account, 
 in some places, called the groundling ; it is 
 frequent in the stream near Ameshury, in 
 Wiltshire, where, out of frolic, the sportsmen 
 swallow it down alive, in a glass of white 
 wine. 
 
 It is a slimy fish without scales, and of 
 rather a long make ; the mouth is small, 
 placed beneath, and has no teeth ; it is bearded 
 like the gudgeon and the barbel, having on 
 the upper mandible six small beards, one at 
 each corner of the mouth, and four at the end 
 of the nose ; the body is smooth and slippery, 
 and almost of the same thickness ; the colour 
 of the head, back, and sides, is in some white, 
 in others of a dirty yellow, very elegantly 
 
 marked with large spots, consisting of num- 
 berless minute black specks ; the pectoral, 
 dorsal, and caudal fins are also spotted ; the 
 belly and ventral fins of a pure white ; the 
 tail broad, and rather rounded. One of the 
 largest ever heard of by Mr. Pennant, was 
 four inches and three quarters in length, but 
 they seldom exceed three inches. The flesh 
 of the loach is singularly nutritious, and from 
 that circumstance, and its being equally grate- 
 ful to the palate, it is recommended to the 
 sick. The females, during summer, are gene- 
 rally full of spawn ; these fish are to be taken 
 with a Very small red worm, the bait touch- 
 ing the ground. The loach is used as a bait 
 for other fish, and for eels perhaps it is the 
 best. 
 
 LOAD, v. To burden, to freight ; to encumber ; to charge a gun ; to make 
 
 heavy. 
 LOAD, s. The leading vein in a mine ; the charge of a gun. 
 
 Loading Much as may be said on this 
 important head, I shall attempt to explain it 
 by one simple example : for instance, to load 
 a single gun of six, or double gun of seven, 
 eight, or nine pounds' weight, take a steel 
 charger, which holds precisely an ounce and 
 a half of shot; fill it brimful of powder, from 
 which first prime, and then put the remainder 
 into the barrel ; to this add the same measure 
 bumperful of shot, and then regulate the tops 
 of your flasks and belts accordingly. 
 
 Some little difference of charge will, of 
 course, be required between a twenty-two and 
 a fourteen gauge ; and, in this, we may be 
 guided by the shoulder, observing, at the same 
 time, the proportion of each here recom- 
 
 mended : but, unless the gun is very heavy, 
 a gauge of fourteen will recoil more than one 
 of twenty-two ; so that, after all, the above 
 charge might do equally well for both. 
 
 For those who have scales at hand, another 
 way will be to ascertain this by weight ; for 
 instance, to the guns above mentioned, put 
 one drachm and a half of powder, exclusive 
 of priming, to an ounce and a half of shot. 
 The proportion for a twelve pounds' gun to be 
 doubled ; eighteen pounds' trebled ; twenty- 
 four pounds' quadrupled, &c. with one trifling 
 deviation ; viz. -the larger the gun the less 
 should be the proportion of shot, as the larger 
 and longer the calibre the more powder may 
 be damaged in going down it ^Hawker. 
 
 LOB, s. Any one clumsy, or sluggish ; a large worm. 
 
 LOBE, s. A division, a distinct part ; used commonly for a part of the 
 lungs. 
 
 LOBSTER, s. A small crustaceous fish, having a cylindrical body with a 
 long tail and long antennae. It is found on all the rocky coasts of the 
 United Kingdom. 
 
 LOCK, s. An instrument composed of springs and bolts, used to fasten doors 
 and chests ; the part of the gun by which fire is struck ; a hug, a grap- 
 ple ; any enclosure; a quantity of hair or wool hanging together ; a tuft; 
 a contrivance to raise the water on a river or canal made navigable. 
 
 To dissect a gun-lock Place the lock 
 
 on full cock, screw on the cramp, let 
 down the cock, and the main-spring will 
 fall off ; replacing it when necessary, by let- 
 ting down the cock, hooking the spring, full 
 
 cocking, and then removing the cramp. I 
 need not detail the mode of taking to pieces 
 the whole of the lock ; but I may remind 
 you, that, in separating the cock from the 
 tumbler, the turn-screw should on no account 
 Y 2
 
 324 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Loc 
 
 be placed between the cock and the lock- 
 plate, but a small blow should be struck on 
 the end of the tumbler, which may protrude 
 through the cock, or, if level with it, the end 
 of a. turnscrew may be placed upon it, and the 
 other end struck as a punch ; while the plate 
 of the lock itself, disencumbered of course 
 of all the other movements, is held in the 
 palm of the left hand, the turnscrew being 
 held in its place by the finger and thumb of 
 the same hand. In inserting the scear, it is 
 well to remember that this is to be done 
 after re-fixing the feather spring, by hooking 
 the end in the tumbler before the re-adjust- 
 ment of the mainspring, and pressing back 
 the other end by force till the screw is put in 
 
 LOCKJAW, s. 
 
 Castration, nicking, docking, punctures, 
 particularly of the feet ; lacerations, and even 
 contusions, will bring it on. I have seen it 
 follow a fall, which presented nothing more 
 than a moderate contusion in the shoulder. In 
 America, it is not an unfrequent result of cas- 
 tration; and in some tropical climates com- 
 pression of the cord in the operation must 
 always be avoided, so apt is any irritation to 
 produce it in these regions. It is considered 
 as most apt to follow wounds of tendinous and 
 ligamentous parts. 
 
 It commences usually by a certain stiffness 
 about the throat, and difficulty in swallowing, 
 or in turning the head, which soon extends 
 itself to the jaws, and occasions a contracted 
 state of the mouth, with the usual inclination 
 to masticate, but painfully and imperfectly 
 performed. As this increases, the jaws can 
 hardly be separated at all, when farriers say 
 the horse is ' jaw set.' By the tetanic action 
 of the retractor muscle, the haw is drawn 
 partly over the globe, at the same time that 
 the tension of the other ocular muscles gives 
 the eyes a vivid appearance and retroverted 
 aspect, which ill accords with the more placid 
 effect of a protruded haw. As the disease ex- 
 tends over the voluntary muscles of the trunk 
 and extremities, the appearances are distress- 
 ing in the extreme. The head is raised, the 
 ears pointed forwards, the nostrils dilated, and 
 the nose is carried out. The legs straddle 
 wide, the tail is cocked, and quivers with the 
 
 its place. This, I confess, is somewhat more 
 difficult than half securing the bridle, and 
 pntting on the feather spring last by pushing 
 it into its place when the screw is through it, 
 though not tight ; but I like the first-men- 
 tioned of these ways the best. Let me re- 
 commend you to clarify the oil you use for 
 the purpose of lubricating the locks, by filling 
 the bottle with shot, drawing off the clear oil, 
 and repeating the process again and again at 
 your leisure. See here is some I have had ele- 
 ven years, and you will observe it is free from 
 that cloudy deposit which oil not thus or other- 
 wise clarified con tains, and which is apt to leave 
 a black stain behind it. But we are to be up 
 earTy so good night Hints to Sportsmen. 
 
 constant fatigue of the levator muscles ; and 
 the abdominal muscles are drawn tight over 
 the belly, giving to the horse an appearance of 
 having just completed some extraordinary ex- 
 ertion. The complaint presents a few mo- 
 ments of relaxation sometimes, from the ex- 
 treme and powerful contractions of the over- 
 strained muscles ; while profuse sweats mark 
 the distress and exertions of convulsion. The 
 circulation is, in most instances, at first not 
 much affected ; but as the disease increases, 
 the pulse quickens, and becomes tremulous 
 and irregular. The respiration also gradually 
 becomes hurried and irregular ; costiveness is 
 usually present, and the urine is sparingly 
 made. In this state the suffering animal may 
 remain from six to ten days, when, worn out 
 by inanition and irritation, he often falls life- 
 less, or expires after a short state of convul- 
 sion. 
 
 The general curative practice in tetanic 
 cases among veterinarians, foreign and Eng- 
 lish, of the present day, leans to the free use 
 of the lancet, to complete opening of the 
 bowels, and to a liberal administration of 
 opiates, as being every one of them powerful 
 antispasmodics singly, but in this painful affec- 
 tion proving doubly so conjointly ; to which 
 are added, blistering the spine ; and the bene- 
 ficial effects of this practice, as exemplified by 
 experience, warrant its being at once proceeded 
 on to the exclusion of every other, until 
 it has totally failed Elaine. 
 
 LODGE, s. A small house in a park or forest ; a keeper's hut. 
 LOGGATS, s. A play or game, now called skittles. 
 LOGWOOD, .?. A wood much used in dyeing. 
 LOIN, s. The back of an animal ; loins, the reins. 
 
 The loins occupy the attention of all good 
 judges in their consideration of a horse, and 
 for the purposes of strength they can hardly 
 be too broad : the back extends to the poste- 
 
 rior part of a common sized saddle, and where 
 the back ends, the loins begin. Sometimes, 
 from a defect in the sacral processes of the 
 vertebra 1 , this junction of the back and loins
 
 LOT] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 3-25 
 
 presents an indentation, as though the union 
 was incomplete. This may be considered, 
 in some degree, as a defect, inasmuch as it 
 deprives the part of muscular attachment, and 
 such horses are said to be badly loined. The 
 strength of the loins depends on the length 
 of the transverse processes of the lumbar ver- 
 tebrae, which should be long, that there may 
 be an extensive surface for the attachment of 
 the muscles of the back : the muscles them- 
 selves should also be powerful on each side, 
 giving width to the loins, and seeming by 
 their enlargement, as it were, to swallow the 
 back bone. When the protuberances of the 
 
 ilium are very prominent, the horse is called 
 ragged hipped, which is injurious to the ap- 
 pearance only, except in cases where it seems 
 to arise from a paucity of muscle to fill up the 
 intervening spaces. From the loins to the 
 setting on of the tail, the line should be long 
 and very slightly rounded ; by which means, 
 also, the distance between the hip and the 
 point of the buttock will be considerable. 
 This formation is peculiar to the improved 
 or blood breed, and in every point of view 
 appears the most perfect ; for it affords a very 
 increased surface for the insertion of the 
 powerful muscles of these parts Elaine. 
 
 LONGOPEN, s. The second long feather in the hawk's wing. 
 
 Loo, s. A game at cards. 
 
 Loo or lue, subdivided into limited and un- 
 limited loo, a game, the complete knowledge 
 of which can be easily acquired, is played with 
 five or three cards, though most commonly 
 with five, dealt from a whole pack, either first 
 three and then two, or by one at a time. 
 Several persons may play together, but the 
 greatest number can be admitted when played 
 with three cards only. 
 
 After five cards have been given to each 
 player, another is turned up for trump ; the 
 knave of clubs generally, or sometimes the 
 knave of the trump suit, as agreed upon, is 
 the highest card, and styled Pani ; the ace of 
 trumps is next in value, and the rest in suc- 
 cession, as at whist. Each player has the 
 liberty of changing for others from the pack 
 all or any of the five cards dealt, or of throw- 
 ing up the hand in order to escape being looed. 
 Those who play their cards either with or 
 without changing, and do not gain a trick, are 
 looed ; as likewise is the case with all who 
 
 have stood the game, if a flush occur, which 
 obliges each, except a player holding Pam, or 
 an inferior flush, to deposit a stake to be di- 
 vided among the winners at the ensuing deal, 
 according to the tricks which may then be 
 made. For instance, if every one at dealing 
 should stake half-a-crown, the tricks are en- 
 titled to sixpence apiece, and whoever is looed 
 must put down half-a-crown, exclusive of the 
 deal : sometimes it is settled that each person 
 looed shall pay a sum equal to what happens 
 to be on the table at the time. Five cards of 
 a suit, or four with Pam, compose a flush, 
 which sweeps the board, and yields only to a 
 superior flush, or an equal one in the elder 
 hand. When the ace of trumps is led, it is 
 usual to say " Pam be civil," the holder of 
 Pam is then expected to let the ace pass. 
 
 When loo is played with three cards, they 
 are dealt by one at a time, Pam is omitted, 
 and the cards are not exchanged, nor per- 
 mitted to be thrown up Hoyle. 
 
 LOOM, s. A bird. 
 
 LOOP, *. A double through which a string or lace is drawn, an ornamental 
 double or fringe. LOOPS or RINGS are placed along the fishing rod 
 to conduct the line from the reel to the upper extremity. 
 
 LORD-WARDEN, s. An officer in forestry. 
 
 Under him are two distinct appointments of 
 officers, the one to preserve the venison of 
 the forest, and the other to preserve its vert : 
 the former term, in the language of the forest 
 
 law, comprehends every species of game ; the 
 latter signifies every thing that bears a green 
 leaf within a forest that may cover a deer, 
 but especially great and thick coverts. 
 
 LORE, (Lorum, LINN.) in ornithology, is the space between the bill and 
 the eye, which in the grebe genus is bare, but in other birds is generally 
 covered with feathers. 
 
 LORIMER or LORINER, s. Bridle cutter. 
 
 LOT, ,v. Fortune ; a chance ; a die, or anything used in determining 
 chances.
 
 3:26 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Lo, 
 
 LOUGH, *. A lake, a large inland standing water. 
 
 LOWBELL, s. A kind of fowling in the night, in which the birds are awak- 
 ened by a bell, and lured by a flame. 
 
 LOWLAND, s. The country that is low in respect of neighbouring hills. 
 
 LUBRICITATE, v. To smooth, to make slippery. 
 
 LUCK, s. Chance, accident, fortune, hap; fortune, good or bad. 
 
 LUG, s. A land measure, a pole or perch ; a worm found by digging in 
 oozy sand, an excellent bait for flat fish ; the sail of a lugger. 
 
 LUGGER, *. A fast-sailing vessel with three masts, much used for smug- 
 gling and privateering. They vary in size from fifty to one hundred 
 and fifty tons, and are useful vessels for any purposes requiring 
 dispatch. 
 
 The lugger is, I think, the most inconve- 
 nient rig, especially for a yacht ; the spars are 
 so heavy that they require all hands to move 
 them. They generally have two sets of lugs 
 large ones, which require dipping every 
 time you tack ; and small working lugs, 
 which do not require dipping, the tack coming 
 to the foot of the mast. The latter are gene- 
 rally used, except in making long reaches, as 
 across Channel, &c. &c. 
 
 Another great objection to a lugger is, 
 your decks are so encumbered with the spare 
 spars and sails, which take up a great deal of 
 room; besides the latter being exposed almost 
 
 LUMFFISH, s. A sort offish. 
 
 continually to the weather, which they must 
 be while kept bent ready for setting ; and, 
 thirdly, a lugger is seldom fit to be altered to 
 any thing but a schooner, not having breadth 
 enough for one mast, which, after all, for 
 beauty and speed, is the best : indeed, sailing 
 men are so perfectly aware of this now, that 
 you never see a schooner or lugger enter 
 against a cutter at all near their tonnage. 
 Take them to sea, and they might have a 
 chance; though even there (setting aside ac- 
 cidents) I would back the cutter in a trial ; 
 but in fine weather or smooth water there is 
 no comparison Sport. May.
 
 LUR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 327 
 
 LUNAR, a. Relating to the moon, under the dominion of the moon. 
 LUNGS, s. The lights, the organs of respiration. 
 
 Each side of the cavity of the chest is oc- 
 cupied by soft, spongy, and slightly elastic 
 masses, called lungs, having the heart ap- 
 pended between them. In a state of disten- 
 sion they completely fill the parietes of the 
 thorax, to which their figure is exactly adap- 
 ted. The lungs have a distinct division into 
 a right and left mass, each of which presents 
 deep fissures, partially dividing its substance 
 into what are called its lobes. These divi- 
 sions are not always the same in every sub- 
 ject, but in the majority of instances the right 
 and largest lung presents three lobuli, the 
 left two only. As already described, the 
 
 LURCH, j. A term at cards. 
 
 LURCH, v. To win two games instead of one at cards. 
 
 LURCHER (Canis indagator), s. A dog. 
 
 pleura first lines the thoracic cavity, and is 
 then reflected over the lungs, affording them 
 a dense covering : a second reflection from 
 each lung by a union of its laminae, forms a 
 septum, or a complete division of the chest, 
 into two distinct cavities, and thus effectually 
 shuts out all communication between one 
 lung and the other, except by their vessels. 
 The colour of the lungs varies considerably : 
 in the colt they present a lively pinky hue ; 
 in the adult horse they are darker, and in 
 very old subjects they have a greyish cast 
 and granulated appearance Blaine. 
 
 This variety is smaller than the greyhound, 
 with its limbs stronger and shorter, the head 
 less acute, with short, erect, and half-pricked 
 ears ; the whole body and tail are covered 
 with rough coarse hair ; it is grizzly about the 
 muzzle, and is of a pale sand colour, or iron 
 grey. 
 
 The lurcher is supposed to be originally 
 produced, first, by a cross of the greyhound 
 and harrier, and afterwards re-crossed with 
 the terrier ; hence the quickness of his scent, 
 which he possesses in a strong degree. The 
 habits of this dog lead him to concealment 
 and cunning; and he is often employed in 
 killing hares and rabbits under the cloud of 
 
 night, for which nature seems eminently to 
 have fitted him. When taken to the warren, 
 he lies squat, or steals out with the utmost 
 precaution, when he either sees or scents the 
 rabbits feeding, and, like his progenitor, the 
 greyhound, darts upon them with exceeding 
 quickness, without barking or making the 
 least noise. He is trained to bring the booty 
 to his master, who often waits at some dis- 
 tance to receive it. One of these dogs will 
 kill a great many rabbits in the course of a 
 night. Bewick says, that they were so de- 
 structive, that they are now with great pro- 
 priety proscribed, and the breed is almost 
 extinct.
 
 328 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Lua 
 
 LURE, s. Something held out to call a hawk ; any enticement. 
 
 The use of this important implement in 
 breaking falcons, is thus described by Sir John 
 Sebright : 
 
 The hawk is to be fed upon the lure, be- 
 ing first made to come to it when held very 
 near him, then when held a little farther off; 
 it is to be next thrown upon the ground to a 
 small distance, and thus he is to be brought 
 by degrees to fly to it, and to seize it eagerly, 
 however far it may be thrown. 
 
 An assistant is now to swing the lure at 
 some distance from the falconer, who casts oif 
 the hawk. 
 
 It is to be thrown into the air when the 
 hawk is flying towards it. but so that he can- 
 not attain it until it falls to the ground, lest 
 he should be hurt by striking it in his flight. 
 
 When this lesson has been repeated, until 
 the hawk has become eager to take the lure, 
 the assistant is to swing it as before, but is to 
 take it into his hand when the hawk is com- 
 ing ; he is then to swing it again as soon as 
 
 LURID, a. Gloomy, dismal ; a yellow colour bordering- on a blue. 
 
 LURK, v. To lie in wait, to lie hidden, to lie close. 
 
 LURKINGPLACE, s. Hiding place, secret place. 
 
 LUSTRE, s. Brightness, splendour, glitter ; a sconce with lights ; the space 
 
 of five years. 
 
 LUSTY, a. Stout, vigorous, healthy, able of body. 
 LUXATE, v. To put out of joint ; to disjoint ; to displace a limb. 
 LUXATION, s. The act of disjointing ; anything disjointed ; the displacing 
 
 a limb. 
 
 LUXURIANT, a. Exuberant, superfluous, plenteous. 
 LYMPHATIC, *. A vessel containing lymph. 
 
 the hawk has passed ; and finally, to throw it 
 upon the ground, when the hawk is returning 
 towards him. 
 
 In this way the hawk will soon be taught to 
 fly round the falconer, bending his flight in- 
 wards when the lure is shown to him, or 
 when he hears the call of the falconer, who 
 should always halloo when he is luring. He 
 may thus be made to follow the falconer 
 wherever he pleases ; this is called waiting on. 
 
 When the hawk has alighted upon the lure, 
 the falconer is to walk round him, whistle to 
 him while he is feeding, and reward him with 
 a good meal when he is taken up. 
 
 It is thus that hawks are made obedient to 
 the lure, and that they are exercised when 
 they cannot be flown at game, but they must 
 not be kept too long upon the wing, or they 
 would acquire the habit of flying low ; and it 
 is the perfection of a slight falcon to soar as 
 high as possible Sebright.
 
 
 THE MAGPIE. 
 
 JVlACAW, 5. A foreign bird of the parrot kind ; its plumage is very 
 splendid, and its feathers valuable in tying salmon flies. Shop flies are 
 frequently tied with imitation feathers, which, on exposure to the sun, 
 become faded and useless. 
 
 MACKEREL, s. A sea fish. Vide SEA FISHING. 
 
 MACKEREL-GALE, s- A strong breeze, favourable for killing mackerel. 
 
 MAD, a. Disordered in the mind ; enraged, furious. 
 
 MADNESS, s. Distraction ; fury, wildness, rage. Vide HYDROPHOBIA. 
 
 MAGGOT, *. A small grub which turns into a fly. 
 
 MAGNETIC, a. Relating to the magnet; having powers correspondent to 
 those of the magnet ; attractive, having the power to draw things 
 distant. 
 
 MAGPIE or PIANET (Corvus pica, LINN. ; La Pie, BUFF.) s. A bird. 
 
 Its length is about eighteen inches ; bill 
 strong and black ; eyes hazel ; the head, neck, 
 and breast are of a deep black, which is finely 
 contrasted with the snowy whiteness of the 
 under parts and scapulars ; the neck-feathers 
 are long, as are also those on the back, 
 which extend towards the rump, leaving only 
 a small space, of a greyish ash-colour, be- 
 tween them and the tail coverts, which are 
 black ; the plumage in general is glossed with 
 green, purple, and blue, which catch the eye 
 
 in different lights ; the tail is very long, and 
 rather wedge-shaped ; the under-tail coverts, 
 thighs, and legs are black : on the throat and 
 part of the neck there is a kind of feathers, 
 mixed with the others, resembling strong, 
 whitish hairs. 
 
 This beautiful bird is everywhere common 
 in England; it is likewise found in various 
 parts of the continent, but not so far north as 
 Lapland, nor farther south than Italy : it is 
 met with in America, but not commonly, and
 
 330 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 is migratory there. It feeds, like the crow, on 
 almost every thing animal as well as vegeta- 
 ble. TJie female builds her nest with great 
 art, leaving a hole in the side for her admit- 
 tance, and covering the whole upper-part with 
 an interweaving of thorny twigs, closely en- 
 tangled, thereby securing her retreat from the 
 rude attacks of other birds : but it is not safety 
 alone she consults ; the inside is furnished 
 with a sort of mattrass, composed of wool 
 and other soft materials, on which her young 
 repose : she lays seven or eight eggs, of a pale 
 green-colour, spotted with black. 
 
 The magpie is crafty and familiar, and may 
 be taught to pronounce words, and even short 
 sentences, and will imitate any particular noise 
 
 MAGPIE HAWKING, s. 
 
 Magpies may be flown with eyess slight 
 falcons, and afford excellent sport. 
 
 A down or common, where low trees or 
 thorn bushes are dispersed at the distance of 
 from thirty to fifty yards apart, is the place 
 best calculated for this diversion. 
 
 When a magpie is seen at a distance, a 
 hawk is immediately to be cast off. The mag- 
 pie will take refuge in a bush the moment 
 that he sees the falcon, and will remain there 
 until the falcon arrives, with the hawk waiting 
 on in the air. The magpie is to be driven 
 from his retreat, and the hawk, if at a good 
 pitch, will stoop at him as he passes to another 
 bush, from whence he is to be driven in the 
 same way, another hawk having been previ- 
 ously cast off, so that one or the other may 
 always be so situated as to attack him to ad- 
 vantage. 
 
 The second hawk is necessary, for the mag- 
 pie shifts with great cunning and dexterity to 
 avoid the stoop ; and when hard pressed, owing 
 to the bushes being rather far apart, will pass 
 under the bellies of the horses, flutter along 
 a cart rut, and avail himself of every little 
 inequality of the ground in order to escape. 
 
 Four or five assistants, besides the falconer, 
 (who should attend solely to his hawks) are 
 required for this sport. They should be well 
 
 which it hears. It is addicted, like other birds 
 of its kind, to stealing, and will hoard up its 
 provisions. It is smaller than the jackdaw, 
 and its wings are shorter in proportion; ac- 
 cordingly its flight is not so lofty, nor so well 
 supported : it never undertakes long journeys, 
 but flies only from tree to tree, at moderate 
 
 distances. 
 
 * 
 
 To destroy magpies Wait till the fe- 
 male sits hard on her eggs ; and then go, late 
 in the evening, with some large shot in a 
 duck-gun, by which means you may either 
 take her as she flies out of the tree, or blow 
 up the whole concern by firing through the 
 nest Bewick Hawker. 
 
 mounted and provided with whips; for the 
 magpie cannot be driven from a bush by a 
 stick ; but the crack of a whip will force him 
 to leave it, even when he is so tired as hardly 
 to be able to fly. Nothing can be more ani- 
 mating than this sport ; it is, in my opinion, 
 far superior to every other kind of hawking. 
 The object of the chase is fully a match for 
 its pursuers a requisite absolutely necessary 
 to give an interest to any sport of this kind ; 
 and it has the advantage of giving full em- 
 ployment to the company, which is not the 
 case in partridge-hawking. 
 
 The magpie will always endeavour to make 
 his way to some strong cover ; care, therefore, 
 must be taken to counteract him, and to 
 drive him to that part of the ground, where 
 the bushes are farthest from each other. It 
 is not easy to take a magpie in a hedge. Some 
 of the horsemen must be on each side of it; 
 some must ride behind, and some before him ; 
 for, unless compelled to rise, by being sur- 
 rounded on all sides, he will flutter along the 
 hedge, so as to shelter himself from the stoop 
 of the falcon. Many requisites are necessary 
 to afford this sport in perfection a favourable 
 
 country, good hawks, and able assistants 
 
 Sebright. 
 
 MAID or MAIDEN-RAY, s. A species of skate fish. They are amazingly 
 plenty on the North West Coast of Ireland, and only used as food by 
 the poorer classes. 
 
 MAIZE, s. Indian wheat. 
 
 MALANDERS, s. A dry scab on the pastern of horses. 
 
 Malanders is a disorder that attacks the it is not so considerable as to produce lame- 
 back part, or flexure, of the knee joint, and 
 depends upon a combination of mange and 
 grease. It appears as a scurfy or scabby 
 
 eruption, and is often very painful, causing 
 some degree of lameness from the pain the 
 animal feels in moving the joint. Sometimes 
 
 ness, or any apparent inconvenience, but 
 generally becomes troublesome and obstinate 
 unless attended to. Salanders occur in the 
 fore part, or flexure, of the hock joint, and are 
 of the same nature as malauders. They 
 should first be well washed with soap and
 
 MAL] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 331 
 
 water, and all the scurf and loose cuticle 
 completely removed. They may then be 
 cured by the following ointments : 
 
 OINTMENT FOR MALANDERS AND SALANDERS. 
 
 No. 1. Ointment of nitrate of mercury, 
 
 commonly named citrine ointment. 
 
 No. 2. Hog's lard, two ounces ; red preci- 
 pitate, finely powdered, two drachms. 
 
 No. 3. Hog's lard, four ounces ; melt, and 
 stir in Goulard's extract, one ounce 
 
 White. 
 
 MALE, a. Of the sex that begets young, not female. 
 MALE, s. The he of any species. 
 MALEFEATHERS, *. Those on the breast of a hawk. 
 MALLARD,*. The drake of the wild duck. 
 
 The mallard, or wild-drake, weighs from 
 thirty-six to forty ounces, and measures twenty- 
 three inches in length, and thirty-five in 
 breadth : the bill is of a yellowish-green co- 
 lour, not very flat, about an inch broad, and 
 two and a half long, from the corners of the 
 mouth to the tip of the nail : the head and 
 upper-half of the neck, are of a glossy, deep, 
 changeable, green, terminated in the middle 
 of the neck by a white collar, with which it 
 is nearly encircled : the lower part of the 
 neck, breast, and shoulders, are of a deep 
 vinous chestnut : the covering scapular fea- 
 thers are of a kind of silvery white ; those 
 underneath, rufous ; and both are prettily 
 crossed with small waved threads of brown : 
 wing-coverts ash ; quills brown ; and between 
 these intervenes the beauty-spot (common in 
 the duck tribe) which crosses the closed wing 
 in a transverse, oblique, direction ; it is of a 
 rich, glossy, purple, with violet or green re- 
 flections, and bordered by a double streak of 
 black and white. The belly is of a pale grey, 
 delicately pencilled and crossed with number- 
 less narrow-waved, dusky lines, which, on the 
 
 sides and long feathers that reach over the 
 thighs, are more strongly and distinctly marked : 
 the upper and under tail-coverts, lower part of 
 the back, and rump, are black ; the latter 
 glossed with green : the four middle tail- 
 feathers are also black, with purple reflec- 
 tions, and, like those of the domestic drake, 
 are stiffly curled upwards ; the rest are sharp 
 pointed, and fade off to the exterior sides, from 
 a brown to a dull white ; legs, toes, and webs 
 red. 
 
 The plumage of the female is very different 
 from that of the male, and partakes of none 
 of his beauties, except the spot on the wings. 
 All the other parts are plain brown, marked 
 with black. She makes her nest, lays from 
 ten to sixteen greenish-white eggs, and rears 
 her young generally in the most sequestered 
 mosses or bogs, far from the haunts of man, 
 and hidden from his sight among reeds and 
 rushes. To her young helpless unfledged 
 family (and they are nearly three months 
 before they can fly), she is a fond, attentive, 
 and watchful parent, carrying or leading them 
 from one pool to another, as her fears or in-
 
 332 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 clinations direct her ; and she is known in 
 this country to use the same wily stratagems 
 to mislead the sportsman and his dog, as those 
 before noticed respecting the partridge. 
 
 Like the rest of the duck tribes, the mal- 
 lards, in prodigious numbers, quit the north 
 at the end of autumn, and, migrating south- 
 ward, arrive at the beginning of winter in 
 large flocks, and spread themselves over all ' 
 
 MALLEABLE, a. Capable of being spread by beating. 
 
 MALMSEY, s. A sort of grape ; a kind of wine. 
 
 MALT, s. Grain steeped in water and fermented, then dried on a kiln. 
 
 the loughs and marshy wastes in the British 
 isles. They pair in the spring, when the 
 greatest part of them again retire northward 
 to breed ; but many straggling pairs stay with 
 us : they, as well as preceding colonists of 
 their tribes, remain to rear their young, who 
 become natives, and continue with us through- 
 out the year Bewick. 
 
 Malt is very serviceable to horses that are 
 recovering from fever : it is useful, also, when 
 the system is weakened by large abscesses 
 which discharge copiously, and in almost 
 every case depending on debility. 
 
 It appears to be easy of digestion, and very 
 nutritious, though not so stimulating as eats. 
 
 Green malt has been recommended for im- 
 proving the condition of horses, and giving 
 them a smooth, glossy coat. Infusion of malt 
 is sometimes given with advantage to sick 
 horses ; but they generally require to be 
 drenched with it, which is a great incon- 
 venience White. 
 
 ed at the ends, and kept damp with a wet 
 sponge. 
 
 MALT, v. To make malt. 
 
 MAMMALIA, s. The first class of animals in the system of Linnaeus. 
 
 MANAGE, v. To carry on ; to train a horse to graceful action ; to tame or 
 
 break hawks in. 
 
 MANCHINEEL, s. A large tree, a native of the West Indies ; a dyewood. 
 MANDIBLE, s. The jaw, the instrument of manducation. 
 MANE, s. The hair which hangs down on the neck of horses. 
 
 When a horse's mane stares or lies ir- 
 regularly, it should be neatly platted ; lead- 
 
 MANED, a. Having a mane. 
 MANGE, s. The itch or scab in cattle 
 
 The canine mange is a chronic inflammation 
 of the skin, dependent, in some instances, on 
 a morbid constitutional action : it is infectious 
 also, from miasms produced from animal ex- 
 halations; and it is notoriously contagious 
 from personal communication with one af- 
 fected. It is not, however, so completely con- 
 tagious, in all its varieties, as is supposed, for 
 I have known dogs to sleep with affected ones 
 for some time without becoming mangy ; but 
 in the majority of cases it is otherwise ; and 
 in some the predisposition to it is such, that 
 almost simple and momentary contact will 
 produce it. The mange which is received by 
 contagion is more readily given to another 
 than that which is generated. The uniform 
 presence of animalculi within the psoric pus- 
 tules has revived the idea that it originates in 
 the attack of acari. 
 
 Mange is also hereditary. A bitch, lined 
 by a mangy dog, is very liable to produce mangy 
 puppies ; but the progeny of a mangy bitch is 
 certain to become affected sooner or later ; 
 and I have seen puppies covered with it when 
 
 a few days old. The morbid action by which 
 mange is generated is excited in various ways, 
 and by various causes. When a number of 
 dogs are confined together, the acrid effluvia 
 of their transpiration and urine begets amiasm 
 productive of a virulent mange, very difficult 
 to be removed. Close confinement, with 
 salted food, is even more certainly productive 
 of mange ; thus dogs who have come from 
 distant countries, on ship-board, are generally 
 affected with it. Very high living, with little 
 exercise, is a frequent cause : a state nearly 
 approaching to starvation is also not unfavour- 
 able to it. In both these apparent contra- 
 rieties, the balance between the skin and the 
 digestive functions is not preserved, and the 
 disease follows as a necessary consequence. 
 The disease has some permanent and fixed 
 varieties ; it has also some anomalies ; but 
 the pruritus or itching is common to all. 
 
 The scabby mange, one of the most com- 
 mon forms under which this eruptive com- 
 plaint appears, is an extension of the secretory 
 pores of the skin in very minute red vesicles,
 
 MAN] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 333 
 
 that at first are distinct, but as they extend 
 become pustular, confluent, and scabby. 
 Sometimes simple linear cracks of the cuticle 
 seem to pour out a serous fluid, which con- 
 cretes into scab. It is occasionally confined 
 to the back ; at others it is found principally in 
 the joints of the extremities. 
 
 * 
 
 The red mange, so called from a redness 
 of both skin and hair in the parts affected, is 
 likewise not unfrequent, and partakes much 
 of an herpetic character. In this variety there 
 is less pustular eruption, but nearly the whole 
 skin of the body, particularly in white-haired 
 dogs, is in a state of active inflammation : it is 
 also hot to the feel, and itches intolerably. In 
 the red mange, the hair itself becomes mor- 
 bidly affected, and alters in its colour, parti- 
 cularly about the extremities : it also falls off, 
 and leaves the skin bare, much thickened, and 
 puckered into stubborn wrinkles. Dogs with 
 the strong coarse hair called wired are very 
 liable to this state ; in which a magnifying 
 glass applied will often detect innumerable 
 minute ulcerations, covered by furfuraceous 
 scales. * * * 
 
 Acute mange Besides that variety just 
 noticed, there is yet a more directly acute 
 form of the complaint, which puts on an ap- 
 pearance not unlike erysipelas in some instan- 
 ces; in others it is a pure erythema, or red 
 efflorescence ; but more frequently it is accom- 
 panied with some ulceration. It commences 
 by a direct febrile attack, with panting heat, 
 and restlessness ; next some part of the body 
 (usually the head) begins to swell, which, the 
 second or third day, gives place to ulceration 
 of the nose, eyelids, lips, ears, neck, &c. 
 This ulceration proves superficial, but exten- 
 sive ; and continues a longer or a shorter 
 period, as the treatment is more or less judi- 
 cious. Bleeding, aperients, and febrifuges, 
 form the constitutional remedies : the topical 
 ones are tepid fomentations the first two days ; 
 and, when the tumefaction has given place to 
 ulceration, the application of a cooling unguent 
 of superacetate of lead (sugar of lead), with 
 spermaceti ointment, will be proper. What 
 remains of the affection, in a week or ten days' 
 time, may be treated as common mange. 
 
 * 
 
 Mange is apt to be considered more trouble- 
 some than hurtful, which is a great error; for 
 it is not only invariably hurtful, but very 
 often fatal also : when long continued, it fre- 
 quently ends in dropsy. It sometimes dis- 
 eases the mesenteric glands, and the subjects 
 of it die tabid : neither in any case can it be 
 neglected with impunity. In sporting dogs 
 it is injurious to their qualities as well as their 
 health : their scent invariably becomes im- 
 paired, and their general powers are always 
 weakened by its irritation. 
 
 The following formula? are adapted for the 
 first described form of mange : 
 No. 1. Powdered sulphur, yellow 
 
 or black . . 4 oz. 
 
 Muriate of ammonia (sal 
 ammoniac), crude pow- 
 dered . . 4 oz. 
 Aloes, powdered . 1 dr. 
 Venice turpentine . ^ oz. 
 
 Lard, or other fatty matter 6 oz Mix. 
 
 Or, 
 
 No. 2. Tobacco in powder . ^ oz. 
 
 White hellebore in powder ^ oz. 
 Sulphur in powder . 4 oz. 
 Aloes in powder . 2 dr. 
 
 Lard, or other fatty matter 6 oz. 
 Or, 
 
 No. 3. Powdered charcoal . 2 oz. 
 
 Sulphur powdered . 4 oz. 
 
 Potash . . 1 dr. 
 
 Lard, &c. . .6 oz. 
 
 Venice turpentine . \ oz. 
 Or, 
 
 No. 4. Sulphuric acid (oil of vit- 
 riol) 
 Lard 
 Tar . 
 Powdered lime 
 
 1 dr. 
 6 oz. 
 2oz. 
 1 oz. 
 
 3oz. 
 
 Or, 
 
 No. 5. Decoction of tobacco 
 
 Decoction of white helle- 
 bore . . . 3 oz. 
 Oxymuriate of quicksil- 
 ver (corrosive subli- 
 mate) . . 5 gr. 
 Dissolve the corrosive sublimate in the de- 
 coctions, which should be of a moderate 
 strength ; when dissolved, add two drachms of 
 powdered aloes, to render the mixture nau- 
 seous, and prevent its being licked off, which 
 ought to be very carefully guarded against : 
 the best means for this purpose is a muzzle 
 having a very fine wire capping or mouth- 
 piece, which will effectually prevent the dog 
 from getting his tongue applied to the oint- 
 ment, which would prove his almost certain 
 destruction. 
 
 The formulae for red mange are as follow : 
 
 No. 6. Of either of the ointments 
 already prescribed, 1, 
 2, or 3 . . 6 oz. 
 
 Mercurial ointment, mild 1 oz Mix. 
 
 Or, 
 
 No. 7. Powdered charcoal . 1 oz. 
 
 Prepared chalk . . 1 oz. 
 
 Superacetate, or sugar of 
 
 lead . . . 1 dr. 
 
 White precipitate of quick- 
 silver . . . 2 dr. 
 
 Sulphur . . .2 oz. 
 
 Lard . 5 oz.
 
 334 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [MAN 
 
 In some cases, the mange ointment, No. 4, 
 alternated with No. 6, one being used one 
 day, and the other the next, will be found 
 beneficial. In others, benefit has been de- 
 rived from the wash, No. 5, united with lime 
 water. In slight cases of red mange, the fol- 
 lowing has been found singularly successful : 
 No. 8. Oxmuriate of quicksilver 
 (corrosive sublimate) 
 powdered . . 6 gr. 
 
 Sulphuretted potash (liver 
 
 of sulphur . . 4 oz. 
 
 Lime water . . 6 oz Mix. 
 
 The third variety requires a considerable 
 
 difference in the treatment. When the little 
 
 spongy openings, piercing the cellular tissue, 
 
 will admit of it, they should be injected, by 
 
 means of a very minute syringe, with the 
 
 wash No. 8. The general surface should also 
 be anointed with the following : 
 No. 9. Ointment of nitrated 
 
 quicksilver . . 2 dr. 
 Superacetate of lead . 1 scruple. 
 Washed flowers of sul- 
 phur . . . \ oz. 
 
 Lard . . .1 oz Mix. 
 
 * 
 
 For the Red Mange Two ounces of 
 
 white hellebore in powder, mixed in one 
 quart of the grounds of strong beer, made 
 warm ; rub the dog well all over, and dry it 
 in with a good fire ; be careful that it does not 
 touch his eyes : put the dog in a warm place, 
 and keep him from water four hours after the 
 application Blaine. 
 
 MANGEL WURZEL, s. A kind of beet, shaped like a carrot, but larger. It 
 is excellent fattening- winter fodder. In Germany it has been used for 
 human food in times of scarcity ; hence its name, which literally means 
 " the root of scarcity." Crabbe. 
 
 MANGER, s. The place or vessel in which animals are fed with corn. 
 
 MANGINESS, s. Scabbiness, infection with the mange. 
 
 MANTLING, s. In falconry, the lowering of a hawk's feathers down to her 
 feet. 
 
 MAPLE-TREE, s. A tree frequent in hedge-rows. 
 
 Maple is much used in making gun-stocks, Of late, to stain stocks black has become 
 
 and, from the closeness of its grain, and its very fashionable, and come into general use 
 
 being susceptible of a high polish, is generally among the leading gun-makers, 
 preferred by gun-makers to every other wood. 
 
 MARE, s. The female of a horse. 
 
 MARITIME, a. Performed on the sea, marine ; relating to the sea, naval ; 
 bordering on the sea. 
 
 MARK, s. A token by which anything is known ; anything at which a 
 missile weapon is directed ; the evidence of a horse's age ; a sum of thir- 
 teen shillings and fourpence ; a character made by those who cannot 
 write their names. 
 
 MARKSMAN, #. A shot ; a man skilful to hit a mark. 
 
 MARL, s. A kind of clay, much used for manure. 
 
 MARROW, s. An oleaginous substance contained in the bones. 
 
 MARSH, s. A fen, a bog, a swamp ; a morass ; a snipe haunt. 
 
 MARSH MALLOW, s. A plant useful in making mucilaginous or emollient 
 drinks, clysters, or fomentations. 
 
 The root is the best part, and, if carefully 
 dried, may be kept a long time. These mu- 
 
 cilaginous drinks are useful when the bowels 
 or bladder are inflamed or irritated by strong
 
 MAR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 335 
 
 physic, or when there is any pain in the 
 urinary passages. They should be given fre- 
 quently in the course of the day, and may 
 occasionally be made the vehicle for more 
 
 active medicines. Any thing which contains 
 mucilage in sufficient quantity may be em- 
 ployed for the purpose of making emollient 
 drinks White. 
 
 MARSHY, a. Foggy, fenny, swampy ; produced in marshes. 
 MARTEN, s. A large kind of weasel, whose fur is much valued ; a kind of 
 swallow that builds in houses, a martlet. 
 
 This is the most beautiful, and the most 
 destructive to pheasants, of the British beasts 
 of prey. The marten is about eighteen inches 
 long, the tail ten, or, if measured to the end 
 of the hair at the point, where it is also the 
 thickest and darkest, twelve inches ; the head 
 is small, and elegantly shaped : the eyes are 
 lively, and all its motions agile and graceful ; 
 the ears are broad, rounded and open ; the 
 back, sides, and tail, are covered with a fine 
 thick ash-coloured down at bottom, with long 
 hair intermixed, of a bright chestnut, tipped 
 with black, giving a darkish brown appearance 
 to the whole ; the head brown, with a slight 
 cast of red ; the legs and upper side of the 
 feet, chocolate the under sides are covered 
 with similar thick down, to the body; the 
 feet are broad ; the claws white, large, and 
 sharp, but incapable of being, at pleasure, 
 sheathed or dilated ; they are well suited for 
 climbing trees, in which, in this country, it 
 constantly resides : the throat and breast are 
 white; belly of the same colour with the 
 back, except being rather paler ; but martens 
 vary in their colours, inclining, more or less, 
 to ash colour, according to their age, or the 
 seasons of the year they are taken in. 
 
 The skin and excrements of this animal 
 have an agreeable, musky scent, and are free 
 from that disgusting rankness which distin- 
 guishes the other species of this genus, as the 
 pole-cat, &c. The fur is valuable, and much 
 used to line or trim the gowns of magistrates, 
 aldermen, &c. The marten lives in the 
 woods, and in winter very often shelters itself 
 in magpies' nests, breeds in the hollows of 
 trees, and brings from four to six young ones 
 at a time ; they are brought forth with their 
 eyes unopened, but quickly arrive at a state 
 of perfection. The female has but a small 
 quantity of milk in proportion to her size, but 
 she amply compensates for this natural defect 
 by bringing home eggs and live birds to her 
 offspring, thus early habituating them to a life 
 of carnage and plunder. As soon as the young 
 are able to leave the nest, they are led by the 
 dam through the woods, where the birds at 
 once recognise their enemies, and fail not to 
 attend them, as they do the fox, with every 
 mark of animosity and terror. When taken 
 young, the marten is easily tamed, is extremely 
 playful and good-humoured; its attachment, 
 however, is not to be relied on if it gets loose, 
 
 for it will immediately take advantage of its 
 liberty, and retire to the woods, its natural 
 haunts. A farmer in the parish of Turling, 
 in Essex, was famous for taming this animal, 
 and had seldom less than two. Some years 
 since, one used to run tame about the kitchen 
 of the Bald-faced Stag inn, on Epping forest. 
 
 M. Buffon affirms of a marten that he had 
 tamed (it should seem but imperfectly), that 
 it drank frequently, sometimes slept two days 
 successively, and at other times continued as 
 long awake. When preparing for sleep, it 
 folded itself round, covering its head with its 
 tail. He describes its motions as so violent, 
 incessant, and troublesome, that it was neces- 
 sarily kept chained. After escaping from its 
 fetters, and returning once or twice, it at last 
 went entirely away. 
 
 The pine marten (whose skin is considered 
 of a far superior quality to the common), 
 which is distinguished by a yellow throat and 
 breast, and of which such numbers are sold 
 at the Hudson's Bay Company's sales at one 
 of which, 12,370 good skins, 'and 2360 dam- 
 aged ones, were sold ; and about the same 
 time the French brought into the port of 
 Rochelle, from Canada, no less than 30,325 
 skins is sometimes found in Wales, in 
 the counties of Merioneth and Carnarvon. 
 In Scotland it is the only kind of marten ; 
 where it inhabits the fir forests, frequently 
 usurping the drays or nests of the squirrel, 
 building its own nest at the top of the trees, 
 and produces seven or eight young at a birth. 
 
 The marten's food is poultry, game, and 
 small birds ; it will not eat mice, rats, and 
 moles, and is said to feed also on grain, and 
 to be extremely fond of honey. It is said to 
 be a great enemy to cats, and will even attack 
 the wild cat, which, although much stronger, 
 is always worsted, and often killed in the 
 combat, and a contest is sure to take place 
 whenever they meet. 
 
 The scent of the marten is very sweet to 
 hounds, and it is the best animal to enter 
 young fox-hounds at. The marten, by run- 
 ning to the thickest bushes it can find, teaches 
 hounds to run cover, which is of infinite ser- 
 vice to them. When closely pursued, it 
 climbs a tree, and its agility is astonishing, 
 for though it falls frequently from a tree into 
 the midst of a pack of hounds, each intent on 
 the catching it, the instances are very few of
 
 336 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [MAR 
 
 a marten being caught by them in that situ- 
 ation. They are not found in any great 
 numbers; the most ever met with by the 
 compiler, was in the large woods near Ray- 
 leigh, in Essex. 
 
 They attack the pheasants when at roost, 
 and make great havoc. The steel trap, baited 
 with a piece of pheasant or wood-pigeon, will 
 generally be successful. Some prefer the box 
 trap (such as is used in warrens), which 
 should be baited with a bird in the centre, 
 and the feathers strewed through the inside 
 of the trap, from one end to the other ; but 
 a more certain way of catching them, in a 
 park or cover paled in, is the following : as 
 they constantly run the pales and posts to dry 
 themselves in the morning, have a groove cut 
 in some of the posts and gate-posts where 
 they run, sufficient to contain a strong hawk 
 or rat-trap ; the trap must be set in this 
 groove, without a bait : in leaping upon the 
 place, they are sure to be taken. A small 
 chain should be fixed to the trap, and fas- 
 tened to the post. 
 
 The common house cat, turned wild, is 
 another mortal foe to pheasants, and does 
 more mischief than many sorts of naturally 
 wild vermin. In Moulsham Thrift, a large 
 cover belonging to Sir H. St. John Mildmay, 
 sixteen of these animals were killed by a pack 
 of fox-hounds, in four days, drawing the cover 
 for foxes. They may be destroyed in traps, 
 like the marten ; but the bait must be sprin- 
 kled with valerian, and if the hutch or box- 
 
 trap be used, valerian should be scattered in 
 and about the trap, which will certainly allure 
 them, for of this drug they are immoderately 
 fond. 
 
 Another way to take either the wild or the 
 pole cat, is to set box-traps in the bottom of 
 the ditches, or under walls or pales, with the 
 ends of the traps fenced up, for four or five 
 yards aslant, and two or three yards wide at 
 the entrance, with earth, bushes, or broken 
 pales, so that the vermin shall not pass with- 
 out entering the traps. This is the method 
 used by warreners. When the traps are so 
 placed, a trail of rabbits 1 paunches should be 
 drawn from one trap to another, and the baits 
 are red herrings half broiled. Each end of 
 the traps is to be rubbed with them, and a 
 part of the herring is to be afterwards hung 
 upon the nail over the bridges of the traps. 
 This is a mode that will cause great destruc- 
 tion amongst them. A thin bag, sufficiently 
 large to admit an end of the trap, is to be 
 provided and slipped over it, when any of the 
 traps are sprung, and by rattling at the other 
 end of the trap, the creature will spring into 
 the bag; for without precaution, if it be a 
 wild cat, the moment the light is admitted, 
 it will fly in the face of the person opening it. 
 By having both ends of the box-traps painted 
 white, and rubbed over with the entrails of any 
 animal, the hares will be deterred from entering, 
 at the same time it will allure the vermin 
 to go into the traps. 
 
 MARTLET, s. A kind of swallow ; the bank swallow. 
 
 Industry of Birds Dr. Steel, who lives 
 near the mineral springs of Saratoga, in New 
 York, has ascertained that the bank swallow 
 (hirundo riparia) knows how to vary, ac- 
 cording to necessity, the construction of its 
 nest. If it finds sandy banks, it bores holes 
 in them, and thus forms for its future family 
 a commodious habitation, into which none of 
 their enemies can enter. When this resource 
 is wanting, it approaches the houses, and, 
 although less accustomed to man than the 
 swallow of the windows, it attaches its nest 
 to granaries, farm-yard sheds, and similar edi- 
 fices ; and then, it being necessary to build 
 instead of to dig, it selects materials, trans- 
 ports them, and puts them in their proper 
 places. It thus appears that this species of 
 swallow has not essentially the habits indicated 
 by its specific name ; but that it will live 
 contentedly wherever it can find food, safety, 
 and the charms of society ; for isolated fami- 
 lies, or solitary nests, are never seen. A 
 little colony, which established itself in the 
 neighbourhood of Saratoga in 1828, increased 
 so rapidly that in 1830 it consisted of several 
 hundreds of nests. * * 
 
 For some time after they appear, the hi- 
 rundines in general pay no attention to the 
 business of nidification, but play and sport 
 about, either to recruit from the fatigue of 
 their journey, if they do migrate at all, or else 
 that their blood may recover its true tone 
 and texture after it has been so long be- 
 numbed by the severities of the winter. 
 About the middle of May, if the weather be 
 fine, the martin begins to think in earnest of 
 providing a mansion for its family. The 
 crust or shell of this nest seems to be formed 
 of such dirt or loam as comes most readily to 
 hand, and is tempered and wrought together 
 with little bits of broken straws to render it 
 tough and tenacious. As this bird always 
 builds against a perpendicular wall without 
 any projecting ledge under, it requires its 
 utmost efforts to get the first foundation 
 firmly fixed, so that it may safely carry the 
 superstructure. On this occasion the bird 
 not only clings with its claws, but partly sup- 
 ports itself by strongly inclining its tail against 
 the wall, making that a fulcrum ; and thus 
 steadied, it works and plasters the materials 
 into the fare of the brick or stone. But then
 
 MAS] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 337 
 
 that this work may not, while it is soft and 
 green, pull itself down by its own weight, the 
 provident architect has prudence and forbear- 
 ance enough not to advance her work too 
 fast ; but by building only in the morning, 
 and by dedicating the rest of the day to food 
 and amusement, gives it sufficient time to dry 
 and harden. About half-an-inch seems to be 
 a sufficient layer for a day. Thus careful 
 workmen when they build mud walls (informed 
 at first perhaps by this little bird) raise but a 
 moderate layer at a time, and then desist ; lest 
 the work should become top-heavy, and so be 
 ruined by its own weight. By this method 
 in about ten or twelve days is formed an he- 
 mispheric nest with a small aperture towards 
 the top, strong, compact, and warm ; and 
 perfectly fitted for all the purposes for which 
 it was intended. But then nothing is more 
 common than for the house sparrow, as soon 
 
 as the shell is finished, to seize on it as his 
 own, to eject the owner, and to line it after 
 its own manner. 
 
 After so much labour is bestowed in erect- 
 ing a mansion, as Nature seldom works in 
 vain, martins will breed on for several years 
 together in the same nest, where it happens 
 to be well sheltered, and secure from the in- 
 juries of weather. The shell or crust of the 
 nest is a sort of rustic- work full of knobs and 
 protuberances on the outside ; nor is the in- 
 side of those that I have examined smoothed 
 with any exactness at all ; but is rendered 
 soft and warm, and fit for incubation, by a 
 lining of small straws, grasses, and feathers ; 
 and sometimes by a bed of moss interwoven 
 with wool. In this nest they tread, or en- 
 gender, frequently during the time of build- 
 ing ; and the hen lays from three to five 
 white eggs White's Selborne. 
 
 MARTINGAL, s. A broad strap made fast to the girths under the belly of 
 a horse, which runs between the two legs to fasten the other end under 
 the noseband of the bridle. 
 
 The martingal is generally attached to a 
 horse who throws his head up. It is unsafe 
 
 in the field, and only efficient when used by a 
 light handed and practised rider. 
 
 MASH, s. Anything mingled or beaten together into an undistinguished 
 or confused body ; a mixture for a horse. 
 
 Bran mashes are made by pouring boiling 
 water on fresh sweet bran in a pail, so that 
 the mixture, when stirred, may be about the 
 consistency of a soft poultice ; it is then to 
 be covered over, and not given to the horse 
 until sufficiently cold. When it is thought 
 necessary to steam the head, as it is termed, 
 the mash is put into the manger while hot. 
 Steaming the head is recommended in stran- 
 gles, colds, and sore throats. 
 
 Bran mashes are proper in fever and all 
 inflammatory complaints. They are useful 
 also as a preparative to physic, serving to re- 
 move indurated faeces, and to facilitate the 
 operation of the medicine. Mashes are a 
 
 MASH, v. To beat into a confused mass ; to mix malt and water together 
 
 in brewing. 
 MASTER-SINEW, s. A large sinew that surrounds the hough, and divides 
 
 it from the bone by a hollow place, where windgalls are usually seated. 
 MASTICATION, s. The act of chewing. 
 
 necessary diet while physic is operating. In 
 making malt mashes, the water should be 
 below the boiling point, otherwise the malt 
 would be spoiled. Mashes are given for re- 
 cruiting strength, when a horse is debilitated 
 from fever or any other cause. When a horse 
 has been fed high for some time with oats 
 and beans, a change to bran mashes for two 
 or three days will often do a great deal of 
 good. The bran should be fresh, and perfectly 
 free from any musty smell. There is a finer 
 kind of bran, named gurgings or pollard, 
 which, though more nutritious, is not so fit 
 for medicinal purposes White. 
 
 Hay, as often given, is too dry for mastica- 
 tion or digestion. If it has been suffered to 
 stand until the seed becomes ripe, it is very de- 
 ficient in nutriment, and difficult of digestion ; 
 and, however perfectly it may be masticated, 
 will only serve to oppress the stomach with- 
 out affording any thing that is capable of being 
 formed into good chyle. Hay that has been 
 kept more than one year becomes dry and de- 
 
 ficient in nutriment, especially when kept in 
 small mows and exposed to the wind. When 
 such hay therefore is given to horses, it re- 
 quires to be moistened with water, and given 
 in moderate quantity. From eight to twelve 
 pounds of hay and one peck of oats is a suffi- 
 cient allowance, both as to proportion and 
 quantity, for any saddle horse of whatever size 
 he may be, provided he has only moderate
 
 338 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [M*s 
 
 work ; but when his exertions exceed that de- 
 gree which may be termed moderate, then an 
 additional allowance is necessary, and that ad- 
 dition should be in oats or beans. 
 
 The teeth may be imperfect, and often are 
 so ; the grinders wear in a different manner 
 from that in which they would, were the ani- 
 mals in a state of nature : consequently sharp 
 edges are sometimes formed on the outside of 
 of the higher grinders, and on the inside of the 
 lower grinders ; and the inside of the cheeks 
 and the tongue, with the skin or membrane 
 connected with it, are thereby wounded, 
 which prevents the horse from masticating, 
 without considerable pain, and induces him to 
 swallow his food imperfectly chewed; this is 
 
 MASTIC, . A kind of gum gathered from trees of the same name ; a kind 
 
 of mortar or cement. 
 MASTIFF (Canis Anglicus, LINN.), s. A dog of the largest size. 
 
 more especially the case with hay ; and when 
 hay is swallowed in this state it does harm, 
 being difficult of digestion, as then its nutri- 
 tive matter is not easily extracted by the 
 gastric power; hence arise indigestion, flatu- 
 lency, and numerous disorders. Mastication 
 may be impeded or prevented by that state of 
 the mouth which generally attends teething : 
 it may also be affected by an injudicious use 
 of the bit (as is well known in regiments of 
 cavalry where it is too common), and has been 
 attributed to the spiculse of the squirrel-tail 
 grass. The consequence of this imperfection 
 is worms, in addition to indigestion and all its 
 consequences White. 
 
 This is a large and powerful animal, much 
 stronger than the bull dog ; his ears are longer 
 and more pendulous; his lips are full and 
 loose, the upper one hanging considerably over 
 the lower at the two extremities ; his aspect 
 is grave and somewhat sullen ; and his bark 
 loud, deep-toned, and terrific, particularly 
 during the night. 
 
 The mastiff differs in form from the bull- 
 dog in being much longer in the legs, and not 
 so deep in the chest ; and while his bead is 
 large in proportion to his body, he wants the 
 projecting under jaw of the latter. 
 
 Buffon was of opinion that the mastiff is 
 not an original race, but a mongrel generated 
 betwixt the Irish greyhound and the bull- 
 dog. This, however, must be mere conjec- 
 
 ture ; for the mastiff, in his pure and uncon- 
 taminated state, has a much more dignified 
 aspect than either of these dogs ; and we are 
 rather inclined to believe him to be an original 
 breed peculiar to Britain. We are borne out 
 in this opinion, as we find it on record that so 
 early as the time of the Roman emperors, 
 this country was celebrated on account of its 
 dogs of this kind. At the period Great Bri- 
 tain was under the Roman yoke, an officer 
 was appointed to live here, whose sole business 
 it was to breed, select, and send to Rome 
 such as promised, by their size and strength, 
 to become fit for the combats of the amphi- 
 theatre. Dr. Caius, in his Treatise oh British 
 Dogs, tells us that three mastiffs were reck- 
 oned a match for a bear, and four for a lion.
 
 MAY] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 339 
 
 This dog, from his large size and command- 
 ing aspect, is naturally calculated to intimidate 
 strangers, and he is admirably suited for and 
 principally used in protecting large and exten- 
 sive premises containing property of value, 
 which he watches with most scrupulous care 
 and assiduity. He is so instinctively im- 
 pressed with the importance of his charge, that 
 he will only quit it with the loss of his life, 
 which he will rather forfeit than betray the 
 confidence reposed in him. With his natur- 
 ally commanding and imposing appearance, 
 calculated to keep at a distance the ill-inten- 
 tioned, he is nevertheless possessed of the 
 greatest mildness of manners, and is as soli- 
 citous to gain attention and as faithfully grate- 
 ful for favours bestowed, as the most diminu- 
 tive of the canine tribe. The mastiff displays 
 one peculiarity which seems inherent, his 
 ferocity is always increased by the degree of 
 restraint in which he is kept. If constantly 
 on the chain he is much more dangerous to 
 approach than when in a state of liberty; 
 from whence it evidently appears that what 
 may be considered as a friendly kindness on one 
 side, is always productive of confidence on the 
 other. 
 
 The mastiff usually shows a remarkable 
 and peculiar warmth in his attachments, and, 
 on the other hand, he is equally distinguished 
 for inveteracy in his dislike. If he is once 
 severely corrected or insulted, it is almost 
 impossible to eradicate the feeling from his 
 memory, and it is no less difficult to obtain a 
 reconciliation with him. He seems conscious 
 of his own strength, power, and authority, 
 and will seldom condescend to lower his dig- 
 nity by servile fawning, while he appears to 
 
 consider his services as only befitting a trust 
 of the highest importance. This dog is natur- 
 ally possessed of strong instinctive sensibility, 
 speedily obtains a knowledge of all the duties 
 required of him, and discharges them too with 
 the most punctual assiduity. In the protec- 
 tion of gardens, houses, woodyards, and widely 
 extended manufactories, his vigilance is very 
 striking; he makes regular rounds of the 
 whole premises like a watchman, examines 
 every part of them with a careful eye ; his 
 penetration reaches even the remotest corner, 
 and not a spot is passed by until he is satisfied 
 that all is in a state of perfect security. Dur- 
 ing the night he gives a signal of his presence 
 by repeated and vociferous barkings, which are 
 increased upon the least cause of alarm ; and, 
 contrary to the spirit of the bull-dog, whose 
 invariable practice is to bite before he barks, 
 the mastiff always warns before he attacks. 
 This breed is very difficult to be obtained in 
 purity, from the various admixtures and ex- 
 perimental crosses which have taken place. 
 The genuine old English mastiff is now rarely 
 to be seen, although we have dogs of various 
 sizes and colours which go under that name. 
 
 This animal, conscious of his superior 
 strength, has been known to chastise, with 
 great propriety, the impertinence of an infe- 
 rior : a large dog of this kind, belonging to 
 the late M. Ridley, Esq., of Heaton, near 
 Newcastle, being frequently molested by a 
 mongrel, and teased by its continual barking, 
 at last took it up in his mouth by the back, 
 and with great composure dropped it over the 
 quay into the river, without doing any further 
 injury to an enemy so much beneath his 
 notice Sporting Anecdotes. 
 
 MASTLIN, s. Mixed corn, as wheat and rye. 
 
 MAT, s. A texture of sedge, flags, or rushes. 
 
 MAT, v. To cover with mats ; to twist together, to join like a mat. 
 
 MATADORS, s. A term used in the games of quadrille and ombre. The 
 
 matadores are the two black aces when joined with the two black deuces, 
 
 or red sevens in trumps. 
 MATCH, s. Anything that catches fire ; a contest, a game ; one equal to 
 
 another. Vide RACING. 
 
 MATCH, v. To be equal to ; to equal ; to suit, to proportion ; to marry. 
 MATE, s. A husband or wife ; a companion, male or female ; the male or 
 
 female of animals ; one that sails in the same ship ; one that eats at the 
 
 same table ; a kind of toothed instrument to pull up wood ; a pickaxe. 
 MAW, s. The stomach of animals ; the craw of birds. , 
 
 MAW-WORM, s. Gut-worms frequently creep into the stomach, whence 
 
 they are called stomach or maw-worms. 
 
 MAY-FLY, *. An insect ; a very killing artificial fly. 
 
 Z 2
 
 340 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 MEAD, s. A kind of drink made of water and honey. 
 
 MEADOW, s. Rich pasture ground from which hay is made. 
 
 MEAL, *. The act of eating at a certain time ; a repast ; the flour or edible 
 part of corn. 
 
 MEALY, . Having the taste or soft insipidity of meal ; besprinkled as 
 with meal. 
 
 MEASE, *. A mease of herrings is five hundred. 
 
 MEASLES, *. A kind of eruptive and infectious fever ; a disease of swine. 
 
 MEASLY, a. Scabbed with the measles. 
 
 MEATHE, s. A kind f drink. 
 
 MEDICATE, v. To tincture or impregnate with anything medicinal. 
 
 MEDICINAL, a. Having the power of healing, having physical virtue ; 
 belonging to physic. 
 
 MEDICINE, *. Any remedy administered by a physician. 
 
 MEDULLAR or MEDULLARY, a. Pertaining to the marrow. 
 
 MEER, *. A lake, a boundary. 
 
 MEERSHAUM, g. A fine sort of Turkish clay, of which pipes are made in 
 Germany of various forms. It assumes a beautiful brown colour after it 
 has been used for smoking some time. Crabbe. 
 
 MELOE, #. Insects, of which the two principal species are the oil beetle, so 
 called because, on being handled, it exudes from its legs drops of a clear 
 deep-yellow oil or fluid, of a very peculiar or penetrating smell ; and the 
 meloe vesicatorius, or Spanish fly, which is used for blistering. Ibid. 
 
 MELWEL, s. A kind of fish. 
 
 MEMBRANE, s. A membrane is a web of several sorts of fibres interwoven 
 together for the covering and wrapping up of some parts. 
 
 MEMBRANOUS, a. Consisting of fibres. 
 
 MENAGE, $. A collection of animals. MENAGERIE, s. A place for keep- 
 ing foreign birds, and other curious animals. 
 
 MENSTRUUM, s. AU liquors are called menstruums which are used as dis- 
 solvents, or to extract the virtues of ingredients by infusion or decoction. 
 
 MERCURIAL, a. Under the influence of Mercury ; active, sprightly ; con- 
 sisting of quicksilver. 
 
 Mercurial ointment is made by rubbing to- 
 gether in a mortar quicksilver and hogs' lard, 
 in variousproportions, according to the strength 
 required, until the former disappears, and the 
 mixture assumes a dark blue or lead colour. 
 
 In the strongest mercurial ointment there 
 are equal parts of quicksilver and lard ; these 
 are the best proportions in which it can be 
 made, as it is easily -weakened by the addition 
 of lard. 
 
 Mercurial ointment is employed in veteri- 
 
 nary practice as an application to callous swell- 
 ings or enlarged joints. It is mixed with 
 camphor in those cases, and is certainly much 
 more efficacious when converted into a blister 
 by the addition of cantharides or euphorbium. 
 In this state it is a good remedy for bog spavin 
 or other swellings of the hock joint. 
 
 Mercurial ointment is said to be an effectual 
 remedy for the scab in sheep, and is often an 
 
 ingredient in ointments for the mange 
 
 White. 
 
 MERCURY, s. A mineral or metallic fluid vulgarly called quicksilver, and
 
 MER] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 341 
 
 distinguished from all other metals by its extreme fusibility, which is 
 such that it does not assume the solid state until cooled to the thirtieth 
 degree below on Fahrenheit's thermometer ; and of course is always 
 fluid in temperate climates. It is volatile, and rises in small portions at 
 the common temperature of the air. It readily combines with gold, sil- 
 ver, lead, tin, bismuth, and zinc, and on that account is usefully employed 
 in silvering looking-glasses, making barometers and thermometers, and 
 for various other purposes. Crabbe. 
 
 MERE, s. A pool, -commonly a large pool or lake ; a boundary. 
 
 MERGANSER, s. (Mergus serrator, LINN.) 
 
 This species is about twenty-one inches in 
 length ; weight two pounds. The bill is three 
 inches long ; the upper mandible dusky, the 
 lower red ; irides purplish red. The head and 
 part of the neck black, glossed with green ; on 
 the back of the head the feathers are long, 
 forming a sort of pendant crest ; the rest of 
 the neck and under part of the body white ; 
 breast ferruginous, mixed with black and 
 white ; upper part of the back glossy black ; 
 rump marked with brown and cinereous trans- 
 
 verse streaks ; the scapulars and wing coverts 
 are some black and some white ; quills dusky; 
 tail brown ; legs orange ; claws black. 
 
 Mr. Pennant says this species breeds in the 
 Isle of Ely, on the shores amongst the loose 
 stones. They sometimes appear in the south 
 
 MERGUS, s. A genus in ornithology. 
 
 Birds of this genus have roundish slender 
 bills, furnished at the end with a hard, horny, 
 crooked nail; edges of the mandibles very 
 sharply toothed, or serrated; the nostrils 
 small, subovated, and placed near the middle 
 of the bill : tongue rough, with hard indented 
 papillae turned backward ; legs short ; feet 
 webbed ; toes long, and the outer ones about 
 the same length as the middle ; the head is 
 small, but the quantity of soft silky feathers 
 with which it is furnished, and which they 
 can bristle up from the nape of the neck to 
 the brow, give it a large appearance. They 
 are a broad, long-bodied, and flat-backed kind 
 of birds, and swim very squatly on the water, 
 the body seeming nearly submerged, with 
 only the head and neck clearly seen. They 
 are excellent divers, remaining a long while 
 under water, and getting to a great distance 
 before they appear again. They fly near the 
 surface of the water, and, notwithstanding 
 the shortness of their wings, with great swift- 
 ness, though seldom to any great distance. 
 They devour a large quantity of fish ; and 
 their pointed sharp-toothed, and hooked bills, 
 are well calculated for holding fast their 
 slippery prey, none of which, when once 
 within their gripe, can escape. Latham enu- 
 
 of England in winter, but more frequently in 
 the north, and are said to breed in Scotland in 
 some of the lochs. They are found in the 
 Russian dominions, about the great rivers of 
 Siberia. 
 
 They are also said to breed on the shores of 
 Greenland, and are observed at Hudson's Bay 
 in large flocks, breeding there as well as at 
 Newfoundland, chiefly on the islands. The 
 nest, which is built on the margin of lakes and 
 rivers, is said to be made with dry grass, lined 
 with down ; the eggs are generally eight in 
 number, of a bluish white ; sometimes as many 
 as thirteen in a nest, about the size of those of 
 a duck. The young may be distinguished from 
 the adult, by the black band on the wing spot. 
 Montagu. 
 
 merated six species and three varieties of this 
 genus, five of which are accounted British 
 birds. George Strickland, Esq., of Ropin, 
 enumerates six species of this genus, which are 
 all met with in Great Britain and its adjacent 
 isles : the author agrees with him likewise in 
 opinion, that much remains to be done in 
 order to clear up the doubts in which their 
 history is involved, and by which the classi- 
 fication of different species is confused : he 
 says, " The genus mergus, though only a very 
 small tribe of birds, still remain in the great- 
 est obscurity, and I have not yet met with any 
 ornithologist, who has not, in my opinion, 
 multiplied the number of the species, by con- 
 sidering birds of this genns as of different 
 kinds, when they differ only in sex." His 
 arrangement is as follows : 
 
 GENUS MERGUS. 
 
 Species 1 Merganser Goosander 
 
 2 Castor 
 
 3 Serrator 
 
 4 Albellus 
 5 
 
 Dun Diver 
 Less Dun Diver 
 Smew 
 
 Lough Diver 
 Red-headed Smew. 
 
 6 Minutus 
 
 For a particular description of each species, 
 vide Bewick, Montagu, $c. <Jc.
 
 342 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 MERLIN, s. A kind of hawk. 
 
 .A*. 
 
 1 
 
 when closed, do not reach quite to the end of 
 the tail ; the legs are yellow ; claws black. 
 
 The merlin, though small, is not inferior 
 in courage to any of the falcon tribe. It was 
 used for taking larks, partridges, and quails, 
 which it would frequently kill by one blow, 
 striking them on the breast, head, or neck. 
 BurTon observes, that this bird differs from 
 the falcons, and all the rapacious kind, in 
 the male and female being of the same size. 
 The merlin does not breed here, but visits us 
 in October ; it flies low, and with great cele- 
 rity and ease. It preys on small birds, and 
 breeds in woods, laying five or six eggs. 
 
 The Merlin (Falco JEsalon, LINN.; 
 //' 'Emerillon, BDFF.) The smallest of all 
 the hawk kind, scarcely exceeding the size of 
 a black bird. Its bill is blue ; cere and hides 
 yellow ; the head is of a rust colour, streaked 
 with black; back and wings of a deepish 
 brown, tinged with ash, streaked down the 
 shafts with black, and edged with rust colour : 
 quill feathers dark tipped and margined on 
 the inner webs with reddish white : the 
 breast and belly are of a yellowish white, 
 with streaks of rusty brown pointing down- 
 wards; the tail is long, and marked with 
 alternate dusky and pale bars; the wings, 
 
 MERRYTHOUGHT, *. A forked bone in the body of fowls. 
 
 MESENTERY, s. That round which the guts are convolved. 
 
 MESH, s. The space between the threads of a net. MESH, v. To catch in 
 
 a net; to insnare. 
 METAL, s. A hard compact body, malleable and capable of fusion. The 
 
 metals are six in number ; first, gold ; second, silver ; third, copper ; 
 
 fourth, tin ; fifth, iron ; and sixth, lead. 
 
 METALLIC, a. Partaking of metal, containing metal, consisting of metal. 
 METALLINE, a. Impregnated with metal ; consisting of metal. 
 METTLE, *. Spirit, sprightliness, courage. METTLESOME, a. Sprightly, 
 
 lively, brisk. 
 MEW, s. A cage, an enclosure, a place where a thing is confined ; cry of 
 
 a cat ; a sea fowl ; the place where a hawk changes her feathers. 
 
 The mew is the place where hawks are put 
 to moult. They are sometimes kept loose in 
 a room ; but it is, in my opinion, much better 
 to mew them on perches or on blocks. 
 
 Hawks must be fed very high, and kept 
 very quiet when they mew; they are also 
 kept unheeded, and frequently bathed 
 
 Sebripht.
 
 Mm] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 343 
 
 MIDRIFF, s- The diaphragm. 
 
 MIDGE, s. A small fly, a gnat. The artificial midge is very serviceable in 
 
 evening fishing. 
 
 MIDSTREAM, s. Middle of the stream. 
 MIGRATION, s. Act of changing place. 
 
 What has so often been said of herrings, 
 mackerel, and other gregarious fish moving in 
 vast shoals from Shetland to the Orkneys, and 
 of their then dividing and surrounding the Is- 
 lands of Great Britain and Ireland, is, I think, 
 liable to some objections. 
 
 During the last month (April) large shoals 
 of mackerel came on the shallows, a few miles 
 from Brighton, one day, and disappeared the 
 next. This is constantly observed to be the 
 case, not only there but in other places, and 
 may perhaps be accounted for in this way. We 
 must consider that there are probably as many 
 mountains, and valleys, and plains in the sea 
 as we know there are on land. We are to 
 recollect that those mountains and valleys are 
 covered with weeds of various kinds, which 
 afford food and shelter to an infinite number 
 of fish and marine animals and insects ; and 
 we know that all fish come into shallow water 
 for the purpose of depositing their ova, which 
 the influence of the air, not, as has been com- 
 
 monly supposed, of the sun, is required for 
 bringing to maturity. Is it not probable, then, 
 that the shoals of fish which are found on our 
 fishing banks, have left some neighbouring 
 deep, where they had retired for the winter, 
 till they are rendered buoyant by the quantity 
 of roe within them, and are directed by instinct 
 to go and deposit it in the adjacent shallows ? 
 If, as is generally supposed, all fish, both great 
 and small, from the whale to the herring, have 
 each their respective haunts and localities, why- 
 should we suppose that they quit those haunts 
 to go many hundred miles in search of spawn- 
 ing ground, when that ground is to be found 
 near their winter retreats ? It appears more 
 probable that the large shoals of fish which are 
 found are quite unconnected with each other, 
 and that they have all just quitted some neigh- 
 bouring deep for the nearest shallow, only 
 moving on as the ground is occupied, or till 
 they have paired and the roe is ready to be 
 deposited Jesse. 
 
 MILE, s. The usual measure of roads in England, one thousand seven 
 hundred and sixty yards ; eight furlongs, or five thousand two hundred 
 and eighty feet. 
 
 MILK, *. The liquor with which animals feed their young ; emulsion made 
 by contusion of seeds. 
 To dry up a Bitch's Milk Take goose 
 
 grease and rum, equal portions, rub the teats 
 once or twice a day ; if the case is bad, for 
 
 three or four days. 
 
 Brandy and salad oil, used in the same 
 way, will have a similar effect. 
 
 MILKTOOTH, s. Milkteeth are those small teeth which come forth before 
 
 when a foal is about three months old. 
 MILK WHITE, a. White as milk. 
 MILLDAM, s. The mound by which the water is kept up to raise it for 
 
 the mill. 
 
 MILLEPEDES, s. Wood-lice, so called from their numerous feet. 
 MILLER'S-THUMB, s. A small fish found in brooks, called likewise a bull's 
 
 head. 
 
 MILLET, s. A plant ; a kind of fish. 
 MINERAL, s. Fossil body, matter dug out of mines. 
 MINNOW, s. A very small fish, a pink. 
 
 This beautiful little fish abounds in many 
 of our small gravelly streams, where they keep 
 in shoals ; it is sometimes called the pink, and 
 when in right season and not sick, which only 
 
 happens just after spawning, is dappled, its sides 
 inclining to a greenish watery sky colour, its 
 belly white, and its back almost black, but 
 these colours are not universal ; the body is
 
 344 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [MlN 
 
 slender and smooth, the scales being extremely 
 small ; it seldom exceeds three inches in length ; 
 the lateral line is of a golden colour, the back 
 flat and of a deep olive ; the sides and belly 
 vary greatly in different fish, as a few are of a 
 rich crimson, others are bluish, and others 
 white. The tail is forked, and marked near 
 the base with a dusky spot. The minnow ap- 
 pers first in March, continues until Michaelmas, 
 and then betakes himself to the mud, weed- 
 roots, or wood in rivers, to secure himself from 
 floods and fishes of prey. They are usually 
 full of spawn all the summer (for they breed 
 often), and quickly arrive at their growth and 
 perfection. 
 
 Although so diminutive in size, the minnow 
 may be compared for the excellency of its taste 
 to many of the most famed fish ; they are in 
 some places made into minnow tansies ; after 
 being gutted and well washed in salt and water, 
 their heads and tails cut off, they are then to 
 be put with yolks of eggs well beat with cows- 
 lips and primrose flowers, and a little tansy 
 shred very small, and fried in good butter ; the 
 sauce to them is butter, vinegar, or verjuice, 
 and sugar. To the young sportsman, who has 
 not possessed himself of the patience requisite 
 to form the angler, the minnow yields plenty 
 of amusement. They will in hot weather 
 bite eagerly all day, and are frequently drawn 
 out of the water from their adhering to the end 
 of the worm, without being touched by the 
 hook ; the best way to catch them, is, to have 
 three or four very small hooks, baited with the 
 least red worm, or a piece of one, and a crow 
 quill float ; fish deeper than midwater, or near 
 the ground in shallow places, in eddies, and at 
 the sides of small streams. 
 
 Minnows are very excellent baits for many 
 fish, as will hereafter be specified, and when 
 wanted in haste for that purpose, a small 
 meshed casting-net will save much time and 
 trouble, as enough for a day's diversion may 
 be caught at a throw or two in shallow streams. 
 * * * 
 
 Minnow Fishing The tackle for min- 
 now fishing for trouts, should be of the same 
 sort as that for salmon, with this difference, 
 that it must be finer, with a stout single silk 
 worm gut at bottom, and the hook No. 2, 3, 
 or 4, according to the bigness of the trout in 
 the water where angled for : the middle-sized 
 and whitest minnows are the best (of which 
 those caught in streams are far brighter than 
 those procured from ditches or stagnated wa- 
 ters), and the way of baiting recommended by 
 Walton, is, 
 
 " To put the hook in at the mouth and draw 
 it out through the gill about three inches ; then 
 again put the hook in at the mouth, and let 
 the point and beard come out at the tail ; then 
 tie the hook and the tail about with a fine white 
 thread, which will make it spin quicker ; pull 
 
 back that part of the line which was slack when 
 the hook was thrust in the second time, which 
 will fasten the head of the minnow, so as to 
 make it be almost straight on the hook ; try if 
 it turns well, which it cannot do too fast. 
 Angle with the point of the rod down the 
 stream, drawing the minnow against the cur- 
 rent gradually, and near the surface : when 
 descried, the trout will freely come at it; be 
 careful not to snatch it away, nor strike until 
 he has turned with the bait. For this angling 
 the winch and ringed rod is to be always used ; 
 and there should be two or three swivels on 
 the line, which will assist the spinning of the 
 minnow." 
 
 Walton's method may be altered and im- 
 proved, by first thrusting the hook in at the 
 lower side of the minnow's under, and also 
 quite through the upper chap, drawing it two 
 or three inches on the line, and putting the hook 
 in at the mouth as before directed ; this will 
 keep the minnow's mouth closed, which other- 
 wise should be stitched up. 
 
 Various hooks are recommended in minnow 
 fishing ; one much used consists of a large 
 hook, with two very small ones fastened back 
 to back to a piece of gut about two inches 
 long, with a small hook to another gut some- 
 thing shorter, to fasten the head of the min- 
 now : these pieces of gut are so attached to 
 the link, that the two small hooks may be 
 about the middle of the minnow when baited, 
 and the other reach the head ; a small lead 
 cap (which renders other weight unnecessary) 
 slides upon the link, keeps the short pieces of 
 gut close, and fells upon the head of the min- 
 now. The advocates for this plan boast of the 
 certainty of hooking the trout with the two 
 small hooks ; this may be true, says an angler 
 of no inconsiderable skill, but he asks if these 
 small hooks (which seldom exceed No. 12) 
 are sufficient to kill a trout of any bigness ; 
 and when a fish is hooked by these, the other 
 hooks are entirely useless, from the situation 
 in which they are placed. Another objection 
 started by the same gentleman, is, that when 
 the gut to which they are tied has been a short 
 time in the water, it will not sustain the 
 weight of the hooks, hut they will sink below 
 the minnow, and are continually foul of weeds 
 and rubbish at the bottom ; besides, the lead 
 cap, falling upon the minnow's head, totally 
 conceals the eyes, parts which add life and at- 
 traction to the bait, and are, on that account, 
 so essential so be seen. 
 
 Some use about three feet of stout silk- 
 worm gut for the bottom links, with two or 
 three small swivels, which prevents the line 
 from being entangled, and assists the twirling 
 of the minnow. If these hooks are used as 
 directed for pike, it will be successful ; the 
 bottom swivel must be open at one end, that 
 the link on which the hooks are may be taken
 
 Mis] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 345 
 
 off occasionally to be baited ; the proper size of 
 these hooks is No. 7 ; if the old method of a 
 large hook and a smaller above it, be preferred, 
 the proper sizes are Nos. 2 and 6, with a run- 
 ning line ; the angler can permit the minnow 
 to be carried by the current under bushes, 
 banks, &c. ; this will be effected by his suffer- 
 ing the stream to gain upon it when he pulls 
 it back, which also prevents its sinking to the 
 bottom, and entangling the hooks ; as he 
 draws it gently against the stream, favouring 
 the direction to which he would have the bait 
 driven, it will of course spin round very quick, 
 and this is the moment the trout usually takes 
 it ; by holding the rod firm, he will infallibly 
 hook himself; will then spring out of the 
 
 water several times, and, by an astonishing 
 strength and agility, endeavour to get quit of 
 the hook. The angler must not be too hasty, 
 but lower his right hand, which will raise the 
 top of his rod and keep it bent ; by this means 
 the trout may be tired, but he will not readily 
 suffer himself to be got into the landing-net ; 
 the best way therefore, instead of bringing the 
 fish to the surface (where he will so violently 
 plunge, as to endanger breaking the rod, line, 
 or hook), is to keep him as deep in the water 
 as possible. 
 
 Artificial minnows made of mother of pearl, 
 &c., fitted to single, two, or more hooks, and 
 bent in various attitudes, are to be purchased 
 at all the tackle makers Daniel. 
 
 MINT, s. A valuable herb that grows very abundantly. There are two 
 kinds used in horse medicine, spearmint and peppermint. The former 
 is an excellent carminative, generally affording relief in flatulency of the 
 stomach and bowels, and the complaints which arise from it, termed 
 gripes and flatulent colic. 
 
 MINUTE, s. The sixtieth part of an hour; any small space of time. 
 
 MINUTE-GLASS, s. A glass of which the sand measures a minute. 
 
 MINUTE-WATCH, s. A watch in which minutes are more distinctly marked 
 than in common watches which reckon by the hour. Such are generally 
 used by judges of a course, &c. 
 
 Miss, v. Not to hit ; to mistake. 
 
 MISSEL THRUSH (Turdus viscivorus, LINN.; La Draine, BUFF.) s. A 
 bird. 
 
 The length of this bird is about eleven 
 inches. The bill is dusky, the base of the 
 lower bill yellow ; the eyes hazel ; the head, 
 back, and lesser coverts of the wings, are of a 
 deep olive brown, the latter tipped with white ; 
 the lower part of the back and rump tinged 
 with yellow ; the cheeks are of a yellowish 
 white, spotted with brown, as are also the 
 breast and belly, which are marked with 
 larger spots of a dark brown colour ; the quills 
 are brown, with pale edges; tail feathers the 
 same, the three outermost tipped with white : 
 the legs are yellow, claws black. The female 
 builds her nest in bushes or low trees, and 
 lays four or five eggs, of a greenish blue 
 colour, marked with red spots. Its nest is 
 made of moss, leaves, &c., lined with dry 
 grass, strengthened on the outside with small 
 twigs. It begins to sing very early, often on 
 
 the turn of the year in blowing showery 
 weather, whence in some places it is called the 
 storm-cock. Its note of anger is very loud 
 and harsh, between a chatter and a shriek, 
 which accounts for some of its names. It 
 feeds on various kinds of berries, particularly 
 those of the misletoe, of which birdlime is 
 made. It was formerly believed that the 
 plant of that name was only propagated by 
 the seed which passed the digestive organs of 
 this bird, whence arose the proverb " Tur- 
 dus malum sibi cacat ;" it likewise feeds on 
 caterpillars and various kinds of insects, with 
 which it also feeds its young. 
 
 This bird is found in various parts of 
 Europe, and is said to be migratory in some 
 places, but continues in England the whole 
 year, and frequently has two broods Be- 
 uiick. 
 
 MISSILE, a. Thrown by the hand, striking at a distance. 
 
 MIST, s. A low thin cloud, a small thin rain, the drops of which are hardly 
 
 perceptible. 
 MISLETOE, *. The name of one of those plants which draw their nourish-
 
 346 THE FIELD BOOK. [Mix 
 
 ment from some other plant. It generally grows on the apple tree, 
 
 sometimes on the oak, and was held in great veneration by the ancient 
 
 Druids. 
 MITE, *. A small insect found in cheese or corn ; a weevil ; vermin found 
 
 about the head and nares of hawks. 
 MITHRIDATE, s. Mithridate was formerly, before medicine was simplifiedj 
 
 one of the capital medicines of the shops, consisting of a great number 
 
 of ingredients, and has its name from its inventor, Mithridates, king of 
 
 Pontus. 
 
 The following is the recipe for Mithridate, 
 or Confection of Democrites. 
 
 Cinnamon twenty-four drachms ; Indian 
 spikenard, ginger, saffron, shepherd's-purse 
 seed, frankincense, Chian turpentine, of each 
 ten drachms ; Zedoary mace, long pepper, 
 juice of hypocistus, storax, opoponax, galba- 
 num, opohalsam and castor, of each one 
 ounce ; scordium, cuhehs, white pepper, car- 
 rot seed, bdellium, of each seven drachms ; 
 
 Celtic nard, gentian, dittany of Crete, red roses, 
 wild parsley seed, cardamoms, sweet fennel 
 seeds, gum arabic, strained opium, dissolved 
 in wine, of each five drachms ; aromatic reed, 
 valerian root, sagapenum, aniseed, of each 
 three drachms ; catechu, St. John's wort, 
 skinks, of each two ounces and a half, &c. 
 &c. 
 
 Another of these absurd preparations is 
 composed of seventy -two articles. 
 
 MITTENS, s. Coarse gloves for the winter ; gloves that cover the arm 
 
 without covering the fingers. 
 
 MOB, v. To harass or overbear by tumult ; a term in hunting. 
 MOHAIR, s. Thread or stuif made of camel's or other hair ; an excellent 
 
 article for sporting dresses. 
 MOLE, s. A mole is a formless concretion of extravasated blood, which 
 
 grows into a kind of flesh in the uterus ; a natural spot or discolouration 
 
 of the body ; a mound, a dyke ; a little beast that works whilst under 
 
 ground. 
 
 MOLECATCHER, s. One whose employment is to catch moles. 
 MOLEHILL, s. Hillock thrown up by the mole working underground. 
 MOLLUSCA, s. An order of the class Vermes of Linnaeus. It comprehends 
 
 naked simple animals not included in a shell, but furnished with limbs, 
 
 as snails, star fish, sea urchins, cuttle fish, &c. 
 MOON-EYED, a. Having eyes affected by the revolutions of the moon ; 
 
 dim-eyed, purblind. 
 MOONFISH, s. Moonfish is so called, because the tail fin is shaped like 
 
 a half moon. 
 
 MOOR, s. A marsh, a fen, a bog, a tract of low and watery ground ; a negro. 
 MOORCOCK, *. The male of the moorhen. 
 MOORHEN, s. A fowl that feeds in the fens, without web feet. 
 MOOSE, s. A large American deer. They were formerly found in Ireland, 
 
 and their gigantic remains are frequently discovered in the bogs and 
 
 morasses. 
 MOP, s. Pieces of cloth, or locks of wool, fixed to a long handle, to clean 
 
 floors, carriages, &c. &c.
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 347 
 
 MOKASS, s. Fen, bog-, moor. 
 
 MORBID, a. Diseased, in a state contrary to health. 
 MORBIDNESS, s. State of being 1 diseased. 
 MORDANT, a. Biting, pungent, acrid. 
 MORELAND, s. A mountainous or hilly country. 
 
 MORILLON, (Anas Glaucion, LINN. ; Le Morillon, BUFF.) s. An aquatic 
 bird. 
 
 Bill brown, orange from the nostrils to the 
 point, the knob of which is black ; it is an 
 inch and a half long, rather narrow towards 
 the apex ; the nostrils are placed very forward ; 
 head brown, cheeks tinged with black ; irides 
 straw colour ; a broad white circle round the 
 neck, the back part of which is mottled with 
 brown ; breast, sides of the body, and scapular 
 feathers, white, barred with black ; belly 
 white ; thighs and vent feathers brown and 
 white ; inner coverts of the wings brown ; 
 
 back and coverts of the wings black, mottled 
 with white ; quill feathers and tertials black ; 
 secondaries white ; tail rounded and grey ; legs 
 and toes yellow brown, with a greenish tinge ; 
 webs and claws black. Length, one foot four 
 inches ; breadth, two feet four inches ; weight, 
 one pound seven ounces. 
 
 They are generally seen in small flocks, 
 diving for their food, near the shore Be- 
 wick. 
 
 MORTAR, s. A strong vessel in which materials are broken by being 
 pounded with a pestle ; a short wide cannon, out of which bombs are 
 thrown ; cement made of lime and sand with water, and used to join 
 stones or bricks. . 
 
 MORTIFICATION, s. The state of corrupting or losing the vital qualities, 
 gangrene ; humiliation, vexation, trouble ; to humble, to depress, to 
 vex. 
 
 MORTISE, *. A hole cut into wood that another piece may be put into it. 
 
 Moss, s. A plant. 
 
 MOTH, s. A small winged insect that eats cloths and hangings ; an even- 
 ing fishing fly.
 
 348 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Mou 
 
 MOULT, v. To shed or change the feathers, to lose the feathers. 
 MOUNTAIN, s. A large hill, avast protuberance of the earth. MOUNTAIN, 
 
 a. Found on the mountains, as mountain hares, mountain partridges. 
 MOUNTAINOUS, a. Hilly, full of mountains ; large as mountains, huge ; 
 
 inhabiting mountains. 
 MOUSE, s. The smallest of all beasts, a little animal haunting houses and 
 
 corn-fields. Vide FIELD MOUSE. 
 MOUTH, s. The aperture in the head of any animal at which the food is 
 
 received ; the opening, the entrance ; the instrument of speaking. 
 MOUTH, v. To chew, to eat ; to seize in the mouth ; to injure with the 
 
 teeth. 
 
 Mow, s. A loft or chamber where any hay or corn is laid up. 
 Mow, v. To cut with a scythe ; to put in a mow. 
 MUCILAGE, s. A slimy or viscous body, a body with moisture sufficient to 
 
 hold it together. 
 
 cheaply and abundantly obtained from flax- 
 seed, or linseed. Eight ounces infused in two 
 or three quarts of boiling water, forms a good 
 mucilage. White. 
 
 Mucilage is made by dissolving gum arabic 
 in water. There are other cheaper gums, 
 however, that will answer the same purpose : 
 mucilage may be made also from quince seeds 
 and starch. For internal use it is most 
 
 MUCILAGINOUS, a. Slimy, viscous, soft with some degree of tenacity. 
 
 Mucous, a. Slimy, viscous. 
 
 Mucus, s. The viscous substance discharged at the nose ; any viscous 
 
 matter. 
 MUD, s. The slime at the bottom of still water ; earth well moistened 
 
 with water. 
 
 MUE, v. To moult, to change feathers. 
 MUFFLE, v. To cover from the weather ; to blindfold ; to conceal ; to 
 
 involve, to hood a hawk. 
 MULE, s. An animal generally between a he-ass and a mare, or between a 
 
 horse and a she-ass. 
 
 These useful and hardy animals are the 
 offspring of the horse and ass, or ass and 
 mare ; those produced between the two last 
 are esteemed the best, as the mule is observed 
 to partake less of the male than of the fe- 
 male parent ; yet it is a general remark, that 
 they almost always inherit, in some degree, 
 the obstinacy of the parent ass, though it must 
 be confessed that this vice is heightened by 
 their being injudiciously broke in. 
 
 Savoy produces very large mules, but the 
 finest are bred in Spain. They are chiefly 
 used in countries where there are rocky and 
 stony roads, as about the Alps and Pyrenees, 
 &c. Great numbers of them are kept in 
 these places, they are usually black, and are 
 strong, well-made, and large, being mostly 
 bred out of fine Spanish mares. They are 
 
 sometimes fifteen or sixteen hands high, and 
 a good one of this kind is worth fifty or sixty 
 pounds. No creature is so proper for carry- 
 ing large burdens, or more surefooted. They 
 are much stronger for draught than our horses; 
 often as thick-set as our dray-horses, and will 
 travel for several months together with six or 
 eight hundred weight on their backs. 
 
 The mule far excels the horse for travelling 
 in a mountainous country, the former being 
 able to tread securely where the latter can 
 hardly stand. Their manner of going down 
 the precipices of the Alps, the Andes, &c., is 
 very extraordinary. In these passages, on one 
 side are steep eminences, and on the other 
 frightful abysses, and as they generally follow 
 the direction of the mountain, the road, in- 
 stead of lying on a level, forms at every little
 
 Mm,] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 349 
 
 distance, deep declivities of several hundred 
 yards downward. These can be descended 
 only by mules, and these animals seem sensi- 
 ble of the danger, and the caution that is to 
 be used in such descents. When they come 
 to the edge of one of these precipices, they 
 stop, without being checked by the rider, and 
 if he inadvertently attempts to spur them on, 
 they continue immovable, apparently rumi- 
 nating on the danger that lies before them, 
 and preparing themselves for the encounter. 
 They not only attentively view the road, but 
 tremble and snort at the danger. Having pre- 
 pared for the descent, they place their fore- 
 feet in a posture as if they were stopping 
 themselves, they then put their hind-feet 
 together, but a little forward, as if they were 
 going to lie down. In this attitude, having 
 taken, as it were, a survey of the road, they 
 slide down with the swiftness of a meteor. In 
 the mean time, all that the rider has to do, is 
 to keep himself fast on the saddle without 
 checking the rein, for the least motion is suf- 
 ficient to disorder the equilibrium of the mule, 
 in which case they both unavoidably perish. 
 But their address in this rapid descent is 
 truly wonderful, for in their swiftest motion, 
 when they seem to have lost all government 
 of themselves, they follow exactly the different 
 windings of the road, as if they had previously 
 settled in their mind the route they were to 
 follow, and had taken every precaution for 
 their safety. 
 
 In these journeys the natives place them- 
 
 MULLET, s. A sea fish. 
 
 selves along the aides of the mountains, and 
 holding by the roots of the trees, animate 
 the beasts with shouts, and encourage them to 
 persevere. Some mules, after being long used 
 to such travelling, acquire a kind of reputation 
 for their safety and skill, and their value rises 
 in proportion to their fame. 
 
 The Roman ladies had equipages drawn by 
 mules, as appears from the medals of Julia 
 and Agrippina, and at this day, in Spain, the 
 carriages of the nobility, and even of princes, 
 are usually drawn by them. We are assured 
 that M. de Thou, first president of the par- 
 liament, had the fourth coach in France, in 
 1505, till which time every body rode to 
 court and parliament on mules. 
 
 * * 
 
 The progeny between the pheasant and the 
 common fowl, are necessarily mules, as pro- 
 ceeding from different species, although of 
 the same genus. They may be obtained 
 with some little difficulty, which they scarcely 
 repay, as being neither an improvement in 
 form nor goodness of the flesh. It is recom- 
 mended, as the best method, to confine a 
 cock-pheasant half grown with two pullets of 
 the same age, either game, bantam, or com- 
 mon, as may be desired ; or to make a house 
 for common hens in a pheasant preserve near 
 home, where they will soon associate with 
 the pheasants, and be trodden by the cocks. 
 Hybrids, or mules, between the pheasant and 
 black grouse, have been occasionally found on 
 the moors. Le Keux Moubray. 
 
 The mullet is found in great plenty on 
 several of our sandy coasts, and, in particular, 
 
 haunts those small bays that have influxes of 
 fresh water ; they are very cunning, and when
 
 350 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [MUL 
 
 surrounded with a net, the whole shoal fre- 
 quently escapes by leaping over it ; for when 
 one takes the lead, the others are sure to fol- 
 low. 
 
 They come in great shoals into the rivers 
 with the tide during the summer, and keep 
 rooting, like hogs, in the sand or mud, leaving 
 their traces in the form of large round holes ; 
 hut return back when the water ebbs, never 
 stopping in the rivers. They are something 
 like the dace in shape, yet much thicker ; the 
 head is almost square and flat on the top ; the 
 nose blunt ; lips thick ; they have no teeth, 
 only the upper-lip is a little rough, as is also 
 the tongue ; between the eyes and mouth is a 
 hard callus; the pupil of the eye is black, 
 encircled with a small silvery line ; the co- 
 lour of the back is dusky, varied with blue 
 and green; the sides silvery, marked with 
 broad, dusky, parallel lines, reaching from 
 head to tail, which is much forked ; the 
 scales are large and deciduous, and are also 
 upon the covers of the gills and head, and 
 extend as far as the nostrils. The largest are 
 nearly half a yard long, and the flesh is ex- 
 cellent. 
 
 Although the mullet are generally first 
 seen here in the month of June, from the 
 wetness of this summer the shoals are later in 
 their appearance than usual. Mullet are taken 
 in draught-nets like salmon, but on this coast 
 a different mode of fishing is pursued. The 
 shoals in hot weather run in with the tide, 
 and after remaining on the shores and estu- 
 aries during flood they return with the ebbing 
 water. The following method we employed 
 in our fishing to-day : being provided with a 
 sufficient quantity of herring-nets and a num- 
 ber of spars and poles, we selected, at low 
 water, a sandy creek for our operations, and 
 
 commenced erecting a line of poles across the 
 entrance of the cove. The nets were then 
 extended along these uprights, and also se- 
 cured firmly to the bottom of the spars ; the 
 lower part of the net is kept upon the bot- 
 tom by a row of stones, and the remainder 
 laid flat upon the sands. With the flowing 
 tide the fish pass over the prostrate net, and 
 run along the estuary; at high water the 
 buoy-ropes are raised and secured to the up- 
 right poles ; with the assistance of a boat the 
 whole is effected in a few minutes, and a net- 
 work barrier effectually cuts off the retreat 
 of all within. When the ebb of tide com- 
 mences, the mullet begin to retire, and when 
 they discover that their egress is obstructed, 
 their attempts to effect a passage are both con- 
 stant and curious now running down the 
 nets, trying for a broken mesh by which to 
 force an aperture now with a bold spring 
 endeavouring to clear the buoy-ropes, and, 
 even after repeated failures, leaping at it again 
 and again. The last effort is directed to the 
 bottom, but there the heavy stones resist 
 every attempt to dislodge them, and deserted 
 by the treacherous water, the mullet are left 
 upon the bare sands. 
 
 The general length of the common mullet 
 (mugil) is from twelve to eighteen inches. 
 When used immediately after being taken, 
 the fish is excellent ; carriage, even for a short 
 distance, injures it. Dr. Blotch recommends 
 oil and lemon-juice to be used with it at table. 
 Vinegar, with parsley and melted butter, is 
 better " probatum est." 
 
 This fish is sometimes preserved by salting ; 
 and from its spawn an inferior kind of caviar, 
 called botargo, is prepared, by using the com- 
 mon process of curing and drying Wild 
 Sports. 
 
 MULTIPAROUS, a. Bringing many at a birth. 
 
 MUM, s. Ale brewed with wheat. 
 
 MUNGREL, *. Anything generated between different kinds ; anything par- 
 taking of the qualities of different causes or parents. 
 
 MUNGREL, a. Generated between different natures, baseborn, degenerate. 
 
 MUNITION, s. Ammunition ; materials for war. 
 
 MURIATES, s. Combinations of muriatic acid, with alkalies, earths, or 
 metals. 
 
 Muriate of Ammonia, commonly named 
 crude sal ammoniac When dissolved in 
 vinegar, it has been found a useful application 
 for splents when in a state of inflammation. 
 Muriate of ammonia, 
 
 powdered . 2 dr. 
 
 Vinegar . . 1 oz. 
 
 Alcohol . 1 oz. 
 
 Water . . 2 oz Mix. 
 
 Muriate of Antimony, or Butter of 
 
 Antimony A strong and useful caustic, 
 
 employed by smiths, in canker, punctured 
 wounds from picking up a nail, bruises of the 
 foot, &c. 
 
 Muriate of Copper A solution of ver- 
 digris in muriatic acid or spirit of salt. A 
 mild caustic, and diluted occasionally with 
 water. 
 
 Muriate of Soda Common salt, or the 
 
 salt employed with food. This is .an excel-
 
 Mus] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 351 
 
 lent laxative for cattle, and, in small doses, 
 promotes digestion. Mow-burnt hay, or bad 
 Lay of any kind, is made more palatable to 
 horses and cattle by being moistened with 
 
 water in which a small quantity of salt has 
 been dissolved, and it is, perhaps, rendered 
 more easy of digestion also White. 
 
 MURKY, a. Dark, cloudy, wanting light. 
 
 MURREY, a. Darkly red. 
 
 Mus, s. A tribe of order Glires, and class Mammalia. In it are included 
 
 the common rat and mouse, Norway rat, musk rat, &c. &c. 
 MUSCADINE, s. A kind of sweet grape, sweet wine. 
 MUSCLE, *. A bivalve shell-fish. 
 MUSCOVY, CAIRO, GUINEA, or INDIAN DUCK (Anas moschatus, LINN. ; 
 
 Le Canard Musque, BUFF.) s. 
 
 This species is much larger than the com- 
 mon duck, measuring about two feet in length. 
 The bill is two inches long ; the tip and nos- 
 trils brown ; the other parts of it red, as is 
 also the red warty skin which joins its base, 
 and surrounds the eyes. The crown of the 
 head is rather tufted or crested, and black ; 
 the cheeks, throat, and fore part of the neck, 
 white, irregularly marked with black; the 
 belly, from the breast to the thighs, white. 
 The general colour of the rest of the plumage 
 is deep brown, darkest, and glossed with green 
 on the back, rump, quills, and tail ; the two 
 outside feathers of the latter, and the first 
 three of the former, are white : the legs and 
 feet are red, short, and thick. This is the 
 general appearance of the musk duck ; but, 
 
 as it is domesticated in almost every country, 
 it varies very much, like all other birds in 
 that state. In the female, the bare warty or 
 carunculated skin which is spread from the 
 bill over the eyes, is of a much duller red, 
 and does not cover so large a portion of the 
 head as it does in the male : she is also of a 
 less size. 
 
 These birds have obtained the name of 
 Musk Duck, from their musky smell, which 
 arises from the liquor secreted in the glands 
 on the rump. They are a thriving and pro- 
 lific species, and their flesh, which is highly 
 flavoured, is by many very much esteemed. 
 They will associate with the common ducks ; 
 and instances are not wanting of their pro- 
 ducing a mixed breed Bewick. 
 
 MUSCULAR, a. Performed by muscles.
 
 352 THE FIELD BOOK. [MYR 
 
 MUSK, *. A very powerful perfume ; it is procured from a kind of Indian 
 goat. 
 
 MUSKET, s. A soldier's gun ; a male hawk of a small kind. 
 
 MUSKETEER, *. A soldier whose weapon is his musket. 
 
 MUSKETOON, s. obs. A blunderbuss, a short gun of a large bore. 
 
 MUSLIN, s. A fine stuff made of cotton. 
 
 MUSTARD, s. A plant. 
 
 MUSTY, a. Mouldy, spoiled with damp, moist and fetid ; stale. 
 
 MUTE, a. Silent, not vocal, not -having the use of voice. 
 
 MUTE, s. The excrement of hawks. 
 
 MUTE, v. To dung as birds. 
 
 MUTTON, s. The flesh of sheep dressed for food ; a sheep. 
 
 MUZZLE, *. The mouth of any thing ; a fastening for the mouth which 
 hinders to bite ; a contrivance to prevent a horse from eating hay or 
 litter. 
 
 MUZZLE, v. To secure the mouth. 
 
 MYOPY, s. Shortness of sight. 
 
 MYRRH, s. A precious kind of gum. Myrrh is sometimes used in vete- 
 rinary practice. The tincture is a favourite remedy with grooms and 
 farriers, for recent wounds. The dose of myrrh is from one or two 
 to three drachms.
 
 NEWFOUNDLAND DOG. 
 
 i\ AG, s. A small horse ; a horse in familiar language. 
 
 NAIL, s. The horny substance at the ends of the fingers and toes ; the 
 talons of birds and beasts ; a spike of metal by which things are fastened 
 together ; a stud, a boss ; a kind of measure, two inches and a quarter. 
 
 NAPE, s. The joint of the neck behind. 
 
 NARCOTIC, a. Producing torpor, or stupefaction. 
 
 NARES, s. The hawk's nostrils. 
 
 NARROW, a. Not broad or wide. 
 
 NARROW-HEELS, s- A disease in horses. 
 
 Chronic lameness may exist in various de- 
 grees, and, in the early stages of the disorder, 
 a horse may do considerable work, by paring 
 his feet properly, and keeping them cool and 
 moist ; by paring the soles, putting on a wide 
 hollow shoe, and keeping them stopped with 
 tar ointment. By such management the pro- 
 gress of the disease may be retarded, and the 
 horse much relieved ; but it can never be 
 cured. Most commonly the disease gradually 
 gets worse, and at length the horse becomes unfit 
 for every kind of work. At this period the horse 
 is generally blistered or fired, and turned to 
 grass. But this never does any good ; shoes 
 with claws, or hinges and screws, have been 
 proposed, and employed with a view to open 
 
 the heels ; but of course they have never done 
 any good, either in the way of prevention or 
 cure. The hoof has been all rasped away, 
 and the horse turned to grass until a new hoof 
 has grown down of a proper form, but it has 
 never done any good. That cruel operation 
 of tearing off the sole, technically termed 
 drawing the sole, was formerly practised for 
 it, but is now, I trust, completely discon- 
 tinued. In short, every thing that human 
 ingenuity can devise has been tried, but 
 nothing has ever been found to cure this dis- 
 order. I believe at this time all veterinarians 
 agree in the opinion of its being absolutely 
 incurable Elaine. 
 
 A A
 
 354 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 NATIVE, a. Produced by nature, not artificial ; natural, such as is accord- 
 ing to nature ; conferred by birth ; pertaining to the time or place of 
 birth, original. 
 
 NATURAL, a. Produced or effected by nature. 
 
 The natural fly delights in hovering over the 
 stream, and performs it with that ease and 
 beauty, which cannot be attained with the ar- 
 tificial, but the former often drowns when tired 
 of making its airy evolutions, and it is then the 
 latter best resembles it, and as a drowned fly 
 is the artificial one taken by the fish, no art 
 being able to make that ^play upon the water 
 like the living one. 
 
 This way of angling is chiefly adapted to 
 
 warm weather, when the water is low and 
 clear ; and is best in small rivers and brooks, 
 where the angler can keep more out of sight 
 than near large waters, that are more exposed. 
 He must have a long rod, as before described 
 for artificial fly fishing; the line fine for nearly 
 the whole length of it (which is not to exceed 
 three fourths of that of the rod), with a fine 
 short shanked hook, in size proportioned to 
 the baits. 
 
 NAVE, s. The middle part of the wheel in which the axle moves ; the 
 middle part of the church, distinct from the aisles or wings. 
 
 NAVELGALL, s. Navelgall is a bruise on the top of the chine of the back, 
 behind the saddle, right against the navel. 
 
 NEAP, a. Low, decrescent. 
 
 NEAT, *. Black cattle, oxen ; a cow or ox. 
 
 NEAT'S-FOOT OIL, s. Is extracted from the feet of oxen, &c. ; it is used 
 in lubricating stiff joints, old sprains, &c., and is an excellent preserva- 
 tive of harness and leather. 
 
 NEB, s. Nose, beak, mouth. In Scotland, the bill of a bird. 
 
 NEBULA, s. It is applied to appearances like a cloud in the human body, 
 as to films upon the eye. 
 
 NECK, s. The part between the neck and the body ; a long narrow part. 
 
 The neck should form from the head to 
 the withers, an elegant but moderate curve, 
 with which it should unite with a very mode- 
 rate depression only ; while its under surface 
 ought to be but very slightly incurvated, and 
 should enter the chest rather above the point 
 of his shoulders. A large prominent wind- 
 pipe adds to the perfection of the lower sur- 
 face of the neck. In point of length, it is of 
 consequence that the neck be duly propor- 
 tioned. The long neck, when .thin withal, 
 seldom presents a firm or proper resistance 
 against the pressure of the bit. When, on 
 the contrary, the neck is too short, the head 
 is frequently ill placed, and the lever in the 
 hand of the rider will be also too short. 
 Such necks are often likewise weighty, and 
 overloaded with flesh. It is evident, also, that 
 such cannot be reined up without danger of 
 suffocation ; and it is seldom that a short- 
 necked horse is speedy. When the upper 
 surface of the neck is thick and heavy, it is a 
 very strong presumption of a sluggish disposi- 
 tion, particularly in geldings and mares. In 
 
 stallions, it is a distinctive sexual mark, and 
 hence less to be depended on. Now and then, 
 the neck is arched downwards, which is called 
 ewe-necked. When the deformity is consi- 
 derable, it prevents the head from being car- 
 ried in its true angle ; instead of which, the 
 nose, from being projected upwards and for- 
 wards, has occasioned such horses to be called 
 stargazers ; to remedy which, it is usual to 
 draw the head down by a martingal. In the 
 horse, as well as in all the grazing tribes, the 
 length of the well proportioned neck is such, 
 that, adding to it the angle resulting from the 
 head, the length of both is equal to the height 
 of the shoulders from the ground. It may 
 not, also, be amiss to mention, that, in the 
 purchase of a horse, it is prudent to observe 
 whether the upper part of the neck bears any 
 marks of a tight collar having been worn : 
 when such an appearance does exist, it com- 
 monly arises either from a strap worn to pre- 
 vent the action of crib-biting, or such a horse 
 is apt to unloose himself, which is almost an 
 equal defect. Blaine. 
 
 NEEDLE, *. A small instrument pointed at one end to pierce cloth, and
 
 NF.T] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 055 
 
 perforated at the other to receive the thread ; the small steel bar wlm-h, 
 in the mariner's compass, stands regularly north and south. 
 
 NEIGH, v. To utter the voice of a horse. 
 
 NEIGH, s. The voice of a horse. 
 
 NERVE, s. The nerves are the organs of sensation passing from the brain 
 to all parts of the body ; it is used by the poets for sinew or tendon. 
 
 parable mischief will be done, before the cause 
 of it can possibly be detected. A horse on 
 whom this operation has been performed may 
 be improved may cease to be lame, may go 
 well for many years ; but there is no certainty 
 of his continuing to do so, and he is unsound. 
 
 Neurotomy A question has arisen how 
 
 far a horse that has undergone the operation 
 of the division of the nerve of the leg, and has 
 recovered from the lameness with which he 
 was before affected, and stands his work well, 
 may be considered to be sound. In our opi- 
 nion there cannot be a doubt about the matter. 
 Does the operation of neurotomy render a horse 
 as capable of work as he was before he became 
 affected with the disease on account of which, 
 and to relieve him from the torture of which. 
 
 Poiet These, as well as the omens of 
 death watches, dreams, &c., are for the most 
 part founded upon some accidental coinci- 
 dences ; but spilling of salt on an uncommon 
 
 the nerve was divided ? Is the operation of | occasion may, as I have known it, arise from 
 
 neurotomy so invariably followed by capabi- 
 lity, and continued capability of ordinary and 
 even extraordinary work, that they may regu- 
 larly be considered as cause and effect ? The 
 most strenuous defenders of the nerve opera- 
 tion cannot affirm this. They can only say 
 that they partially succeed in almost every fair 
 case, that they perfectly succeed in the ma- 
 jority of cases ; but they cannot deny that the 
 horse will batter and bruise that foot, when he 
 has lost sensation in it, which should have 
 been tenderly used ; that even the hoof will 
 sometimes be lost, after operations performed 
 
 a disposition to apoplexy, shown by an incipi- 
 ent numbness of the hand, and may be a fatal 
 symptom ; and persons dispirited by bad 
 omens sometimes prepare the way for evil 
 fortune, for confidence in success is a great 
 means of ensuring it. 
 
 I knew a man of very high dignity, who 
 was exceedingly moved by these omens, and 
 who never went out shooting without a bit- 
 tern's claw fastened to his button-bole by a 
 riband. 
 
 * * 
 
 Under these circumstances a man must 
 
 with the greatest judgment ; that the lameness ! either pick his shots or occasionally miss, 
 
 will sometimes return, after the animal has 
 gone sound, one, two, or three years ; and that, 
 after all, there is a little unpleasantness, and 
 even unsafeness in the action of the horse, 
 from the peculiar manner in which the foot 
 meets the ground when its feeling is destroyed ; 
 and that the horse is more liable to accidents, 
 for he will travel on without warning his rider 
 of the evil, after a piece of glass has pene- 
 trated his foot, or a stone has insinuated itself 
 between the sole and the shoe ; and thus irre- 
 
 though his gun be every time held straight. 
 I venture to say there is no sportsman living 
 who has not been known to miss the fairest 
 shots, and there are very few but now and 
 then in a season will shoot badly for a whole 
 day. It stands to reason when the most skil- 
 ful may become for a time unnerved for 
 shooting by ill health, oppression of mind, 
 one night's debauch, or anything that will 
 operate on the temper or nerves. The Horse 
 Sir Humphry Davy Hawker. 
 
 NEST, *. The bed formed by the bird for incubation ; any place where 
 insects are produced ; an abode ; boxes of drawers, little conveniences. 
 
 NEST, v. To build nests. Vide NIDIFICATION. 
 
 NESTEGG, s. An egg left in the nest to keep the hen from forsaking it. 
 
 NESTLE, v. To house, as in a nest ; to cherish, as a bird her young. 
 
 NESTLING, s. A bird taken out of the nest. 
 
 NET, *. A texture woven with large interstices or meshes, used for taking 
 fish and birds. Game is frequently thus poached, and to the smaller 
 kinds, particxilarly snipes, the net is very destructive. 
 
 The snipe net seems to be the most de- I Ireland, as follows : it must be about half as 
 atructive, and is used with great success in | long again as the partridge-net, with the meshes 
 
 A A 2
 
 356 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 much smaller and not quite so deep ; two 
 strong men hold each end of the net, and run 
 down the wind with it, as fast as possible, hav- 
 ing not time even to look where they are going, 
 as they must constantly mind the net, to see 
 when a hird strikes it, that they may let it fall, 
 by which means they secure these birds ; they 
 get, of course, very severe falls, from the at- 
 tention they are obliged to pay to the net, 
 but are amply repaid, it being no uncommon 
 circumstance for them to take one or two 
 hundred brace, in a very few hours (especi- 
 ally if the day is dark and windy, which is 
 the most favourable time both for gun and 
 net). The top part of the net gets so forward, 
 that by the time the snipe perceives it, and 
 rises, on striking the lower part of it, he is 
 secured. One netted snipe is worth twenty 
 th at are shot. 
 
 * 
 
 Anecdote of Netting Snipes Visionary 
 
 in the extreme were many of the devices 
 which entered into his head in regard to com- 
 passing the wild fowl, that resorted hither in 
 astonishing abundance ; in two only of those 
 which he put into execution was he successful ; 
 
 NETWORK, s. Anything- resembling the work of a net. 
 NEUROLOGY, s. A description of the nerves. 
 NEUROTOMY, s. Vide NERVE. 
 NEWFOUNDLAND DOG (Canis Sensilis), s. 
 
 namely with the talking hare, and the snipe 
 net. Of his numberless expeditions with the 
 latter, one is worthy of recital. It was at the 
 close of a cold winter's day, when John and an 
 attendant sallied forth from Grenton for the 
 moor, anticipating much sport, as the wind and 
 the complexion of the evening seemed parti- 
 cularly favourable ; moreover they soon en- 
 countered a hail-storm, which made the birds 
 lie to their perfect satisfaction. 
 
 They had at length taken a quantity of 
 snipes, and were thinking about returning, 
 when something struck the net with unusual 
 force, and struggled so, that the poles were 
 with difficulty kept to the ground. What have 
 we here, said the attendant, calf, sheep, hog, 
 dog, or goat? It is the d 1, I believe, re- 
 plied John, and if we can but hold him fast, 
 we shall have made a tolerable night's work 
 | of it. The net had enclosed a goose of a coarse 
 | dun-coloured plumage, no one knew what sort 
 of a goose it was, but it was allowed to be the 
 i largest aquatic bird, the hooper excepted, ever 
 taken on King's Sedginoor Thornhill 
 Sporting Anecdotes. 
 
 In a state of purity, and uncontaminated 
 by a mixture of any inferior race, this is cer- 
 tainly the noblest of the canine tribe. His 
 great size and strength, and majestic look, con- 
 vey to the mind a sort of awe, if not fear, but 
 which is quickly dispelled when we examine 
 the placid serenity and the mild expressive 
 intelligence of his countenance, showing at 
 once that ferocity is no part of his disposition. 
 
 The full-sized Newfoundland dog from the 
 nose to the end of the tail measures about 
 six feet and a half, the length of the tail 
 being two feet ; from the one fore foot to the 
 other, over the shoulders, five feet eight 
 inches ; girth behind the shoulders three feet 
 four inches ; round the head, across the ears, 
 two feet ; round the upper part of the fore 
 leg, ten inches ; length of the head, fourteen 
 inches; and his feet are webbed, by which 
 means he can swim with great ease. He is 
 covered with long shaggy hair, has feathered 
 legs, and an extremely villous tail, which is 
 curvilinear. 
 
 This dog is but of recent introduction into 
 this country from the island whose name he 
 bears, and may be considered as a distinct 
 race. I cannot agree with some naturalists 
 who hold the opinion that the Siberian, Lap- 
 land, and Iceland dogs are from the same stock 
 as the Newfoundland, because the formation 
 
 of the head in this last is very different, and 
 his muzzle, though long, is not nearly so 
 acute as in the others ; he also differs materi- 
 ally in his shape, but more especially in the 
 length of his body. 
 
 This dog is not remarkable for symmetry 
 of form, or in the setting on of his legs, 
 whence his motion is somewhat awkward and 
 loose, and consequently he is not distinguished 
 for speed, a defect which might be remedied 
 by breeding, were an improvement in that 
 particular thought desirable. 
 
 The Newfoundland dog is docile to a very 
 great degree, and nothing can exceed his affec- 
 tion. . Naturally athletic and active, he is 
 ever eager to be employed, and seems delighted 
 to perform any little office required of him. 
 Nature has given him a great share of emu- 
 lation, and hence to be surpassed or overcome 
 is to him the occasion of great pain. Active 
 on every emergency, he is the friend of all, 
 and is naturally without the least disposition 
 to quarrel with other animals. He seldom or 
 never offers offence, but will not receive an 
 insult or injury with impunity. Such is the 
 capacity of his understanding, that he can be 
 taught almost everything which man can in- 
 culcate, and of which his own strength and 
 frame are capable. His sagacity can only be 
 exceeded by his energies, and he perseveres
 
 NIC] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 357 
 
 with unabated ardour in whatever shape he 
 is employed, and while he has a hope of suc- 
 cess he will never slacken in his efforts to 
 attain it. The amazing pliability of Ids tem- 
 per peculiarly fits him for the use of man, and 
 lie never shrinks from any service which may 
 be required of him, but undertakes it with an 
 ardour proportionate to the difficulty of its 
 execution. Taking a singular pride in being 
 employed, he will carry a stirk, a basket, or a 
 bundle, for miles in his mouth, and to deprive 
 him of any of these is more than a stranger 
 could accomplish with safety. 
 
 Sagacity and a peculiar faithful attachment 
 to the human species are characteristics inse- 
 parable from this dog, and hence he is ever on 
 the alert to ward off from his master every 
 impending danger, and to free him from every 
 peril to which he may be exposed. He is 
 endowed with an astonishing degree of cou- 
 rage, whether to resent an insult or to defend 
 his friends, even at the risk of his own life. 
 
 Habitually inclined to industrious employ- 
 ment, such dogs are as useful to the settlers 
 of the coast from which they are brought, as 
 our ponies and galloways are to us. It is easy 
 to accustom them to daily labour. From 
 three to five of them are harnessed to a sledge 
 or other vehicle, containing a load of wood or 
 lumber, amounting to twenty or thirty stone, 
 which they steadily draw for miles with ease. 
 This they do without the aid of a driver, when 
 they are acquainted with the road, and having 
 delivered their burden, they return home to 
 their master, and receive as a reward for their 
 
 labour their accustomed food, which generally 
 consists of dried fish, of which they are said 
 to be extremely fond. The qualifications of 
 this dog are extensive indeed ; as a keeper or 
 defender of the house, he is far more intelli- 
 gent, more powerful, and more to be depended 
 upon than the mastiff, and has of late years 
 been much substituted for him in England ; 
 indeed he may with great propriety entirely 
 supersede that breed. As a watch dog, and for 
 his services upon navigable rivers, none can 
 compete with him ; and various sportsmen have 
 introduced him into the field as a pointer with 
 great success, his kind disposition and sagacity 
 rendering his training an easy task. 
 
 The usual fate of other fine dogs attends 
 this generous race among us; they are too 
 often degraded and degenerated by inferior 
 crosses, which with so noble an animal should 
 be avoided by every possible means. 
 
 At the commencement of the action which 
 took place between the Nymph and Cleopatra, 
 during the late war, there was a large New- 
 foundland dog on board the former vessel, 
 which the moment the firing began ran from 
 below deck, in spite of the endeavours of the 
 men to keep him down, and climbing up into 
 the main-chains he there kept up a continual 
 barking, and exhibited the most violent rage 
 during the whole of the engagement. 
 
 When the Cleopatra struck, he was among 
 the foremost to board her, and there walked 
 up and down the decks, seemingly conscious 
 of the victory he had gained. 
 
 NEWT, s. Eft, small lizard. 
 
 NIBBLE, v. To bite by little at a time, to eat slowly ; to bite as a fish does 
 
 the bait ; not to bite sportingly. 
 
 NICK, *. A notch cut in anything; in hazard, a winning throw. 
 NICK, v. To hit, to touch luckily ; to cut in nicks or notches ; to suit, as 
 
 tallies cut in nicks ; a term at hazard ; to shorten a horse's tail. 
 
 The operation of nicking is thus performed. 
 The side line is put on the horse, or some deem it 
 more prudent to cast him, and that precaution 
 we should be disposed to recommend. The hair 
 at the end of the tail is securely tied together 
 for the purpose of afterwards attaching a weight 
 to it. The operator then grasps the tail in his 
 hand, and lifting it up, feels for the centre of j 
 one of the bones (the prominences at the ex- 
 tremities will guide him to this), from two to 
 four inches from the root of the tail, accord- 
 ing to the size of the horse. He then with a 
 sharp knife divides the muscles deep from the 
 edge of the tail on one side to the centre, and 
 continuing the incision across the bone of the 
 tail, he makes it as deep on the other side. 
 One continued incision, steadily, yet rapidly, 
 made, will accomplish this. If it be a blood 
 horse this will be sufficient. For a hunter, 
 
 two incisions are usually made, the second 
 being about two inches below the .first, and 
 likewise as nearly as possible in the centre of 
 one of the bones ; the reason of which is, that 
 the incision, in order perfectly to divide the 
 muscles that bring down the tail, must not be 
 so deep, as, in the neighbourhood of a joint, to 
 endanger the wounding of the ligament which 
 ties the bones together, or the substance which 
 is interposed between the joints, and thus by 
 destroying the joint to render the tail de- 
 formed. 
 
 On a hackney, or cocktail, a third incision 
 is made ; for fashion has decided that his tail 
 shall be still more elevated and curved. Two 
 incisions only are made in the tail of a mare, 
 and the second not very deep. 
 
 When the second incision is made, some 
 fibres of the muscles between the first and
 
 358 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [NlD 
 
 second incisions will project into the wounds, | 
 and which must be removed with a pair of 
 curved scissors. The same must be done with 
 the projecting portions from between the se- 
 cond and third incisions; and the wounds 
 should be carefully examined to ascertain that 
 the muscles have been equally divided on each 
 side, otherwise the tail will be carried awry. 
 This being done, pledgets of tow must be in- 
 troduced deeply into each gap, and confined, 
 but not too tightly, by a bandage. A very 
 profuse bleeding will alone justify any tight- 
 ness of bandage ; and the ill consequences 
 
 NIDE, s. A brood, as a nide of pheasants. 
 NIDIFICATION, s. The act of building nests. 
 
 which have resulted from re-nicking are mainly 
 attributable to the unnecessary force which 
 is used in confining these pledgets. Even if 
 the bleeding, immediately after the operation, 
 should have been very great, the roller must 
 be loosened in two or three hours, otherwise 
 swelling and inflammation, or death, may pos- 
 sibly ensue. Twenty-four hours after the ope- 
 ration, the bandage must be quite removed ; 
 and then, all that is necessary, so far as the 
 healing of the wounds is concerned, is to keep 
 them clean. 
 
 It is curious to observe with what different 
 degrees of architectonic skill Providence has 
 endowed birds of the same genus, and so 
 nearly correspondent in their general mode of 
 life ; for while the swallow and the house 
 martin discover the greatest address in raising 
 and securely fixing crusts or shells of loam as 
 cunabula for their young, the bank martin 
 terebrates a round and regular hole in the 
 sand or earth, which is serpentine, horizontal, 
 and about two feet deep. At the inner end 
 of this burrow does this bird deposit, in a good 
 degree of safety, her rude nest, consisting of 
 fine grasses and feathers, usually goose fea- 
 thers, very inartificially laid together. 
 
 Perseverance will accomplish any thing: 
 though at first one would be disinclined to 
 believe that this weak bird, with her soft and 
 tender bill and claws, should ever be able to 
 bore the stubborn sandbank without entirely 
 disabling herself; yet with these feeble instru- 
 ments have I seen a pair of them make great 
 despatch : and could remark how much they 
 had scooped that day by the fresh sand which 
 ran down the bank, and was of a different 
 colour from that which lay loose and bleached 
 in the sun. 
 
 In what space of time these little artists are 
 able to mine and finish these cavities I have 
 never been able to discover, for reasons given 
 
 above ; but it would be a matter worthy 
 of observation, where it falls in the way of 
 any naturalist to make his remarks. This I 
 have often taken notice of, that several holes 
 of different depths are left unfinished at the 
 end of summer. To imagine that these be- 
 ginnings were intentionally made in order to 
 be in the greater forwardness for next spring, 
 is allowing perhaps too much foresight and 
 rerum prudentia to a simple bird. May not 
 the cause of these latebrae being left unfi- 
 nished, arise from their meeting in those 
 places with strata too harsh, hard, and solid, 
 for their purpose, which they relinquish, and 
 go to a fresh spot that works more freely ? 
 Or may they not in other places fall in with 
 a soil as much too loose and mouldering, 
 liable to founder, and threatening to over- 
 whelm them and their labours ? 
 
 One thing is remarkable that, after some 
 years, the old holes are forsaken and new 
 ones bored ; perhaps because the old habita- 
 tions grow foul and fetid from long use, or 
 because they may so abound with fleas, as to 
 become untenantable. This species of swal- 
 low, moreover, is strangely annoyed with fleas ; 
 and we have seen fleas, bed fleas, (Pulex irri- 
 tans,) swarming at the mouths of these holes, 
 like bees on the stools of their hives White's 
 Selborne. 
 
 NIGHTCROW, s. A bird that cries in the night. 
 NIGHT-FISHING, s. 
 
 Night-fishing is carried on when the river 
 is low, and the night moonless. The poacher, 
 with a gaff and torch, selects some gravelly 
 ford for there, by a law of nature, the salmon 
 resort, to form beds in the stream, wherein 
 to deposit their ova ; and they continue work- 
 ing on the sand, until they are discovered by 
 
 torch-light, and gaffed by the plunderer. 
 Hundreds of the breeding fish are annually 
 thus destroyed; and although the greater 
 fisheries may be tolerably protected, it is 
 impossible to secure the mountain streams 
 from depredation Wild Sports. 
 
 NIGHTINGALE,*. A bird that sings in the night with remarkable melody. 
 
 One of the finest songsters of the feathered dom arrives till the middle or latter end of 
 race, generally visiting us, about London, the that month, and sometimes not till the begin- 
 beginning of April ; in Somersetshire it sel- ning of May ; Devonshire, and Cornwall, and
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 359 
 
 some other counties, it does not visit at all : 
 it generally leaves us again the beginning of 
 September. Its song, when wild, is very fine, 
 but lasts but a few weeks ; to have it in the 
 greatest perfection is to have a good bird in a 
 cage, where, if it be a very kindly one, it will 
 begin singing the beginning of December, and 
 continue till June. I had a very fine one 
 that only left off singing the latter end of 
 June last ; it began again a little in Septem- 
 ber, and the 1st of December it was in full 
 song, and continued to sing through the whole 
 of the month, and nearly all day long, as fine 
 as if at Midsummer, and would have con- 
 tinued on had not the frost set in so severe ; 
 when singing in a cage none of the soft notes 
 are lost, they are all heard quite clear, which 
 is not the case when heard in the woods or 
 hedges. 
 
 The best way to be certain of a good night- 
 ingale is to get one that is just caught in 
 spring ; for there is no dependence on a young 
 one bred up from the nest, or a young brancher, 
 except it be kept with a good old bird, to learn 
 its proper notes from ; a young one being apt 
 to catch all it hears, good or bad, and to be 
 deficient of many of its natural ones. I had 
 one three years, and it never sang worth any 
 thing ; the year before last I turned it out, 
 and it continued in the gardens round the 
 house until it left the country in autumn ; it 
 returned back to the same place last spring, 
 where I recognised it by its bad song, and it 
 continued about the same place all the sum- 
 mer, and bred up a nest of young ones. A 
 female that I had also been keeping for six 
 years, to see if she would breed, I also turned 
 out with him, but whether she came back and 
 
 was partner in the nest I cannot say, as I had 
 no mark to know her by : this female I kept 
 four years, and it never attempted to sing ; the 
 fifth year it sang frequently, a pretty soft 
 nightingale's note. I have found that the 
 case with several female birds ; they do not 
 sing till they become aged ; but it is not a 
 general rule, as I have had a female willow 
 wren that sang when quite young. 
 
 I treat my nightingales in exactly the same 
 manner as the before-mentioned birds, which 
 is at variance with the bird-fanciers' method, 
 who feed them on grated beef and egg, and 
 German paste ; but I have never heard of any 
 thing being kept many years on that food : 
 the German paste I do not approve of at all, 
 as the maw-seeds, honey, sugar, and such out 
 of the way ingredients, I am convinced must 
 be very injurious to their health. The best 
 thing to keep them in good health and spirits, 
 is to give them as much insect food as possi- 
 ble, and there are scarcely any insects they 
 will refuse, except the common earth-worm 
 and the hairy caterpillars ; they are particu- 
 larly fond of ants and their eggs, for which 
 they will leave any other food ; they are also 
 very partial to all sorts of smooth caterpillars, 
 earwigs, crickets, grasshoppers, cockroaches, 
 common maggots, and meal-worms ; but there 
 is nothing that all the birds of this tribe are 
 so fond of, as the young larvae in the combs of 
 wasps and hornets they will even eat them 
 after they become winged. I have, when a 
 boy, kept nightingales, blackcaps, the greater 
 pettychaps, aad whitethroats, for two months 
 at a time, on nothing else While of Set- 
 borne. 
 
 NIMBLE, a. Quick, active, ready, speedy, lively, expeditious. 
 NINEPINS, s. A play where nine pieces of wood are set up on the ground 
 to be thrown down by a bowl. 
 
 The kayle-pins were afterwards called kettle 
 or kittle-pins ; and hence, by an easy corrup- 
 tion, skittle-pins, an appellation well known 
 in the present day. The game of skittles as 
 it is now played, differs materially from that 
 of nine-pins, though the same number of pins 
 are required in both. In performing the latter, 
 the player stands at a distance settled by mu- 
 tual consent of the parties concerned, and casts 
 the bowl at the pins : the contest is, to beat 
 them all down in the fewest throws. In 
 playing at skittles there is a double exertion ; 
 one by bowling, and the other by tipping : the 
 first is performed at a given distance, and the 
 second standing close to the frame upon 
 which the pins are placed, and throwing the 
 bowl through in the midst of them ; in both 
 cases, the number of pins beaten down before 
 the return of the bowl, for it usually passes 
 
 beyond the frame, are called fair, and reckoned 
 to the account of the player ; but those that 
 fall by the coming back of the bowl are said 
 to be foul, and of course not counted. One 
 chalk or score is reckoned for every fair pin ; 
 and the game of skittles consists in obtaining 
 thirty-one chalks precisely : less loses, or at 
 least gives his antagonist a chance of winning 
 the game ; and more requires the player to 
 go again for nine, which must also be brought 
 exactly, to secure himself. 
 
 Hanmer intimates that the kittle-pins were 
 sometimes made with bones ; and his assertion 
 is strengthened by the language of a dramatic 
 writer, the author of the Merry Milk-maid of 
 Islington, in 1680, who makes one of his cha- 
 racters speak thus to another : " I'll cleave 
 you from the skull to the twist, and make nine 
 skittles of thv bones." Strutt.
 
 360 THE FIELD BOOK. [Nix 
 
 NITRATE OF POTASH, NITRE, or SALTPETRE, s. A neutral salt, formed 
 by the combination of nitrous acid and potash. 
 
 This is a medicine of great utility in vete- 
 rinary practice. It possesses a cooling and 
 diuretic property, which renders it extremely 
 useful in fevers, and complaints of an inflam- 
 matory nature. 
 
 In fevers, it is often joined with emetic tar- 
 tar, or antimonial powder. In catarrh or cold, 
 nitre is the best remedy ; and in troublesome 
 
 coughs it gives relief, if mixed with some emol- 
 lient drink and a little honey. 
 
 The medium dose of nitre is about one ounce, 
 though farriers often give double that quantity, 
 but large doses are apt to irritate the stomach 
 and do mischief. In urgent cases half an ounce 
 may be given every fourth hour, in a mucila- 
 ginous drink, or in water-gruel White. 
 
 NITROUS, a. Impregnated with nitre. 
 
 NOBLE, a. Of ancient and splendid family ; exalted to a rank above com- 
 monalty ; great, illustrious ; exalted. 
 NODE, s. A knot, a knob ; a swelling- on the bone. 
 NOMBLES, s. The entrails of a deer. 
 NOPE, s. A kind of bird called a bull-finch or red-tail. 
 NOSE, s. The prominence on the face, which is the organ of scent and the 
 
 emunctory of the brain ; scent ; sagacity. 
 NOSE, v. To scent, to smell. 
 NOSTRIL, s. The cavity in the nose. Nostrils linear, in ornithology, 
 
 when they are extended lengthwise in a line with the bill, as in divers ; 
 
 Nostrils pervious, when they are open, and may be seen through from 
 
 side to side, as in gulls, &c. 
 NOSTRUM, s. A medicine not yet made public, but remaining in some single 
 
 hand. 
 
 NOTCH, s. A nick, a hollow cut in anything. 
 NOZZLE, s. The nose, the snout, the end. 
 NUT, s. The fruit of certain trees : it consists of a kernel covered by a 
 
 hard shell ; a small body with teeth, which correspond with the teeth of 
 
 wheels. 
 
 NUTBROWN, a. Brown like a nut kept long. 
 NUTHATCH, NUTJOBBER, or NUTPECKER, *. A bird. 
 NUTRITIOUS, a. Having the quality of nourishing. 
 NuxVoMiCA, s. Aflat compressed round fruit, about the breadth of a 
 
 shilling, brought from the East Indies. . It is a certain poison for dogs, 
 
 &c. Vide POISON.
 
 THE OSPKF.Y. 
 
 o 
 
 AK, g. A tree; the wood of the tree. 
 
 A decoction of oak-bark is a good vehicle 
 for tonic and astringent medicines. When 
 finely powdered and given as a drench with 
 ginger, it may be of service in those complaints, 
 the continuance of which depends upon debi- 
 
 lity. It is said, however, to be much less 
 efficacious tlian Peruvian-bark ; yet, when that 
 cannot be procured, it may be found a useful 
 
 substitute. The dose is about two ounces 
 
 White. 
 
 OAKAPPLE, s. A kind of spongy excrescence in the oak. 
 OAKEN, a. Made of oak, gathered from oak. 
 OAKUM, s. Cords untwisted and reduced to hemp. 
 
 It is somewhat extraordinary that I and 
 other sportsmen, as well as the gun-makers, 
 should never have discovered that a punched 
 
 thing else from Mr. Joseph Manton, must be 
 of the best quality ; the one as to fitting well, 
 and the other as to being of good pasteboard. 
 
 wadding on the powder is not the best means , I then tried this duck-gun system of loading, 
 of loading a gun. We were all content, be- ! viz. : a piece of coarse tarred oakum (precisely 
 cause it was ten times better than paper, and ! what ships' ropes are made of,) first wound 
 therefore it is, and has long been, the univer- | round the finger, so as to be quite hard, and 
 sal method of loading. But I was induced to then rolled up in as large a ball as will fit 
 try an experiment at quires of paper, having, tight into the muzzle, and go with moderate 
 as I always do, a clerk, the same as at a cricket ' force down the calibre of the gun. (The 
 match, to take down the advantages of strength j balls thus rolled up may be readily made and 
 and closeness, and then to sum up the evi- i carried in the pocket ; and, if of the proper 
 dence and pronounce, like a judge, the grand i size, will force down the calibre rather quicker 
 aggregate of the gun's performance ; which, than punched wadding. Let the calibre be a 
 on such occasions, is seldom so undecided as to large as it may, you of course, with this wad- 
 be merely a matter of opinion. I first tried ding, require nothing more on the powder.) 
 a pasteboard wadding of Mr. Joseph Manton's, I then put a common pasteboard wadding 
 and no one, I presume, will dispute, that both (with air vent) on the shot, and I found, that 
 the punch and the wadding, as well as every even in small guns, where pasteboard is far
 
 362 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [0, 
 
 less apt to swerve, this mode of loading threw 
 the shot closer, stronger, and, above all, with 
 less variation in its performance. 
 
 In the experiment, I anticipated an increase 
 of recoil, particularly when I came to try it 
 with a detonater; but, on the contrary, the 
 recoil was less from the oakum than from the 
 wadding. The case, I conceive, must be this : 
 the punched wadding gives a severe check at 
 first, but before the powder is half burned, it 
 slips a little on one side,, and allows it to mix 
 with the shot ; while the oakum has an elas- 
 
 OAR, *. A long 1 pole with a broad end by which boats are propelled. 
 
 OATCAKE, s. Cake made of the meal of oats. 
 
 OATEN, a. Made of oats, hearing oats. 
 
 OATMALT, s. Malt made of oats. 
 
 OATMEAL, *. Flour made by grinding oats. 
 
 OATS, s. A grain with which horses are fed. 
 
 tic rotundity, that springs to every gradation, 
 of the calibre ; and therefore will never suffer 
 any powder to escape, till it has left the muz- 
 zle of the gun. 
 
 Moreover, on the other hand, the paste- 
 board being once a little contracted by the 
 friction, or rendered soft on its edges by the 
 elastic fluid in the barrel, allows the powder 
 to escape where the calibre becomes relieved, 
 and therefore makes the gun, in comparison, 
 shoot thin, weak, and irregular Hawker. 
 
 them gradually on a kiln. 
 
 Kiln-dried oats are seldom used in Ireland, 
 it being supposed that they are injurious to a 
 horse's wind. 
 
 In the choice of oats for horses, such as are 
 heavy and clean, and sweet, are preferable. 
 New oats are injurious, being difficult of di- 
 gestion, and apt to scour ; but this quality may 
 be, in a great measure, corrected by drying 
 
 OCULAR, a. Depending on the eye, known by the eye. 
 
 ODD, a. Not even, not divisible into equal numbers ; particular, uncouth, 
 
 extraordinary. 
 
 ODDS, s. Inequality ; more than an even wager : advantage, superiority. 
 OFFAL, s. Waste meat, that which is not eaten at the table ; carrion ; 
 
 coarse flesh, refuse, that which is thrown away ; the food of hounds. 
 OIL, s. Any fat, greasy, unctuous, thin matter. 
 
 Oils are fixed or volatile. The former are 
 procured from animal and vegetable substances 
 by heat and pressure, and hence they have been 
 named expressed oils ; and are termed fixed, 
 because they do not evaporate, except at a 
 very high temperature. Volatile oils, on the 
 contrary, evaporate readily, and are obtained 
 from vegetables by distillation ; and as they 
 commonly contain all the essential qualities of 
 the substance they are procured from, they 
 have been named also essential oils. The 
 numerous officinal oils prescribed in old dis- 
 pensations are now totally disused. 
 
 Oil of Bay Is liker an ointment than an 
 oil, of a light green colour. It is used as an 
 external application in cutaneous complaints, 
 as mange. Sometimes it is substituted for 
 hog's lard in making mercurial ointment, and 
 is supposed to render it more active. When 
 to this mixture is added cantharides and oil of 
 origanum, a strong blister is formed, which is 
 recommended for the removal of splents and 
 spavins. 
 
 OIL, v. To smear or lubricate with oil. 
 
 Oil of Castor An useful laxative. The 
 
 dose is about a pint. 
 
 Oil of Olive This also is a very pure and 
 sweet oil ; and in the dose of a pint generally 
 operates as a laxative. When castor oil can- 
 not be easily procured, this may with great 
 propriety be substituted for it. It is used also 
 in making emulsions, liniments, and oint- 
 ments. 
 
 Oil of Linseed. This also has a laxative 
 quality, but is not so certain in its effect as 
 the castor or olive oil. It is employed as a 
 remedy for coughs ; and on such occasions the 
 cold-drawn oil is preferred, t. e. that which is 
 expressed from the seed without the assist- 
 ance of heat. 
 
 Oil of Palm or Palm Oil. This, though 
 termed an oil, is of the consistence of hogs' 
 lard, and very similar to it in its medical qua- 
 lities White.
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 363 
 
 OILY, a. Consisting of oil, containing oil, having the qualities of oil ; fat, 
 
 greasy. 
 OINTMENT, s. Unguent, unctuous matter ; a sort of cataplasm. 
 
 Ointments are composed generally of lard, 
 suet, tallow, bees' wax, oils, resins, and tur- 
 pentines. The following are those principally 
 used. 
 
 SIMPLE OINTMENT. 
 
 Olive oil . .1 Ib. 
 
 Bees' wax . . 3 oz. 
 
 Palm oil . .2 oz. 
 
 Melt over a slow fire, and continue stirring | they are perfectly combined, add one pound 
 until cold. I and half of hogs' lard : continue stirring until 
 
 cold. By the addition of cantharides, this 
 
 the fire, and stir it in the Goulard's extract ; 
 continue stirring until cold. 
 
 SULPHURIC OINTMENT. 
 
 Oil of turpentine . 6 oz. 
 
 Sulphuric acid . . 2 oz. 
 Mix cautiously in the open air, or in a 
 chimney, in a vessel large enough to hold one 
 pound and a half; stir the mixture, and, when 
 
 For common purposes hogs' lard makes a 
 
 good simple ointment, but becomes rancid by ointment forms a strong blister, and with 
 keeping. The simple ointment may be rea- 
 dily converted into a detergent, a digestive, or 
 an astringent, by the addition of red precipi- 
 tate, verdigris, or blue vitriol finely powdered, 
 finely powdered alum, superacetate of lead 
 (sugar of lead), or a solution of subacetate of 
 lead. 
 
 The following is a very useful ointment for 
 chapped heels, harness galls, &c. 
 
 GOULARD OINTMENT. 
 
 Simple ointment . 1 Ib. 
 
 Solution of subacetate of) 
 
 lead, commonly called v 3 oz. 
 
 Goulard's extract ) 
 Olive oil . 1 oz. 
 
 sulphur vivum, finely powdered, or flower of 
 sulphur and train oil, it becomes a good mange 
 ointment. 
 
 DIGESTIVE OINTMENT. 
 
 Hogs' lard . 1 Ib. 
 
 Common turpentine 1 Ib. Melt, and add 
 
 Verdigris . . 2 oz. 
 
 Continue stirring until cold. 
 
 HOOF OINTMENT. 
 
 Tallow . . . 1 Ib. 
 Tar . . . 1 Ib. 
 
 Melt; continue stirring until cold. 
 Ointments are not so generally applied to 
 wounds or inflamed parts, as they were for- 
 merly ; as powders, washes, and fomentations 
 are often found more efficacious. Vide As- 
 
 Melt the ointment by a very gentle heat, TRINGENTS, DIGESTIVES, DETERGENTS, CAUS- 
 and add the oil, then let it be removed from ! TICS, EMOLLIENTS, BLISTERS, &c White. 
 
 OLD, a. Past the middle of life ; not young. 
 
 OLIVE, 5. A plant producing oil ; the emblem of peace ; a colour. 
 
 To dye a fine Golden Olive Take to have a frame or wooden crop, and a broad 
 as much of fine sappy green heath tops as piece of lead, to keep down the stuff, as it 
 will half fill a pot which holds eight gallons, i takes so very long to give out the dye.) 
 put one pound and a half of strawall (wild j When it has boiled about half an hour, see if 
 French weed, dyer's weed) in the bottom it is anything of a fine greenish yellow. Draw 
 while dry ; spread over that a little of the then for the first shade. Boil half an hour 
 heath to cover it ; put in half a pound of fur, I longer ; look at it, and if you like it draw it, 
 or more if you like ; cover that with the re- as it is not right to have your shades too near, 
 mainder of the heath, and put on your frame For the next shade give double the time, and 
 and lid ; press it down and fill it with water, , so on to about four shades. The last ought 
 and boil it twelve or eighteen hours. Divide j to get six hours' boiling, and you ought, by 
 
 the time to make different shades in your 
 drawings, and do not let your liquor boil 
 away too much without adding fresh water to 
 keep it up. If you have your shades to your 
 
 rights, to divide the time amongst them all. 
 When you have made out four shades, lift out 
 the dye stuff, and put in the size of a small 
 horse-bean of copperas with the liquor ; and, 
 
 wish, you will have the finest golden olives j when dissolved, put in each shade, and whip 
 that ever were dyed, and in the simplest way. it out, and so on with the whole. If not 
 
 Wash them, and they are finished. 
 
 enough of the olive, add a little more copperas 
 
 To dye fine Green Olives Take a pound with each, and dip each of them over again, 
 of strawall, put it down with eight quarts of ; Thus you have four very fine green olives, 
 water, and half a pound of fur. Cut your Wash out the copperas immediately Old 
 strawall short, and put it down. (You ought Recipe. 
 
 OMBRE, s. A game at cards played by three.
 
 364 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 OMENTUM, s. The caul, the double membrane spread over the entrails, 
 called also reticulum, from its structure, resembling that of a net. 
 
 OOZE, s. Soft mud, mire at the bottom of water, slime. 
 
 OPACITY, s. Cloudiness, want of transparency. 
 
 OPERATION, s. Agency ; action, effect ; in chirurgery, that part of the art 
 of healing which depends on the use of instruments. 
 
 OPHTHALMY, s. A disease of the eyes. 
 
 OPIATE, s. A medicine that causes sleep. 
 
 Opiate confection is composed of opium, 
 long pepper, and other stimulants. One 
 ounce of the confection does not contain more 
 than fourteen or fifteen grains of opium ; it 
 may therefore be given in doses from one to 
 two ounces, though in this quantity it would 
 be a powerful stimulant. 
 
 In veterinary medicine, an electuary may 
 be advantageously substituted for the opiate 
 confection of the London dispensatory. 
 
 OPIATE CONFECTION, OR ELECTUARY OF OPIUM. 
 
 Opium . . lj z - 
 Macerate in hot water until it forms a thin 
 
 paste, or, by stirring, is uniformly mixed, and 
 free from lumps. 
 
 Powdered ginger . 3 oz. 
 
 Powdered caraway seeds 6 oz. 
 
 Powdered allspice . 6 oz. 
 
 Treacle . . . li oz. 
 Let these ingredients be well mixed, and 
 kept in a closed jar or pot. The dose is about 
 one-twentieth part of the mass. It is a warm 
 cordial and diaphoretic, and may be given in 
 flatulent colic mixed with a little warm beer, 
 or infusion of peppermint, or other aromatic 
 herbs. This electuary is a good cordial for cattle. 
 White. 
 
 OPIUM, s. A medicine used to promote sleep. 
 
 The anodyne quality which renders opium 
 so valuable in human medicine, is not so 
 manifest when given to the horse. 
 
 If injudiciously given, opium frequently ag- 
 gravates the disease, and does injury: and I 
 have several times seen it increase pain, when 
 it has been improperly given as an anodyne. 
 In flatulency or spasm of the bowels it is an 
 excellent remedy, particularly if joined with 
 aromatic powder, ginger, or some other stimu- 
 lant. In diarrhoea it is an effectual remedy, 
 but must be given cautiously. In diabetes I 
 have found it very beneficial, when joined with 
 bark and ginger. Sometimes it is given with 
 emetic tartar, and some cordial composition, 
 with good effect, and in this way it proves a 
 good diaphoretic. 
 
 I have given opium and squill, in obstinate 
 coughs, with success ; but the effect is not per- 
 manent. 
 
 Opium is very apt to produce costiveness in 
 horses ; but this may be in a great measure 
 counteracted by exercise : when it does take 
 place, it may be removed by clysters, bran 
 mashes, or a laxative ball. 
 
 The medium dose of opium is half a drachm, 
 or two scruples ; but if given in the form of 
 clysters, which it sometimes is with the best 
 effect, two drachms will not be too much. 
 
 Opium is brought to this country in chests 
 from Turkey and India. The Turkey opium 
 is in flat pieces, covered with leaves and the 
 reddish capsules of some species of dock, which 
 is considered an indication of its goodness, as 
 the inferior kinds of opium have none of these 
 
 capsules adhering to them. Turkey opium 
 generally contains about one fourth part of 
 impurities. India opium is less pure, is in 
 round masses, covered with leaves to the thick- 
 ness nearly of one fourth of an inch. Mr. 
 Kerr relates that, at Bahar, it is frequently ad- 
 ulterated with cow dung, the extract of the 
 poppy procured by boiling, and various other 
 substances. It is made also from lettuces, in 
 India. 
 
 A celebrated preparation of opium, named 
 the black drop, is thus prepared : 
 
 Opium sliced . . ^ pound. 
 
 Good verjuice . 3 pints. 
 
 Nutmegs . 1^ oz. 
 
 Saffron . . | oz. 
 
 Boil them to a proper thickness, then add a 
 quarter of a pound of sugar and two spoonfuls 
 of yeast. Set the whole in a warm place near 
 the fire for six or eight weeks, then place it 
 in the open air until it becomes a syrup ; 
 lastly decant, filter, and bottle it up, adding 
 a little sugar to each bottle. One drop of 
 this is said to be equal to three drops of the 
 tincture of opium. 
 
 The diseases of the horse in which opium 
 is the most beneficial, are locked jaw and 
 flatulent colic ; in the former it has been 
 given in large doses, with the best effect, 
 generally joined with camphor, and sometimes 
 with assafcetida and other antispasmodics. In 
 flatulent colic, smaller doses have been found 
 sufficient, which have generally been joined 
 with sweet spirit of nitre, and other carmina- 
 tives White.
 
 ORN] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 365 
 
 OPODELDOC, s. Soap and camphor dissolved in spirit of rosemary. 
 
 It is either liquid or solid. The former is 
 made with soft, and the latter with hard soap. 
 In the solid state it seems to be the same as 
 the celebrated Steer s^s opodeldoc. 
 
 It is employed for strains and bruises, after 
 the inflammation which accompanies those 
 complaints at first has subsided. 
 
 LIQUID OPODELDOC, OR SOAP LINIMENT. 
 
 Soft soap . . 4 oz. 
 
 Water . . . 8 oz. 
 Mix, and add one pint of rectified spirit of 
 wine, in whidi there has been previously 
 dissolved 
 
 Camphor . . 2 oz. 
 
 Oil of rosemary . 1 oz. 
 
 STEERS'S OPODELDOC. 
 
 Hard soap . . i oz. 
 
 Rectified spirit of wine . 8 oz. 
 
 Camphor . . ^ oz. 
 
 Oil of rosemary . . 2 dr. 
 
 Oil of lavender, or oil of 
 
 origanum . . 2 dr. 
 
 Compound spirit of ammonia 4 oz. 
 Digest in a moderate heat, so as to dissolve 
 the soap, which should be cut up in thin 
 shavings. For these expensive preparations, 
 the following may be substituted : 
 
 VETERINARY OPODELDOC. 
 
 Soft soap . . 4 oz. 
 
 Water . . 8 oz. 
 
 Mix over the fire ; when cold, add 
 Rectified spirit . . 1 pint. 
 
 Oil of rosemary . 2 oz. 
 
 Strong liquid ammonia . 4 oz Mix. 
 
 ORANGE, s. The orange tree ; the fruit of the tree. 
 
 ORANGE, a. Belonging- to an orange, of the colour of an orange. 
 
 To dye a fine Orange. If you have half j hackles; prepare them as already directed. 
 a pound of stuff to dye, you must get an 
 ounce and a half of black grain (cochineal), 
 and pound it fine ; put down the stuff in six 
 or eight quarts of water, with turmeric, to 
 
 bring it to the finest highest yellow that is 
 possible ; take it out, and put in the black 
 grain ; stir it about well, boil it half an hour. 
 Then put in the stuff for ten minutes, and 
 draw half for the first shade ; keep the re- 
 mainder of the stuff for thirty minutes, then 
 take it out, put two teaspoonfuls of Brazil 
 dust into the pot, and let it boil up. Throw 
 in the light shade, and be watchful lest it 
 get too dark ; lift out the stuff, and put in 
 two more spoonfuls of dust, and watch as 
 before, and boil on for a blood orange. This 
 is certainly the best way for oranges in the 
 world. 
 
 Should you make your shades too dark, 
 infuse six drops of spirit into the liquor 
 while hot, and any shade you want to brighten 
 throw it in, press it well, and lift out in an 
 
 Ground them richly in turmeric, then put in 
 some cochineal, boil it well, and if you do not 
 soon get a fine rich orange, put in some more 
 cochineal with a pinch of Brazil dust. Let it 
 
 boil for a time, and then draw for bright 
 orange ; put in more cochineal, and a tea- 
 spoonful of Brazil dust ; boil it well, and you 
 will have a full or deep orange. Draw the 
 hackles, and put in a spoonful or two of Bra- 
 zil dust, and boil on till you see a fine blood 
 red. These three shades may be distinguished 
 as a bright orange, a blood orange, and a blood 
 red. Archil will give a fourth shade. 
 
 
 Take care not to dry your hackles too 
 quickly, neither put them too near the fire. 
 Finish one bunch at a time, and draw them 
 constantly through your fingers till dry, as 
 that keeps the hackles in proper form. You 
 should keep the wet hackles rolled up in 
 paper, as, if they dry too fast, they will get 
 ragged and staring, which is a great fault, and 
 
 instant ; and if not to your wish, put in three j can seldom be cured. To stain fine bright 
 drops more, and throw the other shades into | golden yellows, follow the same process, with 
 it, and it will enliven the colour exceedingly. | this difference, that the quantity of turmeric 
 The same may be done with gold colours, and and madder used must be very small, and 
 
 it will brighten them also. 
 
 To dye Orange Hackles Get white 
 
 only two drops of spirits should be infused, if 
 any be necessary Old Recipe. 
 
 ORBITS (Or5z'ta, LINN.) In ornithology, the skin which surrounds the 
 eye. It is generally bare, but particularly in the parrot and the heron. 
 ORC, s. A sort of sea-fish. 
 ORNITHOLOGY, s. Natural history of birds. 
 
 A good ornithologist should be able to dis- 
 tinguish birds by their air as well as by their 
 colours and shape ; on the ground as well as 
 
 the hand. For, though it must not be said 
 that every species of birds has a manner pe- 
 culiar to itself, yet there is somewhat in most 
 
 on the wing, and in the bush as well as in genera at least, that at first sight discriminates
 
 366 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [ORT 
 
 them, and enables a judicious observer to pro- 
 nounce upon them with some certainty. Put 
 a bird in motion 
 
 " et vera incessu patuit." 
 
 Thus kites and buzzards sail round in cir- 
 cles with wings expanded and motionless : 
 and it is from their gliding manner that the 
 former are still called in the north of England 
 gleads, from the Saxon verb glidan, to glide. 
 The kestrel or wind-hover has a peculiar mode 
 of hanging in the air in one place, his wings 
 all the while being briskly agitated. Hen- 
 harriers fly low over heaths or fields of corn, 
 and beat the ground regularly like a pointer or 
 setting-dog. Owls move in a buoyant man- 
 ner, as if lighter than the air ; they seem to 
 want ballast. There is a peculiarity belonging 
 to ravens that must draw the attention even of 
 the most incurious they spend all their lei- 
 sure time in striking and cuffing each other on 
 the wing in a kind of playful skirmish ; and 
 when they move from one place to another, 
 frequently turn on their backs with a loud 
 croak, and seem to be falling to the ground. 
 When this odd gesture betides them, they are 
 scratching themselves with one foot, and thus 
 lose the centre of gravity. Rooks sometimes 
 dive and tumble in a frolicsome manner; 
 crows and daws swagger in their walk ; wood- 
 peckers fly volatu undoso, opening and closing 
 their wings at every stroke, and so are always 
 rising or falling in curves. All of this genus 
 use their tails, which incline downward, as a 
 support while they run up trees. Parrots, 
 like all other hook-clawed birds, walk awk- 
 wardly, and make use of their bill as a third 
 foot, climbing and descending with ridiculous 
 caution. All the Gallinae parade and walk 
 gracefully, and run nimbly ; but fly with diffi- 
 culty, with an impetuous whirring, and in a 
 straight line. Magpies and jays flutter with 
 powerless wings, and make no despatch ; he- 
 rons seem encumbered with too much sail for 
 their light bodies, but their vast hollow wings 
 are necessary in carrying burthens, such as 
 large fishes, and the like ; pigeons, and parti- 
 ticularly the sort called smiters, have a way 
 
 ORTOLAN, s. A small bird accounted very delicious. 
 OSIER, s. A tree of the willow kind, growing by the water. 
 OSPREY, s. The sea eagle. Vide EAGLE. 
 
 Buffon observes that the osprey is the most 
 numerous of the large birds of prey, and 'is 
 scattered over the extent of Europe, from 
 Sweden to Greece, and that it is found even 
 in Egypt and Nigritia. Its haunts are on the 
 
 OSSIFICATION, s. Change of carneous, membranous, or cartilaginous, into 
 bony substance. 
 
 of clashing their wings the one against the 
 other over their backs with a loud snap ; ano- 
 ther variety called tumblers turn themselves 
 over in the air. Some birds have movement? 
 peculiar to the season of pairing; thus ring- 
 doves, though strong and rapid at other times, 
 yet in the spring hang about on the wing in a 
 toying and playful manner : thus the cock- 
 snipe, while breeding, forgetting his former 
 flight, fans the air like the wind-hover ; and 
 the greenfinch in particular exhibits such lan- 
 guishing and faltering gestures as to appear 
 like a wounded and dying bird ; the kingfisher 
 darts along like an arrow ; fern-owls, or goat- 
 suckers, glance in the dusk over the tops of 
 trees like a meteor ; starlings, as it were, 
 swim along, while missel-thrushes use a wild 
 and desultory flight ; swallows sweep over the 
 surface of the ground and water, and distin- 
 guish themselves by rapid turns and quick 
 evolutions ; swifts dash round in circles ; and 
 the bank martin moves with frequent vacilla- 
 tions like a butterfly. Most of the small 
 birds fly by jerks, rising and falling as they 
 advance. Most small birds hop, but wagtails 
 and larks walk, moving their legs alternately. 
 Skylarks rise and fall perpendicularly as they 
 sing ; woodlarks hang poised in the air ; and 
 titlarks rise and fall in large curves, singing in 
 their descent. The whitethroat uses odd jerks 
 and gesticulations over the tops of hedges and 
 bushes. All the duck kind waddle ; divers 
 and auks walk as if fettered, and stand erect 
 on their tails ; these are the compedes of 
 Linnaeus. Geese and cranes, and most wild 
 fowls, move in figured flights, often changing 
 their position. The secondary remiges of 
 Tringtz, wild ducks, and some others, are 
 very long, and give their wings, when in mo- 
 tion, a hooked appearance. Dabchicks, moor- 
 hens, and coots, fly erect, with their legs 
 hanging down, and hardly make any despatch ; 
 the reason is plain, their wings are placed too 
 forward out of the true centre of gravity, as 
 the legs of auks and divers are situated too 
 backward White's Selborne. 
 
 sea shore, and on the borders of rivers and 
 lakes. Its principal food is fish ; it darts 
 upon its prey with great rapidity, and with 
 undeviating aim. 
 
 Ossification of the cartilages frequently ac- 
 companies ringbone, but it may exist without 
 
 any affection of the pastern joint. It is often- 
 est found in horses of heavy draught. It arises
 
 OTT] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 367 
 
 not so much from concussion, as from a species 
 of sprain, for the pace of the horse is slow. 
 The cause, indeed, is not well understood, but 
 of the effect we have too numerous instances. 
 Very few heavy draught horses arrive at old 
 age without this change of structure. 
 
 In the healthy state of the foot, these carti- 
 lages will readily yield to the pressure of the 
 fingers on the coronet over the quarters, hut, 
 by degrees, the resistance becomes greater, and 
 at length bone is formed, and the parts yield 
 no more. No evident inflammation of the 
 foot, or great, or perhaps even perceptible lame- 
 ness accompanies this change ; a mere slight 
 
 degree of stiffness may have been observed, 
 which, in a horse of more rapid pace, would 
 have been lameness. Even when the change 
 is completed, there is not in many cases any 
 thing more than a slight increase of stiffness, 
 little or not at all interfering with the useful- 
 ness of the horse. When this altered struc- 
 ture appears in the lighter horse, the lameness 
 is more decided, and means should be taken 
 to arrest the progress of the change : these are 
 blisters or firing ; but, after those parts have 
 become bony, no operation will restore the 
 cartilage The Horse. 
 
 OSSIFRAGE, s. A kind of eagle. 
 
 OSTEOLOGY, s. A description of the bones. 
 
 OSTLER, s. The man who takes care of horses at an inn. 
 
 OTTER, s. An amphibious animal that preys upon fish. 
 
 The description of this animal and the 
 mode of destroying it are mentioned on ac- 
 count of its being so inveterate a foe to the 
 fisherman's amusement, for the otter is as 
 destructive in a pond as a polecat in a hen- 
 liouse. This animal seems to link the chain 
 of gradation between terrestrial and aquatic 
 creatures, resembling the former in its shape, 
 and the latter in being able to remain for a 
 considerable space of time under water, and 
 being furnished with membranes like fins 
 between the toes, which enable it to swim 
 with such rapidity as to overtake fish in their 
 own element. The otter, however, properly 
 speaking, is not amphibious ; he is not formed 
 for continuing in the water, since, like other 
 terrestrial creatures, he requires the aid of 
 respiration ; for if, in pursuit of his prey, he 
 accidentally gets entangled in a net, and has not 
 
 time to cut with his teeth the sufficient num- 
 ber of meshes to effectuate his escape, he is 
 drowned. The usual length of the otter, from 
 the tip of the nose to the base of the tail, is 
 twenty-three inches ; of the tail itself, which 
 is broad at the insertion and tapers to a point, 
 sixteen ; the weight of the male is from eighteen 
 to twenty-six, of the female from thirteen to 
 twenty pounds. One, in October, 1794, was 
 snared in the river Lea between Ware and 
 Hertford, which weighed upwards of forty 
 pounds. The head and nose are broad and 
 flat ; the eyes are brilliant, although small ; 
 are nearer the nose than is usual in quadru- 
 peds, and placed in such a manner as to dis- 
 cern every object that is above, which gives 
 the otter a singular aspect, not unlike the eel ; 
 but this property of seeing what is above gives 
 it a particular advantage when lurking at the
 
 368 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [OTT 
 
 bottom for its prey, as the fish cannot discern 
 any object under them, and the otter seizing 
 them from beneath by the belly readily takes 
 any -number with little exertion ; the ears are 
 extremely short, and their orifice narrow ; the 
 opening of the mouth is small, the lips are 
 capable of being brought very close, somewhat 
 resembling the mouth of a fish ; are very mus- 
 cular, and designed to close the mouth firmly 
 while in the action of diving, and the nose 
 and corners of the mouth are furnished with 
 very long whiskers; it has thirty-six teeth, 
 six cutting and two canine above and below ; 
 of the former the middlemost are the least ; 
 it has besides five grinders on each side in 
 both jaws. The legs are very short, but re- 
 markably broad and muscular ; the joints arti- 
 culated so loosely, that the otter can turn 
 them quite back, and bring them on a line with 
 its body and use them as fins ; each foot has 
 five toes, connected by strong webs like those 
 of a water-fowl ; thus nature in every parti- 
 cular has attended to the way of life allotted 
 to an animal whose food is fish, and whose 
 haunts must necessarily be about waters. The 
 otter has no heel, but a round ball under the 
 sole of the foot, by which its track in the mud 
 is easily distinguished, and is termed the seal. 
 The general shape of the otter is somewhat 
 similar to that of an overgrown weasel, being 
 long and slender ; its colour is entirely a deep 
 brown, except two small spots of white on 
 each side the nose, and one under the chin ; 
 the skin is valuable, if killed in the winter, 
 and makes gloves more durable, and which at 
 the same time will retain their pliancy and 
 softness after being repeatedly wetted, beyond 
 any other leather. 
 
 The otter destroys large quantities of fish, 
 for he will eat none unless it be perfectly 
 fresh, and what he takes himself; by his mode 
 of eating them he causes a still greater con- 
 sumption. So soon as the otter catches a fish, 
 he drags it on shore, devours it to the vent, 
 but, unless pressed by extreme hunger, always 
 leaves the remainder, and takes to the water 
 in quest of more. In rivers it is always ob- 
 served to swim against the stream, to meet its 
 prey ; it has been asserted, that two otters will 
 hunt in concert that active fish the salmon ; 
 one stations itself above, the other below where 
 the fish lies, and being thus chased incessantly 
 the wearied salmon becomes their victim. To 
 suppose the otter never uses the sea is a mis- 
 take, for they often have been seen in it, both 
 swimming and seeking for their booty, which, 
 in the Orkneys, has been observed to be cod 
 and conger. 
 
 In very hard weather, when its natural sort 
 
 of food fails, the otter will kill lambs, sucking 
 
 pigs, and poultry, and one was caught in a 
 
 warren, where he had come to prey on rabbits. 
 
 The hunting of the otter was formerly con- 
 
 j sidered as excellent sport, and hounds were 
 kept solely for that purpose. The chase of the 
 otter has still, however, its staunch admirers, 
 who are apparently as zealous in this pursuit 
 I as in any other we read of. In 1796, near 
 ; Bridgnorth, on the river Worse, four otters 
 ! were killed : one stood three, another four 
 i hours, before the dogs, and was scarcely a mi- 
 nute out of sight. The hearts, &c., were eaten 
 by many respectable people who attended the 
 hunt, and allowed to be very delicious ; the 
 carcasses were also eaten by the men employed, 
 and found to be excellent; what is a little ex- 
 traordinary, the account does not state that 
 the partakers of this hard-earned fare were 
 
 Carthusians. 
 
 * * 
 
 As he spoke, I remarked the occurrence 
 which the commander noticed. The fish, which 
 upon our first arrival had risen merrily at the 
 natural flies, ceased on a sudden altogether 
 now they rushed confusedly through the water, 
 or threw themselves for yards along the sur- 
 face. It was not the sullen plunge at an in- 
 sect, or the vertical spring, when sport, not 
 food, brings the salmon over water ; but it was 
 evident that there was some hidden cause of 
 alarm, and we were not long left in doubt. 
 Near the neck of the pool, an otter of the 
 largest size showed himself for a moment, then 
 darting under water, the same commotion en- 
 sued again. Before a minute elapsed, Andy 
 Bawn pointed silently to a shoal beneath an 
 overhanging bush, and there was the spoiler, 
 apparently resting himself after his successful 
 exertions, and holding a four-pound white- 
 trout in his mouth. Either he noticed us, or 
 had some more favourite haunt to feed in, for 
 he glided into the deep water, and we saw no 
 more of him. 
 
 Although we found out that the otter and 
 ourselves could not manage to fish in company, 
 we ascertained that the pool was abundantly 
 stocked with salmon : during the period of 
 the greatest alarm, at least half a dozen fish 
 were breaking the surface at the same time. 
 
 A curious incident, however, supplied us 
 with an excellent white fish. The servant 
 who brought the post bag, when in the act of 
 crossing the river, which in his route from the 
 lodge he was obliged to do repeatedly, most 
 unexpectedly encountered a large otter carry- 
 ing off a salmon he had just seized. The 
 postman attacked the poacher vigorously, who, 
 dropping his prey, glided off into the deep water 
 at the tail of the ford. The spoil proved to 
 be a fresh salmon not twenty hours from the 
 sea, and consequently in prime condition. The 
 otter showed himself the best artist of the day, 
 for while the Colonel and his companion re- 
 turned with empty baskets, the little animal 
 managed to secure the finest and freshest sal- 
 mon in the river Wild Sports.
 
 On] THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 OTTERHOUND (Carat* Latrans), s. 
 
 369 
 
 
 The otter hound is a mixed breed between 
 the hardy southern hound and the large rough 
 terrier. His head is large and broad, his ears 
 long and pendulous ; he is in size betwixt the 
 harrier and the fox hound ; is thick quartered 
 and shouldered ; his hair strong and Miry, and 
 somewhat shaggy. He is a bold and fierce 
 dog, and has a full and harmonious voice. 
 He is usually sandy-coloured on the back, 
 the sides, and the neck, with the lower parts 
 white ; he carries his tail, which is rough, in 
 the manner of a fox-hound. 
 
 Otter hunting, during the reign of Queen 
 Elizabeth, was a favourite amusement amongst 
 
 the young gentry of Great Britain, at which 
 period that animal was much more numerous 
 than at the present time, being greatly re- 
 duced since population became more dense, 
 and gamekeepers more generally used, who 
 employ all kinds of traps and gins to destroy 
 them. Cultivation has also contributed to 
 lessen this destructive creature. 
 
 Otter hounds were kept in small packs of 
 from six to sixteen, seldom exceeding that 
 number. The sport of otter hunting is now 
 little understood, and is quite on the decline 
 in this country. 
 
 OVAL, a. Oblong, resembling the longitudinal section of an egg. 
 OVERREACH, v. A horse is said to over-reach, when he brings his hinder 
 feet too far forwards, so as to strike against his fore-feet. 
 
 Under this term are comprised bruises and 
 wounds of the coronet, produced usually in 
 the hind-feet, by the awkward habit of setting 
 one foot upon another, and in the fore-feet, 
 by the hinder one over-reaching it, and wound- 
 ing the other near the heel. When properly 
 treated, a tread is seldom productive of much 
 injury. If the dirt be well washed out of it, 
 and a pledget of tow dipped in Friar's balsam 
 be bound over the wound, it will, in the ma- 
 
 jority of cases, speedily heal. Should the 
 bruise be extensive, or the wound deep, a 
 poultice may be applied for one or two days, 
 and then the Friar's balsam, or digestive oint- 
 ment. Sometimes a soft tumour will form on 
 the part, which will be quickly brought to 
 suppuration by a poultice, and when the mat- 
 ter has run out the ulcer will heal by the ap- 
 plication of the Friar's balsam, or a weak so- 
 lution of blue vitriol. 
 
 OVERSET, v. To turn the bottom upwards, to throw off the basis ; to throw 
 
 out of regularity ; to upset a carriage. 
 OVIPAROUS, a. Bringing forth eggs, not viviparous. 
 
 BB
 
 370 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 OUNCE, s. The sixteenth part of a pound in Avoirdupoise weight, the 
 
 twelfth part of a pound in Troy weight. 
 OUTSTRIP, v. To outgo, to leave behind. 
 OWL or OWLET, s. A bird that flies in the night and catches mice. 
 
 The owl is distinguished, among birds of , 
 the rapacious kind, by peculiar and striking 
 characters; its outward appearance is not 
 more singular than its habits and disposi- 
 tions. Unable to bear the brighter light of 
 the sun, the owl retires to some lonely re- 
 treat, where it passes the day in silence and 
 obscurity ; but on the approach of evening, when 
 all nature is desirous of repose, and the smaller 
 animals, which are its principal food, are seek- 
 ing their nestling places, the owl comes forth 
 from its lurking holes in quest of its prey. 
 Its eyes are admirably adapted for this pur- 
 pose, being so formed as to distinguish objects 
 with greater facility in the dusk than in 
 broad day-light. Its flight is low and silent 
 during its nocturnal excursions, and when it 
 rests, it is then only known by its frightful 
 and reiterated cries, with which it interrupts 
 the silence of the night. During the day, the 
 owl is seldom seen, but, if forced from his 
 retreat, his flight is broken and interrupted, 
 and he is sometimes attended by numbers of 
 small birds of various kinds, who, seeing his 
 embarrassment, pursue him with incessant 
 cries, and torment him with their movements : 
 the jay, the thrush, the blackbird, the red- 
 breast, and the titmouse, all assemble to 
 hurry and perplex him. During all tins, the 
 owl remains perched upon the branch of a 
 tree, and answers them only with awkward 
 
 and insignificant gestures, turning his head, 
 eyes, and body, with all the appearance of 
 mockery and affectation. All the species of 
 owls, however, are not alike dazzled and 
 confused with the light of the sun ; some of 
 them being able to fly, and see distinctly in 
 open day. 
 
 Nocturnal birds of prey are generally di- 
 vided into two kinds that which hath horns 
 or ears, and that which is earless or without 
 horns. These horns consist of small tufts of 
 feathers, standing up like ears on each side of 
 the head, which are erected or depressed at 
 the pleasure of the animal ; and in all proba- 
 bility are of use in directing the organs of 
 hearing, which are very large, to their proper 
 object. Both kinds agree in having their 
 eyes so formed as to be able to pursue their 
 prey with much less light than other birds. 
 The general character of the owl is as fol- 
 lows : The eyes are large, and are surrounded 
 with a radiated circle of feathers, of which the 
 eye itself is the centre ; the beak and talons 
 are strong and crooked ; the body very short, 
 but thick, and well covered with a coat of 
 the softest and most delicate plumage; the 
 external edges of the outer quill feathers in 
 general are finely fringed, which adds greatly 
 to the smoothness and silence of its flight. 
 
 The Great-eared Owl. (Strix Bubo, 
 LINN; Le Grand Due, BCFF.) This bird
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 371 
 
 is not much inferior in size to an eagle. Its 
 head is very large, and is adorned with two 
 tufts, more than two inches long, which stand 
 just above each eye, its bill is strong and 
 much hooked ; the eyes large, and of a bright 
 yellow; the whole plumage is of a rusty 
 brown, finely variegated with black and yel- 
 low lines, spots, and specks ; its belly is rib- 
 bed with bars of brown colour, confusedly in- 
 termixed ; its tail is short, marked with 
 dusky bars ; its legs are strong, and covered 
 to the claws with a thick close down, of a 
 rust colour ; its claws are large, much hooked, 
 and of a dusky colour. Its nest is large, 
 being nearly three feet in diameter; it is 
 composed of sticks bound together by fibrous 
 roots, and lined with leaves. It generally 
 lays two eggs, somewhat larger than those of 
 a hen, and variegated like the bird itself. 
 The young ones are very voracious, and are 
 well supplied with various kinds of food by 
 the parents. This bird has been found, 
 though rarely, in Great Britain ; it builds its 
 nest in the caverns of rocks, in mountains, 
 and almost inaccessible places, and is seldom 
 seen on the plains, or perched on trees ; it 
 feeds on young hares, rabbits, rats, mice, and 
 reptiles of various kinds. 
 
 The Long-eared Owl. (Horn Owl, 
 Strix Otus, LINN. ; Le Hibou, BUFF.) Its 
 length is fourteen inches ; breadth, somewhat 
 more than three feet. Its bill is black ; irides 
 of a bright yellow ; the radiated circle round 
 each eye is of a light cream colour, in some 
 parts tinged with red ; between the bill and 
 the eye there is a circular streak, of a dark 
 brown colour ; another circle of a dark rusty 
 brown entirely surrounds the face ; its horns 
 or ears consist of six feathers, closely laid 
 together, of a dark brown colour, tipped and 
 edged with yellow; the upper part of the 
 body is beautifully pencilled with fine streaks 
 of white, rusty, and brown ; the breast and 
 neck are yellow, finely marked with dusky 
 streaks, pointing down wards; the belly, thighs, 
 and vent feathers are of a light cream colour ; 
 upon each wing there are four or five large 
 white spots ; the quill and tail feathers are 
 marked with dusky and reddish bars : the 
 legs are feathered down to the claws, which 
 are very sharp; the outer claw is movable, 
 and may be turned backwards. 
 
 This bird is common in various parts of Eu- 
 rope, as well as in this country ; its usual 
 haunts are in old ruined buildings, in rocks, 
 and in hollow trees. M. Buffon observes, that 
 it seldom constructs a nest of its own, but not 
 unfrequently occupies that of the magpie : it 
 lays four or five eggs ; the young are at first 
 white, but acquire their natural colour in about 
 fifteen days. 
 
 The Short-eared Owl. (Strix Brachyo- 
 tus, PHIL. TRANS, vol. 62, p. 384.) Length 
 
 fourteen inches ; breadth three feet. The head 
 is small, and hawklike ; bill dusky ; the irides 
 are of a bright yellow, and when the pupil is 
 contracted, shine like gold ; the circle round 
 each eye is of a dirty white, with dark streaks 
 pointing outwards ; immediately round the eye 
 there is a circle of black ; the two horns or 
 ears consist of not more than three feathers, 
 of a pale brown or tawny colour, with a dark 
 streak in the middle of each ; the whole upper 
 part of the body is variously marked with dark 
 brown and tawny, the feathers are mostly edged 
 with the latter ; the breast and belly are of a 
 pale yellow, marked with dark longitudinal 
 streaks, which are most numerous on the breast : 
 the legs and feet are covered with feathers of 
 a pale yellow colour; the claws are much 
 hooked and black : the wings are long, and 
 extend beyond the tail ; the quills are marked 
 with alternate bars of a dusky and pale brown ; 
 the tail is likewise marked with bars of the 
 same colours, and the middle feathers are dis- 
 tinguished by a dark spot in the centre of the 
 yellow space ; the tip is white. Of several of 
 these birds, both male and female, with which 
 this work has been favoured, both sexes had 
 the upright tufts or ears : in one which was 
 alive, they were very conspicuous, and ap- 
 peared more erect while the bird remained un- 
 j disturbed; but, when frightened, were scarcely 
 : to he seen : in the dead birds they were hardly 
 1 descernible. 
 
 Mr. Pennant seems to be the first describer 
 of this rare and beautiful species, which he 
 supposes to be a bird of passage, as it only vi- 
 sits us in the latter part of the year, and dis- 
 appears in the spring. It flies by day, and 
 sometimes is seen in companies : twenty eight 
 were once counted in a turnip-field in Novem- 
 ber. It is found chiefly in wooded or mountain- 
 ous countries : its food is principally field-mice. 
 The Female Horned Owl. This bird is 
 somewhat larger than the former ; the colours 
 and marks were the same, but much darker, 
 and the spots on the breast larger and more 
 numerous ; the ears were not discernible. 
 Being a dead bird, and having not seen any 
 other at the time, the editors suppose it to be 
 a distinct kind ; but having since seen several 
 both males and females, they are convinced of 
 the mistake. 
 
 The White Owl, Barn Owl, Church Owl, 
 Gillihowt, Screech Owl, (Strix Flammea, 
 LINN. ; L'Effraie, ou, La Fresaie, BUFF.) 
 Length fourteen inches. Bill pale horn co- 
 lour ; eyes dark ; the radiated circle round the 
 eye is composed of feathers of the most deli- 
 cate softness, and perfectly white ; the head, 
 back, and wings, are of a pale chestnut, beau- 
 tifully powdered with very fine grey and brown 
 spots, intermixed with white ; the breast, belly, 
 and thighs, are white ; on the former are a few 
 dark spots : the legs are feathered down to the 
 B B 2
 
 372 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [OWL 
 
 toes, which are covered with short hairs ; the 
 wings extend beyond the tail, which is short, 
 and marked with alternate bars of dusky and 
 white; the claws are white. Birds of this 
 kind vary considerably : of several which were 
 in the hands of the editors, the differences were 
 very conspicuous, the colours being more or 
 less faint according to the age of the bird ; the 
 breast in some was white, without spots, in 
 others pale yellow. 
 
 The white owl is well known, and is often 
 seen in the most populous towns, frequenting 
 churches, old houses, mailings, and other un- 
 inhabited buildings, where it continues during 
 the day, and leaves its haunts in the twilight 
 in quest of its prey. It has obtained the name 
 of screech owl from its cries, repeated at inter- 
 vals, and rendered loud and frightful from the 
 stillness of the night. During its repose it 
 makes a blowing noise, resembling the snoring 
 of a man. It makes no nest, but deposits its 
 eggs in the holes of walls, and lays five or six, 
 of a whitish colour. It feeds on mice and 
 small birds, which it swallows whole, and af- 
 terwards emits the bones, feathers, and other 
 indigestible parts, at its mouth, in the form of 
 small round cakes, which are often found in the 
 empty buildings it frequents. 
 
 The Tawny Owl, Common Brown Ivy 
 Owl, or If owlet. (Strix stridula, LINN. ; 
 Le Chat-huant, BUFF.) This bird is about 
 the size of the last. Its bill is white ; eyes 
 dark blue ; the radiated feathers round the 
 eyes are white, finely streaked with brown ; 
 the head, neck, back, wing coverts, and scapu- 
 lars, are of a tawny brown colour, finely pow- 
 dered and spotted with dark brown and black ; 
 on the wing coverts and scapulars are several 
 large white spots, regularly placed so as to 
 form three rows ; the quill feathers are marked 
 with alternate bars of light and dark brown ; 
 the breast and belly are of a pale yellow, 
 marked with narrow dark streaks pointing 
 downwards, and crossed with others of the 
 same colour ; the legs are feathered down to 
 the toes ; the claws are large, much hooked, 
 
 and white. This species is found in various 
 parts of Europe ; it frequents woods, and 
 builds its nest in the hollows of trees. 
 
 The Little Owl. (Strix passerina, 
 LFNN. ; La Chevtche, ou Petite Chouelte, 
 BUFF.) This is the smallest of the owl kind, 
 not being larger than a blackbird. Jts bill is 
 brown at the base, and of a yellow colour at . 
 the tip ; eyes pale yellow ; the circular fea- 
 thers on the face are white, tipped with black ; 
 the upper part of the body is of an olive 
 brown colour ; the top of the head and wing 
 coverts are spotted with white ; the breast and 
 belly white, spotted with brown ; the feathers 
 of the tail are barred with rust colour and 
 brown, and tipped with white ; the legs are 
 covered with down of a rusty colour mixed 
 with white ; the toes and claws are of a 
 brownish colour. It frequents rocks and 
 caverns and ruined buildings, and builds its 
 nest, which is constructed in the rudest man- 
 ner, in the most retired places ; it lays five 
 eggs, spotted with white and yellow. It sees 
 better in the day time than other nocturnal 
 birds, and gives chase to swallows and other 
 small birds on the wing ; it likewise feeds on 
 mice, which it tears in pieces with its bill and 
 claws, and swallows them by morsels ; it is 
 said to pluck the birds which it kills before it 
 eats them, in which it differs from the other 
 owls. It is rarely met with in England ; it 
 is sometimes found in Yorkshire, Flintshire, 
 
 and in the neighbourhood of London. 
 
 
 
 Having some acquaintance with a tame 
 brown owl, I find that it casts up the fur of 
 mice, and the feathers of birds in pellets, after 
 the manner of hawks ; when full, like a dog, 
 it hides what it cannot eat. 
 
 The young of the barn-owl are not easily 
 
 raised, as they want a constant supply of fresh 
 
 t mice : whereas the young of the brown owl 
 
 will eat indiscriminately all that is brought ; 
 
 snails, rats, kittens, puppies, magpies, and any 
 
 kind of carrion or offal Bewick White's 
 
 Selborne. 
 
 OWLER, s. One who catches owls. OWL ING, Owl catching. 
 OWLERY, s. A place where owls are kept. 
 
 The Owlery at Arundel Castle We 
 were unwilling to leave this venerable castle 
 without the sight of the owls, which are said 
 to be the finest in Great Britain. We were 
 introduced to an utterly ruined part of the 
 ancient castle, where, upon entering the iu- 
 closure, we saw a number of these strange 
 looking creatures, hopping about with an un- 
 graceful gait, and staring at us with looks of 
 wonderful sagacity. One stood at the mouth 
 of a subterraneous excavation, and upon the 
 keeper pronouncing " bow, wow," the owl 
 instantly returned the expression, retiring at 
 
 the same time back again into his hole, till it 
 actually got out of sight. The other owls 
 were driven by the keeper into one corner of 
 the yard ; they ranged themselves along a 
 piece of old timber, altogether presenting a 
 spectacle which raised in my mind some sin- 
 gular emotions. The countenance of the 
 largest of them was marked by an unusual 
 degree of solemnity. 
 
 These owls are the finest of the horned 
 kind, and the keeper showed no small pride in 
 the exhibition of them. " Beauty, Beauty," 
 was the name by which he called them toge-
 
 OYS] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 373 
 
 ther, and they seemed to recognise the pro- 
 priety of the appellation with a becoming 
 consciousness. Upon the justness of this 
 term, however, the keeper and myself were 
 by no means agreed. 
 
 With respect to the sight of the owls, they 
 are so overpowered by the brightness of the 
 day, that they are obliged to remain in the 
 same spot without stirring ; and when they 
 are forced to leave their retreat, their flight is 
 tardy and interrupted, being afraid of striking 
 against the intervening obstacles. The other 
 birds, perceiving their constrained situation, 
 delight to insult them : the titmouse, the 
 finch, the redbreast, the. jay, the thrush, &c. 
 assemble to enjoy the sport. The bird of 
 night remains perched upon a branch, motion- 
 less and confounded ; hears their cries, which 
 
 are incessantly repeated, but it answers them 
 only with insignificant gestures, turning round 
 its head and its body with a foolish air. It 
 even suffers itself to be assaulted without 
 making resistance ; the smallest, the weakest 
 of its enemies, are the most eager to torment 
 and turn it into ridicule. The keep in which 
 the owls are shown is an undoubted remnant 
 of the original Saxon building, and well worth 
 the attention of the antiquary. 
 
 This owlery is thus spoken of by another 
 visiter : " The owls, which are still to be seen, 
 are uncommonly elegant birds, and extremely 
 large, some of them measuring across the 
 wings, when extended, from eight to ten feet. 
 Their plumage is particularly beautiful, and 
 their eyes brilliant. The late duke procured 
 them from North America." Evans. 
 
 Ox, s. The general name for black cattle ; a castrated bull. 
 
 OXALIC ACID, s. Is extracted from wood sorrel, or from sugar combined 
 with potash. It is commonly sold under the name of salt of lemon, and 
 is useful in removing stains from linen, cleaning boot-tops, &c. It is a 
 deadly poison, and in appearance like Epsom salts. As oxalic acid is a 
 necessary article in a hunting establishment, too great care cannot be 
 taken to prevent those unhappy results which have arisen from mis- 
 taking it for Epsom salts, which it so strikingly resembles. 
 
 Ox FLY, s. A kind of fly. 
 
 OYSTER, s. A bivalve testaceous fish. Oysters are taken by a small bag- 
 net extended on an iron frame, which, like the trawl, is swept along the 
 ground by a sailing or row boat:
 
 THE PARTRIDGE. 
 
 A ACE, 3. Step, single movement in walking ; gait, manner of walking ; 
 
 degree of celerity ; a particular movement which horses are taught, 
 
 though some have it naturally, made by lifting the legs on the same 
 
 side together ; amble. 
 PACE, v. To move on slowly. 
 PACK, s. A large bundle of anything tied up for carriage ; a burden ; a due 
 
 number of cards ; a number of hounds hunting together ; a covey or 
 
 brood of grouse. 
 PACK, v. To bind up for carriage ; to sort the cards so that the game shall 
 
 be iniquitously secured. Birds are said to pack where several broods 
 
 collect together. This is particularly the case with grouse and black 
 
 game. 
 
 PACKHORSE, s. A horse of burden, a horse employed in carrying goods. 
 PAD, s. A footpath ; an easy-paced horse ; a low soft saddle. 
 PA DOLE, v. To row ; to beat water as with oars ; to play in the water. 
 PADDLE, s. An oar, particularly that which is used by a single rower in a 
 
 boat ; anything broad like the end of an oar. 
 
 PADDOCK, s. A great frog or toad ; a small enclosure for pasture. 
 PANCREAS, s. The sweetbread.
 
 PAR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 375 
 
 PAR, s. A fish. 
 
 The natural history of the samlet, or par, 
 is very doubtful. Some assert it to be a mule 
 produced by the salmon and trout, and as a 
 corroboration of this theory, it is stated that 
 the rivers where the par is found are always 
 resorted to by salmon. Others conjecture it 
 t& be a hybrid of the sea and river trout ; and 
 Sir Humphry Davy mentions, that fishing in 
 October, in a small stream communicating with 
 the Moy, near Ballina, he caught a number of 
 sea trout, who all proved males, and accordingly 
 infers that " these fish, in which the spermatic 
 system was fully developed, could only have 
 impregnated the ova of the common river trout." 
 
 
 The par differs from the small mountain 
 
 trout in colour, and in having additional spines 
 in the pectoral fin. It has also certain olive- 
 bluish marks upon the side, similar to im- 
 pressions made by the pressure of a man's 
 fingers. 
 
 Great numbers of samlet are found in the 
 upper streams of the Ballycroy river. They 
 will rise voraciously at a fly, provided it be 
 gay and small enough. I remember my friend 
 Sir Charles Cuyler and I amused ourselves 
 on a blank shooting day, when there was 
 neither a sufficiency of wind nor water to 
 warrant salmon fishing, in angling for this hy- 
 bridous diminutive. We nearly filled our 
 basket ; we reckoned them, and they amounted 
 to above two hundred Wild Sports. 
 
 PARTRIDGE, (Tetrao Perdix, LINN.; Le Perdrix Grise, BUFF.) s. A 
 bird of game. 
 
 it is almost impossible to bring them up ; they 
 likewise eat insects, and when full grown, feed 
 on all kinds of grain and young plants. The 
 affection of the partridge for her young is pe- 
 culiarly strong and lively ; she is greatly as- 
 sisted in the care of rearing them by her mate ; 
 they lead them out in common, call them to- 
 gether, point out to them their proper food, 
 and assist them in finding it by scratching the 
 ground with their feet; they frequently sit 
 close to each other, covering the chickens with 
 their wings like the hen. In this situation 
 they are not easily flushed ; the sportsman, 
 who is attentive to the preservation of his game, 
 will carefully avoid giving any disturbance to 
 a scene so truly interesting, but should the 
 pointer come too near, or unfortunately run in 
 upon them, there are few who are ignorant of 
 the confusion that follows ; the male first gives 
 the signal of alarm by a peculiar cry of distress, 
 throwing himself at the same moment more 
 immediately into the way of danger. In order 
 to deceive or mislead the enemy he flies, or 
 rather runs, along the ground, hanging his 
 wings, and exhibiting every symptom of debility, 
 whereby the dog is decoyed, in the too eager 
 expectation of an easy prey, to a distance from 
 the covey ; the female flies off in a contrary 
 direction and to a greater distance, but return- 
 ing soon after by secret ways, she finds her 
 scattered brood closely squatted among the 
 grass, and collecting them with haste she leads 
 them from the danger, before the dog has had 
 time to return from his pursuit. Vide SHOOT- 
 ING. 
 
 The length of this bird is about thirteen 
 inches. The bill is light brown ; eyes hazel ; 
 the general colour of its plumage is brown 
 and ash, elegantly mixed with black ; each 
 feather is streaked down the middle with buff 
 colour ; the sides of the head are tawny ; 
 under each eye there is a small saffron-co- 
 loured spot, which has a granuhited appear- 
 ance, and between the eye and the ear a 
 naked skin of a bright scarlet, which is not 
 very conspicuous but in old birds ; on the 
 breast there is a crescent of a deep chestnut 
 colour ; the tail is short ; the legs are of a 
 greenish white ; and are furnished with a small 
 knob behind. The female has no crescent on 
 the breast, and her colours in general are not 
 so distinct and bright as those of the male. 
 Partridges are found chiefly in temperate cli- 
 mates ; the extremes of heat and cold are 
 equally unfavourable to them, they are no- 
 where in greater plenty than in this island, 
 where, in their season, they contribute to our 
 most elegant entertainments. It is much to 
 be lamented, however, that the means taken to 
 preserve this valuable bird should, in a variety 
 of instances, prove its destruction : the proper 
 guardians of the eggs and young ones, tied down 
 by ungenerous restrictions, are led to consider 
 them as a growing evil, and not only connive 
 at their destruction, but too freely assist in it. 
 
 Partridges pair early in the spring ; the fe- 
 male lays from fourteen to eighteen, or twenty 
 eggs, making her nest of dry leaves and grass 
 upon the ground. The young birds learn to 
 run as soon as hatched, frequently encumbered 
 with part of the shell sticking to them. It is 
 no uncommon thing to introduce partridges' 
 eggs under the common hen, who hatches and 
 rears them as her own, in this case the young 
 birds require to be fed with ants' eggs, which 
 are their favourite food, and without which 
 
 A hen partridge came out of a ditch, and ran 
 along shivering with her wings, and crying out 
 as if wounded and unable to get from us. 
 While the dam acted this distress, the boy who 
 attended me sawher brood, which was small and
 
 376 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 unable to fly, run for shelter into an old fox- 
 "earth under the bank. So wonderful a power 
 is instinct. 
 
 It is not uncommon to see an old partridge 
 feign itself wounded, and run along on the 
 ground fluttering and crying before either dog 
 or man, to draw them away from its helpless 
 unfledged young ones. I have seen it often, 
 and once in particular I saw a remarkable in- 
 stance of the old bird's solicitude to save its 
 brood. As I was hunting with a young pointer, 
 the dog ran on a brood of very small partridges ; 
 the old bird cried, fluttered, and ran tumbling 
 along just before the dog's nose till she had 
 drawn him to a considerable distance, when 
 she took wing and flew still farther off, but 
 not out of the field : on this the dog returned 
 to me, near the place the young ones lay 
 concealed in the grass, which the old bird no 
 sooner perceived than she flew back again to 
 us, settled just before the dog's nose again, and 
 by rolling and tumbling about drew off his 
 attention from her young, and thus preserved 
 
 PASSERINE ORDER, s. Birds of the sparrow tribe. 
 
 her brood a second time. I have also seen, 
 when a kite has been hovering over a covey 
 of young partridges, the old birds fly up at the 
 bird of prey, screaming and fighting with all 
 their might to preserve their brood. 
 
 
 Partridges manifest great caution in choos- 
 ing the place where they intend having their 
 nest. I have observed them to remain near 
 the same spot for some weeks before the fe- 
 male lays her eggs ; and if in the mean tim 
 they should discover the retreat of any animal 
 in the neighbourhood, who is likely to be in- 
 jurious to them, they shift their quarters. I 
 have generally noticed that partridges lodge 
 themselves at night near the middle of a field, 
 probably being aware that they are safer in this 
 situation from the attacks of stoats or weasels, 
 than if they got nearer hedges, under the roots 
 or banks of which these animals conceal them- 
 selves. Bewick White of Selborne 
 Markwick. 
 
 This numerous class constitutes the fifth 
 order in Mr. Pennant's arrangement of British 
 birds, and includes a great variety of different 
 kinds : of these we have detached the stare, 
 the thrush, and the chatterer, and have joined 
 them to the pies, to which they seem to have 
 a greater affinity. Those which follow are dis- 
 tinguished by their lively and active disposition, 
 their beautiful plumage, and delightful melody. 
 Of this order consist those amazing flocks of 
 small birds of almost every description those 
 numerous families, which universally diffused 
 throughout every part of the known world, 
 people the woods, the fields, and even the 
 largest and most populous cities, in countless 
 multitudes, and every where enliven, diversify, 
 and adorn the face of nature. 
 
 The characters of the Passerine order, 
 which are as various as their habits and dispo- 
 sitions, will be best seen in the description of 
 
 each particular species. It may be necessary, 
 however, to observe, that they naturally divide 
 themselves into two distinct kinds, namely, 
 the hard-billed or seed birds, and the slender 
 or soft-billed birds ; the former are furnished 
 with stout bills of a conical shape, and very 
 sharp at the point, admirably fitted for the 
 purpose of breaking the hard external cover- 
 ings of the seeds o'f plants from their kernels, 
 which constitute the principal part of their food; 
 the latter are remarkable for the softness and 
 delicacy of their bills ; their food consists al- 
 together of small wonns, insects, the larvae of 
 insects, and their eggs, which they find de- 
 posited in immense profusion on the leaves 
 and bark of trees, in chinks and crevices of 
 stones, and even in small masses on the bare 
 ground, so that there is hardly a portion of 
 matter that does not contain a plentiful supply 
 of food for this diligent race of beings Bewick. 
 
 PASTERN, s. The distance between the joint next the foot and the coronet 
 of a horse. 
 
 PASTURAGE, s. The business of feeding cattle ; lands grazed by cattle ; 
 the use of pasture. 
 
 PEACOCK, s. A fowl eminent for the beauty of his feathers, and particu- 
 larly of his tail. 
 
 The peacock and peahen are always kept by 
 the London dealers, whence any person in the 
 country, desirous of breeding them, may be 
 supplied with breeding stock. Exclusive of 
 the consideration of ornament to a poultry- 
 
 yard, the peacock is very useful for the de- 
 struction of all kinds of reptiles, but at the 
 same time some peacocks are said to be vicious, 
 
 and apt to tear to pieces and devour young 
 chicks and ducklings, suffered to be within 
 their reach. They are also destructive in a 
 garden. 
 
 It is asserted by the ancient writers, that 
 the first peacock was honoured with a public 
 exhibition at Athens ; that many people tra- 
 velled thither from Macedonia, to be spectators
 
 PF.L] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 377 
 
 of that beautiful phenomenon, ^the paragon of i and at three, the tail of the cock is full and 
 
 complete. The cock requires from two to 
 four hens, and, where the country agrees with 
 them, they are very prolific. They are gra- 
 nivorous like other domestic fowls, preferring 
 harley Moubray. 
 
 the feathered race. It is probable the ancients, 
 as well as the moderns, introduced the pea- 
 cock upon the table, rather as an ornament 
 than a viand. There are varieties of this bird, 
 some white : they perch on trees, like the 
 turkey. Their age extends to twenty years, 
 
 PECK, s. The fourth part of a bushel ; the stroke of a bird's bill. 
 
 PECK, v. To strike with the beak as a bird ; to pick up food with the beak. 
 
 PELICAN (Pelicanus, LINN.), s. There are two sorts of pelicans, one lives 
 upon fish, the other keeps in deserts, and feeds upon serpents ; the peli- 
 can is supposed to admit its young to suck blood from its breast. 
 
 The bill of this genus is long and straight ; 
 the end either hooked or sloping ; the nostrils 
 placed in a furrow that runs along the sides of 
 the bill, and in most of the species not distin- 
 guishable. The face generally destitute of 
 feathers, being covered only with a bare skin : 
 gullet naked, and capable of great distension : 
 body long, heavy, flat : legs placed far back- 
 ward ; toes four in number, and all webbed 
 together. 
 
 Latham, following the example of Linnaeus, 
 includes the pelican, man-of-war. bird, cormo- 
 rant, shag, gannet, and booby, in this genus, 
 of which he enumerates thirty distinct species, j 
 and two varieties ; four only of this number, 
 and one variety, are British birds. In confin- 
 ing the present account to these, it is proper to 
 remark that they are not the inhabitants of 
 this country only, but are widely dispersed 
 over the globe, being met with in almost even- 
 climate which navigators have visited, whether 
 temperate, hot, or cold. The gannet only is 
 
 migratory, large flocks of this species arrive in 
 the spring of the year, and disperse themselves 
 in colonies over the rocky promontories of 
 Scotland, and its isles, in various parts of 
 which they breed and rear their young, and as 
 soon as that office is performed, they retire in 
 the autumn to their unknown abodes. Their 
 return each season points out also that of the 
 shoals of the herrings, which they hover over, 
 pursue, and chiefly feed upon. These shoals, 
 at that season of increasing warmth, are poured 
 forth on their southern route, gliding forward 
 in wide glittering columns of myriads upon 
 myriads, from the unknown but prolific regions 
 of the northern pole. These prodigious shoals 
 with their divisions and subdivisions, in their 
 branched course around the British isles, are 
 attended by the gaunet. On our southern 
 coasts the pilchard affords these birds another 
 supply of food, in pursuit of which they are 
 enticed as far southward as the Mediterranean
 
 378 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [PEL 
 
 The cormorant and the shag remain with us 
 throughout the year, but particularly on our 
 more northern shores, upon whose rocky shelv- 
 ing precipices they station themselves, and per- 
 form the offices of incubation, while stragglers 
 
 occasionally taking a wider range, with out- 
 stretched neck and vigorous wing sweep along 
 the coast, and entering the mouths of the ri- 
 vers, follow their course in quest of food, to 
 the lakes inland Bewick. 
 
 PELLET, s. A little ball ; a bullet, a ball. 
 
 PERCH, s. A measure of five yards and a half; a pole ; something- on which 
 birds roost or sit ; a kind of fish peculiar to ponds and rivers. 
 
 Perch have one particularity, which is con- 
 trary to the nature of all fish of prey in fresh 
 water (and they are so voracious as to attack 
 their own kind), that they are gregarious, 
 swimming in shoals. The body of the perch 
 is deep, the scales very rough, the back much 
 arched, and the side-line approaches near it : 
 the irides are golden, the teeth small, disposed 
 in the jaws and on the roof of the mouth, 
 which is large ; the edges of the cover of the 
 gills serrated, on the lower end of the largest 
 in a sharp spine, and the head is said to con- 
 sist of no fewer than eighty bones ; the colours 
 of the perch are beautiful, the back and part 
 of the sides being of a deep green, marked with 
 broad black bars pointing downwards ; the belly 
 is white, tinged red ; the ventral fins of a rich 
 scarlet ; the anal fins and tail (which is a little 
 forked,) of the same colour but rather paler. 
 
 The perch affords the angler great diversion, 
 and not only the baits are various, but the 
 modes of using them. Of worms, the best 
 kinds are small lob- worms which have no knot, 
 brandlings, red dunghills, or those found in 
 rotten tan, all well scoured ; the hook may be 
 be varied from No. 2 to 6, being well whipt 
 to a strong silk-worm gut, with a shot or two 
 a foot from it : put the point of the hook in at 
 the head of the worm, out again a little lower 
 
 than the middle, pushing it above the shank of 
 the hook upon the gut ; take a smaller one, 
 beginning the same way, and bring its head up 
 to the middle of the shank only ; then draw 
 the first worm down to the head of the latter, 
 so that the tails may hang one above the other, 
 keeping the point of the hook well covered. 
 This is the most enticing method that can be 
 adopted in worm-fishing; use a small cork 
 float, to keep the bait at six or twelve inches 
 from the bottom, or sometimes about mid- 
 water : in angling near the bottom, raise the 
 bait very frequently from thence almost to the 
 surface, letting it gradually fall again. Should 
 a good shoal be met with, they are so greedy, 
 that they may be all caught, unless one escapes 
 that has felt the hook : then all is over, the fish 
 that has been hooked becomes restless, and 
 soon occasions the whole shoal to leave the 
 place. Two or three rods may be employed, 
 as they require time to gorge sufficient to al- 
 low the angler to be prepared to strike them. 
 
 Baits for the perch are loaches, sticklebacks, 
 with the spines cut off, miller'' s-thumbs, horse- 
 beans boiled (after the place has been well- 
 baited with them, put one at a time on the 
 hook), cad-bait, bobs, and gentles. 
 
 Although generally termed a bold biter, the 
 perch is extremely abstemious in winter, and
 
 PHE] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 379 
 
 scarcely ever bites in that season, but in the 
 middle of a warm sunshiny day ; he bites 
 best in the latter part of the spring, from seven 
 to eleven in the forenoon, and from two to six 
 in the afternoon, except in hot and bright 
 weather, and then from sunrise to six in the 
 morning, and in the eve from six to sunset. If 
 a day be cool and cloudy, with a ruffling south 
 wind, perch will bite during the whole of it. 
 In clear water, sometimes a dozen or more of 
 perch have been observed in a deep hole, shel- 
 tered by trees or bushes ; by using fine tackle 
 and a well-scoured worm, the angler may see 
 them strive which shall first seize it, until the 
 whole shoal have been caught. 
 
 The perch may be angled for and taken 
 until the end of September, and indeed at par- 
 ticular times all the year round ; but the pre- 
 ferable season is from the beginning of May, to 
 the middle of July. 
 
 
 
 Mr. Young mentions that, at Pakenham, 
 Lord Longford informed him respecting the 
 quantities of fish in the lakes in his neighbour- 
 
 hood, that the perch were so numerous, that a 
 child with a packthread and a crooked pin 
 would catch enough in an hour for the daily 
 use of a whole family, and that his lordship had 
 seen five hundred children fishing at the same 
 time ; that, besides perch, the lakes produced 
 pike five feet long, and trout of ten pounds 
 each. 
 
 Great numbers of perch are bred in the 
 Hampton Court and Bushy Park ponds, all of 
 which are well supplied with running water, 
 and with plenty of food, yet they seldom ar- 
 rive at a large size. In a neighbouring pond, 
 which is only fed with drainage water, I have 
 caught very large perch. The perch in the 
 water in the Regent's Park are very numerous. 
 Those I have taken, however, are almost inva- 
 riably of one size, from half to three-quarters 
 of a pound. Why they should have arrived 
 at this weight and not go on increasing hi size, 
 is a circumstance which it is not easy to ac- 
 count for. I have, however, remarked it to 
 be the case in other ponds Daniel Wild 
 Sports Jesse. 
 
 PEWET, s. A waterfowl ; the lapwing-. 
 
 PERCUSSION, s. The impression a body makes in falling or sticking upon 
 another. It is direct or oblique. Direct when the impulse is made in 
 the direction of a perpendicular line to the point of impact. Siich is 
 the action of a cock upon the copper cap. Vide GUN, RIFLE, APPENDIX. 
 
 PEWTER, s. A composition of lead and tin. 
 
 PHEASANT, (Phasianus Colchicus, LINN.; LeFaisan, BUFF.)S. A kind 
 of wild cock ; a beautiful large bird of game. 
 
 The pheasant is rather less than the com- 
 mon cock. The bill is of a pale horn colour ; 
 
 the nostrils are hid under an arched covering; 
 the eyes are yellow, and surrounded by a
 
 380 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 space, in appearance like beautiful scarlet cloth, 
 finely spotted with black ; immediately under 
 each eye there is a small patch of short fea- 
 thers of a dark glossy purple ; the upper parts 
 of the head and iieck are of a deep purple, 
 varying to glossy green and blue ; the lower 
 parts of the neck and breast are of a reddish 
 chestnut, with black indented edges ; the sides 
 and lower parts of the breast are of the same 
 colour, with pretty large tips of black to each 
 feather, which in different lights vary to a 
 glossy purple ; the belly and vent are dusky ; 
 the back and scapulars are beautifully varie- 
 gated with black and white or cream-colour 
 speckled with black, and mixed with deep 
 orange, all the feathers are edged with black ; 
 on the lower part of the back there is a mixture 
 of green ; the quills are dusky, freckled with 
 white, wing coverts brown, glossed with green 
 and edged with white ; rump plain reddish 
 brown ; the two middle feathers of the tail are 
 about twenty inches long, the shortest on each 
 side less than five, of a reddish brown colour, 
 marked with transverse bars of black ; the 
 legs are dusky, with a short blunt spur on each, 
 but in some old birds the spurs are as sharp as 
 needles ; between the toes there is a strong 
 membrane. 
 
 The female is less, and does not exhibit 
 that variety and brilliancy of colours which 
 distinguish the male ; the general colours are 
 light and dark brown, mixed with black, the 
 breast and belly finely freckled with small 
 black spots on a light ground ; the tail is short, 
 and barred somewhat like that of the male ; 
 the space round the eye is covered with feathers. 
 
 The ring pheasant is a fine variety of this 
 species; its principal difference consists in a 
 white ring, which encircles the lower part of 
 the neck ; the colours of the plumage in gene- 
 ral are likewise more distinct and vivid. A 
 fine specimen of this bird was sent us by the 
 Rev. William Turner, of Newcastle, from 
 which the figure was engraven. They are 
 sometimes met with in the neighbourhood of 
 Alnwick, whither they were brought by his 
 grace the Duke of Northumberland. That 
 they intermix with the common breed is very 
 obvious, as in some we have seen the ring was 
 hardly visible, and in others a few feathers 
 only, marked with white, appeared on each 
 side of the neck, forming a white spot. It is 
 much to be regretted that this beautiful breed 
 is likely soon to be destroyed, by those who 
 pursue every species of game with an avaricious 
 and indiscriminating rapacity. 
 
 There are many varieties of pheasants of ex- 
 traordinary beauty and brilliancy of colours ; 
 in many gentlemen's woods there is a kind as 
 white as snow, which will intermix with the 
 common ones. Many of the gold and silver 
 kinds, brought from China, are also kept in 
 aviaries in this kingdom ; the common phea- 
 
 sant is likewise a native of the East, and is the 
 only one of its kind that has multiplied in our 
 island. Pheasants are generally found in low 
 woody places, on the borders of plains, where 
 they delight to sport ; during the night they 
 perch on the branches of trees. They are very 
 shy birds, and do not associate together, except 
 during the months of March and April, when 
 the male seeks the female; they are then 
 easily discoverable by the noise which they 
 make in crowing and clapping their wings, 
 which may be heard at some distance. The 
 hen breeds on the ground like the partridge, 
 and lays from twelve to fifteen eggs, which are 
 smaller than those of the common hen ; the 
 young follow the mother as soon as they are 
 freed from the shell. During the breeding 
 season the cocks will sometimes intermix with 
 the common hen, and produce a hybrid breed, 
 
 of which we have known several instances. 
 
 * 
 
 For shooting pheasants it often becomes ne- 
 cessary to start very early in the morning, as 
 they are apt to lie during the day in high co- 
 vert, where it is almost impossible to shoot 
 them till the leaf has fallen from the trees. 
 We can never be at a loss in knowing where 
 to go for pheasants, as we have only to send 
 some one the previous evening, for the last 
 hour before sun-set, to watch the different 
 barley or oat stubbles of a woodland country, 
 and on these will be regularly displayed the 
 whole contents of the neighbouring coverts. 
 It then remains to be chosen, which woods are 
 the best calculated to shoot in ; and, when we 
 begin beating them, it must be remembered 
 to draw the springs, so as to intercept the birds 
 from the old wood. If the coverts are wet, 
 the hedge-rows will be an excellent beginning, 
 provided we here also attend well to getting 
 between the birds and their places of security. 
 If pheasants, when feeding, are approached by 
 a man, they generally run into covert ; but if 
 they see a dog, they are apt to fly up. 
 * ' * 
 
 There are very few old sportsmen but 
 what are aware that this is by far the most 
 sure method of killing pheasants, or any other 
 game, where they are tolerably plentiful in 
 covert ; and although to explore and beat se- 
 veral hundred acres of coppice, it becomes ne- 
 cessary to have a party with spaniels, yet, on 
 such expeditions, we rarely hear of any one 
 getting much game to his own share, except 
 some sly old fellow, who has shirked from his 
 companions to the end of the wood, where the 
 pheasants, and particularly the cock birds, on 
 hearing the approach of a rabble, are all run- 
 ning like a retreating army, and perhaps flying 
 in his face faster than he can load and fire. 
 
 For one alone to get shots in a thick un- 
 derwood, a brace or two of very well broke 
 spaniels would, of course, be the best. But
 
 PHE] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 381 
 
 were I obliged to stake a considerable bet 
 (taking one beat \vith another, where game 
 was plentiful), I should back against the sports- 
 man using them, one who took out a very 
 high couraged old pointer, that would keep 
 near him, and would, on being told, break his 
 point to dash in, and put the pheasants to 
 flight before they could run out of shot. This 
 office may be also performed by a Newfound- 
 land dog ;"but, as first getting a point would 
 direct the shooter where to place himself for 
 a fair shot, the Newfoundland dog would 
 always be best kept close to his heels, and 
 only made use of to assist in this ; and parti- 
 cularly for bringing the game ; as we rarely 
 see a pointer, however expert in fetching his 
 birds, that can follow and find the wounded 
 ones half so well as the real St. John's New- 
 foundland dog. 
 
 * * 
 
 Lord Stawell sent me from the great lodge 
 in the Holt a curious bird for my inspection. 
 It was found by the spaniels of one of his 
 keepers in a coppice, and shot on the wing. 
 The shape, air, and habit of the bird, and the 
 scarlet ring round the eyes, agreed well with 
 the appearance of a cock pheasant ; but then 
 the head and neck, and breast and belly, were 
 of a glossy black : and though it weighed three 
 pounds three ounces and a half, the weight of 
 a large full-grown cock pheasant, yet there 
 were no signs of any spurs on the legs, as is 
 usual with all grown cock pheasants, who have 
 long ones. The legs and feet were naked of 
 feathers, and therefore it could be nothing of 
 the grouse kind. In the tail were no long bend- 
 ing feathers, such as cock pheasants usually 
 have, and are characteristic of the sex. The 
 tail was much shorter than the tail of a hen 
 pheasant, and blunt and square at the end. 
 The back, wing- feathers and tail, were all of 
 a pale russet, curiously streaked, somewhat 
 like the upper parts of a hen partridge. I re- 
 turned it with my verdict, that it was proba- 
 bly a spurious or hybrid hen bird, bred between 
 a cock pheasant and some domestic fowl. 
 When I came to talk with the keeper who 
 brought it, he told me that some pea-hens had 
 been known last summer to haunt the coppi- 
 ces and coverts where this mule was found. 
 * 
 
 The pheasant is not a long-lived bird ; but 
 . it is probable the period of existence assigned 
 to it by some writers, namely, six or seven 
 years, is too short. The wholesomeness of 
 its flesh was proverbial among the old physi- 
 cians ; it is of a high flavour and alkalescent 
 quality, and in perfection during autumn. A 
 young pheasant very fat is reckoned an exqui- 
 site dainty. In a wild state, the hen lays 
 from eighteen to twenty eggs in a season, but 
 seldom more than ten in a state of confine- 
 ment. Pheasants are not to be tamed by 
 
 domestication, like other fowls; nor is the 
 flesh of those brought up in the house, in any 
 degree comparable to that of the wild phea- 
 sant : thence they are bred at home, either 
 merely for show, or for the purpose of reple- 
 nishing the proprietor's grounds, both with 
 regard to number or particular varieties. 
 However good nursing mothers in a wild 
 state, pheasant hens are far otherwise in the 
 house, whence their eggs are always hatched 
 at home by the common hen, generally, at 
 present, by the smooth-legged bantam. 
 
 The natural nest of the pheasant is com- 
 posed of dry grass and leaves, which being 
 provided for her in confinement she will 
 sometimes properly dispose. The cock is bold, 
 voracious, and cruel ; and one which I had 
 many years ago, caught a canary bird which 
 had accidentally escaped, and was observed 
 with it beneath his talons, in the proper atti- 
 tude of the hawk, tearing it to pieces and 
 devouring it. Pheasants have been seen 
 preying upon a dead carcase, in company with 
 carrion crows ; and it has been said that they 
 will fall upon a diseased and weak companion 
 of their own species, and devour it. They 
 feed upon all kinds of insects and vermin, 
 like the peacock, and are said to be particu- 
 larly greedy of toads, provided they be not 
 too large to swallow; whereas, according to 
 report, they will not touch the frog, of which 
 ducks are so fond. A pheasant was shot by 
 T. Day, Esq. of Herts, the crop of which con- 
 tained more than half a pint of that destruc- 
 tive insect the wire- worm. And the number 
 of 1606 grains of barley were taken from the 
 crop of a pheasant, at Bury, in Suifolk, in 
 
 1727. 
 
 * * 
 
 The best known varieties of the pheasant, 
 are the golden, the silver, the peacock or 
 spotted, and the common European or Eng- 
 lish, generally brown, with a less brilliancy of 
 colour. Mr. Castang, however, enumerates 
 six distinct varieties, exclusive of the com- 
 mon, as follow : the gold and silver, natives 
 of China, and very hardy in this country, and 
 good breeders. The ring-necks, natives of 
 Tartary, bred in China, very scarce ; their 
 plumage very beautiful. The white and pied ; 
 both sorts will intermix readily with our com- 
 mon breed, as will the Bohemian, one of the 
 most beautiful of its kind, and equally scarce. 
 The golden variety is generally of the highest 
 price, the common most hardy and of the 
 largest size. 
 
 Breeding Pheasants Eggs being pro- 
 vided, put them under a hen that has kept 
 the nest three or four days ; and if you set 
 two or three nests on the same day, you will 
 have the advantage of shifting the good eggs. 
 At the end of ten or twelve days, throw away 
 those that are bad, and set the same hen or
 
 382 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [PHE 
 
 hens again, if sitting hens should not be 
 plenty. 
 
 The hens having sat their full time, such 
 of the young pheasants as are already hatched 
 put into a basket, with a piece of flannel, till 
 the hen has done hatching. 
 
 The brood, now come, put under a frame 
 with a net over it, and a place for the hen, 
 that she cannot get to the young pheasants, 
 but that they may go to her : and feed them 
 with boiled egg cut small, boiled milk and 
 bread, alum curd, ants' eggs, a little of each 
 sort, and often. 
 
 After two or three days, they will be ac- 
 quainted with the call of the hen that hatched 
 them, may have their liberty of running on 
 the grass-plot, or elsewhere, observing to shift 
 them with the sun, and out of the cold winds. 
 They should not have their liberty in the 
 morning till the sun is up ; and they must be 
 shut in with the hen in good time in the 
 evening. 
 
 Every thing now going on properly, you 
 must be very careful (in order to guard against 
 the distemper to which they are liable) in 
 your choice of a situation for breeding the 
 birds up ; and be less afraid of foxes, dogs, 
 pole-cats, and all sorts of vermin, than the 
 distemper. I had rather encounter all the 
 former than the latter; for those, with care, 
 may be prevented, but the distemper, once 
 got in, is like the plague, and destroys all 
 your hopes. What I mean by a good situa- 
 tion, is nothing more than a place where no 
 poultry, pheasants, or turkeys, &c. have ever 
 been kept ; such as the warm side of a field, 
 orchard, pleasure-ground, or garden, or even 
 on a common, or a good green lane, under 
 circumstances of this kind; or by a wood- 
 side ; but then it is proper for a man to keep 
 with them under a temporary hovel, and to 
 have two or three dogs chained at a proper 
 distance, with a lamp or two at night. I have 
 known a great number of pheasants bred up 
 in this manner, in the most exposed situations. 
 It is proper for the man always to have a gun, 
 that he may keep off the hawks, owls, jays, 
 magpies, &c. The dogs and lamps intimidate 
 the foxes beyond any other means ; and the 
 dogs will give tongue for the man to be on 
 his guard if smaller vermin are near, or when 
 strollers make their appearance. 
 
 The birds going on as before mentioned, 
 should so continue till December, or, if very 
 early bred, the middle of August. Before 
 they begin to shift the long feathers in the 
 tail, they are to be shut up in the basket with 
 the hen, regularly every night; and when 
 they begin to shift their tail the birds are 
 large, and begin to lie out, that is, they are 
 not willing to come to be shut up in the bas- 
 ket. Those that are intended to be turned 
 ut wild should be taught to perch (a situa- 
 
 tion they have never been used to) ; this is 
 done by tying a string to the hen's leg, and 
 obliging her to sit in a tree all night : be sure 
 you put her in the tree before sun-set ; and 
 if she falls down, you must persevere in put- 
 ting her up again, till she is contented with 
 her situation ; then the young birds will fol- 
 low the hen, and perch with her. This being 
 done, and the country now covered with corn, 
 fruits, and shrubs, &c. &c. they will shift for 
 themselves. 
 
 For such young pheasants as you make 
 choice of for your breeding stock at home, 
 and likewise to turn out in the spring following, 
 provide a new piece of ground, large and 
 roomy, for two pens, where no pheasants, &c. 
 have been kept, and there put your young 
 birds in as they begin to shift their tails. 
 Such of them as you intend to turn out at a 
 future time, or in another place, put into one 
 pen netted over, and leave their wings as they 
 are ; and those you wish to keep for breeding 
 put into the other pen, cutting one wing of 
 each bird. The gold and silver pheasants 
 you must pen earlier, or they will be off. 
 Cut the wing often ; and, when first penned, 
 feed all your young birds with barley-meal, 
 dough, corn, and plenty of green turnips. 
 
 A Receipt to make Alum Curd Take 
 
 new milk, as much as your young birds re- 
 quire, and boil it with a lump of alum, so as 
 not to make the curd hard and tough, but 
 custard like. 
 
 N. B A little of this curd twice a day, 
 and ants' eggs after every time they have had 
 a sufficient quantity of the other food. If 
 they do not eat heartily, give them some ants' 
 eggs to create an appetite, but by no means in 
 such abundance as to be considered their 
 food. 
 
 The distemper alluded to above, is not im- 
 probably of the same nature as the roup in 
 chickens; contagious, and dependent on the 
 state of the weather ; and, for prevention, re- 
 quiring similar precaution. 
 
 General Directions Not more than four 
 
 hens to be allowed in the pens to one cock ; 
 and in the out covers, three hens to one cock 
 may be sufficient, with the view of allowing 
 for accidents, such as the loss of a cock or hen. 
 Never put more eggs under a hen than she 
 can well and closely cover, the eggs fresh and 
 carefully preserved. Short broods to be joined 
 and shifted to one hen. Common hen phea- 
 sants in close pens, and with plenty of cover, 
 will sometimes make their nests and hatch 
 their own eggs, but they seldom succeed in 
 rearing their brood, being so naturally shy ; 
 whence, should this method be desired, they 
 must be left entirely to themselves, as they 
 feel alarm even in being looked at. Eggs for 
 setting are generally ready in April. Period 
 of incubation the same in the pheasant as in
 
 PIE] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 383 
 
 the common hen. Pheasants, like the pea- 
 owl, will clear grounds of insects and reptiles, 
 but will spoil all wall-trees within their reach, 
 by pecking off every bud and leaf. 
 
 Feeding Strict cleanliness to be observed, 
 the meat not to be tainted with dung, and the 
 water to be pure and often renewed. Ants' 
 eggs being scarce, hog-lice, earwigs, or any 
 insects, may be given ; or artificial ants' eggs 
 substituted, composed of flour beaten up with 
 an egg and shell together, the pellets rubbed 
 between the fingers to the proper size. After 
 the first three weeks, in a scarcity of ants' 
 eggs, Castang gives a few gentles, procured 
 from a good liver tied up, the gentles, when 
 ready, dropping into a pan or box of bran ; to 
 be given sparingly, and not considered as com- 
 mon food. 
 
 Food for grown pheasants, barley or wheat ; 
 generally the same as for other poultry. In a 
 cold spring, hemp-seed, or other warming 
 seeds, are comfortable, and will forward the 
 breeding stock. 
 
 A New Species of Pheasant Amongst 
 the numerous interesting natural productions 
 recently brought from China by Mr. Reeves, 
 it was with pleasure we observed a magnifi- 
 cent new species of pheasant, which will be a 
 
 most interesting addition to the aviaries of Eu- 
 rope; and as it comes from the same part of 
 the world as the gold and silver kind, there is 
 scarcely a doubt but that, with a little care, it 
 may be induced to breed in this country. It 
 is about three times the size of the common 
 pheasant, and has a tail from five to six feet 
 long ; it is of a pale bay colour, ornamented 
 with black moons, and the head, wing, and 
 under part of the body, black varied with 
 white ; the tail feathers are black and brown 
 banded. Mr. Reeves brought with him from 
 Canton two living specimens ; but one of them 
 unfortunately died in the Channel ; the other 
 is now in the gardens of the Zoological Society, 
 where it will most probably recover its fine 
 tail. A beautiful specimen, in nearly perfect 
 plumage, brought by Mr. Reeves for General 
 Hardwicke, has been presented by that gentle- 
 man to the collection of the British Museum. 
 The tail feathers of this bird have been long 
 known, two having been exhibited in the Mu- 
 seum for many years ; but the bird which bore 
 them was first described in General Hard wick's 
 Illustrations of Indian Zoology, from a draw- 
 ing sent by Mr. Reeves, where it is called 
 Reeves's pheasant (^Phasianus Reevesii).. 
 Daniel Hawker Moubray. 
 
 PHRASEOLOGY, *. Style, diction ; a phrase-book ; technical terms. 
 
 There was a peculiar kind of language in- 
 vented by sportsmen of the middle ages, which 
 it was necessary for them to be acquainted 
 with, and some of the terms are still conti- 
 nued. 
 
 A sege of herons and of bitterns ; an herd 
 of swans, of cranes, and of curlews ; a dopping 
 of sheldrakes ; a spring of teals ; a covert of 
 coots ; a gaggle of geese ; a badelynge of ducks ; 
 a sord or sute of mallards ; a muster of pea- 
 cocks ; a nye of pheasants ; a bevy of quails ; 
 a covey of partridges ; a congregation of plo- 
 vers ; a flight of doves ; a dule of turkeys, a 
 walk of snipes ; a fall of woodcocks ; a brood 
 of hens ; a building of rooks ; a murmuration 
 of starlings ; an exaltation of larks ; a flight of 
 swallows ; a host of sparrows ; a watch of night- 
 ingales ; and a charm of goldfinches. 
 
 When beasts went together in companies, 
 there was said to be a pride of lions ; a lepe of 
 leopards ; an herd of harts, of bucks, and of 
 all sorts of deer ; a bevy of roes ; a sloth of 
 bears ; a singular of boars ; a sownder of wild 
 swine ; adryft of tame swine ; a route of wolves; 
 
 a harass of horses ; a rag of colts ; a stud of 
 mares ; a pace of asses ; a baren of mules ; a 
 team of oxen ; a drove of kine ; a flock of 
 sheep ; a tribe of goats ; a skulk of foxes ; a 
 cete of badgers ; a richness of martins ; a fe- 
 synes of ferrets ; a huske or a down of hares ; 
 a nest of rabbits ; a clowder of cats, and a ken- 
 del of young cats ; a shrewdness of apes ; and 
 a labour of moles ; and, when animals were 
 retired to rest, a hart was said to be harboured, 
 a buck lodged, a roebuck bedded, a hare formed, 
 a rabbit set, a fox kennelled, a martin tree'd, 
 an otter watched, a' badger earthed, a boar 
 couched : hence, to express their dislodging 
 they say, unharbour the hart, rouse the buck, 
 start the hare, bolt the rabbit, unkennel the 
 fox, untree the martin, vent the otter, dig the 
 badger, and rear the boar. Two greyhounds 
 were called a brace ; three a leash ; but two 
 spaniels or harriers were called a couple, and 
 three, a couple and a half ; there was also a 
 mute of hounds for a number; a litter of 
 whelps, and a cowardice of curs Strutt 
 Ascham Daniel Book of St. Allan's. 
 
 PIANET, s. A bird, the lesser woodpecker; the magpie. 
 PIE, s. A magpie, a particoloured bird.- 
 
 Birds of this kind are found in every part 
 of the known world, from Greenland to the 
 Cape of Good Hope ; the general character of 
 
 this kind is chiefly as follows : The bill is 
 strong, and has a slight curvature along the 
 top of the upper mandible ; the edges are thin,
 
 384 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Vie. 
 
 and sharp or cultrated ; in many of the species 
 there is a small notch near the tip ; the nos- 
 trils are covered with bristles ; tongue divided 
 
 at the end ; three toes forward, one behind, the 
 middle toe connected to the outer as far as the 
 first joint Bewick. 
 
 PIEBALD, a. Of various colours, diversified in colour. 
 
 PIED, a. Variegated, particoloured. 
 
 PIG, s. A young 1 sow or boar ; an oblong mass of lead or unforged iron. 
 
 This instinctive sagacity, which guides ani- 
 mals who have been taken from their old 
 haunts, in making their way back to them, ap- 
 pears in some to whom we should have been 
 least disposed to attribute it. I have an anec- 
 dote from a gentleman, who resided some years 
 
 PIGEON (Columba, LINN.), s. A domestic bird. 
 
 PIGEONS (Columbidee, LEACH ; Rasores, ILLIGER), *. A family of 
 snatching birds. 
 
 on an estate high up the Susquehanna, of 
 some pigs, which, having been brought in a 
 sack fifteen miles through an American wood, 
 by the next morning had found their way back, 
 from their new to their old home Jesse. 
 
 Of these the varieties and intermixtures are 
 innumerable, and partake of all those varied 
 hues which are the constant result of domes- 
 tication. The manners of pigeons are well 
 known, few species being more universally dif- 
 fused, and having a very powerful wing, they 
 are enabled to perform very distant journeys ; 
 accordingly wild and tame pigeons occur in 
 every climate, and although they thrive best 
 .in warm countries, yet with care they succeed 
 also in very northern latitudes. Every where 
 their manners are gentle and lively ; they are 
 fond of society, and the very emblem of con- 
 nubial attachment ; they are faithful to their 
 mates, whom they solicit with the softest coo- 
 ings, the tenderest caresses, and the most 
 graceful movements. The exterior form of the 
 pigeon is beautiful and elegant : the bill is 
 weak straight and slender, and has a soft pro- 
 
 tuberance at the base, in which the nostrils are 
 placed : the legs are short and red, and the toes 
 divided to the origin. 
 
 * * 
 
 Buffon enumerates upwards of thirty varie- 
 ties of the pigeon, which, according to his 
 usual systematic plan its convenience, per- 
 haps, being rather more obvious than its 
 accuracy he derives from one root, namely, 
 the stock-dove, or common wild pigeon. All 
 the varieties of colour and form which we 
 witness, he attributes to human contrivance 
 and fancy. There exist, nevertheless, essen- 
 tial specific differences in these birds, which 
 seem rather attributable to the nature of the 
 region, soil, or climate, to which they are in- 
 digenous, than to the art of man. 
 
 The pigeon is monoganous, that is, the 
 male attaches and confines himself to one
 
 PIG] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 385 
 
 female, and the attachment is reciprocal : the 
 fidelity of the dove to its mate being prover- 
 bial. Young pigeons are termed squeakers, 
 and begin to breed at about the age of six 
 months, when properly managed : their court- 
 ship, and the well known tone of voice in the 
 cock, just then acquired and commencing, 
 are indications of their approaching union. 
 Nestlings, whilst fed by the cock and hen, 
 are termed squabs, and are at that age sold 
 and used for the table. The dove-house 
 pigeon is said to breed monthly, being well 
 supplied with food, more particularly when 
 the ground is bound by frost, or covered 
 with snow. At any rate, it may be depended 
 on, that pigeons of almost any healthy and 
 well established variety, will breed eight or 
 ten times in the year; whence it may be 
 conceived how immense are the quantities 
 which may be raised. 
 
 The first step towards pigeon keeping, is, 
 undoubtedly, to provide a commodious place 
 for their reception, of which I shall after- 
 wards speak ; ihe next, to provide the pigeons 
 themselves. These will be had in pairs, but 
 if not actually matched, pains must be after- 
 wards taken, to that end, that no time be 
 lost ; indeed, they may be matched according 
 to the fancy of the keepers, for the purpose 
 of varying the colours, or with any other view. 
 But it is necessary to give a caution on the 
 subject of old pigeons, of which a bargain may 
 offer, since the difficulty of retaining them is 
 so great, indeed insuperable, without the 
 strictest vigilance. Nothing short of cutting 
 their wings, and confining them closely until 
 they have young to attach them to the place, 
 will be a security ; and even afterwards, they 
 have been known to take flight with the first 
 use of their wings, and leave their nests. I 
 have had several examples of this. Thenc^ 
 it is always preferable to purchase squeakers, 
 or such as have not yet flown : these, being 
 confined, in a short time, well fed, and ac- 
 customed gradually to the surrounding scenery, 
 before they have acquired sufficient strength 
 of wing wherewith to lose themselves, will 
 become perfectly domesticated. 
 
 The dove-cote, or pigeon-loft, as to its 
 situation or extent, will necessarily depend 
 on convenience, one general rule, however, 
 must be invariably observed, that every pair 
 of pigeons have two holes, or rooms, to nest 
 in. Without this indispensable convenience 
 there will be no security, but the prospect of 
 constant confusion, breaking of eggs, and 
 destruction of the young. Pigeons do well 
 near dwellings, stables, bake-houses, brew- 
 houses, or such offices ; or their proper place 
 is in the poultry-court. A dove-cote is a 
 good object, situate upon an island, in the 
 centre of a piece of water : indeed, such is a 
 proper situation for aquatic poultry, and rab- 
 
 bits also; and may be rendered extremely 
 beautiful and picturesque by planting, and a 
 little simple ornamental and useful building. 
 Where pigeons are kept in a room, some per- 
 sons prefer making' their nests upon the floor, 
 to escape the danger of the young falling out ; 
 but in all probability this is to guard against 
 one risk, and incur a great number, particu- 
 larly that of rats and other vermin. 
 
 The front of the pigeon-room, or cote, 
 should hav* a south-west aspect ; and if a 
 room be selected for the purpose, it is usual 
 to break a hole in the roof of the building for 
 the passage of the pigeons, which can be 
 closed at convenience. A platform is laid by 
 the carpenter at the entrance, for the pigeons 
 to alight and perch upon, with some kind of 
 defence against strange cats, which will often 
 depopulate a whole dove-house ; cats are yet 
 necessary, for the defence of the pigeons 
 against rats and mice, as they will both de- 
 stroy the birds and suck the eggs ; thence cats 
 of a known good breed should be trained up 
 familiarly with the pigeons. The platform 
 should be painted white, and renewed as the 
 paint wears off, white being a favourite 
 colour with pigeons, and also most conspicu- 
 ous as a mark to enable them to find their 
 home. The boxes also should be so coloured, 
 and renewed as necessary, for which purpose 
 lime and water will be sufficient. 
 
 Cleanliness is one of the first and most 
 important considerations, the want of it in a 
 dove-cote will soon render the place a nui- 
 sance not to be approached, and the birds, 
 both young and old, will be so covered with 
 vermin, and besmeared \\ith their own excre- 
 ment, that they can enjoy no health or com- 
 fort, and mortality is often so induced. Ours 
 were cleaned daily ; thoroughly once a week, 
 a tub standing at hand for the reception of 
 their dung, the floor covered with sifted gm- 
 vel, often renewed. Pigeons are exceedingly 
 fond of water, and having a prescience of 
 rain, will wait its coming until late in the 
 evening, upon the house-top, spreading their 
 wings to receive the refreshing shower. When 
 they are confined in a room, they should be 
 allowed a wide pan of water, to be often 
 renewed, as a bath, which cools, refreshes 
 and assists them to keep their bodies clear of 
 vermin. In the attendance upon pigeons, 
 caution is necessary with respect to their 
 fighting, to which they are more prone than 
 might be expected, often to the destruction 
 of eggs or young, or driving the weakest away. 
 
 The common barrel dove-cote needs no 
 
 description, at the same time it is adapted to 
 
 every situation in which it is desirable to 
 
 keep pigeons for ordinary use. To return 
 
 to the room, or loft; the shelves should be 
 
 , placed sufficiently high, for security against 
 
 ! vermin, a small ladder being a necessary ap- 
 
 C C
 
 386 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [P., 
 
 pendage. The usual breadth of the shelves 
 is about twenty inches, with the allowance of 
 eighteen between shelf and shelf, which will 
 be sufficient not to incommode the tallest 
 pigeons. Partitions between the shelves may 
 be fixed at the distance of about three feet, 
 making a blind, by a board nailed against 
 the front of each partition, whence there will 
 be two nests in the compass of every three 
 feet, so that the pigeons will sit in privacy, 
 and not liable to be disturbed. Or a partition 
 may be fixed between each nest; a good 
 plan, which prevents the young from running 
 to the hen, sitting over fresh eggs, and per- 
 haps occasioning her to cool and addle them , 
 for when the young are about a fortnight or 
 three weeks old, a good hen will leave them 
 to the care of the cock and lay again. 
 
 Some prefer breeding-holes entirely open 
 in front, for the greater convenience in clean- 
 ing the nests ; but it is from those that the 
 squabs are likely to fall, thence a step of suffi- 
 cient height is preferable. The tame pigeon 
 seldom taking the trouble to make a nest, it is 
 better to give her one of hay, which prevents 
 her eggs from rolling. Or a straw basket, or 
 unglazed earthen pan, may be placed in every 
 nest, apportioned to the size of the pigeons 
 you breed. A pan of three inches high, 
 eight inches over the top, and sloping to the 
 bottom like a basin, will be of sufficient size 
 for a tumbler, or a small pigeon, whilst one 
 of double those dimensions will be required 
 for a large runt. A brick should always be 
 placed in contiguity to the pan, to enable the 
 cock and hen to alight with greater safety 
 upon the eggs. * 
 
 The pigeon-trap on the house-top is the 
 well-known contrivance of those London ras- 
 cals, who lie in wait, as has been said, to en- 
 trap the property of others. A trap of another 
 description, and for a very different purpose, 
 is sometimes used ; it is an area, on the out- 
 side of a building, for the purpose of confining 
 in the air valuable breeds of pigeons which 
 cannot be trusted to flight. Some are erected 
 to the extent of twenty yardslong and ten yards 
 in width, with shelves on every side for the 
 perching of the pigeons ; thus they are con- 
 stantly exercised in the air, retiring at their 
 pleasure to the room or loft within. 
 * * 
 
 Very convenient baskets are now made ol 
 the cradle form, with partitions, or separate 
 apartments. They serve for the carriage ol 
 pigeons for matching, or putting them up to 
 fatten, or for any of the usual purposes, 
 have seen them lately, in the basket-shops on 
 the Greenwich road, two or three miles from 
 London. * 
 
 Food and water should be given in such a way 
 as to be as little as possible contaminated with 
 the excrement, or any other impurity. Our 
 
 >igcons having been constantly attended, we 
 lave never found the need of any other con- 
 venience than earthen pans ; but there have 
 seen ingenious inventions for this purpose, of 
 which the meat-box and water-bottle following 
 are specimens. The meat-box is formed in 
 the shape of a hopper, covered at the top to 
 keep clean the grain, which descends into a 
 square shallow box. Some fence this with 
 rails or holes on each side, to keep the grain 
 From being scattered over ; others leave it quite 
 open that the young pigeons may the more 
 easily find their food. 
 
 The water-bottle is a large glass bottle, with 
 a long neck, holding from one to five gallons, 
 its belly shaped like an egg, so that the pigeons 
 may not light and dung upon it. It is placed 
 upon a stand or three-footed stool, made hol- 
 low above, to receive the belly of the bottle, 
 and let the mouth into a small pan beneath : 
 the water will so gradually descend out of the 
 mouth of the bottle as the pigeons drink, and 
 be sweet and clean, and always stop when the 
 surface reaches the mouth of the bottle. 
 
 * * 
 
 To match or pair a cock and hen, it is 
 necessary to shut them together, or near and 
 within reach of each other ; and the connexion 
 is generally formed in a day or two. Various 
 rules have been laid down, by which to dis- 
 tinguish the cock from the hen pigeon ; but 
 the masculine forwardness and action of the 
 cock, is for the most part distinguishable. 
 
 * * 
 
 The following singular detection of a thief 
 occurred on a late examination at Queen 
 Square, Westminster: Mr. Bepy, in the 
 Wandsworthroad, had his pigeon-house robbed. 
 A known thief was stopped on the road with 
 six fancy pigeons in his possession, by Sergeant 
 Reardon of the police, and taken before the 
 magistrates, but no evidence appearing against 
 him, he was discharged, and suffered to take 
 away the birds, which he claimed as having 
 purchased them. Cooper, an officer of the 
 court, being somewhat up to the pigeon fancy, 
 and seeing them above the common sort, pur- 
 chased them, and very commendably deter- 
 mined to find out the real owner, which he 
 effected in the following ingenious mode. Se- 
 lecting a fine bald-head, he attached a note to 
 its foot, with his address, and then threw up 
 the pigeon, which instantly flew to its own 
 home, and was recovered by its owner, who 
 returned it to Cooper, making him a present 
 of the half-dozen as a reward for his sagacity. 
 * 
 
 The starling is a great enemy to pigeons, by 
 sucking their eggs, and even destroying their 
 young. In October, 1800, seven hundred and 
 eighty starlings were taken in one night in a 
 dove-cot belonging to Mr. Slater, of Chalton, 
 near Lincoln. * *
 
 PIK] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 387 
 
 In 1807, was in the possession of Mr. 
 Knight, of Chichester, a hen pigeon of the 
 pouter species, who, in that summer, hatched 
 three pair of young. She is twenty-one years 
 old, and is considered a remarkable instance 
 of longevity, as Buffon, and other naturalists, 
 have not allowed this hird, from the heat of 
 its nature, above eight or nine years of life, 
 and to be incapable of procreation after seven. 
 * 
 
 The penalty for shooting them is 20*. for 
 each pigeon. (Under statute of 1 Jac. I.) 
 
 For shooting at pigeons, with intent to kill, 
 the penalty would (by 2 Geo. II.) be the same 
 as for killing one pigeon, viz. 20s. Informa- 
 tions for these offences must be commenced 
 within two months. 
 
 In pigeon-shooting the most extraordinary 
 performance was by Tupor, the gamekeeper of 
 Sir H. Mildmay, (the same person who broke 
 the sow to stand to game,) who, for a consider- 
 able wager, shot six pigeons out of ten with a 
 single ball. 
 
 Tupor afterwards, to decide a bet, hit a 
 cricket-ball, with common shot, twelve times 
 successively, betwixt the wickets, bowled by 
 Harris, one of the sharpest bowlers in the 
 Hambleton Club. He is also said to have 
 killed swallows with a single ball. 
 
 The next was effected by Mr. Elliot, at 
 Rudgewick, in Sussex, who undertook to kill 
 fifty pigeons at fifty shots; it was decided 
 near Petworth, at Tillington, and notwith- 
 standing the wind was high, he killed forty- 
 five : it was allowed he hit every bird, and 
 that he would have succeeded but for the 
 above circumstance. He had but one gun, 
 the touch-hole of which fairly melted. 
 * * 
 
 Four gentlemen of Camberwell under- 
 took, for a wager of five guineas a side, to 
 shoot at twelve pigeons, and great bets were 
 depending, but to the mortification of the per- 
 sons present, they neither of them brought 
 down a single bird. 
 
 Mr. Keene, of Hammersmith, killed twenty 
 pigeons in twenty-one shots, from a trap at 
 the regular twenty-one yards' distance, and in 
 March, 1811, he killed, in a match against 
 Mr. Elliot, the same number, beating his ad- 
 versary by one. 
 
 In Wiltshire, the same year, Captain Hicks 
 shot against the gamekeeper of Mr. Maurice, 
 at fifteen pigeons, turned off at the same dis- 
 tance ; each killed the whole, and in shooting 
 off the ties, the former missed his sixth bird, 
 and lost the match, which was for two hun- 
 dred guineas Moubray Daniel, 
 
 PIKE, s. A long lance used by the foot soldiers to keep off the horse, to 
 which bayonets have succeeded ; a fork used in husbandry ; among turners, 
 two iron springs between which anything to be turned is fastened ; a 
 large fish of prey. 
 
 The pike, termed for its voracity the fresh- 
 water shark, is found in most of the larger 
 lakes and rivers of Great Britain. It grows to 
 
 an immense size is easily produced as a pond 
 fish and, being a bold determined biter, 
 affords excellent sport to the lovers of the art. 
 C C 2
 
 388 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [PlK 
 
 It is taken with natural and artificial baits, as 
 frogs, mice, minnows or any kind of fry ; and 
 when the weather is favourable very little 
 skill is requisite to obtain abundant sport in 
 a well-stocked water. The best mode of 
 pike-fishing is trolling. Vide TROLLING. 
 
 The pike's voraciousness is well known : 
 what is here mentioned of it is singular. In 
 1810, a hook baited with a roach, was set in 
 the manor-pond, at Toddington, Bedfordshire ; 
 the next morning a large pike was caught, 
 which with difficulty was got out. It appeared 
 that a pike of three and a half pounds weight 
 was first caught, which was afterwards swal- 
 lowed by another, weighing thirteen pounds 
 and a half, and both were taken. 
 
 It has been before remarked, that pike are 
 frequently shot, when floating near the sur- 
 face of the water. Other sorts of fish are 
 often so destroyed. In June, 1808, Mr. 
 Byrne, the Earl of Lonsdale's gamekeeper, shot 
 in the river Eden, at Beaumont, near Carlisle, 
 the extraordinary number of eighty-six fish, 
 at two shots ; the smallest fish was seven 
 inches in length. 
 
 The smaller lakes, which are so profusely 
 scattered over the surface of this county, vary 
 in the species of fish which they respectively 
 produce, as much as they do in their own na- 
 tural size and character. Some of them afford 
 trouts, others pike only, and many are stocked 
 with both. That this union cannot long sub- 
 sist, I should be inclined to infer from one re- 
 markable circumstance, and it is a convincing 
 proof of the rapid destruction which the in- 
 troduction of pike into a trout lake will occa- 
 sion. Within a short distance of Castlebar 
 there is a small bog-lake, called Derreens ; 
 ten years ago it was celebrated for its nume- 
 rous and well-sized trouts. Accidentally pike 
 effected a passage into the lough from the 
 Minola river, and now the trouts are extinct 
 or, at least, none of them are caught or seen. 
 Previous to the intrusion of the pikes, half-a- 
 dozen trouts would be killed in an evening in 
 Derreens, whose collective weight often 
 amounted to twenty pounds. 
 
 
 
 Indeed the appetite of one of my pike was 
 almost insatiable. One morning I threw to 
 him, one after the other, five roach, each about 
 four inches in length. He swallowed four of 
 them, and kept the fifth in his mouth for 
 about a quarter of an hour, when it also dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 Fish appear, also, to be capable of entertain- 
 ing affection for each other. I once caught a 
 female pike during the spawning season, and 
 nothing could drive the male away from the 
 spot at which the female disappeared, whom he 
 had followed to the very edge of the water. 
 A person who had kept two small fish together 
 in a glass, gave one of them away ; the other 
 
 refused to eat, and showed evident symptoms 
 of uneasiness till his companion was restored 
 to him. 
 
 The boldness of a pike is very extraordinary. 
 I have seen one follow a bait within afoot of 
 the spot where I have been standing ; and the 
 head keeper of Richmond Park assured me 
 that he was once washing his hand at the side 
 of a boat in the great pond in that Park, when 
 a pike made a dart at it, and he had but just 
 time to withdraw it. 
 
 A gentleman (Major Payne) now residing 
 at Weybridge, in Surrey, informed me, that, 
 walking one day by the side of the river Wey, 
 near that town, he saw a large pike in a shal- 
 low creek. He immediately pulled off his 
 coat, tucked up his shirt-sleeves, and went into 
 the water to intercept the return of the fish to 
 the river, and to endeavour to throw it upon 
 the bank by getting his hands under it. Dur- 
 ing this attempt, the pike, finding he could not 
 make his escape, seized one of the arms of the 
 gentleman, and lacerated it so much that the 
 wound is still very visible. 
 
 The digestion of the pike is so rapid, that, 
 in a few hours, not a single bone of a roach 
 which it has swallowed can be discovered. 
 This may account for the fact of a pike, who 
 has gorged himself to the full, holding a small 
 fish in his mouth whilst the digestion of his 
 previously taken prey has been going on, and 
 swallowing it as soon as that process had been 
 effected. 
 
 The rapid growth of some fish is very ex- 
 traordinary. I saw three pikes taken out of 
 a pond in Staffordshire belonging to the pre- 
 sent Sir Jervoise Clark Jervoise, two of which 
 weighed thirty-six pounds each, and the other 
 thirty-five pounds. The pond was fished every 
 seven years, and, supposing that store pike of 
 six or seven pounds weight were left in it, the 
 growth of the pike in question must have been 
 at the rate of at least four pounds a-year. . 
 
 
 About seventeen years since, when visiting 
 the late Marquis of Clanricarde at Portumna 
 Castle, two gentlemen brought to the marquis 
 an immense pike, which they had just caught 
 in the river Shannon, on the banks of which 
 they had been taking their evening walk. 
 Attracted by a noise and splashing of the 
 water, they discovered in a little creek a num- 
 ber of perch driven on shore, and a fish which, 
 in pursuit of them, had so entangled himself 
 with the ground, as to have a great part of its 
 body exposed, and out of water. They at- 
 tacked him with an oar, that by accident lay 
 on the bank, and killed him. Never having 
 seen any fish of this species so large, they 
 judged it worth the observation of the mar- 
 quis, who, equally surprised at its magnitude, 
 had it weighed, and to our astonishment it 
 exceeded the balance at ninety-two pounds ;
 
 PIL] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 389 
 
 its length was such, that when carried across 
 the oar hy the two gentlemen, who were nei- 
 ther of them short, the head and tail touched 
 the ground. 
 
 Now that I am speaking of pike I may 
 observe that eagles, which were rather nu- 
 merous hereabout, were not unfrequently seen 
 to pounce on those fish whilst hasking near 
 the surface. It was said, however, that when 
 the pike was very large, he had been known 
 to carry the eagle underwater; when, from 
 the latter being unable to disengage his talons, 
 he was of course drowned. Indeed, Dr. Mel- 
 lerborg, a medical gentleman attached to the 
 Uddeholm establishment when I first visited 
 Werrneland, vouched for this being the fact, 
 he himself having once seen an enormous 
 pike, with an eagle fastened to his back, lying 
 dead on a piece of ground which had been 
 overflown, but from which the water had then 
 retreated. 
 
 Captain Eurenius also informed me, that 
 he himself was once an eye-witness to a simi- 
 lar occurrence. This was on the Gotha river, 
 and at no great distance from Wenersborg. 
 In this instance, when the eagle first seized 
 the pike, he was enabled to lift him a short 
 distance into the air ; but the weight of the 
 fish, together with its struggles, soon carried 
 them back again to the water, under which 
 for a while they both disappeared : presently, 
 however, the eagle again came to the surface, 
 uttering at the same time the most piercing 
 cries, and making apparently every endeavour 
 to extricate his talons, but all was in vain, 
 and, after a deal of struggling, he was finally 
 carried under the water. 
 
 Captain Eurenius said, moreover, that pike 
 were occasionally taken alive with only the 
 legs and talons of the eagle attached to their 
 backs, the body of the bird having previously 
 rotted off. This, if true, is a curious circum- 
 stance ; for one would naturally have sup- 
 posed, that with such a knapsack the fish 
 would have been unable to procure his food, 
 and that he consequently must soon have 
 perished. 
 
 In corroboration of these stories I may 
 mention, that when I was in the Orkney 
 
 Islands a few years ago, I was told of the 
 eagle striking turbot and other fish at sea, 
 when similar results to what I have just 
 stated occasionally took place. At that time, 
 however, I confess, I was a little incredulous 
 on the subject. 
 
 * 
 
 There are no waters in Great Britain, with 
 the exception of the river Shannon, where 
 larger pikes are caught than those taken in 
 Loughs Mask and Corrib. It would appear, 
 that in these lakes the fish are commensurate 
 to the waters they inhabit. It is no unusual 
 event for pikes of thirty pounds weight to be 
 sent to the landlords by their tenants ; and 
 fish of even fifty pounds have not unfrequently 
 been caught with nets and night-lines. The 
 trouts in those loughs are also immensely 
 large. From five to fifteen pounds is no 
 unusual size, and some have been found that 
 reached the enormous weight of thirty. The 
 perch tribe appear the smallest in the scale of 
 relative proportion. These seldom exceed a 
 herring size, but they too have exceptions, 
 and perch of three or four pounds weight 
 have been sometimes seen. Within fifty years 
 this latter fish has increased prodigiously, and 
 in the lakes and rivers where they abound 
 trouts have been found to diminish in an equal 
 ratio. If any doubt remained touching the 
 fecundity of the perch, some of the Mayo 
 waters would prove it satisfactorily. Half a 
 century since, I have been assured that pike 
 and perch were almost unknown in the rivers 
 of Belcarra and Minola, and the chain of 
 lakes with which they communicate, and that 
 these waters were then second to none for 
 trout-fishing. Within ten years, my cousin 
 tells me that he often angled in them, and 
 that he frequently killed from three to six 
 dozen of beautiful middle-sized red trouts. 
 Now, fly-fishing is seldom practised there. 
 The trout is nearly extinct, and quantities of 
 pike and perch infest every pool and stream. 
 The simplest methods of talcing fish will be 
 here found successful, and the lakes of West- 
 meath will soon be rivalled by the loughs of 
 
 Mayo Jesse Lloyd Daniel Wild 
 
 Sports. 
 
 PILCHER or PILCHARD, *. A fish like a herring. 
 
 The pilchard has a general likeness to the 
 herring, but, when comparatively described, is 
 essentially different. The body of the pil- 
 chard is less compressed, being thicker and 
 rounder ; the back is more elevated, the belly 
 less sharp, the nose turns up, and, as well as 
 the under jaw, is shorter, the dorsal fin is 
 placed exactly in the centre of gravity, so that 
 when taken up by it, the body preserves an 
 equilibrium; that of the herring dips at the 
 head. The scales of the pilchard adhere closely, 
 
 whereas those of the herring very easily drop 
 off; besides the pilchard is fatter, or more full 
 of oil. 
 
 About the middle of July, the pilchards in 
 vast shoals approach the Cornish coasts; the 
 beginning of winter they disappear, a few re- 
 turning after Christmas. Their winter re- 
 treat, and their motives for migrating, are the 
 same with the herring. During summer, 
 they affect a warmer latitude, no quantities 
 being found on any of /our coasts, except thotc
 
 390 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Pm 
 
 of Cornwall ; namely, from Powey harbour to 
 the Scilly Isles, between which places, for 
 some weeks, the shoals keep shifting. 
 
 The appearance of the pilchard is known 
 by the birds and larger fishes attendant upon 
 them, and persons called Huers are placed on 
 eminences, to point to the boats stationed off 
 the land the course of the fish, by whose di- 
 rections sometimes a bay of several miles' ex- 
 tent is enclosed with their nets, called seines. 
 
 By the first of James I. c. 23, fishermen are 
 empowered to go on the grounds of others to 
 hue, without being liable to action for trespass, 
 which before occasioned frequent law-suits. 
 The numbers that are taken at one shooting 
 of the nets is astonishing. Upon the fifth of 
 October, 1767, there were at one time inclosed 
 in St. Ive's Bay, 7,000 hogsheads, each cask 
 containing 35,000 fish, in all 245,000,000. 
 
 PINT, s. Half a quart ; in medicine, twelve ounces ; a liquid measure. 
 PINTADO, s. Guinea fowls : before rain, the pintados, called comebacks, 
 
 squall more than usual, as do peacocks. Foster. 
 PINTAIL DUCK, LEA PHEASANT, CRACKER, WINTER DUCK (Anas 
 
 acuta, LINN. ; Le Canard a longue Queue, BUFF.), s. 
 
 This handsome-looking bird is twenty eight 
 inches in length, and thirty eight in breadth, 
 and weighs about twenty four ounces. The 
 bill is rather long, black in the middle, and 
 blue on the edges ; the irides reddish ; the 
 head and throat are of a rusty brown, mottled 
 with small dark spots, and tinged behind the 
 ears with purple ; the nape and upper part of 
 the neck are dusky, margined by a narrow 
 white line, which runs down on each side, and 
 falling into a broader stripe of the same colour, 
 extends itself on the fore part as far as the 
 breast ; the rest of the neck, the breast, and 
 the upper part of the back, are elegantly pen- 
 cilled with black and white waved lines ; the 
 lower back and sides of the body are undu- 
 lated in the same manner, but with lines 
 more freckled, less distinct, and paler; the 
 scapulars are long and pointed, each feather 
 black down the middle with white edges ; the 
 
 coverts of the wings are ash-brown, tipped 
 \vith dull orange ; below these the wing is 
 obliquely crossed by the beauty spot of glossy 
 bronze purple green, with a lower border of 
 black and white ; this spangle is formed by 
 the outer webs and tips of the middle quills ; 
 the rest of the quills are dusky. All the tail 
 feathers are of a brown ash-colour, with pale 
 edges, except the two middle ones, which are 
 black, slightly glossed with green, considerably 
 longer than the others, and end in a point ; 
 the belly and sides of the vent are white; 
 under tail-coverts black ; legs and feet small, 
 and of a lead colour. 
 
 The female is less than the male, and her 
 plumage is of a much plainer cast, all the 
 upper parts being brown, with each feather 
 margined more or less with white, inclining to 
 red or yellow ; the greater coverts and secon- 
 dary quills are tipped with cream-colour and
 
 PIQ] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 391 
 
 white which form a bar across the wings. The 
 fore-part of the neck, the breast, and the belly 
 to the vent, are of a dull white, obscurely 
 spotted with brown. The tail is long and 
 pointed, but the two middle feathers do not 
 extend themselves beyond the rest, like those 
 of the male. 
 
 These birds do not visit the temperate and 
 warm climates in great numbers, except in very 
 severe winters, the great bulk of them drop- 
 ping short, and remaining during that season in 
 various parts of the Russian dominions, Swe- 
 den, Norway, &c., and also in the same lati- 
 
 tudes in both Asia and America. They are 
 seldom numerous in England, but flocks of 
 them are sometimes abundantly spread along 
 the isles and shores of Scotland and Ireland, 
 and on the interior lakes of those countries, as 
 well as those of the continent as far south as 
 Italy, and in America as far south as New York. 
 They are esteemed excellent eating. 
 
 The pintail duck is of a taller or more 
 lengthened shape than any of the species, and, 
 in the opinion of the Count de Buffon, seems 
 to form the link between the duck and the 
 garganey Latham Bewick. 
 
 PIP, s. A deflnxion with which fowls are troubled ; a horny pellicle that 
 
 grows on the tip of their tongues ; a spot on the cards. 
 PIPE, s. Any long hollow body, a tube ; a tube of clay through which the 
 
 fume of tobacco is drawn into the mouth ; an instrument of wind music; 
 
 the organs of voice and respiration, as the windpipe ; the key of the 
 
 voice ; a liquid measure containing two hogsheads. 
 PIPE, v. To play on the pipe ; to have a shrill sound as birds have. 
 PIPKIN, s. A small earthen boiler. 
 PIQUET, s. A game at cards. 
 
 Piquet is played by two persons, with 
 thirty-two cards : the ace, king, queen, knave, 
 ten, nine, eight, and seven of each suit. The 
 ace is the superior, and equal to eleven points; 
 the king ranks above the queen, and the 
 queen above the knave, &c. The three court 
 cards are each equal to ten points ; the ten, 
 ten ; the nine, nine ; and so of the rest, each 
 counting for as many points as it has pips. 
 
 The game consists of 101 points. The 
 players begin with shuffling the cards ; then 
 they are to cut ; he who cuts the lowest 
 deals, but the great advantage is in being elder 
 hand. The dealer then shuffles the cards 
 again, and presents them to his adversary, who 
 may also shuffle, but the dealer must have 
 the last shuffle. If the adversary should 
 scatter the cards, or cut but one off, or leave 
 but one at the bottom, the dealer may mix 
 and shuffle them again. The dealer is to give 
 twelve a piece, by two at a time, and the eight 
 cards which remain must be placed upon the 
 table, and are called the talon or stock. 
 
 In this game there are three superior 
 chances, viz. the repique, the pique, and the 
 capot, all which may be made in one deal, as 
 thus : suppose one of the players to have four 
 tierce-majors, his point to be good, and he is 
 eldest hand : he begins by counting three for 
 his point, then twelve for his four tierce- 
 majors, next fourteen for the four aces, four- 
 teen for the four kings, and fourteen for the 
 four queens, then sixty for the repique, thir- 
 teen he gains in playing the cards ; and he 
 has forty for the capot, which make together 
 
 one hundred and seventy : this stroke, per- 
 haps, has never happened ; but it is just if it 
 ever should. 
 
 To pique the adversary, you must be elder 
 hand ; for if youngest, your adversary counts 
 one for the first card he plays, and then you 
 having counted only twenty-nine in hand, 
 even if you take the first trick, it will not 
 authorise you to count sixty, but only thirty. 
 
 The carte blanche precedes every thing, 
 then follows the point, then the huitiemes, 
 the septiemes, the sixiemes, the quints, the 
 quarts, the tierces, the four aces, kings, queens, 
 knaves, or tens ; then the three aces, kings, 
 queens, knaves, or tens ; then the points 
 gained in playing the cards ; and the last is 
 the ten for winning the cards, or the forty for 
 the capot. After sorting the cards, the first 
 thing to be considered is, whether you have a 
 carte blanche, if so, let your adversary dis- 
 card, and when he is going to take in lay 
 your twelve cards on the table, counting them 
 one after another. 
 
 The players having examined their hands, 
 the elder hand may discard five cards or fewer 
 as he may deem for his advantage, and, laying 
 them aside, he takes as many from the talon 
 or heap ; the youngest hand can lay out three 
 only, unless any of the five allotted to his 
 adversary be left, which he may take or not, 
 as he pleases. 
 
 In discarding, the first intention in skilful 
 players is, to gain the cards, and to have the 
 point, which most commonly engages them to 
 keep in that suit, of which they have the 

 
 392 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 most cards, or that which is their strongest ; 
 for it is convenient to prefer, sometimes, forty- 
 one in one suit to forty-four in another, in 
 which a quint is not made ; sometimes, even 
 having a quint, it is more advantageous to 
 hold the forty-one, where, if one card only be 
 taken in, it may make it a quint-major, and 
 gain the point, or the cards, which could not 
 have been done by holding the forty-four, at 
 least, without an extraordinary take-in. Also 
 endeavour, in laying out, to get a quatorze ; 
 that is, four aces, kings, queens, knaves, or 
 tens, each of which counts for fourteen, and 
 is therefore called a quatorze. The fourteen 
 aces in your hand hinder the counting four- 
 teen kings in the adversary's, &c., and by this 
 Buperiority you may count a lesser quatorze, 
 as of tens, notwithstanding your adversary may 
 have fourteen kings, &c., because the stronger 
 (viz. the aces) annuls the weaker : and also, 
 in the want of a lesser quatorze you may 
 count three aces, three kings, three queens, 
 three knaves, or three tens. Three aces are 
 better than three kings ; and he who has 
 them may by virtue thereof count his three 
 tens, although the adversary may have three 
 kings ; in favour of a quatorze you count not 
 only any lesser quatorze, but also all the 
 threes which you have, except of nines, eights, 
 and sevens. The same is to be observed in 
 regard to the huitiemes, septiemes, sixiemes, 
 quints, quarts, and tierces, to which the player 
 must have regard in his discarding, so that 
 what he takes in may make them for him. 
 
 The point being selected, the eldest hand 
 declares what it is, and asks if it be good : if 
 his adversary have not so many, he answers it 
 is good ; if he have just as many, he answers 
 it is equal ; and if he have more, he answers 
 it is not good ; for whoever has the point, 
 whether eldest or youngest, counts it first ; 
 but if the points be equal, neither can count : 
 it is the same when the players have equal 
 tierces, quarts, quints, &c., and whoever should 
 hold several other sequences, either of the 
 same goodness or lesser cannot count them. 
 
 After the elder hand has counted the point, 
 he should examine if he have not tierce, quart, 
 quint, &c., and then if any quatorze, or three 
 aces, kings, &c., that he may reckon them, 
 should his adversary not hinder him by having 
 better. 
 
 The points, the tierces, quarts, quints, &c., 
 are to be shown on the table, that their value 
 may be seen and reckoned ; but you are not 
 obliged to show quatorzes, or three aces, kings, 
 queens, knaves, or tens. 
 
 After each has examined his game, and the 
 elder, by the questions asked, seen every thing 
 that is good in his hand, he begins to reckon. 
 The carte blanche is first reckoned, then the 
 point, next the sequences, and lastly, the qua- 
 torzes, as well as threes of aces, kings, &c., 
 
 after which he begins to play his cards, count- 
 ing one for each, except it be a nine or an in- 
 ferior card. 
 
 After the elder hand has led his first card, 
 the younger shows his point, if it be good, 
 also the sequences, quatorzes, or threes of 
 aces, kings, &c., and having reckoned them all 
 together, he takes the first trick if he can with 
 the same suit, and counts one for it ; if he 
 cannot, the other turns the trick and conti- 
 nues ; and when the younger hand can take 
 the trick, he may lead what suit he pleases. 
 
 A good player is principally known from an 
 indifferent one by his manner ; and it is not 
 possible to play well without knowing the 
 strength of the game ; that is to gay, by your 
 own hand you should know what your adver- 
 sary may hold, and what he must have dis- 
 carded, and great notice should be taken of 
 what he has shown or reckoned. There are 
 no trumps at piquet, but the highest card of 
 the suit, if played, takes the trick. 
 
 Should the elder hand have the misfortune 
 to hold neither point, sequence, quatorze, or 
 threes which are good, he must begin to count 
 by playing that card which he judges most 
 proper, and continue until his adversary has 
 played a superior, to gain the lead in his turn. 
 This method must be continued till all the 
 twelve cards are played, and he who takes the 
 last trick counts two. Then each player 
 counts how many tricks he has taken, and he 
 who has the most reckons the cards ; but 
 should they be equal, neither side can count 
 any thing for the cards. 
 
 As soon as a deal is finished, each player 
 should mark how many points he has made, 
 and so proceed until the game be completed ; 
 and after every deal the cards must be shuffled 
 and cut for the next ; each player taking his 
 turn, unless the game be concluded in one 
 deal. 
 
 When you begin another game, the cards 
 must be cut afresh for the deal, unless it be 
 agreed upon at first, that the deal shall go on. 
 
 TERMS USED AT PIQUET. 
 
 Capot is when either of the players makes 
 every trick, for which he scores forty. 
 
 Cards signify the majority of tricks, which 
 reckon for ten points. 
 
 Carte Blanche means a hand without a 
 court card in the twelve dealt, which counts 
 for ten, and takes place of every thing else. 
 
 Huititme, eight successive cards of the 
 same suit, counts eighteen points. 
 
 Pique, is when the elder hand has reck- 
 oned thirty in hand, and plays before the ad- 
 versary has gained one ; in which case, instead 
 of thirty it is called sixty, and he adds thereto 
 as many points as are obtained above thirty. 
 
 Point, the greatest number on the cards 
 of the same suit in hand, after having taken
 
 PLA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 393 
 
 in, reckoned by their pips, scores for as many 
 points as cards. 
 
 Quart, four cards in sequence of the same 
 suit counts four points : there are five kinds 
 of quarts, the first called quart-major, con- 
 sisting of ace, king, queen, and knave ; the 
 second quart, of king, queen, knave, and ten ; 
 the third quart, of queen, knave, ten, and nine; 
 the fourth quart, of knave, ten, nine, and 
 eight ; the fifth, a basse-quart or quart-minor 
 often, nine, eight, and seven. 
 
 Qualorze, the four aces, kings, queens, 
 knaves, or tens, scores fourteen points. 
 
 Quint means five cards of the same suit 
 in sequence, and reckons fifteen points : there 
 are four sorts of quints ; a quint-major of ace, 
 king, queen, knave, and ten, down to knave, 
 ten, nine, eight, and seven, styled a quint- 
 minor. 
 
 Repique signifies when one of the players 
 counts thirty or more in hand, before the ad- 
 
 PISCATION, $. The act or practice of 
 PISCATORY, a. Relating- to fishes. 
 PISCIVOROUS, a. Fish-eating-, living 
 PISMIRE, s. An ant, an emmet. 
 PISTOL, s. A small sort of firearms. 
 PISTOL, v. To shoot with a pistol. 
 
 We were awakened early the next morning 
 by some of our party, who had come to Ver- 
 sailles for the express purpose of witnessing the 
 great shooting match which was to take place 
 at six o'clock in the gardens of the manufac- 
 tory. Accordingly we repaired to the ap- 
 pointed spot, attended by M. Boute, one of the 
 principal overseers. I naturally imagined, that 
 the pistols to be tried on this occasion were 
 those of the manufactory, but I found this was 
 not the case, the locks only having been con- 
 structed there. 
 
 The first match being read, whereby Mr. 
 Tripper had engaged that an Italian gentleman 
 named Dance, would hit a cork of an ordinary 
 size, at sixteen yards' distance, four times out 
 of five, for two hundred guineas, Mr. Dance 
 begged leave to state, that his friend must have 
 laboured under an error, as he never pretended 
 to hit more than once in five shots, and con- 
 
 versary obtains one, when it is called ninety, 
 reckoning besides as many points above ninety 
 as were gained above thirty in pique. 
 
 Sixiime, or six cards of the same suit in 
 sequence, reckons for sixteen points; there 
 are three sorts of sixiemes, viz. sixieme-major 
 from the ace, sixieme from the king, and six- 
 ieme-minor from the queen. 
 
 Septieme, or seven of the same suit in se- 
 quence, counts for seventeen points; there 
 are two septiemes, one from the ace, the 
 other from the king. 
 
 Threes of aces, &c., down to tens, reckon 
 three points. 
 
 Talon or Stock means the eight remaining 
 cards after twelve are dealt to each player. 
 
 Tierce or sequence of three, reckons for 
 three : there are six kinds of tierces, tierce- 
 major, of ace, king, queen; down to nine, 
 eight, seven, styled tierce-minor Hoyle. 
 
 fishing, 
 on fish. 
 
 sequently declined any other. The forfeit 
 money was therefore paid to me as judge, and 
 an elegant dinner agreed on for a subsequent 
 day. 
 
 The second bet was between Mr. Tripper, 
 
 and Mr. H when the former wagered 
 
 twenty guineas that Mr. H could not hit 
 
 a cork at the same distance once in ten shots. 
 
 At the first trial Mr. H very nearly 
 
 struck the cork, and bets were keenly laid on 
 his side, but notwithstanding he made good 
 mark he proved unsuccessful. 
 
 Mr. Dance was then matched to hit a card- 
 wafer, twice in four shots, at sixteen yards for 
 thirty guineas. His aim proved accurate three 
 times, and he consequently won the wager. 
 Mr. Boute came forward and hit the wafer 
 four times successively, but missed in two 
 other trials Thornton. 
 
 PIT, s. A hole in the ground ; abyss ; the area on which cocks fight ; the 
 middle part of the theatre ; any hollow of the body, as the pit of the 
 stomach, the arm-pit ; a dint made by the finger. 
 
 PITCH, *. A black and impure resinous substance, used by farriers in mak- 
 ing charges, obtained by boiling or distilling tar to the desired consis- 
 tence. 
 
 PITFALL, *. A pit dug and covered, into which animals fall unexpectedly.
 
 394 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 PLAICE, s. A flat fish. Although properly a sea fish, plaice will not only 
 live in fresh water, but thrive apace. They will take any sort of small 
 worm, and to the sand- worm, called in Ireland the lug-, they appear par- 
 ticularly partial. 
 
 PLAIN, s. Level ground, open flat. 
 
 PLASH, s. A small lake or puddle of water ; branch partly cut off and 
 bound to other branches. 
 
 PLASTER, s. Substance made of water and some absorbent matter, such 
 as chalk or lime well pulverised, with which walls are overlaid ; a glutin- 
 ous or adhesive salve. 
 
 PLATE, s. A piece of metal beat out into breadth ; wrought silver ; a small 
 shallow vessel of metal or porcelain, on which meat is eaten ; the prize 
 run for by horses. 
 
 PLATES, s. Light horse shoes. Vide RACING. 
 
 PLATINA, s. A species of metal, much used in bushing touch-holes, and 
 generally preferred to gold for that purpose. 
 
 PLAY, s. Amusement, sport ; game, practice of gaming ; contest at a game ; 
 practice in any contest. 
 
 PLEDGET, s. A small mass of lint. 
 
 PLETHORA, s. The state in which the vessels are fuller of humours than 
 is agreeable to a natural state of health. 
 
 PLEURISY, s. An inflammation of the pleura. 
 
 PLIERS, s. An instrument by which anything is laid hold of to bend it. 
 
 PLOVER, s. A lapwing. 
 
 This genus is distinguished by a large full 
 eye ; the bill is straight, short, and rather 
 swollen towards the tip ; the head is large ; the 
 
 legs are naked above the knee ; and most of 
 the species are without the hind toe. 
 
 Although the plover has generally been
 
 PLO] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 395 
 
 classed with those birds whose business is 
 wholly among water, we cannot help consider- 
 ing the greater part of them as partaking en- 
 tirely of the nature of land birds. Many of 
 them breed upon our loftiest mountains, and 
 though they are frequently seen upon the sea 
 coast, feeding with birds of the water kind, yet 
 it must be observed that they are no more wa- 
 ter birds than any of our small birds which 
 repair thither for the same purpose. The long 
 legged plover and the sanderling are waders, 
 and belong more immediately to the water 
 birds, to which we refer them ; the great plo- 
 ver and the lapwing we consider as entirely 
 connected with birds of the plover kind ; the 
 former has usually been classed with the bus- 
 tard, and the latter with the sandpiper ; but 
 they differ very materially from both, and seem 
 to agree in more essential points with this kind. 
 We have therefore given them a place in this 
 part of our work, where, with the rest of the 
 plovers, they may be considered as connecting 
 the two great divisions of land and water birds, 
 to both of which they are in some degree al- 
 lied. 
 
 The Great Plover, Thick-kneed Bus- 
 tard, Stone Curlew, Norfolk Plover. ( Cha- 
 radrlus cedicnemus, LINN. ; Le Grand Plu- 
 vier, BUFF.) The length of this bird is about 
 sixteen inches. Its bill is long, yellowish at 
 the base, and black at the tip ; its irides and 
 eyelids are pale yellow ; above each eye there 
 is a pale streak, and beneath one of the same 
 colour extends to the bill, the throat is white, 
 the head, neck, and all the upper parts of the 
 body are of a pale tawny brown ; down the 
 middle of each feather there is a dark streak ; 
 the forepart of the neck and the breast are 
 nearly of the same colour, but much paler; 
 the belly, thighs, and vent, are of a pale yel- 
 lowish white, the quills are black ; the tail is 
 short and rounded, and a dark band crosses the 
 middle of each feather ; the tips are black, the 
 rest white : the legs are yellow, and naked 
 above the knees, which are very thick as if 
 swollen, hence its name, the claws are black. 
 
 This bird is found in great plenty in Nor- 
 folk and several of the southern counties, but 
 is nowhere to be met with in the northern 
 parts of our island ; it prefers dry and stony 
 places on the sides of sloping banks. It makes 
 no nest : the female lays two or three eggs on 
 the bare ground, sheltered by a stone or in a 
 small hole formed in the sand ; they are of a 
 dirty white, marked with spots of a deep red- 
 dish colour, mixed with slight streaks. Al- 
 though this bird has great power of wing, and 
 flies with great strength, it is seldom seen dur- 
 ing the day, except it is surprised, when it 
 springs to some distance, and generally escapes 
 before the sportsman comes within gun-shot ; 
 it likewise runs on the ground almost as swiftly 
 as a dog ; after running some time it stops short, 
 
 holding its head and body still, and on the least 
 noise it squats close on the ground. In the 
 evening it comes out in quest of food and may 
 then be heard at a great distance : its cry is 
 singular, resembling a hoarse kind of whistle, 
 three or four times repeated, and has been com- 
 pared to the turning of a rusty handle. 
 
 Buffon endeavours to express it by the words 
 turlui, turlui, and says it resembles the sound 
 of a third flute, dwelling on three or four tones 
 from a flat to a sharp. Its food consists chiefly 
 of worms. It is said to be good eating when 
 young, the flesh of the old ones is hard, black, 
 and dry. Mr. White mentions them as fre- 
 quenting the district of Selborne, in Hamp- 
 shire. He says, that the young run immedi- 
 ately from the nest almost as soon as they are 
 excluded, like partridges; that the dam leads 
 them to some stony field where they bask, 
 skulking among the stones, which they resem- 
 ble so nearly in colour as not easily to be dis- 
 covered. 
 
 Birds of this kind are migratory ; they ar- 
 rive in April, live with us all the spring and 
 summer, and at the beginning of autumn pre- 
 pare to take leave, by getting together in flocks : 
 it is supposed that they retire to Spain, and 
 frequent the sheep-walks with which that 
 country abounds. 
 
 The Golden Plover, Yellow Plover. 
 ( Charadrius pluvialis, LINN. ; Le Pluvier 
 dore, BUFF.) The size of the turtle ; bill 
 dusky ; eyes dark ; all the upper parts of the 
 plumage are marked with bright- yellow spots 
 upon a dark brown ground ; the fore part of 
 the neck and breast are the same, but much 
 paler ; the belly is almost white ; the quills 
 are dusky ; the tail is marked with dusky and 
 yellow bars ; the legs are black. Birds of 
 this species vary very much from each other ; 
 in some which we have had the breast was 
 marked with black and white ; in others it 
 was almost black ; but whether this differ- 
 ence arose from age or sex we are at a loss to 
 determine. 
 
 The golden plover is common in this coun- 
 try and all the northern parts of Europe ; it 
 is very numerous in various parts of America, 
 from Hudson's Bay as far as Carolina, migrat- 
 ing from one place to another, according to 
 the seasons. It breeds on high and heathy 
 mountains ; the female lays four eggs, of a 
 pale olive colour, variegated with blackish 
 spots. They fly in small flocks, and make 
 a shrill whistling noise, by an imitation of 
 which they are sometimes enticed within gun 
 shot. 
 
 The male and female do not differ from 
 each other. In young birds the yellow spots 
 are not very distinguishable, as the plumage 
 inclines more to grey. 
 
 The Grey Plover. ( Tringa squaturola, 
 LINN. ; Le Vanneau Pluvier, BUFF.) The
 
 396 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 length of this bird is about twelve inches ; its 
 bill is black ; the head, back, and wing cov- 
 erts, are of a dusky brown, edged with green- 
 ish ash-colour, and some with white ; the 
 cheeks and throat are white, marked with 
 oblong dusky spots; the belly, sides, and rump, 
 are white : the sides are marked with a few 
 dusky spots ; the outer webs of the quills 
 are black ; the lower parts of the inner webs 
 of the first four are white ; the tail is marked 
 with alternate bars of black and white ; the 
 legs are of a dull green ; the hind toe is 
 small. In the Planches Enluminees this bird 
 is represented with eyes of an orange colour ; 
 there is likewise a dusky line extending from 
 the bill underneath each eye, and a white one 
 above it. 
 
 We have placed this bird with the plovers, 
 as agreeing with them in every.other respect 
 but that of having a very small hind toe ; but 
 this is so slight a difference as not to render 
 it necessary to exclude it from a place in the 
 plover family, to which it evidently belongs. 
 The grey plover is not very common in Bri- 
 tain ; it appears sometimes in small flocks on 
 the sea coasts. It is somewhat larger than 
 the golden plover. Its flesh is said to be very 
 delicate. 
 
 Long-legged Plover, Long-shanks, or 
 Long-leg. (Charadrius himantopus, LINN. 
 UEchasse, BUFF.) Its slender black bill is 
 two inches and a half long, from the tip of 
 which to the end of the tail it measures only 
 about thirteen inches, but to the toes a foot 
 and a half; the wings are long, measuring 
 from tip to tip twenty-nine inches ; irides red ; 
 the crown of the head, back, and wings, a 
 glossy black ; tail light grey, except the two 
 outside feathers, which are white, as are all 
 the other parts of its plumage, except a few 
 dusky spots on the back of the neck. Its 
 long, weak, and disproportionate legs are of a 
 blood red, and measure from the foot to the 
 upper naked part of the thigh about eight 
 inches ; the toes are short, and the outer and 
 middle ones are connected by a membrane at 
 the base. 
 
 Ornithologists mention only a few instances 
 of this singular looking species having been 
 met with in Great Britain, but it is common 
 in other countries. 
 
 Latham says it is common in Egypt, being 
 found there in the marshes in October; its 
 food is said to consist principally of flies. It 
 is likewise plentiful about the salt lakes, and 
 is often seen on the shores of the Caspian Sea, 
 as well as by the rivers which empty them- 
 selves into it, and in the southern deserts of 
 Independent Tartary. We have also seen it 
 on Chinese paintings, and it is known at Mad- 
 ras in the East Indies. It is also often met 
 with in the warmer parts of America ; is 
 sometimes seen as far north as Connecticut, 
 
 and also in Jamaica. 
 
 * 
 
 Plover Shooting There is, in shooting 
 plovers, a common remark made by sportsmen 
 that the second is always the more productive 
 barrel. The rapidity with which they varv 
 their position when on the ground, seldom 
 admits of a grand combination for a sitting, or 
 rather a running-shot. But when on the 
 wing, their mode of flight is most favourable 
 for permitting the shot to tell ; and it is by no 
 means unusual to bring down a number. 
 When disturbed, they frequently wheel back 
 directly above the fowler, and offer a tempting 
 mark if he should have a barrel in reserve ; 
 and even when too high for the shot to take 
 effect, I have often thrown away a random 
 fire ; for the plovers, on hearing the report, 
 directly make a sweep downwards on the 
 wing, and I have by this means brought them 
 within range of the second barrel. 
 
 
 
 Golden plovers were formerly killed in great 
 plenty by means of a stalking-horse. If you 
 fire at these birds as they fly over you, they 
 will dart down for the moment, and spread in 
 every direction ; so that by taking a random 
 shot with your first barrel, you may often 
 bring down the birds to a fair one for your 
 second Bewick. 
 
 PLUCK, v. To pull with nimbleness or force; to snatch, to pull, to draw; 
 
 to strip off feathers. 
 PLUCK, s. A pull, a draw, a single act of plucking ; the heart, liver, and 
 
 lights of an animal. 
 PLUMAGE, s. Feathers, suit of feathers. 
 
 their being less exposed to the sunshine? I 
 once saw the English white water-lily blow 
 of a pale rose colour, after a week of unusual 
 heat in July. Birds that change their colours 
 
 I believe that no attention has been paid 
 to the effects of different kinds of food on the 
 colours of birds. The linnet and redpole, in 
 confinement, lose, after the first moult, their 
 red colour, and it docs not return. Is this 
 owing to the want of the peculiar food they 
 would take in the spring, if at liberty, or to 
 
 at different seasons, always put on their bright 
 garb in the warm season. I have repeatedly 
 observed, in a splendid nondescript finch
 
 Poc] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 397 
 
 which I possess, that, although it moults 
 partially twice in the year, the colour of the 
 larger feathers on the wings and hack changes 
 gradually from yellowish brown to scarlet, and 
 fades again at the approach of winter. In 
 this bird, the change to grey red is very clearly 
 occasioned by the increase of temperature. I 
 have observed, in the spring, that the super- 
 vention of cold weather stops it progress. In 
 the Whidah bird, the mutation of dress is 
 rapid, accompanying the moult in June and 
 July. The American blue bird pushes brown 
 feathers in its summer moult, which are very 
 suddenly turned to blue. There is a mystery 
 in these mutations which we do not under- 
 stand. 
 
 It is not easy to account for the variation 
 we sometimes perceive in the plumage of 
 birds of the same species. I have observed a 
 rook with one white wing, during the last 
 three years, in the rookery in Hampton Court 
 park; and I saw a sparrow nearly white, 
 amongst a flock of those birds, at West Mole- 
 sey. A linnet was shot and brought to me 
 from the same place, which was beautifully 
 mottled with white and brown. Some years 
 ago I was shown some white blackbirds, in 
 the grounds of a nobleman at Blackheath, 
 which had been bred there ; and what showed 
 this was not an accidental circumstance, 
 they produced young of the same colour as 
 themselves White of Selborne Jesse. 
 
 PLUME, s. Feather of birds; feather worn as an ornament; the colour of 
 a hawk's feathers, by which her age and condition are ascertained. 
 
 PLUME, v. To pick and adjust feathers ; to strip off feathers. 
 
 PLUMING, p. The hawk in the act of tearing feathers from her prey. 
 
 PLUMIPEDE, s. A fowl that has feathers on the foot. 
 
 PLUMMET, s. A weight of lead hung to a string, by which depths are 
 sounded, and perpendicularity is discerned. A plummet and line will 
 be very- serviceable to the bait fisher, in ascertaining the depth of the 
 water, and enabling him thus to regulate the position of the float. 
 
 PLUMP, a. Somewhat flat, sleek, full, and smooth. 
 
 PLUNGE, v. To sink suddenly in water ; to dive. 
 
 POACH, v. To steal game ; to carry off game privately in a bag. 
 
 POACHER, s. One who steals game. 
 
 POCHARD, POKER, DUNBIRD, GREAT-HEADED WIGEON, (Anas Ferina, 
 LINN. ; Penelope, LaMillouin, BUFF.) s. 
 
 with black. This species is without the beauty- 
 spot on the wings, and has altogether a more 
 plain and half-mourning kind of look than 
 others of this tribe. The specimen from which 
 the above figure was drawn, was shot at Ax- 
 well-park, in the county of Durham : the de- 
 scription was taken from one shot in January, 
 near Holy Island. The former differed from 
 the latter in wanting the black on the rump 
 and vent, and in some other slight variations 
 in the shadings of its colours. 
 
 The head of the female is of a pale reddish- 
 brown ; the breast is of rather a deeper co- 
 lour; the coverts of the wings plain ash- 
 colour; the back marked like that of the 
 male ; the belly ash-coloured. 
 
 These birds leave the north on the ap- 
 proach of winter, and migrate southward as 
 far, it is said, as Egypt, in Africa, and Caro- 
 lina and Louisiana, in America. They arrive 
 in the marshes of France about the end of 
 October, in tolerably numerous flocks; and 
 
 The pochard is nineteen inches in length, 
 and two feet and a half in breadth, and weighs 
 about one pound thirteen ounces. The bill is 
 of a dark lead-colour, with the tip and sides 
 near the nostrils, black : irides fine deep yel- 
 low : the head and neck are of a glossy chest- 
 nut, joined to a large space of sooty black, 
 which covers the breast, and is spread over 
 the shoulders : the lower part of the back, 
 rump, tail-coverts, and vent, are also black : 
 the rest of the plumage, both above and be- 
 low, is wholly covered with prettily freckled, 
 slender, dusky threads, disposed transversely 
 in close-set zig-zag lines, on a pale ground, 
 more or less shaded off with ash, and deepest 
 on the wing-coverts. The primary quills are 
 brown, with dusky tips ; the secondaries lead- 
 colour, tinged with brown, and slightly tipped 
 with dull white. The tail consists of twelve 
 short feathers, of a dark-brownish ash, which 
 have also a hoary grey appearance : the legs 
 and toes are lead-colour, shaded and dashed
 
 398 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Poc 
 
 of from twenty to forty, commonly in a close 
 compact body, whereby they may be easily 
 distinguished from the triangular- shaped flocks 
 of the wild duck, as well as by the difference 
 of the noise of their wings. 
 
 The few attempts which have been made 
 to domesticate this species have failed of 
 success. They do pretty well where they 
 have plenty of water, but it is said that they 
 cannot bear walking about on hard, pebbly 
 ground Bewick. 
 
 considerable numbers of them are caught in 
 the fens of Lincolnshire during the winter 
 season, and sold in the London markets, 
 where they and the female wigeons are indis- 
 criminately called dunbirds, and esteemed ex- 
 cellent eating. It has not yet been discovered 
 whether any of them remain to breed in Eng- 
 land. 
 
 The pochard is of a plump, round shape, 
 and its walk is heavy, ungraceful, and wad- 
 dling ; but when on the wing they fly with 
 greater rapidity than the mallard, and in flocks 
 
 POCK. s. A pustule raised by the small pox. 
 
 POD, s. The capsule of legumes, the case of seeds. 
 
 POINT, s. The sharp end of any instrument ; a string- with a tag- ; head- 
 land, promontory. 
 
 POINT, v. To sharpen, to forge or grind to a point ; to indicate, as dogs 
 do to sportsmen ; to show. 
 
 POINTER, s. Anything that points ; a dog that points out game to sports- 
 men. 
 
 The Spanish Pointer. (Canis Avi- 
 cularis, variety a, LINN.) This dog, as his 
 name implies, is a native of the Peninsula, 
 and was introduced into this country at a very 
 early period. Great attention was paid by 
 sportsmen for a long series of years to pre- 
 serve, in purity, this important breed ; but 
 lately it has in a great measure been set aside 
 in field sports, a more improved race having 
 been produced by crossing, usually called the 
 English pointer. 
 
 The Spanish pointer is much larger and 
 stronger than the English, and is also more 
 steady. He seems to have an inherent apt- 
 
 ness for receiving instruction. Indeed it re- 
 quires but little tuition to render him fit for 
 the field ; as, in most instances, young dogs of 
 this breed will point of their own accord, 
 whilst the more improved kinds require con- 
 siderable drilling to initiate them, and make 
 them do their work steadily. 
 
 The Spanish breed is the most staunch of 
 all dogs, and if they had speed and activity in 
 proportion to their steadiness, they would ex- 
 cel all others which are auxiliary to man in 
 the sports of the field. From their weight, 
 however, they are not so well suited for an 
 extensive range, nor are they so hardy as the
 
 Poi] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 399 
 
 English dog, on which account they are ill 
 adapted for the laborious amusement of grouse- 
 shooting. They are now chiefly used by those 
 who confine their sport to the pheasant and 
 partridge. 
 
 The English Pointer (Cants Avi- 
 cularis, variety )8.) This dog is sprung 
 from the Spanish pointer, hut is of a much 
 lighter form, and much more rapid in his 
 movements. He was obtained originally by 
 a cross of the latter and the fox-hound, and 
 has since been recrossed with the harrier. The 
 English pointer is of a great variety of sizes, 
 being in this particular bred according to the 
 taste of the sportsman. 
 
 This dog possesses a beautiful symmetry of 
 frame, and in this respect is, perhaps, the 
 most elegant of all the canine tribe. His 
 docility and pliability of temper, too, are truly 
 astonishing, and he enjoys, at the same time, 
 the sense of smelling in an exquisite degree. 
 
 About sixty years ago, the breed of pointers 
 was nearly white, or mostly variegated with 
 liver-coloured spots, except the celebrated dogs 
 of the then Duke of Kingston, whose black 
 pointers were considered superior to all others 
 in the kingdom, and sold for immense sums 
 after his death. Since that time they have 
 been bred of all sizes arid colours, and have 
 at length attained that degree of perfection 
 for which they are now so justly prized all 
 over Europe. 
 
 Dogs of the middle size are now gene- 
 rally considered the best by experienced 
 sportsmen ; the larger kinds, like the Spanish 
 pointer, are too heavy, and soon tire in warm 
 weather, although they are best adapted for 
 hunting in the high turnips, heath, and broom- 
 fields. 
 
 In proportion as the breed of pointers di- 
 verges in blood from their Spanish original, 
 the difficulty of training them, and rendering 
 them staunch for the field, increases, as they 
 seem to lose a quality inherent in the latter 
 dog. 
 
 Pointers are never considered complete in 
 training, unless they are perfectly staunch to 
 bird, dog, and gun, which implies, first, stand- 
 ing singly to a bird or covey; secondly, to 
 backing or pointing the moment he perceives 
 another dog to stand at game ; and, thirdly, 
 not to stir from his own point at the rising of 
 any bird, or the firing of any gun in the field, 
 provided the game is neither sprung nor 
 started at which he himself originally pointed. 
 The pointer possesses a degree of mildness 
 and pliability of disposition most admirably 
 adapted for receiving instruction, and his men- 
 tal faculties are extremely acute. He is 
 most susceptible of impressions ; serene in his 
 general habits, and unwearied in his attach- 
 ments. With all these good points, he is 
 well qualified to secure the esteem and con- 
 
 fidence of man, whom he is always solicitous 
 to please, and obedient to all that is inculcated 
 upon him. Whenever he is conscious of his 
 own powers and education, he makes it his 
 whole business to serve and amuse his master. 
 At the same time, he will also perform his 
 work to others to whom he may be lent, and 
 is sensible of the duty required of him the 
 moment he enters the field. 
 
 Pointers are seldom used in any other kind 
 of shooting than that of grouse, partridge, and 
 snipe ; in the two last of which sports their 
 merits are the more conspicuous. 
 
 Mr. Daniel informs us, that he once had a 
 pointer that would always go round close to 
 the hedges of a field before he would quarter 
 his ground ; the dog being sensible that he 
 most frequently found his game in the course 
 of this circuit, and therefore very naturally 
 took the middle road to discover it. 
 
 The Small Pointer (Canis Avicularis, 
 minor variety, -y.) I have just seen an ex- 
 tremely small pointer, in the possession of 
 C. G. Stewart Menteath, Esq. of Closeburn. 
 His length, from the tip of the nose to the 
 point of the tail, is only two feet and half an 
 inch ; from the one fore-foot to the other, 
 across the shoulders, two feet ; length of the 
 head, six inches; round the chest, one foot 
 three inches. He is an exquisite miniature 
 of the English pointer, being in all respects 
 similar to him. His colour is white, with 
 dark liver-coloured patches on each side of the 
 head, extending half down the neck ; the ears, 
 with some patches on the back, are also of the 
 same colour ; and numerous small dark brown 
 spots appear over his whole body and legs. 
 This beautiful little animal has an exquisite 
 sense of smell ; and it is said that some of the 
 same variety, possessed by the Earl of Lau- 
 derdale, have been broken in, and make ex- 
 cellent pointers ; although, from their minute 
 size, it cannot be expected that they will be 
 able to do much work. When intent on any 
 object, the dog assumes the same attitude as 
 other pointers, holding up one of his feet. 
 
 I have not been able to ascertain the native 
 county of this variety, although I have been 
 informed it is common in the south of Ger- 
 many. 
 
 Sir James Colquhoun has a dog of the same 
 breed, which is even smaller than that belong- 
 ing to Mr. Menteath. 
 
 The Russian Pointer (Canis Avicula- 
 ris, variety 8.) This variety seems only to 
 be a descendant of the Spanish pointer, which 
 he strongly resembles in shape, with rough 
 wiry hair all over his body, probably arising 
 from the coldness of the climate, as nature 
 seems to provide all the dogs of boreal regions 
 with a covering fitted to resist the inclemency 
 of the sky. Even his legs are invested with 
 hair, which is generally of a uniform black
 
 400 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Poi 
 
 colour, or of a dark umber brown. There is 
 one peculiarity about him, which is, that his 
 nose is so deeply cleft that it appears to be 
 split in two; on which account he is termed, 
 in Russia, the double-nosed pointer. His 
 scent is said to be superior to that of the 
 smooth dogs. His cleft nose is found to be 
 inconvenient when he is beating in cover, as 
 the face is apt to be torn where the brush- 
 wood is thick. 
 
 Russian sportsmen generally feed their 
 pointers on oatmeal boiled, and they are kept 
 about their houses. 
 
 Colour of Pointers Respecting the co- 
 lour of pointers (as before observed), a great 
 deal depends entirely on fancy, but that most 
 esteemed is the liver and white, although 
 there are as good dogs of every other colour, 
 indeed there is hardly a colour but some rea- 
 son may be assigned for its being either good 
 or bad. A white dog is to be preferred on 
 two accounts ; the first is, being all white, he 
 is void of any thing phlegmatic in his consti- 
 tution, which does not hinder him from 
 retaining the lesson he has been taught, and 
 prevent his being obedient; besides, he has 
 always a good nose : secondly, in grouse 
 shooting, he can be discerned at any distance, 
 whereas a brown one cannot A white pointer, 
 if good, is a treasure to a keen sportsman. 
 
 POISON, s. That which destroys or injures life by a small quantity, and by 
 means not obvious to the senses, venom. 
 
 Pointers of lemon, or setters of a red or chest- 
 nut colour, are always the most difficult to be 
 brought to obedience, by reason of the bilious 
 humour which prevails in them, and which 
 causes this irregularity. The white pointer 
 is full of stratagems and cunning, and is not 
 so easily tired as dogs of the lemon colour, 
 which are very giddy and impatient, as choler 
 is the most predominant humour in them it 
 in some measure accounts for their being so ; 
 they are very uneasy under correction, and 
 are certainly more subject to diseases than 
 any other dogs. Pointers of a brown colour 
 are generally good ones ; but one great objec- 
 tion to this colour is, they are difficult to be 
 seen on a mountain, and are sometimes lost, 
 which gives the sportsman a vast deal of trou- 
 ble before he can discover them ; but let any 
 sportsman be asked, if he has not remarked 
 that a brown-coloured dog will bring him 
 closer to game than any other, by reason that 
 they are not so easily perceived by the birds 
 or game, as one of a white or any other colour. 
 The compiler, from many years' experience, 
 is confident a sportsman will get more shots 
 with a brown dog than one of any other 
 colour, and has found him very useful when 
 birds become shy, and the season is far ad- 
 vanced Thornhill. 
 
 Corrosive sublimate, or oxymuriate of 
 quicksilver, is a most deadly and unmanage- 
 able poison to dogs, in doses as small even as 
 five or six grains. Its effects are observed 
 soon after it is taken, by the distress of the 
 animal, by his frequent retchings,- insatiable 
 thirst, panting, and anxiety for a cool situa- 
 tion. The mouth becomes swollen ; if the 
 dose has been large, it appears ulcerated also, 
 and emits a very foetid odour, which circum- 
 stance forms a very strong characteristic, both 
 with regard to the animal's having been poi- 
 soned, and also to the article employed for 
 the purpose. As the symptoms advance the 
 retchings are tinged with blood ; the stools 
 become liquid and bloody also ; the heart 
 beats faintly, but with rapidity ; the extremi- 
 ties become cold ; violent tremblings, para- 
 lysis, or convulsions follow, and death relieves 
 the sufferer. On examination of the body af- 
 terwards, the whole alimentary canal, beginning 
 at the mouth and proceeding backwards, exhi- 
 bits marks of the corrosive nature of the matter 
 taken. The stomach, on being opened, will ap- 
 pear covered with highly inflamed patches, and 
 the villous folds of its inner and rugose sur- 
 face will present gangrenous and ulcerated 
 spots, and a ready separation of the mucous 
 from the muscular coat, with blood often suf- 
 
 fused between them ; which circumstances 
 only take place when a most acrid poison has 
 been swallowed. -The intestines also show 
 appearances of great inflammation, particu- 
 larly of their inner surface, which will be 
 found sprinkled with gangrenous specks, and, 
 moreover, frequently filled with a thick bloody 
 mucus. Such are the usual morbid appear- 
 ances ; but satisfactorily to detect the pre- 
 sence of a poison, and the immediate nature 
 of it, some of the liquid contents of the 
 stomach and bowels, both before and after 
 death, should be saved, and undergo a rigid 
 chemical analysis. In general cases the ad- 
 dition of potash to some of these liquid con- 
 tents will occasion a light yellow precipitate 
 when corrosive sublimate has teen the poison- 
 ous agent ; but a practical chemist will em- 
 ploy many other tests. 
 
 The medical treatment to be pursued in 
 these cases consists in both endeavouring to 
 envelope and to neutralise the acrid matter : 
 the former may be attempted by means of a 
 glairy fluid, for which purpose the whites of 
 eggs have proved the most effectual remedies, 
 beaten into a liquid, given in large quantities, 
 and repeated as often as they have been 
 ejected ; when these are not immediatel yat 
 hand, milk may be substituted. Mild clysters
 
 POL] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 401 
 
 should also be thrown up. When the stom- 
 ach is somewhat appeased, give an opiate and 
 castor oil. Large doses of soap, dissolved in 
 water, have been recommended as a counter 
 poison to corrosive minerals, or their prepara- 
 tions, and, in the absence of eggs, should be 
 tried. 
 
 Arsenic This powerful oxide is often 
 given to dogs, and not unfrequently they find 
 it for themselves in a state of mixture with 
 other matters placed to poison rats. The 
 effects produced by it resemble those occa- 
 sioned by corrosive sublimate, except that, 
 although they prove equally fatal, they are 
 not apparently so intense. The mouth, like- 
 wise, is not usually affected, in an equal de- 
 gree, by this poison as by the other. Dissec- 
 tion, also, detects similar morbid appearances 
 to those above detailed ; but, unless a very 
 large dose has been taken, there is not such 
 complete lesion of the coats of the stomach 
 and intestines, but the gangrenous spots and 
 the excess of inflammation are fully sufficient 
 to detect the disorganising action of a mineral 
 poison. Instead of subjecting the liquid con- 
 tents of the stomach and bowels to the action 
 of potash, as directed when corrosive subli- 
 mate is looked for, it is usual to detect arse- 
 nic by applying the blue ammoniacal sulphate 
 of copper, which will produce a lively green 
 
 if arsenic is present. A red hot iron will 
 also occasion these contents to give out a gar- 
 lic-like smell under similar circumstances. 
 
 The treatment proper, in cases of arsenical 
 poisoning, is to give sugar dissolved in milk, 
 in considerable quantities, until it may be 
 supposed that all the poison is evacuated from 
 the stomach, when a similar treatment is to 
 be pursued to that before recommended. 
 
 
 In speaking of poisons White makes the 
 
 following curious remark I once gave two 
 
 drachms of stavesacre to aglandered horse; he 
 died in great pain the following night. It is 
 probable that more horses have been killed by 
 aloes, than by any other vegetable preparation. 
 That is to say, by strong physic, or by neg- 
 lecting the horse during its operation. The 
 best antidote in this case, is gruel made of 
 arrow-root or fine wheat flour. The animal 
 poisons are the stings of venomous reptiles, 
 for which stimulating embrocations seem to 
 be better remedies than fomentations. The 
 matter which flows from the nose of a glan- 
 dered horse is a strong poison, whether applied 
 to a recent scratch in the skin, or swallowed 
 with food or water. The saliva of a mad dog 
 is a dreadful poison to man, and to all animals. 
 Elaine White. 
 
 POISON, v. To infect with poison ; to injure, or kill by poison given ; to 
 
 taint. 
 
 POISONOUS, a. Venomous, having the qualities of poison. 
 POLE, s. A long- staff; a tall piece of timber erected ; a measure of length 
 
 containing five yards and a half ; an instrument of measuring. 
 POLEAXE, s. An axe fixed to a long pole. 
 POLECAT, s. The fitchew; it is of the weasel tribe, and emits a most fetid 
 
 smell. 
 
 This animal is known by various names or 
 local appellations. In some parts of the 
 country it is called a fitchet, in others a fou- 
 mart, in others again a fillemark. The pole- 
 cat is larger than the ferret, which, however, 
 it very much resembles in appearance and 
 disposition. But, according to the accounts 
 which have been given us by naturalists, 
 there are, it seems, internal differences which 
 distinctly mark these two animals : the pole- 
 cat has but fourteen ribs ; whereas the ferret 
 has fifteen ; and it also wants one of the 
 breast bones which is found in the ferret. 
 The ferret is more slender and elongated 
 than the polecat, and has also a more pointed 
 or sharper snout. It is, for the most part, of 
 a deep chocolate colour ; it is white about the 
 mouth ; the ears are short, rounded, and 
 tipped with white ; a little beyond the cor- 
 
 ners of the mouth a stripe commences, which 
 runs backward, partly white and partly yel- 
 low. Its hair is of two sorts, the long and 
 the furry, and the two kinds are of different 
 colours : the longer is black, and the shorter 
 a dull or dirty yellow, which produces the 
 general chocolate colour already mentioned ; 
 the feet and tail are blacker than any other 
 parts : the claws are white underneath and 
 brown above ; and its tail is about two inches 
 and a half long. 
 
 The polecat, like the fox, avoids as much 
 as possible the human countenance ; and, like 
 the fox too, possesses the most undaunted 
 courage. However, in comparing these two 
 animals, though they happen to agree in the 
 two particulars just mentioned, yet they are 
 enemies to each other : or, in other words, 
 the fox will not fail to kill the polecat when- 
 D D
 
 40:2 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [POL 
 
 ever they meet; in fact, the fox may be 
 regarded as the unrelenting enemy of all the 
 smaller vermin. Reynard will kill and eat 
 the wild cat, or any other cat which might 
 happen to come in his way ; as well as the 
 polecat, the weasel, the stoat, the rat, &c. 
 
 The polecat evinces an insatiate thirst for 
 blood, and is very destructive to all kinds of 
 young game ; and if it is not openly so to that 
 which is full grown, it is because it is not so 
 easily caught : it will surprise hares on their 
 seats, will seize partridges or pheasants on the 
 nest ; and is incredibly destructive in a rab- 
 bit warren : it will, like all the other ani- 
 mals of the weasel tribe, kill much more than 
 it can devour ; in fact, so fond are these ani- 
 mals of sucking the blood of their victims, 
 that, in a place like a rabbit warren, or wher- 
 ever their food is presented in such abund- 
 ance, the polecat (and the same of the wea- 
 sel and stoat) would continue destroying, if 
 undisturbed, merely for the sake of the 
 blood. 
 
 The polecat is particularly destructive 
 among pigeons, when it happens to get into a 
 dove-house : it despatches each bird with a 
 single wound near to, or in, the head ; and, 
 after killing all it can, and sucking their 
 blood, will convey them to its retreat. This 
 the animal will carefully perform, going and 
 returning, and bringing them one by one to its 
 hole ; but if it should happen that the open- 
 ing by which it got into the dove-house be not 
 large enough for the body of the pigeon to 
 pass through, this mischievous animal con- 
 tents itself with carrying away the heads, and 
 makes a most delicious feast upon the brains. 
 
 The polecat is also fond of honey, fre- 
 quently robbing the bee hives in winter, a 
 period when its prey is not so easily found in 
 the woods and fields. 
 
 Their retreat is generally in banks well 
 sheltered with brambles or underwood, or 
 amongst brakes or woods, or other similar 
 situations. They burrow in the ground, mak- 
 ing a tolerably large hole, about two feet 
 deep, which may easily be known by any one 
 who has once noticed the hole of a polecat. 
 In winter, they will frequently approach 
 houses or buildings, and will rob the hen- 
 roost, the pigeon-house, or even the dairy, 
 when pressed by hunger : on these occasions, 
 they contrive to form a retreat in or under 
 some of the walls ; and if they are unable to 
 secure an asylum of this sort, they will make 
 their way under the corn stacks, and when- 
 ever this happens to be the case, all the rats 
 in the immediate vicinity remove to a greater 
 distance ; the polecat is a deadly enemy to 
 the rat, and of this the latter is very well 
 aware ; and yet it would appear that the pole- 
 cat (from its size) is unable to follow it 
 through its burrows or runs ; and the rat, as 
 
 if conscious of this incapacity in the former, 
 removes no further from the presence of its 
 enemy than what may suit its convenience. 
 The writer witnessed an instance, where a 
 great number of rats were found in a stack 
 of wheat, but all of them in the upper part ; 
 for several feet from the ground not a rat was 
 to be met with, which excited some surprise ; 
 but the circumstance developed itself on reach- 
 ing the bottom, where it was found an enor- 
 mous polecat had taken up its abode. 
 
 The female brings forth her young in the 
 spring, to the number of from four to six. 
 To " stink like a polecat " is a common ob- 
 servation in some parts ; and indeed so impreg- 
 nated does every part of the animal appear to 
 be with a very offensive fetid matter, that 
 even the fur, which is soft and warm, can 
 scarcely be divested of it. Whenever the 
 polecat happens to be killed, the fetid matter 
 just mentioned issues from the pores of its 
 body in great quantities, forming a very un- 
 pleasant effluvium, which is perceptible even 
 at some distance. 
 
 There are farmers to be met with who, 
 whenever a polecat approaches their barns, 
 buildings, or houses, afford it every possible 
 protection, on account of its enmity to rats; 
 but as its chief propensities are in direct oppo- 
 sition to the views of the sportsman, so game- 
 keepers should be careful to destroy it wher- 
 ever it is to be met with. 
 
 If taken young, the polecat is not difficult 
 to tame ; nor in a domestic state is it offen- 
 sive to the human olfactory organs ; as although 
 it is impregnated with a fetid matter, yet it 
 would seem that the effluvium which thence 
 arises is only thrown off when the animal is 
 killed or very much alarmed. 
 
 The polecat is seldom seen during the day, 
 unless compelled by hunger to quit its retreat ; 
 but, as soon as night sets in, it leaves its hole 
 in quest of prey, when it may be pursued and 
 killed by terriers. In the midland counties 
 hunting the polecat by moonlight forms a 
 diversion for schoolboys and the younger 
 branches. After night-fall, when the polecat 
 rambles abroad, its hole (if known) is stopped, 
 the terriers are thrown off, one of which, 
 upon whom the greatest dependence can be 
 placed, has a small bell fastened round his 
 neck, in order that the hunters may know 
 where the dogs are questing. When they hit 
 upon the scent, the terriers give tongue ; and 
 as soon as the polecat finds himself pursued, 
 he makes directly for his hole, which, if 
 stopped, he cannot of course enter, and is 
 compelled to seek some other retreat, during 
 which he is perhaps killed ; if run to ground, 
 he is very unceremoniously dug out and wor- 
 ried on the spot, it being a general opinion 
 amongst the vulgar (in Leicestershire for in- 
 stance), that whenever or wherever a polecat
 
 PON] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 403 
 
 is run to ground, they have a right to dig him 
 out. 
 
 The above method, however, is not the 
 mode in which I would recommend game- 
 keepers to destroy the polecat ; for the ac- 
 complishment of their purpose, they can go 
 a much shorter and surer way to work : this 
 animal seems possessed of little cunning, and 
 is trapped with little difficulty. The steel 
 trap is generally used for this animal ; hut it 
 may be taken in the following manner : box 
 traps may be set in the bottom of ditches, or 
 under walls or pales, with the ends of the 
 traps fenced up to, for four or five yards aslant, 
 and two or three yards wide at the entrance, 
 with earth, bushes, or broken pales, so that 
 the animal cannot pass without entering the 
 trap. A trail of red herrings, half broiled, 
 should be drawn from one trap to another, 
 and the traps should be baited with the same 
 material, with which also the ends of the 
 
 traps may be rubbed. By having both ends 
 of box-traps painted white, and rubbed with 
 herrings or the entrails of any animal, hares 
 will be deterred from entering. This mode is 
 well calculated to catch the wild cat, or in- 
 deed any kind of quadrupedal vermin. There- 
 fore, when any of the traps are sprung, a bag 
 sufficiently large to admit an end of the trap 
 is to be provided and slipped over it ; and by 
 rattling at the other end of the trap, the 
 creature will spring into the bag ; for, without 
 some such precaution, should a wild cat be 
 caught, the moment the light is admitted it will 
 fly in the face of the person opening it. This 
 is the method generally adopted by warreners. 
 The steel-trap, however, is by far the best 
 and surest method of taking the polecat and 
 indeed the best method of catching all kinds 
 of vermin. It is more portable, inorf easily 
 prepared, and very rarely fails in its opera- 
 tion Gamekeeper's Directory. 
 
 POLISH, v. To smooth, to brighten by attrition. 
 
 POLISH, s. Artificial gloss, brightness given by attrition. 
 
 POLISHER, s. The person or instrument that gives a gloss. 
 
 POLL, s. The head ; a fish called generally a chub, a cheven. 
 
 POLLARD, s. A tree lopped ; the chub fish. 
 
 POLLEN, s. A fine powder, commonly understood by the word farina, as 
 
 also a sort of fine bran. 
 POLLEVIL, s. Pollevil is a large swelling, inflammation, or imposthume in 
 
 the horse's poll or nape of the neck. 
 POLLOCK, s. A kind of fish. This species is abundant on the British 
 
 coasts. 
 
 POLYGON, s. A figure of many- angles. 
 PoiMMEL, s. A round ball or knob ; the knob that balances the blade of 
 
 the sword ; the protuberant part of the saddle before. 
 POND, s. A small pool or lake of water, a basin, a water not running or 
 
 emitting any stream. 
 
 tion, although in the spring, when they could 
 not perceive any one watching them, they 
 would roll about and rub themselves against 
 
 Very little is known of the habits and 
 economy of fish, from the nature of the ele- 
 ment in which they live. When I resided 
 in Bushy Park, I caused the sides and bottom 
 of a place to be bricked, through which a 
 stream of very clear water ran, and stocked it 
 with most of the varieties of our English 
 fresh-water fish, supplying them abundantly 
 with food ; but though I constantly watched 
 them, and could see all they did at any time 
 of the day, the result of my observations was 
 far from being satisfactory. The perch were 
 the boldest and most familiar of any of the 
 fish, as I found no difficulty in soon getting 
 them to come with eagerness to take a worm 
 out of my hand. The barbel were the shy- 
 est, and seemed most impatient of observa- 
 
 the brickwork, and show considerable play- 
 fulness. There were some large stones in 
 my piscatorium^ round which they would 
 wind their spawn in considerable quantities. 
 The trout appeared to bear their confinement 
 with less philosophy than any of the others, 
 making high leaps against the grating which 
 admitted the water, and seeming at all times 
 out of sorts and out of condition. The chub 
 were also very restless, being continually on 
 the move, but they never could resist a cock- 
 chafer when thrown to them. My flounders 
 only moved at night, and the eels always 
 made their escape, but in what way I never 
 DD 2
 
 404 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [PON 
 
 could conjecture, except, indeed, they had the 
 power of crawling up the brick- work, which 
 was about five feet from top to bottom, and 
 generally two feet above the edge of the water. 
 They certainly could not get through the 
 grating, which was sufficiently close to confine 
 bleak and gudgeons; and some of the eels 
 were of a large size. The pike, of which I 
 had eight of about five pounds' weight each, 
 kept up their character for voracity. Out of 
 800 gudgeons which were brought to me by 
 a Thames fisherman, and which I saw counted 
 into the reservoir some few of which, how- 
 ever, died there were scarcely any to be 
 seen at the end of three weeks ; though I 
 should mention, that three large barbel I had, 
 and six good-sized perch, probably partook 
 
 of them. 
 
 * 
 
 Jesse, p. 86, says, I will now give an 
 account published by Mr. Neill, in the Scots' 
 Magazine, of some sea-fish kept in a small 
 pond into which sea- water could be introduced. 
 This pond was from time to time replenished 
 with fish. The following fishes were in it: 
 
 1. Cod. They were lively, and caught 
 greedily at shell-fish which were thrown into 
 the pond. They kept chiefly, however, in 
 the deep water, and, after approaching with a 
 circular sweep, and making a snatch at the 
 prey, descended out of sight to devour it. 
 
 2. Haddock These, contrary to expec- 
 tation, were found to be the tamest fishes in 
 the pond. At ebb tide they came to the 
 inner margin, and ate limpets from the hand 
 of a little boy, the son of a keeper. They 
 appeared white, and rather sickly. 
 
 3. Coalfish Some of these were of a 
 large size, exceeding in dimensions the largest 
 cod in the pond. They were bold and fami- 
 liar, floating about slowly and majestically, 
 till some food was thrown to them ; this they 
 seized voraciously, whether it consisted of 
 shell-fish or ship biscuit. They would also 
 occasionally approach the margin, and take 
 their food from the keeper's hand. 
 
 4. Whiting These were scarce in the 
 pond, and very shy. 
 
 5. Pollack This was pretty common, 
 and has been found to answer well as a pond I 
 fish. 
 
 6. Salmon This was the wildest and 
 
 quickest in its motions of all the inhabitants. ( 
 When a muscle or limpet, freed from the j 
 shell, was thrown on the surface of the water, 
 
 the salmon very often darted forward and 
 took the prey from all the competitors, dis- 
 appearing with a sudden jerk and turn of the 
 body. 
 
 7. Flat fish or flounders, of two sorts, were 
 also in the pond, but they naturally kept at 
 the bottom, and were not seen. 
 
 The food given to the fishes consisted 
 chiefly of sand-eels and of shell-fish, par- 
 ticularly limpets and muscles. In the her- 
 ring-fishery season, herrings were cut in pieces 
 for this purpose. 
 
 It is remarkable that all the kinds of sea- 
 fish above enumerated, seemed to agree very 
 well together. No fighting had ever been 
 observed by the keeper, and seldom any 
 chasing of one species by another. None of 
 the fish ever bred. 
 
 Dr. Fleming has remarked, that when a 
 salt-water fish is put into fresh water, its 
 motions speedily become irregular, its respira- 
 tion appears to be affected, and, unless released, 
 it soon dies ; and that the same consequences 
 follow when a fresh-water fish is suddenly 
 immersed in salt water. 
 
 This is not, however, the case with all fish. 
 A cod will not only live, but thrive well in 
 fresh water, if properly fed. A respectable 
 fishmonger assured me that he had tried the 
 experiment, and succeeded, and offered to 
 send me some live cod in a well-boat, for my 
 piscatorium in Bushy Park. 
 
 * ' * 
 
 Immense value of pond fish The fish 
 in the ponds of Lucullus, sold, after his de- 
 cease, for 3,000,000 of sesterces(24,218/. 15s. 
 sterling). Caius Hirtus first introduced the 
 keeping of lampreys in stews, and lent Caesar, 
 during the time of his triumph, 600 of these 
 fish, for which he would receive no equivalent 
 in money, nor any other commodity, but con- 
 ditioned the repayment to be the same num- 
 ber and weight of lampreys. His ponds and 
 fish about his house, which was itself ex- 
 tremely small, were sold for one million more 
 
 than the above sum ( 32,29 U. 13s. id.) 
 
 * 
 
 In August 1799, the Earl of Essex fished a 
 large pond near Radnor Forest, which had been 
 stocked fifty-eight years, Carp and eels were 
 the only fish found in it; of the former, 100 
 brace were taken that weighed from fourteen 
 to fifteen pounds each carp ; of the latter, 
 the largest exceeded eight pounds Jesse 
 Daniel. 
 
 PONY, s. A small horse. 
 
 POODLE (Canis aquaticus minor), s. Vide WATER DOG. 
 
 A friend of mine had a poodle-dog possessed 
 of more than ordinary sagacity ; but he was, 
 however, under little command. In order to 
 keep him in better order, my friend purchased 
 
 a small whip, with which he corrected the 
 dog once or twice during a walk. On his re- 
 turn the whip was put on a table in the hall, 
 and the next morning it was missing. It was
 
 Pou] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 405 
 
 soon afterwards found concealed in an out- 
 building, and again made use of in correcting 
 the dog. It was, however, again lost, but 
 found hidden in another place. On watching 
 the dog, who was suspected of being the cul- 
 
 prit, he was seen to take the whip from the 
 hall-table, and run away with it, in order again 
 to hide it. The late James Gumming, Esq. 
 was the owner of the dog, and related this 
 anecdote to me. Jesse. 
 
 POOKA, s. A mode of fishing sometimes used in the Irish lakes. 
 
 By mesh-nets immense numbers of pike are 
 annually taken ; and with night-lines, and a 
 very simple contrivance, called the pooka, 
 these fish, with the largest trout and perch, 
 are constantly killed. 
 
 This latter implement is formed of a piece 
 of flat board, having a little mast and sail 
 erected on it. Its use is to carry out the ex- 
 tremity of a long line, of considerable stout- 
 ness, to which, at regulated distances, an in- 
 finity of droppers or links are suspended, each 
 armed with a hook and a bait. Corks are af- 
 
 fixed to the principal line or back, to keep it 
 buoyant on the surface ; and from a weather- 
 shore, if there be a tolerable breeze, any quan- 
 tity of hooks and baits can be floated easily 
 across the water. The corks indicate to the 
 fisherman when a fish is on the dropper, and 
 in a small punt, or curragh, he attends to re- 
 move the spoil and renew the baits when ne- 
 cessary. Two hundred hooks may be used 
 on the same line, and the pooka at times af- 
 fords much amusement, and often a well-filled 
 pannier Wild Sports. 
 
 POOL, s. A lake of standing water. 
 
 PORE, *. A spiracle of the skin, the passage of perspiration ; any narrow 
 
 spiracle or passage. 
 
 PORK, s. Swine's flesh. PORKER, s. A hog, a pig. 
 POROUS, a. Having small spiracles or passages. 
 
 PORRIDGE, s. Food made by boiling meat and other ingredients in water. 
 
 PORT, s. A harbour, a safe station for ships ; the aperture in a ship at 
 
 which the gun is run out; carriage, air, mien ; the name of the wine of 
 
 Oporto in Portugal. 
 
 PORTABLE, a. Manageable by the hand ; such as may be borne along with 
 
 one ; such as is transported or carried from one place to another. 
 POSTHASTE, s. Haste like that of a courier. 
 POSTHORSE, s. A horse stationed for the use of couriers. 
 POT, s. A vessel in which meat is boiled on the fire ; vessel to hold liquids ; 
 a vessel made of earth ; a pewter vessel or mug, holding a quart or pint 
 of beer. 
 
 POTATO, s. An esculent root. Potatoes are given very much in Ireland 
 to fatten lean horses. When only given in small quantities they are 
 not objectionable for horses who do but little work. 
 POUCH,*. A small bag; a pocket. 
 
 POULT, s. A young chicken, particularly of a turkey or grouse. 
 POULTERER, s. One whose trade is to sell fowls ready for the table. 
 POULTICE, s. A cataplasm, a soft mollifying application. 
 
 Boiling water enough to make a soft poul- 
 tice. 
 
 No. 2. Turnips thoroughly boiled and 
 mashed ; any quantity. Linseed meal enough 
 to form the poultice. 
 
 Either of the simple poultices may be con- 
 verted into an anodyne poultice by the addi- 
 tion of opium ; into a fomenting poultice, by 
 the addition of yeast, and by substituting oat- 
 
 Poultices or cataplasms are used for promot- 
 ing suppuration in inflamed tumours, and in 
 grease, scratches, cracks, &c. The poultices 
 commonly employed on those occasions are of 
 the emollient kind. 
 
 EMOLLIENT POULTICES. 
 
 No. 1 . Linseed meal . . ^ Ib. 
 
 Bran - . .3 quarts. 
 
 Hogs' lard . . 4 oz.
 
 406 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Pou 
 
 meal for linseed meal : into an astringent 
 poultice, by the addition of Goulard's extract, 
 sugar of lead, or powdered alum ; and into a 
 detergent poultice, by the addition of white or 
 blue vitriol. 
 
 In obstinate cases of virulent grease, where 
 there is much pain, and a stinking dark-co- 
 
 loured discharge, and especially when emol- 
 lients are found ineffectual, the detergent poul- 
 tice has quickly cured the disease, and in 
 such cases even a solution of corrosive subli- 
 mate has been used with the best effect 
 White. 
 
 POULTICE, v. To apply a poultice or cataplasm. 
 
 POULTRY, s. Domestic fowls. 
 
 POUNCE, s. The claw or talon of a bird of prey ; the powder of gum san- 
 darach. 
 
 POUND, *. A certain weight, consisting, in Troy weight, of twelve, in 
 Avoirdupoise, of sixteen ounces ; the sum of twenty shillings ; a pen- 
 fold, an enclosure, a prison in which beasts are enclosed. 
 
 POWDER, s. Dust, any body comminuted ; gunpowder. 
 
 POWDER FLASK, s. A flask to hold powder. 
 
 He then unscrewed the top, and showed 
 
 To obviate the danger of the powder being 
 inflamed and communicated to that in the 
 flask whilst loading, have a brass top made to 
 go over that which screws on the flask, and 
 which the opening of the spring supplies from 
 it ; by putting the charge of powder into the 
 detached brass covering, and from that pouring 
 it into the barrel ; should there be any tow, 
 after cleaning and flashing off some powder, or, 
 after discharging, any wadding remaining on 
 fire within, (which last may happen when 
 paper, but never can when hat or leather wad- 
 ding is used,) the whole of the powder that 
 can explode will be the single charge in the 
 brass covering. 
 
 Mr. Egg and Mr. Sykes have each got pa- 
 tents for powder flasks, in which, if a charge 
 is blown up, all communication is so effectu- 
 ally prevented, that no farther damage can be 
 done. I have seen the one of Mr. Egg re- 
 peatedly tried by himself. To do this, he 
 dropped a red hot nail into the barrel, which, 
 of course, instantly fired the measure put into 
 
 me the remainder of the powder in the horn, 
 having only guarded his right hand by a shield 
 of pasteboard, to avoid being burnt by the 
 charge from the barrel. 
 
 The principle of it is so secure as to render 
 it impossible for the powder in the flask to 
 ignite, while in the act of loading, by the pas- 
 sage being completely cut off, from the lever 
 being placed on the top of a strong plate in- 
 stead of underneath. It also prevents the 
 flash out of the barrel from injuring the hand, 
 as the charger is fixed in an octant position, 
 with a vent to let out the flame. 
 
 The springs of these powder horns must be 
 kept very clean and free, or, like many inge- 
 nious patents, they will fall victims to the 
 abuse of slovenly sportsmen. Mr. Egg says, 
 he " begs leave to caution gentlemen of a 
 trumpery Sheffield flask (sold in the shops), 
 with an upright charger, not being calculated 
 to answer the purpose intended, though it is 
 an infringement on his patent." Hawker. 
 
 POWDERHORN, s. A horn case in which powder is kept for guns. 
 
 As to your horn, the best thing you can 
 do, when it remains pretty full at the end of 
 a day, is to leave it in a very dry place in a 
 warm room. For my own part, being per- 
 suaded that so much depends upon this, I 
 
 always have my powder packed in half- I men. 
 
 pounds, a spare one of which I usually carry 
 about me, and never open it Aintil my horn is 
 empty ; and I am certain that more depends 
 upon the quality and state of the powder than 
 is usually ascribed to it Hints to Sports- 
 
 POWDERMILL, . The mill in which 
 
 ground and mingled. 
 POWDER PROVER, *. 
 
 Powder Prover The proper " epreu- 
 
 vette" is very correctly made; the wheel on 
 
 which the gradations are marked is large, and 
 
 the spring strong, consequently the resistance 
 
 - to the force of the powder is considerable. 
 
 the ingredients for gunpowder are 
 
 The stronger it is the better ; for without the 
 resistance is strong, a correct proof cannot be 
 obtained ; because if not sufficiently strong to 
 detain the powder in the chamber long enougli 
 for all the particles to ignite, many of them
 
 PRO] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 407 
 
 (especially in powder of good firm grain) will 
 fly off unburnt, and of course a part only of 
 the charge would be proved. 
 
 The part attached to the wheel of the 
 epreuvette, which shuts the mouth of the 
 chamber, should be so nicely adjusted, that 
 on looking closely at the parts when in con- 
 tact, no light can be seen between them ; for 
 if any light, there is of course so much va- 
 cancy, and consequently so much windage ; 
 and in proportion to the windage the proof 
 
 will be lower, and therefore incorrect. 
 
 Three fires at least should always be made 
 in proving, and the average taken as the mean 
 amount, for variations frequently happen in 
 fires immediately following each other, al- 
 though made with considerable attention. 
 Care should be taken after every fire to clean 
 the chamber nicely, or otherwise the foulness 
 left by the preceding discharge would lessen 
 the space, by which the succeeding charge 
 would become proportionally less Hawker. 
 
 PRECIPITATE, *. A corrosive medicine made by precipitating mercury. 
 
 Red precipitate, nitric oxide of mercury, or 
 red nitrated quicksilver, is a mild caustic, and 
 an efficacious remedy in foul ulcers. It may be 
 used alone, finely powdered and sprinkled on 
 the affected part ; or mixed with various oint- 
 ments. It is made from quicksilver and ni- 
 trous acid, but is considerably weaker than a 
 solution of that metal in nitrous acid. It be- 
 
 PREDACEOUS, a. Living by prey. 
 PRESERVE, s. Fruit preserved whole 
 ing and protecting game. 
 
 To preserve Birds Large birds should 
 be carefully skinned ; the head, tail, and feet, 
 left entire. The skin may then be either put 
 into a vessel of spirits, or rubbed well on the 
 inside with the following mixture : One 
 pound of salt, four ounces of alum, and two 
 ounces of pepper, pounded together. Small 
 birds may be thus treated : Take out the 
 entrails, open a passage to the brain, which 
 should be scooped out through the mouth ; 
 introduce into the cavities of the skull and 
 the whole body some of the above mixture, 
 putting it also through the gullet and entire 
 length of the neck ; hang the bird in a cool, 
 airy place, first by the feet, that the body may 
 be impregnated by the salts, and afterwards 
 by a thread through the under mandible of 
 the bill, till it appears to be sweet ; then ex- 
 pose it in the sun, or near a fire. After it is 
 well dried, clean out what remains loose of 
 
 comes, however, a strong and very efficacious 
 caustic, when dissolved in nitrous acid. This 
 solution may also be mixed with unctuous sub- 
 stances, forming with them good detergent 
 ointments ; or it may be diluted with water 
 so as to form a detergent lotion of considerable 
 strength White. 
 
 in sugar ; a place set apart for breed- 
 
 : the mixture, and fill the cavity of the body 
 
 with wool, oakum, or any soft substance. 
 
 * 
 
 If you shoot a curious bird, and have not 
 the means of getting it stuffed while fresh, 
 you may preserve the skin of it for many 
 months by putting therein dry tow and pow- 
 dered ginger. May and June are the only 
 months that you need fear the moth ; and 
 just then cedar shavings or camphor would 
 be a good addition. To skin a bird, open him 
 either on one side or down the back. 
 
 * 
 
 To send grouse any distance, put some 
 pepper to the parts where they have been shot, 
 as well as into their mouths, and then pack 
 them carefully, separated from each other, and 
 keep as air tight as possible in boxes of hops. 
 Hawker. 
 
 PRICK, v. To pierce with a small puncture; to erect with an acuminated 
 point ; to set up the ears ; to animate by a puncture or mark ; to spur, 
 to goad. 
 
 PRICKET, s. A buck in his second year. 
 
 PRICKLE, *. A small sharp point. PRICKLY, a. Full of sharp points. 
 
 PRIME, v. To put in the first powder, to put powder in the pan of a gun. 
 
 PRIMERO, s. A game at cards. 
 
 PRIVATEER, s. A ship fitted out by private men to plunder enemies. 
 
 PRODUCE, s. Product, that which anything yields or brings. PRODUCE 
 STAKES. Vide RACING.
 
 408 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [PRO 
 
 PROJECTILE, s. A body thrown forward with violent force, as a stone 
 from a sling, or a ball discharged from a cannon. 
 
 PROOF, s. Evidence, testimony, convincing token ; test, trial, experiment ; 
 firm temper, impenetrability ; armour hardened till it will abide a cer- 
 tain trial. 
 
 Proof of Barrels There has heen lately 
 cast in the foundery at Ruelle, near Angou- 
 leme, a cannon, after a model differing a little 
 from that formerly adopted, and which has 
 heen submitted to an extraordinary trial, 
 called "proof to the utmost." This trial, 
 the result of which was to hurst the piece, was 
 composed of two series, one of fifty, the other 
 of fifty-seven shots, in which the charge was 
 successively increased, so that the quantity of 
 
 powder in the charge was raised to twenty- 
 eight pounds instead of six, and the nurnher 
 of balls amounted to twelve. For the last 
 six shots they succeeded in filling the barrel 
 entirely with clay over the balls ; and be- 
 sides, in some of the last shots they secured 
 each by four iron wedges, fastened on in such 
 a manner that the number of these wedges 
 was sixteen for the 106th shot, and as many 
 for the last. 
 
 PROWL, v. To wander for prey, to plunder. PROWLER, s. One that roves 
 
 about for prey. 
 
 PRUNE, v. To dress, to prink ; to smooth a bird's feathers. 
 PRUSSIAN BLUE, s. A dark blue pigment obtained from bullock's blood, 
 
 carbonate of potash, vitriol of iron, alum, and muriatic acid. 
 PRUSSIC ACID, *. A deadly poison. 
 PUET, s. A kind of water-fowl. 
 PROPHYLACTIC, s. A preventive against canine madness. 
 
 The oldest prophylactic with which we are 
 acquainted is suction. We have very an- 
 cient records of its employment, and, if we 
 can believe these legends, a particular family 
 enjoyed the privilege, or devoted themselves 
 to this process of drawing, by the application 
 of the mouth to the wound, the poison in- 
 serted by a venomous animal. A ligature 
 has also been recommended to stop the pro- 
 gress of the rabid poison, but, according to 
 the present theories, it can have no preven- 
 tive efficacy whatever. 
 
 Cold-bathing, hut particularly sea-bathing, 
 as a preventive, is a practice also of great an- 
 tiquity, and, even yet, the uninformed classes 
 place implicit reliance on it. Its incapability 
 of insuring safety was, however, early noted ; 
 and Palmerius, Ambrose Parey, Desault, and 
 others, were at much pains to discredit the 
 practice : nevertheless, both hot and cold 
 bathing long retained some powerful advo- 
 cates. However respectable the authorities 
 in its favour, the lamentable experience of 
 many who have trusted to its efficacy, even 
 when performed, as Van Swieten has it, ad 
 sufficationem usque, but too well proves. 
 Among the well informed, therefore, no reli- 
 ance is now placed on it. 
 
 Mercury has long been employed as a pro- 
 phylactic. Sauvages must have been greatly 
 deceived by its ill-deserved reputation. Sir 
 G. Cobb's famous Tonquin remedy, so highly 
 
 extolled by Claude Duchoisee, in India, was 
 prepared from the native and factitious cinna- 
 bars, with musk. Turpeth mineral, which is 
 a sub-sulphate of this metal, was highly ex- 
 tolled by Tissot, and has heen very generally 
 used among the dogs of this country. Many 
 other authorities of note have extolled the 
 preventive efficacy pf mercury, from its power 
 in counteracting the effects of the syphilitic 
 poison ; but as it has entirely failed in man 
 and beast, under every advantage of adminis- 
 tration, so it has ceased to be relied on as 
 solely sufficient to guard the constitution. 
 Neither has arsenic any more claim to the 
 character of a preventive than it has as a cura- 
 tive. 
 
 Dr. Mead's pulvis antilyssus, composed 
 of lichen cinereus and black pepper, has wholly 
 lost its reputation, although, during his prac- 
 tice, he expressed a wish that he knew as 
 certain a preventive for any other disease. 
 The Ormskirk remedy is also another striking 
 proof how easily a reputation may be gained, 
 and how undeservedly : for although palpable 
 instances of its failure are numerous, it once 
 enjoyed great reputation, and is even yet oc- 
 casionally trusted to. The water plantain 
 (alisma plantago) has also proved one of those 
 unfortunate articles offered to notice, which 
 only served to raise hopes it was doomed 
 never to realise. As it came recommended 
 by a Russian counsellor of state, M. Jalowsky,
 
 Pur] 
 
 at the express direction of his government, it 
 met with a cordial reception, and a full trial 
 in England and elsewhere, but everywhere it 
 proved fallacious, both as a preventive and 
 cure. 
 
 To enumerate all the other articles, par- 
 ticularly of the vegetable world, that at some 
 period or other have been deemed prophylac- 
 tics, would be endless. Among the most 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 409 
 
 popular we may mention the eglantine, or 
 wild rose (rosa sylvestris, Linn.), pimpernel 
 (anagallis), deadly nightshade (atropa bella- 
 donna), rue (ruta), garlic (allium sativum), 
 sage (salvia), daisy (bellis), vervain (subena), 
 fern (polypodium), wormwood (urteminia ar- 
 borescens), mugwort (artemisia vulgaris), 
 betony (betonica), and the tree-box (buxus). 
 Elaine. 
 
 PUFFIN, COULTERNEB, MULLET, SEA PARROT, POPE, or WILLCOCK, 
 (Alca arctica, LINN. ; Le Macareux, BUFF.) s. A water-fowl ; a 
 kind of fish ; a kind of fungus filled with dust. 
 
 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 pro- 
 ject 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, form- 
 ing 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 tempes- 
 tuous 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
 
 410 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Pur 
 
 be the food upon which they live ; but it is 
 evident from the structure, great strength, 
 and sharpness of the bill, that they are fur- 
 nished -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 pur- 
 pose ; 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, not- 
 withstanding 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 net- 
 ting, 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 al- 
 most all the rocky cliffs on the coasts of Bri- 
 
 tain and Ireland, and on many of the sur- 
 rounding 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 accom- 
 plished, the whole associated swann 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. * 
 
 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 south- 
 west of the island, which, from time imme- 
 morial, 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 ex- 
 traordinary 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
 
 PUN] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 411 
 
 unnecessary. The chief difference is in its 
 size, being much smaller, and its tail curled 
 upon its back. It differs extremely in an- 
 other particular, which is in courage, this ani- . 
 mal being as timid as the other is valiant. 
 
 This dog was formerly very common in 
 many parts of Great Britain, but is now be- 
 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 
 
 PULLET, s. A young hen. 
 
 PULSE, s. The motion of any artery as the Wood is driven through it by 
 
 the heart, and as it is perceived by the touch ; vibration ; leguminous 
 
 plants. 
 
 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 Lon- 
 don, can be bought for a sum of money equi- 
 valept to a shilling. 
 
 It seems, by the nicest observations, that 
 the pulsations of a healthy horse seldom exceed 
 from forty to forty-five in a minute ; exceed- 
 ing 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 in- 
 creased 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 bo- 
 dies ; 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 | It is better to make the punch with boil- 
 full of best refined lump sugar pounded. ' ing water the night before it is required for 
 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 
 
 use. Strain it in the morning, and place the 
 bottles in a well or stream of water, shel- 
 tered 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 
 Sporls. 
 
 PUNCTURE, s. A hole made with a sharp point. 
 
 PUNGENT, a. Pungent, sharp on the tongue, acrid ; piercing, sharp, acri- 
 monious, 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 propor- 
 tional quantity of suet. You have then only 
 to pour a little of this mixture into the seams 
 
 of your punt y 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 mueh lighter. 
 
 White resin and mutton suet is even a 
 
 better dressing, and by far the lightest of 
 
 any. 
 
 
 
 Punt Shooting The punt shooters (men 
 who earn their livelihood in winter by attack- 
 ing 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 some- 
 times get encircled, and then can only float 
 with the current, and are kept often two or 
 three tides before they can extricate them- 
 selves, and their punt is ill calculated to sus- 
 tain pressure against its sides, which are not
 
 412 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Pup 
 
 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 pos- 
 sible ; 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 direc- 
 tion 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 be- 
 yond belief: to the compiler, prepared as he 
 was to behold amazing quantities, they ex- 
 hibited far beyond what he was led to expect, 
 
 PUP, v. To bring forth whelps, used 
 
 All dogs that are much domesticated and 
 confined, appear particularly subject to diffi- 
 culty 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 some- 
 times false presentation increases the obstruc- 
 tion. Whenever a difficulty in pupping oc- 
 curs, 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 
 
 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 alloted 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 Hamp- 
 shire), 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 favour- 
 able 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. 
 
 of a bitch bringing young. 
 
 gently drawn away. If it cannot be reached 
 in this way, a little longer time may be al- 
 lowed ; 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 de- 
 layed, it will be prudent, in all cases, to bathe 
 in warm water, and to give nutriment if the 
 labour is protracted : occasional doses of lau- 
 danum united with aether 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 im- 
 ploring Elaine. 
 
 PUPPY, s. A whelp, a progeny of a bitch ; a name of contempt to an im- 
 pertinent fellow. 
 
 PURGATIVE, a. Cathartic, having the power to cause evacuation down- 
 wards.
 
 PYR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 413 
 
 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, 5. A kind of medicated malt liquor, in which wormwood and aro- 
 
 matics 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, *. 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 dif- 
 ferently 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 follow- 
 ing 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 op- 
 ponent 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 ex- 
 tra cards drawn ; but should the dealer give 
 himself too many, then his opponent is enti- 
 tled to a point, and may either have another 
 deal, or draw the supernumerary cards. By- 
 standers 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.
 
 , v. To cry like a duck ; to 
 to physic, or any other art. 
 QUADRANGULAR, a. Square, having 
 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, ac- 
 cording 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 
 
 act the part of a boasting pretender 
 four right angles. 
 
 friend leads from a mat, play your best trump, 
 and then lead the next best the first opportu- 
 nity. 
 
 2. If you possess all the trumps, keep lead- 
 ing them, except you have other certain win- 
 ning 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,
 
 QUA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 415 
 
 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. HEARTS AND DIAMONDS. 
 
 Spadille, the ace of Spadille, the ace of 
 
 spades. 
 Mauille, the deuce of 
 
 spades or of clubs. 
 Basto,the ace of clubs. 
 
 King, 
 Queen, 
 
 spades. 
 Manille, the seven of 
 hearts or diamonds. 
 Basto, the ace of clubs. 
 Punto, the ace of 
 hearts or diamonds. 
 King, 
 Queen, 
 
 Knave, 
 
 Seven, 
 
 Six, 
 
 Five, 
 
 Four, 
 
 Three. 
 
 In all 11. 
 
 Knave, 
 Deuce, 
 Three, 
 Four, 
 
 Five, 
 Six. 
 
 In all 12. 
 
 N.B. , f J ^ 
 
 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. 
 
 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.)*. 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 fore- 
 head ; 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 fea- 
 thers, 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 
 flpcks 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 prodi- 
 gious numbers have appeared, that an hundred 
 thousand have been taken in a day, witliin 
 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 wil- 
 derness, 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.
 
 416 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [QUA 
 
 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 fre- 
 quently terminating in each others' destruc- 
 tion. 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 praefect 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 un- 
 common 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. 
 
 * * 
 
 In our way down to the beach, we observed 
 a number of high poles erected at small dis- 
 tances 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 ce- 
 lebrated 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 coun- 
 tries ; 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 dex- 
 
 terity, and confines them entangled as they 
 are. They are then put into a bag, to pre- 
 serve them alive, because the live ones fetch 
 a double price at Naples. Very often, how- 
 ever, this pastime is attended with serious 
 consequences ; the bearer of the net, in twist- 
 ing it round, frequently loses his balance, 
 from the weight of the long poles, and is pre- 
 cipitated 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 Sep- 
 tember, 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 ra- 
 rity, 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 
 
 gotrid of the visits of these expensive strangers. 
 
 * * 
 
 In January, 1806, Lord Fitzharris was re- 
 turning 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 con- 
 sisted 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 migra- 
 tion. A similar incident not having occurred 
 to any sportsman, in that part of England, in 
 some measure accounts for Mr. Pennant's re- 
 mark (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.
 
 Quo] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 417 
 
 QUART, s. The fourth part, a quarter; the fourth part of a gallon ; the 
 vessel in which strong drink is commonly retailed. 
 
 QUARTAN, ,?. The fourth-day ague. 
 
 QUARTER, s. A fourth part ; a region of the skies, as referred to the sea- 
 man'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, *. 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 
 Jcent. 
 
 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 1 5, 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. 
 
 QUITTERBONE, s. A hard round swelling upon the coronet, between the 
 heel and the quarter. 
 
 QUITTER, s. A disease of the hoof. Vide APPENDIX. 
 
 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 impro- 
 perly. QUOIT, v. To throw quoits, to play at quoits. 
 
 QUOTIDIAN, a. Daily, happening every day. 
 
 E E
 
 THE RABBIT. 
 
 -LtABATE, 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,*. A furry animal that lives 
 
 Rabbit-keeping is practised by a few indivi- 
 duals 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, keep- 
 ing each, according to report, from fifteen hun- 
 dred 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 rab- 
 bits 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 
 
 on plants, and burrows in the ground. 
 
 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 pur- 
 pose of trimmings. Twenty does and two 
 bucks were my largest stock. 
 
 
 
 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. Venti- 
 lation 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 sud- 
 den 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 conve- 
 nience of shutting such opposite windows or 
 doors in cold and wet weather. 
 
 The huts or hutches are generally placed
 
 RAB] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 419 
 
 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 clean- 
 ing under them. Each of the hutches, in- 
 tended 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 move- 
 able 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 re- 
 fuse 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. * * * 
 
 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 mus- 
 cular 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 de- 
 licate flesh, and, cooked in the same way, will 
 rival the turkey. 
 
 With respect to colour, I have always pre- 
 ferred 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 pe- 
 culiar 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 fine- 
 ness 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. * 
 
 Rabbits are divided into four kinds war- 
 reners,parkers, hedgehogs, and sweethearts. 
 Burrowing under ground is favourable, it ap- 
 pears, to the growth of fur ; and the warreper, 
 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 pre- 
 mised, 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 
 E E 2
 
 420 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 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, re- 
 duce and shorten it to her purpose Biting 
 down of the litter or bed, is the first sign of 
 approaching pregnancy. . The number pro- 
 duced, 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 dou- 
 ble 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 dis- 
 posed 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 objec- 
 tionable 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 ban- 
 ished from rabbit feeding. Such articles are 
 too washy and diuretic, and can never be 
 worth attention, whilst the more solid and nu- 
 
 tritious productions of the field may be ob- 
 tained 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 in- 
 dulged 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 al- 
 low 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 pota- 
 to 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 com- 
 plaint 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 ; be- 
 yond which period their flesh becomes more 
 dry, and somewhat hard. It requires three 
 months, or nearly so, to make a rabbit tho- 
 roughly 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 with- 
 in, 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 in- 
 formed it is successfully practised in the land 
 of capons, namely, Sussex, near Chichestt-r,
 
 RAC] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 421 
 
 where on the average, not one in three hun- 
 dred is lost by the operation, which is per- 
 formed at five or six weeks old. 
 
 * 
 
 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 abomi- 
 nation to kill poultry by the slow and tor- 
 turing 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. 
 * * 
 
 By 7 & 8 Geo. IV. if any person unlaw- 
 fully and wilfully, in the night time, take any 
 hare or coney, in any warren or ground law- 
 fully 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. * * * 
 
 Ampthill Rabbit Bazaar I have stated 
 
 at the commencement of this article, that the 
 large concerns had generally ceased. Of late, 
 one haa 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 under- 
 taking, that it may well be styled our grand 
 National Rabbit Bazaar. The building, situ- 
 ated 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 rabbiUstock. It was proposed 
 to keep between four and five thousand breed- 
 ing does, which number is probably now com- 
 
 plete. The young rabbits, from seven to nine 
 weeks old, are sent to Newgate and Leaden- 
 hall markets, fifty to sixty dozens, weekly. 
 The quantity of dung produced, which is re- 
 served with the utmost care, and free from 
 any extraneous substances, must be very con- 
 siderable. 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 gentle- 
 men. * 
 
 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, be- 
 tween 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 hay- 
 stack, or other object of inducement for rab- 
 bits 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 hay- 
 stack, 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 in- 
 closure. For a night or two the rabbits are suf- 
 fered 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. 
 * * ' 
 
 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, *. 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 written by Fitzstcphen, who lived in the reign 
 
 and practised by the Anglo-Saxons, but most of Henry II. He tells us, that horses were 
 
 probably confined to persons of rank and opu- usually exposed for sale in West Smithfield ; 
 
 lence, and followed only for amusement sake, and, in order to prove the excellency of the 
 
 The first indication, however, of a sport of most valuable hackneys and charging steeds, 
 
 this kind occurs in the description of London, they were matched against each other ; his words
 
 422 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [RAC 
 
 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 con- 
 test ; 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 them- 
 selves 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 king- 
 dom, 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 regu- 
 lar horse-race, but whether the courses were 
 in immediate succession, or at different inter- 
 vals, is not perfectly clear ; we find not, how- 
 ever, 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 prac- 
 tised 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 al- 
 derman 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 thir- 
 teen 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 shil- 
 lings 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 pre- 
 paring 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 New- 
 market. 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 Newmar- 
 ket, where it is said he entered horses and run 
 them in his name, he established a house for 
 his better accommodation ; and he also occasi- 
 onally 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 va- 
 lued at one hundred guineas each ; and upon 
 these trophies of victory the exploits and pe- 
 digree 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. 
 
 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.
 
 RAC] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 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 hoth cases, the handicapper draws 
 all the money out of the hat ; hut 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 de- 
 cline according as they imagine the chances 
 are for or against them. 
 
 Horses not entitled to start without pro- 
 ducing a proper certificate of their age, if re- 
 quired, 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 he the actual winner 
 of two heats, even though no horse appear 
 against him for hoth or either of the heats. 
 
 A\ hen 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 
 he 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 dis- 
 mounts 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 mu- 
 tual 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 Lon- 
 don, 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 par- 
 ties 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.
 
 4-24 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 Bets made in running are not determined 
 till the plate is won, if that heat be not men- 
 tioned 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 fora 
 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 to- 
 gether, 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 
 
 RACECOURSE, s. Ground over which a race is run. The principal are 
 
 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 deter- 
 mined. 
 
 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 in- 
 ches : twelve hands to carry a stated weight, 
 all above to carry extra, in the proportion of 
 seven pounds to an inch Strutt Turf 
 Expositor. 
 
 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 be- 
 comes two complete miles. 
 
 Chester. A circular course of one mile. 
 It is a complete flat, and perhaps the plea- 
 santest 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. 
 ] 32 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 tri- 
 angular.^ 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 1 1 yds. 
 
 Oxford. Flat, oval course, 2 miles all 
 but a distance. 
 
 Pontefract. An oval course, formed on
 
 RAC] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 425 
 
 the gentle declivity of rising ground, 2 miles, 
 Ifur. 
 
 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 quar- 
 ter; the latter is called the New Course. 
 
 York. T. Y. C. 5 fur. 59 yds. Mile 
 
 Course, 1 mile, 8 yds. Last mile and quar- 
 ter, 1 mile, 2 fur., ]5 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 wea- 
 ther Turf Expositor. 
 
 RACEHORSE, s. A horse bred to run for prizes. 
 
 There is much dispute with retard 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 Ara- 
 bian. " The Stud Book," which is an autho- 
 rity acknowledged by every Euglish breeder, 
 traces all the old racers to some Eastern ori- 
 gin ; or it traces them until the pedigree is lost 
 in the uncertainty of an early period of breed- 
 ing. If a pedigree of a racer of the present day 
 be required, it is traced back to a certain ex- 
 tent, 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 fo- 
 reign extraction, improved and perfected by the 
 influence of the climate, and by diligent culti- 
 vation. 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 Gtosvenor and Egremont, this is 
 an acknowledged principle ; and it is not, when 
 properly considered, a principle at all deroga- 
 tory to the credit of the country. The British 
 climate, and British skill, made the thorough- 
 bred 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 im- 
 mediately 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 shoul- 
 
 ders ; well-bent hinder legs ; his ample,mus- 
 cular 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 consi- 
 dered where the structure of the horse is 
 treated of. 
 
 The racer, however, with the most beauti- 
 ful form, is occasionally a sorry animal. There 
 is sometimes a want of energy in an apparently 
 faultless shape, for which there is no account- 
 ing; but there are two points among those just 
 enumerated which will rarely or never de- 
 ceive, a well-placed shoulder, and a well-bent 
 hinder leg. 
 
 It has been imagined that the breed of 
 racing horses has lately very considerably dege- 
 nerated. 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 su- 
 periority 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 bring- 
 ing out horses too soon, and the frequent fai- 
 lure of their legs before they have come to their 
 full power. Childers and Eclipse did not ap- 
 pear 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 de- 
 stroyed before that period. 
 
 Whether the introduction of short races, and 
 so young horses, be advantageous, and whether 
 stoutness and usefulness may not thus be some- 
 what too much sacrificed to speed : whether 
 there may be danger that an animal designed 
 for service may, in process of time, be flittered 
 away almost to a shadow of what he was, in 
 order that at two years old, over the one-mile- 
 course, he may astopish the crowd by his fleet- 
 ness, 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.
 
 426 THE FIELD BOOK. [Rxc 
 
 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 imple- 
 ment 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. 
 
 39 \ 
 
 very near 39 ^ j 
 
 x 
 
 42 or more. 
 
 It is 10077695 
 
 to 1, 
 
 54 
 
 24J .. 
 
 1, 
 
 o 
 
 41 
 
 
 
 1007768 
 
 .. 1, 
 
 53 or more. 
 
 
 1, 
 
 E 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 183229 
 
 ..1, ^ 
 
 52 
 
 10 j " 
 
 1, 
 
 H 
 
 39 
 
 
 
 45809 
 
 .. 1, 2 
 
 51 _ 
 
 7$ .. 
 
 1, 
 
 1 
 
 38 
 
 
 
 14093 
 
 . . 1, "5 
 
 50 _ 
 
 very near 5 
 
 1, 
 
 o 
 
 37 
 
 
 
 5032 
 
 . . 1, "o 
 
 49 - 
 
 34 .. 
 
 1, 
 
 3 
 
 36 
 
 
 
 2016 
 886 
 
 -- 1, o 
 
 - 1 ' 1 
 
 48 
 47 
 
 or28 
 
 1, 
 111 
 
 Ir 
 
 j j 
 
 35 
 
 
 
 422 
 
 ..1, 1 
 
 46 
 
 11 
 
 ll 
 
 
 34 
 
 
 
 215 
 
 l IT 
 
 45 _ 
 
 9 
 
 7, 
 
 
 35 
 
 
 
 116 
 
 .. 1, 1 
 
 44 
 
 It is exactly equal 
 
 tb 
 
 it you 
 
 throw 
 
 32 or 
 
 66 
 
 .. 1, 
 
 43 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. 
 
 to ascertain the existence of stone in the blad- 
 der, 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 in- 
 
 flammation in it or in the bladder may be de- 
 tected Elaine. 
 
 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 clys- 
 ter pipe cannot he obtained ; but an injection 
 will better effect the purpose, and with less in- 
 convenience to the animal. The introduction 
 of the hand into the rectum is, however, useful 
 
 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 Linnaean 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.
 
 RAV] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 427 
 
 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 nos- 
 trils : the general colour of the upper parts is 
 a fine glossy black, reflecting a blue tint in par- 
 ticular 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 supersti- 
 tion, was considered as ominous, foretelling 
 future events by its horrid croakings, and an- 
 nouncing impending calamities : in those times 
 the raven was considered as a bird of vast im- 
 portance, and the various changes and modu- 
 lations of its voice were studied with the most 
 careful attention, and were made use of by 
 artful and designing men to mislead the igno- 
 rant and credulous. It is a very long-lived 
 bird, and is supposed sometimes to live a cen-
 
 428 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [RAV 
 
 tury 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 earth- 
 worms, 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, lay- 
 ing five or six eggs, of a pale bluish green co- 
 lour, 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 bo- 
 dies. 
 
 In 1 808, a raven was kept at the Red Lion, 
 Hungerford : a gentleman's chaise, in turning 
 into the yard, ran over the leg of his New- 
 foundland-dog, and while examining the injury 
 done, Ralph was evidently a concerned spec- 
 tator. 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 affec- 
 tion 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 acci- 
 dent 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 ; imma- 
 ture ; 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 wkids 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 be- 
 comes foul within by repeated firing, the re- 
 coil 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 ap- 
 plying 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 sin- 
 gle point, the recoil will be much more sensi- 
 bly felt, than when the hollow of the butt em- 
 braces 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, es- 
 pecially if the saltpetre employed in the pow- 
 der 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 pow-
 
 RED] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 429 
 
 der, and greatly increases the agitation and re- 
 coil. Owing to this cause, probably, rather 
 than to that before mentioned, arises the re- 
 coil, 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 fer- 
 mented liquors by distillation, and is after- 
 wards 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 cam- 
 phor 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, am- 
 
 monia and camphor, or oil of rosemary. Rec- 
 tified spirit is never employed as an internal 
 remedy in the horse ; though fermented li- 
 quors, 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 other- 
 wise 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; fore- 
 head 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 habita- 
 tions 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 sea- 
 son, is not mentioned ; but most probably in 
 the latter, when those which breed in the 
 i more northern parts of the European conti- 
 nent may be shifting their quarters, and, by 
 accident, are driven from Norway. It sings 
 throughout the winter, except in severe wea- 
 ther. About the beginning of April it pre- 
 pares a nest in some mossy bank or out-build- 
 ing, 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 1 , 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 sea- 
 son, 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
 
 430 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [RED 
 
 Bex 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 yel- 
 low. Bechstein had a male, the head of 
 which turned to a fine gold colour after the 
 third moulting. The young birds are desti- 
 tute 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 rovges, 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 ox 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 seconda- 
 ries are barred in nearly the same manner, 
 others are white ; back white ; the tail-feathers 
 and coverts are beautifully marked with alter- 
 nate 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, be- 
 ing 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
 
 RED] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 431 
 
 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 kin- 
 dred species. 
 
 Ornithologists differ much in their descrip- 
 tions 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 dif- 
 fering so much in its summer and winter 
 dress, and its weight, as to appear to be of 
 two distinct species. There is reason to be- 
 lieve 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, to- 
 gether with the difference of age and sex, has 
 occasioned much confusion. 
 
 Red-legged Godwit, Spotted Snipe or 
 Barker, Spotted Redshank. (Scolopax To- 
 tanus, 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 slen- 
 der, 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 : hides hazel ; the head, neck, 
 
 REDWING, *. A bird. 
 
 breast, and belly are spotted in streaks, mot- 
 tled 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 eyje, 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 nar- 
 row 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 wliich cover the up- 
 per 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 mea- 
 sure, from the end of the middle toe-nail to 
 the upper bare part of the thigh, five inches 
 and a half. Bewick. 
 
 Redu-inp, Swinepipe, or Wind Thrnsh. 
 ( Tiirdits fliacus, LINN ; Le Mauvis, BUFF.) 
 
 This bird is not more than eight inches in 
 
 length. The bill is of a dark-brown colour ;
 
 432 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [REE 
 
 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 manage- 
 ment these birds fattened, to the great profit 
 of their proprietors, who sold them to Roman 
 epicures for three denarii, or about two shil- 
 lings sterling, each. 
 
 * 
 
 A redwing was taken up, November 7th, 
 1 785, 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 at- 
 tention. 
 
 
 
 When redwings appear on the eastern coast, 
 they as commonly announce the approach of 
 the woodcock, as does the arrival of the wry- 
 neck that of the cuckoo, in the south 
 
 Bewick Daniel. 
 
 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 de- 
 rives its name. 
 
 These birds make their appearance a few 
 days before the fieldfare, and are generally 
 seen with them after their arrival ; they fre- 
 quent 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 
 
 REED, s. A hollow knotted stalk, w J ch 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, *. 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, *. 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.
 
 Kic] THE FIELD BOOK. 433 
 
 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, u. 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, *. 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 i violent shivering and fever. In all such cases, 
 
 fever, is inflammation of the muscular sys- 
 tem, 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 ac- 
 companied 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 in- 
 flammation of these parts. The same irrita- 
 ble state of the stomach and bowels is some- 
 times observable also in chills, as they are 
 termed, and when the hind-leg is suddenly 
 attacked with inflammation and swelling, after 
 
 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, . Furnished with ribs ; enclosed as the body by ribs. 
 RICK, s. A pile of corn or hay regularly heaped up and sheltered from wet. 
 
 F F
 
 434 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Ric 
 
 RICKETS, s. The rickets is a distemper in children, from an unequal distri- 
 bution of nourishment, whereby the joints grow knotty, and the limbs 
 uneven ; a disease in horses. 
 
 Rickets is very like to tables, 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 circum- 
 stances of confinement, bad air, filth, and 
 unwholesome food, or the milk of an un- 
 healthy 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 cy- 
 lindrical ones particularly become crooked. 
 Cleanliness, good air, free exercise, and whole- 
 some 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 diges- 
 tion 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 se- 
 veral 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 Doncas- 
 ter. 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 uncom- 
 mon occurrence to see these wretched apolo- 
 gies 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 re- 
 spectable ; 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 ele- 
 gance ; and their performance is, for the most 
 part, of a superior order superior, in fact, to 
 their rivals of the north ; they are illiterate ig- 
 norant 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 ren- 
 ders impossible. There is much less of this 
 ridiculous and ignorant affectation in the nor- 
 
 thern jockeys, who yet seem, it must be con- 
 fessed, not nearly so anxious about their ap-- 
 pearance 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 ad- 
 mitted, that there are some excellent northern 
 jockeys, who would lose little by the compa- 
 rison with either Chifney, Robinson, Dockeray, 
 or any of the most favourite riders of the pre- 
 sent 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 jock- 
 eys ; 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 under- 
 rated. Lear is a promising young northern 
 jockey ; but he must be careful not to let Iris 
 self-opinion and overbearing temper supersede 
 the plain uncultivated sense he possesses. Tem- 
 pleman is what may be called an improving 
 jockey : he has a good seat, and I have fre- 
 quently been much pleased witli his performan- 
 ces. 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, how-
 
 RID] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 435 
 
 ever, 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, how- 
 ever, 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 supe- 
 rior rider as one of the best I ever saw. In 
 stature he was one of the shortest of his fra- 
 ternity : 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 stea- 
 dily 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 rideis, but made up 
 of trick aud cunning ; and ready at any time 
 to put in practice their sinister arts for the pur- 
 poses of deception, swindling and fraud. 
 * * 
 
 I have not the least doubt, were this de- 
 scription 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 mul- 
 titude is not put to the test : if the prepara- 
 tions for gentlemen riders are not more com- 
 plex 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 
 
 RIDGE, s. The top of the back ; the rough top of anything-; a steep pro- 
 tuberance ; 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 ris- 
 ings 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. 
 
 F F -2 
 
 six times the duration. But this is by no means 
 the worst of the business : the system is lia- 
 ble to very gross abuse ; and a class of men con- 
 trive to insinuate themselves into it, who have 
 very meagre pretensions indeed to the charac- 
 ter 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 feel- 
 ing, 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 through- 
 out the season, and are in the constant habit of 
 riding, which they understand as well as the 
 regular jockeys. What chance has a inere 
 amateur against such competitors ? 
 * * * 
 
 As to jockeys riding to order, nothing can 
 be more correct or judicious, when such or- 
 ders 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 con- 
 siderably 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.
 
 436 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [KlK 
 
 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 velo- 
 city they receive from the powder, the in- 
 creased velocity of the hall being met by a 
 geometrically increased ratio of atmospheric re- 
 sistance. 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 re- 
 spective 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, increas- 
 ing 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 si- 
 milar 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 em- 
 ployed, 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 he 
 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 men- 
 tioned 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 adop- 
 tion 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 pur- 
 pose ; 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 pre- 
 sence of the enemy, and capable of greatly an- 
 noying 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 offer- 
 ing, 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 in- 
 clined 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 prefer- 
 ring 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 py- 
 rites locks of two centuries ago. In compari- 
 son 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,
 
 RIF] 
 
 THE FIELD HOOK. 
 
 437 
 
 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 pur- 
 poses, 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 simple contrivance, which I have 
 applied to all my own guns, rifles, and pis- 
 tols, should any obstruction occur, either 
 from wet or dirt, which cannot be removed 
 by merely probing the nipple, it will infallibly 
 be cleared out by removing the screw, scoop- 
 ing 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 re- 
 moval 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 neces- 
 sary to substitute a little instrument of steel, 
 resenTbling the letter T ; one half of the hori- 
 zontal part being a^bur, 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 men- 
 tioned ; 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 obstruc- 
 tion, or for the purpose of washing the barrel. 
 This is not only ineffective, but highly im- 
 proper, 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, com- 
 posed 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 resi- 
 duum 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 mo- 
 tions. 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 
 rock 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 car- 
 bine 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 sub- 
 sequent cleaning, the lock will be nearly im- 
 movable the day after. However, in the 
 late Spanish campaign of 1 823, 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
 
 438 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [RlF 
 
 ther one or two pistols lie used, they should, 
 upon going into action, be 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 wea- 
 pon for an officer. The movable hutt 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 protec- 
 tion 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 pis- 
 tols 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 con- 
 struction 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, analo- 
 gous to that of a wedge or a nail in entering a 
 piece of wood. Nobody would think of driv- 
 ing 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 impinge- 
 
 ment. To load a rifle with a mallet is out 
 of the question, especially for military par- 
 es ; 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 qua- 
 lify 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 per- 
 fectly 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, fur- 
 nishes 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 per- 
 cussions ; 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 con- 
 tain between two and three drachms of pow- 
 der, which, in leisure shooting, serves to intro- 
 duce 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 ram- 
 rod. Should the little wooden pestle men- 
 tioned above be deemed inconvenient in mili- 
 tary practice, which I opine it is not, a si- 
 milar 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 ma< 1 e 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,
 
 RIF] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 439 
 
 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 de- 
 gree 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 annoy- 
 ance, 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 re- 
 verse them in the pouch. If the cartridges 
 are closed up, according to the method recom- 
 mended 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 tul>es, 
 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 plea- 
 sure 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 Cala- 
 brians 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 car, 
 tridges 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 incum- 
 brance ; and I have found it a further im- 
 provement to partially support it by braces, 
 worn under the jacket or waistcoat. Slips 
 from the usual trouser suspenders will an- 
 swer the purpose. 
 
 I must yet add a few words, by way of re- 
 commending some essential alterations in the 
 method of exercising the troops to the use of 
 that weapon, which will in most respects ap- 
 ply 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. No- 
 thing 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 in- 
 struction 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 imme- 
 diately 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 per- 
 pendicularly 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 reco- 
 very 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,
 
 440 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [R!F 
 
 which will cause the bullets to be reflected 
 downwards upon the smooth ground in front. 
 The recovered lead might be given as the per- 
 quisite 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 white- 
 wash, 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 re- 
 commend, for military practice, a perpendi- 
 cular 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 dif- 
 ferent distances, &c., whitened and hung up 
 against the butt, form excellent targets, espe- 
 cially 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 situa- 
 tion. 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 per- 
 petually walking up to the target, which occa- 
 sions 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 ob- 
 tained 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 dis- 
 tance, and consequently the properest for a 
 bulTs-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 reflec- 
 
 tion, 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 gradu- 
 ally 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 be- 
 yond 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. 
 * 
 
 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 hermeti- 
 cally 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 wea- 
 ther. For military use, the whole of the caps 
 might be so prepared at the laboratories. 
 
 
 Two rifle guns of the manufactory, the one 
 valued at a hundred, the other at twenty-five 
 guineas, were next loaded, and fired by Gene- 
 ral 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
 
 RIN] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 441 
 
 was highly complimented ; mine in return was 
 an inch from it, and high odds were conse- 
 quently in favour of the General. The suc- 
 ceeding shots were as follow : 
 
 General Beaumont's second shot missed, 
 and went over the iron plate three feet square. 
 
 Colonel Thornton's ditto near the hull'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 manufactury, 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 work- 
 manship of Mr. Sluden, of Cockspur Street. 
 * * * 
 
 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 pre- 
 sent, that it was performed without any man- 
 ner of deception Maccerone Thornton, 
 
 RIGID, a. Stiff, not to be bent, unpliant, inflexible. 
 
 RING, s. A circle ; a circle of gold or some other matter worn as an orna- 
 ment ; 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. 
 
 <^^2_%^ 
 
 ^saSSSir 
 ^r^^^ 
 
 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
 
 442 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Km 
 
 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 semcircular line of white (whence 
 its name) above and beneath which the fea- 
 thers 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, tip- 
 ped 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 migrator}'; 
 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 ge- 
 nerally supposed to have two broods in the 
 year. They feed on wild fruits, herbs, and 
 grain of all kinds ; they like wise are very fond 
 of the roots of the pernicious weeds so well 
 known to farmers under the name of whic- 
 Jcens; 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 ne- 
 
 cessity, they are driven to eat in severe win- 
 ters. 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 parti- 
 cular 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 win- 
 ter 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 excel- 
 lent eating, except when they feed on turnips 
 and rape. They are useful in coverts that 
 are made preserves for pheasants, by imme- 
 diately 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 H Plastron Blanc, 
 BUFF.) s. 
 
 This bird very much resembles the black- 
 bird ; its general colour is of a dull black or 
 
 dusky hue ; each feather is margined with a 
 greyish ash colour ; the bill is dusky ; cor-
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 443 
 
 ners of the month 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 dif- 
 fers 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 man- 
 ner, and in similar situations, and lays four or 
 five eggs of the same colour ; they feed on in- 
 sects 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. 
 
 On the 1 3th of April, I went to the sheep- 
 down, where the ring-ousels have been ob- 
 served 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 breed- 
 ers ; 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 re- 
 markable that they make but a few days' stay 
 in their spring visit, but rest near a fort- 
 night at Michaelmas. These birds, from the 
 observations of three springs and two autumns, 
 are most punctual in their return ; and ex- 
 hibit 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 in- 
 stantly 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 will last much longer, with the additional ad- 
 hundred and twenty-five, though others en- 
 large their number to four hundred and fifty. 
 Shooting Wildfowl on a River, <Jre 
 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 them- 
 selves 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 fol- 
 lowed 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 
 
 vantage 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 fore- 
 shortened to the only point of view) he will 
 be pretty sure to escape the observation of the 
 birds Hawker.
 
 444 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Ri 
 
 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 
 jeyes, the circle of which resembles gold co- 
 lour, 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 gene- 
 ral red, particularly whilst in perfection ; as 
 they may also be known to be by the smooth- 
 ness 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, to- 
 wards 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 wea- 
 ther, a May or ant-fly is to 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 with- 
 out, roach of any size are hardly to be caught,) 
 to the stern of a vessel returned from a voy- 
 age, 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 allow- 
 ing 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 the hackney still further than the hunter from 
 of horse, adds to our health and comfort ; we that form which best suits the purposes of the 
 ride him for amusement, and he transports us racer. In the hackney, therefore, we scruti- 
 long distances on our personal avocations. On nise his fore quarters with the same attention 
 some only of these occasions speed is desira- that we pay to the hinder parts of the racer ; 
 ble ; but on all safety is indispensable ; and for, as to the purposes of the latter, the fore 
 next to that, is the case with which his mo- parts are subordinate to the hinder, so in the 
 tions are performed. These requisites remove hackney, speed being infinitely less important
 
 ROA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 445 
 
 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 him- 
 self in his progression ? or does it necessarily 
 arise out of certain peculiarities in his forma- 
 tion, dependent on such an elevation of his 
 feet as \vill ensure his not stumbling by any 
 erroneous placing of them? The close ob- 
 server, I think, will answer, that both are con- 
 cerned : 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 ac- 
 commodated 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 meet- 
 ing 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 desir- 
 able 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 horse- 
 men. To which latter valuable quality it is 
 also essential that he have a neck of just pro- 
 portions, 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 some- 
 times constrain him to throw himself on his 
 haunches, and at others to carry himself for- 
 ward for more speedy progression. The re- 
 mainder 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 un- 
 der 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 al- 
 low 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 Elaine. 
 
 ROAN, a. Bay or sorrel, with grey or white spots interspersed. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 
 
 ROAR, v. To cry as a lion or otner wild beast ; to cry in distress ; to sound 
 
 as the wind or sea ; to make a loud noise. 
 ROARING, *. A disease in horses. 
 
 The causes of roaring, which I shall here inflammation, acute or chronic, in the trachcal 
 
 use as a type of the whole, arc remote and 
 proximate. The remote causes are mostly 
 
 tube itself. Occasionally it is brought on by 
 the effects of inflammation on other parts, as
 
 446 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Roc 
 
 of the salivary glands in strangles, or of those 
 abscesses which not imfrequently occur in 
 violent catarrh in the vicinage of the pharynx. 
 Structural alteration in the lungs, as hepatisa- 
 tion, has occasioned it (PercivalVs 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 occa- 
 sion it. Barriere notices a case of roaring 
 dependent on the lodgment of a piece of riband 
 within one of the nasal fossae ; and Godine 
 another, brought on by a displaced molar 
 tooth. The proximate cause might, with pro- 
 priety, include these accidental obstructions, 
 but they are mainly to be looked for in an 
 extravasation, partial or extensive, of coagu- 
 lable lymph; which, becoming organised, 
 forms a permanent obstruction. When it is 
 extensively spread over the larynx, it pro- 
 duces wheezing ; when it constringes the 
 rimaglottis, a whistling sound is the conse- 
 quence, and is often heard in our own respi- 
 rations under catarrh, or in the ordinary 
 respirations of some asthmatic persons. Who- 
 ever has handled the throats of many old 
 horses, must have observed the hardened state 
 of the larynx, which almost resisted all at- 
 tempts 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 exer- 
 tion ; in general cases, however, roaring is only- 
 
 exerted when forcible inspirations and expira- 
 tions are made ; for it is, I believe, equally 
 produced by the one as by the other. Me- 
 chanical obstructions to free respiration may 
 eventually be productive of roaring : the cus- 
 tom 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 sup- 
 posed 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 cir- 
 stances, 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 neighbour- 
 ing 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 trache- 
 otomy has been performed with considerable 
 advantage ; but the extreme difficulty of de- 
 tecting the exact situation of the obstruction, 
 will prevent its being generally adverted to 
 Elaine. 
 
 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 simi- 
 litude, except what may be expected from a 
 species half reclaimed, and frequently return- 
 ing 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 pro- 
 duce 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
 
 ROD] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 447 
 
 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 pro- 
 digious flocks in winter, frequenting our beech 
 woods for the sake of the mast or seed of that 
 tree. These flights, however, are less nume- 
 rous and less frequent of late years. Some- 
 times 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. 
 
 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 roman- 
 tic rocks overhanging the river, but in situa- 
 tions 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 in- 
 stances, I believe, are rare, of domestic pigeons 
 
 voluntarily deserting their birth place 
 
 Montagu Rennie. 
 
 ROCK-DOE, s. A species of deer. 
 
 ROCKSALT, s. Mineral salt. 
 
 ROCKET, s. An artificial firework. 
 
 ROD,*. A long 1 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 pro- 
 cured 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, mid- 
 dle 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 begin- 
 ning 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 pro- 
 portion, in three, four, or more parts, accord- 
 ing 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 ut- 
 most 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. 
 
 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,
 
 448 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [ROB 
 
 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 load- 
 ing 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 flex- 
 ible ; the Scotch fishing rod makers use tor- 
 toise shell at the end of their tops, and it is 
 lighter and springs better than whalebone. 
 
 * 
 
 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 in- 
 closed in a bag. The tackle shops have a va- 
 riety of these ; hut 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 conse- 
 quence 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 splic- 
 ing ; 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 carry- 
 ing 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, fre- 
 quently 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, hut 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 hanks, &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 com- 
 mand a fish of any size. 
 
 * 
 
 Rods should not he 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 service- 
 able 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 offish ; that 
 of the male fish is called the soft or melt ; that of the female the hard 
 or spawn.
 
 Roo] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 449 
 
 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 ot 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 thrust- 
 ing 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 pecu- 
 liarity. 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. Dur- 
 ing 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 con- 
 tests ; the new-comers are frequently driven 
 away by the old inhabitants, their half-built 
 nests torn in pieces, and the unfortunate cou- 
 ple 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 unsuccess- 
 ful attempt to establish themselves in a rook- 
 ery at no great distance from the Exchange, 
 were compelled to abandon the attempt. 
 They took refuge on the spire of that build- 
 ing, and although constantly interrupted by 
 other rooks, built their nest on the top of the 
 vane, and brought forth their young, undis- 
 turbed 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 some- 
 times 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 incuba- 
 tion, 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 plun- 
 dered 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, utter- 
 ing cries of distress, and plainly proving that 
 they wish to render him assistance, by hover- 
 ing 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, fly- 
 ing a little distance before him, and calling to 
 him to follow them. I have seen one of my 
 
 G G
 
 450 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Roo 
 
 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, per- 
 haps with a last hope that he might still af- 
 ford 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 for- 
 mer 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 esti- 
 mate 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 appreciat- 
 ing. 
 
 Rooks are not easily induced to forsake 
 the trees on which they have been bred, and 
 which they frequently revisit after the breed- 
 ing season is over. This is shown in Hamp- 
 ton 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 as- 
 sistance 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 wit- 
 nessed 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 fore- 
 sight 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 curi- 
 osity in his rookery. I saw the birds myself 
 nailed against the end of a barn, and was sur- 
 prised to find that their bills, legs, feet, and 
 claws were milk-white. 
 
 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, *. Inspissated turpentine. 
 
 ROSIN, v. To rub with rosin. 
 
 ROSTRUM, s. The beak of a bird ; the beak of a ship. Rostrum cultra- 
 tum (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 Linnaeus rostrum 
 emarginatum. 
 
 ROT, v. To make putrid, to bring to corruption.
 
 Row] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 451 
 
 ROT, s. A distemper among sheep in which their lungs are wasted; putre- 
 faction ; 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 some- 
 times 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 pun- 
 ters may risk their money on which colour they 
 please, placing the stakes in the outer semicir- 
 cle ; 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 tail- 
 leur 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 of- 
 fered to a punter, who, putting the same into 
 any part of the pack, the tailleur there sepa- 
 rates 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 up- 
 permost which is of a similar colour with the 
 first card ; these two cards are turned accord- 
 ing 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 sipiilar 
 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 trent* 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 premiere 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 deter- 
 mines whether the punter loses all, or is to lie 
 removed again into la premiere 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 pun- 
 ter 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 ex- 
 pect it twice in three deals, and there are ge- 
 nerally 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 
 
 G G 2
 
 452 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Row 
 
 or silk put into a wound to hinder it from healing-, and provoke a dis- 
 charge. 
 
 Rowels are seldom so convenient or so use- 
 ful 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. 
 RUD, *. 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 ven- 
 tral, 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 vora- 
 cious 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 sli- 
 my 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 at- 
 tention ; 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-mag- 
 gots, 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 ar- 
 tificial flies, by whipping with a long, and dib- 
 bing 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. 
 
 RUBY, a. Of a red colour. 
 
 RUDDOCK, s. A kind of bird. 
 
 RUDDY, a. Approaching to redness, pale red; yellow.
 
 RUK] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 453 
 
 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 dif- 
 fer 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 tho 
 males (of which there appears to be a much 
 greater number than of the females) immedi- 
 ately 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 ob- 
 served 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 continu- 
 ance : 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 pur- 
 pose. 
 
 The ruff is highly esteemed as a most de- 
 licious dish, and is sought after with great
 
 454 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [RUF 
 
 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 wood- 
 cock. 
 
 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 sedu- 
 lously 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 Fen- 
 gate, 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 rea- 
 son, 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 re- 
 quired. 
 
 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 pre- 
 mises of others, produced many battles. 
 
 By this feeder we learned, that two gui- 
 neas 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 ; con- 
 tinued his route across the kingdom, to Holy- 
 head ; 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 some- 
 what different in the two seasons; in the 
 j 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 con- 
 tend for the females ; the nature of polyga- 
 mous 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 fow- 
 ler 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, accord- 
 ing 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 fur- 
 nished with a pulley, is easily pulled over the 
 birds within reach, and rarely fails taking all 
 within its grasp ; hut in order to give the pull 
 the greatest velocity, the net is, (if circum- 
 stances will permit) placed so as to fold over 
 with the wind : however there are some fow- 
 lers, 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 pre- 
 pares 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
 
 RUF] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 455 
 
 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 meaijs in- 
 ducing those on the wing to come and alight 
 by him. 
 
 The stuffed birds are prepared by filling 
 the skin with a whisp 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 an- 
 swers 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 distin- 
 guishing so small an object as a ruff at such 
 an immense distance, which, amongst a num- 
 ber of tufts or tumps, could not by us be dis- 
 tinguished from one of those inequalities ; but 
 their eyes ha(f 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 fowl- 
 ing, like other polygamous birds, keep in par- 
 ties separate from the female and her brood 
 till the return of spring. That some old ruffs 
 are occasionally taken in the autumnal fowl- 
 ing we have the assertion of experienced 
 fowlers, but we must admit that others de- 
 clare none are taken at this season. It must, 
 
 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 
 
 however, be recollected, that in the autumn 
 the characteristic long feathers have been dis- 
 charged, 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 character- 
 istic long feathers, which constitute their prin- 
 cipal distinction, are comparatively few to 
 those possessing the ruff: the opinion, there- 
 fore, 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 plu- 
 mage ; but we observed that those which had 
 the ruff more or less white, retained that co- 
 lour 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, surroundea 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 be- 
 ing 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. 
 
 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
 
 456 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Rus 
 
 dark-brown ; the lower part somewhat yel- 
 low, 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 sum- 
 mer, 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,*. 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 (Cant* Russianus), s. 
 
 This dog is of a large size, being consider- i Newfoundland dog. He was originally pro- 
 ably superior, in point of strength, to the | duced by a cross between the Newfoundland
 
 RYE] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 457 
 
 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 some- 
 times 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 em- 
 ployed for watching property, which he defends 
 with all the assiduity of a mastiff or New- 
 
 foundland 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 re- 
 sided twelve years in that country, that he 
 never even heard of a dog fight 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 cam- 
 phor, 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 win- 
 ter 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 mercu- 
 rial 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, *. A kind of strong grass.
 
 THE SALMON. 
 
 OACCADE, 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. 
 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 dis- 
 persed or has suppurated. If the matter has 
 not sufficient vent, the opening may be en- 
 
 larged or the sinus laid open, if there is any. 
 It must then be dressed with digestive oint- 
 ment, and when it has been reduced to the 
 state of a clear open sore, the cure may be 
 finished by the astringent paste White. 
 
 SADDLEBACKED, a. Horses saddlebacked have their backs low, and a 
 
 raised head and neck. 
 
 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, *. The male of a sakerhawk. 
 SALINE, a. Consisting of salt.
 
 SAL] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 459 
 
 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 offen- 
 sive 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 in- 
 judiciously salivated, many years before, by a 
 mercurial preparation applied by the keeper 
 for the cure of mange. The subinuriate 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 poin- 
 ter 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 tarta- 
 rised antimony (tartar emetic). When, there- 
 fore, a purgative is brought up again, in which 
 calomel was a component part, it may be sus- 
 pected to arise from this source, and, if it is 
 necessary to repeat the purge, the mercurial 
 should be omitted Bluiiie. 
 
 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 excres- 
 cence, 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 after- 
 wards 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 ob- 
 served 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 vio- 
 lent 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 aug- 
 ment 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 Wanrington has given an in- 
 stance 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 gos- 
 ling 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 swal- 
 low returns annually to its nest, as certainly 
 the salmon repairs to the same spot in which 
 to deposit its ova. Many interesting experi- 
 ments have established this fact. M. Do 
 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
 
 460 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [SAL 
 
 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 amaz- 
 ing 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 ra- 
 pidly 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 Phocse tribe, in breeding-time, 
 exercise a similar abstinence. On opening a 
 salmon, at any season, no food will be dis- 
 covered, 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, in- 
 sects (the Lernse Salmonese of Linnaeus) will 
 be perceived firmly adhering to the skin. Im- 
 mediately 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 con- 
 tinually drawing, night and day, the whole 
 season (nearly four months), two sets of six- 
 teen men each alternately relieving one ano- 
 ther. 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 ham- 
 let 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 
 
 82,991 
 
 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 agi- 
 tated 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
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 461 
 
 Street. N.B. It was the only salmon at 
 market. 
 
 * 
 
 La Fontaine gives an anecdote of a gour- 
 mand, -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 
 saknon." 
 
 * 
 
 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 re- 
 fused 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 Gal- 
 way 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 arti- 
 ficial 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 cou- 
 sin smiled ; when suddenly my nebulous spe- 
 culations were interrupted by a deep sluggish 
 roll at the dropper. " Monamondiaoul !" ex- 
 claimed Mortien Beg, as he caught a momen- 
 tary 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 light- 
 ness of the thistle's down at the same mo- 
 ment 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 exe- 
 crable to him who has felt the exquisite plea- 
 sure that attends the conquest of " the mon- 
 arch 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 un- 
 wearied 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 mas- 
 tered 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 fish- 
 eries, couched in terms expressive of the sim- 
 plicity 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
 
 462 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [SAL 
 
 gamine 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 di- 
 rected 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 pow- 
 dered 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 gradu- 
 ally 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 dou- 
 ble the quantity of dragon's-blood ; to make 
 the rod mottled, get green copperas and dis- 
 solve 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 pro- 
 portion. 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 mea- 
 sures 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
 
 SAN] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 463 
 
 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 sea- 
 son 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 silk- 
 worm gut, or the strongest single, with the 
 knots well whipped Daniel. 
 
 SALT, *. Salt is a body whose two essential properties seem to be solu- 
 bility 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, medi- 
 cinal 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 ani- 
 mal 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 
 
 SALTPETRE, s. Nitrate of potash. The chief ingredient in the composi- 
 tion of gunpowder. 
 SALTWATER, s. The water of the sea. 
 
 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 rub- 
 bish, 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 punch- 
 ed in the sides, to admit the beaks of the pi- 
 geons. These may be placed abroad Mou- 
 bray. 
 
 When on the sea, always use linseed oil 
 for even," 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 frac- 
 ture of the horn in the weakest part, that is, 
 at the upper part of the inner quarter. A 
 sandcrack almost always extends to the sen- 
 sible parts, and can seldom be cured if the 
 
 done is to open the crack with a drawing 
 knife, for it generally runs obliquely under 
 the horn, and cut out every hollow part com- 
 pletely, however far it may extend under the 
 crust. Every particle of horn that is hollow 
 or detached from the sensible parts iuust be 
 
 horse is kept in work. The first thing to be ! completely cut away; some tar ointment
 
 464 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 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 poul- 
 ticed 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 oint- 
 ment on the crack and adjacent horn. Ob- 
 serve, too, that the quarter where the crack is 
 must be rasped away as thin as possible. In 
 this way sandcracks may be always c,ured 
 without difficulty. The brittle state of the 
 hoof, however, must be corrected when the 
 
 SANDERLING, TORVILLEE, or CuRwiLLET(Charadrius CalidriS) LINN.; 
 Maubeche, BUFF.) s. A bird. 
 
 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 va- 
 pour 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. 
 
 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 arc 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.
 
 SAN] THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 SANDPIPER, s. A bird. 
 
 465 
 
 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 simi- 
 lar. Latham has enumerated thirty-seven 
 species and nine varieties of this genus, se- 
 venteen 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 hypoleu- 
 ctis, 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 co- 
 lour, 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 trans- 
 verse 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 con- 
 sists 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 coun- 
 try, but the species is not numerous ; yet they 
 are frequently seen in pairs during the sum- 
 mer 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 col- 
 lection 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 ; 
 H H
 
 466 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [SAN 
 
 coverts of the wings dusky, edged with dirty 
 white ; under side of the neck white, streaked 
 with black ; tbe 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 mid- 
 dle of the feathers dusky, down the shaft; 
 lower part of the neck and back, black ; the 
 feathers margined on the sides with pale fer- 
 ruginous, 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 co- 
 verts 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 mid- 
 dle 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, irre- 
 gularly disposed, but on the belly become 
 larger and more round; the tail short, en- 
 tirely 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 (TEau, BUFF.) This birc 
 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 cov- 
 
 Tts, 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 
 'orm two white oblique lines across the extend- 
 ed wings ; the two middle feathers of the tail 
 are greenish brown ; the sides ones white, 
 Tossed 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 ery- 
 thropus.) 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 irre- 
 gularly marked with black spots, reflecting a 
 purple gloss ; the shoulder and scapular fea- 
 thers 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 pre- 
 vious to stuffing was surprisingly large consi- 
 dering her bulk, being about the size of that 
 of a magpie, of a greenish w'hite 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,
 
 SAH] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 467 
 
 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 orni- 
 thology ; 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 de- 
 scribes this bird in the following manner : 
 Length from eight to ten inches ; bill brown, 
 one inch and a half long, and a little bent 
 down wards ; 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 ci- 
 nereous ; legs long and black. 
 
 Ash-coloured Sandpiper. {Tringa Ci- 
 nerea, 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 fea- 
 thers 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 Ame- 
 rica. Pennant says they appear in vast flocks 
 on the shores of Flintshire in the winter sea- 
 son; 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 Variee, BUFF.) Un- 
 der this name Latham describes this bird, which 
 it is said migrates from Sweden into England 
 at the approach of winter. He makes it a va- 
 riety 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 sand- 
 piper ; 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 ex- 
 tends 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 in- 
 side 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 de- 
 creasing in the number of bars towards the out- 
 side 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 moun- 
 tainous 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 remain- 
 ing 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 
 H H 2
 
 468 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 long, and pointed ; the wings chiefly black, 
 with a mixture of chestnut ; the four middle 
 tail feathers are hlack, the others white ; the 
 two middle ones are narrow, and exceed the 
 others three inches and a half ; legs of a dull 
 red ; claws hlack. 
 
 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, how- 
 ever, 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 fre- 
 quent in the north of Scotland and the Ork- 
 neys 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 soie 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 instru- 
 ment. 
 
 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, . The art of sliding.
 
 SCE] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 469 
 
 SCAUP DUCK, or SPOONBILL DUCK 
 
 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 
 
 (Nyroca marila, FLEM.), s. 
 
 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 tlus kingdom in winter, and is fre- 
 quently 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 com- 
 mon in Russia, Sweden, Norway, and Lap- 
 land ; 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 smeD. 
 
 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 hur- 
 ried 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 con- 
 tinues 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 some- 
 times be very good. A wet night often pro- 
 duces 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 in- 
 closures 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 favour- 
 able 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.
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [SCH 
 
 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 for- 
 merly employed as coasters. They are found 
 more manageable and weatherly, and in sail- 
 ing 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, vated at its base and salient ; nostril, at the 
 
 bulged at the point ; the two mandibles fur- sides of the base, slit lengthwise, near the 
 
 rowed about the half of their length; the point edges of the mandible, covered by a membrane; 
 
 of the upper mandible longer than the under, legs of mean length, slender, the naked space 
 
 the bulged part forming a hook ; ridge ele- above the knee very small ; three toes before
 
 Sco] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 471 
 
 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 Linnaeus amounts, according to Latham, to 
 ahout twenty species, besides varieties, of which 
 only the woodcock, common snipe, and jud- 
 cock, 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 wood- 
 
 cock, 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 fea- 
 tures 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 al- 
 most imperceptible variations, the connecting 
 links ; and those which may be said to com- 
 pose the curvature of the bottom, by grada- 
 tions 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 nor- 
 thern 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.
 
 472 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 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 con- 
 tortions. 
 
 SCREWDRIVER, s. An implement to turn screws. 
 
 SCRUPLE, s. Doubt ; perplexity ; twenty grains, the third part of a drachm. 
 
 SCULK, v. To lurk in hidingplaces, 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 unac- 
 quainted with rope and oar, it affords, at times, 
 an admirable amusement. 
 
 The coal-fishing requires a stiff hreeze, 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 aminnow, and the skin brought 
 three or four inches up the snoud. This lat- 
 ter 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 indiffer- 
 ent 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 substitut- 
 ing a salmon casting line of single gut, for the 
 hempen snoud commonly employed by fisher- 
 men, which with a newly-cut bait of phospo- 
 ric brilliancy, commonly overcame his resolve 
 against temptation. But there are times when 
 a change of weather, or some inexplicable phe- 
 nomena of sea or sky, render these fish dull 
 and cautious for usually it requires but tri- 
 fling 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 pre- 
 serve 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 se- 
 cured 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
 
 SED] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 473 
 
 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 ob- 
 serves, but one plank between you and eter- 
 nity. 
 
 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 there- 
 fore, 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. 
 la 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, *. The porpoise. 
 
 SEAMEW, s. A fowl that frequents the sea ; one of the gull tribe. 
 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 occasion- 
 ally ; 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 Dhu- 
 hilL 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 in- 
 stantly ; 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 me- 
 thod of effecting it is singular ; he uses nei- 
 ther 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 at- 
 tempt, 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 ex- 
 pertness generally despatches him with a sin- 
 gle blow. Wild Sports. 
 
 SEAU, 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.
 
 474 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [SET 
 
 SEDGY, a. Overgrown with narrow flags. 
 
 SEER, s. A gunlock spring-. 
 
 SEINE, *. 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, Towelling. 
 
 Setons consist of tape, threads, or lamp cot- 
 ton 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 in- 
 
 strument 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 conveni- 
 ent 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. (Cams Index, 
 variety a.) This breed was originally pro- 
 duced between the Spanish pointer and the 
 large water spaniel, and was famous on account 
 of his steadiness and exquisite sense of smell- 
 ing ; 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 recom- 
 mend him. Fine dogs of this kind were also 
 produced by a cross with the stag and blood 
 hounds. They united great strength, consider- 
 able swiftness, and were used for the chace in 
 some few instances. 
 
 The English Setter (Cants Index, va- 
 
 riety j8), 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
 
 SHA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 475 
 
 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 ut- 
 most natural sagacity as sporting dogs. At 
 ten months old, and before she had got a les- 
 son 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 hasagreat deal of hair 
 growing between the toes and round the ball 
 of the foot, of which the latter is almost des- 
 titute. 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 pur- 
 pose 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. 
 
 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 Bar- 
 ker, Mr. Oliver of Castle Oliver, Mr. Macar- 
 thy of Spring House, and many other gen- 
 tlemen 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 him- 
 self 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 sports- 
 men. 
 
 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 out- 
 ward conformation of all the parts, the cha- 
 racter, 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 preci- 
 
 pices or projecting cliffs which overhang the 
 sea, while the others make theirs on the sum- 
 mits above them ; and these are at once dis- 
 tinguished 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
 
 476 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 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 hack, 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 offish, 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. 
 
 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. 
 
 * * 
 
 " 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 meet- 
 ing the owner of the dog some time after- 
 wards, 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
 
 SHE] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 477 
 
 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 sepa- 
 rate 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, under- 
 ground, hi 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 adjoin- 
 ing 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 after- 
 wards 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 am- 
 ple 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 al- 
 ready 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 ap- 
 pears 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 re- 
 new the tender offices of cherishing and pro- 
 tecting 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 shel- 
 drake has been known to breed with the com- 
 mon duck ; but it is not well ascertained whe- 
 ther the hybrids thus produced will breed 
 
 again or not. 
 
 * * 
 
 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 Is- 
 lands 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 Bri- 
 tish 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 cover- 
 ing 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.
 
 478 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [SHE 
 
 SHERRY, *. A kind of sweet Spanish wine. 
 
 SHETLAND PONY, s. A horse peculiar to the Shetland isles. 
 
 Although the Shetland ponies are exceed- 
 ingly 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 
 case. 
 
 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
 
 SHO] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 479 
 
 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 
 
 sole is destroyed, and it can no longer descend, 
 and the functions of the foot are impeded, 
 and foundation is laid for corn, and contrac- 
 tion, and navicular disease, and inflammation. 
 That portion of horn should be left on the 
 
 taken off. We have something to observe j sole, which will defend the internal parts from 
 even on this. It was retained on the foot by | being bruised, and yet suffer the external sole 
 the ends of the nails being twisted off, turned ' to descend. How is this to be measured ? 
 down, and clenched. These clenches should j The strong pressure of the thumb of the 
 be first raised, which the smith seldom takes ' smith will be the best guide. The buttress, 
 the trouble thoroughly to do ; but after going that most destructive of all instruments, being 
 carelessly round the crust, and raising one or banished from the respectable forge, the smith 
 two of the clenches, he takes hold first of sets to work with his drawing knife, and he 
 one heel of the shoe, and then of the other, ! removes the growth of horn until the sole will 
 and by a violent wrench separates them from j yield, although in the slightest possible degree, 
 the foot, and by a third wrench, applied to the j to the very strong pressure of his thumb, 
 middle of the shoe, he tears it off. By this j The proper thickness of horn will then re- 
 
 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 annoy- 
 ance, 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 vio- 
 lence 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 impos- 
 sible 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 ex- 
 tent. The act of paring is a work of much 
 more labour than the proprietor of the horse 
 often imagines ; the smith, except he be over- 
 looked, will give himself as little trouble 
 about it as he can ; and that, which in the un- 
 shod foot would be worn away by contact 
 with the ground, is suffered to accumulate 
 month after month, until the elasticity of the 
 
 main. 
 
 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 me- 
 thod 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 considera- 
 bly 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
 
 480 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 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, remov- 
 ing that which is the main impediment to con- 
 traction. 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 pro- 
 minent, 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 en- 
 couraged, 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 direc- 
 tion which is given to the bearing at the heels, 
 when the bar does not contribute to the sup- 
 port of the weight. 
 
 It will also be apparent that the horn be- 
 tween the crust and the bar should be care- 
 fully pared out. Every horseman has ob- 
 served the relief which is given to the animal 
 lame with corns when this angle is well 
 thinned ; a relief, however, which is but tem- 
 porary, 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 promi- 
 nence, 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 es- 
 pecially 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 care- 
 
 less, 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 de- 
 struction of its function, and to its own cer- 
 tain disease, and also to press upon and to 
 batter and to bruise that part of the foot 
 which is soonest and most destructively in- 
 jured. 
 
 The Hinder Shoe In forming the hinder 
 shoe it should be remembered that the hind 
 limbs are the principal instruments in pro- 
 gression, that in every act of progression, ex- 
 cept 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
 
 Suo] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 481 
 
 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 advan- 
 tage. 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 re- 
 gard 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, be- 
 cause, 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 cau- 
 tion 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 acknow- 
 ledged 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. Suf- 
 ficient 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 like- 
 wise 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 slip- 
 ping. 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 use- 
 ful 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 com, 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 ten- 
 der, 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 ex- 
 tended 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 re- 
 quired 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 con- 
 tract 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 ex- 
 pansion 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 oc- 
 cupy the same situation as in the common shoe, 
 and prevent, as do <he nails of the common 
 shoe, the gradual expansion of the sides and 
 quarters, and allow only of a hinge-like mo- 
 tion at the toe. This is a most imperfect ac- 
 commodation of the expansion of the foot to 
 the action of its internal parts, and even this 
 accommodation is affprded in the slightest 
 possible degree, or rather can scarcely be af- 
 forded at all. Either the nails fix the sides 
 and quarters as in the common shoe, and 
 I I
 
 482 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Sno 
 
 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, hut will often tear away portions of 
 the crust. This has, in many cases, been 
 found to he 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, run- 
 ning 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 particu- 
 larly 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 con- 
 traction, 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 ani-thanks of the public, although 
 their labours may not be crowned with suc- 
 cess. 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 sad- 
 dlers, 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 pre- 
 vent injury to it, during a journey of thirty 
 or forty miles. 
 
 Felt or Leather Soles When the foot i 
 
 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 some- 
 times placed between the seating of the shoe 
 and the crust, which, from its want of elasti- 
 city, deadens, or materially lessens the vibra- 
 tion 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 swel- 
 ling of the felt or leather, from the effect of 
 moisture or dryness, will soon render the at- 
 tachment 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 tempo- 
 rary 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 exceed- 
 ingly difficulty 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, clas- 
 tic 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 in- 
 jure 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 he shown how to 
 put it to his shoulder, with the breach and sight 
 on a level, and make himself master of bring- 
 ing them up to a wafer. 
 
 Then, with a wooden or bone driver (in- 
 stead 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 pbject,
 
 SHO] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 483 
 
 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 ne- 
 ver 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 execu- 
 tion on a slow and good principle. 
 
 
 As shots in the field, at game, Mr. Jen- 
 kins, 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, wood- 
 cock, 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 de- 
 ceives 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 
 jet before you, push him hard for a long time, 
 always letting him have rather the advantage, 
 and then give him the double without his see- 
 ing 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, espe- 
 cially in clean barrels ; if it happens that a 
 space of sixteen or eighteen inches is thus ob- 
 tained, 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 dis- 
 cards it the better. An injured barrel or en- 
 feebled 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 con- 
 stant wear and tear exhibited unequivocal 
 weakness in the locks, and which I had been 
 earnestly recommended by a" veteran sports- 
 man to condemn. On a cold and rainy day, 
 
 I was with my friend O'M , shooting 
 
 woodcocks in the heath, and having sprung se- 
 veral, which from the severity of the weather 
 112
 
 484 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Suo 
 
 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 se- 
 curing, 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 mi- 
 raculous. 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, hav- 
 ing flashed off his gun, which was single bar- 
 relled 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, contain- 
 ing 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 par- 
 ticulars have been ascertained, of the nume- 
 rous accidents of tho 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 
 si 
 
 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 shoot- 
 ing, or otherwise, wrap the part affected im- 
 mediately 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 be- 
 fore 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 mo- 
 tion, or go to bed, till one can he procured. 
 Or, if you want to start again, when refreshed, 
 first wet your feet with either spirits or es- 
 sence 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 
 DanielWild Sports. 
 
 SHOOTER, *. 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 pa- 
 tent milled shot is, at this time, to be pre- 
 ferred to all other sorts, and is in such gene- 
 
 ral use, that the instructions which here fol- 
 low 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
 
 SHO] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 485 
 
 between the sizes of patent and of common 
 shot, will be hereafter shown by means of a 
 table, denoting the number of pellets con- 
 tained 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 propor- 
 tion the size of his shot, as well to the parti- 
 cular 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 dis- 
 tance 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 co- 
 vered 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 mus- 
 tard-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 rabbikshooting. 
 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 num- 
 ber five, for one partridge which he might 
 chance to kill with a single pellet at the dis- 
 tance 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 gar- 
 nishing 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 gar- 
 nishes but very little, if any at all. 
 
 In order, therefore, to show clearly, and at 
 one view, the comparative difference in gar- 
 nishing 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 com- 
 mon, 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 . I 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. 
 
 LG ... 54 
 
 M G . . . hardly 9 
 
 SG 1 
 
 SSG . . . 15 
 
 SSSG . . . 17 
 
 PATENT SHOT. 
 
 No. of pellets to 1 oz. 
 A A . . 40 
 
 A . . , *: 50 
 
 BB . . . - 58 
 
 B . *<> 75 
 
 1 i, ' . 82 
 
 2 -* . ; ''-{ 112 
 
 3 . . *mVJ 135 
 
 4 , ." * . 177 
 
 5 . *-.'- . . . 218 
 
 6 ... 280 
 
 7 V, . 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
 
 486 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [SHo 
 
 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, hut 
 could not find sufficient advantage in either 
 to justify my recommending them. The ob- 
 ject of both is to prevent the gun from lead- 
 ing ; arid 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 he thereby de- 
 rived. * 
 
 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 diffi- 
 culty 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 mus- 
 cles 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 after- 
 wards. 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 Septem- 
 ber 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 th 
 season, No. 4 or 5, as the gun may shoot close 
 or scatter : if it scatter, the smaller shot o 
 the two. 
 
 * 
 
 The greater or lesser diameter of the bore 
 cannot produce any sensible difference in tli 
 
 loseness or wideness with which the shot is 
 hrown, provided the charge be the same in 
 ioth pieces. We have subjected this matter 
 o the test of experiment, and the result has 
 accordingly been that a barrel of 22 or 24, 
 vhich is the largest calibre usually employed 
 n fowling-pieces, threw its shot as closely as 
 me of the smallest calibre, viz. of 30 or 32. 
 There is a curious circumstance attending 
 he shot of barrels, which is, that sometimes 
 he grains of lead, instead of being equally 
 distributed over the space they strike, are 
 ,hrown in clusters of ten, twelve, fifteen, or 
 more, whilst several considerable spaces have 
 not a single grain in them ; sometimes a clus- 
 ter of this kind consists of one-third or one- 
 lalf of the charge, and it also happens some- 
 :imes, though more rarely, that the whole 
 iharge collects itself into one mass, so as to 
 aierce a board near an inch thick, at the dis- 
 tance of forty or forty-five paces. Small bar- 
 rels 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 men- 
 tions 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 pre- 
 paring the lead for this particular manufacture. 
 Essay on Shooting Hawker Hints 
 to Grown Sportsmen.
 
 SHO] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 487 
 
 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. 
 
 SIIOUGH, s. A kind of shaggy dog, a shock. 
 SHOULDER, *. 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, . Strained in the shoulder. 
 SHOULDERSLIP, s. Dislocation of the shoulder. 
 SHOVELLER, s. A bird of the duck tribe. 
 
 Blue Wing Shoveller, Kertlucock, or 
 Jiroad 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 wi- 
 thered 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.
 
 488 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [SHE 
 
 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 Linnaeus (Le Souchet 
 
 a venire blanc of Brisson) differs only from 
 this in having the belly white, and is consi- 
 dered merely as a variety of the same species. 
 Red-breasted Shoveler Size of a com- 
 mon 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, *. 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 be- 
 holding ; 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, o. Made of silver ; white like silver ; having a pale lustre ; soft 
 of voice. 
 
 SINEW, 5. 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 glu- 
 tinous 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.
 
 SLE] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 489 
 
 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, o. 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 ferru- 
 ginous ; 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 ap- 
 proaches 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, *. 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, *. 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.
 
 490 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 SLEEK, a. Smooth, glossy ; the state of a horse's or clog'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 sound- 
 est 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 pro- 
 duced by the wind increases, doubtless, the dis- 
 position 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 parti- 
 cular 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 nights 
 jars. The nightingale, and a few other song- 
 birds, are also wakeful while in sons;, during at 
 least some portion of the night Montagu. 
 
 SLIME, *. 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 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. 
 SLOW, a. Not swift, not quick of motion ; late, not happening in a short 
 
 time ; not ready, not quick ; dull, inactive. 
 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. 
 SLUG, 5. 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, .v. Power of smelling ; the sense of which the nose is the organ ; 
 
 scent.
 
 SMK] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 491 
 
 SMELT, s. A small sea fish. It is of the salmon species, and in the spawn- 
 ing 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 re- 
 marked, 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 lias 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 mi- 
 croscope 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 thir- 
 teen inches long, and weighed half a pound ; 
 they are often sold in the London streets un- 
 der the name of dried sparlings, being split 
 and dried, and are recommended by the gen- 
 tlemen 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 to- 
 gether. 
 
 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.
 
 492 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [SMI 
 
 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,*. Anything set to catch an animal, agin, 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, *. obs. The fat of a deer. 
 SNIPE, *. 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 lon- 
 gitudinal 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 longi- 
 tudinal 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 ferru- 
 ginous ; lower breast and belly white ; vent 
 brown ; upper tail coverts brown, barred with 
 black ; the tail consists of fourteen black fea- 
 thers, 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
 
 SNI] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 493 
 
 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 \ve 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 some- 
 times 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 alter- 
 nately 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 
 fourinches 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 ; be- 
 neath 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 spe- 
 cimen 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 vici- 
 nity of that place ; the marshes, however, fre- 
 quented by those birds, are not very exten- 
 sive, 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 eat- 
 ing ; four couple was the greatest number of 
 those birds that I ever killed in Sweden in 
 any one day. They were by no means plen- 
 tiful in the vicinity of Gottenburg. 
 
 * 
 
 The double snipe is a bird of passage, and 
 among those which arrive the latest ; in co- 
 lour 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 ; hut 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 larvae, 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 Il- 
 lyria, common snipes were seen in the middle
 
 494 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 of July. The first double snipes appeared the 
 first week in September, when likewise wood- 
 cocks were seen ; the first jack-snipe seen, did 
 not appear until three weeks later than the 
 29th of September. I was informed at Co- 
 penhagen, 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 in- 
 forms me, that in the great royal decoy, or 
 marsh preserve, near Hanover, he has had 
 ocular proof of double snipes being rased 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 
 tribuse, or congenerous flies. 
 
 Snipe Shooting Snipes when plenty af- 
 ford very excellent sport, it being allowed to 
 be the pleasantest, on account of the quick 
 succession of shots; this is also the best shoot- 
 ing for practice, seldom failing to make indif- 
 ferent 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 Got- 
 tenburg, 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 mode- 
 rate, or from the eastward, and the water con- 
 sequently 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 he able 
 to go out of a very slow pace, and, if under 
 good command, will give the most satisfac- 
 tion. 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 accus- 
 tomed 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 con- 
 ceives 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,
 
 SON] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 495 
 
 and after shooting at it for the whole season, 
 he happened to be crossing the hog 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 Quarter- 
 master Molloy." 
 
 In Ireland, in the bottoms of the county of 
 Limerick, about Charleville, these birds are 
 in the greatest abundance, as it is not uncom- 
 mon to hear of a person shooting twenty brace 
 of them in the morning. The late Sir George 
 Dunbar, of the 14th regiment of Light Dra- 
 goons, 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 fol- 
 low these birds, and others who net them, yet 
 you find always enough of sport the day fol- 
 lowing ; 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. 
 
 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 
 
 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 Harrington), 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 in- 
 nate, 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 
 
 love ; and the peculiar note of each is an un- 
 erring mark for each to discover its own spe- 
 cies. 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 pro- 
 bable 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
 
 496 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Sou 
 
 be destitute of its native notes ; for if nest- 
 ling 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 con- 
 tiguous, or when hatched or fostered by a dif- 
 ferent species. * 
 
 Although there appears considerable force 
 in these arguments of Montagu, I am dis- 
 posed 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 differ- 
 ence 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 ca- 
 nary and other hard-billed songsters. In a com- 
 prehensive sense, the complete song of birds 
 includes all the notes they are capable of ut- 
 tering ; and, taken in this sense, it is analo- 
 gous to the speech of man. It is the vehicle 
 through which these little creatures commu- 
 nicate 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 mo- 
 ment. 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. 
 
 ThirdThe 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 di- 
 vided 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 charm- 
 ing 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 endear- 
 ing 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 car 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, *. Strong decoction of flesh for the table. 
 
 adds also a cabbage ; here John Bull may 
 please himself.) Put them into two quarts 
 of water, to simmer away till reduced to three 
 
 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 
 
 pints. Let him season the soup to the taste,
 
 SPA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 497 
 
 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 mi- 
 nutes, 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 
 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 an- 
 chovies, you will, it is presumed, find an ex- 
 cellent 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. 
 
 should fall into disrepute. 
 Sow, s. A female pig, the female of a boar ; an oblong mass of lead ; an 
 
 insect, a millepede. 
 
 SPADE,*. 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 de- 
 rived from its supposed original country, Spain. 
 
 The sub- varieties are a, The smaller 
 spaniel, with a small round head, the cars 
 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. leo- 
 ninus, LINN. ; /, 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, Cant* aqua* 
 ticus, LINN. ; chien barbat, BUFF. 
 
 Sub- varieties a, small water spaniel, petit 
 barbel, BUFF. ; chien griffon, a dog between 
 the water spaniel and the shepherd's dog 
 Elaine. 
 
 K K
 
 498 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [SPA 
 
 SPAR, v. To fight like cocks with prelusive strokes ; to box with gloves. 
 SPARK, s. A small particle of fire, or kindled matter j 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, sur- 
 rounding 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 ru- 
 fous ; 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 be- 
 come 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 frag- 
 ments 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, seem- 
 ingly as an extraordinary circumstance, that 
 "in the trees before Mr. Level'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 usu- 
 ally (pour Vordinaire) builds near the tops 
 of trees," while its nestling under tiles is an 
 accidental exception. In the vicinity of Lon- 
 don 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 dia- 
 meter 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 con- 
 trary, 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 \ipon 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 prospec- 
 tively 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
 
 SPA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 499 
 
 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 neighbour- 
 hood 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 co- 
 lour, 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 yel- 
 lowish. 
 
 Sparrow Shooting If, however, there 
 
 are persons who still think the practice of shoot- 
 ing swallows to be of assistance in acquiring 
 the art, we will venture to recommend ano- 
 ther mode which is nearly similar, but, in our 
 opinion, much better. This is, by putting small 
 pieces of white paper round the necks of spar- 
 rows, 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 se- 
 
 cure it from external injury : from this pro- 
 jection 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 tho 
 back part of the head there is a faint line of 
 white ; the scapulars are marked with two spots 
 i of white on each feather ; the greater quill fea- 
 K K 2
 
 500 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 there and the tail are dusky, with four hars 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 faintl y 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 bare on his breast are more nume- 
 
 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 va- 
 rious 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. Ed- 
 wards mentions two having been taken in 
 England by coming down chimneys. In 
 1808, one was shot by Mr. Cornyns, 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 en- 
 largement 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 catch- 
 ing 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 some- 
 times 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 prac- 
 tised at the Veterinary College, in preference 
 to firing. I have never tried this remedy, 
 being satisfied that firing is the best, and in- 
 deed 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 conspicu- 
 ous 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 occa- 
 sioning any inconvenience, and then it is 
 better to leave it alone White. 
 
 SPAWN,,J.- The eggs offish 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 tinguishable, and may be drawn out and cut 
 in the flank on one side, when the ovaria, off, first one and then the other ; securing the 
 being enlarged by pregnancy, are readily dis- ends by a ligature lightly applied to each sur-
 
 STA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 501 
 
 face, 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 com- 
 monly prove short-lived Blaine. 
 
 SPEAR, *. A long- weapon with a sharp point, used in thrusting or throw- 
 ing ; 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, *. 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 mi- 
 nutes. He employed ten horses, and allow- 
 ing 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 1 745, 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 allow- 
 ing the least possible time for changing horses, 
 twenty miles an hour for eleven hours, and 
 on the turnpike road and \ineven 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 pro- 
 cure 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 accom- 
 plished it on fourteen horses, and one day he 
 rode 160 miles, on account of the tiring of 
 
 his first horse. Mr. Hull's Quibbler, how- 
 ever, 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 New- 
 market, in fifty-seven minutes and ten se- 
 conds. 
 
 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. Fly- 
 ing Childers, whose speed was almost pro- 
 verbial, 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, how- 
 ever, 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 induce- 
 ment 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.
 
 502 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Spi 
 
 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 un- 
 realities 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 
 
 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, whe- 
 ther ' 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 as- 
 sistant spilleteer, gaff in hand, to the quarter. 
 
 the state of affairs in ten fathom of water ; and ! Alas ! the turbot in expectation, turns out to 
 
 if you shoot in foul ground, you will probably 
 lose the spillet, or, with a world of labour, dis- 
 entangle a moiety from rocks and sea-weed. 
 Should it, however, have escaped those casu- 
 alties, after a two hours' probation, while you 
 
 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. 
 
 able, though they have the power of bending 
 the neck Montagu. 
 
 Spine of Birds The back-bone of birds, 
 
 unlike that of some other animals, is immove- 
 
 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. 
 
 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 
 
 A horse often becomes lame when throw- 
 ing 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
 
 SPR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 503 
 
 often produce a considerable swelling of the stantly wet. I have seen a good effect from 
 
 whole limb, and do a great deal of mischief, diluted vinegar also. 
 
 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 con- 
 
 SATURNrNE LOTION. 
 
 Superacetate of lead . I 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.), *. 
 
 Weight about three pounds and a half ; 
 length two feet eight inches ; the bill is near 
 seven inches long, and three quarters of an 
 
 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 
 
 inch broad in the narrowest part ; two inches | joint of the outer, and first joint of the inner 
 
 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 seve- 
 ral indentations and dotted protuberances ; 
 the hides 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 
 
 The spoonbill is rarely met with in Eng- 
 land. 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, *. 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. Main- 
 spring, the principal spring in a gun-lock. 
 
 If the mainspring be too strong, in propor- 
 tion to that of the hammer, the cock is often 
 broken for want of resistance, and if the ham- 
 mer or feather spring be too stiff, or should 
 shut down with too much force, it becomes 
 difficult to throw it, even with a strong main- 
 spring. 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
 
 504 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [SPR 
 
 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 re- 
 quires an accession of force after it has reco- 
 
 vered 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 con- 
 siderably larger than the other, and known by 
 the name of the springing spaniel ; it is appli- 
 cable 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, ex- 
 cept 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 shoot- 
 ing, both the springer and the cocker give 
 tongue the moment theyeither smell or see 
 game ; and this gives intimation to the sports- 
 men, who generally station themselves on the 
 skirts of the wood or covert to which wood- 
 cocks, 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 pur- 
 sue 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 plea- 
 sure he experiences in being thus employed, 
 by the perpetual motion of his tail, which is 
 termedfeathering amongst sportsmen ; and upon 
 the increasing vibration of which the experi- 
 enced 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 endea- 
 vours 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
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 505 
 
 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 ; leav- 
 
 ing 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, pos- 
 sesses 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 dis- 
 tinction 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 wag- 
 tail, 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 Sep- 
 tember. It frequents arable land, especially 
 in the more champaign parts ; sometimes un- 
 cultivated 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, bas- 
 tard. 
 
 SPURLING, *. 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. 
 
 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 
 
 Within the memory of some of the old per- 
 sons 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 pur- 
 pose of killing them. They were furnished 
 with short sticks, with lead at one end, with 
 
 squirrels were in consequence destroyed, and 
 it is now but seldom that one is seen.
 
 506 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Sr* 
 
 Cat and Squirrels. A boy lias 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 corro- 
 borates my suspicion, that the mention of ex- 
 posed 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 cir- 
 cumstance shows her affection for these fond- 
 lings, 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 plaislrs 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, hut that in other seasons they 
 are equally prolific. The subject was intro- 
 duced 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 lar- 
 ger, and his horns round, whereas, in the fal-
 
 STA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 507 
 
 low species, they are broad and palmate*!. By 
 these the animal's age is ascertained. During 
 the first year the stag lias no horns, but a horny 
 excrescence, which is short and rough, and co- 
 vered 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 imbeci- 
 lity, 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 usu- 
 ally 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 perios- 
 teum 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 tu- 
 mour, 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 cover- 
 ing, 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 ex- 
 ternal surface being stripped off by degrees, the 
 horns acquire their complete hardness, expan- 
 
 sion, 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 emas- 
 culated 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 fe- 
 male, 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 vic- 
 tory. 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 undis- 
 turbed master of the field. The old ones are 
 generally the conquerors upon these occasions, 
 as they have more strength and greater cou- 
 rage, 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
 
 508 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [S 
 
 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 Amer- 
 ica ; it abounds in the southern parts of Si- 
 beria, 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 su- 
 preme 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 occa- 
 sionally 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 excep- 
 tions 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 ob- 
 scure 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 con- 
 ceal 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 be- 
 fore 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 Lap- 
 landers 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 keep- 
 ing large flocks of them ; but when the French 
 took possession of that island, they destroyed 
 most of these domesticated stags. Valmont 
 de Bromere nsserts 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 Chan- 
 tilly, 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.
 
 STA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 509 
 
 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 leap- 
 ing 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, collect- 
 ing his strength, gave a bound which so sur- 
 prised those that saw it, that it is commemo- 
 rated by two posts, fixed at the extremity of 
 the leap : the space between them is some- 
 thing more than eighteen yards. The stag's 
 rutting season is in August, and continues 
 about three weeks, when he becomes a dan- 
 gerous 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 sel- 
 dom more than one young, which she resolutely 
 protects from every enemy, and carefully con- 
 ceals 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 mild- 
 ness or rigour of the season. They separate 
 in the spring ; the hinds retire to bring forth, 
 while none but the young ones remain toge- 
 ther. Stags are gregarious, delight to graze 
 in company, and are separated but by danger 
 or necessity. 
 
 
 
 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 hi- 
 therto 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 herds- 
 man 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. 
 
 
 
 I will not pretend to describe the anxious, 
 nay agonising hour that I passed in this high- 
 land ambuscade. The deep stillness of the 
 waste was not broken even by the twittering 
 of a bird. From the place where I lay con- 
 cealed, 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 small- 
 est noise was instantly detected, and the tick- 
 ing 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 en-
 
 510 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 tered the gorge of the pass, and approach the 
 rock that covers ine, in a gentle canter ! 
 
 To sink upon one knee and cock both bar- 
 rels was a moment's work. Reckless of dan- 
 ger, 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 splin- 
 tered 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 ant- 
 ler, and, excepting this trifling graze, he went 
 off at a thundering pace, uninjured. 
 * * 
 
 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 suc- 
 ceeded, and the stag sprang full six feet from 
 the ground, and tumbling over and over re- 
 peatedly, dropped upon the bent-grass with a 
 
 rifle-bullet in his heart. 
 
 
 
 In addition to a herd of fallow deer, amount- 
 ing to about one thousand six hundred, which 
 are kept in Richmond Park, there is gene- 
 rally 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 sea- 
 sons, is returned to the park, to end his days 
 there, he is generally more fierce and dange- 
 rous than any of the others at a particular sea- 
 son of the year. At that time it is sometimes 
 not safe to approach him : and the keepers in- 
 form me that they have been obliged to fire at 
 them with buck shot, when they have been 
 attacked by them. They account for this fe- 
 rocity, by the circumstance of the deer having 
 been much handled, and consequentlyrendered 
 more familiar with, and less afraid of, those 
 whom they would naturally shun. It is some- 
 times very difficult to take stags for hunting. 
 One fine stag was so powerful, and offered so 
 much resistance, that two of his legs were bro- 
 ken 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 curi- 
 
 ous 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 compa- 
 nions. 
 
 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, re- 
 specting 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 hap- 
 pened 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 ano- 
 ther animal, is not a little remarkable. 
 * 
 
 Of the stag's longevity much has been 
 asserted, which latter observations have re- 
 futed, and upon the received maxim, that 
 animals live seven times the number -of years 
 that bring them to perfection, and this requir- 
 ing six to arrive at its maturity, the stag's 
 
 age may be fixed at nearly forty years. > 
 * 
 
 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 in- 
 stant 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 te- 
 dious, 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, in- 
 stead of attacking the deer, with a furious and 
 elastic bounce, he sprang at, and cleared the
 
 STA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 511 
 
 toiling that enclosed him ; great indeed was 
 the confusion amongst the affrighted multi- 
 tude, every one imagining him or herself the 
 destined victim to the tiger's rage, who, re- 
 gardless 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 fast- 
 ened, and brought it to the ground. His 
 keepers, to whom he was perfectly familiar- 
 ised, 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 mo- 
 ment, hoodwinked, and led him away with it in 
 his mouth. 
 
 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 break- 
 fast you sit down to here. Were I to de- 
 scribe their manner of hunting, their infinity 
 of dogs, their number of huntsmen, their re- 
 lays of horses, their great saddles, great bits, 
 and jack-boots, it would be no more to our pre- 
 sent purpose than the description of a wild 
 boar chase in Germany, or the hunting of 
 jackalls in Bengal. C'est une chasse mag- 
 nifique, et voila tout. However, to give 
 
 you an idea of their huntsmen, I must tell 
 you that one day the stag (which is very un- 
 usual) broke cover, and left the forest ; a cir- 
 cumstance 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, "Allans 
 piqueur, sautes; done," " Non pardi," 
 replied he, very coolly, "c'est un double 
 fosse je ne saute pas des double fosses." 
 There was also an odd accident the same day, 
 even to the king himself, you may think in- 
 teresting ; besides it was the occasion of a bon 
 mot worth your hearing The king, eager in 
 the pursuit, rode into a bog, and was dis- 
 mounted : 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 dis- 
 tance behind, no sooner saw the king off his 
 horse, but he rode up full gallop to know the 
 cause, " Qw' est ce que c' est $ qu' est ce 
 que c' est?" cries the old general, and in he 
 tumbles into the same bog. Count Keven- 
 huller, with great humour, replied, pointing 
 to the place, " Voila ce que c'est ! voila 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 (Cam's 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
 
 512 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 has a most commanding and dignified aspect, 
 blended with every mark of intellectual mild- 
 ness. 
 
 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 rea- 
 sons for believing this to be the case, as their 
 figures and instinctive properties are nearly 
 allied in all of these kinds ; the principal dif- 
 ference 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 devi- 
 ations 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 im- 
 proved cross between the old English southeni 
 hound and the fleeter foxhound, grafted upon 
 the bloodhound. * * * 
 
 Things gradually continue thus to improve 
 in proportion as the face of the country be- 
 comes more cultivated, till animals of the 
 chace are greatly reduced in number, so 
 much so, that even the stag is now but sel- 
 dom 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 free- 
 dom in those extensive moors upon the bor- 
 ders 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 mag- 
 nificence of the justly celebrated Lake of 
 Killarney, where they are pursued with hound 
 and horn. * * * 
 
 There is a fine breed of buck-hounds in 
 Richmond Park, and their sagacity is very ex- 
 traordinary. 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 
 snccession, 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 requi- 
 site signal given to them, and they immedi- 
 ately 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 ac- 
 tive 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 in- 
 tended 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 horse- 
 man 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 1 . 
 STAGGERS, *. 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.
 
 STA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 513 
 
 STAKE, $. 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, *. 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. 
 STALLIOX, 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 ; station- 
 ary 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, *. A fish branching out into several points. 
 STAR HAWK, s. A kind of hawk. 
 STARLING or STARE, (Sturnus vulgar is, LINN. ; L'Etourneau, BUFF.)*. 
 
 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 
 L L
 
 514 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 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 evi- 
 dently 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 fami- 
 liar bird, and easily trained in a state of cap- 
 tivity, 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 as- 
 semble 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 dif- 
 ferent kind, and are frequently seen in com- 
 pany with red-wings, fieldfares, and even with 
 crows, jackdaws, and pigeons. Their princi- 
 pal food consists of worms, snails, and cater- 
 pillars; 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. 
 
 * * 
 
 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. 
 
 * 
 
 Before I conclude under the head of star- 
 lings, 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. Macil- 
 wain (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 thun- 
 der. 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 hun- 
 dred and forty-three, as fast as they could be 
 picked up, and the workmen, when the reeds 
 were cut down, declared that they found be- 
 tween 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 confi- 
 dent that at least five hundred fell in this 
 one vollev 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.
 
 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. 
 
 STI] THE FIELD BOOK. 5J5 
 
 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 consi- 
 dered as the time of starting for that race. 
 And lie shall make a report thereof to the 
 keeper of the match-book in the afternoon of 
 
 STARTLE, v. To frig-bt, 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.), *. 
 
 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 hody, 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 men- 
 tion of any white on the forehead, such is 
 probably another variety. The female has 
 no white ahout the head Montagu. 
 
 STERNA (LiNN.), s. Tern, a genus thus characterised : 
 
 Bill as long, or longer than the head, almost I small, naked to above the knee ; shank very 
 
 straight, compressed, fringed, cutting and 
 pointed ; the mandibles of equal length, the 
 upper slightly inclined towards the point ; nos- 
 trils towards the middle of the bill, slit length- 
 wise, and pierced from part to part; legs 
 
 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 or superior in pond fishing for perch ; they 
 
 country, and is called by several names in may be taken with the least sized hook, and 
 
 different parts of it ; they are not worthy a bit of small red worm, and are found in 
 
 the angler's notice, except as baits with the little inlets of streams, and also in stagnated 
 
 prickles cut off (which kills the fish), for waters. Walton considers the stickleback 
 
 which purpose thev are equal to the minnow, preferable to the minnow, as being capable of 
 
 L L 2
 
 516 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [STi 
 
 whirling round quicker, which is the perfec- 
 tion of this sort of fishing : to acquire this ve- 
 locity, 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 be- 
 hind, 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, disloca- 
 tion 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 some- 
 times 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 I destruction of the hare, and all other sorts of 
 mischievous with the weasel in pursuit and | game, poultry, and eggs, has, from its habits
 
 STO] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 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 hair}-, 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 resem- 
 bles the weasel in colour and form. In the 
 most northern parts of Europe the stoat re- 
 gularly changes its colour in winter, and be- 
 comes 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 follow- 
 ing 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 Horn- 
 
 dean, 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 preci- 
 sion. 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 atten- 
 tive 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 mi- 
 nutes ; 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 re- 
 markable 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 re- 
 sembling 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 neces- 
 sary ; the latter is given to birds which feed 
 upon flesh or fish, and whose digestion is ac- 
 
 celerated 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 (Falconidte, 
 LEACH), and owl (Strigida, 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 use-
 
 518 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Sro 
 
 fill, 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 fa- 
 culties are deranged. We have known in- 
 stances 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 gra- 
 vel, 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 younsr. 
 
 '* 
 
 DISEASES OF THE STOMACH. 
 
 Flatulent colic, gripes, fyc This is a dis- 
 order of considerable importance, and often 
 terminates in inflammation of the bowels, en- 
 tirely from the circumstance of not being suf- 
 ficiently 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 pre- 
 viously in good health. The horse is some- 
 times 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 carmi- 
 native 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, ho\vever, where the stomach has 
 been so injured by ill treatment, that a more 
 powerful medicine is required. The follow- 
 ing tincture should then be given in the dose 
 I shall soon name. Brandy and water, how- 
 ever, 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 re- 
 
 lief, 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 avoid- 
 ing 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 coecum, by which the valvular orifice is so 
 completely obstructed, that it cannot be over- 
 come by any efforts of the stomach, though 
 excited by opium and the most powerful car- 
 minatives. 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 faeces from the ceecum. By 
 this means the animals may always be re- 
 lieved, 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 per- 
 spiration, 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 some- 
 times forces a portion of them through the me- 
 sentery, in such a manner that one coil of it 
 becomes so completely tied that the included 
 air cannot escape. 
 
 ANODYNE CARMINATIVE TINCTURES, RECOM- 
 MENDED 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 infu-
 
 STO] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 519 
 
 sion of some aromatic herb, such as pepper- 
 mint, pennyroyal, camomile, &c. Mr. Bracey 
 Clarke recommends a tincture made with all- 
 spice, bruised, half a pound ; brandy, gin, or 
 rum, two quarts. The following mixture has 
 been found effectual. 
 
 Camphor . . . ^ 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 drow- 
 siness, resting the nose in the manger, or in- 
 clining the head, and resting the cheek, or 
 bearing against the wall. The head is forced 
 against the manger, or rack, or the nose be- 
 tween 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 appear- 
 ance 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 dis- 
 order 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 i 
 forcing his head against the hedge, or a gate, 
 or moving about in a state of stupor and ap- 
 parent 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 reme- 
 dies 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 mus- 
 tard, 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 teaspoon- 
 ful or two of compound spirit of ammonia (sal 
 volatile) be added to it, the effect will be pro- 
 moted. 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, *. A horse not castrated; a stallion. 
 STONEPLOVER, s. A bird, commonly called the red godwit. 
 STOOLBALL, *. 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. 
 
 X
 
 520 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Sxo 
 
 STOP, v. To hinder from progressive motion 
 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 pro- 
 per : Tallow and tar, of each 1 Ib. 
 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 recom- 
 mend 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 impossi- 
 bility of this, and their getting cold and hard, 
 they must weaken the energies of nature, and 
 delay the ripening of the tumour. Fomenta- 
 tions 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 in- 
 ternal inflammation and soreness of the throat, 
 
 and thus lessen the cough and wheezing. 
 
 If there is much fever, and evident affec- 
 tion of the chest, and w ; hich 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 open- 
 ing of the abscess. Bran-mashes, or fresh cut 
 grass or tares, should be liberally supplied ; 
 which will not only afford sufficient nourish- 
 ment 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 admi- 
 nistered The Horse. 
 
 STRANGURY, s. A difficulty of urine, attended with pain. 
 
 STRAP, *. A narrow long slip of cloth or leather. 
 
 STRAW, s. The stalk on which corn grows, and from which it is threshed. 
 
 STRAWCOLOURED, o. 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.
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 521 
 
 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 phy- 
 siology, 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 la- 
 chrymal 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 pro- 
 ceed to a description of the eye itself, the 
 structure and economy of which is most curi- 
 ous and interesting. It is said to be com- 
 posed 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 cir- 
 cular 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 pre- 
 served 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 hi tb,e centre, named pupil. The iris is 
 composed of two orders of fibres ; the one cir- 
 cular, which, by contracting, diminishes, and 
 even closes the aperture in the centre, named 
 pupil ; the other radiated, which by contract- 
 ing, opens or enlarges the aperture or pupil. 
 The second humour of the eye is situated im- 
 mediately behind the pupil, and is named crys- 
 talline humour, or crystalline lens. On 
 taking it out it appears to be a solid and beau- 
 tifully 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 de- 
 ranges it as to lessen or destroy its trans- 
 parency. 
 
 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 con- 
 vex lens. The point of union between the 
 two largest lenses is embraced by a band of 
 muscular fibres, disposed in a circular direc- 
 tion, and named the ciliary ligament. These, 
 by contracting, assisted probably by the mus- 
 cles 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 con- 
 vexity of thp 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 pro- 
 cesses, in a straight, or rather radiated, direc- 
 tion, towards the second coat of the eye, 
 named tunica choroides ; these are so arranged 
 as to be drawn into folds, by which dispo- 
 sition they are enabled to perform their office 
 more easily, which is that of drawing the lens 
 towards the optic nerve, and thereby increas- 
 ing the intensity of vision, whereby the ani- 
 mal is enabled to see small objects distinctly. 
 The crystalline lens is inclosed in a transpa- 
 rent 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 cap- 
 sule, and was forced out of its situation. I 
 found it lying with its posterior convex sur- 
 face 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 ap- 
 peared so to me, and I rather think the acci- 
 dent 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 glo- 
 bular 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 mode-
 
 522 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Sxu 
 
 rate 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 circu- 
 lar fibres relax, and the radiated fibres draw 
 up the iris somewhat irregularly, which ad- 
 hering 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 he 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 in- 
 flated with a small blowpipe, and made to 
 resemble a circular canal ; this has been called 
 from the name of the person who first ob- 
 served 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 im- 
 pressions 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 diffi- 
 culty 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, ap- 
 pearing 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 bot- 
 tom of the eye, or choroid coat, has been 
 named tappetum lucidmn. 
 
 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 cor- 
 nea, which may be viewed as bearing the 
 same relation to the sclerotic coat, as the 
 glass of a watch does to the case. By mace- 
 ration in water the cornea separates from the 
 sclerotic coat completely. 
 
 
 
 Diseases of the eye. Though the horse's 
 eye is commonly supposed to be subject to 
 a variety of diseases, they may, without im- 
 propriety, 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, incura- 
 ble ; that is, they are incapable of a perfect 
 cure, or, in other words, the eye is very rarely 
 perfectly restored after being so affected, un- 
 less 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. 
 
 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 
 
 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 
 
 cork, three or four feet deep) to two ash pitch- 
 fork handles, shod with iron spikes at one 
 end. In surrounding a stub, one spike is to
 
 SUL] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 523 
 
 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. 
 
 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 
 
 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. 
 STURNID^E (VIGORS), s. Starlings, a family of perchers (Insessores, 
 
 VIGORS). 
 STURNUS (LiNN.) s. Starling, a genus thus characterised. 
 
 Bill strait, depressed, rather obtuse, and 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 aa the first 
 joint Montagu. 
 
 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 
 
 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 
 
 haemorrhages. 
 
 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 consi- 
 derable, 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 ef- 
 fectually suppressed. No danger is to be ap- 
 prehended 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, *. 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.
 
 524 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Su.M 
 
 SUMMED, *. A term in falconry to describe the hawk's condition when fully 
 
 feathered, and ready to leave the mew. 
 SUMMER, *. 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 recom- 
 mend it, under favourable circumstances. In 
 case of having recourse to blistering, it is 
 most serviceable ; and after firing, almost ne- 
 cessary ; 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 ad- 
 vantage 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 at- 
 tempt 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 
 
 * 
 
 It is said that the Earl of Plymouth first 
 tried the plan of summering his hunters alto- 
 gether 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 bot- 
 tom. Others, to avoid this extreme, have 
 soiled their hunters in the stable, or have 
 given carrots ; and some have gone a step fur- 
 ther, 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 con- 
 tinues 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 com- 
 bine the renovating effects of air, mild exer- 
 cise, 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 allow- 
 ing each hunter his liberty in a loose box, 
 having fly wire casements and closed doors 
 during the day, in which he is to be moder- 
 ately 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, un- 
 less a very favourable gloomy day offers itself. 
 Carrots may be substituted for part of the
 
 SUR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 525 
 
 corn and hay with advantage in stable sum- 
 mering ; 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 cir- 
 cumstances ; 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 ob- 
 viated, 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 
 
 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. 
 
 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 me- 
 dical 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 vigi- 
 lance, and alter his plan according to circum- 
 stances; but the still more prudent owner 
 would do well to have them inspected weekly 
 by a well-informed veterinary surgeon 
 
 Nimrod Elaine. 
 
 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 resem- 
 blance to some eruptions on the skin of the 
 human being, when indigestible or unwhole- 
 some 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 seve- 
 ral 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 | 
 
 SURGERY, s. The art of curing by manual operations 
 
 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 as- 
 sumes. It seems, in many cases, the conse- 
 quence 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 some- 
 times breaks out suddenly in bitches after pup- 
 ping ; and in dogs newly recovered from dis- 
 temper ; in fact, any great vascular excitement 
 may produce it ; thus, when a dog travels dur- 
 ing a great part of a very hot day, and becomes 
 afterwards exposed to cold, a surfeit is often- 
 times the consequence. It is usually seen in 
 the form of partial blotches, it being seldom 
 that it extends universally ever the body. In 
 some cases there is little appearance of ele- 
 vated scab; but large patches show them- 
 selves, 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 sur- 
 feit 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 Elaine
 
 526 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [SUT 
 
 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 chim- 
 ney, and the window swallow. 
 
 SWALLOW,*. 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 as- 
 sumes 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 conjec- 
 tures respecting its appearance and departure 
 as the swallow tribe. The habits and modes 
 of living of this tribe are perhaps more conspi- 
 cuous 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 in- 
 terwoven, and so confused, that they hardly 
 ran be pictured by words. 
 
 Not many attempts have been made to pre- 
 serve swallows alive during the winter, and of 
 these few have succeeded. The following ex- 
 periments, 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, 1 784, in a bat fowl- 
 ing-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 alto- 
 gether 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. Pear- 
 son 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. Be- 
 
 ing 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 toge- 
 ther 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 mea- 
 sure 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. Accord- 
 ingly, 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, 1 786, 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. Pear- 
 son 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.
 
 SWA] THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 SWAK, s. A large waterfowl. 
 
 527 
 
 Mute Swan. (Anas Cygmis 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 tu- 
 bercle, or knob, on the base of the upper man- 
 dible, 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 pro- 
 perly 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 ac- 
 counted 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 con- 
 tinues at this day to be accounted felony to 
 steal their eggs. By this means their increase 
 is secured, and they prove a delightful orna- 
 ment to that noble river. Latham says, in 
 the reign of Edward IV. the estimation they 
 were held in was such, that no one who pos- 
 sessed 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 thej 
 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 ac- 
 counted 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, com- 
 monly 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 
 egsrs, and sits on them about six weeks (some
 
 528 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Sw.4 
 
 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 ; con- 
 fined 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 prodigiows mul- 
 titudes, and thus united, to use every effort to 
 prevent the water from freezing : this they ac- 
 complish 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 fa- 
 vourite 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 suf- 
 
 fers any bird, however powerful, to molest him ; 
 neither does he prey upon any one. His vi- 
 gorous 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 in- 
 habitants 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 fe- 
 male are very attentive to their young, and 
 will suffer no enemy to approach them. 
 
 Wild Swan. (Anas Cygnus ferus, 
 LINN.; Le Cygne Sauvage, BUFF.) Mea- 
 sures 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 yel- 
 low ; 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 pair- 
 ing season, and in the setting in of winter. 
 At the latter period they assemble in im- 
 
 mense multitudes, particularly on the large 
 rivers and lakes of the thinly inhabited north- 
 ern parts of Europe, Asia, and America : 
 but when the extremity of the weather threat- 
 ens to become insupportable, in order to shun 
 the gathering storm, they shape their course 
 high in air, in divided and diminished num- 
 bers, in search of milder climates. In such 
 seasons they are not uncommonly seen in vari- 
 ous parts of the British isles, and in other 
 more southern countries of Europe. The 
 same is observed of them in the North Ame- 
 rican 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
 
 Swi] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 529 
 
 short, and perform that office by the way, for 
 they are known to breed in some of the He- 
 brides, the Orkney, Shetland, and other soli- 
 tary 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 Ice- 
 land. 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 au- 
 tumn. 
 
 Swan- Goose. (Anas Cygnoides, LINN.; 
 L'Oie de Guinie, 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, how- 
 ever, 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 sound- 
 ing the alarm, by their hoarse cacklings, 
 and loud shrill cries. They breed with the 
 common goose, and their offspring are as pro- 
 lific 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. 
 
 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. 
 
 This species is nearly an ounce in weight : 
 length near eight inches : breadth about eigh- 
 teen ; the bill is black ; irides dusky ; the whole 
 plumage is black, except the chin, which is 
 whitish ; the wings are extremely long in pro- 
 portion, and the legs so short that it rises from 
 the ground with difficulty ; the tail is forked ; 
 
 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. 
 
 swimming, by observing the directions here 
 
 An accidental fall into water may be most 
 dangerous to those ignorant of the art of 
 
 given, a person may save himself from drown- 
 M M
 
 530 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Swi 
 
 ing. If be 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 velo- 
 city with which aquatic birds swim under wa- 
 
 ter 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 sur- 
 face 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,ratherawl-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 se- 
 cond and third nearly of equal length ; wing 
 coverts and scapulars short Montagu. 
 
 SYMPATHETIC, a. Having mutual sensation, being affected by what hap- 
 pens to the other. 
 
 SYMPATHY, s. Fellow feeling, mutual sensibility, the quality of being 
 affected by the affection of another. 
 
 peninsular war, in the German brigade of 
 artillery. They had assisted in drawing the 
 same gun, and had been inseparable compa- 
 nions in many battles. One of them was at 
 last killed ; and after the engagement the sur- 
 vivor 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 gen- 
 tleman who witnessed the circumstance as- 
 sured me that nothing could be more affect- 
 ing than the whole demeanour of this poor 
 horse. Jesse. 
 
 Animals which are unable to associate with 
 their own species will sometimes form most 
 strange attachments. I had last year a soli- 
 tary 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 sen- 
 sible of the attachment of the pigeon, and ne- 
 ver molested it, or drove it from him. 
 
 At Aston Hall, in Warwickshire, I remem- 
 ber to have seen a cat and a large fierce blood- 
 hound, who were always together, the cat 
 following the dog about the yard, and never 
 seeming tired of his society. They fed toge- 
 ther, 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 
 
 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.
 
 THE TEAL. 
 
 JL ABBY, a. Brinded, brindled; term applied to a ca^ 
 TADPOLE, s. A young shapeless frog- or toad, consisting qnly 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 vertebrae 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 cut- 
 ting, 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 Elaine. 
 
 TALLOW, s. The grease or fat of an animal, suet. 
 
 TALON, *. The claw of a bird of prey. 
 
 TAME, a. Not wild, domestic ; crushed, subdued, depressed, spiritless, 
 
 unanimated. 
 TAME, . To reduce from wildness, to reclaim, to make gentle ; to conquer. 
 
 TAN, v. To impregnate or imbue with bark ; to imbrown by the sun. 
 
 M M 2
 
 532 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [TEA 
 
 TAN, s. A dark brown colour ; the marks of a terrier. 
 TANSY, *. A plant. 
 
 This plant grows abundantly about the bor- 
 ders 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 anthelinintic 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 ap- 
 pears 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. 
 
 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. 
 
 Tar mixed with oil of turpentine and can- 
 tharides forms a strong blister. Farriers some- 
 times 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 nibbed about 
 the coronet and hoof, is said to render the 
 hoof tough White. 
 
 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, co- 
 vers 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 shoul- 
 ders, part of the scapulars, sides under the 
 wings, and lower belly, towards the vent, are 
 elegantly pencilled with black, ash-brown, and 
 white tran verse 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 round- 
 ish 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 
 covertE, 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 fe- 
 male, which is less than the male, is prettily 
 freckled about the head and neck with brown 
 and white. She has not the green patch be- 
 hind 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 plu- 
 mage 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 win- 
 ter 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
 
 TEN] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 533 
 
 large nest, composed of soft dried grasses, (and, 
 it is said, the pith of rushes) lined with fea- 
 thers, 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 
 
 TENCH, *. A small pond-fish. 
 
 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 sud- 
 denly 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 set- 
 tle. 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. 
 
 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 
 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.
 
 534 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 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 sum- 
 
 mer, during warm, close, dark weather, parti- 
 cularly 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 gal- 
 lery ; and the last gallery, is what is called the 
 service-side. From the dedans to the last gal- 
 lery 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 ser- 
 vice-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 op- 
 posite side of the court, and fall beyond a par- 
 ticular 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 re- 
 turned 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 ii 
 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 sendee 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 de- 
 dans 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, se- 
 cond gallery, or last gallery, the chace is like- 
 wise 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 de- 
 scribes the hazard-side chaces, in which case it 
 is a chance 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 me- 
 thods of giving odds have been used to render 
 a match equal. 
 
 * 
 
 At the time when tennis play was taken up
 
 TER] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 535 
 
 seriously by the nobility, new regulations were 
 made in tbe game, and covered courts erected, 
 wherein it might be practised without any in- 
 terruption from the weather. In the sixteenth 
 century tennis-courts were common in Eng- 
 land, 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 thir- 
 teenth 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 diver- 
 sion; 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 Edmund 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 exer- 
 cise 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 ward- 
 robe 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, a.) It is now impossible to trace 
 
 the origin of the terrier, but from the many 
 characteristics peculiar to itself, we would
 
 536 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 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 sta- 
 ture, 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 pro- 
 portion 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 gener- 
 ally 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-tenders 
 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 in- 
 crease its size, which would render him un- 
 suitable for the purpose in which he is em- 
 ployed, that of entering the earth to drive 
 out other animals from their burrows, for 
 which his make, strength, and invincible ar- 
 dour, 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 sel- 
 dom 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 co- 
 loured 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 .) 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 some- 
 what 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 destruc- 
 tion 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 construc- 
 tion of his body, he is more adapted for run- 
 ning, 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 mi- 
 nutes, 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 Verities.
 
 THO] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 537 
 
 TESTACEOUS, a. Consisting- of shells, composed of shells ; having conti- 
 nuous, 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, com- 
 prise 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 spi- 
 rited contests between the beautiful small craft 
 which form these fancy fleets, are highly in- 
 teresting. 
 
 The sailing matches on the river are di- 
 vided into two classes one above, and the 
 other below the bridges. The smaller yachts, 
 
 ranging from six to twenty-six tons, are com- 
 monly entered for the former, while a larger 
 class contend for prizes sailed for between 
 Greenwich and Gravesend. 
 
 These elegant 'and truly national amuse- 
 ments, appear to be rapidly gaining a promi- 
 nent place in the list of fashionable recre- 
 ations ; and aquatic sports now occupy that 
 dull and sombre season, from the period hunt- 
 ing 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. 
 THOROUGHPIN, *. 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.
 
 538 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [THO 
 
 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 sing-ing bird. It is said to have the 
 breast darker and the tail shorter than this bird ; but there are not suffi- 
 cient grounds to believe it is distinct from the thrush. 
 
 THROTTLE, s. The windpipe. 
 
 THROTTLE, v. To choke. 
 
 THROUGHBRED, a. Completely educated, completely taught ; in sporting- 
 parlance, applied to racehorses of unblemished pedigree. 
 
 THROW, v. To perform the act of casting- ; to cast dice ; to cast a horse. 
 
 Horses are thrown down by means of hob- 
 bles. 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 de- 
 scribed. 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, oppo- 
 site 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 to- 
 gether, 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 co- 
 vered 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 ten- 
 dency 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
 
 THR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 539 
 
 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 Traite du Pied, has pro- 
 posed an improvement in throwing horses, 
 which is very simple, and should always be 
 employed : but it requires an additional as- 
 sistant, 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 ex- 
 tremely 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 se- 
 cured 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 hob- 
 bles 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 in- 
 cautiously 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 hob- 
 ble 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 se- 
 cured 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 re- 
 strain 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 ef- 
 fectually 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 dur- 
 ing part of the summer. This bold and pleas- 
 
 ing 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 ob- 
 served in some places in great numbers dur-
 
 540 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [THR 
 
 ing the spring and summer, where uot one was 
 to be seen in the winter, which has induced 
 an opinion that they either shift their quar- 
 ters entirely, or take shelter in the more re- 
 tired parts of the woods. The throstle is 
 migratory in France. M. de Buffon says that 
 it appears in Burgundy about the end of Sep- 
 tember, before the redwing and fieldfare, and 
 that it feeds upon the ripe grapes, and some- 
 times does much damage to the vineyard. The 
 females of all the thrush kind are very simi- 
 
 lar to the males, and differ chiefly in a less 
 degree of brilliancy in the colours. * * 
 
 Opposite my study windows at Lee, I ob- 
 served 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 van- 
 quishing 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 dis- 
 charge 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 pu- 
 trid and acrid fluids penetrate through the 
 soaked and rotten horn, and inflame the sen- 
 sible frog, causing it to discharge a fetid acri- 
 monious matter, instead of secreting horn for 
 its own defence, as it does in the healthy 
 state. 
 
 Thrushes in the fore-feet are sometimes oc- 
 casioned by contraction of the heels, but more 
 frequently by the horny box or hoof, consi- 
 dered 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 com- 
 posed. 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 injuri- 
 ous. 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 quar- 
 ters- 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 mem- 
 branes yield in a very slight degree, which di- 
 minishes from the heel to the toe, but is suf- 
 ficient 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 solu- 
 tion 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 co- 
 vering 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 pre- 
 scribed in the chapter on contracted heels, 
 may be applied hot, to promote the regenera- 
 tion of horn, and to defend it from moisture. 
 In cases where the frog has become very ten- 
 der 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 determina- 
 tion of blood to the frog, in consequence of 
 the compression the sensible foot suffers from 
 a contraction of the heels ; or from a super- 
 abundance of horny matter generally in the 
 crust, and often in the sole also. The mo- 
 tion which I have described as constantly go- 
 ing 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 at- 
 tempt 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 con- 
 sidered rather as useful than otherwise ; and 
 by attempting to stop it by those preparations
 
 TIT] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 541 
 
 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 re- 
 commended. In old thrushes, physic may be 
 useful, and some alterative medicine. Some- 
 times 'a run at grass is necessary in moist 
 ground, and a horse may often be worked 
 while he is thus kept. In bad cases, pallia- 
 tion 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 bo 
 cured as they are in the hind-feet ; but this 
 is not a common occurrence. 
 
 The third kind of thrush I have to de- 
 scribe 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,*. One of the primitive metals, called by the chemists Jupiter. 
 
 This metal is a good anthelmintic in dogs ; 
 and though not employed in veterinary prac- 
 tice, 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 prepa- 
 rations 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 recti- 
 fied spirit. Tincture of opium is made by di- 
 gesting 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 foetid 
 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.
 
 542 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [TlT 
 
 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 perpe- 
 tually in motion ; they run with great cele- 
 rity 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 fre- 
 quently 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 in- 
 crease 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 some- 
 times 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 nor- 
 thern parts of Europe to the Cape of Good 
 Hope, as well as to the farthe'st 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 at- 
 tend 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 em- 
 bedded in the bark of the tree, which had 
 grown over it so much, that he was quite un- 
 able 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 embed- 
 ded 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 foot- 
 path. 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 cir- 
 cumstances together may explain the curious 
 fact of toads having been found alive in the 
 middle of trees, by showing that the bark hav- 
 ing 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 sa- 
 tisfactorily, 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 dis- 
 turbed 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 ad- 
 mitted, 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
 
 Too] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 543 
 
 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 les- 
 sened 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. 
 
 * 
 
 It is a curious fact that toads are so nume- 
 rous 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 privi- 
 leged in this respect. Ireland is free from ve- 
 nomous 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 sub- 
 stances 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 ex- 
 citement, they give vigour to the actions of 
 the system, and as that excitement is gradually 
 produced, it is in like manner gradually di- 
 minished, 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 consi- 
 dered the most powerful, and I believe are at 
 this time generally preferred, not only on ac- 
 count of their supposed superior efficacy, but 
 likewise, probably, from their being less expen- 
 sive, 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 oxy- 
 muriate of potash. 
 
 From the vegetable kingdom. Peruvian 
 bark, pale, yellow, and red ; Angostura bark ; 
 snake-root ; contrayerva ; canella alba ; cas- 
 carilla ; calumba ; quassia ; simarouba ; gen- 
 tian ; camomile ; wormwood ; centaury ; Se- 
 ville 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 . ^ oz. 
 Opium . . ^ dr. 
 Treacle enough to form the ball. 
 
 No. 2. Arsenic . . from 5 to lOgr. 
 Sulphate of copper . dr. 
 Opium . . . | dr. 
 Powdered caraways . 4 oz - 
 Treacle enough to form the ball. 
 
 No. 3. Arsenic . . from 5 to 10 gr. 
 Opium . . . ^ dr. 
 Sulphate of zinc . 2 dr. 
 
 Caraway seeds . . ^ oz. 
 Treacle enough for the ball. 
 For the numerous formulae of vegetable" 
 tonics vide WHITE, vol. ii White. 
 
 TOOTH, *. One of the bones of the mouth with which the act of mastica- 
 tion is performed ; a tine, prong, a blade ; the prominent part of wheels. 
 
 Decayed and tartared Teeth Sports- are habituated only to healthy dogs, will smile 
 
 men and persons living in the country, who at such ahead line ; but were they in London,
 
 544 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Too 
 
 sufferably offensive. The veterinarian will 
 often be called on to remedy these evils : the 
 decayed teeth he must remove, and the dis- 
 placed ones also ; the tartaric deposit he must 
 likewise completely scale off \vith proper den- 
 tal instruments ; for the accumulation is not 
 only most unpleasant to the owners, but inju- 
 rious 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 chlo- 
 ride of soda with water : by the use of this, 
 these ulcers will quickly heal ; and the conti- 
 nuance of it will do much to remove the re- 
 maining fcetor, and stop the further deposit of 
 tartar, particularly if coupled with a corre- 
 sponding improvement in the general treat- 
 ment of the animal Blaine. 
 
 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 car- 
 riage ; and withal are probably descended from 
 a long lineage of parents equally unnatu- 
 rally 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 de- 
 scribed, nothing is more common to find than 
 carious teeth, insufferably foetid ; others dis- 
 placed, preventing mastication ; or an immense 
 accumulation of tartar, which covers them, 
 erodes the gums, and makes the animal in- 
 
 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 
 
 TOP, s. The highest part of anything 1 ; 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 pow- 
 der 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. 
 
 unavoidable exposure to wet and sudden alter- 
 ations of atmospheric temperature. I have 
 known a sporting expedition embittered by 
 this visitation, and as professional assistance 
 was not procurable, the sufferer had no re- 
 medy 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. 
 
 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. 
 
 It is first necessary to take an exact view 
 
 of his body, whether he be high or low in 
 flesh, and it is also necessary to consider whe- 
 ther he be dull or heavy, or brisk and lively 
 when abroad. If he appear dull and heavy 
 and there is reason to suppose it is owing to 
 too hard riding, or, as the jockeys express it,
 
 TRA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 545 
 
 to some grease that has been dissolved in exer- 
 cise, and has not been removed by scouring, 
 then the proper remedy is half an ounce of dia- 
 pente, given in a pint of good sack; this will 
 at once remove the cause, and revive the 
 creature's spirits. After this, for the first 
 week of the month, he is to he fed with oats, 
 bread, and split beans, sometimes the one and 
 sometimes the other, as he likes best, and 
 always leaving some in the locker, that he 
 may feed at leisure whilst left alone. At 
 feeding time, whatever is left of this must be 
 removed and fresh given, by these means the 
 creature will soon become high-spirited, wan- 
 ton, and full of play. Every day he must be 
 rode out on airing, and every other day it 
 will be proper to increase his exercise, but 
 not so as to make him perspire too much. 
 The beans and oats should be put in a bag, 
 and beaten till the hulls are all off, and then 
 winnowed clean, and the bread, instead of be- 
 ing chipped in the common way, should have 
 the crust cut clean off. If the horse he in 
 good health and in spirits, when taken up for 
 its month's preparation the diapente must be 
 omitted, and the chief business will be to give 
 him good food, and so much exercise as will 
 keep him in wind, without over-sweating or 
 tiring him ; when he takes larger exercise af- 
 terwards, towards the end of the month, it 
 will be proper to have some horses to run 
 against him. This will put him on his mettle, 
 and the beating them will give him spirits : 
 this, however, is to be cautiously observed, 
 that he has not a blood heat (at full speed) 
 given him for ten days or a fortnight before 
 the race, and that the last heat that is given 
 him the day before the race must be in his 
 clothes, this will make him run with much 
 more vigour, when stripped for the race, and 
 feeling the cold wind on every part. 
 
 In the second week, the horse should have 
 the same food, and more exercise. In the 
 last fortnight, he must have dried oats, that 
 have been hulled by beating. After this, 
 they are to be wetted in a quantity of whites 
 of eggs beaten up, and then laid out in the 
 sun to dry, and when as dry as before the 
 horse is to have them. This sort of food is 
 very light of digestion, and very good for the 
 creature's wind. The beans in this case 
 should be given more sparingly, and the bread 
 should be made of three parts wheat, and one 
 part beans ; if he should become costive, under 
 this course, he must then have some ale and 
 whites of eggs beaten together, this will cool 
 him and keep his body moist. In the last 
 week, the mash is to be omitted, and barley- 
 water given him in its place every day until 
 the day before the race ; he should have his 
 fill of hay at first, and then given more spar- 
 ingly, that he may have time to digest it, and 
 on the morning of the race-day lie must have 
 
 a toast or two soaked in sack, and the same 
 just before he is let out to the field. This is 
 an excellent method, because the two extremes 
 of fullness and fasting are at this time to be 
 equally avoided, the one hurting his wind, 
 and the other occasioning faintness that may 
 make him lose. After he has had his food, 
 the litter is to be shook up, and the stable 
 kept quiet that he may be disturbed by no- 
 thing till he is taken out to run. 
 * * 
 
 The training of Jockeys John Arnall, 
 when rider to his Royal Highness the Prince 
 of Wales, was desired to reduce himself as 
 much as he possibly could, to enable him to 
 ride some favourite horse, without his carrying 
 more weight than was agreed upon ; in conse- 
 quence of which, he abstained from animal 
 and even farinaceous food for eight succeed- 
 ing days, and the only substitute was now and 
 then a piece of apple ; he was not injured by 
 it at the time, and is now in good health : 
 added to which, Dennis Fitzpatrick, a person 
 at this time continually employed as a rider, 
 declares that he is less fatigued by riding, and 
 has more strength to contend with a deter- 
 mined horse, in a severe race, when moder- 
 ately reduced, than when allowed to live as 
 he pleased, although he never weighs more 
 than nine stone, and frequently has reduced 
 himself to seven stone seven pounds. 
 
 
 REPLY TO SIR JOHN SINCLAIR'S QUERIES BY 
 MR. SANDEVIR OF NEWMARKET. 
 
 How long does the training of jockeys con- 
 tinue ? 
 
 With those in high repute as riders, in a 
 greater or lesser degree, from about three 
 weeks before Easter to the end of October, 
 but a week or ten days are quite sufficient 
 for a rider to reduce himself from the weight 
 he is naturally of, to sometimes a stone and a 
 half below it. 
 
 What food do they live on, both solid and 
 liquid, and what quantities are allowed them 
 of each ? 
 
 For breakfast, a small piece of bread and 
 butter, with tea, in moderation. Dinner is 
 taken in a very sparing way, a very small 
 piece of pudding, and less meat, and when 
 fish is to be obtained, neither one nor the 
 other are to be allowed ; wine and water is 
 their usual beverage, in the proportion of one 
 part wine to two of water. Tea in the after- 
 noon, with little or no bread and butter, and 
 no supper. 
 
 What exercise do they get, and what 
 hours of rest ? 
 
 After breakfast, having sufficiently loaded 
 themselves with clothes, that is, five or six 
 waistcoats, two coats, and as many pair of 
 breeches, a severe "walk is taken, from ten to 
 fifteen or sixteen miles ; after their return 
 N N
 
 540 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 home, dry clothes are substituted for those 
 that are made very wet and uncomfortable by 
 sweat, and, if much fatigued, some of them 
 will lie down for au hour before dinner ; after 
 which, no severe exercise is taken, but the 
 remaining part of the day is spent in that 
 way that may be most agreeable to them- 
 selves ; they generally go to bed by nine 
 o'clock, and continue there till six or seven 
 the next morning. 
 
 Are they purged, and what purges and 
 other medicines are given them? 
 
 Some of them that do not like excessive 
 walking, have recourse to purgative medi- 
 cines, two ounces of Glauber's salts is the 
 usual dose, and it is very seldom that any 
 other medicine is had recourse to. 
 
 Mr. Sandevir would recommend a similar 
 process to reduce corpulency in either sex, as, 
 from experience, he perceives, that the con- 
 stitution does not appear to be injured by it, 
 but he is apprehensive that hardly any person 
 could be prevailed upon to submit to such 
 severe discipline, that had not been inured 
 to it from his infancy. 
 
 * 
 
 The art of training for athletic exercises 
 consists in purifying the body and strengthen- 
 ing its powers by certain processes, which thus 
 qualify a person for the accomplishment of 
 laborious exertions. It was known to the 
 ancients, who paid much attention to the 
 means of augmenting corporeal vigour and 
 activity ; and accordingly among the Greeks 
 and Romans certain rules of regimen and ex- 
 ercise were prescribed to the candidates for 
 gymnastic celebrity. 
 
 The great object of training for running or 
 boxing matches, is to increase the muscular 
 strength and to improve the free action of the 
 lungs or wind of the person subjected to the 
 process, which is done by medicines, regimen, 
 and exercise. That these objects can be ac- 
 complished is evident from the nature of the 
 human system. It is well known (for it has 
 been demonstrated by experiments) that every 
 part of the firmest bones is successively ab- 
 sorbed and deposited. The bones and their 
 ligaments, the muscles and their tendons all 
 the finer and all the more flexible parts of 
 the body, are as continually renewed, and as 
 properly a secretion, as the saliva that flows 
 from the mouth, or the moisture that bedews 
 the surface. The health of all the parts and 
 their soundness of structure, depends upon this 
 perpetual absorption and perpetual renovation ; 
 and exercise, by promoting at once absorption 
 and secretion, promotes life without hurrying 
 it, renovates all the parts, and preserves them 
 apt and fit for every office. When the human 
 frame is thus capable of being altered and 
 renovated, it is not surprising that the art of 
 training should be carried to a degree of per- 
 
 fection almost incredible ; and that by certain 
 processes the breath, strength, and courage of 
 man should be so greatly improved as to en- 
 able him to perform the most laborious un- 
 dertakings. That such effects have been pro- 
 duced is unquestionable, being fully exempli- 
 fied in the astonishing exploits of our most 
 celebrated pedestrians, which are the infallible 
 results of preparatory discipline. 
 
 The skilful trainer attends to the state of 
 the bowels, the lungs, and the skin ; and he 
 uses such means as will reduce the fat, and at 
 the same time invigorate the muscular fibres. 
 The patient is purged by drastic medicines ; 
 he is sweated by walking under a weight of 
 clothes, and by lying between feather beds ; 
 his limbs are roughly rubbed ; his diet is beef 
 or mutton ; his drink strong ale ; and he is 
 gradually inured to exercise by repeated trials 
 in walking and running. By attenuating the 
 fat, emptying the cellular substance, harden- 
 ing the muscular fibre, and improving the 
 breath, a man of the ordinary frame may be 
 made to fight for one hour with the utmost 
 exertion of strength and courage, or to go over 
 one hundred miles in twenty-four hours. 
 
 The most effectual process for training is 
 that practised by Captain Barclay, and the 
 particular mode which he has adopted has not 
 only been sanctioned by professional men, but 
 has met with the unqualified approbation of 
 amateurs. The following statement, there- 
 fore, contains the most approved rules, and it 
 is presented to the reader as the result of 
 much experience, founded on the theoretic 
 principles of the art. 
 
 The pedestrian, who may be supposed in 
 tolerable condition, enters upon his training 
 with a regular course of physic, which con- 
 sists of three doses. Glauber's salts are 
 generally preferred, and from one ounce and 
 a half to two ounces are taken each time, 
 with an interval of four days between each 
 dose. After having gone through the course 
 of physic, he commences regular exercise, 
 which is gradually increased as he proceeds in 
 the training. When the object in view is to 
 accomplish a pedestrian match, his regular 
 exercise may be from twenty-four miles a-day. 
 He must rise at five in the morning, run half 
 a mile at the top of his speed up hill, and 
 then walk six miles at a moderate pace, com- 
 ing in about seven to breakfast, which should 
 consist of beefsteaks or mutton chops under 
 done, with stale bread and old beer. After 
 breakfast he must again walk six miles at a 
 moderate pace, and at twelve lie down in bed 
 without his clothes for half an hour. On 
 getting up he must walk four miles, and return 
 by four to dinner, which should also be beef- 
 steaks or mutton chops, with bread and beer 
 as at breakfast. Immediately after dinner he 
 must resume his exercise by running half a
 
 TKA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 547 
 
 mile at the top of his speed, and walking six 
 miles at a moderate pace. He takes no more 
 exercise for that day, but retires to bed about 
 eight, and next morning proceeds in the same 
 manner. After having gone in this regular 
 course for three or four weeks, the pedestrian 
 must take a four mile sweat, which is pro- 
 duced by running four miles in flannel at the 
 top of his speed. Immediately on returning 
 a hot liquor is prescribed in order to promote 
 the perspiration, of which he must drink one 
 English pint. It is termed the sweating li- 
 quor, and it is composed of the following in- 
 gredients, viz. one ounce of carraway seed, 
 half an ounce of coriander seed, an ounce of 
 root liquorice, and half an ounce of sugar- 
 candy, mixed with two bottles of cider, and 
 boiled down to one half. He is then put to 
 bed in his flannels, and being covered with six 
 or eight pairs of blankets and a feather bed, 
 must remain in this state from twenty-five to 
 thirty minutes, when he is to be taken out 
 and rubbed perfectly dry. Being then well 
 wrapped in a great coat, he walks out gently 
 for two miles to breakfast, which on such 
 occasions should consist of a roasted fowl. 
 He afterwards proceeds with his usual exer- 
 cise. These sweats are continued weekly, 
 till within a few days of the performance of 
 the match, or in other words he must un- 
 dergo three or four of these operations. If 
 the stomach of the pedestrian be foul, an 
 emetic or two toust be given about a week 
 before the conclusion of the training, and he 
 is now supposed to be in the highest condi- 
 tion. Besides his usual or regular exercise, a 
 person under training ought to employ him- 
 self in the intervals in every kind of exertion 
 which tends to activity, such as cricket, bowls, 
 throwing quoits, &c., that during the whole 
 day both body and mind may be constantly 
 occupied. 
 
 The diet or regimen is the next point of 
 consideration, and it is very simple. As the in- 
 tention of the trainer is to preserve the strength 
 of the pedestrian, he must take care to keep 
 him in good condition by nourishing food. Ani- 
 mal diet is alone prescribed, and beef and mut- 
 ton are preferred. The lean of fat beef cooked 
 in steaks, with very little salt, is the best, and 
 it should be rather underdone than otherwise. 
 Mutton being reckoned easy of digestion, may 
 be occasionally given, to vary the diet and gra- 
 tify the taste. The legs of fowl are highly 
 esteemed. It is preferable to have the meat 
 broiled, as much of its nutritive quality is lost 
 by roasting or boiling. Biscuit and stale bread 
 are the only preparations of vegetable matter 
 which are permitted to be given ; and every 
 thing inducing flatulency must be carefully 
 avoided. Veal and lamb are never allowed, 
 nor pork, which operates as a laxative on some 
 people ; and all fat or greasy substances arc pro- 
 
 hibited, as they induce bile and consequently 
 injure the stomach. But it has been proved 
 by experience that the lean of meat contains 
 more nourishment than the fat, and in every 
 case the most substantial food is preferable to 
 any other kind. 
 
 Vegetables, such as turnips, carrots, or po- 
 tatoes, are never given, as they are watery and 
 of difficult digestion. On the same principle 
 fish must be avoided, and, besides, they are 
 not sufficiently nutritious. Neither butter nor 
 cheese is allowed ; the one being very indiges- 
 tible, and the other apt to turn rancid on the 
 stomach. Eggs are also forbidden, excepting 
 the yolk taken raw in the morning. And it 
 must be remarked, that salt, spices and all 
 kinds of seasonings, with the exception of vi- 
 negar, are prohibited. 
 
 With respect to liquors, they must always 
 be taken cold ; and home-brewed beer, old but 
 not bottled, is the best. A little red wine, 
 however, may be given to those who are not 
 fond of malt liquor, but never more than half 
 a pint after dinner. Too much liquor swells 
 the abdomen, and of course injures the breath. 
 The quantity of beer, therefore, should not ex- 
 ceed three pints during the whole day, and it 
 must be taken with breakfast and dinner, no 
 supper being allowed. 
 
 Water is never given alone, and ardent spi- 
 rits are strictly prohibited, however diluted. 
 It is an established rule to avoid liquids as 
 much as possible, and no more liquor of any 
 kind is allowed to be taken than what is merely 
 requisite to quench the thirst. Milk is never 
 allowed, as it curdles on the stomach. Soups 
 are not used ; nor is any thing liquid taken 
 warm but gruel or broth, to promote the ope- 
 ration of the physic, and the sweating liquor 
 mentioned above. The broth must be cooled, 
 in order to take off the fat, when it may be 
 again warmed, or beef tea may be used in the 
 same manner, with little or no salt. In the 
 days between the purges, the pedestrian must 
 be fed as usual, strictly adhering to the nou- 
 rishing diet, by which he is invigorated. 
 
 Profuse sweating is resorted to as an expe- 
 dient for removing the superfluities of flesh 
 and fat. Three or four sweats are generally 
 requisite, and they may be considered the se- 
 verest part of the process. 
 
 Emetics are only prescribed if the stomach 
 be disordered, which may sometimes happen, 
 when due care is not taken to proportion the 
 quantity of food to the digestive powers ; but, 
 in general, the quantity of aliment is not li- 
 mited by the trainer, but left entirely to the 
 discretion of the pedestrian, whose appetite 
 should regulate him in this respect. Although 
 the chief parts of the training system depend 
 upon sweating, exercise, and feeding, yet the 
 object to be obtained by the pedestrian would 
 be defeated, if they were not adjusted to each 
 "NN2
 
 548 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 other, and to his constitution. The skilful 
 trainer will, therefore, constantly study the 
 progress of his art, by observing the effects of 
 the processes separately, and in combination. 
 
 It is impossible to fix a precise period from 
 the completion of the training process, as it 
 depends upon the condition of the pedestrian ; 
 but from two to three months, in most cases, 
 will be sufficient, especially if he be in tole- 
 rable condition at the commencement, and 
 possessed of sufficient perseverance and cou- 
 rage to submit cheerfully to the privations 
 and hardships to which he must unavoidably 
 be subjected. 
 
 The criterion by which it may be known 
 whether a man be in good condition, or, what 
 is the same thing, has been properly trained, 
 is the state of the skin, which becomes smooth, 
 elastic, and well coloured, or transparent. The 
 flesh is also firm, and the person trained feels 
 himself light and full of spirits. But in the 
 progress of the training, his condition may be as 
 well ascertained by the effect of the sweats, which 
 cease to reduce his weight, and by the man- 
 ner in which he performs one mile at the top 
 of his speed, as to walk a hundred ; and there- 
 fore, if he performs this short distance well, 
 it may be concluded that his condition is 
 perfect, or that he has derived all the advan- 
 tages which can possibly result from the 
 training process. 
 
 The manner of training jockeys is different 
 from that which is applicable to pedestrians 
 and pugilists. In regard to jockeys, it is 
 generally wasting with the view to reduce 
 their weight. This is produced by purgatives, 
 emetics, sweats, and starvation. Their bodily 
 strength is of no importance, as they have 
 only to manage the reins of the courser, whose 
 fleetness depends upon the weight he carries ; 
 and the muscular power of the rider is of 
 no consequence to the race, provided it be 
 equal to the fatigue of a three or four mile 
 heat. 
 
 Training for pugilism is nearly the same 
 as for pedestrianism, the object in both being 
 principally to obtain additional wind and 
 strength. But it will be best illustrated by a 
 detail of the process observed by Cribb, the 
 Champion of England, preparatory to his 
 grand battle with Molineaux, which took 
 place on the 29th of September, 1811. 
 
 The champion arrived at Ury on the 7th of 
 July of that year. He weighed sixteen stone ; 
 and from his mode of living in London, and the 
 confinement of a crowded city, he had be- 
 come corpulent, big-bellied, full of gross hu- 
 mours, and short-breathed, and it was with 
 difficulty he could walk ten miles. He first 
 went through a course of physic, which con- 
 sisted of three doses ; but for two weeks he 
 walked about as he pleased, and generally 
 traversed the woods and plantations with a 
 
 fowling-piece in his hand. The reports of his 
 musket resounded everywhere through the 
 groves and the hollows of that delightful 
 place, to the great terror of the magpies and 
 wood-pigeons. 
 
 After amusing himself in this way for about 
 a fortnight, he then commenced his regular 
 walking exercise, which at first was about 
 ten or twelve miles a day. It was soon after 
 increased to eighteen or twenty ; and he ran 
 regularly, morning and evening, a quarter of 
 a mile at the top of his speed. In conse- 
 quence of his physic and exercise, his weight 
 was reduced in the course of five weeks, from 
 sixteen stone to fourteen and nine pounds. 
 At this period he commenced his sweats, and 
 took three during the month he remained at 
 Ury afterwards ; and his weight was gradu- 
 dually reduced to thirteen stone and five 
 pounds, which was ascertained to be his pitch, 
 of condition, as he could not reduce farther 
 without weakening. 
 
 During the course of his training, the cham- 
 pion went twice to the Highlands, and took 
 strong exercise. He walked to Mar Lodge, 
 which is about sixty miles distant from Ury, 
 where he arrived to dinner on the second 
 day, being now able to go thirty miles a day 
 with ease, *and probably he could have walked 
 twice as far if it had been necessary. He re- 
 mained in the Highlands about a week each 
 time, and amused himself with shooting. The 
 principal advantage which he derived from 
 these expeditions, was the severe exercise he 
 was obliged to undergo in following Captain 
 Barclay. He improved more in strength and 
 wind by his journeys to the Highlands, than 
 by any other part of the training process. 
 
 His diet and drink were the same as used 
 in the pedestrian regimen, and in other re- 
 spects the rules previously laid down were 
 generally applied to him. That he was 
 brought to his ultimate pitch of condition, 
 was evident from the high state of health and 
 strength in which he appeared when he 
 mounted the stage to contend with Moli- 
 neaux, who has since confessed, that when he 
 saw his fine condition he totally despaired of 
 gaining the battle. 
 
 Cribb was altogether about eleven weeks 
 under training, but he remained only nine 
 weeks at Ury. Besides his regular exercise, 
 he was occasionally employed in sparring at 
 Stonehaven, where he gave lessons in the 
 pugilistic art. He was not allowed much 
 rest, but was constantly occupied in some 
 active employment. He enjoyed good spirits, 
 being at the time fully convinced that he 
 would beat his antagonist. He was managed, 
 however, with great address, and the result 
 corresponded with the wishes of his friends. 
 Sporting Repository.
 
 TRA] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 540 
 
 TRAP, s. A snare set for thieves or vermin ; an ambush, a stratagem to 
 betray or catch unawares ; a play at which a ball is driven with a 
 stick. 
 
 I place my trap a few yards to the right 
 or the left of the partridge's nest (so that it 
 may not catch the parent bird) hut plainly in 
 view, so that when the magpie approaches it 
 cannot fail to see the bait As magpies are 
 fond of eggs, nothing can form a better bait 
 (particularly in the breeding season) than a 
 hen's egg, which should be perforated at each 
 end, the contents blown out, and a small 
 twig run through it into the ground, in order 
 to give the magpie some trouble to cet it off; 
 and while it is endeavouring to pull it away, 
 its feet should be on the bridge of the trap, 
 the bait being placed at the requisite distance 
 for that purpose. The plunderer is sure to 
 be caught. The mere shell of the egg an- 
 swers better for the purpose of a bait than if 
 it contained its original contents, and it is 
 thus more easily fastened to the requisite 
 spot. I repeat, that the square is much pre- 
 ferable to the semicircular trap, as the latter 
 is more apt to miss the thief, owing to its 
 form. 
 
 If an egg be not at hand, or easily obtained, 
 a piece of raw meat will answer the purpose, 
 and will form a good bait : a magpie is not 
 very particular in its food. 
 
 If the kite or the buzzard be the object of 
 consideration, the trap should be placed pre- 
 cisely in the same manner, but the bait 
 should be a pigeon, a small rabbit, (or a piece 
 of either) or any of the smaller kind of birds, 
 or a piece of raw meat or liver will answer 
 the purpose. The bait should be fastened, 
 and if a few feathers are scattered about, it 
 will be more easily perceived by these birds 
 they will discern it indeed at a great dis- 
 tance Kites and buzzards, though very mis- 
 chievous, are few in number, and do not ap- 
 proach the human habitation with the same 
 familiarity as the magpie or the crow. They 
 are fond of being able to see a great distance 
 around them, as if to prevent surprise ; and 
 for this reason they may be often seen, when 
 they alight on the ground, to take their sta- 
 tion on some hillock or eminence, on downs 
 or other open places, whence they can survey 
 the surrounding country. Wherever it is 
 perceived that these birds frequent or haunt, 
 the traps should of course be placed. Let it 
 be further understood, that the application of 
 these remarks is not intended to be confined 
 to the breeding season. Whenever vermin, 
 of any kind, are discovered, they should be 
 trapped or destroyed there is no mode so cer- 
 tain as the steel trap, when properly prepared 
 and set. 
 
 The sparrow hawk, the hobby, &c., require 
 
 a smaller trap than the kite or the buzzard, 
 which is, however, to be prepared and placed 
 in the same manner, and baited with a sparrow, 
 lark, or other small bird (excepting the swal- 
 low tribe, which birds of prey refuse) and a 
 few of its feathers scattered about for the 
 purpose of attracting the object to be caught. 
 
 In regard to the quadrupedal vermin, and 
 first of all for the polecat, it may be remarked, 
 that when this animal is suspected of making 
 free with the eggs of the pheasant or the 
 partridge, the trap may be prepared for him 
 precisely in the same manner as already de- 
 scribed for the magpie, and he is sure to be 
 caught ; or should the track to his hole be 
 discovered, he may be taken by placing the 
 trap in it, close to the hole, (covered in all 
 cases, as the most certain means of success,) 
 with or without the bait, but the latter mode 
 is preferable ; or the deception may be placed 
 a little out of his track ; and perhaps half a 
 yard out of his track is the better method. 
 This animal is attracted by the smell of 
 musk, and therefore the bait may be anointed 
 with a little of the essence of this strong per- 
 fume : but it will answer the purpose without 
 it ; and the only effect, in fact, that it has, is 
 merely enabling the polecat to smell or scent 
 the bait at a greater distance. A trap placed 
 at the entrance of the hole of the polecat, 
 without a bait, will take him, if covered in 
 the manner described in the preceding pages ; 
 but if not concealed, its effective operation 
 will be very uncertain; with a rat it would 
 fail : if the trap were so placed that the rat 
 could not miss it in coming out, he would 
 form another hole to avoid it, when the calls 
 of hunger compelled him to leave his hiding 
 place. The bait for a polecat should be a rat, 
 a mouse, a bird, entrails, or indeed almost 
 any animal substance Trill answer the pur- 
 pose And what I have stated respecting the 
 
 polecat is equally applicable to the stoat, and 
 to all the weasel tribe. 
 
 The cat, as I have previously stated in a 
 separate article, is very destructive to game ; 
 for which nothing is a more tempting bait 
 than a sparrow, lark, &c., and, as these ani- 
 mals are attracted by valerian, the bait may 
 be rubbed with it if convenient ; but it is not 
 absolutely necessary, as a cat is easily caught 
 without that addition. Valerian may, as well 
 as musk, be obtained ut any druggist's shop. 
 It will be requisite, of course, to set a larger 
 trap for a cat than that which is used for a 
 weasel or a magpie. 
 
 The caution of rats in approaching a trap 
 is very well known, and, in fact, those who
 
 550 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 attempt to take them in the common way 
 uniformly fail ; an odd one may perhaps be 
 caught (and that not often) and the business 
 
 ends. But when the trap is concealed in a 
 proper manner, the rats are sure to be caught. 
 Gamekeeper's Directory. 
 
 TRAP, v. To ensnare, to catch by a snare or ambush ; to decorate. 
 TRAPPINGS, s. Ornaments appendant to the saddle ; ornaments, dress, 
 
 embellishments. 
 TRAVEL, s. Journey, act of passing- from place to place ; the rate of a 
 
 setter. 
 
 TRAVERSE, v. To cross, to lay athwart. 
 TRAUMATIC BALSAM, s. Compound tincture of benzoin, friar's balsam, 
 
 &c. 
 
 Benzoin . 
 Strained storax 
 Balsam of tolu 
 Aloes 
 
 . 3oz. 
 
 . 2oz. 
 
 . 1 oz. 
 
 oz - 
 
 Rectified spirit 
 
 . 1 quart. 
 
 Digest for fourteen days, and filter or 
 strain White. 
 
 TREAD, v. To walk on, to feel under the foot ; to press under the foot ; 
 
 to track ; to crush under foot ; to put in action by the feet; to love as 
 
 the male bird the female. 
 TRESPASS, v. To transgress, to offend ; to enter unlawfully on another's 
 
 ground. 
 TRESPASS, s. Transgression, offence ; unlawful entrance on another's 
 
 ground. 
 TRESPASSER, s. An offender, a transgressor ; one who enters unlawfully 
 
 on another's grounds. 
 
 Military Trespassers Killing or taking 
 game, without leave from the lord of the 
 manor, under his hand and seal, subject to 
 penalties as follow : 
 
 Officer 51. Officer within whose command 
 
 the offence is committed by a soldier, II. to 
 the poor of the place, and (being convicted by 
 a justice of peace, and the penalty demanded 
 by the constable or overseer) the officer must 
 pay it within two days, or forfeit his commis- 
 sion. 
 
 By this act, an officer, although invited by 
 his friends to shoot on their land, may be 
 sued for the above penalty by the lord of a 
 manor, who has, perhaps, no right to sport 
 there himself. 
 
 Notices of Trespass May be personally 
 served, or left at the place of abode of the 
 party trespassing. 
 
 Verbal notices are quite sufficient, if accu- 
 rately proved. 
 
 All notices to come from the tenant and 
 not from the landlord, who cannot support an 
 
 action of trespass upon the land, of which he 
 is not the occupier. 
 
 Gamekeepers, or other persons, may be 
 deputed to serve either verbal or written no- 
 tices, by lords of manors, occupiers of land, &c. 
 
 Instructions how to warn off" a Tres- 
 passer The following is the proper form of 
 a notice to be sent to, or served on, any per- 
 son in particular. 
 
 To (name the person's Christian and sur- 
 name) of (name his residence). 
 
 I hereby give you notice, not to enter or 
 come into or upon any of the lands, woods, 
 underwoods, shaws, or coverts (or into or upon, 
 any of the rivers, ponds, pools, waters, or 
 water-courses) in my occupation in the parish 
 of (name the parish, or if the lands lie in more 
 than one, the several parishes) in the county 
 of (name the county or counties) as, in case 
 of your doing so, I shall proceed against you 
 as a wilful trespasser. Witness my hand this 
 (name the day of the month) day of 18 . 
 (Sign your name.) 
 
 TREVIS, s. An instrument of restraint for horses. 
 
 The trevis is the very utmost limit of re- 
 straint, and is seldom used but by smiths to 
 
 shoe very violent and powerful horses : when- 
 ever recourse is had to it, the greatest caution
 
 Tw] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 551 
 
 is necessary to bed and bolster all the parts 
 that are likely to come in contact with the 
 body. On the continent I have seen horses 
 very dexterously shod in this machine, and 
 apparently put in under no other necessity 
 than either to avoid labour, or, ridiculous as it 
 may seem, to prevent the clothes of the smith 
 from being injured or dirtied by the common 
 method. Horses have been destroyed by the 
 trevis, as well as by casting ; or, at least, their 
 aversion to the restraint has been such, that 
 they have died under their own resistance ; it, 
 
 however, lias a very decided advantage over 
 casting, as it is seldom the vertebrae are frac- 
 tured by it ; and it might be so framed, I am 
 convinced, as to render it a most efficient re- 
 straint for the performance of many operations, 
 and might be further used as a slinging ma- 
 chine in many cases requiring suspension, which 
 might here, by the adjustment of machinery, 
 be made to act in many ways favourable to the 
 horse and the practitioner. The side-line is 
 now very generally used, not only in minor 
 
 operations but also in those more important 
 
 Elaine. 
 
 TREY, *. A three at cards. 
 
 TRIBE, s. A distinct species as divided by family or any other character- 
 istic. 
 
 TRIGGER, s. A catch to hold the wheel on steep ground ; the catch that, 
 being pulled, looses the cock of the gun. Hair triggers are generally 
 used in duelling pistols and rifles. 
 
 gulate the pull of a trigger, as well as that of 
 a cock, is by a small stilliard, which will draw 
 out and regulate those of twenty guns to the 
 same focus. 
 
 The triggers are now kept well in their 
 places, by the constant pressure of little springs, 
 and you must therefore push them back be- 
 fore you can let in your locks Hawker 
 
 Vide SAFETY TRIGGER, Appendix. 
 
 Let the triggers of all your guns be made 
 to go nearly alike ; for, if one requires too 
 hard a pull, it is a sad check to shooting; and, 
 if it goes too easy, you are liable to the ac- 
 cident of firing the gun before it is fairly 
 brought to the shoulder. Any tolerable me- 
 chanic may rectify these extremes, by filing, 
 more or less, the part where the scear catches 
 the tumbler. The most accurate way to re- 
 
 TRIM, v. To fit out ; to dress, to decorate, to shave, to clip. 
 
 It is necessary here to make some remarks 
 on the absurd and mischievous practice of 
 trimming horses' legs; that is, cutting off 
 * parts which were designed by the Almighty 
 for a useful purpose, that of defending the 
 pastern; whereby they expose an important 
 part to injuries. The fetlock, as it is termed, 
 is found in all horses, especially in those of 
 the northern breed, and from its position is an 
 admirable guard against thorns, furze, flints, 
 or other bodies, to which the pastern, without 
 it, is so much exposed. The only excuse for 
 this foolish practice is, that it is customary, 
 and makes a horse look clean about the legs ; 
 and this notion is carefully preserved, and 
 impressed upon the minds of those inexperi- 
 enced in horses, by the men employed to ope- 
 rate on the occasion. To such an extent is 
 this absurd practice carried, that in Exeter it 
 has become a distinct profession, for there is 
 one man I know who appears to make it his 
 sole employment. The hairs covering the 
 back part of the legs, and fetlock joint, are 
 always indicative of the horse's breed. In 
 those of northern climates it is strong, abun- 
 dant, and an excellent protection against acci- 
 dents. In the Arabian and barb it is thin, 
 silky, and highly ornamental. The English 
 race-horse being a mixture of the Arab and 
 the barb, with a very small proportion of the 
 
 northern blood, has this ornament in nearly 
 as great a degree as the Arab or barb. The 
 English hunter has it in a less degree, but in 
 sufficient quantity and strength for the de- 
 fence of the pastern against furze, thorns, and 
 flints ; but there are many who thin or trim 
 out the fetlock and pastern in such a manner, 
 in order to make the horse appear well-bred, 
 that it is made inadequate to the purpose for 
 which it was intended. Hence it is that punc- 
 tures and wounds in the back part of the 
 pastern are so common as we find them. 
 Wounds of the pastern, from the imprudent 
 practice I have just described, often occasion 
 severe lameness, and sometimes of consider- 
 able duration. They are generally occasioned 
 by small thorns, which having entered the 
 sheath of the tendon, are, from the hardness 
 of the perforans tendon, turned on their side, 
 and rendered less injurious than they would 
 otherwise be ; but even then the irritation 
 they occasion is such as to produce a dread- 
 ful degree of lameness, and even locked jaw. 
 This severe injury, however, is not common ; 
 more frequently the entrance of the thorn is 
 effectually resisted by the sheath, so that the 
 point is turned upward or downward, and the 
 thorn laid flat on its surface. But most com- 
 monly the thorn is turned in an oblique 
 direction, by entering the skin, and both the
 
 552 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [TRO 
 
 tendon and its sheath escape injury. When- 
 ever these accidents occur, it is of the utmost 
 importance to remove the thorn as speedily 
 as possible, and this can be done most readily 
 with the instrument named dissecting forceps. 
 The thorn will always be found in an oblique 
 
 TROLL, v. To troll, to run round; to fish with a rod which has a pulley 
 towards the bottom. 
 
 direction, and must be sought for accordingly. 
 The search will always be successful, if care- 
 ful, and in time. After the thorn has been 
 extracted, an emollient poultice should be 
 applied as long as it is necessary White. 
 
 Trolling, in the limited sense of the word, 
 means taking jack and pike with the gorge 
 hook ; live-bait fishing, when a floated line is 
 used ; and snap-fishing, when the angler so 
 places his bahed hooks, that, immediately he 
 feels a bite, he strikes with much force, and 
 generally throws over his head, or drags the 
 jack or pike on shore, instead of playing his 
 victim till he is exhausted. 
 
 Trolling is a valuable branch of fishing, 
 affording the angler several months' amuse- 
 
 TROT, v. To move with a high jolting pace. 
 
 TROT, s. The jolting high pace of a horse. 
 
 TROUT, s. A delicate spotted fish inhabiting brooks and quick streams. 
 
 ment during the year, and it may he practised 
 without danger to the health, when every 
 other mode of angling ceases to be either pro- 
 fitable or prudent to follow ; for as the winter 
 approaches, fish seldom rise to the surface of 
 the water, but leave the sharps, shallows, and 
 scouers, for the more deep and still parts of 
 rivers or other waters ; the fly-fisherman may 
 then lay by his tackle till the ensuing spring 
 is well advanced Salter. 
 
 This very elegant species is plentifully dis- 
 tributed through the British waters, and va- 
 ries in weight from a few ounces to fifteen or 
 even thirty pounds. 
 
 The general shape of trouts is rather long 
 than broad ; in several of the Scotch and Irish 
 lakes and rivers, they grow so much thicker 
 than in those of England, that a fish from 
 eighteen to twenty-two inches will often weigh 
 from three to five pounds. The trout is a fish 
 of prey, has a short roundish head, blunt nose, 
 mouth wide, and filled with teeth, not only in 
 the jaws, but on the palate and tongue : the 
 scales are small, their back is ash colour, the 
 sides yellow, and when in season, is sprinkled 
 all over the body and covers of the gills with 
 
 small beautiful red and black spots ; the tail is 
 broad. 
 
 The- re are several sorts of trout, differing in 
 their size, (for in many of the smaller streams 
 there are trouts that always continue small, 
 hut are very great breeders,) shape, and hue ; 
 but the flesh of the best is either red or yel- 
 low when dressed ; the female fish has a smaller 
 head and deeper body than the male, and is of 
 superior flavour. In fact the colours of the 
 trout and the spots vary greatly in different 
 waters and at distinct seasons, yet each may be 
 reduced to one species. In Lyndive, a lake in 
 South Wales, are trout called coch-y-dail, with 
 red and black spots as big as sixpences ; others 
 unmarked, and of a reddish hue, that some-
 
 TRO} 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 553 
 
 times weigh nearly ten pounds, but are ill- 
 tasted. In Lough Neagh, in Ireland, are trout 
 called buddaghs, which rise to thirty pounds ; 
 and some (probably of the same species) are 
 taken in Ulleswater, in Cumberland, of still 
 greater weight ; and both those are supposed 
 to be similar with the large trout of the lake 
 of Geneva, a fish says Mr. Pennant which I 
 have eaten of more than once, and think very 
 
 indifferent. 
 
 * * 
 
 A trout taken in Llynallet, in Denbighshire, 
 which is famous for its excellent kind, was sin- 
 gularly marked and shaped ; it measured se- 
 venteen inches in length, depth three and three 
 quarters, and weighed one pound ten ounces ; 
 the head thick, nose sharp, both jaws as well 
 as the head, of a pale brown, blotched with 
 black ; the teeth sharp and strong, dispersed in 
 the jaws, roof of the mouth, and tongue (as is 
 the case with the whole genus, except the gwin- 
 niad, which is toothless, and the grayling, 
 which has none on the tongue), the back was 
 dusky, and sides tinged with a purplish bloom, 
 both above and below the side line, which was 
 straight, and marked with deep purple spots, 
 mixed with black. The belly was white ; the 
 first dorsal fin was spotted ; the spurious fin 
 brown, tipped with red; the pectoral, ventral, 
 and anal fins of a pale brown ; the edges of 
 the latter white; the tail very little forked 
 when extended. 
 
 Some peculiar remarks upon the various 
 sorts of trout in the northern counties of Eng- 
 land, and of their growth and age, have been 
 given by a very experienced angler, to the fol- 
 lowing effect : That he does not undertake 
 to determine whether the river or burn trout 
 are of one species : in many points the trout 
 taken out of the same river and same pools 
 will agree, and in some shall vary; so that, if 
 the difference were owing to the water or food, 
 lie could say nothing against their being of one 
 species : he believes they spawn promiscuously 
 together, are all similar in shape, in the num- 
 ber of their fins, and their fins being disposed 
 in the same places. Whether the colour of 
 the spots make any specific variety, he leaves 
 to the decision of naturalists ; but, in his opi- 
 nion, the so much esteemed char, both red 
 and white, is only a meer or marsh trout, and 
 the colour perhaps owing to the sex. In se- 
 veral of the northern rivers he has taken trouts 
 as red and as well tasted as any char, and 
 whose bones, when potted, have dissolved, like 
 those of the char. That about Michaelmas 
 he had caught trouts of a coppered hue, with- 
 out spots ; the flesh when dressed, was like 
 bees- wax, and well tasted : that likewise in 
 April he took one of these trout twenty-eight 
 inches and thick in proportion, which boiled 
 yellow, but was equally good ; and this he 
 thinks was the bull trout mentioned by Wal- 
 
 ton, and several authors, as extraordinary 
 both for its size and goodness, and to be found 
 no where but in Northumberland. He re- 
 cords a still larger fish caught in the same 
 river (the Cocquet) by him in September, near 
 Brenkburn Abbey ; the length, which was 
 nearly a yard, did not strike this gentleman so 
 much, as the bright spots upon the lateral line ; 
 by which it appeared to him to be an over- 
 grown burn trout, and neither a salmon, sal- 
 mon-trout, nor the same with those two he 
 thought were the bull trout. 
 
 Walton mentions the Fordwich trout taken 
 in the river Stour, of which only one instance 
 was ever known of their being caught by the 
 angle, and are said to be delicious eating ; one 
 weighing twenty-six pounds, and of a most 
 beautiful colour, was taken with a net in De- 
 cember 1797 ; they grow to a larger size. 
 
 * * 
 
 The burn or river trout, with plenty of 
 food and good water, grows rapidly ; several 
 experiments were made in ponds fed by river 
 water, and some by clear springs, into which 
 the young fry have been put at five or six 
 months old (that is, in September or October, 
 reckoning from April, when they first come 
 from the spawning-beds) at which time they 
 will be six or seven inches long ; in eighteen 
 months the change has been surprising ; he 
 has seen a pond drained ten months after be- 
 ing thus stocked, which was in July, when 
 the fish were fifteen months old ; some were 
 fifteen or sixteen inches, others not more than 
 eleven or twelve ; the fish were returned into 
 the pond, and it was again drained the March 
 following, when some were twenty-two inches, 
 and weighed three pounds ; others were six- 
 teen inches, and some not more than twelve. 
 
 
 
 In March, or, if mild open weather, in 
 February, trouts begin to leave their winter 
 quarters, and approach the shallows and tails 
 of streams, where they cleanse and restore 
 themselves to health ; as they acquire strength 
 they advance still higher up the rivers, until > 
 they fix upon their summer residence, for 
 which they generally choose an eddy, behind 
 a stone, a log, or bank that projects forward 
 into the water, and against which the current 
 drives ; whirlpools and holes into which sharps 
 and shallows fall, under roots of trees, and 
 in places shaded by boughs and bushes ; in 
 small rivers they frequently lie under sedges 
 and weeds, especially in the beginning of the 
 year, before their perfect strength is reco- 
 vered ; but when in their prime, they feed in 
 the swiftest streams, and are often found at 
 the upper end of mill-pools, at locks, flood- 
 gates, and weirs, also under bridges, or _ be- 
 tween two streams running from under their 
 arches, and likewise in the returns of streams, 
 where the water seems to boil ; in the de-
 
 554 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 cline of summer, they lie at mill-tails, or the 
 end of other streams, and in the deep water. 
 
 * * 
 
 Trout spawn, or deposit their ova and se- 
 minal fluid in the end of the autumn or be- 
 ginning of winter, from the middle of Novem- 
 ber till the beginning of January ; their ma- 
 turity depending upon the temperature of the 
 season, their quantity of food, &c. From 
 some time (a month or six weeks) before 
 they are prepared for the sexual function, or 
 that of reproduction, they become less fat, 
 particularly the females ; the large quantity 
 of eggs and their size, probably affecting the 
 health of the 'animal, and compressing gene- 
 rally the vital organs in the abdomen. They 
 are at least six weeks or two months after 
 they have spawned before they recover their 
 flesh ; and the time when these fish are at 
 the worst is likewise the worst time for fly- 
 fishing, both on account of the cold weather, 
 and because there are fewer flies on the water 
 than at any other season. 
 
 * 
 
 It has been remarked by many other peo- 
 ple, as well as myself, that, of all fish in ex- 
 istence, there is not one that you can partake 
 of so many days in succession, without ceas- 
 ing to enjoy it, as a trout, provided it be fresh 
 caught, and well in season. Almost every 
 sportsman, and every fishmonger, has his own 
 way of fancying that he can tell when a trout 
 is in season. As to the red spots on the skin 
 having any thing to do with it, the very idea 
 is absurd and fallacious. But the more ge- 
 neral criterions are a small head and high 
 crest, a full tail, and the roof of the mouth, 
 or, what is still better, the flesh under the 
 tongue being rather of a pink colour. Another 
 excellent criterion, which was explained to 
 me by Mr. Joseph Miller, the fishmonger in 
 Piccadilly, is the smallness and tightness of 
 the vent ; for the better the trout is in sea- 
 son, the smaller will be that vent-hole, which 
 is formed just before the under or belly-fin. 
 And, after all, I prefer this, and one other 
 way of deciding ; which is by the bright and 
 silver-like appearance of the scales. Take 
 twenty trout, and, I think, if you dress them 
 all, and previously mark that one on which 
 the scales shone the brightest, it will prove 
 to be the best fish. This may be frequently 
 ascertained, even before you land a trout, as 
 a bright one, on being first hooked, generally 
 gives two or three leaps out of the water. 
 
 Before you send trout on a journey, always 
 have them cleaned and gutted, and let them 
 be laid on their backs, and closely packed in 
 willow (not flag) baskets, and with either I 
 
 flags or dry wheat-straw. Packing in damp 
 grass or rushes is apt to ferment, and there- 
 fore liable to spoil your fish. 
 
 * 
 
 Salmon and trout were here to be found 
 among the rest. Indeed the people asserted 
 there were nine kinds of the former, for all 
 of which they had names, each kind making 
 its appearance in the river at different periods 
 of the year. This must of course be a mis- 
 take, as so many varieties of that fish do not, 
 I imagine, exist. 
 
 Altogether I caught thirty-seven trout and 
 salmon, their aggregate weight being two hun- 
 dred and twenty-six pounds, or on an average 
 something better than six pounds a- piece. 
 The greatest number I killed in any one 
 day were seven, and the largest I took was 
 eighteen pounds ; this weight was however 
 comparatively nothing, for in the river below 
 the falls salmon were occasionally taken in 
 nets weighing forty, fifty, sixty, and even 
 seventy pounds. 
 
 The trout are very fine at Trolhattan; I 
 have killed them upwards of twelve pounds' 
 weight. They are about the best grown fish 
 
 I ever saw in my life. 
 
 * 
 
 The high flavour and red colour for which 
 the fish taken in Lochleven arc so famed, are 
 understood to arise from the ford by which 
 they are supported in the loch ; it being a 
 general rule that while the flesh of trout is 
 white in clear and limpid waters, the same 
 sort, when found where the rivers pass slowly 
 through a tract of foul or meadow ground, 
 have less or more redness in their colour. A 
 considerable part of the bottom of Lochleven 
 is spongy, from which aquatic plants rise in 
 great abundance ; and in many parts, towards 
 the beginning of autumn, cover the surface of 
 the water with their flowers. But the cir- 
 cumstance to which the high colour of the 
 Lochleven trout is chiefly ascribed, is the vast 
 quantity of a small red shell fish which 
 abounds in the bottom of the loch, and espe- 
 cially among the aquatic plants ; its form is 
 globular, and the trouts when caught have 
 often their stomachs full of these shell-fish. 
 They generally lie in deep water, and will not 
 rise to any kind of fly or hook however 
 baited : it has been remarked also, that in 
 Lochleven are discovered all the different 
 species of river trout, and after they have 
 remained some time in the loch, and approached 
 towards one pound in weight, they become 
 red in flesh. (Vide FISHING, ROD, WORM, 
 &e., &c.) Daniel Davy Lloyd Wild 
 Sports, $c. 
 
 TRUMP, s. A trumpet, an instrument of warlike music ; a winning card ; 
 a card that has particular privileges in a game.
 
 TUR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 555 
 
 The dose is from half a drachm to a drachm. 
 
 It is given as an emetic to dogs, when they 
 have swallowed any poisonous substance, or 
 at the commencement of the distemper 
 
 While. 
 
 TRUMP, v. To win with a trump card. 
 
 TRUSS, s. A bandage by which ruptures are restrained from lapsing. 
 
 TRUSSING, s. Term applied to a hawk when she raises a fowl into the air, 
 
 and descends rapidly again. 
 
 TUMBLER, s. One who shows postures or feats of activity; a pigeon. 
 TUMID, a. Swelling, puffed up ; protuberant, raised above the level ; 
 
 pompous, boasting, puffy, falsely sublime. 
 TUN, s, A large cask ; two pipes, the measure of four hogsheads ; any 
 
 large quantity proverbially ; a drunkard, in burlesque ; the weight of two 
 
 thousand pounds; a ton. 
 TURBITH MINERAL, s. Subsulphate of mercury, yellow mercurial emetic, 
 
 or vitriolated quicksilver. 
 
 This mercurial preparation is seldom used 
 in veterinary practice, heing apt to irritate the 
 stomach and bowels, and bring on violent 
 purging ; but it has been recommended as a 
 remedy for farcy. 
 
 TURF, s. A clod covered with grass ; a part of the surface of the ground ; 
 akind of fuel ; a racecourse. To be on the turf, to be engaged in 
 horse-racing. 
 
 TURNIP, s. A white esculent root. 
 
 TURNPIKE, s. A cross of two bars armed with pikes at the end, and turn- 
 ing on a pin, fixed to hinder horses from entering : a gate erected on 
 the road to collect tolls to defray the expense of repairing roads. 
 
 TURNSPIT, 5. He who anciently turned a spit ; a dog used for this purpose. 
 
 TURPENTINE, s. The gum exuded by the pine, the juniper, and other trees 
 of that kind. 
 
 well as medicinal properties, viz. Canada tur- 
 pentine, or Canada balsam, as it is sometimes 
 improperly called, is obtained from the Finns 
 Balsamea. 2dly, Chian or Cyprus turpen- 
 tine, from the Pistachia Terebinthinus. 3dly, 
 Common, or horse turpentine, from the Pinus 
 Sylvestris, or Scotch fir. 4thly, Venice tur- 
 pentine from the Pinus Larix ; from the twigs 
 of this species of fir the essence of spruce is 
 made. True Riga balsam is made from the 
 shoots of the Pinus Cembra, previously bruised 
 and macerated for a month in water. The 
 same fir also yields Brianc,on turpentine. 
 
 Venice turpentine is generally made by 
 mixing oil with the common turpentine, which 
 is easily done when the latter is melted. 
 
 Venice turpentine is sometimes employed 
 as an ingredient in cough medicines. The 
 dose is about half an ounce. But if given as 
 a remedy for flatulent colic, or as a diuretic, 
 a larger quantity is necessary. It makes a 
 good detergent ointment, if mixed with about 
 a fourth or a third part of red precipitate, 
 finely powdered. 
 
 Of turpentines there are four kinds, viz. 
 Chio, Strasburg, Venice, and common tur- 
 pentine ; the two last only are employed in 
 veterinary medicine. They are effectual diu- 
 retics, and possess a considerable carminative 
 power. Common turpentine is a principal 
 ingredient in digestive and detergent oint- 
 ments. By distillation we obtain from it the 
 oil, or, as it is sometimes termed, the spirit of 
 turpentine, a medicine of great utility. In 
 doses from two to three or four ounces, it 
 frequently cures the flatulent colic or gripes ; 
 and, when combined with camphor and other 
 stimulants, makes a good embrocation for in- 
 durated swellings, strains, and bruises. When 
 properly mixed with mustard, it forms an em- 
 brocation that has been found serviceable in 
 counteracting internal inflammation. I have 
 seen it applied to obstinate ulcers with good 
 effect. It is a useful ingredient in blistering- 
 ointment and liniments. 
 
 * * * 
 
 In speaking of the turpentines, Dr. Paris 
 says they all possess the same chemical as
 
 556 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Tun 
 
 Dr. Latham considers it a valuable medi- 
 cine in epilepsy. As a veterinary medicine 
 it is certainly of great value ; and though in 
 a few cases, when given internally, it has pro- 
 duced violent effects, merely, I believe, from 
 bad management, yet, when judiciously ad- 
 
 ministered, it may be employed in a dose of 
 four ounces, with advantage and safety. 
 
 I have long discontinued the use of oil of 
 turpentine in my practice as a remedy for 
 flatulent colic, gripes, or fret ; finding the pre- 
 parations of opium far more effectual H kite. 
 
 TURTLE, s. The sea tortoise. 
 
 TURTLE DOVE (Columba turtur, LINN.; La Tourtourelle, BUFF.), s. 
 
 Length somewhat more than twelve inches ; 
 the bill is brown ; eyes yellow, encompassed 
 with a crimson circle ; the top of the head is 
 ash-colour, mixed with olive ; each side of the 
 neck is marked with a spot of black feathers, 
 tipped with white : the back is ash-colour, 
 each feather margined with reddish brown ; 
 wing coverts and scapulars reddish brown, 
 spotted with black ; quill feathers dusky, with 
 pale edges ; the fore part of the neck and the 
 breast are of a light purplish red ; the belly, 
 thighs, and vent, white ; the two middle fea- 
 thers of the tail are brown, the others dusky 
 tipped with white ; the two outermost also 
 edged with the same ; the legs are red. 
 
 The note of the turtle dove is singularly 
 tender and plaintive ; in addressing his mate 
 the male makes use of a variety of winning 
 attitudes, cooing at the same time in the most 
 
 gentle and soothing accents ; on which account 
 the turtle dove has been represented in all 
 ages as the most perfect emblem of connubial 
 attachment and constancy. The turtle arrives 
 late in the spring, and departs about the latter 
 end of August ; it frequents the thickest and 
 most sheltered parts of the woods, where it 
 builds its nest on the highest trees ; the female 
 lays two eggs, and has only one brood in this 
 country, but in warmer climates it is supposed 
 to breed several times in the year. Turtles 
 are pretty common in Kent, where they are 
 sometimes seen in flocks of twenty or more, 
 frequenting the pea fields, and are said to do 
 much damage. Their stay with us seldom 
 exceeds more than four or five months, during 
 which time they pair, build their nests, and 
 rear their young, which are strong enough to 
 join them in their retreat Bewick. 
 
 TUSH or TUSK, s. The long tooth of a fighting animal, the fang, the 
 holding tooth. 
 
 TUSKED or TUSKY, a. Furnished with tusks. 
 
 TWINE,*. A twisted thread; twist, convolution; embrace; act of con- 
 volving itself round. 
 
 TWINLING, s. A twin lamb, a lamb of two brought at a birth.
 
 TYR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 557 
 
 TWITCH, v. To pluck with a quick motion, to snatch. 
 
 The twitch is a very necessary instrument 
 in a stable, though, when frequently and un- 
 necessarily used, it may have the ill effect of 
 rendering some horses violent and vicious to 
 resist its future application. In many instan- 
 ces blindfolding will do more than the twitch ; 
 and some horses may be quieted, when the pain 
 is not excessive, by holding the ear in one hand, 
 and rubbing the point of it with the other. A 
 firm but soothing manner will often engage the 
 attention and prevent violence ; but it is sel- 
 dom that either threats or punishment render 
 an unruly horse better. Inexperienced per- 
 
 sons guard themselves against the hind feet 
 only, but they should be aware that some 
 horses strike as truly and as terribly with their 
 fore feet : it is prudent therefore, in all opera- 
 tions, to blindfold the animal, and the more so, 
 as by this he becomes particularly intimidated, 
 nor will he often strike without an aim. Bar- 
 nacles are a sort of clams used by smiths, into 
 which they introduce the nose in the manner 
 of a twitch. They are only admissible when 
 a person is so situated as to be wholly without 
 assistance Blaine. 
 
 TWITTER, v. To make a sharp tremulous intermitted noise ; to be sud- 
 denly moved with any inclination. 
 TYMPANUM, s. A drum, a part of the ear. 
 TYRO, s. One yet not master of his art.
 
 THE VELVET DUCK. 
 
 V ALERIAN, s. A plant, of which cats are immoderately fond. 
 VAPOUR, s. Anything exhalable, anything that mingles with the air ; 
 
 wind ; fume, steam ; diseases caused by diseased nerves ; melancholy, 
 
 spleen. 
 VARNISH, *. A matter laid upon wood, metal, or other bodies, to make 
 
 them shine. 
 
 As moisture is at all times destructive to 
 wood, it is essential for the angler to guard 
 all in his power against its influence on his 
 rod ; for, admitting that a shower of rain 
 will not spoil it, yet if not protected by 
 varnish, it may soon be deprived of its elasti- 
 city, which is the chief requisite of any, and 
 more particularly of a fly-rod. Variety of 
 methods are used in preparing varnish ; the 
 one here mentioned is said to be excellent. 
 
 ^Varnish Recipe Half a pint of linseed 
 
 oil, and a little India rubber scraped fine ; put 
 them over a slow fire, and stir them well to- 
 gether, until the rubber is dissolved, then boil 
 and skim it, apply it warm, and do not use 
 the rod until quite dry. The appearance 
 upon the rod will be like a fine thin bark ; it 
 
 will preserve the rod from being worm-eaten, 
 and from other injuries, and is very durable. 
 
 Another Half an ounce of shell, and the 
 same quantity of seedlac powdered fine in a 
 mortar ; put into separate phials, with half 
 a pint of good spirits of wine in each, and 
 placed in a sand heat to dissolve ; during the 
 process, shake the phials often ; when each is 
 dissolved, mix them together in a larger bot- 
 tle, with half an ounce of gum benzoin ; 
 increase the heat, and the dregs will subside ; 
 then warm the wood, and with a camel's hair 
 brush apply that part of the varnish which is 
 become fine ; the third coat will remain on 
 the surface, and securely protect the rod from 
 injury Old Receipts. 
 
 VARNISH, v. To cover with something shining. 
 VASCULAR, a. Consisting of vessels, full of vessels. 
 VAULT, v. To leap, to jump.
 
 YEN] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 559 
 
 UDDER, s. The breast or dugs of a cow, or other large animals. 
 
 VEAL, s. The flesh of a calf killed for the table. 
 
 VEGETABLE, s. Anything that has growth without sensation, as plants. 
 
 VEGETABLE, a. Belonging to a plant ; having the nature of plants. 
 
 VEHICLE, s. That in which any thing is carried ; that part of a medicine 
 which serves to make the principal ingredient potable ; that by means 
 of which anything is conveyed. 
 
 VEIN, s. The veins are only a continuation of the extreme capillary arte- 
 ries reflected back again towards the heart, and uniting their channels 
 as they approach it. 
 
 VEINY, a. Full of veins ; streaked, variegated. 
 
 VELOCITY, s. Speed, swiftness, quick motion. 
 
 VELVET, s. Silk, with a short fur or pile upon it. 
 
 VELVET DUCK, DOUBLE SCOTER, or GREAT BLACK DUCK, (AnasFusca, 
 LINN. ; Le Grand Macreuse, BUFF.) s. 
 
 The velvet duck is larger than a mallard, 
 weighing about three pounds two ounces, and 
 measuring above twenty inches in length. 
 
 They spread themselves in small numbers 
 along the shores of Western Europe, as far as 
 France, where they sometimes appear in com- 
 pany with the large flocks of scoters, and are 
 often caught in the fishermen's nets with those 
 birds ; but they are seldom met with on the 
 British shores. 
 
 The bill broad, with a black knob at the 
 base ; the rest of the bill is yellow ; the nail 
 red ; the edges all round black ; the plumage 
 is black, inclining to brown on the belly ; 
 under each eye is a white mark passing back- 
 wards in a streak ; across the middle of the 
 wing is a band of white ; legs red ; claws 
 black. The female is more inclining to 
 brown, and the protuberance on the bill is 
 
 wanting; forehead and cheeks under the eye, 
 dull brownish ; behind that a large oval spot 
 of white ; whole upper parts and neck dark 
 brownish drab ; tips of the plumage lighter ; 
 second ones white ; wing quills deep brown ; 
 belly brownish-white ; tail hoary-brown ; the 
 throat white, marked with dusky specks; legs 
 and feet yellow. 
 
 This species much resembles the scoter, 
 only that bird has no white feathers about it, 
 and the colour of the bill is somewhat differ- 
 ent. In the windpipe of this bird is a singu- 
 lar bony swelling, the size of a small walnut, 
 situated about two-thirds of the length from 
 the larynx; immediately under the larynx is 
 another oblong bony cavity, of nearly an inch 
 in length ; at the divarication the parts be- 
 come bony, but not greatly enlarged. This 
 is peculiar to the male sex Montagu. 
 
 VENATIC, a. Used in hunting, obs. 
 
 VENATION, s. The act or practice of hunting, obs. 
 
 VENEER, v. To make a kind of marquetry, or inlaid work. 
 
 VENOMOUS, a. Poisonous. 
 
 VENERY, s. The sport of hunting ; the commerce of the sexes. 
 
 VENESECTION, s. Bloodletting, the act of opening a vein, phlebotomy. 
 
 VENISON, *. Game, beast of chace, the flesh of deer. 
 
 VENT, s. A small aperture ; a hole ; a spiracle ; the aperture of a bird or 
 
 fish ; act of opening ; emission ; discharge. 
 VENTER, s. Any cavity of the body; the abdomen. 
 VENT FEATHERS (Crissum, LINN.), s. In ornithology, are those that lie 
 
 from the vent, or anus, to the tail underneath. 
 VENTILATOR, s. An apparatus to supply close places with fresh air.
 
 560 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [YEN 
 
 VENTRICLE, s. The stomach ; any small cavity in an animal body, particu- 
 larly those of the heart. 
 VERDERER, s. An officer of the forest. 
 
 In every forest there are usually four ver- 
 derers, so named from viridis or vert. The ver- 
 derer is a judicial officer of the forest, chosen 
 by force of the king's writ in full county, and 
 
 sworn to maintain the laws of the forest, and 
 to view, receive, and enrol the attachments 
 and presentments of all trespasses within the 
 forest of vert and venison. 
 
 VERDIGRIS, s. The rust of brass. 
 VERJUICE, s. Acid liquor expressed from crab apples. 
 VERMICULAR, a. Acting like a worm, continued from one part to another. 
 VERMIFUGE, s. Any medicine that destroys or expels worms. 
 VERMILION, *. The cochineal, a grub of a particular plant ; factitious or 
 native cinnabar, sulphur mixed with mercury ; any beautiful red colour. 
 VERMIN, s. Any noxious animal. 
 
 tary effect, and it not unfrequently poisons 
 the dog. Innumerable other means I have 
 tried to drive away fleas, but the only tolera- 
 bly certain one I have discovered, is to make 
 dogs sleep on fresh yellow deal shavings. 
 These shavings may be made so fine as to be 
 as soft as a feather bed ; and, if changed every 
 week or fortnight, they make the most cleanly 
 and wholesome one that a dog can rest on; 
 and the turpentine in them is very obnoxious 
 to the fleas. But, where it is absolutely im- 
 practicable to employ deal shavings, it will be 
 found useful to rub or dredge the dog's hide, 
 once or twice a week, with very finely pow- 
 dered resin : if simply rubbed in, add some 
 bran Brown Elaine. 
 
 To destroy vermin. AVhen dogs are af- 
 flicted with lice, the most effectual remedy is 
 to rub the whole animal over with train-oil ; 
 allow it to remain on half an hour, and then 
 wash it off with salt of tartar, or potashes and 
 water. Soft soap made into a thick paste, and 
 rubbed over the body, and allowed to remain 
 on an hour before washing the dog, will effec- 
 tually destroy them. 
 
 N. B The method of giving any bolus, 
 pill, or other medicine to a dog, is to pull out 
 his tongue, then put it down his throat as far 
 as possible, and when the dog draws in his 
 tongue, the medicine will descend into his 
 stomach. 
 
 Sopping the skin with tobacco water has 
 been recommended ; but it has only a momen- 
 
 VERNAL, a. Belonging to the spring. 
 
 Vernal Birds of Passage The earlier 
 or later appearance of our spring birds may 
 be found to arise from accidental vicissitudes 
 of the season in those countries from whence 
 they come ; and, viewed in this light, the time 
 of their arrival becomes an interesting phe- 
 nomena to note down. Generally speaking, 
 they arrive at the following times, on an 
 average of many years : 
 Wryneck . . Middle of March. 
 
 Smallest Willow Wren . March 25. 
 House Swallow . . April 15. 
 
 Martin . . April 20. 
 
 Sand Martin . . April 20. 
 
 Blackcap . . April 17. 
 
 Nightingale . . April 10. 
 
 Cuckoo . . April 21. 
 
 Yellow Willow Wren . April 20. 
 Whitethroat . . April 16. 
 
 Redstart . . April 16. 
 
 Night Plover or Stone Cur- 
 lew . . March 27. 
 Grasshopper Lark . April 15. 
 Swift . . . May 9. 
 Lesser Red Sparrow . April 30. 
 Corn Crake or Land Rail. April 25. 
 Largest Willow Wren . End of April. 
 Fern Owl . . May 20. 
 Flycatcher . . May 3. 
 
 Other birds, water wagtails for instance, 
 who only make partial migrations, are more 
 
 uncertain in their times of appearance 
 
 Foster. 
 
 VERT, s. Everything that grows and bears a green leaf within the forest. 
 VERTEBRAL, a. Relating to the joints of the spine. 
 VERTEBRJE, s. Joints of the back.
 
 VIN] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 561 
 
 VERTIGO, s. A giddiness, a sense of 
 White fast trotters are particularly 
 
 When a horse has been worked hard and | 
 fed high, and especially horses that excel in 
 trotting, we often find, in the course of a few 
 years, that they appear giddy at times, or when 
 trotting suddenly stand still ; ramble or reel 
 a little, and shake their heads; hut after a 
 short time recover. Sometimes they reel 
 
 turning in the head. According to 
 subject to this disease. 
 
 and drop down, and lie motionless for some 
 time ; when they get up again, and recover in 
 a short time. Sometimes after falling down, 
 they are convulsed, and the eyes are dis- 
 torted ; from this state also they recover after 
 a short time White, 
 
 VESICATE, v. To blister. 
 
 VESICATORY, s. A blistering medicine. 
 
 VETERINARY, a. Belonging to cattle, particularly horses. 
 
 VIBRISS^; (LiNN.), s. In ornithology, are hairs that stand forward like 
 feelers : in some birds they are slender, as in flycatchers, &c. and point 
 both upwards and downwards, from both the upper and under sides of 
 the mouth. Vibrissce pectinatae (LiNN.), in ornithology ; these hairs 
 are very stiff, and spread out on each side like a comb from the upper 
 sides of the mouth of the nightjar. Montagu. 
 
 VICE, s. The course of action opposite to virtue ; a fault, an offence ; a 
 kind of small ircn press with screws. Vice, in horses, ill temper, 
 savageness. 
 
 VINGT-UN, s. A game. 
 
 Vingt-un, or twenty-one, very much resem- 
 bles quinze ; but may be played by two or 
 more persons, and as the deal is advantage- 
 ous, and often continues long with the same 
 person, it is usual to determine it at the com- 
 mencement by the first ace turned up. 
 
 The cards must all be dealt out in suc- 
 cession, unless a natural vingt-un occurs, and 
 in the mean time the pone, or youngest-hand, 
 should collect those that have been played, 
 and shuffle them ready for the dealer against 
 the period when he shall have distributed the 
 whole pack. The dealer is first to give two 
 cards, by one at a time to each player, in- 
 cluding himself, then to ask every person in 
 rotation, beginning with the eldest hand on 
 the left, whether he stands or chooses another 
 card, which, if required, must be given from 
 off the top of the pack, and afterwards another, 
 or more, if desired, till the points of the ad- 
 ditional card or cards, added to those dealt, 
 exceed or make twenty-one exactly, or such 
 a number less than twenty one, as may be 
 judged proper to stand upon ; but when the 
 points exceed twenty-one, then the cards of 
 that individual player are to be thrown up 
 directly, and the stake to be paid to the dealer, 
 who is also in turn entitled to draw additional 
 cards, and on taking a vingt-un is to receive 
 
 double stakes from all who stand the game, 
 such other players excepted who may like- 
 wise have twenty-one, between whom it is 
 thereby a drawn game : when any person has 
 vingt-un, and the dealer not, he who has it 
 wins double stakes of the dealer ; in other 
 cases, except a natural vingt-un happens, the 
 dealer pays single stakes to all whose num- 
 bers under twenty-one are higher than his 
 own, and receives from those who have lower 
 numbers ; but nothing is paid or received by 
 such players as have similar numbers to the 
 dealer : and when the dealer draws more than 
 twenty-one, he is to pay to all who have not 
 thrown up. 
 
 Twenty-one, made by an ace and a ten, or 
 court card, whenever dealt in the first instance, 
 is styled a natural vingt-un, should be declared 
 immediately, and entitles the possessor to the 
 deal, besides double stakes, from all the 
 players, unless there shall be more than one 
 natural vingt-un, in which case the younger 
 hand or hands so having the same, are excused 
 from paying to the eldest, who takes the deal 
 of course. 
 
 N.B. An ace may be reckoned either as 
 eleven or one ; every court-card is counted as 
 ten, and the rest of the pack according to their 
 pips Hoyle. 
 
 VINEGAR, s. Wine grown sour. 
 
 O O
 
 562 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Vip 
 
 VINTAGE, s. The produce of the vine for the year; the time in which 
 
 grapes are gathered. 
 
 VIPER, s. A serpent of that species which brings its young alive ; any 
 mischievous. 
 
 thing 
 
 When I wrote to you last year on reptiles, 
 I wish I had not forgot to mention the faculty 
 that snakes have of stinking se defendendo. 
 I knew a gentleman who kept a tame snake, 
 which was in its person as sweet as any animal 
 while in good humour and unalarmed ; but 
 as soon as a stranger, or a dog or cat, came in, 
 it fell to hissing, and filled the room with 
 such nauseous effluvia as rendered it hardly 
 supportable. Thus the squnck, or stonck, of 
 Ray's Synop. Quadr. is an innocuous and 
 sweet animal ; but, when pressed hard by 
 dogs and men, it can eject such a most pesti- 
 lent and fetid smell and excrement, that 
 nothing can be more horrible. 
 
 * 
 
 On August the 4th, 1775, we surprised 
 a large viper, which seemed very heavy and 
 bloated, as it lay in the grass basking in the 
 sun. When we came to cut it up, we found 
 that the abdomen was crowded with young, 
 fifteen in number ; the shortest of which mea- 
 sured full seven inches, and were about the 
 size of full grown earthworms. This little 
 fry issued into the world with the true viper 
 spirit about them, showing great alertness as 
 soon as disengaged from the belly of the dam : 
 they twisted and wriggled about, and set them- 
 selves up, and gaped very wide when touched 
 
 VIPEROUS, a. Having the qualities of a viper. 
 VISCERA, s. The bowels or entrails. 
 
 Viscera of the horse The alimentary 
 canal is continued from the expellent orifice 
 of the stomach to the anus, or end of the 
 passage ; forming a long canal, whose varying 
 dimensions have occasioned it to be divided 
 into the small and large intestines. The 
 length of the tract ranges between twenty- 
 seven and thirty yards ; of which proportions 
 the small intestines occupy from twenty to 
 twenty-two yards, and the large from seven to 
 eight. It is not easy to give a determinate 
 place to the intestines, either individually or 
 generally ; the large, 'however, may be said 
 to occupy all the inferior portion of the abdo- 
 men throughout, and the small to range be- 
 tween and upon them ; both occasionally 
 shifting their position by the peristaltic mo- 
 tion. They are, however, prevented from an 
 unnatural displacement, by membranous pro- 
 ductions of the peritoneum, under the name 
 of mesentery, mesocolon, and mesorectum. 
 The first intestinal coat is derived from the 
 
 with a stick, showing manifest tokens of me- 
 nace and defiance, though as yet they had no 
 manner of fangs that we could find, even with 
 the help of our glasses. 
 
 To a thinking mind nothing is more won- 
 derful than that early instinct which im- 
 presses young animals with the notion of the 
 situation of their natural weapons, and of using 
 them properly in their own defence, even 
 before those weapons subsist or are formed. 
 Thus a young cock will spar at his adversary 
 before his spurs are grown : and a calf or 
 lamb will push with its head before its horns 
 are sprouted. In the same manner did these 
 young adders attempt to bite before their fangs 
 were in being. The dam, however, was fur- 
 nished with very formidable ones, which we 
 lifted up (for they fold down when not used) 
 and cut them off with the point of our scis- 
 sors. 
 
 There was little room to suppose that this 
 brood had ever been in the open air before ; 
 and that they were taken in for refuge, at the 
 mouth of the dam, when she perceived that 
 danger was approaching ; because then pro- 
 bably we should have found them somewhere 
 in the neck, and not in the abdomen 
 White's Selborne. 
 
 peritoneum, which separates to receive the 
 tube between its lamen ; at once protecting it, 
 and affording a medium for the transmission 
 of its vessels and a lubricating surface. The 
 second, or muscular coat, presents a longitu- 
 dinal and a circular plan of fibres ; by the 
 contraction of which, the vermicular motion, 
 called peristaltic, is performed, the longitudi- 
 nal slightly shortening them, and the circu- 
 lar diminishing their diameter ; the inner sur- 
 face of this fabric being garnished with a quan- 
 tity of dense cellular tissue, was formerly 
 erroneously considered as another and a nerv- 
 ous coat. The inner tunic of the intestinal 
 canal is villous, or mucous, and is very vas- 
 cular and sensible, its villi presenting an in- 
 creased surface for the mucous secretion, as 
 well as more numerous chyliferous orifices, 
 with which it is thickly studded ; b.ut it pre- 
 sents no valvulse conniventes, as in the hu- 
 their place being supplied by the in- 
 
 creased length of the tract Blaine. 
 
 Viscous, a. Glutinous, sticky, tenacious.
 
 ULC] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 563 
 
 VISION, s. Sight, the faculty of seeing ; the act of seeing. 
 
 Vision of Birds Ross, in his voyage to 
 
 Baffin's Bay, proved that a man under favour- 
 able circumstances could see over the surface 
 of the ocean to the extent of one hundred and 
 fifty English miles. It is not prohahle that 
 any animal exceeds this power of vision, though 
 birds, perhaps, excel men and most quadrupeds 
 in sharpness of sight. Schmidt threw at a con- 
 siderable distance from a thrush ( Turdus mu- 
 sicus) a few small beetles, of a pale grey-co- 
 lour, which the unassisted human eye could not 
 discover, yet the thrush observed them imme- 
 diately and devoured them. The bottle tit 
 (Parus caudatus^) flits with great quickness 
 
 among the branches of trees, and finds on the 
 very smooth bark its particular food, where 
 nothing is perceptible to the naked eye, though 
 insects can be detected there by the micro- 
 scope. A very tame red-breast (Sylva rube- 
 cula, LATHAM,) discovered crumbs from the 
 height of the branch where it usually sat, at 
 the distance of eighteen feet from the ground 
 the instant they were thrown down, and this 
 by bending its head to one side, and using of 
 course only one eye. At the same distance 
 a quail discovered, with one eye, some poppy- 
 seeds, which are very small and inconspicuous. 
 Montagu. 
 
 VITRIOL, s. Vitriol is produced by addition of a metallic matter with the 
 
 fossil acid salt. 
 
 VITRIOLIC, a. Resembling vitriol, containing vitriol. 
 VITRIOLATED ZINC, s. White vitriol. 
 VIVES, s. A disease in horses. 
 
 This disorder consists of a swelling of the 
 parotid gland, situated immediately beneath 
 the ear, and is commonly named the vives 
 or ives. Fomentations of hot water should 
 be first applied, that is, a large piece of thick 
 woollen cloth should be wrung out of hot wa- 
 ter, and kept in contact with the swelling. Af- 
 ter continuing this operation for some time, the 
 woollen cloth may be confined close to the part, 
 by suitable bandages, until it is convenient to 
 repeat the fomentation. Sometimes these 
 swellings go on to suppuration, and burst; when 
 this happens, the opening should be enlarged 
 sufficiently to introduce the fore-finger, and 
 when the extent of the cavity has been thus 
 ascertained, any further opening, should it ap- 
 pear necessary, may be made. A tent of di- 
 gestive ointment is then to be applied, and re- 
 peated daily until the disease is cured. Some- 
 times these swellings continue hard, and I have 
 
 ULCER, s. A sore of continuance, not 
 
 Ulceration is a process directly the reverse 
 of granulation ; for as that builds up, so ul- 
 ceration directly breaks down parts, which be- 
 come absorbed through the medium of the 
 lymphatics; the surfaces thus acted on pro- 
 ducing at the same time a purulent or other 
 discharge. An abraded surface thus circum- 
 stanced is called an ulcer, for the cure of 
 which we must endeavour to remedy the mor- 
 bid action, by exciting a new and more healthy 
 one ; by which the part being then brought 
 to the condition of a simple wound, will heal. 
 When ulcers have continued for a long time, 
 it is often necessary to employ constitutional 
 remedies to establish a cure. In full habits 
 we increase the other secretions, as those of 
 
 known them prevent a horse from feeding. In 
 a case of this kind, which I met with last 
 spring, I completely relieved the horse in a 
 short time, by rubbing in the following oint- 
 ment: 
 
 Crystallised tartarised antimony, 
 
 very finely powdered. 2 drachms. 
 
 Olive oil. 1 drachm. 
 
 Hog'glard. 1 ounce. 
 
 Mix. 
 
 The hair must be closely cut off from the 
 swelling, and the ointment well rubbed in with 
 the hand for about ten minutes. When horses 
 have sore necks, and lose the jugular vein, 
 which sometimes happens after bleeding, a hard 
 swelling of the parotid gland takes place, which 
 generally continues a considerable time. In 
 such cases, the above ointment, after the dis- 
 ease in the neck has been cured, may be 
 tried White. 
 
 a new wound. 
 
 the bowels, the kidneys, the skin, &c., by pur- 
 gatives, diuretics, and such remedies as act on 
 the skin. We also lessen the excess of mor- 
 bid secretion of pus, by establishing a new and 
 artificial drain in the neighbourhood, which is 
 done by setons or by rowels. In some cases, 
 instead of existing plethora the ulcer has occa- 
 sioned, or is accompanied by great irritability 
 of system, which must be com batted by opium, 
 and other sedatives; or if debility become 
 very apparent, tonics must be given, together 
 with liberal diet. In general cases, stable 
 soiling, a course of carrots, or other total 
 change of food, assists the healing and resto- 
 rative process greatly. Ulcers are often found 
 of a greater extent internally than externally ; 
 O O 2
 
 564 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Ui 
 
 and when such cavities extend in different di- 
 rections, they form the sinuses of the surgeon 
 and the pipes of the farrier : when the edges 
 of the external opening are hardened, it is said 
 to he fistulous. In general cases, the longer 
 an ulcer has lasted, the more obstinately will 
 the vessels have gained a diseased hahit, and 
 the more difficulty there will he to bring them 
 back to a healthy state. The external means 
 employed for this purpose are usually three ; 
 stimulating injections, seton, or incision ; 
 which operations it will not he necessary to 
 enter upon here, as we shall proceed to de- 
 
 ULCERATE, v. To disease with sores. 
 
 ULCERATION, s. The act of breaking into ulcers ; ulcer, sore. 
 
 UMBLA, or OMBRE CHEVALIER, s. A fish. 
 
 scribe the more common and important ulcers, 
 with their treatment, separately. It remains, 
 however, to state, that ulcers in general are 
 apt to be treated by farriers erroneously, by 
 plugging up the sinuses, by which the matter 
 formed penetrates farther, bringing into its 
 own action all the neighbouring parts. They 
 likewise dress them so seldom, that the pus 
 frequently takes on a process of decomposi- 
 tion, and becomes acrid ; and, lastly, they neg- 
 lect to gain a depending orifice for these col- 
 lections Elaine. 
 
 The umbla or ombre chevalier, is very like 
 a char in form, but is without spots, and has 
 a white and silvery belly. On the table, its 
 flesh cuts white or cream-colour, and it is ex- 
 ceedingly like char in flavour. On February 
 llth, 1827, one was brought me from the 
 lake of Bourget, in Savoy ; it was said to be 
 small for this fish, it was fifteen inches long, 
 and seven and a half in circumference. In 
 the dorsal fin there were twelve spines, in the 
 
 pectoral nine, in the ventral eight, in the anal 
 eleven, and in the caudal twenty-four. 
 
 Bloch says, that it is peculiar to the lakes 
 of Geneva and Neufchatel ; but what I have 
 just said must convince you of the inaccuracy 
 of this statement, as I dare say the fish exists 
 in other deep waters of a like character 
 amongst the Alps. It is a fish closely allied 
 to the char, and congenerous both in form and 
 habits Sir H. Davy. 
 
 UMBLES, s. A deer's entrails. 
 
 UNDER TAIL COVERTS, s. Those feathers immediately covering 1 the base 
 
 of the tail beneath. 
 
 UNDER WING COVERTS, s. Those feathers covering the wing underneath. 
 UNEARTHED, a. Driven from the ground. To unearth a fox, is to force 
 
 him from his den. 
 
 UNFLEDGED, a. That has not yet the full furniture of feathers, young. 
 UNFLESHED, a. Not fleshed, not seasoned to blood. 
 UPPER TAIL COVERTS, s. Those feathers immediately covering the base 
 
 of the tail feathers. 
 
 VOLANT, a. Flying, passing through the air ; active. 
 VOLE, s. A deal at cards that draws the whole tricks. 
 VOLERY, *. A flight of birds. 
 
 VOLLEY, s. A flight of shot ; an emission of many at once. 
 VOLT, s. A round or a circular tread ; a gait of two treads made by a horse 
 
 going sideways round a centre. 
 VOMICA, s. An encysted humour in the lungs. 
 VOMIT, v. To cast up the contents of the stomach. 
 VOMIT, s. The matter thrown up from the stomach ; an emetic medicine. 
 VOMITORY, a. Procuring vomits, emetic. 
 VORACIOUS, a. Greedy to eat, ravenous. 
 VORACITY, s. Greediness, ravenousness.
 
 URE] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 565 
 
 URETHRA, s. The passage of the urine. 
 URINARY, a. Relating to the urine. 
 URINE, s. Animal water. 
 
 Inflammation of the kidneys is generally 
 caused by riding or driving a horse immode- 
 rately, by straining the loins, in making him 
 draw heavy loads or carry heavy burthens ; 
 or they may become inflamed in consequence 
 of peritonaeal inflammation of the bowels. In 
 either case breed freely, or to faintness ; cover 
 the loins with a fresh sheep skin, the flesh 
 side under, having first rubbed on them some 
 warm embrocation, such as hartshorn and oil, 
 with a little oil of turpentine, or the following 
 embrocation. Open the bowels with a dose 
 of castor oil and clysters of warm water, with 
 a small quantity of salt and oil, or hog's lard. 
 I should first have noticed, however, the 
 symptoms of the disorder, which are, a con- 
 stant desire to make water, without being able 
 to void any, or scarcely any : and the little 
 that is discharged is dark coloured or bloody. 
 There is great stiffness of the hind parts, 
 generally more observable in one leg than the 
 other. The horse often stands straddling or 
 wide, as if in want to make water, and every 
 now and then straining, or making painful 
 and ineffectual efforts to stale. This appear- 
 ance often leads the groom to think that it is 
 a stoppage of water, and that a diuretic is 
 necessary; but the fact is, that the dark- 
 coloured or bloody urine is so stimulating or 
 acrimonious that the bladder contracts violently 
 in order to force out the smallest quantity 
 that gets into it. 
 
 The disorder I have now been describing 
 may happen in various degrees, but still the 
 treatment is the same. It sometimes happens, j 
 however, that the urine becomes foul and 
 stimulating from high feeding, or foul and 
 unwholesome feeding. In this case the 
 bladder will contract upon a small quantity 
 of urine, and the urine may be rather high 
 coloured, like beer, or turbid, like whey, and 
 the horse may appear to strain a little in void- 
 ing it ; but this is very different from those 
 distressing symptoms which attend inflamma- 
 tion of the kidneys, nor is it accompanied 
 with loss of appetite, or any degree of fever, 
 which is always present in inflammation of 
 the kidneys. When the urine becomes thus 
 stimulating, some cold mashes, with a little 
 nitre, may be given, or what is still better, 
 perhaps, some grass, vetches, or lucern. If 
 the horse is at all costive, a clyster should be 
 thrown up. An infusion of linseed is a good 
 drink for a horse when the urine is in this 
 state. 
 
 The improper manner in which horses are 
 generally fed, the early age at which they are 
 worked, and the immoderate degree in which 
 
 they are often worked, are circumstances 
 which either separately or conjointly tend to 
 weaken the stomach, and disturb the digestive 
 functions ; in consequence of this the blood 
 becomes foul, or loaded with excrementitious 
 matter, the greatest part of which, in the 
 horse, is carried off by the kidneys. This 
 renders the urine more acrimonious than it 
 would otherwise be, and causes the bladder to 
 contract upon a smaller quantity. We may 
 often observe, also, how the urinary passages 
 are stimulated by such urine, making mares 
 appear as if they were horsing, and causing an 
 erection in geldings. As the horse is often 
 staling in this case, and voiding but a small 
 quantity, and appearing as if he was endea- 
 vouring to void more, it is often mistaken for 
 a stoppage in the water, as it is termed, and 
 diuretics are generally given, which, if not too 
 strong, may be of service. But the best plan 
 is to keep the horse on bran mashes chiefly 
 for a few days, and give twice a day, for two 
 or three days, the following powder : 
 Nitre . . . 3 or 4 dr. 
 
 Carbonate of soda . 1 dr. or chalk 2 dr. 
 
 Mix for one dose. 
 
 Or, No. 2, Nitre, powdered resin, chalk, 
 and levigated antimony, of each two drachms. 
 Mix for one dose. 
 
 If these powders appear to disagree 'with 
 the stomach they should be discontinued : in 
 such cases the cordial diuretic is more likely 
 to do good, such as has been prescribed for 
 asthmatic affection or broken wind. 
 
 Retention of urine, strangury, or stoppage 
 of water, may be caused by inflammation and 
 swelling of the neck of the bladder ; and this 
 may be brought on by a peculiar acrimony in 
 the urine, such as that produced by cantha- 
 rides when taken as medicine. The different 
 species of pepper, or grains of paradise, may 
 produce some effect of this kind. The neck 
 of the bladder may be pressed down upon 
 the pubis by an accumulation of dung in the 
 rectum, so as to stop the passage completely. 
 A clyster is always proper on these occasions, 
 for if an accumulation of dung be the cause, 
 it will be speedily removed. But there will 
 be some difficulty in giving the clyster, unless 
 some of the hard dung is first taken out with 
 the hand. The neck of the bladder may be 
 so affected with spasm as to confine the urine. 
 This may be the cause of the stoppage of 
 water that happens in flatulent colic, but I 
 rather think it depends entirely upon an ac- 
 cumulation of dung in the bowels, therefore I 
 always prescribe a clyster in colic, of what- 
 ever kind it may be Ulninr.
 
 WATER CRKE. 
 
 w 
 
 ADDING, s. That substance which secures the powder and shot in 
 loading a gun. 
 
 Be careful not to let your wadding get damp, 
 or in drying it may shrink so much as to be- 
 come too small for the calibre of your gun. 
 
 Wadding Paper not being stiff enough, 
 hat dirty, card too thin, and leather apt to sof- 
 ten with the heat of the barrel, the common, 
 and perhaps the best punched wadding is 
 pasteboard. The larger the bore, the thicker 
 should be the wadding, which may be got to 
 any size, among the discarded cuttings of a 
 book-binder. 
 
 Nothing is better to punch your wadding on 
 than a round block, sawed out of some close 
 grained kind of wood ; such as beech, chestnut, 
 lime, sycamore, &c. Lead is improper, as it 
 wears out the punch. 
 
 In countries where orchards abound, a very 
 fine moss, of greenish grey colour, is found ad- 
 hering to the apple-trees, which is extremely 
 proper for wadding, and which even possesses 
 the extraordinary quality of making the barrel 
 less greasy and foul than paper, which always 
 contains a certain quantity of oil Hawker 
 Essay on Shooting. 
 
 WADE, v. To walk through the waters, to pass waters without swimming 
 
 WADERS, . A class of waterfowls. 
 
 WAGER, *. A bet, anything pledged upon a chance or performance. 
 
 WAGER, v. To lay, to pledge as a bet. 
 
 WAGTAIL, *. A bird. 
 
 The species of this kind are few, and these 
 are chiefly confined to the continent of Eu- 
 rope, where the individuals are numerous 
 
 They are easily distinguished by their brisk 
 and lively motions, as well as by the great 
 
 length of their tails, which they jerk up and 
 down incessantly, from which circumstance 
 
 they derive their name. They do not hop but 
 run along the ground very nimbly after flies 
 and other insects, on which they feed : they 
 likewise feed on small worms, in search of 
 which they are frequently seen to flutter round 
 the husbandman whilst at his plough, and fol- 
 low the flocks in search of the flies which ge-
 
 WAS] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 567 
 
 nerally surround them. They frequent the 
 sides of pools, and pick up the insects which 
 swarm on the surface. They seldom perch ; 
 their flight is weak and undulating, during 
 which they make a twittering noise. 
 
 In almost all languages the name of this 
 
 bird is descriptive of its peculiar hahits. In 
 Latin, motacilla; in French, motteux, la 
 lavandiere, or washer ; in England, they are 
 sometimes called washers, from their peculiar 
 motion ; in German, brook-stilts ; in Italian, 
 shake-tail, &c. &c Bewick. 
 
 WAIN, s. A carriage. 
 
 WALK, s. Act of walking for air or exercise ; gait, step, manner of 
 moving ; a length of space, or circuit through which one walks ; a fish : 
 Walk is the slowest or least raised pace, or going of a horse. 
 
 WALL-EYED, a. Having white eyes. 
 
 WALNUT, s. The name of a tree ; the fruit and wood of the tree. 
 
 WANDER, v. To rove, to ramble here and there, to go without any certain 
 course ; to deviate, to go astray. 
 
 WANDERER, *. Rover, rambler. 
 
 WARBLE, v. To quaver any sound; to cause to quaver; to utter musi- 
 cally. 
 
 WARBLER, s. A singer, a songster. 
 
 This very numerous class is composed of a 
 great variety of kinds, differing in size from 
 the nightingale to the wren, and not a little 
 in their habits and manners. 
 
 They are widely dispersed over most parts 
 of the known world; some of them remain 
 with us during the whole year; others are 
 migratory, and visit us annually in great num- 
 bers, forming a very considerable portion of 
 those numerous tribes of singing birds, with 
 
 which this island so plentifully abounds. 
 Some of them are distinguished by their fly- 
 ing, which they perform by jerks, and in an 
 undulating manner ; others by the whirring 
 motion of their wings. The head in general 
 is small ; the bill is weak and slender, and 
 beset with bristles at the base ; the nostrils 
 are small and somewhat depressed ; and the 
 outer toe is joined to the middle one by a 
 small membrane Bewick. 
 
 WARDEN, s. A forest officer. The chief warden of the forest is a great 
 
 officer, next to the justices of the forest, to bail and discharge offenders, 
 
 but he is no judicial officer. 
 WARN, v. To caution against any fault or danger; to give previous notice ; 
 
 to admonish to any duty to be performed ; to warn off trespassers from 
 
 a manor. 
 
 WARP, v. To contract, to shrivel; to turn aside from the true direction. 
 WARREN, s. A kind of park for rabbits. 
 WARRENER, *. The keeper of a warren. 
 
 WART, s. A corneous excrescence, a small protuberance on the flesh. 
 WARTY, a. Grown over with warts. 
 WASH, s. Alluvion, anything collected by water ; a bog, a marsh, a fen, 
 
 a quagmire; a medical or cosmetic lotion ; a superficial stain or colour. 
 WASP, *. A brisk stinging insect, in form resembling a bee. Vide 
 
 ADDER. 
 
 Abundance of wasps are said to denote a 1824, perhaps the worst for apples and stone 
 good fruit year. We have remarked also the fruit that we remember, there is scarcely a 
 converse of this, for in the present season, wasp to be seen. In general towards the
 
 568 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [WAT 
 
 close of summer they are very numerous, 
 particularly in the month of September. In 
 1821 they were prodigiously plentiful, and in 
 
 WATER, s. One of the four elements ; 
 be sound, to be tight ; it is used for 
 
 Water varies considerably in its qualities 
 and temperature. In deep wells it rarely 
 changes from 40 of Fahrenheit, while in ex- 
 posed streams and lakes, there may be a vari- 
 ation of from 12 to 16 degrees. Much, con- 
 sequently, depends upon the watering of 
 horses, in quality, quantity, and temperature. 
 Horses, if they be not violently exercised, 
 cannot be too frequently watered. 
 * * 
 
 Water Birdlime Procure the strong- 
 est and best of birdlime possible, and wash it 
 in clear spring water till you perceive the 
 hardness is completely removed, and the lime 
 has become very pliable : then squeeze or 
 beat out the water remarkably well, till you 
 cannot observe a single drop ; dry it well : 
 after this, put it into an earthen pot, and 
 
 WATER, v. To irrigate, to supply with moisture ; to supply with water 
 
 for drink. 
 WATER CRAKE, SPOTTED RAIL, LESSER SPOTTED WATER RAIL, 
 
 SKITTY, or SPOTTED GALLINULE, (Rallus porcana, LINN.; La 
 
 Marouette, BUFF.) s. 
 
 This bird weighs about four ounces, and > hides itself with great circumspection; it is 
 measures nearly nine inches in length, and j wild, solitary, and shy, and will swim, dive, 
 
 1822 there were a great many of them, while 
 1824 scarcely presented a solitary wasp, even 
 where they usually abound Foster. 
 
 the sea ; urine ; to hold water, to 
 the lustre of a diamond. 
 
 mix with it the fat of fowls, unsalted, as much 
 as will make it run ; then add two table 
 spoonfuls of strong vinegar, a table spoonful 
 of the best salad oil, and a small quantity of 
 Venice turpentine. This is the quantity of 
 ingredients which must be added to every 
 pound of strong birdlime. Having thus 
 mixed them, boil them all gently together 
 over a small fire, stirring the whole continually 
 till the mixture is complete, when it may be 
 taken from the fire and suffered to cool. 
 When at any time you have occasion to use 
 it, warm it and then anoint your twigs or 
 straws, or any other small things, and water 
 will not take away the strength of it. This 
 sort of birdlime is well calculated for snipes, 
 &c Gamekeeper's Directory. 
 
 about fifteen in breadth. The hill is of a 
 greenish-yellow, and not more than three quar- 
 ters of an inch long. The top of the head, 
 to the nape, is dusky, and slightly streaked 
 with rusty-brown ; a brown and white mot- 
 tled stripe passes from the bill over and be- 
 hind the eyes ; the cheeks and throat are of a 
 freckled dull grey. The neck and breast are 
 olive, marked with small white spots ; the 
 sides dusky and olive, crossed with bars of 
 white, and the under parts are a mixture of 
 cinereous, dirty and white yellow. The co- 
 lour of the plumage of all the upper parts is 
 dusky and olive-brown, spotted, edged, barred 
 or streaked with white; the spots on the 
 wing-coverts are surrounded with black, which 
 gives them a studded or pearly appearance; 
 and the white bars and streaks on the scapu- 
 lars and tertials form a beautiful contrast to 
 the black ground of the feathers on these 
 parts. The legs are of a yellowish-green. 
 The water-crake in its figure and general ap- 
 pearance, though much less, is extremely 
 like the corn-crake or land-rail ; but its man- 
 ners and habits are very different. Its com- 
 mon abode is in low, swampy grounds, in 
 which are pools or streamlets, overgrown with 
 willows, reeds, and rushes, where it lurks and 
 
 or skulk under any cover ; and sometimes it 
 is said, will suffer itself to be knocked on the 
 head, rather than rise before the sportsman 
 and his dog. This species is very scarce in 
 Great Britain, and from its extreme vigilance 
 it is rarely to be seen. It is supposed to be 
 migratory here, as well as in France and Italy, 
 where it is found early in the spring ; it is 
 also met with in other parts of Europe, but no 
 where in great numbers. The conformation 
 of its nest is curious; it is made of rushes and 
 other light, buoyant materials, woven and mat- 
 ted together, so as to float on, and to rise or 
 fall with the ebbing or flowing of the water, 
 like a boat ; and to prevent its being swept 
 away by floods, it is moored or fastened to the 
 pendent stalk of one of the reeds, by which it 
 is screened from the sight, and sheltered from 
 the weather. The female lays from six to 
 eight eggs. The young brood do not long 
 require the fostering care of the mother, but 
 as soon as they are hatched, the whole of the 
 little black shapeless family scramble away 
 from her, take to the water, separate from 
 each other, and shift for themselves. The 
 flesh is said to have a fine and delicate flavour, 
 and is esteemed by epicures a delicious mor- 
 sel Bewick.
 
 WAT] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 569 
 
 WATERCRESSES, s. A plant. There 
 WATER CRICKET or CREEPER, s. A 
 
 It is an error to suppose this the same as 
 the cad bait, for though generally found by 
 the water side, the latter is always in some 
 kind of husk, the creeper never, nor has ever 
 wings, and cannot therefore be the stone-fly; 
 it may be kept in the same way as the cadis. 
 
 They may be kept in a large horn, like that 
 
 are five species. 
 
 cricket used as bait for fish. 
 
 for powder, with gravel at the bottom, and 
 some holes at the sides to admit air: the 
 mouth of the horn should be wide enough to 
 receive a quart bottle cork, and should be 
 placed in water with the creepers, when not 
 using them Daniel. 
 
 WATER DOG, s. A rough and web-footed spaniel. 
 
 The Great Rough Water Dog. (Canis 
 Aquaticus, LINN.) The great rough water 
 dog has long curly hair, is web-footed, swims 
 with great ease, and is extremely useful in 
 the sport of shooting aquatic birds. He has 
 many of the qualities of the land spaniel. 
 
 This dog has a great liking to fetching and 
 carrying, and such is his exquisite sense of 
 smell, that he will find a particular stone 
 thrown by his master to the bottom of a river : 
 he dives with astonishing dexterity. He is 
 particularly valuable on board of ships, as he 
 leaps from the side of a vessel after any article 
 which has fallen overboard, and is very useful 
 for recovering birds that have been shot from 
 the deck of the ship. Above all, he is lively, 
 playful, good-tempered, and much attached to 
 to his master. 
 
 Large Water Spaniel. (Canis Inquisi- 
 tor.) The large water spaniel is about the 
 size of an ordinary setter, but much stronger 
 in the bone and shorter in the legs. His 
 head is long, his muzzle moderately acute, 
 and his face is quite smooth, as well as the 
 front of all his legs ; his ears are long, which, 
 together with his whole body, is covered with 
 
 deep hair, consisting of firm, small, and dis- 
 tinctly crisped curls, not unlike those of a wig, 
 his tail is rather short, and clothed with curled 
 hair. His hair is very differently curled from 
 the great water dog and poodle, as that of the 
 two latter consists of long and pendulous curls. 
 His general colour is a dark liver-brown, with 
 white legs, neck, and belly ; and is sometimes, 
 though rarely to be met with, all black, or 
 with a black body and white neck and legs. 
 
 His smell is extremely acute, and he has 
 in some instances been taught to set, but this 
 is rather a difficult task, from his naturally 
 lively disposition. He takes the water with 
 great eagerness, on which account he is a va- 
 luable dog in shooting wild fowl ; he watches 
 with much keenness and anxiety the motions 
 of his master, and as soon as the bird is killed 
 he instantly plunges into the water, fetches it 
 out, and lays it at the feet of his master. He 
 is very quick at finding the haunts of wild 
 fowl ; he is also easily taught to fetch and 
 carry articles, and will seek things which have 
 been lost, on which account he has received 
 in England the appellation of the finder. 
 
 The great water spaniel has sometimes been
 
 570 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [WAT 
 
 employed in otter hunting, but it is seldom he 
 has the pluck to combat with so keen an ad- 
 versary. He is an animal naturally distin- 
 guished for mildness and docility, qualities 
 which are pourtrayed in his countenance, and 
 is remarkable for his attachment to his master. 
 
 The native country of this dog is Spain ; 
 but we conceive that the variety we possess, 
 which is a very distinct one, is not the pure 
 breed as originally imported into this country, 
 but that it is the produce of the large water 
 dog and the English setter, as it appears to be 
 intermediate between these, not only in figure, 
 but also in their united qualities. 
 
 The Small Water Spaniel, or Poodle. 
 (Carai* Aquaticus minor.} This variety is 
 presumed to be the offspring of the large 
 water dog and the small cocker ; it has all the 
 appearance of the former, not only in shape, 
 but also in the thick curled silky hairs. It is 
 a most lively active dog, with an acute sense of 
 smell, and is very susceptible of instruction of 
 almost every kind. Its general colour is white, 
 although individuals are sometimes found 
 with black patches over various parts of their 
 bodies. The poodle is very fond of diving, 
 and can find at the bottom of a river or pond 
 any particular stone thrown in by his master. 
 
 In France this dog is a great favourite, and 
 is taught many curious tricks. He is an excel- 
 lent companion in shooting of wild fowl, which, 
 when killed in the water, he very soon recovers. 
 
 Some dogs are more easily instructed than 
 
 others, though all are sufficiently docile. The 
 poodle breed is the most extraordinary for ap- 
 titude in this particular ; many have been 
 made so useful as to perform the common offi- 
 ces of a servant, such as to go on ordinary 
 errands, shut and open doors, ring bells, &c. 
 and their knack at mimicry is extreme. 
 ' * 
 
 I have tried poodles, but always found them 
 inferior in strength, scent, and courage. They 
 are also very apt to be sea-sick. The Portland 
 dogs are superior to them. 
 
 A water-dog should not be allowed to jump 
 out of a boat, unless ordered so to do, as it is 
 not always required, and therefore needless 
 that he should wet himself and every thing 
 about him without necessity. 
 
 For a punt or canoe, always make choice of 
 the smallest Newfoundland dog that you can 
 procure ; as the smaller he is the less water he 
 brings into your boat after being sent out ; the 
 less cumbersome he is when afloat ; and the 
 quicker he can pursue crippled birds upon the 
 mud. A bitch is always to he preferred to a 
 dog in frosty weather, from being, by nature, 
 less obstructed in landing on the ice. 
 
 If, on the other hand, you want a Newfound- 
 land dog only as a retriever for covert shooting, 
 then the case becomes different ; as here you 
 require a strong animal, that will easily trot 
 through the young wood and high grass with a 
 
 large hare or pheasant in his mouth Brown 
 
 Hawker. 
 
 WATER FOWL, s. Fowl that live or get their food in water. 
 WATER HEN, COMMON GALLINULE, or MOORHEN, (Fulica chloropus, 
 LINN. ; La Poule cCEau, BUFF.) s. 
 
 The weight of this bird varies from ten and 
 a half to fifteen ounces ; the length from the tip 
 
 of the beak to the end of the tail is about four- 
 teen inches, the breadth twenty-two ; the bill
 
 WAT] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 571 
 
 is rather more than an inch long, of a greenish 
 yellow at the tip, and reddish towards the base, 
 whence a singular kind of horny or membra- 
 nous substance shields the forehead as far as 
 the eyes ; this appendage to the bill is as red 
 as sealing-wax in the breeding season ; at other 
 times it varies or fades into a white colour. 
 The head is small and black, except a white 
 spot under each eye, the hides which are red ; 
 all the upper part of the plumage is of a dark 
 shining olive green, inclining to brown ; the 
 under parts are of a dark hoary lead colour ; 
 vent feathers black ; those on the belly and 
 thighs tipped with dirty white ; long loose fea- 
 thers on the sides, which hang over the upper 
 part of the thighs, are black, streaked with 
 white ; the ridge of the wing, outside feathers 
 of the tail, and those underneath, are white ; 
 the upper bare part of the thighs is red ; from 
 the knees to the toes, the colours are different 
 shades, from pale yellow to deep green ; the 
 toes are very long, the middle one measuring 
 to the end of the nail, nearly three inches ; 
 their undersides are broad, being furnished with 
 membranous edgings their whole length on 
 each side, which enable the bird to swim, and 
 easily run over the surface of the slimy mud 
 by the sides of the waters where it frequents. 
 
 The female makes her nest of a large quan- 
 tity of withered reeds and rushes, closely inter- 
 woven, and is particularly careful to have it 
 placed in a most retired spot, close by the brink 
 
 of the waters, and it is said, she never quits it 
 without covering her eggs with the leaves of 
 the surrounding herbage. Pennant and La- 
 tham say, she builds her nest upon some low 
 stump of a tree, or shrub, by the water side ; 
 no doubt she may sometimes vary the place of 
 her nest, according as particular circumstances 
 may command, but she generally prefers the 
 other mode of building it. She lays six or 
 seven eggs at a time, and commonly has two 
 hatchings in a season. The eggs are nearly 
 two inches in length, and are irregularly and 
 thinly marked with rust-coloured spots on a 
 yellowish white ground. The young brood 
 remain but a short time in the nest, under the 
 nurturing care of the mother, but as soon as 
 they are able to crawl out they take to the 
 water, and shift for themselves. 
 
 Although the water-hen is nowhere very 
 numerous, yet one species or other of them is 
 met with in almost every country in the known 
 world. It is not yet ascertained whether they 
 ever migrate from this to other countries, but 
 it is well known that they make partial flit- 
 tings from one district to another, and are 
 found in the cold mountainous tracts in sum- 
 mer, and in lower and warmer situations in 
 winter. 
 
 On examination of several specimens of this 
 bird, in full feather, they were found, like most 
 birds of plain plumage, very little different 
 from each other Bewick. 
 
 WATER OUSEL, WATER CROW, DIPPER, or WATER PIOT, (Sturnus 
 Cinclus, LINN, ; Le Merle cFEau, BUFF.) s. 
 
 The length of the water ousel is about seven 
 inches and a half from the point of the beak 
 
 to the end of its tail, which is very short, and 
 gives the bird a thick and stumpy appearance.
 
 572 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [W. 
 
 The mouth is wide ; the bill black, about three 
 quarters of an inch long ; the upper mandible 
 rather hollow in the middle and bent a little 
 downwards at the point ; the eyelids are white, 
 and irides hazel. The upper parts of the head 
 and of the neck are of a deepish rustyabrown ; 
 the back, rump, scapulars, wing coverts, belly, 
 vent, and tail are black ; but each feather on 
 these parts is distinctly edged with a hoary 
 grey colour. The breast, forepart of the neck, 
 and throat, are of a snowy white ; and the black 
 and white on the belly and breast are sepa- 
 rated by a rusty brown. The legs and toes 
 are short and strong, the scales pale blue, the 
 hinder part and joints brown ; the claws are 
 curved, and the toes are distinctly parted 
 without any membranous substance between 
 to join them. 
 
 This solitary species is removed from the 
 place it has hitherto holden in all systems 
 among the land birds : it ought not to be 
 classed any longer with the ouselsand thrushes, 
 to which it bears no affinity. Its manners and 
 habits are also different from those birds, and 
 are peculiar to itself. It is chiefly found in 
 
 the high and mountainous parts of the country 
 and always by the sides of brooks and rocky 
 rivers, but particularly where they fall in cas- 
 cades, or run with great rapidity among stones 
 and fragments of broken rocks ; there it may 
 be seen perched on the top of a stone in the 
 midst of the torrent, in a continual dipping 
 motion, or short courtesy often repeated, whilst 
 it is watching for its food, which consists of 
 small fishes and insects. The feathers of this 
 bird, like those of the duck tribe, are imper- 
 vious to water, whereby it is enabled to con- 
 tinue a long time in that fluid without sustain- 
 ing the least injury. But the most singular 
 trait in its character, (and it is well authenti- 
 cated) is that of its possessing the power of 
 walking, in quest of its prey, on the pebbly 
 bottom of a river, in the same way, and with 
 the same ease, as if it were on dry land. The 
 female makes her nest in the banks of the ri- 
 vulet, of the same kind of material, and nearly 
 of the same form as that of the common wren ; 
 and lays four or five eggs, which are white, 
 lightly blushed with red Bewick. 
 
 WATER RAIL, BILCOCK, VELVET-RUNNER, or BROOK OUSEL (Rallus 
 Aquaticus, LINN. ; Le Rale d'Eau, BUFF.) s. 
 
 This bird, though a distinct genus of itself, 
 has many traits in its character very similar to 
 both the corn crake and the water crake ; it 
 is migratory, like the former, to which it also 
 bears some resemblance in its size, its long 
 shape, and in the flatness of its body : its 
 haunts and manner of living are nearly the 
 same as those of the latter ; but it differs from 
 both in the length of its bill, and its plumage. 
 
 It weighs about four ounces and a half, and 
 measures twelve inches in length and sixteen 
 in breadth. The bill is slightly curved, and 
 one inch and three quarters long : the upper 
 mandible is dusky, edged with red ; the under 
 reddish orange ; the irides red. The top of 
 the head, hinder part of the neck, back, sca- 
 pulars, coverts of the wings and tail are black ; 
 edged with dingy brown. The ridge of the
 
 WAT] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 573 
 
 wings is white, the bastard wing barred with 
 white, the inside barred with brown and white, 
 and the quills and secondaries dusky. The 
 side feathers are beautifully crossed with 
 black and white, and slightly tipped with pale 
 reddish brown. The inner side of the thighs, 
 the belly, and the vent are pale brown, and 
 in some specimens specked with bluish ash. 
 The sides of the head, chin, forepart of the 
 neck, and breast, are of a dark hoary lead 
 colour, slightly tinged with pale rufous. The 
 tail consists of twelve short black feathers, 
 edged and tipped with dirty red ; some of 
 those on the under side barred with black 
 and white. The legs which are placed far 
 behind, are a dull dirty red ; the toes long 
 and without any connecting membrane. La- 
 tham says, " the eggs are more than an inch 
 and a half long, of a pale yellowish colour, 
 marked all over with dusky brown spots, 
 nearly equal in size, but irregular." 
 
 The water rail is a shy and solitary bird. 
 Its constant abode is in low wet places, much 
 overgrown with sedges, reeds, and other coarse 
 herbage, among which it finds shelter, and 
 feeds in hidden security. It runs, occasionally 
 flirting up its tail, through its tracks, with the 
 same swiftness as the corn crake runs through 
 
 the meadows and cornfields, shows as great 
 an aversion to take flight as that bird, and 
 has more of the means in its power of disap- 
 pointing the sportsman. It generally ex- 
 hausts his patience, and distracts and misleads 
 his dog, by the length of time to which it can 
 protract its taking wing : and it seldom rises 
 until it has crossed every pool, and run 
 through every avenue within the circuit of its 
 retreats. It is, however, easily shot when 
 once flushed, for it flies but indifferently, with 
 its legs dangling down while on the wing. 
 This bird is not very common in Great Bri- 
 tain, but is said to be numerous in the marshes 
 of the northern countries of Europe, whence, 
 partially and irregularly, it migrates south- 
 ward, even into Africa, during the severity of 
 the winter season. Buffon says, "they pass 
 Malta in the spring and autumn," and to con- 
 firm this, adds, " that the Viscount de Quer- 
 hoent saw a flight of them at the distance of 
 fifty leagues from the coasts of Portugal, on 
 the 17th of April, some of which were so 
 fatigued that they suffered themselves to be 
 caught by the hand." The flesh of the water 
 rail is not so generally esteemed as that of 
 the land rail, and yet by many it is thought 
 rich and delicious eating Bewick. 
 
 WATER RAT, s. A rat that makes holes in banks. 
 
 I suspect much there may be two species of 
 water-rats. Ray says, and Linnaeus after him, 
 that the water-rat is web-footed behind. Now 
 I have discovered a rat on the banks of our 
 little stream that is not web-footed, and yet is 
 an excellent swimmer and diver. 
 
 Habits of the Water Shrew and Water 
 Rat The brown rat (Mus decumanus) fre- 
 quents water and is fond of swimming, though 
 it does not willingly dive. The water rat 
 (Arvicola aquatica, FLEMING,) again, which 
 is the one alluded to by White, swims as 
 readily below as above water, and feeds chiefly 
 on the roots of water plants. WTiite was near 
 the truth in supposing two species of water 
 rats, inasmuch as he was not acquainted with 
 the water shrew (Sorex ciliatus, SOWERBY), 
 so well described by Mr. Dovaston of Shrews- 
 bury in the Magazine of Natural History. 
 " I repeatedly," he says, " marked it glide 
 from the bank under water, and bury itself 
 under the mass of leaves at the bottom. It 
 very shortly returned and entered the bank, 
 occasionally putting its long sharp nose out of 
 the water and paddling close to the edge. 
 Tliis it repeated at very frequent intervals, 
 from place to place, seldom going more than 
 two yards from the side, and always returning 
 in about half a minute. I presume it sought 
 and obtained some insect or food among the 
 rubbish and leaves, and retired to consume it. 
 Sometimes it would run a little on the sur- 
 
 face, and sometimes timidly and hastily come 
 on shore, but with the greatest caution, and 
 instantly plunge in again. When under water 
 he looks gray, on account of the pearly clus- 
 ter of minute air bubbles that adhere to his 
 fur and bespangle him all over. He only 
 appeai-s at evening, and such is his general 
 habit. Once, however, at broad and bright 
 noon, while leaning on a tree gazing on the 
 sun sparkles, like fairy lights, in numberless 
 and eternal succession under the gentlest 
 breath of air, I was aware of my little friend 
 running nimbly on the surface among them. 
 My rapture caused me to start with delight, 
 on which he vanished to security within his 
 rush-fringed bank." 
 
 * * 
 
 During summer they reside principally in 
 holes on the banks of rivers, ditches, and 
 ponds ; but, as winter comes on, they ap- 
 proach the human habitations, and very often 
 take up their abode in barns, corn-stacks, &c. 
 They have haunts or runs in the walls and 
 under the floors of old houses, where they 
 frequently injure the furniture; and they 
 have been known to gnaw the extremities of 
 infants while asleep. They swim with ease, 
 and will dive after fish. 
 
 Rats increase very fast ; they will bring 
 forth three times a year, and produce from ten 
 to fifteen at a birth. They are numerous in 
 most large towns ; and though they seek the
 
 574 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [W*T 
 
 fields on the approach of summer, it generally 
 arises from a diminution of food about farm- 
 houses, &c., as well as from the insecurity 
 which they feel from the removal of the 
 corn-stacks, the clearing of the harns, &c., at 
 the same time that plenty of food is pre- 
 sented abroad in the fields. When a colony 
 of these animals happens to take possession of 
 a field of standing corn, they make dreadful 
 havoc. 
 
 These animals will attack young poul- 
 try, and even the old, if pressed by hunger ; 
 and their voracity is such that they have been 
 known to fasten on the fatter parts of living 
 swine ; nor are infants in their cradle always 
 free from their attacks. They will destroy 
 young game, and indeed the rat may be re- 
 garded as a general marauder. 
 
 Rats become uncommonly bold from im- 
 punity, but they are easily destroyed or driven 
 away when proper means for that purpose 
 are adopted. There are various methods of 
 taking or destroying these creatures, the most 
 effective of which will be detailed. 
 
 The weasel tribe pursue the rat as fiercely 
 
 as the hare ; but the rat, unlike " the poor 
 timid hare," does not resign itself to its fate; 
 it is interesting to see the small weasel attack 
 a large rat. The latter will get away, if pos- 
 sible ; but finding escape out of the question, 
 it turns upon its invincible assailant and fights 
 while it is able, crying out all the time. From 
 the active motions of the rat in this contest, 
 as well as from its evident superiority in 
 strength, a spectator might suppose that the 
 business must end in the defeat or destruc- 
 tion of the weasel; but, after a time, the 
 efforts of the rat evidently grow languid, 
 while the weasel may be perceived sticking 
 like a leech, its teeth fast hold of the rat 
 about the head or neck. The battle lasts no 
 great length of time ; for when once the wea- 
 sel has got hold, all the efforts of the rat are 
 not sufficient to dislodge it. 
 
 The ferret, it is well known, is in general 
 use for the destruction of rats, assisted by the 
 terrier ; and this was a kind of business or 
 employment followed by numbers throughout 
 the country White's Selborne Game- 
 keeper's Directory. 
 
 WATTLE, s. The barbs, or loose red flesh that hangs below the cock's bill ; 
 
 a hurdle. 
 WAX, s. The thick tenacious matter gathered by the bees ; any tenacious 
 
 mass, such as is used to fasten letters ; the substance that exudes from 
 
 the ear. 
 
 In this country, one hundred pounds of 
 honey-comb will yield from three to five 
 or six pounds of wax ; in some of the southern 
 countries nearly double that quantity. Trans- 
 parent white honey is to be preferred to the 
 higher coloured ; new to old, and that of the 
 spring to the summer or autumnal honey. 
 
 The wax being crumbled or pressed, must 
 be boiled in water, and then strained from bags 
 into a tub of water. The water being strained 
 when the wax is cold, it may be collected, 
 boiled, and when cool, will be found in a cake 
 on the surface. It is refined by repeated 
 boilings in fair water Moubray. 
 
 WAX, v. To smear, to join with wax. 
 
 WEALD, s. A wood, a grove. Old Saxon. 
 
 WEAN, v. To put from the breast; to withdraw from any habit or desire. 
 
 WEANLING, s. An animal newly weaned. 
 
 WEASEL, s. A small animal that eats corn and kills rats and mice. 
 
 The hare has no enemy more fatal than the 
 weasel, which will follow and terrify it into a 
 state of absolute imbecility, when it gives itself 
 up without resistance, at the same time mak- 
 ing piteous outcries. The weasel seizes its 
 prey near the head : the bite is mortal, al- 
 though the wound is so small that the entrance 
 of the teeth is scarcely perceptible ; a hare or 
 rabbit bit in this manner is never known to 
 recover, but lingers for some time and dies. 
 
 The common weasel is the least animal of 
 this species ; the disproportionate length and 
 height of the little animals which compose 
 
 this class are their chief characteristics, and 
 are alone sufficient to distinguish them from 
 all other carnivorous quadrupeds ; the length 
 of the wolf, in proportion to its height, is as 
 one and a half to one ; that of the weasel is 
 nearly as four to one. The weasel never ex- 
 ceeds seven inches in length from the nose to 
 the tail, which is only two inches and a half 
 long, ends in a point, and adds considerably to 
 the apparent length of the body ; the height 
 of the weasel is not above two inches and a 
 half, so that it is almost four times as long as 
 it is high ; the most prevailing colour is a pale
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 575 
 
 tawny brown, resembling cinnamon, on the 
 back, sides, and legs ; the throat and belly 
 white ; beneath the corners of the mouth on 
 each jaw is a spot of brown ; the eyes are 
 small, round, and black ; the ears broad and 
 large, and from a fold at the lower part have 
 the appearance of being doubled ; it has like- 
 wise whiskers like a cat, but has two more 
 teeth than any of the cat kind, having thirty- 
 two in number, and these well adapted for 
 tearing and chewing its food. The motion of 
 the weasel consists of unequal bounds or leaps, 
 and in climbing a tree it gains a height of 
 some feet from the ground by a single spring ; 
 in the same precipitate manner it jumps upon 
 its prey, and possessing great flexibility of 
 body, easily evades the attempts of much 
 stronger animals to seize it. We are told that 
 an eagle, having pounced upon a weasel, 
 mounted into the air with it, and was soon 
 after observed to be in great distress; the 
 little animal had extricated itself so much 
 from the eagle's hold as to be able to fasten 
 upon the throat, which presently brought the 
 eagle to the ground, and gave the weasel an 
 opportunity of escaping. Its activity is re- 
 markable, and it will run up the sides of a 
 wall with such facility that no place is secure 
 from it. The weasel also preys in silence, 
 and never utters any cry except when it is 
 struck, when it expresses resentment or pain 
 by a rough kind of squeaking. It is useful 
 to the farmer in winter by clearing his barns 
 and granaries of rats and mice. 
 
 The weasel sleeps in its hole during the 
 greater part of the day, and evening is the 
 chief time when it begins its depredations ; 
 it may then be seen stealing from its retreat, 
 and creeping about in search of prey, which 
 extends to all the eggs it can meet with, and 
 it not '.infrequently destroys the bird that 
 tries to defend them. If it enter the hen- 
 roost the chickens are sure to fall victims ; it 
 does not there often attack the cocks or old 
 hens, nor does it devour what it kills on the 
 spot, but drags it off to eat at leisure. 
 * * 
 
 Ferocity of Weasels In the month of 
 December, 1817, in the parish of Glencairn, 
 a labourer was suddenly attacked by six wea- 
 sels, which rushed upon him from an old dyke, 
 in the field where he was at work. The man 
 alarmed at such a furious onset from an un- 
 provoked enemy, instantly betook himself to 
 flight, in which, however, he was closely pur- 
 sued, and although he had about him a large 
 horsewhip, with which he endeavoured by 
 several back hand strokes to stop them, yet 
 so eager was their pursuit, that he was on the 
 point of being seized by the throat, when he 
 luckily noticed at some distance, the fallen 
 branch of a tree which he made for, and 
 hastily snatching it up, commenced in turn 
 the attack with so much success, that he 
 killed three of them, and put the remaining 
 three to flight. The man's life was in great 
 danger, when it is ascertained that two wea- 
 sels are a match for a dog. 
 
 WE AS AND, s. The windpipe, the passage through which the breath is 
 drawn and emitted. 
 
 WEATHER, s. State of the air, respecting either cold or heat, wet or dry- 
 ness ; the change of the state of the air ; tempest, storm. 
 
 Effect of Weather in water shooting 
 Fog, snow, or any other hazy weather, is very 
 bad, as it makes every thing on the water ap- 
 pear large and black, and then it is that these 
 birds (and indeed all others) soon take alarm. 
 The novice fancies just the reverse. Fog in 
 the fens and marshes, however, is sometimes 
 the best weather, although quite the reverse 
 on the sea. 
 
 Bright starlight is the very best of all times 
 for getting at birds, as the tide flows over the 
 mud ; particularly if there is a little breeze, 
 without wind enough to blacken the shallow 
 water. If a cold black frost, so much the 
 better. 
 
 Even in moonlight wigeons are easier ap- 
 proached than in hazy weather. In white 
 frosts wigeons are often restless. In rain they 
 
 WEB, s. Texture, anything woven ; a kind of dusky film that hinders the 
 sight ; the film or skin that connects the toes of water fowls and dogs. 
 
 are constantly flying and pitching. In very 
 dark weather they are suspicious, and more 
 on the watch than in starlight ; but, if the 
 wind blows fresh enough to drown the noise 
 of a launching punt, some " heavy shots" may 
 now and then be made by sweeping the sur- 
 face of the mud to the sound where the flock 
 is walking and feeding. This may sometimes 
 be within thirty yards of the " launcher." 
 In mild weather, wigeons are generally scat- 
 tered about like rooks, till after midnight, 
 unless they become concentrated by the flow 
 of the surrounding tide. But in cold weather 
 they sit thick together. 
 
 The first night or two of thaw, after a sharp 
 
 frost, is the best opportunity for this sport 
 
 Hawker.
 
 576 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [WEB 
 
 WEBBED, a. Joined by a film. 
 
 WEBFOOTED, a. Having films between the toes. 
 
 WEIGHT, s. Quantity measured by the balance ; a mass by which, as the 
 standard, other bodies are examined ; ponderous mass ; gravity, heavi- 
 ness, tendency to the centre. 
 
 Weight for Inches It may prove a 
 matter of intelligence to those persons uncon- 
 nected with the movements and terms of the 
 sporting world, to understand that the gra- 
 duated scale for a match, when made for 
 two or more horses to run and carry weight 
 for inches, is thus: that horses measuring 
 fourteen hands high are to carry nine stone, 
 above or below which height they are to 
 carry seven pounds more or less, for every 
 inch they are higher or lower than the four- 
 teen hands fixed as the criterion. 
 
 Example A horse measuring fourteen 
 hands, one inch and a half, (four inches making 
 one hand) will carry nine stone, ten pounds, 
 eight ounces ; a horse measuring thirteen 
 hands, two inches and a half, will carry only 
 eight stone, three pounds, eight ounces ; the 
 former being one inch and a half above the 
 fourteen hands, the other one inch and a half 
 below it; the weight is therefore added or di- 
 minished by the height of every inch higher 
 or lower. 
 
 
 
 Whatever might have been the original in- 
 tention of cocktail racing (and I have no doubt 
 it was very laudable) it has become a regular 
 and well-organised system of swindling and 
 
 WELSH PONY, s. 
 
 The ponies of Wales seem to be original 
 and unmixed. They are much esteemed for 
 the neatness and beauty of their forms, for 
 the nimbleness of their motions, and, above 
 all, for being remarkably surefooted on the 
 most difficult roads, which renders them ex- 
 tremely valuable in the mountainous tracts to 
 which they originally belong. In point of 
 size and hardiness, they bear a near resem- 
 blance to the best of the native breed of the 
 
 fraud. It behoves every gentleman and man 
 of honour connected with the turf to dis- 
 countenance it ; and if stakes " for horses not 
 thorough-bred" cannot be immediately ex- 
 punged from every race list, a salutary check 
 may easily be put upon it by weighting the 
 winners in such a manner as could not fail to 
 bring them to the proper level. Weight 
 must and will always tell ; and by this means 
 an effectual bridle would be placed upon these 
 nefarious cocktails at the commencement of 
 their career. Even in regard to the age of 
 these suspicious cocktails, that is often ren- 
 dered a .doubtful circumstance, as all the 
 trickery and cunning of the men who own 
 them are put in practice to accomplish their 
 purpose in this respect. From information 
 which I have no reason to doubt, a cocktail 
 from the north, which has repeatedly won 
 during the present season (1829) has been 
 running as a year younger than the correct 
 age ; add to this also, little doubt can exist of 
 the animal being as thorough-bred as any racer 
 in the kingdom. Moreover, to say nothing 
 of the immediate and obvious turpitude of the 
 system of cocktail racing, it is productive of 
 
 continual and never-ending disputes Turf 
 
 Expositor. 
 
 Highlands of Scotland, and other hilly coun- 
 tries in the north of Europe. These animals 
 are too small for the two horse ploughs now 
 in use, but few horses are equal to them for 
 enduring fatigue on the road. 
 
 " I well remember," says Cully, " one 
 that I rode for many years, which, to the last, 
 would have gone on a pavement in preference 
 to a softer road." Le Keux. 
 
 WHEAL, s. A pustule, a small swelling filled with water. 
 
 WHEAT, s. The grain of which bread is chiefly made. 
 
 WHEATEN, a. Made of wheat. 
 
 WHEATEAR, s. A small bird very delicate. 
 
 WHEEL, s. A circular body that turns round upon an axis ; a circular body, 
 
 a carriage that runs upon wheels ; rotation ; a compass about, a track 
 
 approaching to circularity. 
 
 WHELP, s. The young of a dog, a puppy ; the young of any beast of prey- 
 WHELP, v. To bring young.
 
 WHI] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 577 
 
 WHIMBREL (Scolopax Pharopus, LINN.; Le Petit Courlis, BUFF.)S. 
 
 The whiinbrel is only about half the size 
 of the curlew, which it very nearly resembles 
 in shape, the colours of its plumage, and man- 
 ner of living. It is about seventeen inches in 
 length, and twenty-nine in breadth, and weighs ] 
 about fourteen ounces. The bill is about 
 three inches long, the upper mandible black, | 
 the under one pale red. The upper part of 
 the head is black, divided in the middle of the 
 crown by a white line from the brow to the 
 hinder part; between the bill and the eyes 
 there is a darkish oblong spot ; the sides of 
 the head, neck, and breast, are of a pale brown, 
 marked with narrow dark streaks pointing 
 downwards ; the belly is of the same colour ; 
 
 but the dark streaks upon it are larger^* about 
 the vent it is quite white ; the lower part of 
 the back is also white. The rump and tail 
 feathers are barred with black and white ; the 
 shafts of the quills are white, the outer webs 
 totally black, but the inner ones marked with 
 large white spots ; the secondary quills are 
 spotted in the same manner on both the inner 
 and outer webs. The legs and feet are of the 
 same shape and colour as those of the curlew. 
 The whimbrel is not so commonly seen on 
 the sea shores of this country as the curlew ; 
 it is also more retired and wild, ascending to 
 the highest mountain heaths in spring and 
 summer to feed and rear its young Bewick. 
 
 WHIMPER, v. To cry without any loud noise. 
 WHINNY, v. To make a noise like a horse or colt. 
 WHIP, s. An instrument of correction tough and pliant. 
 WHIPCORD, s. Cord of which lashes are made. 
 WHIPHAND, *. Advantage over ; right hand. 
 WHIPLASH, s. The lash or small end of a whip. 
 WHIPPER-IN, s. The field assistant to the huntsman. 
 
 You that know so well how necessary it is 
 for a pack of fox-hounds to be steady, and to 
 be kept together, ought not to wonder that I 
 should prefer an excellent whipper-in to an 
 excellent huntsman. No one knows better 
 than you do how essential a good adjutant is 
 to a regiment ; believe me, a good whipper-in 
 is not less so to a pack of fox-hounds. But 
 I must beg you to observe that I only mean, 
 that I could do better with mediocrity in the 
 one than in the other. 
 
 You say you agree with me, that a hunts- 
 man should stick close to his hounds. If then 
 his place is fixed, and that of the first whip- 
 per-in (where you have two) is not, I cannot 
 but think genius may be at least as useful in 
 one as in the other : for instance, while the 
 huntsman is riding to his head hounds, the 
 whipper-in, if he has genius, may show it in 
 various ways ; he may clap forward to any 
 great earth, that may by chance be open ; he 
 may sink the wind to halloo, or mob the fox, 
 when the scent fails ; he may keep him off his 
 foil ; he may stop the tail hounds, and get 
 them forward ; and has it frequently in his 
 power to assist the hounds without doing them 
 any hurt, provided he has sense to distinguish 
 where he is wanted most. Besides, the most 
 essential part of fox-hunting, the making and 
 keeping the pack steady, depends entirely upon 
 him ; as a huntsman should seldom rate, and 
 never flog a hound. In short, I consider the 
 first whipper-in ag a second huntsman ; and 
 
 to be perfect, he should be as capable of hunt" 
 ing the hounds as the huntsman himself. 
 
 You cannot too much recommend to your 
 whipper-in to get to the head of his hounds 
 before he attempts to stop them. The rating 
 behind is to little purpose, and if they are in 
 cover, may prevent him from knowing who 
 the culprits are. When your hounds are run- 
 ning a fox, he then should content himself 
 with stopping such as are riotous, and getting 
 them forward. They may be condemned 
 upon the spot, but the punishment should be 
 deferred till the next day, when they may be 
 taken out on purpose to commit the fault and 
 suffer the punishment. I agree with you that 
 young hounds cannot be awed too much ; yet 
 suffer not your punishment of them to exceed 
 their offence. I could wish to draw a line 
 betwixt justice and barbarity. 
 
 A whipper-in, while breaking in young 
 hounds, sometimes will rate them before they 
 commit the fault : this prevents them for that 
 time, but they will be just as ready to begin 
 the next opportunity. Had he not better let 
 them quite alone, till he sees what they would 
 be at ? The discipline then may he propor- 
 tioned to the degree of the offence. Whether 
 a riotous young hound runs little or much is 
 of small consequence, if he be not encouraged ; 
 it is the blood only that signifies, which in 
 every kind of riot should carefully be pre- 
 vented. 
 
 My general orders to my whipper-in are, if 
 P P
 
 578 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Wni 
 
 when he rates a hound, the hound does not 
 mind him, to take him up immediately, and 
 give him a severe flogging. Whippers-in are 
 too apt to continue rating, even when they 
 find that rating does not avail. There is but 
 one way to stop such hounds, which is to get 
 to the heads of them. I also tell him never 
 on any account to strike a hound, unless the 
 hound is at the same time sensible what it is 
 for ; never to strike a hound that does not 
 deserve it, and to strike those hard that do. 
 
 Such of my hounds as are very riotous are 
 taken out by themselves on the days when 
 they do not hunt, and properly punished ; and 
 this is continued while my patience lasts, 
 which of course depends on the value of the 
 dog. It is a trial betwixt the whipper-in and 
 the dog, which will tire first ; and the whip- 
 per-in, I think, generally prevails. If this 
 method will not make them steady, no other 
 can : they are then looked upon as incorri- 
 gible, and are put away. 
 
 Such hounds as are notorious offenders 
 should also feel the lash, and hear a rate, as 
 they go to the cover ; it may be a useful hint 
 to them, and may prevent a severer flogging 
 afterwards. A sensible whipper-in will wait 
 his opportunity to single out his hound ; he 
 will then hit him hard, and rate him well ; 
 whilst a foolish one will often hit a dog he did 
 not intend to hit ; will ride full gallop into 
 the midst of the hounds ; will perhaps ride 
 over some of the best of them, and put the 
 whole pack into confusion. This is a man- 
 oeuvre I cannot bear to see. 
 
 Have a care ! are words which seldom do 
 any harm ; since hounds, when they are on a 
 right scent, will not mind them. Let your 
 whipper-in be careful how he encourages the 
 hounds : that, improperly done, may spoil 
 your pack. 
 
 A whipper-in will rate a hound, and then 
 endeavour to flog him. A dog, after having 
 been rated, will naturally avoid the whip. 
 Tell your whipper-in, whenever a hound d< 
 serves the lash, to hit him first, and rate him 
 afterwards. 
 
 When there are two whippers-in, one ought 
 always to be forward. When there is only 
 
 one, he, to be very perfect, should be a very 
 Mungo, here, there, and everywhere. 
 
 You will find it difficult to keep your peo- 
 ple in their proper places. I have been 
 obliged to stop back myself to bring on hounds 
 which my servant had left behind. I cannot 
 jive you a greater proof how necessary it is 
 that a whipper-in should bring home all his 
 hounds, than by telling you that I have lost 
 an old hound for ten days, and sent all the 
 country over to inquire after him ; and at 
 last, when I thought no more about him, in 
 drawing a large cover in the country where he 
 had been lost, he joined the pack : he was 
 exceedingly emaciated, and it was a long 
 time before he recovered. How he subsisted 
 all that time I cannot imagine. When any 
 of your hounds are missing, you should send 
 the whipper-in back immediately to look for 
 them : it will teach him to keep them more 
 together. 
 
 The getting forward the tail hounds is a 
 necessary part of fox-hunting, in which you 
 will find a good whipper-in of the greatest 
 use. He must also get forward himself at 
 times, when the huntsman is not with the 
 hounds ; but the second whipper-in ( who 
 frequently is a young lad, ignorant of his 
 business) on no account ought to encourage 
 or rate a hound, but when he is quite certain 
 it is right to do it; nor is he ever to get 
 forward, as long as a single hound remains 
 behind. 
 
 Halloo forward is certainly a necessary and 
 a good halloo ; but is it not used too indiscri- 
 minately ? it is for ever in the mouth of a 
 whipper-in. If your hounds are never used 
 to that halloo till after a fox is found, you 
 will see them fly to it. At other times other 
 halloos will answer the purpose of getting 
 them on as well. 
 
 Most huntsmen, I believe, are jealous of 
 the whipper-in : they frequently look on him 
 as a successor, and therefore do not very 
 readily admit him into the kennel ; yet, in 
 my opinion, it is necessary he should go there ; 
 for he ought to be well acquainted with the 
 hounds, who should know him and follow 
 |him as well as the huntsman Beckford. 
 
 WHIRLBAT, s. Anything moved rapidly round to give a blow. 
 WHIRLPOOL, s. A place where the water moves circularly, and draws 
 
 whatever comes within its circle towards its centre, a vortex. 
 WHIRRING, a. A word formed in imitation of the sound expressed by it, 
 
 as the " whirring pheasant." 
 
 WHISPERER, s. One who speaks low ; a private talker. 
 WHIST, s. A game at cards, requiring close attention and silence. 
 
 This game, which requires great care and I for partners ; those who cut the two highest 
 attention, is played by four persons, who cut | cards are partners against the two lowest, and
 
 Wm] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 579 
 
 the person who cuts the lowest card is enti- 
 tled to the deal. In cutting, the ace is ac- 
 counted the lowest. 
 
 Though it is customary for only the elder 
 hand, and afterwards the dealer, to shuffle the 
 cards, yet each player has a right so to do be- 
 fore the deal, but the elder hand ought to 
 shuffle last, except the dealer. 
 
 The pack is afterwards cut by the right- 
 hand adversary, and the dealer is to distribute 
 the cards, alternately, one at a time, to each 
 of the players, beginning with the left-hand 
 adversary, till the last car-d, which must be 
 turned up, being the trump, and left on the 
 table till the first trick is played. 
 
 No one, before his partner plays, should 
 intimate, that he has or has not won the 
 trick ; even the attempt to take up a trick, 
 though won before the last partner has played, 
 is deemed very improper. No intimations of 
 any kind during the play of the cards be- 
 tween partners are to be admitted. The mis- 
 take of one party is the game of the adversary. 
 However, there is one exception to this rule, 
 in case of a revoke : if a person happen not 
 to follow suit, or to trump a suit, the partner 1 
 is permitted to inquire, whether he is sure he , 
 has none of that suit in his hand. This in- 
 dulgence must have arisen from the severe 
 penalties annexed to revoking, which affect 
 the parties equally. 
 
 The person on the dealer's left-hand is 
 called the elder hand, and plays first; and 
 whoever wins the trick becomes the elder 
 hand, and plays again ; and so on till all the 
 cards are played out. The tricks belonging 
 to each party should be turned and collected 
 by the respective partners of whoever wins 
 the first trick in that hand. Each trick above 
 six is reckoned one point towards the game. 
 The ace, king, queen, and knave of trumps, 
 are called honours ; and when either of the 
 parties has in his own hand, or between him- 
 self and his partner, three honours, they 
 count two points towards the game; and if 
 they should have the four honours, they 
 count four points. Ten points make the 
 game. 
 
 TWENTY-FOUR SHORT RULES FOR LEARNERS. 
 
 1. Always lead from your strong suit, and 
 be cautious of changing suits. 
 
 2. Lead through an honour when you have 
 a good hand. 
 
 3. Lead through the strong suit, and up to 
 the weak, except in trumps, unless strong in 
 them. 
 
 4. Lead a trump, if you have four or five, 
 and a good hand besides. 
 
 5. Sequences are eligible leads, of which 
 play the highest card. 
 
 6. Follow your partner's lead, not your ad- 
 versary's. 
 
 7. Do not lead from ace queen, or ace 
 knave. 
 
 8. Avoid leading an ace unless you have 
 the king to it. 
 
 9. Never lead a thirteenth card, unless 
 trumps are out. 
 
 10. Nor trump a thirteenth card, except 
 last player. 
 
 11. Play your best card third hand. 
 
 12. When in doubt win the trick. 
 
 13. When you lead small trumps, begin 
 with the highest. 
 
 14. Do not trump out, when your partner 
 is likely to trump a suit. 
 
 15. If you hold only small trumps, make 
 them when you can. 
 
 16. Make your tricks early, and be careful 
 of finessing. 
 
 1 7. Be sure to make the odd trick when in 
 your power. 
 
 18. Never force your adversary with your 
 best card, unless you have the next best. 
 
 19. If you have only one card of any suit, 
 and but two or three small trumps, lead the 
 single card. 
 
 20. Always try to keep a commanding card 
 to bring in your strong suit. 
 
 21. In your partner's lead, endeavour to 
 keep the command in his hand. 
 
 22. Keep the card you turn up as long as 
 you conveniently can. 
 
 23. Should your antagonists be 8, and you 
 have no honour, play your best trump. 
 
 24. Always consider your score, and play 
 your hand accordingly. 
 
 One. 
 
 
 Two. 
 00 
 
 METHODS OF SCORING AT WHIST. 
 
 Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. 
 
 000 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 000 
 
 00 
 
 
 Eight. Nine. 
 000 
 
 
 
 000 00 000 000 
 
 000 00 00 
 
 00 00 00 0Hoyle. 
 
 WHISTLE, v. To form a kind of musical sound by an inarticulate modula- 
 tion of the breath ; to make a sound with a small wind instrument ; to 
 
 sound shrill. 
 
 P P 2
 
 580 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [WHI 
 
 WHISTLE, s. Sound made by the modulation of the breath in the mouth ; 
 
 a sound made by a small wind instrument ; a small wind instrument ; the 
 
 noise of birds ; a call, such as sportsmen use to their dogs. 
 WHISTLER, s. One who whistles. 
 WHITE, s. Whiteness, anything white ; white colour ; the mark at which 
 
 an arrow is shot ; the albuginous part of eggs ; the white part of the 
 
 eye. 
 WHITE TROUT, s. The sea trout. 
 
 The whole body is of an elegant form ; the 
 lateral line is straight ; the colour between 
 that and the top of the back, dusky and sil- 
 very intermixed ; beneath the line, of an ex- 
 quisite silvery whiteness ; the first dorsal fin 
 is spotted with black, and much forked ; they 
 seldom exceed a foot in length ; when dressed, 
 their flesh is red, and of most delicious fla- 
 vour. 
 
 Their haunts are in rough stony streams, 
 
 and at the sides and tails of them, where it is 
 gravelly, and are sometimes to be met with 
 in smooth gliding currents ; they are to be 
 taken with the black and green hackles (de- 
 scribed among the standard flies) and afford 
 great sport when hooked ; they are so strong 
 that some of them will spring with the line a 
 yard out of the water, and that several times 
 before they can be landed Daniel. 
 
 WHITING, s. A small sea fish ; a soft chalk. 
 
 WHITLOW, s. A swelling between the cuticle and cutis, called the mild 
 
 whitlow : or between the periosteum and the bone, called the malignant 
 
 whitlow. 
 
 WHOOP, *. A shout of pursuit ; a bird. 
 WHOOP, v. To shout insultingly ; to shout in the chace. 
 WIGEON, WHEWN,WHIRN, or PANDLED WHEW (Anas Penelope, LINN.; 
 
 Le Canard Siffleur, BUFF.) s. A waterfowl not unlike a wild duck, but 
 
 not so large. 
 
 This is nearly of the same size as the gad- I ounces, and measuring nearly twenty inches 
 wall, weighing generally about twenty-three | in length, and two feet three in breadth.
 
 WIL] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 581 
 
 The bill is an inch and a half long, narrow, 
 and serrated on the inner edges ; the upper 
 mandible is of a dark lead-colour, tipped with 
 black. The crown of the head, which is very 
 high and narrow, is of a cream-colour, with a 
 small spot of the same under each eye ; the 
 rest of the head, the neck, and the breast, are 
 bright rufous chestnut, obscurely freckled on 
 the head with black spots, and darkest on the 
 chin and throat, which are tinged with a 
 vinous colour; a band, composed of beauti- 
 fully waved, or indented narrow ash-brown 
 and white lines, separates the breast and neck ; 
 the back and scapulars are marked with simi- 
 lar feathers, as are also the sides of the body 
 under the wings, even as low as the thighs, 
 but there they are paler; the belly to the 
 vent is white ; the ridge of the wing, and ad- 
 joining coverts, are dusky ash-brown ; the 
 greater coverts brown, edged with white, (in 
 some specimens wholly white,) and tipped with 
 black, which forms an upper border to the 
 changeable green beauty-spots of the wings, 
 which is also bordered on the under side by 
 another stripe formed by the deep velvet 
 black tips of the secondary quills ; the exte- 
 rior webs of the adjoining quills are white, 
 and those next the back, which are very long, 
 are of a deep brown, (in some specimens a 
 deep black) edged with yellowish white ; the 
 greater quills are brown ; the vent and upper 
 tail-coverts black. 
 
 Wigeons commonly fly in small flocks dur- 
 ing the night, and may be known from others 
 by their whistling note while they are on the 
 wing. They are easily domesticated in places 
 where there is plenty of water, and are much 
 admired for their beauty, sprightly look, and 
 
 busy frolicsome manners. 
 
 The tail, which consists of fourteen feathers, 
 is of a hoary brownish ash, edged with yel- 
 lowish white ; the two middle ones are sharp- 
 pointed, darker and longer than the rest. 
 The legs and toes are of a dirty lead colour, 
 faintly tinged with green ; the middle of the 
 webs and nails black. The female is brown, 
 the middle of the feathers deepest; the fore 
 part of the neck and breast paler ; scapulars 
 dark brown, with paler edges ; wings and belly 
 as in the male. The young of both sexes 
 are grey, and continue in that plain garb till 
 the month of February, after which a change 
 takes place, and the plumage of the male be- 
 gins to assume its rich colourings, in which it 
 is said he continues till the end of July, and 
 then again the feathers become dark and grey, 
 so that he is hardly to be distinguished from 
 the female. 
 
 These birds quit the desert morasses of the 
 north on the approach of winter, and as they 
 advance towards the end of their destined 
 southern journey, they spread themselves 
 along the shores and over the marshes and 
 lakes in various parts of the continent, as well 
 as those of the British isles, and it is said that 
 some of the flocks advance as far south as 
 Egypt. They remain in these parts during 
 the winter, at the end of which the old birds 
 pair, and the whole tribe in full plumage take 
 their departure northward about the end of 
 March. While they remain with us, they 
 frequent the same places, and feed in. the same 
 mode as the mallard, and are often taken in 
 the decoys along with them and other kinds 
 of ducks Bewick. 
 
 WILD, a. Not tame, not domestic ; propagated by nature, not cultivated ; 
 
 desert, uninhabited ; tempestuous ; inconstant, fickle ; uncouth, strange ; 
 
 done or made without any consistent order or plan ; merely imaginary. 
 WILD DOG, s. An untrained dog ; a dog run wild; 
 
 he pursued with hounds, greyhounds, &c., but 
 when the dogs came up to him he laid down 
 on his back, as if supplicating for mercy, and 
 in that position they never hurt him ; ho 
 therefore laid quietly, taking his rest till the 
 hunters approached, when he made off without 
 being followed by the hounds, till they were 
 again excited to the pursuit, which always ter- 
 minated unsuccessfully. He was one day 
 
 In December, 1784, a dog was left by a 
 smuggling vessel near Boomer, on the coast of 
 Northumberland. Finding himself deserted, 
 he began to worry sheep, and did so much 
 damage that he was the terror of the country, 
 within the circuit of above twenty miles. It 
 is asserted that when he caught a sheep, he 
 bit a hole in the right side, and after eating 
 the fat about the kidneys, left it. Several of 
 
 them thus lacerated were found alive by the | pursued from Howick to upwards of thirty 
 
 shepherds, and being properly taken care of 
 some of them recovered and afterwards had 
 lambs. From this delicacy of his feeding, the 
 destruction may in some measure be con- 
 ceived, as the fat of one sheep in a day would 
 scarcely satisfy his hunger. Various were the 
 means used to destroy him ; frequently was 
 
 miles' distance, but returned thither and killed 
 sheep the same evening. His constant resi- 
 dence was upon a rock on the Heugh Hill, 
 near Howick, where he had a view of four 
 roads that approached it, and there, in March 
 1 785, after many fruitless attempts, he was at 
 last shot. * * *
 
 582 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Wit 
 
 Another wild dog, which had committed 
 devastation among the sheep, near Wooler, 
 in the same county (Northumberland) was 
 on the 6th of June, 1 799, advertised to be 
 hunted on the Wednesday following by three 
 packs of hounds, which were to meet at diffe- 
 rent places ; the aid of men and firearms was 
 also requested, with a reward promised of 
 twenty guineas to the person killing him. 
 This dog was described by those who had seen 
 him at a distance, as a large greyhound, with 
 some white in his face, neck, and one foreleg 
 white, rather grey on the back, and the rest 
 a jet black ; an immense concourse of people 
 assembled at the time appointed, but the chase 
 was unprosperous ; for he eluded his pursuers 
 among the Cheviot Hills, and what is singular 
 returned that same night to the place from 
 whence he had been hunted in the morning, 
 and worried an ewe and her lamb. During 
 
 the whole summer he continued to destroy 
 sheep, but changed his quarters, for he in- 
 fested the fells, sixteen miles south of Carlisle, 
 where upwards of sixty sheep fell victims to 
 his ferocity. In September, hounds and fire- 
 arms were again employed against him, and 
 after a run from Carrock Fell, which was 
 computed to be thirty miles, he was shot 
 whilst the hounds were in pursuit, by Mr. 
 Lewel of Wedlock, who laid in ambush at 
 Moss Dale. During the chace, which occu- 
 pied six hours, he frequently turned upon 
 the headmost hounds, and wounded several 
 so badly as to disable them. Upon examina- 
 tion he appeared of Newfoundland breed, of a 
 common size, wire-haired, and extremely lean. 
 This description does not tally with the dogs so 
 injurious to the farmers in Northumberland, 
 although from circumstances there is little 
 doubt but it was the same animal Daniel. 
 
 WILD, s. A desert, a tract uncultivated and uninhabited. 
 
 WILDFIRE, s. A composition of inflammable materials, easy to take fire, 
 
 and hard to be extinguished. 
 WILD FOWL SHOOTING, s. To shoot water fowl. 
 
 Duriug the time of long frosts, if going on his prey. Sea-fowl usually feed by night, 
 the water or into the marshes, after the wild 
 fowl, does not suit the shooter's convenience 
 or choice, by attending the brooks and small 
 rivers that are only partially frozen early of a 
 morning, and following their course, he may 
 frequently find diversion, and be almost cer- 
 tain of meeting with wild ducks searching 
 both for food and fresh water ; he will be also 
 equally sure to get shots, for they will not 
 rise until he is close upon them. In extreme 
 severity of frost, with hard and permanent snow, 
 the warm springs which do not freeze are spots 
 that then seldom fail, as the wild ducks are 
 confined to these places in order to procure 
 
 the aquatic herbs growing there, and which 
 
 are almost the sole food that remains for them 
 
 at this inclement period. 
 
 In following wild fowl, it is easier to get 
 
 within twenty yards of them by going to lee- 
 ward, than a hundred and fifty if directly to 
 
 windward; so very acute is their sense of 
 
 smelling. * * * 
 
 The coast between Hampshire and the Isle 
 
 of Wight is peculiar, consisting, at ebb tide, of 
 
 vast muddy flats, covered with green sea- 
 weed : it affords the fowler an opportunity of 
 
 practising arts perhaps not elsewhere resorted 
 
 to. Fowling and fishing are indeed on this 
 
 coast commonly the employment of the same 
 
 person. He who in summer with his line or 
 
 net, plies the shores, when they are overflowed 
 
 by the tide ; in winter, with his gun, as even- 
 ing draws on, runs up in his boat among the 
 
 little creeks, which the tide leaves in the 
 
 mudlaiids, and lies in patient expectation of 
 
 prey. 
 
 when, in all their multitudes, they come 
 down to graze on the savannahs of the shore. 
 As the sonorous cloud advances, the attentive 
 fowler listens which way they bend their 
 course : perhaps he has the mortification to 
 hear them alight at too great a distance for 
 his gun to reach them ; and if he cannot edge 
 his boat round some winding creek, which it 
 is not always in his power to do, he despairs 
 of success that night : perhaps, however, he is 
 more fortunate, and has the satisfaction to 
 hear the airy noise approach nearer, till at 
 length the host settles in some place upon the 
 edge of which his boat is moored. He now, 
 as silently as possible, primes both his pieces 
 anew, (for he is generally doubly armed) and 
 listens with all his attention : it is so dark 
 that he can take no aim ; for if he could dis- 
 cern the birds, they would also -see him ; and 
 being exceedingly timorous, would seek some 
 other pasture. Though they march with 
 noise, they feed in silence ; some indistinct 
 noises, however, if the night be still, issue 
 from so vast a concourse ; he directs his piece, 
 therefore, towards the sound, fires at a ven- 
 ture, and instantly catching up his other gun, 
 discharges it where he supposes the flock to 
 rise on the wing. His gains for the night are 
 now decided, and he has only to gather his 
 harvest. He immediately puts on his mud 
 pattens (flat square pieces of board, which the 
 fowler ties to his feet, that he may not sink 
 in the ooze) ignorant yet of his success, and 
 goes groping about in the dark in quest of his 
 booty, picking up sometimes many, and
 
 \\'IL] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 683 
 
 perhaps none. And, after all, others fre- 
 quently enjoy more from his labours than 
 himself: for the tide often throws, next day, 
 on different parts of the shore, many of the 
 birds which he killed, but could not find in 
 the night. 
 
 This hazardous occupation once led a fow- 
 ler into singular distress: it happened too 
 in the day-time, which shows still more for- 
 cibly the risk of such nocturnal expeditions. 
 Mounted on his mud pattens, he was travers- 
 ing one of these oozy plains in search of ducks, 
 and, being intent only on his game, suddenly 
 found the water, which had been accelerated 
 by some peculiar circumstance affecting the 
 tide, had made an alarming progress around 
 him, and he found himself completely encir- 
 cled : in this desperate situation, an idea struck 
 him, as the only hope of safety. He retired 
 to that part which seemed the highest, from 
 its being yet uncovered by water, and striking 
 the barrel of his long gun deep in the ooze, 
 he resolved to hold fast by it, as well for a 
 support as a security against the waves, and 
 to wait the ebbing of the tide He had rea- 
 son to believe that a common tide would not 
 have flowed above his middle; but, in the 
 midst of his reasoning upon the subject, the 
 water had reached him : it rippled over his 
 feet it gained his knees, his waist : button 
 
 after button was swallowed up, until at length 
 it flowed over his shoulders ! With a palpi- 
 tating heart, he gave himself up for lost! 
 Still, however, he held fast by his anchor : 
 his eye was eagerly in search for some boat, 
 which might accidentally he passing, but none 
 appeared. A head upon the surface of the 
 water, and that sometimes covered by a wave, 
 was no object to be descried from the land, at 
 the distance of half a league ; nor could he 
 exert any sounds of distress that could be 
 heard so far ! While, as the exigence would 
 allow, he was thus making up his mind to 
 the terrors of certain destruction, his attention 
 was called to a new object : he thought he 
 saw the uppermost button of his coat begin to 
 appear! No mariner floating on a wreck 
 could behold approaching succour with greater 
 transport than he felt at the transient view of 
 his button ; but the fluctuation of the water 
 was such, and the turn of the tide so slow, 
 that it was yet some time before he durst 
 venture to assure himself that the button was 
 fairly above the level of the flood ; at length, 
 a second button appealing at intervals, his 
 sensations may rather be conceived than 
 described ; and his joy gave him spirits and 
 resolution to support his situation four or five 
 hours longer, until the water had fully re- 
 tired Daniel Gilpin. 
 
 WILD TURKEYS, s. Turkeys not domesticated. 
 
 One of the keepers in Richmond Park 
 informs me that he has often heard his father, 
 who was also a keeper, mention that, in the 
 reign of George the Second, a large flock of 
 wild turkeys, consisting of not less than two 
 thousand, was regularly kept up as part of the 
 stock of the park. In the autumn and win- 
 ter they fed on acorns, of which they must 
 have had an abundant supply, since the park 
 was then almost wooded with oak, with a thick 
 cover of furze ; and although at present eleven 
 miles in circumference, it was formerly much 
 larger, and connected with extensive possess- 
 ions of the Crown, some of which are now 
 alienated. Stacks of barley were also put in 
 different places in the park for their support ; 
 and some of the old turkey cocks are said to 
 have weighed from twenty-five to thirty pounds. 
 They were hunted with dogs, and made to 
 take refuge in a tree, where they were fre- 
 quently shot by George the Second. I have 
 not been able to learn how long they had 
 been preserved in the park before his reign, 
 but they were totally destroyed towards the 
 latter end of it, in consequence of the dangers 
 to which the keepers were exposed in pro- 
 tecting them from poachers, with whom they 
 had many bloody fights, being frequently over- 
 powered by them. 
 
 Though I have not been able, in any of the 
 
 accounts which have been given of Richmond 
 Park, to find a notice of the stock of turkeys ; 
 there can, I think, be no doubt of the feet, 
 since the ancestors of the present head and 
 second keepers of the park had, for many 
 generations, been keepers in it, and have 
 handed down to their present successors many 
 curious accounts of the fights which took 
 place between them and the poachers, in the 
 preservation of the turkeys. 
 
 That turkeys would increase rapidly in the 
 park if left to themselves, there can be no 
 doubt, as a stray hen turkey brought up a 
 large brood, which I saw, and which were 
 quite wild. They kept in a part of the park 
 little frequented, and if disturbed would take 
 a flight and settle in trees : they were subse- 
 quently shot, and were in good condition. 
 Had these birds been suffered to remain, they 
 would probably have increased rapidly. 
 
 The only wild turkeys which I can at pre- 
 sent hear of, are to be found in the park of Sir 
 Watkin Williams Wynne, at Wynnstay, where 
 there is a flock consisting of about five hun- 
 dred. They were tried in Windsor Great 
 Park, but did not succeed there. A few bus- 
 tards arc still to be found near Newmarket ; 
 but I believe they have quite deserted Salis- 
 bury Plain Jesse.
 
 584 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [WlL 
 
 WILLOW, *. A tree. 
 
 WIND,*. A strong motion of the air ; breath, power of respiration ; flatu- 
 lence ; windiness ; down the wind, to decoy. 
 
 Thick wind is a common consequence of 
 either acute or chronic inflammations. In 
 some instances, it is the immediate conse- 
 quence of violent or long-continued exercise, 
 particularly on a distended stomach and bow- 
 els, or after full drinking; or it may he brought 
 on by the application of cold. It is often 
 connected with a plethoric state, and is there- 
 fore very common among gross feeders, and 
 where the exercise is not proportioned to the 
 work ; and more particularly in low-bred and 
 thickset horses. The remote causes are usu- 
 ally increased vascular action ; the proximate, 
 the deposit occasioned by it, which blocks up 
 the air-cells, and thus interferes with the free- 
 dom of respiration. The post-mortem exami- 
 nations of such cases, exhibit, in some in- 
 stances, a slight hepatisation of lung, the con- 
 sequence of repeated congestions in plethoric 
 habits ; in others, the minute bronchial cells 
 are filled with adhesive matter, or the general 
 parenchymatous substance may be pervaded 
 with minute granulations of a bluish colour. 
 
 The symptoms of thick wind are sufficiently 
 known to any one at all conversant wnth 
 horses, and the rationale by which they are 
 produced is not difficult to explain. The 
 capacity of the air cells being diminished, 
 renders it necessary for the air to be more 
 frequently taken in, because, being acted on 
 by a less surface, the blood is not sufficiently 
 oxygenated ; and a sufficient number of air 
 cells not being expanded, a sense of fulness 
 in the right side of the heart induces the ani- 
 mal to make hasty inspirations to remedy the 
 defect, and consequently hasty expirations : 
 the force with which these are operated, occa- 
 sions the sound so well known as the distin- 
 guishing mark of thick wind. In this affec- 
 tion, the obstruction to both being equal, the 
 inspirations and expirations are equal, which 
 serves to distinguish it from broken wind, in 
 which there is no obstruction to the entrance ; 
 and therefore the breath is drawn in with its 
 usual facility, but is expelled with difficulty. 
 Thick wind is, however, very apt to degenerate 
 into that state termed broken wind ; and the 
 post-mortem appearances of such horses as 
 have been examined under thick wind would 
 readily, by an increase of the disorganisation, 
 account for the symptoms of broken wind ; 
 hut it cannot be the hepatised lung that is 
 changed into the emphysematous state. 
 
 The treatment of thick wind can seldom 
 be more than palliative, as, once established, 
 it remains permanent. In very recent cases, 
 bleeding, blistering the chest, or mildly stimu- 
 lating the course of the trachea and bronchia, 
 
 by mercurial frictions, to promote the absorp- 
 tion of any deposit, may be tried. These 
 having failed, a preventive treatment should 
 be adopted, calculated to avoid any increase 
 of the evil, as in the treatment of broken . 
 wind. I have, now and then, witnessed bene- 
 fit from repeated doses of mild mercurial 
 physic. 
 
 Broken Wind. The remote causes of 
 broken wind are hereditary or constitutional 
 liability, as well as the remaining sufficiently 
 long under the action of causes capable of ex- 
 citing morbid changes in the respiratory organs 
 themselves. A certain form of body is un- 
 questionably favourable to its production, and 
 it is from this circumstance that it proves 
 hereditary. The narrow confined chest, and 
 the pendent b^ly, which mark low bred 
 horses and gross feeders, all of whom are 
 observed to be peculiarly liable to it, are pre- 
 disponents, by confining the ordinate action of 
 the lungs, and affording no reserve for the 
 inordinate. It must be this defect in form 
 which makes it more common in mares than 
 horses ; subjecting horses to a long-continued 
 unhealthy course of feeding on dry food, as 
 chaff, bran, barley meal, &c., &c., brings it on ; 
 or working in mills, where much dust is 
 necessarily inhaled. It is seldom the imme- 
 diate consequence of pneumonia, but fre- 
 quently it results from those states of disor- 
 dered respiration which succeed to it, as thick 
 wind, chronic cough, &c. The proximate 
 causes we are as much in the dark about; we 
 see that it gradually steals on a horse, occupy- 
 ing months, and even years, in a slight occa- 
 sional cough, which ripening into a state of 
 slightly impeded respiration on exertion, at 
 last ends in broken wind. We see it also 
 follow one hard gallop, and \ve can leave a 
 horse well one day, and find him broken- 
 winded the next. 
 
 The symptoms of this complaint are well 
 marked ; the cough and the mode in which 
 respiration is performed may be considered as 
 pathognomonic. The sound emitted by the 
 cough is peculiar to this asthmatic state, and 
 is often forced out with a kind of grunt 
 through the upper part of the trachea, in a 
 short but vibrating feeble tone compared with 
 the usual cough of sound winded horses. The 
 respiration is conducted with a remarkable 
 difference between the inspirations and expira- 
 tions. Inspiration is effected quickly and 
 with the ordinary ease, because, as would be 
 argued by those who favour the opinion that 
 an emphysematous state of lungs is the sole 
 cause of this equine asthma, the air is sup-
 
 WHI] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 585 
 
 posed readily to find its way into the cellular 
 tissue of the ruptured air-cells, where, becom- 
 ing entangled, it occasions that remarkable 
 difference in the ease with which inspiration 
 is effected and the lengthened laborious effort 
 of expiration, which, it may he observed, is 
 performed by two distinct efforts, in one of 
 which the usual muscles operate, and in the 
 other the auxiliary muscles, particularly the 
 abdominal, which are put on the stretch to 
 complete the expulsion more perfectly ; after 
 which the flank falls with peculiar force, when 
 these muscles resume their relaxations. An 
 auxiliary symptom is the peculiar flatulence 
 of every broken- winded horse, which is strik- 
 ingly characteristic of that disordered state of 
 digestion so common in these cases, and of 
 that constant thirst also which is invariably 
 present. 
 
 The treatment of broken wind can seldom 
 be more than palliative. Whatever increases 
 the distension of the vessels generally, as a 
 state of plethora, or of the stomach and bowels 
 particularly, aggravates the complaint by in- 
 creasing the difficulty of expanding the lungs. 
 Therefore, avoid stimulants, and promote regu- 
 lar evacuations by the bowels ; abstain from 
 over-distension of the lungs by too violent and 
 too sudden exertions, particularly after eating ; 
 for the food, although it may be supposed to 
 pass the stomach quickly, yet is retained longer 
 in the large intestines, which equally press on 
 the diaphragm. By carefully attending to 
 these principal indications, a broken-winded 
 horse may be rendered comfortable to himself, 
 and useful to his owner. The food should be 
 regularly given in moderate quantities only ; 
 but most particularly it should be of such a 
 nature as will contain much nutriment in a 
 small space : hence corn is more proper than 
 hay, and, above all, I have found a manger 
 food composed of one part bran, one part 
 bruised beans, and two parts bruised oats, 
 agree particularly well, given somewhat moist- 
 ened, as indeed all the food given to a broken- 
 winded horse should be. On a sufficient 
 quantity of this food a horse will need but 
 very little hay, and what he does have should 
 be of the oldest and best kind, and principally- 
 given at night as a condiment to the corn. 
 When they can be got, give also carrots, man- 
 gel wurzel, Swedish turnips, parsneps, or 
 cooked potatoes, which feeding will be found 
 to combine both medicine and nutriment, and 
 render little water necessary. Turning out to 
 grass commonly aggravates the symptoms of 
 broken wind ; but a daily run on a very short 
 pasture is generally found advantageous, and a 
 neglect of moderate exercise aggravates the 
 complaint greatly ; water should he sparingly 
 given, particularly in the working hours : at 
 night, a moderate quantity may and should be 
 allowed, but on no account let the broken- 
 winded horse drink his fill at a pond or 
 
 trough. Medicinally, it may not be improper 
 to bleed when the occasional symptoms run 
 high ; and benefit has been received from 
 daily doses of foxglove under these circum- 
 stances. I have also administered antimony 
 and nitre with advantage. 
 
 Modes of distinguishing soundness and 
 unsoundness of the Wind. These various 
 affections of the wind are very important to 
 the veterinarian, nor can he be too well in- 
 formed of the appearances that characterise 
 each distinctly; because, as their existence 
 affects the legal soundness of horses, so he 
 will be very often forced to decide perempto- 
 rily on very slight appearances. To detect 
 thick wind it is generally necessary that some 
 time be spent with the horse ; and it is often 
 requisite that he should be examined under 
 various circumstances. Does he bear mode- 
 rate exercise, immediately after eating or 
 drinking, without blowing high ? Does he 
 cough in so doing, or is he observed to do it 
 on every change of position, or temperature ; 
 particularly after drinking? And does he 
 when in the stable, field, or when completely 
 at rest, occasionally cough short, hollow, and 
 not followed by that firm effort we call clear- 
 ing afterwards ? In such a case the horse has 
 chronic cough ; and as his breathing is more 
 or less accelerated beyond the ordinary stand- 
 ard, he is more or less thick-winded also. 
 Roaring may be immediately detected by a 
 brisk gallop ; but the person who is to judge 
 of its existence should be on the ground, and 
 the horse should pass him several times, but 
 without restraint; for I have seen horses 
 whipped into a momentary cessation of the 
 roaring. 
 
 Broken wind can hardly be mistaken ; the 
 cough accompanying it conveys a peculiar 
 sound ; it is short, vibrates within, and is 
 combined with a grunting effort, more parti- 
 cularly observable on any sudden motion or 
 surprise ; to produce which, dealers hold up 
 the horse's head, and then either strike, or 
 pretend to strike, him suddenly, or kick him, 
 which usually elicits this peculiar grunting 
 sound. The breathing is hurried in the ex- 
 treme by exertion, and is remarkable by being 
 made up of three efforts instead of two. lu 
 the first, the air is drawn in naturally, and 
 the flanks fill up as usual; but in the next, 
 the falling of the flanks, again to expel the air, 
 is most unusual; for it is not done with a 
 gradual contraction of the muscles, but takes 
 place at once by a momentary effort ; and then 
 a third action takes place, which is a slow 
 but strong drawing up of the muscles of the 
 belly, as though to press out remaining air. 
 Broken- winded horses are also observed to be 
 peculiarly greedy after water ; and a little 
 hurried motion distends the nostrils, and pro- 
 duces evident distress Elaine.
 
 586 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [WIN 
 
 WINDGALL, s. Windgalls are soft, yielding-, flatulent tumours or bladders, 
 full of corrupt jelly, which grow upon each side of the fetlock joints, and 
 are so painful in hot weather and hard ways, that they make a horse to 
 halt. 
 
 Windgalls consist of distended bursae mu- 
 cosae, -which have been described as small 
 bags or sacs filled with synovia; and inter- 
 posed between tendons and the parts upon 
 which they move ; but this is not the case. 
 Windgalls seldom occasion lameness, and 
 
 rarely disappear even after blistering and rest. 
 Firing and long rest are the most likely means 
 of strengthening the parts. In cases where 
 no inconvenience is felt from them this se- 
 vere operation is not advisable, but the legs 
 may be kept bandaged White. 
 
 WINDGUN, s. A gun which discharges a bullet by means of wind com- 
 pressed ; the air gun. 
 
 WING, s. The limb of a bird by which it flies ; a fan to winnow ; flight, 
 passage by the wing ; the side bodies of an army ; any side piece. 
 
 The bastard wings (alula spuria, LINN.) 
 are three or five quill-like feathers, placed at 
 a small joint rising at the middle part of the 
 wing. 
 
 The lesser coverts of the wings, (tetrices 
 primes, LINN.) are small feathers that lie in 
 several rows on the bones of the wings. The 
 under coverts are those that line the inside of 
 the wings. 
 
 The greater coverts, (tetrices secundcs, 
 LINN.) are the feathers that lie immediately 
 over the quill feathers and the secondaries. 
 
 The primores or primary quills, (primores 
 
 LINN.) are the largest feathers of the wings ; 
 they rise from the first bone. 
 
 The secondaries, or secondary quills (secon- 
 daritB, LINN.) are those that rise from the se- 
 cond bone. 
 
 The tertials take their rise from the se- 
 cond bone, at the elbow joint, forming a con- 
 tinuation of the secondaries, and seem to do 
 the same with the scapulars, which lie over 
 them. These feathers are so long in some of 
 the scolopax and tringa genera, that when 
 the bird is flying they give it the appearance 
 of having four wings Montagu. 
 
 WING, v. To furnish with wings ; to enable to fly ; to maim a bird by 
 
 hitting the wing ; to supply with side bodies. 
 WINGED, a. Furnished with wings ; flying ; swift, rapid ; hurt in the 
 
 WIPE, v. To cleanse by rubbing with something soft ; to take away by 
 
 tersion. 
 
 WIRE, s. Metal drawn into slender threads. 
 WISP, s. A small bundle, as of hay or straw. 
 WITHERS, s. Is the joining of the shoulder-bones at the bottom of the 
 
 neck and mane. 
 
 Fistula of the Withers This disease 
 comes by very severe bruises from the fore 
 part of the saddle, which being neglected and 
 repeated from time to time, produces at length 
 an inflammation of the spinous processes of 
 the dorsal vertebras. A deep-seated abscess is 
 the consequence, and the matter penetrates in 
 different directions before it arrives at the 
 surface, where at length it causes a tumour, 
 which is very different from a common ab- 
 scess, and requires always a considerable time 
 to be cured. To give vent to the matter is 
 the first object, and when that has been done, 
 the extent of the injury must be ascertained. 
 
 When this cannot be done, and this is some- 
 times the case, the caustic tents must be in- 
 troduced, as I have described in the chapter 
 on wounds and bruises ; and when the slough 
 or core which this causes, has separated, which 
 will generally be in three or four days, tho 
 finger should be introduced as well as a probe, 
 and the direction of the sinuses ascertained. 
 A depending opening for the matter to run off 
 freely must always be obtained, by cutting 
 open the part freely. If a clean sore has 
 been thus produced, or if it can be ascer- 
 tained that there are no more sinuses or pipes, 
 the cure may be effected by mild dressings,
 
 Woo] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 587 
 
 or tents of digestive ointment, tincture of 
 myrrh, &c. ; but this is seldom the case, and 
 repeated dressings with caustic tents are gene- 
 rally necessary. As soon as the bottom of 
 the sore is arrived at, it will often be found 
 that the tops of the spinous processes or the 
 ligament covering them have been injured, 
 and the bare bone may be distinctly felt with 
 
 the probe. When this is the case the bare 
 bone must be scraped with a suitable instru- 
 ment, and then dressed with tincture of 
 myrrh ; after this the wound will readily heal 
 by continuing to dress it with tincture of 
 myrrh or digestive ointment, according to the 
 directions given on wounds White. 
 
 WITHERWRUNG, s. An injury caused by the bite of a horse, or by a sad- 
 dle being unfit, especially when the bows are too wide. 
 
 WOAD, s. A plant cultivated in England for the use of dyers, who use it 
 for laying the foundation of many colours. 
 
 WOLFDOG, s. A dog of a very large breed, kept to guard sheep ; a dog 
 bred between a dog and a wolf. 
 
 WOODCOCK, (Scolopax rusticola, LINN.; LaBecasse, BUFF.) *. A bird of 
 passage with a long bill. 
 
 The woodcock measures fourteen inches in 
 length, and twenty-six in breadth, and gene- 
 rally weighs about twelve ounces. The shape 
 of the head is remarkable, being rather tri- 
 angular than round, with the eyes placed 
 near the top, and the ears very forward, nearly 
 on a line with the comers of the mouth. 
 The upper mandible, which measures about 
 three inches, is furrowed nearly its whole 
 length, and at the tip it projects beyond, and 
 hangs over the under one, ending in a kind of 
 knob, which, like those of others of the same 
 genus, is susceptible of the finest feeling, and 
 calculated by that means, aided, perhaps by 
 acute smell, to find the small worms in the 
 soft moist grounds from whence it extracts 
 them with its sharp-pointed tongue. With 
 the bill it also turns over and tosses the fallen 
 leaves in search of the insects which shelter 
 underneath. The crown of the head is of an 
 ash colour, the nape and the back part 
 of its neck black, marked with three bars 
 of rusty red : a black line extends from the 
 corners of the mouth to the eyes, the or- 
 bits of which are pale buff; the whole under 
 parts are yellowish white, numerously barred 
 with dark waved lines. The tail consists of 
 twelve feathers, which, like the quills, are 
 black, and indented across with reddish spots 
 on the edges ; the tip is ash-coloured above, 
 and of a glossy white below. The legs are 
 short, feathered to the knees, and, in some, 
 are of a bluish cast, in others, of a sallow 
 flesh colour. The upper parts of the plumage 
 arc so marbled, spotted, barred, streaked and 
 variegated, that to describe them with accu- 
 racy would be difficult and tedious. The 
 colours consisting of black, white, grey, ash, 
 red, brown, rufous, and yellow, are so dis- 
 posed in rows, crossed, and broken at inter- 
 vals by lines and marks of different shapes, 
 that the whole seems to the eye, at a little 
 
 distance, blended together and confused, which 
 makes the bird appear exactly like the withered 
 stalks and leaves of ferns, sticks, moss and 
 grasses, which form the back ground of the 
 scenery by which it is sheltered in its moist 
 and solitary retreats. The sportsman only 
 being accustomed to it, is enabled to discover 
 it, and his leading marks are his full dark eye, 
 and glossy silver white-tipped tail. In plumage 
 the female differs very little from the male, 
 and, like most other birds, only by being less 
 brilliant in her colours. 
 
 The flesh of the woodcock is held in very 
 high estimation, and hence it is eagerly sought 
 after by the sportsman. It is hardly neces- 
 sary to notice, that in cooking it, the entrails 
 are not drawn, but roasted within the bird, 
 from whence they drop out with the gravy, 
 upon slices of toasted bread, and are relished 
 as a delicious kind of sauce. 
 
 The woodcock is migratory, and in differ- 
 ent seasons is said to inhabit every climate : 
 it leaves the countries bordering upon the 
 Baltic, in the autumn and setting in of win- 
 ter, on its route to this country. They do 
 not come in large flocks, but keep dropping 
 in upon our shores singly, or sometimes in 
 pairs, from the beginning of October till De- 
 cember. They must have the instinctive 
 precaution of landing only in the night, or in 
 dark misty weather, for they are never seen 
 to arrive, but are frequently discovered the 
 next morning in any ditch which affords shel- 
 ter, and particularly after the extraordinary 
 fatigue occasioned by the adverse gales which 
 they often have to encounter in their aerial 
 voyage. They do not remain on the shores to 
 take their rest longer than a day, but com- 
 monly find themselves sufficiently recruited 
 in that time to proceed inland to the very same 
 haunts which they left the preceding season. 
 In temperate weather they retire to the mossy
 
 588 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Woo 
 
 moors and high bleak mountainous parts of 
 the country ; but as soon as the frost sets in, 
 and the snow begins to fall, they return to 
 lower and warmer situations, where they 
 meet with boggy grounds and springs, and 
 little oozing mossy rills which are rarely 
 frozen, and seek the shelter of the close 
 bushes of holly, furze, and brakes, in the 
 woody glens, or hollow dells which are covered 
 with underwood : there they remain concealed 
 during the day, and remove to different haunts 
 and feed only in the night. From the begin- 
 ning of March to the end of that month, or 
 sometimes to the middle of April, they keep 
 drawing towards the coasts, and avail them- 
 selves of the first fair wind to return to their 
 native woods : should it happen to continue 
 long to blow adversely, they are thereby de- 
 tained ; and as their numbers increase, they 
 are more easily found and destroyed by the 
 merciless sportsman. 
 
 The female makes her nest on the ground, 
 generally at the root or stump of a decayed 
 tree; it is carelessly formed of a few dried 
 fibres and leaves, upon which she lays four or 
 five eggs, larger than those of a pigeon, of a 
 rusty grey colour, blotched and marked with 
 dusky spots. The young leave the nest as 
 soon as they are freed from the shell, but the 
 parent birds continue to attend and assist them 
 until they can provide for themselves. Buf- 
 fon says they sometimes take a weak one un- 
 der their throat, and convey it more than a 
 thousand paces. 
 
 Latham mentions three varieties of British 
 woodcocks : in the first the head is of a pale 
 red, body white, and the wings brown ; the 
 second is of a dun, or rather cream colour ; 
 and the third of a pure white. Dr. Heysham, 
 in his catalogue of Cumberland animals, men- 
 tions his having met with one, the general 
 colour of which was a fine pale ash, with fre- 
 quent bars of a very delicate rufous; tail 
 brown, tipped with white ; and the bill and 
 legs flesh colour. In addition to these, some 
 other varieties are taken notice of by the late 
 Marmaduke Tunstall, Esq. of Wycliff, in his 
 interleaved books on ornithology. 
 
 Latham and Pennant assert that some 
 woodcocks deviate from the course which 
 nature seems to have taught their species, by 
 remaining throughout the year and breeding 
 in this country ; and this assertion Mr. Tun- 
 stall corroborates by such a number of well 
 authenticated instances, that the fact is un- 
 questionable. 
 
 When the woodcock is pursued by the 
 sportsman, its flight is very rapid but short, as 
 it drops behind the first suitable sheltering 
 coppice with great suddenness, and in order to 
 elude discovery runs swiftly off, in quest of 
 some place where it may hide itself in greater 
 security. * * * 
 
 To describe the various methods which are 
 practised by fowlers to catch this bird would 
 be tedious ; but it may not be improper to 
 notice those most commonly in use, and 
 against which it does not seem to be equally 
 on its guard as against the gun. It is easily 
 caught in the nets, traps, and springes, which 
 are placed in its accustomed runs or paths, as 
 its suspicions are all lulled into security by 
 the silence of the night ; and it will not fly or 
 leap over any obstacles which are placed in 
 its way, while it is in quest of its food ; there- 
 fore in those places barriers and avenues 
 formed of sticks, stones, &c., are constructed, 
 so as to lure it into the fatal openings where 
 it is entrapped ; in like manner, a low fence 
 made of the tops of broom stuck into the 
 ground across the wet furrow of a field, or a 
 runner from a spring which is not frozen, is 
 sufficient to stay its progress, and to make it 
 seek from side to side for an opening through 
 which it may pass, and there it seldom escapes 
 the noose that is set to secure it. 
 
 They leave the north with the first frost, 
 and travel slowly south till they come to their 
 accustomed winter quarters, they do not usu- 
 ally make a quick voyage, but fly from wood 
 to wood, reposing and feeding on their jour- 
 ney, they prefer for their haunts woods near 
 marshes or morasses ; they hide themselves 
 under thick bushes in the day, and fly abroad 
 to feed in the dusk of the evening. A laurel 
 or a holly bush is a favourite place for their 
 repose, the thick and varnished leaves of these 
 trees prevent the radiation of heat from the 
 soil, and they are less affected by the refrige- 
 rating influence of a clear sky, so that they 
 afford a warm seat for the woodcock. Wood- 
 cocks usually begin to fly north on the first 
 approach of spring, and their flights are gene- 
 rally longer and their rests fewer at this sea- 
 son than in autumn. In the autumn they are 
 driven from the north to the south by the 
 want of food, and they stop wherever they 
 can find it. In the spring there is the in- 
 fluence of another powerful instinct added to 
 this, the sexual feeling. They migrate in 
 pairs, and pass as speedily as possible to the 
 place where they are likely to find food, and 
 raise their young, and of which the old birds 
 have already had the experience of former 
 years. Scarcely any woodcocks winter in any 
 part of Germany. In France there are few 
 found, particularly in the southern provinces, 
 and in Normandy and Britany. The woods 
 of England, especially of the west and south, 
 contain always a certain quantity of wood- 
 cocks; but there are far more in the moist 
 soil and warmer climate of Ireland, but in 
 the woods of southern Italy and Greece, near 
 marshes, they are far more abundant, and they
 
 Woo] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 589 
 
 extend in quantities over the Greek islands, 
 Asia Minor, and northern Africa. 
 
 * 
 
 Woodcocks have heen known to settle upon 
 a vessel at sea. Mr. Travers, of Cornwall, 
 records an instance, when at a distance from 
 land unusual for hirds to be seen, a hird was 
 discovered hovering over the ship, when first 
 discerned it was high in the air, but gradually 
 descended, and after taking several circuits 
 round, at length alighted on the deck ; it was 
 so wearied as to he taken up by the hand. 
 Probably this bird had lost its companions, or, 
 by the force of winds, was driven from the true 
 aerial track. In 1 799 a couple of woodcocks, 
 seeking shelter from a gale of wind, alighted 
 upon the Glory man of war, at that time 
 cruising in the Channel. 
 
 * * * 
 
 In their flight the woodcock, like other 
 birds, is attracted by a glare of light, and 
 many instances have occurred, at the Cromer 
 and Eddystone light-houses, of their falling 
 victims to it; but in 1796, at the light-house 
 upon the Hill of Howth, the man who attends 
 whilst trimming his lamps was surprised by a 
 violent stroke against the windows, which 
 broke a pane of plate-glass cast for the place, 
 more than three-eighths of an inch thick ; 
 on examining the balcony that surrounds the 
 light he found a woodcock, which had flown 
 with such violence as to break his bill, head, 
 breast-bone, and both wings. The man had 
 often found birds which had killed themselves 
 by flying against the windows, but never be- 
 fore knew the glass to be injured. 
 * 
 
 Upon the Sussex coast woodcocks have been 
 seen at their first dropping, in considerable 
 numbers in the church-yard, and even in the 
 streets of Rye, but during the night, the 
 usual time of their flying, they removed fur- 
 ther inland, and dispersed. At their first 
 coming on that coast, they are commonly 
 poor, as if wasted by their long journey ; and 
 are sometimes scurry, though not so much as 
 before their return in the spring ; and it is 
 remarkable, that when the woodcock first 
 arrives, the taste of its flesh is quite different 
 from what it is afterwards. It is very white, 
 short, and tender, and seems to have little or 
 no blood in it ; but after it has been in this 
 country a considerable time, the flesh becomes 
 more tough, stringy, and fibrous, like that of 
 domestic fowls. If a woodcock is shot just 
 before his departure, it bleeds plentifully, 
 whereas, at the beginning of winter, scarcely 
 any blood flows from the wounds, by this it 
 seems that in those countries, where they 
 have their summer residence, they have a 
 different nourishment to that they here find. 
 Probably the luxuriant and succulent food 
 which they meet with among us, prepares 
 
 them for breeding in those countries where 
 they retire with the companions of their 
 choice. 
 
 The woodcock feeds indiscriminately upon 
 earth-worms, small beetles, and various kinds 
 of larvae, and its stomach sometimes contains 
 seeds, which I suspect have been taken up in 
 boring amongst the excrements of cattle ; yet 
 the stomach of this bird has something of the 
 gizzard character, though not so much as that 
 of the landrail, which I have found half filled 
 with the seeds of grasses, and even contain- 
 ing corn, mixed with May-bugs, earth-worms, 
 grasshoppers, and caterpillars. 
 
 * 
 
 The time of their appearance and disappear- 
 ance in Sweden coincides exactly with that of 
 their arrival in, and return from, Great Bri- 
 tain. Their autumnal and vernal appearances 
 on the coast of Suffolk have been accurately 
 noticed, they come over sparingly in the first 
 week in October, the greater numbers not ar- 
 riving until November and December, and 
 always after sun-set. It is the wind and not 
 the moon, that determines the time of their 
 arrival, and it is probable that this should be 
 the case, as they come hither in quest of food, 
 which fails them in the places they leave ; if 
 the wind has favoured their flight, their stay 
 on the coast where they drop is very short, if 
 any, but if they had been forced to struggle 
 with an adverse gale, such as a ship can hardly 
 make any way with, they rest a day or two to 
 recover their fatigue. So greatly has their 
 strength been exhausted, that they have been 
 taken by hand in Southwold streets ; they do 
 not come gregariously, but separate and dis- 
 persed. 
 
 In the same manner as woodcocks quit us, 
 they retire from France, Germany, and Italy, 
 making the northern and cold situations their 
 universal summer rendezvous. They visit 
 Burgundy the latter end of October, but con- 
 tinue there only four or five weeks ; it being 
 a dry country, they are forced away, for want 
 of sustenance, by the first frost. In the win- 
 ter they are found in vast plenty as far south 
 as Smyrna and Aleppo; during the same 
 season, in Barbary, where the Africans call 
 them the ass of the partridge. It has been 
 asserted that some have appeared as far south 
 as Egypt, which is the remotest migration to 
 which they can be traced on that side the 
 Eastern world ; on the other side they are 
 very common in Japan. The woodcocks that 
 resort into the countries of the Levant, pro- 
 bably come from the deserts of Siberia or 
 Tartary, or the old mountains of Armenia. 
 * * * 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Athens, hares and 
 other game are purchased for little more than 
 the value of powder and shot. In winter 
 woodcocks abound, descending, after snow on
 
 590 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Woo 
 
 the mountains, into the plains ; and suddenly 
 retiring if the weather continues severe, they 
 enter the gardens of the town in great distress, 
 rather than cross the sea, and are sometimes 
 caught with the hand. 
 
 * 
 
 It has been the belief that the woodcock 
 has two broods in the year, because young 
 ones have been found, just hatched, in the 
 month of August ; but I think the cause of 
 the supposition is this, that as woodcock 
 shooting, at flight time, continues till late in 
 the summer, some of the males may have 
 been shot, and a new pair may have been 
 formed later than usual. If in shooting you 
 meet with a brood of woodcocks, and the 
 young ones cannot fly, the old bird takes the 
 young ones separately between her feet, and 
 flies from the dogs with a moaning cry. 
 
 The woodcock, as it is well known, is a 
 bird of passage. It usually took its departure 
 from Sweden towards the end of October or 
 beginning of November, and did not return 
 until the approach of spring. Mr. Grieff 
 says, he never knew the woodcock to make 
 his appearance in the vicinity of Stockholm 
 until the 6th of April, which about tallies 
 with the time of their leaving our shores. 
 
 Woodcocks were exceedingly scarce in the 
 vicinity of Stfirn, which was also the case in 
 all other parts of Scandinavia that I ever vi- 
 sited. This may be supposed when I mention 
 that I never killed more than three in any 
 one day during my stay in the north of Eu- 
 rope. Indeed I never saw more than seven 
 or eight of those birds in the course of a day's 
 shooting, and very generally not one-fourth 
 part so many. During the woodcock's peri- 
 odical migrations, however, for during the win- 
 ter not one of them remains in Scandinavia, 
 they are occasionally, as it is said, to be met 
 with in considerable numbers on the western 
 coasts of Sweden and Norway. 
 
 As it is from the countries of which I am 
 now speaking our covers are supposed to be 
 supplied with woodcocks, it may seem extra- 
 ordinary that those birds should there be so 
 scarce as I have just described, and so plenti- 
 ful in places with us. This, however, is easily 
 explained, when we consider, that on their 
 breeding grounds, extending over the whole of 
 the north of Europe, there is probably a thou- 
 sand times as much wood as in the United 
 Kingdom ; and, consequently, when they 
 come to us, and are concentrated, if I may 
 
 use the term, into our small covers, they 
 naturally make a very great show. 
 
 It is generally said that woodcocks are less 
 plentiful in Great Britain than formerly. 
 This I have heard attributed to the Scandina- 
 vians eating the eggs of those birds. If, how- 
 ever, persons who entertain this opinion were 
 to see the almost boundless northern forests, 
 they would probably think with me, that if 
 the whole of the scanty population of that 
 part of the world were to go out for the pur- 
 pose, they would not be able to explore the 
 hundredth part of the woods in the course of 
 a year, and consequently they could not take 
 or destroy any considerable number of eggs. 
 
 * * * 
 
 In 1796, Mr. Yea, of Swansea, killed one 
 hundred couple of woodcocks in one season. 
 In Ireland, the Earl of Claremont shot half 
 as many in a day, but then it should be pre- 
 mised, that such was the abundance of these 
 birds, as to be sold in some parts (for instance, 
 near Ballyshannon, in the County of Done- 
 gal) for one penny each, and the expense of 
 powder and shot. 
 
 * * * 
 
 In the winter of 1797, the gamekeeper of 
 E. M. Pleydell, Esq., of Whatcomb, Dorset- 
 shire, brought him a woodcock which he had 
 caught in a net set for rabbits, alive and un- 
 hurt. Mr. P. scratched the date upon a bit 
 of thin brass, bent it round the woodcock's 
 leg, and let it fly. In December next year, 
 Mr. Pleydell shot this bird with the brass 
 about its leg, in the very same wood where it 
 
 had been first caught by the keeper. 
 
 * 
 
 Comical Direction. Hawker says in a 
 country where woodcocks are scarce, be sure 
 
 to put a marker in a tree. 
 
 
 
 Woodcock Fancier Mr. Jeremiah Tup- 
 man, who died about thirteen years since at 
 Berkeley, caught upon his estate at Lyston, 
 a young male woodcock, which he carefully 
 reared, and having procured a mate for it, 
 they bred in considerable abundance. He 
 was so pleased wittThis success, that he actually 
 altered his will, which was originally made in 
 favour of a young lady, and left his fortune to 
 the minister at Berkeley, to be principally 
 laid out in the breed of woodcocks, upon the 
 neglect of which the estate was to revert to 
 the family relations ; a reversion for which 
 probably the family were not long in expec- 
 tancy Bewick Davy Grieff Daniel 
 
 Wild Sports Lloyd, $c. 
 
 WOODLAND, s. Woods, grounds covered with wood. 
 WOODLARK, s. A melodious sort of wild lark. 
 WOODMAN, s. A sportsman, a hunter.
 
 Woo] 
 
 WOODPECKER, s. A bird. 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 591 
 
 Of these only three or four kinds are found 
 in Great Britain. Their characters are strik- 
 ing, and their manners singular. The bill is 
 large, strong, and fitted for its employment : 
 the end of it is formed like a wedge, with 
 which it pierces the bark of trees, and bores 
 into the wood in which its food is lodged. Its 
 neck is short and thick, and furnished with 
 powerful muscles, which enables it to strike 
 with such force as to be heard at a consider- 
 able distance : its tongue is long and taper ; 
 at the end of it there is a hard horny sub- 
 
 WOODPIGEON, s. A wild pigeon ; one that builds in trees. 
 
 stance, which penetrates into the crevices of 
 trees, and extracts the insects and their eggs 
 which are lodged there : the tail consists of 
 ten stiff, sharp-pointed feathers, bent inwards, 
 by which it supports itself on the trunks of 
 trees while in search of food ; for this purpose 
 its feet are short and thick, and its toes, which 
 are placed two forward and two backward, are 
 armed with strong hooked claws, by which it 
 clings firmly, and creeps up and down in all 
 directions Bewick. 
 
 This species weighs about twenty ounces; I irides light yellow; the head, coverts of the 
 length eighteen inches. The bill yellowish ; | wings, and scapulars are of a deep bl
 
 592 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Woo 
 
 of the coverts are white, forming a line down 
 to the greater quills, which are dusky, edged 
 with white ; the legs are feathered much he- 
 low the knee, which, with the feet, are of a 
 purplish red. There is little or no distinction 
 in the plumage of the sexes; but the female 
 is not quite so large. 
 
 colour ; the neck and hreast vinaceous, beau- 
 tifully glossed with green and copper colour, 
 changeable in different lights; on each side 
 the neck is a large patch of glossy white, 
 which almost joins behind ; the back and tail 
 ash colour, the latter black at the end ; vent 
 and thighs white, tinged with ash colour ; the 
 bastard wing almost black, behind which a few 
 
 WOODWARD, s. obs. A forester. 
 
 A subject who has lived within a forest, 
 according to usage, ought to have a wood- 
 ward ; and if he does not appear at the justice 
 seat, the wood shall be seized into the king's 
 
 WOOL, s. The fleece of sheep, that which is woven into cloth ; any short 
 
 thick hair. 
 
 WOOLLY, a. Consisting of wool ; clothed with wool ; resembling- wool. 
 WORM, s. A small harmless serpent that lives in the earth ; a poisonous 
 
 serpent ; animal bred in the body ; the animal that spins silk ; grubs 
 
 that gnaw wood and furniture ; anything vermiculated or turned round ; 
 
 anything spiral ; a favourite bait in angling. 
 
 hands, till he makes fine and replevy it ; and 
 if he do not replevy it within a year, it shall 
 remain in the king's hands for ever. 
 
 When the day is dark or lowering, and a 
 gentle whistling wind plays on the water, or a 
 fine mizzling rain falls without violence ; like- 
 wise when trout leap out of the water, and pike 
 shoot after other fishes ; and also when a sud- 
 den shower has mudded and raised the water, 
 if the angler tries on the sides of the stream 
 at the ground, with brandling, gilt tail, or red 
 worm, well scoured, he will have diversion. 
 
 The ash grub or bank-worm is plump, milk 
 white, and bent round from head to tail, with 
 a red head, resembling a young humble bee, 
 and is exceedingly tender ; it is found under 
 the bark of oak, ash, birch, or alder, especi- 
 ally if they lie a year after they are felled ; 
 it is also met with in the body of a rotten 
 alder, when broken in pieces, but care must 
 he observed in breaking the tree, that the 
 worm is not crushed ; it is sometimes found 
 under the bark of an old decayed stump of a 
 tree. It is best kept in bran, and will by 
 that means be made tougher ; but at the best 
 they are so tender, that great caution must 
 be observed in their use ; the hook, which 
 must be armed with a bristle to prevent its 
 slipping down, should be introduced under its 
 head, and guided down the middle of the 
 belly, without suffering it to break the skin 
 in its passage (for if it does, water and milk 
 will issue from the wound, until nothing but 
 the skin remains, when the bent of the hook 
 will appear black through it), until the point 
 of the hook comes so low that the head of 
 the grub may rest on the bristle that projects 
 to hold it; it will be thus defended from 
 slipping off by its own exertions, nor will the 
 force of the stream or quick pulling it out of 
 
 the water, strip it off. 
 
 The brandling worm is streaked from head 
 to tail in alternate red and yellow circles ; is 
 dark at the head ; becomes gradually paler 
 towards the tail. Brandlings are found in old 
 dunghills which consist of hogs' and horses' 
 dung and rotten earth ; also in old thatch and 
 dung ; in grass mown from garden walks after 
 it has lain some time : but those which are 
 found in tanners' bark, after being used and 
 laid by until quite rotten, are the best, and 
 may generally be used without any scouring. 
 When brandlings are kept in mosses like the 
 lob- worm, they should be fed by dropping a 
 little cream, about a spoonful a day, upon the 
 moss ; it will prevent their swelling at the 
 knot near their middle, which, when it takes 
 place, usually kills them. With some anglers 
 it is a rule not to use these worms and the 
 gilt tail until they have been in moss two 
 days, nor after they have continued in it more 
 than ten. 
 
 The short white worms or bobs are of two 
 sorts : the one found in mellow, heathy, 
 sandy soils, and is easily gathered by follow- 
 ing the plough in autumn, when such ground 
 is first broken up from grazing ; also by digging 
 one spot deep in the above described lands 
 sufficient may be got. Those of this class are 
 called the earth bob, white grub, or white 
 bait, and are as big again as a gentle ; have a 
 pale red head, very soft all over, are yellowish 
 at the tail, and their bodies when taken in 
 some degree resemble the colour of the earth 
 where found in, but when scoured are of a 
 pale white. They are an excellent winter 
 bait, and to preserve them they should be put
 
 Won] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 593 
 
 into a large earthen pot with some of its own 
 earth, with dryish moss at the top, and set in 
 a warm place. 
 
 Dunghill red worms are small and knotted, 
 of a hright red, and are to he found almost in 
 every heap of horsedung that has much straw 
 rotted in it. Cowdung red worms are found 
 in the fields, and in nearly dry flakes of dung ; 
 their heads are shining dark brown, with flat 
 tails, are good baits, and may occasionally be 
 used when taken, but are best scoured and 
 preserved, like other worms. 
 
 The dock or flag- worm is of the colour of a 
 gentle, when scoured, but is longer and slen- 
 derer in his make, with rows of feet down his 
 belly, and a red head. They are found by 
 pulling up the flags growing round an old 
 pond or pit, shaking the roots in the water, 
 and when free from dirt, amongst the fibres 
 that spread from the roots, will be seen little 
 husks of a reddish or yellowish colour ; these 
 must be opened very cautiously with a pin, 
 and the worm either used immediately, or 
 dropt into some bran to carry them, where 
 they may be preserved in the same manner as 
 the cad-bait ; they sometimes insinuate them- 
 selves into the body of the round stalk of the 
 flag. 
 
 The long dock- worms are of a fine pale red, 
 without knots ; are chiefly found in moist 
 places, near dock-roots, and are best taken by 
 shaking the earth with a dung-fork. They are 
 excellent baits, especially for carp and tench. 
 In the hollow parts near the roots of the 
 largest sort of sedges, may he found a large 
 black-headed grub, about an inch long, and 
 which is not to be found in any other place ; 
 it is a famous bait for pond-fishing, though ex- 
 tremely tender; but by putting them into 
 boiling milk for about two minutes, the morn- 
 ing you mean to use them, they will be ren- 
 dered tougher. 
 
 Gilt-tails are paler and larger than the last- 
 mentioned worms ; are knotted like them, 
 are of a pale yellow, especially towards the 
 tail. 
 
 The marsh-worms are middle-sized and 
 knotted ; are of a bluish cast and tender ; are 
 to be found in the rich banks of rivers, and in 
 marshy ground, wherein they are usually got 
 by treading the ground when it is moist, much 
 backwards and forwards, or in circles, with 
 both feet close together ; they require more 
 scouring in moss than most other worms, at 
 least fifteen days, but are very lively good 
 baits. 
 
 White or marl worms are found chiefly in 
 marl or clay land by following the plough, 
 and also in turnip fields, where the soil is of 
 a stilfish quality ; the head is very small, and 
 of a pale red ; they are larger than the brand- 
 ling, and naturally tough, are a good bait, 
 especially in muddy water ; may be preserved 
 
 in some of their own earth, keeping it pro- 
 perly damp; with some moss at top, and when 
 scoured are of a pale white. 
 
 The red worm is found in all loamy soils ; 
 may be collected by following a plough, turn- 
 ing up garden soil, and under boards, bricks, 
 slates, tiles, stones, &c. that have lain undis- 
 turbed for any time : these four worms may 
 be preserved together in one pot, and when 
 the brandling or others are meant to be used, 
 let the angler, the evening before, pick them 
 out by themselves, and put them into a bag, 
 with moss moistened with sweet thinnish 
 cream, and they will appear more bright and 
 tempting to the fish. 
 
 The tag-tail is a worm of a pale flesh- 
 colour, with a yellow tag, almost half an inch 
 long : it is found in marled land or meadows, 
 after a shower, or in the morning, in calm and 
 not cold weather in March and April. In 
 discoloured water by rain, it is considered a 
 fatal bait for trout. They will not endure 
 long scouring. 
 
 A three-prong dung-fork thrust into the 
 ground, and continually moving it, will force 
 all the worms within a certain distance to 
 come instantly out of their holes ; supposing, 
 from the shaking of the earth, it is the mole's 
 heaving to come at them. 
 
 Get a parcel of cow or horse-hair, and cut 
 it five or six inches long, into a pan ; throw 
 the worms upon it, and in a couple of hours 
 they will have cleared themselves from the 
 chief of their dirt ; take them from amongst 
 the hair, observing that none of it sticks to 
 them, and selecting out the dead or wounded 
 worms ; clean the pan from the hair and filth, 
 and put the worms into it, covering them with 
 garden mould, about an inch thick : they will 
 keep a very long time in this manner, moist- 
 ening it once a day with new milk, and 
 changing it every month, to prevent the 
 growth of young worms, which would occa- 
 sion the death and decay of the old. 
 
 Amongst the old recipes for scouring worms, 
 the putting them into a powder got from a 
 dead man's skull, by beating it to atoms, was 
 deemed super-excellent. 
 
 When worms are wanted for immediate 
 use, and no provision has been made, the way 
 to scour them quickly, is, if lob- worms, to put 
 them all night in water ; brandlings must not 
 remain above one hour in it, and both sorts 
 must be then put with fennel into the angler's 
 
 worm-bag. 
 
 
 
 Worms of different kinds inhabit the intes- 
 tines ; but except when they exist in very 
 great numbers, they are not so hurtful as is 
 generally supposed, although the groom or 
 carter may trace to them hidebound, and 
 cough, and loss of appetite, and gripes, and 
 megrims, and a variety of other ailments. 
 
 Q Q
 
 594 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [\Voa 
 
 Of the origin or mode of propagation of these 
 parasitical animals we will say nothing ; nei- 
 ther writers on medicine, nor even on natural 
 history, have given us any satisfactory account 
 of the matter. 
 
 The long white worm (lumbricus teres) 
 much resembling the common earth-worm, 
 and, being from six to ten inches long, inha- 
 bits the small intestines. It is a formidable 
 looking animal, and if there are many of them, 
 they may consume more than can be spared 
 of the nutritive part of the food, or the mucus 
 of the bowels ; and we think that we have 
 seen a tight skin, and rough coat, and tucked 
 up belly, connected with their presence. They 
 have then, however, been voided in large 
 quantities, and when they are not thus voided, 
 we should be disposed to trace these appear- 
 ances to other causes. A dose of physic will 
 sometimes bring away almost incredible quan- 
 tities of them. Calomel is frequently given 
 as a vermifuge. The seldomer this drug is 
 administered to the horse the better. It is 
 the principal ingredient in some quack medi- 
 cines for the expulsion of worms in the hu- 
 man subject, and thence, perhaps, it came to 
 be used for the horse ; but in him we believe 
 it to be inert as a vermifuge, or only useful 
 as quickening the operation of the aloes. 
 When the horse can be spared, a strong dose 
 of physic is an excellent vermifuge, so far as 
 the long round worm is concerned ; but per- 
 haps a better medicine, and not interfering 
 with either the feeding or work of the horse, 
 is two drachms of emetic tartar, with a scruple 
 of ginger, made into a ball, with linseed meal 
 and treacle, and given every morning half an 
 hour before the horse is fed. 
 
 A smaller, darker coloured worm, called 
 the needle worm, or ascaris, inhabits the 
 large intestines. Hundreds of them some- 
 times descend into the rectum, and immense 
 quantities have been found in the coecum. 
 These are a more serious nuisance than the 
 former, for they cause a very troublesome 
 irritation about the fundament, which some- 
 times sadly annoys the horse. Their existence 
 can generally be discovered by a small portion 
 of mucus, which hardening, is converted into 
 a powder, and is found about the anus. Phy- 
 sic will sometimes bring away great numbers 
 of these worms ; but when there is much irri- 
 tation about the tail, and much of this mucus, 
 indicating that they have descended into the 
 rectum, an injection of a quart of linseed oil, 
 or of an ounce of aloes dissolved in warm 
 water, will be a more effectual remedy. 
 
 The tape worm is seldom found in the 
 horse. 
 
 
 
 Worms are most commonly found in the 
 bowels and stomach ; but they are sometimes 
 met with also in almost every part of the 
 
 body. The worms commonly found in the 
 tomach are named botts. They are generally 
 attached to the cuticular or insensible coat of 
 the stomach ; but sometimes clusters of them 
 are found at the pylorus, and even in the be- 
 ginning of the first intestine, named duode- 
 num. In one case they were so numerous in 
 this last situation as to obstruct the passage 
 completely, and cause the animal's death. 
 Botts are short thick reddish worms, sur- 
 rounded with short prickles, which are ar- 
 ranged in circular bands all over the body. 
 They attach themselves firmly by two hooks, 
 which they appear to have the power of 
 straightening and retracting, of projecting and 
 curvating. They are extremely tenacious of 
 life, and difficult to be expelled from the sto- 
 mach, except about the month of September, 
 or when a horse is taken up from grass. At 
 this period they may generally be got rid of 
 by brine, or a solution of common salt in 
 water, in a dose of from four to five ounces 
 of salt to a quart of water. The horse should 
 be kept fasting the night before it is given; 
 and about five minutes before the drench 
 with salt is given, let the horse be drenched 
 with about a pint of warm milk, sweetened 
 with honey or treacle. 
 
 
 
 Mercurial physic seems to be generally 
 considered the most effectual, especially when 
 a little calomel is given for two or three suc- 
 cessive nights, and followed up by a dose of 
 physic. I have seen small doses of aloes 
 given daily, about two drachms, with good 
 effect. Oil of turpentine is a powerful ver- 
 mifuge, if given after some hours' fasting, 
 and when the bowels have been brought into 
 a lax state by giving bran mashes for two or 
 three days, or a small dose (about three 
 drachms) of aloes the day before. 
 
 This previous fasting, as well as keeping the 
 horse without food two hours after, is neces- 
 sary to the success of this remedy. In a few 
 instances, oil of turpentine has produced 
 alarming symptoms; and in one case, where 
 a horse had taken a mild dose of physic the 
 day before, it brought on almost immedi- 
 ately a fatal inflammation of the stomach and 
 bowels. On the other hand, a great number 
 of cases have been reported to me in which it 
 has been given with the best effect. I should 
 be inclined, however, to try the mercurial 
 purgative first ; but even this, in the horse, is 
 attended with some danger, unless he is ma- 
 naged judiciously before, and during its oper- 
 ation. The third remedy is of a milder na- 
 ture, but often, I believe, inert ; that is, bitter 
 vegetables, such as rue, box, savine, &c., 
 which are chopped up and given with the 
 horse's com. Ethiop's mineral, levigated an- 
 timony, emetic tartar, very small doses of 
 arsenic and calomel, have each of them some-
 
 WOR] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 595 
 
 times succeeded. But, whatever worm me- 
 dicine is given, the horse should be kept with- 
 out food for several hours, or the whole night 
 before, and two hours after. Chopped horse- 
 hair has been given with success, and brine, 
 or a solution of common salt. In one case, 
 a great number of worms were discharged by 
 listing the horse during the night, and giving 
 him a malt mash in the morning. Another 
 method is to keep the horse without food dur- 
 ing the night, and give him in the morning a 
 quart of new milk sweetened with honey, and 
 about ten minutes after, four, five, or six 
 ounces of salt in a quart of water. A run at 
 grass in the spring is, perhaps, the best re- 
 medy of all, for it is the most effectual means 
 of invigorating the digestive organs, and pu- 
 rifying the blood. When it is not convenient 
 to turn the horse out, he should be soiled in 
 the stable with vetches. The most certain 
 indication of worms, except that of their be- 
 ing discharged with the horse's dung, is a 
 yellowish or brimstone-coloured stain under 
 the fundament. Sometimes worms produce 
 symptoms of an unusual kind, as in the fol- 
 lowing case : A horse was observed for some 
 time to fall off in flesh and become weak, 
 and, upon attempting to mount him, he 
 shrunk and gave way in the back, as if he 
 had received some severe injury in that part ; 
 they gave him, however, a dose of mercurial 
 physic, which brought off a lump of worms 
 and viscid mucus as large as a man's fist. 
 After this the horse was perfectly free from 
 pain in the back, and quickly recovered his 
 flesh and strength. I have heard of a horse 
 being cured of worms, when reduced by them 
 to such a degree of weakness that he was 
 thought incurable, by being turned into a field i 
 of young vetches. Powdered tin has been | 
 recommended for worms, and may be given j 
 without danger in a dose of three or four 
 drachms made into a ball with flour and ho- 
 ney. With regard to the short red worms, 
 named botts, so often found in the horse's 
 stomach, adhering in large clusters, most com- 
 monly to the insensible coat, but sometimes 
 to the pylorus, the most likely means of ex- 
 pelling them is to give a drench of salt and 
 water in the manner before prescribed ; that 
 is, to keep the horse without food during the 
 night, and in the morning to give him a quart 
 of new milk sweetened with honey ; about 
 ten minutes after this drench is down, the 
 drench of salt and water is to be given. This 
 remedy should be employed in September, or 
 soon after a horse is taken from grass. Botts 
 are so often found in the horse's stomach, that 
 they have been supposed to do no harm ; it is 
 certain, however, that they sometimes produce 
 the most serious diseases. They sometimes 
 cause ulceration and sloughing of the stomach, 
 inflammation of the lungs and heart, and 
 
 frenzy or mad staggers. According to Gib- 
 son they sometimes cause locked-jaw. Botts 
 appear to be the larvae of a fly, and are pro- 
 bably eaten with grass or hay. According to 
 Mr. Bracy Clark, the fly deposits its eggs on 
 the horse's coit ; and, when they are about to 
 be hatched, the horse licks them off, so that 
 they are hatched by the warmth of the mouth 
 and the moisture of the saliva, and then swal- 
 lowed. Mr. Ferou says he has paid particu- 
 lar attention to this subject, and has found 
 that, when in large quantities, they are very 
 destructive to horses ; that he has seen several 
 horses whose stomachs had been pierced quite 
 through by them, the botts making their way 
 into the abdomen. He thinks they are taken 
 in with the horse's forage, whether dry or 
 green, as they are found in horses that have 
 not been at grass for several years, but that 
 they may also be licked in from the horse's 
 coat. He is of opinion that botts, when once 
 attached to the stomach, may remain there 
 during the horse's life, and it is only when 
 they become too numerous that they are 
 forced off and discharged by the bowels. Mr. 
 James Clarke relates a case of a horse's sto- 
 mach being perforated by botts. I have seen 
 several horses destroyed by botts. In some 
 of them, they caused inflammation of the 
 lungs : in one frenzy, or mad staggers. In 
 one horse the pylorus was completely plugged 
 up with them. There is a remarkable sym- 
 pathy or consent between the stomach and 
 the lungs, and it is owing to this that they 
 sometimes cause inflammation of the lungs. 
 In the cases which have occurred in my prac- 
 tice, the most remarkable circumstance was 
 the great depression they occasioned, and the 
 inefficacy of copious bleeding. Castor oil 
 seemed to do more good than anything, and 
 Mr. Feron remarks that common oil, given 
 in large quantities, has sometimes succeeded 
 in detaching botts from the stomach ; and he 
 adds, it is the only medicine that seems to 
 have any effect in making them lose their 
 hold from the stomach. There is a kind of 
 worm I have often met with since I have 
 practised in Somersetshire, especially at Oak- 
 hill, which appears to do a great deal of mis- 
 chief. When drawn out, they are from one 
 to three or four inches in length, from one to 
 two eighths of an inch in breadth, and scarcely 
 of any thickness ; they have numerous trans- 
 verse lines close to each other, like those of 
 the leach, and adhere firmly to the bowels by 
 one of their extremities. When viewed 
 through a microscope, the transverse lines ap- 
 pear as upright scales applied very near to 
 each other, and inclining, I think, a little 
 forwards ; the extremity, by which they ad- 
 here to the gut, appears as a bulb with holes 
 in it ; the other extremity is square, as, if it 
 had been cut off transversely. These worms
 
 596 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Woa 
 
 are generally of a white colour, and some- 
 times drawn up or contracted so as to appear 
 as a flake of mucus, or fat, of about half an 
 inch in length. I have seen them of a darker 
 colour in horses that were in a state of great 
 poverty, and sometimes reddish, as if contain- 
 ing blood. In many dogs and cats that have 
 been opened at Oakhill, they have been 
 almost invariably found ; and they have been 
 discharged, in this village, from the bowels of 
 men and children. They are found both in 
 the small and large bowels, most commonly 
 in the former, and near the part where the 
 ilium terminates in the coecum. At Easton, 
 near Wells, this worm has been seen swim- 
 ming in a small stream that runs through the 
 village, from which it is probable that their 
 natural habitation is water, and that they are 
 swallowed while the animal is drinking, and 
 are capable of living in the bowels. 
 
 
 Method of worming dogs Secure a large 
 
 dog on his back on a table, bench, or form ; 
 one of a middling size may be held in the lap 
 of an assistant ; a small one may be conveni- 
 ently taken into that of the operator. The 
 mouth being held open bymeans of two pieces 
 of tape one embracing the part immediately 
 behind the upper, and the other that poste- 
 rior to the lower canine teeth draw the 
 tongue from the mouth, when, exposing its 
 under surface, a cuticular fold or eminence 
 will present itself, occupying its median line 
 from the point to the base : open this with a 
 lancet through its whole extent, which will 
 expose a minute fibrous cord. Pass a blunt- 
 pointed probe under it, and, carrying the in- 
 strument from one end to the other, detach 
 the cord from its adhesions; which done, di- 
 vide it at one extremity, and carefully drawing 
 it forwards with a tenaculum, divide the other 
 also. The uninitiated in sporting mysteries 
 may smile at all this minuteness of detail, and 
 recommendation of caution, in the division 
 of a line of skin, and the extraction of a 
 thread of ligament; but all this is actually 
 necessary to satisfy the prejudices of those who 
 put faith in the operation. For with them it 
 is essential to the prospective benefits of it, 
 not only that the whole of the worm (for 
 which read fraenum) should be extracted, but 
 that, if possible, it should be done in one con- 
 tinuous mass. 
 
 In the removal of this cord by huntsmen, 
 game-keepers, &c., the violence used in strip- 
 ping it off, puts its fibrous substance so much 
 on the stretch, that when extracted, its elasti- 
 city making it recoil, gives it somewhat the 
 character of th'e contraction of a dying worm; 
 and we may yet read of this appearance, and 
 its general form, being adduced as proofs of its 
 vermicular identity. And although now no 
 informed person gives credence to its being 
 
 other than a portion of the canine tongue ; yet 
 there are many sporting characters of educa- 
 tion and ability, who still lend themselves to 
 an opinion that there is some enigmatical pro- 
 perty inherent in this part, which renders its 
 retention dangerous, by making the unwormed 
 dog the subject of acute rabies, but the wormed 
 one the subject of the dumb variety. Of a 
 piece with this palpable error was that of Ma- 
 rochetti's vesicles in the same vicinage ; which 
 being also with him the hiding-place of the 
 rabid virus, it became as necessary, according 
 to his doctrine, to destroy them as it was with 
 the ancients (and yet remains with some of 
 the moderns) to remove the worm. 
 
 
 Of these worms which appear indigenous to 
 the intestines of the dog, the taenia, or tape 
 worm, from its flat figure, is the most preju- 
 dicial, and the most difficult to remove. I 
 have known four or five hundred joints (each 
 a distinct animal) passed by a dog, whose 
 united length would encircle his body many 
 times. Sometimes they become coiled up into 
 a ball, which thus forms an impenetrable ob- 
 struction within the intestines, and destroys 
 the dog. 
 
 The teres, or long cylindrical worms, re- 
 sembling earthworms in figure, but of a whit- 
 ish colour, are the most common to dogs ; and, 
 when existing in great numbers, particularly 
 in puppies and young ones, sometimes prove 
 fatal by the convulsions they occasion. In, 
 distemper they greatly aggravate the symp- 
 toms ; so much so, that to destroy them fre- 
 quently cures the dog. The natural situation 
 of these worms is within the intestines, but 
 they sometimes crawl from them into the sto- 
 mach, and are then brought up by the sickness 
 they occasion. 
 
 The ascarides, or small thread-worms, 
 likewise occasionally infest dogs, residing prin- 
 cipally within the rectum. They produce an 
 intolerable itching behind, to relieve which 
 those troubled with them are seen continually 
 drawing the fundament along the ground. 
 Except by the irritation occasioned, which 
 may weaken when it is excessive, they do not 
 appear to do much internal injury. The con- 
 stitution of some dogs appears particularly 
 favourable to the generation of worms; for, 
 destroy them as often as you will, they soon 
 return again. Puppies, during every stage 
 of their growth, are very liable to them ; 
 in many, the increase of the body appears 
 checked by their ravages. 
 
 The presence of worms, when they exist 
 in considerable numbers, is easily detected ; 
 for such a dog has usually a slight cough, his 
 coat stares, he eats voraciously, yet seldom 
 fattens : his evacuations prove also a most 
 unequivocal symptom, for they are, in such 
 cases, peculiarly irregular, being at one time
 
 Wov] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 597 
 
 loose and slimy, and at another more hard and 
 dry than natural. The belly likewise is often 
 tense and enlarged. When very young dogs 
 have worms, the first that pass are seldom no- 
 ticed, for they seem to affect the health but 
 little; but gradually, as they increase, purging 
 becomes more frequent; and the animal, 
 though lively, becomes emaciated ; his appe- 
 tite is often irregular, his nose hot and dry, 
 and his breath foetid. The growth likewise 
 appears stationary, and in this way it is very 
 common for him to continue till a fit or two 
 carries him off, or he dies tabid. In adult 
 dogs worms are less fatal, though, from the 
 obstructions they form, they sometimes kill 
 them likewise ; and they always occasion a 
 rough unhealthy coat, with a hot nose and fce- 
 tid breath ; and in both the young and the 
 full grown, they occasionally produce epileptic 
 fits. It does not follow, because no worms are 
 seen to pass away, that one who exhibits the 
 other symptoms of them has none ; neither, 
 when they are not seen, does it follow even 
 that none pass ; for, if they remain long in the 
 intestines after they are dead, they become 
 digested like other animal matter. 
 
 The treatment of worm cases in dogs has 
 been like that of the human, and the remedies 
 employed have been intended either to destroy 
 the worms within the body, or otherwise to 
 drive them mechanically, as it were, out of 
 the bowels by active purgatives ; but, as these 
 latter means were violent (for, without the 
 very mucus of the bowels, as well as the faeces, 
 were expelled, no benefit was derived from 
 them), so the remedy, in many instances, be- 
 came worse than the disease. Many sub- 
 stances have, therefore, been tried in hopes of 
 destroying these animals within the body ; and 
 it is evident that any thing that could certainly 
 do this would be most important, as it would 
 
 WORM EATEN, a. Gnawed by worms, 
 WORMWOOD, *. A plant. 
 WORMY, a. Full of worms. 
 WOUND, s. A hurt given by violence. 
 
 Wounds, bruises, and other injuries, may | 
 happen in various ways, by kicks, by bites, in 
 leaping over hedges or gates, by kicking against 
 stalls, and many other ways. Various names 
 have been applied to such injuries, according 
 to the manner in which they are inflicted ; but 
 there is no occasion for such distinctions : they 
 are all bruises or contused wounds, and all 
 require to be poulticed or fomented. It is to 
 be observed, that, in all injuries of this kind, 
 whether wounds or bruises, or both, the horse 
 should be immediately bled freely, and have 
 his bowels opened by a dose of physic. The 
 diet also should be attended to, allowing only 
 a very moderate quantity at first of grass, or 
 bran mashes. In all those cases poultices are 
 
 obviate the necessity of having recourse to the 
 violent purgative means heretofore employed. 
 
 For this purpose, substances which present 
 small spiculi, or points, have been found the 
 best adapted for the destruction of worms, by 
 abrading their external or internal surfaces, 
 and that without in the slightest degree in- 
 juring the patient. Among huntsmen and 
 gamekeepers glass, very finely powdered, is a 
 very favourite remedy. An old man of this 
 description, in Buckinghamshire, was famed 
 for worm-killing in dogs, and his only means 
 used was glass finely powdered, and given as 
 a ball. Mr. Youatt also recommends the 
 same. If this should be objected to, from 
 what I believe to be a groundless fear, that it 
 is dangerous, try the following : 
 
 Cowhage (dolichos 
 
 pruriens, LINN) . . half a drachm. 
 
 Tin filings or iron, made 
 
 with a very fine file . 4 drachms. 
 Form into four, six, or eight balls, and give 
 one every morning ; after which, a mercurial 
 purgative will be proper. I have occasionally 
 succeeded, in very obstinate worm cases, by 
 moderate daily doses of Epsom salts. Asca- 
 rides are best destroyed by soap or aloetic 
 clysters. The tape-worm is not unfrequently 
 removed by mercurial purges ; but a still more 
 certain remedy for this noxious guest is such 
 doses of the oil of turpentine as a dog could 
 safely take, remembering that dogs bear very 
 little of it : to some, however, it proves much 
 less hurtful than to others. A small dog 
 might be tried with half a drachm, given 
 night and morning, mixed with the yolk of an 
 egg, for a few days : a larger two scruples, and 
 the largest a drachm, beginning always with a 
 very small dose, and increasing it, if it pro- 
 duce no disturbance Daniel The Horse 
 
 White Elaine. 
 
 worthless. 
 
 by far the best remedy, until the inflammation 
 is completely subdued ; and when the situa- 
 tion of the part will not admit of a poultice, 
 which is seldom the case, then fomentations of 
 warm water only, almost constantly applied, 
 are the best substitute. When inflammation 
 has quite ceased, which may be known by an 
 abatement of the pain and swelling, and by 
 the appearance of white matter, the poultice 
 may be discontinued, and then the wound 
 should be carefully dressed to the bottom with 
 a tent of tow, dipped in melted digestive oint- 
 ment. The cavity is not to be filled with the 
 tent, but it must be introduced to the bottom, 
 and then the wound will heal as it ought ; 
 whereas, if it is dressed superficially, or only
 
 598 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [Wou 
 
 syringed, it will often close over at the surface, 
 and the wound appear healed, while the mat- 
 ter is spreading and doing mischief at the 
 bottom. There are four ohstacles to the 
 complete healing of wounds which sometimes 
 occur, and these are, when the wound has 
 teen complicated with an injury of a hone, a 
 ligament, a cartilage, or a tendon. In either 
 of these cases the fleshy parts and skin will 
 generally heal readily, and the wound will 
 appear nearly or quite healed, except a small 
 or minute orifice, from which a little matter 
 oozes ; and this oiifice is not perceptible, being 
 covered with spongy flesh, until a probe is 
 introduced ; it will then be found that there 
 is a sinus running down to the bottom of the 
 original wound, and there the probe will be 
 resisted by the diseased bone, ligament, carti- 
 lage, or tendon. The bone may be easily dis- 
 tinguished by the sensation conveyed to the 
 hand through the probe ; and when this is felt 
 a free opening should be made, if the situation 
 of the wound will admit of it, and the dis- 
 eased surface scraped off. A tent of friar's 
 balsam should then be introduced, and con- 
 tinued until it is cured. If the first scraping 
 has not been freely performed, a second may 
 be necessary. Sometimes sinuses, or pipes, 
 as they are termed, remain after the inflam- 
 mation of wounds has subsided. If these are 
 superficial, running under the surface, or 
 nearly horizontally, they require to be laid 
 open, and then they heal readily. Sometimes 
 they run obliquely inward, or perpendicularly, 
 and then require to be dressed at first with 
 stimulating or even caustic tents, of solution 
 of blue vitriol; and these must be repeated 
 until the sides of the sinus have sloughed off, 
 and the very bottom of the wound can be dis- 
 tinctly felt. In all complicated ulcers of this 
 kind, where the sinus runs in a winding or 
 crooked direction, or where there are two 01 
 more sinuses, the caustic tents must be re- 
 peated until they are brought to the state of 
 one simple sore, the bottom of which can be 
 distinctly felt ; and if the bottom happen to be 
 bone, it must be scraped freely and dressed 
 with friar's balsam. .A good method of de- 
 stroying such sinuses is to take some corrosive 
 sublimate, or finely pulverised blue vitriol, 
 and fold it up in a long narrow slip of thin 
 whity-brown paper; this being neatly folded 
 may be twisted at each end, and may thus be 
 conveniently introduced into the sinuses, and 
 forced to the very bottom with a long probe. 
 Several small particles of this kind may be 
 made and forced in one after another, until 
 all the sinuses are completely filled. By 
 these means a large core or slough will be 
 brought out in four or five days ; and if the 
 sinuses are not then so destroyed that the 
 bottom can be ascertained, the same dressing 
 must be repeated. 
 
 There is a class of punctured wounds that 
 will not admit of the treatment I have de- 
 scribed ; these are punctured wounds of the 
 sheath of tendons, and the capsular ligament 
 of joints. Such wounds often happen about 
 the fetlock and hock joint, or in the sheath of 
 the flexor tendon, or back sinew ; and these 
 are often attended with considerable inflam- 
 mation and swelling. It will not be proper 
 to introduce tents into such wounds, or to 
 irritate them by probing : emollient poultices 
 are considered the remedies for such wounds ; 
 hut they do not always succeed ; I have in 
 several cases found it necessary to touch the 
 wound with lunar caustic, before I could pro- 
 cure any abatement of the inflammation and 
 swelling, and I am inclined to believe that 
 this had better be done on the first occurrence 
 of such wounds. The caustic should be 
 scraped off to a point, and introduced within 
 the wound about the eighth of an inch or a 
 little more ; it should then be moved round a 
 little, and withdrawn. I have seen a punctured 
 wound in the fore leg, near the fetlock joint, 
 get well rapidly after this had been done ; 
 though emollient poultices and fomentations 
 had been carefully employed for several days 
 before without doing the least good; on the 
 contrary they were doing harm, for the inflam- 
 mation, pain, and swelling, certainly increased 
 while they were employed. But the caustic 
 seemed to operate almost as a charm ; for the 
 leg got well in two or three days after it was 
 applied. I have seen a similar good effect 
 from it in a punctured wound of the hock 
 joint. 
 
 In lacerated wounds, as they are termed, 
 the skin is often much torn, and so are the 
 muscles or flesh. Now the muscles must 
 never be stitched up, on any account what- 
 ever ; the skin only is to be stitched or sewed 
 up, and that will rarely be of any use in the 
 horse, as union by the first intension, I believe 
 I may venture to say, can never be accom- 
 plished in the horse, except in one situation, 
 and that is in the forehead, when the skin has 
 been torn neatly down or up and not bruised. 
 When the skin of a lacerated wound has been 
 stitched up, the stitches always give way, and 
 the wound is completely open again by the 
 fifth day, and then the flap of skin may as 
 well be removed, for it never will unite. ' 
 The scar will then be much less than a per- 
 son would imagine, for the skin and hair will 
 be in a great measure regenerated, and scarcely 
 any blemish will be left. 
 
 Bruises always require to be poulticed, and 
 there is scarcely any situation where this can- 
 not be done, if a person will but take a little 
 trouble about it. If, however, it cannot be 
 done, a fomentation is the best substitute. 
 For bruises on the back the old farriers em- 
 ployed a greasy dish-clout, and this, next to a
 
 Woi;] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 599 
 
 poultice, is perhaps the best remedy ; for the 
 cloth has been so softened by almost constant 
 maceration in water, and is so completely im- 
 bued with grease, that it really becomes a 
 good emollient application, and only requires 
 to be kept wet. By this treatment bruises 
 will be generally brought to suppuration, and 
 if they are capable of being dispersed, poul- 
 tices are the best means of effecting it. When 
 a bruise has been brought to suppuration, or 
 has thrown off a, slough, it may then be con- 
 sidered as a wound or rather ulcer, for such 
 wounds do become when they have suppu- 
 rated, and must be treated according to the 
 directions I have given under that head. 
 These are all the instructions necess iry to be 
 given for the treatment of wounds and bruises. 
 I think there is no occasion here for the classi- 
 fication and distinctions that are employed in 
 human surgery ; and it will be found, I trust, 
 that what has been said on the subject, will 
 be sufficient for every accident that may hap- 
 pen. 
 
 
 
 When a horse becomes suddenly lame, after 
 the legs have been carefully examined and no 
 cause of lameness appears in them, the shoe 
 should be taken off. In many cases the of- 
 fending substance will be immediately detected, 
 or the additional heat felt in some part of the 
 foot will point out the seat of injury ; or, if 
 the crust be rapped with the hammer all 
 round, the flinching of the horse will discover 
 it ; or pressure with the pincers will render it 
 evident. 
 
 When the shoe is removed for this exami- 
 nation the smith should never be permitted 
 to wrench it off, but each nail should be 
 drawn separately, and examined as it is drawn, 
 when some moisture appearing upon it will 
 not unfrequently reveal the spot at which 
 matter has been thrown out. In the fore-foot 
 the injury will generally be found on the in- 
 ner quarter, and on the hind foot near the 
 toe, these being the thinnest parts of the fore 
 and Ijind-feet. 
 
 Sudden lameness occurring within two or 
 three days after the horse has been shod will 
 lead us to suspect that the smith has been in 
 fault ; yet no one who considers the thinness 
 of the crust, and the difficulty of shoeing 
 many feet, will blame him for sometimes 
 pricking the horse. His fault will consist in 
 concealing or denying that of which he will 
 almost always be aware at the time of shoe- 
 ing, from the flinching of the horse, or the 
 dead sound, or the peculiar resistance that 
 may be noticed in the driving of the nail. 
 
 When the seat of mischief is ascertained, 
 the sole should be thinned round it, and, 
 especially at the nail-hole or the puncture, it 
 should be pared to the quick. The escape of 
 some matte)' will now probably tell the nature 
 
 of the injury, and remove its consequences. 
 If it be puncture of the sole by some nail, or 
 any similar body, picked up on the road, all 
 that will be necessary is a little to enlarge the 
 opening, and then to place on it a pledget of 
 tow dipped in friar's balsam, and over that a 
 little common stopping ; or, if there be much 
 heat and lameness, a poultice should be 
 applied. 
 
 The part of the sole wounded and the 
 depth of the wound will be taken into consi- 
 deration. It will be seen that a deep punc- 
 ture towards the back part of the sole, and 
 penetrating even into the sensible frog, may 
 not be productive of serious consequence. 
 There is no great motion in the part, and 
 there are no tendons or bones in danger. A 
 puncture near the toe may not be followed by 
 much injury. There is little motion in that 
 part of the foot, and the intemal sole covering 
 the coffin-bone will soon heal ; but a puncture 
 about the centre of the sole may wound the 
 flexor tendon where it is inserted into the 
 coffin-bone, or may even penetrate the joint 
 which unites the navicular bone with the cof- 
 fin-bone, or pierce through the tendon into the 
 joint which it forms with the navicular-bone, 
 and a degree of inflammation may ensue, 
 which, if neglected, may be fatal. Many 
 horses have been lost by the smallest punc- 
 ture of the sole in these dangerous points. 
 All the anatomical skill of the veterinarian 
 should be called into requisition, when he is 
 examining the most trifling wound of the 
 foot. 
 
 If the foot has been wounded by the wrong 
 direction of a nail in shoeing, and the sole be 
 well pared out over the part on the first ap- 
 pearance of lameness, little more will he 
 necessary to be done. The opening must be 
 somewhat enlarged, the friar's balsam ap- 
 plied, and the shoe tacked on, with or without 
 a poultice, according to the degree of lame- 
 ness or heat, and on the following day all will 
 often be well. It may, however, be prudent 
 to keep the foot stopped for a few days. If the 
 accident has been neglected, and matter begins 
 to be formed, and to be pent up and to press 
 on the neighbouring parts, and the horse evi- 
 dently suffers extreme pain, and is sometimes 
 scarcely able to put his foot to the ground, 
 and much matter is poured out when the 
 opening is enlarged, further precautions must 
 be adopted. The fact must be recollected 
 that the living and dead horn will never unite, 
 and every portion of the horny sole that has 
 separated from the fleshy sole above must be 
 removed. The separation must be followed 
 as far as it reaches. Much of the success of 
 the treatment depends on this. No small 
 strip or edge of separated horn must be suf- 
 fered to press upon any part of the wound. 
 The exposed fleshy sole must then be touched,
 
 600 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 [\VRE 
 
 but not too severely, with the hutyr (chloride 
 of antimony, some soft and dry tow placec 
 over the part, and the foot stopped, and a 
 poultice placed over all, if the inflammation 
 seems to require it. On the following day a 
 thin pellicle of horn will frequently be founc 
 over a part or the -whole of the wound. This 
 should be, yet very lightly, touched again 
 with the caustic ; but if there be an appear- 
 ance of fungus sprouting from the exposed 
 surface, the application of the butyr must be 
 more severe, and the tow again placed over it, 
 so as to afford considerable yet uniform pres- 
 sure. Many days do not often elapse before 
 the new horn covers the whole of the wound. 
 In these extensive openings the friar's balsam 
 will not often be successful, but the cure 
 must be effected by the judicious and never 
 too severe use of the caustic. Bleeding at 
 the toe and physic will be resorted to as use- 
 ful auxiliaries when much inflammation arises. 
 
 In searching the foot to ascertain the exist- 
 ence of prick, there is often something very 
 censurable in the carelessness with which the 
 horn is cut away between the bottom of the 
 crust and the sole, so as to leave little or no 
 hold for the nails, while some months must 
 elapse before the horn will grow down suffi- 
 ciently far for the shoe to be securely fastened. 
 
 When a free opening has been made below, 
 and matter has not broken out at the coronet, 
 it will rarely be necessary to remove any por- 
 tion of the horn at the quarters, although we 
 may be able to ascertain by the use of the 
 probe that the separation of the crust extends 
 for a considerable space above the sole. 
 * 
 
 Dogs are liable to become wounded in 
 various ways, and their wounds, however bad, 
 are not, generally much attended to, from an 
 opinion that the animal's tongue is the best 
 dressing. This is very questionable : in some 
 instances, I am certain, no application can be 
 worse to a wounded dog than his own tongue. 
 Whenever dogs are at all inclined to foulness, 
 as a tendency to cuticular complaints is called, 
 a sore, so licked, is sure to become mangy, 
 and to be aggravated by the licking. 
 
 Wounds in the chest or belly should be 
 closed up as soon as possible, to prevent the 
 external air from penetrating : a stitch or two 
 made in the integuments is proper ; over 
 which some adhesive plaster, and a bandage 
 over that, may be applied. If the intestines 
 protrude in a wounded belly, and the bowels 
 are themselves wounded ; first, neatly stitch , 
 
 up the intestinal opening, and return the gut ; 
 then close the wound in the integuments, 
 leaving the thread which united the gut, if 
 long enough, hanging without the external 
 wound. 
 
 In wounds of arteries or veins, the haemor- 
 rhage should be stopped by pressure : should 
 that not succeed, take up the vessel with 
 needle and thread. Wounds into joints occur 
 from cuts, and often from stabs : great inflam- 
 mation is apt to follow, and the dog is often 
 lamed for life. If the synovia escapes by a 
 very minute puncture, and the inflammation 
 is not yet very extensive, treat exactly as in 
 horse practice, by firing with the budding iron. 
 If the wound be a lacerated one, and not 
 already much inflamed, place over it a pledget 
 of lint, and over that a thick paste of linseed 
 meal; after which bandage the whole up 
 moderately tight. Should the inflammation 
 be great, reduce that by a common poultice, 
 and then endeavour to close the joint as 
 above. 
 
 In all extensive and lacerated wounds, a 
 stitch or two should be made with a large 
 needle and thread, as it will reduce both the 
 sore and the scar ; but as such stitches soon 
 ulcerate out in the dog, so the edges should be 
 still further secured by slips of sticking-plas- 
 ter. A recent wound should be cleansed from 
 the dirt, and then covered up ; when it begins 
 to suppurate, dress with any mild ointment. 
 In thorn wounds, or others made with splin- 
 ters, carefully examine that nothing is left 
 within them ; otherwise no attempts to pro- 
 duce healing will prove successful. The most 
 common wounds in dogs arise from the bites 
 of others ; and, under any such circumstance, 
 should any suspicion arise that the dog was 
 mad by which the wounded one was bitten, 
 jraceed as directed under Rabies. The 
 wounds arising from common bites, in general 
 soon heal of themselves. If, however, they 
 are very extensive, wash them with friar's 
 >alsam, to prevent their becoming gangrenous. 
 * 
 
 For a wound from shot. Oil of turpen- 
 :ine, oil of camomile, and aqua vita?, of each 
 ,wo ounces, and half a pint of linseed oil, well 
 mixed together. A second is goose grease, 
 melted and strained through a sieve, and an 
 ;qual quantity of best spirits of wine and spi- 
 rits of turpentine : of the three articles put 
 rather most of the goose grease, which must 
 ie fresh, and strained quite clear and fine 
 White The Horse Elaine Daniel. 
 
 WREN, s. A small bird. 
 
 WRENCH, s. A violent pull or twist; a sprain. 
 
 WRESTLE, v. To contend who shall throw the other down ; to struggle ; 
 to contend.
 
 LORD YARBOROUGH S YACHT. 
 
 Y 
 
 ACHT, s. A small ship anciently 
 vate vessel of pleasure. 
 
 The Royal Yacht Club, at the present 
 time, has about five hundred and eighty-eight 
 persons on its lists, of which one hundred and 
 thirty-six are members, and four hundred and 
 fifty-two are honorary members. Of the for- 
 mer number about one fifth are peers, twelve 
 baronets, four knights, three generals, three 
 colonels, eight captains, two clergymen, and 
 seventy-nine private gentlemen. Among the 
 latter (honorary members) we find nineteen 
 admirals, twenty-nine vice-admirals, thirty- 
 one rear-admirals, and three hundred and 
 sixty-two captains, independently of eleven 
 eminent civilians, who head the list The 
 number of yachts is one hundred and nine 
 of which eighty-seven are cutters, ten schoo- 
 ners, three brigs, four yawls, two ships, two 
 ketches, and one lugger. The greater part of 
 these vessels belong to Cowes and to South- 
 hampton, the rest being distributed among 
 the different ports of the three kingdoms. 
 The shipping belonging to the club amounts 
 to 7250 tons. Now, at a moderate computa- 
 tion, each vessel carries ten men on an aver- 
 
 used for carrying 1 passengers ; a pri- 
 
 age ; this gives us the total number employed 
 by the club, one thousand and sixty. During 
 the summer months, then, while regattas are 
 celebrated, we may say that the Royal Yacht 
 Club alone supports more than eleven hun- 
 dred men. These, with some few exceptions, 
 are discharged on the approach of winter, and 
 the yachts are laid up for the season, retain- 
 ing the master and one man in pay. The 
 crews thus discharged obtain employment in 
 merchant vessels or otherwise during the win- 
 ter, and in the middle of spring are generally 
 re-shipped in the yachts in which they have 
 previously served. Active and industrious 
 men of good character are always sure of con- 
 stant employment in the club on these condi- 
 tions ; and many members justly pride them- 
 selves on the high discipline, manly bearing, 
 and crack appearance of their crew. The 
 situation of master is one of much responsi- 
 bility, and is on all accounts respectably filled. 
 In some of the largest craft, junior officers of 
 the navy are found to accept this office. The 
 Flower of Yarrow, the property of the Duke
 
 602 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 of Buccleuch, is commanded by one of the 
 oldest lieutenants in the service, to say nothing 
 of others, respecting which we cannot enter 
 into particulars. 
 
 It has been already remarked, that the 
 shipping of the club amounts to 7250 tons. 
 Now, a vessel of one hundred tons seldom, 
 we believe, stands the owner in less than from 
 five to six thousand pounds, varying, of course, 
 from that to ten, according to the ornamental 
 parts, the internal fittings, and other contin- 
 gencies. At this rate, the shipping of the 
 club would have cost more than three millions 
 and a half of money : but it is impossible to 
 speak decisively on this point ; for the first 
 cost of the yachts vary so much, and the 
 numerous styles of rig are attended with 
 expenses so widely different, that it is idle to 
 attempt a conclusive opinion on the subject. 
 
 Among the most active members of this 
 club we may mention the following but we 
 make the selection from past remembrances, 
 and not from any invidious distinction. Lord 
 Yarborongh is well known to the world as the 
 commodore, and his beautiful ship, the Falcon, 
 is admired no less for her model than the fine 
 seamanship of her " companie." Mr. Weld, 
 of Lulworth, and his brother James, have 
 been indefatigable in their exertions ; and who 
 has not heard of the Arrow, the Lulworth, 
 and the Alarm, of the former, and the Paul 
 Pry of the latter ? Lord Belfast too, Lord 
 Anglesea, Lord Darnley, Lord Vernon, the 
 Rev. Denis George, Lord Clonbrook, Mr. 
 Symonds, Lord Errol, Mr. Corbett, Lord 
 Donegal, Lord Chesterfield, Mr. Brett, Lord 
 Echester, Mr. Gibson, the Duke of Buccleuch, 
 and many others whom we have not room to 
 mention, are known to take a high personal 
 interest in aquatics. Mr. Assheton Smith, a 
 name so familiar at Melton Mowbray, seemed 
 to love his yacht as much as he did the chace ; 
 and who is ignorant of the nautical achieve- 
 ments of Sir Godfrey Webster ? Nor can I 
 omit to mention the arduous attention, the 
 unremitting exertions (to say nothing of his 
 generous disposition), of a gentleman to whom 
 the Yacht Club is deeply indebted for his 
 assistance Richard Stephens, Esq. the secre- 
 tary. His indefatigable zeal and valuable aid 
 on all occasions, and at all seasons, is beyond 
 any pra'se. 
 
 The Northern Yacht Club is a highly in- 
 teresting society, although its plan is not so 
 extensive as that of the Royal Club. It con- 
 tains about three hundred and fifty members. 
 The documents for 1830, with which the 
 commodore, J. E. Matthews, Esq. has favoured 
 us, comprise ninety-two in the Scottish and 
 ninety in the Irish division, with fifty-two 
 honorary members, in addition to ninety-three 
 members of the Cork Yacht Club, who are 
 also entered on the honorary lists. It had, 
 
 in 1830, sixty yachts, not equal in proportion 
 to the tonnage of the Covves club, as smaller 
 vessels are admitted. Many R. Y. C. men 
 are found in the Northern Club ; among 
 others, the Marquis of Donegal, Earl Belfast, 
 the Duke of Portland, the Rev. Denis George, 
 and Captain Kean. The commodore of the 
 Irish division is John E. Matthews, Esq. who 
 hoists his flag in the Water Witch, a three- 
 masted schooner of seventy-three tons; and 
 the Duke of Portland, in his Clown, ketch, 
 one hundred and fifty-six, still, we believe, 
 presides over the Scottish division. There are 
 many fine vessels in this club. Cutters, as 
 usual, excel in number, but there are many 
 clippers in the shape of schooners ; and what 
 is more in a " ladye's eye," their names are 
 equally pretty and well chosen. 
 
 W T e have now to notice the Cork Harbour 
 Club, one of highest descent, independently of 
 its regatta being considered the oldest in the 
 United Kingdom. We are deficient in parti- 
 culars respecting this association ; but we 
 know that it is supported by some of the first 
 men in Ireland, and has many handsome 
 yachts in its fleet. The Emerald Isle is highly 
 favoured by having two powerful clubs, equally 
 respected and respectable ; and it is pleasing 
 to see the honourable men of the north 
 blending the names of Scotland and Ireland 
 under the bright emblem of friendship. 
 
 We must not omit to mention the share 
 Dublin takes in these festivals, nor pass by 
 in silence Plymouth, with her excellent 
 Regatta Club and Yacht Society. 
 
 At the lowest computation, the number of 
 vessels at present employed for pleasure in 
 this kingdom cannot be less than from three 
 to four hundred, ranging in bulk from ten to 
 three hundred and fifty tons. These craft arc 
 variously distributed along our shores, carry- 
 ing their opulence into every port and harbour 
 | in the sister islands. But there is another 
 advantage arising from yacht clubs, which as 
 yet has been slightly touched upon ; I mean, 
 that national principle which to a maritime 
 people is above all choice. The bulwarks of 
 England are her wooden walls; and if our 
 ships are hearts of oak, let it not be forgotten 
 that " hearts of oak are our men" also ; and 
 we must never allow the proud feeling of 
 naval supremacy to wither or decay. The 
 yacht clubs, by keeping alive this feeling, feed 
 the flame of patriotism, and uphold, with just 
 ambition, our hopes, our honour, and our fame. 
 
 Sailing regulations of the Royal Yacht 
 Club First Members entering their yachts 
 must send the names of them to the Secre- 
 tary one week previous to the day of sailing, 
 and pay two guineas entrance at the same time. 
 
 Second All vessels starting or entering 
 must be the bona fide property of Members, 
 as well as spars, sails, boats, &c. &c.
 
 YEL] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 603 
 
 Third Each Member to be allowed to enter 
 one vessel only for all prizes given by the Club. 
 
 Fourth Gutters to carry four sails only, 
 viz. mainsail, foresail, jib, and gaff-topsail : 
 yawls, luggers, schooners, and all other vessels 
 in like proportion. No booming out allowed. 
 
 Fifth No trimming with ballast, or shift- 
 ing of ballast allowed ; and all vessels to keep 
 their platform down, and bulk-heads standing. 
 
 Sixth That vessels on the larboard tack 
 must invariably give way for those on the 
 starboard tack ; and in all cases where a doubt 
 of the possibility of the vessel's on the larboard 
 tack weathering the one on the starboard 
 tack shall exist, the vessel on the larboard 
 tack shall give way ; or if the other vessel 
 keep her course and run in to her, the owner 
 of the vessel on the larboard tack shall be 
 compelled to pay all damages, and forfeit his 
 claim to the prize. 
 
 Seventh Vessels running on shore shall 
 be allowed to use their own anchors and boats 
 actually on board to get them off, afterwards 
 weighing anchor and hoisting the boat in ; 
 
 be used for sounding. 
 
 Ninth That any deviation from these 
 rules shall subject the aggressor to forfeit all 
 claim to the prize. 
 
 Tenth That if any objection be made 
 with regrad to the sailing of any other vessel 
 in the race, such objection must be made to 
 the stewards within one hour after the vessel 
 making the objection shall arrive at the start- 
 ing post 
 
 Eleventh That no vessel be allowed to 
 take in ballast, or take out, for twenty-four 
 hours previous to starting, and that no ballast 
 be thrown overboard. 
 
 Twelfth Vessels to start from moorings 
 laid down at a cable-length distance, with 
 their sails set ; and that every vessel not ex- 
 ceeding one hundred tons shall carry a boat 
 not less than ten feet long; and vessels ex- 
 ceeding one hundred tons, to carry a boat not 
 less than fourteen feet long. 
 
 Thirteenth That there shall be a member, 
 or honorary member, on board each vessel. 
 
 Fourteenth The time of starting may be 
 
 but upon receiving assistance from any other ! altered by the stewards, and all disputes that 
 
 vessel or vessels, boats, or anchors, shall for- 
 forfeit all claim to the prize. 
 
 Eighth That nothing but the hand-line 
 
 may arise are to be decided by them, or such 
 persons as they shall appoint. Sporting 
 Magazine. 
 
 YARD, s. Enclosed ground adjoining- to a house ; a measure of three feet ; 
 
 the supports of the sails of a ship. 
 YARWHIP, s. 
 
 This species is generally rather larger than 
 the common godwit ; weight about twelves 
 ounces ; length eighteen inches ; the bill is 
 full three inches and a half long, a trifle re- 
 flected ; slender ; dusky towards the point ; 
 the base yellowish flesh-colour ; irides hazel ; 
 
 white ; the outer webs slightly edged with 
 white half way down ; inner webs white at 
 the base; the secondary quills dusky from 
 their points half way ; base white ; those 
 next the body ferruginous, like the scapu- 
 lars, barred with black ; the rump and up- 
 
 the head, neck, breast, back, and the top of ! JH.T tail-coverts white ; the two middle fea- 
 the head, are streaked with dusky ; the back ! there of the tail dusky black ; the rest 
 and scapulars marked with large black spots 
 or bars ; from the bill to the eye a light co- 
 loured streak ; the belly and under tail-coverts 
 white ; the sides under the wings barred with 
 
 dusky ; the smaller coverts of the wings, on 
 the ridge, dusky ; the next inclining to ferru- 
 ginous; the larger ones cinereous-brown, light 
 
 white half way from the base ; ends black ; 
 legs near four inches long, and black ; 
 the thighs bare of feathers full an inch above 
 the knee. In some, the breast is streaked 
 with black ; others mottled rufous and white ; 
 and the upper tail-coverts barred with rufous 
 and brown Montagu. 
 
 at the tips ; greater quill-feathers black ; shafts 
 
 YAWL, *. A little vessel belonging to a ship for convenience of passing to 
 and from it ; a small yacht. 
 
 YEAR, s. Twelve months; it is often used plurally, without a plural termi- 
 nation ; in the plural, old age. 
 
 YEARLING, s. Being a year old. 
 
 YELK, s. The yellow part of the egg. 
 
 YELL, v. To cry out with horror and agony ; to cry like a beaten dbg. 
 
 YELLOW, a. Being of a bright glaring colour, as gold. 
 
 To dye fine rich bright Yellows These they are very strong. The gold colours, as 
 
 arc the best vellows for salmon colours, as before directed, are better for some flies. You
 
 604 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 are to get two pounds of strawall, and six 
 ounces of turmeric : boil these in eight 
 quarts of water ; put down one pound of fur 
 along with your dye stuff ; give it an hour's 
 boiling, and you have a fine shade : boil on 
 an hour longer and draw again : boil for an 
 hour and a half, and draw again. Finish 
 your last with two hours' boiling, and you 
 have four as fine high yellows as can be dyed, 
 and fast colours. 
 
 Mr. Peter Woulfe's Recipe for the 
 Yellow Dye Take half an ounce of pow- 
 dered indigo, and mix it in a high glass vessel, 
 with two ounces of strong spirit of nitre, 
 which should be previously diluted with eight 
 ounces of water, for preventing the indigo 
 being set on fire by the spirit; because two 
 ounces and a half of strong spirit of nitre will 
 set fire to half an ounce of indigo. Let the 
 mixture stand 'for a week, and then digest it 
 in a sand heat for an hour or more, and add 
 four ounces more of water to it; filter the so- 
 lution, which will be of a fine yellow colour. 
 If the indigo be digested twenty-four hours 
 after the spirit of nitre is poured upon it, it 
 will froth and boil over, but after standing 
 about a week it has not that property. One 
 part of the solution of indigo in the acid of 
 nitre, mixed with four or five parts of the 
 water, will dye silk cloth of the palest yellow 
 colour, or of any shade to the deepest, and 
 that by letting them boil more or less in the 
 colour. The addition of alum is useful, as it 
 makes the colour more lasting ; according as 
 the solution boils away, more water must be 
 added cochineal, Dutch litmus, orchil, cud- 
 bear, and many other colouring substances, 
 treated in this manner, will dye silk and wool 
 a yellow colour. The indigo which remains 
 undissolved in making Saxon blue, and col- 
 lected by filtration, if digested with spirit of 
 nitre, dyes silk and wool of all shades of 
 brown inclining to yellow. 
 
 YELLOWHAMMER, s. A bird. 
 
 The weight of this species is about seven 
 drachms ; length six inches ; bill dusky bluish ; 
 irides hazel ; the crown of the head, throat, 
 and belly, are of a beautiful bright yellow ; 
 the back part and sides of the head tinged 
 with green ; the breast, in some, is marked 
 with reddish-brown ; quill-feathers dusky, the 
 primores edged on their exterior webs with 
 greenish-yellow, the secondaries with rusty- 
 brown, those next the body, the greater co- 
 verts, and back, dusky, deeply margined with 
 the same, the latter dashed with green ; the 
 rump and upper tail-coverts tawny-red ; the 
 tail a little forked, dusky, edged with greenish- 
 yellow ; the two outer feathers marked with 
 white on the exterior webs; legs yellow-brown. 
 
 The female has much less yellow about the 
 
 Mr. Boyle tells us a most beautiful yellow 
 may be procured, by taking good quicksilver, 
 and three or four times its weight of oil of 
 vitriol. Drawing off in a glass retort the 
 saline menstruum from the metalline liquor, 
 till there remains a dry snow-white calx at the 
 bottom. On pouring a large quantity of fair 
 water on this, the colour changes to an excel- 
 lent light yellow. 
 
 Lighter Yellows. Take three or four 
 sprigs of eld, and two chips of young fustic, 
 about the size of half a crown ; boil them in 
 six quarts of water for two hours ; put down 
 all your stuff together. You may then put 
 in half a thimbleful of the best madder, and 
 the same of turmeric ; let them boil smart- 
 ly for five minutes, and then draw a part for 
 the first shade. It must be divided into four 
 parts ; let it boil ten minutes ; lift out and 
 draw ; follow on by adding a whole thimble- 
 ful of each for the second, and one and a half 
 thimbleful for the third, and two of each for 
 the last. This is the only bright yellow I 
 could get to stand, and is the best for foxes. 
 You may dye hog's fur in this if it be very 
 white. 
 
 Another Recipe Take two large hand- 
 
 fuls of laurel leaves, nice and green, the same 
 with ivy tops, and half a pound of weld. Put 
 your weld in the bottom, and some of laurel 
 branches to cover the weld, and lay your 
 mohair nice and thin over the laurel ; then 
 cover with the ivy, and put the remainder of 
 the laurel on the top ; put on your wooden 
 frame and your lid, and fill the pot with 
 water, and boil it as long as you please, and 
 you will get fine rich soft yellows. Do not 
 boil too long at first, or omit to draw soon, as 
 you will lose your nice golden colours, and 
 others, for the drake's. This will not dye 
 hog's fur, but is a fast colour Ancient 
 Recipes. 
 
 head, and the colours in general less vivid. 
 The yellow hammer is subject to some va- 
 riety, in plumage. We have a specimen in 
 which the whole head and neck is of a light 
 yellow ; some of the quill-feathers and sca- 
 pulars white ; and the under parts and rump 
 pale yellow. The young birds have no yel- 
 low about them when first they leave the nest. 
 This is one of the most common indigenous 
 birds of this country ; if it were more rare, 
 its beauty would be less disregarded. Its song, 
 however, is as little attractive as that of the 
 common bunting, possessing only a repetition 
 of the same note five or six times succes- 
 sively, terminating in one more lengthened 
 and shrill. In winter they assemble in flocks, 
 with other granivorous birds, and pick up the
 
 I YEW 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 605 
 
 scattered grain dispersed by the bountiful flail, 
 and not by the master of the hoarded sheaves, 
 who knows too well the value of his aurifer- 
 ous store. It does not breed till late in the 
 spring. The nest is generally placed near the 
 
 YELLOWS, *. A disease in horses. 
 
 This disorder takes its name from the yel- 
 lowness of the eyes and mouth ; the urine is 
 high-coloured ; dung small and slimy : pulse 
 quick and sometimes very weak. The horse 
 appears exceedingly weak and languid ; some- 
 times in such a degree that he reels when led 
 out of the stable ; he eats but little, yet is 
 generally rather thirsty. This disease gene- 
 rally requires in the first place copious bleed- 
 ing, being evidently of an inflammatory na- 
 ture ; this is denoted by the membranes of 
 the eye appearing red instead of yellow, and 
 by the pulse being rather strong as well as 
 quick, and sometimes by the breathing being 
 a little quickened. I have seen, however, the 
 membranes of the eye exceedingly red, while 
 the pulse was so feeble as to forbid bleeding ; 
 most commonly, however, it is otherwise ; 
 and, as a general practice, it is safer to bleed 
 freely at first. Sometimes it is necessary to 
 repeat the bleeding ; this is generally the case 
 when we are prevented, by the apparent de- 
 bility of the animal, from bleeding copiously 
 at first. When the heart and the brain are 
 oppressed with blood there is always great stu- 
 por and debility, and generally a pulse that 
 may lead the inexperienced to avoid bleeding ; 
 but, upon taking off a gallon of blood, the 
 pulse, in such circumstances, will often feel 
 stronger ; and, if the blood be examined after 
 it has become cool, it will be found rather 
 firm, and with a thick coat of buff or size on 
 its surface. Immediately after the bleeding 
 throw up a clyster, and give the following ball, 
 and six hours after the ball the following 
 drench, and another clyster : 
 
 BALL. 
 
 Calomel 1 drachm. 
 
 Barbadoes aloes . . | ounce. 
 
 Ginger 1| drachm. 
 
 Oil of caraways . . 20 drops. 
 Castile soap and treacle enough to form the 
 ball. 
 
 DRENCH 
 
 Epsom salt . . 
 Carbonate of soda 
 Warm water . . 
 Castor oil 
 
 ONE DOSE. 
 
 6 ounces. 
 2 drachms. 
 1 pint. 
 4 ounces Mix. 
 
 After the operation of these medicines the 
 horse is generally so far relieved that nothing 
 
 ground, in some low bush or hedge. It is 
 composed of straw and various dried stalks, 
 and lined with fine dried grass, finished with 
 long hair Montagu. 
 
 more is necessary to perfect a recovery than 
 an abstemious diet, consisting chiefly of bran 
 mashes, with a small quantity of the sweetest 
 and best ha'y. When the debility is conside- 
 rable a little gruel may be given ; and if the 
 purgative effect of the medicine continue 
 longer than one day, it should be restrained by 
 giving a little gruel made of wheat flour or 
 arrow root. This disorder happens most fre- 
 quently about September or October, especi- 
 ally after a hot season. The various degrees 
 in which we meet with it depends chiefly, I 
 believe, upon its being noticed sometimes 
 earlier than at others. At first the symptoms 
 are alarming ; the horse appears languid and 
 sluggish, and feeds badly ; the eyes look ra- 
 ther dull, and upon opening the lids with the 
 finger and thumb the yellowness before de- 
 scribed may be observed ; the inside of the 
 lips and gums will be found also tinged with 
 yellow. In this stage an opening ball and an 
 abstemious diet would be sufficient generally 
 to effect a cure ; but if it be neglected in this 
 stage, and if the horse is kept at work, and 
 especially if he is ridden fast, or urged to any 
 considerable exertion, the heart and lungs 
 will be so oppressed with blood that medical 
 skill will often be found unavailing. 
 * 
 
 Protracted cases of distemper are sometimes 
 accompanied by a pustular eruption, which 
 extends over the surface of the chest and 
 belly, and peels off in scales : but this integu- 
 mental determination seldom affords any re- 
 lief, and such cases almost invariably termi- 
 nates fatally. This state is also sometimes 
 accompanied with an hepatic affection of a 
 very fatal character, which has been called 
 among sportsmen the yellow disease, from its 
 tinging every part of the surface of the body 
 with a yellow hue : the urine also is of a deep 
 yellow, the consequence of some morbid 
 translation of the inflammation to the secret- 
 ing vessels of the liver. Mr. Youatt has 
 found this state most frequent in the hound 
 and greyhound ; he also has observed it par- 
 ticularly where there is little catarrhal exu- 
 dation from the nose, which I believe is the 
 case, although I have also seen it accompanied 
 by a profuse discharge White Blame. 
 
 YELP, v. To bark as a beagle hound after his prey. 
 YEW, s. A tree of tough wood. 
 
 While mention is making of the bad effects 
 of yew-berries, it may be proper to remind the 
 
 unwary, that the twigs and leaves of yew, 
 though eaten in a very small quantity, are
 
 60S 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 You] 
 
 certain death to horses and cows, and that in 
 a few minutes. A horse tied to a yew hedge, 
 or to a faggot stack of dead yew, shall be found 
 dead before the owner can be aware that any 
 danger is at hand : and the writer has been 
 several times a sorrowful witness to losses of 
 this kind among his friends : and in the 
 island of Ely had once the mortification to 
 see nine young steers or bullocks of his own 
 
 lying dead in a heap, from browzing a little on 
 a hedge of yew in an old garden into which 
 they had broken in snowy weather. Even 
 the clippings of a yew hedge have destroyed 
 a whole dairy of cows, when thrown inadver- 
 tently into a yard. And yet sheep and tur- 
 keys, and, as park-keepers say, deer, will crop 
 these trees with impunity White's An- 
 tiquities of Selborne. 
 
 YOUNG, a. Being in the first part of life, not old ; ignorant, weak ; it is 
 sometimes applied to vegetable life. 
 
 Young horses, however, seldom derive that 
 benefit from cordials and ale that older horses 
 do, and particularly those which are accus- 
 tomed to such treatment. The most effectual 
 and the most innocent restorative is rest ; for 
 which in summer a field is the best situation : 
 but if, during the time of rest, the horse he 
 kept in a stable, his diet must be carefully 
 attended to. This should be rather opening, 
 and such as the horse appears to relish ; 
 vetches, or other green food, are perhaps the 
 best. Good sweet bran is an excellent thing to 
 keep the bowels cool and open, and may he 
 rendered nutritious in almost any degree by 
 the addition of good fresh bruised oats or malt. 
 A small quantity of good sweet and clean 
 oats thrown into the manger now and then 
 will often induce a horse to feed when there 
 is want of appetite ; and a very small quantity 
 of the sweetest hay, given occasionally, is 
 generally eaten with great relish. 
 
 Young horses often fall off in their appe- 
 tites during the time of cutting teeth. At 
 this period there is often a soreness of the 
 mouth, in which the mucous membrane of 
 the stomach and bowels seems to participate. 
 In such cases the want of appetite is generally 
 attributed to the lampas, or a swelling or ful- 
 ness in the roof of the mouth, adjoining the 
 front teeth ; because the horse is sometimes 
 observed to mangle his hay, as it is termed ; 
 that is, he pulls it out of the rack, and after 
 chewing it a little while, throws it out again. 
 The common remedy, if such it may be called, 
 is the application of a red-hot iron to the part, 
 and burning out the prominent part or lam- 
 pas ; but this is never necessary. All young 
 
 YUNX (LiNN.)"*. Wryneck, a genus of birds thus characterised: 
 
 horses have that fulness in the roof of the 
 mouth which is named lampas ; and it never 
 interferes with their appetite or the chewing or 
 gathering of their food ; there may, however, 
 be some degree of tenderness about the gums 
 at the time of teething, when soft food, such 
 as bran mashes, should be given for a few 
 days ; and as the stomach and bowels are 
 sometimes affected also, a little nitre may he 
 given in the mashes, and an emollient clyster 
 thrown up. When there is costiveness, or 
 slimy dung, a laxative drench may be given 
 also, composed of 4 oz. Epsom salt ; 2 drachms 
 of carbonate of soda ; 1 pint of warm water ; 
 and 4 oz. of castor oil. 
 
 If the mouth appears very tender or sore, 
 it may be washed or syringed with a lotion, 
 composed of alum, honey, and water. Keep- 
 ing a horse on new oats or new hay is often 
 followed by some derangement of the stomach 
 and bowels, indicated by looseness and want 
 of appetite, and sometimes by excessive stal- 
 ing also, with considerable thirst and a staring 
 coat. A change of diet is in such cases the 
 most essential thing ; but it is often necessary 
 also to give some tonic medicine, or a warm 
 laxative, such as three or four drachms of 
 aloes, three drachms of soap, and a drachm 
 or two of ginger, with a few drops of oil of 
 caraway. Horses sometimes fall off in appe- 
 tite merely from loading their bowels, or from 
 staying in the stable idle too long. In this 
 case an abstemious diet, principally of bran 
 mashes or grass, and a clyster, are necessary, 
 and if that fail a mild dose of physic should 
 be given. White. 
 
 Bill short, straight, conical, and depressed ; 
 the ridge rounded ; mandibles of equal length, 
 sharp, and not notched ; nostrils at the sides 
 of the base, naked and partly closed by a 
 membrane ; tongue long, worm-shaped, and 
 armed at the point with a horny substance ; 
 
 feet with two toes before, and two behind, the 
 fore ones joined at their base ; tail with ten 
 soft and flexible feathers; wings of middle 
 length, the first quill shorter than the second, 
 which is the longest in the wing Mon- 
 tagu.
 
 Zoo] 
 
 THE FIELD BOOK. 
 
 607 
 
 Zjmc, s. A semi-metal of a brilliant white colour, approaching 1 to blue. 
 ZOOLOGY, s. A treatise concerning living creatures. 
 
 Zoological Description of the Horse 
 
 The horse belongs to the division vertebrated, 
 because he has a cranium or skull, and a spine 
 or range of vertebra proceeding from it. 
 
 The vertebrated animals, however, are verv 
 numerous. They include man, quadrupeds of 
 all kinds, birds, fishes, and many reptiles. 
 We look out then for some subdivision, and a 
 very simple line of distinction is soon pre- 
 sented. Some of these vertebrated animals 
 have mammae, or teats, with which the fe- 
 males suckle their young. The human female 
 has two, the mare two, the cow four, the bitch 
 ten or twelve, and the sow more than twelve. 
 
 This class of vertebrated animals, having 
 mamma; or teats, is called mammalia, and the 
 horse belongs to the division vertebrata, and 
 the class mammalia. 
 
 The class mammalia is still excecdingly 
 large, and we must again subdivide it. It is 
 stated (Library of Entertaining Knowledge, 
 vol. i. p. 13) that " this class of quadrupeds, 
 or mamrniferous quadrupeds, admits of a divi- 
 sion into two Tribes. 
 
 " 1. Those whose extremities are divided 
 into fingers or toes, scientificallycalled unyui- 
 ciilata, from the Latin word for nail ; and 2, 
 Those whose extremities are hoofed, scientifi- 
 cally called ungulata, from the Latin word 
 for hoof. 
 
 " The extremities of the first are armed 
 with claws or nails, which enable them to 
 grasp, to climb, or to burrow. The extremities 
 
 of the second tribe are employed merely to 
 support and move the body. 
 
 The extremities of the horse are covered 
 with a hoof, by which the body is supported, 
 and with which he cannot grasp any thing, and 
 therefore he belongs to the tribe ungulata, or 
 hoofed. 
 
 But there is a great variety of hoofed ani- 
 mals. The elephant, the rhinoceros, the hip- 
 popotamus, the swine, the horse, the sheep, 
 the deer, and many others, are ungulated or 
 hoofed ; they admit, however, of an easy di- 
 vision. Some of them masticate, or chew 
 their food, and it is immediately received into 
 the stomach and digested ; but in others, the 
 food, previous to digestion, undergoes a very 
 singular process. It is returned to the mouth 
 to be re-masticated, or chewed again. These 
 are called ruminantia, or ruminants, from the 
 food being returned, from one of the stomachs 
 (for they have four) called the rumen or 
 paunch, to be chewed again. 
 
 The ungulata that do not ruminate are 
 somewhat improperly called pachydermata, 
 from the thickness of their skins. The horse 
 does not ruminate, and therefore belongs to 
 the order pachydermata. 
 
 The pachydermata who have only one toe, 
 belong to the family solipeda single-footed. 
 Therefore the horse ranks under the division 
 vertebrata ; the class mammalia the tribe 
 ungulata the order pachydermata and the 
 family solipeda The Horse. 
 
 ZOOTOMIST, s. A dissector of the bodies of beasts. 
 ZOOTOMY, s. Dissection of the bodies of beasts.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 /OACH-HORSE, s. A horse used for coaches. 
 
 This animal has fully shared in the pro- 
 gress of improvement, and is as different from 
 what he was fifty years ago as it is possible 
 to conceive. The clumsy-barrelled, cloddy- 
 shouldered, round-legged, black family horse, 
 neither a coach nor a dray-horse, but some- 
 thing between both, as fat as an ox, and, with 
 all his pride and prancing at first starting, not 
 equal to more than six miles an hour, and 
 knocking-up with one hard day's work, is no 
 more seen ; and we have, instead of him, an 
 animal as tall, deep-chested, rising in the 
 withers, slanting in the shoulders, flat in the 
 legs, with even more strength, and with treble 
 the speed. 
 
 There is a great deal of deception, how- 
 ever, even in the best of these improved 
 coach-horses. They prance it nobly through 
 the streets ; and they have more work in 
 them than the old clumsy, sluggish breed ; 
 but they have not the endurance that could 
 be wished ; and a pair of poor post-horses 
 would, at the end of the second day, beat 
 them hollow. 
 
 The knee-action, and high lifting of the 
 feet, in the carriage-horse is deemed an excel- 
 lence, because it adds to the grandeur of his 
 appearance ; but, as has already been stated, 
 it is necessarily accompanied by much wear 
 and tear of the legs and feet, and this is very 
 soon apparent. 
 
 The principal points in the coach-horse are 
 substance well placed, a deep and well-pro- 
 portioned body, bone under the knee, and 
 sound, open, tough feet. 
 
 The origin of the better kind of coach- 
 horse is the Cleveland-bay, confined princi- 
 pally to Yorkshire and Durham, with, per- 
 haps, Lincolnshire on one side, and Northum- 
 berland on the other, but difficult to meet 
 with pure in either county. The Cleveland 
 mare is crossed by a three-fourth, or thorough- 
 bred horse of sufficient substance and height, 
 and the produce is the coach-horse most in 
 
 repute, with his arched crest and high action. 
 From the thorough-bred of sufficient height, 
 but not of so much substance, we obtain the 
 four-in-hand, and superior curricle-horse. 
 
 From less height and more substance, we 
 have the hunter and better sort of hackney ; 
 and, from the half-bred, we derive the ma- 
 chiner, the poster, and the common carnage- 
 horse ; indeed, Cleveland, and the Vale of 
 Pickering, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, 
 may be considered as the most decided breed- 
 ing country in England for coach-horses, 
 hunters, and hackneys. The coach-horse is 
 nothing more than a tall, strong, over-sized 
 hunter. The hackney has many of the qua- 
 lities of the hunter on a small scale. 
 
 How far we are carrying supposed improve- 
 ment too far, and sacrificing strength and use- 
 fulness to speed, is a question not difficult to 
 resolve. The rage for rapid travelling is the 
 bane of the post-master, the destruction of 
 the horse, and a disgrace to the English cha- 
 racter. 
 
 There is no truth so easily proved, or so 
 painfully felt by the post-master, at least in 
 his pocket, as that it is the pace that kills. A 
 horse at a dead pull, or at the beginning of 
 his pull, is enabled, by the force of his mus- 
 cles, to throw a certain weight into the collar. 
 If he walk four miles in the hour, some part 
 of that muscular energy must be expended in 
 the act of walking ; and, consequently, the 
 power of drawing must be proportionally di- 
 minished. If he trot eight miles in the hour, 
 more animal power is expended in the trot, 
 and less remains for the draught ; but the 
 draught continues the same, and, to enable 
 him to accomplish his work, he must tax his 
 energies to a degree that is cruel in itself, and 
 that must speedily wear him out. 
 
 Let it be supposed what every horse can- 
 not accomplish that he shall be able, by 
 fair exertion and without distress, to throw, at 
 a dead pull, a weight into his collar, or cxevt 
 R R
 
 610 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 [COA 
 
 a force equal to two hundred and sixteen 
 pounds ; or, in other words, let him be able 
 to draw a load which requires a force of two 
 hundred and sixteen pounds to move. Let 
 him next walk at the rate of four miles in an 
 hour ; what force will he then be able to em- 
 ploy ? We have taken away some to assist 
 him in walking, and we have left him only 
 ninety-six pounds, being not half of that which 
 he could exert when he began his pull. He 
 shall quicken his pace to six miles an hour 
 more energy must be exerted to carry him 
 over this additional ground. How much has 
 he remaining to apply to the weight behind 
 him? Fifty-four pounds only. We will 
 make the six miles an hour ten ; for it seems 
 now to be the fashion for the fast coach, and 
 for almost every coach, and every vehicle to 
 attempt this pace. How stands the account 
 with the poor beast ? We have left him a 
 power equal to thirty-two pounds only to be 
 employed for the purpose of draught. 
 
 The load which a horse can draw is about 
 fifteen times greater than the power exerted, 
 supposing the road to be hard and level, and 
 the carriage to run with little friction ; and 
 the horse, which at starting, can throw into 
 the collar a weight or force equal to two hun- 
 dred and sixteen pounds, will draw a load of 
 three thousand two hundred. Let him, how- 
 ever, be urged on at the rate of ten miles in 
 the hour deduct the power used in swiftness 
 of pace from the sum total of that which he 
 possesses, and what remains? not a sixth 
 part not that which is equal to a quarter of 
 a ton or, if it be a stage-coach, the energy 
 exerted in draught by the four horses will not 
 be equal to a ton. 
 
 The coach, and its passengers and its lug- 
 gage, weigh more than this, and the whole is 
 still drawn on, and must be so. Whence 
 comes the power? From the over-strained 
 exertion, the injury, the torture, the destruc- 
 tion of the horse. That which is true of the 
 coach-horse, is equally true of every other. 
 Let each reader apply it to his own animal, 
 and act as humanity and interest dictate. 
 
 Many a horse used on our public roads is 
 unable to throw all his natural power or weight 
 into the collar. He is tender-footed lame ; 
 but he is bought at little price, and he is worked 
 on the brutal and abominable principle, that 
 he may be " whipped sound." And so appa- 
 rently he is. At first he sadly halts; but, 
 urged by the torture of the lash, he acquires 
 a peculiar habit of going. The faulty limb 
 appears to keep pace with the others, but no 
 stress or labour is thrown upon it, and he 
 gradually contrives to make the sound limbs 
 perform among them all the duties of the 
 unsound one ; and thus he is barbarously 
 " whipped sound," and cruelty is undeserv- 
 edly rewarded. After all, however, what has 
 
 been done ? Three legs are made to do that 
 which was almost too hard a task for four. 
 Then they must be most injuriously strained, 
 and soon worn out, and the general power of 
 the animal must be rapidly exhausted, and, 
 at no great distance of time, exhaustion and 
 death release him from his merciless perse- 
 cutors. 
 
 It is said that between Glasgow and Edin- 
 burgh, a carrier in a single horse-cart, weigh- 
 ing about seven hundred weight, will take a 
 load of a ton, and at the rate of twenty-two 
 miles in a day. The Normandy carriers travel 
 with a team of four horses, and from four- 
 teen to twenty-two miles in a day, with a 
 load of ninety hundred weight. 
 
 An unparalleled instance of the power of a 
 horse when assisted by art, was shown near 
 Croydon. The Surrey iron rail-way being 
 completed, a wager was laid by two gentlemen, 
 that a common horse could draw thirty-six 
 tons for six miles along the road, and that he 
 should draw his weight from a dead pull, as 
 well as turn it round the occasional windings 
 of the road. A numerous party of gentle- 
 men assembled near Merstham to see this 
 extraordinary triumph of art. Twelve wagons 
 loaded with stones, each wagon weighing above 
 three tons, were chained together, and a horse, 
 taken promiscuously from the timber cart of 
 Mr. Harwood, was yoked to the train. He 
 started from the Fox public-house, near 
 Merstham, and drew the immense chain of 
 wagons, with apparent ease, almost to the 
 turnpike at Croydon, a distance of six miles, 
 in one hour and forty-one minutes, which is 
 nearly at the rate of four miles an hour. In 
 the course of the journey he stopped four 
 times, to show that it was not by any advan- 
 tage of descent that this power was acquired ; 
 and after each stoppage he again drew off the 
 chain of wagons with great ease. Mr. Banks, 
 who had wagered on the power of the horse, 
 then desired that four more loaded wagons 
 should be added to the cavalcade, with which 
 the same horse set off again with undimi- 
 nished pace. Still further to show the effect 
 of the rail-way in facilitating motion, he di- 
 rected the attending workmen, to the number 
 of fifty, to mount on the wagons, and the 
 horse proceeded without the least distress ; 
 and, in truth, there appeared to be scarcely 
 any limitation to the power of his draught. 
 After this trial the wagons were taken to the 
 weighing-machine, and it appeared that the 
 whole weight was as follows : 
 
 TON. CWT. QR. 
 12 Wagons first linked together 38 4 2 
 
 4 Ditto, afterwards attached .13 2 
 Supposed weight of 50 labourers 400 
 
 55 6 2 
 -The Horse.
 
 Fis] 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 611 
 
 FERRET, s. A small animal of prey. 
 
 The ferret has a longer and thinner body, 
 a narrower head, and a sharper snout than 
 the polecat. It has not the same sagacity in 
 providing its subsistence, and unless taken 
 care of and nourished in the house, it cannot 
 even exist, at least in our climates, for those 
 which have been lost in the burrows of rab- 
 bits have never multiplied, but most probably 
 perished by the severity of the winter. The 
 ferret also, like other domesticated animals, 
 varies in colour, and is as common in hot 
 countries as the polecat is scarce. The female 
 is conspicuously smaller than the male ; and 
 when in season, Gesner says, she has even 
 been known to die if her desires were not 
 gratified. They are reared in casks or chests, 
 where it is usual to furnish them with beds of 
 flax. They sleep most perpetually, but no 
 sooner are they awake than they eagerly seek 
 for food, which consists of bran, bread, milk, 
 &c. The females bring forth twice a year, 
 and go six weeks with their young. Some 
 of them eat their young almost as soon as 
 they are brought forth, are immediately in 
 season again, and then have three litters in 
 the year, each of which consists of from five 
 to nine. 
 
 This animal is by nature a mortal enemy 
 to the rabbit. If even a dead one is pre- 
 sented to a young ferret, although he have 
 never seen a rabbit before, he flies at and 
 tears it with fury : but if it be alive, he seizes 
 it by the nose or throat, and sucks its blood. 
 When let into the burrows of rabbits, it is 
 
 FISH, GOLD AND SILVER, s. 
 
 When I happen to visit a family where gold 
 and silver fishes are kept in a glass bowl, I am 
 always pleased with the occurrence, because 
 it offers me an opportunity of observing the 
 actions and propensities of those beings with 
 whom we can be little acquainted in their 
 natural state. Not long since I spent a fort- 
 night at the house of a friend where there was 
 such a vivary, to which I paid no small atten- 
 tion, taking every occasion to remark what 
 passed within its narrow limits. It was here 
 that I first observed the manner in which 
 fishes die. As soon as the creature sickens, 
 the head sinks lower and lower, and it stands 
 as it were on its head ; till, getting weaker, 
 and losing all poise, the tail turns over, and 
 at last it floats on the surface of the water 
 with its belly uppermost. The reason why 
 fishes, when dead, swim in that manner is 
 very obvious ; because, when the body is no 
 longer balanced by the fins of the belly, the 
 broad muscular back preponderates by its own 
 gravity, and turns the belly uppermost, as 
 lighter from its being a cavity, and because it 
 contains the swimming-bladders, which contri- 
 
 necessary to muzzle him, that he may not 
 kill them in their holes, but only oblige them 
 to run out, that they may be entrapped in 
 the nets ; besides, if he is suffered to go in 
 unmuzzled, there is great danger of his being 
 lost ; for having sucked the blood of the rab- 
 bit, he will fall asleep ; and smoking the hole 
 is not always a successful expedient to bring 
 him back, because as the burrows frequently 
 communicate with each other, he is apt to be 
 the more bewildered the more he is surrounded 
 with smoke. The ferret is also made use of 
 by boys, in searching for birds' nests in the 
 holes of walls or trees. 
 
 Strabo says, the ferret was brought from 
 Africa into Spain ; which does not appear void 
 of foundation, as Spain is the native climate 
 of rabbits, and the country where formerly 
 these animals most abounded. It is probable, 
 therefore, that the rabbits having increased so 
 much as to become incommodious, the ferret 
 was introduced to diminish them, instead of 
 encouraging the race of polecats, from which 
 no advantage could have accrued but the 
 death of the rabbit, whereas by the ferret 
 some benefit is obtained by the hunter. The 
 ferret, though easily tamed and rendered 
 docile, is exceedingly irascible ; he has always 
 an ill smell, but more so when heated or irri- 
 tated. He has lively but inflamed eyes ; all 
 his movements are quick, and is besides so 
 strong, that he will easily master a rabbit 
 three or four times as big as himself. 
 Buffon. 
 
 bute to render it buoyant. Some that delight 
 in gold and silver fishes have adopted a notion 
 that they need no aliment. True it is that 
 they will subsist for a long time without any 
 apparent food but what they can collect from 
 pure water frequently changed ; yet they 
 must draw some support from animalcula, 
 and other nourishment supplied by the water ; 
 because, though they seem to eat nothing, 
 yet the consequences of eating often drop from 
 them. That they are best pleased with such 
 jejune diet may easily be confuted, since if 
 you toss them crumbs, they will seize them 
 with great readiness, not to say greediness : 
 however, bread should be given sparingly, lest, 
 turning sour, it corrupt the water. They will 
 also feed on the water-plant called duck's 
 meat (Lemna), and also on small fry. 
 
 When they want to move a little they 
 gently protrude themselves with their pinna 
 pectorales ; but it is with their strong mus- 
 cular tails only that they and all fishes shoot 
 along with such inconceivable rapidity. It 
 has been said that the eyes of fishes are im- 
 movcable : but thes apparently turn them
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 forward or backward in their sockets as their 
 occasions require. They take little notice of 
 a lighted candle, though applied close to their 
 heads, but flounce and seem much frightened 
 by a sudden stroke of the hand against the 
 support whereon the bowl is hung ; especially 
 when they have been motionless, and are per- 
 haps asleep. As fishes have no eyelids, it is 
 not easy to discern when they are sleeping 
 or not, because their eyes are always open. 
 
 Nothing can be more amusing than a glass 
 bowl containing such fishes : the double re- 
 fractions of the glass and water represent 
 them, when moving, in a shifting and change. 
 
 QUITTER, *. A disease in horses. 
 
 This is a disease of the foot, originating 
 in a bruise or tread upon the coronet, or thin 
 parts of the hoof. Superficial injuries on the 
 coronet are often inflicted by the horse scratch- 
 ing himself with the opposite heel. But the 
 bruise which causes quitter is of a more 
 serious nature, and is inflicted by the horse 
 stepping with great force upon the higher part 
 of the inside of the foot, in endeavouring to 
 save himself from slipping ; and from this it 
 is that the disorder generally or almost always 
 takes place in winter, when the roads are 
 slippery. It is well known that smiths, and 
 the most ignorant of farriers, often succeed in 
 their treatment of this disorder, and that 
 veterinary surgeons often faiL The cause is, 
 that they are not sufficiently attentive to such 
 cases, and do not follow up the dressing as it 
 is necessary to do, in order to get at the bot- 
 tom of the injury. In order to cure a quitter 
 effectually, let the following directions be 
 carefully attended to. 
 
 Ascertain carefully, by means of a probe, 
 the direction and extent of the sinuses, or 
 pipes, as they are termed, then let them be 
 completely filled with sublimate. 
 
 To do this effectually, the sublimate must 
 be wrapped up in small pieces of whitey- 
 brown paper, and introduced by very small 
 portions at a time, so that they may be forced, 
 as near as possible, to the bottom of the sinus. 
 But however carefully this may be done, the 
 sinuses are always so crooked or winding, that 
 the first dressing can seldom be got to the 
 bottom of them. In six or seven days a large 
 slough or core will come out, when the dress- 
 ing has been properly applied ; and as soon as 
 this has taken place, it may be necessary to 
 dress in the same manner as at first ; and even 
 this must be repeated if the bottom of the 
 disease is not found, and that generally is the 
 lateral cartilage. Nothing more is necessary 
 after this than to keep the sinus filled with 
 lint, dipped in friar's balsam, taking care to 
 introduce it quite to the bottom every time of 
 drearing. The rinus will thus be gradually 
 filled up and healed. Quitters are sometimes 
 
 able variety of dimensions, shades, and colours, 
 while the two mediums, assisted by the con- 
 cavo-convex shape of the vessel, magnify and 
 distort them vastly ; not to mention that the 
 introduction of another element and its inha- 
 bitants into our parlours engages the fancy in 
 a very agreeable manner. 
 
 Gold and silver fishes, though originally 
 natives of China and Japan, yet are become 
 so well reconciled to our climate as to thrive 
 and multiply very fast in our ponds and stews. 
 Linnaeus ranks this species of fish under the 
 genus of Cyprinus, or carp, and calls it 
 Cyprintu auratus. White's Selborne. 
 
 cured by syringing the part, after it has been 
 cored out, with sublimate. For this purpose 
 a tube is forced into the wound, so as to reach 
 the bottom, and through it a strong solution 
 of blue vitriol, or tincture of myrrh, is in- 
 jected. When these means fail, the foul car- 
 tilage, or bone, may be scraped by a very 
 small chisel or gouge, or other more convenient 
 instrument. I have seen quitters cured, or 
 rather dried up, merely by dressing with tinc- 
 ture of myrrh, after coring it out with subli- 
 mate. The opening has often remained, and 
 appeared to have become horny within, so that 
 no inconvenience was felt from it Another 
 method of curing quitter is one commonly 
 
 i practised by farriers or shoeing smiths, and is 
 
 i called boring. This is done by passing a red- 
 hot iron, of a suitable size and form, to the 
 bottom of the sinus, and then filling it with 
 sublimate, or strong sublimate ointment. 
 Sometimes another opening is made through 
 the sound parts, at a little distance from the 
 quitter, but in a slanting direction, so as to 
 communicate with the quitter: this also is 
 
 ! filled with sublimate ointment 
 
 When much pain and swelling take place 
 
 j after the operation, the foot may be wrapped 
 in a large poultice. After the cure of a bad 
 quitter there is ofte* a permanent defect on 
 that side of the hoof, which is named a false 
 quarter ; that is, the new shoot of horn that 
 grows down is imperfect, depressed, of a light 
 colour, and is apt to split, and become a sand 
 crack. When a horse receives a wound or 
 bruise on the foot or coronet, by treading 
 upon it, or by other means, the most likely 
 method of preventing a quitter is to bathe the 
 wound or bruise with a strong stimulant, such 
 as tincture of myrrh, friar's balsam, spirit of 
 turpentine, or camphorated spirit This seems 
 to deaden the sensibility of the bruised or 
 wounded nerves, and thereby prevent inflam- 
 mation more effectually than a poultice. 
 Should inflammation take place, however, 
 afterwards, a poultice should be applied. 
 White.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 613 
 
 RACE, DONC ASTER, for the Great St. Leger Stakes, 1832, of which our 
 Frontispiece,^drawn by'PoLLARD, expressly for this work, is a correct 
 representation. 
 
 The following is the account given in the 
 Sporting Magazine for that year : 
 
 And now the hour arrived to set all fan- 
 cies and opinions at nought, and disclose what 
 so many had so long and anxiously looked for- 
 ward to ascertain. On clearing the ground, the 
 
 Lord Sligo's ch. c. Daxon, by Langar Con 
 1 Sir B. Bulkeley's b. c. Birdcatcher, by St. Patrick 
 Mr. Houldsworth's b. c. David, by Catton 
 Mr. Edmundson's ch. c. Richmond, by Jack Spigot 
 Mr. Powlett's gr. f. by Figaro . 
 Lord Cleveland's ch. c. Trustee, by Catton 
 Mr. Ridsdale's b. c. Brother to Maria, by Whisker 
 Lord Kelbume's b. c. Retainer, by Jerry - 
 Mr. F. Richardson's b. c. Fang, bv Langar 
 Mr. S. Fox's br. c, Julius, by Jerry 
 Lord Exeter's b. c. Byzantium, by Sultan 
 Mr. Skipsey's b. c. Physician, by Brutandorf 
 Mr. W. Scott's b. c. Carlton, by Catton - 
 Mr. Watt's b. f. Nitocris, by Whisker 
 Lord Langford's b. c. Roue, by Starch 
 Mr. Beardsworth's br. c. Ludlow, by Filho da Puta 
 Mr. Gully's ch. c. Margrave, by Muley 
 
 following seventeen showed themselves, parad- 
 ing before the stand, to exhibit their varied 
 beauties and accomplishments before the 
 bouquet of female elegance and beauty which 
 shone studded in brilliancy amidst an ani- 
 mated multitude ;. 
 
 A.Pavis, 
 
 Calloway. 
 
 S. Darling. 
 
 R. Johnson. 
 
 J. Holmes. 
 
 J. Day. 
 
 Scott 
 
 G. Nelson. 
 
 Connolly. 
 
 S. Templeman. 
 
 ArnnlL 
 
 H. Edwards. 
 
 Garbutt. 
 
 T. Nicholson. 
 
 T. Lye. 
 
 Wright. 
 
 J. Robinson. 
 
 After the usual parading, the whole drew 
 up together, and made a false start Ludlow, 
 Physician, and Carlton staying behind, and all 
 the others going some distance before they 
 could be pulled up. On re-assembling, a 
 most excellent and beautiful start was ef- 
 fected, the lot going away in a cluster, with 
 Mr. Powlett's filly leading for about two 
 hundred yards, when Rone took it from her 
 Carlton, the filly, Physician, Nitocris, Bird- 
 catcher, Richmond, Trustee, Maria, Retainer, 
 Julius, and Fang following alongside in front, 
 and the others well up, at one of the worst 
 Leger paces ever witnessed, and all keeping 
 their ground over the hfll to the T. Y. C. 
 post, when Mr. Pavis began to handle the 
 whipcord to Daxon, who was the first that 
 exhibited defeat. The example, however, was 
 soon found to have plenty of imitators ; for, 
 before reaching the Red House, Fang, Nito- 
 cris, Trustee, Carlton, Roue, and Brother to 
 Maria, fell away from the contest Mr. Pow- 
 
 SAFETY TRIGGER, s. 
 
 Safety-triggers have been introduced to 
 obviate, if possible, the fatal accidents which 
 have arisen from accidental discharges. Many 
 plans have been devised to effect this most 
 desirable object. Among the most ingenious, 
 
 STABLE, s. A place for hordes. 
 
 Loftiness is very desirable in a stable. It 
 should never be less than twelve feet high, 
 and the best method of ventilation is by 
 
 lett's mare coming round the corner down to 
 the rails with a very promising and nattering 
 appearance, followed closely by Birdcatcher, 
 Physician, Retainer, and Richmond ; Mar- 
 grave lying two or three lengths in the rear. 
 On reaching the rails Calloway came out with 
 Birdcatcher, went up to the Figaro filly, at 
 the distance defeated her, and looked very 
 much like a winner; but Robinson, who had 
 patiently waited, now crept up on the outside, 
 malting his ground by a gradual steady ad- 
 vance. At the stand he caught the Bird- 
 catcher, and left him at the post in the rear 
 by three-quarters of a length, amid the deaf- 
 ening shouts of the lads " wot had put the 
 siller on the back of Muley's son." The 
 Figaro filly ran in third, Physician (only beat 
 by the filly a head) fourth, Richmond fifth, 
 Retainer sixth, and David seventh Ludlow, 
 Fang, Byzantium, and Carlton landing the 
 four latt horses of the race. 
 
 one by Goulding, and another by Moore, are 
 among the most novel, and probably the 
 most effective. People must, however, be 
 miserably nervous, to render safety-triggers 
 necessarv. 
 
 means of a chimney or square opening in the 
 ceiling, communicating with the open air, or 
 it may be made in the form of a dome or
 
 614 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 [Sr* 
 
 cupola, which would be more ornamental. 
 The chimney need not be opened at the top 
 so as to admit the rain, but should be roofed, 
 and have lateral openings by means of wea- 
 ther-boards, as they are termed. As to the 
 admission of air into the stable, the usual 
 means provided for that purpose are quite 
 sufficient; that is, by windows. The method 
 adopted in barrack stables, of making an open- 
 ing in the wall, near the ground at the end of 
 the stable, is useless, to say the best of it. 
 A stable, when properly paved, and kept 
 moderately clean, requires only a shallow, 
 wide gutter, twelve inches wide, and one inch 
 deep. This, with a pail or two of water 
 thrown upon the floor, and swept off while 
 the horse is at exercise, will keep the 
 stable perfectly clean and free from offensive 
 smells. The depth of a stable should not be 
 less than eighteen feet, nor the height, as I 
 observed before, less than twelve. The width 
 of a stall should not be less than six feet 
 clear. But, when there is sufficient room, it 
 is a much better plan to allow each horse a 
 space of ten or twelve feet, where he may be 
 loose and exercise himself a little. This will 
 be an effectual means of avoiding swollen 
 heels, and a great relief to horses that are 
 worked hard. With respect to the rack and 
 manger, I shall describe one which I have 
 seen employed in a wag'on-stable with the 
 best effect. It is intended for two horses; 
 for horses, when a little accustomed to each 
 other, and working together, will always agree 
 well when kept in the same stall, especially 
 when they have, as is the case here, separate 
 mangers, and are prevented by their halters 
 from interfering with each other's corn. The 
 space for two horses is twelve feet. The 
 mangers and rack are all on a level, and 
 about three feet from the ground. The 
 manger should never be less than eighteen 
 inches deep, eighteen inches from the front to 
 the back part, and two feet in length. The 
 rack should be four feet for one horse. The 
 rack may be made with staves in the front, 
 like a common rack, but this is not necessary ; 
 indeed, it is better to have it closed in front. 
 The back part of the rack should be an in- 
 clined plane made of wood; should be gra- 
 dually sloped towards the front ; and should 
 terminate about two feet down. Such a rack 
 will hold more hay than ever ought to be put 
 before one horse. The advantages of this 
 rack are numerous. In the first place the 
 hay is easily put into it, and renders a hay- 
 loft over the stable unnecessary; and this 
 may be an inducement to the builder to make 
 the stable as lofty as it ought to be, and ren- 
 der other ventilation unnecessary. All the 
 hay that is put into this manger will be eaten; 
 but in the common rack it is well known that 
 a large portion of the hay is often pulled down 
 
 upon the litter and trodden upon, whereby a 
 considerable quantity is often wasted. It 
 prevents the hayseeds or dust from falling 
 upon the horse, or into his eyes ; and, what is 
 of considerable importance, though seldom 
 attended to, there will be an inducement to 
 the groom to give the horse hay in small 
 quantities at a time, and frequently, from the 
 little trouble which attends putting it into 
 the rack. The saving in hay that may be 
 effected by the use of this rack is so apparent 
 that it need not be dwelt upon. Some mis- 
 chievous horses will throw out the hay with 
 their noses : but this may be effectually pre- 
 vented by one or two cross bars that is, 
 crossing the upper part of the crib from the 
 back to the front. This kind of rack and 
 manger, from being boarded up in front, will 
 effectually prevent the litter from being kept 
 constantly under the horse's head and eyes, 
 by which he is compelled to breathe the va- 
 pours which arise from it. The length of the 
 halter should be only four feet from the 
 headstall to the ring through which it passes : 
 this will admit of his lying down with ease, 
 and that is all which is required. The ling 
 should be placed close to that side where the 
 manger is, and not in the centre of the stall. 
 The sides of the stall should be sufficiently 
 high and deep, to prevent horses from biting 
 and kicking each other. In post and wag- 
 on stables, where the stall is made for a 
 pair of horses, the manger will be placed 
 at each end, and the hay-crih in the cen- 
 tre. The window cf the stable should be 
 at the south-east end, and the door at the 
 opposite end. The window should be as 
 high as the ceiling will admit of, and in size 
 proportioned to that of the stable. In one of 
 twelve feet high, it need not come down more 
 than five feet, and will then be seven feet 
 from the ground, and out of the way of being 
 broken. The frame of the window should 
 be moveable upon a pivot in the centre, and 
 opened by means of a cord running over a 
 pulley in the ceiling, and fastened by means 
 of another cord. With a window of this kind, 
 in a stable of three or four horses, no other 
 ventilation will be required : a person never 
 need be solicitous about finding openings for 
 the air to enter when there is sufficient room 
 above, and means for it to escape. It is a 
 good plan to have two doors, or to have the 
 common door divided transversely, about four 
 or five feet from the ground ; the upper part 
 may then be occasionally left open. Where 
 much light is admitted, the walls of the sta- 
 ble should not be white, but of a stucco or 
 lead colour, and better if painted ; for then 
 they may always be washed clean with soap 
 and water, as well as the stalls, rack, and 
 manger ; and this should be done once in two 
 or three weeks, or a month at furthest. If
 
 STA] 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 615 
 
 the walls are boarded up to the height of 
 about five feet, and this, as \vell as the stalls, 
 painted of a light wainscot colour, it will look 
 extremely neat, and the under part of the 
 wall will be kept drier, and look more com- 
 fortable. A stable should be lighted by means 
 of an argand lamp suspended from the ceiling, 
 and moveable. This will give a far better 
 light, is cheaper, and more secure than any 
 other contrivance whatever, except gas-light, 
 and, if properly trimmed, will burn without 
 a particle of smoke. Instead of having a 
 large corn chest in the stable, a handsome seat 
 may be made at the back of the stable ex- 
 tending as far as may be necessary : in this 
 there may be partitions to separate the beans, 
 or the bran, and places may be made to rest 
 the arms upon, so that a gentleman may sit 
 down comfortably in his stable and see bis 
 horses taken care of. A stable thus con- 
 structed will be found conducive to the health 
 and the comfort of horses, and will afford an 
 inducement to the groom to attend to every 
 little circumstance which may contribute to 
 cleanliness. He will not allow the smallest 
 bit of dung to remain swept up at one end of 
 the stable, as it commonly is. The pails 
 should be kept outside, and not standing 
 about the stable, as they commonly are. If 
 it is necessary to take off the chill from water, 
 it is much better and more easily done, by 
 the addition of a little hot water, than by 
 suffering it to stand in the stable ; and while 
 the horses are at exercise, the litter should be 
 all turned out to dry, and the floor well 
 washed or swept out. A little fresh straw 
 may then be placed for the horses to stale 
 upon. Litter thus dried during the day will 
 serve again as well as fresh straw for the bot- 
 tom of the bed, and be free from smell. A 
 saving may be made in litter by turning it 
 out, and drying it as I have described ; and if 
 a shed were built adjoining a stable, it may 
 be done at all times, and may serve also to 
 exercise and clean a horse in wet weather. 
 
 Neither dogs, fowls, nor goats, should ever 
 be permitted to enter a stable ; and dung 
 should be kept at a distance from it. In 
 speaking of the arrangements of the stable, it 
 may not be amiss to notice what I consider a 
 good contrivance in cleaning horses, that is, 
 to have two straps, one on each side the stall, 
 about one yard from the head of it. By these 
 the horse may be fastened during the time 
 he is cleaned, by which means he will be 
 effectually prevented from biting the manger 
 or the groom ; and being kept back in the stall, 
 the groom will be better able to clean the 
 front of his fore legs, chest, and neck, and be 
 able to move round him : this is better than 
 strapping him to the rack. When the com- 
 mon rack and manger are preferred, the rack 
 staves should be straight, and brought nearly 
 
 down to the manger, and this may easily be 
 done without the necessity of a hay loft, and 
 the manger may be made deep and wide as I 
 have described it. 
 
 * 
 
 The heat of a stable should be graduated 
 by a thermometer, always kept there for the 
 purpose. Our feelings are but a feeble guide 
 to our judgment in measuring temperature. 
 It would be well that the stable heat should 
 seldom reach, but never exceed, 50 degrees of 
 Fahrenheit in winter, or 65 in summer. To 
 renew the air, the stable should be well venti- 
 lated ; and such ventilation should be as near 
 the ceiling or top of the stable as possible, as 
 the impure air ascends. The ventilators, 
 sometimes seen, which revolve quickly on 
 their own centres, are not, I think, good, 
 because they occasion a draught of air; for 
 which reason likewise windows should be so 
 constructed as not to open directly on either 
 the front or the rear of the horse. One of the 
 best methods of ventilation is by means of one 
 or more tubes or funnels, according to the size 
 of the stable, which should be let into the 
 ceiling, presenting below a larger end of twelve 
 or eighteen inches square, which, as it ascends, 
 should narrow at its summit to about four or 
 five inches ; and this should pass out at the 
 roof of the building, having a raised cup over 
 its top to prevent the wet from descending. 
 Light appears essentially necessary to a stable ; 
 the exit from a dark one must be a gainful 
 stimulus to the eyes of the horse, and his 
 imperfect vision makes him startlish and irri- 
 table. Dark stables are supposed to encour- 
 age feeding ; and it is not impossible but the 
 horses of eastern countries eat most during the 
 night. It also, it is thought, induces them to 
 lie down more. The greatest encouragement 
 to the latter is a loose box, and to the former 
 air, exercise, and soft water. Stables should 
 be well ceiled, and that very closely : when 
 this is not the case, not only does the dust 
 from the hayloft fall on the horse, but it fre- 
 quently enters his eyes ; and the impure air, 
 composed of nitrogen and ammoniacal gas, 
 which always ascends, lodges in the hay above. 
 In fact, it would be better that both the hay 
 and corn should be altogether removed from 
 the sphere of action of the ammoniacal effluvia 
 of the stable, and only brought to the animals 
 as they are wanted. Partial draughts of air 
 in a stable should be carefully avoided, as 
 extremely injurious to horses : a very lofty 
 ceiling without an upper story, is the best pre- 
 ventive to this. Narrow stalls are very preju- 
 dicial to horses; strains in the back are often 
 occasioned by them ; and whenever a stall is 
 less than six feet wide, the groom should have 
 peremptory orders never to turn the horse out 
 of it, but always to back. Bars or bails are 
 also objectionable, from the ease with which
 
 616 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 horses may play with and kick each, other 
 over them, and likewise because it is seldom 
 that horses eat alike in point of quickness; 
 and thus, when they are separated by bars 
 only, the slowest eater gets robbed of his food. 
 
 The acclivity of the generality of stalls is 
 also a very serious objection to them, for 
 they occasion a horse to stand unequally, and 
 an undue proportion of weight is thrown on 
 the hinder extremities : the declivity also puts 
 the flexor tendons of both the hind and fore 
 legs on a continual streteh, and by it probably 
 many horses are injured. The smallest pos- 
 sible slope only should be allowed : neither 
 is the central grating a remedy for this incon- 
 venience ; for it not only is useless as regards 
 mares, but it is rather injurious, because it 
 retains the urine, which thus continues to dif- 
 fuse at every moment the effluvia it should 
 be so much our study to avoid. It is much, 
 better that each stall should be furnished with 
 a grating placed over a small drain at the foot 
 of the stall, which should be so constructed, 
 as to carry off the urine or washings from 
 each horse into one common out-door cess- 
 pool perfectly secured against the access of 
 the external air, that an injurious effluvia may 
 not pass up through the gratings. Professor 
 Peal, in his excellent Observations, has 
 entered largely into the injurious effects of 
 the ammouiacal exhalations arising from the 
 urine : to these he attributes, in a great mea- 
 sure, the ophthalmia by which so many valu- 
 able horses are ruined. This separation of 
 volatile alkali is not confined to the urinary 
 secretion alone it extends to the faeces also, 
 and to both the sensible, and to the insensi- 
 ble perspiration. The urine, from the expe- 
 riments of that able chemist, Dr. Egan, begins 
 to separate ammonia in a few hours after its 
 evacuation from the body, and there is reason 
 to suppose that the faeces as readily fall into 
 this early decomposition ; therefore a neces- 
 sity exists for their speedy removal also. 
 
 There is much contrariety of opinion rela- 
 tive to the propriety of permitting horses to 
 stand during the day on Utter ; and there are 
 cogent arguments for and against it. Litter 
 entices horses to lie down during the day, 
 which relieves fatigue, and is favourable to 
 the recovery of over-strained limbs : it also 
 prevents an uneven or hurtful pressure on the 
 feet when it is cobble-paved. On the other 
 hand, gross feeding horses are apt to eat their 
 litter, which is not desirable. It is, likewise, 
 too apt to retain the urine, and thereby to 
 generate the acrid salts we have described. 
 Constantly standing on straw makes many 
 horses' legs swell, which, is proved by remov- 
 
 ing it, when such legs immediately return to 
 their proper size : the warmth and moisture 
 retained in it, likewise, are very apt to occa- 
 sion cracks and swelled legs. Litter retained 
 is probably injurious to the feet also ; for if 
 horn has a tendency to contract by the appli- 
 cation of heat, the horn of the feet being 
 placed so many hours within it, must be sub- 
 jected to this additional stimulus to contrac- 
 tion. In my own stables no litter is ever 
 suffered to remain under the fore feet during 
 the day : on the contrary, the horses stand on 
 the bare bricks, which in summer are watered 
 to make them more cool. Behind, a little 
 straw is strewed, because horses are apt to 
 kick and break the bricks with their hinder 
 feet, and because, when no gratings exist, or 
 no slope is present, the litter thus placed 
 sucks up the moisture of the urine, which 
 would be detrimental to the hinder feet, 
 which are more liable to thrushes than con- 
 traction. 
 
 The box is a necessary appendage to every 
 good stable ; indeed, it may, with great pro- 
 priety, form a part of the stablfe : and I would 
 advise that, whenever a new one be erected, so 
 to frame it, that every standing may, by a 
 moveable partition, be readily made into a 
 distinct and separate box. It would be well, 
 were in-door horses more generally accus- 
 tomed to spend their leisure time in boxes 
 than stalls : boxes are advantageous to the 
 jaded horse, by encouraging him to lie down 
 during the day ; they are advantageous to the 
 idle horse, by encouraging him to exercise 
 himself. By means of boxes, the evils of long 
 frosts to the hunter are avoided ; and the 
 unrestrained enjoyment of freedom is relished 
 by all. A loose box wholly unconnected with 
 the stable is also a valuable appendage to a 
 gentleman's establishment : it may thus with 
 impunity be the receptacle of a contagious 
 case. The detached box should be so con- 
 structed as to be capable of being cooled to 
 nearly the temperature of the external air, or, 
 when necessary, to be made as warm as requi- 
 site for some cases of sickness. No projec- 
 tions should be allowed in its walls to hurt 
 the hips, in cases of falling from weakness, 
 staggers, &c. It should, also, have a grate in 
 the centre communicating with an outer cess- 
 pool, with a general slight bearing of the floor- 
 ing to the grating : into a large box of this 
 description, every horse taken up from grass 
 should be first put, to prevent the access of the 
 worst colds to which horses are liable, which 
 are those caught on the sudden remove from 
 a cool into a heated temperature White 
 Elaine's Outlines of the Veterinary Art. 
 
 LONDON : . 
 
 PRINTED BY BRADBURY AND EVANS, WHITEFRIAKS.
 
 


 
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