St. John, which is navigable for small vessels, which pass between New Orleans, Mobile, and Pensacola. Fort. St. John is situated at its entrance into the lake, seven miles north of New Orleans. Fort St. Charles is situated north-east of the city.

ORLEANS (Louis, duke of), son of Philip, the regent of France, was born at Versailles, August 4, 1703. He had for a tutor the abbé Mongault, who inspired him with an early taste for study; which was combined, however, in the first part of his life with much dissipation. He married in 1724 the princess of Baden, and, having the misfortune to lose her two years after, he fell into a profound melancholy, which at length induced him to preclude himself from the world. He had an apartment in the abbey of St. Genevieve in 1730, and resided there entirely from 1742 till his death, February 4, 1752. He wrote translations, paraphrases, and annotations on the Scriptures, and other theological works.

ORLEANS (Louis Joseph Philip, duke of), the celebrated Egalité, was a grandson of the foregoing, and born at St. Cloud, April 13, 1747. He was first called the duke of Chartres, and in 1769 was married to the daughter of the duke of Penthievre, the grand admiral of France. To this office the prince wished to have succeeded, but, not being able to do so, he went as a volunteer on board the squadron of d'Orvilliers, and was present at the engagement with the English off Ushant, where he is said to have behaved with extreme cowardice. On his return home, the post of colonel-general of the hussars was bestowed on him. Some time after he succeeded the count de Clermont as chief of the French freemasons. On the death of his father, 1787, he became possessed of the hereditary estates, and from that period adopted various methods to obtain popularity, and gradually drew around him the friends of the rising revolution. His behaviour towards the king at the royal session, November 19, 1787, occasioned his exile to Villiers Coteret. Before the convocation of the States-general, attempts were made to gain him over to the court, but, becoming a member of that body, he protested against all the decrees of the chamber of nobles, and at length joined the tiers état to form the National Assembly. He evidently at this period wished to reduce the king to a state of tutelage, and procure for himself the office of lieutenant-general of the kingdom. But he soon became the passive instrument of the Jacobins, and ultimately the victim of his own and their schemes. Chosen a member of the Convention in September, 1792, the commune of Paris authorised him to adopt for himself and his descendants the appellation of Egalité, and he abandoned the name and title of his family. He voted in the Convention for the death of the king, and on the 7th of April following he was himself arrested and committed to prison at Marseilles; but, being brought before the tribunal of the department, he was declared innocent of all charges of conspiracy against the government. The committee of public safety, however, forbade his liberation, and after six month's detention he was transferred to Paris. At his examination on a new trial, he defended himself with considerable

address, but was condemned to suffer by the guillotine, and executed November 6, 1793.

ORLEANS (Charlotte Elizabeth, duchess of) the daughter of Charles Louis of Bavaria, was born in 1652, and became in 1671 the second wife of the brother of Louis XIV., by whom she was the mother of the celebrated regent duke of Orleans. Her person was plain, but her disposition was lively, and her talents and wit made an impression on the king. She died in 1722. Her letters addressed to duke Ulric of Bavaria, and the princess of Wales, tend to elucidate the history of Louis XIV., and the regency of her son. They were published at Paris in 1788, and reprinted in 1807; the best edition is that of M. Schubart, Paris, 1823, 8vo.

ORLEANS (Peter Joseph), a French Jesuit, born at Bourges in 1641. He taught the belles lettres for some time in his society, but afterwards devoted himself to history. He wrote a History of the Revolutions of Spain: a History of Two Conquering Tartars, Chunchi and Camhi; the Life of Father Coton; and a History of the Revolutions in England, under the Stuarts, from 1603 to 1690. He died in 1698.

ORLOFF (Gregory), a favorite of Catherine II. of Russia, first served in the artillery under the empress Elizabeth, and was aide-de-camp to general Schuvaloff, whose mistress preferring him to the general, the intrigue was discovered, and Orloff was dismissed from his post. Catherine, then grand duchess, saved him from being sent into Siberia. He and his brother Alexis, who is said to have strangled the emperor, had a principal share in the subsequent revolution. He was now made grand master of the artillery, and raised to the first offices in the state. He even aimed at sharing the throne; but the empress, it is said, would only submit to a private marriage, which he imprudently refused. His influence, in consequence, declined, and he was supplanted by a new favorite. He was then ordered to travel, gratified with magnificent presents, and received the title of prince of the German empire. After an absence of five months he returned, and resided several years at Petersburgh, hoping to recover his former influence. Disappointed in this, he made a tour in Germany, Italy, and France. He retired to Petersburgh in 1782, when he became deranged, and died at Moscow the following year. He had by the empress one son, named Bobrinski, educated under the direction of his mother, but he showed himself unworthy of her care.

OR'LOP, n. s. Belg. overloop; Teut. overloft. The middle deck of a ship.

A small ship of the king's, called the Pensie, was assailed by the Lyon, a principal ship of Scotland; wherein the Pensie so applied her shot, that the Lyon's oreloop was broken, her sails and tackling torn; and, lastly, she was boarded and taken.

Hayward. '

ORME (Ropert), a modern historical writer, was born in 1728, at Anjengo, in the East Indies, where his father was a physician. He was sent to be educated at Harrow, after which he obtained a civil appointment in India, and became a member of the council at Fort St. George; and commissary and accomptant-gene

brandies, salt and salt fish, iron, wood soap, flax seed, building stones, plaster, &c. In its course it receives the waters of the Noiveau, the Aize, the Odon, and several other rivers, and at one spot forms a grand cascade falling between two rocks frrom a height of more than 100 feet.

ORNE, DEPARTMENT OF THE, in France, is formed of the Perche and the southern part of the ancient province of Normandy, and takes its name from the river Orne, which flows through it from the east to the north-west. The chief place of this prefecture is Alençon; it is divided into four arrondissements; Alençon, containing 72,115 inhabitants; Argentau, 113,218; Domfront, 117,266; and Mortagne, 120,285; being a total population of 422,884 souls, on an area of 2790 square miles, and yielding a territorial revenue of 22,096,000 francs. It is in the fourteenth military division, having a royal court at Caen and a bishopric at Seez, and containing thirtyfive cantons and 627 communes, consisting of four electoral arrondissements, which send seven members to the chamber of deputies. This department is bounded on the north by that of Calvados, on the north-east by that of the Eure, on the east by the Eure-et-Loir; on the south by those of the Sarthe and the Mayenne, and on the west by that of the Channel.

The surface of the country is intersected through its whole length by a chain of lofty hills, partly covered with woods; some parts consist of uncultivated lands, and some of fertile plains producing all sorts of grain, and valleys abounding in pasturage, for the feed of great numbers of cattle and horses, which are held in high estimation for cavalry. This district is generally fertile in corn, hemp, flax, and great quantities of apples for cider. The quality of the soil and the variations of the climate are unfavorable to the cultivation of the vine. It is mostly cultivated with horses, and produces more than a sufficient supply for its inhabitants; consisting of 58,960 hectares of forest (oak, beech, and birch), besides arable land, which produces on an average twenty-nine francs twenty-two centimes per hectare. Besides the articles already mentioned there is abundance of small game, such as hares, red and gray partridges, &c., good fresh-water fish, sheep, pigs, poultry, geese, and bees. There are mines of iron, black lead, and manganese, and quarries of marble, granite, and freestone, and great quantities of turf. There are hot-baths at Bagnoles, and a mineral spring at Herse; also a royal stud at Pin, which is one of the finest in Europe, and races at Alençon, for twenty-one departments.

The manufactures consist of pointlace at Alençon, iron wire, pins, sewing and knitting-needles, ironmongery, oil of vitriol, thread, tapes, laces, linen cloths for the colonies, cotton, canvas, dimities, &c. There are also woollen and cotton spinning factories, twelve blast furnaces, thirtysix wire-forges, glass-houses, delf-potteries, paper-mills, bleaching grounds, tan-yards, and curriers' shops. A considerable trade is carried on in grain, trefoil-seed, timber of different kinds, cattle, pigs, poultry, goose feathers, &c. The chief rivers that water this department are the Orne, the Sarthe, the Eure, the Mayenne, the Noireau, the Iton, the Huisnes, the Egrenne, the Varennes, the Don, the Dive and the Rille. It is crossed by the great roads of Caen, Laval, Mans, and Chartres.

ORNICUS LAPIS, a name given by some authors to the sapphire of the ancients, which is a peculiar species of our lapis lazuli, in which the gold-colored matter is not disposed in veins, but in separate spots of the form of a star. It was first called oriniscus and orinus, by corruption from aurinus, golden; and thence came at length the word ornicus.

ORNITHIÆ, a name given by the ancients to certain winds, which usually blew in the spring, at the time when the birds of passage came over to them. Pliny says that these winds blew from the west, and that by some the Etesian winds were called by this name. Others suppose that they blew from the north or northwest.

ORNITHOGALUM, star of Bethlehem; a genus of the monogynia order, and hexandria class of plants; natural order tenth, coronariæ: COR. hexapetalous, erect, persisting, and patent above the middle; the filaments alterdilated at the base. There are forty-three species, herbaceous perennials, rising from six inches to three feet high, having stalks terminated with long spikes of hexapetalous, star-shaped, white, and yellow flowers. Some of these are very hardy, and will prosper in any situation, but

O. Capense, a native of the Cape of Good Hope, requires the assistance of artificial warmth to preserve it in this country. They are all easily propagated by off-sets from the roots. The bulbous roots of all the species are nutritious and wholesome.

ORNIS CIPIST, n. s. Į Gr. opvic, a bird, ORNITHOLOGY. j and εσκοπα. One who prognosticates by the flight of birds: ornithology is the science which treats of their distinctions and peculiarities. See below.

ORNITHOLOGY is a branch of zoology, or the science which treats of birds, describes their form, external and internal, and teaches their economy and their uses.

A bird is an animal covered with feathers, furnished with a bill, having two wings, and only two legs, with the faculty, except in a very few instances, of removing itself from place to place through the air.

SECT. I.-EXTERNAL PARTS of Birds. A bird may be divided into the head, the body, and the limbs.

I. HEAD.

1. Bill (rostrum) is a hard horny substance, consisting of an upper and under part, extending from the head, and answering to the mandibles in quadrupeds. Its edges generally plain

and sharp, like the edge of a knife, cultrated, as are the bills of crows; but sometimes serrated, as in the toucan; or jagged, as in the gannet and some herons; or pectinated, as in the duck; or denticulated, as in the mergansers; but always destitute of real teeth immersed in sockets. The base in falcons is covered with a naked skin or cere (cera); in some birds with a carneous appendage, as the turkey; or a callous, as the curasso. In birds of prey, the bill is hooked at the end, and fit for tearing; in crows, straight and strong for picking: in water-fowls, either long and pointed for striking, or slender and blunt for searching in the mire, or flat and broad for gobbling. Its other uses are for building nests; feeding the young; climbing, as in parrots; or, lastly, as an instrument of defence or offence. 2. Nostrils (nares), the nice instruments of discerning their food, are placed either in the middle of the upper mandible, or near the base, or at the base, as in parrots; or behind the base, as in toucans and hornbills: but some birds, as the gannet, are destitute of nostrils. The nostrils are generally naked; but sometimes covered with bristles reflected over them, as in crows, or hid in the feathers, as in parrots, &c.

The fore part of the head is called the front (capistrum); the summit (vertex), or the crown; the hind part, with the next joint of the neck (nucha), the nape; the space between the bill and the eyes, which in herons, grebes, &c., is naked (lora) the straps; the space beneath the eyes (gene) the cheeks.

3. Orbits (orbitæ), the eye-lids; in some birds naked, in others covered with short soft feathers. Birds have no eye-brows; but the grouse kind have in lieu a scarlet naked skin above, which are called supercilia; the same word is also applied to any line of a different color that passes from the bill over the eyes.

4. Ears. Birds are destitute of auricles or external ears, having an orifice for admission of sound; open in all but owls, whose ears are furnished with valves.

5. The chin, the space between the parts of the lower mandible and the neck, is generally covered with feathers; but, in the cock and some others, has carneous appendages called wattles (palearia); in others is naked, and furnished with a pouch, capable of great dilatation (sacculus), as in the pelican and corvorants.

6. Neck (collum), the part that connects the head to the body, is longer in birds than in any other animals; and longer in such as have long legs than in those that have short, either for gathering up their meat from the ground, or striking their prey in the water; except in web-footed fowls, which are, by reversing their bodies, destined to search for food at the bottom of waters, as swans, and the like. Birds, especially those that have a long neck, have the power of retracting, bending, or stretching it out, in order to change their centre of gravity from their legs to their wings.

II. BODY.

1. Consists of the back (dorsum), which is flat, straight, and inclines; terminated by the

2. Rump (uropygium), furnished with two

glands, secreting a fattish liquor from an orifice each has, which the birds express with their bills, to oil or anoint the discomposed parts of their feathers. These glands are particularly large in most web-footed water-fowls; but in the grebes, which want tails, they are smaller.

3. Breast (pectus) is ridged and very muscular, defended by a forked bone (clavicula), the merry-thought. The short winged birds, such as grouse, &c., have their breasts most fleshy or muscular; as they require greater powers in flying than the long-winged birds, such as gulls and herons, which are specifically lighter, and have greater extent of sail.

4. Belly (abdomen) is covered with a strong skin, and contains the entrails.

5. The Vent, or vent-feathers (crissum), which lies between the thighs and the tail. The anus lies hid in those feathers.

III. LIMBS.

1. Wings (ala), adapted for flight in all birds except the dodo, ostriches, cassowary, great auk, and the penguins, whose wings are too short for the use of flying; but in the dodo and ostrich, when extended, serve to accelerate their motion in running; and in the penguins perform the office of fins in swimming or diving. The wings have near their end an appendage, covered with four or five feathers, called the bastard wing (ala notha), and alula spuria.

The lesser coverts (tectrices) are the feathers which lie on the bones of the wings. The greater coverts are those which lie beneath the former, and cover the quill-feathers and the secondaries.

The quill-feathers (primores) spring from the first bones (digiti and metacarpi), of the wings, and are ten in number. Quill feathers are broader on their inner than their exterior sides. The secondaries (secondaria), are those that rise from the second part (cubitus), and are about eighteen in number, and equally broad on both sides. The primary and secondary wing-feathers are called remiges. A tuft of feathers placed beyond the secondaries near the junction of the wings with the body. This in water-fowls is generally longer than the secondaries, cuneiform, and may not unaptly be called the tertials.

The scapulars are a tuft of long feathers arising near the junction of the wings (brachia) with the body, and lie along the sides of the back, but may be easily distinguished, and raised with one's finger. The inner coverts are those that clothe the under side of the wing. The subaxillary are peculiar to the greater Paradise. The wings of some birds are instruments of offence. The anhima of Marcgraye has two strong spines in the front of each wing. One, species of plover has a single one in each; the whole tribe of jacana, and the gambo, or spur-winged goose of Willoughby, the same.

2. The tail is the director, or rudder, of birds in their flight; they rise, sink, or turn by its means; for, when the head points one way, the tail inclines to the other side; it is, besides, an equilibrium or counterpoise to the other parts; the use is very evident in the kite and swallows. The tail consists of strong feathers (rectrices), ten

in number, as in the woodpeckers, &c.; twelve in the hawk tribe, and many others; in the gallinaceous, the mergansers, and the duck kind, of more. It is either even at the end, as in most birds; or forked, as in swallows; or cuneated, as in magpies, &c.; or rounded, as in the purple jackdaw of Catesby. The grebe is destitute of a tail, the rump being covered with down; and that of the cassowary with the feathers of the back. Immediately over the tail are certain feathers, that spring from the lower part of the back, and are called the coverts of the tail (uropygium).

3. Thighs (femora) are covered entirely with feathers in all land birds, except the bustards and the ostriches; the lower part of those of all waders, or cloven-footed water fowls, are naked; that of all webbed-footed fowls the same, but in a less degree in rapacious birds, they are very muscular.

4. Legs (crura); those of rapacious fowls very strong, furnished with large tendons, and fitted for tearing and a firm gripe. The legs of some of this genus are covered with feathers down to the toes, such as the golden eagle: others to the very nails; but those of most other birds are covered with scales, or with a skin divided into segments, or continuous. In some of the pies, and in all the passerine tribe, the skin is thin and membranous; in those of web-footed waterfowls, strong. The legs of most birds are placed near the centre of gravity: in land birds, or in waders that want the back toe, exactly so; for they want that appendage to keep them erect. Auks, grebes, divers, and penguins, having their legs placed quite behind, are necessitated to sit erect: their pace is awkward and difficult, walking like men in fetters: hence Linné styles their feet pedes compedes. The legs of all cloven-footed water fowls are long, as they must wade in search of food: of the palmated, short, except those of the flamingo, the avoset, and the

courier.

5. Feet (pedes), in all land birds that perch, have a large back toe; most of them have three toes forward, and one backward. Woodpeckers, parrots, and other birds that climb much, have two forward, two backward; but parrots have the power of bringing one of their hind toes forward while they are feeding themselves. Owls have also the power of turning one of their fore toes backward. All the toes of the swift turn forwards, which is peculiar among land-birds; the tridactylous woodpecker is also anomalous, having only two toes forward, one backward; the ostrich is another, having but two toes.

6. Toes (digiti). The toes of all waders are divided; but between the exterior and middle toe is generally a small web, reaching as far as the first joint. The toes of birds that swim are either plain, as in the single instance of the common water-hen or gallinule; or pinnated, as in the coots and grebes; or entirely webbed or palmated, as in all other swimmers. All the plover tribe, or charadrii, want the back toe. In the swimmers the same want prevails among the albatrosses and auks. No water fowls perch, except certain berons, the corvorant, and the shag. 7. Claws (ungues). Rapacious birds have

very strong, hooked, and sharp claws, vultures excepted Those of all land birds that roost on trees have also hooked claws, to enable them to perch in safety while asleep. The gallinaceous tribe have broad concave claws for scraping up the ground. Grebes have flat nails like the human.

Among water fowls, only the skua and the black-toed gull have strong hooked or aquiline claws. All land birds perch on trees, except the struthious and some of the gallinaceous tribes. Parrots climb; woodpeckers creep up the bodies and boughs of trees; swallows cling. All water fowls rest on the ground, except certain herons, and one species of ibis, the spoonbill, and one or two species of ducks and of corvorants.

IV. THE FEATHERS.

Feathers are designed for two uses; as coverings from the inclemency of the weather, and instruments of motion through the air. They are placed in such a manner as to fall over one another (tegulatim), so as to permit the wet to run off, and to exclude the cold; and those on the body are placed in a quincuncial form; mest apparent in the thick-skinned water fowls, particularly in the divers.

The parts of a feather are, the shafts; corneous, strong, light, rounded, and hollow at the lower part; at the upper, convex above, concave beneath, and chiefly composed of a pith.

On each side the shafts are the vanes, broad on one side and narrow on the other; each vane consists of a multitude of thin laminæ, stiff, and of the nature of a split quill. These lamina are closely braced together by the elegant contrivance of a multitude of small bristles; those on one side hooked, the other straight, which lock into each other, and keep the vanes smooth, compact, and strong. The vanes near the bottom of the shafts are soft, unconnected, and downy.

Feathers are of three kinds :-such as compose instruments of flight; as the pen-feathers, or those which form the wings and tail, and have a large shaft; the vanes of the exterior side bending downward, of the interior upward, lying close on each other, so that when spread not a feather misses its impulse on the air.

The feathers that cover the body, which mav be properly called the plumage, have little shaft and much vane; and never are exerted or relaxed, unless in anger, fright, or illness.

The down (pluma), which is dispersed over the whole body amidst the plumage, is short, soft, unconnected, consists of lanuginous vanes, and is intended for excluding that air or water which may penetrate or escape through the former. This is particularly apparent in aquatic birds, and remarkably so in the anserine tribe. There are exceptions to the forms of feathers. The vanes of the subaxillary feathers of the Paradise are unconnected, and the laminæ distant, looking like herring-bone. Those of the tail of the ostrich, and head of a species of curasso, curled. Those of the cassowary consist of two shafts, arising from a common stem at the bottom; as do, at the approach of winter, those of the ptarmigans of arctic countries. The