Bucks-capable of propagating at the age of one year; one buck sufficient for a hundred and fifty goats,; be- comes old before his seventh year; hunting the buck and the stag performed in the same manner in England; number of names invented by hunters for this animal; does not change his layer like the stag; manner of hunt ing him much the same as that of stag-hunting, 275, &c. Buffalo-of the varieties of the cow kind; only two are really distinct-the cow and the buffalo; they bear an antipathy to each other; they do not breed among each other, and no animals are more distinct; in abund- ance in Guinea and Malabar; it is a great swimmer; description of it; the veal of the young is not better eating than the beef of the old; they are natives of the warmer climates, yet are bred in several parts of Europe, particularly in Italy; the female produces one at a time; continues pregnant for twelve months; is afraid of fire; leather made of its hide is well known for thickness, softness, and impenetrability; guided by a ring thrust through the nose; milk of the female not so good as of the cow; two buffaloes yoked draw more than four strong horses; its flesh hard and blackish, disagreeable to taste and smell; this animal wild in many parts of India, and dangerous; manner of hunting them; when tamed no animal more patient or humble; inferior in size only to the elephant, the rhinoceros, or hippo- potamos; the cameleopard, or camel, if taller, neither so long nor so corpulent; is fond of the water, and crosses the largest rivers without difficulty; has an aversion to red colours that resemble flame; in those countries where they are in plenty no person dresses in scarlet; they make most use of their feet in combat, and rather tread their enemies to death than gore them, 254. Bug-their habits; described; are often found coupling tail to tail; manner of destroying them; they destroy fleas, and devour each other, 808, 809.
Bustard-is much larger than the turkey, the male generally weighing from twenty-five to twenty-seven pounds; its description; places where frequently seen in flocks of fifty or more; its food; they change their mates at the season of incubation, about the latter end of summer; in parts of Switzerland they are found frozen in the fields in severe weather; when taken to a warm place they again recover; usually live fifteen years, and are incapable of being propagated in a domestic state, 535, 536.
Butcher-bird-its description, with its habits; leads a life of continual combat; intrepidity of these little creatures in going to war with the pie, the crow, and the kestril, all above four times bigger than itself; some- times the combat ends with the destruction of the assail- ant and also of the defender; the most redoubtable birds of prey respect them, and they fly in their company without fearing their power or avoiding their resent ment; small birds its usual food; the smaller red butcher-bird migrates; the places where they are to be found; their nests, and the number of their eggs; dif- ferent kinds of this bird, 517 to 519.
Butterfly-one of the principal ornaments of oriental poetry; in those countries the insect is larger and more beautiful than with us; easily distinguished from flies of every kind by their wings; Linnæus has reckoned up above seven hundred and sixty different kinds, yet the catalogue is incomplete; number and beautiful colours of its wings; description of the head, corselet, and body; the eyes have not all the same form; the outward coat has a lustre, in which may be discovered all the colours of the rainbow; when examined closely it has the appearance of a multiplying-glass; the use of their horns and feelers are yet unknown; use of their trunks; difference between butterflies and moths; it has no organs for smelling; the female is larger than the male; if disturbed while united the female flies off with the male on her back; after junction they deposit their eggs and die; all females of this tribe are impregnated
by the male by one aperture, and lay their eggs by ano- ther; how they keep their eggs warm, and also entirely concealed; many of them do not lay till the winter warns them of their approaching end; some continue the whole winter in hollows of trees, and do not provide for posterity until the beginning of April, 842 to 847. Buzzard-a sluggish inactive bird; often remains perched whole days upon the same bough; lives more upon frogs, mice, and insects than upon birds more troublesome to seize; its manuer of living in summer; so little capable of instruction, that it is a proverb to call one obstinately ignorant a buzzard; the honey- buzzard, the moor-buzzard, and the hen-harrier are of this stupid tribe, and differ chiefly in their size, 517. C
CACHALOT a fish said to pursue a shoal of herrings, and to swallow thousands at a gulp; has generally gone under the name of the spermaceti whale till Mr. Pen- nant made the distinction, borrowing its name from the French; seven distinctions in this tribe; description; the throat of this animal very formidable; with ease it could swallow an ox; it terrifies the dolphins and por- poises so much as often to drive them on shore; it con- tains two precious drugs-spermaceti and ambergris; the oil of this fish is easily convertible into spermaceti by boiling it with a ley of pot-ash, and hardening it in the manuer of soap; candles are now made of it; the balls of ambergris not found in all fishes of this kind, but chiefly in the oldest and strongest, 667, 668.
Camel-camel and dromedary not two distinct kinds, only a variety of the same, which has subsisted time immemorial; the only sensible difference between these two races; they produce with each other, and the mixed breed is considered the best; of the two the dromedary is far the most numerous; countries where the camel and dromedary are found; neither can subsist or propa- gate in the climates towards the north; Arabia the most adapted to the support and production of this animal; the camel the most temperate of all animals; it can con- tinue to travel several days without drinking, and is often six or seven days without any sustenance; its feet formed to travel upon sand, and utterly unfit for moist or marshy places: many vain efforts tried to propagate the camel in Spain; they have been transported to America, but have multiplied in neither; uses to which this animal is put among the Arabians; its education; it has a fifth stomach, has a reservoir, to hold a greater quantity of water than immediately wanted; when the camel finds itself pressed with thirst it throws up a quantity of this water by a simple contraction of the muscles into the other stomachs; travellers when straightened for water often kill their camels for what they expect to find within them; countries where com- merce is carried on by means of camels; journeys in caravans; their food; pursue their way when their guides are utterly astray; its patience and docility when loaded; in what manner the female receives the male; one male left to wait on ten females, the rest castrated; they live from forty to fifty years; every part of this animal converted to some useful purpose; its very ex- crements are not useless; their burthen, 460 to 463.
Cameleon-its dimensions and appetites; has a power of driving the air it breathes over every part of the body; changes of its colour; it is an error that it assumes the colour of the object it approaches; descrip- tion of it by Le Bruyn; it often moves one eye when the other is at rest; sometimes one eye seems to look directly forward while the other looks backward, and one looks upward while the other regards the earth, 788 to 771.
Camel-leopard-described; dimensions of a young one; inhabits the deserts of Africa; no animal from its disposition or formation less fitted for a state of hostility; it lives entirely upon vegetables, and when
grazing spreads its fore-legs forward to reach the pas- ture; known to the ancients, but seldom seen in Europe; often tame at Grand Cairo, in Egypt; Pompey exhibited at one time ten upon the stage, 459, 460.
Canary-bird-taught to pick up the letters of the alphabet at the word of command, to spell any person's name in company; by the name, originally from the Canary Islands; comes to us from Germany, where they are bred in numbers; at what period brought into Europe is not known; about a century ago they were sold at very high prices, and kept only for the amuse- ment of the great; in its native islands it is of a dusky- grey colour, and so different from those seen in Europe, as to raise a doubt about its species; rules and instruc- tions for breeding them in a domestic state; apparatus for breeding in Germany; food the old ones must be supplied with when the young ones are excluded; so prolific are these birds sometimes, that the female will be ready to hatch a second brood before the first is able to quit the nest; this bird kept in company with the linnet or goldfinch pairs and produces a mixed breed, most like the canary-bird, and resembling it in its song, 583 to 585.
Cancerous-breasts cured by the sucking of the rubeth or land-toad, 754.
Cantharides well known in the shops by the name of Spanish-flies, and for their use in blisters; their description, with the differences from each other; the countries where and trees on which they are seen; their bad smell is a guide for those who catch them; they smell so disagreeable as to be perceived at a great dis- tance; they yield a deal of volatile caustic salt; their qualities; the effects fall principally upon the urinary passages; in what manner they are killed, 875.
Cape de Verde Islands—a south wind prevails in them during the mouth of July, 107.
Cape of Good Hope-a north-west wind blows there during the month of September; at the Cape of Good Hope it is customary to hunt the elephant for its teeth; in what manner; account of an unhappy huntsman, 107. 454, &c.
Capibara, or Cabiai-an animal resembing a hog of about two years old; its description; some naturalists have called it the water-hog, and why; a native of South America, and chiefly frequenting the borders of lakes and rivers; its cry resembles the braying of an ass more than the grunting of a hog, and why; its only place of safety is the water, into which it plunges when pur- sued, and keeps so long at the bottom that the hunter can have no hope of taking it there; when young is easily tamed; its flesh has a fishy taste, but its head is said to be excellent, 304.
Capons-taught to clutch a fresh brood of chickens throughout the year, 527.
Carnivorous animals-there is one class that pursue in a pack, and encourage each other by their mutual cries; support a state of famine for several weeks together; milk in those animals is more sparing than in others, 307 to 352.
Carp an experiment made with this fish in a large vase of water under an air pump; one found by Buffon not less than a hundred years old, 653.
Carriers-pigeons used to carry letters, 563. Carrion-crow-resemble the raven in its appetites, its saying, and manner of bringing up its young, 544.
Cartilaginous fishes their general conformation; sup- posed they grow larger every day till they die; their internal structure; are possessed of a two-fold power of breathing; apertures by which they breathe; the cartilaginous shark or ray lives some hours after it is taken; fishes of this tribe can remain under water without taking breath, and can venture their heads above the deep, and continue for hours out of their native element; their season and manner of copulating and of bringing forth; little difference between the
viviparous and the oviparous kinds in this class of fishes; five divisions of the cartilaginous fish, 670 to 682.
Cassowary a bird first brought into Europe by the Dutch from Java, in the East Indies, where only it is found; its description; the part which most distinguishes this animal is the head, which inspires some degree of terror; its internal parts described; it has the head of a warrior, the eye of a lion, the defence of a porcupine, and the swiftness of a courser; is not fierce in its natural character; how it defends itself; extraordinary manner of going; the Dutch assert that it can devour glass, iron, and stones, and even live and burning coals, without the smallest fear or the least injury; the largest of its eggs is fifteen inches round one way and twelve the other; places where the animal is found; it has not multiplied in any considerable degree, as a king of Java made a present of one to the captain of a Dutch ship as a rarity, 498 to 500.
Caterpillars-their differences from all other insects; all these animals are hatched from the eggs of butter- flies; during winter the greatest number of caterpillars are in an egg state; in the aurelia state they are seem- ingly deprived of life and motion; some do not make any change at the approach of winter, but choose themselves some retreat, and there remain quite motionless, and as insensible as if actually dead; caterpillars of this kind are found in great numbers together, enclosed in one common web that covers them all; there are some of the kind whose butterflies live all the winter, and where ; a single caterpillar eats double its own weight of leaves in a day, and seems no way disordered by the meal; the body of the caterpillar anatomically considered; avidity with which they feed; number of their stigmata, or those holes through which the animal is supposed to breathe; it has eighteen lungs; the experiment of Mal- pighi to ascertain their use; all caterpillars spin at one time or another; many of them change their skins five or six times in a season, and in what manner; change into an aurelia; their retreats in that state; there are thousands of fishes, birds, and insects that live chiefly upon caterpillars; a single sparrow and its mate destroy above three thousand caterpillars in a week; some of the kind, fitted only to live upon leaves and plants, will eat each other in preference to their vegetable food; the bodies of the larger kinds serve as a nest to various flies that very carefully deposit their eggs in them; number of worms remain within the body of the cater- pillar, devouring its entrails without destroying its life; the ichneumon tribe are not the caterpillar's offspring, as supposed, but its murderers, 834 to 847.
Cats-the wild hunt for the squirrel or the mouse; the whole tribe seek their food alone, and never unite for mutual support; except at certain seasons are enemies to each other; all of the cat kind devour nothing but flesh, and starve upon any other provision; their greatest force lies in their claws; the cat goes with young fifty- six days, and seldom brings forth above five or six at a time; the male often devours the kittens; before they are a year old they are fit to engender; the female seeks the male with cries; nor is their copulation per- formed without great pain, and why; cats bunt the serpents in the Isle of Cyprus; any animal weaker than themselves is to them an indiscriminate object of de- struction; the mouse is their favourite game, and they patiently watch a whole day until the mouse appears; the cat of Pharaoh injudiciously called the ichneumon; cats of Constantinople, a name of the ge net, and why, 307 to 317.
Cattle-we have the best breed of horned cattle in Europe; the large hornless breed in some parts of Eng- land originally from Poland; the Dutch bring great quantities of lean cattle from Denmark to fatten on their own rich grounds; that of the Ukraine becomes fat, and is considered the largest breed of all Europe; in Switzer- land these animals grow to a large size; not so in
France; size in Barbary, Ethiopia, Persia, and Tartary; leather-mouthed cattle; liable to be destroyed by the South American bat, or vampyre, 248 to 254.
Caverns the amazing cavern of Eldenhole in Derby- shire; the dreadful cavern in the country of the Arrian Indians, called the Gulf of Pluto, described by Elian; Cavern of Maestricht-its description; no part of the world has a greater number of artificial caverns than Spain; in general deserted by every race of meaner animals except the bat; the caverns called Oakley-hole, the Devil's-hole, and Penpark-hole in England; the cavern of Antiparos, and its discovery; how natural caverns are formed; two hundred feet as much as the lowest of them is found to sink; one in Africa, near Fez, continually sends forth smoke or flames, 16 to 23.
Cetaceous fishes-the whale and its varieties resemble quadrupeds in their internal structure, and in some of their appetites and affections; they are constrained every two or three minutes to come up to the surface to take breath, as well as to spout out through their nostril that water which they sucked in while gaping for their prey; the senses of these animals superior to those of other fishes; it is most likely that all animals of the kind can hear; they never produce above one young or two at the most; this the female suckles in the manner of quadrupeds, her breasts being placed, as in the human kind, above the navel; distinctive marks of this tribe, 656 to 670.
Chamois a kind of goat, in the mountains of Dau- phiny, Piedmont, Savoy, Switzerland, and Germany; its description; their flesh good to eat; in cases of danger, its hissing noise is heard at a great distance; by smell discovers a man at half a league; admired for the beauty of its eyes; not found in summer except in caverns of rocks, amidst fragments of ice, or under shades of spreading trees; during winter, it sleeps in the thicker forests, and feeds upon shrubs and buds of pine-trees, and scratches up the snow for herbage; manner of hunt ing it; skin of the chamois when tanned liked for soft- ness and warmth; the leather now called chamois made from the tame goat, sheep, and deer, 265 to 267.
Charles XII-when shot at the siege of Frederickshall, seen to clap his band on the hilt of his sword, 188.
Charybdis-a gulf; Nicola Pesce jumped into it, con- tinued for three quarters of an hour below, and at last appeared holding a golden cup in one hand, and making his way among the waves with the other; description of this gulf, 91, 92.
Chase-men of every age and nation have made that of the stag a favourite pursuit; in our country it was ever esteemed a principal diversion of the great; these sports reserved by sovereigns for particular amusement, and when; in the reign of William Rufus and Henry the First it was less criminal to destroy a human being than a beast of chase; sacred edifices thrown down to make room for beasts of chase; chase of the stag, as performed in England; terms used by hunters in that chase; the same in Sicily and in China; chase of the fox; cant terms used by the huntsmen; of all varieties that of the ostrich the most laborious, also the most entertaining; description of it, 279 to 283, &c.
Chasms-amazing in the Alps, and still more in the Andes; causes that produce chasms or fissures, 49, 50.
Chevrotin, or little Guinea-deer-the least of all cloven- footed quadrupeds, and perhaps the most beautiful; is most delicately shaped; its description; native of India, Guinea, and the warm climates between the tropics; the male in Guinea has horns, but the female is without any; they chiefly abound in Java and Ceylon, 271, 272. Child-history of the child in the womb; children of Negroes able to walk at two months old, at least to move from one place to another; skin of children newly brought forth is always red, and why; the size of a new born infant about twenty inches, and its weight twelve pounds; in cold countries continue to be suckled for
four or five years together; child's growth less every year till the time of puberty, when it seems to start up of a sudden; in some countries speak sooner than in others, and why; children of the Italians speak sooner than those of the Germans; various methods pointed out to improve the intellects of children; white children fre- quently produced from black parents, but never black children from two whites; inherit the accidental deformi- ties of their parents; instances of it; many instances of the child in the womb being marked by the strong affections of the mother; how performed is not known; hard to conceive that the child in the womb should take the print of the father's features, 141 to 146.
Civet-the species distinguished into two kinds; Mr. Buffon calls one the civet, the other the zibet; distinc- tions between the two kinds; the civet thirty inches long; both civet and zibet considered as varieties of the same animal, as former naturalists have done; the civet resembles the weasel kind, in what; differs from them, in what; the opening of the pouch or bag, the recep- tacle of the civet; manner of taking the civet from the pouch; although a native of the warmest climates, this animal lives in temperate and even cold countries; kinds of food it likes best; drinks rarely, yet makes urine often, and upon such occasions the male is not less distinguishable from the female; numbers of these ani- mals bred in Holland, and the perfume of Amsterdam reckoned the purest of any; the quantity greater pro- portionately to the quality and abundance of the food; this perfume so strong that it communicates to all parts of the animal's body; manner of choosing the perfume; the places of considerable traffic in it; civet a more grateful perfume than musk; sold in Holland for fifty shillings an ounce; its eyes shine in the night; sees better in the dark than by day; breeds very fast in clim- ates where heat conduces to propagation; though a wild, fierce animal, never thoroughly familiar; lives by preying on birds and animals it can overcome; its claws feeble and flexible; this perfume quite discon- tinued in prescription, 365 to 367.
Climates calamities in those where the air is con- densed by cold; cause obvious and sufficient to produce blackness of Negroes; complexions of different coun- tries darken in proportion to the heat of the region; next to human influence, the climate has the strongest effects upon the nature and form of quadrupeds; those excessively hot unfavourable to horses; in general, water-fowls of no particular climate, 99-101, &c.
Clouds the fore-runners of a terrible hurricane, called by sailors the bull's-eye; dashing against each other produce electrical fire; water evaporates, and, rising, forms clouds; the theory upon it; that of Dr. Hamilton; the author's theory of evaporation; at once pour down their contents and produce a deluge; reflecting back images of things on earth, like mirrors, 101, 111.
Coatimondi-extreme length of its snout; its descrip- tion; very subject to eat its own tail; its habits, 470, 471.
Cochineal-description of this insect, as in our shops brought from America; difference between the domestic and wild cochineal; precautions used by those who take care of these insects; the propagator has a new harvest thrice a year; various methods of killing them; pro- duces different colours as brought to us; our cochineal is only the females; used both for dyeing and medicine, 876, 877.
Cock-of all birds the cock the oldest companion of man, and first reclaimed from the forest; species of cock from Japan, covered over with hair instead of feathers; the western world had the cock from Persia; Aristophane's cock the Persian bird; it was one of the forbidden foods among the ancient Britons; Persia, that first introduced it to us, no longer knows it in its natural form; countries where it is wild; peeuliarities in a wild condition; another peculiarity in those of the Indian
woods their bones, when boiled, as black as ebony; the Athenians had cock matches as we; no animal of greater courage when opposed to one of its own species; in China, India, the Philippine Islands, and all over the East, cock-fighting the sport and amusement of kings and princes; cocks in China as bold as ours, and of more strength with less weight; its great courage proceeds from being the most falacious of all birds; a single cock suffices for a dozen hens; the only animal whose spirits are not abated by indulgence; soon grows old, and in three or four years becomes unfit for the purposes of impregnation; how long cocks live not well ascertained; Aldrovandus makes their age to be ten years; are injured, as Linnæus asserts, by elderberries; the black chiefly found in healthy mountains and piny forests, 525 to 528.
Condor-possesses in a higher degree than the eagle all the qualities that render it formidable to the feathered kind, to beasts, and to man himself; is eighteen feet across the wings extended, according to Acosta, Gar- cilasso, and Desmarchais; the beak so strong as to pierce the body of a cow-two of them able to devour it; do not abstain from man himself; the Indians believe that they will carry off a deer or a young calf in their talons, as eagles would a hare or a rabit; that their sight is piercing, and their air terrible; that they seldom frequent the forests, as they require a large space for the display of their wings; they come down to the sea-shore at certain seasons, when their prey fails upon land; feed upon dead fish, and such nutritious sub- stances as are thrown upon the shore; their countenance not so terrible as old writers have represented; those who have seen this animal say the body is as large as that of a sheep; many instances of its carrying away children; circumstantial account of this bird by P. Feuillée, the only traveller who has accurately described it; countries where it is found; in the deserts of Pachomas, where it is chiefly, men seldom venture to travel; its flesh as disagreeable as carrion, 507 to 509.
Cormorant its description and food; remarkably voracious with a sudden digestion; its form disagree- able; its voice hoarse and croaking; all its qualities obscene; fishes in fresh waters and in the depth of the ocean; builds in cliffs of rocks and in trees; preys in the day-time and by night; once used in England for fishing, and in what manner; how educated in China for the purposes of fishing; the best fisher of all birds; sometimes has caught the fish by the tail; the fins pre- vent it being swallowed in that position; how it manages the fish in this case; remarkable for the quickness of its sight, 621, 622.
Cows-allured by music; of ruminant animals the cow kind deserves the first rank; meanest peasants in Germany, Poland, and Switzerland kill one cow at least for their own table; salted and hung up, is preserved as a delicacy the year round; cows want the upper fore- teeth; in no part of Europe cows grow so large, yield more milk, or more readily fatten than in England; make no particular distinction in their herbage, indis- criminately devouring the proper quantity; it gives back more than it takes from the soil; the age of the cow known by the teeth and horns; the horns more surely determine the animal's age, and how; while this animal lives the horns lengthen; wants in udder what it has in neck; the larger in dew-lap the smaller the quantity of its milk; the kind to be found in every part of the world; larger in proportion to the richness of the pas- ture; the breed of the Isle of Man and most parts of Scotland much less than in England, also differently shaped; the breed improved by foreign mixture, adapted to supply the imperfections of our own; such as purely British far inferior in size to those of the continent; the cow, the urus, and the bison animals of the same kind; only two varieties of the kind really distinct-the cow and the buffalo; they bear an antipathy to each other;
scarce a part of the world where the cow kind is not found; the Barbary cow, or zebu; of all animals the cow most extensively propagated; the cow and bison breed among each other; the cow does not breed with the buffalo; no animals more distinct, or have stronger antipathies to each other; the cow goes nine months with young; the description of it; the Greeks compared the eyes of a beautiful woman to those of a cow; it eats two hundred and seventy-six plants, and rejects two hundred and eighteen, 542 to 546.
Crane-bred familiarly in our marshes formerly; not now, and why; general characteristics and habits of birds of the crane kind; their food and flesh; descrip- tion of the crane; Gesner says its feathers in his tinie were set in gold, and worn as ornaments in caps; de- scription of this bird from ancient writers, who have mixed imagination with history, whence have arisen the fables of supporting their aged parents and fighting with pigmies; the crane a social bird, and seldom seen alone; usual method of flying or sitting in flocks of fifty or sixty together; while part feed the rest keep guard; subsists mostly upon vegetables; known in every country in Europe except our own; are birds of passage; seasons of their migrations, during which they do incredible damage, chiefly in the night; were formerly known and held in great estimation here for the delicacy of their flesh; Plutarch says cranes were blinded, kept in coops, and fattened for the tables of the great in Rome; qualities of its flesh; their note the loudest of all other birds, and often heard in the clouds when the bird itself is unseen; amazing heights to which they ascend when they fly; though unseen themselves, they have distinct vision of every object below; extraordinary length and contortion of its windpipe; use made of their clangorous sound; their depredations usually in the darkest nights; they enter a field of corn and trample it down, as it crossed by a regiment of soldiers; corn their favourite food, scarce any other comes amiss to them; Redi's ex- periments to this purpose; a little falcon pursues, and often disables it; method used on such occasions by those fond of hawking; easily tamed; Albertus Magnus says it has a particular affection for man; the female distinguished from the male by not being bald behind; never lays above two eggs at a time; the young are soon fit to fly; unfledged, they run with such swiftness that a man cannot easily overtake them; Aldrovandus assures us one was kept tame for above forty years; the vulgar bear the crane a compassionate regard; prejudices in its favour; a heinous offence in some countries to kill a crane; distinctions between the craue and the stork, 591 to 599.
Cricket-a ruminating insect, or seemingly so; differ- ence from the grasshopper; their voice; food; never drink; sound of drums and trumpets make them forsake their situation; the mole-cricket thought to be amphi- bious; the number of their eggs; a most detested in- sect by gardeners; its devastations; precautions of the female against the black beetle; their care and assi- duity in the preservation of their young, 822 to 829.
Crocodile-extraordinary combat between this animal and the tiger; the ichneumon discovers and destroys its eggs; kills its young, and sometimes entering the mouth of the crocodile when sleeping on the shore effectually destroys it; the eggs it lays in the sand often amount to three or four hundred; the places where they are found, together with their dimensious; description; several ex- amples of taking a man out of a canoe from his com- panions, notwithstanding all opposition and assistance; terrible even upon land; its depredations; combats between the crocodile and the tiger; in what manner it seizes its prey; how a Negro ventures to attack this animal in its own element; manner of taking it at Siam; often managed like a horse; a curb put into its mouth, and the rider directs it as he likes; manner of taking it along the rivers of Africa; pools of water
where bred as we breed carp in our ponds; in Egypt and other long-peopled countries this animal solitary and fearful; in the river St. Domingo they are most inoffen- sive; probable opinion its musky substance amassed in glands under the legs and arms; its flesh; the eggs to the savages most delicate morsels; all breed near fresh waters; precautions in laying their eggs; the female having introduced her young to their natural element, she and the male become their most formidable ene- mies; the open-bellied crocodile, thought viviparous, has a false belly like the opossum for the young to creep out and in as danger or necessity requires; their age; pro- duced to fight at the amphitheatre at Rome, 759 to 765. Cuckoo-fables invented of this bird now sufficiently refuted; where it resides in winter, or how provides for its supply during that season, still undiscovered; this bird somewhat less than a pigeon, shaped like a magpie, and of a greyish colour, is distinguished from all other by its round prominent nostrils; discovers itself in our country early in the spring by its well-known call; its note heard earlier or later as the season is more or less forward and the weather inviting; from the cheerful voice of this bird the farmer instructed in the real ad- vancement of the year; history and nature of this bird still in great obscurity; its call and invitation to court- ship used only by the male, generally perched upon a dead tree or bare bough, repeating his song, which he loses when the genial season is over; his note pleasant though uniform; the female makes no nest; repairs to the nest of some other bird, generally the water-wagtail or the hedge-sparrow, and after devouring the eggs of the owner lays hers in their place; usually lays but one, aud this the little foolish bird hatches with great assiduity, and, when excluded, fondly thinks the ill-looking change- ling her own; to supply this voracious creature the credulous nurse toils with unwearied labour, not sen- sible she is feeding up an enemy to her race; the sto- mach of this bird is enormous, and reaches from the breast-bone to the vent; its food; naturally weak and fearful; the smaller birds form a train of pursuers; the wry-neck, in particular, the most active in the chase; supposed in winter to lie hid in hollow trees, or to pass into warmer climates; story of a cuckoo found in a willow log in winter; probable opinion concerning its residence in winter; Brisson makes not less than twenty- eight sorts of this bird, and talks of one of Brazil, as making a horrible noise in the forests; follows a very different trade from what its nurse endeavoured to teach it; and, according to Pliny, in time destroys its in- structor, 554 to 556.
Currents, of rivers-explained by the Italians; side current; back current; sometimes the current at bottom swifter than at top; double current; found to run in all directions; manner in which mariners judge of the set- ting and rapidity of the current; currents are generally found most violent under the equator; a passage with the current gone in two days, with difficulty performed in six weeks against it; currents do not extend above twenty leagues from the coast; the currents at Sumatra extremely rapid, run from south to north; also strong currents between Madagascar and the Cape of Good Hope; but the most remarkable are those continually flowing into the Mediterranean Sea; current runs one way at top, and the ebb another way at bottom, 62, to 64. D
DAMPS-of various natures in mines; the fulminating sort, 23 to 27.
Deer-annually shedding horns, and their perma- neuce in the sheep, draws a distinct line between their kinds; the little Guinea deer the smallest of all cloven- footed quadrupeds and most beautiful; its description; the male in Guinea has horns, but the female is with- out; they abound in Java and Ceylon; all of the deer kind want the gall-bladder; a downy substance like velvet
upon the skin covering the skull of a deer when the old horn is fallen off; their horns grow differently from those of sheep or cows; they are furrowed along the sides, and why; the bran-deer, or brown deer, called by the ancients tragelaphus, found in the forests of Germany; the new continent of America produces animals of the deer kind in sufficient plenty; no animals more nearly allied than the stag and fallow-deer, yet they never herd nor engender together, nor form a mixed breed; each form distinct families, and retain an unalterable aver- sion; the fallow-deer rarely wild in the forests; are in general bred in parks, and their flesh is preferred to that of any other animal; a herd of them divides into two parties, and engages each other with great ardour and obstinacy; both desirous of gaining a favourite spot of the park for pasture, and of driving the van- quished into the more disagreeable parts; manner of their combats; are easily tamed; they seek the female at their second year; their strength, cunning, and courage inferior to those of the stag; in England two varieties of the fallow-deer-one brought from Bengal, the other from Norway; flesh of the French fallow- deer has not the fatness or the flavour of that fed upon English pasture; Spanish and Virginian fallow-deer; deer without horns, their description; the rein-deer the most extraordinary and most useful; native of the icy regions of the North; it answers the purposes of a horse; attempts made to accustom it to a more southern climate, in a few months it declines and dies; answers the purposes of a cow in giving milk, and of the sheep in furnishing warm clothing to the people of Lapland and Greenland; description of the rein deer. its rutting time and that of shedding its horns; difference be- tween the deer and the stag; not known to the natives of Siberia; Americaus call it cariboo; herdsmen of Lapland known to possess a thousand rein-deer in a single herd; it subsists upon moss, and makes the riches of the people of Lapland; female brings forth in May; its milk thinuer than that of the cow; sweeter and more nourishing; is of two kinds in Lapland; it draws sledges; can go about thirty miles without halting, and without dangerous effort; generally castrated by the Laplanders; one male left for six females; begin to breed when two years old; go with young eight months, and bring two at a time; fondness of the dam remarka- ble; live but fifteen or sixteen years; the blood of the rein-deer preserved in small casks, for sauce with the marrow in spring; the horns converted into glue; the sinews make the strongest sewing-thread; the tongues a great delicacy; the intestines, washed like our tripe, in high esteem among the Laplanders; bears make depre- dations upon the rein-deer; glutton its most dangerous and successful persecutor; the wolf never attacks a rein- deer that is haltered in Lapland, and why, 275, to 298.
Divers-known to descend from twenty to thirty fathom; of all those who have brought information from the bottom of the deep, Nicola Pesce the most cele- brated; account of his performances by Kircher; some known to continue three quarters of an hour under water without breathing; they usually die consumptive;. manner of fishing for pearls, 91, 92.
Dodo-its description; among birds, as the sloth among quadrupeds, an unresisting animal, equally inca- pable of flight or defence; native of the Isle of France; the Dutch first discovered and called it the nauseous bird; travellers deem its flesh good and wholsome; it is easily taken; three or four dodoes enough to dine a hundred men; whether the dodo be the same bird with that described under the head Nazareth remains uncer- tain, 500, 501.
Dogs always running with their noses to the ground, supposed of old the first that felt infection; no other animal of the carnivorous kind will make a voluntary attack but with the odds on their side; the Arabian horses outrun them; in the dog kind the chief power
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