Part 27

CURLEW, (_Scolopax arquata_, LINN.; _Le Courlis_, 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, Linnæus begins a numerous tribe of birds under the generic name of _scolopax_, which, in his arrangement, includes all the snipes and godwits, amounting, according 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 varieties 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 principal 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 toward 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 indented 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 unnecessary: 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 summer residence is upon the large heathy, boggy moors, where they breed. Their food consists 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, _s._ 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.

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 sufficiently 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 number 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 sustained.

Some years back, large cutters were confined 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 cutters in the world are the property of this celebrated and truly national club; and two of them, the _Alarm_ (Mr. Wild’s), and the _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 generally of a ketch rig; which, by the addition of a mizen, enables the boom to be dispensed with, and reduces the mainsail considerably. This rig, when the mizen stands well, is very elegant, and, if a vessel is short-handed, exceedingly handy.—_Vide_ YACHT.

CYGNET, _s._ 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 herself 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 immediately 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 sufficiently 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.

DAB, _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 Linnæus, 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, between 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 morning 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 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.

Another way to take this fish, from the middle of April until the beginning of October, is by artificial fly-fishing, with a long line.—_Daniel._

DALMATIAN, (_Canis Dalmatianus_), _s._ The coach-dog.

This dog has been erroneously called the Danish dog by some authors, and Buffon, and some other naturalists, imagine him to be the harrier of Bengal; but 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 common 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 be easily broken, and to be very staunch. He is handsome in shape, something betwixt the British 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 with 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 Britain. His only use seems to be an elegant attendant upon a carriage, for which the symmetry of his form and beauty of his skin peculiarly 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.

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 several times to see if he could possibly bring him over to his terms.—In the interim, however, Mr. Fordham was taken dangerously ill and died. Next day, the gownsman, unacquainted 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 boiling 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. Decoctions should be strained while hot, as some of them, Peruvian bark for example, deposit some active and useful matter in cooling. Decoctions soon ferment, and are spoiled by keeping; they should be used therefore soon after they are made.

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A decoction of _marsh-mallows_, it is useful in fevers as a vehicle for nitre or other medicine; also as an emollient clyster and fomentation.

CAMOMILE.

Camomile flowers, dried 1 oz. Caraway seeds, bruised 1½ oz. Ginger, bruised 1½ oz. Water 1 qt.

Boil for ten or fifteen minutes: a good stomachic drench.

OAK BARK.

Oak Bark, bruised 2 oz. Water 1 qt.

Boil gently for ten minutes; a good vehicle for tonic medicine.

DECOCTION FOR FOMENTATION

Is made by boiling bay leaves, camomile flowers, wormwood, and southernwood in a 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 medicine. Various other decoctions are occasionally employed, and sometimes preferred on account of their cheapness, to more efficacious, but more expensive medicines; yet it must be recollected that some vegetables, such as peppermint, pennyroyal, &c. have their useful properties 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 cutting pipes, or tapering ditches, widened and deepened as they approach the water; in various semicircular directions, through the swampy ground, into particular large pools, which are sheltered by surrounding trees or bushes, and situated commonly in the midst of the solitary 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, screens 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 occasionally 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 to the end of the pipe, into the purse nets there prepared to receive them, while their treacherous guides remain behind in conscious security. The season 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 countries, are let to the fowlers at a rent of from five to thirty pounds per annum; and Pennant instances a season in which thirty-one thousand two hundred ducks, including teals and widgeons, were sold in London only, from ten of these decoys near Wainfleet, in Lincolnshire. 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 water, 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 Latham 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_ FALLOW, 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.—_Blaine._

DETERGE, _v._ To cleanse a sore. _Vide_ CAUSTICS.

DETONATION, _s._ A noise somewhat more forcible than the ordinary crackling 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.

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 proportion, is:—

Five of oxymuriate, Two of sulphur; and One of charcoal.

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 caution insurance companies against gentlemen who would attempt a home manufacture.

DIABETES, _s._ A morbid copiousness of urine.

_Diabetes_ consists in an excessive discharge of 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 very offensive smell. In slight or recent cases of diabetes a cure may generally be accomplished by the following ball, provided the cause is removed, which is generally new hay, new oats, musty hay or oats, or some other unwholesome provender. But in the confirmed 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 ½ 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 excellent 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 turning the horse to grass, and letting him remain 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 tender part from pressure.

DIAPENTE, _s._ A compound powder, tonic and stomachic.

DIAPHORETIC, _a._ Sudorific, promoting perspiration. The most useful sudorifics in veterinary practice, are hot stimulants, combined with antimony and opium.

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.

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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.

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