Part 83

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SARCELLE, (_Clangula Glacialis_, FLEM.) _s._ A bird of the duck tribe.

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

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

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

SAVAGE, _a._ Wild, uncultivated; uncivilised, barbarous.

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

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

SCABBED, _a._ Covered or diseased with scabs; paltry, sorry.

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

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

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

SCALED, _a._ Squamous, having scales like fishes.

SCALLOP, _s._ A fish with a hollow pectinated shell.

SCALP, _v._ To deprive the skull of its integuments.

SCALY, _a._ Covered with scales.

SCAPULA, _s._ The shoulder blade.

SCAPULARS, _s._ _In ornithology_, are feathers which take their rise from the shoulders, and cover the sides of the back.

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

SCAR, _v._ To mark as with a sore or wound.

SCARFSKIN, _s._ The cuticle; the epidermis.

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

SCARLET, _a._ Of the colour of scarlet.

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

SCATE, _v._ To slide on scates.

SCATING, _a._ The art of sliding.

SCAUP DUCK, or SPOONBILL DUCK (_Nyroca marila_, FLEM.), _s._

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SCHOONER, _s._ A vessel with two masts.

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

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

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

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

SCIRRHUS, _s._ An indurated gland.

SCIRRHOUS, _a._ Having a gland indurated.

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

SCOLLOP, _s._ A pectinated shell fish.

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

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

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

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

SCOTER, BLACK DUCK, or BLACK DIVER, (_Anas Nigra_, LINN.; _La Macreuse_, BUFF.) _s._ A kind of duck.

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

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

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

SCRAY, _s._ A bird called the sea-swallow.

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

SCREECHOWL, _s._ An owl that hoots in the night.

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

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

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

SCREWDRIVER, _s._ An implement to turn screws.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SEA-FISHING, _s._ The pursuit of sea-fish.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SEAFOWL, _s._ A bird that lives at sea.

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