Part 84

A boat for this work should have plenty of bearings, and have as little keel as she can well go to windward with, in order to get, at times, within shot of the mud and sands, and also to run through a harbour at spring tides without getting aground. You should therefore, for this sport, always make choice of a day when the wind is off the land, and a time when the tide is flowing; as you have then no danger of filling your boat with the hollow sea of a lee shore, or running her so fast aground as not to be able to get her off immediately. In following wild fowl under sail, command, as much as you can, a windward berth, in order to bear down on them at pleasure; and if they rise out of shot against wind, as they usually do, luff up directly, and try to head them for a cross shot. As the gun, when on one tack, is in the way of the jib, you must have the man who attends the jib-sheets always in readiness to haul the weather one to windward; but this must be done only just before you want to fire, or you deaden the boat’s way. Take care also to let the sheet be under the barrel of the gun, in order that your line of aim may be clear of every thing. In this pursuit, when the more wind sometimes the more sport, never go with less than three good hands; and be careful in squally weather not to make too fast the mainsheet, as nine-tenths of the misfortunes that we hear of, have occurred from this very circumstance.—_Hawker._

SEAGREEN, _a._ Resembling the colour of the distant sea, cerulean.

SEAGULL, _s._ A sea bird. _Vide_ GULL.

SEAHOG, _s._ The porpoise.

SEAL, _s._ A stamp engraved with a particular impression, which is fixed upon wax; the seacalf, or phoca.

Seals are very numerous on the coast, and at this season a number may be seen any warm day you make an excursion up the Sound of Achil. We shoot them occasionally; the skin makes a waterproof covering, and the fat affords an excellent oil for many domestic purposes. It is difficult, however, to secure the animal, for numbers are shot and few gotten. The head is the only place to strike them, for even when mortally wounded in the body, they generally manage to escape. This fact we have ascertained, from finding them dead on shore many days after they were wounded, and at a considerable distance from the place where they had received the bullet. I shot one last autumn at the mouth of the river, and a fortnight afterwards he was taken up in the neighbourhood of Dhuhill. There could be no doubt as to the identity of the creature, for on opening him to extract the oil, a rifle-ball, such as I use, of the unusually small size of fifty-four to the pound, was found lodged in his lungs. Unless when killed outright, they sink instantly; and I have seen the sea dyed with blood to an extent that proved how severely the seal had been wounded, but never could trace him farther.

Formerly, when seal-oil and skins were of value, some persons on the coast made the pursuit of the animal a profession. There is one of these persons living near the Sound, a miserable, dwarfish, red-bearded wretch, whom you would consider hardly equal to grapple with a salmon, and yet he secures more seals than any hunter in the district. His method of effecting it is singular; he uses neither gun nor spear, but kills the animal with a short bludgeon, loaded at the end with lead.

Adjacent to the seal-killer’s residence there is a large rock, uncovered at half-tide, and this appears the most favourite haunt for the animal to bask upon. The rock is easily approached from the main land, and on a sunny day, when the wind favours the attempt, the hunter, undressed, and armed with his bludgeon, silently winds among the stones, and steals upon his sleeping prey. Wary as the creature is, the Red Dwarf seldom fails in surprising him, and with astonishing expertness generally despatches him with a single blow.—_Wild Sports._

SEAMEW, _s._ A fowl that frequents the sea; one of the gull tribe.

SEAR, _v._ To burn, to cauterise.

SECONDARY, _s._ _In ornithology_, the second feather in the wing.

SEDGE, _s._ A growth of narrow flags, a narrow flag.

SEDGY, _a._ Overgrown with narrow flags.

SEER, _s._ A gunlock spring.

SEINE, _s._ A net used in sea-fishing.

SERPENTINE, _a._ Resembling a serpent; winding like a serpent.

SERRATED, _a._ Formed with jags or indentures, like the edge of a saw.

SETON, _s._ A seton is made when the skin is taken up with a needle, and the wound kept open by a twist of silk or hair, that humours may vent themselves. Farriers call this operation in cattle, _rowelling_.

Setons consist of tape, threads, or lamp cotton passed under the skin, and smeared with digestive ointment. The instrument employed for conveying these under the skin is named a seton needle, and may be purchased at the instrument makers. When lamp cotton is used, it can be withdrawn gradually, thread by thread, which on some occasions is desirable. Setons are preferable to rowels, being more convenient and equally efficacious.—_White._

SETTER, _s._ One who sets; a dog who beats the field, and points the bird for the sportsmen.

_The Old English Setter._ (_Canis Index, variety α._)—This breed was originally produced between the Spanish pointer and the large water spaniel, and was famous on account of his steadiness and exquisite sense of smelling; the hair over the whole body was much more curled than that of the present breed, which has been considerably lightened by the additional cross of the springer; he was also much more steady than the improved variety, but then he had not the same speed to recommend him. Fine dogs of this kind were also produced by a cross with the stag and blood hounds. They united great strength, considerable swiftness, and were used for the chace in some few instances.

_The English Setter_ (_Canis Index, variety β_), is a breed produced between the Spanish pointer, the English water spaniel and springer, which, by careful cultivation, has attained a high degree of perfection as a sporting dog. He has an elegant figure, and a very pleasing diversity of colour; added to this, his skin is covered with beautifully curled hair, very villous on the lower margin of the tail; being altogether an extremely handsome dog, and quite unrivalled by any of the canine species.

The setter has all the excellent qualities of the pointer, with a greater degree of speed and natural vivacity of temper; he, however, is not so easily broken in as the pointer, and requires a certain degree of training every year, to make him continue staunch. There are, however, various instances of setters being self-taught, as the following example will show:—The black and tan small setter bitch which I have (says Mr. Torry), was originally out of the Duke of Bedford’s breed, and both she and her mother inherit the utmost natural sagacity as sporting dogs. At ten months old, and before she had got a lesson in breaking, or had seen game killed, she was taken to the moors for the first time, and on finding a bird, was perfectly steady at her point, backed, and did not run the game. The gentleman who was with me wounded a bird, and it fell at a considerable distance. The pup, unknown to us, had kept her eye upon it, and, to our astonishment, after we had loaded, and again ordered our dogs to range, she went direct to the spot where the bird fell, found and fetched it to my friend’s feet. This happened in August, 1825.

The setter ranges with great speed, and is a very hardy dog. Many prefer him to the pointer, and if water is plentiful, he is certainly more useful, for his feet are much better defended against the sharp cutting of the heath than those of the pointer, as he has a great deal of hair growing between the toes and round the ball of the foot, of which the latter is almost destitute. Besides, he unquestionably ranges much faster, and can endure much more fatigue. He can also serve in thick coverts, where a pointer will not enter; and, on this account, is useful in woodcock shooting, where springers or cockers are not kept.

Formerly the setter was used for the purpose of taking partridges with a draw-net, and was generally taught to squat down when the game was within a proper distance—hence the name setter. They are now, however, trained to point in the same manner as the spaniel. It is said that Robert Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, was the first person who broke a setter to the net.

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There is not a country in Europe that can boast of finer setters than Ireland; they are there called English spaniels, and differ widely from the setters of England and Scotland. They are not esteemed in Ireland unless their colour be either a deep chestnut and white, or all red; a black and white setter, or any colour but red, or red and white, would not be looked upon or reputed well bred, allowing them to be ever so good. It matters not whether they are all red, or red and white; but those esteemed most have a black nose, and a black roof to their mouth,—as most sportsmen conceive the black nose to be finer and superior to any other. Sir William Barker, Mr. Oliver of Castle Oliver, Mr. Macarthy of Spring House, and many other gentlemen in Ireland, have the most beautiful and steady of this kind. A circumstance occurred, with respect to the steadiness and discipline of some of this breed, which the compiler was an eye-witness to:—Colonel Macdonald being on a visit at Mr. Oliver’s, during the grousing season, and going out one day, took out with him five brace of setters; on getting to the mountains, one of the dogs found some birds, all the rest backed in at once, upon which Colonel Macdonald called to the last dog to take the lead, and in that manner he drew the dogs alternately, until the last became first, and fixed the birds, which had run nearly a mile. These dogs in general fetch a long price; Mr. Macarthy got two hundred guineas for a brace of them, and a gentleman in the north of Ireland was known once to have given, for a dog and bitch of this sort, to his tenant, the renewal of a lease of a farm for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, which if this lease had expired, would have cleared to the landlord above two hundred and fifty pounds a year. The compiler himself sold a brace of setters, in the year 1801, for two hundred guineas, to a Captain Baggot.—_Brown_—_Thornhill._

SETTINGDOG, _s._ A dog taught to find game, and point it out to the sportsmen.

SHAD, _s._ A kind of fish.

SHAFT, _s._ An arrow, a missile weapon; a narrow, deep, perpendicular pit; anything straight.

SHAG, SKART, SCARFE or GREEN CORMORANT, (_Pelicanus graculus_, LINN.; _Le petit Cormorant, ou le Nigaud_, BUFF.) _s._

The form, the aspect altogether, the outward conformation of all the parts, the character, manners, and habits, and places of abode, of this species, are nearly like those of the cormorant; but they do not associate, and these make their nests on the rugged, shelvy sides and crevices of the rocky precipices or projecting cliffs which overhang the sea, while the others make theirs on the summits above them; and these are at once distinguished from the others by the greenness of the upper, and brownness of the under plumage, and also in being of a much less size—the largest shags weighing only about four pounds, and measuring nearly two feet six inches in length, and three feet eight in breadth. The bill is of a more slender make, but nearly as long as that of the cormorant; the head, in the male, is crested in the same manner; the middle claw is serrated; and its tail, consisting of twelve stiff feathers stained with green, is also of the same form and hoary or dirty appearance as that of the cormorant; the crown of the head, hinder part of the neck, lower back, and rump, are of a plain black, or very dark green, shining like satin; the upper back, or shoulders, together with the scapulars and wings, are nearly of the same colour, but with a tinge of bronze brown, and each feather is distinctly edged with purple glossed black; the under parts are clouded with dusky dirty white, and brown.—_Bewick._

SHAGGY, _a._ Ruggedly hairy, rough, rugged.

SHAGREEN, _s._ The skin of a kind of fish, or skin made rough in imitation of it.

SHAMBLING, _a._ Moving awkwardly and irregularly.

SHANK, _s._ The middle joint of the leg, that part which reaches from the ankle to the knee; the bone of the leg; the long part of any instrument; long part of a fishhook.

SHEEP, _s._ The animal that bears wool.

SHEEP, _s._ The animal that bears wool.

_To break a Sheep-biting Dog._—Take some wool off a sheep’s rump, steep it in train oil, put it in the dog’s jaws, and sew up his mouth. For killing poultry, boil a chicken in its feathers, take it hot from the boiler, squeeze the water from it and put it into his jaws, and tie them together.

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“I have a fine pointer,” said a gentleman to his friend, “staunch as can be at birds, but I cannot break him from sheep.” His reply was, that the best way would be to couple him to the horns of an old ram, and leave him in a stable all night, and the discipline he would receive would prevent his loving field-mutton again. The same person meeting the owner of the dog some time afterwards, accosted him thus: “Well, sir, your pointer is now the best in England, no doubt, from my prescription.” “Much the same, sir, for he killed my ram, and ate a shoulder!”—_Sporting Anecdotes._

SHELDRAKE, or BURROUGH DUCK, (_Anas Tudorna_, LINN.; _La Tudorne_, BUFF.) _s._

The male of this prettily marked species is somewhat larger than the mallard, measuring about two feet in length, three and a half in breadth, and weighing, commonly, two pounds ten ounces. The bill is red, with the nail and nostrils black; the upper mandible is broad, flat, and grooved on the edges towards the point, where it has rather a cast upwards; it is also depressed in the middle, and raised into a knob or tubercle at the base. The head and upper part of the neck are of a glossy dark or bottle green; the lower part of the neck, to the breast, is encircled with white, and joined by a broad band of bright orange bay, which is spread over, and covers the breast and shoulders. The back, wing-coverts, rump, upper tail-coverts, and sides of the belly, to the vent and tail, are white; a dusky stripe, tinged with rufous, runs along the middle from the breast, the whole length of the belly; part of the scapulars next the wings are black, and those next the body white; the bastard wing, and some of the first primary quills, are black; the exterior webs of the next adjoining ones are glossed with gold green, which forms the speculum or beauty-spot of the wings; this spot is bounded and partly covered by the orange webs of the three succeeding quill-feathers, which separate it from the scapulars. The tail is white, but some of its feathers are tipped with black; the legs pale red.

The female is less than the male, and her plumage is not so vivid and beautiful. She makes her nest, and rears her young, underground, in the rabbit-holes which are made in the sand-hills near the sea shore: it is chiefly formed of the fine down plucked from her own breast: she lays from twelve to sixteen roundish white eggs, and the incubation lasts about thirty days. During this time, the male, who is very attentive to his charge, keeps watch in the day-time, on some adjoining hillock, where he can see all around him, and which he quits only when impelled by hunger, to procure subsistence. The female also leaves the nest, for the same purpose, in the mornings and evenings, at which times the male takes his turn, and supplies her place. As soon as the young are hatched, or are able to waddle along, they are conducted, and sometimes carried in the bill, by the parents, to the full tide, upon which they launch without fear, and are not seen afterwards out of tide-mark until they are well able to fly; lulled by the roaring of the flood, they find themselves at home amidst an ample store of their natural food, which consists of sand-hoppers, sea-worms, &c. or small shell-fish, and the innumerable shoals of the little fry which have not yet ventured out into the great deep, but are left on the beach, or tossed to the surface of the water by the restless surge.

If this family in their progress from the nest to the sea, happen to be interrupted by any person, the young ones, it is said, seek the first shelter, and squat close down, and the parent birds fly off; then commences that truly curious scene dictated by an instinct analogous to reason, the same as has been already noticed in the mallard and the partridge; the tender mother drops at no great distance from her helpless brood, trails herself along the ground, flaps it with her wings, and appears to struggle as if she were wounded, in order to attract attention, and tempt a pursuit after her. Should these wily schemes, in which she is also aided by her mate, succeed, they both return when the danger is over, to their terrified motionless little offspring, to renew the tender offices of cherishing and protecting them.

These birds are sometimes watched to their holes, which are dug up to the nest, whence the eggs are taken and hatched, and the young reared by a tame duck.

In this way many gentlemen, tempted by the richness of their garb, have their ponds stocked with these beautiful birds; but as they are of a roving disposition, and are apt to stray, or to quit altogether such limited spots, it is generally found necessary to pinion or disable a wing to secure them. The sheldrake has been known to breed with the common duck; but it is not well ascertained whether the hybrids thus produced will breed again or not.

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This species is dispersed in greater or less numbers, over the warm as well as the cold climates, in various parts of the world; they are met with as far north as Iceland in the spring, and in Sweden and the Orkney Islands in the winter. Captain Cook notices them, among other sea fowl, on the coast of Van Diemen’s Land; and they have been seen in great numbers at the Falkland Islands. Although they are not numerous on the British and the opposite shores, yet they are common enough in the British Isles, where they remain throughout the year, always in pairs, and occasionally straggle away from the sea coasts to the lakes inland.—_Bewick._

SHELL, _s._ The hard covering of anything; the external crust; the covering of a testaceous or crustaceous animal; the covering of the seeds of siliquous plants; the covering of kernels; the covering of an egg.

SHELLFISH, _s._ Fish invested with a hard covering, either testaceous, as oysters, or crustaceous, as lobsters.

SHERRY, _s._ A kind of sweet Spanish wine.

SHETLAND PONY, _s._ A horse peculiar to the Shetland isles.

Although the Shetland ponies are exceedingly diminutive in size, they are in other respects excellent. There have been instances of these animals whose height from the foot to the shoulder scarcely exceeded three feet, and a man of ordinary size and strength can lift one of them from the ground with great ease.

The general form of these ponies is very elegant, and their body is thicker and more compact than that of a blood-horse; they have small legs and large manes, their bones are exceedingly small, as is also their head, and that part of the neck which joins to it, the most common colours are grey, bay, and black. The latter are esteemed the hardiest, whilst those that are pied seldom prove good. They sometimes live to the age of thirty years and upwards, notwithstanding the little care that is bestowed on them in sheltering them from the cold, which, in the climate of the Shetland Islands, is peculiarly severe in the winter: but from the circumstance of their being compelled to live out of doors during even the severest months of the year, great numbers are occasionally frozen to death. At this season, when the ground is entirely covered with snow, the wretched animals are compelled to seek subsistence on the sea-weeds, which, once in every twelve hours, are left exposed by the tide.—_Illustrations of Natural History by Le Keux._

SHIN, _s._ The forepart of the leg.

SHINGLES, _s._ A kind of tetter or herpes that spreads itself round the loins.

SHIP, _s._ A ship may be defined a large hollow building made to pass over the sea with sails; a vessel with three masts. _Vide_ YACHT.

SHITTLECOCK, _s._ A cork stuck with feathers, and driven by players from one to another with battledoors.

SHOAL, _s._ A crowd, a multitude, a throng; a shallow, a sand bank; a number of fishes.

SHOALY, _a._ Full of shoals, full of shallow places.

SHOCK DOG (_Canis Fotor_), _s._ A lady’s dog.

This variety is probably a breed betwixt the king Charles’s dog and the small water spaniel, to which last it seems most nearly allied. It has long and slightly curled hair, and its eyes are almost hid in the curls. It is of a small size, and is used in this country and on the continent as a lap-dog. It is a useless little animal, seeming to possess no other quality than a faithful attachment to its mistress.

I have never seen one of these diminutive little creatures which would take the water, although they possess all the requisites for swimming. This may probably be accounted for from the frequency of their immersion in that element, contrary to their inclination, for the purpose of washing them.

SHOE, _s._ The cover of the foot; the iron plate which defends a horse’s hoof.

SHOE, _v._ To fit the foot with a shoe; to cover at the bottom.

SHOEING, _v._ To affix the shoe to the hoof.

_The Preparation of the Foot._—We will suppose that the horse is sent to the forge to be shod. If the master would occasionally accompany him there, he would find it much to his advantage. The old shoe must be first taken off. We have something to observe even on this. It was retained on the foot by the ends of the nails being twisted off, turned down, and clenched. These clenches should be first raised, which the smith seldom takes the trouble thoroughly to do; but after going carelessly round the crust, and raising one or two of the clenches, he takes hold first of one heel of the shoe, and then of the other, and by a violent wrench separates them from the foot, and by a third wrench, applied to the middle of the shoe, he tears it off. By this means he must enlarge every nail hole, and weaken the future hold, and sometimes tear off portions of the crust, and otherwise injure the foot. The horse generally shows by his flinching that he suffers by the violence with which this preliminary operation is performed. The clenches should always be raised or filed off; and where the foot is tender, or the horse is to be examined for lameness, each nail should be partly punched out. Many a stub is left in the crust, the source of future annoyance, when this unnecessary violence is used.

The shoe having been removed, the smith proceeds to rasp the edges of the crust. Let not the stander-by object to the apparent violence which he uses, or fear that the foot will suffer. It is the only means he has, with safety to his instruments, to detect whether any stubs remain in the nail-holes, and it is the most convenient method of removing that portion of the crust into which dirt and gravel have insinuated themselves.