[Illustration]
This species, which is only a little bigger than the teal, is clothed
with an elegant plumage, and has altogether a most agreeable and
sprightly look. It measures about seventeen inches in length, and
twenty-eight in breadth. The bill is of a dark lead colour, nearly
black; the irides light hazel. From the crown of the head, over the nape
of the neck downwards, it is of a glossy brown, chin black; brow,
cheeks, and the upper fore part of the neck, reddish chestnut, with
vinous reflections, and sprinkled all over with numerous small pointed
white lines. A white stripe passes over each eye, and slanting
backwards, falls down on each side of the neck, the lower part of which,
with the breast, is light brown, pretty closely crossed with
semicircular bars of black; the shoulders and back are marked nearly the
same, but on a darker ground: the scapulars are long and narrow, and are
striped with ash-colour, black, and white. The belly in some, is white;
in others, pale reddish yellow; the lower part of it, and the vent,
mottled with dusky spots; the sides are freckled and waved with narrow
lines of ash-coloured brown, more and more distinctly marked towards the
thighs; behind which, this series of feathers terminates in a riband,
striped with ash, black, white, and lead-coloured blue.
The coverts of the wings are of an agreeable bluish ash, margined with
white; next to this, the exterior webs of the middle quills are glossy
green, tipped with white, and form the beauty-spot or spangle of the
wings, to which the white tips make a border; the primary quills are
ash-brown, edged with white; tail dusky; legs lead colour. The foregoing
description was taken from a male bird in full and perfect plumage. This
sex is furnished with a labyrinth.
The female has an obscure white mark over each eye; the rest of the
plumage is of a brownish ash colour, not unlike the female teal; but the
wing wants the green spot, which sufficiently distinguishes these birds.
It has not yet been noticed whether any of this species ever remain to
breed in England, where, indeed, they are rather a scarce
bird.—_Bewick._
GARGLE, _v._ To wash the throat with some liquor not suffered
immediately to descend.
GARGLE, _s._ A liquor with which the throat is washed.
GARLICK, _s._ A plant, sometimes used in chronic cough.
GARRAN, _s._ A small horse, a hobby; a wretched horse. (_An
Iricism._)
GASH, _v._ To cut deep, so as to make a gaping wound.
GASH, _s._ A deep and wide wound; the mark of a wound.
GASP, _v._ To open the mouth wide to catch breath; to emit breath by
opening the mouth convulsively.
GASP, _s._ The act of opening the mouth to catch breath; the short
catch of the breath in the last agonies.
GATE, _s._ A frame of timber upon hinges to give a passage into
enclosed grounds; a moveable part of a fence made of iron or
timber.
GAUDY, _a._ Showy, splendid, tinselled.
GAUGE, _s._ A measure, a standard.
GAUNT (_Podiceps cristatus_, LATHAM), _s._ A species of bird.
A full-grown male gaunt weighs between two and three pounds; length
about two feet. The bill is two inches and three quarters long, dusky
brown along the ridge of the upper mandible and at the point; the rest
reddish flesh-colour; irides and lore crimson. The head is much enlarged
by a crest of a dusky colour, standing up on each side; the cheeks and
throat are surrounded by long feathers of a ferruginous colour; from the
bill to the eye is a black line, above which is a white one; the chin is
white; the hind part of the neck, and upper part of the body and wings,
dusky brown; the under part of the neck, breast, and all beneath,
beautiful glossy white; the primary quill-feathers dusky; some of the
inner ones tipped with white, the rest are nearly all white, which, when
the wing is closed, makes an oblique bar of that colour across it; legs
dusky on the outside; some wholly dusky green.
This bird is indigenous to England; it breeds in the meres of Shropshire
and Cheshire, and in the fens of Lincolnshire. The nest is large,
composed of a variety of aquatic plants; it is not attached to any
thing, but floats amongst the reeds and flags, penetrated by the water.
The female lays four white eggs, about the size of that of a
pigeon.—_Montagu._
GAZEHOUND, _s._ A hound that pursues not by the scent, but by the
eye; an ancient name of the greyhound.
GEAR, _s._ Furniture, accoutrements, dress; the traces by which
horses or oxen draw; stuff.
GELD, _v._ To castrate, to deprive of the power of generation; to
deprive of any essential part. _Vide_ CASTRATION.
Castration has a strange effect: it emasculates both man, beast, and
bird, and brings them to a near resemblance of the other sex. Thus
eunuchs have smooth unmuscular arms, thighs, and legs; and broad hips,
and beardless chins, and squeaking voices. Gelt-stags and bucks have
hornless heads, like hinds and does. Thus wethers have small horns, like
ewes; and oxen large bent horns, and hoarse voices when they low, like
cows; for bulls have short straight horns; and though they mutter and
grumble in a deep tremendous tone, yet they low in a shrill high key.
Capons have small combs and gills, and look pallid about the head like
pullets; they also walk without any parade, and hover chickens like
hens. Barrow-hogs have also small tusks like sows.
Thus far it is plain that it puts a stop to the growth of those
appendages that are looked upon as its insignia. But the ingenious Mr.
Lisle, in his book on husbandry, carries it much farther; for he says,
that the loss of those insignia alone has sometimes a strange effect: he
had a boar so fierce and amorous, that to prevent mischief, orders were
given for his tusks to be broken off. No sooner had the beast suffered
this injury than his powers forsook him, and he neglected those females
to whom before he was passionately attached, and from whom no fences
could restrain him.—_White of Selborne._
GELDING, _s._ Any animal castrated, particularly a horse.
GELID, _a._ Extremely cold.
GELLY, _s._ Any viscous body; viscidity, glue, gluey substance.
GENDER, _s._ A kind, a sort, a sex.
GENDER, _v._ To beget; to produce, to cause; to copulate, to breed.
GENET, _s._ A small well-proportioned Spanish horse.
GENTLE, _s._ A maggot used in angling.
Those who live in or near London may buy them in proper condition for
the day on which they wish to use them, but for the accommodation of
those who reside in the country, remote from such convenience, the best
modes of breeding them will be here mentioned, in order to prevent
disappointment.
Coarse fish, such as chub and roach, may be laid in an earthen pot in
the shade, and will soon be fly-blown. When the gentles are of a
proper size (but not before), put some oatmeal and bran to them, and
in two days they will be well scoured and fit to fish with, in about
four more they become hard, assume a pale red colour, and soon after
change to flies. The red ones should not be thrown away, as frequently
roach and dace take these with a white one in preference to all other
baits. Some have recommended a piece of liver suspended by a stick
over a barrel of clay, into which the gentles fall and cleanse
themselves; but clay will not scour them, and besides they fall from
the liver before they have attained their full size. The
aforementioned is a less disgusting plan; for a short time after
oatmeal and bran are put to the gentles the fish in which they are
bred will be found perfect skeletons, and may be thrown away. However,
if they are to be bred from liver, it should be scarified deeply in
many parts, and then hung up and nearly covered over, as in that way
the flies will blow it better than when wholly exposed; in two or
three days the gentles will be seen alive. The liver is then to be put
into an earthen pan and there remain until the first brood are of full
growth, a sufficient quantity of fine sand and bran (letting the liver
remain) is then to be put into the pan, and in a few days they will
come from the flesh, and scour themselves in it. The liver should then
be hung across the pan and the latter brood will soon drop out and be
fit for use; and by thus breeding them in October, and keeping them a
little warmer than those bred in summer, until they arrive at their
full growth, and afterwards putting them in the same pan into a
dampish vault, they may be preserved for winter fishing.—_Daniel._
GENTLE, _a._ Soft, mild, tame, peaceable; soothing; pacific.
GENUS, _s._ In science, a class of beings comprehending under it
many species; as quadruped is a genus comprehending under it
almost all terrestrial beasts.
GERM, _s._ A sprout or shoot.
GESTATION, _s._ The act of bearing the young in the womb.
GET, _v._ To beget upon a female.
GETTER, _s._ One who procures or obtains; one who begets on a
female.
GIBBOUS, _a._ Convex, protuberant, swelling into inequalities;
crooked-backed.
GIER-EAGLE, _s. obs._ An eagle of a particular kind.
GIG, _s._ Anything that is whirled round in play; a two-wheeled
vehicle; a light boat.
GIGOT, _s._ The hip joint.
GILL, _s._ A measure of liquids containing the fourth part of a
pint.
GILLS, _s._ The aperture at each side of the fish’s head; the flaps
that hang below the beak of a fowl; the flesh under the chin.
GIMP, _s._ A kind of silk twist used in angling.
GIN, _s._ The spirit drawn by distillation from juniper berries and
wheat. The Hollands Geneva is principally distilled in the
neighbourhood of Rotterdam; English is produced from the oil of
turpentine and malt spirits.
GINGER, _s._ An Indian root; the flower consists of five petals,
shaped like those of the iris.
There are two sorts kept in the shops; the black and the white ginger:
the latter is stronger, and preferred for culinary purposes, on account
of its more pleasant flavour, but the former is considered cheaper,
easily powdered, and more frequently used as a horse medicine.
I consider ginger as the most useful stimulant in the veterinary materia
medica: when joined with aromatics, such as allspice, caraway seed,
aniseed, cummin seed, &c., or their essential oils, it forms an
efficacious cordial, and with emetic tartar and opium an excellent
diaphoretic, for giving gloss to the coat, and relaxing the skin. Joined
with bitters, it makes a good stomachic; with squills an expectorant,
often relieving obstinate coughs.
Ginger is extremely beneficial in weakness and flatulency of the
stomach; and assisted by other remedies, such as warm beer, it seldom
fails of curing the flatulent colic, or gripes. _See_ CARMINATIVES.
The dose is from one drachm and a half to three drachms.
It should be recently powdered when used; but in a well-stopped bottle
the powder may be kept a considerable time without losing its
strength.—_White._
GIZZARD, _s._ The name given to the strong, muscular, and
cartilaginous portion of the stomach in birds which feed on
grain, which is so different from the membranous stomach of
birds of prey (_raptores_). The gizzard receives the food which
has previously been taken into the crop.
GLADE, _s._ A lawn or opening into a wood.
GLAIR, _s._ The white of an egg.
GLANCE, _v._ To shoot obliquely.
GLANDERS, _s._ A disease incident to horses.
This is a contagious disorder, and one that is generally thought
incurable. The great number of horses that have been destroyed by
glanders, especially in the army, and in establishments where great
numbers of horses are kept, has excited particular attention to the
subject, especially in France and Italy, where many attempts were made,
in the beginning of the last century, to discover a remedy for it.
Lafosse, an eminent French veterinarian, considered it as a local
disease, and thought he had discovered a successful mode of treating it,
which consisted in perforating the bones which cover the frontal and
nasal sinuses, and injecting through the openings astringent and other
liquids. After this opinion had been published, some English farriers
made trial of it, and by others detergent lotions were poured into the
nostrils; the nose being drawn up for the purpose by means of a pulley.
Attempts were also made to cure it by arsenical fumigations, and by
burning out the swollen glands under the jaws, or sloughing them out by
caustics. The various preparations of mercury, copper, iron, and
arsenic, have likewise been tried, and after all the general opinion is
that the glanders is incurable.
That the glanders is contagious has been clearly and indisputably proved
by numerous experiments; and the manner in which it is propagated has
likewise been satisfactorily demonstrated. At the same time it is
generally believed that the glanders takes place also independent of
contagion; but from what causes or circumstances it is then produced, no
author has attempted to state precisely.
It has been said, in a general way, that close unwholesome stables, hard
work, and bad provender, sudden changes from cold and wet weather to hot
close stables, hard work, and insufficient keep, and, in short, any
thing that will weaken the animal considerably, is likely to produce
glanders or farcy. Hence post and stage horses are particularly
obnoxious to this disease.
Mr. Russel, of Exeter, had, for many years, some glandered teams of
horses constantly working from Plymouth to Exeter. But they were worked
with moderation, well fed, and taken great care of. I attended these
teams for several years, the horses generally looked well, and in
excellent condition. Many of them lasted four or five years; and some
fell off after a few months.
The symptoms of glanders are—1st, A discharge of glairy matter from one
or both nostrils; generally from one only, and more frequently from the
left than from the right nostril. 2d, A swelling of the glands or
kernels under the jaw, or between the branches of the lower jaw, and
generally on the side of the jaw corresponding with the affected
nostril. In all other respects the animal is generally in health, and
often sleek and in good condition.
Sometimes, however, the glanders is accompanied by a disorder of the
skin, named farcy, and then the horse’s general health is often
affected. Farcy has been considered, by many authors, as a distinct
disorder. I have therefore noticed it in a separate article (see Farcy),
though of opinion that it is always a symptom of glanders, whether it
appear in a local, or in a constitutional form.
Glanders has been divided into two stages, the acute and the chronic, or
the first and second stage. The acute glanders is generally attended
with acute farcy, such as chancrous ulceration about the lips, face, or
neck, with considerable and painful swellings on different parts, some
of the swellings appearing as a corded vein: ulceration and swelling of
the hind leg or sheath, or testicles, and sometimes of the fore leg,
with corded veins, and farcy buds on the inside of the limb. The acute
glanders often spreads rapidly, and either destroys the animal, or
renders him such a pitiable and hopeless object, that the proprietor is
generally induced to have him knocked on the head.
Chronic glanders is generally very mild in the first stage of the
disorder, and does not affect the appetite, or the general health and
appearance of the animal. Such horses, when properly fed and taken care
of, and worked with moderation, will often continue in regular work for
several years.
I have been in the habit of attending several teams of glandered horses
since I left the army, and have known them last four or five years.
Sometimes, however, they would go off in a few months; and whenever a
glandered horse fell off much, and became unequal to his work, he was
destroyed. Many glandered horses have been known to get rid of the
disorder while working in these teams; and sound horses that have been
put in occasionally, to fill up the teams, especially old horses, have
escaped the disorder. It is this circumstance, as I have before stated,
that has led many to believe that the glanders is not contagious.
The second stage of glanders is marked by ulceration within the
nostrils, or an appearance in the matter which indicates ulceration,
though sometimes too high up to be seen. The matter is in larger
quantity, more glutinous, sticking about the margin of the nostril and
upper lips, and sometimes obstructing the passage of air, so that the
horse makes a snuffling noise in breathing. The matter is sometimes
streaked with blood, and the horse sometimes bleeds from the nostrils in
working. When this happens in the first stage of the disorder, however
early it may be, it indicates the approach of the second stage. The
matter begins to have an offensive smell, which it scarcely ever has in
the first stage, though an offensive smell is by many supposed to be a
decisive mark of glanders. In the second stage the matter generally runs
from both nostrils; the glands under the jaw become larger, harder, and
fixed more closely to the jaw-bone. They are also generally more tender
than in the first stage; the inner comers of the eyes are mattery. The
horse loses flesh and strength, stales more than usual, coughs, and at
length dies in a miserable condition, generally farcied as well as
glandered. It is with this disease as it was formerly with small pox
inoculation, and is now with vaccination. If a person happens to meet
with one or two cases, or suppose it were half a dozen, of a horse
escaping the glanders after standing in a stable with one that is
glandered, he thinks himself fully warranted in concluding that the
disease is not contagious. Satisfied with this decision, he gives
himself no further trouble about it, and pays no attention to any thing
that may be said or written in opposition to his own opinion.
It is a remarkable circumstance, that glanders cannot be communicated by
applying the matter which is discharged from the nose of a glandered
horse to the nostrils of a sound horse, even though a piece of lint
soaked in the matter be put up the nostrils, and kept in contact with
the pituitary membrane for a short time; or even if the matter be thrown
up the nostrils with a syringe. But, if the smallest quantity of matter
be applied in the way of inoculation, either to the membrane of the
nostrils, or to any part of the body, a glanderous ulcer will be
produced, from which farcy buds and corded lymphatics will proceed.
After a few weeks the poison will get into the circulation, and the
horse will be completely glandered. The circumstance of glanders not
being communicated by applying matter to the nostril, enables us to
account for a horse escaping the disorder, as he sometimes does, after
being put into a glandered stable, or standing by the side of a
glandered horse. I believe, however, that glanders is frequently
communicated by (accidental) inoculation; and that there is only one
other way in which it can be communicated, that is, by swallowing the
matter which flows from the nose of a glandered horse.—_Vide_ BLAINE.
A horse affected with glanders may inoculate himself, and thereby
produce the farcy. I have known this happen to a horse while at grass.
The horse had an itching in his hind leg, which led him to rub and bite
the part, and, at the same time, rub on it the glanderous matter which
flowed from his nostril. The possibility of this circumstance taking
place may be easily proved by inoculating a glandered horse, in any part
of his body, with some of his own matter. There are many ways in which a
sound horse may be accidentally inoculated with the matter of glanders,
for the slightest scratch in any part of the body is sufficient. Horses
that are cleaned with a curry comb are very liable to be scratched in
those parts where the bones are prominent, such as the inside of the
hock or knee, the shank bones and the head. To such scratches glanderous
matter may be applied by the hands of the groom after he has been
examining the nose of a glandered horse, or wiping off the matter from
his nostrils; or by the horse himself transferring glanderous matter
from the nose of a diseased horse, or from the manger, or other part
where any matter has been deposited, for horses are very fond of rubbing
their noses against the manger or stall, and a glandered horse will
generally try to rub off the matter from his nose against the manger,
the rack, the stall, or against another horse; and if a sound horse
happen to stand by one that is glandered, they will often be seen
nabbing or gently biting each other, or rubbing noses. In short, having
proved that glanders is thus communicated, we can conceive a variety of
ways in which a horse may be accidentally inoculated.
The reader may form some idea of the extent of such losses when informed
that large inn-keepers have been nearly ruined by them. I had occasion
to condemn eight horses at one time, in one establishment, which, added
to those already lost, amounted in value to five hundred pounds. In one
regiment fifty glandered horses were shot in one day. The twenty-third
French dragoons, when quartered in Italy, in March, 1809, had
seventy-six horses at one time affected with glanders and farcy, or
suspected of being so affected.
As I have demonstrated the manner in which glanders is communicated, it
is needless to say any thing of the mode of prevention, except briefly
observing, that it can only be accomplished by preventing any glanderous
matter from coming near a horse, or mixing with his food or water; and
that the only method of purifying an infected stable, is to remove every
thing on which glanderous matter may have fallen, and to wash and scrape
the fixtures, such as the rack and manger, thoroughly. I have in a
former edition advised a fumigation with the gas which arises from a
mixture of common salt, manganese, and oil of vitriol; because I have
found that glanderous matter which has been exposed to this gas is
rendered quite innocent, though an ass be inoculated with it; and I have
directed the stable to be first thoroughly cleansed, because if any dry
hard glanderous matter should remain, the water employed in cleansing
the stable will have moistened it, and thereby enable the fumigation to
mix with it, and destroy its poisonous quality.—_White._
GLARE, _v._ To shine so as to dazzle the eyes.
GLARE, _s._ Overpowering lustre, splendour, such as dazzles the eye;
a fierce piercing look.
GLASS, _s._ An artificial substance made by fusing salts and flint
or sand together, with a vehement fire; a glass vessel of any
kind; a looking-glass; a glass to help the sight; an hour-glass,
a glass used in measuring time by the flux of sand; a cup of
glass used to drink in; the quantity of wine usually contained
in a glass; a perspective glass.
GLASSY, _a._ Vitreous; resembling glass, as in smoothness, lustre,
or brittleness.
GLEAD, _s._ A kind of hawk.
GLEN, _s._ A valley, a dale.
GLIRES, _s._ The fourth order of the class Mammalia in the Linnæan
system. It includes animals with two foreteeth, a cutting one in
each jaw, no tusks, and claws formed for running, as the hare,
rabbit, &c.
GLOW-WORM, _s._ A small creeping insect with a luminous tail.
GLUE, _s._ A viscous cement. The best is made from the parings of
hides and other offals, by boiling them well in water, then
straining off all impurities, and, lastly, boiling them again.
GLUE, _v._ To join with a viscous cement; to unite.
GLUTE, _s._ The slimy substance in a hawk’s pannel.
GLYN, _s._ A hollow between two mountains.
GNARL, _v._ To growl, to murmur, to snarl.
GNASH, _v._ To grind or collide the teeth.
GNAT, _s._ A small winged stinging insect.
GNAW, _v._ To exercise the teeth.
GOAR, _s._ Any edging sewed upon cloth.
GOAT, _s._ An animal that seems a middle species between deer and
sheep.
GODWIT, _s._ A bird of particular delicacy.
[Illustration]
Buffon enumerates eight species of this division of the scolopax genus,
under the name of barges, including the foreign kinds; and Latham makes
out the same number of different sorts, all British. They are a timid,
shy, and solitary tribe; their mode of subsistence constrains them to
spend their lives amidst the fens, searching for their food in the mud
and wet soil, where they remain during the day, shaded and hidden among
reeds and rushes, in that obscurity which their timidity makes them
prefer. They seldom remain above a day or two in the same place, and it
often happens that in the morning not one is to be found in those
marshes where they were numerous the evening before. They remove in a
flock in the night, and when there is moonlight, may be seen and heard
passing at a vast height.
Their bills are long and slender, and, like the common snipe’s, are
smooth and blunt at the tip; their legs are of various colours, and
long. When pursued by the sportsman, they run with great speed, are very
restless, and spring at a great distance, and make a scream as they
rise. Their voice is somewhat extraordinary, and has been compared to
the smothered bleating of a goat. They delight in salt marshes, and are
rare in countries remote from the sea. Their flesh is delicate and
excellent food.
_Common Godwit_, _Godwyn_, _Yarnhelp_ or _Yarnhip_.—(_Scolopax
ægocephala_, LINN. _La grande Barge Grise_, BUFF.)
The weight of this bird is about twelve ounces; length about sixteen
inches; the bill is four inches long, and bent a little upwards, black
at the point, gradually softening into a pale purple towards the base; a
whitish streak passes from the bill over each eye; the head, neck, back,
scapulars, and coverts, are of a dingy pale brown, each feather marked
down the middle with a dark spot. The fore part of the breast is
streaked with black; the belly, vent, and tail, are white, the latter
regularly barred with black; the webs of the first six quill feathers
are black, edged on the interior sides with reddish brown; the legs are
in general dark coloured, inclining to a greenish blue.
The godwit is met with in various parts of Europe, Asia, and America; in
Great Britain, in the spring and summer, it resides in the fens and
marshes, where it rears its young, and feeds upon small worms and
insects. During these seasons it only removes from one marsh to another;
but when the winter sets in with severity, it seeks the salt marshes and
the seashore.
The godwit is much esteemed by epicures as a great delicacy, and sells
very high. It is caught in nets, to which it is allured by a stale or
stuffed bird, in the same manner, and in the same season, as the ruffs
and reeves.—_Bewick._
GOLD, _s._ The purest, heaviest, and most precious of all metals;
money.
_To dye fine bright Gold Colours._—First dye a very bright yellow with
turmeric, lift out your stuff, and add a teaspoonful of madder; return
it, and boil it about three minutes, and draw a part for the first
shade; then put in a tablespoonful of turmeric, boil it up smartly; lift
out your stuff and add better than a teaspoonful of madder; put it into
the pot again, and boil it about seven minutes, and draw the second
shade. For the third do the same, only adding some turmeric as before,
and two teaspoonfuls of madder; or, if you see there is not a proper
difference between the shades, add more madder, boil the wool in this
ten minutes, and draw for the third shade. Add more turmeric, and three
or four more teaspoonfuls of madder, or more, till you bring it near to
a blood orange.
The lightest of these shades mixes the olive camel, the second the light
rail, the third the dark rail and brown coughlan, and the fourth mixes
the golden sooty. This is the best way to dye gold colours. Any man who
is not a regular dyer can only be called a fancy dyer, and therefore can
give no regular rules. If you are a judge of these colours, you will
know by your eye when you get the proper shade. If the first two of them
should not be enough of the gold, add more madder by pinches, lest you
should overpower it. Divide each shade of the colours into two parts,
for fine olives, bordering on muscle’s-beard. Put down a clean vessel
with clean water, and put your lightest shade into it, first boiling in
it about the size of a horse-bean of copperas. Throw in your stuff, be
smart in passing it under your liquor, and in an instant you have a fine
golden olive. Put in the size of a pea more of copperas, and put your
next shade, and so on till all is done. You are to put in as much as two
peas in the last. A little of the dark shade helps the March olive
camel, and I have mixed out of these, with a little brown sable, a very
good olive camel. All turmeric dyes, when put with binding stuff, stand
well. Be careful your turmeric and madder be sound, if not, all is lost.
Sound turmeric is very bright, and of a sweet smell. Sound madder is of
an oily feel and a sweet smell, and is bright in colour; that which
resembles brick-dust is bad, and gives no colour. The madder that is the
best may be discovered easily by the taste.—_Ancient Recipe._
GOLDEN, _a._ Made of gold, consisting of gold; shining; yellow, of
the colour of gold; valuable.
GOLDEN EAGLE. _Vide_ EAGLE.
The golden eagle is said to be not unfrequent in the mountainous parts
of Ireland and Scotland. It breeds in the most inaccessible rocks, and
lays three or four white eggs, Selby says two, of a greyish white
colour, clouded with spots of reddish brown.
Smith, in the History of Kerry, says, a poor man in that county got a
comfortable subsistence for his family, during a summer of famine, out
of an eagle’s nest.
Pennant informs us it is frequent in Scotland, and adds, that it is very
destructive to deer, which it will seize between the horns, and, by
incessantly beating it with its wings, soon makes a prey of the harassed
animal; that it builds in cliffs of rocks near the deer forests, and
makes great havoc not only amongst them, but also the white hares and
ptarmigans.
Willoughby gives a curious account of the nest of this species found in
the woodlands, near the river Derwent, in the Peak of Derbyshire. He
says it was made of large sticks, lined with two layers of rushes,
between which was one of heath; that in it was one young and an addle
egg, and by them a lamb, a hare, and three heath-poults.
Instances have been recorded of infants being carried to their nests;
and in the Orkneys there is a law which entitles any person killing one
of these birds, to a hen out of every house in the parish in which it is
killed. They are remarkable for their longevity, and abstinence from
food. Pennant mentions one enduring hunger for twenty-one days.
As we were sporting in the neighbourhood of Ben-Lomond, on the summit of
the lesser mountains that form its base, a grouse, (Tetrao Scoticus),
was wounded, and flew with difficulty eighty or a hundred paces. An
eagle, apparently of this species, perceiving the laborious flight of
the grouse, descended with rapid wing from the adjacent lofty cliffs,
before our guns were re-loaded, and, in defiance of the shouts made to
deter him, carried off his prey.
In another part of the Western Highlands of Scotland, we had an
opportunity of witnessing the power of the flight of this bird in
pursuit of its quarry. An old black-cock (Tetrao tetrix) was sprung, and
was instantly pursued by the eagle, (who must have been on a
neighbouring rock unperceived,) across the glen, the breadth of which
was at least two miles. The eagle made several unsuccessful pounces, but
as there was no cover and the bird large, it probably fell a victim in
the end.—_Smith_—_Pennant_—_Montagu._