Night-fishing is carried on when the river is low, and the night
moonless. The poacher, with a gaff and torch, selects some gravelly
ford—for there, by a law of nature, the salmon resort, to form beds in
the stream, wherein to deposit their ova; and they continue working on
the sand, until they are discovered by torch-light, and gaffed by the
plunderer. Hundreds of the breeding fish are annually thus destroyed;
and although the greater fisheries may be tolerably protected, it is
impossible to secure the mountain streams from depredation.—_Wild
Sports._
NIGHTINGALE, _s._ A bird that sings in the night with remarkable
melody.
One of the finest songsters of the feathered race, generally visiting
us, about London, the beginning of April; in Somersetshire it seldom
arrives till the middle or latter end of that month, and sometimes not
till the beginning of May; Devonshire, and Cornwall, and some other
counties, it does not visit at all: it generally leaves us again the
beginning of September. Its song, when wild, is very fine, but lasts but
a few weeks; to have it in the greatest perfection is to have a good
bird in a cage, where, if it be a very kindly one, it will begin singing
the beginning of December, and continue till June. I had a very fine one
that only left off singing the latter end of June last; it began again a
little in September, and the 1st of December it was in full song, and
continued to sing through the whole of the month, and nearly all day
long, as fine as if at Midsummer, and would have continued on had not
the frost set in so severe; when singing in a cage none of the soft
notes are lost, they are all heard quite clear, which is not the case
when heard in the woods or hedges.
The best way to be certain of a good nightingale is to get one that is
just caught in spring; for there is no dependence on a young one bred up
from the nest, or a young brancher, except it be kept with a good old
bird, to learn its proper notes from; a young one being apt to catch all
it hears, good or bad, and to be deficient of many of its natural ones.
I had one three years, and it never sang worth any thing; the year
before last I turned it out, and it continued in the gardens round the
house until it left the country in autumn; it returned back to the same
place last spring, where I recognised it by its bad song, and it
continued about the same place all the summer, and bred up a nest of
young ones. A female that I had also been keeping for six years, to see
if she would breed, I also turned out with him, but whether she came
back and was partner in the nest I cannot say, as I had no mark to know
her by: this female I kept four years, and it never attempted to sing;
the fifth year it sang frequently, a pretty soft nightingale’s note. I
have found that the case with several female birds; they do not sing
till they become aged; but it is not a general rule, as I have had a
female willow wren that sang when quite young.
I treat my nightingales in exactly the same manner as the
before-mentioned birds, which is at variance with the bird-fanciers’
method, who feed them on grated beef and egg, and German paste; but I
have never heard of any thing being kept many years on that food: the
German paste I do not approve of at all, as the maw-seeds, honey, sugar,
and such out of the way ingredients, I am convinced must be very
injurious to their health. The best thing to keep them in good health
and spirits, is to give them as much insect food as possible, and there
are scarcely any insects they will refuse, except the common earth-worm
and the hairy caterpillars; they are particularly fond of ants and their
eggs, for which they will leave any other food; they are also very
partial to all sorts of smooth caterpillars, earwigs, crickets,
grasshoppers, cockroaches, common maggots, and meal-worms; but there is
nothing that all the birds of this tribe are so fond of, as the young
larvæ in the combs of wasps and hornets—they will even eat them after
they become winged. I have, when a boy, kept nightingales, blackcaps,
the greater pettychaps, and whitethroats, for two months at a time, on
nothing else.—_White of Selborne._
NIMBLE, _a._ Quick, active, ready, speedy, lively, expeditious.
NINEPINs, _s._ A play where nine pieces of wood are set up on the
ground to be thrown down by a bowl.
The kayle-pins were afterwards called kettle or kittle-pins; and hence,
by an easy corruption, skittle-pins, an appellation well known in the
present day. The game of skittles as it is now played, differs
materially from that of nine-pins, though the same number of pins are
required in both. In performing the latter, the player stands at a
distance settled by mutual consent of the parties concerned, and casts
the bowl at the pins: the contest is, to beat them all down in the
fewest throws. In playing at skittles there is a double exertion; one by
bowling, and the other by tipping: the first is performed at a given
distance, and the second standing close to the frame upon which the pins
are placed, and throwing the bowl through in the midst of them; in both
cases, the number of pins beaten down before the return of the bowl, for
it usually passes beyond the frame, are called fair, and reckoned to the
account of the player; but those that fall by the coming back of the
bowl are said to be foul, and of course not counted. One chalk or score
is reckoned for every fair pin; and the game of skittles consists in
obtaining thirty-one chalks precisely: less loses, or at least gives his
antagonist a chance of winning the game; and more requires the player to
go again for nine, which must also be brought exactly, to secure
himself.
Hanmer intimates that the kittle-pins were sometimes made with bones;
and his assertion is strengthened by the language of a dramatic writer,
the author of the Merry Milk-maid of Islington, in 1680, who makes one
of his characters speak thus to another: “I’ll cleave you from the skull
to the twist, and make nine skittles of thy bones.”—_Strutt._
NITRATE OF POTASH, NITRE, or SALTPETRE, _s._ A neutral salt, formed
by the combination of nitrous acid and potash.
This is a medicine of great utility in veterinary practice. It possesses
a cooling and diuretic property, which renders it extremely useful in
fevers, and complaints of an inflammatory nature.
In fevers, it is often joined with emetic tartar, or antimonial powder.
In catarrh or cold, nitre is the best remedy; and in troublesome coughs
it gives relief, if mixed with some emollient drink and a little honey.
The medium dose of nitre is about one ounce, though farriers often give
double that quantity, but large doses are apt to irritate the stomach
and do mischief. In urgent cases half an ounce may be given every fourth
hour, in a mucilaginous drink, or in water-gruel.—_White._
NITROUS, _a._ Impregnated with nitre.
NOBLE, _a._ Of ancient and splendid family; exalted to a rank above
commonalty; great, illustrious; exalted.
NODE, _s._ A knot, a knob; a swelling on the bone.
NOMBLES, _s._ The entrails of a deer.
NOPE, _s._ A kind of bird called a bull-finch or red-tail.
NOSE, _s._ The prominence on the face, which is the organ of scent
and the emunctory of the brain; scent; sagacity.
NOSE, _v._ To scent, to smell.
NOSTRIL, _s._ The cavity in the nose. _Nostrils linear_, in
ornithology,—when they are extended lengthwise in a line with
the bill, as in divers; _Nostrils pervious_,—when they are open,
and may be seen through from side to side, as in gulls, &c.
NOSTRUM, _s._ A medicine not yet made public, but remaining in some
single hand.
NOTCH, _s._ A nick, a hollow cut in anything.
NOZZLE, _s._ The nose, the snout, the end.
NUT, _s._ The fruit of certain trees: it consists of a kernel
covered by a hard shell; a small body with teeth, which
correspond with the teeth of wheels.
NUTBROWN, _a._ Brown like a nut kept long.
NUTHATCH, NUTJOBBER, or NUTPECKER, _s._ A bird.
NUTRITIOUS, _a._ Having the quality of nourishing.
NUX VOMICA, _s._ A flat compressed round fruit, about the breadth of
a shilling, brought from the East Indies. It is a certain poison
for dogs, &c. _Vide_ POISON.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
OAK, _s._ A tree; the wood of the tree.
A decoction of oak-bark is a good vehicle for tonic and astringent
medicines. When finely powdered and given as a drench with ginger, it
may be of service in those complaints, the continuance of which depends
upon debility. It is said, however, to be much less efficacious than
Peruvian-bark; yet, when that cannot be procured, it may be found a
useful substitute. The dose is about two ounces.—_White._
OAKAPPLE, _s._ A kind of spongy excrescence in the oak.
OAKEN, _a._ Made of oak, gathered from oak.
OAKUM, _s._ Cords untwisted and reduced to hemp.
It is somewhat extraordinary that I and other sportsmen, as well as the
gun-makers, should never have discovered that a punched wadding on the
powder is not the best means of loading a gun. We were all content,
because it was ten times better than paper, and therefore it is, and has
long been, the universal method of loading. But I was induced to try an
experiment at quires of paper, having, as I always do, a clerk, the same
as at a cricket match, to take down the advantages of strength and
closeness, and then to sum up the evidence and pronounce, like a judge,
the grand aggregate of the gun’s performance; which, on such occasions,
is seldom so undecided as to be merely a matter of opinion. I first
tried a pasteboard wadding of Mr. Joseph Manton’s, and no one, I
presume, will dispute, that both the punch and the wadding, as well as
every thing else from Mr. Joseph Manton, must be of the best quality;
the one as to fitting well, and the other as to being of good
pasteboard. I then tried this duck-gun system of loading, viz.: a piece
of coarse tarred oakum (precisely what ships’ ropes are made of,) first
wound round the finger, so as to be quite hard, and then rolled up in as
large a ball as will fit tight into the muzzle, and go with moderate
force down the calibre of the gun. (The balls thus rolled up may be
readily made and carried in the pocket; and, if of the proper size, will
force down the calibre rather quicker than punched wadding. Let the
calibre be as large as it may, you of course, with this wadding, require
nothing more on the powder.) I then put a common pasteboard wadding
(with air vent) on the shot, and I found, that even in small guns, where
pasteboard is far less apt to swerve, this mode of loading threw the
shot closer, stronger, and, above all, with less variation in its
performance.
In the experiment, I anticipated an increase of recoil, particularly
when I came to try it with a detonater; but, on the contrary, the recoil
was less from the oakum than from the wadding. The case, I conceive,
must be this: the punched wadding gives a severe check at first, but
before the powder is half burned, it slips a little on one side, and
allows it to mix with the shot; while the oakum has an elastic
rotundity, that springs to every gradation, of the calibre; and
therefore will never suffer any powder to escape, till it has left the
muzzle of the gun.
Moreover, on the other hand, the pasteboard being once a little
contracted by the friction, or rendered soft on its edges by the elastic
fluid in the barrel, allows the powder to escape where the calibre
becomes relieved, and therefore makes the gun, in comparison, shoot
thin, weak, and irregular.—_Hawker._
OAR, _s._ A long pole with a broad end by which boats are propelled.
OATCAKE, _s._ Cake made of the meal of oats.
OATEN, _a._ Made of oats, bearing oats.
OATMALT, _s._ Malt made of oats.
OATMEAL, _s._ Flour made by grinding oats.
OATS, _s._ A grain with which horses are fed.
In the choice of oats for horses, such as are heavy and clean, and
sweet, are preferable. New oats are injurious, being difficult of
digestion, and apt to scour; but this quality may be, in a great
measure, corrected by drying them gradually on a kiln.
Kiln-dried oats are seldom used in Ireland, it being supposed that they
are injurious to a horse’s wind.
OCULAR, _a._ Depending on the eye, known by the eye.
ODD, _a._ Not even, not divisible into equal numbers; particular,
uncouth, extraordinary.
ODDS, _s._ Inequality; more than an even wager; advantage,
superiority.
OFFAL, _s._ Waste meat, that which is not eaten at the table;
carrion; coarse flesh, refuse, that which is thrown away; the
food of hounds.
OIL, _s._ Any fat, greasy, unctuous, thin matter.
Oils are fixed or volatile. The former are procured from animal and
vegetable substances by heat and pressure, and hence they have been
named expressed oils; and are termed fixed, because they do not
evaporate, except at a very high temperature. Volatile oils, on the
contrary, evaporate readily, and are obtained from vegetables by
distillation; and as they commonly contain all the essential qualities
of the substance they are procured from, they have been named also
essential oils. The numerous officinal oils prescribed in old
dispensations are now totally disused.
_Oil of Bay._—Is liker an ointment than an oil, of a light green colour.
It is used as an external application in cutaneous complaints, as mange.
Sometimes it is substituted for hog’s lard in making mercurial ointment,
and is supposed to render it more active. When to this mixture is added
cantharides and oil of origanum, a strong blister is formed, which is
recommended for the removal of splents and spavins.
_Oil of Castor._—An useful laxative. The dose is about a pint.
_Oil of Olive._—This also is a very pure and sweet oil; and in the dose
of a pint generally operates as a laxative. When castor oil cannot be
easily procured, this may with great propriety be substituted for it. It
is used also in making emulsions, liniments, and ointments.
_Oil of Linseed._—This also has a laxative quality, but is not so
certain in its effect as the castor or olive oil. It is employed as a
remedy for coughs; and on such occasions the cold-drawn oil is
preferred, _i. e._ that which is expressed from the seed without the
assistance of heat.
_Oil of Palm or Palm Oil._—This, though termed an oil, is of the
consistence of hogs’ lard, and very similar to it in its medical
qualities.—_White._
OIL, _v._ To smear or lubricate with oil.
OILY, _a._ Consisting of oil, containing oil, having the qualities
of oil; fat, greasy.
OINTMENT, _s._ Unguent, unctuous matter; a sort of cataplasm.
Ointments are composed generally of lard, suet, tallow, bees’ wax, oils,
resins, and turpentines. The following are those principally used.