The sparrow owl is a very rare species in England. In France it is said
to frequent ruined edifices. It makes a nest in the holes of rocks and
walls, and lays five or six eggs, spotted with yellowish and white. It
is said to fly by day, and to give chace to small birds; but its
principal food is mice. It is said to build in chimneys in Carniola; and
Mr. Edwards mentions two having been taken in England by coming down
chimneys. In 1808, one was shot by Mr. Comyns, in North
Devon.—_Montagu._
SPAVIN, _s._ This disease in horses is a bony excrescence, or crust
as hard as a bone, that grows on the inside of the hough.
_Bony spavin_ consists of a small bony enlargement on the inside of the
hock, which often is not very observable. It occasions, however, a
peculiar kind of lameness, which cannot well be mistaken, that is, a
quick catching up of the leg, especially in trotting. This lameness is
of course in various degrees, and sometimes scarcely observable except
on first starting, and sometimes in confirmed and bad spavins; the
lameness diminishes, and sometimes appears to go off by exercise, but
after resting for some time the horse becomes very stiff and lame. The
only remedy for this complaint is firing, and blistering immediately
after. The horse should then be turned into a box for a short time, and
afterwards to grass; in about a month he may be put to work. I have been
informed that introducing a seton over the diseased part of the hock is
now practised at the Veterinary College, in preference to firing. I have
never tried this remedy, being satisfied that firing is the best, and
indeed the only remedy where the disease is curable. The hot iron should
be carried through the skin immediately over, and a little way into, the
bony excrescence.
_Bog spavin_ and _thorough pin_ is a swelling on the inside of the hock,
rather towards the fore part; the large vein which is so conspicuous on
the inside of the leg passing over it. It depends either upon a
distension, or rupture of the membranes which form the synovial cavity,
or bursa mucosa, through which the great flexor tendon passes. The
swelling is soft and yielding to the pressure of the finger, but rises
again as soon as the pressure is removed. Sometimes, however, there is a
swelling on the outside of the hock also, and in that case the fluid or
synovia which the swelling contains, may be forced from one to the
other. It is generally produced by hard work, or violent exertion for a
short period, generally in breaking in a colt and putting him upon his
haunches, as it is termed, at too early an age. It seldom occasions
lameness, unless considerable, and then makes a horse go very stiff,
especially after working much. The only remedy is firing, and sufficient
rest; and when it is so considerable as to cause any degree of
stiffness, it is advisable to have recourse to this operation. It often
exists however in a slight degree, and without occasioning any
inconvenience, and then it is better to leave it alone.—_White._
SPAWN, _s._ The eggs of fish or of frogs; any product or offspring.
SPAWN, _v._ To produce as fishes do eggs; to generate, to bring
forth.
SPAWNER, _s._ The female fish.
SPAY, _v._ To castrate female animals.
Spaying is performed by making an opening in the flank on one side, when
the ovaria, being enlarged by pregnancy, are readily distinguishable,
and may be drawn out and cut off, first one and then the other; securing
the ends by a ligature lightly applied to each surface, but leaving the
threads without the wound, which is to be closed by stitches and
bandaging. Farriers often apply no ligature, but content themselves with
simply sewing up the wound, and no ill consequence seems to ensue.
Bitches, after they have been spayed, become fat, bloated, and
spiritless, and commonly prove short-lived.—_Blaine._
SPEAR, _s._ A long weapon with a sharp point, used in thrusting or
throwing; a lance; a lance generally with prongs to kill fish.
SPEAR, _v._ To kill or pierce with a spear.
SPECIES, _s._ A sort, a subdivision of a general term; class of
nature, single order of beings.
SPECIFIC, _s._ A specific medicine.
SPEED, _s._ Quickness, celerity, haste, hurry, despatch; the course
or pace of a horse.
_Speed of the Horse._—Common report says that Flying Childers could run
a mile in a minute, but there is no authentic record of this. He ran
over the Round Course of Newmarket (three miles, six furlongs, and
ninety-three yards) in six minutes and forty seconds; and the Beacon
Course (four miles, one furlong, and one hundred and thirty-eight
yards), in seven minutes and thirty seconds. In 1772, a mile was run by
Firetail, in one minute and four seconds. In October 1741, at the
Curragh meeting in Ireland, Mr. Wilde engaged to ride 127 miles in nine
hours. He performed it in six hours and twenty-one minutes. He employed
ten horses, and allowing for mounting and dismounting, and a moment for
refreshment, he rode for six hours at the rate of twenty miles an hour.
Mr. Thornhill, in 1745, exceeded this, for he rode from Stilton to
London and back, and again to Stilton, being 213 miles, in eleven hours
and thirty-four minutes, which is, after allowing the least possible
time for changing horses, twenty miles an hour for eleven hours, and on
the turnpike road and uneven ground. Mr. Shaftoe, in 1762, with ten
horses, and five of them ridden twice, accomplished fifty miles and a
quarter in one hour and forty-nine minutes. In 1763, Mr. Shaftoe won a
more extraordinary match. He was to procure a person to ride one hundred
miles a day, on any one horse each day, for twenty-nine days together,
and to have any number of horses not exceeding twenty-nine: he
accomplished it on fourteen horses, and one day he rode 160 miles, on
account of the tiring of his first horse. Mr. Hull’s Quibbler, however,
afforded the most extraordinary instance on record of the stoutness as
well as speed of the race-horse. In December, 1786, he ran twenty-three
miles round the flat at Newmarket, in fifty-seven minutes and ten
seconds.
Speed is sportingly applicable to horse, hound, or greyhound. There are
two modes of trial for speed, according to the present reformed mode of
English racing; the one is to run a mile, which is termed running for
speed; the other, of going off at score, and absolutely racing the whole
four miles, which is called running for speed and bottom. Flying
Childers, whose speed was almost proverbial, went one third of a mile in
twenty seconds. Firetail and Pumpkin ran a mile in a few seconds more
than a minute and a half. Childers ran the distance of four miles in six
minutes and forty-eight seconds, carrying nine stone, two pounds; he
made a leap of thirty feet upon level ground; and he covered a space of
twenty-five feet at every stroke when racing. It was formerly known that
any horse who could run four miles in eight minutes, would prove a
winner of plates: this is, however, very materially refined, by
judicious crosses in blood, or improvements in training; as Bay Malton
ran four miles over York in seven minutes, forty-three seconds and a
half. Eclipse ran the same distance over York in eight minutes, with
twelve stone, though going only at his rate, without any inducement to
speed.—_Sporting Directory._
SPEEDINESS, _s._ The quality of being speedy.
SPEEDY, _a._ Quick, swift, fast.
SPELTER, _s._ A kind of semi-metal.
SPERM, _s._ Seed, that by which the species is continued.
SPERMACETI, _s._ A species of whale; an oily substance found in the
head of the Physeter Macrocephalus.
SPICE, _s._ A vegetable production, fragrant to the smell and
pungent to the palate; an aromatic substance used in sauces.
SPIKE, _s._ An ear of corn; a long nail of iron or wood, a long rod
of iron sharpened; a smaller species of lavender.
SPILLET, _s._ A long line used for sea-fishing.
Did a man wish to moralise upon the unrealities of human expectations,
let him hang over a spillet, and be interested in its success. Conceive
an eternity of line, with a thousand hooks at given distances; as every
snoud is placed a fathom apart, a person less conversant with figures
than Joe Hume, may guess the total. This endless continuity of hemp must
be carefully taken up. Do it slowly, and the thing is worse than a
penance to Lough Dergh; and if you attempt rapidity, the odds are, that
the back-line breaks, and a full hour will scarcely remedy the mischief.
It would puzzle a philosopher to determine the state of affairs in ten
fathom of water; and if you shoot in foul ground, you will probably lose
the spillet, or, with a world of labour, disentangle a moiety from rocks
and sea-weed. Should it, however, have escaped those casualties, after a
two hours’ probation, while you listen to a drimindhu from the skipper,
and the exact state of the herring-market from the crew, you proceed to
raise it. Up it comes—that vibratory motion announces that a fish is
fast upon the snoud; conjecture is busily at work, and there is a
difference of opinion, whether ‘the deceived one’ be a codling or red
gurnet. It appears—a worthless, rascally, dog-fish! A succession of line
comes in—star-fish, and, “few and far between,” some solitary plaices
and flounders—at last a victim—heavy and unresisting. An indistinct
glance of a dark object, broad as a tea-tray, brings the assistant
spilleteer, gaff in hand, to the quarter. Alas! the turbot in
expectation, turns out to be a ray! Often have I shot a spillet under
favourable circumstances, and in approved ground, and lost time, hooks,
and snouds, and my whole reward was a boat-load of skates and
dog-fish.—_Wild Sports._
SPINAL, _a._ Belonging to the back bone.
SPINE, _s._ The back bone.
_Spine of Birds._—The back-bone of birds, unlike that of some other
animals, is immoveable, though they have the power of bending the
neck.—_Montagu._
SPINOUS, _a._ Thorny, full of thorns.
SPIRACLE, _s._ A breathing hole, a vent, a small aperture, a pore.
SPIRIT, _s._ Breath, wind in motion; ardour; courage; that which
gives vigour or cheerfulness to the mind; an inflammable liquor
raised by distillation.
SPIRITED, _a._ Lively, full of fire.
SPIRITLESS, _a._ Low, deprived of vigour, depressed.
SPITTER, _s._ _obs._ A young deer.
SPLAYFOOTED, _a._ Having the foot turned inward.
SPLEEN, _s._ The milt, one of the viscera; anger, spite, ill-humour.
SPLENT, _s._ Splent is a callous hard substance, or an insensible
swelling, which breeds on or adheres to the shank-bone, and when
it grows big spoils the shape of the leg.
A horse often becomes lame when throwing out a splent; but that state of
the bone which causes the lameness seldom continues long; nor does it
ever produce permanent lameness. If any remedy is applied, a blister is
always sufficiently strong. A new method of treating splents has been
lately introduced; that is, passing a seton under the skin and
immediately over the splent. It is said to be an improvement. I once
tried it in a case of old bone spavin, but it did no good; nor did
firing, which was tried soon after, though the hot iron was passed
through the skin, and into the bony excrescence. The old method of
rubbing or bruising a splent, puncturing it, and rubbing in some
blistering preparation, will often produce a considerable swelling of
the whole limb, and do a great deal of mischief. Lameness from a splent
may sometimes be removed by placing a pledget of old linen, wet with
goulard or saturnine lotion on it, and confining it with a bandage kept
constantly wet. I have seen a good effect from diluted vinegar also.