Bill as long, or longer than the head, almost straight, compressed,
fringed, cutting and pointed; the mandibles of equal length, the upper
slightly inclined towards the point; nostrils towards the middle of the
bill, slit lengthwise, and pierced from part to part; legs small, naked
to above the knee; shank very short; four toes, the three fore ones
reunited by a cut membrane, the hind toe free; claws small and arched;
tail more or less forked; wings very long and pointed, the first quill
the longest.
STEW, _v._ To seeth anything in a slow moist heat.
STEW, _s._ A storepond, a small pond where fish are kept for the
table.
STICKLEBACK, _s._ The smallest of fresh water fish; applied to a
horse means heavy, lazy, not flippant.
The _stickleback_ is the smallest fish in this country, and is called by
several names in different parts of it; they are not worthy the angler’s
notice, except as baits with the prickles cut off (which kills the
fish), for which purpose they are equal to the minnow, or superior in
pond fishing for perch; they may be taken with the least sized hook, and
a bit of small red worm, and are found in little inlets of streams, and
also in stagnated waters. Walton considers the stickleback preferable to
the minnow, as being capable of whirling round quicker, which is the
perfection of this sort of fishing: to acquire this velocity, the hook
is to be put in at the mouth and out at the tail, and having first tied
him with white thread a little above the tail, and placed him in such a
manner on the hook as he is likely to turn quick, his mouth is then
sewed up to the line; should he not whirl so speedily as is wished, the
tail should be more or less turned towards the inner part, or side of
the hook, or put somewhat more crooked or straight on the hook, until it
turns both true and fast: in a swift stream any great trout will be
tempted; the loach will have the same effect, provided it be
small.—_Daniel._
STIFF, _a._ Rigid, inflexible; _stiff country_, heavy soil, much
enclosed, difficult to ride over or pass through.
STIFLE, _s._ The bone of a horse.
The upper bone of the thigh is united to the lower by a somewhat
complicated joint. It terminates by two round prominences behind, which
are received into slight depressions on the upper surface of the lower
bone; and in front is a curious groove over which plays a small
irregular bone, the patella or stifle bone. The whole is called, by
farriers, the stifle joint.
The stifle joint is not often subject to sprain. The heat and tenderness
will guide to the seat of injury. Occasionally, dislocation of the
patella has occurred, and the horse drags the injured limb after him, or
rests it on the fetlock: the aid of a veterinary surgeon is here
requisite. The muscles of the inside of the thigh, generally, have
sometimes been sprained; this may be detected by diffused heat, or heat
on the inside of the thigh above the stifle: rest, fomentations,
bleeding, and physic, will be the proper means of cure.—_The Horse._
STILTS, _s._ Supports or poles by which water may be crossed.
STIMULATE, _v._ To excite by some pungent motive; in physic, to
excite a quick sensation, with a derivation towards the part.
STINT, _v._ To bound, to limit, to confine, to restrain; to
impregnate a mare.
STIRRUP, _s._ An iron hoop suspended by a strap, in which the
horseman sets his foot when he mounts or rides.
STOAT, _s._ An animal of the weasel tribe.
[Illustration]
This animal, which is equally agile and mischievous with the weasel in
pursuit and destruction of the hare, and all other sorts of game,
poultry, and eggs, has, from its habits and the small difference in
shape from the weasel, been often described under the same denomination.
Its height is about two inches; the tail five and a half, very hairy,
and at the points tipped with black; the edges of the ears and ends of
the toes are of a yellowish white; in other respects it perfectly
resembles the weasel in colour and form. In the most northern parts of
Europe the stoat regularly changes its colour in winter, and becomes
perfectly white, except the end of the tail, which remains invariably
black. It is then called the ermine: the fur is valuable, and sold in
the country where caught, from two to three pounds sterling per hundred.
The animal is either taken in traps, made of two flat stones, or shot
with blunt arrows.
The stoat is sometimes found white during the winter season in Great
Britain, and is then commonly called the white weasel. Its fur, however,
having neither the thickness, the closeness, nor the whiteness, of those
which come from Siberia, is, with us, of little value.
To destroy these worst of all four-footed vermin to game in its infant
state, the following mode is recommended:—Provide small square-made
steel traps, with a small chain and iron peg to fix them down; get two
drachms of musk, shoot some small birds, and dip the tail of these birds
in the musk; tie one on the plate of each trap, and set in the hedges,
or where it is suspected they frequent: this will soon reduce the
number, should it be ever so considerable: if it so happen, that no musk
is immediately to be got, the trap must be baited with a bit of rabbit;
and it should be remembered that this bait cannot be too stale.
* * * * *
Some time since, as Mr. Clarke, of Horndean, was going a few miles on
foot, in the forest of Bere, to visit a friend, he observed a hare come
into the green road before him, which seemed to be listening, and
looking back for something which pursued her. He stood still, and
hearing no dog, was curious to discover the cause of her alarm; when, to
his great surprise, he discovered the object of it to be a small yellow
red and white stoat, which hunted her footsteps with the utmost
precision. He, wishing to know if so diminutive an animal could have a
chance of coping with the great speed of the hare, retreated to a
holm-bush hard by, where he was an attentive observer of this silent
hunt for near two hours, during which, he is certain to have seen both
hare and stoat at least forty times. They were frequently gone for five
or ten minutes; but the hare, still unwilling to leave the place where
she was found, came round again, and her little pursuer sometimes close
at her heels. Towards the end of this remarkable chase, which became
uncommonly interesting, the hare took advantage of the thickest covert
the place afforded, and made use of all her cunning and strength to
escape, but without effect; till at length, wearied out by the
perseverance of the stoat, Mr. C. heard her cry for some time.
At last, the cries coming from one point, he concluded she was become
the victim of the chase; on which he went to the spot, where he found
the hare quite dead, and the stoat so intently fastened on her neck, as
not to perceive his approach. The stoat, in its turn, now fell a victim
to Mr. C’s stick; after which, he proceeded with both hare and stoat to
the house of his friend.—_Sporting Anecdotes._
STOCK, _s._ The trunk, the body of a plant; a log; a post; the
handle of anything; a support of a ship while it is building; a
close neckcloth; a race, a lineage, a family. _Vide_ GUN.
STOCK, _v._ To store, to fill sufficiently; to fit a gun stock.
STOCKDOVE, _s._ The ringdove.
STOCKFISH, _s._ Dried cod, so called from its hardness.
STOMACH, _s._ The ventricle in which food is digested; appetite.
_Stomach of Birds._—The stomach of birds forms them into two distinct
natural classes: those with cartilaginous stomachs, covered with very
strong muscles, called a gizzard; and those with membranaceous stomachs,
more resembling that of carnivorous quadrupeds. The former is given to
birds whose principal food is grain and seeds of various kinds, or other
hard substances that require much friction to comminute, to assist which
gravel is necessary; the latter is given to birds which feed upon flesh
or fish, and whose digestion is accelerated more by the gastric juice
than by the action of the stomach. Those of the first class digest or
retain every substance swallowed; and those which eject or disgorge
innutritious matter unavoidably taken in, such as feathers, fur, bones,
&c., belong to the second class; as is conspicuous in the falcon
(_Falconidæ_, LEACH), and owl (_Strigidæ_, _Leach_), and others that
feed on fish. Granivorous birds seem to possess a power of retaining the
small stones taken into the gizzard, or evacuating them when they become
polished and less useful, but cannot disgorge them. In a state of nature
the quantity of gravel taken in must be regulated, no doubt, by the
sensation of the stomach; but, extraordinary as it may seem, in
domesticated animals those instinctive faculties are deranged. We have
known instances where the whole cavity of the gizzard has been filled
with gravel stones. We once remember part of a brood of young ducks,
half grown, taking in such a quantity of gravel, as not only filled the
gizzard but the craw, and even the gullet; they soon after died. Many
species of birds possess a reservoir for food, called a craw, or crop,
which seems to answer the same purpose as the first stomach in
ruminating animals, and here it is that the food is softened and
prepared for the stomach, or carried to the young.
* * * * *