Chapter XXV: Part 25

IGNITE, _v._ To kindle, to set on fire.

IGNITIBLE, _a._ Inflammable, capable of being set on fire.

IGNITION, _s._ The act of kindling, or of setting on fire.

JIGOT, _s._ A leg; as, a jigot of mutton.

JILL, _s._ A measure of liquids.

ILIAC, _a._ Relating to the lower bowels.

IMBROWN, _v._ To make brown, to darken.

IMPING, _s._

This curious process consists in attaching to the part that remains an exact substitute for the piece lost. For this purpose the falconer is always provided with pinions, (right and left,) and with tail-feathers of hawks, or with the feathers separated from the pinion, carefully preserved and numbered, so as to prevent mistake in taking a true match for the injured feather. He then with a sharp knife gently parts the web of the feather to be repaired, at its thickest part, and cuts the shaft obliquely forward, so as not to damage the web on the opposite edge. He next cuts the substitute feather as exactly as possible at the corresponding point, and with the same slope.

For the purpose of uniting them, he is provided with an iron needle, with broad triangular points at both ends; and after wetting the needle with salt and water, he thrusts it into the centre of the pith of each part, as truly straight, and as nearly to the same length in each as may be. When this operation has been skilfully performed, the junction is so neat that an inexperienced eye would hardly discern the point of union; and as the iron rusts, from having been wetted with brine, there is little or no danger of separation.—_Sebright._

IMPOSTHUME, _s._ A collection of purulent matter in a bag or cyst.

INBRED, _a._ Produced within; hatched or generated within.

INCAGE, _v._ To coop up, to shut up; to confine in a cage, or any
narrow space.

INCH, _s._ The twelfth part of a foot.

INCISION, _s._ A cut, a wound made with a sharp instrument.

INCISOR, _s._ Cutter, tooth in the forepart of the mouth.

INCORPORATE, _v._ To mingle different ingredients so as they shall
make one mass; to unite, to associate, to embody.

INCUBATION, _s._ The act of sitting upon eggs to hatch them.

_Incubation._—It is probable birds are endowed with an instinctive power of regulating the necessary heat for this purpose; of course, should the heat of the air, together with the natural warmth of the body, on the close contact of the bird to the eggs, be too great, her feelings would dictate the necessity of leaving them for a time to cool. At the early period of incubation birds quit their eggs more frequently than at the time the fetus is more perfect. Yet, in the advanced state, the embryo young is not in more danger of being destroyed, if so much; for we have frequently found a living fetus in an egg that has been taken from the nest two days. If, however, the young is within a few hours of being excluded, and the egg is suffered to be some time cold, it either dies, or becomes so weak as not to be able to extricate itself from the shell. Various degrees of heat will enlarge the embryo young, but regular heat seems necessary to its production; and yet artificial heat, regulated by the brooding of a bird, will not produce young with such certainty. In Egypt, a vast quantity of eggs are hatched by artificial heat in stoves. It is probable, however, one third or one fourth miscarry. The necessary heat for this purpose is about ninety-six degrees of Fahrenheit’s thermometer, or thirty-two of Reaumur’s scale. Birds frequently turn and change the situation of their eggs in the nest; besides this, it is possible that the moisture of the bird’s body may assist the natural growth of the fœtus and the production of the young.

The male birds of some species supply the place of the female on the nest; but then it is of short duration, and rarely, if ever, when the eggs are near hatching; at that time the female is frequently fed by the male. This is not common to all species, but very conspicuous in the rook, the pigeon, and many others. Many species of birds possess a reservoir for food, called a craw, or crop; this seems to answer the same purpose as the first stomach in ruminating animals. Here it is the food is softened and prepared for the stomach; from this reservoir it is by some ejected for the purpose of feeding their young; conspicuous in the pigeon.

The rook has a small pouch under the tongue, in which it carries food to its young. It is probable the use of the craw may be extended further than is generally imagined; for besides the common preparation of the food to assist its digestion in the stomach, there are some species that actually secrete a lacteal substance in the breeding season, which, mixing with the half-digested food, is ejected to feed and nourish the young. The mammæ, from which this milky liquor is produced, are situated on each side the upper part of the breast, immediately under the craw. In the female turtle dove we have met with these glands tumid with milky secretion, and we believe it common to both sexes of the dove genus. The cormorant or pelican genus possess no craw; but, to supply its place, they have a loose skin at the base of the under mandibles, capable of great distension, in which they carry fish to their young. The bustard is said to possess a bag of an astonishing size, for the purpose of retaining water; but the most unaccountable and extraordinary formation in the trachea of many of the males of the duck genus, called a labyrinth, is beyond our reach to discover the use of, as well as the singular flexure in the windpipe of the hooping swan and crane.

* * * * *

_Attention during Incubation._—There is this distinction in the hen: in some, the desire of sitting or incubation is predominant, which they will repeat to the fifth or sixth time in the year, to their emaciation or almost destruction: in others the desire is so slight, that they will probably sit but twice, or even once in the season, and then not steadily. It is for the skilful breeder to take advantage of this variation of quality, the one kind furnishing plenty of eggs for the other to sit upon.

It is proper to place corn and water beside the sitting hen, whenever it may appear necessary, withdrawing them as soon as she is satisfied, not only to encourage steadiness of incubation, but to support the constitutions of those in which the natural excitement is so powerful, that they will remain several successive days upon the nest, at the risk of famishing. I have had instances of hens of this description fainting outright, and appearing as dead, on their finally leaving the nest with the chickens, in a state of total emaciation, having, probably, not eaten or drank more than once in three or four days, during the term of their incubation, twenty-one days. The plan of feeding on the nest should be invariably pursued with all frequent sitters.—_Montagu_—_Moubray._

INCURABLE, _a._ Not admitting remedy, not to be removed by medicine;
irremediable, hopeless.

INDIAN RUBBER, or CAOUTCHOUC, _s._ An elastic gum procured from a
South American tree, called the Syphonia Uastica. It is mostly
brought into Europe in the shape of bottles, which are formed by
spreading the gum over moulds of clay.

INDIGO, _s._ A plant, by the Americans called anil, used in dyeing
for a blue colour.

INFECT, _v._ To act upon by contagion; to fill with something
hurtfully contagious.

INFECTION, _s._ Contagion, mischief by communication.

INFLAME, _v._ To kindle, to set on fire; to heat the body morbidly
with obstructed matter; to fire with passion.

INFLAMMATION, _s._ The act of setting on flame; the heat of any
morbid part occasioned by obstruction.

Inflammation is a disorder of the blood-vessels, depending upon their having too much blood in them, or upon that blood being impure and acrimonious, or upon the blood vessels themselves being in a diseased state.

Cool air is always of service in inflammatory diseases, and cold air is sometimes still better; even turning the horse out, if the weather is dry, is perhaps the best situation of any. Inflammation may be general or local. General inflammation is fever, of which there is but one kind in the horse, and that may almost always be cured by early and copious bleeding.—_White._

INFLAMMATORY, _a._ Having the power of inflaming.

INFUSION, _s._ The act of pouring in, instillation; the act of
steeping any thing in moisture without boiling; the liquor made
by infusion.

INJECTION, _s._ The act of casting in; any medicine made to be
injected by a syringe, or other instrument, into any part of the
body.

INNINGS, _s._ Lands recovered from the sea; term in cricket.

INOCULATION, _s._ The practice of transplanting the small-pox, by
infusion of the matter from ripened pustules into the veins of
the uninfected.

INSECT, _s._ Insects are so called from a separation in the middle
of their bodies, whereby they are cut into two parts, which are
joined together by a small ligature, as we see in wasps and
common flies.

INSNARE, _v._ To entrap, to catch in a trap, gin, or snare.

INSTINCT, _s._ The power which determines the will of brutes; a
desire or aversion in the mind, not determined by reason or
deliberation.

They who write on natural history cannot too frequently advert to instinct, that wonderful limited faculty, which, in some instances, raises the brute creation as it were above reason, and in others leaves them so far below it.

It has been remarked that every species of bird has a mode of nidification peculiar to itself; so that a schoolboy would at once pronounce on the sort of nest before him. This is the case among fields and woods and wilds; but, in the villages round London, where mosses and gossamer, and cotton from vegetables, are hardly to be found, the nest of the chaffinch has not that elegant, finished appearance, nor is it so beautifully studded with lichens, as in a more rural district; and the wren is obliged to construct its house with straws and dry grasses, which do not give it that rotundity and compactness so remarkable in the edifices of that little architect. Again, the regular nest of the house martin is hemispheric; but where a rafter, or a joist, or a cornice, may happen to stand in the way, the nest is so contrived as to conform to the obstruction, and becomes flat, or oval, or compressed.

In the following instances instinct is perfectly uniform and consistent. There are three creatures, the squirrel, the field-mouse, and the bird called the nuthatch (_Sitta Europæa_) which live much on hazel-nuts; and yet they open them each in a different way. The first, after rasping off the small end, splits the shell in two with his long fore-teeth, as a man does with his knife; the second nibbles a hole with his teeth, as regular as if drilled with a wimble, and yet so small that one would wonder how the kernel can be extracted through it: while the last picks an irregular ragged hole with its bill: but as this artist has no paws to hold the nut firm while he pierces it, like an adroit workman, he fixes it, as it were, in a vice, in some cleft of a tree, or in some crevice; when, standing over it, he perforates the stubborn shell. We have often placed nuts in the chink of a gate-post where nuthatches have been known to haunt, and have always found that those birds have readily penetrated them. While at work they make a rapping noise that may be heard at a considerable distance.

It is no doubt exceedingly difficult, and perhaps impossible, to define where instinct ends, and reason begins, in animals. But that some of them are endowed with a faculty which does not come under the usual notion of instinct, by whatever other name we may choose to call it, will, I think, hardly allow of a dispute. This, as it strikes me, appears in the different degrees of intelligence which we are accustomed to recognize as elevating one species of animal above another,—as the half-reasoning elephant for instance, and the friend of man, the dog, above numberless others. Now, instinct of one tribe, one would think, as much as in another, must be full and perfect, and would not admit of our considering the degree of intelligence manifested in one species as higher or lower than that possessed by another. Again: much more must we conceive that the proper instinct of any species will be fully, and therefore equally, possessed by all individuals of that species. How, then, upon the notion of mere instinct, shall we account for that superiority of intelligence, which is found in one individual, to others of the same species, and which is familiar to those who are employed about, or in any way in the habit of conversing with, animals? But the observation which appears to me most decidedly to carry the faculties of animals to something exceeding the measure and character of instinct, is that of the new and ingenious contrivances to which they will often have recourse in situations, and upon occasions, much too accidental and peculiar to admit of our imagining that they could have been contemplated and provided against in the regular instinct of the whole species. This we should naturally be disposed to conceive must have been given to regulate the ordinary habits of the animals, and adapted to those exigencies of their mode of life which are continually occurring, not to such as do rarely, and might, one would be tempted to say, never occur. A few instances will, perhaps, better explain what I mean, and carry more persuasion than my argument.

I was one day feeding the poor elephant (who was so barbarously put to death at Exeter ’Change) with potatoes, which he took out of my hand. One of them, a round one, fell on the floor, just out of the reach of his proboscis. He leaned against his wooden bar, put out his trunk, and could just touch the potato, but could not pick it up. After several ineffectual efforts, he at last blew the potato against the opposite wall with sufficient force to make it rebound, and he then, without difficulty, secured it. Now it is quite clear, I think, that instinct never taught the elephant to procure his food in this manner; and it must, therefore, have been reason, or some intellectual faculty, which enabled him to be so good a judge of cause and effect. Indeed, the reflecting power of some animals is quite extraordinary. I had a dog who was much attached to me, and who, in consequence of his having been tied up on a Sunday morning, to prevent his accompanying me to church, would conceal himself in good time on that day, and I was sure to find him either at the entrance of the church, or, if he could get in, under the place where I usually sat.

A gentleman, a good shot, lent a favourite old pointer to a friend who had not much to accuse himself of in the slaughter of partridges, however much he might have frightened them. After ineffectually firing at some birds which the old pointer had found for him, the dog turned away in apparent disgust, went home, and never could be persuaded to accompany the same person afterwards.

I have been often much delighted with watching the manner in which some of the old bucks in Bushy Park contrive to get the berries from the fine thorn-trees there. They will raise themselves on their hind legs, give a spring, entangle their horns in the lower branches of the tree, give them one or two shakes, which make some of the berries fall, and they will then quietly pick them up.—_White’s Selborne_—_Jesse._

INSULAR, _a._ Belonging to an island.

INTERMEW, _s._ The change of a hawk’s colour from red to white the
second year.

INTESTINA, _s._ An order in the Linnæan system of the class Vermes,
including earthworms and leeches.—_Crabbe._

INTESTINES, _s._ The guts, the bowels.

JOCKEY, _s._ A person that rides horses in the race; a man that
deals in horses.

JOCKEY, _v._ To jostle by riding against one; to cheat, to trick; to
ride; to ride unfairly.

JOINT, _s._ Articulation of limbs, juncture of moveable bones in
animal bodies; hinge; a knot in a plant. Out of joint, luxated,
slipped from the socket, or corresponding part where it
naturally moves.

JOURNEY, _s._ The travel of a day; travel by land.

IPECACUANHA, _s._ An Indian plant.

Ipecacuanha is sometimes employed as an expectorant in chronic cough and asthmatic affections, and I believe with good effect when joined with squills, ammoniacum, &c.—_White._

IRIS, _s._ The rainbow; the circle round the pupil of the eye, which
is striped and variegated.

Hanging from the upper edge of the pupil of the horse, are found two or three round black bodies, as large as millet seeds. When the horse is suddenly brought into an intense light, and the pupil is closed, these bodies present a singular appearance, being squeezed out from between the edges of the iris. An equal number, but much smaller, are attached to the edge of the lower portion of the iris. Their general use is probably to intercept portions of light which would be troublesome or injurious; but their principal function is accomplished during the act of grazing. They are larger on the upper edge of the iris, and are placed on the outer side of the pupil, evidently to obstruct the light in those directions in which it would come with greatest force, both from above and even from below, while at the same time, the field of view is perfectly open, so far as it regards the pasture on which the horse is grazing.

The colour of the iris is, in some unknown way, connected with this black point behind. Wall-eyed horses, whose iris is white, have no uvea.—_The Horse._

IRISH HORSE, _s._

In some of the rich grazing counties, as Meath and Roscommon, a large long blood horse is reared of considerable value, but he seldom has the elegance of the English horse; he is larger headed, more leggy, ragged-hipped, angular, yet with great power in the quarters, much depth beneath the knee, stout and hardy, full of fire and courage, and the best leaper in the world.

The Irish horse is generally smaller than the English. He is stinted in his growth, for the poverty and custom of the country have imposed upon him much hard work, at a time when he is unfit for labour of any kind. For this reason, too, the Irish horse is deficient in speed. There is, however, another explanation of this. The Irish thorough-bred horse is not equal to the English. He is comparatively a weedy, leggy, worthless animal, and very little of him enters into the composition of the hunter or the hackney.

For leaping, the Irish horse is unrivalled. It is not, however, the leaping of the English horse, striding as it were over a low fence, and stretched at his full length over a higher one; it is the proper jump of the deer, beautiful to look at, difficult to sit, and, both in height and extent, unequalled by the English horse.

IRON, _s._ A hard, fusile, malleable metal.

Iron is found in every part of the globe, in the soil, in the water, and as a constituent of vegetable and animal bodies. The preparations of iron, used in medicine, are, 1st, sulphate of iron, or salt of steel; 2d, muriate of iron; 3d, subcarbonate of iron; 4th, tartarised iron; 5th, red oxide of iron, or colcothar of vitriol; 6th, rust of iron; and, 7th, scales of iron. They are all powerful tonics in the human body, but not often given to horses. The dose of No. 1, is from 1 drachm to 3. No. 2, 1 drachm to 2 or 3. No. 3, 2 drachms to 4. No. 4, 3 drachms to 5. No. 5, 4 drachms to 6. No. 6, 2 drachms to 4. No. 7, 2 drachms to 4, finely powdered. Preparations of iron are generally mixed with aromatics, and sometimes with soda. Metallic preparations should be used with great caution. Iron is the most innocent, and possessed of considerable tonic power; but, before it is employed, wholesome food, moderate exercise, and good grooming, should have a fair trial.

IRON, _a._ Made of iron; resembling iron in colour; hard,
impenetrable.

IRONWOOD, _s._ A kind of wood extremely hard, and so ponderous as to
sink in water.

ISINGLASS, _s._ A fine kind of glue made from the intestines of a
large fish resembling a sturgeon. It is chiefly made from dried
sounds of codfish.

ISLAND, _s._ A tract of land surrounded by water.

ISSUE, _s._ The act of passing out; termination; a vent made in a
muscle for the discharge of humours; evacuation; progeny,
offspring.

ITCH, _s._ A cutaneous disease extremely contagious; the sensation
of uneasiness in the skin which is eased by rubbing; a constant
teasing desire. Itch is supposed to be caused by a small insect
of the acarus tribe. On microscopic examination it appears to be
white with red legs, and will be found in the small pellucid
vesicles which are observable on the parts infected.

ITCH, _v._ To feel that uneasiness in the skin which is removed by
rubbing; to long.

ITCHY, _a._ Infected with the itch.

JUDCOCK, JACKSNIPE, GID or JETCOCK, (_Scolopax gallinula_, LINN.;
_La Petite Becassine_, BUFF.) _s._ A bird.

The judcock, in its figure and plumage, nearly resembles the common snipe; but it is only about half its weight, seldom exceeding two ounces, or measuring more, from the tip of its beak to the end of its tail, than eight inches and a half: the bill is black at the tip, and light towards the base, and rather more than an inch and a half in length. A black streak divides the head lengthwise from the base of the bill to the nape of the neck, and another, of a yellowish colour, passes over each eye to the hinder part of the head: in the midst of this, above the eye, is a narrow black stripe running parallel with the top of the head from the crown to the nape. The neck is white, spotted with brown and pale red. The scapulars and tertials are very long and beautiful; on their exterior edges they are bordered with a stripe of yellow, and the inner webs are streaked and marked with bright rust colour on a deep brown, or rather bronze ground, reflecting in different lights a shining purple or green. The quills are dusky. The rump is of a glossy violet or bluish purple; the belly and vent white. The tail consists of twelve pointed feathers of a dark brown, edged with rust colour; the legs are of a dirty or dull green.

The judcock is of nearly the same character as the snipe, it feeds upon the same kinds of food, lives and breeds in the same swamps and marshes, and conceals itself from the sportsman with as great circumspection, among the rushes or tufts of coarse grass. It, however, differs in this particular, that it seldom rises from its lurking place until it is almost trampled upon, and, when flushed, does not fly to so great a distance. It is as much esteemed as the snipe, and is cooked in the same manner.

The eggs are not bigger than those of a lark; in other respects they are very like those of the snipe.—_Bewick._

JUGULAR, _a._ Belonging to the throat.

JUGULARES, _s._ That order of fishes, according to Linnæus, which
have the ventral fins placed before the pectoral, as cod,
haddock, and whiting.

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KALENDAR, _s._ An account of time.

KAW, _v._ To cry as a raven, crow, or rook.

KAYLE, _s._ Ninepins; nine holes.

KEEN, _a._ Sharp, well edged: severe, piercing; eager, vehement;
acrimonious; bitter of mind.

KEG, _s._ A small barrel, commonly used for a fish barrel.

KELL, _s._ The omentum, that which inwraps the guts.

KENNEL, _s._ A cot for dogs; a number of dogs kept in a kennel; the
hole of a fox, or other beast; the water-course of a stream.

_Kennel._—Is the place where hounds are kept; upon the judicious construction of which, their health, safety, and preservation, are known greatly to depend. Those who take to, or become possessed of, kennels ready built, frequently continue them in the form they fall into their hands; but such as encounter the expense of new erections, cannot do better than take a previous survey of the most approved plans; amongst which the Duke of Bedford’s at Woburn Abbey; the Duke of Richmond’s at Goodwood, in Sussex; and Sir William Rawley’s at Tendring Hall, Suffolk, are supposed, for extent and convenience, to take the lead of most others in the kingdom. Taste and fashion may go a great way in the external glare of such establishments; but health and convenience should always prove the most predominant considerations. It is universally admitted, by all who have a practical knowledge of this subject, that in large and regularly hunted packs, two kennels are indispensably necessary to the success and well doing of the whole. When there is but one, it can in the winter season be but seldom cleaned; and even then the hounds are in a comfortless state, from the dampness of the situation so long as it remains. Cleanliness is so essentially necessary in every apartment and department of a kennel, that no continuance of health in the hounds, or excellence in the field, can be expected without it. They are individually innately clean; and will never, if they can avoid it, dung near where they lie. Air, fresh straw, and ample room for the occasional expansion of their weary limbs, are requisite for the invigoration of the frame, and the preservation of health. Hounds confined in a body are more liable to disease than the same animal single, and in a state of unrestrained liberty; hence the necessity for counteraction, by every means the most prudent precaution can adopt. Hounds thus subject to, and constantly attacked with disease, and even madness, under the best and most judicious management, must be evidently much more so if surrounded with filth and nastiness.

That some idea may be formed of the grandeur of the buildings, and the liberal scale, of the most celebrated hunting establishments, it is only necessary to introduce a few explanatory remarks upon the kennels of eminence already mentioned. The superb edifice of the Duke of Richmond is said (and probably with great truth) to have cost £10,000, in its erection; to which his Grace contributed no small proportion of personal assistance. He is reported to have been his own architect and builder; to have dug his own flints, burnt his own lime, made his own bricks, and framed the woodwork in his own shops. The dog kennel, abstracted from all other buildings, stands alone, in such part of the park as to form a grand and striking object from the principal rooms of the mansion; the materials are flints, finished at all the angles by a light grey-brick, like the Lymington white stock.

The distribution of the building is into five compartments: two of them thirty-six feet by fifteen, and three more thirty by fifteen; these are called kennels, to which are annexed two feeding rooms, twenty-eight by fifteen. In each of these are openings at top, for the admission of external air when necessary, and stoves to qualify the air when too cold. There are supplies of water, and drains into a tank a considerable depth below, full of rain water, from the surface of which to the rise of the arch is eleven feet, so that no inconvenience arises from smell, and the whole can be occasionally cleared off by drains to more dependent depths and dung pits, where it becomes contributory to the purposes of agriculture. Round the whole building is a pavement five feet wide; airing yards, places for breeding, and other conveniences, making a part of each wing. To constitute a uniformity of elegance, neatness, and perfection, the huntsman and whipper-in have each a parlour, kitchen, and sleeping-room, appropriated to their own particular purpose.

The Duke of Bedford’s is an immense establishment, upon a scale of too much extent for particular description, as it includes tennis court, riding-house, &c., &c., in one stone-fronted building, of 266 feet in length, with two wings of stables, containing stalls for thirty-six hunters; and eleven loose houses for horses sick and lame. As the dog kennel, however, is the only part entitled to notice under this head, it will create no surprise that the richest subject should possess the most complete in England.

It is in length 405 feet, having the boiling house in the centre, with feeding rooms adjoining, and a granary behind. On the right of the centre are apartments for two kennel-keepers, two long lodging rooms for the hunting hounds, with flues running along the wall to preserve an equal temperature in the severity of the winter season; spacious yards to each, furnished with a fountain in the middle, for the dogs to drink at; and water-cocks fixed at proper distances to cleanse the pavement when it may be required; adjoining to these are seven hospitals for sick and lame hounds, with yards to each. On the left are divisions for litter, straw, &c.; eleven apartments for bitches and puppies, with yards to each; eleven ditto for bitches in pup, with yards also; and a large division for bitches at heat. In the front is a large reservoir of water, which supplies the fountains and different cocks in the several yards within. Behind the whole is a large airing-ground, flesh-house, and all requisite conveniences. The huntsman’s dwelling-house is a handsome building adjoining. The number of hunting hounds kept in the kennel are usually from sixty to seventy couple.

The kennel of Sir William Rawley is by no means equal to the external grandeur of the two already described, but replete with every internal convenience that an establishment upon a somewhat smaller scale can possibly require. It is situate about half a mile from the family mansion, from the garden of which it constitutes a picturesque appearance. It is erected in a valley of the park, a spot well adapted to the purpose, being equally defended from the cutting easterly winds, and the heat of the sun in its meridian, by a thick skirting of the park and forest trees. Not having the advantage of a rivulet to the water courts, that want is amply supplied by a pump which, by means of different cocks, turns the water to every part of the premises, consisting of the hunting kennel, or principal lodging-room, which is twenty feet by eighteen in the clear, eighteen feet high, and paved with flag-stones. The beds or benches which cover almost the whole area, are of original and most admirable contrivance, being lathed like some bedsteads, and are made to fold up with joints, for the convenience of washing the floor beneath them. This room, by means of a flue of a peculiar construction, is heated to any required temperature; and the hounds after severe chases and in wet weather are rendered dry and comfortable in a much less time than they could be by any other means.

There is also a kennel or lodging room for the young hounds, of the same dimensions as the former, and possessing the same conveniences except the flue, which here would have been superfluous. Several small kennels for bitches in a state of gestation, as well as a proportional number for those with puppies; a paved court to the hunting kennel; a feeding house, one-half of which is open, the other under cover; a paved court to the kennel for the young hounds; a pump and a stone water cistern; a large grass yard for airing the hounds belonging to the hunting kennel, containing about an acre and three-quarters, in which are a variety of lime, chestnut, and other trees, forming an excellent shade for the hounds during the summer season; the young hounds have a similar convenience. To these are annexed twelve small kennels for puppies, well constructed for the purpose. The hunting hounds generally consist of about thirty-six couple, and the establishment is conducted in such a style of punctuality, order, and excellence, that it is universally acknowledged equal to any and inferior to none upon a similar scale, from one extremity of the kingdom to the other.

Next to the choice of a proper spot for, and a judicious as well as a convenient structure of the kennel, the management of the hounds, when there, becomes a matter of serious consideration, and requires a feeder of strict sobriety, indefatigable industry, invariable punctuality, great humanity, personal fidelity to his employer, and a constant attention to the business in which he is engaged, as upon him in a great degree depends the health and preservation of the hounds. Mr. Beckford observes (in great proof of his practical knowledge and personal experience) that no part of the hunting establishment goes on so well as when the master becomes an occasional superintendent of his own concerns. He says, as the sport in the field depends on the exquisite sense of smelling so peculiar to the hound, so care should be taken to preserve it, and cleanliness is the surest means. The keeping of the kennel sweet and clean, cannot therefore be too strongly inculcated and impressed upon the mind of the feeder; if he seems habitually disposed to deviate from which, he is not at all calculated for the office he has undertaken.

The preparation for feeding, as boiling the meat, mixing the meal, and getting it ready at the hours agreed on, is a matter that the huntsman will of course take care (on his part) never to have neglected; but there are other considerations equally important, which become entitled to attention. Hounds cannot be properly fed by a single person; two are (for a variety of reasons) unavoidably necessary, and those two should be the feeder and the huntsman, as hounds should be drafted and fed according to their state of flesh and condition. Some are much more voracious than others, and will require a greater portion of food; others look and work well with half the quantity. The eye of the huntsman should discriminate between the opposite descriptions; in want of which attention the pack will never be of equal appearance. When any of the hounds are observed to be low in flesh, off their appetites, bad feeders, or kept under by the old and master hounds, it will be a matter of advantage to draft them, and let them feed under less restraint. Young and impatient feeders fall into the very common fault of feeding hounds with their meat too hot; it is both a prevalent and injurious error that should be totally abolished.

Mr. Beckford is of opinion, that hounds poorer than the rest should be fed again, and that they cannot be fed too often; as well as that those hounds which become too fat, if any, should be drafted off, and not permitted to fill themselves. All hounds (particularly young ones) should be often called over in kennel; their names become more familiar to them, and it teaches them obedience; this lesson is practised, or should be, at the time of feeding. Hounds should all be let out into the airing ground to empty themselves after feeding, to prevent an unnecessary accumulation of filth and consequent effluvia in the kennel. It may be a custom with some to shut up the hounds for two or three hours after they return from hunting, before they are fed; if so, it is more entitled to contempt than imitation. No plea can justify the practice; they should have their meat ready for feeding immediately on their return; once gratified they enjoy their rest undisturbed, the best and most natural foundation for renovation of strength. Plenty of vegetables, boiled in the meat copper once a week, is a custom in most kennels, as it is also to throw in a pound or two of sulphur (in proportion to the number), particularly in the summer season, when there is a greater tendency in the blood to morbidity, particularly to cutaneous diseases.

During the hot months, when hounds do not work, they require but a small proportion of substantial food, compared to what is necessary in the severity of the hunting season; flesh may then be given very sparingly; the less it is used in the summer, the less likelihood there will be of seeing that malignant and unwelcome visiter, the mange, amongst them. Various opinions has been promulgated upon the best, cheapest, and most nutritious food for the support of the hounds in general; but experience seems to have justified the consistency of occasional changes, according to the different seasons, and the different degrees of work; without adhering too closely to one particular mode, unassisted by such deviations as circumstances may render not only prudent and proper, but sometimes unavoidable. Horseflesh, sheep’s trotters, raspings, greaves, bullocks’ paunches, (in a scarcity of flesh,) oatmeal, and barley meal, constitute the principal articles upon which hounds are known to subsist; although they are differently prepared, and differently administered, according to the judgment, experience, whim, or caprice, of the parties concerned. It is, however, universally admitted, after a number of fair and impartial trials, that, in respect to the two meals, they act much more profitably and advantageously, when used in a mixed state of nearly equal proportions, than when either is given alone.

Mr. Beckford says, his feeder, who was a good one, and of much experience, mixed the meal in equal quantities; that the oatmeal he boiled for half an hour; and then put out the fire, adding the barley meal, and mixing both together; his reason for boiling one, and not the other, was, that boiling made the oatmeal thick, and the barley meal thin; and that when he fed with the barley meal only, it should not be put into the copper, but mixed up with the scalding liquor in a proper tub, or hogshead, kept for the purpose. There are many little things within the department of the feeder, which, if neglected, become of serious consequence. Nice observation should be made upon the state of the bitches at all times; upon the least indication of their going to heat, they should be instantly removed; a few hours’ delay may be the destruction of some of the best hounds in the kennel. After their return on a hunting day, he should ascertain whether there are any hounds who have sustained injuries in the feet by thorns, flints, &c., in which case a fomentation of warm pot liquor (or bran water), followed by a washing of cold vinegar, or salt and water, will generally effect a speedy cure. Hounds, seriously lame, or palpably sick, should be separated from the rest, and placed where they can be more at ease, and have better attention.

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Kennel, is a sporting term for the den in which a fox deposits himself after his nocturnal depredations, and to which he retires about the dawn of day: being found by the hounds in drawing covert, he is then said to be unkennelled, and the chase begins. When safe in some burrow, or hole, below the surface, he is then said to lie at earth.—_Taplin._

KENNEL, _v._ To lie, to put or keep in kennel.

KESTREL, STONEGALL, STANNEL HAWK, or WINDHOVER, (_Falco
Tinnunculus_, LINN.; _La Cresserelle_, BUFF.), _s._ A kind of
bastard hawk.

The male of this species differs so much from the female, that we have given a figure of it from one we had in our possession, probably an old one. Its length is fourteen inches; breadth two feet three inches: its bill is blue; cere and eyelids yellow; eyes black, the forehead dull yellow; the top of the head, back part of the neck, and sides as far as the points of the wings, are of a lead colour, faintly streaked with black; the cheeks are paler; from the corner of the mouth on each side there is a dark streak pointing downwards; the back and coverts of the wings are of a bright vinous colour, spotted with black; quill feathers dusky, with light edges; all the under part of the body is of a pale rust colour, streaked and spotted with black; thighs plain; the tail feathers are of a fine blue grey, with black shafts; towards the end there is a broad black bar both on the upper part and under sides; the tips are white: the legs are yellow, and the claws black.

The kestrel is widely diffused throughout Europe, and is found in the most temperate parts of North America: it is a handsome bird; its sight is acute, and its flight easy and graceful: it breeds in the hollows of trees, and in the holes of rocks, towers, and ruined buildings it lays four or five eggs, of a pale reddish colour: its food consists of small birds, field-mice, and reptiles; after it has secured its prey, it plucks the feathers very dexterously from the birds, but swallows the mice entire and discharges the hair, in the form of round balls from its bill. This bird is frequently seen hovering in the air, and fanning with its wings by a gentle motion, or wheeling slowly round, at the same time watching for its prey, on which it shoots like an arrow. It was formerly used in Great Britain for catching small birds and young partridges.

_The Female Kestrel._—This beautiful bird is distinguished from every other hawk by its variegated plumage: its bill is blue; cere and feet yellow; eyes dark coloured, surrounded with a yellow skin; its head is rust coloured, streaked with black: behind each eye there is a light spot; the back and wing coverts are elegantly marked with numerous undulated bars of black; the breast, belly, and thighs are of a pale reddish colour, with dusky streaks pointing downwards, vent plain; the tail is marked by a pretty broad black bar near the end; a number of smaller ones, of the same colour, occupy the remaining part; the tip is pale.

* * * * *

This is one of our most common species, being very generally spread throughout the kingdom, especially in the more rocky situations and high cliffs on our coast, where they breed. The nest is made of a few sticks, loosely put together, and lined with wool and other soft materials, built in trees, in some crevice, or projecting rocky shelf, and sometimes they content themselves with the deserted nest of a crow or magpie. It lays four or five eggs of a dirty white, blotched over with rust-colour of various shades; sometimes wholly covered with a deep rusty red; these are rather inferior in size to those of the sparrow hawk.—_Bewick_—_Montagu._

KIBE, _s._ An ulcerated chilblain, a chap in the heel.

KID, _s._ The young of a goat; a bundle of heath or furze.

KID, _v._ To bring forth kids.

KIDNEY, _s._ One of the two glands that separate the urine from the
blood.

KILDERKIN, _s._ A small barrel of eighteen gallons’ capacity.

KING CHARLES’S DOG (_Canis Brevipilis_, LINN.), _s._

This beautiful little animal is much smaller than the cocker, to which he is similar in shape and other characteristics; he has, however, longer ears, and the tail is also longer in proportion to the size of his body. Like the cocker and springer, he is extremely fond of pursuing birds of all kinds, and, like them, too, always gives tongue in pursuit. He is seldom used for field sports, from his diminutive size, being easily tired, and is too short in the legs to get through swampy ground.

This dog is found of all colours; but those which are black, with tanned cheeks and legs, are considered the purest breed. He gets the name of King Charles’s dog from the extreme liking the second monarch of that name had for this animal, as he never went out without being followed by eight or a dozen of them. They were also introduced into most of the portraits of himself and family, and particularly in that by Vandyke. They were also his constant companions in the palace.

The use of this variety at present is as a lap-dog, and they are consequently prized in proportion to the diminutiveness of their size.

The sense of smelling in this little spaniel is very remarkable. The following anecdote is related by Brown to instance it:—

In 1792, a gentleman who lived in Vere Street, Clare Market, went, with his family, to the pit of Drury Lane theatre, at about half-past five in the evening, leaving a small spaniel of King Charles’s breed locked up in the dining room, to prevent it from being lost in his absence. At eight o’clock his son opened the door, and the dog immediately went to the playhouse, and found out his master, though the pit was unusually crowded, and its master seated near the centre.—_Brown._

KINGFISHER, _s._ A species of bird.

_King-fisher._ (_Alcedo ispida_, LINN.; _Le Martin-pécheur_, BUFF.)—This splendid little bird is rather of a clumsy shape, the head being large in proportion to the size of the body, and the legs and feet very small. In length it is only seven inches, in breadth eleven; and its weight is about two ounces and a quarter. The bill, measured from the corners of the mouth, is two inches long, vertically compressed on the sides, strong, straight, and tapering to a sharp point: the upper mandible is black, fading into a red-colour towards the base; the under one, as well as the inside of the mouth, is of a reddish orange: the irides are hazel, inclining to red. A broad stripe passes from the bill over the eye to the hinder part of the neck, a bright orange colour, but margined on the side of the mouth, and crossed, below the eye, by a narrow black stroke, and it is terminated behind the auriculars with a slanting wedge-shaped white spot. The throat is white; the rest of the head and wing coverts are of a deep shining green, spotted with bright light blue: the scapulars and exterior webs of the quills are of the same colour, but without spots. The middle of the back, the rump, and the coverts of the tail are of a most resplendent azure: the tail, which consists of twelve short feathers, is of a rich deep blue, and the whole under part of the body of a bright orange. The legs and toes are of a red-colour, and are peculiar in their shape and conformation, the three forward toes being unconnected from the claws to the first joints, from whence they appear as if grown into each other; and the inner and hinder ones are placed in a line on the inside of the foot, whereby the heel is widened and seems pressed out.

The suspension of this bird by a thread, under the notion that its breast will always turn to the north, is as fabulous as that it will preserve woollen cloth from the moth.

“I have once or twice,” says Mrs. Charlotte Smith, “seen a stuffed bird of this species hung up to the beam of a cottage ceiling, and imagined that the beauty of the feathers had recommended it to this sad pre-eminence, till, on inquiry, I was assured that it served the purpose of a weather-vane; and, though sheltered from the immediate influence of the wind, never failed to show every change, by turning its beak to the quarter whence the wind blew.” The learned, but somewhat credulous author of the “Physicæ Curiosæ,” says the same, upon the testimony of his own observation. “Father Athanasius Kircher,” he says, “had one of these birds sent him as a present by a friend, and being disembowelled and dried, it was suspended from the ceiling of his celebrated museum, from 1640 to 1655, when I left Rome; and though all the doors and windows were shut, it constantly turned its bill towards the wind, and this I myself observed with admiration and pleasure almost every day for the space of three years!!”

It is difficult to conceive why ornithologists have classed the kingfisher with land birds, as its habits and manner of living are wholly confined to the waters, on the margins of which it will sit for hours together on a projecting twig or a stone, at one while fluttering its wings and exposing its brilliant plumage to the sun; at another, hovering in the air, like the kestrel, it waits the moment when it may seize its prey, on which it darts with almost unerring certainty: often it remains for several seconds under the water, before it has gained the object of its pursuit, then brings up the little fish, which it carries to the land, beats to death, and swallows.

The female commonly makes her nest by the sides of rivers or brooks, in a hole made by the mole, or the water-rat: this she enlarges or contracts to suit her purpose; and it is conjectured, from the difficulty of finding the nest, that frequently the hole which leads to it is under water.

Kingfishers are not so numerous as might be expected from the number of eggs found in their nests; owing, probably, to the young being destroyed by the floods, which must often rise above the level of the holes where they are bred.

Except in the breeding-season, the bird is usually seen alone, flying near the surface of the water with the rapidity of an arrow, like a little brilliant meteor, by which appearance the eye is enabled to follow its long-continued course. Considering the shortness of its wings, the velocity with which it flies is surprising.

Ornithologists inform us that kingfishers are found in almost every part of the globe; but it does not appear that more than this one species has ever been seen in Europe.

KING DUCK, (_Somateria spectabilis_, FLEMING,) _s._

This species is not much inferior in size to the eider duck. The bill is almost two inches long, of an orange-colour; at the base of the upper mandible is a ridged protuberance, flat on the top, and compressed on the sides, but divided into two, the elevated parts velvety black, passing on each side to the eyes; the crown of the head and nape are pale ash-colour; at the base of the upper mandible the feathers are pea-green, passing backwards on each side the neck, and taking in half the eye; beneath which, and round to the chin, the feathers are of a dirty white; but here the two colours are blended, and the white is lost by degrees in the green; under the chin is a black mark, diverging like the letter V inverted: the rest of the neck and breast are whitish; the middle of the back, the belly, and vent, black; wings dusky; on the middle of the coverts is a patch of white; quills black; the secondaries curve downwards over the quills; the shafts deep ferruginous, on each side the outer ones a patch of white; the tail is cuneiform, short, and black; legs dusky; the windpipe, according to Captain Sabine, is precisely like that of the eider duck.

The female is less; the protuberance on the bill not so large, nor so high-coloured, but the feathery ridge on the top is broader; the whole plumage brown, the middle of each feather dusky; six of the lesser quills are tipped with white, which forms a line of white on the wing; the rest of the quills and tail brown.—_Montagu._

KING’S HOUNDS, _s._

His majesty’s stag-hounds pass under this denomination, as a part of the royal establishment continued in every successive reign without variation. The kennel in which they are kept is situate near the race course upon Ascot Heath; at the distance of two short miles from which is Swinley-lodge, the official residence of the master of the stag-hounds, an appointment seldom conferred but upon one of the peerage, and is considered an office of honour, with a salary of 2,000_l._ per annum. The presence of the master of the stag-hounds in the field is not a matter of necessity, but choice, except when his majesty hunts, and then his personal attendance is indispensable; his badge of office is a pair of gold dog couples, which hang suspended from a belt on his left side. The huntsman has a handsome residence at the kennel, with a salary of 125_l._ a year; to whom there are six assistants, (called yeomen prickers) each having a salary of 104_l._ with the royal livery richly ornamented, and an annual supply of saddles, bridles, horse-clothes, and the necessary stable appendages; but they find their own horses.