Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/623

 DRO

erwillfoonbeableto make out fomc one of their paths, which are beaten in the manner of theep-tracks, only more flightly. When one of thefe is found, the place is to be marked by fet- ing up a flick with another tied to its top like the hand of a road poll, marking out the place where the path feems to run to. On examining the reft of the ground thereabouts, having regard to the fame direction, it is highly probable, that feveral more of the fame fort of tracks will be found all running the fame way. By one or other of thefe probably the fportfman will be Jed to their haunt, which he will not mils knowing by the naked nek and bairennefs of the ground, and its being covered with the dung and feathers of the young birds. When this is found, tile nets are to be placed near this fpot loofe and circularly, in luch a manner, that the under part being faft- ned down to the ground, the upper may be a hollow, and give a palluge to the young birds in, and entangle them when there. When the net? are fixed, the perfon mult go to the haunts and call them together by the artificial noiie of the pheafant-call, which is fo like the real note of the pheafant, that the powts or young ones, will feJklom fail being deceived by it. When they hear this and begin to anfwer it with their chucking and piping; the call is to be ftoppi/d, and a perfon is to get behind them taking the wind with himfclf,asthey always run with the wind. He is to have in his hand the inltru- ment called by the fportfmen a driver; which is no more than a parcel of thole long white ozier wands ufed by our basket makers, fixed in a handle, fo that they may be conveniently managed, and tied round in two or three places with ozier bands or packthread to keep them from fpreading too much.

When the perfon who carries this inftrument perceives that he is come pretty near fume of the powts, he mull foftly beat the bufhes with the driver, or only lightly draw it over them; the little noife this makes will terrify thefe timorous creatures, and they will gather together in the tiack and run a little way forward, and then all flop and turn about; on this the perfon is to make the fame noife again, upon which they will run farther, and when they flop again, the fame noife will again (cimI them forward. Whatever other powts are in the way will join the main body in this fright, and the whole will be driven in (his manner, like a flock of fheep, and by a little addrefs of the fportfman be fent into the nets ; fo that out of a whole eye, it olten happens that not one is miffed. If in the fright the birds happen to run out of their track, and take a wrong way, then the driver is to make a raking noife with his inftrument dragged along the ground, on that "fide on which they are running; this will amaze and terrify them fo, that they will immediately ftart back, and come into the beaten track that leads dire£lly to the haunt. There are but two cautions necelTary to the fucceeding perfectly in this method of taking them : thefe are fecrefy and patience. Whatever flops they make,or however tedioufly they move,the fportfman who would make fure of them, mull bear with it ; for over rafhnefsand hurrying will fpoil all, and he muft content himfelf with terrifying them by the noife alone, keeping himfelf carefully out of their fight, for if they efpy him, all the plan is difconcerted, and they will no more move forwards, but will every one run a different way, and hide under the roots of trees, and thick bufhes, and all the art in the world, will never bring them out again till ni^ht, when it will be too dark to watch them.

Driving of wild fowl, is only practicable in the moulting time, which is in July and Augufl ; and is to be done by means of a fpaniel, well trained to the purpofe. The nets are to be fet in creeks and narrow places, or at their ufu- al night retreats, and the dog is to put them up, and driving them forward, they will be fent immediately into the nets, not being able to fly away from the dog, from the want of their wing feathers. The people who live in the fenns, find great account in this practice, taking very great numbers of wild-ducks by it. They are ufually indeed poor and out of flefh at this time, but as they are always taken alive, and without any hurt, the people find it eafy to fatten them with beads livers, bailey, pafte, fcalded bran, and the like ; and they will on this become in a very little time, fat and well tailed, excelling in flavour both the tame ducks commonly kept in the yards, and the wild ducks in their natural ftate. When the fportfman takes the dog into places where they are not fo frequent, he may hunt them fingly, and the dog alone will take them.

Driving, in metallurgy, is ufed by the refiners of filver, to exprefs the riling up of copper from its furface in red fiery bubbles. When the lead that was added for the refining the filver is burnt away, before the copper is gone from it, thefe bubbles appear very fiercely on the furface. They fay on this occafion, that the metal drives, and then add more lead till the remainder of the copper is confumed. Phil. Tranf.N. 142.

DROCK, in husbandry, a name given by our farmers to a part of- the common plow. It is an upright piece of timber, run- ning nearly parallel with the hinder part of the plow, but be- longing to the right fide of the tail, as that does to the left. The ground wrift of the plow is fattened to this a as alfo is Su pp l. Vol. I„

'.dejiee, Cycl.

DRO

the earth board. TulT s Husbandry. See the articles Wrbt, £.arth-Boari>, and Plow

DROFFAND or DRYFFAND, in our old writers, was a quit rent, or yearly payment made by fomc tenants to the king or their landlords, for driving their cattle through the mannor to fairs or markets. The word comes from the Sax- on Dryfene, driven.

DROIT ( c>/.) DROIT ihfi. See Recto CI./., Cycl.

Droit de Advowjen. See Recto de Advocation Ecclefics, C

Droit de dower. See R e c t o Doth, Cycl.

Droit patent. See Recto patent Cycl

^lrVj^ D W aimn - Sx K «™>' Di/chlmcr, Cycl.

UKUMiUAKl, in zoology, the name of a fpecies of camel wh.ch has only one bunch oh its back. Its hairs are foft to the touch, and are fhorter than thofe of our oxen, except that there are f me longer on the head, the throat and the top of the neck; and on the middle of the back, there are hairs of a foot long, and thefe tho' very foft and flexile, yet naturally (landing in an trc-a poiture, they make the mod yilible part of the bunch. For when thefe are removed by the hand, the flefh fcarce appears more prominent, than that of the back of a hog, and there is not the feaft Hefty or callous excrefence there.

The head is fmall in proportion to the body; the upper lip is divided as in the hare ; the feet are not hoofed, but ea.h "termi- nated by two fmall claws ; the fole of the foot is broad and very flefty, and feems foft to the touch, tho' the skin is very hard and callous ; the feet are indeed cloathed as it were with living (hoes, v. hich are of very great lervice to it in travel- ing over the fandy countries. It has fix callous hardnefl'es on the knees and moulders of the forelegs, and one on each of the hinder ones. And befide thefe there is another much larger, which adheres to the breaft, on an eminence which is there, as if made to fupport it ; this is ufually eight inches long, fix inches broad, and about two thick. The ufe of thefe is to furtain the weight of the creatures body on occafion of his Ifooping to retl, or to be loaded.

Its ftomach is very large, and divided into four parts as in other of the ruminating animal-, but of a Angular ftrudlure ; in that at the upper part of the fecond ventricle, there are feveral fijuare holes, which are the orifices of a great num- ber of a fort of bags placed between the membranes which compofe the ftomach, and thefe feem to be the receptacles of water kept for the time of neceffity, for the creature al- ways drinks a vaft quantity at once, and will then live a great while without drinking again. It is yet a queftion to he de- cided, whether this creature is of the retromingent kind, and whether it copulates backwards ? this has been affirmed by fome, but it is greatly doubted by others. Ray's Syn. Quad, p. 143. See Tab. of Quadrupeds, N° 16. and the article Ca- mel.

DROMONARII, in antiquity, rowers belonging to the ftips calied Drcmne:.

DROMONES, in antiquity, a kind of yatchts or expeditious Ihips ufed in carrying provifions, or other neceffaries. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. in. voc.

Dromones, Dromos, or Dromunda, in middle age writers fignified any large fliips ; but afterwards it was uled chiefly for men of war; and in this fenfe 'tis ufed in Waliingham, Anno 1292, and in Knighton, lib. 3. c. 14, &c.

DROMEUS, in natural hiftory, a word ufed by the antients, as the name of two very different animals, the flag and the dromedary. The meaning of the word is fwift in running ; and the flag had this name as being fwifler than any other ani- mals, and the dromedary as being fwifter than any of the camel kind befide. The not remarking this double meaning of the word drammc, has made fome people in their expofi- tions of the antient Greeks, run into very great abfurdities, attributing to the flag, what could only belong to the drome- dary; and to this animal, what could only belong to the fta°-.

DRONE, in natural hiftory, a fort of bee of a larger fize than the common working bee, and of a lazy difpulition, never going out to work to collect either wax or honey, but living 1 on the honey collected by the reft. Thefe are the males of the fwarm ; the common working bees are of no fex at all, and the female is ufually only one in a hive. See Queen Bee. The diftecfion of the Drone-hze gives as great proof of its be- ing the male, as that of the queen does of her being female. In this creature there is no appearance of ovaries or eggs, nor any thing of the ftruc'iure of the common working bees, but the whole abdomen is filled with tranfparent veflels, winding about in various finuofities,- and containing a white or milky fluid. This is plainly analogous to that fluid in the males of other animals, which is deftined to render the eggs of the fe- male prolific; and this whole apparatus of veflels which much relembles the turnings and windings of the feminal veflels in other animals, is plainly intended only for the preparation and retention of this matter, till the deftined time of its being emitted on the eggs. At the extremity of the laft ring of the body is placed the aperture of the anus in the female, and in the working bees ; and it is at this aperture, that the fling is alfo thruft forth ; butthe cafe is quite otberwife in the drone 9 L or