Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/876

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table, milughhy's Hift. Pifc. p. 273. Gefn. dePifc. p. 501.

HIPPURITES, in natural hiitory, a name given by fonie wri- ters to a ftone which they fancy to rcprefent a faddle. It is defenbed to be a foft argilkceous ftone, owing its figure of a faddle to certain depreffions. This is only a lufus naturae, and is of the nature of the hand-ftones and foot-ftones, with fe- veral others, which fancy has affifted in their rcfemblances, but . which have been very improperly called by particular names.

HlRA, a word ufed by the writers in medicine either for the internum, jejunum, or for all the intc-ftines, or in a yet larger (enfe, for all the contents of the abdomen. Cajiel. Lex. in voc.

HIRNGRILL, a name given by fome authors to the Serinus.

HIRQUUS, a name given by fome authors to the great can- thus of the eye.

HIRUDO, in zoology. See the article Leech.

HlRUDELLA Marina* in natural hiftory, the name of a very remarkable little animal of the leech kind. The body of this creature is roundifh and oblong, and adorned with many longitudinal lines or furrows ; it is about an inch in length, and is of a greyiih colour, and fomewhat tranfpa- rent ; the bowels are feen through the fkin, and appear at firft: fight like {beaks on its furface ; in the middle of the belly there is a remarkable protuberance, which, when clofely examined, is found to be a mufciilar body in form of a fphe- rical bladder; this, when molt diftended, has the appearance of a fpherical air-pump, and has all the properties of that ma- chine, to be employed for the fervice of the animal, and at its pleafure. It refembles, in its common figure, the cup of an acorn, with the mouth a little contracted. The bead of the animal is of the fame figure with that of the common leech, and ferves to fuck the juices of other animals, in the fame manner as in that infe£t. That part of the body which reaches from the head to the middle protuberance is of a very irregular form, frequently in motion, and continually chang- ing its figure ; but the other part moves more flowly, and lefs frequently, and preferves its fhape unaltered. The protube- rance has two motions, expanfion, and undulation. When the creature has a mind to fix itfelf any where, it does it by means of this protuberance, which it applies clofely down to the fubftance, and void of air. Hence the external air fo firmly preffes its fides againft the fubftance, that it is not cafy to remove it. When the creature changes its place, it draws the head round to the protuberance, and loofens it fo as to be able to change its place as it has occafion. When this creature is kept out of water, it dies in a few hours ; and when after being thus kept out a few minutes, it is put into fea water, it immediately darts out a fine green thread from its mouth ; this it ufually makes of the length of its body, or thereabout, though it varies it occasionally ; and by means of this it fufpends its body at any length that it plea- fes in the water. It feems to be calculated only for living in the body of fifhes, for the fea water foon kills it ; and it is obferved to diminifh in bulk very fenfibly all the time that it is kept in it. Philof. Tranf. N° 410.

HIRUNDO, the Swallow, in the Linnsean fyftem of zoology, makes a diftindt genus of birds of the order of the Paf- feres. The characters of this are, that the beak is extremely finall, pointed, and deprefled at the bafe, and the opening of the mouth larger than the very head of the bird. XAnnm Syft. Nat. p. 49.

The characters of this genus, according to Ray, are tbcfe : They have very large heads, and very fhort beaks, but very wide mouths, adapted to the fwallowing large infc&s, which are their food. Their tails are long and forked, their eggs are white, they are birds of paffage, and with us are the fore- tellers of fummer.

We' have in England four fpecies of fwallows : 1. The H't- rundo domejiica, pr houfe Swallow. 2. The Hirando a & re fti s i or martin. 3. The Hirundo riparia, called the fand martin, or fhoar bird. 4. The Hirundo apus, called the black martin, or fwift. Befide thefe, there are three other known fpecies : 1. The Hirundo marina, or fea Swal- low. 2. The Hirundo Americana, called tapera. And 3. The Chinefe Swallow, whofe ncft is eaten in foops, &c. Ray's Ornithology, p. 154. See Tapera. The common houfe Swallow is well known every where with us, and is fometimes feen all over of a fine white. The martin, or martlett, has a very broad and fiat head, and a very broad beak pointed at the end ; its legs are very fhort, and its claws white ; its toes are all cover'd, to the very claws, with a white downy plumage, by which it is diftinguifhxd from all the other fwallows. Ray's Ornithology, p. 155. The fand martin, or fhore bird, is the fmalleft of all the Swal- low kind. Its head, neck, and back, are of a moufe colour ; its breaft and belly white ; and it has a ring of brown round the lower part of its throat. It builds in the banks of rivers, and makes its neft of ftraw, the ftalks of plants, &c. and co- vers it with feathers. It is not uncommon with us ; but is ■ extremely plentiful in Spain, in the fummer months, where it is eaten, and is called by the common people, papilion di?mn- tana. Ray's Ornithology, p. 156.

The black martin, or fwift, by fome called the diveling, is the largeft of all the Swallow kind : Its head is remarkably

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broad and flat" ; its beak is very fmall, fhort, and weak ; biHf its mouth opens to an immenfe width, like that of the goat- fucker* or churn owl. It is all over of a brown colour, with a flight admixture of green, and has no other variegation, but a greyiih. white fpot at the top of its throat. Its legs are ex- tremely fhort, and its feet remarkably fmall. It feeds on beetles, and other infe&s, and feldom alights on the ground, the fhortnefs of its legs making it not cafy lor it to rife again, Ray's Ornithology, p. 156.

Hirundo Aquatica, the Water Swalkiv, a name very impro- perly given by Befler, and fome others, to the northern co- lymbus, commonly known by the name of the Lumme.

Hirundo Marina, the Sea Swallow, the name of a large bird of the Swalhw kind. Its belly is all white; its head and back of a dufky brown ; its wings and tail are very long and blackifh, but fomewhat brown underneath ; its tail is forked ; its beak very ftrong, and its mouth very wide and red within. It has on each fide a long line, reaching from the beak to the breaft, and making a fort of ring near the breaft. Its legs arc black, and longer than in the other Swallows. Aldrovand. de Avibus.

Hirundo Pijeh, the Swallow Fijh, or, as it is called in Corn- wall, the Tub Fijh, a fea fifh of the cuculus kind, remarka- ble for the fize of its gill-fins. Its head is very large and bony, of an angular figure, and armed with feveral prickles. It gradually dimmifhes in thicknefs from the head to the tail, and near that is very {lender. Its fcales are very fmall ; its back is of a greeniih brown ; its fides of a pale red, and its belly whkifh. Its lower pair of belly-fins, as alfo the fingle fin behind the anus, and the tail, are of a reddifh hue. The fide lines run ftrait and fingly to the tail. The bony covering of the head runs out behind into two horns. Over the in- fertion of the gill-fins, there is alfo a remarkable ftrong fcale, with a thorn or prickle at the end of it. The teeth are very fmall. The back has two ridges of bony points, and the gill- fins are extremely large, and varioufly colour'd. Their outer edge is of a fhining blue; and there are, near the bafe of the feventh or eighth nerve, fine black fpots in a pale blue area. Under thefe fins there are, on each fide, three filaments, called fingers, in thefe fifhes, and thefe are gradually one longer than another. Its tail is a little forked. It is caught in the Mediterranean, and other feas, and feeds on fmall fifh. Ray's Ichthyogr. p. 280.

HISPANICUM Viridi^ Spanljb green, a name given by fome to verdegreafe. .

HISPID Leaf, among botanifts. See the article Leaf.

Hispid Stalk. Seethe article Stalk.

HISTORICAL Mufic, ?nufica hijlorica, is that branch of mu- fic which treats of the origin and invention of mufic, of modes, of notes, inflruments, fcfV. as alfo the lives and writings of celebrated authors on that fubjedt.

HISTORY (Cyd.) — Natural History. See Natural

Hijlory. HIS TRIX, the Porcupine, an animal well known in many parts of the world, and fo common in the mountainous parts of Italy, that it is brought to market at Rome, and fells but at a very low price, the fiefh not being greatly efteemed. Ray's Syn. Quad. p. 206.

It refembles the badger in fhape, but in its nature more re- fembles the hare, and is properly of the leporine kind. It ufually weighs between twenty and thirty pounds. Its body is often two foot long, and is all over cover'd with a very fingular and remarkable kind of briftles. Its fhoulders, legs* fides, and belly, are wholly black ; and its back variegated with black and white. Its briftles more refembles thofc of the hog than of any other animal ; its neck is fhort and thick; its head alfo fhort, and its nofe obtufe ; its noftrils very large, opening tranfverfely, and its upper lip fplit, as in the hare. All about and over its noftrils, it has a number of black hairs, by way of whifkers, as the rat and moufe have ; and it has, in. each jaw, two large and long fore teeth, like thofc of the hare. The eyes are fmall and blue, and the ears of a very fingular fhape, rcprefenting thofe of the human fpecies ; and . about thefe there is a grey down, very different from the co- vering of the reft of the creature. It has the like down upon the lower jaw ; and all along the head and neck, quite to the fhoulders, it has a fort of crcft of very long briftles, fometimes eight inches long; this looks like an erect, mane, and the briftles it is compofed of are fome white, fome black, and others variegated with both thefe colours. Its legs are fhort, and the fore feet have each five toes, the hinder ones only four, of which the outer one is the largeft, as in the bear. The briltles of the whole body are very thick, flatted at the bottom, and pointed at the extremity, and Handing each on a fhort pedicle. Its briftles are of two very different kinds ; fome of them are very fharp, rigid, and fhort ; others lon- ger, flexible, and flatted at the end ; thofe of the firft fort are white at the bottom, and chefnut-colour'd at the top ; the longer ones are white at both ends, and variegated with black and white in the middle.

The tail is a little more than a hand's breadth long, and is befet with fpines, in feveral annular ranges ; and at the extre- mity, inftead of fpines, it has ten or twelve tubular bodies,

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