Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/333

 QUA

QUA

QlL£STOR, among iheRomans. SeeQy estok, Cycl and 8t$)I.

QUAHVHXA, in botany, a name ufed. by fome authors for the tree from which the refin commonly called gum copal is procured. Hernand. p. 46.

QUAIL, coturn'X) in ornithology, a bird of the gallinaceous kind. See Coturnix and Galjlinaceous.

The quail is a bird of paflage, and with us frequents the corn- fields, and fome times the meadows. They begin to fing in April, and they make their nefts in the month of May, build- ing on the ground.

£>ua : ls are to be taken by means of the call, during their whole woing time, which lafts from April to Auguft. The proper times for uiing the call are at fun-rifing, at nine o'clock in the morning, at three in the afternoon, and at fun fet ; for thefe are the natural times of the quail's calling, The notes of the cock and hen-quail are very different, and the fportfman who expects to fucceed in the taking them, muft be expert in both ; for when the cock calls, the anfwer is to be

made in the hen's note j and when the hen calls, the anfwi is to be made in the cock's. By this means, they will come up to the perfon fo that he may, with great eafe, throw the net over them and take them. If a cock-quail be fingle, on hearing the hen's note he will immediately come ; but if he have a hen already with him, he will not forfake her. Some- times, tho* only one quail anfwers to the call, there will three or four come up ; and then it is beit to have patience, and not run to take up the fixit, but flay till they are all entangled, as they will foon be.

The quail is a neat cleanly bird, and will not run much into dirty or wet places: in dewy mornings they will often fly inftead of running to the call ; and in this cafe, it is beft to let them go over the net, if it fo happens that they fly higher than its tap, and the fportfman then changing fides, and call- ing again, the bird will come back, and then will probably be taken in the net.

The calls are to be made of a final! leather purfe, about two fingers wide, and four fingers long, and made in the fhape of a pear; this is to be fluffed half full of horfe-hair, and at the end of it is to be placed a fmall whiffle, made of the bone of a rabbit's leg, or ibme other fuch bone : this is to be about two inches long, and the end formed like a flageolet, with a little foft wax. This is to be the end faffened into the purfe, the other is to be clofed up with the fame wax, only that a hole is to be opened with a pin, to make it give a diftinct and clear found. To make this found, it is to be held full in the palm of the hand, with one of the fingers placed over the top of the wax, then the purfe is to be prefled, and the finger is to make over the middle of it, to modulate the found it gives into a fort of fhake. This is the moft ufeful call, for it imitates the note of the hen-quail, and feldom fails to bring a cock to the net, if there be one near the place. The call that imitates the note of the cock, and is ufed to bring the hen to him, is to be about four inches long, and above an inch thick ; it is to be made of a piece of wire turned round and curled, and covered with leather ; and one end of it muft be clofed up with a piece of flat wood, about the middle of which there muil be a (mail thread or ftrap of leather, and at the other end is to be placed the fame fort of pipe, made of bone, as is ufed in the other call. The noife is made by opening and clofing the fpiral, and gives the fame found that the cock does when he gives the hen a fignal that he is near her.

QUALIFICATIONS of members of parliament. A knight, ba- ronet, or any other under the degree of a baron, may be elected knight, citizen, or burgefs. 4 Inft. 46,47. An alien, tho' made a denizen, cannot fit in parliament 3 ; even perfons naturalized by act of parliament are ufually re- trained from fitting as members b. Perfons under the age of twenty- one years are not capable of being elected members of parliament. The election is void, and minors, tho' chofen, prefuming to fit and vote, are under the fame penalties as if they had fat and voted without being chofen c. [ a 4 Inft. 47. b Vid. Stat. 12, 13 Will. III. 4 Ann, c. S. and 1 Geo. I. = 7 and 8 Will. III. c. 25.]'

None of the judges of the king's-bench, common-pleas, or barons of the exchequer, that have judicial places, can be chofen knights, citizens, or burgefTes of parliament. 4 Inft. 47. None of the clergy can be elected knight, citizen, or burgefs of parliament ; becaufe they are of another body, the convo- cation. 4 Inft. 47. Moor 783.

A perfon attainted of treafon or felony is not eligible ; for he ought, according to the writ, to be idoueus, difcreius & fuffi- ciens. 4 Inft, 48.

The king cannot grant a charter of exemption to any man, to be freed from election of knight, citizen, or burgefs of the parliament. 4 Inft. 4'j.

for the incapacities of fheriffs, mayors of towns, and the reafons why they may or may not be elected knights, citi- zens, or burgeffes, vid. 4 Tnft. 48. Bro. Abr.Tit. Parliament. \Cromp. Jurifd. 3. 16. Rvjhw. Collect. Vol. I. p. 684. Tewnjb. Ooll. ■ 8 «r-

Q_U PiL\TY (Cy:l.)~- Quality of curvature, in geometry, is Ui ed to fignify its form, as it is more or lefs inequable, or as

it is varied more or lefs in its progrefs through different parts //, C C T e ' A ' ewi071s Mcth. of Flux, and Inf Ser n 7 c«

QUAMOCLIT, ,n botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of winch are thefe : the flower is of the monoce- talous or one-leaved kind, and is funnel-fhaped and divided into fcveral fegments at the end. From the cup there arifes a pifti], winch is fixed in the manner of a nail to the lower part of the flower ; this afterwards changes into an oblono- frmt, conta.mng fmall feeds, ufually of an oblong figure? bee Tab. 1. of Botany, Clafe 2.

The fpecies of iquamodii, enumerated bv Mr. Tournefort, are thefe: iThe finely divided pennated-leaved quamodit. 2, 1 he purple-flowered American quamodit, with fingered leaves 3. The fix-leaved American quamodit, with purple umbellated flowers. 4. The American quamodit, with large heart-like eaves. 5. The purple-flowered American qua nice lit, with large angular leaves. 6. The trifid, or ivy-leaved American euamoclit. 7. The pale red American quamodit, with leaves like thofe of nightfhade. Town. Inft. p. 116. Quamodit differs from bindweed, or convolvulus, in the fhape of the flower.

QUANDROS, a name given by the writers of the middle ages to a flone, to which they attribute great virtues, and which they fay, is found in the head of a vulture.

QUANTITY (CycL)-QuAKTiTY of curvature at any point of a curve is determined by the circle of curvature at that point, and is reciprocally proportional to its radius. Newton Meth. of Flux, and Inf. Series, p. 60. Madaurius Fluxions, ti. 1. ch. 11. See Curvature, Appendix.

Quantity of aclion. See Action.

QUAPACHTOTOTL, in zoology, a name under which Nu- remberg has deferibed a bird, which, he fays, imitates the human laugh. He fays its body is eight inches long, and the tail as many; the beak of a bluifli black, and bent and crook- ed ; the bread grey and the belly black ; the tail of a brownifli black, and the wings, neck, and head of a yellowilh brown. Ray 's Ornithol. p. 298. -

QUARRY {Cycl.)— In many parts of England we find fea-fliells buried in bard ftone, and under great beds of earth. Near Broughton, inLincoInfllire, all the quarries abound with them. At the eafl end of this town there is a quarry of a foft (lone, which they dig through to get at a b/d of clay, which is of a- peculiarly glutinous quality, and hardens like mortar in drying : this is ufed for cementing other ftones together, and in this are innumerable fragments of (hells of cockles, fcallops, fea-echini, and corals; and anions thefe fragments there are found fome whole (hells of their natural colours, and often wholly unhurt; tho' fome of them are bruifed and preffed quite flat by the great weight of earth that lies upon them. On the fouth fide of the Town there is a quarry of a blue ftone, which was doubtlefs in the times be- fore the deluge a blue clay, of the fame nature with that juft mentioned. This contains in its body vaft numbers of the fame forts of (hells, and of many other kinds ; but they are all fo firmly bedded in the ftone, that it is not eafy to get them out whole: but there is this very remarkable, that they only- lie in the fuperficial part of the ftone, the ftratum being very thick, but not one (hell found in it beyond the depth of two foot from the furface.

7 'he furface of this ftratum of ftone is not even and fmooth, but is waved and ridged irregularly, like a bed of fnow, or like the waves of the fea in the time of a fmall wind. This has juft the appearance that the furface of a mafs of half hardened matter muft have, if the wind blew fiercely upon it from one quarter; and by the direfiion of thefe undulations, it is eafy to fee from what quarter the wind blew at that time. In that part of the ftone which forms this undulated roughnefs, there are as many (hells as any where elfe ; and thefe lie partly buried and partly Handing out of the (lone, juft as we fee the frefti water fhell-fifh lie half in and half out of the mud of the bottom of a pond or river that is dried up in fummer. It is very obfervable, that in this cafe, as much of the (hell as is within the ftone is perfectly well preferved, and as hard as ftone ; whereas that part which (lands out is either wholly de- cayed, or at the beft of the nature of a rotten (hell, which fails to pieces on being touched with the hands. The part of the (hell within the ftone is ufually converted into a mafs dif- ferent from the (hell in all things but figure; but that which (lands out always preferves the true texture of the natural (hell, and is made up of many flakes and crufts as the natural (hells cf the kind to which it belongs are. Among the (hells buried in the fubftance of the ftone, fome have their (hell perfect on them, others have only a thin cruft of a whitifll (lony matter in the place of it, and others are wholly naked, and have no (hell nor any covering at all : thefe are properly only cads of (lone in the places where (hells once were, all the matter of the ftiells themfelves having been diflblved and waflled away. In fome of thefe there is a thick white fubftance in the place of the (hell, between the caft and the bed of ftone : thefe come out the mod eafy and perfect

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