Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/300

* HOUSE- ANT. 200 HOUSE-FINCH. the entire house may lie fumipited with bi- sulphide of carbon or liydroeyanio acid gas. Directions for such funiijipitioii are printeil in fircuiar form by the Department of Aj;riculture at Washinjjton and are sent to all applicants free of cliarjje. Two little black ant.s (Monomo- riiim iiiinulKiii and Ti(ramorium cwspilum) are also founil in houses, but nest outside. Consult Howard ami Marlatt, Uuusehold Inserts (Depart- ment of .;;ritulture, Wasbinf.'ton, 18!)6). HOUSEBOATING. The passing of the sum- mcr-tiiiic. US a recreation, on what really is a flat- bottomed raft suppiirting a more or less extensive and luxurious suite of rooms, occupying the centre of the raft. At each end of the hi>u-<e is .an open deck, and an open pallerv along the sides; the top, which is railed round and covered by an awning', forms an open court or garden. There are endless varieties in design, but this general description substantially, covers the character- istics of most modern houseboats. This manner of passing the summer holidays began about 1S70 on the Tlianies. To-day a hundred house- boats arc to be found on it. and .a regular weekly paper is publislicil. which gives the whereabouts of every such boat from day to day. Some of these boats arc models of beauty in decorations and fittings, and veritable floating palaces of !u'ury and fashi^m. They are either poled from point to point, or towed from the path by a horse, or else tugged by an auxiliary launch. The prox- ir ity of riverside villages and inns precludes the necessity of giving lip much of the internal space to stores. American conditions are so difTcrent ns to need a much greater variety of treatment, and in every section of the country housi-boating is popular. Houseboats are abundant on the Pa- cific Coast, and the Mississippi system is dotted with them wherever a great city forms the neces- sary social nucleus. On the Saint I.rfiwrence and the Ijxkes George and Champlain they are a summer feature, and the neighborhood of New York is especially favorable to them. In the Florida waters are some of the largest ever built, as well as many of the humbler and truc.- liind. For convenience of description, houseboats may be divided into four classes, according as they (1) simply float, and are moored to stay: (2) are meant to move from place to place, but have no power; f3) carry their own sails; or M> are propelled by their own engines. Within these divisions every kind of craft is in ser^'ice. There is the Alnmrrln. a converted 8.5foot schooner, which can cruise by sail or steam, and the Caiman, a double-decker. 97 feet long, capable of navigating with her own steam power the inlets and inland waters of Florida. Scarcely less pretentious are the Iftler and the Wan(]erfr, designed especially for the shallow rivers of the tipper Mississippi Valley. Among sailing house- boats there are the Sommrrhrim. 70x20. on which a house .lOxlH is carried, and the Xaiililus, with a deckhouse constructed of four abandoned street lars. Others are floatinc studios, like Dragon, SOxlO; and Oiitinrj, built for the waters inside the keys of the .Tersey coast, a roomy sloop- rigged houseboat 35x11 and 13 inches draught; huntins-boxcs. like the Ruth, with her house sunk level with her deck, for use in duck-shoot- ins; and broad-beamed rafts, like the lieh-idere, of which half a hundred may be found in San Francisco Bay and its tributaries. An ordinary flat-boat, without power, except some simple sails, steered by a ruddi'r. and carry- ing a house of (Jeorgia pine, can Iw liuilt I liome- iiiade) or purchased anywhere for from .$3(10 to .•f.sOd. Practical working designs and instructions for building will be found in articles by Norton in Outinii for .?uly (New York, 18H2) and August (New York, litOli). HOUSEBOTE (from house + ME. bote, AS. hut, Culli. ')<'//.(, OlKJ. btifiui, tier. Ilussi; recom- pense, atonement I. At con;nion law, the right of a tenant for life or years to cut and take from the i)remises oc- cupied by him suffi- cient wood for repair- ing the house and other buildings on the estate and for use as fuel, witliout becoming liable for waste. It be- longs to the class of tenants' rights known as estovers. See E.s- TO'ER. HOUSEBREAK- ING. See lil lliM.AHV. HOUSE CENTI- PEDE. A myriapod with very long legs and long antenn;p, which is numerous in the Southern States, and brightly colored. It haunts houses and is feared by ignorant persons as poisonous, l)ut is harniless and really beneficial, as it feeds on small insect vermin. It is the only representative in this country of the ehi- lopodous family Cer- m a t i i d X, and is named Scutifjcra for- ceps. Consult !NIar- latt. Household In- sec t s ( Washington, 180G). SeeMYRiAPODA. HOUSE-CRICKET. See Cbicket. HOUSE-FINCH, or Lixnet. A small finch {('arpodncus frontalis) very common tbroughnut California, Arizona, and Northern ^lexico, and familiar in all valley towns and rural gardens, where it is welcome for its beautiful plimiage and exceedingly sweet, canarj'-like song, heard throughout the year. It is related to and re- sembles the purple finch of the Eastern States, but is .smaller and trimmer. The head and breast of the male are a rich red-wine color, varj-ing from carmine to crimson, and the remainder of its plumage a mixture of reds, soft grays, and browns ; the females and young have no red, and in winter the colors are less bright than in early summer. This finch makes its nest normally in trees, but now also occupies ho'es and crannies about houses and buildings, where it is never disturbed by the people, although much harassed by swallows in competition for desirable quarters. The eggs are pale blue, sparingly marked with dark lines and dots about the large end. Other HCH'SK CE.NTIPEDE.