Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/558

* WHIPPLE. 472 WHISKY. for New Hampshire from 1782 until 1784, and was president of the commission that settled the dispute between Pennsylvania and Connecticut over the Wyoming Valley. In 17S2 lie became a judge of the Superior Court of Judicature. WHIPPOORWILL. A North American nightjar [Aiitrostomus vociferus), famous for the call which has given it this name, but which might be more nearly expressed by the syl- lables whup'peree". It is common in summer throughout the eastern part of the United States. It is about ten inches long, tlie plumage very much mottled and indistinctly marked with small transverse bands of black, white, and buff, the top of the head streaked with black, a narrow white collar on the throat. The bristles at the base of the bill are very stiff, and more than an inch long. This bird is seldom seen during the day, but seeks its food by night, catching moths, beetles, and other insects on the wing. Its llight is near the ground, zigzag, and noiseless. Its notes are heard only during the night, especially just after sunset in the early summer, when the notes are rapidly reiterated, often several hundred times with 'hardly an apparent pause for breath, and are clear and loud, so that when several of these birds are close at hand the noise is such that those unaccustomed to it cannot sleep. The whippoorwill makes no nest, but the female deposits her eggs, two in number, on the ground or leaves in the woods. The eggs are perhaps the handsomest of any American bird, white, prettily marked with lilac and brown. In the more southern parts of the United States the whippoorwill is replaced by a larger species, the chuck-will's-widow (q.v.), and on the upper Missouri and to the west by a smaller one, the poor-will (q.v.). WHIP-SNAKE. One of the long, slender, whiplash-like green tree-serpents of the family Dryophida- of India and the JIalay countries. They are poisonous, and one species (Diiiophis nris'utus) of India is said by the natives to dart at the eyes of men passing it. Wallace remarks that the ease and rapidity with which these snakes glide through the bushes almost without disturbing a leaf is very curious: and they are so well protected by their color that they may often be touched before they are seen. The same name is given in the United States to a slender, swift, brownish 'blacksnake' {Zame- nis flapelHforinis) of Texas and westward, usu- ally called 'coach-whip snake.' The Indians and negroes believe it will whip or lash its adversary with its tail, and fear it. but it is quite harmless, though ready to fight when cornered. WHIP-TAIL SCORPION. See ScoRrioN. WHIRLIGIG BEETLE. See Water-Beetle. WHIRLIGIG MULLET. .A curious little mullet tQiiri iiiiniia fii/riiiis) of the southeastern coast of the United States, often found swimming round and roimd in great schools at the surface like whirligig beetles: usually mistaken for young mullet or bluefish. WHIRLPOOL RAPIDS. A remarkable se- ries of rfii>i(N in the iagara River, three miles below Niagara Kails. The central portion of the current is forced by the narrowness of the ehaiinel (300 feet) to a height of 20 to .'^0 feet above the edges. In spite of the dangerous character of the rapids, they have ioviml times been passed by persons in barrels and once by a steamer, the Maid of tlie Mist (q.v.). A short distance below is the whirlpool from which the rapids take their name. WHIRLWIND. A term specifically applied to small whirls or eddies of winds that continue only a few seconds, seldom longer than a minute; the diameter of the whirl is correspondingly small, and is made visible principally by dust, leaves, or light objects flying in the air. The most extensive dust whirls occur on hot, dry plains, as in India, Texas, and the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, and especially in the Desert of Sahara, where lieaps of sand, sufficient to coAer a caravan, are said to fall to the ground occasionally as the whirling simoom passes over. In the smaller whirls the rotation of the eddy may be either positive or negative, but in the larger whirls the direction, like that of the tornado, is always the same as that of the storms attending areas of low pressure, namely, from the west, by the south, to the east in the Northern Hemisphere, and the reverse in the southern. Whirlwinds acquire different names according to the circumstances attending them. Thus the hot dry air over a dusty plain rising because of its high temperature gives rise to the dust whirl. The burning of prairies and for- ests and the eruptions of gases from volcanoes cause the smoke whirls ; the ascent of air drawn from the ocean up to the cloud gives rise to the waterspout, properly so called : the most violent ascending and rotating clouds constitute the tornado. Formerly hurricanes and typhoons were spoken of as whi^-hvinds, but the present tend- ency is to use those distinctive terms. Consult : Baddely, Wliirlainds and Dust f>torms of India (London. 1860) ; Eeye, Die Wirbelstiirme (Han- over, 1880) : Ferrel, On Cyclones, Tornadoes, and Watrr.ywuts ( Wa-liingtoii, 1882). WHISKERANDOS, Don Ferolo. The mock hero of the mock drama. The Spanish Armada, contained in Sheridan's farce. The Crilie. He is a captured Spaniard with whom the jail- keeper's daughter is in love, and is meant as a caricature of the heroes of Restoration tragedy. WHISKY (probably a variant of usquehaufih, from Gael., Ir. uisrichcathu, water of life, from uiscje, Olr. usee, water; connected with Ok. Mas, hjidos, water, Skt. iitsa, spring, or with AS., OllCr. u-ascun. Ger. icaschcn. Eng. vush, both groups probably ultimately akin -|- hcntha, Olr. heothu. hethii, life, connected with Lat. vita, Gk. ^'os, 6ios, OChureh Slav, iiroli'i, Skt. jwa, life; cf. for meaning Fr. eaii-dc-vie, water of life, brandy). A distilled liquor, chiefly obtained from the fermented mash of different varieties of grain. The term is sometimes used to desig- nate liquors obtained from starchy or saccharine substances other than grain, as. for example, potato spirits; but its specific meaning is best expressed by the name given it in medicine, spirilns frumcnii. spirits of grain. Ry far the greater part of the distilled liquors consumed in the I'nited States is sold under this desijr- natioi. .ltlio>igh it is customary to use n mixture of difreront kinds of griiin in the preparation of a ma'^h for the production of whisky, still the classification of different varieties is based mainly upon the kind of grain forming the major.