(V. M.; K. S.)
2. In architecture the name “flute” is given to the vertical channels (segmental, semicircular or elliptical in horizontal section) employed on the shafts of columns in the classic styles. The flutes are separated one from the other by an “arris” in the Doric order and by a “fillet” in the Ionic and Corinthian orders. The earliest fluted columns are those in Egypt, at first with plain faces without any sinking, subsequently at Karnac (1400B.C.) with a segmental sinking equal in depth to about one-seventh of the width of the flute. The columns flanking one of the “beehive” tombs at Mycenae have segmental flutes and are the earliest Greek examples. In two of the earliest Doric temples at Metapontum and Syracuse (temple of Apollo) the flutes are also segmental, but in later examples in order to emphasize the arris they were formed of three arcs and are known as “false ellipses,” and this applies to nearly all the fluting in Greek examples whether belonging to the Doric, Ionic or Corinthian orders. The number of flutes varies, there being 52 in the archaic temple of Diana at Ephesus and from 30 to 52 flutes in the Persian columns according to the diameter of the column. In the Greek Doric column 20 is the usual number, but there are 16 only in the temples of Sunium, Assos, Segesta and the temple of Apollo at Syracuse; 18 in one of the temples of Selinus and the temple of Diana at Syracuse, and 24 in the temple of Neptune at Paestum. The depth of the flute also varies; in the Propylaea at Athens the radius is equal to the width of the flute and the flute is segmental. In the Parthenon the radius of the central part of the flute is greater than the width, but the smaller arcs on either side accentuate better the arris. A similar accentuation is found in the Ionic and Corinthian orders, where the flutes are separated by fillets, and their section is always elliptical in Greek work, the depth of the flute, however, being always greater than in the Doric order. Thus, in the temple of Ilissus and the Ionic column in the cella of the temple at Bassae, the depth is about one-quarter of the width, in the Propylaea at Priene it is about one-third, and in the Erechtheum and other examples of the Greek Ionic order it is little more than one-half. The width of the fillet also varies, being as a rule one quarter of the width of the flute; and the same applies to the Greek Corinthian order. In the Roman Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders, the flute is either segmental or semicircular, its depth being about one third of the width in the Doric column, and in all Ionic, Corinthian and Composite columns half the width of the flute. The fillet also is much broader in Roman examples, being about one-third of the width of the flute. In Roman columns sometimes the flutes of the lower part of the shaft, about one-third of the height, are partly filled with a convex moulding, “cabling” being the usual term applied to this treatment. The French architects of the 16th and 17th centuries carried this decorative feature much farther, and in the Tuileries and the Louvre carved a series of leaves in the flutes. In a few Italian buildings, instead of the fluting of the column being vertical, it twines round the column and is known as spiral fluting; a fine example is found in the Bevilacqua palace at Verona by San Michele. Fluting is sometimes introduced into capitals, as in the tomb of Mylasa, and in friezes, as in the theatre at Cnidos, the Incantada at Salonica, and a doorway at Patara. In one of the museums at Rome is a fine sarcophagus, the sides of which are sculptured with flutes in waved lines. The coronas of many of the Roman temples were carved with flutes. In medieval buildings, fluting was occasionally introduced in imitation of Roman work, as in the churches of central Syria and of Autun and Langres in France, but in the south of Italy and Sicily it would seem to have been brought in as a variety of treatment, in the decoration of the shafts carrying the arches of cloisters, as at Monreale in Sicily and in those of St John Lateran and St Paul-outside-the-Walls at Rome.
(R. P. S.)
1See E.F.F. Chladni,Die Akustik(Leipzig, 1802), p. 87.2See Sonreck, “Über die Schwingungserregung und die Bewegung der Luftsäule in offenen und gedeckten Röhren,”Pogg. Ann., 1876, vol. 158.3The Flute(London, 1890), § 90-105, pp. 34-40.4Theorie der Luftschwingungen in Röhren mit offenen Enden(Berlin, 1896). Ostwald’sKlassiker der exacten Wissenschaften, No. 80.5V.C. Mahillon,Experimental Studies on the Resonance of Trunco-Conical and Cylindrical Air Columns, translated by F.A. Mahan (London, 1901); D.J. Blaikley,Acoustics in Relation to Wind Instruments(London, 1890); Friedrich Zamminer,Die Musik und die musikalischen Instrumente, &c.(Giessen, 1855);idem.“Sur le mouvement vibratoire de l’air dans les tuyaux,”Comptes rendus, 1855, vol. 41, &c.6Op. cit., § 73, pp. 87-88, note 1.7“Akustik der Blasinstrumente,”Allgem. musikal. Zeit.(Leipzig, 1816), Bd. xviii. No. 5, p. 65 et seq. See also Ernst Euting,Zur Geschichte der Blasinstrumente im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert. Inaugural Dissertation, Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität. (Berlin, 15th of March 1899), p. 9.8Lehre von der Tonempfindung(Braunschweig, 1877).9See additions by D. J. B. to article “Flute” in Grove’sDictionary of Music and Musicians(London, 1904).10Musica instrumentalis deutsch(Wittenberg, 1528).11See also L’Artusi,Delle imperfettioni della musica moderna(Venice, 1600), p. 4; Gottfried Weber in Cäcilia, Bd. ix. p. 99.12See “Les Anciennes Flûtes égyptiennes,” by Victor Loret inJournal asiatique(Paris, 1889), vol. xiv. p. 133 et seq., two careful articles based on the ancient Egyptian instruments still extant. See also Lauth, “Über die ägyptische Instrumente,”Sitzungs. der philos., philolog. und histor. Klasse. der Kgl. bayer. Akad. zu München(1873).13See Albert A. Howard, “The Aulos or Tibia,”Harvard Studies, iv. (Boston, 1893), pp. 16-17.14Representations of flutes blown as here described have been found in Europe. SeeComptes rendus de la commission impériale archéologique(St Petersburg, 1867), p. 45, and atlas for the same date, pl. vi. Pompeian painting given by Helbig,Wandgemälde, No. 7607; Zahn, vol. iii. pl. 31; Museo Borbonnico, pl. xv. No. 18; Clarac, pl. 130, 131, 139; Heuzey,Les Figurines, p. 136.15There are two flutes at the British Museum (Catal. No. 84, 4-9 and 5 and 6), belonging to the Castellani collection, made of wood encased in bronze in which the mouthpiece, consisting of the head of a maenad, has a lateral hole bored obliquely into the main tube. This hole was probably intended for the reception of a reed. The pipe is stopped at the end beyond the mouthpiece as in the modern flute. There are six holes. See also the plagiaulos from Halicarnassus in the British Museum described by C.T. Newton inHistory of Discoveries at Halicarnassus(London), vol. ii. p. 339. The Louvre has two ancient statues (from the villa Borghese) representing satyrs playing upon transverse flutes. Unfortunately these marbles have been restored, especially in the details affecting our present subject, and are therefore examples of no value to us. Another statue representing a flute-player occurs in the British Museum. The instrument has been supposed to be a transverse flute, but erroneously, for the insufflation of the lateral tube against which the instrumentalist presses his lips, could not, without the intervention of a reed, excite the vibratory movement of the column of air.16Florence, Carrand Collection. See Museo Nazionale Firenze,Catalogo(1898), p. 205, No. 26 (description only). Illustration inGallerie nazionali italiane, A. Venturi, vol. iii. (1897), p. 263, L’Arte (Rome, 1894), vol. i. p. 24, Hans Graeven, “Antike Vorlagen byzantinischer Elfenbeinreliefs,” inJahrb. d. K. Preuss. Kunst-Sammlungen(Berlin, 1897), Bd. xviii. p. 11; Hans Graeven, “Ein Reliquienkästchen aus Pirano,” id., 1899, Bd. xx. fig. 2 and pl. iii.17Greek MS. 510, Grégoir de Nazance 10th century, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; illustration in Gustave L. Schlumberger,L’Épopée byzantine à la fin du dizième siècle(Paris, 1896 and 1900), vol. i. p. 503. British Museum, Greek Psalter, add. MS. 19352, fol. 189b. written and illuminated cir. 1066 by Theodorus of Caesarea. A cylindrical flute is shown turned to the right, the left hand being uppermost. Smyrna, Library of the Evaggelike Schole B. 18, fol. 72a,A.D.1100, illustration by Strzygowski, “Der Bilderkreis des griechischen Physiologus,” inByzantinisches Archiv(Leipzig, 1899), Heft 2, Taf. xi.; N.P. Kondakoff,Histoire de l’art byzantin(Paris, 1886 and 1891), pl. xii. 5; “Kuseyr’ Amra,” issued byK. Akad. d. Wissenschaften(Vienna, 1907), vol. ii. pl. xxxiv.18A fine volume containing coloured drawings of these frescoes has been published in St Petersburg (British Museum library catalogue, sect. “Academies,” St Petersburg, 1874-1887, vol. iv. Tab. 1325a).19This manuscript, written towards the end of the 12th century, was preserved in the Strassburg library until 1870, when it was burnt during the bombardment of the city. See the fine reproduction in facsimile published by theSoc. pour la conservation des monuments historiques d’Alsace. Texte explicatif de A. Straub and G. Keller (Strassburg, 1901), pl. lvii., also C.M. Engelhardt,Herrad von Landsperg und ihr Werk(Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1818), twelve plates.20MS. j. b. 2. Illustrated inCritical and Bibliographical Notes on Early Spanish Music(London, 1887), p. 119.21Musica getutscht und auszgezogen(Basel, 1511).22Organographia(Wolfenbüttel. 1618), pp. 24, 25, 40.23Harmonie universelle(Paris, 1636),Livrev. p. 241.24Principes de la flûte traversière ou flûte d’Allemagne, de la flûte à bec et du hautbois (Paris, 1722), p. 38.25Musicusαὐτοδιδακτόςoder der sich selbst informirende Musicus(Erfurt, 1738), p. 85.26Fétis,Rapport sur la fabrication des instruments de musique à l’Exposition Universelle de Paris, en 1855.27SeeRecueil de planches, vol. iv., and article “Basse de flûte traversière,” vol. ii. (Paris, 1751). See alsoThe Flute, by R.S. Rockstro (London, 1890), p. 238, where the wood cut is reproduced together with a translation of the article. The Museum of the Conservatoire in Paris also possesses a bass flute by the noted French maker Delusse.28Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversière zu spielen(Berlin, 1752).29Unless the contrary is stated, we have always in view, in describing the successive improvements of the flute, the treble flute in D, which is considered to be typical of the family.30“Herrn Johann Joachim Quantzens-Lebenslauf, von ihm selbst entworfen,” in theHistorisch-Kritische Beyträge zur Aufnahme der Musik, by Marpurg (Berlin, 1754), p. 239. Quantz was professor of the flute to Frederick the Great.31See Johann Georg Tromlitz,Ausführlicher und gründlicher Unterricht die Flöte zu spielen(Leipzig, 1791), 1, § 7, andÜber Flöten mit mehrern Klappen(Leipzig, 1800), cap. vii. § 21.32Antonio Lorenzoni,Saggio per ben sonare il flauto traverso(Vicenza, 1779).33SeeAnweisung, i. § 15.34SeeLebenslauf,loc. cit.p. 248, where Quantz states that he invented the adjustable head for the flute.35SeeAnweisung, i. §§ 10-13 and iv. § 26.36Ausführlicher und gründlicher Unterricht die Flöte zu spielen(Leipzig, 1791), i. cap. § 20. Compare Schilling,Univ.-Lexikon(Leipzig, 1835).37Stendal, 1782 (published under his initials only, J. J. H. R., see p. 2).38Kurze Abhandlung von Flötenspielen(Leipzig, 1786), p. 27.39Über Flöten, &c., pp. 133 and 134.40SeeThe Flute, pp. 242-244 and 561 and 562.41Seeop. cit.pp. 51 and 62.42English patent, No. 1499.43See Rockstro,op. cit.p. 197.44Saggio per costruire e suonare un flauto traverso enarmonico che ha i suoni bassi del violino(Rome, 1797).45The idea of this large flute was taken up again in 1819 by Trexler of Vienna, who called it the “panaulon.”46Patent, No. 3183. Part of the specification together with a diagram is reproduced by Rockstro,op. cit.pp. 273-274.47Patent, No. 3349. Part of the specification together with a diagram is reproduced by Rockstro,op. cit.pp. 273-274.48Another specimen, almost the same, constructed about 1775, and called “Basse de Musette,” may be seen in the Museum of the Paris Conservatoire.49See account of Capeller’s inventions by Carl Maria von Weber inAllgem. musikal. Zeit.(Leipzig, 1811), pp. 377-379, a translation of which is given by Rockstro,op. cit.pp. 279 and 280.50SeeÜber den Flötenbau und die neuesten Verbesserungen desselben(Mainz, 1847); and W.S. Broadwood,An Essay on the Construction of Flutes originally written by Theobald Boehm, published with the addition of Correspondence and other Documents(London, 1882).51Examen critique de la flûte ordinaire comparée à la flûte Boehm(Paris, 1838).52They existed long before, however, in the ChineseTyand the JapaneseFuye.53The reader may consult with advantage Mr C. Welch’sHistory of the Boehm Flute(London, 1883), wherein all the documents relating to this interesting discussion have been collected with great impartiality.54For further details see Kathleen Schlesinger,The Instruments of the Orchestra, part i. pp. 192-194, where an illustration is given, and Paul Wetzger,Die Flöte(Heilbronn, 1906), pp. 23-24, and Tafel iv. No. 20.
1See E.F.F. Chladni,Die Akustik(Leipzig, 1802), p. 87.
2See Sonreck, “Über die Schwingungserregung und die Bewegung der Luftsäule in offenen und gedeckten Röhren,”Pogg. Ann., 1876, vol. 158.
3The Flute(London, 1890), § 90-105, pp. 34-40.
4Theorie der Luftschwingungen in Röhren mit offenen Enden(Berlin, 1896). Ostwald’sKlassiker der exacten Wissenschaften, No. 80.
5V.C. Mahillon,Experimental Studies on the Resonance of Trunco-Conical and Cylindrical Air Columns, translated by F.A. Mahan (London, 1901); D.J. Blaikley,Acoustics in Relation to Wind Instruments(London, 1890); Friedrich Zamminer,Die Musik und die musikalischen Instrumente, &c.(Giessen, 1855);idem.“Sur le mouvement vibratoire de l’air dans les tuyaux,”Comptes rendus, 1855, vol. 41, &c.
6Op. cit., § 73, pp. 87-88, note 1.
7“Akustik der Blasinstrumente,”Allgem. musikal. Zeit.(Leipzig, 1816), Bd. xviii. No. 5, p. 65 et seq. See also Ernst Euting,Zur Geschichte der Blasinstrumente im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert. Inaugural Dissertation, Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität. (Berlin, 15th of March 1899), p. 9.
8Lehre von der Tonempfindung(Braunschweig, 1877).
9See additions by D. J. B. to article “Flute” in Grove’sDictionary of Music and Musicians(London, 1904).
10Musica instrumentalis deutsch(Wittenberg, 1528).
11See also L’Artusi,Delle imperfettioni della musica moderna(Venice, 1600), p. 4; Gottfried Weber in Cäcilia, Bd. ix. p. 99.
12See “Les Anciennes Flûtes égyptiennes,” by Victor Loret inJournal asiatique(Paris, 1889), vol. xiv. p. 133 et seq., two careful articles based on the ancient Egyptian instruments still extant. See also Lauth, “Über die ägyptische Instrumente,”Sitzungs. der philos., philolog. und histor. Klasse. der Kgl. bayer. Akad. zu München(1873).
13See Albert A. Howard, “The Aulos or Tibia,”Harvard Studies, iv. (Boston, 1893), pp. 16-17.
14Representations of flutes blown as here described have been found in Europe. SeeComptes rendus de la commission impériale archéologique(St Petersburg, 1867), p. 45, and atlas for the same date, pl. vi. Pompeian painting given by Helbig,Wandgemälde, No. 7607; Zahn, vol. iii. pl. 31; Museo Borbonnico, pl. xv. No. 18; Clarac, pl. 130, 131, 139; Heuzey,Les Figurines, p. 136.
15There are two flutes at the British Museum (Catal. No. 84, 4-9 and 5 and 6), belonging to the Castellani collection, made of wood encased in bronze in which the mouthpiece, consisting of the head of a maenad, has a lateral hole bored obliquely into the main tube. This hole was probably intended for the reception of a reed. The pipe is stopped at the end beyond the mouthpiece as in the modern flute. There are six holes. See also the plagiaulos from Halicarnassus in the British Museum described by C.T. Newton inHistory of Discoveries at Halicarnassus(London), vol. ii. p. 339. The Louvre has two ancient statues (from the villa Borghese) representing satyrs playing upon transverse flutes. Unfortunately these marbles have been restored, especially in the details affecting our present subject, and are therefore examples of no value to us. Another statue representing a flute-player occurs in the British Museum. The instrument has been supposed to be a transverse flute, but erroneously, for the insufflation of the lateral tube against which the instrumentalist presses his lips, could not, without the intervention of a reed, excite the vibratory movement of the column of air.
16Florence, Carrand Collection. See Museo Nazionale Firenze,Catalogo(1898), p. 205, No. 26 (description only). Illustration inGallerie nazionali italiane, A. Venturi, vol. iii. (1897), p. 263, L’Arte (Rome, 1894), vol. i. p. 24, Hans Graeven, “Antike Vorlagen byzantinischer Elfenbeinreliefs,” inJahrb. d. K. Preuss. Kunst-Sammlungen(Berlin, 1897), Bd. xviii. p. 11; Hans Graeven, “Ein Reliquienkästchen aus Pirano,” id., 1899, Bd. xx. fig. 2 and pl. iii.
17Greek MS. 510, Grégoir de Nazance 10th century, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; illustration in Gustave L. Schlumberger,L’Épopée byzantine à la fin du dizième siècle(Paris, 1896 and 1900), vol. i. p. 503. British Museum, Greek Psalter, add. MS. 19352, fol. 189b. written and illuminated cir. 1066 by Theodorus of Caesarea. A cylindrical flute is shown turned to the right, the left hand being uppermost. Smyrna, Library of the Evaggelike Schole B. 18, fol. 72a,A.D.1100, illustration by Strzygowski, “Der Bilderkreis des griechischen Physiologus,” inByzantinisches Archiv(Leipzig, 1899), Heft 2, Taf. xi.; N.P. Kondakoff,Histoire de l’art byzantin(Paris, 1886 and 1891), pl. xii. 5; “Kuseyr’ Amra,” issued byK. Akad. d. Wissenschaften(Vienna, 1907), vol. ii. pl. xxxiv.
18A fine volume containing coloured drawings of these frescoes has been published in St Petersburg (British Museum library catalogue, sect. “Academies,” St Petersburg, 1874-1887, vol. iv. Tab. 1325a).
19This manuscript, written towards the end of the 12th century, was preserved in the Strassburg library until 1870, when it was burnt during the bombardment of the city. See the fine reproduction in facsimile published by theSoc. pour la conservation des monuments historiques d’Alsace. Texte explicatif de A. Straub and G. Keller (Strassburg, 1901), pl. lvii., also C.M. Engelhardt,Herrad von Landsperg und ihr Werk(Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1818), twelve plates.
20MS. j. b. 2. Illustrated inCritical and Bibliographical Notes on Early Spanish Music(London, 1887), p. 119.
21Musica getutscht und auszgezogen(Basel, 1511).
22Organographia(Wolfenbüttel. 1618), pp. 24, 25, 40.
23Harmonie universelle(Paris, 1636),Livrev. p. 241.
24Principes de la flûte traversière ou flûte d’Allemagne, de la flûte à bec et du hautbois (Paris, 1722), p. 38.
25Musicusαὐτοδιδακτόςoder der sich selbst informirende Musicus(Erfurt, 1738), p. 85.
26Fétis,Rapport sur la fabrication des instruments de musique à l’Exposition Universelle de Paris, en 1855.
27SeeRecueil de planches, vol. iv., and article “Basse de flûte traversière,” vol. ii. (Paris, 1751). See alsoThe Flute, by R.S. Rockstro (London, 1890), p. 238, where the wood cut is reproduced together with a translation of the article. The Museum of the Conservatoire in Paris also possesses a bass flute by the noted French maker Delusse.
28Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversière zu spielen(Berlin, 1752).
29Unless the contrary is stated, we have always in view, in describing the successive improvements of the flute, the treble flute in D, which is considered to be typical of the family.
30“Herrn Johann Joachim Quantzens-Lebenslauf, von ihm selbst entworfen,” in theHistorisch-Kritische Beyträge zur Aufnahme der Musik, by Marpurg (Berlin, 1754), p. 239. Quantz was professor of the flute to Frederick the Great.
31See Johann Georg Tromlitz,Ausführlicher und gründlicher Unterricht die Flöte zu spielen(Leipzig, 1791), 1, § 7, andÜber Flöten mit mehrern Klappen(Leipzig, 1800), cap. vii. § 21.
32Antonio Lorenzoni,Saggio per ben sonare il flauto traverso(Vicenza, 1779).
33SeeAnweisung, i. § 15.
34SeeLebenslauf,loc. cit.p. 248, where Quantz states that he invented the adjustable head for the flute.
35SeeAnweisung, i. §§ 10-13 and iv. § 26.
36Ausführlicher und gründlicher Unterricht die Flöte zu spielen(Leipzig, 1791), i. cap. § 20. Compare Schilling,Univ.-Lexikon(Leipzig, 1835).
37Stendal, 1782 (published under his initials only, J. J. H. R., see p. 2).
38Kurze Abhandlung von Flötenspielen(Leipzig, 1786), p. 27.
39Über Flöten, &c., pp. 133 and 134.
40SeeThe Flute, pp. 242-244 and 561 and 562.
41Seeop. cit.pp. 51 and 62.
42English patent, No. 1499.
43See Rockstro,op. cit.p. 197.
44Saggio per costruire e suonare un flauto traverso enarmonico che ha i suoni bassi del violino(Rome, 1797).
45The idea of this large flute was taken up again in 1819 by Trexler of Vienna, who called it the “panaulon.”
46Patent, No. 3183. Part of the specification together with a diagram is reproduced by Rockstro,op. cit.pp. 273-274.
47Patent, No. 3349. Part of the specification together with a diagram is reproduced by Rockstro,op. cit.pp. 273-274.
48Another specimen, almost the same, constructed about 1775, and called “Basse de Musette,” may be seen in the Museum of the Paris Conservatoire.
49See account of Capeller’s inventions by Carl Maria von Weber inAllgem. musikal. Zeit.(Leipzig, 1811), pp. 377-379, a translation of which is given by Rockstro,op. cit.pp. 279 and 280.
50SeeÜber den Flötenbau und die neuesten Verbesserungen desselben(Mainz, 1847); and W.S. Broadwood,An Essay on the Construction of Flutes originally written by Theobald Boehm, published with the addition of Correspondence and other Documents(London, 1882).
51Examen critique de la flûte ordinaire comparée à la flûte Boehm(Paris, 1838).
52They existed long before, however, in the ChineseTyand the JapaneseFuye.
53The reader may consult with advantage Mr C. Welch’sHistory of the Boehm Flute(London, 1883), wherein all the documents relating to this interesting discussion have been collected with great impartiality.
54For further details see Kathleen Schlesinger,The Instruments of the Orchestra, part i. pp. 192-194, where an illustration is given, and Paul Wetzger,Die Flöte(Heilbronn, 1906), pp. 23-24, and Tafel iv. No. 20.
FLUX(Lat.fluxus, a flowing; this being also the meaning of the English term in medicine, &c.), in metallurgy, a substance introduced in the smelting of ores to promote fluidity, and to remove objectionable impurities in the form of a slag. Thesubstances in commonest use are:—lime or limestone, to slag off silica and silicates, fluor-spar for lead, calcium and barium sulphates and calcium phosphate, and silica for removing basic substances such as limestone. Other substances are also used, but more commonly in assaying than in metallurgy. Sodium and potassium carbonates are valuable for fluxing off silica; mixed with potassium nitrate sodium carbonate forms a valuable oxidizing fusion mixture; “black flux” is a reducing flux composed of finely divided carbon and potassium carbonate, and formed by deflagrating a mixture of argol with ¼ to ½ its weight of nitre. Borax is very frequently employed; it melts to a clear liquid and dissolves silica and many metallic oxides. Potassium bisulphate is useful in the preliminary treatment of refractory aluminous ores. Litharge and red lead are used in silver and gold assays, acting as solvents for silica and any metallic oxides present.
FLY(formed on the root of the supposed original Teut.fleugan, to fly), a designation applied to the winged or perfect state of many insects belonging to various orders, as in butterfly (seeLepidoptera), dragon-fly (q.v.), may-fly (q.v.), caddis-fly (q.v.), &c.; also specially employed by entomologists to mean any species of the two-winged flies, or Diptera (q.v.). In ordinary parlanceflyis often used in the sense of the common house-fly (Musca domestica); and by English colonists and sportsmen in South Africa in that of a species of tsetse-fly (Glossina), or a tract of country (“belt”) in which these insects abound (seeTsetse-Fly).
Apart from the house-fly proper (Musca domestica), which in England is the usual one, several species of flies are commonly found in houses;e.g.theStomoxys calcitrans, or stable-fly;Pollenia rudis, or cluster-fly;Muscina stabulans, another stable-fly;Calliphora erythrocephala, blue-bottle fly, blow-fly or meat-fly, with smaller sorts of blue-bottle,Phormia terraenovaeandLucilia caesar;Homalomyia canicularisandbrevis, the small house-fly;Scenopinus fenestralis, the black window-fly, &c. ButMusca domesticais far the most numerous, and in many places, especially in hot weather and in hot climates, is a regular pest. Mr L.O. Howard (Circular 71 of the Bureau of Entomology U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, 1906) says that in 1900 he made a collection of the flies in dining-rooms in different parts of the United States, and out of a total of 23,087 flies, 22,808 were the common house-fly. Its geographical distribution is of the widest, and its rapidity of breeding, in manure and door-yard filth, so great that, as a carrier of germs of disease, especially cholera and typhoid, the house-fly is now recognized as a potent source of danger; and various sanitary regulations have been made, or precautions suggested, for getting rid of it. These are discussed by Mr Howard in the paper referred to, but in brief they all amount to measures of general hygiene, and the isolation, prompt removal, or proper sterilization of the animal or human excrement in which these flies breed.
FLYCATCHER, a name introduced in ornithology by Ray, being a translation of theMuscicapaof older authors, and applied by Pennant to an extremely common English bird, theM. grisolaof Linnaeus. It has since been used in a general and very vague way for a great many small birds from all parts of the world, which have the habit of catching flies on the wing. Ornithologists who have trusted too much to this characteristic and to certain merely superficial correlations of structure, especially those exhibited by a broad and rather flat bill and a gape beset by strong hairs or bristles, have associated under the title ofMuscicapidaean exceedingly heterogeneous assemblage of forms much reduced in number by later systematists. Great advance has been made in establishing as independent families theTodidaeandEurylaemidae, as well as in excluding from it various members of theAmpelidae,Cotingidae,Tyrannidae,Vireonidae,Mniotiltidae, and perhaps others, which had been placed within its limits. These steps have left theMuscicapidaea purely Old-World family of the orderPasseres, and the chief difficulty now seems to lie in separating it from theCampephagidaeand theLaniidae. Only a very few of the forms of flycatchers (which, after all the deductions above mentioned, may be reckoned to include some 60 genera or subgenera, and perhaps 250 species) can here be even named.1
The best-known bird of this family is that which also happens to be the type of the Linnaean genusMuscicapa—the spotted or grey flycatcher (M. grisola). It is a common summer visitant to nearly the whole of Europe, and is found throughout Great Britain, though less abundant in Scotland than in England, as well as in many parts of Ireland, where, however, it seems to be but locally and sparingly distributed. It is one of the latest migrants to arrive, and seldom reaches the British Islands till the latter part of May, when it may be seen, a small dust-coloured bird, sitting on the posts or railings of gardens and fields, ever and anon springing into the air, seizing with an audible snap of its bill some passing insect as it flies, and returning to the spot it has quitted, or taking up some similar station to keep watch as before. It has no song, but merely a plaintive or peevish call-note, uttered from time to time with a jerking gesture of the wings and tail. It makes a neat nest, built among the small twigs which sprout from the bole of a large tree, fixed in the branches of some plant trained against a wall, or placed in any hole of the wall itself that may be left by the falling of a brick or stone. The eggs are from four to six in number, of a pale greenish-blue, closely blotched or freckled with rust-colour. Silent and inconspicuous as is this bird, its constant pursuit of flies in the closest vicinity of houses makes it a familiar object to almost everybody. A second British species is the pied flycatcher (M. atricapilla), a much rarer bird, and in England not often seen except in the hilly country extending from the Peak of Derbyshire to Cumberland, and more numerous in the Lake District than elsewhere. It is not common in Scotland, and has only once been observed in Ireland. More of a woodland bird than the former, the brightly-contrasted black and white plumage of the cock, together with his agreeable song, readily attracts attention where it occurs. It is a summer visitant to all western Europe, but farther eastward its place is taken by a nearly allied species (M. collaris) in which the white of the throat and breast extends like a collar round the neck. A fourth European species (M. parva), distinguished by its very small size and red breast, has also strayed some three or four times to the extreme south-west of England. This last belongs to a group of more eastern range, which has received generic recognition under the name ofErythrosterna, and it has several relations in Asia and particularly in India, while the allies of the pied flycatchers (Ficedulaof Brisson) are chiefly of African origin, and those of the grey or spotted flycatcher (Muscicapaproper2) are common to the two continents.
One of the most remarkable groups ofMuscicapidaeis that known as the paradise flycatchers, forming the genusTchitreaof Lesson. In nearly all the species the males are distinguished by the growth of exceedingly long feathers in their tail, and by their putting on, for some part of the year at least, a plumage generally white, but almost always quite different from that worn by the females, which is of a more or less deep chestnut or bay colour, though in both sexes the crown is of a glossy steel-blue. They are found pretty well throughout Africa and tropical Asia to Japan, and seem to affect the deep shade of forests rather than the open country. The best-known species is perhaps the IndianT. paradisi; but the ChineseT. incii, and the JapaneseT. princeps, from being very commonly represented by the artists of those nations on screens, fans and the like, are hardly less so; and the cock of the last named, with his bill of a pale greenish-blue andeyes surrounded by bare skin of the same colour—though these are characters possessed in some degree by all the species—seems to be the most beautiful of the genus.T. bourbonnensis, which is peculiar to the islands of Mauritius and Réunion, appears to be the only species in which the outward difference of the sexes is but slight. InT. corvinaof the Seychelles, the adult male is wholly black, and his middle tail-feathers are not only very long but very broad. InT. mutataof Madagascar, some of the males are found in a blackish plumage, though with the elongated median rectrices white, while in others white predominates over the whole body; but whether this sex is here actually dimorphic, or whether the one dress is a passing phase of the other, is at present undetermined. Some of the African species, of which many have been described, seem always to retain the rufous plumage, but the long tail-feathers serve to mark the males.
A few other groups are distinguished by the brilliant blue they exhibit, asMyiagra azurea, and others asMonarcha(orArses)chrysomelaby their golden yellow. The Australian forms assigned to theMuscicapidaeare very varied.Sisura inquietahas some of the habits of a water-wagtail (Motacilla), and hence has received the name of “dishwasher,” bestowed in many parts of England on its analogue; and the many species ofRhipiduraor fantailed flycatchers, which occur in various parts of the Australian Region, have manners still more singular—turning over in the air, it is said, like a tumbler pigeon, as they catch their prey; but concerning the mode of life of the majority of theMuscicapidae, and especially of the numerous African forms, hardly anything is known.
(A. N.)
1Of the 30 genera or subgenera which Swainson included in hisNatural Arrangement and Relations of the Family of Flycatchers(published in 1838), at least 19 do not belong to theMuscicapidaeat all, and one of them,Todus, not even to the orderPasseres. It is perhaps impossible to name any ornithological work whose substance so fully belies its title as does this treatise. Swainson wrote it filled with faith in the so-called “Quinary System”—that fanciful theory, invented by W.S. Macleay, which misled and kept back so many of the best English zoologists of his generation from the truth,—and, unconsciously swayed by his bias, his judgment was warped to fit his hypothesis.2By some writers this section is distinguished asButalisof Boie, but to do so seems contrary to rule.
1Of the 30 genera or subgenera which Swainson included in hisNatural Arrangement and Relations of the Family of Flycatchers(published in 1838), at least 19 do not belong to theMuscicapidaeat all, and one of them,Todus, not even to the orderPasseres. It is perhaps impossible to name any ornithological work whose substance so fully belies its title as does this treatise. Swainson wrote it filled with faith in the so-called “Quinary System”—that fanciful theory, invented by W.S. Macleay, which misled and kept back so many of the best English zoologists of his generation from the truth,—and, unconsciously swayed by his bias, his judgment was warped to fit his hypothesis.
2By some writers this section is distinguished asButalisof Boie, but to do so seems contrary to rule.
FLYGARE-CARLÉN, EMILIE(1807-1892), Swedish novelist, was born in Strömstad on the 8th of August 1807. Her father, Rutger Smith, was a retired sea-captain who had settled down as a small merchant, and she often accompanied him on the voyages he made along the coast. She married in 1827 a doctor named Axel Flygare, and went with him to live in the province of Småland. After his death in 1833 she returned to her old home and published in 1838 her first novel,Waldemar Klein. In the next year she removed to Stockholm, and married, in 1841, the jurist and poet, Johan Gabriel Carlén (1814-1875). Her house became a meeting-place for Stockholm men of letters, and for the next twelve years she produced one or two novels annually. The premature death of her son Edvard Flygare (1829-1853), who had already published three books, showing great promise, was followed by six years of silence, after which she resumed her writing until 1884. The most famous of her tales areRosen på Tistelön(1842; Eng. trans.The Rose of Tistelön, 1842);Enslingen på Johannesskäret(1846; Eng. trans.The Hermit, 4 vols., 1853); andEtt Köpemanshus i skärgården(1859;The Merchant’s House on the Cliffs). Fru Carlén published in 1878Minnen af svenskt författarlif1840-1860, and in 1887-1888 three volumes ofEfterskörd från en 80- årings författarbana, containing her last tales. She died at Stockholm on the 5th of February 1892. Her daughter, Rosa Carlén (1836-1883), was also a popular novelist.
Emilie Flygare-Carlén’s novels were collected in thirty-one volumes (Stockholm, 1869-1875).
Emilie Flygare-Carlén’s novels were collected in thirty-one volumes (Stockholm, 1869-1875).
FLYING BUTTRESS, in architecture, the term given to a structural feature employed to transmit the thrust of a vault across an intervening space, such as an aisle, chapel or cloister, to a buttress built outside the latter. This was done by throwing a semi-arch across to the vertical buttress. Though employed by the Romans and in early Romanesque work, it was generally masked by other constructions or hidden under a roof, but in the 12th century it was recognized as rational construction and emphasized by the decorative accentuation of its features, as in the cathedrals of Chartres, Le Mans, Paris, Beauvais, Reims, &c. Sometimes, owing to the great height of the vaults, two semi-arches were thrown one above the other, and there are cases where the thrust was transmitted to two or even three buttresses across intervening spaces. As a vertical buttress, placed at a distance, possesses greater power of resistance to thrust than if attached to the wall carrying the vault, vertical buttresses as at Lincoln and Westminster Abbey were built outside the chapterhouse to receive the thrust. All vertical buttresses are, as a rule, in addition weighted with pinnacles to give them greater power of resistance.
FLYING COLUMN,in military organization, an independent corps of troops usually composed of all arms, to which a particular task is assigned. It is almost always composed in the course of operations, out of the troops immediately available. Mobility being itsraison d’être, a flying column is when possible composed of picked men and horses accompanied with the barest minimum of baggage. The term is usually, though not necessarily, applied to forces under the strength of a brigade. The “mobile columns” employed by the British in the South African War of 1899-1902, were usually of the strength of two battalions of infantry, a battery of artillery, and a squadron of cavalry—almost exactly half that of a mixed brigade. Flying columns are mostly used in savage or guerrilla warfare.
“FLYING DUTCHMAN,”a spectre-ship popularly believed to haunt the waters around the Cape of Good Hope. The legend has several variants, but the commonest is that which declares that the captain of the vessel, Vanderdecken, was condemned for his blasphemy to sail round the cape for ever, unable to “make” a port. In the Dutch version the skipper is the ghost of the Dutch seaman Van Straaten. The appearance of the “Flying Dutchman” is considered by sailors as ominous of disaster. The German legend makes one Herr Von Falkenberg the hero, and alleges that he is condemned to sail for ever around the North Sea, on a ship without helm or steersman, playing at dice for his soul with the devil. Sir Walter Scott says the “Flying Dutchman” was originally a vessel laden with bullion. A murder was committed on board, and thereafter the plague broke out among the crew, which closed all ports to the ill-fated craft. The legend has been used by Wagner in his operaDer fliegende Holländer.
FLYING-FISH,the name given to two different kinds of fish. The one (Dactylopterus) belongs to the gurnard family (Triglidae), and is more properly called flying gurnard; the other (Exocoetus) has been called flying herring, though more nearly allied to the gar-pike than to the herring. Some other fishes with long pectoral fins (Pterois) have been stated to be able to fly, but this has been proved to be incorrect.
The flying gurnards are much less numerous than theExocoetiwith regard to individuals as well as species, there being only three or four species known of the former, whilst more than fifty have been described of the latter, which, besides, are found in numerous shoals of thousands. TheDactylopterimay be readily distinguished by a large bony head armed with spines, hard keeled scales, two dorsal fins, &c. TheExocoetihave thin, deciduous scales, only one dorsal fin, and the ventrals placed far backwards, below the middle of the body; some have long barbels at the chin. In both kinds the pectoral fins are greatly prolonged and enlarged, modified into an organ of flight, and in many species ofExocoetusthe ventral fins are similarly enlarged, and evidently assist in the aerial evolutions of these fishes. Flying-fishes are found in the tropical and sub-tropical seas only, and it is a singular fact that the geographical distribution of the two kinds is nearly identical. Flying-fish are more frequentlyobserved in rough weather and in a disturbed sea than during calms; they dart out of the water when pursued by their enemies or frightened by an approaching vessel, but frequently also without any apparent cause, as is also observed in many other fishes; and they rise without regard to the direction of the wind or waves. The fins are kept quietly distended, without any motion, except an occasional vibration caused by the air whenever the surface of the wing is parallel with the current of the wind. Their flight is rapid, greatly exceeding that of a ship going 10 m. an hour, but gradually decreasing in velocity and not extending beyond a distance of 500 ft. Generally it is longer when the fishes fly against, than with or at an angle to, the wind. Any vertical or horizontal deviation from a straight line is not caused at the will of the fish, but by currents of the air; thus they retain a horizontally straight course when flying with or against the wind, but are carried towards the right or left whenever the direction of the wind is at an angle with that of their flight. However, it sometimes happens that the fish during its flight immerses its caudal fin in the water, and by a stroke of its tail turns towards the right or left. In a calm the line of their flight is always also vertically straight or rather parabolic, like the course of a projectile, but it may become undulated in a rough sea, when they are flying against the course of the waves; they then frequently overtop each wave, being carried over it by the pressure of the disturbed air. Flying-fish often fall on board of vessels, but this never happens during a calm or from the lee side, but during a breeze only and from the weather side. In day time they avoid a ship, flying away from it, but during the night when they are unable to see, they frequently fly against the weather board, where they are caught by the current of the air, and carried upwards to a height of 20 ft. above the surface of the water, whilst under ordinary circumstances they keep close to it. All these observations point clearly to the fact that any deflection from a straight course is due to external circumstances, and not to voluntary action on the part of the fish.
A little Malacopterygian fish about 4 in. long has recently been discovered in West Africa which has the habits of a fresh-water flying-fish. It has been namedPantodon buchholzi. It has very large pectoral fins with a remarkable muscular process attached to the inner ray. It lives in fresh-water lakes and rivers in the Congo region, and has been caught in its flight above the water in a butterfly-net.
FLYING-FOX,or, more correctly,Fox-Bat. The first name is applied by Europeans in India to the fruit-eating bats of the genusPteropus, which contains more than half the family (Pteropidae). This genus is confined to the tropical regions of the Eastern hemisphere and Australia. It comprises numerous species, a considerable proportion of which occur in the islands of the Malay Archipelago. The flying-foxes are the largest of the bats, the kalong of Java (Pteropus edulis) measuring about a foot in length, and having an expanse of wing-membrane measuring 5 ft. across. Flying-foxes are gregarious, nocturnal bats, suspending themselves during the day head-downwards by thousands from the branches of trees, where with their wings gathered about them, they bear some resemblance to huge shrivelled-up leaves or to clusters of some peculiar fruit. In Batchian, according to Wallace, they suspend themselves chiefly from the branches of dead trees, where they are easily caught or knocked down by sticks, the natives carrying them home in basketfuls. They are then cooked with abundance of spices, and “are really very good eating, something like hare.” Towards evening these bats bestir themselves, and fly off in companies to the village plantations, where they feed on all kinds of fruit, and so numerous and voracious are they that no garden crop has much chance of being gathered which is not specially protected from their attacks. The flying-fox of India (Pteropus medius) is a smaller species, but is found in great numbers wherever fruit is to be had in the Indian peninsula.
FLYING-SQUIRREL,properly the name of such members of the squirrel-group of rodent mammals as have a parachute-like expansion of the skin of the flanks, with attachments to the limbs, by means of which they are able to take long flying-leaps from tree to tree. The parachute is supported by a cartilage attached to the wrist or carpus; in addition to the lateral membrane, there is a narrow one from the cheek along the front of each shoulder to the wrist, and in the larger species a third (interfemoral) connecting the hind-limbs with the base of the long tail. Of the two widely distributed genera,Pteromysincludes the larger andSciuropterusthe smaller species. The two differ in certain details of dentition, and in the greater development in the former of the parachute, especially the interfemoral portion, which in the latter is almost absent. InPteromysthe tail is cylindrical and comparatively thin, while inSciuropterusit is broad, flat and laterally expanded, so as to compensate for the absence of the interfemoral membrane by acting as a supplementary parachute.
In general appearance flying-squirrels resemble ordinary squirrels, although they are even more beautifully coloured. Their habits, food, &c., are also very similar to those of the true squirrels, except that they are more nocturnal, and are therefore less often seen. The Indian flying-squirrel (P. oral) leaps with its parachute extended from the higher branches of a tree, and descends first directly and then more and more obliquely, until the flight, gradually becoming slower, assumes a horizontal direction, and finally terminates in an ascent to the branch or trunk of the tree to which it was directed. The presence of these rodents at night is made known by their screaming cries.Sciuropterusis represented byS. velucellain eastern Europe and northern Asia, and by a second species in North America, but the other species of this genus and all those ofPteromysare Indo-Malayan. A third genus,Eupetaurus, typified by a very large, long-haired, dark-grey species from the mountains to the north-west of Kashmir (Eu. cinereus), differs from all other members of the squirrel-family by its tall-crowned molar teeth. It has a total length of 37 in., of which 22 are taken up by the tail.
In Africa the name of flying-squirrel is applied to the members of a very different family of rodents, theAnomaluridae, which are provided with a parachute. Since, however, this parachute is absent in some members of the family, the most distinctive character is the presence of a double row of spiny scales on the under surface of the tail, which apparently aid in climbing. The flying species are also distinguished from ordinary flying-squirrels by the circumstance that the additional bone serving for the support of the fore part of the flying-membrane risesfrom the elbow-joint instead of from the wrist. The family is represented by two flying genera,AnomalurusandIdiurus; the latter containing only one very minute species (shown in the cut) characterized by its small ears and elongated tail. Most of the species are West African. In habits these rodents appear to be very similar to the true flying-squirrels. The species without a parachute constitutes the genusZenkerella, and looks very like an ordinary squirrel (seeRodentia).
In Australia and Papua the name flying-squirrel is applied to such marsupials as are provided with parachutes; animals which naturalists prefer to designate flying-phalangers (seeMarsupialia)