Dab,s.A kind of small flat fish.

Dab-chick,s.A water-fowl.

Dace,s.A small river-fish, resembling a roach.

DACE.

Dace or Dare, is gregarious, is a great breeder, very lively, and during summer is fond of frolicking near the surface. Its head is small, the irides of a pale yellow; the body long and slender; its scales are smaller than those of the roach, and is upon the whole a handsomer fish; the back is varied with dusky, and a cast of yellowish green; the sides and belly silvery, the ventral, anal, and caudal fins are sometimes of a pale red hue; the tail is very much forked. The dace is seldom above ten inches long, although in a list of fish sold in the London markets, with the greatest weight of each, communicated to Mr. Pennant, there is an account of one that weighed a pound and half, and according to Linnæus, it grows to a foot and half in length.

The haunts of Dace are deep water, near piles of bridges, where the stream is gentle, over gravelly, sandy, and clayey bottoms; deep holes that are shaded, water-lily leaves, and under the foam caused by an eddy; in the warm months they are to be found in shoals on the shallows near to streams; the dace spawn in March, are in season about three weeks after; they improve, and are very good, about Michaelmas, but are best in February, and are said in that month, when just taken, scotched, and broiled, to be more palatable than a fresh herring.

This is a fish affording great sport to the angler, indeed more pleasure than profit, for the flesh is insipid, and full of bones. The baits for dace are the red worm, brandling, gilt-tail, cow-dung, and earth-bob, and indeed any worm bred on trees or bushes, that is not too big for his mouth, and almost every kind of fly and caterpillar. Flesh flies upon the surface with the hook put into the back, between the wings, the line from the middle downwards of single hairs, and a trifle longer than the rod, which ought to be eighteen feet at least, and as light as possible; the flies can be kept in a phial; fix three very small hooks upon single hair links, not above four inches along the line, and in a summer’s evening, at the smoothest part of the end of a mill-stream, from seven or eight, so long as light continues, the dace will yield diversion. In the same manner, they will rise in the morning at the ant-fly, if used at the foot of a current or mill-stream, or on a scour before the sun comes on the water.

After rains, when the river is nearly level with its banks, use a caterpillar-fly, or a small red palmer and yellow-gentle (the yellower the better), run the hook through its skin, and draw it up to the tail of the fly, then whip on the surface, the dace will rise freely.

Another way to take this fish, from the middle of April until the beginning of October, is by artificial fly-fishing, with a long line.—Daniel.

Dalmatian, (Canis Dalmatianus),s.The coach-dog.

This dog has been erroneously called the Danish dog by some authors, and Buffon, and some other naturalists, imagine him to be the harrier of Bengal; but his native country is Dalmatia, a mountainous district of European Turkey. He has been domesticated in Italy for upwards of two centuries, and is the common harrier of that country.

The Dalmatian is also used as a pointer, to which his natural propensity more inclines him than to be a dog of the chase; he is said to be easily broken, and to be very staunch. He is handsome in shape, something betwixt the British foxhound and English pointer; his head is more acute than that of the latter, and his ears fully longer: his general colour is white, and his whole body and legs are covered with small irregular sized black or reddish brown spots. He is much smaller than the large Danish dog. A singular opinion prevailed at one time in this country, that this beautiful dog was rendered more handsome by having his ears cropped: this barbarous fancy is now quickly dying away.

I have never heard of the Dalmatian being trained to the sports of the field in Great Britain. His only use seems to be an elegant attendant upon a carriage, for which the symmetry of his form and beauty of his skin peculiarly fit him. A most erroneous notion has prevailed among some breeders, that neither this nor the great Danish dog has the sense of smell. They have been indiscriminately called the coach-dog.—Brown.

Dam,s.The mother; a mole or bank to confine water.

Damascene,s.VideBarrel.

Dapple,a.Marked with various colours; variegated.

Dapple, v. To streak, to vary.

Dar, orDart,s.A fish found in the Severn.

Dare,s.VideDace.

Dare,v.To Dare Larks, to catch them by means of a looking-glass.

Daw,s.A bird.

Deal,s.The art or practice of dealing cards; fir-wood; the wood of pines.

Dealer,s.A person who deals the cards; one who buys and sells horses and dogs.

A gownsman of Cambridge, anxious to purchase a particular horse in the possession of Mr. Fordham, horse-dealer of that place, called upon him to make proposals, but disagreeing as to price, the collegian waited upon him several times to see if he could possibly bring him over to his terms.—In the interim, however, Mr. Fordham was taken dangerously ill and died. Next day, the gownsman, unacquainted with the circumstance of his death, called and asked a groom for his master.—“My master is dead, sir, (said one of the stable-boys) but he left word you should have the horse.”—Sporting Anecdotes.

Decoction,s.The act of boiling any thing; a preparation made by boiling in water.

The vessel in whichdecoctionsare made should be covered, and when the substance contains any aromatic or volatile principle, the boiling should be continued only a short time. Decoctions should be strained while hot, as some of them, Peruvian bark for example, deposit some active and useful matter in cooling. Decoctions soon ferment, and are spoiled by keeping; they should be used therefore soon after they are made.

A decoction ofmarsh-mallows, it is useful in fevers as a vehicle for nitre or other medicine; also as an emollient clyster and fomentation.

Boil for ten or fifteen minutes: a good stomachic drench.

Boil gently for ten minutes; a good vehicle for tonic medicine.

DECOCTION FOR FOMENTATION

Is made by boiling bay leaves, camomile flowers, wormwood, and southernwood in a sufficient quantity of water.

BARLEY.

Barley water is made by boiling pearl barley in water. This may be used in fevers, either alone, or as a vehicle for nitre or other medicine. Various other decoctions are occasionally employed, and sometimes preferred on account of their cheapness, to more efficacious, but more expensive medicines; yet it must be recollected that some vegetables, such as peppermint, pennyroyal, &c. have their useful properties dissipated by much boiling, and should therefore be only simmered for a few minutes, or only infused.—White.

Decoy,v.To lure into a cage, to entrap.

The decoys now in use are formed by cutting pipes, or tapering ditches, widened and deepened as they approach the water; in various semicircular directions, through the swampy ground, into particular large pools, which are sheltered by surrounding trees or bushes, and situated commonly in the midst of the solitary marsh. At the narrow points of these ditches farthest from the pool, by which they are filled with water, the fowlers place their funnel nets: from these the ditch is covered by a continued arch of netting, supported by hoops, to the desired distance; and all along both sides, screens formed of reeds are set up so as to prevent the possibility of the birds seeing the decoyman; and as these birds feed during the night, all is ready prepared for this sport in the evening. The fowler, then placed on the leeward side, sometimes with the help of his well-trained dog, but always by that of his better trained tame decoy ducks, begins the business of destruction. The latter, directed by his well known whistle, or excited forward by the floating hempseed, which he strews occasionally upon the water, entice all the wild ducks after them under the netting; and as soon as this is observed, the man or his dog, as the fitness of opportunity may direct, is from the rear exposed to the view of the birds, by which they are so alarmed that they dare not offer to return, and are prevented by the nets from escaping upwards: they therefore press forward in the utmost confusion to the end of the pipe, into the purse nets there prepared to receive them, while their treacherous guides remain behind in conscious security. The season allowed by act of parliament for catching these birds in this way, continues only from the latter end of October till February.

Particular spots or decoys, in the fen countries, are let to the fowlers at a rent of from five to thirty pounds per annum; and Pennant instances a season in which thirty-one thousand two hundred ducks, including teals and widgeons, were sold in London only, from ten of these decoys near Wainfleet, in Lincolnshire. Formerly, according to Willoughby, the ducks, while in moult and unable to fly, were driven by men in boats, furnished with long poles, with which they splashed the water, between long nets, stretched vertically across the pools, in the shape of two sides of a triangle, into lesser nets placed at the point, and in this way, he says four thousand were taken at one driving in Deeping-fen; and Latham has quoted an instance of two thousand six hundred and forty-six being taken in two days, near Spalding in Lincolnshire; but this manner of catching them while in moult is now prohibited.

Decoy,s.Allurement to mischief.

Decoy-duck,s.A duck that lures others.

Deer,s.That class of animals which is hunted for venison.VideFallow,Red, andRoe Deer.

Degenerate,v.To fall from its kind, to grow wild or base.

Demulcent,a.Softening, mollifying.

Demulcents,s.Medicines of an oily and mucilaginous nature, as lint and quince seed, gum, &c.

Den,s.A cavern or hollow running horizontally; the cave of a wild beast.

Deobstruent,s.A medicine that has the power to resolve viscidities.

Destroy,v.To kill; to put an end to.

It is not unfrequently a subject of inquiry, how it may be possible to destroy a dog with least pain to himself, and least shock to the feelings of his owner. Although shooting and hanging are not, in themselves, painful deaths, yet the violence necessarily committed is revolting to one’s feelings. Whenever, therefore, cases arise (and many such do occur) where it would be infinitely more humane to destroy an animal than to prolong a miserable existence, and when the more usual modes are objected to on account of the violence and force necessary, either of these essential oils,cherry laurel, and bitter almond, dropped on the tongue, or a very small ball made from the extract, will extinguish life almost instantaneously, and without pain.—Blaine.

Deterge,v.To cleanse a sore.VideCaustics.

Detonation,s.A noise somewhat more forcible than the ordinary crackling of salts in calcination, as in the going off of the pulvis or aurum fulminans.VidePercussion.

Detonating Powder,s.A chemical composition by which percussion-guns are discharged.

One of the recipes for making detonating powder is:—

One ounce of oxymuriate of potash.One eighth of an ounce of superfine charcoal.One sixteenth of an ounce of sulphur.

One ounce of oxymuriate of potash.

One eighth of an ounce of superfine charcoal.

One sixteenth of an ounce of sulphur.

Mixed with gum-arabic water, and then dried. It should be mixed up in wood, for fear of accident.

Another, and, I am told, a far better proportion, is:—

Five of oxymuriate, Two of sulphur; andOne of charcoal.

Five of oxymuriate, Two of sulphur; and

One of charcoal.

I merely give the recipe, in case a sportsman should be in a place where he cannot buy the composition, as I presume, that no one in his senses would run the risk of being blown up, in order to make, perhaps indifferently, what he could so cheaply purchase in perfection.—Hawker.

We entirely agree with the colonel—and caution insurance companies against gentlemen who would attempt a home manufacture.

Diabetes,s.A morbid copiousness of urine.

Diabetesconsists in an excessive discharge of urine, attended with great thirst, and sometimes with a gradual loss of flesh and great debility. The urine is sometimes limpid and transparent like water; at others high coloured, and of a very offensive smell. In slight or recent cases of diabetes a cure may generally be accomplished by the following ball, provided the cause is removed, which is generally new hay, new oats, musty hay or oats, or some other unwholesome provender. But in the confirmed diabetes, when the urine has become stinking and high coloured, the cure is more difficult. Rest, or voluntary exercise only, and a light nutritious diet, are necessary.

To be given morning and evening for two or three days, and should the disease then continue, give the following:—

Linseed powder and syrup enough to form the ball.

To be given every morning and evening until the disease is cured.

Sulphate of copper has been found an excellent tonic in horses. I have also found the following a good tonic ball:—

I have seen an increased discharge of urine brought on in draught horses by working them beyond their strength; this has been attended with great weakness, especially of the hind parts, and loss of appetite. I have found great benefit in such cases from turning the horse to grass, and letting him remain there for some time, giving him a littlegoodhay, or some oats, when it appears necessary.—White.

Diachylon,s.An ingredient in sticking plaster.

Diachylon (litharge or lead plaster) is made by boiling olive oil nine parts, litharge five parts, water two parts, over a slow fire, and constantly stirring, until the oil and the litharge unite, and acquire the consistence of plaster. The water must be replaced as it evaporates. Diachylon is an ingredient in sticking plaster and charges, and is useful when spread on leather, for defending a tender part from pressure.

Diapente,s.A compound powder, tonic and stomachic.

Diaphoretic,a.Sudorific, promoting perspiration. The most useful sudorifics in veterinary practice, are hot stimulants, combined with antimony and opium.

Dice,s.The plural of die.

Dice-box,s.The box from which the dice are thrown.

Dicer,s.A player at dice, a gamester.

Didapper,s.A small bird of the diver kind.

Die,v.To tinge, to colour.

Die,s.Colour, tincture, stain, hue acquired; a small cube, marked on its faces with numbers from one to six, which gamesters throw in play; hazard, chance; any cubic body.

Recipes for Dyeing Hair.—(Dark water colour.)—Take a pint of strong ale, half a pound of soot, a small quantity of the juice of walnut leaves, and an equal quantity of alum powdered fine; mix them well, and boil them in a pipkin half an hour; when the mixture is cold, put in the hair, and let it remain ten or twelve hours.

Some boil a quarter of a pound of soot in a pint of strong alum water, with a little juice of walnut leaves, for half an hour, and steep the hair in it when nearly cold.

For abrown, take some powdered alum, boil it well until dissolved; then add a pound of walnut-tree bark, from the branches when the sap is up, or the buds or green nuts; boil it in an hour, and let it stand. When after skimming it for ten minutes, put in the gut or hair for about a minute (stirring it round), or until you like the colour. If it continues too long, it will become quite dark and injure the hair. The lighter it is tinged with this colour, the better. Salt and ale will also give hair a brownish cast that is steeped in it.

For a blueish water colour, proceed as above; only add logwood instead of the walnut, and be careful not to colour it too much.

Yellow.—The inner bark of a crab-tree boiled in water with some alum, makes a fine yellow, which is excellent when the weeds rot, the line appearing of the same hue. Another dye may be obtained from two quarts of small ale, and three handfuls of walnut leaves bruised therein; the hair to remain in it until tinged to your wish.

Tawnyis prepared from lime and water mixed together, by steeping hair in it for four or five hours, and then soaking it a whole day in a tan pit.

Russet.—Take a pint of strong lye, half a pound of soot, some juice of walnut leaves, and a quart of alum water; put them together into a pan, boil them well, and when the liquor is cold, steep the hair until it acquires the colour you desire.

General Remark.—The hair to be dyed, should always be the best white: the seasons for using dyed hair, are, September and two following months; the yellow, russet all the winter, and until the end of April, as well in rivers as in lakes; for the same periods, the brown and tawny should be used in blackish, heathy, and moorish waters.

Dyeing or Staining Fishing-rods.—Red is done by boiling the wood in water and alum; then taking it out, adding Brazil to the liquor, and giving the wood another boil in it. Black, by brushing it over with logwood, boiled in vinegar, then washing it over with a decoction of galls and copperas, till it be of the hue required. Any other colour may be given by squeezing out the moisture of horse-dung through a sieve, mixing it with dissolved roch alum and gum arabic, and to the whole adding green, blue, or any other colour designed. After standing two or three days, pear-tree or other wood cut to the thickness of half-a-crown is put into the liquor boiling hot, and suffered to remain till it be sufficiently coloured.

In Dyeing Bone, Horn, or Ivory.—Black is performed by steeping brass in aqua fortis till it be turned green; with this, the bone, &c., &c., is to be washed once or twice, and then put in a warm decoction of logwood and water. Green, is verdigris, sal ammoniac, and white wine vinegar; keeping the material therein till sufficiently green. Red is began by boiling it in alum water, and finished by a decoction in a liquor compounded of quicklime steeped in rain-water strained. To every pint an ounce of Brazil wood is added: the bone to be boiled therein till sufficiently red.—Ancient Recipes.

Diet,s.Food, victuals; food regulated by the rules of medicine.

Dig,v.To work with a spade.

Digging Foxes.—With respect to the digging of foxes which hounds run to ground, if the hole be straight and earth slight, follow it, and in following the hole, by keeping below its level, it cannot be lost.—Beckford.

Digest,v.To generate matter as a wound.

Digestion,s.The act of concocting food; the preparation of matter by a chemical heat; the act of disposing a wound to generate matter.

Digestives,s.Medicines which promote suppuration in ulcers, and cause them to discharge a white healthy matter.

Disease,s.Distemper, malady, sickness.

Dislocate,v.To put out of the proper place; to put out of joint; to displace a bone.

Dismount,v.To throw any one from on horseback; to alight from a horse.

Dispensatory,s.A book in which the composition of medicines is described and directed; a pharmacopœia.

Distemper,s.A disease, a malady.

The Distemper.—No disorder is more general or so destructive as that known by the name of the distemper; it is the most fatal (the plague only excepted) that any animal is subject to.

The symptoms of the distemper are not invariably similar, although there are predominant ones which always occur. It generally comes on with a dry husky cough, dullness and want of appetite, a running from the nose and eyes, and loss of flesh. As the disease advances, the dog appears much emaciated, and grows excessively weak, particularly in the loins and hinder extremities; usually there is convulsive twitchings of different parts, most commonly of the head, attended with dimness of sight; when the disease proceeds, and takes on its more virulent form, then the twitches degenerate into continued convulsive fits, the dog foams at the mouth, runs round, and expresses great pain, has a constant disposition to dung, with obstinate costiveness or incessant purging. There is likewise great irritability of the stomach, every thing being thrown up immediately it is taken in, and the animal dies, generally, in one of the spasmodic fits. From this state of the disease hardly any dog recovers, unless from the powerful effect of this gentleman’s medicine, and even then he admits its success doubtful, although he insists, with the medicine early given, the disease will never arrive to this height; but, with every deference to the efficacy of the above medicine, the compiler has known Dr. James’s powder cure the most inveterate stages of the disorder: the method of administering it will be hereafter directed. In every part of this disease a want of nervous energy, and a particular paralytic affection of the nerves, is apparent, and, in some instances, remains long after every other symptom has ceased, and in many respects is not unlike the palsy of the human frame.

The distemper, when existing in its worst form, is very often mistaken for canine madness; but a close attention to the following points will with certainty show the difference. Puppies are not so liable to madness as full-grown dogs; it is but seldom the animal will drink freely in the distemper, never in madness—yet they will now and then try to drink; the hydrophobia arrives likewise at its height, in general, sooner than the distemper, although the latter is sometimes equally sudden in its attack, and rapid in its progress. In madness, all recollection of places or persons is lost by the affected animal; his home will be left, and he will bite the hand that feeds him, indiscriminately with any other. In the distemper, there is no loss of reason but in the attack and actual continuance of the convulsion fits; the animal does not attempt to bite or rove abroad, and, on recovery from the fit, resumes his faculties. If, therefore, a young dog will drink when the immediate effect of the spasmodic restriction is removed, or, without evident fear, will bear the sight of water, but more particularly when his weakness is excessive, and strongly apparent between the intervals of the fits, it may be safely concluded that it is the distemper, and not madness. These circumstances, continues Mr. Blaine, should be carefully remarked, as they are unerring, and may save many a valuable animal from destruction, and many a timid mind from the most dreadful apprehension.

For the distemper, so soon as the symptoms appear, give an ounce of castor oil, and after its operation has ceased, give the following powder, mixed up with butter, into a bolus, every two hours, keeping the dog warm, and supplying him frequently with warm milk or water-gruel. Should the medicine occasion sickness or purging, the quantity and frequency of the doses are to be abated.

Crocus metallorum finely levigated, and white antimonial powder, each six grains, and diaphoretic calx of antimony, ten grains for one dose.

It is necessary to remark, that the above dose is sufficient for a pointer or fox-hound, of six or eight months old, and that the quantity is to be varied according to the size and age of the dog.

Rhubarb and jalap mixed, as much as will lie on a shilling, is an excellent common physic. For dogs, foul within, five grains of tartar emetic, given in a piece of hog’s lard. For a surfeit, one ounce of sulphur, half an ounce of antimony, mixed together; a small ball in butter, to be given to the dog, and the sore place well rubbed with a mixture of white hellebore-root powdered, and hog’s lard; the dog to be kept from water if he licks the ointment.

Doctor Darwin has given the following opinion upon the disorder, and how to counteract its malignity.

“In dogs, the catarrh is generally joined with symptoms of debility early in the disease; the animals should be permitted to go about in the open air, the use of being as much as may be in the air, is evident, because all the air which they breathe, passes twice over the putrid sloughs of the mortified parts of the membrane, which lines the nostrils, and the maxillary and frontal cavities; that is, during inspiration and expiration, and must, therefore, be loaded with contagious particles.

“Fresh new milk, and fresh broth, should be given them very frequently, and they should be suffered to go amongst the grass, which they sometimes eat for the purpose of an emetic; and, if possible, they should have access to a running stream of water, as the contagious mucus of the nostrils generally drops into the water they attempt to drink.

“Bits of raw flesh, if the dog will eat them, are preferred to cooked meat, and from five to ten drops of tincture of opium (according to the size of the dog), may be given with advantage when symptoms of debility are evident, every six hours. If sloughs can be seen in the nostrils, they should be moistened twice a day with a solution of sugar of lead, or of alum, by means of a sponge fixed on a bit of whalebone, or by a syringe. The lotion may be made by dissolving half an ounce of sugar of lead, or of alum, in a pint of water.”

The following remedies have their advocates, and, consequently, in some cases of the disorder have been proved essential in its cure.

One grain and a half of calomel, and five grains of rhubarb, to be repeated every other day.

Four grains of Turbith’s mineral, and one grain of emetic tartar; first bleeding the dog.

A tea-spoonful of jalap, half the quantity of grated ginger, a table-spoonful of syrup of buckthorn, made into a ball, or given liquid in warm water. No milk, but water-gruel to drink, and the dog must be kept very warm.

Gamboge, dragon’s-blood, jesuit’s-bark, of each half an ounce, made into pills the size of a hazel nut. To a full grown dog, one pill to be given every morning until cured; to a whelp, three times a week, the dogs to have liberty to run out.

Some rely entirely on purgatives: others bleeding and physicking; others on emetics; some put tar upon the nose, others a pitch plaster, and some cauterize the nasals; some inject vinegar into the dose, others hellebore, and others a solution of camphor; some cut off the tail, others the ears; some give tobacco and olive oil, others the golden sulphuret of antimony; the keeper gives the curpeth’s mineral: the more scientific of these gentry will knock down the disease, and the dog too with arsenic. The gentleman will give compound tincture of benzoin, the farmer common salt; the medical man sulphuric ether, or emetics and sulphur, or emetics and jalap, or emetics and scammony.—Youatt—Daniel—Darwin.

Ditch,s.A trench cut in the ground usually between two fields; any long narrow receptacle of water.

Diver,s.A bird; one that sinks voluntarily under water; one that goes under water to search for any thing.

Diuretics,s.Medicines that excite and increase urinal discharge.

DIURETIC POWDER.

Powdered rosin and nitre, of each, 4 drs.

Mix for one dose, and let it be repeated daily, or twice a day, if necessary, until a sufficient effect is produced.

DIURETIC BALL.

Hard soap and common turpentine, of each, 4 drachms.

Powdered caraway seeds enough to form the ball. Mix for one dose.

Powdered caraways enough to form the ball. Diuretics should not be kept to become hard, as they often are, but be given in rather a soft state, and recently made. Diuretics should never be so given as to operate while a horse is in work, as he may thereby be prevented from staling when he has occasion; from neglecting this precaution, and from their frequent and immoderate use, arise those mischievous effects before alluded to. The kidneys are often materially injured by them as well as the bladder.—White.

Diuretic,a.Having the power to provoke urine.

Dock,s.The stump of the tail which remains after docking; a place where water is let in or out at pleasure, where ships are built or laid up.

Dock,v.To cut off a tail; to cut any thing short.

Dog,s.A domestic animal remarkably various in its species.

In ancient manuscripts we find the following names for the dogs employed in the sports of the field; that is to say, raches, or hounds; running hounds or harriers, to chase hares; and greyhounds, which were favourite dogs with the sportsmen; alauntes, or bull-dogs, these were chiefly used for hunting the boar; the mastiff is also said to be “a good hounde” for hunting the wild boar; the spaniel was of use in hawking; “hys crafte,” says the author, “is for the perdrich or partridge, and the quaile; and, when taught to couch, he is very serviceable to the fowlers, who take those birds with nets.” There must, I presume, have been a vast number of other kinds of dogs known in England at this period; these, however, are all that the early writers, upon the subject of hunting, have thought proper to enumerate. In the sixteenth century the list is enlarged; besides those already named, we find bastards and mongrels, lemors, kenets, terrours, butcher’s hounds, dunghill dogs, trindel-tail’d dogs, “pryckeared” curs, and ladies’ small puppies.

There formerly existed a very cruel law, which subjected all the dogs that were found in the royal chases and forests, excepting such as belonged to privileged persons, to be maimed by having the left claw cut from their feet, unless they were redeemed by a fine; this law probably originated with the Normans, and certainly was in force in the reign of Henry I.

Linnæus, in his System of Nature, has placed the dog as the second genus of the third order of mammiferous animals, or those which suckle their young by means of lactiferous teats.

The characters of the third order,Feræ, are as follows:—The fore teeth are conic, usually six in each jaw; thetusksare longer, thegrindershave conic projections; the feet have claws, which are usually subulate, or awl-shaped; they feed on carcasses, and prey on other animals.

The characters of the genusCanis, or Dog, are, six cutting teeth in the upper jaw; those at the sides longer than the intermediate ones, which are lobated. In the under jaw there are also six cutting teeth, the lateral ones lobated; there are four canine teeth, one on each side, both above and below, and from six to seven grinders. The specific characters of theCanis Familiaris, or common dog, are, the head is carinated, or keel-shaped on the crown, the lower lip is hid by the upper, indentated and naked at the sides; the tongue is smooth; on the upper lip are five or six rows of whiskers; the nostrils are turned outwards into a crescent-shaped furrow; the upper margin of the ears is reflected and posteriorly doubled; the anterior margin is three-lobed, and there are seven or eight hairy warts on the face. There are ten teats, four of them pectoral, and six abdominal; the feet are subpalmated, with claws on the toes, which are long, a little curved, and not retractile within the toes, as is the case with those of the cat.

He has, besides the above anatomical distinctions, other general characters which are peculiar to his tribe.

He delights in associating with man, feeds on flesh, carcasses, and farinaceous vegetables, digests bones, is vomited by eating grass, which he does instinctively; drinks by lapping, runs obliquely, resting upon his toes; perspires by his tongue, which he lolls out when warm; when lying down turns often round; hears in his sleep, and dreams frequently. Of all animals the most faithful; fawns at the appearance of his master, and defends him; runs before him in a journey, and if the road divides, looks back and generally waits to see which he takes: will turn to the branch to which he is directed from a distance; his sense of smell is exquisite.

Cuvier, in his Animal Kingdom, gives the following generic character of the dog, which differs but little from that of Linnæus, except in his new and more distinct terminology.

The upper cheek teeth are six on each side, the three first are sharp, trenchant, called by Cuvierfalse molars; the following, a carnivorous tooth, has two cutting lobes, beyond which, on each side, are two flat teeth. In the lower jaw there are seven; four false molars, a carnivorous tooth, has two cutting lobes, beyond which, on each side, are two flat teeth, and two tuberculous teeth behind it. The length of the jaws and muzzle vary greatly; the tongue is smooth; the ears are extremely variable; there are five toes on the fore-feet, and four on those behind, furnished with longish nails, obtuse, and not retractile, and the mammæ are ventral; the eye-pupils are circular and diurnal, or formed for seeing by day.

Dogs exempt from Duty.—Whelps which are not six months old at the time of returning your list for taxes. Dogs belonging to any of the royal family, who are exempt from all duties on sporting. Poor persons, who are not assessed for dwelling-houses, may keep one dog, provided it be not a sporting dog.

Although it is said by naturalists that there are only thirty-seven varieties of the dog, yet the fact is, that almost every nation on earth intertropical, temperate, and polar, has its own peculiar variety.—Brown.—Daniel.—Cuvier.

Dormouse,s.A small animal which passes a part of the winter in sleep.

Dossil,s.A pledget, a nodule or lump of lint.

Dotterel, (Charadrius morinellus,Linn.;Le Guignard,Buff.)s.The name of a bird.

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