NIGHT-BLINDNESS NIGHTSHADE. 



235 



In mythology, Night (Latin, nox ; Greek, t!|) is 

 daughter of Chaos, and sister to Erebus, by whom 

 she oecame the mother of Day and Ether. Every 

 thing unknown, dark, horrid, and awful, belongs to 

 her progeny, Death, Sleep, Dreams, Sickness, and 

 Plague, Discord, War, Murder, Deceit, &c. The 

 Hesperides, also, were called her daughters. Accord- 

 ing to the Orphic poems, she was also the goddess 

 of love. Modern mythology represents her as 

 mounted on a chariot, and covered with a veil 

 bespangled with stars. Occasionally two children 

 are depicted as held under her arms ; the one black, 

 representing the principle of death ; the other white, 

 to indicate the innocence- and refreshing nature of 

 sleep. Some of the modern artists have depicted 

 her as a woman veiled in mourning habiliments, 

 crowned with poppies, and borne on a chariot drawn 

 by bats anil owls. One of the finest representations 

 of Night is a bass-relief of Thorwaldsen : a corre- 

 sponding piece represents Day. It is one of the 

 loveliest and happiest productions of that great artist. 



NIGHT-BLINDNESS; a disease in which the 

 eyes require the full light of day to see. Persons 

 afflicted with this disease cannot see at all, or see 

 very imperfectly, by candlelight, or moonlight. 

 The medical name of this disease is hemeralopia 

 (from fipip, day, and oa-ra^a/, to see.) Heber says 

 it is very common in India. Nyctalopia (from /|, 

 night, and ovrrofiai, to see), a disease in which the 

 patient sees little or nothing by daylight, but sees 

 better than others in the dark, is sometimes impro- 

 perly called night-blindness. 



NIGHT-BLOOMING CEREUS. See Cactus. 



NIGHT-HAWK (caprimulgus Americanus). The 

 night-hawk, which is also called a bat in some of the 

 Southern States, is universally known in the United 

 States. It commonly appears in Pennsylvania about 

 the latter end of April, and is to be seen towards 

 evening, in pursuit of its prey, which consists of 

 beetles and other large insects. The female begins 

 to lay about the middle of May. She makes no nest, 

 depositing her eggs on the bare ground, though 

 always in a dry situation. The eggs are usually two 

 in number, rather oblong, equally thick at both ends, 

 of a dirty bluish-white, marked with numerous 

 blotches of dark olive brown. Like the goat-sucker 

 of Europe, the night-hawk always sits lengthwise 

 on the branch on which it roosts, and not across 

 it, like other birds. When incubation commences, 

 the male keeps a vigilant watch around. When 

 the young are first hatched, they are covered with 

 a down of a pale-brownish colour. The night- 

 hawk is a bird of strong and vigorous flight, and 

 great expanse of wing. It often visits cities, darting 

 and uttering its peculiar squeak over the streets at a 

 great height, diving down perpendicularly, and pro- 



tered in passing through btrearas of air of different densities, as 

 in the experiment of mixing- atmospheric air and hydrogen. 

 At midnight, on the contrary, when the air is transparent, 

 and of uniform density, as may be seen by the brilliancy and 

 number of the stars, the slightest sound reaches the ear 

 without interruption. M. Chladni hfls illustrated the efft-ct of 

 mixed medium by an elegant experiment of easy repetition. 

 If we pour sparkling Charapuigne into a tall glass till it is half 

 full, the glass cannot be made to ring by a stroke upon its 

 ertfje, but admits a dull, disagreeable, and puffy sound. This 

 effect continues as long as the effervescence lasts, and while the 

 wine is filled with air-bubbles. But as the effervescence sub- 

 sides, the sound becomes clearer and clearer, till, at last, the 

 glass rings as usual, when the air-bubbles have disappeared. 

 By reproducing the effervescence, the sound is deadened as 

 before. The same experiment may be made with effervescing 

 malt liquors, and with still more effect by putting a piece of 

 sponge, or a little wool or tow, into a tumbler of water. The 

 cause of the result obtained by M. Chladni is, that the glass 

 and the contained liquor, in order to give a musical tone, must 

 vibrate regularly in unison as a system ; and if any considera- 

 ble part of a system is unsusceptible of regular vibration, the 

 whole must be so. Baron Humbuldt has employed this ;:ilrr- 

 enring experiment to illustrate and explain the phenomenon 

 of distant sounds being more distinctly lieard during the uijtht. 



ducing a hollow sound, which has been aptly com- 

 pared to blowing strongly into the bung-hole of an 

 empty hogshead. When the weather is wet and 

 gloomy, these birds are to be seen abroad at all 

 times of the day, though their usual time of appear- 

 ance is from two hours before sunset till dark. When 

 wounded, they attempt to intimidate by opening their 

 mouth to its utmost stretch, throwing the head for- 

 wards, uttering a kind of guttural, whizzing noise, 

 and striking violently with their wings. They begin 

 to go south about the middle of August, and, by tho 

 middle of September, few are to be seen in Pennsyl- 

 vania. The night-hawk is nine and a half inches in 

 length, and twenty-three in extent ; the upper parts 

 are of a very deep blackish-brown, thickly sprinkled 

 with minute spots, and streaks of a pale cream colour, 

 on the back and head. The tail is somewhat shorter 

 than the wings when shut, and is forked ; the mouth 

 is large, and has no bristles about it. The night- 

 hawk bears some resemblance to the two other 

 species of caprimulgus which are found in the United 

 States the chuck-wills-widow and whip-poor-will 

 (q. v.) See Wilson, Ornitfiol., v. p. 65. 



NIGHTINGALE (motacilla luscinia). This small 

 bird, which is so celebrated for its vocal powers, has 

 but little to recommend it in the beauty of its plum- 

 age. The upper part of its body is of a rusty brown, 

 tinged with olive ; the under parts are of a pale ash 

 colour, almost white at the throat and belly. It is 

 about six inches in length. The nightingale is a 

 bird of passage, appearing in Europe about the be- 

 ginning of April, and leaving it early in the autumn. 

 It is solitary in its habits, never associating in flocks, 

 like most of the smaller birds. The female builds in 

 low bushes or hedges, near water, and lays from four 

 to five olive-green eggs. This bird perhaps owes 

 some of its fame to the circumstance of its singing 

 during the evening and night, when every sound is 

 heard to advantage, and has a powerful effect on the 

 imagination. But it is not to its power of song alone 

 that this bird is indebted for its celebrity ; wonderful 

 stories are told of its oratorical talents. Gesner 

 gravely relates that two, kept at Ratisbon, spent 

 whole nights in discoursing on politics; and Pliny states 

 that Germanicus and Drusus educated one so per- 

 fectly, that it delivered speeches both in Latin and 

 Greek. The proper food for nightingales is spiders, 

 wood-lice, ant eggs, flies, and worms. They are 

 subject to various diseases, for which, according to 

 some bird fanciers, the best antidote or preventive is, 

 to give a black spider, every day for six days, in the 

 month of March. 



NIGHTMARE. See Incubus. 



NIGHTSHADE (solanum nigrurti) ; a common 

 weed in waste places. The stem is eight or ten 

 inches high, and is furnished with oval and more or 

 less angular leaves. The flowers are small, white, 

 scattered here and there upon the branches, in 

 bunches of five or six, and are succeeded by small 

 black berries. It possesses narcotic properties, 

 though not so dangerous as was once supposed, and 

 was formerly much employed in medicine, but at pre- 

 sent is only used for external applications. The bit- 

 ter-sweet (S. dulcimaru) is also sometimes called night- 

 shade. The stem is woody, and divides at base into 

 several long, flexuous branches, which twine round 

 and support themselves upon the surrounding plants. 

 The leaves are, some of them, oval-lanceolate and 

 entire, and others with two lateral lobes at the base. 

 The flowers are larger than those of the preceding, 

 of a fine violet colour, and are disposed in corymbs 

 along the branches. . The fruit consists of ovoid, 

 bright red berries, which, for a long time, were sup- 

 posed poisonous : lately, however, they have been 

 administered to various animals in large quantities, 



