INDEX. 343 



and faces swelled to an enormous size, and continued tumid 

 for some time after, 279. Compared with animals, simili- 

 tude; how assimilated in different climates and soils ; the 

 sensitive, that moves at the touch, has as much perception 

 as the fresh water polypus, possessed of a still slower share 

 of motion, 349. Many plants propagated from the deposi- 

 tion of birds, iv. 256. 



Platina, or white gold, the most obstinate of all substances, i. 

 66. 



Platypus, a new and singular quadruped from New Holland, 

 described by Dr Shaw, iii. 402. 



Pleuronectes, or flat-fish, described, v. 124. 



Pliny, in his arrangements, different from the present, placed 

 the bat among birds, iii. 232. 



Plover, the green and grey, are birds of passage ; the Norfolk 

 plover ; season of courtship, iv. 344. 



Pochard, a kind of duck, iv. 421. 



Poetry, our ancestors excelled us in the poetic arts, as they 

 had the first rifling of all the striking images of nature, ii. 

 116. 



Pointer, a kind of dog, iii. 15. 



Poison, the most deadly poisons are often of great use in 

 medicine, i. 357. Fishes often live and subsist upon such 

 substances as are poisonous to the more perfect classes of 

 animated nature ; that numbers of fishes inflict poisonous 

 wounds, in the opinion of many, cannot be doubted ; the 

 many speculations and conjectures to which this poisonous 

 quality in some fishes has given rise, v. 154. Some crabs 

 found poisonous, 174. The seat where the poison in veno- 

 mous serpents, 352. The serpent poison may be taken in- 

 wardly without any sensible effects, or any prejudice to the 

 constitution ; an instance of it ; if milk be injected into a 

 vein, it will kill with more certain destruction than even the 

 poison of the viper, 356. See Fireflare. 



Polar regions, description of them, i. 9. And of the inhabi- 

 tants around them, ii. 74. 



Polecat, a distinct' species from the ermine, iii. 80. Resem- 

 bles the ferret so much, that some have thought them the 

 same animal ; there are many distinctions between them ; 

 warreners assert the polecat will mix with the ferret ; M. 

 Buffon denies it ; description of the polecat ; very destruc- 

 tive to young game ; the rabbit its favourite prey ; and one 

 polecat destroys a whole warren by wounds hardly per- 

 ceptible ; generally reside in woods or thick brakes, mak- 

 ing holes two yards deep under ground ; in winter, they 

 rob the hen-roost and the dairy; particularly destructive 

 among pigeons ; and feast upon their brains ; fond also of 

 honey ; female brings forth in summer five or six young at 

 a time, and supplies the want of milk with the blood of 



