INDEX. 375 



Sun-fish, an anomalous cartilaginous fish, like a bulky head, 

 its description, v. 105. 



Surf (of the sea) name the mariners give the rising waves 

 breaking against the shore, i. 234. 



Surinam rat, the phalanger, a small monkey, described, iii. 

 328. 



Surinam toad, the pipal, a hideous toad, its description, v. 282. 



Surmalot, with M. Buffon, the great rat, a hateful rapacious 

 creature, described, iii. 175. 



Surmulet, the mullus, a spinous fish, its description, v. 121. 



Swallows, time of their migrations; departure of some, and 

 retreat of others into old walls, from the inclemencies of 

 winter, wrap the migrations of birds in great obscurity, iv. 

 30. Experiment of M. Buffon to this purpose, 81. With 

 us birds of passage ; breed in Upper Egypt and the Island 

 of Java, and never disappear, 258. House-swallotu ; cha- 

 racteristics of the swallow tribe ; their food ; have the great- 

 est swiftness and agility ; at the end of September they de- 

 part ; some feeble wretched families, compelled to stay, 

 perish the first cold weather ; those migrating first seen in 

 Africa in the beginning of October, having performed their 

 journey in seven days ; sometimes seen, interrupted by con- 

 trary winds, wavering in their course at sea, and lighting 

 upon the ships in their passage ; a doubt whether all swallows 

 thus migrate, or some other of this species, externally alike, 

 and internally different, be differently affected by the ap- 

 proach of winter ; observations made to this purpose by 

 Reaumur, Frisch, and Klein ; indicate approaching change 

 of weather ; their nests, and those they build on the coasts 

 of China and Coromandel ; Chinese pluck them from rocks, 

 and send great numbers into the East Indies for sale ; glut- 

 tons esteem them great delicacies dissolved in chicken or 

 mutton broth; the number of their eggs, 280, &c. 



Swan, a stately web-footed water-fowl ; though an indifferent 

 figure upon land, is beautiful in the water ; doubt whether 

 the tame kind be in a state of nature ; none found in Europe ; 

 the wild swan, though strongly resembling it in colour and 

 form, yet another bird ; differences between wild and tame 

 swans ; considered a high delicacy among the ancients ; the 

 tame most silent, the wild has a loud and disagreeable note ; 

 from thence called the hooper ; accounts sufficient to sus- 

 pend an opinion of its musical abilities ; their food, nest and 

 number of eggs ; a blow with the pinion breaks a man's leg 

 or arm ; two months hatching, and a year growing to proper 

 size ; longest in the shell of any bird ; said to live three 

 hundred years ; by an Act of Edward IV. the son of the 

 King was allowed to keep a swan, and no others, unless 

 possessed of five marks a-year ; punishment for taking their 



