ALABES A LAUD A. 



and the ground of the model has acquired a thickness 

 capable of supporting the figures, the whole is re- 

 moved from the water ; the wooden supports are 

 broken by gentle strokes of the hammer, and the 

 incrustation on the outside of the mould is chipped 

 off by repeated strokes. The brilliancy of the 

 models is completed by brushing and rubbing them 

 with the palm of the hand, when they become semi- 

 transparent and very beautiful. 



The sulphate of lime forms another species of 

 alabaster. The most beautiful white varieties of 

 granular gypsum are selected by artists for statues 

 and busts : the variegated kinds are cut into pillars, 

 and various other kinds of ornaments. Those varie- 

 ties that contain imbedded portions of selenite, when 

 cut across, exhibit a beautiful iridescent appearance, 

 and are named gypseous opal. In Derbyshire, and 

 also in Italy, the very fine granular varieties are cut 

 into large vases, columns, watch-cases, and other 

 similar articles. If a lamp be placed in a vase of 

 snow-white translucent gypsum, a soft and pleasing 

 light is diffused from it through the apartment. It 

 is said that the ancients being acquainted with this 

 property, used gypsum in place of glass, in order 

 that the light in their temples might be softened and 

 harmonise with the place. The phengites of the 

 ancients would appear to have been foliated gypsum. 

 According to Pliny, it was employed instead of glass 

 iii windows, on account of its translucency. Alabaster 

 is employed in agriculture, but its most important 

 use is in the preparation of stucco. See GYPSUM. 



ALABES. A genus of Malacopterygeous fishes, 

 of the Apodal division, or those without ventral fins, 

 and of the natural family of AnguiUidce, or " eel- 

 shaped " fishes. Only one species is known. It is 

 small in size and an inhabitant of the Indian seas. In 

 its general shape it resembles the rest of the family ; 

 and its distinguishing characters are the pectoral fins 

 moderately produced, the rudiment of a gill-flap 

 united to the skin on each side, and but only one gill- 

 opening a small hole under the throat. 



ALANGIUM. A small genera of plants contain- 

 ing two species, but of so unique a structure that it 

 forms an order of itself. Linnsean class and order, 

 Icosandria Afonogyrda. Natural order, Alangiets. 

 Generic character : calyx, of six or eight teeth ; 

 corolla, six or eight linear petals ; stamina, from ten 

 to twenty-three. Fruit, a berry, crowned by the 

 teeth of the calyx, pulpy, having three seeds enclosed 

 in hard cases. They are natives of India, conse- 

 quently require the temperature of a stove. 



ALATERNUS. A species of Buckthorn, and one 

 of the commonest evergreen ornamental plants in our 

 shrubberies. The flowers are inconspicuous ; but the 

 dark green glossy foliage, resembling that of myrtle, 

 is always admired, more especially as the foliage 

 harmonises well with architectural forms. There are 

 nine varieties. 



ALAUDA Lark. A most interesting genus ol 

 birds, usually classed in the graminivorous division ol 

 the passerine (sparrow-like), or small birds ; but not 

 living exclusively upon vegetable matter, they are field 

 birds, feeding and nestling on the ground, rather in 

 open places than where there is much cover, and 

 rarely, and that only in some of the species, perching 

 upon trees. They are mostly singing birds, clear, bril- 

 liant, and cheerful in their notes ; and as they in ge- 

 neral sing while hovering in the free air, and begin 

 early in the season, when the odour of the fields is 



peculiarly grateful to the sense, they arc greater 

 avourites and more protected than many other 

 )irds which have more beauty in their plumage. 



And they merit the esteem and protection which 

 they receive from the country people, not only on 

 account of the gentleness of their manners and the 

 sweetness and enlivening character of their souths 

 aut from the actual services which they render to the 

 ultivator, in the destruction of both animals and 

 vegetables which are injurious to him. These are, 

 during the nesting time, earth worms, earth larva 1 , 

 earth insects ; and also the winged ones, when they 

 alight on the roots of plants for the purpose of depo- 

 siting their eggs. At this time, the larks live dis- 

 persedly ; and as they are very numerous they are 

 found in all parts of the world where the surface is 

 covered with succulent vegetation, but not on the 

 heath-clad wilds or in the forests. The zone of 

 ?reen fields is their peculiar pasture ; and although 

 they scatter themselves far and wide during the "sea- 

 son when they have their broods to rear, they collect 

 in very numerous flocks in the winter. 



Though often described by authors as " migra- 

 tory" birds, they are not so in the proper meaning of 

 the term. They have not, like the warblers, or the 

 swallow tribe, a distinct and distant movement in 

 latitude toward the pole with the stimulus of the 

 vernal heat; and toward the equator as that stimulus 

 diminishes in the autumn. They disperse, as has 

 been said, in the spring ; and, in autumn, they move 

 centrally, or collect in those places which preserve 

 their verdure, and are not subject to be covered with 

 snow, or rendered miry by the stagnation of the 

 winter rains. 



During the flocking time they are of great service 

 to the agricultural lands, whether these are under 

 pasture, in stubble, or in winter crop. On the loamy 

 pastures, where earth worms are abundant, and not 

 only injure the ground themselves, but encourage 

 the" breed of moles, whose operations are still more 

 deforming and destructive, they arrive about the time 

 that the earth worms begin to pair ; and as the worms 

 are then much above ground, the larks capture them 

 in great numbers, and thus prevent the broods ; and 

 this destruction of moles' food operates a corre- 

 sponding diminution in the increase of moles. When 

 the worms retire downward from the cold, the larks 

 resort to vegetable food ; and are of vast service in 

 picking up the seeds of plants which are equally in- 

 jurious to arable and to pasture lands. Even the 

 grains which are left in the corn-fields would both 

 exhaust the ground and contaminate the succeeding 

 crops; they could not be gathered by man, and 

 therefore, if the larks and other birds, which flock 

 during the winter months, did no other service, they 

 would in this be very beneficial to the cultivator. 



But on all cultivated lands, whether they are in 

 meadow or under crop, all the annual plants which 

 are not purposely sown by man are injurious to him, as 

 every such plant, which grows, whether in his grass 

 meadow or his corn land, diminishes the return 

 w.hich he wishes to the full amount of its vegetable 

 action. Now most of the injurious weeds are either 

 annuals, and in the state of seeds during the season 

 of repose, or they have annual steins, and die down 

 to bulbous or other roots in the winter ; all of them 

 containing succulent, albuminous, or farinaceous 

 matter matter on which birds love to feed. The 

 larks and other analogous genera pick up the seeds 



