A N T I M N Y A P E. 



161 



various, some of them resorting to the open fields, 

 others to the vicinity of woods, and others again to 

 the shores of the sea ; but in all their differences of 

 locality they are ground birds, nestling upon the 

 surface of the earth, and finding the greater part of 

 th.'ir food there. They are not migrants, but they 

 live dispersedly in the summer and the breeding 

 season, retiring at that time to a distance from the 

 habitations of man and the cultivated grounds. 

 When their broods are fully fledged, and the old 

 ones have undergone the moult, during which they 

 lose the peculiar colours of the breeding time, they flock 

 to the cultivated fields ; and they have, under these 

 circumstances, sometimes been confounded with the 

 larks, a genus of the distinguishing characters of 

 which they possess none. The larks have the claw 

 upon the hind toe very, long and nearly straight ; 

 the pipits have the same claw, but shorter and 

 crooked. The following are the generic characters 

 of the pipits : the bill straight and slender, slightly 

 conical in the basal part, but compressed laterally 

 about, the middle of its length by a slight turning 

 inwards of the toinia or cutting edges, and awl-ahaped 

 toward the tip. The upper mandible has a ridge or 

 keel along the middle, is slightly turned downwards 

 at the point, margined, and with a mere rudiment of 

 a notch. It is thus less insectivorous than the bills 

 of most of the order, but still it has neither the form 

 nor the strength of a seed-eating bill. The nostrils 

 are lateral at the base of the bill, and in part covered 

 by membrane. The feet have three toes before and 

 one behind, the outer one of the first joined to the 

 middle as far as the first joint, and the claw on the 

 hind one more or less produced according to the 

 species, but always considerably hooked. The 

 wings are of moderate length and rounded, the first 

 quill being very short, and the second shorter than 

 the third or fourth. In the closed wing, some of the 

 greater coverts are as long as the quills. For an 

 account of the more interesting species, especially 

 the British ones (of which there are three), sec the 

 article PIPIT. 



ANTIMONY. This metallic body, in a native 

 state, is usually divided into two species, the dodeea- 

 hedral and the octohedral. The first of these is of a 

 white colour, occurs massive, and is found in argenti- 

 ferous veins in the gneiss mountain of Chalanclies in 

 Dauphiny, where it is accompanied with grey anti- 

 mony .white antimony, red antimony, &c. ; at Andreas- 

 berg, in the Hartz, associated with red silver, calca- 

 reous spar, and quartz ; at Sahlberg, in Sweden, 

 disseminated in calcareous spar. It is also found 

 at Cuencame, in Mexico. 



The octohedral antimony is sometimes divided into 

 antimonial silver and arsenical silver ; but by chemical 

 analysis it is found that the antimony really forms 

 but, a very small proportion of the entire mass in 

 either case. 



Antimony-glance (speizglas, M 'hs) contains three 

 species, prismatoidal antimony-glance, axilYangible 

 antimony-glance, and prismatic antimony-,- lance. The 

 first of these is divided into two sub-species, the 

 common grey antimony and plumose antimony. The 

 axifrangible antimony-glance is of a blackish lead 

 grey colour. See BOUKNONITE. 



The prismatic antimony-glance is of a similar co- 

 lour to the preceding, and possesses a metallic lustre. 



Antimonial ochre is found in Cornwall, and in 

 several places on the continent of Europe. 



NAT. HIST. VOL. I. 



Antimony-blende, or red antimony. The species 

 best known of this form of antimony is of a cherry-red 

 colour ; the primitive form is an oblique four-sided 

 prism. It occurs in veins in primitive rocks, generally 

 along with native antimony, grey antimony, and ores 

 of arsenic. 



Berzelius places antimony amongst tli electro- 

 negative metals, that is, metals whose oxides rather 

 act as acids thai: bases in the compounds they form 

 with other oxidated bodies. 



The sulphuret of antimony is the only abundant 

 ore of the metal. When this is heated in contact 

 with iron, the sulphur, on account of its greater 

 affinity for that metal, is separated by it from the 

 antimony, which is consequently reduced to the 

 metallic state. 



ANTIPATHES (Ellis, Lamouroux). A fixed sub- 

 dendroidal polypidom, composed of a central axis, and 

 a eorticiform crust, the axis is flattened and fixed at 

 the base ; it is subramose, horny, solid, flexible, rather 

 fragile, and mostly set with small spines. 



The cortical crust is gelatinous and polypiferotw, 

 covering the living axis and branches, and falling off' on 

 the removal of the specimen from the water. They 

 are found in the European seas. 



AOTUS (Smith). A genus of three species of 

 greenhouse evergreen shrubs, from New Holland. 

 Liunaean class and order, Decandria Monogyn'ut, 

 natural order, Lcguminostz. Generic character : calyx 

 ebracteated, five cleft ; corolla of nearly equal petals ; 

 stamina, subject to fall ; style erect, thread-formed, 

 enlarging above ; pod two-seeded. 



APARGIA (Scobel). A genus, consisting of 

 nineteen species of herbaceous plants, natives of 

 Europe. Three of them are found in Britain, known 

 by the name of Hawkbit, and easily detected by the 

 hairs of the receptacle rising conspicuously out of 

 the top of each plant, they belong to St/ngcncsin 

 cequalis Linnaeus ; and to the natural order, t'utu- 

 pijnil<e of Jussieu. 



APE Pithccus. A genus of quadrnmana, or four- 

 handed mammalia, and the one which, in its struc- 

 ture, both external and internal, is described as 

 making the nearest approach to the human subject. 

 Pithccus is certainly less objectionable for the syste- 

 matic name of the genus than the Latin Simla, be- 

 cause it was applied only to the tailless apes by the 

 Greeks, whereas Simla wus applied to all apes, or to 

 all the quadrnmana known to the*Romans, whether 

 they were destitute of tails or not. The other and 

 probably original meaning of the Greek word (plthc- 

 cus) is also less objectionable. It signified "a dwarli" 

 without any allusion to character, whereas 'Av/tt/rt, was 

 applied to persons who had more of the trifling mis- 

 chief of the monkey in them than of the demure 

 gravity of the ape. Both names are, however, thus 

 far exceptionable, that they point to a comparison 

 between these animals and man ; and, in consequence 

 of that, the natural history of apes has continued, up 

 to the present time, to involve more absurdity, even 

 in the hands of scientific naturalists, than that of any 

 other genus of animals. 



The structure of the different species of apes has 

 indeed been examined with the minutest attention, 

 whenever that could be done ; and the conduct of 

 the animals has been observed with much attention, 

 and recorded at great and sometimes ludicrous length ; 

 and yet, though Europeans have captured or endea- 

 voured to capture cverv ape they have seen in those 

 S 



