BISSLING8. 



prairie flies conspire to prevent them from at- i 

 taming either full size or mature age." 



BlssLINGS. A provincial word, applied, 

 like biestings, to the first milk of the newly 

 calved cow. See BKKSTIXG. 



BITTER PRINCIPLE. This term has been 

 applied to certain products of the action of ni- 

 tric acid upon animal and vegetable matters 

 of an intensely bitter taste. (Brande's Diet, of 

 Science.) The most important of the plants 

 cultivated with us for their bitter principle are 

 the hop, the common broom, mugwort, ground 

 :>h trefoil or buck-bean, and the gen- 

 tian family of plants. Quassia, the wood of a 

 tree, is also a very intense bitter, and is used 

 in medicine, and clandestinely in the brewing 

 of beer. The chief combinations of the bitter 

 principle used in medicine are narcotic, aro- 

 matic, astringent, acid, and purgative bitters. 

 (Lowe's El. qfAg. pp. 371373.) 



BITTERS. A spirituous liquor in which 

 bitter herbs or roots are steeped. An excessive 

 habit of taking bitters may finally prove detri- 

 mental to the stomach, by over-excitement, or 

 by inducing a kind of artificial demand for 

 food in greater quantity than is salutary to the 

 general health. Habitual drunkenness has 

 often been the sequel of the insiduous* practice 

 jf taking bittrrs. 



HITTER-SWEET, or WOODY NIGHT- 

 SHADE (Solunum dulcamara). This wild 

 plant loves moist places, therefore grows most 

 freely in hedges and thickets, near ditches, 

 rivers, and damp situations. It flowers in 

 June and July, and ripens its berries in August, 

 which are of a red colour, juicy, bitter, and 

 poisonous. Its flowers are an elegant purple, 

 with yellow threads in their middle, and the 

 berries are oval or oblong in shape. The 

 stalks are shrubby, and run, when supported, 

 to ten feet in length ; of a bluish colour, and 

 when bruised or broken have an odour not 

 very fragrant or desirable, savouring of rotten 

 eggs. A decoction of its wood, and the young 

 shoots sliced, is a valuable medicine, but not 

 to be trifled with. (Eng. Flor., vol. i. p. 317.) 



BITTERWORT. The old English name for 

 the yellow gentian. See GENTIAN. 



BIXA. See AXNOTTA. 



BLACK. (Sax.) A common colour in horses. 

 Horses of this colour are most esteemed when 

 they are of a shining jet black, and well 

 marked, without having white on their legs. 

 The English black horses have generally more 

 white about them than the black horses of 

 other countries. Those that partake most of 

 the brown are said to be the strongest in con- 

 stitution; for the English black cart horses are 

 found not to be so hardy as the bays or chest- 

 nuts. 



BLACKBERRY. See BRAMBLE. 



BLACKBIRD. This is a species of bird so 

 generally known, that but little need be said 

 of its habits or its haunts. Numbers are bred 

 in England every season, and those thus 

 reared, it is believed, do not migrate. Its food 

 varies considerably with the season. In spring 

 %nd early summer, larvae of insects, worms, 

 and snails ; as the season advances, fruit of 

 various sorts. When the enormous number 

 of insects and their larvoe, with the abundance 



BLACKBIRD. 



of snails and slugs, all injurious to vegetation, 

 be duly considered, it may fairly be doubted 

 whether the value of the fruit is not counter 

 balanced by the services performed. 



The American blackbird differs consider 

 ably from the European. The species found 

 in the United States bear the names of the 

 great crow, the common crow, the cow, the 

 red-winged, and the rusty. The following in- 

 teresting details relative to birds which so often 

 occupy attention in rural life, are from Mr. 

 Nuttall's Manual of the Ornithology of the 

 United States. Treating of the great crow 

 blackbird, (The Quiscalis major of Bonaparte) 

 Mr. Nuttall says : 



"This large and crow-like species, some- 

 times called the jackdaw, inhabits the southern 

 maritime parts of the Union only, particularly 

 the states of Georgia and Florida, where they 

 are seen as early as the close of January or 

 beginning of February, but do not begin to 

 pair before March, previously to which season 

 the sexes are seen in separate flocks. But 

 about the latter end of November, they quit 

 even the mild climate of Florida, generally, 

 and seek winter quarters probably in the West 

 Indies, where they are known to be numerous, 

 as well as in Mexico, Louisiana, and Texas ; 

 but they do not ever extend their northern mi- 

 grations as far as the Middle States. Previous 

 to their departure, at the approach of winter, 

 they are seen to assemble in large flocks, and 

 every morning flights of them, at a great 

 height, are seen moving away to the south. 



" Like most gregarious birds, they are of a 

 very sociable disposition, and are frequently 

 observed to mingle with the common crow- 

 blackbirds. They assemble in great numbers 

 among the sea islands, and neighbouring 

 marshes on the main land, where they feed at 

 low water, on the oyster-beds and sand-flats. 

 Like crows, they are omnivorous, their food 

 consisting of insects, small shell-fish, corn, and 

 small grain, so that by turns they may be 

 viewed as the friend or plunderer of the 

 planter. 



"The note of this species is louder than that 

 of the common kind, according to Audubon, 

 resembling a loud shrill whistle, often accom- 

 panied by a cry like crick crick cree, and in the 

 breeding season changing almost into awarble. 

 They are only heard to sing in the spring, and 

 their concert, though inclining to' sadness, is 

 not altogether disagreeable. Their nests and 

 built in company, on reeds and bushes, in the 

 neighbourhood of salt marshes and ponds; 

 they lay about three to five eggs which are 

 whitish, blotched and lined nearly all over with 

 dusky olive. They begin to lay about the be- 

 ginning of April ; soon after which the males 

 leave their mates not only with the care of in- 

 cubation, but with the rearing of the young, 

 moving about in separate flocks, like the cow 

 birds, without taking any interest in the fate of 

 their progeny. 



"The general appearance of the male is 

 black, but the head and neck have bluish-pur- 

 ! pie reflections ; the rest presents shades of 

 i steel-blue, excepting the back, rump, and mid- 

 i dling wing coverts, which are glossed with 

 ; cop-er-green ; the vent, inferior tail coverts 



183 



