B L A 



B L A 



being infufed fcparately in reftified fpirit of wine and in 

 water, tinged the former of a tranfparent reddifti colour, and 

 the latter of a paler reddifh ; while the deeper black foot of 

 wood gave, both to fpirit and to water, an opake dark 

 brown. See Soot. 



Black, Spanijl:, fo called becaufe firft invented by the 

 Spaniards, and moft of it bought from them, is no other 

 than buiTit cork ufed in various works, particularly among 

 painters. 



BhACKjIains. See Staining. 

 Black varniji. See Varnish. 

 Black •vegetable juice. See Anacardium. 

 Black yl3, IValtham, in Law, a name commonly dillin- 

 guifliing the llatute of 9 Geo. I. c. 22. becaufe it was oc- 

 caiioned by the devaftations committed near Waltham in 

 EfTex, by perfons in difguife, or with their faces llached. 

 By this ftatute it is enacted, that perfons hunting, armed 

 and difgnifed, and killing or ftealing deer, or robbing war- 

 rens, or ftealing fifh out of any river, &c. or any perfons 

 unlawfully hunting in his majefty's forefts, &c. or breaking 

 down the head of any fi(h-pond, or kilhng, &c. of cattle, 

 or cutting down trees, or fctling fire to houfe, barn, or wood, 

 or (hooting at any perfon, or fending letters, cither anony- 

 mous, or ligned with a fitlitious name, demanding money, 

 &c. or refcuing fuch offenders, are guilty of felony, without 

 benefit of clergy. This aft is made perpetual by 3 1 Geo. II. 

 c. 42. See farther 6 Geo. II. c. 37. and 27 Geo. II. 

 c. 15. Blackftone's Comm. vol. iv. p. 144. 208. 232. 

 244. The milder punifliment infliiftedby ftat. 16 Geo. III. 

 c. 30. againft deer-llcalcrs, has been thought a virtual re- 

 peal of the punilhment of the black ail above-recited. 

 Xieach's Hawk. P. C. i. c. 49. § 7. 



Black bay, in Geography, a bay on the fouth-eaft coaft 

 of Labrador. N. lat. 51° 30'. W. long. 56° 2d'. 

 Black bear, in Zoologv. See Ursus Arctos. 

 Black-W//W darter, and ^hACK-ie//ied anhinga of La- 

 tham, in Ornithology, the Indian Zoology, &c. This is 

 P lotus melanogajler oi Gmelin. 



Bi-ACK-bellied grofieai of Brown's lUuftrations, is Loxia 

 afra of Gmelin. 



'2)1- k<:v.-beUied green humming-bird of Edwards; Black- 

 lellird ^meriean hamming'-bird of HzncToft ; and BhACK-bellied 

 humming-bird of Latham, are all the fame bird ; namely, 

 Trochilus hohfericevs of Linn, and Gmel. 

 BLACK-^crrj, in Botany. See RuBus. 

 Bl.ACv.-billed aiih of mod Englilh writers, in Ornithology, 

 is Aha pica of Linn. Syft. Nat. and Fabricius. 



Bi. AC K-billed tropic bird, fo named in Latham's fynopfis, 

 is Phai'lon melanorlynchos of Gmelin. 



BiAQK-billed 'wh'ijIUng duck of Sloane, and Brown's Ja- 

 maica, is called /Ina: arborea by Gmelin. 



Black-^iV</. The proper acceptation of this word among 

 the Englilh writers of the prcfent time, is veiy clearly un- 

 derftood ; the Turdus merula of Linnsus and other natu- 

 ralifts being alone implied. The earlier oniithologifts of 

 this country are much lefs precife in the application of this 

 word : with them, birds of the fame natural order were 

 fometimes called black-birds, becaufe they bear a remote 

 refemblance to the common fpecies moft lamiharly known 

 lay that name, as we find, for inftance, in the two kinds of 

 turdns, torquatus and roleus, both of which are called, 

 in a general manner, black-birds, white-ringed black-birdj, 

 rofe-coloured black-bird.?, and the like. Thus far in- 

 deed there exifted a ftriking natural affinity between 

 the fpecies, becaufe they all belong to the fame natu- 

 ral order, and were, in realit)-, of the family thev caDcd 

 Vol. IV. 



merula, which feems to have been conCdered in certain ic« 

 ftances fynonym.ous with black-bird. But all the early 

 writers did not confine themfelves to fuch minute diftinc- 

 tions as the generic charafter afforded : the Hack-bird 

 (razor-billed) of Catefby, being, for example, of a very dif- 

 fimilar genus to that of our common black-bird ; namely, 

 the crotophaga of modern writers. Again, the black-bird 

 (red-breafted Indian) of Willughby, is one of the oriolus ; 

 the black bird (red-breafted) of Edwards, belongs to the 

 ianagra ; and the black-bird, or Chinefe jlarling of the fame 

 author, is ^ gracula. Birds of the fparrow, titmoufe, and 

 other kinds, altogether remote from the former, were alfo 

 called occafionally black-birds. We may, therefore, eafily 

 perceive that the word black-bird was an indefinite term, 

 applied, for the moft part, to thofe birds whofe plumage is 

 of a black colour, without regard to the natural order to 

 which they ought to have been referred, although fome- 

 times employed to exprefs only that which we ftill diftin- 

 guiili by the name of black-bird. See Turdus Me- 

 rula. 



Black-^ooZ- of the Exchequer, Eagle, Hellebore, Money, 

 Order, Star, See the feveral article?. 



Black-^so/'J', a name given to thofe which treat of' ne- 

 cromancy, or, as feme call it, nigromancy. 



The black-book of the Englifli monafteries, was a detail 

 of the fcandalous enormities praSifed in religious houfes, 

 compiled by order of the vifitors under king Henry VIII, 

 to blacken them, and thus haften their diffolution. 



Y>\.AZii-breajled grebe of Latham, in Ornithology, is 

 Colymbus thomcnjis of Gmelin. 



B\-.\CK.-breci/ted grofbeak of Latham, is Loxia Americana 

 of Gmelin. 



BhACK-breq/led humming-bird of Latham, is fpoken of by 

 Buffon under the name of Haujfe col vert ; GmeUn calls it 

 Trochilus gramineus. 



'E>i.ACii-breaJled Indian plover of Edwards, is a variety of 

 Charadrius Spinosus of Gmelin. The female of this 

 bird is called by Edwards the Jpur-winged plover, a name 

 retained by Latham for both fcxes. In Ruffel's Aleppo it 

 is called the lap'wing. 



BhACK-brea/led thrujh. Latham defcribes Turdns cinna- 

 momeus of Gmelin, under this name in the iynopfis of 

 birds. 



BhACK-ireaJled titmoufe of Latham, is Parus afcr of 

 Gmelin. 



Y>\. AZ's.-breaJled ivood-pecier of Latham, is Piciis multi- 

 color of Gmelin. 



Bi. AC iL-bul/inch of Albin, like Pyrrhula nigra of Briflbn, 

 and 5ouwvui/nwV of Buffon, is nothing mo:e than an acciden- 

 tal variety of the common bulfinch, or Loxia pyrrhula <j{ 

 Latin writers. The bulfinch occurs lometimes of a white 

 colour, as well as black or dullcy. 



BhACK-bulfnch, (Little) of Catefby and Albin, and 

 Black grojbeak of Latham, is Loxia nigra of Gmelin. 



B\.ACti-canker, in Agriculture, a difeafe in tumip and other 

 crops, produced by a fpecies of caterpillar deftroying their 

 leaves. 



It is obferved by Mr. Young, in the fecond volume of the 

 Annals of Agriculture, that " thefe infecls were efTeftually 

 dellroyed by Mr. Coke, at Holkham, in Norfolk, by turn- 

 ing a number of ducks among the turnips when injured by 

 infects. On the 16th of July, fays he, they were turned 

 into thirty-three acres, having water at one corner of the 

 field, and, in five days, they cleared the whole moft com- 

 pletely, marching at laft tnrough the field on the hunt, 

 eyeing the leaves on both fides with great care to devour 



3 U eveiy 



