U R 



U R A 



biun, a ventre et eye of Buffon, and New Guinea brown 

 promerops of Latham. According to Sonnerat, who firll 

 defcribed and figured it, the neck, back, wings, and tail of 

 this bird are- brown ; the bread and remaining under parts 

 white, undulated by numerous tranfverfe black ftripes, each 

 feather having two white and two black bars ; the tail very 

 long, and llrongly cuneated, the bill confiderably curved, of 

 a blackifh colour ; and the legs yellowiih-brown. A native 

 of New Guinea, inhabiting large woods. 



Magma. The black hoopoe ; the head, hind part of 

 the neck, bread, and exterior part of the falcated fca- 

 pular feathers golden green, and very long tail. This is 

 the fuperb promerops, with violet and green glofs, falcated 

 golden-lhining fcapular feathers, and verj- long tail ; the grand 

 promerops a paremens frifes of Buffon, and grand prome- 

 rops of Latham. Its (hape is flender, the tail almod three 

 times the length of the remainder of the bird, which is not 

 larger than a common pigeon ; the biU narrow, black, and 

 pretty much curved ; the general colour of the whole bird 

 is black, accompanied, according to the different direttions 

 of the light, by varying refleftions of blue, green, and 

 violet ; the other parts as above defcribed. The fcapular 

 feathers, or thofe fituated along the fides of the body, rife 

 up into two rows of reverfed falciform plumes, gradually en- 

 larging from the fhoulders to the rump, beyond which they 

 become much longer but lefs curved, and are dretched to 

 fome diftance on each fide of the bafe of the tail ; the colour of 

 their inner or (hallower fcales is purphih -black, but along the 

 edges and tip of the wider web it is of a brilliant golden-green : 

 on each fide of the lower part of the body, beneath the 

 wings, is alfo fituated a thick and moderately long group 

 of loofe-webbed, pendent, brownifh feathers ; the tail confids 

 of twelve feathers ; and the legs are drong and black. This 

 bird was fird defcribed by Sonnerat, and is a native of 

 Guinea ; but its hidory and habits are unknown. 



AuRANTlA. The yellow hoopoe, with golden head and 

 neck, and tail even at the end. This is the orange-coloured 

 promerops, with tail of moderate length, and even at the tip ; 

 the avis paradifiaca Americana elegantifBma of Seba, the 

 promerops orange of Buffon, and the orange promerops of 

 Latham. This bird is about the fize of a itarhng ; its bill 

 is fomewhat curved, diarp-pointed, and yellow, as are the 

 legs ; the head and neck are of a deep yellow or gold colour, 

 with a few red feathers round the bafe of the bill ; the re- 

 mainder of the bird is orange-yellow ; the larger quill-fea- 

 thers of a redder cad than the red. A native of Guiana, 

 frequenting the fmall iflands in the mouth of the river 

 Berbice. The fuppofed female of this fpecies is defcribed 

 by Fernandez, in his Hidory of Mexico, under the name of 

 " Cochitolotl ;" it is introduced by Gmelin as a variety of 

 the former ; Buffon reckons it a female, and Briffon deno- 

 minates it promerops Mexicanus luteus. The head, throat, 

 neck, and wings are faid to be irregularly varied v/ith grey 

 and black ; the red of the bird yellow ; the bill black and 

 the legs grey. 



Of the " black hoopoe," nothing but its exidence and 

 native country feems to be known : it is mentioned by Son- 

 nini, on the authority of Monf. VioUet, who fays that it is 

 found in Africa, towards the kingdom of Congo. For 

 other fpecies, fee Promerops, and Shaw's Zoology, 

 vol. viii. 



UR, in indent Geography, a city of Chaldea, where 

 Terah, the father of Abraham, redded ; and whence Abraham 

 himfelf removed to the land of Canaan, which was granted 

 to him and his poderity. (Gen. xi. 28.) The precife 

 fituation of this city is not known ; fome think that it was 

 Camerina, in Babylonia. Ptolemy and Strabo fuppofe that 



it was Orcha or Orchea, in Chaldea ; and others are 

 of opinion that it was Ura, or Sura, in Syria, on the 

 Euphrates. Bochart and Grotius maintain, that it was 

 Ura in Mefopotamia, two days' journey from Nifibis. 

 The difficulty that occurs in afcertaining its fituation, is 

 partly owing to the confufion that attends the fettlement of 

 the precife boundaries of Chaldea and Mefopotamia ; the 

 former being fituated towards the mouths of the Tigris and 

 Euphrates, and the latter between thefe rivers fomewhat 

 farther nortli. The word Ur, in Hebrew, fignifiea fire ; 

 and hence fome have pretended, that when Mofes faid God 

 brought Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, he alluded to a 

 fire into which the Chaldeans cad him. But this feems to be 

 fabulous, as St. Jerome, who once adopted their opinion, 

 afterwards acknowledged : and therefore others have 

 thought, that the name Ur was given to this city, becaufe 

 fire was the objeft of wordiip ; and Abraham, by his re- 

 moval to Canaan, was releafed from all obhgation to prac- 

 tife that kind of wordiip. 



URA, in Geography, a town of Natolia ; 10 miles S. of 

 Milets. 



URABA, a town and diftrift of South America, in the 

 province of Carthagena. 



URAC, the mod northerly of the Ladrone iflands, in 

 the Ead Indian fea, about 9 miles in circumference. N. 

 lat. 20° 45'. 



URACH, a town of Wurtemberg, with confiderable 

 manufaftures of damafk, and other linens, on the Rems ; 21 

 miles S.S.E. of Stuttgard. N. lat. 48° 27'. E. long. 



9° 27'- 



URACHUS, in Anatomy, a fibrous cord paffing from 

 the fundus of the bladder to the umbilicus : it is hollow in 

 the foetus of animals, and communicates with the allantois. 

 See Embryo and Kidney. 



URACONDA, in Geography, a town of Hindooftan, in 

 Myfore ; 20 miles W.S.W. of Gooty. 



URAGO, a town of Italy, in the department of the 

 Mela, on the Oglio ; 15 miles W. of Brefcia. 



URAGUAY, a river of South America, which rifes in 

 Paraguay, about S. lat. 26° 30'; and, after a courfe of about 

 609 miles, joins the Para, in S. lat. 34°, and the united 

 dreams take the name of La Plata. The country on this 

 fide the river is alfo called Paraguay. 



URAIN, St., a town of France, in the department of 

 the Nyevre ; 7 miles N.E. of Cofne. 



URAL, formerly the Talk, a river of Rulfia, that has its 

 fource in the weftern fides of the Ural mountains, from which 

 it iffues near the fort of Orfk, and for a long interval purfues 

 a wedern courfe, then turns direAly fouth, and at about 47° 

 N. lat., and 70° long., falls into the Cafpian. The current 

 is rapid, and its water pure ; and it was known to the an- 

 cients under the name of Rhymnus. Its courfe is efti- 

 mated at 3000 verds. From time immemorial it has confti- 

 tutedthe boundary between the Kirghidziand the Bafkhirtzi ; 

 and upon it are dill 30 forts and feveral fore-pods againft 

 the former. The mod confiderable rivers which the Ural 

 takes up are, to the left, the Or and the Ilek ; and to the 

 right, the Kifil and the Sakmara. In the upper regions, 

 its banks are ridged with deep and lofty rocks ; but lower 

 down it flows through a tolerably dry and very faline fteppe. 

 It abounds with fiih. The fidiery on the Ural forms the 

 principal occupation and fupport of the Uralian Coffacks ; 

 nor is this trade any where fo well regulated, by the laws of 

 ancient ufage, as here. Ever fince the government granted 

 the fithery to the Coffacks, in return for the payment of the 

 moderate dipulation formerly annexed to the utfehiug or 

 fifhing dakes at Gurief, they have completely brokes ap 



the 



