SOL 
fliort; it's head and neck are brown, variegated 
with black; and it's body is of the fanne colours in 
different variegations ; but it's wings have an ad- 
mixture of white. 
SOFFIETTA. A narne by which fome au- 
thors exprefs the bellows-fifh ; called alfo the fco- 
lopax. It is a native of the IMedi terra nean fea ; 
and is commonly expofed to fale in the markets 
of Rome and Venice. 
SOLAND GOOSE. See Goose. 
SOLDIER CRAB. See Crab. 
SOLE; the Pleuroneifles Solea of Linnseus. 
A fifh common on every part of the Britifh coads; 
but the Soles of the weftern fhores are much larger 
than thofe of the northern. On the vvcftern 
coafts they frequently weigh fix or fevcn pounds 
each; but, towards Scarborough, they rarely ex- 
ceed one pound; and, when they reach two, are 
confidered as curioficies. They are ufually taken 
with the hawlnet. They keep much at the bot- 
tom, where they feed on fmall fliell-firh. 
The irides of the Sole are yellow; the pupils 
are of a bright fapphirine colour; the fcales are 
fmall, and very rough; the upper part of the body 
is of a deep brown hue; the tip of one of the pec- 
toral fins is black; the under part of the body is 
white; the lateral line is ftraightj and the tail is 
rounded at the extremity. 
This fifli is in high efi:imation for it's ex- 
treme delicacy; but the fmall-fized Sole is much 
preferable to the large; and, from it's excellent 
flavour, it has fometimes been denominated the 
queen of the fea. The chief fifiiery for Soles is 
atBrixham,in Torbay. 
Sole, Smooth. This fifli, according to Ray's 
defcription, is extremely thin, pellucid, and white; 
and covered with fuch minute fcales, and thofe 
inftantly deciduous, as to merit the epithet 
Smooth. It is a rare fpecies: fometimes, how- 
ever, caught in Cornwall, where, from it's tranf- 
parency, it is called the lantern-fifh. 
SO LEI L DE MER. A French appellation 
for a peculiar fpecies of ftar-fifh, of a fmall fizc; 
the legs of which bear a ftrong refemblance to the 
tails of lizards, and are very brittle. 
SOLEN; the Razor- fliell fifh. A genus of 
fliell-filh: the charafters of which are; that they 
have bivalve fliells, with oblong bodies; and are 
open at both ends; ufually ftraight, but in fome 
fpecies crooked. The enclofed animal is an afci- 
dia. 
The name Sclen is derived from the Greek : in 
which language tliat v/ord expreffes a pipe or 
tube; this fifh, when the ihells are ciofed, very 
aptly refembling a tube, Latin authors have 
given it the denomination of wiguis, from it's re- 
femblance in colour and confidence to the human 
nail, 
Rondeletlus obferves, that there are, among 
the Solens of the faine fpecies males and females, 
which are cafily diftinguifiiable from each other; 
and that the fem.ales are larger, have no variega- 
tions on the {hells, and are much better tailed 
than the males. 
Pennant enumerates the follov/ing fpecies as na- 
tives of the Britifh fhores: the pod, the flieath, 
fcymetar, pellucid, iuboval, and kidney. 
The Solen lives in tlie fand within fiood-mark, 
where it often buries itfelf one foot and a half, or 
two feet deej^^i : the length of the ihell is at this 
time nearly m a vertical pofitionj and the fifii 
pofTeiTes a power of .^aifing itfelf at plealure to the 
SOU 
furface, and finking down again; the fhell re- 
maining all the while buried in it's place. 
Almoft all otiier animals have an horizontal 
motion; and the marine fliell-fifh crawl along 
under water, as the common land creatures do on 
dry land : but this animal's progreffive monon is 
only vertical, and that confined to a very narrow 
compafs ; all that it is able to effeft being only to 
raife itfelf higher or lower, within the narrow com- 
pafs of two feet at the utmoft, as proceeding be- 
yond that would certainly prove fatal. Where 
thefe fhell-fifli are buried in the fand, there is an 
open communication from their refidence to the 
furface, by means of which the water has free ad- 
milTion. Thefe holes are generally pretty nume- 
rous in the vicinity of each other, and eafilv di- 
flinguifhed when the tide has left the fhore unco- 
vered : they are of an oblong fliape ; and Ibme- 
what refemble the key-hole of a lock, except that 
they have a roundnefs at each extreiriity. 
When the Solen has occafion to afcend out of 
it's hole, nothing farther is nece'fifiiry than thruf]:- 
ing out the end of it's leg, fwelling it, and after- 
wards extending itfelf to the length of that leg; 
then retracing it into the fhell again, and thruil- 
ing out and inflating it's extremity for a fccond 
movement of the fame kind. Thefe motions may 
be all perceived in the creature when out of the 
fand, particularly that by which it buries irielf; 
for, if held up between the fingers, it protrudes 
the leg, and performs all the motions, as if lodged 
in die fand ; making a natural but ineffeftual at- 
tempt for it's prefervation. 
SOLITARY WORM; Solium, Tsen ium. 
and Lumbricus Latus. A fpecies of Worm fome- 
times found in the intefiiines, and which is alv/ays 
fingle, as commencing from the pylorus, and ex- 
tending thence the whole length of the inteflines, 
fo that there is no room for any other. See T,(ENia 
and LuiA/iBRicus Latus. 
SOLIPUGA, OR SOLIFUGA. An appel- 
lation by which the Romans exprefs a fmall ve- 
nomous infeft of the fpider kind; called by the 
Greeks Heliocentros; both words denoting an 
animal whofe efieds are chiefly felt in thofe cli- 
mates and feafons where and when the fun is mofl 
ardent. Solinus defcribes this infeft as peculiar 
to Sardinia: it is, however, a native of feveral 
other parts of Europe, as well as of Africa. 
This venomous little creature lies concealed 
under the fand, in expe61ation of feizing other 
fmall infects which incautioufly intrude on it's 
retreat; and if it happens to come in contad: with 
any part of the human frame that is uncovered, 
it bites widi great refolunon. The wound is ex-. 
ceflively painful and envenomed: and, indeed, 
fom.e aflert that the bite will prove mortal; but 
fuch affertion is not fupported by any fuiHcient 
authority. 
SOREX, Shrew. A genus of the order of 
ferje and clafs of mammalia, in the Linnsan fy- 
flem. It's diftingui filing chara6lers are; that it 
has two fore-teeth above, which are bifid; four 
below; and feveral canine teeth on both fides. 
There are five fpecies; the crefl:ed Sorex of Penn- 
fylvania; the minute of Siberia, weighing a dram, 
fuppoicd by LinnJEus to be the fmallefl of all 
quadrupeds, tliough Pallas reckons the pigmy, 
which weighs about half a dram, the fmallefl j 
the water-flirew; the murine, of Java; and thq 
foetid, or common. See Shrew-Mouse. 
SOURDON. An appejlauon by which the 
Frencii 
