AMP 
X 
part of the head. Its throat is black ; its 
feather on the head are long, forming a 
crest ; all the upper parts of the body are 
of a reddish ash colour ; the breast and belly 
inclining to purple ; the tail feathers are 
black, tipped with pale yellow; the quills 
are black, the third and fourth tipped on 
their outer edges with white ; the live fol- 
lowing with straw colour, but in some, 
bright yellow; the secondaries are tipped 
with white, each being pointed with a flat 
horny substance of a bright vermilion co- 
lour. These appendages vary in different 
subjects. This rare bird visits our island 
only at uncertain intervals. Their summer 
residence is supposed to be in the northern 
parts of Europe, within the arotic circle, 
whence they spread themselves into other 
countries, where they remain during the 
winter; and return in the spring to their 
usual haunts. The food of this bird is ber- 
ries of various kinds ; in some countries it is 
said to be extremely fond of grapes. Only 
this species of the chatterer is found in Eu- 
rope, the others are natives of America. 
See Plate I. Aves, fig. 5. A. caruncula, 
has a black bill, with a pendulous, expan- 
sile, moveable caruncle at the base, inhabits 
Cayenne and Brazil, and is about twelve in- 
ches long. The bill is an inch and half 
long, and black : at the base is a fleshy'car- 
buncle, hanging over it, like that of a tur- 
key cock. The female is furnished with one 
as well as the male. These birds are said 
to have a very loud voice, to be heard half 
a league off, which is composed of merely 
two syllables, in, an, uttered iji a drawling 
tone; but some have compared it to the 
sound of a bell. 
AMPELITES, cannel-coal, a hard, opaque, 
fossil, inflammable substance, of a black co- 
lour. The ampelites examined by a micro- 
scope appears composed of innumerable 
very small thin plates, laid closely and firmly 
upon one another, and full of very small 
specks of a blacker and more shining matter 
than the rest. There is a large quarry of it 
in Alencon, in France. It is dug also in 
many parts of England; but the most beau- 
tiful is found in Lancashire and Cheshire : it 
lies usually at considerable depth. It is ca- 
pable of a very fine polish, and is made into 
trinkets, and will pass for jet. Husband- 
men dress their vines with it, as it kills the 
vermin which infests them: it is likewise 
used for dyeing the hair black. 
AMPHIBIA, in natural history, a class 
of animals that live either on land or in wa- 
ter. The. title Amphibia, applied to this 
AMP 
class of animals by Linnaeus, may perhaps 
be considered as not absolutely unexcep 1 - 
tionable ; the power of living with equal fa- 
cility both in land and water being not 
granted to ail the animals which compose 
it ; yet, since it is certain that the major 
part are found to possess that faculty in a 
considerable degree, the title may be allow- 
ed to continue. The Amphibia, from the 
peculiar structure of their organs, and the 
power which they possess of suspending re- 
spiration at pleasure, can not only support 
a change of element uninjured, but can also 
occasionally endure an abstinence which 
would infallibly prove fatal to the higher 
order of animals. It has been a general 
doctrine among anatomists, that the hearts 
of the Amphibia were, in the technical 
phrase, unilocular, or furnished with only 
one ventricle or cavity ; a doctrine main- 
tained by many eminent anatomists, and, 
in general, assented to by the greatest phy- 
siologists, as Boerhaave, Haller, &c. &c. 
and only occasionally called in question on 
viewing in some animals of this tribe a seem- 
ingly different structure. Thus the French 
academicians of the seventeenth century 
pronounce the heart of an Indian land tor- 
toise, which they examined, to have in reality 
three ventricles instead of one. Linmeus, 
in his Systema Naturae, acquiesces in the 
general doctrine, and accordingly makes it 
a character of this class of animals. Among 
later physiologists, however, there are not 
wanting some who think it more correct to 
say, that the hearts of the Amphibia are in 
reality double, or furnished with two ventri- 
cles, with a free or immediate communica- 
tion between them. The lungs of the Am- 
phibia differ widely in their appearance 
from those of other animals ; consisting, in 
general, of a pair of large bladders or mem- 
branaceous receptacles, parted, in the dif- 
ferent species, into more or fewer cancelli, 
or subdivisions, among which are beautifully 
distributed the pulmonary blood-vessels, 
which bear but a small proportion to the 
vesicular part through which they ramify ; 
whereas, in the lungs of the Mammalia, so 
great is the proportion of the blood-vessels, 
and so very small are the vesicles, or air- 
cells, that the lungs have a fleshy rather than 
a membranaceous appearance. In the Am- 
phibia, therefore, the vesicular system may 
be said greatly to prevail over the vascular ; 
and in the Mammalia, or warm-blooded ani- 
mals, the vascular system to prevail over the 
vesicular. Many of the Amphibia are pos- 
sessed of a high degree of reproductive 
