ARD 
ARE 
resenting it as done to themselves. At 
Bagdad they are to be seen on every house, 
wall, and tree, quite tame. At Persepolis 
the remains of the pillars serve them to build 
on, every pillar having a nest. They are 
thought to have two broods in a year, the 
first towards the north, the latter in warmer 
places ; and are seen in vast flocks during 
their migrations. The female makes a large 
nest and lays from two to four eggs. The 
young are hatched in a month; the male 
and female watch them by turns till they 
can provide for themselves. The stork 
sleeps on one leg, and snaps with its bill in 
a singular manner. Its food consists in 
snakes and other reptiles ; hence the vene- 
ration of all persons for this bird which frees 
them from such pests. 
Ardea stellaris, or bittern. This is an 
elegant species, and is somewhat less than 
the heron ; length two feet six inches ; the 
bill brown, beneath inclining to green; 
irides yellow; the head feathers are long, 
and those of the neck loose and waving; 
the crown of the head black ; the lower 
jaw on each side dusky; the plumage in 
general is beautifully variegated ; the ground 
a ferruginous yellow, palest beneath, mark- 
ed with numerous bars, streaks, and zigzag 
lines of black; the legs are pale green; 
claws long and slender ; and the inner edge 
on the middle claw serrated. The female 
is less, darker coloured, and the feathers on 
the head and neck less flowing than in the 
male. This is a common bird in our islands, 
and we believe in most of the temperate 
parts of the continent ; in some of the colder, 
migratory; with us it remains the whole 
year; frequents marshy places, and especi- 
ally where reeds grow, among which it 
makes the nest, in April, which is chiefly 
composed of a bed of rushes, &c. The 
female lays four or five eggs of a pale 
greenish ash colour ; the young are hatched 
in twenty-five days. It is an indolent bud, 
stirring very little in the day unless dis- 
turbed ; though if once roused is not diffi- 
cult to shoot, as it flies heavily. In the 
evening, after sun-set, it is seen to soar aloft 
in a spiral ascent, till quite out of sight, and 
this chiefly in autumn, making a singular 
kind of noise; it has also another noise, 
like that of a bellowing bull, beginning in 
February and ceasing after breeding-time ; 
but this is done while on the ground. If 
attacked by dogs or men, it defends itself 
well ; and is said to strike at the eyes of the 
enemy. The food is frogs, mice, and other 
reptiles, which it swallows whole, as well 
as fish. Latham remembers to have found 
two middle-sized trouts in the stomach 
of one perfectly whole. It is reckoned 
pretty good eating. See Plate III. Aves, 
fig. 7. and Plate IV. fig. 1. 
ARDISIA, in botany, a genus of the Pen- 
tandria Menogynia class and order. Calyx 
five-leaved; corol salver-shaped, with the 
border reflected ; anther® large, erect; stig- 
ma simple ; drupe superior ; one-seeded. 
There are nine species. 
ARDUINA, in botany, a genus of the 
Pentandria Monogynia class and order. Co- 
rol one-petalled ; stigma bifid ; berry two- 
celled ; seeds solitary ; a shrub of the Cape 
of Good Hope. 
ARE, in French measure, is a superficial 
unit, or a square, the side of which is 100 
metres in length, or 10,000 square metres ; 
the rectilineal metre being 3.281 feet, the 
are will be 1076.49 square feet. The tenth 
of an are, called deciare, is a superficies 100 
metres long, and 10 broad ; or 1000 square 
metres := 1076.49 ; and the centiare equal 
to 100 square metres, is 1076.49 square feet. 
See Measure. 
AREA, in geometry, denotes the super- 
ficial content of any figure ; thus, if we sup- 
pose a parallelogram six inches long, and 
four broad, its area will be 6 X 4 = 24 
square inches. 
ARECA, in botany, a genus of plants, 
the characters of which are not perfectly 
ascertained ; the calyx of the male flower is 
a bivalve spatha, the spadix is ramose ; the 
corolla consists of three acuminated petals ; 
the stamina are nine filaments, of which the 
three exterior ones are the longest ; the fe- 
male flowers are in the same spadix and 
spatha ; the corolla is like the male corolla ; 
the fruit is a sub-oval fibrose drupe, sur- 
rounded at the base with an imbricated ca- 
lyx, and containing an oval seed. 
There are three species, of which the oryz- 
aeformis is the cabbage-tree of the East In- 
dies. The oleracea is found in the West 
Indies, the green tops of which are cut and 
eaten as a cabbage. 
AREN ARIA, sand-wort, in botany, a 
genus of the Decandria Trigynia. Calyx 
five-leaved, spreading; petals five, entire ; 
capsule superior, one-celled, many-seeded. 
There are 36 species. 
ARENARIUS, the name ofa book of Ar- 
chimedes, in which is demonstrated, that not 
only the sands of the earth, but 'even a greater 
quantity of particles than could be obtained 
in the immense sphere of the fixed stars, 
might be expressed by numbers, in a way 
invented and described by himself. 
AREOMETER, an instrument by which 
