EMB 
yellow hammer is fattened like the ortolan 
for the table, and is in considerable estima- 
tion. E. miliaria, the common banting. 
These birds are also particularly common 
in England, and appear frequently in vast 
flocks, especially in the winter, during 
which they are caught in nets, or shot in 
vast numbers, and sold to many under the 
successful pretence of their being a species 
of larks. They are stationary in England, 
but on the Continent are birds of passage. 
During the incubation of the female, the 
male is observed frequently on the bare 
and prominent branch of some neighbour- 
ing tree, exerting himself to cheer her 
confinement by his song, which, however, 
is harsh and monotonous in the extreme ; at 
short intervals he utters a sort of trembling 
shriek, several times repeated. E. oryzi- 
vora, or the rice bird, is peculiar to Ame- 
rica, where its depredations on the rice and 
maize, subject it to the peculiar aversion 
of the fanner. These birds often mingle 
with birds of other species, as the red 
winged oriole, and the blue jay. They are, 
occasionally, kept for the sake of their 
music. In the autumn they return from 
Carolina farther south, for the winter ; and 
it is observed, by Latham, that the males 
and females arrive at different times, the 
latter always appearing first. For the cirl 
bunting, see Aves, Plate VI. fig. 4. For 
the blackhead bunting, see Ayes, Plate VI. 
fig. 5. 
EMBEZZLEMENT, inlaw, by stat. 39 
G. 3. c. 35. for protecting masters against 
embezzlements by their clerks and servants ; 
servants or clerks, or persons employed for 
the purpose, or in the capacity of servants 
or clerks, who shall, by virtue of such em- 
ployment receive, or take into their pos- 
session, any money, goods, bond, bill, note, 
banker’s draft, or other valuable security 
or effects, for or in the name, or on the ac- 
count of their master or employer ; or who 
shall fraudulently embezzle, secrete, or make 
away with the same, or any part thereof; 
every such offender, shall be deemed to 
have feloniously stolen the same from his 
master or employer, for whose use, or on 
whose account the same was delivered to, 
or taken into the possession of such ser- 
vant, clerk, or other person so employed, 
although such money, goods, bond, bill, 
note, banker’s draft, or other valuable secu- 
rity, was or were no otherwise received into 
the possession of his or their servants, clerk, 
or other person so employed; and every 
such offender, Iris adviser, procurer, aider, 
EMB 
or abetter, being thereof lawfully con- 
victed or attainted, shall be liable to be 
transported beyond seas. 
EMBLEM, a kind of painted enigma, or 
certain figures painted or cut metaphori- 
cally, expressing some action, with reflec- 
tions underneath, which, in some measure, 
explain the sense of the device, and at the 
same time, instruct us in some moral truth, 
or other matter of knowledge. The em- 
blem is somewhat plainer than the enigma, 
and the invention is more modern, it being 
entirely unknown to the ancients. 
EMBLEMENTS, in law, signify the pro- 
fits of land sown ; but the word is some- 
times used more largely, for any profits 
that arise and grow naturally from the 
ground, as grass, fruit, hemp, flax, &c. 
EMBOLISMIC, or intercalary, a term 
used by chronologists in speaking of the 
additional months and years, which they 
insert to bring the lunar to the solar year. 
Since the common lunar year consists of 
twelve synodic months, or 354 days nearly, 
and the solar consists of 365 days (throwing 
away the odd hours and minutes) it is plain 
that the solar year will exceed the lunar by 
about 11 days; and consequently in the 
space of about 33 years, the beginning of 
the lunar year will be carried through all 
the seasons, and hence it is called the mo- 
veable lunar year. This form of the year 
is used at this time by the Turks and Ara- 
bians ; and because in three years’ time the 
solar year exceeds the lunar by 33 days, 
therefore, to keep the lunar months in the 
same seasons and times of the solar year, 
or near it, chronologists added a whole 
month to the lunar year every third year, 
and so made it consist of 13 months; this 
year they called the embolismic year, and 
the additional month the embolismic, or 
embolimean, or intercalary month. This 
form of the year is called the fixed lunar- 
year, and it was used by the Greeks and 
Romans till the time of Julius Caesar. 
EMBOSSING, or Imbossing, in archi- 
tecture and sculpture, the forming or fa- 
shioning works in relievo, whether cut with 
a chissel or otherwise. Embossing is a kind 
of sculpture, wherein the figures stick out 
from the plane whereon it is cut ; and ac- 
cording as the figures are more or less pro- 
minent, they are said to be in alto, mezzo, or 
basso relievo; or high, mean, or low relief. 
EMBOTHRIUM, in botany, a genus of 
the Tetrandria Monogynia class and order. 
Natural order of Proteae, Jussieu. Essen- 
tial character; corolla four-petalled ; an- 
