S58 
D I O 
my, being greatly perfecuted while on the wing by the 
dark, grey gull. This bird attacks it on all (ides, but 
particularly endeavours to get beneath, which is only 
prevented by its firft fettling on the water; and indeed 
they do not frequently fly at a great di-fiance from the 
furface, except obliged fo to do by high winds, or other 
caufes. As foon as the young are able to remove from 
the nett, the penguins take pofteflioii, and hatch their 
young in turn. It is probable that the albatrofs mi¬ 
grates from one part of the globe to another according 
to the feafons ; being now and then met with, by dif¬ 
ferent voyagers, at various times, in intermediate places. 
It was feen by Forfter between lix and (even hundred 
leagues from land, in the middle of the fouthern ocean. 
Their food is fuppofed to be chiefly fmall marine ani¬ 
mals, efpecially of the mollufcae or blubber kind, as 
well as the flying filh. There are two other varieties 
of this bird, differing only in the colour of forne of its 
feathers and bill. 
2. Diomedea fpadicea,the chocolate albatrofs: fize rather 
larger than a goofe : bill yellowifli white : irides brown : 
fore part of the head, round the eye, chin, and throat, 
white : the plumage in general of a fine deep chocolate- 
colour ; the neck and under parts paled:: the inner ridge 
of the wing, and under wing-coverts, white; and the 
belly inclines much to white: tail fhort, rounded in 
Iliape ; that and the-wings equal in length: legs bluifii 
white: claws white. This bird varies in having more 
or lefs white about the bead, and in a greater or lefs de¬ 
gree of purity. It was found in the Pacific Ocean, in 
lat. 37, about the end of December, by Forfter. There 
is a variety of this bird, entirely of a grey brown, which 
inhabits China. 
3. Diomedea chlororynchos, the yellow-nofed alba¬ 
trofs : length three feet: alar extent (even. The bill is 
four inches long, but not very flout; the colour of it is 
black, except at the upper ridge, which is yellow the 
whole length, quite to the tip, where it is hooked ; the 
bafe of the under mandible is alfo'yellow : irides brown : 
head grey : between the bill and eyes is an obfcure black 
fpot; juft over the eye a dufky one : the hind part of the 
neck du(ky, the lower part white : back, fcapulars, and 
wings, dufky blue black : rump, and under part of the 
body, white : tail dufky : the legs are pale yellowifli 
white ; the fore part of them, and the webs, dufky. 
This fpecies is met with in the fouthern hemifphere, 
from thirty "to fixty degrees all round the pole. The 
fpecimen from whence the above defcription was drawn 
up, was taken off the Cape of Good I-lope. It inhabits 
the South Seas without the tropics. They fly about five 
or fix feet above the furface of the water, and appear al¬ 
ways intent on feeking their food. 
4. Diomedea fuliginofa, the footy albatrofs-: this is 
about the fize of a goofe, length near three feet. Bill 
black : irides pale yellow : at each angle of the eye a 
inflating membrane :■ general colour of the plumage 
brown : the head and tail inclining to black or foot- 
colour: for a fmall fpace above, behind, and beneath, 
the eye, the feathers are white, but not on the fore part 
of it: quills and tail footy brown, nearly black; the 
fhafts of both white ; the laft pointed in fliape : legs pale 
brownifn lead-colour: claws black. This fpecies was 
firft met with by captain Cook, in lat. 47 fouth, but was 
afterwards obferved throughout the Southern Ocean 
within the antarflic circle. It was called by our bailors 
the quaker, from its brown plumage and grave deport¬ 
ment. 
DIOME'DES, fon of Tydeus king of iEtolia, married 
.ffigiale, daughter of Adraftus, by means of which alli¬ 
ance he fucceeded to the kingdom of Argos. Fie is re- 
prefented by Homer as leading to the ftege of Troy all 
the people of the Argive territory, who manned eighty 
fliips. He was therefore one of the principal comman¬ 
ders in the Trojan war; and the poet has made him one 
of the moft diftinguifhed heroes of the Iliad in warlike 
D I O 
achievements, and only inferior among the Greeks to 
Achilles and Ajax. This may be fuppofed to have been, 
in fact; his traditional character, though his particular 
exploits may be the invention of the poet. After the 
deftruftion of Troy he returned to Argos, where he is 
faid to have found his wife connected with an adulterer, 
and plotting with him againft his life. He therefore em¬ 
barked again, and, after many wanderings, fettled at 
length \Vith his Dorian followers in.Daunia, on the Adri¬ 
atic coaft of Italy, where he married the daughter of the 
king, and founded the city, of Argyrippa, afterwards 
called Arpi. This is the whole of his hiftory which is 
not manifeftly fabulous. It is certain that a ftrong tra¬ 
dition prevailed in Italy of his final fettlement there, 
which Virgil has adopted, and employed in his iEneid. 
DI'ON, an iiluftrious Syracufan, fon of Hipparinus, 
and a difciple of Plato. For his fame, and political cha¬ 
racter, fee the article Syracuse. 
DION CAS'SIUS, alfo named Cocceius, or Coc- 
Ceianus, a writer of Roman hiftory, and a native of Ni- 
caea, in Bithynia. His father was prefeCt of Bithynia at 
the acceflion of Adrian. He himfelf enjoyed the fenato- 
rian rank under Commodus and the fucceeding empe¬ 
rors, and arrived at the confulate, probably under Seve- 
rus. He was entrufted with the government of feveral 
provinces, and was a fecond time created conful in 229, 
as colleague to the emperor Alexander Severus. He 
employed many years in the compofition of a hiftory in 
the Greek language, and at length completed it in eighty 
books, from the origin of the Roman ftate to his own 
times. It is written in an eafy and clear fttyle, and is in- 
terfperfed with judicious reflections. Of the eighty 
books, the firft: thirty-four, and part of the thirty-fifth, 
are loft. The twenty-five fubfequent ones are extant, 
but the latter fix in an abridged ftate ; the lad twenty 
are alfo loft, except a few fragments. But we have a 
good abridgment of the whole from the thirty-fifth to 
the end, by Xiphilinus.' The bed editions of Dion Caf- 
fius are thofe of Leunclavius, Hanau, folio, 1606; and 
of Reimarus, Hamburg, 2 vols. folio, 1750. 
DION/E'A,/! [one of the names of Venus; from her 
mother Dione .] A genus, conftituted by Ellis, belonging 
to the clafs decandria, order monogynia, natural order 
gruinales. The generic characters are—Calyx : perian- 
thium five-leaved, upright; leaflets oblong, acute, per¬ 
manent. Corolla : petals five, feftile, oblong, obtufe, 
concave. Stamina: filaments ten, fubulate, fliorter; an- 
therre roundifh, pollen tricoccous. Piftillum : germ 
roundifh, deprelied, crenate ; flyle filiform, fliorter than 
the filaments ; ftigma fpreading, fringed on the edge. 
Pericarpium : caplule one-celled, gibbous. Seeds: very 
many, lubovate, very fmall, affixed to the bafe of the 
capfule. The number of ftamens is not always conftant. 
•—EJfential CharaEler. Calyx, five-leaved ; petals five ; 
caplule one-celled, gibbous, containing many feeds. 
There is only one fpecies, called Dionsea mufcipula, 
or Venus’s fly-trap. Root fquamous, fending forth but 
few fibres, like thofe of forne bulbs, and perennial; ftallc 
about fix inches high, round, fmooth, without leaves, 
ending in a fpike of flowers. The flowers are milk- 
white, on peduncles, with a little pointed braCle at the 
bottom of each. Leaves many, ciliated, inclining to 
bend downwards, and placed in a circular order, joint¬ 
ed, fucculent; the lower joint, which is a kind of ftallc, 
is flat, longifti, two-edged, and inclining to heart-fhaped. 
In forne varieties they are ferrate on the edges near the 
top ; the upper joint confifts of two lobes, each femi- 
oval, the margins furnifhed with (tiff hairs like the eye- 
lafhes, embracing or locking into each other when they 
clofe: this they do when they are irritated within; the 
upper furface of thefe lobes is covered with fmall red 
glands, appearing, when highly magnified, like the fruit 
of the arbutus comprefted : among the glands, about the 
middle of each lobe, are three very fmall erett fpines. 
The lobes are fo remarkably irritable or fenfitive, that 
