| 
tt 
| Agrostis alba. 
WHIRL-BONE. 
most commonly designates the harder kinds of 
traps, — particularly basalts, greenstones, and 
compact porphyries; but it is sometimes made to 
include all greyish or bluish stratified rocks,— 
particularly the harder sorts of greywacke. 
WHIRL-BONE. The joint, in the horse, be- 
tween the thigh-bone and the pelvis. It is very 
strong, and very little liable to dislocation; yet 
it sometimes suffers extension of its ligaments,— 
and then the horse is said. to be lame in the 
whirl-bone. 
WHISKEY. See Anconon. 
WHISTLER. See Broxen Winn. 
WHITE BEAM TREE. See Arta. 
WHITE BIRCH. See Brrou. 
WHITE BLIGHT. See Apuis. 
WHITE CEDAR. See Cypress. 
WHITE CLOVER. See Crover. 
WHITE COPPER. An alloy consisting of 
40'4 per cent. of copper, 254 of zinc, 316 of 
| nickel, and 2'6 of iron, 
WHITE FIORIN. The white bent grass,— 
See the articles Acrostis and 
FIoRIN. 
WHITE LAND. Land with a chalky soil. 
WHITE LEAD. See Luan. 
WHITE POPLAR. See Poprar and Agus. 
WHITE-ROT. See Pennywort. 
WHITE SPRUCE. See Frr. 
WHITE-THORN. See Hawrnorn. 
WHITETHROAT,—scientifically Curruca. A 
_ genus of British birds of the warbler family of 
| Passerine. 
The common whitethroat, Curruca cinerea, 
bears many provincial names, having reference 
to its note or appearance or habits,—such as 
whurr, wheetie-why, muff, maggy cut-throat, 
and Peggy nettle-creeper. Its total length is 54 
inches; its general plumage displays various 
shades of brown colour; its chin and its throat 
are white; and the lower part of its neck, its 
breast, its belly, and its flanks are pale brownish 
white tinged with rose colour. It is readily dis- 
tinguished from the babillard by its general brown 
plumage and by its yellow legs, and from other 
small birds by the feathers being very full and 
bulging out around the throat. It makes its ap- 
pearance about the third week of April; and is 
more generally diffused than any other of our im- 
migrant summer warblers. It has a merry song, 
and often pours it out while mounting in the air 
like the titlark, or while flitting from hedge to 
hedge. It frequents thickets, the sides of woods, 
hedgerows with broad banks, and lanes abound- 
ing with low bushes, brambles, nettles, and rank 
herbage. It feeds on white caterpillars, on other 
larvee, on some perfect insects, and on most of the 
small garden fruits and berries; and it ranks as 
only a partially destructive hedge-bird, and has 
generally been accused of doing much more mis- 
chief than it really perpetrates. Its nest is built 
in a low bush or in a tangled mass of rank vegeta- 
tion ; and is a neatly woven structure of grass and 
straws and hair. The eggs amount to four or 
five, and have a greenish white colour spotted 
and sprinkled with ash-brown and with two 
shades of ash-green, and measure 9 lines in length 
and 64 in breadth. 
The lesser whitethroat, Curruca garrula, is ra- 
ther shorter and more slender than the common 
species. Its total length is 5} inches; its head, 
neck, and back have a smoke-grey colour ; its 
chin, throat, and breast are almost pure white ; 
and its belly also is white, but tinged with red 
as far as the vent. Its habits and food are very 
similar to those of the common whitethroat. Its 
eggs measure each 8 lines in length and 6 in 
breadth. 
WHITE-TREE. See Caszupur. 
WHITE VINE. See Cremarzs. 
WHITE VITRIOL. Thesulphate of zinc. It 
is commonly prepared in England by direct com- 
bination of zinc and sulphuric acid, but in Ger- 
many by a process commencing in the exposure 
of roasted blende to the air and humidity. It 
crystallizes in transparent, colourless, right rhom- 
bic prisms, terminated by quadrangular summits ; 
it slightly effloresces in the air, and is soluble in 
23, times its own weight of water at 60° Fahren- 
heit ; and it is inodorous, and has a slightly aci- 
dulous, styptic, metallic taste. It is used in both 
human and veterinary medicine; but in large 
doses is a poison. It serves as a human tonic in 
dyspepsy, fluor albus, and some convulsive affec- 
tions ; as a human emetic in cases which require 
almost instantaneous emetic action ; and as a lo- 
tion in some kinds of superficial inflammations. 
It serves in farriery as a good general caustic, as 
a lotion in the after-stages of inflammation of the 
eye, as a good application to indolent ulcers and 
in the latter stages of grease, and, under discri- 
minating conditions, as a tonic for the horse but 
not for the cow. “It has been recommended as 
a tonic remedy for the horse,” says White, “in 
doses of from half an ounce to six drachms; but 
I have seen it given to the extent of eight ounces 
at one dose to a glandered horse by way of ex- 
periment, without producing much inconveni- 
ence. ‘The only effect produced, was upon the 
urinary organs, occasioning a frequency and a 
little difficulty in staling.” 
WHITE WATER. ‘Tepid water containing 
bran or oatmeal, and given as a drink toa horse. 
Many horses who are bad feeders, and who be- 
come incapable of eating after very fatiguing 
labour or exercise, are refreshed and sustained 
by a drink of this kind, containing from a pint 
to a quart of oatmeal. 
WHITFIELDIA. A recently discovered genus 
of ornamental exotic plants, of the acanthus fa- 
mily. The brick-coloured species, W. lateritiaf 
was introduced to Britain from the interior of 
Sierra Leone, a few years ago, by the gentleman 
in honour of whom the genus is named. It is a 
small, bushy, evergreen, stove shrub; and thrives 
best ina light open loamy compost. Its branches 
WHITFIELDIA. 719 
