NET. A device for catching fish fowl, and sometimes quadrupeds. It is formed by threads interlaced. For making nets, about a dozen wooden needles of various sorts, some round, others flat, will be re sors, and a reel to wind off the thread. The packthread or strong cord must be the evenest that can be procured, and the size of the meshes depends upon the object for which the net is intended. HALLIER, BIRD-CATCHING, &c. horse having been secured upon his | The inferior portion of the nerve, or side, an incision, about three inches that which remains next the hoof, above the most prominent part of is to be drawn out by forceps, and the fetlock joint, that is the most cut out to the extent of from half an prominent part when viewed side-inch to an inch. The skin should ways, and just within the back then be closed, and one stitch apsinew. The incision is to be made plied, which concludes the operaquite through the skin to the cellu- tion. No dressing or bandage is lar substance, and the instrument necessary, and the wound will heal should be sharp, so that the first in about three weeks. It will be stroke of it may be sufficient to make advisable to turn the horse out to the incision, and thus be the less grass a little before the wound is painful to the animal as well as more healed, and he should be kept there creditable to the operator; how- for about a fortnight or three weeks, ever, care must be taken not to carry or perhaps more. the incision down to the cellular substance, which will appear on opening the skin. This must then carefully be dissected away, and the nerve will appear, and immediately behind it a vein of a bluish colour. A crooked needle, armed with aquisite, a pair of round-pointed scissmall ligature, or twine, is now to be carefully passed under the nerve from within outward, and the operator must not touch the vein with the point, lest it be wounded, and so embarrass him with the blood which must consequently flow. TO avoid this, the needle should be a little blunt at the point. When this is done, the needle is to be removed from the twine, and, the nerve having been gently drawn out by the ligature, the cellular substance underneath it is to be cautiously dissected away, taking care not to wound in the slightest degree the nerve itself. A curved bistoury is now to be passed under the nerve, as high up as can be admitted, and at one steady, clean, and well directed cut, it is to be divided. The bistoury must be as sharp as possible, and the cut to be drawn, and not by pressing the blade directly upwards, as the least laceration of the nerve is dangerous, as well as unnecessarily painful to the animal The operation itself, of dividing the nerve, gives excessive and sudden pain, which causes the horse to struggle violently; this must be guarded against; but when the division is complete the pain is over. See NETS FOR FISHING. The principal are the drag-net, the flew, and the casting-net; for the DRAGNET, see that article. The flew is of two kinds, the one for drawing, the other to be placed either as a stop to a drag-net, or to be set and left in a pond or river to intercept the fish. When fishing with flews, the common practice of disturbing the water by poles, &c. is very absurd. Pike, tench, and perch will strike the flew more readily when the water is quite still, and carp hide themselves under the banks at the least noise. The casting-net is thrown from a person's shoulder, and requires great skill and dexterity in the person who casts it, which can only be acquired by long practice; the great art is to spread it wide, and yet not throw it high in the air. If not thrown wide, so that the leads may form a large circle, few fish will be surrounded by it; and if thrown high, which is the usual method employed by the unskilful to obtain a wide spread, the fish will be alarmed, and quit the place. If the pond is muddy, the net should be suffered to remain some minutes before it is drawn out, that the fish may rise; for carp, especially when first alarmed, are apt to strike into the mud. Mr. Daniel (from whose valuable work this article is extracted) observes, that a piece of crumb of bread, put into the stomach of either carp or tench, suspected to be tainted with mud, will absorb all the disagreeable taste, but should be taken out before they are sent to table. NEWFOUNDLAND DOG (Canis sensilis). A variety of large size, superior strength and sagacity, and a docile disposition; his feet are more palmated than is usual in webfooted dogs, and he is remarkably partial to the water. The breed was originally brought from the island of Newfoundland, where they are extremely useful to the settlers on the coasts, and are employed in drawing wood from the interior of the country to the seaside; three or four of them yoked to a sledge I will draw two or three hundred weight of wood, piled upon it, for several miles with great ease. The real Newfoundland dog may be broken in to any kind of shooting; and without additional instruction is generally under such command that he may be safely kept in if required to be taken out with pointers. For finding wounded game of every description, there is not his equal in the canine race; and he is a sine qua non in the general pursuit of wild-fowl. NICKING. As this operation is seldom performed, we shall not occupy any space in describing a modus operandi of fanciful cruelty, in addition to what will be found in the article DOCKING. NICKING. A term of great reproach, among Meltonians, to those who are so shabby as to cut across to the hounds, when it is esteemed so much more honourable to follow their very track; by which spirited line of conduct they may be pretty certain of never seeing them at all. -Notes to Billesdon Coplow. NIDE. A brood: as a nide of pheasants. NIGHT FISHING. Generally practised by poachers who are in some cases the lessees or takers of the rivers. The darkest night and the lowest period of flood are the most favourable to this destructive and illegal sport; and the torch or lantern is employed to attract or arrest the fish, while the poacher's gaff or spear is struck into them. NIGHT HAWK (Falco nocturnus). A bird peculiar to North America; it makes its appearance at evening time, and is seen high in the air in eager pursuit of insects; it is sometimes mistaken for the whip-poor-will. NIGHT HOOKS. To set night hooks for eels; take a strong even cord of length sufficient to reach the bottom in the deepest places, on this, and at equal distances, tie five or six lines about eighteen inches long, each with a slip-knot, to each of which fasten on a hook, baited with a minnow, loach, bullhead, or other suitable eel-bait; to one extremity of the principal line, append a heavy weight, which throw out into a silent and deep place, or at the tail of a deep stream, making fast the other end to a bough or stump on the water side, and let it remain till morning. NIGHT-MARE. A malady incident to horses as well as human bodies, proceeding from the same causes; it will cause the horse to sweat more in the night than in the day, and thereby deprive him of his rest. You may discover it by observing it in the morning, whether he sweats on the flanks, neck, and short ribs, which are sure indications of it. NIPPERS (in Farriery). Four teeth in the fore part of a horse's mouth, two in the under and two in the upper jaw, which he puts forth between the second and third years. NIPPERS (in Farriery). An instrument with which the smith or farrier cuts off the points of the nails driven through the hoof, before he clinches or rivets them, and which he also uses in taking off a shoe. NOSE-BAG. A bag made to contain part of the head of a horse, and is fastened by buckling behind the ears. It is used for giving chaff or other provender in. NOSE-BAND, or MUSSROLL.That part of a head-stall of a bridle that comes over a horse's nose. NOSTRILS OF A HORSE, should be large and extended, so that the red within them may be perceived, especially when he sneezes; the wideness of the nostrils does not a little contribute to the easiness of breathing. NUX VOMICA. A flat, compressed, round fruit, about the breadth of a shilling, that is brought from the East Indies. It is a certain poison for dogs and cats, &c. and is, illegally, infused into beer, to give it an intoxicating quality. : OATS. A well known grain, constituting a material part of the food of horses. Gibson reckons them to be of a middle nature between wheat and barley they are so generally palatable to horses, that he never knew a foreign horse, accustomed to barley and other kinds of grain, refuse to eat them. Many of our horses will not relish barley unless it be scalded, or they are first suffered to be very hungry, and even then they do not care to eat it. Formerly wheat was given to racehorses, as more nourishing than oats; but now the latter form the chief food for all descriptions of horses. "Oats," says he, are cleansing and opening, and horses seldom receive any damage from them, unless given with too liberal a hand, and then they are looked upon to be heating. Besides, when horses have too many oats, they are apt to eat little or no hay. But this seldom happens, except where hay is scarce, or not good of its kind, and oats are plentiful; but horses that eat little hay, and many oats, though their flesh is generally firm, yet they seldom carry any belly, and, if they have not a great deal of exercise, are apt to fall into fevers." Mr. White observes, "New oats are difficult of digestion, and apt to cause flatulent cholic and diarrhea. At whatever price good old oats may be sold they will always be found the cheapest." In confirmation of this opinion, we add the authority of Nimrod, who, in one of his admirable letters on the Condition of Hunters, thus counsels: -"Oats should be short and sweet, and should rattle as they are put in the bin, and if of the last year's growth but one, they are to be preferred." OILS. A class of fluid medicinal substances, obtained either by distillation or pressure from animals and vegetables, and are defined by modern chemists to be proper juices of a fat or unctuous nature, either solid or fluid, indissoluble in water, combustible with flame, and volatile in different degrees. OLD ENGLISH HOUND. Distinguished by its great size and superior strength; the body is long, with a deep chest, the ears long and gave him half a stone. In May, 1724, he beat the Duke of Bolton's Sloven, and gave him 10lb. for the year. May 11, 1726, he beat the same horse, 8 st. each. Partner was sire of Sedbury, Tartar, Cato, Traveller, Badger,Grisewood's Partner, Little John, Looby, Duke of Bolton's Little John, Barforth, the Widdrington Mare, Vane's Little Partner, Parker's Lady Thigh, Grisewood's Lady Thigh, Lodge's Roan Mare, &c. &c. He died in Mr. Croft's stud, at Barforth, Yorkshire, in 1747, aged 29. OLFACTORY NERVES. The sense of smell is mostly connected with our enjoyment; occasionally, however, it is a source, perhaps a useful one, of inconvenience and annoyance. In the quadruped it is connected with life itself; it is that by which the animal is guided in the choice of wholesome food, and by which also he is chiefly led to the perpetuation of his species. An acute sense of smell is necessweeping, and the tone of its voice sary to the quadruped. Every plant peculiarly deep and mellow. It has its peculiar scent, and probably possesses the most exquisite sense a scent of a marked character as of smelling, and can often discover connected with nutrition or destructhe scent an hour after the beagles tion. We find out something of this have given it up. Dogs of this kind by experience; the brute learns it were formerly more common in Bri- by mingled experience and instinct. tain, and said to have attained a Without instruction, and without greater size than they do at present. experience the beast has generally OLD PARTNER, was bred by some salutary warning to guide him Mr. Pelham, in 1718. He is allow- to that which is nutritive, and to ed to have been as fine a stallion as warn him from that which would be any ever bred in this kingdom; he poisonous. He is however somewas a chestnut horse, with a blaze times deceived; but that is only in in his face, and both his hind legs the early part of the spring, when white; he possessed great power the scent of the infant plant is not and exquisite beauty. Old Partner developed. Horses at grass are frewas got by Jigg (son of the Byerly quently ill at that time, and cattle Turk); his dam (sister to Mixbay), more seriously so, and, occasionally, by Curwen's Bay Barb; his gran- they are actually poisoned. When dam, by Old Spot; his great gran- the great Linnæus visited Tornea, dam, by the chestnut white-legged the inhabitants complained of a disLowther Barb, out of the old Vint- temper which killed many of their ner mare. On the 2nd of April, cattle, and especially when first when rising five, he beat Sir Ro- turned out into the meadows in bert Fragg's Baxter, same age, and spring. He soon traced the disorder gave him 2st.; May 1, he beat Lord to the water hemlock (cicuta), which Drogheda's Tipler, same age, and grew abundantly there, and which in the spring the cattle did not know how to avoid. Instinct is not an unerring guide; it is a powerful principle, and was wisely and kindly given where reason is limited; it dees not, however, always guide the animal when placed in an unnatural situation, or shield him from the consequences of our absurd management. When our calves and lambs are taken too soon from the dam, and turned with little or no experience into the pasture, they eat indiscriminately every herb that presents itself, and many of them are lost. Had they been suffered to browse a little while, or a little longer, with the mother, she would have taught them to distinguish the sweet and wholesome herbage from the deleterious and destructive. This is a point of agricultural economy not sufficiently attended to. Here we cannot refrain from making an extract from Professor Youatt's Fifth Veterinary Lecture, delivered at the University of London. Speaking of the acuteness of smell in different animals, Mr. Youatt says, "Observe all our domesticated animals, how carefully they examine their food and their water, and judge of their good or bad qualities by the smell. They submit every stranger to the scrutiny of this sense and form their opinion of him, and even of his intentions, by the intelligence which they obtain through its medium. Passing by all other animals, we trace in the dog the triumph of olfactory power. How indistinct must be that scent which is communicated to, and lingers on the ground, by the momentary contact of the pricks of the hare, the ball of the fox, or the slot of the deer! Yet the hound of various breeds recognises it for hours, and some sportsmen have said for more than a day; and he can not only distinguish the scent of one species of animal from another, but that of different animals of the same species. The fox-hound, well broken in, will rarely challenge at the scent of the hare, nor will he be imposed upon when the crafty animal that he pursues has himself taken refuge in the earth, and thrust out a new victim before the pack. The bloodhound, too, gives interesting proof of almost incredible acuteness of smell." For the immediate and natural purposes of the animal, instinct is strong, but nature has made no provision for our folly. Galen once took a kid from the womb of its mother, and carried it into an adjoining room he had previously prepared three dishes, containing various sweetened and tempting things, and one of corn, and one of simple milk. The little animal after having licked and cleaned itself for a while, got up and smelled at every dish, and began to lap the milk, and drank it up. Here instinct was as strong as the purposes of the creature required. Milk was destined to be his first food, and instinct led OPHTHALMIA. When the comhim immediately to that. But na-plaint is the result of external injury, ture designed that he should be gra- use a little of the following eye-wadually accustomed to his after-food ter:-take Goulard's extract one by the side and under the tuition of ounce, rose-water one quart, shake his dam. But if the farmer, from together in a bottle. In all cases of ignorance or caprice, or because he inflammation of the eyes, a purging thinks he can rear a few more calves, ball must be given; first, with a or bring his lambs or their mothers mash, and then on using the followearlier to market, separates the one ing eye-water:-Of sulphate zinc from the other, and turns out his three drachms, of common water young stock to browse, inexperi- one pint, mix, and wash a little into enced and untaught, why he must the eye. This is the best possible take the consequence of his folly collyrium for all sore eyes; the eyeand his avarice. lids must be well bathed with this |