Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/562

KINGLET. 508 KINGS. bordered with lilack. The female ha3 a paler crest or irjne. Iliey have a soft and pleasing song, frequent everyreeiis, and build beautiful eup-like nests, which hang on the twigs of trees. The eggs are numerous (5 to 10), whitish, spotted and marked with pale brown. Ten speeies are known, inliabitants of Northern Europe, Asia, and Amcriea. Two speeies are common in the I'nited States, the golden-cresced kinglet {Rcgiilus .tul- rajHi ) , which is the smaller, only 4 inches long, and the ruby-crov.ned kinglet (Ilcyuliis ciiUii- dul(i), which is 4V-; inclies in length. Both are either migrants or winter visitors in most parts of the I'nited States, l)ut the gold-crest breeds in various mountainous regions, as far south as the Carolinas, The ruby-crown is a famous songster, and one of the most notable of our spring migrants. See Plate of Wken.s, Warblebs, ETC. KING LOG. In a fable of .ICsop, a log sent by Jupiter in response to the petition of the frogs for a king. Their contempt for their new ruler, when they discovered his character, led them to ask for another king, whereupon .Jupiter sent a stork, who began to devour his subjects. The request for a third king was refused by .Jupiter, and the frogs were left to the results of their folly. As a jiopular term, King Log signifies a do-nothing ruler. KING LORY. A bird-dealer's name for an Auslraliaii ))r.rrot of the genus Ajirosmictus — not a t nic lory (q.v.) . KINGMAKER, The. A title frequently given to the powerful Richard Neville, Karl nf War- wick. See Warwick. KING MONKEY. A seninopithecine African uioiiki'v. or gueieza, of tile genus Colobus. This genus has excited much interest because of its ajiproach in some characters to the American division of monkeys. 'I'bese characters are the practical absence of the thumb and the wide- ness of the nostrils. They are slender monkeys, with well-marked callosities, and have a large, complex, sacculated .stomach and small cheek- pouches. There are about 10 species, all of Equatorial Africa, and all have beautiful skins, much in demand, whence some species are nearly exterminated. KING OF BEGGARS. A title given to Bampfylde ibioi-. Carow. a noted English vag.a- bond of the early eighteenth century. KING OF DUNCES. A nickname applied in Pope's Diinciad to I'ollej' Cibber (q.v.). KING OF THE HERRINGS. The moonfish (Lnniiirix lunn). Sic KixiiKisii: MOONFISII. The name is also applied to various other fishes, such as the chimsera and the oarfish. KING OF THE MACKERELS. A pelagic fish ( l,'fnK(ini(i hiiiicitlii ) nf eiy brilliant colors, closely allied to and shaped like ,a sunfish (Mola), which is occasionally taken off the east- em coast of the I'nited Slales. .Jordan remarks that ii similar speeies is regarded about the Sand- wich Islands with veneration as the 'king of the tunnies and mackerels.' KING OF THE MULLETS. A small fish nf the IMedilerranean (Aporimi imhr.rhis) . renowned for its beauty. It is bright scarlet, with minute black specks; fins and tail red tipped with black. The genus is a large one with species scattered throughout the troiiical worhl; all are of brilliant cardinal, scarlet or carmine hues. KING PENGUIN. The large.st of the pen- guins (. pIciKidijtiK I'cnnanii) , a native of the Falkland and other Antarctic islands. See. Plate of ArK.s. KING PHILIP'S -WAR. See Piiiui', Ki.Mi. KING RAIL. Une of the large rails {Hull us deijiins) of the Eastern I'liited States, often called 'fresh-water inarsh-hen,' in distinction from the larger, grayer elapper-rail or '.salt-water marsh-hen.' It is IS inches long, brownish black with bright chestnut below and on the wing-(toverts. it has the habits of the family. See Rail. KINGS, Books of (Heb. milakim, Gk. pifioi. ^aaiKeiuiv, bibloi basileion, Lat. libri re;/iwruiii) . The name given to two of liie canonical books of the Old Testament. Originally they were but one, but are sejiarated in the Sepliiaginl. in which they are designated 'the third and fourth of the kingdoms'- — the books of Samuel forming the first and second. This division was cojiied by the Vulgate and passed thence into the gen- eral usage of Christendom. The exact titles of these books in the English Authorized Version are. The First Hook of llie Kiiif/.i, Covniiotih/ CnUcd the Third Hook of the Kinys, and the Second Hook of the A'l'ji.r/x, Commonlji Called the Fourth Book of the Kinr/s. They embrace: (1) The reign of Solomon (1. Kings i.-xi.) ; (2) the history of the divided kingdoms of Judali and Israel to the downfall of the latter (T. Kings xii.-II. Kings xvii.) ; (.'{) the history of the Kingdom of .Iiidah after the destruction of the iKiiiliern kingdom until the Bab}'lonian captivity (II. Kings xviii.-xxv.) . The division of Kings into two books is not warranted ))y the contents any more than the separation of Kings from the two preceding Books of Samuel. The four books constitute a continuous historical series, and the Septuagint, in designating them all bv a single name, obeys a correct instinct as to their nature. They are also closely attached to all the preceding books, viz. the Pentateuch (again divided into five parts), .loshua, and .Tudges, so that it has become cus- tomary among scholars to designate by the name Octateuch the eight-book groujj represented by the Pentateuch, .Joshua, .Judges, and Kings. As a matter of fact, this Octateuch is a single work, aiming to furnish in continuous form a history of the Hebrews from the beginning of time down to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchad- nezzar II. in n.c. .586. In this Octateuch, how- ever, which is believed by critics not to have been put together in final shape till 400 n.c, a number of separate works may be distinguished. The Pentateuch and Joshua (with perliajis the additiim of .Judges) constituted each a separate compilation, again based upon the comliination of numerous independent productions, and the liooks of Samuel and Kings another, though we must lie careful not to be led astray into tl>e assumption nf a single author for these two books. What we have in Samuel and Kings is a compilation, from various sources, made by a series of editors who.se aim it was to carry the history of the Hebrews on from the point where it was left by the compiler of Judges. The first