Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 3, 1802).djvu/287

NIG yellow ; and by the volatile alkali, blue solutions. This semi-metal can with great difficulty be fused with other me- tals. We understand, however, from a foreign writer, that the Chinese, by the addition of nickel, prepare their ivhit? copper, which is an elegant composition, and may be applied in the arts, to many useful purposes. Nicking. 8ee Horse, vol. ii. p. 484. NIGHTINGALE, ox Motacilla lucinia, L. a small bird, remarka- ble for the melody of its notes : the feathers of the head, neck, and back, are sallow ; the wings and tail brighter than the rest of its body ; and the whole creature weighs scarcely one ounce. Nightingales are birds of passage, probably from Asia, visiting Bri- tain in the beginning of April, and returning to the warmer cl)mates in August; — they never unite in iiocks, and their habitations are generally at a distance from each iother. The female constructs her nest in low bushes or quickset hedges, well covered with foliage, in the vicinity of brooks ; it is ex- ternally composed of dry leaves, mixed with grass and fibres, and lined with hair or down : here she deposits four or five olive-green eggs. During the period of incu- bation, the females alone sit on tl,e (eggs, while the males in the vici- nity, in a manner emulate with their melodious songs ; but they cease to exert their powerful voice as soon as the young are hatched, when they assist in feeding their nestlings. There are two varieties of this bird, namely, those with a larger and longer body, which sing only ^t night} and others which are NI G % smaller, of a colour inclining to a red shade, and warble more fre- quently during dav-light. Some- times also, they are of a whitish, cast, but rarely met with in our climate. Nightingales are often reared from the nest ; though old birds, by proper management, may be taught to bear confinement, and to vie in their song with the young ones. As they cannot endure cold, their cages should, in the winter season, be suspended in a warm place ; for otherwise they cannot be presers'ed alive. The proper food for nightingales is, spiders, wood-lice, ants- eggs, flies, and worms ; as tiieir diet, in general, agrees with them bet- ter, when mixed with nnimal food. These birds are subjeft to various diseases, which, according to some ornithologists, may be averted by giving them, in the month of March, one black spider every day, for six davs in succession. NIGHT-MARE, or In ml- us, a singular atfedion, occasioned by a' spasmodic state either ot the lungs or the abdomen ; by a redundancy of blood, or a partial stagnation, in its passage through the heart and the pulmonary vessels. During this affeftion, the patient perceives, or imagines that he feels, an uncommon oppression in the region of the breast and stomach, which no effort can remove. Some- times he groans, and screams, but more frequently in vain endeavours to speak. At other times, he fan- cies himself stmggling with an ene- my, or M'ith demons : to be in a house that is in flames ; or in dan- ger of being drowned, &c, so that the terror induced by the frightful ideas which accompany these un-- easy sensations, causes a tingling ia