to the business of a second brood: while the first flight, shaken off and rejected by their nurses, congregate in great flocks, and are the birds that are seen clustering and hovering, on sunny mornings and evenings, round towers and steeples, and on the roofs of churches and houses. These congregatings usually begin to take place about the first week in August; and therefore we may conclude that by that time the first flight is pretty well over. Martins love to frequent towns, especially if there are great lakes and rivers at hand. They are by far the least agile of the British hirundines; their wings and tails are short, and therefore they are not capable of such surprising turns, and quick and glancing evolutions, as the swallow. Accordingly, they make use of a placid easy motion, in a middle region of the air, seldom mounting to any great height, and never sweeping long together over the surface of the ground or water. They do not wander far for food; but affect sheltered districts, over some lake, or under some hanging wood, or in some hollow vale, especially in windy weather. They breed the latest of all the swallow kind; in 1772 they had nestlings until October the 21st, and are never without young as late as Michaelmas. As the summer declines, the congregating flocks increase in numbers daily, by the constant accession of the second broods; till at last they swarm in myriads upon myriads round the villages on the Thames, darkening the face of the sky as they frequent the aits of that river, where they roost. They retire in vast flocks together about the beginning of October; but have appeared of late years in a considerable flight in this neighbourhood, for one day or two, as late as November the 3rd and 6th, after they were supposed to have been gone for more than a fortnight. They therefore withdraw, with us, the latest of any species. Unless these birds are very short-lived indeed, or unless they do not return to the district where they are bred, they must undergo vast devastations somewhere; for the birds that return yearly bear no manner of proportion to the birds that re tire. HISINGEN, an island in the south-west of Sweden, at the mouth of the large river GothaElf, on which the town of Gottenburg was first built. It is about sixteen miles long and six broad. Long. 11° 4′ 8′′ E., lat. 57° 45′ N. HISPA, in zoology, a genus of insects belonging to the coleoptera order, the characters of which are these:-The antennæ are fusiform, growing gradually larger from each extremity towards the middle, and are situated between the eyes: the thorax and elytra are covered with protuberances or spines. The H. atra, found in Britain, is all over of a deep unpolished black, and has the upper part of its body entirely covered with long and strong spines, which render it bristly like the shell of a chestnut. There is even a spine at the case of the antennæ; the thorax has a row set transversely, which are forked; and the elytra are furnished with a very great number that are single. Its being thus covered with spines makes it resemble a hedgehog in miniature. It is rather difficult to catch, letting itself fall down on the ground as soon as approached. It bears its antennæ upright before it. See ENTOMOLOGY. use HIS, Pronoun possessive. Saxon byr. The masculine possessive pronoun of he, anciently used in a neutral sense, where we now say its. It is sometimes used as a sign of the genitive case; as, the man his ground, for the man's ground. It is now rarely thus used, as its proceeded probably from a false opinion that the s formative of the genitive case was his contracted. Sometimes used in opposition to this man's; anciently before self. Of his linage am I and his ofspring I serve him as his squierly pourely. HISPALIS, in ancient geography, a town of Bætica, in Hispania Ultra, an ancient mart or trading town on the Bætis, navigable quite up to it for ships of burden, and thence to Corduba for river barges. It was also. called Colonia Romulensis. It had a conventus juridicus, a court of justice or assizes. It is now called Seville. HISPANIA, in ancient geography, a country or kingdom of Europe, now called Spain; called Hesperia Ultima by Horace, because the westmost part of Europe; also Iberia, from the river Iberus. Its name Hispania, or Σnavia, is of Phoenician original, from its great number of rabbits; the Phoenicians, who settled several colonies on the coast, calling it Spanjah, from these animals. It has the sea on every side, except on that next to Gaul, from which it is separated by the Pyrenees. The Romans first divided it into Hispania Citra and Ultra under two prætors. In that state it continued down to Augustus; who divided the Farther Spain into Bætica, which he left to the people to be governed by a proconsul; and Lusitania, which he added to his own provinces; calling the Hither Spain Tarraconensis. Hispania was anciently much celebrated for its fertility, of which it has greatly fallen short in modern times. Strabo says, the people were of a warlike turn; and, their bodies being formed for hardships and labor, they ever preferred war to peace, and were remarkably prodigal of life. See SPAIN. HISPANIOLA, or St. Domingo, the largest of the Antilles or Caribbee Islands, in the West Indies. See DOMINGO (St.) HISS, v.a., v. n., & n. s. ? Sax. bircean, to HIST, interj. contemn; Dut. his sen. To utter a noise like that of a serpent and some other animals. It is remarkable, that this word cannot be pronounced without making the noise which it signifies. To condemn at a public execution; to explode; to procure disgrace: hiss, the voice of a serpent; censure; an expression of contempt, or disapprobation, as used in theatres hist, an exclamation commanding silence. Of this word I know not the original: some have thought it a corruption of hush, hush it, husht, or hist; but I have heard that it is an Irish verb commanding silence.'-Dr. Johnson. Every one will hiss him out to his disgrace. HISSAR FEROZEH, a flat district of Delhi, Hindostan, situated between the twenty-eighth and thirtieth degrees of northern latitude, on the western side of the river Jumna. The only natural stream which runs through it is the small river Sursutty; and, in order to supply this deficiency, one of the Afghaun emperors of the fourteenth century caused two canals to be cut; the first from the Setlege, the other from the Jumna, both of which joined at the town of Hissar, whence they are supposed to have been divided into a number of small cuts. Thus a part of the district received the name of Harriana, up; but the country produces horses, camels, and cattle; and during the prosperous period of the Mogul empire it was considered as the personal estate of the heir apparent. Various petty chiefs now rule here. The chief towns are Hissar, Hansy, and Sursutty. HISSAR FEROZEH, the capital of the foregoing district, is in the midst of a once sandy desert, where water was sold at a high price to the travellers that passed this way from Persia to Delhi. Sultan Feroz, having caused the two before-mentioned canals to be dug, laid the foundations of a town and fortress, to which he gave the name of the Fort of Feroz. It was built of stone brought from the neighbouring hills of Nosa, and now belongs to an independent chief. Long. 75° 53′ E., lat. 28° 41′ N. HISTER, in entomology, a genus of the coleoptera order of insects. The first articulation of the antennæ is compressed and curved; the last is considerably larger than the others, and appears to be a solid knob; the head is drawn within the body; the mouth is forcipated; the elytra are shorter than the body; and the forelegs are dentated. The body is polished and very shining, and its form almost square; the thorax large and highly polished; anteriorly it is made with a slope, in the cavity of which is lodged the head, the position of which is often only discovered by the projection of the maxilla; the head being, for the most part, so drawn under the thorax, that the insect looks as if it had none. The elytra are as it were cut off towards the extremity, and do not cover the whole of the abdomen. They are extremely smooth, and only have a few striæ, scarcely perceptible towards their outward side. Lastly, the hinder part of the abdomen, which projects beyond the elytra, is round and blunt. These insects are sometimes found in cow-dung, and often on sand. They vary prodigiously in size; but differ very little either in form or color, being all very dark. The larva, as well as the perfect insects, are frequently met with in the dung of horses, cows, &c. T HISTORY-PIECE, n. s. This false judge, that highte Appius, His works resemble a large history-piece, where even the less important figures have some convenient place. Here rising bold the patriot's honest face; It is to history he trusts for praise. What histories of toil could I declare! Pope. Id. Id. Id. 14. History, so far as it relates to the affairs of the Bible, Watts. is necessary to divines. HISTORY may, in general, be defined an account of the most remarkable events which have occured in the world, arranged in the order in which they happened, together with the causes from which they originated, and the different effects they produced. The word isopia literally denotes a search for curious things, a desire of knowing, or even a rehearsal of things we have seen; being formed from the verb isopar, which properly signifies to know a thing by having seen it. Spenser. Chaucer. The Doctoures Tale. Because the beginning seemeth abrupt, it needs that you know the occasion of these several adventares; for the method of a poet historical is not such as of ar. historiographer. But the ideas attached to it became gradually more extensive, and it is now O famous moniment of womens prayse! applied to the knowledge of things taken from Matchable either to Semiramis, the report of others: from the verb tonu, I Whom antique history so high doth rayse, know; Spenser. Or to Hypsiphil, or to Thomiris. and hence, among the ancients, several of When that which the word of God doth but deliver their great men were called polyhistores, i. e. historically, we construe as if it were legally meant, persons of various and general knowledge. and so urge it further than we can prove it was intended, do we not add to the laws of God? Hooker. What thanks sufficient, or what recompence Milton. The gospels, which are weekly read, do all historically declare something which our Lord Jesus Christ himself either spoke, did, or suffered in his own per Id. Marvell. The third age they term historicon; that is, such wherein matters have been more truly historified, and therefore may be believed. Browne's Vulgar Errours. O, muse, historify Her praise, whose praise to learn your skiil hath framed me. In an historical relation we use terms that are most proper and best known. Burnet's Theory, Our country which has produced writers of the first figure in every other kind of work, has been very barAddison. ren in good historians. What poor ideas must strangers conceive of persons famous among us, should they form their notions of them from the writings of those our historiographers. Id. With equal justice and historick care, I put the journals into a strong box, after the man- The word history is, however, sometimes used to signify a description of things, as well as an account of facts. Thus Theophrastus calls his work on the nature and properties of plants, a history of plants; we have a treatise of Aristotle, entitled a history of animals; and to this day the description of plants, animals, and minerals, are called by the general name of natural history. But what chiefly merits the name of history, and what is here considered as such, is an account of the principal transactions of mankind from the beginning of the world; generally divided into two parts, viz. civil and ecclesiastical. The first contains the history of mankind in their various relations to one another in common life; the second considers them as acting, or pretending to act, in obedience to what they believe to be the will of the Supreme Being. Civil history, therefore, includes an account of all the different states that have existed in the world, and likewise of those men who in different ages of the world have most eminently distinguished themselves, either for their good or evil actions. This last part of civil history, however, sometimes forms a distinct branch of study styled biography. Few accomplishments are more valued than an accurate knowledge of the histories of different nations; and no literary production is more respectable than a well-written history of any nation: although the truth of Goldsmith's remark must be acknowledged, that history is generally little more than the register of human contention and calamity. Geography and chronology have been called the eyes of history. The person who would |