Nippers

“ I know of no creature which, for its size, is so terribly armed as the Jacht Spinnekop; practically the whole of its huge head is transformed into two pairs of terrible nippers of quite extraordinary size and power. These nippers run straight forward, the eyes being placed just where they emerge above. Each pair of nippers has its own independent nipping action, and, in addition, each has an independent up-and-down and backward-and-forward motion, giving the jaws an awful tearing power, so that, as soon as the prey is seized, it is ripped into pieces. ”

“ The segmentation is reacquired, and the massive square head is formed from the hinder part of the head in the Praniza, the anterior portion with its stylet-like appendages being thrown away. The powerful nippers of the male are not formed inside the cases of the old styliform mandibles, but are independent and possibly not homologous organs. The meaning of the marked sexual dimorphism and the use of the males’ nippers are not in the least known, though the animals are easy to keep under observation. In captivity the males never take the slightest notice of either larval or adult females. ”

“ At 5 years the horse’s mouth is almost perfect. The corner nippers are quite up with the long, deep mark, irregular on the inside, and the other nippers bearing evident tokens of increasing wearing. The tush is much grown, the grooves have almost or quite disappeared, and the outer surface is regularly convex.
At 6 years the mark on the central nippers is worn out, though there is still a difference in the color of the centre of the teeth. The cement filling the hole, made by the dipping in of enamel, will present a browner hue than the other part of the teeth. ”

“ It was fortunate for me that, owing to its peculiar cause—indigestion—the irritability and consequent nervousness of Nippers, were mainly observable in the morning, while in the afternoon he was comparatively mild. So that Turkey's paroxysms only coming on about twelve o'clock, I never had to do with their eccentricities at one time. Their fits relieved each other like guards. When Nippers' was on, Turkey's was off; and vice versa. ”

“ At seven years old the mark, in the way in which I have described it, is worn out in the four central nippers, and is also fast wearing away in the corner teeth. I refer now to a natural mouth that has not been subjected to injuries. At eight years old the mark is gone from all the bottom nippers, and may be said to be quite out of the mouth. There is nothing remaining in the bottom nippers by which the age of the mule can be positively ascertained. The tushes are a poor guide at any time in the life of the animal to ascertain his age by ”

“ In both sexes of this remarkable genus he says, “the nippers, or chelipeds, are singularly unequal in size, and in all the species but one there is present on the inner surface of the ‘hand’ of the larger cheliped a transverse row of five teeth, which, when the cheliped is flexed, can be made to play against a ridge or another row of teeth on its ‘arm’ ... much as a man might rub one side of his chest with the palm of the corresponding hand. ”

“ The tool for chipping away the wood consists of two curved fangs or teeth, almost black, one on each side of the mouth, which open and shut like a pair of cutting nippers. They are called mandibles and are in reality jaws or, more properly, teeth which, instead of meeting in a vertical plane as do ours, come together horizontally or sidewise. For precision of movement these mandibles are superior to our best cutting nippers, and for hardness they are almost equal to steel. They seize the wood, bit by bit, patiently and untiringly ”

“ Between the ages of five and nine, considerably more experience is necessary for an accurate judgment than has been required before. At nine years of age the previous oval shape of the teeth becomes more triangular; at ten the central nippers take a pronounced triangular shape, and the middle pair give evidence of a like tendency, followed at eleven years by the growth of the corner nippers in the same direction. ”

“ The female seldom has them, although the germ is always present in the jaw. At four years and a half, or between that and five, the last important change takes place in the mouth of the mule. The corner nippers are shed, and the permanent ones begin to appear. ”

“ Once or twice it happened that she was aroused from her torpor at night by feeling a firm, hard grasp upon her body, and she darted round in a circle like a dog after its tail; but the Nipper always knew when to let go.
One day she was also obliged to leave this hole. She managed to break down the ridge between her and a neighbouring pit, where she enjoyed a few months’ ease and comfort. Here she passed the winter, and cleared the mud of every tench, every leech, and every snail. ”

“ In those days she spelt the name 'Nippie,' and had it thus engraved in monogram on the birch-bark cards she was in the habit of leaving at the nests of her acquaintances. Later, she changed it again to plain 'Nippy;' and the other squirrels agreed it was just as well she should,—for reasons.
"A fashionable belle of the first water was Nippie,—slender, graceful, bewitching,—with a most beautiful long tail, which she put up in hot pine-needles every night, and fluffed out in the morning till it stood like a glory round her head when she waved it. ”

“ The Dipper is in many respects one of the most interesting of our native birds. Residing chiefly in the wild glens of the mountainous districts, it now and then presents itself to the wandering naturalist as it flits along the streams, or is seen perched on a stone in the midst of the water, the white patch on its breast rendering it conspicuous at a great distance. Even the mere collector of plants, who, of all men, seems to be the least capable of comprehending the harmonies of nature, pauses to gaze upon it, as it shoots past him in its rapid and even flight ”

“ Though neither furnished with web-feet like the Ducks, nor with long legs like the Waders, the Dipper is decidedly an aquatic bird, for he is never seen at any distance from a stream or mountain tarn; in his habits he resembles no other of his tribe—a water bird with a song—a song bird that wades, and swims. That he should be so far only singular in his habits is not enough. Although he is a wader he wades differently from other birds; and he uses his wings like oars. The Dipper uses both legs and wings in search of prey, examining the pebbles, feeding on molluscs and the larvæ of insects. ”

“ A little way along a path we arrived at a small jheel, on which were a diver and several whistling teal. Birds were numerous amongst the trees, where parrots (P. erythrogenys) and pigeons dwelt in flocks, and on the ground megapodes ran about calling to each other, but were too well concealed, by the tall grass and bushes that grew everywhere, for successful collecting. We got here the Nicobar fly-catcher, in plumage of dark chestnut, with steely-black head, and Geocichla albigularis, a pretty grey, olive and cinnamon thrush, a shy bird that kept down on the ground or hid itself in low bushes. ”

“ On several occasions I have disturbed young Dippers in the nest when they were ready to fly, and have seen them one by one plunge into a deep, clear pool and progress just as if they were flying slowly and heavily along under water until they came to shore or were compelled to rise to the surface from exhaustion.
The Dipper is a sweet singer, but the listener requires to be very close to the little vocalist before he is in a position thoroughly to appreciate the bird’s low, soft, warbling song, which, although of no great length, is practised even in the middle of winter. ”

“ The plumage of the nape of the neck, back, wings, and tail is of a dark slate colour; the lower part of the body white, marked upon the sides of the breast with a greyish shade; the head, gorge, and fore part of the neck are, with the exception of the black ear-covers, of a deep blood red, the back of the neck being separated from the grey nape by a white band. The upper mandible is of a blackish grey, the lower one of a whitish tint; the eye is brown, and the legs a brownish flesh colour. There is but little difference between the plumage of the male and female. ”

“ Pricilla sung and plaid and Nipper rote down the geese sum on the blackboard and rote his name under it jest as good as he cood. i wanted to rite Nipper under it but old Francis wood paist time out of me if he found out who rote it. you aught to hear Pricil play and sing. he sings do your best for one another making life a plesent dream, help a poor and weried brother puling hard agenst the streem, and the old organ goes boom ya, boom ya, boom ya ya ya, that is a prety song for a feller to sing whitch never will give the fellers the core of his apple but always eats it hisself. ”

“ The young of the viper is born inside a membrane that bursts from off the young creature in three days; and at times the young viper eats its way out from the inside of the egg. The mother viper brings forth all its young in one day, twenty in number, and one at a time. The other serpents are externally oviparous, and their eggs are strung on to one another like a lady's necklace; after the dam has laid her eggs in the ground she broods over them, and hatches the eggs in the following year. ”

“ That although the doctors tried,
Not the best in Edinburgh
Could assist him, and he died.
And THE MORAL is: The piper
Of the matter made a botch;
One can hardly blame the viper
If she took a nip of Scotch,
For she only did what he did,
And his nippie wasn’t small,
Otherwise, you see, he needed
Not have seen the snake at all. ”

“ That the mollusca above mentioned form a principal part of its food was never suspected, and therefore I was much pleased with making the discovery, which satisfactorily accounted to me for all the subaqueous excursions of the species.
“The Dipper is generally seen in pairs, sometimes singly, and, for a short period, at the breeding season, in families but never in flocks. In some favourite places, such as a water-fall, or a series of rapids, one may in winter find so many as four or five individuals, but always scattered. ”

“ NINE-PIN BLOCK. A block in that form, mostly used for a fair-leader under the cross-pieces of the forecastle and quarter-deck bitts.
NINES, To the. An expression to denote complete.
NINGIM. A corruption of ginseng (which see) .
NIP. A short turn in a rope. Also, a fishing term for a bite. In Arctic parlance, a nip is when two floes in motion crush by their opposite edges a vessel unhappily entrapped. Also, the parts of a rope at the place bound by the seizing, or caught by jambing. Also, Nip in the hawse; hence "freshen the nip," by veering a few feet of the service into the hawse. ”

“ The Dipper must indeed be a very singular bird; instead of swimming on the surface of the water like ducks and geese, or beneath like the loons, or wading along the shores like many of the long-legged coast tribes, it actually runs or flies about at will over gravelly beds of mountain streams. ”

“ The Dipper only maintains his subaqueous position by much evident exertion of his wings and legs and feet. Generally the wings are kept in motion whilst the bird searches the bed of the stream, but sometimes these may be seen at rest, and the body is kept beneath the water by the feet clutching the big stones and the strands of moss and other aquatic plants. ”

“ We have dissected a great many Dippers at one time and another from many different localities, and have always been much impressed with the uniform similarity of the contents of their stomachs—a little grit and the remains of insects and worms. We have, however, known the Dipper in exceptional cases to prey upon small fish, but are convinced, by the experience of a lifetime, that such food is taken so rarely as scarcely to deserve mention at all. ”

“ Vipera berus, Linnæus
The Northern Viper, or Adder Form.—Short and stout. Snout flat above, rarely slightly concave, the upper contour broadly rounded or truncate in front, the canthus well marked, sometimes slightly raised, the loreal region nearly vertical. Eye as a rule smaller in females than in males, as large or nearly as large as the nasal shield; its vertical diameter equals or a little exceeds its distance from the mouth. Length of tail five and a half to nine times in total length in males, eight to ten and three-quarter times in females.
231
Fig. ”

“ While thus looking upwards, he unawares trod upon a Viper asleep just before his feet. The Viper, turning towards him, stung him; and he, falling into a swoon, said to himself, "Woe is me! that while I proposed to hunt another, am myself fallen unawares into the snares of death." ”

“ Others have the tail terminating in a small recurved spine, and others have two minute spines resembling recurved horns, on the tip of the nose. The Najas have the power of dilating the skin of the neck to an enormous extent when irritated. All the species with which we are acquainted, bring forth their young alive, the eggs being hatched in the moment of birth: the term Viper is an abbreviation of vivipara, which expresses this quality. ”

“ There is never any lining of wool or feathers, and the five or six white eggs are almost exactly the same size as those of the Song Thrush. The Dipper is an early breeder even in the northern shires, commencing to build at the end of March or early in April, and rearing several broods during the course of the season. The young birds are most interesting little creatures. ”

“ The dipper haunts rocky streams, into which it boldly enters, generally by deliberately wading, and then by the strenuous combined action of its wings and feet makes its way along the bottom in quest of its living prey—fresh-water molluscs and aquatic insects in their larval or mature condition. ”

“ This is noticeable in the African ‘nose-horned viper’ (Vipera nasicornis) , p. 322, where they present a curiously complicated structure.
Too minute to examine except under the magnifying-glass, or to attempt to illustrate, we can convey only a general idea of these curious viper scales, which to the touch are spinous, and rough as a coarse brush. They must form an unpleasant perch for a bird, if it be true that the latter is enticed by the horns of some vipers to come and peck at them, as at a worm. ”