Vermilion

“ An adult male has the general coloring of P. igneus, but is larger and the central tail-feathers are tipped with vermilion. The four outer primaries are black, and at least seven of the secondaries have vermilion markings on the outer webs toward their tips, as well as the broad vermilion bars across their bases. ”

“ Male. Generally rich pure vermilion, similar to that of æstiva, but lighter, brighter than in eastern examples, and less rosaceous than in Central American specimens. Upper surface scarcely darker than lower, the head above being hardly [Pg 445] different from the throat, and abruptly lighter than the back, which, with the wings and tail, is of a much lighter dusky-red than in æstiva ”

“ Usually this is done by thickly painting on vermilion and red lead mixed with varnish, or brushing on red lead mixed with thick glue, as a base on which to subsequently lay the vermilion. I may point out, however, that blood differs in tint, and that the appearance of torn flesh, fresh blood, and coagulated blood is best got by painting the parts with wax, and tinting, with a little vermilion, some madder brown, or madder lake (a rather expensive colour) , and light red, arranged and blended one with the other as in nature. ”

“ The male, on account of the splendid vermilion of his plumage, always attracts attention; and though rather shy and careful in exposing himself, is frequently shot by gunners for no other purpose than the possession of such a handsome bird.
The colors of our northern Cardinal bird are vermilion, with the throat black. In Mexico, there is found another beautiful species, singularly resembling in form and color that to which we have just alluded, but wanting the black throat. ”

“ Cennino Cennini, writing about this pigment, says: “But remember that vermilion is not durable when exposed to the air; it is more lasting on pictures than on walls, because, by long exposure to the air, it becomes black when applied to walls.”
It is a fact that vermilion does change in this way, but it is debatable whether it is affected by the air. It is thought by some that the action of the sun’s rays is a more likely cause of change. There are two varieties of mercuric sulphide, the red and the black; unfortunately the red is liable to change into the black. ”

“ This order is confirmed by the result that the number of cross-overs between fused and vermilion is greater than that between bar and vermilion.
In order to obtain data to balance viability effects, the following experiment was made:
Vermilion (not-bar) fused males were bred to (red) bar (not-fused) females. The daughters and sons were bar. The daughters were back-crossed, singly, to vermilion fused males and gave the results shown in table 35. Each female was also transferred to a second culture bottle, so that for each female there are two broods given consecutively (82, 82′, etc.) ”

“ Pictures should seem to be painted with colour, not with pigment, the material being lost amid the hues, tints, and shades; but with such compounds as vermilion, the art of concealing art becomes difficult indeed. The pigment is apt to predominate over the colour, and the painting to look mechanical rather than natural: particles are apparent where hues alone should be seen, and all sense of reality is destroyed. For these reasons, vermilion is a dangerous pigment in unskilled hands, needing an intimate acquaintance with its physical properties. ”

“ Male with the head and hind neck ultramarine-blue, eyelids vermilion; fore part of back and scapulars yellowish-green; rump purplish-red; smaller wing-coverts purplish-blue, secondary coverts green; quills and tail-feathers dusky; lower parts bright vermilion. Female yellowish-green above, greenish-yellow beneath. Young like the female. In the second year, the male with the upper parts olive-green, the lower dull orange, paler behind, head as in the adult; in the third year, with the back mottled with yellow and light green, the secondary coverts green, the rest as in the adult. ”

“ But still more confusion meets us: the word vermilion which is now used for a red colour of mineral origin, is derived from vermis, a worm, and should therefore also be applied to cochineal. The word pink, one of the most familiar of plant-names, has a curious origin, being simply the German p. 112Pfingst, a corruption of Pentecost, i.e. the fiftieth day after Easter.
The tendency to make some kind of sense, or at least something familiar, from the unfamiliar, comes out in name service-tree (Pyrus torminalis) . ”

“ Another method is to add vermilion and golden ochre to white, which gives a nice bright color. Venetian red and chrome, added to white, gives a duller color. Still another mixture is Venetian red, vermilion, yellow ochre and white.
Scarlet Lake. A color very similar may be obtained in one of the many vermilionettes on the market. It will be convenient to remember that all vermilions are lightened by the use of pale chrome instead of white lead. Lead takes down the brilliancy of the color, producing a pink. ”

“ The arrangements of the works for the manufacture of vermilion in the dry way consist of:—One sulphur stamp battery. One amalgamating plant with eighteen small barrels; both pieces of apparatus being driven by a two horse-power water-wheel. Four sublimation furnaces, each with six retorts of cast iron. Four vermilion mills, each driven by a water-wheel of 2·5 horse-power. Kettles and vats for heating, digesting, and refining the ground cinnabar. One drying hearth. ”

“ The cross-over value for white (eosin) and vermilion, based on a very large amount of data, is about 31 units. An experiment of our own in which cherry was used with vermilion gave a cross-over value of 31 units, which is a close approximation to the cross-over value of white and vermilion. The cross which gave this data was that of a cherry vermilion (double recessive) male by wild females. The F1 wild-type flies inbred gave a single class of females (wild-type) and the males in four classes which show by the deviation from a 1:1:1:1 ratio the amount of crossing-over involved. ”

“ The best comes from China. Artificial vermilion is also made both in China and in this country from a mixture of sulphur and mercury. Genuine vermilion is very durable, but when mixed with red lead, as it is sometimes, it will not stand the weather. It can be tested by heating in a test tube; if genuine it will entirely volatilize. German vermilion is the tersulphide of antimony, and is of an orange-red color. ”

“ Adult female.—General color above dull ashy gray, the lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts fine vermilion; four median tail-feathers black, the remainder vermilion with black bases, gradually increasing in extent toward the inner ones; quills black, with a broad bar of orange near the base of the quills, extending along the outer web of some of the inner primaries; ear-coverts gray; lores, feathers round the eye, cheeks, and under surface of body bright yellow, inclining to orange on the flanks and under tail-coverts; thighs blackish ”

“ Face very red, culminating in a bright crimson on the nose. The face should be colored with vermilion, which can be procured in a powdered state at any color store. If you get it in this state mix it with water, to which add a very small quantity of gum or glue. The best plan, however, is, if convenient, to purchase a cake of vermilion such as is used for water-colors.
Hair, eyebrows, and moustache must be very white. The hair and moustache can be made white [Pg 166] by dressing with plenty of pomatum, and then sprinkling them liberally with flour from the flour dredger. ”

“ Vermilion is one of the highly-prized carriage painting pigments, and the best is none too good to meet the requirements of good work. To test the color, heat a small quantity in a porcelain vessel over an alcohol lamp. The adulterated vermilion, in burning, will leave a sediment either red, black, or perhaps white. The genuine quicksilver vermilion invariably proves fugitive when submitted to intense heat.
The refuse oil of pine or coal tar is a useful oil to keep upon the paint shop shelves. ”

“ A married woman has a cloth over her head, and smears vermilion on the parting of her hair and also on her forehead. An unmarried girl may have the copper ring already mentioned, and may place a dab of vermilion on her forehead, but must not smear it on the parting of her hair. She goes bare-headed till marriage, as is the custom in Chhattīsgarh. A widow should not have vermilion on her face at all, nor should she use glass bangles or ornaments about the ankles. She may have a string of glass beads about her neck. A woman’s cloth is usually white with a broad red border all round it. ”

“ Their vermilion, prepared from the same cinnabar which we ourselves employ, is far brighter than ours; the blue colors on their china are more perfect; while, in the ingenious carving of ivory into fans, pagodas, or nested balls, no other artists can vie with them. ”

“ The best vermilion is a powerful vivid colour, higher in tone than all reds, except the scarlet iodide of mercury. With this it should not be compounded, but with other pigments it may safely be used in admixture, as far as its own colour is concerned. Of great body, weight, and opacity, it is a somewhat slow drier; and does not retain that brilliancy when dry, which is peculiar to it while wet. A want of transparency, and not drying well, prevent its being so generally employed as would be desirable. ”

“ If we imagine, first, that it had been steeped in the blackest ink, and then, when dry, allowed to crawl over a board, freshly painted with the brightest vermilion, so as to colour the soles of its feet and parts of its stomach, a good idea of its appearance will be gained. ”

“ Crest-feathers vermilion with black shafts; no red tinge on wings, and only a slight tinge of it on tail. Forepart of cheeks and middle of throat white; rest of lower part deep ochraceous. Black around bill as in the male. Hab. Northern South America; Venezuela ”

“ Its natural hue is a dark crimson, but it is susceptible of being changed, by the application of heat, into a rich vermilion. Of the latter, the purple-shouldered is the most rare and the most beautiful. The upper parts of its wings or shoulders are the deepest purple; the remainder of the wings is interspersed with blue, and they end in black. Its back is blue mingled with black; its breast is a delicate blue, and the lower part of its neck is a dark crimson. I describe the male bird only; for (unlike bipeds without feathers) it monopolises the beauty of the species. ”

“ The young males of this species do not possess the brilliancy and richness of plumage which the old birds display, until the second year, the first being spent in the garb worn by the females; but, towards the second autumn, appear mottled with pure black and vermilion on their sides. Notwithstanding their want of full plumage, they breed and sing the first spring like the old males. ”

“ In fact, these two kinds of sophistication are often associated. Thus vermilion is adulterated with red lead, with red antimonv sulphide, or with baryta white and lead sulphate, and then the hue of the mixture is restored to the proper pitch by the introduction of the powerful but fugitive colouring matter eosin. Amongst other adulterations which may be named here are the addition of chrome-yellow (lead chromate) to yellow ochre, of green ultramarine to terre verte, and of indigo to ivory black ”

“ The representation in the embroidery picture is recalled also by the deep yellow colour of the flesh in our painting as well as by the shape and certain details in the canopy. The elongated vesica, cobalt blue in its border, and the light green and vermilion nimbus are both edged with flames and cloud scrolls in vermilion and dark blue. More true to nature than the vulture on the top is the flight of wild geese and ducks shown above. ”

“ Summer—head and upper part of the neck deep brown; lower part of the neck and all the under plumage white, slightly tinged with rose; upper plumage bluish ash; primaries white, edged with ash, and broadly tipped with black; irides brown; bill and feet red, with a purple tinge. In winter the head and neck are white; bill and feet bright vermilion. In young birds the hood is pale brown; the upper plumage dark brown, mottled at the edges of the feathers with yellowish; bill livid at the base, the tip black; feet yellowish. Length seventeen inches. Eggs olive, spotted with brown and dusky. ”

“ Painting the face is a very common practice; vermilion is the favorite pigment, and is usually rubbed in without the least regard to pattern or effect; blue and black colors also are used in the same manner, but I have never seen their limbs or bodies so treated, which is the common method of meat-eating savages, who always paint themselves with great care as to exact and symmetrical design. ”

“ One of the first to catch the eye, by its gorgeous colour, is a rather thin, soft, spreading patch, of the richest vermilion hue. [158] It is of close substance, the surface covered with shallow irregular sinuous channels and minute orifices. It rarely exceeds an inch in diameter, but throws out slender clinging processes to some length. The flesh is dense. Under the microscope it contains three-rayed spicula, which are for [Pg 318] the most part somewhat blunt, but some are very sharp. After death it rapidly loses its brilliant hue, and dries of a dull oak-brown. ”

“ Next, a decidedly more luminous gray is compared with the vermilion, and its luminosity gradually diminished till again there is doubt as to which of the two, the gray or the vermilion, is the more luminous; and then, again, the white sector is measured. The mean of ten such experiments showed that when the luminosity of both disks was the same, the white sector of the black-and-white disk was 23.8 of its whole area, and hence that the luminosity of the vermilion cardboard was in the same ratio, namely, 23.8 per cent, to white. ”