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WILCOX-WILDBAD-GASTEIN

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler, American poet: b. Johnstown Centre, Wis., 1855. She was educated at the University of Wisconsin and in 1884 began her literary career by contributing to the periodical press, and her work has been widely read and extensively reprinted. Poems of Passion' (1883) is perhaps her best known work. Among her other publications, in verse, are: Drops of Water) (1872); Maurine and Other Poems' (1876); Poems of Pleasure' (1887); The Beautiful Land of Nod) (1892); etc. She has also written the novels: Mal Moulée (1885); A Double Life' (1890); An Erring Woman's Love' (1892); The Story of a Literary Career' (1904).

Wilcox, Marrion, American author: b. Augusta, Ga., 3 April 1858. He was graduated from Yale in 1878, studied in Germany, and was subsequently admitted to the New York bar. He has acted as instructor at Yale, was associate editor of the New Englander' and the Yale Review, and since 1893 has been engaged in editorial and other literary work in New York. He has published: Real People) (1886); A Short History of the War with Spain' (1898); 'Harper's History of the War with the Philip pines (1900); etc.

Wilcox, Robert William, American legis lator: b. Kuhulu, Honolulu, Hawaii, 15 Feb. 1855; d. Honolulu, Hawaii, 24 Oct. 1903. He was educated in Hawaii and at the Royal Military Academy, Turin, Italy. He was a member of the native legislature, led the revolution to restore the cld constitution in 1889, and in 1895 again commanded a revolution, on this occasion for the purpose of restoring Queen Liliuokalani to the throne. He was captured and sentenced to death, but through the mediation of the United States Congress the sentence was commuted to 35 years' imprisonment and $10,000 fine. He was pardoned, conditionally in 1896, and fully in 1898, by President Dole. He was elected a delegate to the United States Congress

in 1901 and served one term.

Wild, Heinrich, hin'riн vilt, Swiss meteorologist: b. Uster 17 Dec. 1833; d. Zürich 5 Sept. 1902. His education was obtained at Zürich, Königsberg, and Heidelberg, and from 1863 to 1865 he was director of the central meteorological bureau at Bern. He was called to St. Petersburg, and was director of the Russian meteorological service 1868-95, when he retired. He invented the polaristrobometer, a polarization plutometer, a magnetic theodolite, and other optical instruments, edited the Russian Neues Repertorium für Meteorologie, and published Temperatur-Verhältnisse des russischfen Reichs' (1876); and technical papers.

Wild, wild, Jonathan, English thief and informer: b. Wolverhampton, England, about 1682; d. London 24 May 1725. He was a Birmingham buckle-maker who in 1706 went to London intending to engage in his trade, but becoming involved in debt was imprisoned for four years, after which he became a receiver of stolen goods and an informer against such criminals as were not in his employ. He was hanged at Tyburn. He was the subject of Fielding's satire, History of the Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great' (1743) and also appears in Ainsworth's novel, Jack Shepherd,' as well as in various other tales and pretended biographies.

Gener

Wild Hunt (Ger. Wilde Jagd; also Wüthenheer), in German folk-lore, a fancied noise in the air at night, most usually supposed to be heard between Christmas and Epiphany. The sound is compared to that of a spirit host rush- . ing along, accompanied by the shouting of huntsmen and the baying of dogs. The root of the notion is thought to lie in the Christian degradation of the old heathen gods. Like Odin, the lord of all atmospheric and weather phenomena, and consequently of storms, the wild huntsman also appears on horseback, in hat and cloak, accompanied by a train of spirits - by the ghosts of drunkards, suicides, and other malefactors, often without heads, or otherwise mutilated. When he comes to a crossroad, he falls, and gets up on the other side. ally he brings hurt or destruction, especially to any one rash enough to address him or join in the hunting cry, as many persons valiant in their drink have done. Whoever remains standing in the middle of the highway, or steps aside into a tilled field, or throws himself in silence on the earth, escapes the danger. In many districts heroes of the older or of the more modern legends take the place of Odin: thus, in Lusatia, Dietrich of Bern; in Swabia, Berchtold; Charles the Great; in England, King Arthur in Sleswick, King Abel; in Lower Hesse, in Denmark, King Waldemar. The legend has also in recent times attached itself to individual sportsmen, who, as a punishment for their immoderateness or cruelty in sport, or for hunting low the chase by night. In Lower Germany on Sunday, were condemned henceforth to folthere are many such stories current of one Hakkelberend, whose tomb even is shown in several places.

Another version of the wild hunt is to be found in the legend prevalent in Thuringia. There the procession, formed partly of children who had died unbaptized, and headed by Frau try on Holy Thursday, and the assembled peoHolle or Holda, passed yearly through the counple waited its arrival, as if a mighty king were approaching. An old man with white hair, the faithful Eckhart, preceded the spirit-host to warn the people out of the way. In one form or other the legend of the wild hunt is spread over all German countries, and is found also in France, and even in Spain. In England we meet substantially the same notion in folk-lore -phantom dogs, like the black Shuck-dog of Norfolk and the Mauthe hound of Peel in Man, the "Wisht Hounds" of Dartmoor, headless horses, a ghostly coach, and horses swept along in a storm of wind. Such tales, with innumerable variants, are in fact found in the mythical and legendary records of all the older peoples.

Wild Irish Girl, The, a novel by Lady Morgan, published in 1806. It instantly became a favorite, in England went through seven editions in less than two years, and in 1807 reached its fourth American edition. The story is in the form of letters, and suffers from the consequent limitations; but the sketches of Irish life are curious and picturesque.

Wildbad-Gastein, vilt'bäd gäs'tin, Austria, a watering-place in Gastein valley, 3,000 feet above the sea, 48 miles south of Salzburg, with thermal springs varying from 64° to 100°, and containing some salt and carbonates of magnesia and lime. The piace gives the name to a

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WILDCAT

treaty signed here in 1865 by the emperor of Austria and the king of Prussia, the nonobservance of the terms of which led to the German war of 1866.

Wildcat, any of the smaller species of feline animals (family Felida, q.v.) in its feral condition; a lynx. The term is a general one applying to all the smaller felines; but locally has usually some specific application. Thus in European books and speech the "wildcat" properly and ordinarily means Felis catus, formerly well-known in all forested districts from the British Isles to Siberia, and still to be found in the less settled districts of the continent south of Sweden, though extinct in Great Britain, France, and Italy; it is also numerous in northern Scotland. The wildcat is larger, heavier, and more strongly built than the domestic cat (to which it has contributed little, if anything; see CAT), has a stouter head and shorter and thicker tail, which does not taper; besides other peculiarities. Its body is yellowish gray, with a dark stripe along the spine, and with numerous darkish stripes descending more or less vertically down the sides, marking the limbs transversely and forming rings around the tail. It is noted for its savagery, and thoroughly tamed examples are very rare, if any ever existed. Like most of the wild felines the female makes her nest in a hollow tree, or cleft of rocks, in an abandoned crow's nest, or some similarly convenient place, and brings forth there in early summer an annual litter of young, which show the ferocity of their native disposition from the start.

Lynxes.-- The other European wildcat, and the North American wildcats, are lynxes, formerly set apart in a separate genus (Lynx); but most modern zoologists do not do so. "The lynxes," says Mivart, "are animals which present a markedly different aspect from that of other cats. Their legs are long, and their tail is, with one exception (that of the caracal), very short. Their ears also are tufted at the tip. The pupil is linear when contracted. The orbits are incompletely surrounded by bone. They have no tooth representing the common cat's first upper premolar, while that answering to its second upper premolar is largely developed. The intestines are also very short. Still the above given characters are variable in the cat group. In some cats other than lynxes the tail is short, and some have the ears more or less penciled. Some, as we have seen, have long legs, and in many the upper premolar is wanting. The lynxes, therefore, cannot be separated off as a nominally distinct group or genus. The lynxes are very variable in their color and markings, and the Northern lynx also varies greatly in the abundance of its hair, according to the season, the animal having a very different aspect in winter from that which it presents in summer. The Northern lynxes are generally reckoned as forming two species, one belonging to the Old World (F. borealis), and at least one species belonging to the New (F. canadensis). The American forms are often also described as alone constituting three species namely, F. canadensis, F. rufa, and F. maculata. After a careful examination

i am, however, not only quite unable to regard the American varieties as anything more than varieties, but I am inclined to the opinion that

there can be no real specific distinctness between the Northern lynxes of the two hemispheres, their skulls as well as their skins being so much alike."

Scandinavia, Russia, and eastward, and in some The European lynx is still found in northern of the wilder mountain chains of central Europe. It is reddish gray, as a rule, indistinctly spotted or not at all, most prominently when from the snout to the root of the short, thick young. A large one will measure 40 inches tail. The lynx of northern America is very similar, the color grading from nearly uniform grizzly gray in far northern specimens which dish and yellowish, more or less spotted southare the largest in average size, toward the redcolors are always brighter in summer than in ern specimens, which run much smaller: these winter. The long hair depending from the cheeks is characteristic of the group, especially in old males, and gives a very grim aspect to the countenance. These variations, which are local in some of their manifestations, have led the more recent school of American zoologists, led by Merriam, to name several species and subspecies. Thus the Canadian lynx (F. canadensis) is not regarded as findable south of Canada, and is characterized by its long gray unspotted coat. The lynxes or "bobcats" of the United States generally are F. rufa, yellowish brown spotted on the sides, with dark brown, and having other markings; a subspecies (maculata), more profusely spotted, extends the range of the cat to the Pacific coast; and various other subspecies, distinguished by color, are found in the Gulf States and westward to Central America. All have substantially the same rapacious qualities and habits, varying with the character of the country and climate in which each variety lives, and the kind of small animals upon which they must depend for food. They are chiefly solitary and nocturnal; and soon disappear from all wellsettled regions.

African and Asiatic Wildcats.-The Egyptian or gloved cat (F. caligata) is most interesting of the Old World wildcats, because it is the source, or main source, of our domestic races (see CAT). It inhabits northern Africa, and is about a third smaller than the European wildcat; it is yellowish, growing nearly white on the belly, and has obscure stripings on the body, limbs, and tail, which is rather long, slender, and tipped with black, while the feet are usually blackish. Another well known African cat is the large, long-legged serval (F. serval) which is to be found throughout the whole continent. It becomes as much as 40 inches long from nose to root of tail, and the tail may be 16 inches in length. In color it is tawny, with black spots, forming two irregular bands along the back, and black rings on the tail; its fur is a valuable commodity. Three or four other species dwell along the West African coast, as the rare red-brown "golden-haired" cat (F. rutila), the smaller gray, spotted, F. neglecta, and the more yellowish F. servalina, but none is well known.

Asia and the Malayan archipelago have a large number of wildcats, some of which when better known may prove to be mere local varieties of other species. The most familiar are the common Indian wildcat (F. torquata), which has much resemblance to the European

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