WILD-FOWL. to t'irty feet, diminishing to two feet at the extremity, where it terminates in a tunnel-net, generally carried out on the dry land. The whole pipe is spanned with a light netting, spread upon semicircular bars of iron rod, in an arch of about twelve feet above the water at the entrance, but becoming lower as the pipe becomes more narrow. To attract wild-fowl to the pond, and to induce them to enter the pipe, decoy-ducks are kept, constant inhabitants of the pond, and regularly fed. Wild-fowl come more readily to the pond because of their presence, and follow them also to the mouth of the pipe, and into it, when they come at the well-known whistle of the decoy-man, to feed on the grain which he scatters for them on the water. It is only thus that the decoy-ducks are of use. They are not trained in any way, nor do they display any intelligence beyond response to the whistle which invites them to their food. Very different is the case with the decoyer's dog, the piper, so called not from any vocal powers, but from his use in enticing birds into the pipe. The dogs best adapted for this purpose are of a peculiar breed, small, fox-like, and very lively and frolicsome. They are very carefully trained, and their peculiar qualities seem to be in some measure hereditary. On the convex side of the curve of the pipe, for about thirty or forty yards, instead of netting coming down to the ground, screens made of reeds are placed of height sufficient to conceal the decoyer; but they are placed obliquely, with narrow outlets between them, through which his dog may pass, and with bars in Fig. 4-Wild-fowl Decoy-pipe. decoyer depends very much on the state of the Decoys are of so great value that many acts of parliament have been passed for their regulat and protection. A decoy which has been established for twenty years enjoys certain privileges secure by law, particularly as to the quietude of its vicinity. which must not be disturbed by the firing of gur at wild-fowl apparently going to the pond, even ty the proprietors of land over which they pass Flight-ponds alone remain to be noticed. The are used chiefly for the capture of pochards or da birds, which very seldom enter the pipes of th decoyer. The same pond is sometimes used both as a decoy-pond and a flight-pond. The pochant. having its legs placed far back, cannot rise fr the water so suddenly as the wild-duck or widge and skims the surface for many yards, procee a very gradual ascent. To capture flights of hards nets are used, which are fixed to a cumbrous appar atus of poles at the side of the pond. The may be about seventy or eighty yards square. an embankment, about ten yards from the wat.. strong posts are tixed, about twelve tet high, two together, and about fifty yards apart-the corners of the pond being generally occupied by trees. Further back, als fifty feet, are slighter posts, about fifte feet high. Other posts are required for t working of the net, the position and use t which we cannot explain; but the purpe of the whole is that the net, which 18 the form of a parallelogram, may be sudden!. thrown up into the air. In order to ti.. it is attached to cross-hars, which work between the twin posts, and heavily weight-i boxes attached to two poles, aid in bringing it into an erect position when requirest The fowler's skill relates very much the moment of raising his net, which h does by drawing a bolt or tnger. T. net ought to rise so as fully to confront t::birds as they issue from the pond. Pens are formed on the embankment in front of the net of reed-screens about three feet high, by two or three feet square, and the barvi falling into them on being thrown back from t. net, are caught, not being able to rise again. T number of pochards caught at once is sometim.-very great. At Mersea and Goldhanger in Essex has been necessary to employ a wagon and to a horses to carry them away, and they have fallen such heaps in the pens, that those below have be stifled by those above.-For full particulars concen ing Wild-fowling, the reader is referred to Coi Hawker's well-known work on Shooting, and to F Wild foucler by Folkard. the intervals about 18 inches high, for the dog to leap over. When the wild-fowl have been attracted to the mouth of the decoy, and the decoyer, peeping through the screens, perceives that they are in the proper situation, he sends out the dog, which makes sportive gambols in their sight, and they are attracted by the strange object, as sheep are when a small dog plays about in the field where they graze. They enter the pipe in pursuit, as if for gratification of their curiosity, and the dog leaps over the first leaping bar, and disappears behind the screens, where his master immediately rewards, him with a piece of cheese or other delicacy. When Folkard, in his excellent work upon Wild-fowling, the wild-fowl have advanced a little further, the remarks that writers upon sporting literature gener dog is sent out again, repeats his gambols, leaps ally apply correct terms to game and birds of tover the second leaping bar, and gets a second piece land, while water-fowl are invariably classed t of cheese. The curiosity of the birds concerning them as flocks' The modern terms, as applest 2 the frolicsome little animal seems to increase, and water fowl, are, according to Folkard, as follows by and by they are completely in the net, when they A herd of swans. A gaggle of geese (when hurry on to be inevitably caught at the far end the water). A skein of geese (when on wing! The dog is trained to keep perfect silence. A single paddling of ducks (when on the water). A tear bark would disperse the birds. The success of the, of wild-ducks (when flying in the air). A sord. WILD HUNT-WILFRID. 66 ut of mallards. A company of widgeon. A flight or rush of dunbirds. A spring of teal. A dopping d sheldrakes. A covert of coots. A herd of cariews. A sedge of herons. A wing or congregatea of plovers. A desert of lapwings. A walk of ps A fling of oxbirds. A hill of ruffs. A eral number of wild-fowl, as ducks and geese oat thirty or forty), is termed a trip." The me of widgeon, dunbirds, or teal, is termed a "tanch;" and a smaller number (from ten to enty) is called a "little knob." Of swans, it wald be said, a “small herd;" and sometimes of se, a little gaggle," or a "small skein; " and of ducks, a "short" or "long team.” WILD HUNT (Ger. Wilde or Wüthende Jagd; o Wildes or Wüthendes Heer, Wild or Maddening bst; Nachtjäger, Night Huntsman, &c.), the name even by the German people to a fancied noise somemes heard in the air at night, as of a host of spirits ing along over woods, fields, and villages, mpanied by the shouting of huntsmen and the baying of dogs. The stories of the Wild Huntsman e numerous and widespread: although varying in detail, they are uniform in the essential traits, and betray numerous connections with the myths of the ent gods and heroes. The root of the whole tion is most easily discernible in the expression sall used by the peasants of Lower Germany when they hear a bowling in the air, 'Wode hunts (Wode , that is, Wodan or Odin marches, as of old, at the head of his battle-maidens, the Walkyries, and of the heroes of Walhalla; perhaps, too, accompanied by his wolves, which, according to the myth, along with his ravens, followed him, taking delight in strife, WILFRID, SAINT, an Anglo-Saxon bishop, was wi ponncing upon the bodies of the fallen. The born, of noble parents, in the kingdom of Bernicia athen gods were not entirely dislodged from the in 634. He was remarkable when a boy for his magination of the people by Christianity, but they good looks, graceful manners, and ability. He were banished from all friendly communication with became at 14 the attendant on a Saxon nobleman, , and were degraded to ghosts and devils. Yet who had retired to spend the last years of his ame of the divine features are still distinctly re- life in the monastery of Lindisfarne. There his sable. As the celestial god Wodan, the lord of attention was directed to the controversy as to the all atmospheric and weather phenomena, and conse- time of celebrating Easter (q. v.) existing between petly of storms, was conceived as mounted on the two sections into which the Anglo-Saxon ChrisErseback, clad with a broad-rimmed hat shading tians were divided; the one advocating the Roman the face, and a wide dark cloak; the Wild Huntsman practice, which was that of the continental churches o appears on horseback, in hat and cloak, and is generally, the other adhering to the Scoto-British. companied by a train of spirits, though of a differ- W. resolved to visit Rome to ascertain which eat stamp-by the ghosts of drunkards, suicides, was in the right, and thither he went at the and other malefactors, who are often without heads, age of 19, with recommendations from the courts z otherwise shockingly mutilated. One constant of Kent and Bernicia. He returned to England trait of the stories shews how effectually the church a warm partisan of the Roman party. had succeeded in giving a hellish character to this Alfrid, king of Northumbria, he received a grant of post of Wodan-when he comes to a cross road, he land and a monastery at Ripon, and there, in 664, is, and gets up on the other side. On very rare he was ordained a priest. The synod of Whitby, casions, the Wild Huntsman shews kindness to which met in 664 to discuss the disputed questhe wanderer whom he meets; but generally he tions between the two parties in the church, was brings hurt or destruction, especially to any one rash attended by the most distinguished members of ugh to address him, or join in the hunting cry, both, and among others, by Colman, Bishop of ich there are many narratives of persons in Lindisfarne, and Wilfrid. We have a curious their cups having done. Whoever remains stand- account of this conference. The king presided, and ng in the middle of the highway, or 'steps aside seems at first to have been puzzled by the argunto a tilled field, or throws himself in silence ments, but he noticed that Colman always referred es the earth, escapes the danger. In many dis- to St Columba, W. to St Peter-and it struck him tata, heroes of the older or of the more modern that the relative power of these saints had a close nds take the place of Odin; thus, in Lusatia and connection with the points at issue. 'St Peter,' Orlagau, Berndietrich, that is, Dietrich of Bern; in said W., is the rock on which the Lord founded Lower Hesse, Charles the Great; in England, King his church, and to him he intrusted the keys of Arthur; in Denmark, King Waldemar. The legend heaven.' Did St Columba not receive the same has also in recent times attached itself to individual power?' asked the king. Colman could not say gortemen, who, as a punishment for their immo- had. Then you both admit that God has given rate addiction to sport, or for the cruelty they the keys to St Peter?' Both said they did. Well.' ere guilty of in pursuing it, or for hunting on continued the king, if it is so, I shall not oppose day, were believed to have been condemned him. Were I to do otherwise, I might find no one henceforth to follow the chase by night. In to open the gate when I came there; St Peter Lower Germany, there are many such stories might turn his back on me. We must not offend current of one Hakkelberend, whose tomb even him.' The council and audience were carried is shewn in several places. Still, the very name leads back to the myth of Wodan, for Hakkelberend means literally the mantle-bearer (from 0. H. Ger. hakhul; O. Norse, hökull or hekla; Ang.Sax. hacele, drapery, mantle, armour; and bern, to bear). The appearing of the Wild Hunter is not fixed to any particular season, but it occurs frequently and most regularly in the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany. Another version of the Wild Hunt is to be found in the legend prevalent in Thuringia and the district of Mansfeld. There the procession, formed partly of children who had died unbaptised, and headed by Frau Holle or Holda (see BERCHTA), passed yearly through the country on Holy Thursday, and the assembled people waited its arrival, as if a mighty king were approaching. An old man, with white hair, the faithful Eckhart (see TANNHÄUSER and VENUSBERG), preceded the spirit-host, to warn the people out of the way, and even ordered some to go home, so that they might not come to hurt. This is the benign goddess, the wife of Wodan, who, appearing under various names, travels about through the country during the sacred time of the year. This host of Holda or Berchta also prefers the season about Epiphany. 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 Lower Germany, it has been preserved in an older and purer form than in Upper Germany. It has probably some connection with Celtic mythology, but not apparently with the Sclavonic.-See Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie. From he WILHELMSHÖHE—WILKES. away by this argument, and the king decided in favour of the Roman party. W. was afterwards named Bishop of York, but he did not enter into possession of his see until 669. He then surrounded himself with great pomp, built churches, one of which, at Hexham, was said to be the finest north of the Alps, and strove to oppose the ecclesiastical to the royal power. A quarrel followed with the new king of Northumbria, named Egfrid, and W. was deposed. He started on a journey to Rome, to make a personal appeal to the pope; but he was driven by a storm to the coast of Friesland, the inhabitants of which were still pagan. There, however, he was hospitably received by the king. To his arrival, the people attributed an excellent fishing-season and abundant harvest. He was asked to preach, and he did so in his own Anglo-Saxon tongue, which was perfectly intelligible to the Frisians. Such was the effect, that he baptised many thousands of the people, and all the princes. The event is one of the most memorable in the history of Northern Germany and Scandinavia, for with it began the conversion of these countries to Christianity by Anglo-Saxon missionaries, and the introduction into them of the arts and knowledge inherited from ancient civilisation (see BONIFACE; WILLIBROD). W. reached Rome, and the pope decided in his favour; but on his return to England, the king gave no heed to the decree, and committed him to prison. He escaped, however, to the Weald of Sussex, where he converted the pagan inhabitants. He was afterwards recalled to his see; and a proposal was made to elevate him to the primacy, but he was still opposed, as the leader of the Roman party, and ultimately he was deposed, and excommunicated. He again went to Rome, remained there some years, returned to England in 705, and died at Oundle, in Northamptonshire, in 709.-There is a very interesting sketch of the saint's life given in the 19th chapter of Bede's Ecclesiastical History. See also Lappenberg's History of England under the Anglo-Saxons. WILHELMSHÖHE. See CASSEL. WILKES, CHARLES, American naval officer and explorer, was born in New York in 1801, and entered the navy as midshipman in 1816, served in the Mediterranean in 1819-1820, and in the Pacific in 1821-1823, where he was selected for a separate command. In 1826 he gained the rank of lieutenant, and in 1830 was appointed to the Dépôt of Charts and Instruments at Washington, and was the first in the United States to set up fixed astronomical instruments and make observations. After being employed in surveying George's Bank, he was, in 1838, appointed to the command of an exploring expedition of five vessels and a storeship, in which he surveyed the Samoan group in the Pacific, discovered many islands and the antarctic continent, which he coasted through 70° of longitude, explored the Feejee group, and returned in 1842, when he was advanced to the grade of commander, and published a Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition (5 vols. imp. 8vo, Philadelphia, 1845). Of the 11 supplementary quarto volumes, he was the author of the one on Meteorology; and in 1849, of a volume on California and Oregon, entitled Western America. In 1856, he published his Theory of the Winds. Having been promoted to the rank of captain in 1855, he, in 1861, took command of the United States steamer San Jacinto, and forcibly removed from the British mail-steamer, Trent, Messrs Mason and Slidell, commissioners of the Confederate States to England and France, and conveyed them to Boston, receiving the thanks of Congress and the acclamations of the people; but at the demand of the British government, his act was disapproved, and the commissioners restored. In 1862, he was promoted to the rank of commodore, and to active service as acting-rear-admiral; but at the close of the war, placed upon the retired list of commodores. WILKES, JOHN, a celebrated public character, was born in London, October 17, 1727. His father, a brewer or distiller at Clerkenwell, sent him when a lad to the university of Leyden, where he received an excellent education. On his return to England in 1749, he married a Miss Mead, an heiress, ten years his senior. His good manners, learning, ready wit, and open table secured him many friends, but extravagance and dissipation soon involved him in difficulties. He and his wife separated, and in a law. suit which followed, facts came out most damaging to his character. He was nevertheless named High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, and in 1757 returned to parliament as member for Aylesbury. In the House, he joined in the popular clamour against Lord Bute; and in June 1762, founded a paper entitled the North Briton, in which he denounced him with such vigour and success as to drive him from the ministry. He attacked with equal bitterness the next ministry, insinuating that although Mr Greville was nominally at the head of affairs, Lord Bute still had the ear of the king. In the 45th number of the North Briton, he charged the king with having uttered a falsehood from the throne, and in consequence, his house was entered, and his papers were seized. He was himself committed to the Tower, on a general warrant. But he was released by Chief-justice Pratt, on account of his privilege as a member of parliament. His paper was burned, by order of the House of Commons; but a riot ensued, shewing that public sympathy went with Wilkes. A prosecution was next instituted against the Under-secretary of State by W. for the illegal seizure of his papers; and he obtained £1000 of damages-a declaration being at the same time made by the Chief-justice that general warrants are illegal. W. then went to France, on the plea of bad health, and was expelled from the House of Commons. In his absence, he was convicted of having printed privately an obscene poem, of which he was one of the authors. It was hoped that evidence of his immoral character would disgust the public with him. But the copy of the book on which the prosecution had been founded had been obtained surreptitiously from a printer employed; and this fact becoming known, the steps taken by the government, instead of injuring W., only added to the ontery against ministers. On the formation of a new mu istry under the Duke of Grafton, W. returned to England, and becoming a candidate for Middlesex, harangued great crowds in London. After his elec tion, he was arrested, in consequence of his outlawry; and on the way to prison he was rescued by a mob He, however, after it had dispersed, voluntarily gave himself up to justice. When parliament met, a crowd assembled to convoy him to the House of Commons. A riot took place, and the military were ordered to fire on the mob in St George's Fields. Many persons were wounded, and one was killed. The coroner's jury who sat on the body returned a verdict of murder against the magistrate who had given the order to fire; and he was tried for that crime, but acquitted. W. secured a copy of a letter from Lord Weymouth to the chairman of the Lambeth Quarter Sessions, in which it was recommended that the military should be employed to suppress disturbances in London. It was publishel with a preface by W., in which he charged the Secretary of State with having planned 'the ma sacre in St George's Fields.' The House declared WILD HUNT-WILFRID. sat of mallards. A company of widgeon. A flight rash of dunbirds. A spring of teal. A dopping et sheldrakes. A covert of coots. A herd of crews. A sedge of herons. A wing or congregat of plovers. A desert of lapwings. A walk of Eps. A fling of oxbirds. A hill of ruffs. A all number of wild-fowl, as ducks and geese abeat thirty or forty), is termed a "trip." The ze of widgeon, dunbirds, or teal, is termed a basch;" and a smaller number (from ten to twenty) is called a "little knob." Of swans, it would be said, a “small herd;" and sometimes of pe, a little gaggle," or a "small skein; " and of ducks, a "short" or "long team."' WILD HUNT (Ger. Wilde or Wüthende Jagd; o Wildes or Wüthendes Heer, Wild or Maddening bat; Nachtjäger, Night Huntsman, &c.), the name even by the German people to a fancied noise someheard in the air at night, as of a host of spirits rashing along over woods, fields, and villages, mpanied by the shouting of huntsmen and the baging of dogs. The stories of the Wild Huntsman numerous and widespread: although varying in dal, they are uniform in the essential traits, and betray numerous connections with the myths of the cent gods and heroes. The root of the whole tea is most easily discernible in the expression used by the peasants of Lower Germany when they hear a howling in the air, Wode hunts" (Wode jrty, that is, Wodan or Odin marches, as of old, at the head of his battle-maidens, the Walkyries, and of the heroes of Walhalla; perhaps, too, accompanied by his wolves, which, according to the myth, along with his ravens, followed him, taking delight in strife, and pouncing upon the bodies of the fallen. The batten gods were not entirely dislodged from the magination of the people by Christianity, but they were banished from all friendly communication with en, and were degraded to ghosts and devils. Yet withe of the divine features are still distinctly reargaisable. As the celestial god Wodan, the lord of atmospheric and weather phenomena, and consegently of storms, was conceived as mounted on back, clad with a broad-rimmed hat shading the face, and a wide dark cloak; the Wild Huntsman so appears on horseback, in hat and cloak, and is accompanied by a train of spirits, though of a different stamp-by the ghosts of drunkards, suicides, and other malefactors, who are often without heads, re otherwise shockingly mutilated. One constant trait of the stories shews how effectually the church had succeeded in giving a hellish character to this st of Wodan-when he comes to a cross road, he his and gets up on the other side. On very rare ccasions, the Wild Huntsman shews kindness to the wanderer whom he meets; but generally he brings hurt or destruction, especially to any one rash ugh to address him, or join in the hunting cry, when there are many narratives of persons in their caps having done. Whoever remains standng in the middle of the highway, or 'steps aside to a tilled field, or throws himself in silence on the earth, escapes the danger. In many distrots heroes of the older or of the more modern ls take the place of Odin; thus, in Lusatia and Oagan, Berndietrich, that is, Dietrich of Bern; in Lower Hesse, Charles the Great; in England, King Arthur; in Denmark, King Waldemar. The legend has also in recent times attached itself to individual qurtsmen, who, as a punishment for their immoderate addiction to sport, or for the cruelty they were guilty of in pursuing it, or for hunting on Saaday, were believed to have been condemned henceforth to follow the chase by night. In Lower Germany, there are many such stories current of one Hakkelberend, whose tomb even is shewn in several places. Still, the very name leads back to the myth of Wodan, for Hakkelberend means literally the mantle-bearer (from 0. H. Ger. hakhul; 0. Norse, hökull or hekla ; Ang.Sax. hacele, drapery, mantle, armour; and bern, to bear). The appearing of the Wild Hunter is not fixed to any particular season, but it occurs frequently and most regularly in the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany. Another version of the Wild Hunt is to be found in the legend prevalent in Thuringia and the district of Mansfeld. There the procession, formed partly of children who had died unbaptised, and headed by Frau Holle or Holda (see BERCHTA), passed yearly through the country on Holy Thursday, and the assembled people waited its arrival, as if a mighty king were approaching. An old man, with white hair, the faithful Eckhart (see TANNHÄUSER and Venusberg), preceded the spirit-host, to warn the people out of the way, and even ordered some to go home, so that they might not come to hurt. This is the benign goddess, the wife of Wodan, who, appearing under various names, travels about through the country during the sacred time of the year. This host of Holda or Berchta also prefers the season about Epiphany. 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 Lower Germany, it has been preserved in an older and purer form than in Upper Germany. It has probably some connection with Celtic mythology, but not apparently with the Sclavonic.-See Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie. WILFRID, SAINT, an Anglo-Saxon bishop, was born, of noble parents, in the kingdom of Bernicia in 634. He was remarkable when a boy for his good looks, graceful manners, and ability. He became at 14 the attendant on a Saxon nobleman, who had retired to spend the last years of his life in the monastery of Lindisfarne. There his attention was directed to the controversy as to the time of celebrating Easter (q. v.) existing between the two sections into which the Anglo-Saxon Christians were divided; the one advocating the Roman practice, which was that of the continental churches generally, the other adhering to the Scoto-British. W. resolved to visit Rome to ascertain which was in the right, and thither he went at the age of 19, with recommendations from the courts of Kent and Bernicia. He returned to England a warm partisan of the Roman party. From Alfrid, king of Northumbria, he received a grant of land and a monastery at Ripon, and there, in 664, he was ordained a priest. The synod of Whitby, which met in 664 to discuss the disputed questions between the two parties in the church, was attended by the most distinguished members of both, and among others, by Colman, Bishop of Lindisfarne, and Wilfrid. We have a curious account of this conference. The king presided, and seems at first to have been puzzled by the arguments, but he noticed that Colman always referred to St Columba, W. to St Peter-and it struck him that the relative power of these saints had a close connection with the points at issue. 'St Peter,' said W., is the rock on which the Lord founded his church, and to him he intrusted the keys of heaven.' Did St Columba not receive the same power?' asked the king. Colman could not say he had. Then you both admit that God has given the keys to St Peter?' Both said they did. Well,' continued the king, if it is so, I shall not oppose him. Were I to do otherwise, I might find no one to open the gate when I came there; St Peter might turn his back on me. We must not offend him.' The council and audience were carried |