in ornithology, a genus of birds belonging to the order of picos; the characters of which are, that the bill is slender, round, and pointed; the no- strils are concave and naked; the tongue is very long; very slender, cylindric, and terminated by a hard point; and the feet are formed for climbing. There is only one species, viz. the torquilla. The colours of this bird are elegantly pencilled, though its plumage is marked with the plainest kinds: a list of black and ferruginous strokes divides the top of the head and back; the sides of the head and neck are ash-coloured, beautifully traversed with fine lines of black and red- dish-brown; the quill-feathers are dusky, but each web is marked with rust-coloured spots; the chin and breast are of a light yellowish-brown, adorned with sharp-pointed bars of black; the tail consists of ten feathers, broad at their ends and weak, of a pale ash- colour, powdered with black and red, and marked with four equidistant bars of black; the irides are of a yellowish colour.—The wry-neck, Mr Pennant ap- prehends, is a bird of passage, appearing with us in the spring before the cuckoo. Its note is like that of the kestrel, a quick-repeated squeak; its eggs are white, with a very thin shell; it builds in the hollows of trees, making its nest of dry grass. It has a very whimsical way of turning and twisting its neck about, and bring- ing its head over its shoulders, whence it had its Latin name torquilla; and its English one of wry-neck: it has also the faculty of erecting the feathers of the head like those of the jay. It feeds on ants, which it very dexterously transfixes with the bony and sharp end of its tongue, and then draws them into its mouth; and while the female is sitting, the male has been observed to carry these insects to her.—We find this bird men- tioned as an inhabitant throughout Europe, and of many parts of the old Continent. It is in Russia, Sweden, Lapland, Greece, Italy, Babylon, and Ben- gal; authorities for which Buffon mentions, and says, that at the end of summer this bird grows very fat, when it becomes excellent eating; for which reason some have named it the Ortolan. The young ones, while in the nest, will hiss like to many snakes; in- asmuch that many have been prevented plundering the old ones of their offspring, on supposition that they were advancing their hands on the brood of this loath- some reptile.

K,

the tenth letter, and seventh consonant, of our alphabet; being formed by the voice, by a gut- tural expression of the breath through the mouth, to- gether with a depression of the lower jaw and opening of the teeth.

Its sound is much the same with that of the hard c, or qu: and it is used, for the most part, only before e, i, and n, in the beginning of words; as ken, kill, know, &c. It used formerly to be always joined with e at the end of words, but is at present very properly omit- ted, at least in words derived from the Latin: thus, for publick, musick, &c. we say, public, music, &c. How- ever, in monosyllables, it is still retained, as jack, block, mock, &c.

K is borrowed from the Greek kappa; and was but little used among the Latins: Priscian looked on it as a superfluous letter; and says, it was never to be used except in words borrowed from the Greek. Dauf- quius, after Sallust, observes, that it was unknown to the ancient Romans.—Indeed we seldom find it in any Latin authors, excepting in the word kalenda, where it sometimes stands in lieu of a.c.—Carthage, however, is frequently spelt on medals with a K: SALVIS AUG: ET CAES. FEL. CART. and sometimes the letter K alone stood for Carthage.—M. Berger has observed, that a capital K, on the reverse of the medals of the emperors of Constantinople, signified Konstantinus; and on the Greek medals he will have it to signify: KOIAH ΣΤΡΙΑ, "Coele Syria."

Quintilian tells us, that in his time some people had a mistaken notion, that wherever the letter c and a oc- curred at the beginning of a word, k ought to be used instead of the c. See C.

Lipius observes, that K was a stigma anciently marked on the foreheads of criminals with a red- hot iron.

The letter K has various significations in old char- ters and diplomas; for instance, K.R. stood for cha- rus, K.R.C. for cara civitas, K.R.M. for carmen, K.R. A.M.N. carus amicus noster, K.S. chaus, K.T. capite ton- sus, &c.

The French never use the letter k excepting in a few terms of art and proper names borrowed from other countries. Ablancourt, in his dialogue of the letters, brings in k complaining, that he has been often in a fair way to be banished out of the French alpha- bet, and confined to the countries of the north.

K is also a numeral letter, signifying 250, according to the verse:

K quoque ducentas et quinquaginta tenebit.

When it had a stroke at top, K̄, it stood for 250,000. KAL

On the French coinage denotes money coined at Bordeaux.

KABA. See Mecca.