in Zoology, a general name for the young of the horse kind; the male being likewise, for distinction's sake, called a horse-colt; the female, a filly.

After the colts have been foaled, you may suffer them to run with the mare till about Michaelmas, sooner or later, according as the cold weather comes in; then they must be weaned; though some persons are for having them weaned after Martinmas, or the middle of November. The author of the Complete Horseman is of opinion, that the reason why most foals advance so slowly, and are not capable of service till they are six or seven years old, is because they have not sucked long enough; whereas, if they had sucked the whole winter over, they would be as good at four or five years old as they are now at eight.

They ought now to be kept in a convenient house, with a low rack and manger for their hay and oats, which must be sweet and good; with a little wheaten bran mixed with the oats to cause them to drink, and to keep their bodies open. But, since there are some who allege, that oats make foals become blind, or their teeth crooked; the same author is of opinion, that oats will wear their teeth, and make them the sooner to change, and also to raze; therefore he judges it to be the best way to break them in a mill, because, that by endeavouring with their jaws to bruise and chew them, they stretch and swell their eye and nether-jaw veins, which so attract the blood and humours that they fall down upon the eyes, and frequently occasion the loss of them; so that it is not the heating quality of the oats, but the difficulty in chewing, that is the cause of their blindness.

Further, colts thus fed with grain do not grow thickish upon their legs, but grow broader and better knit than if they had eaten nothing but hay and bran, and will endure fatigue the better. But above all, they must be kept from wet and cold, which are hurtful to them, nothing being more tender than they are. For proof of this, take a Spanish stallion, and let him cover two mares, which for age, beauty, and comeliness may admit of no difference between them; and if they produce both horse-colts, or both fillies, which is one and the same thing, let one run abroad, and the other be housed every winter, kept warm, and ordinarily attended; and that colt that has been kept abroad shall have large fleety shoulders, flabby and gouty legs, weak patterns, and ill hoofs; and shall be a dull heavy jade, in comparison to the other which is housed, and orderly kept; and which will have a fine forehead, be fine shaped, and have good legs and hoofs, and be of good strength and spirit; by which you may know, that to have the finest stallion, and the most beautiful mare, is nothing, if they are spoiled in the breeding up. It is worth observation, that some foals, under six months old, though their dams yield plenty of milk, yet decay daily, and have a cough, proceeding from certain pellicles or skins that breed in their stomachs, which obstruct their breathing, and at last destroy them entirely. To remedy this malady, take the bag wherein the colt was foaled, dry it, and give him as much of it in milk as you can take up with three fingers; but if you have not preserved the bag, procure the lungs of a young fox, and use it instead of the aforesaid powder.

It will be proper to let the colts play an hour or two in some court-yard, &c., when it is fair weather, provided you put them up again carefully, and see that they take no harm. When the winter is spent, turn them into some dry ground, where the grass is short and sweet, and where there is good water, that they may drink at pleasure; for it is not necessary that a colt should fill his belly immediately, like a horse that labours hard. The next winter you may take them into the house, and use them just as you do your other horses; but let not your horse-colts and fillies be kept together after the first year. This method may be observed every summer and winter till you break them, which you may do after they have been three years old; and it will be a very easy thing, if you observe the aforesaid method of housing them; for ordering them the second year as you do your other horses, they will be so tame and gentle, that you need not fear their leaping, plunging, kicking, or the like; for they will take the saddle quietly. As for all those ridiculous methods of beating and curbing them, they are in effect spoiling them, whatever they call it, in ploughed fields, deep ways, or the like; instead of which, let the rider strive to win them by gentle usage, never correcting them but when it is necessary. necessary, and then with judgment and moderation. You will not need a cavelfon of cord, which is a head strain, nor a pad of straw; but only a common saddle, and a common cavelfon on his nose, such as other horses are ridden with; but it ought to be well lined with double leather; and, if you please, you may put on his mouth a watering bit, but without reins, only the head-stall, and this but for a few days; and then put on such a bit as he should be always ridden with; and be sure not to use spurs for some time after backing. Take notice, that as yearlings must be kept abroad together, so those of two years old together; and the like for those of three yearlings; which ordering is most agreeable to them.

In order to make him endure the saddle the better, the way to make it familiar to him will be by clapping the saddle with your hand as it stands upon his back, by striking it, and swaying upon it, dangling the stirrups by his sides, rubbing them against his sides, and making much of them, and bringing him to be familiar with all things about him; as straining the crupper, fastening and loosening the girths, and taking up and letting out the stirrups. Then, as to his motion, when he will trot with the saddle obediently, you may wash a trench of a full mouth, and put the same into his mouth, throwing the reins over the forepart of the saddle, so that he may have a full feeling of it; then put on a martingale, buckled at such a length that he may but just feel it when he jerks up his head; then take a broad piece of leather, and put it about his neck, and make the ends of it fast by plaiting it, or some other way, at the withers, and the middle part before his weasands, about two handfuls below the thropple, betwixt the leather and his neck; let the martingale pass so, that when at any time he offers to duck, or throw down his head, the cavelfon being placed upon the tender gristle of his nose, may correct and punish him; which will make him bring his head to, and form him to an absolute rein; trot him abroad, and if you find the reins or martingale grow slack, straighten them, for when there is no feeling there is no virtue.

**Colt-Feul**, among farriers. See **Farriery**.

**Colt-Taming**, is the breaking of a colt so as to endure a rider. Colts are most easily broken at three or four years of age; but he who will have patience to see his horse at full five, will have him much more free of diffeases and infirmities than if he was broken sooner.

Preparatory to their breaking for the saddle, they should be used to familiar actions, as rubbing, clawing, haltering, leading to water, taking up their feet, knocking their hoofs, &c. In order to bridle and saddle a colt, when he is made a little gentle, take a sweet watering trench, washed and anointed with honey and salt, which put into his maw, and so place it that it may hang about his tush; then offer him the saddle, but take care not to frighten him with it. Suffer him to smell at it, to be rubbed with it, and then to feel it; after that fix it, and gird it fast, and make that motion the most familiar to him to which he seems most averse. Being thus saddled and bridled, lead him out to water, and bring him in again; when he has stood reined upon the trench an hour or more, take off the bridle and saddle, and let him go to his meat till the evening, and then lead him out as before; and when you carry him in again to fet him up, take off his saddle gently, clothing him for the night.

**Coltie**, a term used by timber-merchants, for a defect or blemish in some of the annular circles of a tree, whereby its value is much diminished.

**Coluber**, in Zoology, a genus of serpent belonging to the order of amphibia. See **Ophiology Index**.

**Columb-Kill**. See **Jona**.

**Columba**, the Pigeon, in Ornithology, a genus of birds belonging to the order of passerine. See **Ornithology Index**.

**Columba**, Sr., in allusion to whose name the island of Jona (one of the Hebrides), received its name; *Jona* being derived from a Hebrew word signifying a dove. This holy man, inflamed by his zeal, left his native country, Ireland, in the year 565, with the pious design of preaching the gospel to the Picts. It appears that he left his native soil with warm resentment, vowing never to make a settlement within sight of that hated island. He made his first trial at Oranay; and finding that place too near to Ireland, succeeded to his wish at Hy, for that was the name of Jona at the time of his arrival. He repeated here the experiment on several hills, erecting on each a heap of stones; and that which he last ascended is to this day called Carnan-chul-reb-Eirium, or "The eminence of the back turned to Ireland."

Columba was soon distinguished by the sanctity of his manners: a miracle that he wrought so operated on the Pictish king Bradeus, that he immediately made a present of the little isle to the saint. It seems that his majesty had refused Columba an audience; and even proceeded so far as to order the palace-gates to be shut against him: but the saint, by the power of his word, instantly caused them to fly open. As soon as he was in possession of Jona, he founded a cell of monks, borrowing his institutions from a certain oriental monastic order. It is said that the first religious were canons regular, of whom the founder was the first abbot; and that his monks, till the year 716, differed from those of the church of Rome, both in the observation of Easter and in the clerical tonsure. Columba led here an exemplary life, and was highly respected for the sanctity of his manners for a considerable number of years. He is the first on record who had the faculty of second sight, for he told the victory of Aidan over the Picts and Saxons on the very instant it happened. He had the honour of burying in his island, Convalius and Kinnatil, two kings of Scotland, and of crowning a third. At length, worn out with age, he died in Jona in the arms of his disciples; was interred there, but (as the Irish pretend) in after times translated to Down; where, according to the epitaph, his remains were deposited with those of St Bridget and St Patrick.

Hi tres in Duno tumulo tumulantur in uno; Brigida, Patricius, atque Columba pius.

But this is totally denied by the Scots; who affirm, that the contrary is shown in a life of the saint, extracted out of the pope's library, and translated out of the Latin into Erse, by Father Cailo barang, which