Chapter FIRMAUN to FOOL’S RACK of F by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

the Anglo-Indian word ‘Florikin,’ but was once informed that the Little Bustard in Europe was sometimes called Flanderkin. Latham gives the word ‘Flercher’ as an English name, and this, apparently, has the same origin as Florikin.”—Jerdon’s Birds, 2nd ed. ii. 625. (We doubt if Jerdon has here understood Latham correctly. What Latham writes is, in describing the Passarage Bustard, which, he says, is the size of the Little Bustard: “Inhabits India. Called Passarage Plover. … I find that it is known in India by the name of Oorail; by some of the English called Flercher.” (Suppt. to Gen. Synopsis of Birds, 1787, 229.) Here we understand “the English” to be the English in India, and Flercher to be a clerical error for some form of “floriken.” [Flercher is not in N.E.D.]

1875.—“In the rains it is always matter of emulation at Rajkot, who shall shoot the first purple-crested florican.”—Wyllie’s Essays, 358.

FLOWERED-SILVER. A term applied by Europeans in Burma to the standard quality of silver used in the ingot currency of Independent Burma, called by the Burmese yowet-ni or ‘Red-leaf.’ The English term is taken from the appearance of stars and radiating lines, which forms on the surface of this particular alloy, as it cools in the crucible. The Ava standard is, or was, of about 15 per cent. alloy, the latter containing, besides copper, a small proportion of lead, which is necessary, according to the Burmese, for the production of the flowers or stars (see Yule, Mission to Ava, 259 seq.).

[1744.—“Their way to make flower’d Silver is, when the Silver and Copper are mix’d and melted together, and while the Metal is liquid, they put it into a Shallow Mould, of what Figure and Magnitude they please, and before the Liquidity is gone, they blow on it through a small wooden Pipe, which makes the Face, or Part blown upon, appear with the Figures of Flowers or Stars, but I never saw any European or other Foreigner at Pegu, have the Art to make those Figures appear, and if there is too great a Mixture of Alloy, no Figures will appear.”—A. Hamilton, ed. 1744, ii. 41.]

FLY, s. The sloping, or roof part of the canvas of a tent is so called in India; but we have not traced the origin of the word; nor have we found it in any English dictionary. [The N.E.D. gives the primary idea as “something attached by the edge,” as a strip on a garment to cover the button-holes.] A tent such as officers generally use has two flies, for better protection from sun and rain. The vertical canvas walls are called Kanat (see CANAUT). [Another sense of the word is “a quick-travelling carriage” (see quotation in Forbes below).] [1784.—“We all followed in fly-palanquins.”—Sir J. Day, in Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 88.]

1810.—“The main part of the operation of pitching the tent, consisting of raising the flies, may be performed, and shelter afforded, without the walls, &c., being present.”— Williamson, V. M. ii. 452.

1816.—

“The cavalcade drew up in line,
Pitch’d the marquee, and went to dine.
The bearers and the servants lie
Under the shelter of the fly.”

The Grand Master, or Adventures of Qui Hi, p. 152.

1885.—“After I had changed my riding-habit for my one other gown, I came out to join the general under the tent-fly. …”— Bools and Saddles, by Mrs. Custer, p. 42 (American work).

FLYING-FOX, s. Popular name of the great bat (Pteropus Edwardsi, Geoff). In the daytime these bats roost in large colonies, hundreds or thousands of them pendent from the branches of some great ficus. Jerdon says of these bats: “If water is at hand, a tank, or river, or the sea, they fly cautiously down and touch the water, but I could not ascertain if they took a sip, or merely dipped part of their bodies in” (Mammals of India, p. 18). The truth is, as Sir George Yule has told us from his own observation, that the bat in its skimming flight dips its breast in the water, and then imbibes the moisture from its own wet fur. Probably this is the first record of a curious fact in natural history. “I have been positively assured by natives that on the Odeypore lake in Rajputana, the crocodiles rise to catch these bats, as they follow in line, touching the water. Fancy fly-fishing for crocodile with such a fly!” (Communication from M.-Gen. R. H. Keatinge.) [On the other hand Mr. Blanford says: “I have often observed this habit: the head is lowered, the animal pauses in its flight, and the water is just touched, I believe, by the tongue or lower jaw. I have no doubt that some water is drunk, and this is the opinion of both Tickell and M‘Master. The