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Any species of large West Indian rodents of the genus Capromys, or Utia. In general appearance and habits they resemble rats, but they are as large as rabbits.

. The black varnish of Burmah is obtained from the Melanorrhoea usitatissima, a tall East Indian tree of the Cashew family. See Copal, and Mastic.

The god of the waters; the Indian Neptune. He is regarded as regent of the west, and lord of punishment, and is represented as riding on a sea monster, holding in his hand a snaky cord or noose with which to bind offenders, under water.

butter (Bot.), a name of several kinds of concrete vegetable oil; as that produced by the Indian butter tree, the African shea tree, and the Pentadesma butyracea, a tree of the order Guttiferæ, also African. Still another kind is pressed from the seeds of cocoa (Theobroma). -- Vegetable flannel, a textile material, ma…

An East Indian grass (Andropogon muricatus); also, its fragrant roots which are much used for making mats and screens. Also called kuskus, and khuskhus. [Sometimes written vetivert, and vitivert.]

A West Indian duck, sometimes domesticated.

A small East Indian wild cat (Felis wagati), regarded by some as a variety of the leopard cat.

st of the species are yellow beneath. Called also yellow wagtail. -- Garden wagtail, the Indian black-breasted wagtail (Nemoricola Indica). -- Pied wagtail, the common European water wagtail (Motacilla lugubris). It is variegated with black and white. The name is applied also to other allied species having similar co…

Beads made of shells, used by the North American Indians as money, and also wrought into belts, etc., as an ornament. Round his waist his belt of wampum. Longfellow. Girded with his wampum braid. Whittier.

An East Indian plant (Kæmpferia Galanga) of the Ginger family. See Galanga.

The edible tuber of a species of arrowhead (Sagittaria variabilis); -- so called by the Indians of Oregon. [Written also wappato.]

r between independent sovereign states. -- War cry, a cry or signal used in war; as, the Indian war cry. -- War dance, a dance among savages preliminary to going to war. Among the North American Indians, it is begun by some distinguished chief, and whoever joins in it thereby enlists as one of the party engaged in a…

The route taken by a party of Indians going on a warlike expedition. Schoolcraft. On the warpath, on a hostile expedition; hence, colloquially, about to attack a person or measure.

wine's cress. See under Swine. -- Wart snake (Zoöl.), any one of several species of East Indian colubrine snakes of the genus Acrochordus, having the body covered with wartlike tubercles or spinose scales, and lacking cephalic plates and ventral scutes. -- Wart spurge (Bot.), a kind of wartwort (Euphorbia Helioscopia…

Indian rice. See under Rice.

Indian rice. See under Rice.

and other ingredients. -- Wax plant (Bot.), a name given to several plants, as: (a) The Indian pipe (see under Indian). (b) The Hoya carnosa, a climbing plant with polished, fleshy leaves. (c) Certain species of Begonia with similar foliage. -- Wax tree (Bot.) (a) A tree or shrub (Ligustrum lucidum) of China, on whi…

Gyrinus. See Whirling. Weaver bird (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of Asiatic, Fast Indian, and African birds belonging to Ploceus and allied genera of the family Ploceidæ. Weaver birds resemble finches and sparrows in size, colors, and shape of the bill. They construct pensile nests composed of interlaced grass…

asking, or liver, shark. (b) A very large harmless shark (Rhinodon typicus) native of the Indian Ocean. It sometimes becomes sixty feet long. -- Whale shot, the name formerly given to spermaceti. -- Whale's tongue (Zoöl.), a balanoglossus.

A sea monster of the whale kind. [Obs.] Spenser. The Indian Sea breedeth the most and the biggest fishes that are; among which the whales and whirlpools, called "balænæ," take up in length as much as four . . . arpents of land. Holland.