Birch, White

Syn. Birch , (or) Common b. ; Be′tula , L. A tree found in the woods of England. Wood neither very hard nor durable; leaves formerly used in itch and dropsy; bark febrifuge, yields a pyroligneous oil by distillation. See Oils (and above ). BIRD [176] [Eng., Sax.] Syn. A′vis , L.; Oiseau , Fr.; Vogel , Ger. Any fowl or animal of the feathered kind. In fashionable and gourmandic cant, appr. a partridge. See Birds ( below ). [176] Properly, a ‘chicken’ or ‘young flying animal,’—It is remarkable, as observed by Webster, that a nation should lay aside the proper generic name of flying animals—‘fowl’ ( fugel , fugl , Sax.; vogel , Ger., Dut.; fugl , Dan.; fogel , Sw.; from the root of the Lat., fugio , fugo ), and substitute the name of the young of those animals as the generic term.