milt (2), melt

[A corruption of milk (q. v.), from the milky appearance of the soft roe of fishes: Sw.mjölk milk, mjölke =milt of fishes; Dan. fiske melk =soft roe, lit.fish-milk; Ger. milch =(1) milk, (2) milt of fishes.] The soft roe of fishes; the stermatic organ of the male fish. "You shall scarce, or never, take a male carp without a melt."- Walton: Angler, pt. i., ch. ix. milt, v. t. [MILT (2), subst.] To impregnate or fertilize the roe or spawn of the female fish. "A female gave 146 eggs, which were milted from a male of the same hybrid race."- Field , Dec. 6, 1884. milt-er, melt-er, s. [Dan. milter =a male fish; Ger. milcher.] A male fish; a fish having a milt. "That they might do so [by breeding] he had, as the rule is, put in three melters for one spawner."-Walton: Angler , pt. i., ch. ix. Mil-ton' ic, a. [Eng. Milton ; -ic.] Pertaining to Milton or his writings. 1. Zool.: A term applied to animals which resem- ble others not so liable to fall a prey to enemies, or which resemble their natural surroundings so closely as scarcely to be distinguished therefrom, as is the case with the Phasmide. [MIMICRY.] 2. Bot .: A term sometimes used of a plant be- longing to one order when it has a certain super- ficial resemblance to a plant of another order. biaxial when pure, the angle diminishing as the amount of phosphoric acid increases, the pure 1. Inclined or given to imitation; imitative; in- clined to imitate or ape. "Oft in her absence mimic fancy wakes To imitate her." Milton: P. L. , v. 110. IMG:content-1220.png:[blocks in formation] to some insignificant or diminutive imitation.) B. As substantive: "Anon this This be must be answered, And forth my mimic comes." *3. A mean or servile imitator. *4. Anything made or done in imitation of some- "The mole which Hadrian rear'd on high, Imperial mimic of old Egypt's piles." II. Nat . Hist .: A plant or animal that mimics. mimic-beetles, s . pl . Entom.: Beetles of the sub-tribe Helocera, which, when alarmed, counterfeit death, as do some of the Byrrhidse and Histeride. mim-Ic, v. t . [MIMIC, a . ] 1. Ord. Lang .: To imitate, to ape; to copy the manner, gesture, or voice of another in order to 2. Zool .: To a ume as certain animals do the dre of other species or a close resemblance to natural objects. It is to be borne in mind that [MIMICRY.] Aristotle; Treatise on Poetry , vol. i. (Note 6.) mi-mon, s . [MIMUS.] mim us mi-mus, s. [Lat., from Gr. mimos = a mimic actor, a mime.] Ornith.: A genus of Turdidae. There short bristles at the base of the bill; nostrils oval. Tarsi with broad scales in front. Habitat, America, from Canada to Patagonia, the West Indies, and the Galapagos. Wallace says "twenty species are known. The most noteworthy is Mimus polyglot tus , the mocking-bird (q. v.).