Hoot, v. To shout in contempt; to cry as an owl.
Hop, s. A plant, the flowers of which are used in brewing. Hops were introduced into England in the sixteenth century, from the Netherlands.
Horn, s. The hard pointed bodies which grow on the heads of some quadrupeds, and serve them for weapons; an instrument of wind music, made of horn; the extremity of the waxing or waning moon; the feelers of a snail; a drinking cup made of horn.
Hornet, s. A very large, strong, stinging fly.
Hornowl, s. A kind of horned owl. Vide Owl.
Horse, s. A quadruped used in war, draught, and carriage.
The generic character of horses, according to Linnaeus, is, that the fore-teeth are twelve in number, the upper six erect and parallel, the lower six more prominent; the tusks are solitary, included, remote; teats two, inguinal: they fight by biting, and kicking with the hind feet; and they have the singular property of breathing only through the nostrils, and not through the mouth.
Cuvier places the horse in the class Mammalia, which contains those animals that suckle their young, and forms the ninth genus of his sixth order, called Pachydermata, of which order the following are characters:—Skin very thick; some of the genera are partially without teeth, others with three sorts of teeth; quadrupedal, generally with hoofs, and the toes varying in number; stomach simple, and they do not ruminate; without clavicles, or collar-bones. They are either herbivorous or omnivorous, and their habits are various. They generally inhabit the temperate and torrid zone.
The genus Equus is subdivided by Cuvier into six species, and thus defined:—Incisory teeth, six in the upper jaw, and six in the under; two canines, one above and one below, on each side of the cutting or incisory teeth, (the females of some of the species with no canine teeth,) and six cheek teeth, or grinders, on each side, on both jaws; they are furrowed on both sides with flat crowns and several ridges of enamel. Between the canines and cheek teeth is a void space; the upper lip is susceptible of considerable motion; the eyes are large; the pupil oblong-ovate, placed laterally; their sight excellent, and, although not formed for seeing in the night, they can distinguish objects very clearly in the dark; ears rather small, pointed, and erect, having great mobility in the external conch, so that their hearing is very acute, and is the sense which, in all probability, they possess in the greatest perfection; feet, with a single apparent toe, covered with a thick hoof; the tail is furnished with long hair, or with a tuft at the extremity; mammæ two, inguinal; the stomach is simple and membranaceous, and the intestines and cæcum very large.