No author mentions their being seen in winter, having at that time been made a distinct species under various denominations.
It makes a nest on the ground with rushes, dead grass, and such like materials, and lays three eggs, of an olivaceous brown, marked with rusty brown blotches.—Montagu.
Launcefish, or Sandlance, s. A sea fish which buries itself, on the recess of the tide, more than a foot deep in the sand. It is much used for baits.
Launch, v. To force into the sea; to rove at large.
Laurel, s. A tree, called also the cherry bay.
Lavaret, s. A bird; a lake fish.
Lavaret is a fish known in England by the name of shelley or fresh water herring, in Wales by that of gwinniad; in Ireland by that of pollan; and in Scotland by that of vangis. In colour it is most like a grayling, but with broader and larger scales; it is common in the large lakes of most Alpine countries, and is known at Geneva by the name of ferra; and I believe that the salmo ceruleus, or wartmann of Bloch, or the gang-fisch of the Lake of Constance, from a comparison that I made of it with the ferra, is a variety of the same fish. It sometimes is as large as two pounds, and when quite fresh, and well fried or boiled, is an exceedingly good fish, and carves like grayling. The lavaret of different lakes has appeared to me to vary in the number of the spines in the fins. One brought me from the Lake of Zurich, thirteen inches long and eight inches in girth, had twelve spines in the dorsal fin, fifteen in the pectoral fins, eleven in the ventral, thirteen in the anal, and eighteen in the caudal. The gang-fisch, from the Lake of Constance, which was of a bluer colour, but I think decidedly only a variety of the same fish, was seven inches and three-quarters long, and four in girth, had twelve spines in the dorsal fin, fifteen in the pectoral, eleven in the ventral, twelve in the anal, and eighteen in the caudal. A lavaret from the Traun See had twelve spines in the dorsal fin, seventeen in the pectoral, thirteen in the ventral fin, twelve in the anal fin, and twenty-four in the caudal fin. One from the Hallstadt See was a larger and broader fish, but did not differ from the lavaret of the Traun See, except in having two spines less in the tail. It is only taken with nets. It feeds on vegetables, and in the stomachs of those I have opened I have never found either flies or small fishes.—Salmonia.
Lawn, s. An open space between woods; fine linen.
Laxative, s. Medicines that open the bowels moderately, without stimulating them so much as to increase their secretions. They consist of castor, olive, or linseed oils; the neutral salts, common salt, and small doses of aloes, as in the following formula:—