Covert Cloth
a stout twilled woolen textile used for men's coats and women's suits and dresses. The chief characteristic is a pepper and salt effect produced by twisting together two threads of different color for the warp. A light color is placed with a dark. Thus a white or a light tan may be twisted with a dark brown, olive, or green. The weft threads are single and are of a plain dark color. The finish of coverts varies greatly. Some are napped, which conceals the twill. Others are sheared to make the twill conspicuous. "Union" threads, that is a thread of cotton with one of wool, are used in cheaper grades of covert cloth.
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Covington
a city and county-seat of Kenton co., Ky.; on the Ohio river , opposite Cincinnati, which which it is connected by a handsome suspension bridge, 2,250 feet long, and costing $2,000,000. It is on the Louisville and Nashville and the Chesapeake and Ohio railroads. Electric lines connect it with near-by towns. It is a residence town for Cincinnati business men and is the see of a Catholic bishop. Covington is the farming and livestock producing and trade center of central Kentucky, and has steamer connections with all river ports. The principal manufactories are cotton and woolen mills, rolling mills, tobacco factories, etc. Previous to the enactment of prohibition there were many distilleries. In 1919 there were 3 National banks, with $ 1,150,000 capital, and several eral daily and weekly newspapers. Covington is built on a beautiful plain, and has an area of over 5 square miles. The most notable buildings are the combined City Hall and Court House ; the United States Government building, including the Postoffice and Federal Court rooms; the Public Library, the Roman Catholic Cathedral, and the Hospital of St. Elizabeth. Covington was settled in 1812; laid out in 1815, and incorporated as a city in 1834. Pop. (1910) 53,270; ( 1920) 57,121.
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Cow Pea
called also cow-grass, etc., but is neither a pea nor a grass; it is a trefoil or clover.
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Cow Plant
a perennial asclepiad of Ceylon, which acquired a factitious celebrity from the oft-repeated statement that its milky juice is used as milk, and that its leaves are boiled to supply the want of cream.
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Cow-Berry
the red whortleberry, a procumbent shrub of high moorlands in Europe, Asia, and North America, has evergreen, box-like leaves , and produces a red acid berry used for je jellies and preserves.
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Cow-Itch
2026 Editor's Note: This page uses language about race that was commonplace when the book was published and is offensive by today's standards. The text has been left exactly as it was printed, rather than cut or softened, so that the historical record — including how ordinary such language once was — is preserved. (Ed: ET 2026-07-22) COW-AGE, or COW- HAGE, the stinging hairs of the plant described below, or any species akin to it, as Mucuna urens, M. monosperma, etc. They are used as a mechanical anthelmintic. The plant, Mucuna pruriens, is a twining annual, with pendulous racemes of dark-colored flowers, which appear in India in the rainy season. The legume, which is shaped like the letter S, is clothed with stinging hairs. These are easily detached and stick on the skin, producing intolerable itching. The legume, when young, can be boiled and eaten like kidney-beans. The name is sometimes (improperly) given by the negroes of the Southern States to the poison-ivy, Rhus toxicodendron.
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Cowbane
or WATER-HEMLOCK (Cicuta virōsa), a perennial , umbelliferous, aquatic plant, producing p an erect , hollow, muchbranched, striated stem three or four feet high, furnished with dissected leaves. It is highly poisonous.
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Cowbird
a member of the blackbird family. The male has a coffee-colored head, neck and breast of brown, with a glossy black body, lustrous with bluish and greenish reflections. The female is clad in a dark, brownish gray suit. Range, from Texas to Manitoba and eastward. Small flocks of a dozen or fewer individuals follow cattle about the pasture and haunt the milking yard, apparently for the insects they can catch. The cowbird builds no nest. The female leaves the flock, sneaks about, and drops her egg in the nest of a sparrow or other small bird. She leaves it to be hatched and her young to be reared by the unsuspecting dupe. The young cowbird is large, greedy, and selfish, frequently shouldering the rightful occupants out of the nest. When well grown it leaves its drudging foster mother and joins those of its own kind. For the characteristics of an English bird of another family, but with similar habits, see CUCKOO.
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Cowboys
in the American Revolution, a band of American Tories who infested the neutral ground of Westchester county, N. Y., robbed the Whigs and Loyalists, and made a specialty of stealing cattle. A similar band of marauders on the British side received the name of " Skinners." The word cowboys is now used to designate the men who have charge of the cattle on the vast ranges in the W. and S. W. of the United States. Many of them were enlisted in two regiments of cavalry for the war with Spain , and, under the popular name of "Rough Riders ," greatly distinguished themselves in the early part of the campaign against Santiago, in Cuba.
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Cowdray
WEETMAN DICKINSON PEARSON, Viscount, a British capitalist, born in 1856. He contested Colchester for Parliament in 1892, and was elected for that city as a liberal in 1895, representing it till 1910. He was made a baronet in 1894, baron in 1910, and viscount in 1916. He was largely instrumental in building up the oil inter- During the ests of S. Pearson and Son, Ltd., of which he was president. Di war he was President of the Air Board. He was High Steward of Colchester, and in 1918 was elected Rector of the University of Aberdeen.
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Cowes
a British seaport on the N. coast of the Isle of Wight. It is built on both sides of the river Medina, dividing it into two towns, East and West Cowes. The town has an excellent harbor, is much frequented for watering ships, and is the headquarters of the Royal Yacht Club, and, moreover, a place of very fashionable resort, not only in the season, but for the greater part of the year. The famous Cowes Regatta is held there annually in August. Pop. about 15,000.
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