Buffon enumerates eight species of this division of the scolopax genus, under the name of barges, including the foreign kinds; and Latham makes out the same number of different sorts, all British. They are a timid, shy, and solitary tribe; their mode of subsistence constrains them to spend their lives amidst the fens, searching for their food in the mud and wet soil, where they remain during the day, shaded and hidden among reeds and rushes, in that obscurity which their timidity makes them prefer. They seldom remain above a day or two in the same place, and it often happens that in the morning not one is to be found in those marshes where they were numerous the evening before. They remove in a flock in the night, and when there is moonlight, may be seen and heard passing at a vast height.
Their bills are long and slender, and, like the common snipe’s, are smooth and blunt at the tip; their legs are of various colours, and long. When pursued by the sportsman, they run with great speed, are very restless, and spring at a great distance, and make a scream as they rise. Their voice is somewhat extraordinary, and has been compared to the smothered bleating of a goat. They delight in salt marshes, and are rare in countries remote from the sea. Their flesh is delicate and excellent food.
Common Godwit,Godwyn,YarnhelporYarnhip.—(Scolopax ægocephala,Linn.La grande Barge Grise,Buff.)
The weight of this bird is about twelve ounces; length about sixteen inches; the bill is four inches long, and bent a little upwards, black at the point, gradually softening into a pale purple towards the base; a whitish streak passes from the bill over each eye; the head, neck, back, scapulars, and coverts, are of a dingy pale brown, each feather marked down the middle with a dark spot. The fore part of the breast is streaked with black; the belly, vent, and tail, are white, the latter regularly barred with black; the webs of the first six quill feathers are black, edged on the interior sides with reddish brown; the legs are in general dark coloured, inclining to a greenish blue.
The godwit is met with in various parts of Europe, Asia, and America; in Great Britain, in the spring and summer, it resides in the fens and marshes, where it rears its young, and feeds upon small worms and insects. During these seasons it only removes from one marsh to another; but when the winter sets in with severity, it seeks the salt marshes and the seashore.
The godwit is much esteemed by epicures as a great delicacy, and sells very high. It is caught in nets, to which it is allured by a stale or stuffed bird, in the same manner, and in the same season, as the ruffs and reeves.—Bewick.
Gold,s.The purest, heaviest, and most precious of all metals; money.
To dye fine bright Gold Colours.—First dye a very bright yellow with turmeric, lift out your stuff, and add a teaspoonful of madder; return it, and boil it about three minutes, and draw a part for the first shade; then put in a tablespoonful of turmeric, boil it up smartly; lift out your stuff and add better than a teaspoonful of madder; put it into the pot again, and boil it about seven minutes, and draw the second shade. For the third do the same, only adding some turmeric as before, and two teaspoonfuls of madder; or, if you see there is not a proper difference between the shades, add more madder, boil the wool in this ten minutes, and draw for the third shade. Add more turmeric, and three or four more teaspoonfuls of madder, or more, till you bring it near to a blood orange.
The lightest of these shades mixes the olive camel, the second the light rail, the third the dark rail and brown coughlan, and the fourth mixes the golden sooty. This is the best way to dye gold colours. Any man who is not a regular dyer can only be called a fancy dyer, and therefore can give no regular rules. If you are a judge of these colours, you will know by your eye when you get the proper shade. If the first two of them should not be enough of the gold, add more madder by pinches, lest you should overpower it. Divide each shade of the colours into two parts, for fine olives, bordering on muscle’s-beard. Put down a clean vessel with clean water, and put your lightest shade into it, first boiling in it about the size of a horse-bean of copperas. Throw in your stuff, be smart in passing it under your liquor, and in an instant you have a fine golden olive. Put in the size of a pea more of copperas, and put your next shade, and so on till all is done. You are to put in as much as two peas in the last. A little of the dark shade helps the March olive camel, and I have mixed out of these, with a little brown sable, a very good olive camel. All turmeric dyes, when put with binding stuff, stand well. Be careful your turmeric and madder be sound, if not, all is lost. Sound turmeric is very bright, and of a sweet smell. Sound madder is of an oily feel and a sweet smell, and is bright in colour; that which resembles brick-dust is bad, and gives no colour. The madder that is the best may be discovered easily by the taste.—Ancient Recipe.
Golden,a.Made of gold, consisting of gold; shining; yellow, of the colour of gold; valuable.
Golden Eagle.VideEagle.
The golden eagle is said to be not unfrequent in the mountainous parts of Ireland and Scotland. It breeds in the most inaccessible rocks, and lays three or four white eggs, Selby says two, of a greyish white colour, clouded with spots of reddish brown.
Smith, in the History of Kerry, says, a poor man in that county got a comfortable subsistence for his family, during a summer of famine, out of an eagle’s nest.
Pennant informs us it is frequent in Scotland, and adds, that it is very destructive to deer, which it will seize between the horns, and, by incessantly beating it with its wings, soon makes a prey of the harassed animal; that it builds in cliffs of rocks near the deer forests, and makes great havoc not only amongst them, but also the white hares and ptarmigans.
Willoughby gives a curious account of the nest of this species found in the woodlands, near the river Derwent, in the Peak of Derbyshire. He says it was made of large sticks, lined with two layers of rushes, between which was one of heath; that in it was one young and an addle egg, and by them a lamb, a hare, and three heath-poults.
Instances have been recorded of infants being carried to their nests; and in the Orkneys there is a law which entitles any person killing one of these birds, to a hen out of every house in the parish in which it is killed. They are remarkable for their longevity, and abstinence from food. Pennant mentions one enduring hunger for twenty-one days.
As we were sporting in the neighbourhood of Ben-Lomond, on the summit of the lesser mountains that form its base, a grouse, (Tetrao Scoticus), was wounded, and flew with difficulty eighty or a hundred paces. An eagle, apparently of this species, perceiving the laborious flight of the grouse, descended with rapid wing from the adjacent lofty cliffs, before our guns were re-loaded, and, in defiance of the shouts made to deter him, carried off his prey.
In another part of the Western Highlands of Scotland, we had an opportunity of witnessing the power of the flight of this bird in pursuit of its quarry. An old black-cock (Tetrao tetrix) was sprung, and was instantly pursued by the eagle, (who must have been on a neighbouring rock unperceived,) across the glen, the breadth of which was at least two miles. The eagle made several unsuccessful pounces, but as there was no cover and the bird large, it probably fell a victim in the end.—Smith—Pennant—Montagu.
Golden-eye(Anas clangula,Linn.;Le Garrot,Buff.)s.
The weight of this species varies from twenty-six ounces to two pounds. The length is nineteen inches, and the breadth thirty-one. The bill is bluish-black, short, thick, and elevated at the base; the head large, slightly crested, and black, or rather of a glossy bottle-green, with violet reflections; a large white spot is placed on the space on each side between the corners of the mouth and the eyes, the irides of which are of a golden-yellow; the throat, and a small portion of the upper part of the neck, are of a sooty or velvet-black; the lower, to the shoulders, the breast, belly, and vent, white; but some of the side-feathers, and those which cover the thighs, are tipped with black; the scapulars white and deep black; of the latter colour are also the adjoining long tertial feathers, and those on the greater part of the back; the first fourteen primary quills, with all the outside edge of the wing, including the ridge and a portion of the coverts, are brownish black; the middle part of the wing is white, crossed by a narrow black stripe, which is formed by the tips of the lesser coverts; tail dark, hoary brown; legs short, of a reddish yellow colour, with the webs dusky; the inner and hinder toes are furnished with lateral webs; on the latter these webs are large and flapped. Willoughby says, “the windpipe hath a labyrinth at the divarication, and besides, above swells out into a belly or puff-like cavity.”
These birds do not congregate in large flocks, nor are they numerous on the British shores, or on the lakes in the interior. They are late in taking their departure northward in the spring, the specimens before mentioned being shot in April. In their flight they make they air whistle with the vigorous quick strokes of their wings; they are excellent divers, and seldom set foot on the shore, upon which, it is said, they walk with great apparent difficulty, and, except in the breeding season, only repair to it for the purpose of taking their repose.
The attempts which were made by M. Baillon to domesticate these birds, he informs the Count de Buffon, quite failed of success.
An extraordinary occurrence took place, March, 1810, near Drumburgh, a fisherman, placed a flounder-net in the river Eden, which is subject to the flux and reflux of the tide, and on his returning to take up his net, instead of finding fish, he found it loaded with wild ducks; during his absence, a fleet of these birds had alighted below the net, and on the flowing of the tide, were carried, from the contraction of the channel, with great impetuosity into the net, and were drowned. He caught one hundred and seventy golden-eyed wild ducks, supposed to be from the Orkneys, as very rarely any of that species frequent that part of the country.—Bewick.
Golden Oriole(Oriolus galbula,Linn.),s.
This is the only species ever found in England, a few instances of which only are on record. It is about the size of a blackbird: length nine inches and a half. The bill is brownish red; irides red. General colour of the plumage fine golden yellow; between the bill and eye a streak of black; the wings black, marked here and there with yellow, and a patch of the same in the middle of the wing; the two middle feathers of the tail are black, inclining to olive at the base, the very tips yellow; the base half of the others black, the rest yellow; legs lead-colour; claws black.
The female is of a dull greenish brown in those parts where the male is black. Wings dusky; tail dirty green; all but the two middle feathers yellowish white at the ends.
This beautiful bird is not uncommon in France, where it breeds. The nest is curiously constructed, in shape like a purse: it is fastened to the extreme forked branches of tall trees, composed of fibres of hemp, or straw mixed with fine dry stalks of grass, and lined with moss and liverwort. She is said to be so tenacious of her eggs as to suffer herself to be taken on the nest.—Montagu.
Goldfinch, (Carduelis communis,Cuvier,)s.A singing bird.
This beautiful bird is rather less than the chaffinch. The bill is white, with a black point; irides dusky; the forehead and chin rich scarlet; top of the head black; cheeks white, bounded with black; hind part of the head white; breast pale tawny brown; the coverts of the wings black; quill feathers dusky black, barred across with bright yellow; tips white; belly white; the tail feathers black; most of them marked with a white spot near their ends; legs whitish.
The female differs very little in plumage from the male: in general, the smaller coverts of the wings are not so black. Young birds are brown about the head for some time after they leave the nest, and are by some called grey-pates.
The goldfinch is subject to variety in confinement; sometimes wholly black; others black and white, or quite white. A variety is sometimes taken by the birdcatchers with white spots under the throat: such is termed a cheverel. It makes a very elegant nest, formed externally of bents, moss, and liverwort, woven together with wool; lined sometimes with wool or hair, covered with thistle down, or willow cotton.
These birds will in general take the materials for building, which they can most easily procure. On the tenth of May I observed a pair of goldfinches beginning to make their nest in my garden; they had formed the ground-work with moss, grass, &c., as usual, but on my scattering small parcels of wool in different parts of the garden, they, in a great measure, left off the use of their own stuff, and employed the wool. Afterwards, I gave them cotton, on which they rejected the wool and proceeded with the cotton; the third day I supplied them with fine down, on which they forsook both the other and finished their work with this last article. The nest, when completed, was somewhat larger than is usually made by this bird, but retained the pretty roundness of figure and neatness of workmanship, which is proper to the goldfinch. The nest was completed in the space of three days, and remained unoccupied for the space of four days; the first egg not being laid till the seventh day from beginning the work. The eggs are four or five in number, of a bluish white, with a few spots, chiefly at the larger end.
The goldfinch is easily tamed and easily taught, and its capability of learning the notes of other birds is well known; but the tricks it may be taught to perform are truly astonishing. A few years ago the Sieur Roman exhibited his birds, which were goldfinches, linnets, and canaries. One appeared dead, and was held up by the tail or claw without exhibiting any signs of life; a second stood on its head with its claws in the air; a third imitated a Dutch milkmaid going to market, with pails on its shoulders; a fourth mimicked a Venetian girl looking out at a window; a fifth appeared as a soldier, and mounted guard as a sentinel; and the sixth acted as a cannoneer with a cap on its head, a firelock on its shoulder, and a match in its claw, and discharged a small cannon. The same bird also acted as if it had been wounded. It was wheeled in a barrow, to convey it, as it were, to the hospital; after which, it flew away before the company: the seventh turned a kind of windmill: and the last bird stood in the midst of some fireworks which were discharged all round it, and this without exhibiting the least symptom of fear.
They may also be taught to draw up little buckets or cups with food and water. To teach them this, there must be put round them a narrow soft leather belt, in which there must be four holes—two for the wings, and two for the feet. The belt is joined a little below the breast, where there is a ring, to which the chain is attached, that supports the little bucket or cup. We have seen both the goldfinch and lesser redpole perform this action, but in a different manner. Their cage had no wires,—only a back-board, a bottom-board, and one perch. To one foot of the bird was attached a light slender chain, which allowed it more exercise than it could have had in the common wire cage; at the outer edge of the bottom-board was a ring, through which ran the chain, to each end of which were fastened the little buckets that held the food and water, which the bird drew up with its foot and bill; and as one bucket was drawn up, the other sunk, thus lessening the difficulty, and lightening the task.—Montagu—Bolton—Syme.
Goosander(Mergus merganser,Linn.),s.a species of diver.
This is the largest species of merganser; weight about four pounds; length two feet four inches. The bill three inches long, narrow, serrated, or toothed, on the edges of both mandibles; the tip of the upper hooked; colour red: irides the same; the head and upper part of the neck glossy greenish black; the feathers on the crown and back of the head are long and loose; the rest of the neck, breast, and under parts, white; the sides, above the thighs, undulated with dusky lines; the upper part of the back black; lower part of the back, rump, and tail coverts, brownish ash-colour; the lesser wing coverts white; the rest ash-colour, with some white; the greater quill feathers are black, with ash-colour on the interior webs of some of the inner ones; the secondaries white, margined with greenish black on the outer webs; the scapulars nearest the body black, the others white; the tail consists of eighteen ash-coloured feathers, with dusky shafts; legs orange; in some specimens the breast is of a rosy buff-colour.
The goosander sometimes visits our rivers and lakes in severe winters, but retires to the more northern latitudes of Greenland and Iceland, where it breeds. In the Orkneys and Hebrides it is found the whole year round, while in the other districts it is only a winter visitant. It is not uncommon on the continent of Europe and Asia, but most plentiful towards the north. It is a winter inhabitant of the sea shore, and fresh water lakes of America, where they usually associate in small parties of six and eight. They disappear from that country in the month of April, and return in November. Its food consists entirely of fish, for which it dives with great celerity, and holds its slippery prey with great security, by means of its toothed bill, which is admirably adapted to the purpose.—Montagu.
Goose,s.A large waterfowl.VideAnser.
Canada Goose, (Anas CanadensisLinn.;L’Oie à cravate,Buff.)—This is less than the swan goose, but taller and longer than the common goose, and may be considered as the connecting link between that species and the swan. Their average weight is about nine pounds, and the length about three feet six inches. The bill is black and two inches and a half long: irides hazel: the head and neck are also black, with a crescent shaped white band on the throat, which tapers off to a point on each side below the cheeks, to the hinder part of the head: the whiteness of this cravat is heightened by its contrast with the dark surrounding plumage, and it looks very pretty: this mark also distinguishes it from others of the goose tribe. All the upper parts of the plumage, the breast, and a portion of the belly, are of a dull brown, sometimes mixed with grey: the lower part of the neck, the belly, vent, and upper tail coverts, white; quills and tail black; legs dingy blue.
The English of Hudson’s Bay depend greatly on geese, of these and other kinds, for their support; and, in favourable years, kill three or four thousand, which they salt and barrel. Their arrival is impatiently attended; it is the harbinger of the spring, and the month named by the Indians the goose-moon. They appear usually at our settlements in numbers, about St. George’s day, O. S. and fly northward to nestle in security. They prefer islands to the continent, as further from the haunts of men. Thus Marble Island was found, in August, to swarm with swans, geese, and ducks; the old ones moulting, and the young at that time incapable of flying.
The English send out their servants, as well as Indians, to shoot these birds on their passage. It is in vain to pursue them; they therefore form a row of huts made of boughs, at musket shot distance from each other, and place them in a line across the vast marshes of the country. Each hovel, or, as it is called, stand, is occupied by only a single person. These attend the flight of the birds, and, on their approach, mimic their cackle so well that the geese will answer, and wheel and come nearer the stand. The sportsman keeps motionless, and on his knees, with his gun cocked, the whole time; and never fires till he has seen the eyes of the geese. He fires as they are going from him, then picks up another gun that lies by him, and discharges that. The geese which he has killed he sets upon sticks as if alive, to decoy others; he also makes artificial birds for the same purpose. In a good day (for they fly in very uncertain and unequal numbers) a single Indian will kill two hundred. Notwithstanding every species of goose has a different call, yet the Indians are admirable in their imitation of every one.
The vernal flight of the geese lasts from the middle of April until the middle of May. Their first appearance coincides with the thawing of the swamps, when they are very lean. The autumnal, or the season of their return with their young, is from the middle of August to the middle of October. Those which are taken in this latter season, when the frosts usually begin, are preserved in their feathers and left to be frozen for the fresh provisions of the winter stock. The feathers constitute an article of commerce, and are sent into England.
Common Wild Goose—Grey Lag Goose, (Anas anser,Linn.;L’Oie Sauvage,Buff.) This wild goose generally weighs about ten pounds, and measures two feet nine inches in length, and five in breadth. The bill is thick at the base, tapers towards the tip, and is of a yellowish red colour, with the nail white: the head and neck are of a cinereous brown, tinged with dull yellow, and from the separations of the feathers, the latter appears striped downwards: the upper part of the plumage is of a deep brown, mixed with ash-grey; each feather is lighter on the edges, and the lesser coverts are tipped with white: the shafts of the primary quills are white, the webs grey, and the tips black: the secondaries black, edged with white: the breast and belly are crossed and clouded with dusky and ash on a whitish ground; and the tail coverts and vent are of a snowy whiteness: the middle feathers of the tail are dusky, tipped with white: those adjoining more deeply tipped, and the exterior ones nearly all white: legs pale red.
This species is common in this country, and although large flocks of them, well known to the curious, in all the various shapes which they assume in their flight, are seen regularly migrating southward in the autumn, and northward in the spring, yet several of them are known to remain and breed in the fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, and, it is said, in various other parts of Great Britain. Pennant says they reside in the fens the whole year, breed there, and hatch about eight or nine young ones, which are often taken, easily made tame, and much more esteemed for the excellent flavour of their flesh than the domestic goose.
Egyptian Goose.—(Anas Ægyptiaca,Linn.;L’Oie d’ Egypte,Buff.)—This beautifully variegated species is nearly the size of the grey lag, or the common wild goose. The bill red, about two inches in length, tip black, and nostrils dusky; eyelids red, and the irides pale yellow; the throat, cheeks, and upper part of the head, are white; a rusty chestnut-coloured patch, on each side of the head, surrounds the eyes. About two-thirds of the neck, from the head downwards, is of a pale reddish bay colour, darker at the lower end; a broad deep chestnut-coloured spot covers the middle of the breast; the shoulders and scapulars are of a reddish brown, prettily crossed with numerous dark waved lines; the wing coverts are white; the greater ones barred near the tips with black; the secondary quills are tinged with reddish bay, and bordered with chestnut; those of the primaries, which join them, are edged with glossy green, and the rest of the first quills are black; the lower part of the back, the rump, and tail, are black; the belly is white, but all the other fore-parts and sides of the body, from the neck near the vent, are delicately pencilled with narrow rust-coloured zigzag lines on a pale ash-grey ground; each wing is furnished on the bend with a short blunt spur. The colours of the female are pretty much the same as those of the male, but not by any means so bright or distinctly marked. This kind is common in a wild state in Egypt, at the Cape of Good Hope, and in various parts of the intermediate territories of Africa, whence they have been brought into, and domesticated in this and other civilised countries, and are now an admired ornament on many pieces of water contiguous to gentlemen’s seats.
Red-breasted Goose.—(Siberian Goose;Anser ruficollis.)—The red-breasted goose measures above twenty inches in length, and its extended wings three feet ten in breadth. The bill is short, of a brown colour, with the nail black; irides yellowish hazel; the cheeks and brow are dusky, speckled with white; an oval white spot occupies the space between the bill and the eyes, and is bounded above, on each side of the head, by a black line which falls down the hinder part of the neck; the chin, throat, crown of the head, and hinder part of the neck to the back, are black; two stripes of white fall down from behind each eye on the sides of the neck, and meet in the middle; the other parts of the neck, and the upper part of the breast, are of a deep rusty red, and the latter is terminated by two narrow bands of white and black; the back and wings are dusky; the greater coverts edged with grey; sides and lower part of the breast black; belly, upper and under tail coverts, white; legs dusky.
This beautiful species is a native of Russia and Siberia, whence they migrate southward in the autumn, and return in the spring; they are said to frequent the Caspian Sea, and are supposed to winter in Persia. They are very rare in this country.
White-fronted Wild Goose.—(Laughing Goose;Anas albifrons;L’ Oie rieuse,Buff.)—This species measures two feet four inches in length, and four feet six in the extended wings, and weighs about five pounds. The bill is thick at the base, of a yellowish red colour; the nail white; from the base of the bill and corners of the mouth a white patch is extended over the forehead; the rest of the head, neck, and upper parts of the plumage, are dark brown; the primary and secondary quills are of the same colour, but much darker, and the wing coverts are tinged with ash; the breast and belly are dirty white, spotted with dusky; the tail is of a hoary ash-coloured brown, and surrounded, like the lag goose’s, with a white ring at the base; the legs yellow.
These birds form a part of those vast tribes which swarm about Hudson’s Bay, and the north of Europe and Asia, during the summer months, and are but thinly scattered over the other quarters of the world. They visit the fens and marshy places in England in small flocks in the winter months, and disappear about the beginning of March. It is said that they never feed in the corn fields, but confine themselves wholly to such wilds and swamps as are constantly covered with water.
Wild geese are very destructive to the growing corn in the fields where they happen to halt in their migratory excursion. In some countries they are caught at those seasons in long nets, resembling those used for catching larks: to these nets the wild geese are decoyed by tame ones, placed there for that purpose. Many other schemes are contrived to take these wary birds; but, as they feed only in the day time, and betake themselves to the water at night, the fowler must exert his utmost care and ingenuity in order to accomplish his ends: all must be planned in the dark, and every trace of suspicion removed, for nothing can exceed the vigilant circumspection and acute ear of the sentinel, who, placed on some eminence, with outstretched-neck, surveys every thing that moves within the circle of the centre on which he takes his stand; and the instant he sounds the alarm, the whole flock betake themselves to flight.
The time that wild geese feed in this country is by night, and particularly during moonlight. I have never known them either netted or decoyed; and all the shooter has to rely upon is patience and a long barrel.
M. Cuvier has published a brief description of a bird produced between a swan and a goose, which in fact amounts to its being a perfect goose, in every thing but size like its mother, which it greatly exceeds.—Bewick—Wild Sports.
Gorge,s.The throat, the swallow; that which is gorged or swallowed; the craw or crop.
Gorge,v.To fill up to the throat, to glut, to satiate; to swallow, as the fish has gorged the hook.
Gorse,s.Furze, a thick prickly shrub.
Furze-covers cannot be too much encouraged, for there cubs are safe. They have also other advantages attending them: they are certain places to find in; foxes cannot break from them unseen, nor are you so liable to change as in other covers.
A fox, when pressed by hounds, will seldom go into afurze-brake. Rabbits, which are the fox’s favourite food, may also be encouragedthere, and yet do little damage. Were they suffered to establish themselves in your woods, it would be difficult to destroy them afterwards. Thus far I object to them as a farmer: I object to them also as a fox-hunter; since nothing is more prejudicial to the breeding of foxes than disturbing your woods late in the season, to destroy the rabbits.—Beckford.
Goshawk,s.A hawk of a large kind.
This is a large species, superior in size to the buzzard; length twenty-two inches or more; the bill is blue, tip black; cere yellowish green; irides yellow.
The head, hind part of the neck, back, and wings, deep brown; over the eye is a white line, and a broken patch of the same colour on the side of the neck; the breast and belly marked with numerous transverse bars of black and white; the tail is long, and ash-coloured, with four or five dusky bars; legs yellow; claws black.
The goshawk is rarely found in England, but is not uncommon in the wild and mountainous parts of Scotland, where it is known to breed in the forest of Rothemurchus, and on the woody banks of the Dee. They are said to be numerous in the Orkney Islands, where they breed in the rocks and sea cliffs. They more generally build however in lofty fir trees, and lay from two to four eggs, of a bluish white, marked with streaks and spots of reddish brown. Its flight is described to be very rapid, generally low, and it strikes its prey on the wing, near the ground, being incapable of mounting. If its prey take refuge, it will wait patiently on a tree, or a stone, until the game, pressed by hunger, is induced to move; and as this hawk is capable of great abstinence, it generally succeeds in taking it. Colonel Thornton informs us, that he flew one at a pheasant, which got into cover, and the hawk was lost; at ten o’clock next morning the falconer found her, and just as he caught her the pheasant ran and rose. According to Meyer, it will prey on its own young, but its principal food is wild ducks, hares, and rabbits. In the young, the head, neck, and belly, are of a rufous colour, with long brown spots, and tips of the tail white. In this plumage they have been termed gentil falcons. In the days of falconry, they were held in high repute for hunting cranes, geese, and the larger sorts of game, and were considered by falconers, the best and most courageous of the short-winged hawks.
The goshawk is common in France, Germany, and Russia; it is also found in America, but is rare in Holland.
The goshawk is taken by a net about eight feet deep, and of sufficient length to inclose a square of nine or ten feet. It is suspended to upright stakes, by notches cut upwards, so that it may be disengaged from them, when the hawk strikes against it. This inclosure is left open at the top, and in the middle a pigeon is to be tied to the ground for a bait. The meshes of this net should not be too small, and the colour should be as much as possible like that of the surrounding objects.
The goshawk is termed a hawk of the fist, because it is from thence, and not from the air, that he flies at his game. He is never to be hooded unless for a short time when first taken, or to keep him quiet in travelling. The resting-place of short-winged hawks is called a perch. It is a pole of about an inch and a half in diameter, fixed horizontally about four feet from the ground. It is to be placed under a tree in fine weather, and in some sheltered place when it rains. To the perch is suspended a piece of cloth, or of matting, hanging like a curtain, which assists the hawk in regaining the perch when he hasbaitedoff, and prevents him from twisting the leash round it by passing under. The swivel that is fixed to the leash is to be tied close to the top of the perch, and is attached to the jesses by a short leash, six or eight inches long, in such a manner as to be easily taken off when the hawk is to be prepared for flying. He is then to be held on the fist by the jesses, in the same way as the slight falcon.
As the goshawk is carried without a hood, and as he is not to be brought down by the lure, but must come to the fist at the falconer’s call, it is essential that he should be made as tame as possible, and this can only be done by almost constantcarriage, and by allowing him frequently topull upona stump or pinion, from which he can get but little meat. He will soon learn to come from the perch to the fist, if held close to him when allured by meat. By persevering in this practice, and by cautiously increasing the distance, he will at length be brought to come to the fist, when he is thirty or forty yards off. It is hardly necessary to say, that a creance must always be attached to the leash when these lessons are given, until the hawk is sufficiently reclaimed to be trusted at large, and with this precaution too much must not be required of him at a time. In breaking hawks, and all other animals, much additional trouble is occasioned, and much time is lost in endeavouring to get them on too fast. When the goshawk will come freely to the fist, not only from the perch, but from the ground, and from low trees (on which he should frequently be placed), it will only be necessary to give him a few live partridges in the way that I have described, and he will be ready for the field.—Montagu—Sebright.
Gosling,s.A young goose, a goose not yet full-grown.
Gourdiness,s.A swelling in a horse’s leg.
Gournet,s.A sea-fish, commonly pronouncedGurnet. Of this fish the red is excellent, while the grey sort is coarse and insipid.
Grain,s.A single seed of corn; corn; the seed of any fruit; any minute particle; the smallest weight; anything proverbially small; the direction of the fibres of wood, or other fibrous matter.
Grained,a.Rough, made less smooth.
Grains,s.The husks of malt exhausted in brewing; the prongs of a fish-spear.
Gralla,s.That order of birds which Linnæus classifies as having obtuse bills, and long legs, as the crane, stork, &c.
Graminivorous,a.Grass-eating.
Granivorous,a.Eating grain.
Granivorous birds.—Birds may be distinguished, like quadrupeds, into two kinds or classes—granivorous and carnivorous; like quadrupeds, too, there are some that hold a middle nature, and partake of both. Granivorous birds are furnished with larger intestines, and proportionally longer, than those of the carnivorous kind. Their food, which consists of grain of various sorts, is conveyed whole and entire into the first stomach or craw, where it undergoes a partial dilution by a liquor, secreted from the glands, and spread over its surface; it is then received into another species of stomach, where it is further diluted; after which it is transmitted into the gizzard, or true stomach, consisting of two very strong muscles, covered externally with a tendinous substance, and lined with a thick membrane of prodigious power and strength; in this place the food is completely triturated, and rendered fit for the operation of the gastric juices. The extraordinary powers of the gizzard in comminuting the food, so as to prepare it for digestion, would exceed all credibility, were they not supported by incontrovertible facts, founded upon experiments.
In order to ascertain the strength of these stomachs, the ingenious Spallanzani made the following curious and very interesting experiments:—
Tin tubes, full of grain, were forced into the stomachs of turkeys, and after remaining twenty hours, were found to be broken, compressed, and distorted in the most irregular manner.
In proceeding further, the same author relates, that the stomach of a cock, in the space of twenty-four hours, broke off the angles of a piece of rough jagged glass, and upon examining the gizzard, no wound or laceration appeared.
Twelve strong needles were firmly fixed in a ball of lead, the points of which projected about a quarter of an inch from the surface; thus armed, it was covered with a case of paper, and forced down the throat of a turkey; the bird retained it a day and a half, without showing the least symptom of uneasiness; the points of all the needles were broken off close to the surface of the ball, except two or three, of which the stumps projected a little. The same author relates another experiment, seemingly still more cruel; he fixed twelve small lancets, very sharp, in a similar ball of lead, which was given in the same manner to a turkey cock, and left eight hours in the stomach; at the expiration of which the organ was opened but nothing appeared except the naked ball, the twelve lancets having been broken to pieces, the stomach remaining perfectly sound and entire. From these curious and well-attested facts we may conclude, that the stones so often found in the stomachs of many of the feathered tribes, are highly useful in comminuting grain and other hard substances which constitute their food.
Granivorous birds partake much of the nature and disposition of herbivorous quadrupeds. In both the number of their stomachs, the length and capacity of their intestines, and the quality of their food, they are very similar; they are likewise both distinguished by the gentleness of their tempers and manners. Contented with the seeds of plants, with fruits, insects, and worms, their chief attention is directed to procuring food, hatching and rearing their offspring, and avoiding the snares of men, and the attacks of birds of prey, and other rapacious animals. They are a mild and gentle race, and are in general so tractable as easily to be domesticated.—Bewick.
Granulate,v.To grain; to break into small masses.
Grape,s.The fruit of the vine, growing in clusters.
Grasp,v.To hold in the hand, to gripe; to seize, to catch at.
Grasp,s.The gripe or seizure of the hand; hold; power of seizing.
Grass,s.The common herbage of fields on which cattle feed.
Grassy,a.Covered with grass.
Grate,s.A partition made with bars placed near to one another, to prevent fish escaping from a pond; the range of bars within which fires are made.
Grave,v.To carve on any hard substance; to impress deeply.
Gravitating Stops,s.
Gravitating Stops.—An insurance from accidents, with a double gun, is completely effected by Mr. Joseph Manton’s gravitating stops, which act of themselves, to remedy the serious danger of loading with a barrel cocked; and, with these stops, you may, by holding the gun downwards, carry both barrels cocked, through a hedge-row, with little or no danger, if any circumstance could justify such determined preparation.
The gravitating stops, I should not omit to mention, require to be kept very clean, as, with rust or dirt under them, they will not fall so readily, and thereby prevent the gun from going off. This I name as a caution to a slovenly shooter, and not as an imperfection in the plan.—Hawker.
Gray,s.White, with a mixture of black; white or hoary with old age; dark, like the opening or close of day.
Grey horses are of different shades, from the lightest silver to a dark iron grey. The silver grey reminds the observer of the palfrey, improved by an admixture of Arab blood. He does not often exceed fourteen hands and a half high, and is round carcassed—light legged—with oblique pasterns, calculated for a light carriage, or for a lady’s riding—seldom subject to disease—but not very fleet, or capable of hard work.
The iron grey is usually a larger horse; higher in the withers, deeper and thinner in the carcass, more angular in all his proportions, and in many cases a little too long in the legs. Some of these greys make good hackneys and hunters, and especially the Irish horses; but they are principally used for the carriage. They have more endurance than the flatness of the chest would promise; but their principal defect is their feet, which are liable to contraction, and yet that contraction is not so often accompanied by lameness as in many other horses.
The dappled grey is generally a handsomer and a better horse: all the angular points of the iron grey are filled up, and with that which not only adds to symmetry, but to use. Whether as a hackney, or, the larger variety, a carriage-horse, there are few better, especially since his form has been so materially improved, and so much of his heaviness got rid of by the free use of foreign blood. There are not, however, so many dappled greys as there used to be, since the bays have been bred with so much care. The dappled grey, if dark at first, generally retains his colour to old age.
Some of the greys approach to a nutmeg, or even bay colour. Many of these are handsome, and most of them are hardy.
Grayling,s.The umber, a fish.
Grayling are never found in streams that run from glaciers—at least near their source; and they are killed by cold or heat. I once put some grayling from the Teme, in September, with some trout, into a confined water, rising from a spring in the yard at Dawnton; the grayling all died, but the trout lived. And in the hot summer of 1825, great numbers of large grayling died in the Avon, below Ringwood, without doubt killed by the heat in July.
The grayling lies deeper and is not so shy a fish as the trout; and, provided your link is fine, is not apt to be scared by the cast of flies on the water. The fineness of the link, and of the gut to which your flies are attached, is a most essential point, and the clearer the stream the finer should be the tackle. I have known good fishermen foiled by using a gut of ordinary thickness, though their flies were of the right size and colour. Very slender transparent gut of the colour of the water, is one of the most important causes of success in grayling fishing.
He is to be fished for at all times, for he is rarely so much out of season as to be a bad fish; and when there are flies on the water, he will generally take them: but as the trout may be considered as a spring and summer fish, so the grayling may be considered as a winter and autumnal fish.
Grayling do not refuse large flies; and in the Avon and Test May flies, and even moths, are greedily taken in the summer by large grayling. Flies, likewise, that do not inhabit the water, but are blown from the land, are good baits for grayling. There is no method more killing for large grayling, than applying a grasshopper to the point of a leaded hook, the lead and shank of which are covered with green and yellow silk, to imitate the body of the animal. This mode of fishing is called sinking and drawing. I have seen it practised in this river with as much success as maggot fishing, and the fish taken were all of the largest size; the method being most successful in deep holes, where the bottom was not visible, which are the natural haunts of such fish. In the winter, grayling rise for an hour or two in bright and tolerably warm weather, and at this time the smallest imitations of black or pale gnats that can be made, on the smallest sized hook, succeed best in taking them. In March, the dark-bodied willow fly may be regarded as the earliest fly; the imitation of which is made by a dark claret dubbing and a dun hackle, or four small starlings’ wing feathers. The blue dun comes on in the middle of the day in this month, and is imitated by dun hackles for wings and legs, and an olive dubbing for body. In mild weather, in morning and evening in this month, and through April, the green tail, or grannon, comes on in great quantities, and is well imitated by a hen pheasant’s wing feather, a grey or red hackle for legs, and a dark peacock’s harle, or dark hare’s ear fur, for the body. The same kind of fly, of a larger size, with paler wings, kills well in the evening, through May or June. The imitation of a water insect called the spider-fly, with a lead-coloured body and woodcock’s wings, is said to be a killing bait on this and other rivers, in the end of April and beginning of May, but I never happened to see it on the water. The darker alder fly, in May and June, is taken greedily by the fish; it is imitated by a dark shaded pheasant’s wing, black hackle for legs, and a peacock’s harle, ribbed with red silk, for the body. At this season, and in July, imitations of the black and red palmer worms, which I believe are taken for black or brown, or red beetles or cockchafers, kill well; and in dark weather there are usually very light duns on the water. In August, imitations of the house fly and blue bottle, and the red and black ant fly, are taken, and are particularly killing after floods in autumn, when great quantities of the fly are destroyed and washed down the river. In this month, in cloudy days, pale blue duns often appear, and they are still more common in September. Throughout the summer and autumn, in fine calm evenings, a large dun fly, with a pale yellow body, is greedily taken by grayling after sunset, and the imitation of it is very killing. In the end of October, and through November, there is no fly fishing but in the middle of the day, when imitations of the smaller duns may be used with great success; and I have often seen the fish sport most, and fly fishing pursued with great success in bright sunshine, from twelve till half past two o’clock, after severe frosts in the morning; and I once caught under these circumstances a very fine dish of fish on the 7th of November. It was in the year 1816; the summer and autumn had been peculiarly cold and wet, and, probably in consequence of this, the flies were in smaller quantity at their usual season, and there were a greater proportion later in the year.
Grayling, if you take your station by the side of a river, will rise nearer to you than trout, for they lie deeper, and therefore are not so much scared by an object on the bank; but they are more delicate in the choice of their flies than trout, and will much oftener rise and refuse the fly. Trout, from lying nearer the surface, are generally taken before grayling where the water is slightly coloured, or after a flood; and in rain trout usually rise better than grayling, though it sometimes happens, when great quantities of flies come out in rain, grayling, as well as trout, are taken with more certainty than at any other time. The artificial fly, in such cases, looks like a wet fly, and allures even the grayling, which generally is more difficult to deceive than trout in the same river.—Sir Humphry Davy.
Grease,s.The soft part of the fat; a swelling and gourdiness of the legs, which generally happens to a horse after his journey.
Swelled legs, although distinct fromgrease, are apt to degenerate into it. This disease, therefore, comes next under our consideration. It is an inflammation of the skin of the heel, sometimes of the fore, but oftener of the hind foot. It is not a contagious disease, although when it once appears in a stable it frequently goes through it, for it is usually to be traced to bad stable management. The skin of the heel of the horse somewhat differs from that of any other part. There is a great deal of motion in the fetlock, and to prevent the skin from excoriation or chapping, it is necessary that it should be kept soft and pliable; therefore, in the healthy state of the part, the skin of the heel has a peculiar greasy feel. Under inflammation, the secretion of this greasy matter is stopped—the heels become red, dry, and scurfy; and being almost constantly in motion, cracks soon succeed: these sometimes extend, and the whole surface of the heel becomes a mass of soreness, ulceration, and fungus.
The first appearance of grease is usually a dry and scurfy state of the skin of the heel, with redness, heat and itchiness. The heel should be well washed with soap and water; as much of the scurf should be detached as is easily removable: white ointment composed of one drachm of sugar of lead, rubbed down with an ounce of lard, will usually supple and cool, and heal the part.
When cracks appear, the mode of treatment will depend on their extent and depth. If they are but slight, a lotion composed of a solution of two drachms of blue vitriol, or four of alum, in a pint of water, will often speedily dry them up and close them. But if the cracks are deep, with an ichorous discharge, and the lameness considerable, it will be necessary to poultice the heel. A poultice of linseed meal will be the most effectual, unless the discharge is thin and offensive, when an ounce of finely powdered charcoal should be mixed with the linseed meal, or a poultice may be made with carrots boiled soft, and mashed. The efficacy of a carrot poultice is seldom sufficiently appreciated in cases like these.
When the inflammation and pain have evidently subsided, and the cracks discharge good matter, they may be dressed with an ointment composed of one part of resin, and three of lard, melted together, and one part of calamine powder added, when these begin to get cool. The healing will be quickened if the cracks are occasionally washed with either the vitriol or alum solution. A mild diuretic may here be given every third day, but a mild dose of physic will form the best medicine that can be administered.
After the chaps or cracks have healed, the legs will sometimes continue gorged and swelled. A flannel bandage evenly applied over the whole of the swelled part will be very serviceable; or, should the season admit of it, a run at grass, particularly spring grass, should be allowed. A blister is inadmissible, from the danger of bringing back the inflammation of the skin, and discharge from it; but the actual cautery, taking especial care not to penetrate the skin, must occasionally be resorted to.
There will be great danger in suddenly stopping this discharge. Inflammation of a more important part has rapidly succeeded to the injudicious attempt. The local application should be directed to the abatement of the inflammation. The poultices just referred to should be diligently used night and day, and especially the carrot poultice; and, when the heat and tenderness and stiffness of motion have diminished, astringent lotions may be applied; either the alum lotion, or a strong decoction of oak bark, changed, or used alternately, but not mixed. The cracks should likewise be dressed with the ointment above mentioned; and the moment the horse can bear it, a flannel bandage should be put on, reaching from the coronet, to three or four inches above the swelling.
Walking exercise should be resorted to as soon as the horse is able to bear it, and this by degrees may be increased to a gentle trot.—The Horse.
Greasy,a.Oily, fat, unctuous; smeared with grease.
Greaves,s.The offal of chandlers; the animal matter which remains after the tallow has been extracted. Greaves mixed with oatmeal make excellent feeding for dogs.
Grebe, s. A water-fowl.