GOLDING— GOOSE 371 



song of the cock, and the bright yellow mngs of both sexes, 

 quickly attract the notice of even the unobservant. The nest is a 

 beautifully neat structure, often placed at no great height from the 

 ground, but generally so well hidden by the leafy bough on which 

 it is built as not to be easily found, until, the young being hatched, 

 the constant visits of the parents reveal its site. When the broods 

 leave the nest they move into the more open country, and fre- 

 quenting pastures, commons, heaths, and downs, assemble in large 

 flocks towards the end of summer. Eastward of the range of 

 the present species its place is taken by its congener C. caniceps, 

 which is easily recognized by wanting the black hood and white 

 ear-coverts of our own bird. Its home seems to be in Central Asia, 

 but it moves southward in Avinter, being common at that season in 

 Cashmere, and it is not unfrequently brought for sale to Calcutta. 

 The position of the genus Carduelis in the Family Fringillidae 

 (Finch) is not very clear. Structurally it would seem' to have 

 some relation to Chrysomitris (Siskin), though the members of the 

 two groups Have very different habits, and perhaps its nearest kin- 

 ship lies with Coccothraustes (Rawfincb.). 



GOLDING, see Gaulding. 



GOM-PAAUW (Gum-Peafowl) the colonial name for Otis 

 cristata or kati, the largest species of Bustard inhabiting South 

 Africa (Layard, B. S. Afnca, p. 283), so called because it is 

 believed to feed largely on the gum of the Mimosa-bushes growing 

 on the plains which it affects. / >. 



C^OOJi/tK Of- CAKl^^'dd ) 



GOOSANDER, or, a§ formerly spelt,i GOSSANDER, probably 

 from old Norsk Gas (A.S. G6s) and 0iul, pi. Andir (Dan. And], 

 meaning therefore " Goose-Duck," the ordinary name of the largest 

 species of Mergus (Merganser), apparently applied first in Lincoln- 

 shire, where so many words of Scandinavian origin have lingered ; 

 but now in general use. 



GOOSE (A.S. G6s), the general English name for a considerable 

 number of birds, belonging to the Family Anatidx of modern 

 ornithologists, which are mostly larger than Ducks and less than 

 Swans. Technically the word Goose is reserved for the female, the 

 male being called Gander, while the young is a Gosling. 



The most important species of Goose, and the type of the genus 

 Anser, is undoubtedly that which is the origin of our well-known 

 domestic race, the Anser ferus or A. cinereus of most naturalists, 

 commonly called in English the Grey or Grey Lag ^ Goose, a bird 



1 Drayton (1622) PolyolMon, Song xxv. ; Merrett (1667) Pinax, p. 184. 



2 The meaning and derivation of this word Lag had long been a puzzle until 

 Prof. Skeat suggested {Ihis, 1870, p. 301) that it signified late, last, or slow, 



