GALLINULE 



23GG 



GALLS 



battleship of Greece during its period of glory. 

 The number of oars varied, some vessels car- 

 rying twenty-five on either side, and others as 

 many as thirty-two, each being worked by 

 several men, originally by slaves or prisoners 

 of war and later by condemned criminals. The 

 last great naval battle in which galleys figured 

 was that of Lepanto, in 1571. 



GAL'LINULE, a family of water birds with 

 habits similar to those of ducks, coots and 

 rails. American species are commonly called 

 mud-hens, the family name originating from 

 the Latin word for hen. European species are 

 known as water- 

 or moor - hens. 

 Although their 

 flesh is not good, 

 these birds are 

 often shot for 

 sport. They are 

 about a foot long 

 and though not 

 web - footed are 

 excellent swim- 

 mers, for their 

 long slender toes 

 are furnished with 

 a narrow mem- 

 brane. Like rails, 

 they have a 

 horny frontal 

 shield. These 

 birds are timid and during the daytime remain 

 concealed in tangles of reeds and grasses of 

 lakes and meadow-brooks, but at twilight they 

 may be seen running gracefully over lily-pads, 

 or diving for their food of snails or water 

 plants. 



There are two American species of gallinule. 

 The purple gallinule, olive-green above, with 

 head and lower parts a beautiful purplish blue, 

 is never seen north of Texas, Tennessee and 

 South Carolina, but breeds and winters south- 

 ward into South America. The Florida gal- 

 linule, seen from Ontario to Brazil, is brown- 

 ish-olive above and greenish-black beneath, 

 with a red bill. It lays its eight to eleven 

 eggs, which are buff, spotted with brown, in a 

 nest of dry grass and weeds. See RAIL. 



GALLIPOLI, galleep'olee, a long, narrow 

 and mountainous peninsula, also a town of 

 the same name, in the Turkish province of 

 Adrianople. The peninsula separates the Dar- 

 danelles from the Gulf of Saros, and during 

 the War of the Nations, in 1915, was the scene 

 of terrific struggles between the Turks and 



GALLINULE 



Franco-British troops, in which the latter 

 sought the capture of Constantinople. The 

 town is at the northeastern extremity of the 

 Dardanelles, 128 miles from Constantinople 

 and ninety miles from Adrianople. It is not 

 of any great commercial importance, and al- 

 though once fortified and a center of industry, 

 it is now dirty, dilapidated and neglected. It 

 has two harbors, one of which has long been 

 used as a station by the Turkish fleet. 



The peninsula is extremely fertile, and corn, 

 oil and wine are produced. The wine industry 

 is carried on under difficulties, the Turkish 

 government having imposed a tax of fifty-five 

 per cent on all exports of wine, which led to 

 the abandonment of many flourishing vine- 

 yards. During the Crimean War in 1854 allied 

 armies of France and England landed on the 

 peninsula of Gallipoli as protectors of the 

 same Turkish power which in 1914 they deter- 

 mined to drive out of Europe. For map, see 

 DARDANELLES. See, also, WAR OF THE NATIONS. 



GALLIUM, gal'ium, a chemical element, 

 discovered by spectrum analysis in 1875 by the 

 French chemist Lecoq de Boisbaudran in the 

 zinc ore found at Pierrefitte, in the Pyrenees 

 Mountains. It is named after Gallia, the an- 

 cient name of France. Gallium is a rare metal, 

 of grayish-white color, fairly hard, that may 

 be hammered into thin plates which can be 

 bent several times without breaking. It melts 

 by the mere warmth of the hand into a sil- 

 very white liquid, its melting point being 86 F. 

 Its general properties are similar to those of 

 aluminum. Gallium combines with oxygen to 

 form oxides, and with chlorine to form sev- 

 eral kinds of chlorides. Its chemical symbol 

 is Ga. See CHEMISTRY. 



GALLON, gal'un, a liquid measure with a 

 capacity of 231 cubic inches. It is divided into 

 four liquid quarts, each quart being equal to 

 two pints and each pint equivalent to four 

 gills. The gallon is standardized in the United 

 States, Canada and England. Any cylindri- 

 cal body six inches in height and seven inches 

 in diameter will contain exactly one gallon. 

 In England an imperial gallon is also used; 

 this measure has a capacity of 277.420 cubic 

 inches. See WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 



GALLS, gawlz, unnatural growths on roots, 

 stems, buds, leaves or flowers, plants or trees, 

 produced by the presence of larvae (young) 

 of insects, or in rarer instances by fungi, slime 

 molds, algae, bacteria or worms. They vary 

 in size from the merest swellings to fruitlike 

 growths several inches in diameter. Some 



