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G A M B O G I A GAM M ARID JE. 



remove the husks, and break the straws, while their 

 legs, and very long retractile toes are equally suited 

 to lay hold of the stalks of the plant, and to carry the 

 ears to their mouth. They move with grace on the 

 liquid element, and run with equal facility on the 

 ground, or on the leaves of water plants. 



Various species, or varieties of the Sultana hen have 

 been mentioned, but there is only one which is well 

 known ; and it must serve as a specimen. This one 

 is, the purple water hen (Gallinula porphyrio of 

 Latham). The upper mandible closely identified 

 with the skull ; the middle toe clawless, and longer 

 than the tarsus ; all the plumage blue, the frontal 

 plate terminating behind the eyes. This definition is 

 sufficiently characteristic of the beautiful species in 

 question, which is nearly eighteen inches long, and 

 about sixteen high, and which occurs on the marshy 

 banks of rivers and lakes, and in the flooded fields of 

 Calabria, Sicily, the Ionian islands, Dalmatia, the 

 southern provinces of Hungary, and, though rarely, 

 ia Sardinia. It feeds on grain, plants, and roots, and 

 is partial to fruit and fish. The nest is placed in the 

 thick herbage of flooded or swampy fields, and is 

 composed of bits of sticks and fragments of plants. 

 The female lays three or four eggs. The Greeks and 

 Romans tamed and fostered this interesting bird, 

 introduced it into their palaces and temples, and 

 allowed it a considerable range of flight. According 

 to Sonnini it abounds in Lower Egypt, appearing in 

 the rice fields in May, and the following months, and 

 sometimes breeding in the deserts. The tibia? of the 

 Sultana are naked much further up than those of the 

 common gallinule ; the tarsi are larger and very 

 strong ; and the toes are so much produced, as to bear 

 an almost unnatural proportion to the size of the 

 head. The body is handsome, however, and is 

 wholly that of a land bird, so that it is probable 

 these birds are not much in the habit of swimming. 



GAMBOGIA is the Garcinia gambogia of Des- 

 vaux, and the tree whence is obtained the yellow 

 pigment called gamboge, The tree is large and 

 handsome, the fruit is eatable, pulpy, and sweet ; in 

 the East Indies it is believed to be a provocative of 

 appetite, and as such is much esteemed, and enters 

 into the composition of many sauces. The resinous 

 juices are obtained by wounding the bark, when they 

 exude, and, becoming concrete on exposure to the 

 air, the small lumps the gummi guttas of commerce, 

 are collected for sale. The plant belongs to the 

 natural order Guttiferae. 



GAMMARIDJE. A family of crustaceous animals 

 belonging to the order Amphipoda, and comprising 

 the leaping shrimps, of which the genus Gammarus is 

 the type. The body is compressed at the sides, curved, 

 and composed of a series of equal sized segments, 

 in which respects it is at once distinguished from the 

 true shrimps and prawns, the anterior segments of 

 which are soldered together into a large thoracic 

 shield or shell, and as this structure prevails likewise 

 in the lobster and crab families, these animals have 

 obtained the names of shell-fish, although they have 

 no more to do with the true fishes than any other 

 perfectly distinct group of animals which happens 

 to be aquatic in its habits. In the shrimps, lobsters, 

 and crabs, moreover, we perceive only five pairs of 

 legs, but the mouth is furnished with three pairs of 

 foot jaws. Whereas, in this family, and indeed in 

 the other groups of sessile-eyed, hard-shelled crus- 

 tacea (except the Lasmodipoda), the body is furnished 



with seven pairs of legs, attached in pairs to the 

 seven segments succeeding the head ; but the mouth 

 possesses only a single pair of foot-jaws, so that it is 

 quite evident not only that certain organs which, in 

 the Decapods, are mouth organs, are transformed in 

 the Amphipoda into legs, but also that the part of the 

 body which, in the former, constitutes the head, is 

 composed of several segments soldered together. 

 It is to the inimitable researches of Savigny (which 

 cost their talented author his eyesight) that we are 

 indebted for the most satisfactory demonstration of 

 these curious analogies, which we shall have occasion 

 to allude to more at large in our article on INSECTS. 

 The name, Amphipoda, is given to the group in allu- 

 sion to another leading character, namely, that of 

 having the legs of different forms, some of them, the 

 anterior, being claw-shaped, and the others simple. 

 Considerable variation, however, occurs in the form 

 of the claws, and also in the particular legs which are 

 clawed, and it is upon these, and various other struc- 

 tural characters, that the genera have been formed. 

 In the typical genus, Gammarus (Latreille), the four 

 anterior legs are formed into small claws, and the 

 upper antennae offer a character which is unique in 

 the order, that of having a small articulated seta at 

 the internal extremity of the third joint. The typical 

 species, Gammarus pulex (aqtiaticus, Leach), is a 

 small leaping animal, found in great quantities in 

 ditches, ponds, and springs of fresh water, exceedingly 

 active, and varying much in size. Its motions are 

 effected in a manner similar to those of the spring- 

 tailed insects, Podurce, by bringing the tail, which is 

 terminated by several appendages, beneath the breast, 

 and then letting it go with force, thus giving, as it 

 were, continual fillips to the water, in which it re- 

 sides, and by which means it is impelled forwards. 

 Another species is much more slender in its form, 

 and its lower antennae are very strong, and as long 

 as the body. This insect forms the type of the 

 genus Corophium, Latreille, which is further charac- 

 terised by having none of the legs provided with a 

 large claw. It is the Cancer grossipes, Linntcus, 

 (Corophium longicorne, Latreille), and is about an inch 

 long. It inhabits the coasts of various European 

 countries, and is called Pernys by the inhabitants of 

 the coast of La Rochelle, where it resides in holes, 

 which it makes in the mud, covered with the wood- 

 work erected by the muscle-catchers. The Coro- 

 phium appears at the beginning of May, and imme- 

 diately commences warfare against the Nereids, 

 Amphinomce, Arenicolas, and other marine annelida 

 which take up their abode in the same places. It is 

 very curious to observe, at the rising of the tide, 

 myriads of these Crustacea swimming about in every 

 direction, and beating the mud with their long 

 antennae, and turning it over, in order to find their 

 prey. When they have discovered one of these 

 annelida, often ten, or even twenty, times as large as 

 themselves, several of them unite together to attack 

 and devour it. They do not cease this warfare until 

 they have thoroughly searched all the mud. They 

 likewise attack mollusca, fishes, and even the carcases 

 of large animals left in the mud. They also ascend 

 the hurdle fences inclosing the muscles, as well as 

 upon the latter ; indeed the muscle catchers pretend 

 that they cut the threads which retain these shell- 

 fish, so as to cause them to fall into the mud, so that 

 they may the more easily devour them. They ap- 

 pear to multiply during the whole of summer, as the 



