GLAUCUS-GLOBE THISTLE. 



635 



G. torquata (Collared Pratincole). The length 

 of this species is about nine inches and a half ; the 

 plumage is subject to considerable varieties of colour. 

 It inhabits the banks of large rivers, inland seas, and 

 lakes, in the provinces which confine on Asia, and in 

 most of the southern countries of that continent ; is 

 very common on the salt lakes and extensive marshes 

 of Hungary ; and is a stated or accidental passenger 

 in some parts of Italy, Germany, France, and Swit- 

 zerland, but is scarcely ever met with in Holland and 

 Great Britain. One, we believe, was shot near Liver- 

 pool, and another specimen was shot in Unst, the most 

 northerly of the Shetland islands, by Mr. Bullock. 

 This bird darts with wonderful rapidity on flies and 

 other insects that live among the reeds and rushes, 

 and seizes them whilst it either flies or runs. It is a 

 noisy restless bird ; and the female seeks out the tall- 

 est tufts of herbage for her nest, where she lays from 

 three to eight eggs. 



Though this bird is subject to very considerable 

 varieties of colour, some of which appear to be per- 

 manent, and yet attended with no other difference of 

 character or of habits, yet the following may perhaps 

 be considered as the prevailing colours of the full- 

 grown birds of both sexes, which do not indeed appear 

 'to differ much from each other. The top of the head, 

 the nape of the back, the scapulars, and the wing- 

 coverts, of a greyish brown colour. The throat and 

 fore part of the neck white, with a light rose-coloured 

 tint, and this portion is surrounded by a very straight 

 and well-defined band of black, which returns toward 

 the angles of the gape ; and it is from this that the 

 bird gets the name of collared. The space between 

 the eye and the bill is black, but there is a small cres- 

 cent-shaped spot of white behind the eye. The breast 

 is brownish white, the under coverts of the wings bright 

 maroon red. The under part of the body white 

 clouded with russet; the under tail-coverts pure 

 .white; the tail-feathers black, but with brownish 

 orange margins, and the quills of the wings margined 

 with the same colour, and deep blackish brown in the 

 centre. The bill black at the tip and reddish at the 

 base ; the irides reddish brown ; the feet reddish 

 ash ; and the circle round the eyes bright red. There 

 is a variety of a greyish brown, deeper or paler in the 

 tint, with the white on the throat clouded with bright 

 russet ; and this variety sometimes has the black collar 

 broad, sometimes marked by a white line, and some- 

 times consisting of a row of spots. The young birds 

 are brownish ash on the upper part, waved with 

 darker, and with whitish margins to the feathers ; the 

 throat dull black ; and the breast and belly dark grey, 

 with brown spots. In this state of the plumage they 

 have often been described as different species. 



G. grullarta (Australian pratincole). The upper 

 parts of this species are reddish fawn-colour ; the 

 quills black ; the breast russet ; the throat, fore part 

 of the neck, rump, and tail-coverts white ; the belly 

 and flanks maroon brown. The anterior part some- 

 times marked with blackish spots, forming a sort of 

 collar. The tail-feathers squared over at the end ; 

 the first quill very long and narrow ; the bill reddish, 

 and black at the tip, and the feet reddish; the length 

 about nine inches ; and the closed wings reaching 

 nearly three inches beyond the point of the tail. 



G. laclca (cream-coloured pratincole). All the 

 upper parts of the body and the wings pure whitish ash; 

 the quills and under sides of the wings deep black ; 

 all the under parts of the body pure white ; all the 



tail-feathers, with the exception of the outer ones, 

 have a black spot upon each, which forms a large 

 angular space on the closed tail. The bill is black 

 with reddish margins, and the feet brown. The length 

 of this species is much less than the others, it being 

 not quite six inches. It is understood to inhabit 

 India. 



There are several other species of those birds men- 

 tioned by describers, as being distinct from those which 

 have been enumerated ; but when the differences 

 consist in the colours or the markings only, they may 

 be disregarded, from what we know of the proneness to 

 variety of colour in that species with which we are 

 best acquainted. The peculiar form and comparative 

 shortness of the tail in the Australian one, leave little 

 doubt that it is entitled to rank as a distinct species ; 

 and which differs from the others not only in size but 

 in the peculiar form of its tail, which is much less 

 produced and forked than in the collared species, but 

 much more so than in the Australian one. These 

 birds are a very peculiar race, but their motions are 

 so rapid, and the marshy places which they inhabit 

 are generally so inaccessible, that our knowledge of 

 them is very limited. 



GLAUCUS (Forster). A naked mollusc found in 

 nearly every sea, but which has, hitherto, been erro- 

 neously figured and described with the fuot uppermost. 



GLECHOMA (Linnaeus). A genus of two 

 creeping perennial herbs, natives of Europe, and 

 well known by the name of ground-ivy. The G. 

 liedcracca was once much esteemed as a medicine, 

 and administered in pectoral diseases. Ground-ivy 

 tea is still taken as an article of diet by poor people, 

 and occasionally as a medicine ; and cases ure on 

 record in which it has been useful for liypochondriaca! 

 patients. It belongs to Labiatcc. 



GLEDITSCH1A (Linnaeus). A genus of hardy 

 deciduous trees, natives of North America and 

 China. Class and order Po/i/gamia Diwcia, and na- 

 tural order Legumnosce. Generic character : (lowers 

 bisexual ; calyx three to five-parted ; petals from 

 three to five, two sometimes united ; stamens from 

 three to eight ; filaments filiform, free below ; anthers 

 erect, oval, two-celled ; style simple, short ; pod 

 often very long, interrupted by contractions between 

 the seeds, the latter merged in pulp, rarely one- 

 seeded ; the male flowers have a calyx in four or eight 

 parts ; corolla none ; stamens four to eight. These 

 trees are admitted into arborctums and ornamental 

 plantations. They have the habit of the Acacia 

 (Robinia), and some of them are remarkable for 

 their large branched thorns, by which their boles are 

 effectually defended from all climbing animals. Not 

 even a bear could ascend the G. horrida with im- 

 punity. 



GLOBBA (Roscoe). A genus of fine plants, be- 

 longing to the lirst class and order of Limueus, and 

 in the natural order Scilam'mca; of Jussieu. Generic 

 character : calyx somewhat tubular and three-cleft ; 

 corolla double, the exterior three-parted, the interior 

 one-lipped, with two teeth at the base ; stamens with 

 linear filaments, not produced beyond the anthers ; 

 style filiform, bearing a concave stigma ; capsule as- 

 sociated. These plants are easily cultivated in the 

 stove, grown in sand and peat earth. In India and 

 China they affect the sides of ponds, and there grow 

 luxuriantly. 



GLOBE THISTLE, is the Echinops spharoce- 

 p/ialus of Linnceus. Like all other thistles, it belongs 



