GOLDEN ROD GOMPHOLOBIUM. 



651 



found among the salt marshes in May, and for some 

 time in June, and also on their return, in October 

 and November ; at which last season they are usually 

 fat, and in high esteem for the table. The female of 

 this bird has been described by several writers as a 

 distinct species from the male ; the chief difference 

 consists in the undulating bars of black with which 

 the breast of the male is marked, and which are 

 wanting in the female. 



" The male of the great marbled godwit is nineteen 

 inches long, and thirty-four inches in extent ; the bill 

 is nearly six inches in length, a little turned up to- 

 wards the extremity, where it is black, the base is 

 of a pale purplish flesh-colour ; chin and upper part 

 of the throat whitish ; head and neck mottled with 

 dusky brown and black, on a ferruginous ground ; 

 breast brown, with wavy lines of black ; back and 

 scapulars black, marbled with pale brown ; rump and 

 tail coverts of a very light brown, barred with dark 

 brown ; tail even, except the two middle feathers, 

 which are a little the longest ; wings pale, ferrugin- 

 ous, elegantly marbled with dark brown, the four first 

 primaries black on the outer edge ; whole lining and 

 lower parts of the wings bright ferruginous ; belly and 

 vent light rust colour, with a tinge of lake. The 

 female differs in wanting the bars of black on the 

 breast. The bill does not acquire its full length be- 

 fore the third year." It is not very clearly ascertained 

 whether there are any more distinct species than this 

 one in North America. It is not, however, unlikely, 

 because North America is very extensively adapted 

 to the habits of such birds. The same mistake has 

 been committed with regard to the above species, 

 as in those of England. Either the young, the fe- 

 male, or the male in a different plumage from 

 what it generally appears in, in the same locality, 

 has been described as the marbled godwit. In all 

 probability it is the young, for the young of all these 

 jirds have the plumage much more mottled and 

 broken than the old ones. 



Species have been mentioned as occurring in 

 Siberia, and also in the east of Europe ; but it is 

 doubtful whether these are true godwits. They ap- 

 pear rather to be snipes ; and the shades of distinc- 

 tion between snipes and godwits are, in some species 

 of snipe, so fine, that casual observation of the one 

 without having the other to compare with it, is very 

 apt to occasion mistakes. One who goes to a distant 

 country requires to be a most experienced ornitholo- 

 gist before venturing to decide positively on rninuto 

 specific differences, especially in such birds as those 

 now under consideration. The snipes are puzzles in 

 themselves, and the difference between snipes and 

 godwits is equally puzzling ; arid in some cases it 

 must, in part at least, be decided by locality. Indeed 

 the only way in which one can get a clear and, satis- 

 factory view of the distinctions between those genera 

 which inhabit nearly, but not altogether, the same 

 grounds, is to take the differences of ground along 

 with the differences of inhabitant. Now the snipes 

 are very generally distributed, at least, over large 

 tracts of the land, while the godwits are few in num- 

 ber, and their localities far more limited. The dif- 

 ferent structure of the bill is the chief organic dis- 

 tinction which leads us to this. The bill of the 

 snipe is a boring bill, and from its straightness, and 

 its consolidation at the tip, qapable of penetrating 

 mud of some consistency. The bill of the godwit, 

 on the oth.ejLh.aud, is a scooping bill to a very slight 



degree, and not fitted for such boring as the bill of 

 the snipe. If we carry the comparison a little farther 

 from the godwit to the avocet, we find in that bird the 

 scooping bill in its utmost perfection ; and the avocet 

 may accordingly be considered as the very last land 

 bird which feeds in the waters ; because beyond what 

 the avocet scoops standing in the rivers, there remains 

 nothing more to be done till the bird actually floats 

 and dabbles, as is the case with the ducks. 



In these birds we have the land birds fining off to 

 a vanishing line, at which they gradually glide into 

 the water birds ; and it is not a little curious that in 

 proportion as the shade in distinction between land 

 and water becomes finer, the birds become fewer in 

 species and numbers, and more limited in their geo- 

 graphical distribution. Snipes are abundant ; god- 

 wits are far less so ; and avocets are the least so of 

 any, so that the number of species and of individuals 

 is in exact proportion to the extent of pasture. 



This is a beautiful instance of harmony and design 

 in creation ; and as we meet with it at a point where 

 we are prepared for doing so, it strikes us the more 

 forcibly. This, however, is the rational and instruc- 

 tive, as well as the delightful way of studying natural 

 history ; and really nobody but a poulterer has any 

 business to know any thing about birds, unless he 

 knows as much about the places which those birds 

 inhabit. 



We may mention here, because it will save room in 

 another place, that there is one species of bird which 

 is not uncommon in the north of Europe, and whichhas 

 been called the lesser godivit, and the Jadreka snipe, 

 which, though it is not, properly speaking, either a 

 snipe or a godwit, was not unhappily named by Lin- 

 naeus, Scolopax limosa, " the godwit snipe." The 

 following is the description of this bird as given by 

 Latham ; and we believe it is correct in the details, 

 though perhaps not entirely so in localities. " Length 

 seventeen inches , weight nine ounces ; bill near 

 four inches long, dusky, the base yellowish ; irides 

 white ; the head and neck are cinereous ; cheeks and 

 chin white ; back brown ; on the wings a line ot 

 white ; vent and rump white ; two middle tail feathers 

 black ; the others white at the ends, which increases 

 on the outer feathers, so as the exterior ones are 

 white for nearly the whole length ; legs dusky. 

 This bird inhabits. Iceland, Greenland, and Sweden. 

 Migrates in flocks in the south of Russia ; seen about 

 Lake Baikah; and is said also to have been met with 

 in England." This bird, which has the feet partially 

 webbed, is very justly considered by Cuvier as inter- 

 mediate between the godwits and the avocets. 



GOLDEN ROD is the Solidago virgaurea of Lin- 

 naeus, one of a large genus of herbaceous plants, com- 

 mon in every botanical collection. 



GOMPHOCARPUS (R. Brown). A curious 

 flowering genus of flowers from the Cape, closely 

 allied to the old genus Asclepias. It flowers and pro- 

 duces seed plentifully in greenhouses, and is thereby 

 easily propagated, or it may be increased by cuttings 

 in the usual manner. 



GOMPHOLOBIUM (Smith). A genus of fine 

 flowering plants from New Holland. It belongs tc 

 the tenth class of Linnaeus, and to the natural ordei 

 Leguminosce. Generic character : calyx five-parted, 

 parts nearly equal, broadly lanceolate ; corolla stan 

 dard, large, expanded, and emarginate ; style incurved 

 and deciduous ; pod globular, and full of seeds. 

 These plants grow best in very light sundy loam, re- 



