652 



GOMPHUS GOOSE. 



quire very moderate watering. Young cuttings root 

 readily in sand, or they may be raised from seeds 

 which ripen occasionally. 



GOMPHUS (Leach). A genus of large dragon- 

 flies (LIBELLULID^E, which see for the characters), 

 having for its type the Llbeliula vulgatissima. 

 . GONEPTERYX (Leach). A genus of butter- 

 flies, separated by Dr. Leach from the genus COLIAS 

 (which see), chiefly on account of the angulated wings. 

 The type is the brimstone butterfly of collectors, 

 Paftilio rhamni of Linnaeus, a handsome species of a 

 fine brimstone colour, found in most of the woods 

 near London, and which makes its appearance very 

 early in the spring. 



GONOLEPTES (Kirby). A remarkable genus 

 of arachnidous animals, belonging to the family Pha- 

 langiidcE, having the hind legs very much thickened, 

 elbowed and spined. The species are of a compara- 

 tively large size, and are for the most part natives of 

 South America. 



GONOLOBUS (Michaux). A genus of climb- 

 ing perennials, natives of South and North America. 

 The flowers are pentandrious, arid, from the curious 

 form of the parts, are arranged in the natural order 

 Asdejriadca:. The plants are propagated by cuttings 

 in the usual way. 



GOODENIA (R. Brown). A genus of fine 

 flowering herbs and under-shrubs, natives of New 

 Holland. Class Pentandria, and natural order 

 Goodenovice. Generic character : calyx five-cleft ; 

 corolla tubular, and one or two-lipped, limb in five 

 parts, with colourless margins ; anthers distinct ; 

 stigma a simple indusium, somewhat ciliated ; capsule 

 two-celled, with parallel partitions ; seeds flat. They 

 are easily propagated by seeds which ripen plentifully, 

 or by cuttings. 



GOODENOVICE. A small natural order, con- 

 taining five genera, and above twenty species. The 

 genera are natives of the South sea islands; are 

 herbs or under-shrubs, and are all rather pretty plants, 

 and well worth cultivation. 



GOOD NIGHT. An Indian hoihouse-climber ; 

 is the Argyreia or silverweed of Loureiro, and the 

 Argyreia bona-nox of Sweet ; formerly the Lettsomia 

 bona-nox of Roxburgh. Generic character : calyx of 

 five conniving sepals ; corolla cylindrically funnel- 

 shaped ; limb plaited, nearly five-lobed ; stamens in- 

 cluded, unequal ; filaments joined to the tube, thick 

 at the base ; anthers erect, and arrow-shaped ; style 

 filiform ; stigma double. Natural order Convolvulacece. 

 GOOSE (Anscr}. A genus of web-footed birds, 

 oelonging to the flat-billed or Lamellirostral division, 

 and the Anatidee, or duck family. A slight notice of 

 the relations in which the geese stand to the rest of 

 the family, and also to some of the other orders 

 which they approach, will be found in the article 

 ANSER ; and their general relations are noticed in 

 the article BIRD. They are, however, too import- 

 ant, both in nature and in a state of domestication, 

 to be passed over in the slight manner in which they 

 are there noticed, and therefore we shall advert to a 

 few of the more remarkable ones here. 



Geese are very numerous, as well in species, or, 

 at all events, in varieties, as in individuals. ,They 

 are most abundant in the polar countries, and much 

 more abundant in those regions of the northern 

 hemisphere than of the southern. It is true that we 

 know much less of the birds of the far south than of 

 the far north ; but the habits of geese are such as to 



warrant us in concluding that they are by no means 

 numerous in that part of the world. Geese are, with 

 few exceptions, completely web-footed, and they all 

 can swim. Swimming is not, however, their proper 

 and peculiar, or, in general, even their chief motion. 

 If the structure of a goose, and the way in which the 

 legs support the body, are compared with those of a 

 duck, especially one of the diving ducks, which range 

 farther upon the waters, and are more constantly 

 there than the common ducks, we shall perceive a 

 very remarkable difference in the purposes for which 

 they are best adapted. The bodies of such ducks 

 are, as one would say, "boat-built;" that is, they 

 are evidently formed for getting through the water 

 rapidly at a small expense of effort ; their legs, too, 

 are placed far backward, so as to strike against the 

 water, which follows in the wake, and this gives great 

 advantage to the stroke, much more so than if it 

 were given more in advance. Besides, they have 

 the oblique motion, which throws the foot to a 

 distance from the body, and partially turns it in such 

 a way as that it can be brought forward with the 

 least resistance. They are thus, strictly speaking, 

 swimming birds ; and though all of them have con- 

 siderable power of wing, they are not less expert in 

 the water than those birds which can fly compara- 

 tively little, although they are better at walking 

 along the ground. The goose, again, is properly 

 a walker, although the power of swimming is added, 

 and in some of the species the two powers are nearly 

 equal, and there may be some in which the swimming 

 predominates. 



Geese are also much more exclusively vegetable 

 feeders than the rest of the family, at least with the 

 exception of the swans ; and the swans are much 

 more aquatic in the feeding than the geese, for which 

 habit they are well adapted by the greater length of 

 their necks. Geese never dive, nor do they, in 

 many instances, feed below the surface of the water, 

 though they often feed, while swimming, on the 

 seeds and succulent leaves of aquatic plants. 



The generic characters are : the bill shorter than 

 the head, higher than wide at the base, diminishing 

 toward the tip, and thus having a slightly conical 

 form. The teeth, in the margins and toward the tip 

 of the bill, are conical, and the point of the upper 

 mandible is generally furnished with a nail of harder 

 consistence than the rest, and sometimes differently 

 coloured. They are, generally speaking, polygamous, 

 but there is no great external difference between the 

 sexes. The old males are indeed rather larger than 

 the females, but, before they reach maturity, the two 

 sexes are very much alike both in size and colour, 

 though this colour is, in many of the species, different 

 from that of the mature ones. 



The natural habitats of the geese are the dampj 

 meadows, and those tufted marshes which abound 

 with plants, and they do not much frequent clearwaters 

 with pebbly shores. This species of pasture naturally 

 points out why geese, in a state of nature, should be 

 very migratory birds. In winter the land vegetation 

 is covered with snow in every part of the northern 

 regions, and this covering of snow generally extends 

 to the shallow pools, and those tufts of vegetation 

 which supply food for geese before the winter sets 

 in. There is thus, therefore, nothing for them to eat 

 on the landward part of the regions, in which they 

 spend the breeding-time in the summer in the greatest 

 number. The sea is, therefore, the only pasture 



