Godwit, s. A bird of particular delicacy.
Buffon enumerates eight species of this division of the scolopax genus, under the name of barges, including the foreign kinds; and Latham makes out the same number of different sorts, all British. They are a timid, shy, and solitary tribe; their mode of subsistence constrains them to spend their lives amidst the fens, searching for their food in the mud and wet soil, where they remain during the day, shaded and hidden among reeds and rushes, in that obscurity which their timidity makes them prefer. They seldom remain above a day or two in the same place, and it often happens that in the morning not one is to be found in those marshes where they were numerous the evening before. They remove in a flock in the night, and when there is moonlight, may be seen and heard passing at a vast height.
Their bills are long and slender, and, like the common snipe’s, are smooth and blunt at the tip; their legs are of various colours, and long. When pursued by the sportsman, they run with great speed, are very restless, and spring at a great distance, and make a scream as they rise. Their voice is somewhat extraordinary, and has been compared to the smothered bleating of a goat. They delight in salt marshes, and are rare in countries remote from the sea. Their flesh is delicate and excellent food.
Common Godwit, Godwyn, Yarnhelp or Yarnhip.—(Scolopax ægocephala, Linn. La grande Barge Grise, Buff.)
The weight of this bird is about twelve ounces; length about sixteen inches; the bill is four inches long, and bent a little upwards, black at the point, gradually softening into a pale purple towards the base; a whitish streak passes from the bill over each eye; the head, neck, back, scapulars, and coverts, are of a dingy pale brown, each feather marked down the middle with a dark spot. The fore part of the breast is streaked with black; the belly, vent, and tail, are white, the latter regularly barred with black; the webs of the first six quill feathers are black, edged on the interior sides with reddish brown; the legs are in general dark coloured, inclining to a greenish blue.
The godwit is met with in various parts of Europe, Asia, and America; in Great Britain, in the spring and summer, it resides in the fens and marshes, where it rears its young, and feeds upon small worms and insects. During these seasons it only removes from one marsh to another; but when the winter sets in with severity, it seeks the salt marshes and the seashore.
The godwit is much esteemed by epicures as a great delicacy, and sells very high. It is caught in nets, to which it is allured by a stale or stuffed bird, in the same manner, and in the same season, as the ruffs and reeves.—Bewick.
Gold, s. The purest, heaviest, and most precious of all metals; money.
To dye fine bright Gold Colours.—First dye a very bright yellow with turmeric, lift out your stuff, and add a teaspoonful of madder; return it, and boil it about three minutes, and draw a part for the first shade; then put in a tablespoonful of turmeric, boil it up smartly; lift out your stuff and add better than a teaspoonful of madder; put it into the pot again, and boil it about seven minutes, and draw the second shade. For the third do the same, only adding some turmeric as before, and two teaspoonfuls of madder; or, if you see there is not a proper difference between the shades, add more madder, boil the wool in this ten minutes, and draw for the third shade. Add more turmeric, and three or four more teaspoonfuls of madder, or more, till you bring it near to a blood orange.