Gorge, s. The throat, the swallow; that which is gorged or swallowed; the craw or crop.
Gorge, v. To fill up to the throat, to glut, to satiate; to swallow, as the fish has gorged the hook.
Gorse, s. Furze, a thick prickly shrub.
Furze-covers cannot be too much encouraged, for there cubs are safe. They have also other advantages attending them: they are certain places to find in; foxes cannot break from them unseen, nor are you so liable to change as in other covers.
A fox, when pressed by hounds, will seldom go into a furze-brake. Rabbits, which are the fox’s favourite food, may also be encouraged there, and yet do little damage. Were they suffered to establish themselves in your woods, it would be difficult to destroy them afterwards. Thus far I object to them as a farmer: I object to them also as a fox-hunter; since nothing is more prejudicial to the breeding of foxes than disturbing your woods late in the season, to destroy the rabbits.—Beckford.
Goshawk, s. A hawk of a large kind.
This is a large species, superior in size to the buzzard; length twenty-two inches or more; the bill is blue, tip black; cere yellowish green; irides yellow.
The head, hind part of the neck, back, and wings, deep brown; over the eye is a white line, and a broken patch of the same colour on the side of the neck; the breast and belly marked with numerous transverse bars of black and white; the tail is long, and ash-coloured, with four or five dusky bars; legs yellow; claws black.
The goshawk is rarely found in England, but is not uncommon in the wild and mountainous parts of Scotland, where it is known to breed in the forest of Rothemurchus, and on the woody banks of the Dee. They are said to be numerous in the Orkney Islands, where they breed in the rocks and sea cliffs. They more generally build however in lofty fir trees, and lay from two to four eggs, of a bluish white, marked with streaks and spots of reddish brown. Its flight is described to be very rapid, generally low, and it strikes its prey on the wing, near the ground, being incapable of mounting. If its prey take refuge, it will wait patiently on a tree, or a stone, until the game, pressed by hunger, is induced to move; and as this hawk is capable of great abstinence, it generally succeeds in taking it. Colonel Thornton informs us, that he flew one at a pheasant, which got into cover, and the hawk was lost; at ten o’clock next morning the falconer found her, and just as he caught her the pheasant ran and rose. According to Meyer, it will prey on its own young, but its principal food is wild ducks, hares, and rabbits. In the young, the head, neck, and belly, are of a rufous colour, with long brown spots, and tips of the tail white. In this plumage they have been termed gentil falcons. In the days of falconry, they were held in high repute for hunting cranes, geese, and the larger sorts of game, and were considered by falconers, the best and most courageous of the short-winged hawks.