Page:EB1911 - Volume 12.djvu/226

 another by O. Harnack in his Das Kurfürsten Kollegium bis zur Mitte des 14ten Jahrhunderts (Giessen, 1883). There is an English translation of the bull in E. F. Henderson’s Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages (London, 1903).

 GOLDEN-EYE, a name indiscriminately given in many parts of Britain to two very distinct species of ducks, from the rich yellow colour of their irides. The commonest of them—the Anas fuligula of Linnaeus and Fuligula cristata of most modern ornithologists—is, however, usually called by English writers the tufted duck, while “golden-eye” is reserved in books for the A. clangula and A. glaucion of Linnaeus, who did not know that the birds he so named were but examples of the same species, differing only in age or sex; and to this day many fowlers perpetuate a like mistake, deeming the “Morillon,” which is the female or young male, distinct from the “Golden-eye” or “Rattle-wings” (as from its noisy flight they oftener call it), which is the adult male. This species belongs to the group known as diving ducks, and is the type of the very well-marked genus Clangula of later systematists, which, among other differences, has the posterior end of the sternum prolonged so as to extend considerably over, and, we may not unreasonably suppose, protect the belly—a character possessed in a still greater degree by the mergansers (Merginae), while the males also exhibit in the extraordinarily developed bony labyrinth of their trachea and its midway enlargement another resemblance to the members of the same subfamily. The golden-eye, C. glaucion of modern writers, has its home in the northern parts of both hemispheres, whence in winter it migrates southward; but as it is one of the ducks that constantly resorts to hollow trees for the purpose of breeding it hardly transcends the limit of the Arctic forests on either continent. So well known is this habit to the people of the northern districts of Scandinavia, that they very commonly devise artificial nest-boxes for its accommodation and their own profit. Hollow logs of wood are prepared, the top and bottom closed, and a hole cut in the side. These are affixed to the trunks of living trees in suitable places, at a convenient distance from the ground, and, being readily occupied by the birds in the breeding-season, are regularly robbed, first of the numerous eggs, and finally of the down they contain, by those who have set them up.

The adult male golden-eye is a very beautiful bird, mostly black above, but with the head, which is slightly crested, reflecting rich green lights, a large oval white patch under each eye and elongated white scapulars; the lower parts are wholly white and the feet bright orange, except the webs, which are dusky. In the female and young male, dark brown replaces the black, the cheek-spots are indistinct and the elongated white scapulars wanting. The golden-eye of North America has been by some authors deemed to differ, and has been named C. americana, but apparently on insufficient grounds. North America, however, has, in common with Iceland, a very distinct species, C. islandica, often called Barrow’s duck, which is but a rare straggler to the continent of Europe, and never, so far as known, to Britain. In Iceland and Greenland it is the only habitual representative of the genus, and it occurs from thence to the Rocky Mountains. In breeding-habits it differs from the commoner species, not placing its eggs in tree-holes; but how far this difference is voluntary may be doubted, for in the countries it frequents trees are wanting. It is a larger and stouter bird, and in the male the white cheek-patches take a more crescentic form, while the head is glossed with purple rather than green, and the white scapulars are not elongated. The New World also possesses a third and still more beautiful species of the genus in C. albeola, known in books as the buffel-headed duck, and to American fowlers as the “spirit-duck” and “butter-ball”—the former name being applied from its rapidity in diving, and the latter from its exceeding fatness in autumn. This is of small size, but the lustre of the feathers in the male is most brilliant, exhibiting a deep plum-coloured gloss on the head. It breeds in trees, and is supposed to have occurred more than once in Britain.

 GOLDEN FLEECE, in Greek mythology, the fleece of the ram on which Phrixus and Helle escaped, for which see . For the modern order of the Golden Fleece, see , section Orders of Knighthood.

 GOLDEN HORDE, the name of a body of Tatars who in the middle of the 13th century overran a great portion of eastern Europe and founded in Russia the Tatar empire of khanate known as the Empire of the Golden Horde or Western Kipchaks. They invaded Europe about 1237 under the leadership of Bātū Khan, a younger son of Juji, eldest son of Jenghiz Khan, passed over Russia with slaughter and destruction, and penetrated into Silesia, Poland and Hungary, finally defeating Henry II., duke of Silesia, at Liegnitz in the battle known as the Wahlstatt on the 9th of April 1241. So costly was this victory, however, that Bātū, finding he could not reduce Neustadt, retraced his steps and established himself in his magnificent tent (whence the name “golden”) on the Volga. The new settlement was known as Sir Orda (“Golden Camp,” whence “Golden Horde”). Very rapidly the powers of Bātū extended over the Russian princes, and so long as the khanate remained in the direct descent from Bātū nothing occurred to check the growth of the empire. The names of Bātū’s successors are Sartak (1256), Bereke (Baraka) (1256–1266), Mangū-Timūr (1266–1280), Tūda Mangū (1280–1287), (?) Tūla Bughā (1287–1290), Tōktū (1290–1312), Ūzbeg (1312–1340), Tīn-Beg (1340), Jānī-Beg (1340–1357). The death of Jānī-Beg, however, threw the empire into confusion. Birdī-Beg (Berdi-Beg) only reigned for two years, after which two rulers, calling themselves sons of Jānī-Beg occupied the throne during one year. From that time (1359) till 1378 no single ruler held the whole empire under control, various members of the other branches of the old house of Jūjī assuming the title. At last in 1378 Tōkṭāmish, of the Eastern Kipchaks, succeeded in ousting all rivals, and establishing himself as ruler of eastern and western Kipchak. For a short time the glory of the Golden Horde was renewed, until it was finally crushed by Timur in 1395.

See further and ; Sir Henry Howorth’s History of the Mongols; S. Lane-Poole’s Mohammadan Dynasties (1894), pp. 222-231; for the relations of the various descendants of Jenghiz, see Stockvis, Manuel d’histoire, vol. i. chap. ix. table 7.

 GOLDEN ROD, in botany, the popular name for Solidago virgaurea (natural order Compositae), a native of Britain and widely distributed in the north temperate region. It is an old-fashioned border-plant flowering from July to September, with an erect, sparingly-branched stem and small bright-yellow clustered heads of flowers. It grows well in common soil and is readily propagated by division in the spring or autumn.

GOLDEN ROSE (rosa aurea), an ornament made of wrought gold and set with gems, generally sapphires, which is blessed by the pope on the fourth (Laetare) Sunday of Lent, and usually afterwards sent as a mark of special favour to some distinguished individual, to a church, or a civil community. Formerly it was a single rose of wrought gold, coloured red, but the form finally adopted is a thorny branch with leaves and flowers, the petals of which are decked with gems, surmounted by one principal rose. The origin of the custom is obscure. From very early times popes have given away a rose on the fourth Sunday of Lent, whence the name Dominica Rosa, sometimes given to this feast. The practice of blessing and sending some such symbol (e.g. eulogiae) goes back to the earliest Christian antiquity, but the use of the rose itself does not seem to go farther back than the 11th century. According to some authorities it was used by Leo IX. (1049–1054), but in any case Pope Urban II. sent one to Fulk of Anjou during the preparations for the first crusade. Pope Urban V., who sent a golden rose to Joanna of Naples in 1366, is alleged to have been the first to determine that one should be consecrated annually. Beginning with the 16th century there went regularly with the rose a letter relating the reasons why it was sent, and reciting the merits and virtues of the receiver. When the change was made from the form of the simple rose to the branch is uncertain. The rose sent by Innocent IV. in 1244 to Count Raymond Berengar IV. of Provence was a simple flower without any accessory ornamentation, while the one given by Benedict XI. in 1303 or 1304 to the