Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/73

Rh gust within the limits of the United States. It is a shore bird, rarely seen many miles inland ; when feeding it probes the mud with its long bill, plunging it in often for its whole length, in search of marine worms and small crustaceans, flight is quick and regular, in long and fre-

Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa).

quently changing lines. The Hudsonian god- wit, a smaller and much rarer American spe- cies (L. Hudsonica, Lath.), is about 15 hi. long, with an extent of wings of 28 in., tail 3, bill a little over 3, and tarsus 2| in. ; weight about 9 oz. In the adults, the prevailing color above is brownish black, with spots and transverse burs of pale reddish ; upper tail coverts white ; beneath, yellowish red, with transverse bars of brownish black, and sometimes the feathers tipped with white on the abdomen; tail black, white at the base and tipped with the same ; under wing coverts black; shafts of primaries white. The young are cinereous above, with irregular brownish black marks, dull yellowish

Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa Hudsdnica).

white below, upper tail coverts white, tail as in adult. It is abundant in the northern parts of this continent, but rare in the United States, and scarcely seen south of New Jersey except in winter ; it breeds in the far north ; the fe- males are somewhat larger than the males. The common godwit of Europe (L. Lapponica, Linn.), in its winter plumage, is deep brown- ish gray, the feathers edged with whitish ; the breast brown gray, whitish underneath ; rump white, radiated with brown; in summer the prevailing color is reddish. GOENTOER, a volcano of Java, about 100 m. S. E. of Batavia, nearly 7,000 ft. high. It is active, and produces considerable damage by periodical eruptions, four of which (1818-'41) were especially violent, destroying a vast num- ber of coffee trees, and covering large tracts with heaps of stones, ashes, and sand. GOERTZ. See GORTZ. GOES, a town of Holland, on the island of S. Beveland, 15 m. W. of Bergen-op-Zoom ; pop. in 1867, 6,313. It is surrounded by walls, and contains a number of squares, of which the Groote Markt, the largest, is planted with trees. The public buildings are the town hall, a Roman Catholic and a Protestant church, a new corn exchange, and many schools and charitable institutions. Both the old and new harbors are defended by forts, and there is an active commerce. GOES, Hugo van der, a Flemish painter, pupil and successor of Van Eyck, flourished in the second half of the 15th century. His paintings are all of religious subjects, and their chief ex- cellence is the grace and dignity of the coun- tenances. His masterpiece is a " Crucifixion " in the church of St. James at. Bruges. This picture was preserved from the general destruc- tion of church ornaments in the 16th century by being coated with dark clay on which the ten commandments were inscribed. GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von, a German author, born in Frankfort-on-the-Main, Aug. 28, 1749, died in Weimar, March 22, 1832. His father, Johann Kaspar Goethe, the son of a tailor of Frankfort, had raised himself to the dignity of an imperial councillor, and in 1748 had married Katharina Elisabeth, daughter of Johann Wolfgang Textor, the chief magistrate of the city. Their first offspring, the subject of this article, inherited the best qualities of both parents. The father, a cold, stern, formal, and pedantic man, was a person of vigorous mind and of rigid will; and the mother was a simple-hearted, genial, vivacious, and affectionate woman, who loved poetry and the romantic lore of the nursery. In one of his poems Goethe afterward said: &ldquo;From my father I derive my frame and the steady guidance of my life, and from my dear little mother my happy disposition and love of story-telling.&rdquo; But he derived a great deal more from both; for the father, rigid disciplinarian as he was, early indoctrinated him in the knowledge of the classics and modern languages, and in the love of fine art; while the mother gave him, besides her vivacity and animal spirits, that large and instinctive wisdom which comes of broad human sympathies. Goethe was a precocious child, handsome, lively, and sensitive. His early education was wholly domestic, in the