GOB
GOG
climb the fieepeft rocks, and there browfe upon briars, lieath, and fhrubs, of various kinds, which other creatures will not tafte of. They will feed on grafs in paftures, but ■as they love browfing on trees much better, great care muft be taken to keep them from valuable plantations. Morti- mer's Hufbandry, p. 246.
The greateft advantage of thefe creatures is their milk, which they yield in large quantities, and which is ac- counted the beft milk of all animals. They mix this and cow's milk together in many parts of the kingdom, and a very valuable kind of cheefe is made of it. Befide this, the kids or young goats are very fine food, and the beft kinds bring forth thefe two or three at a time, and that twice a year. See Milk.
Goat's hair alfo is of value, it may be fheared as the wool from fheep, and is excellent for making ropes that arc to be ufed in the water, as they will laft a great while longer than thofe made the common way. A fort of ftufF is alfo made of it in fome places. The beft kind of goats for keeping to ad- vantage fhould be chofen in this manner : the male •fhould have a large body, his hair mould be long, and his legs ftrait and ftiff; the neck fhould be plain and fliort, the head fmall and flender, the horns large, the eyes prominent, and the beard long. The female fhould have a large udder, with large teats and no horns, or very fmall ones. They fhould be kept in flocks, that they may not ftraggle, and they fhould have good fhelter both in fummer and in winter, the heat and cold being both prejudicial to them. They fhould be coupled in December. They fhould have no litter in win- ter, but only a paved floor kept clean. The kids are to be brought up for the table in the fame manner as our lambs are. They are recommended to lie among horfes, their fmell, as is fuppofed, preventing many diftempers in thofe cattle. Ibid. p. 247.
Goat of Greenland, Caprea Greenlandica, in zoology, the name of an animal of the northern parts of the world. We are not perfectly acquainted with the fhape or figure of the creature, but its horns are preferved in the mufieum of the Royal Society, and in fome other collections, and are ufually an ell long, very much branched, and the branches not flat but rounded, covered all over with a velvety down, com- pofed of fhort filaments ftanding erect every way, and about a quarter of a finger's breadth long.
GoAT-f/b, Caprijcus, in ichthyography, the name of a fifh called alfo by fome caper. Its head is very much flatted both ways, its eyes are placed very high in the head, its mouth is fmall, but well furnifhed with teeth, each jaw having eight of them, and all ftrong, broad, and not ferrated, but much fefembling the human ones. The gills are four on a fide, covered only with a membrane, and opening by a fmall flit as in the mola. In the middle of its back it has three very ftrong and large prickles, the firft of which is three times as large as any of the others, and all are connected by a mem- brane. Behind thefe is a furrow in the back, into which at pleafure the animal can deprefs thefe. Behind thefe there begins a fin, which runs down the back to the tail. It has another thorn running along under the fkin of the lower part of its body, and at length appearing externally in a very ftrong and fharp prickle ; and behind that feveral other fmaller and more feeble ones, which are ferrated at their edges. From the anus to the tail there runs another fin, and there are two fmaller ones at the gills. See Tab. of Fifties, N° 22.
The whole fifh is covered with a fcaly fkin, but the fcales have more the appearance of thofe of a ferpent, than thofe of a fifh ; for they are placed in cancellated lines interfering one another, and are fo well fixed, that they with difficulty come off; and wood or ivory may be polifhed with the fkin, as with the common fifh fkin ufed by the turners, &c. It is of a blueifti green colour, fpotted with a fine blue, and the back and belly fins are black, with fome blue and red fpots. Its whole figure is very broad and flat, as well as fhort, fo that it approaches to a round form. It feldom ex- ceeds two pound in weight. It is caught in the Mediterra- nean fea, but not commonly. The fkin of it is frequently found in the cabinets of the curious. Salman, p. 207.
Go AT-fucker, in zoology, a name by which the caprimulgus is called in fome parts of England, but its more ufual name with us is the churn owl. It is a very beautiful bird, feeming rather to approach to the cuckow than the owl kind, and has had its common Latin name and this Englifh one from an opinion, there feems to be no foundation for, of its fuck- ing the goat's dugs in the night time. Ray's Ornitholog. p. 70. See the article Caprimulgus.
Goats Beard, in botany. See Tragopogon.
Goats Thorn, in botany. See Tragacanth.
GOBEMOUCH, the Jiy-catcher lizard, a fpecies of American lizard that is always employed in catching of flies. It is the fmalleft of all the lizard kind, and is very beautiful, its fkin often appearing as if covered with leaf gold, or leaf filver, and in fome others of a green, or red and gold, won- derfully bright and beautiful. They are not at all fhy or fearful of men, but as they do no hurt, fo they feem to dread nonej they enter chambers and clofets, and do 410 fort of
damage, but deftroy the flies and other troublefome vermin they find there. Their whole lives feem fpent in the chace of thefe infects, and it is a very pleafing thing to obferve the various ways they have of catching them. They are a very cleanly creature, and may be fuffered to run over the table at meal time; where if they fee a fly, they will purfue it over the very hands or cloaths of people, or over the difhes, with- out doing the leaft hurt.
Notwithstanding their great beauty while alive, they are only of a dufky grey when dead, all their other colours imme- diately vanifhing, Rochefort, Hilt. Antill.
GOBIO capitatus, a name by which many writers In zoology- have called the cottus, a fmall fifh called in Englifh the bull head, or miller's thumb. Aldroi'and-, de Pifc. Lib. 5. c. 27. See Cottus.
GOBIONARIA, in ichthyology, a name given by Gaza and others to the little fifh called cobitis, and aphya cobitis by the antient Greeks, and by many of the modern authors ; and by fome marfio, or fimply cobitis. See the article Aphya.
GOBIUS, in ichthyology, the name of a genus of fifties of the acanthopterygious, or prickly finned kind, the characters of which are thefe. The branchioftege membrane contains On each fide five very diftinct bones. Thefe are very irre- gular in their fize, the firft and fourth being much broader than the others. The bellv fins grow together fo as to form one fingle fin, of the fhape of a funnel. Thefe, and the pectoral fins, are placed at the fame diftance from the head. There are two fins on the back, the anterior of which con- fifts of fomewhat rigid bones. The fcales are rough, the body is oblong, the head compreffed, and the eyes covered with the common fkin of the head. It is eafy to fee from thefe characters, that the common river gudgeon is no go- bius, as thus diftinguifhed. The fpecies properly belonging to this genus arc thefe. 1. The blackifh variegated gobius with fourteen ribs in the fecond back fin. This is the gobius niger of authors. The go,, and geget of the Venetians, called by us the rock fifh, or fea gudgeon. 2. The gobius with a yellow tranfverfe line in the top of the anterior back fin. This is the gobius Jccundus and paganellus of authors. 3. The inch gobius with feventeen bones in the fecond back fin. This is the aphna cobitis of authors. 4. The gobius with the blue belly fin, and with the rays of the anterior back fin rifing above the membrane; This is the white go- bius of authors, and the jozo of the Roman markets. Artedi > Gen. Pifc. p. 23.
According to Willughby, there are only three kinds of this fifh. 1. The common kind, caught about the fhores of the Mediterranean, and called by the Venetians gcget. See Goget. 2. The large yellow kind t called by authors the gobius marittus maximus favefcens, and by fome paganellus. See the article Paganellus. And 3. the white kind, called the gobius albus by authors, but more commonly known by the name jozo. Willughby, Hift. Pifc. p. 206. See the article Jozo.
Gobius a/per, in ichthyology, a name given by Gefner and others to a fpecies of pearch called by many a/per pifciculus, a name confounding it with many other very different fifties. It is diftinguifhed among the pearch tribe by Artedi under the name of the pearch with eight or nine black lines on each fide. See Pearch.
Gobius flwuiatilis, in zoology, the frefli water gudgeon, z fmall river fifh, of which there are two fpecies. The firft, our common river gudgeon, known by its long and rounded body, the fmallnefs of its fcales, and its brown colour, with the variegations of its black fpots. The fecond is the lefTer river gudgeon, differing from the former not only in fize, but in being of a more tapering fhape, growingvery fmall to- ward the tail, and being of a whiter colour and lefs fpotted. The firft is common in our rivers, the fecond in thofe of Germany, where it is commonly called a wapper. Gefner, de Aquat. p. 474.
GOD (Cycl.) — Monfieur de Maupertuis having afferted .the principle of the leaft quantity of action, as the univerfal prin- ciple of all the laws of motion and of reft, thinks this prin- ciple fo wife and fo worthy of the fupreme being, that a better argument may be drawn from hence for his exiftence, than any that has been hitherto framed from the courfe of nature. See Mem. de l'Acad. de Berlin. Tom. 2. p. 268, feq. But this principle is either abfolutely neceflary, or contin- gent. If the farmer, it cannot prove the exiftence of the deity. If the latter, it has no privilege beyond other regu- lar contingencies. See $hiantity of Action.
GOGET, in zoology, a name frequently ufed for the gobius niger, the fea gudgeon or rock fifh, and by which it is known in moft parts of the world.
This is a long and flender fifh, of a rounded not flat body, and feldom exceeds fix inches in length. Its colour is very various, being either a brown variegated with white and yellow, or a blueifh white with lines of a faint olive colour, and black fpots. Its fins and tail are of a pale blue, but the ribs or nerves in them are fpotted with black ; the coverings of the gills and the belly are yellow. The head is large, and the jaws look tumid, and the eyes fmall, placed very near one another, and bent or directed upwards. The mouth
