Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 04.djvu/417

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GOLDEN-EYED FLY 353 GOLDFINCH The so-called ring-tailed eagle is the golden eagle before it has reached ma- turity. The European golden eagle is so nearly like the American one that there is a question whether it is not the same species. GOLDEN-EYED FLY (C/ir|/sopa peWa), or LACEWING FLY, a neuropterous in- sect, common in Great Britain; pale green, with long thread-like antennae, long gauze-like wings, and brilliant golden eyes. Its flight is feeble. The female attaches her eggs, in groups of 12 or 16, by long hair-like stalks, to leaves or twigs, where they have been mistaken for fungi. The larvze are forocious-look- ing, rough, with long hairs; they are called aphis lions, and are very useful in the destruction of aphides, on which they feed. The pupa is inclosed in a white silken cocoon. The general facts above stated are also true of another very com- mon species (Ch. vulgaris) — a delicate green insect, with a body about half an inch long. The species of Chrysopa emit a very disagreeable odor. The nearly allied genus Hemerobms is also abun- dantly represented in Great Britain and elsewhere. GOLDEN FLEECE, in classical my- thology, the fleece of gold in quest of which Jason undertook the Argonautic expedition to Colchis. The fleece was sus- pended in an oak-tree in the grove of Ares (Mars), and was guarded by a dragon. When the Argonauts came to Colchis for the fleece, Medea put the dragon to sleep, and Jason carried the fleece away. See Argonaut; Jason; Medea. GOLDEN FLEECE, ORDER OF THE, the Toison d'or, a military order insti- tuted by Philip the Good, Duke of Bur- gundy, in 1429, on the occasion of his marriage with the Portuguese princess, Isabella. The order now belongs to both Austria and Spain. The knights carry suspended from their collars the figure of a sheep or fleece in gold. GOLDEN GATE, a channel two miles wide, forming the entrance to the Bay of San Francisco, and washing the N. shore of the peninsula on which San Francisco is built. It is defended by Fort Point, at the N. W. extremity of the peninsula, and by a fort on Alcatraz Island, inside the entrance. GOLDEN HORDE, originally the name of a powerful Mongol tribe, but after- ward extended to all the followers of Genghis Khan, and of Batu, the grand- son of Genghis Khan, who invaded Eu- rope in the 13th century. Under Batu tj^ Golden Horde advanced W. as far as the plain of Mosi in Hungary, and Liegnitz in Silesia, at both of which bloody battles were fought in 1241. They founded the empire of the Kiptshaks, or the Golden Horde, which extended from the banks of the Dniester to the Ural, and from the Black Sea and the Caspian to the mouth of the Kama and the sources of the Khoper. This empire lasted till toward the close of the loth century, when it was overthrown by Ivan III. GOLDEN HORN, the harbor of Con* stantinople, an inlet of the Bosporus, so called from its shape and beauty. GOLDENROD (Solidago), a genus of Compositse, closely allied to aster. Only the common S. Virgaurea is British, a few others are European, but most (more than 100) belong to North America, where their bright coloring lightens up the autumn scenery. Some — e. g., S. canadensis, grandiflcyra, etc. — are found in old-fashioned borders. S. Virgaurea had at one time a great reputation as a vulnerary. The leaves of this and a fragrant North American species, S. odora, have been used as a substitute for tea. GOLDEN SAXIFRAGE, the popular name for plants of the genus Chryso- sj)lenitim, a small genus of Saxifragaceae, consisting of annual or perennial rather succulent herbs, with alternate or op- posite crenate leaves, and inconspicuous greenish axillary and terminal flowers. They are natives of central and north- ern Europe, the Himalayas, and parts of America. GOLDEN TRUMPETER, a South American bird, the agami, which emits a deep, rough sound, suggesting that of a trumpet. GOLDEN WASPS, one of the popular names for the hymenopterous genus Chrysis, or the family of which it is the type. They are not genuine wasps. The wasps proper have a sting, and the "golden wasps" only an ovipositor. See Wasp, GOLDEN WEDDING, the 50th an- niversary of a wedding. The presents given to the couple should all be of gold. GOLDFINCH. Cardiielis elegans, a well-known bird belonging to the family Fringillidse, and the sub-family Fringil- linie. Bill pale bom colored, the tip black, the circumference at its base crim- son, nape of the neck white; the top of the head, carpal portions of the wing, the smaller wing coverts, and part of the surface of the primaries black; back and rump dusky brown, greater wing coverts, and part of the expanse of the others, gamboge yellow; under surface of the