GOLDEN-EYE—GOLDEN ROSE
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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 There is an English translation of the bull in E. F. Henderson’s Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages (London, 1903). (A. W. H.*)
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. (A. N.)
GOLDEN FLEECE, in Greek mythology, the fleece of the
ram on which Phrixus and Helle escaped, for which see
Argonauts. For the modern order of the Golden Fleece, see
Knighthood and Chivalry, 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 Mongols and Russia; 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
