Gaby, Gawby

A silly person; a dunce. (Colloq.) Gad, n. [A. S. gad, a club, a sting.] A sharp-pointed rod or pricking instrument; a goad, as for driving oxen. A wedge or ingot of steel or iron - A style or graver. "To write with a gad of steel." - Shaks . - Any rod or stick, as a fishing-rod; particularly a rod cut and trimmed of its branchlets for the purpose of whipping children or of driving cattle. (Prov. Eng., and local U. S.) -v. n. [From gat , 3d per. sing., pr. ind. of O. Goth. ga , to go.] To walk about; to rove or ramble idly or without fixed purpose. "Where have you been gadding?"-Shaks. -To be exuberant in growth; to shoot forth branches and tendrils in every direction, as the vine, the ivy, . Gad. [Heb., band or troop.] A son of Jacob and Zilpah, Leah's servant ( Gen. xxx. 11), who gave his name to one of the twelve tribes of Israel, which was located E. of the Jordan. -A prophet and faithful friend of David. Gad'about, n. One who runs much abroad without busine . Gada'mes, an oasis of the great African desert, containing numerous villages, S. of the main chain of the Atlas. It is in the centre of the caravan routes which lead to Tunis, Tripoli, and several oases. Gada'ra. ( Anc . Geog .) A city of Dec a polis. Palestine, of considerable importance in the time of Christ, and having many Greek inhabitants. It lay S. of the river Hieromax, 7 m. S.E. of the Sea of Galilee, upon the level summit of a steep limestone hill. A few ruins are found on the top of the hill, and many excavated tombs on its sides, still partly occupied as residences, and warm springs at its base. The country of the Gaderenes extended to the Jordan and the Sea of Galilee; and in the part of it bordering on the lake occurred the miracle recorded by Matt . viii. 28, ix. 1, Mark v. 1-20, Luke viii. 26-39. Gad'der, n . A rambler; one who roves about idly. Gad'di. Heb., my troop.] One of the spies sent by Moses from Mana eh to explore Canaan. Gad'diel. [Heb., God is my happine .] One of the spies sent from Zenubon to explore Canaan. Gad'dingly, adv . In a rambling, roving manner. Gad'dish, a . Disposed to wander about idly. Gad'dishne , n , Disposition to ramble about idly. Gad'-fly, Bot, Bot'-fly, Bristle-tail, n . ( Zool .) Names common to many insects of the family Estrida , q. v., the genus Estrus of Linnæus; divided by others into the two families Pabanida , or Horse-fly, and Estride, or Bot-fly. The name bot is sometimes restricted to the larvæ, the other names being given to the perfect insects. The insects of this family are now supposed not to be those which were called Estrus by the ancients, although, like them, extremely troublesome to cattle. They belong to the sub-order Diptera, posed of rings which have a double row of short teeth surrounding them; it is somewhat acuminated at one end the head; and the mouth is furnished with two hooks, one on each side, for taking hold of the inner coat of the horse's stomach, to which the Bot attaches itself, and from which it derives its subsistence, hanging in clusters sometimes of three or four, sometimes of more than one hundred. Here it spends the winter; and in the following summer it disengages itself, and being carried through the horse's intestines, burrows in the ground, and changes into an oval black pupa with spiny rings, from which, in a few weeks, the perfect insect comes forth. - The Ox-bot, or Ox-gadfly ( Estrus Hypoderma Bovis ,) also called Bull-bee or Burrel-fly, is more troublesome than any species of Horse-bot. It is a beautiful insect, not quite half an inch long, and thicker in proportion than the Horse-bots; it has brown, unspotted wings; the face is whitish, the crown of the head brown, the thorax black, the abdomen whitish, with a broad black band around the middle, and yellow hairs at the extremity, where also the female has an ovipositor,- a remarkable organ, formed of a horny substance, and consisting of four tubes, retractile within one another, like the pieces of a telescope, and the last of them terminating in five points, three of which are longer than the others, and hooked. By means of this organ a small round hole is pierced in the hide of an ox's back, in which an egg is deposited. The fly is very quick in depositing her egg, not remaining upon the back of the animal more than a few seconds. Cattle exhibit great alarm and excitement at the presence of the Gad-fly, and rush widely about, with head stretched forward, and tail stuck out, to escape from their tormentor. The further injury done by this insect is not, however, usually great; the larva, a little pearl-white maggot ( warble or wormal ), feeding upon the juices beneath the skin, causes a swelling, called a warble , forming a sort of sac, within which it lives and grows, amid a kind of purulent matter suited to its appetite, and from which it finally emerges, leaving a small sore, and like the Horse-bot, undergoes its further transformations in the ground. By pre ure on the warbles, Bots may be destroyed; and when they are numerous, a iduous oiling of the back of the ox is resorted to for the same purpose. The Sheep-bot ( Crphalemyia , or Estrus Ovis) is a much more serious pest than any other species, and is not unfrequently very destructive to flocks. The insect is smaller than either the Ox-bot or Horse-bot; IMG:content-0305.png:[graphic] and are nearly allied to the Mucidæ , with small 3-jointed antennæ, and mouth destitute of a proboscis. The Gad- fily, or Horse-bot of the horse ( Gasterophilus , or Gastrus , or Estrus Equi ), sometimes also called the Breeze, the Horse-fly, or Horse-bee, occurs chiefly in elevated, healthy districts. It is not quite half an inch in length, woolly, with yellowish-gray head, rusty thorax, abdomen, and the wings whitish, with brownish-gray spots. The abdo- men of the female terminates in a blackish horny tube. In the latter part of summer, the female hovers about borses, and deposits her eggs on their hairs, where they remain attached by a glutinous substance until they, or the larvæ just emerging from them, are licked off by the tongue of the horse, their destined place being its stomach. It is believed that the fly deposits her eggs only on those parts which are acce ible to the horse's Gad'ling, n. [A. S. gad , a goad or sting.] A gadder.- tongue, seeming to prefer the back of the knee-joint, A bo on the knuckle of a gauntlet. (Also called gad .) where they may sometimes be found in hundreds. The Ga'doid, n. ( Zool . ) A name of the family GADIDE, q. v. larva is yellowish, without feet, short, thick, soft, com--a. (Zool.) Relating to codfishes, or Gadide . gills large, 7-rayed, and opening laterally; a small beard at the tip of the lower jaw. Most of the species have the dorsal fin contained in two or three bundles; they have also fins behind the vent, and a distinet caudal fin. The greater number of the species live in cold or temperate seas, and furnish the greater portion of the fish obtained in England and America. Their productive powers are very great; and the numbers in which they exist in some parts of the ocean is perfectly incalculable. The principal genera are Gadus , or Morrhua , the Cods; Merlangus , the Pollacks, including the Cudden or Coal- fish; Merlucius , the Whitings; and Lota , the Burbots. Gadita'nian, a. [Lat. gad it an us , from Gades , Cadiz.] Of or belonging to Cadiz in A udal us i a, Spain. IMG:content-0306.png:[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small] Fig . 1097.- SHEEP GAD-FLY, OR BOT-FLY. a, larva, full-grown; b, larva, younger; c, pupa; d, the face of the perfect insect, magnified; e, perfect insect, natural size; 1, perfect insect, magnified. it is of a grayish color, with a large head and yellow face, and is most abundant in damp situations and woody districts. It is to be seen chiefly in the months of June and July. Sheep exhibit great alarm when it approaches them, and seem to seek, by keeping their noses close to the ground, and by ince ant motion of their feet, to keep it from entering their nostrils. It is in the nostrils of the sheep that this fly deposits its eggs; and the larvæ, when hatched, make their way into the maxillary and frontal sinuses, causing great irritation in their progre , and feeding upon the juices there until they are ready to change into the pupa state, in April or May of the following year, when they find their way again through the nostrils to the ground. Gad'fly, in Mi ouri , a post-office of Barry co. Ga'didæ, n. pl. [Lat. gad us , a cod-fish.) ( Zool . ) A family of malacopterygious fishes, including the Cod and its allies. They are easily known by the position of the ventral fins under the throat, and the pointed character of those fins. The body is long, rather compre ed, and covered with small soft scales. The head is scalele ; eyes lateral; jaws and anterior part of the vomer furnished with several ranges of unequal teeth; the -n. A native or inhabitant of Cadiz.