Anser 29 



marvellous to those who may have read what Aristotle 

 wrote about the flying creature called Ephemeras. Now 

 Aristotle writes thus of the Ephemerus in the fifth book of 

 his History of Animals: — 



"The river Hyppanis 1 , near the Cymerian Bos- 

 phorus- when the solstice is nigh, brings down small 

 pouches, as it were, each larger than a grape, from 

 which four-footed flying creatures burst ; a sort of 

 animal which lives and flies until the afternoon of the 

 same day, but presently at the sun's going down 

 withers and languishes, and finally, at the sun's setting, 

 dies, lasting no longer than a single day, whence it 

 is called Ephemerus, that is, the creature of a day." 

 Thus Aristotle writes. 



Now if these things are true, and worthy of the great 

 philosopher, they will impart no little credibility as to the 

 generation of the aforesaid bird. 



The second Goose, of which I promised I would speak, 

 is a sea-bird, which lives by hunting fishes, somewhat less 

 in size than the Goose given above ; and yet in voice and 

 aspect it recalls the Goose in every way ; it nests within the 

 Scottish sea, upon the lofty cliffs of the Bass Isle — so called, 

 as I opine, by an antiphrasis 3 — and nowhere else in all 

 Britain. This bird looks to its young with so much loving 

 care, that it will fight most gallantly with lads that are let 

 down in baskets by a rope to carry them away, not without 

 danger of its life. Nor must we fail to mention that a salve, 

 most valuable for many a disease, is made by Scots from 

 the fat of this Goose (for it is wonderfully full of fat) which 

 may deservedly rival the Commagenum vaunted much by 

 Pliny, in its virtue and the number of its cures. 



Now since, though searching with the greatest care, 

 I cannot find any more kinds of Geese among Britons, 



1 Now the Bog. 



2 Between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. 



3 As if the derivation was from the French bas = \ow. 



