GOOSE.] NATURAL HISTORY. 133 



Goose, Gosling. 



LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, iii. I, 102, etc. 

 CORIOLANUS, v. 3, 35. 



IN the Alps there is a kind of Goose, biggest of all 

 birds except the ostrich ; but so heavy that it may be taken 

 immovable on the ground by the hand. There is no animal 

 which so quickly perceives the scent of man as the Goose. 

 Its fat helps against baldness. 



Hortus Sanitatis, bk. iii. 10. 



IF a man steal their eggs from them, they lay still, and 

 never give over till they be ready to burst with laying. If 

 one of their Goslings be stung never so little by a nettle, 

 it will die of it. Their greedy feeding also is their bane, for 

 one while they will eat till they burst again ; another whiles 

 kill themselves with straining their own selves ; for if they 

 chance to catch hold of a root with their bill, they will 

 bite and pull so hard for to have it, that many times they 

 break their own necks withal, before they leave their hold. 

 Against the stinging of nettles the remedy is, that so soon 

 as they be hatched there be some nettle roots laid under 

 their bed of straw. Holland's Pliny, bk. x. ch. lix. 



IT is said that all summer long even unto the fall of the 

 leaf, Geese and ravens be continually sick. 



Ibid., bk. xxix. ch. iii. 



[WHITE Y.] It is also ascribed to the sanctity of Hilda, 

 that those wild Geese (which in winter fly in great flocks 

 to the unfrozen lakes and rivers in the southern parts), to 

 the great amazement of every body, fall down suddenly 

 upon the ground, when they are in their flight over certain 

 neighbouring fields hereabouts ; a relation that I should not 

 have given, if I had not received it from several very credible 

 Persons. Camdats "Britannia," col. 906-7 (ed. 1722). 



AN excellent pickled Goose, a new service. 



<Dekker and Webster, " Westward Ho !" i. 2. 



YOUNG gentlemen shall be eaten up (for dainty meat) 

 as if they were pickled Geese, or baked woodcocks. 



Dekker, "Raven's Almanack," 



