io6 THE GANDER AND THE MAY FLY 



hung with May Fly, have my eyes deceived me 

 when I have seen a flock of geese poking about 

 the banks and stripping those grass stems ; and 

 was I not justified in thinking that it was the 

 insect and not the grass they were after? But I 

 am floored ; I acknowledge it. My philosopher 

 is a naturalist, an ornithologist, a poet, and a 

 philosopher, and who am I to contradict him ? 

 I have no such pretensions. He could, I doubt 

 not, fully demonstrate to me or any one else, that 

 a goose's gizzard would reject a May Fly or any 

 other insect. I submit to his superior wisdom, 

 and I fall back upon ducks. I hope he won't try 

 to disturb my faith in ducks, and tell me that 

 neither ducks nor swallows swallow May Flies. 

 If he does I shall revolt. 



I may say that I have looked through all the 

 authorities on British birds in my possession, such 

 as Gilbert White, Bewick, and Bishop Stanley, but 

 none of them have anything special to say about 

 the food of the domestic goose. I presume because 

 everybody is supposed to know that a goose is 

 above all else a grass-eating bird. Mr. Howard 

 Saunders, I think, saves my reputation by remarking 

 that the food of the Snow Goose in summer consists 

 of green rushes, insects, and in autumn of berries. 

 If a Snow Goose devours insects, then surely the 

 white domestic gander may be tempted to do the 

 same when such a precious morsel as a May Fly 

 seduces him from his habitual ways I say nothing 

 of the Solan Goose, whose food is mostly little fishes. 



