no man could tell where they breed their egges, for that no man that ever wee knew, had ever beene under 80°; nor that land under 80° was never set downe in any card, much lesse the red geese that breede therein.” He and his sailors declared that they had seen these birds sitting on their eggs, and hatching them, on the coasts of Nova Zembla.
Du Bartas thus mentions this goose:—
“So, slowe Boötes underneath him sees,
In th’ ycie iles, those goslings hatcht of trees;
Whose fruitfull leaves, falling into the water,
Are turned, (they say) to living fowls soon after.
So, rotten sides of broken ships do change
To barnacles; O transformation strange!
’Twas first a green tree, then a gallant hull,
Lately a mushroom, now a flying gull.”