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Marta's gander was a magnificent snow-white bird: the object of terror to foxes, children and dogs. She had reared him as a gosling; and whenever he approached, he would let fly a low contented burble and sidle his neck around her thighs.
1862 April 19, “Mediums Under Other Names”, in All the Year Round, volume 7, page 132:
Two stout woodmen with difficulty cut down this tree, the chips of which flew far and wide about the hall; but at my command my two green goslings carried away the fragments without any difficulty.
1797, Botanical Dialogues, Between Hortensia and Her Four Children, page 8:
These Aments (we must no longer call them catkins) are composed both of male and female flowers; what Henry calls goslings in spring are the Aments of the willow tree ; his green goslings are female Aments , and , when mature , have the appearance of little tufts of wool, which appearance is caused by the downy material that crowns their feeds;
1893, “Tree Proverbs”, in The Journal of Education, volume 37, page 170:
When the oak puts on his goslings grey 'Tis time to sow barley night or day.
1901, Edward North Buxton, Epping Forest, page 116:
The common Sallow or Goat Willow (Salix caprea) forms a small bush in rough places and the hollows left by old gravel-pits. It produces the “goslings” which children are fond of gathering at Easter .
2018, John Lewis-Stempel, The Wood: The Life & Times of Cockshutt Wood:
In the afternoon: cut back the crack willow around the pool; the fluffy flowers fall on the water. Locally, the flowers are known as 'goslings'. Water. It has no motion of its own; it is the mechanic betrayer of other forces. the breeze gently drifts the goslings to the far shore.
