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BIRDS.

BARNACLE.

(BALANUS ANATIFERUS.)

FEW instances of credulity which Poetry has perpetuated are more singular, than that the Barnacle Goose (Anas erythropus) is bred from that remarkable marine production the Barnacle.* Gerard has thus described it: "There are found in the north part of Scotland, and in the islands adjacent, called Orcades, certain trees whereon do grow certain shells of a white colour tending to russet, wherein are contained little living creatures, which shells, in time of maturity, do open, and out of them grow those living things, which, falling into the water, become fowls, which we call Barnacles; in the North of England, Brant Geese; and in Lancashire, Tree Geese."†

* Johnson derives it from the two Saxon words, beapn a child, and aac an oak.

Herbal, p. 1587.

And from the most refined of Saints
As naturally grow miscreants,
As barnacles turn Soland geese
In th' islands of the Orcades.

BUTLER. Hudibras, c. 2. 1. 653.

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So slow Bootes underneath him sees,

In th' icy isles, those goslings hatch'd on trees;
Whose fruitful leaves, falling into the water,
Are turn'd, 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; then a flying gull.

DU BARTAS. Divine Week, p. 228.*

The general name of anatifera or Barnacle, given to this species, is owing to the fabulous story of its breeding or becoming Barnacle Geese, being first observed where that sea-fowl breeds and resorts in great numbers. The animal, a triton, having many cirrhi, or fine feather-like tentacula, with also a produced neck, to which it hung, gave rise to this strange conceit and vulgar opinion, believed not only by the commonalty, but even by the learned naturalists and botanists: one instance of this is our countryman, the botanist Gerard.

The shell is milk-white, smooth, thin, and semi-transparent. The top is open, and from it proceeds a pretty long cylindric, membranous,

* Joshua Sylvester's Translation.

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