12 



NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



SUB-CLASS I. CIRRIPEDIA. 



The Barnacles derive their scientific name, Cirripedia, from the appearance of their 

 feet, which, as thrust from the living shell, present a marked resemblance to a lock or 

 curl of hair. Regarding their common name, barnacles, some doubt exists, though it 

 probably was derived from the Latin perna, a ham ; diminutive pernacula, from whence 

 the transition is easy to the now current form. Closely connected with the barnacles, 

 in a now extinct folk-lore, are the barnacle geese, and Professor Max Miiller has traced 



out the myth in its various phases, 

 clearly showing that it arose from a 

 similarity of vernacular names of the 

 bird and of the crustacean. The bird 

 derived its name from its occurrence 

 in Ireland (Hibernia), whence the old 

 form Anas hiberniculce. Then the 

 " hi " was dropped, as is frequently the 

 case among Latin words which find their 

 way into the Romanic tongues, and we 

 have bernicula. So, as the names were 

 identical, it most conclusively follows 

 that the animals are one and the same, 

 and so arose the myth, which was cur- 

 rent for five centuries, that the barna- 

 cles when ripe opened their valves and 

 out came the young barnacle goose, 

 Some of the old accounts may prove of 

 interest. 



Bellenden, Archdeacon of Murray, 

 quoting from a Latin history of Scot- 

 land (1527), gives this description of 

 " geis genesit of the see, namit clakis " : 

 " All treis that are cassin in the seis be 

 proces of tyme first worme etin, and in 

 the small boris and hollis thairof growis 

 small wormis. First they schaw their 

 held and feit, and last of all they schaw 

 their plumis and wyngis." 



Gerarde, in the Appendix to his 

 " Herball or generall Historic of 

 Plantes" (1633), not only describes, 



but gives a picture of the whole process, which we reproduce. His description, with 

 a few omissions, is as follows : " We are arrived to the end of our Historic, think- 

 ing it not impertinent to the conclusion of the same to end with one of the marvels 

 of this land (we may say of the world). There are founde in the north parts of 



FIG. 15. Gerarde's figure of Barnakles producing geise. 



