CIRRIPEDIA. 



13 



Scotland, and the islands adjacent, called Orchades, certain trees whereon doe growe 

 certaine shell fishes, of a white colour, tending to russet, wherein are conteined 

 little living creatures ; which shells, in time of maturities do open, and out of them 

 grow those little living foules, whom we call Barnakles, in the north of England Brant 

 Geise, and in Lancashire tree geise ; but the other that do fall upon the land do perish 

 and come to nothing." He then goes on to describe in detail the various transforma- 

 tions which he witnessed, saying, "But what our eies have seene and hands have 

 touched we shall declare." He tells us that when the bird is formed in the shell, the 

 latter gapes, the legs hang out, the bird grows larger, until at length it only hangs by 

 the bill, and finally drops into the water, " where it gathereth feathers and groweth to 

 a foule bigger than a mallard and lesser than a goose." In Walton's " Complete 

 Angler" we find the same idea in poetical form, and, finally, in the "Philosophical 

 Transactions of the Royal Society" (1677) Sir Robert Moray has published " a relation 

 concerning barnacles," embodying the same curious idea. These extracts show that 

 the myth had a strong life, for, although contradicted by Albertus Magnus and 

 Roger Bacon, still, so the story runs, the barnacle goose was allowed to be eaten during 

 Lent and on fast days, since coming from the barnacle, a fish, the goose could not be 

 flesh, and hence was not prohibited by the laws of the church. 



It was not till 1828-29 that J. V. Thompson showed by their embryology that 

 the barnacles should be classed with the Crustacea. Previous to that time they had 

 been universally considered as belonging to the mollusks, from the fact that they 

 possessed a shell. Even Cuvier, who dissected them, failed to be struck with their 

 articulate characters. Thompson's discoveries were soon published, and at first met 

 much opposition, though their accuracy was soon established. 



We may take for our type of the group Lepas fas- 

 cicularis Ellis and Solander, which is well represented 

 in Fig. 16. In this form we have a short, stout, fleshy 

 stalk or peduncle by which the animal attaches itself, and 

 a larger " head " or capitulum, in which we find the prin- 

 cipal organs of the ciriped. Occasionally, instead of 

 being attached to some marine object, this species of bar- 

 nacle secretes a float from the cement glands of the pe- 

 duncle, and thus, free from every other object, is drifted 

 about by the waves. The capitulum is flattened and en- 

 closed by five calcareous valves connected by a tough 

 membrane. On one edge there is an opening through 

 which the feet and the mouth can be protruded at will, 

 but when the animal is disturbed, in go the feet, and 

 by the aid of a muscle connecting the valves of the shell, all is made close and 

 tight. Removing the valves from one side (Fig. 17) we can see the body, irregularly 

 oval in form, with six pairs of long, feathery feet, each pair being divided in twain 

 nearly to the base. In life these twenty-four feet are in constant motion, creating 

 currents in the waters, by which food is brought to the mouth, which is situated 

 on a sort of prominence nearer the peduncle. On either side of the body are 

 several " filamentary appendages," whose function is not known, though they are 

 supposed to be respiratory, or partially so. On opening the animal we find that the 

 alimentary canal is but little more than a simple tube, the limits between oesophagus 

 stomach, and intestine being very indistinct. The mouth is furnished with three pairs 



FIG. 16. Lepas fascicularis. 



