172 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



So slow Bootes underneath him sees, 

 In til' icy Islands, goslings hatch'd of trees, 

 Whose fruitful leaves, falling into the water. 

 Are tiirn'd, 'tis known, to hving fowls soon after. 



not sufSciently wonderful, it was believed that if 

 the leaves of the Goose-tree fell upon the land they 

 became birds, but if into the water, fishes. (Bauhin's 

 " Pinax," iii. 514.) Even the Royal Society accepted 

 this fable and published in the "Philosophical Trans- 

 actions" for the year 1677 an account by Sir Robert 

 Murray of what he himself saw in the Western 

 Islands of Scotland. " Behig," says Sir Robert, " in 

 the island of Uist, I saw lying upon the shore a 

 cut of a large fir-tree, of about 2i feet in diameter, 

 and 9 or 10 feet long, which had lain so long out 

 of the water that it was very dry, and most of the 

 shells that had formerly covered it were worn or 

 rubbed off. Only on the parts that lay next the 

 ground there still hung multitudes of little shells. 

 This Barnacle- shell is thin about the edges and 

 about half as thick as broad. Every one of the 

 shells has some cross-searas or sections, which, as 

 I remember, divide it into five parts. These parts 

 are fastened one to another with such a film as mus- 

 sel-shells have. These shells are hung at the tree by 

 a neck, longer than the shell, of a kind of filmy sub- 

 stance, round an hollow, and curved not unlike the 

 windpipe of a chicken, spreading out broader to 

 where it is fastened to the tree, from which it seems 

 to draw and convey the matter which serves for the 

 growth and vegetation of the shell and little bird 

 within it. In every shell that I opened I found a per- 

 fect sea-fowl : the little bill, like that of a goose, 

 the eyes marked, the head, neck, breast, wings, tail, 

 and feet formed; the feathers everywhere perfectly 

 shaped, and blackish coloured ; and the feet like 

 those of other water-fowl, to my best remem- 

 brance." Sir Robert, however, adds that he did 

 not see any of these little birds alive, nor could he 

 meet with anybody who had, and that the biggest 

 he saw was only the size of his illustration {2i in. 

 long) ; some "credible persons," however informed 

 him they had seen some as big as their fist, 



A writer in "Land and Water" (March 27, 1SG9) 

 quotes a passage from Cervantes' "Persiles and 

 Sigismunda," which shows that the story was known 

 to that author two centuries and a half ago. He 

 makes the people on the Irish coast cultivate the 

 Barnacle by thrusting poles into the sea-beach 

 among the rocks reached by the tide. "In a short 

 time that part of the poles covered with water is 

 converted into hard stone, and the portion standing 

 out of the water becomes rotten and corrupted, out 

 of which corruption is engendered a small bird, 

 and so savoury to the palates that it is one of the 

 greatest delicacies to be enjoyed." Mr. J. K. Lord 

 also in "Land and Water" (19th Feb.,lS70) quotes 

 the following lines from Du Bartas, an old Erench 

 poet who lived about 1550 :— 



So rotten planks of broken ships do change 

 To barnacles. Oh transformation strange ! 

 'Twas first a green tree ; then a broken hull; 

 Lastly a mushroom ; now a flying; gull. 



Who [can wonder, after all tliese circumstantial 

 and minute statements by the most celebrated 

 naturalists of the times in which they lived, that the 

 belief in the " anomalous generation " of these birds 

 should be general? It seems impossible that such men 

 should be so absolutely mistaken ! A writer in the 

 "English Cyclopedia," speaking of Gerard's evi- 

 dence, thus concludes:~"After this can we wonder at 

 the melancholy catalogue of human beings who have 

 expiated the supposed crime of witchcraft at the 

 stake on the testimony of their deluded and deluding 

 prosecutors? Here is a man of learning and con- 

 siderable accuracy in many points, the author of a 

 valuable work containing much information, who 

 gravely and deliberately, on the authority of two 

 of the most acute of his senses, asserts a downright 

 falsehood and courts investigation. He may, more- 

 over, be acquitted of any intention to deceive ; but 

 his mind was filled with previous assertions and pre. 

 conceived opinions, and his excited imagination, like 

 that of the majority of the witnesses against the un- 

 fortunate witches, gave a colour and form to all he 

 saw and felt." There can be little doubt many of 

 these poor wretches suffered death on exactly simi- 

 lar evidence to that we have just been considering 

 equally mistaken, but given with equal good faith.' 

 There were exceptions, however, to the general 

 belief in this story of the origin of the Barnacle 

 Goose. Albertus Magnus, who died in 12S0, dis- 

 tinctly denies the fable, and asserts that not only 

 himself, but many of his friends along with him, 

 " had seen them pair, lay eggs, and nurse their 

 young." ("Hist. Anim.,"xxiii., edit. Veuetiis, 1495.) 

 Belon also, 1555 ("Oiseaux,"p. 15S, Paris ed.), treats 

 the absurd notion with contempt, and bears testi. 

 mony to having seen them lay and hatch their eggs. 

 iEneas Sylvius Piccolomini, afterwards Pope Pius 

 II., was not disposed to believe in miracles of this 

 sort, and searched for evidence when in Scotland . 

 but, like the iff/tis fatuus, the goose-tree receded as 

 he approached, and finally took up its abode in the 

 Orkney Islands, where he does not appear to have 

 followed it. Gerard de Verds (about 1599) also 

 found large numbers of birds breeding on the west 

 coast of Greenland, which he recognized as the 

 " Rot-geese " which visited his native Holland every 

 year. Lastly, in Ray's edition of Willoughby, pub- 

 lished in 1(378, the following passage occurs :--" What 

 is reported concerning tlie rise and origin of these 

 birds,— to wit, that they are bred of rotten wood ; 

 for instance, of the masts, ribs, and planks of broken 

 ships, half putrefied and corrupted, or of certain 

 palms of trees [the catkins of the willow] falling 

 into the sea ; or, lastly, of a kind of sea-shell, the 

 figures whereof Lobel, Gerard, and others have set 



