342. Remarks on a Species 



have been but very imperfectly studied ; they are spoken of, . 

 and variously represented, by Gerarde and others of olden 

 times ; their descriptions, however, are clothed with little else 

 than folly and superstition, and therefore it necessarily fol- 

 lows, that what is drawn from them is wrapped up in doubt 

 and uncertainty, 



I should be glad to obtain further information concerning 

 this genus from some of your correspondents, in an early 

 Number of this Magazine. 



I am. Sir, yours, &c. 

 Liverpool, Dec. 1. 1831. Thomas Weatherill, M.D. 



Notwithstanding the perfect justice of Dr. Weatherill's objection to 

 the older histories, on account of the absurdities blended with them, 

 some of these are too amusing to be at once and wholly repudiated. On 

 this plea, and as indicative of the historical progress of the knowledge of 

 natural objects, we hope to stand excused for presenting the following 

 remarks on the barnacle shell. Our first quotation is from Hall's Amulet 

 for 1830, and occurs in a historical essay therein, entitled " The First 

 Invasion of Ireland; by the Rev. Robert Walsh, L.L.D." 



" The Bay of Bannow abounds with sea fowls, and amongst them is one 

 [the bernacle goose, ^'nser Bernicla Willughby] which has been the occa- 

 sion of very extraordinary opinions. It is a bird resembling a wild goose, 

 and is found in abundance in this bay, and also in that of Wexford. It 

 feeds on the tuberous roots of an aquatic grass, which is full of saccharine 

 juice; and, instead of the rank taste of other sea fowl, which feed partly 

 on fish, this bird acquires from its aliment a delicate flavour, which 

 renders it highly prized. But the circumstance which long made it an 

 object of the highest curiosity was an idea that it was not produced, 

 in the usual way, from the egg of a similar parent; but that it was the 

 preternatural production of a species of shell-fish called a barnacle. 

 This singular absurdity is not to be charged to the Irish : it was first pub- 

 lished to the world by Giraldus Cambrensis, who accompanied the early 

 invaders, and saw the bird in this place. It was received with avidity in 

 England, and set down among other attractive wonders of the new and 

 barbarous country, where every thing was wild and monstrous. The shell 

 supposed to produce it, is found on this coast, adhering to logs of wood, 

 and other substances, which had remained long in the sea water : it is 

 attached by a fleshy membrane at one end, and from the other issues a 

 fibrous beard, which curls round the shell, and has a distant resemblance 

 to the feathers of a fowl ; and on this circumstance the story was founded. 

 So late as the time of Gerarde, this was firmly believed by the naturalists 

 in England. In a folio edition of Gerarde's works [Johnson's edition of 

 Gerarde's Herbal, 1636, p. 1587, 1588.] there is a long account of this 

 prodigious birth, which he prefaces by saying — * What mine eyes have 

 seen, and mine hands have touched, that I will declare ; ' and he accom- 

 panies his description with a plate, representing one of these birds hanging 

 by its head to a barnacle shell, as just excluded from it, and dropping 

 into the sea. The fishy origin of the bird rendered it also an object of 

 ecclesiastical controversy. It was disputed with much warmth in England, 

 before the Reformation, that this Irish bird, having a fish for its parent, was 

 not properly flesh, and that it might be eaten with perfect propriety on fast- 

 days; and hence this delicious meat was an allowed luxury, in which 

 many worthy ecclesiastics concientiously indulged in Lent. One learned 

 man made a syllogism to defend his practice : — ' Whatever is born of flesh 



