BARNACLE GOOSE. 357 



shells, and found in all of them the rudiments of the bird 

 completely formed. Gerard thus gravely asserts his belief 

 in this absurdity. 



" But what our eyes have seen, and hands have touched, 

 we shall declare. There is a small island in Lancashire 

 called the Pile of Foulders, wherein are found broken pieces 

 of old and bruised ships, some whereof have been cast 

 thither by shipwracke, and also the trunks and bodies with 

 the branches of old and rotten trees, cast up there likewise; 

 whereon is found a certain spume or froth that in time 

 breedeth into certain shels, in shape like those of the 

 muskle, but sharper pointed, and of a whitish colour, 

 wherein is contained a thing in form like a lace of silke 

 finely woven as it were together, of a whitish colour ; one 

 end whereof is fastened unto the inside of the shell, even 

 as the fish of oisters and muskles are ; the other end is made 

 fast unto the belly of a rude masse or lumpe, which in time 

 commeth to the shape and form of a bird ; when it is per- 

 fectly formed, the shell gapeth open, and the first thing that 

 appeareth is the foresaid lace or string; next come the legs 

 of the bird hanging out, and as it groweth greater it openeth 

 the shell by degrees, till at length it has all come forth, and 

 hangeth only by the bill : in short space after it cometh to 

 full maturitie, and falleth into the sea, where it gathereth 

 feathers, and groweth to a fowle bigger than a mallard 

 and lesser than a goose, having black legs, and bill or 

 beake, and feathers black and white, spotted in such manner 

 as our Mag-pie, called in some places pie-annet, which the 

 people of Lancashire call by no other name than Tree- 

 Goose ; which place aforesaid and all those places adjoining, 

 do so much abound therewith, that one of the best is bought 

 for three-pence. For the truth hereof, if and doubt, may 

 it please them to repaire to me, and I shall satisfy them by 

 the testimonie of good witnesses." 



