BARNACLE GEESE— GOOSE BARNACLES. 105 



their leaves ; and this fruit, when in due time it falls into the water 

 beneath it, is endowed with new hfe, and is converted into a Uving 

 bird, which they call the 'tree-goose.' This tree grows in the Island 

 of Pomonia, which is not far from Scotland, towards the north. 

 Several old cosmographers, especially Saxo Grammaticus, mention 

 the tree, and it must not be regarded as fictitious, as some new writers 

 suppose." 



Julius Caesar Scaliger* (1540) gives another reading of 

 the legend, in which it is asserted that the leaves which 

 fall from the tree into the water are converted into fishes, 

 and those which fall upon the land become birds. 



Thus this extraordinary belief held sway, and remained 

 strong and invincible, although from time to time some 

 man of sense and independent thought attempted to turn 

 the tide of popular error. Albertus Magnus (who died 1280) 

 showed its absurdity, and declared that he had seen the 

 bird referred to lay its eggs and hatch them in the ordinary 

 way. Roger Bacon (who died in 1294) also contradicted it, 

 and Belon, in 155 1, treated it with ridicule and contempt. 

 Olaus Wormius f seems to have believed in it, though he 

 wrote cautiously about it. Olaus Magnus (1553) mentions 

 it, and apparently accepts it as a fact, occurring in the 

 Orkneys, on the authority of "a Scotch historian who 

 diligently sets down the secrets of things," and then dismisses 

 it in three lines. 



Passing over many other writers on the subject, we come 

 to the time of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when (in 1597) 

 "John Gerarde, Master in Chirurgerie, London," published 

 his " Herball, or Generall Historic of Plants gathered by 

 him," and in the last chapter thereof solemnly declared, 

 that he had actually witnessed the transformation of 

 " certaine shell fish " into Barnacle Geese, as follows. 



* Exercit. 59, sect. 2. t ' Museum,' p. 257. 



