ii6 



SEA FABLES EXPLAINED. 



most common species of these " necked barnacles " bears 

 the name of '' Lepas anatifera',' "the duck -bearing LepasT 

 It was so entitled by Linnaeus, in recognition of its having 

 been connected with the fable, which, of course, met with 

 no credit from him. 



Fig. 39 represents the figure-head of a ship, partly 

 covered with barnacles, which was picked up about thirty 

 miles off Lowestoft on the 22nd of October, 1857, It was 

 described in the Illustrated London News, and the pro- 



FIG. 39. — A SHir'S FIGURE-HEAD WITH BARNACLES ATTACHED TO IT. 



prietors of that paper have kindly given me a copy of 

 the block from which its portrait was printed. 



Others of the barnacles affix themselves to the bottoms 

 of ships, or parasitically upon whales and sharks, and 

 those of the latter kind often burrow deeply into the skin of 

 their host. Fig. 40 is a portrait of a Coromila diadema taken 

 from the nose of a whale stranded at Kintradwell, in the 

 north of Scotland, in 1866, and sent to the late Mr. Frank 

 Buckland. Growing on this Coronula are three of the 

 curious eared barnacles, Conchoderma aurita, the Lepas 



