5a6ufou/ pfaat/". 



119 



have seen," he says, " and what our 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 

 ships, some whereof have been thrown 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 unto certaine shells, in 

 shape like to those of the muskle, but sharper pointed, and of a 

 whitish colour, wherein is contained a thing in forme like a lace of 

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

 one end whereof is fastned 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 mass, or lumpe, which, in time, commeth to the 

 shape and forme of a bird. When it is perfectly formed, the shell 



Cbt ©00« Crf». From Cerarde's Herbal. 



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 

 is all come forth, and hangeth onely by the bill; in short space 

 after it commeth 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 blacke legs and bill or beake, and 

 feathers blacke and white, spotted in such manner as is our magpie; 

 called in some places a pie-annet, which the people of Lancashire 

 call by no other name than tree-goose; which place aforesaid, and 

 all those parts adjoyning, do so much abound therewith, that one of 

 the best is bought for threepence. For the truth hereof, if any 

 doubt, may it please them to repaire unto me, and I shall satisfie 

 them by the testimonie of good witnesses. 



