BARNACLE GOOSE. 155 



but the plate which he gives, and which is labelled 

 " The Barnacle or Anser Bassanus " has evidently been 

 drawn from the Gannet. The old superstition that 

 Barnacle Geese issued from a marine shell, and were 

 not hatched from eggs in the usual way, has some local 

 interest from the fact that the island on which stands 

 the old Pile of Fouldrey, near Walney, was held to l)e a 

 very favourite place for their propagation. I subjoin 

 some extracts from " The Herball or General Historie of 

 Plants" Gathered by John Gerarde, enlarged, &c., by 

 Thomas Johnson, London, 1633, p. 1587, which the 

 author states to be " the naked and bare truth, though 

 unpolished," but which, nevertheless, is not accepted 

 by Johnson, who subscribes to a quotation from the 

 " Phytobasanos " of Fabius Columna, which runs, 

 " Conchas vulgo Anatiferas, non esse fructus terrestres, 

 iieque ex iis Anates oriri ; sed Balani marin^e speciem ! " 

 Gerarde writes, " what our eyes have seene, and 

 hands have touched, we shall declare. There is a small 

 island in Lancashire called the Pile of Foulders,* 

 wherein are found the broken pieces of old and bruised 

 ships, some whereof have l)een cast thither by ship- 

 wracke, 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 certain shels, in shape like 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 fastened unto the inside of 



* Williighby {oj}. cit. supra) among remarkable breeding-places 

 names "A noted island not far from Lancaster, called the Pile of 

 Fondres, which divers sorts of Sea-fowl do yearly frequent, and 

 breed there." 



