74 MEMOIR IV. 



derived from the circumstance of animals being fixed 

 or free ! furnished with eyes or destitute of sight ! are not 

 always of that importance which Naturalists are disposed 

 to attach to them, and of which additional proofs will be 

 found in the future pages of these Memoirs. 



The belief that the Barnacles are the young or embryo 

 state of the Barnacle Goose ( Anas erythropus Linn. ) and 

 the Scoter or Black Goose ( Anas nigra Linn. ) is one of 

 those popular errors which has not only extended through 

 several ages, but still prevails amongst the vulgar on all 

 the shores of the European seas, and appears to have no 

 other foundation than a fancied resemblance in the plumose 

 members of the animal-inhabitant to the wing of a bird. 

 One circumstance however which serves in no small degree 

 to keep up this absurd error, and maybe worthy of remark, 

 is that in some Catholic countries, the above species of 

 Geese are still considered as of the Finny tribe, in order to 

 extend the bill of fare at Lent and at other times of fasting 

 and abstinence " C'est un gibier d'eau fort estime ; une 

 qiialite, que les pieux gourmet savent apprecier, c'est qiCon 

 peut le manger dans le tem^ps dJ' ahstinence religieuse " (Ar- 

 ticle Benache, Nouv. Diet. d'Uist. Nat.) "The bird which 

 at Paris is called Macreuse, and in the other parts of France 

 Macroul, the French eat upon fast days and all lent, think- 

 ing it to be a sort of Fish, or a marine animal with cold 

 blood, or else a Barnacle generated either out of rotten or 

 corrupted wood floating upon the sea ; or out of certain 

 fruits falling into the water, and there metamorphosed into 

 a Bird, or else from a kind of sea-shells adhering to old 

 planks and ships' bottoms called Conchse Anatiferse (Lepa- 

 des )" Dr. Tancred Robinson (Philos. Trans, abridged, — 

 Vol. 2, p. 850. 



To show how far the force of imagination will sometimes 

 carry men who from station and education should be forti- 

 fied against such delusion, I need only add what Sir Robt. 

 Moray has said upon this subject in a grave communication 



