THE BERNICLE GOOSE. 18? 



being- washed ashore, and found to be covered with g-osliug-s ; also of 

 a ship which had lain four years at anchor, and on being- brought to 

 Leith and examined, all the planks were worm-eaten, ^' and the hollis 

 thairof full of geis." 



The narratives of some other early writers upon the subject of the 

 barnacle are equally delusive. 



In "Gerarde's Herbal, or History of Plants," written about 

 the time of Elizabeth, a similar doctrine is attempted to be 

 upheld.* 



The manner in which that author concludes his assertions tend 

 much to show there were, even in those days, many sceptical of his 

 doctrine ; he adds — '' If any doubt, may it please them to repair 

 unto me, and I shall satisfie them by the testimonie of good wit- 

 nesses." 



An authority of no less distinction than Hollinshed, says he saw 

 with his own eyes the feathers of these barnacles hanging- out of the 

 shell at least two inches. 



Dr. Wm. Bulleyn, who wrote in the year 1552, alludes to the sub- 

 ject, but evidently with cautious and reluctant credulity ; he says — 

 " There be also barnacles whiche hath a strange generacion, as 

 Gesnerus saith, which never laie egges, as the people of the north 

 partes of Scotlande knoweth, and because it should seme incredible 

 to many I will g-eve none occasion to any either to mocke or to 

 maruell."t 



Willughby was less credulous than other ornithologists who wrote 



* " There is a small island in Lancashire called ' The Pile of Foulders,' on the 

 west side of the entrance into Morcambe Bay, about fifteen miles south of Ulver- 

 ston, where are found the broken pieces of old and bruised ships, also the trunks 

 and bodies, with the branches of old and rotten trees cast ujj there likewise ; where- 

 in is found a certain spume or froth, that in time breedeth unto certain shells, in 

 shape like those of the muskle, but sharper pointed, and of a whiter colour, wherein 

 is contained a thing in form like a lace of sUke, finely woven, as it were, together ; 

 cue end whereof is fastened into the inside of the shell, even as the fish of oisters 

 and muskles are ; the other end is made fast unto the beUy of a rude masse or lump, 

 which in time cometh to the shape and form of a bii'd : when it is perfectly formed, 

 the shell gapetli open, and the first thing that appeareth is the aforesaid lace or 

 string ; next come the legs of the bu-d hanging out ; and as it groweth greater, it 

 openeth the sheU by degrees, till at length it is all come forth and hangeth only by 

 the biU. In short space after, it cometh to fuU maturatie, and falleth into the sea, 

 where it gathereth feathers and groweth to a fowl bigger than a mallard and lesser 

 than a goose, which the people in Lancashire call by no other name than a tree- 

 goose ; which place aforesaid, and all those parts adjoining, do so much abound there- 

 with, that one of the best is bought for tlu'ee pence." 



t "The Bookc of Simples," fol. Ixxij. 



