64 BAHNACLES. 



found on most rocky shores; tlicy attain the largest size in 



the hottest climates, having never been found ver}^ far north. 



The British species are small, and not more than two or tliree 

 in number; they may be found adhering 

 to stones near low -water mark. "Wc give 

 a figure of one of t.hese called the Tufted 

 Chiton, {C. fascicularis;) this word is from 

 the Latin fasciculus — a little bundle of 

 leaves or flowers, and it refers to the 



hairy tufts that edge the mantle of this marine slug. 



BARNACLES, 



Or, as they are sometimes called, Ik-rnicles, belong to what 

 naturalists term the class Cirrhopodu, sometimes spelled cirri- 

 pcda, which appears to be derived from the Latin cirrus — a 

 tuft or lock of hair curk'd, and pede — a foot; hence the term 

 may be translated hairy -footed. Such of our readers as have 

 seen the Common or Duck Barnacle, f Pentalusmis anatifera,) 

 will at once understand the applicability of this term. Many 

 a piece of drift wood comes to land literally covered with 

 long fleshy stalks, generally of a purplish red colour, twisting 

 and curling in all directions, and terminating in delicate 

 porcelain-like shells, clear and brittle, of a white colour, just 

 tinged with blue, from between which project the many- 

 jointed cirrhi, or hair-like tentacles, which serve the purpose 

 of a casting net, to seize and drag to the mouth of the 

 animal, its prey, which consists of small mollusks and Crustacea. 



This is the Barnacle about which such strange stories are 

 told by old writers, who affirmed that the Barnacle or Brent 

 Goose, that in winter visits our shores, is produced from these 

 fleshy foot -stalks and hairy shells by a natural process of 

 growth, or, as some philosophers of our day would say, of 

 development. Gerard, who, in 1597, wrote a ''Historic of 

 Plants," describes the process by which the fish is transformed 

 into the bird; telling his readers tliat as ''the shells gape, 

 the legs hang out, that the bird growing bigger and bigger 



