FABULOUS ACCOUNT. 253 



sea, where it gathereth feathers, and groweth to a 

 fowle bigger than a mallarde and lesser than a 

 goose, having blacke leggs and bill or beake, and 

 feathers black and white, spotted in such a 

 manner as is our mag-pie, called in some places 

 a Pie-Annet, which the people of Lancashire call 

 by no other name than a tree-goose : which place 

 aforesaide and all those parts adjoining do so 

 much abound therewith that one of the best is 

 bought for three pence. For the truth hereof, if 

 any doubt, may it please them to repaire to me, 

 and I shall satisfie them by the testimonie of 

 goode witnesses." 



This fabulous history of the origin of the bird 

 so well known as the barnacle was by our 

 ancestors held to be perfectly correct, and it 

 still maintains its footing among those inhabitants 

 of our sea-shore from whose minds modern and 

 more accurate ideas have not yet expelled the 

 errors of former ages. But natural history ex- 

 hibits many phenomena greatly more marvellous 

 than any that originate in the imagination of a 

 credulous naturalist. In this respect the remark 

 applied to the department of literature occupied 

 by the novelist, that truth is stranger than 

 fiction, is equally applicable to natural history. 

 And as regards the creature now referred to, the 

 metamorphosis it undergoes prior to assuming 

 its condition in the shell as above described, is 

 fully as wonderful as that which it has been 

 fancied to undergo subsequently. Prior to enter- 

 ing upon a condition which is permanent and 



