370 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



Bauhin adds to this marvellous story, that if the 

 leaves of this tree fall upon land they become birds, 

 and if into the water they are transmuted into 

 fishes *. The celebrated Cardan is another of those 

 who affirm that he himself, when he was at Edin- 

 burgh, saw the phenomenon of which he had heard 

 from the narrative we have already given from 

 Boethius, and went twice to the port of Leith to 

 investigate the matter. He remarks with great sim- 

 plicity that the circumstance that the Hebridean sea 

 should engender geese is " not a whit more mar- 

 vellous than that mice, on the authority of Aristotle, 

 are generated from the ground, or that the soil of 

 Egypt should grow hares and goats, inasmuch as 

 nature always produces what is most suitable to a 

 placet." 



From these wonderful stories, our island acquired 

 amongst the learned of other countries a high repu- 

 tation for fertility. Munster, accordingly, has an 

 express chapter " on the extraordinary fertility of 

 England and Scotland, 5 ' in which he tells us, that 

 " in Scotland are found trees which produce fruit 

 rolled up in the leaves, and this, in due time, falling 

 into the water it hangs over, is converted into a living 

 bird, and hence the tree is called the goose-tree. The 

 same tree grows also in the island Pomona, situated 

 not far from Scotland, towards the north. Lest you 

 should imagine,'* he adds, " that this is a fiction 

 devised by modern writers, I may mention that all 

 the old cosmographers, particularly Saxo Gram- 

 maticus, take notice of this tree J." Montbeillard is 

 hence inclined to think that Pomona, the largest of 

 the Orkney islands, derived its name from being the 

 supposed orchard of these goose-bearing trees . 



* Bauhin's Pinax, Hi, 514. 



f Cardan, De Varietal. Rerum, vii. 36. 



I Cosmographies, ii. Oiseaux, Art. La Bernache. 



