BERNACLE. 371 



The trees themselves Fulgosus represents as similar 

 to willows, as those who had seen them in Ireland 

 and in the Orkneys informed him *. 



The same circumstances are related and credited 

 by Bishop Leslie in his Scottish Chronicles; by 

 Bishop Majolus in his treatise on the Dog-days; by 

 Odoric in his account of the Tartarian Lamb; by the 

 celebrated Scaliger in his Exercitations ; by Baptista 

 Porta, Kircher, Lobel, Isidore, Delrio, Torquemada, 

 Bartholomew Glantville ; and what is no less won- 

 derful, by the distinguished naturalists Aldrovand, 

 Gesner, and Johnston, while Count Mayer wrote an 

 entire volume upon the subject, entitled a 4 Treatise 

 of the Tree-Bird (without father or mother) of the 

 Orkney Isles, similar to a Goose t.' In this sage 

 production, the archiatral and imperial Count, as he 

 styles himself, decides that the bernacle goose does 

 not originate either from fruits or worms, but from 

 shells, of which he opened a hundred, and found in 

 all of them the embryos of the goose completely 

 formed; " like chicks in the eggs of pullets, having 

 beaks, eyes, feet, wings, and even the down of com- 

 mencing plumage, with all the other members of a 

 young bird." He thence proceeds to discuss the sort 

 of nourishment which these embryo geese require 

 while remaining- in the sea-shells, which increase 

 gradually, he says, with the contained animal as do 

 the shells of oysters, snails, and tortoises. He like- 

 wise discusses systematically, according to the Peri- 

 patetic philosophy, the several causes of the bernacle 

 goose efficient, material, formal, and final. For 

 proof of the possibility of the thing, he gravely refers 

 to the existence of hobgoblins, and he ascribes the 

 production to the immediate influence of the stars ; 

 and even goes the irreverent length of considering 



* In Nieremberg, Hist. Nat. iii. 5. 

 f Edit, 12mo. Francofurti, 1629, 



