BERNACLE. 375 



the ' Physica Curiosa' against the miraculous origin 

 of the bernacle goose. 



The origin of the absurdities we have quoted may 

 all be traced to the singular form of a multivalve 

 shell, which LinnaBus has done wrong, we think, 

 in designating goose-bearing (Lepas anatifera, 

 LINN.) ; as "feathered'' (plumata) would have been 

 more appropriate and less in the style of fable. 

 Bosc, Cuvier, and other modern conchologists have 

 formed the equally objectionable generic term Anatifa. 

 The shell itself, which is about an inch and a half 

 long when full grown, is composed of five valves, 

 exceedingly smooth, and of a bluish white colour, 

 with yellow margins. The peduncle, or footstalk, 

 supposed to be the neck of the young goose, is white 

 and cartilaginous, and varies in length from half an 

 inch or less to several feet. What was taken for 

 feathers are the fingers (tentaculd) of the shell-fish, 

 of which twelve project in an elegant curve, and are 

 used by it for making prey of small fish. 



These shells are chiefly found adhering to the 

 bottoms of ships arid pieces of timber floating in the 

 sea. Colonel Montagu mentions his having seen a 

 fir plank, mpre than twenty feet long, which was 

 drifted on the coast of Devonshire, completely covered 

 from end to end with bernacle shells. They are 

 sometimes also, though more rarely, found on rocks: 

 we have collected specimens on the basalt rocks at 

 the Giants' Causeway in Ireland, and on the con- 

 glomerate sandstone at Wemyss Bay, Renfrewshire *. 



It shows how exceedingly difficult it is to eradicate 

 popular fables, that, "even of late years, "as Bingley 

 mentions, " an attempt was made to impose upon the 

 credulity of the public, by an exhibition in London 

 of a large collection of these shells, as shells from 

 which, as the advertisements stated, the bernacle 

 * J. R. 



