Anser 27 



Chenerotes are. And, though I am a Briton, I am not quite 

 sure about our Chenerotes ; for as yet, apart from the two 

 kinds that Aristotle gives, I know two sorts of Geese in 

 Britain and will frankly own that, if the Chenerotes are not 

 to belong to either of them, they are quite unknown to me. 

 The first Goose by our people nowadays is called the Brant 

 and Bernicle, and is a smaller bird than the Wild Goose, with 

 the breast partly black. The rest is ashen grey. It flies, 

 gabbles, haunts swamps, and devastates green crops, like the 

 Wild Goose. Its flesh is somewhat strong, and is the less 

 sought after by the rich. No one has seen the Bernicle's 

 nest or egg, nor is this wonderful, since Bernicles without 

 a parent's aid are said to have spontaneous generation in 

 this way : When after a certain time the firwood masts or 

 planks or yard-arms of a ship have rotted on the sea, then fungi, 

 as it were, break out upon them first, in which in course of 

 time one may discern evident forms of birds, which afterwards 

 are clothed with feathers, and at last become alive and fly. 

 Now lest this should seem fabulous to anyone, besides the 

 common evidence of all the long-shore men of England, 

 Ireland, and Scotland, that renowned historian Gyraldus 1 , 

 who composed a history of Ireland in much more happy 

 style than could have been expected in his time, bears witness 

 that the generation of the Bernicles is none other than this. 

 But inasmuch as it seemed hardly safe to trust the vulgar and 

 by reason of the rarity of the thing I did not quite credit 

 Gyraldus, while I thought on this, of which I now am 

 writing, I took counsel of a certain man, whose upright 

 conduct, often proved by me, had justified my trust, a theo- 

 logian by profession and an Irishman by birth, Octavian by 

 name, whether he thought Gyraldus worthy of belief in this 

 affair. Who, taking oath upon the very Gospel which he 

 taught, answered that what Gyraldus had reported of the 

 generation of this bird was absolutely true, and that with 

 his own eyes he had beholden young, as yet but rudely 

 formed, and also handled them, and, if I were to stay in 

 London for a month or two, that he would take care that 

 some growing chicks should be brought in to me. This 

 curious generation of the Bernicle will not appear so very 

 1 Giraldus Cambrensis, Topographia Hibernica Distinctio I. cap. xv. 



