SPECIES 3. ANAS BERNICL.A. 

 THE BRANT. 



[Plate LXXIL Fig. 1.] 



Lc Cravant, BRISS. vi, p. 304. 16. pi. 31. BUFF, ix, p. 87. BE- 

 WICK, u, p. 277. LATH. Syn. in, p. 467. Arct. ZooL JVb. 478. 

 PEALE'S Museum, No. 2704.* 



THE Brant, or as it is usually written Brent, is a bird well * 

 known on both continents, and celebrated in former times 

 throughout Europe for the singularity of its origin, and the 

 strange transformations it was supposed to undergo previous to 

 its complete organization. Its first appearance was said to be in 

 the form of a barnacle shell adhering to old water-soaked logs, 

 trees, or other pieces of wood taken from the sea. Of this Goose- 

 bearing tree Gerard, in his Herbal, published in 1597, has 

 given a formal account, and seems to have reserved it for the 

 conclusion of his work as being the most wonderful of all he 

 had to describe. The honest naturalist however, though his be- 

 lief was fixed, acknowledges that his own personal information 

 was derived from certain shells, which adhered to a rotten tree 

 that he dragged out of the sea between Dover and Romney in 

 England; in some of which he found " living things without 

 forme or shape; in others which were nearer come to ripeness, 

 living things that were very naked, in shape like a birde;in 

 others the birds covered with soft downe, the shell half open 

 and the birde readie to fall out, which no doubt were the foules 

 called Barnakles."t Ridiculous and chimerical as this notion 

 was, it had many advocates, and was at that time as generally 

 believed, and with about as much reason too, as the present 



*J]nas Bernic/a, GMEL. %<J. I, p. 513, fc Vo. 13. /nd. Om. p. 844, Wo. 32. 

 Le Cravaut, BUFF. II. Enl. 342. Oit Cratant, TEMM. Man. d'Orn. ;>. 824. 

 f See Gerard's Herbal, Art. Goose-bearing 1 Tree. 



