BARNACLE GEESEGOOSE BARNACLES. 303 



of the two little thick quarto volumes of Caspar Schott* 

 This learned Jesuit made himself acquainted with every- 

 thing that had been written on the subject, and besides 

 the authors I have referred to, quotes and compares the 

 statements of Majolus, Abrahamus Ortelius, Hieronymus 

 Cardanus, Eusebius, Nierembergius, Deusingius, Odoricus, 

 Gerhardus de Vera, Ferdinand of Cordova, and many 



FIG. 39. DEVELOPMENT OF BARNACLES INTO GEESE. After Aldrovandus . 



others. He then gives, firmly and clearly, his own opinion 

 that the assertion that birds in Britain spring from the 

 fruit or leaves of trees, or from wood, or from fungus, or 

 from shells, is without foundation, and that neither reason, 

 experience, nor authority tend to confirm it. He concedes 

 that worms may be bred in rotting timber, and even 

 that they may be of a kind that fly away on arriving at 







* Physica Curiosa, sive Mirabilia Natures et Artis, 1662, lib. 

 cap. xxii. p. 960. 



