A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



impossible that this should be the Barnacle in Embryo. Within the Shells 

 are Claws, with Hairs like those of Lobsters, wound within one another in 

 spiral Lines, and are not very unlike the wings of a Goose, but these I found 

 to be perfect Shells, and not Quills or Feathers ; whence it is plain, that they 

 could not appertain to the Barnacle, that being of the Feather'd Kind. These 

 Shell-fishes are observable upon several Sea-weeds in the Gulph of Florida, 

 and are there chiefly pick'd up by our Shipping : I never yet could meet 

 with any Seeman who could affirm that he had seen any fall from Ships, and 

 swim, which must have necessarily happen'd, had they been converted into 

 Barnacles ; besides, in the Anatomy of Barnacles, I find them (as other Geese] 

 Male and Female, the one having a Penis, the other Ovaria, whence it is 

 evident that their way of breeding is no wise different from that of other 

 Birds ; what therefore has been asserted by Speed and others concerning this 

 Bird, is only a Vulgar Error, and they only wanted a thorow Enquiry, to 

 give them satisfaction in this Matter.' 1 



That a thorough inquiry is the one thing needed to give satisfaction in 

 matters of natural history may readily be conceded. How to make inquiries 

 thorough is not so easily perceived. Gerarde had long-standing belief to go 

 upon, the testimony of good witnesses, the evidence of his own senses, and 

 yet they only combined to lead him completely astray. In Dr. Leigh's 

 discussion it is interesting to note the comparison at one point of the 

 cirripedes with lobsters, since it was not till well into the nineteenth century 

 that the Thyrostraca were accepted as part of the Crustacean class. In the 

 Systema Natures of 1758, Linnasus preserves a remembrance of the old fable 

 in the name Lepas anatifera, the duck-bearing Lepas, but he places the genus 

 in the Mollusca, between Chiton and Pbolas, without any suspicion that he is 

 dealing with near kinsfolk of the prawn and the crab. 



The record of Lancashire crustaceans is still at many points incomplete. 

 Especially the Sympoda, the Isopoda terrestria, and the Thyrostraca are 

 awaiting fuller investigation. But for the class of Crustacea at large much 

 valuable work has been already done. Some glimpses have been given in 

 this chapter at the arduous operations by which successful research has been 

 carried out. Among the workers pre-eminence must be awarded to A. O. 

 Walker, F.L.S., I. C. Thompson, F.L.S., and Andrew Scott, A.L.S., a band 

 of zealous experts brought together by the inspiring energy of the present 

 president of the Linnean Society, Professor W. A. Herdman, F.R.S. Among 

 the methods employed it is interesting to recall not merely trawling and 

 dredging on the floor of the sea, digging and raking in the mud of the shore, 

 but a number of other queer devices which experience has gradually evolved. 

 Thus the naturalist of to-day seeks for crustaceans on whale and weed, on 

 starfish and medusa, on shipping and wreckage, and still more laboriously 

 obtains them by straining the liquor from a cockle, by examining the stomach 

 of a juvenile flounder, or by pinching the nostrils of a cod. 



1 Hist, of Lane., etc., chap. ix. 'Of Birds,' p. 157. 



I 7 8 



