PALMIPEDES. 379 



and though the steel pen is usurping the position 

 of the goose-quill, still the softness of its feathers, 

 and the sapidity of its flesh, will cause it to be for 

 a long time an important tenant of our farms 

 and fens. The Goose is the only bird that feeds 

 on grass. 



The Barnacle Goose (A. Leucopsis)* is remark- 

 able for its having been the subject of one of the 

 silliest and most ridiculous notions ever entertained, 

 and that not in the minds of the vulgar, but of 

 philosophers and even naturalists. It was, that 

 this bird is produced in vast numbers on the Scot- 

 tish shores from trees, in the manner of fruit, sus- 

 pended by the bill ; and veritable, sober men affirm- 

 ed that they had actually seen this with their eyes ! 

 The fable doubtless refers to a common shell, (Le- 

 pas,) adhering to floating timber. 



There are, in the Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society for 1834,f two interesting papers from Lord 

 Stanley, respecting the habits of a newly-introduced 

 species, the Sandwich Island Goose, (A. Sandvi- 

 censis,) which had reared a young one in his me- 

 nagerie at Knowsley. 



Cereopsis.% 



Closely allied to the Geese, yet differing from 

 them in many important particulars, the Cereopsis 



* Awxos, leukos, white, and ty, opsis, the face. 

 t Pp. 41 and 81. 



oj, keros, wax, (the cere,) and o'^j, opsis> the face. 



