464 Anatidcv. 



vnto puddings newly filled, before they be sodden, which weere 

 very cleere and shining, at the nether end whereof did grow a 

 shell-fish, fashioned somewhat like a small muskle, but much 

 whiter, resembling a shell-fish that groweth vpon the rockes 

 about Garnsey and Garsey, called a Lympit. Many of these 

 shells I brought with me to London, which, after I had opened, 

 I found in them liuing things without form or shape : in others, 

 which were neerer come to ripenesse, I found liuing things that 

 were very naked, in shape like a bird : in others, the birds 

 covered with soft downe, the shell halfe open, and the bird 

 ready to fall out, which no doubt were the fowles called barnacles. 

 I dare not absolutely auouch euery circumstance of the first part 

 of this history, concerning the tree that beareth those buds afore- 

 said, but will leave it to a further consideration ; howbeit, that 

 which I have seen with mine eies, and handled with mine hands, 

 I dare confidently auouch, and boldly put down for verity. Now 

 if any will object that this tree which I saw, might be one of 

 those before mentioned, which either by the waues of the sea, or 

 some violent wind, had been ouerturned, as many other trees are ; 

 or that any trees falling into those seas about the Orchades, will 

 of themselves beare the like fowles, by reason of those seas and 

 waters, these being so probable conjectures, and likely to be true, 

 I may not without prejudice gainsay, or indeauour to confute.' 



The little shell-fish which these wise people supposed to have 

 brought forth the geese still go by the name of ' barnacles,' and 

 the Latin name, Lapas anatifera, ' the goose-bearing bernicle,' 

 recalls the belief respecting them; yet surely the extravagant 

 and ridiculous theory detailed above must have severely taxed 

 the credulity even of the ignorant and unscientific age in which 

 it was propounded. 



179. BERNICLE GOOSE (Anser leucopsis). 



As the Brent Goose abounds on the eastern, so the Bernicle 

 Goose frequents the western coasts of Great Britain, but not in 

 such numbers as its darker relative. It is called leucopsis, or 

 ' white-faced,' or ' white-fronted/ to distinguish it from its darker- 



