158 RAY. 



tlieless your most discerning faculties may discover 

 that in the dark which few can distinguish at noon- 

 day. This Parisian bird (very famous of late) may 

 be no unwelcome subject, it being in Lent, and upon 

 maigre days, the greatest dainty of convents. I 

 have been told by several of the most learned priests 

 beyond sea, that the macreuse was as much a fish 

 as the barnacle (and indeed I am of the same 

 opinion), that the blood was the same in every 

 quality with that of fishes ; as also the fat, which 

 (as they falsely affirm) will not fix, dry, or grow 

 hard, but always remains in an oily consistence. 

 Upon these and other reasons the Sorbonists have 

 ranked the macreuse in the class of fishes. For 

 the rest I refer you to my paper from Paris, and 

 impatiently wait for your judgment, for which I 

 have a particular esteem." 



The bird referred to in this letter, and concern- 

 ing which Mr Ray had not previously been able to 

 satisfy him self, is the scoter or black-duck {Anas m- 

 gra of Linnaeus, Latham, and Temminck). '' Why 

 they of the Church of Rome should allow this bird 

 to be eaten in Lent, and upon other fasting days^ 

 more than others of this kind," wt see no reason, any 

 more than Mr Ray did. Perhaps the story of the 

 barnacle's originating from a shell of the same 

 name, may have been invented for a similar pur- 

 pose. On this head we have the following testi- 

 mony from Hector Boece : — " All trees that are cast 

 into the seas, by process of time, appear first worm- 

 eaten, and in the small holes and bores thereof grow 

 small worms; first, they show their head and feet, and 

 last of all they show their plumes and wings ; finally. 



