12 DICTIONARY OF NAMES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 
of their appearing at the time of barley-sowing. It has 
also been applied by Willughby to the SISKIN. The 
name “ Barley-seed Bird” for the YELLOW WAGTAIL 
is found in Carr’s “‘ Craven Dialect,” 1828. 
Bar Ley Snake-Brrp: The WRYNECK. (Hants.) 
BARNACLE, or BARNACLE GoosE. The BRENT GOOSE is 
sometimes so called, especially in Ireland. 
BARNACLE-GOOSE [No. 282]. The name Barnacle or 
Bernacle has been considered to have its origin in the 
ancient belief that this goose was generated from the 
shell-fish of that name (Lepas anatifera) which are found 
adhering in clusters to floating timber, etc., the prevalent 
belief for some centuries being that these ‘gshell-fish were 
the embryo geese which grew upon trees, termed “ goose- 
trees,’ and as Gerard in his “ Herbal” (1597) states, “‘as it 
groweth greater, it openeth the shell by degrees till at 
length it is all come forth and hangeth only by the bill: 
in short space after, it cometh to full maturitie and falleth 
into the sea, w here it gathereth feathers,” ete. Turner, 
who calls it “ Bernicle”’ (‘‘Avium Precip. Hist.,” 1544), 
writing from the evidence of a “certain man of upright 
conduct,” confirms the same tale put forth originally by 
Giraldus Cambrensis (ca. 1175) and remarks that no one 
has seen the Bernicle’s nest or egg as evidence of this 
spontaneous generation. For an interesting account of 
the fable see Harting’s “ Birds of Shakespeare,” pp. 246-57, 
1871. Dr. Murray points out that the oldest known 
English form of the word is the Bernekka (Latinised Bernaca) 
of Giraldus Cambrensis in the reference cited above, and 
he remarks that the Cirriped took its name from the bird 
and not the bird from the Cirriped, which of course leaves 
the derivation of the bird’s name still a moot point. 
Willughby and Ray call it the “ Bernacle or Clakis : Bernicla 
seu Bernacla.” It is figured by Lobel, Gerard and many 
other old authors. Seemingly an allusion to the above 
fable is to be found in the diary of Peter Suavenius during 
his mission in these islands (printed in Appdx. to 45th Rept. 
of Deputy Keeper of Public Records) where it is recorded 
that “there are trees in Scotland from which birds are 
produced .. . those birds which fall from the trees into 
the water become animated, but those which fall to the 
ground do not: the figures of birds are sometimes found 
in the heart of the wood of the trees and on the roots: the 
birds themselves do not generate.”’ 
