238 BERNACLE GOOSE. Class II. 



These birds appear in vast flocks during win- 

 ter, on the north west coasts of this kingdom ; 

 are very shy and wild, but on being taken, grow 

 as familiar as our tame geese in a few days; in 

 JFehruary they quit our shores, and retire as 

 far as Lapland to breed.* 

 V They live to a great age; the Rev. Doctor 



Duckworth of Spalding had one wdiich was kept 

 in the family above two and thirty years ; but 

 was blind during the two last ; wdiat its age was 

 when first taken is unknown. 



These are the birds that about two hundred 

 years ago were believed to be generated out of 

 wood, or rather a species of shell that often 

 adheres to the bottoms of ships, or frag- 

 ments of them, and were called Tree- geese. -\ 

 They were also thought by some writers to have 

 been the Chenalopeces of Pliny ; they shoidd 

 have said Chenerotes, for those are the birds, 

 that naturalist said, were found in Britain; but 

 as he has scarcely left us any description of 

 them, it is diflicult to say which species he in- 

 tended. I should imagine it to be the Brent- 

 goose, which is far inferior in size to the wild 



* Amoen. Acad. vl. 585. Bareni's Voy. \Q. 



•\ The shell here meant is the lepas anafifera. Br. Zool. iv. 

 62. tah. 38. f. 9. Lin. syst. 668. Argenville Conch, tab. 7. the 

 animal that inhabits it is furnished with a feathered beard ; which, 

 in a credulous age, was believed to be part of the young bird. 



