252 BARNACLES. 
the shell, of a filmy substance, round and hollow, and 
creased not unlike the windpipe of a chicken, spreading 
out broadest where it is fastened to the tree, from which 
it seems to draw and convey the matter which serves for 
the growth and vegetation of the shell, and the little bird 
within it. 
“In every shell that I opened,” he continues, “I found 
a perfect sea-fowl ; the little bill like that of a goose; the 
eyes marked; the head, neck, breast, wing, tail, and feet 
formed ; the feathers everywhere perfectly shaped, and 
blackish coloured ; and the feet like those of other water- 
fowl, to my best remembrance.” 
It is not to be supposed, however, that there were none 
who doubted this marvellous story, or who took steps to 
refute it. Belon, so long ago as 1551, and others after 
him, treated it with ridicule, and a refutation may be found 
in Willughby’s “ Ornithology,” which was edited by Ray 
in 1678. An excellent account of the Barnacle was pub- 
lished by Mr. Thompson in the “ Philosophical Transac- 
tions ” for 1835, while the latest and most complete treatise 
on the subject is Mr. Darwin’s “ Monograph of the Cirrhi- 
pedia,” published by the Ray Society. 
What, then, is the marine production from which the 
Barnacle Goose was thought to be engendered? Merely 
certain shell-covered cirrhipedous creatures, called Bar- 
nacles (Lepas anatifera—Linn.), which are to be found 
adhering in clusters to floating logs of wood, the timbers 
