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 (Lcpas anatifera — Linn.), which are to be found 

 adhering in clusters to floating logs of wood, the timbers 



