THE BRANT. €21 
THE BRANT.— ANAS BERNICLA. — Fie. 299. 
Le cravant, Briss. vi. p. 304, 16, pl. 31,— Buff. ix. p. 87. — Bew. ii. p. 277. — Lath. 
Syn. iii. p. 467. — Arct. Zool. No. 478, — Peale’s Museum, No. 2704. 
BERNICLA BRENTA. — Srspnens.* 
\ 
Bernicla brenta, Steph. Cont. Sh. Zool. xii. p. 46. —Oie cravant, Temm. Man. ii. 
. 824. — Ansa brenta, Flem, Br. Anim. p. 127. — Anser bernicla, North. Zool. 
li. p. 469.— Brent, or Boord Goose, Mont. Orn. Dict. and Supp.— Bew. Br. 
Birds, ii. p. 311.— Brent bernicle, Selby, Ilust. Br. Orn. pl. 65. 
Tue Brant, or, as it is usually written, Brent, is a bird well known 
on both continents, and celebrated in former times throughout 
Europe for the singularity of its-origin, and the strange transforma- 
tions it was supposed to undergo, previous to its complete organiza- 
tion. Its first appearance was said to be in the form of a barnacle 
shell adhering to old water-soaked logs, trees, or other pieces of wood 
taken from the sed. Of this Goose-bearing tree, Gerard, in his Herbal, 
published in 1597, has given a formal account; and seems to have re- 
served it for the conclusion of his work, as being the most wonderful 
of all he had to describe. The honest. naturalist, however, though his 
_ belief was fixed, acknowledges that his own personal information was 
derived from certain shells which adhered to a rotten tree that he 
‘dragged out of the sea between Dover ‘and Romney, in England; in 
some of which he found «living things without forme or shape; in 
others which were nearer come to ripeness, living things that were 
very naked, in shape like a birde; in others, the birds covered with 
soft downe, the shell half open, and the birde readie to fall out, which 
no doubt were the foules called Barnakles.”+ Ridiculous and chimer- 
ical as this notion was, it had many advocates, and was at that time as 
generally believed, and with about as much reason too, as the present 
opinion of the annual submersion of Swallows, so tenaciously insisted 
on by some of our philosophers, and which, like the former absurdity, 
will in its turn disappear before the penetrating radiance and calm in- 
vestigation of truth. 
The Brant and Barnacle Goose, though generally reckoned two dif- 
ferent species, I consider to be the same. Among those large flocks 
that arrive on our coasts about the beginning of October, individuals 
frequently occur corresponding in their markings with that called the 
Bernacle of Europe ; that is, in having the upper parts lighter, and the 
front, cheeks, and chin whitish. These appear evidently a variety of 
the Brant, probably young birds: what strengthens this last opinion is 
* Stephens first applied this title, as a generic one, to a considerable number of 
birds, and gives, as their characters, “ distinguished from the Geese by their shorter 
and slenderer beak, the pie of which are reflected over the Jamellew, and obstruct 
the view of them.” We hall consider the form to which that title should be re- 
stricted to be that of the present— the B. erythropus, and B. ruficollis. Many of 
those admitted by Stephens show very different characters, and will range else- 
where. — Ep. s 
+ See Gerarv’s Herbal, Art. Goose-bearing Tree. 
