NATURALISTS CABINET. 



Gerrard's account. 



cometh into the shape and form of a bird* 

 When it is perfectly formed, the shell gapeth 

 open, and the first thing that appeareth is th 

 aforesaid lace or string; next cometh the legs of 

 the bird hanging out: and., as it groweth greater, 

 it openeth the shell by degrees, till at length it has 

 all come forth, and hangeth -only by the bill. In 

 a short space after, it cometh to full maturity, 

 and falleth into the sea; where it gathereth fea- 

 thers, and groweth to a fowl, bigger than a mal- 

 lard and lesser than a goose, having black legs, 

 and bill or beak, and feathers black and white, 

 spotted in such manner as our magpie, called in 

 some places pie-annet, which the people of 

 Lancashire call by no other name than tree- 

 goose; which place aforesaid, and all those 

 places adjoining, do so much abound therewith, 

 that one of the best is bought for three-pence. 

 For the truth hereof, if any doubt, may it please 

 them to repair to me, and I shall satisfy them by 

 the testimonies of good witnesses." 



Sir Robert Murray's account of the bernacle, 

 inserted in the Philosophical Transactions, is to 

 the following purport. " In the Western Islands 

 of Scotland the West Ocean throws upon their 

 shores great quantities of very large weather- 

 beaten timber; the most ordinary trees are fir 

 and ash. Being in the island of East, I savr 

 lying upon the shore a cut of a large fir-tree, of 

 about two feet and a half in diameter, and nine 

 or ten feet long, which had lain so long, out of 



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