NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 



generation, from the femen of the male, without the affiftance 

 of the female egg ; but in the mean time, it is in this cafe as 

 in many other branches of the ftudy of nature, in which one may 

 with a certainty aflert what a thing is not, though, at the fame 

 time, one cannot politively fay what it is. I remember to have 

 heard, though only by report, and that not the beft warranted 

 that in France, from the like fhells, yet hanging to their necks, 

 have been leen feveral fmall Worms crawling into life and liberty. 

 Georgius Marcgravius feems to have been of this opinion ; and in 

 his Hiftoria Naturalis Brafilke, Lib. iv. cap. xxii. p. 188, fays of 

 the fame Sea -worms or Infects growing on trees, what here fol- 

 lows : Reri apiya Brafilienfibus, vulgo Long-neck, Hydrum vo- 

 cari poffe puto„ Oriuntur a pice navali, fubter navem imme- 

 diate adhaerentes tabulis innumera copia. Corpus autem eft unum 

 aut duos digitos longum, teres, aequaliter craiTum, craflitie du- 

 pla, pennae anferinse. Huic annata eft conchula flgurse ovalis, 

 magnitudine olivas, major aut minor, conftatque quinque parti- 

 bus, albi coloris, fed ubi partes coaluerunt crocei. Non dura 

 led molliufcula eft conchula. In uno latere rimam habet, per 

 quam capitulum fuum exferit, conftans multis elegantibus quafi 

 tornatis filamentis, lunatis, femi-digitum longis. Color corporis 

 eft fufcus leu nigricans, ut 8c" filamenta capitis. Immediate 

 autem pici adhserent, quafi corpus abfcirTum effet, & aggluti- 

 natum abfchTa parte, nee unquam a navi fe poffunt folvere^ nifi 

 vi abftrahuntur : Multa millia fsepe uni navi adhserent, pnefer- 

 tlm proram verfus inferius, & navis curfum retardare dicuntur. 

 Vivunt multas horas detracli extra aquam. What I have to 

 obferve on this is, that though Marcgravius does not allow this 

 creature to be a young Duck, but properly a Water- worm, 

 yet he is miftaken to fay, Oriuntur e pice navali • rather better in 

 pice : it is only becaufe the Worm perhaps finds a better opportu- 

 nity to ftick his eggs there. Our Bergen fkippers fay, that when 

 they come home from a long voyage from Spain, or the Me- 

 diterranean, and have their fhips clean'd, they find a great 

 many of thefe creatures hanging in bunches all under the bot- 

 toms j that the pitch does not breed thefe worms is fufriciently 

 ieen ; for at any time, by fearching for them, they are to be found 

 on bulwarks and piles, which are never pitched \ not to men- 

 tion thofe which I have of the fame kind, hanging upon branches 

 of thofe deep growing fea-trees, as has already been faid. To 

 confirm the truth of this, more will be faid in the following 

 chapter, and will be found in the article of Ducks. I fhall further 

 quote O. Wormius's words, in Mufeo, p. 257. De harum avium 



generation© 



