131 



THE BRANT. 

 AMAS BEHmCLA. 

 [Plate LXXII.— Fig. 1.] 



he Cra-ant, Bmss. VI, p. 304. 16. pi. 31. — Bfff. IX, p. 87.---Bewiciv., II, p. 277.— Lath. Sijn, Illy 

 j3, *67.— ^IrcL ZooZ. Xo. 478,— Peace's Museum, J^'o. 2704, 



THE Brant, or as it is usually written Brejit^ is a bird well 

 known on both continents, and celebrated in former times through- 

 out Europe for the singularity of its origin, and the strange trans- 

 formations it was supposed to undergo previous to its complete or- 

 ganization. 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 sea. Of this Goose-bearing tree Ge- 

 rard, in his Herbal, published in 1597? has given a formal account, 

 and seems to have reserved it for the conclusion of his work as 

 being the most wonderful of all he had to describe. The honest 

 naturalist however, tho 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 Somney in England; in some of which he found ^'liv- 

 ing things without forme or shape ; in others which were nearer 

 conie 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 chimerical as this no- 

 tion was, it had many advocates, and was at that time as gene- 

 rally believed, and with about as much reason too, as the present 



See Gerard's Herbal, AH. Goosc-]>earin?* Tree. 



