182 
ANAS BERNTCLA* 
257 . SEJiA^ICLAy I,I^'^JiEUS AND WILSON. THE BRA^'^' 
WILSON, PLATE LXXII, FIG. I. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEt'^*' 
The brant, or, as it is usually written, brent, is a bif^ 
well known on both continents, and celebrated in forW^ 
times tliroujThout Europe for the sinffularity of 
orig-in, and the strange transfonnations it was suppa*^. 
to undergo previous to its complete organization. *!’ 
first appearance was said to be in the form of a barna^^ 
shell adhering to old water-soaked logs, trees, or cfl'^ 
pieces of wood taken from the sea. Of this "OO^ 
be.aring tree, Gerard, in his Herbal, published in la^j 
has given a formal account, and seems to have reser'*^ 
it tor the conclusion of his work as being the most n 
derful of all he had to describe. The honest natural'* 
lioivever, though his belief was fixed, acknorvledges thy 
his own personal information was derived from cci'ta’j 
shells which adhered to a rotten tree that he drag.t'j. 
out of the sea between Ifover and Itomney, in Engla''^i 
in some of which he found “ living thino-s witho'*' 
forme or shape ; in others which were nearer conie 
ripeness, living things that were very naked, in sbar 
like a birde; in otlier.s, the birds covered with 
dornie, the shell half open, and the birde readie to 
out, which no doubt were the foules called Barnakles-’ i 
Ridiculous and chimerical as this notion was, it b* 
many advocates, and was at that time as generfl*-' 
believed, and with about as much reason too, as lb 
present opinion of the annual submersion of sn aUo" 
so tenaciously insisted on by some of our philosoph*'^ 
and which, like the former absurdity, will in its t"'\ 
disappear before the penetrating radiance and 
investigation of truth. 
The brant and barnacle goose, though gnuef".^ 
reckoned tw'o different species, I consider to be f 
same. Among those large flocks that arrive on 
coasts about tbe beginning of October, itidivid"*"' 
* Sec Gerard’s Ucrhal, Art. Goose-bearing Tree. 
