145 
BRANT. 
AJVJIS BERNICLJl, 
[Plate LXXIL— Fig. 1, Male.~] 
Gmel. Syst* I,/?. 513, Ab. 13, — Ind. Orn, p. 844, Ab. 32. Brent^ Gen, Syn. Ill, p. 4,67 1 JSfo, 
27. — Le Cravant, Briss. VI, p, 304, 16, pi. 31. — Buff. IX, p, 87. PL Enl. 342, — 
Bewick, II, p, 277. — ArcU Zool.No. 478. Br, Zool. No, '2.70 . — Willuchby, p. 360. — 
Oie Cravant, Temm. Man. d'*0m. p. 824. — Cuv. R^g. An. I, p. 531. — Peale’s Museum, 
No. 2704. 
THE Brant, or, as it is usually written, Brent, 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 
organization. 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-bearmg tree Ge- 
rard, in his Herbal, published in 1 597? 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, 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 liv- 
ing 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 chimerical as this 
* See Gerard’s Herbal, Art. Goose-bearing Tree. 
2 O 
VOL. VIII. 
