BERNACLE GOOSE. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 
Anas Erythropus. A. cinerea, fronte alba. Linn. Syst. Nat. 
Gmel. 1. p. 512. 
Forehead white j body ash-coloured. 
Anas K as area. Gmelin It. 2. p. 177. 
pi. 13. 
Bernacle Goose. . Buff. Birds, 9, p. 81.pl. 23(5. Brit. Zool. 2. 
p. 577. no. 269. Will. Orn. p. 359. 
Gerard's Herlal, p. 1587. Lath. Syn.3. 
p. 466. no. 2 6 . 
There cannot be a stronger instance of the great 
love which mankind have ever entertained for the 
marvellous than the present. We here find them 
asserting an impossibility with a most inflexible 
firmness ; and maintaining their ground till the 
progressive improvement of natural history at 
length explained the wonder. Had this goose been 
brought into the world like other gee se, it would 
never have been celebrated ; but when we are as- 
sured that it springs from certain shells which are 
found attached to old and rotten pieces of floating 
wood, it immediately becomes of consequence. 
We shall pass by many others, equally credulous, 
to arrive at old Gerard, at the end of whose Herbal 
this astonishing transformation is related in the fol- 
lowing words. 
