flexible stalk, which possesses great contractile power. The shell is usually composed of two triangular pieces on each side, and is closed by another elongated piece at the back, so that the whole consists of five pieces.

The second family, the Balanidæ, or sea-acorn, has a shell usually composed of six segments, the lower part being firmly fixed to the stone or wood on which the creature lives.

These creatures were known in England at all times, and they went by the name of Barnacles, i. e. Bernaculæ, or small muscles. Their name, though nearly identical in sound with Barnacles, in the sense of spectacles, had originally no connection whatever with that term, which was derived, as we found, from beryllus.

But now comes a third claimant to this name of Barnacle, namely, the famous Barnacle Goose. There is a goose called Bernicla; and though that goose has sometimes been confounded with a duck (the Anas niger minor, the Scoter, the French Macreuse), yet there is no doubt that the Barnacle goose is a real bird, and may be seen drawn and described in any good Book on Birds.* But though the bird is a real bird, the accounts given of it, not only in popular, but in scientific works, form one of the most extraor

* Linnæus describes it, sub' Aves, Anseres, as 'No. 11, Bernicla, A. fusca, capite collo pectoreque nigris, collari albo. Branta s. Bernicla. Habitat in Europa boreali, migrat super Sueciam.'

Willoughby, in his Ornithology, book iii., says: I am of opinion that the Brant-Goose differs specifically from the Bernacle, however writers of the History of Birds confound them, and make these words synonymous.' Mr. Gould, in his 'Birds of Europe,' vol. v., gives a drawing of the Anser leucopsis, Bernacle Goose, l'oie bernache, sub No. 350; and another of the Anser Brenta, Brent Goose, l'oie cravant, sub No. 352.

dinary chapters in the history of Modern Mythology.

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I shall begin with one of the latest accounts, taken from the Philosophical Transactions,' No. 137, January and February 1677-8. Here, in A Relation concerning Barnacles, by Sr. Robert Moray, lately one of His Majesties Council for the Kingdom of Scotland,' we read (p. 925):—

'In the Western Islands of Scotland much of the Timber, wherewith the Common people build their Houses, is such as the West-Ocean throws upon their Shores. The most ordinary Trees are Firr and Ash. They are usually very large, and without branches; which seem rather to have been broken or worn off, than cut; and are so Weather-beaten, that there is no Bark left upon them, especially the Firrs. Being in the Island of East, I saw lying upon the shore a cut of a large Firr-tree of about 2 foot diameter, and 9 or 10 foot long; which had lain so long out of the water that it was very dry: And most of the Shells, that had formerly cover'd it, were worn or rubb'd off. Only on the parts that lay next the ground, there still hung multitudes of little Shells; having within them little Birds, perfectly shap'd, supposed to be Barnacles.

'The Shells hung very thick and close one by another, and were of different sizes. Of the colour and consistence of Muscle-Shells, and the sides or joynts of them joyned with such a kind of film as Muscle-Shells are; which serves them for a Hing to move upon, when they open and shut.

'The Shells hang at the Tree by a Neck longer than the Shell. Of a kind of Filmy substance, round, and hollow, and creassed, not unlike the Wind-pipe of a Chicken; spreading out broadest where it is fastened to the Tree, from which it seems to draw and convey

the matter which serves for the growth and vegetation of the Shell and the little Bird within it.

'This Bird in every Shell that I opened, as well the least as the biggest, I found so curiously and compleatly formed, that there appeared nothing wanting, as to the internal parts, for making up a perfect Seafowl: every little part appearing so distinctly, that the whole looked like a large Bird seen through a concave or diminishing Glass, colour and feature being every where so clear and neat. The little Bill like that of a Goose, the Eyes marked, the Head, Neck, Breast, Wings, Tail, and Feet formed, the Feathers every where perfectly shap'd, and blackish coloured; and the Feet like those of other Water-fowl, to my best remembrance. All being dead and dry, I did not look after the Internal parts of them. Nor did I ever see any of the little Birds alive, nor met with any body that did. Only some credible persons have assured me they have seen some as big as their fist.'

Here, then, we have so late as 1677 a witness who, though he does not vouch to having seen the actual metamorphosis of the Barnacle shell into the Barnacle goose, yet affirms before a scientific public that he saw within the shell the bill, the eyes, head, neck, breast, wings, tail, feet, and feathers of the embryo bird.

We have not, however, to go far back before we find a witness to the actual transformation, namely, John Gerarde, of London, Master in Chirurgerie. At the end of his 'Herball,' published in 1597, we have not only a lively picture of the tree, with birds issuing from its branches, swimming away in the sea or falling dead on the land, but we also read the following description (p. 1391):

There are founde in the north parts of Scotland, and the Ilands adjacent, called Orchades, certaine trees, whereon doe growe certaine shell fishes, of a white colour tending to russet; wherein are conteined little living creatures: which shels in time of maturitie doe open, and out of them grow those little living foules, whom we call Barnakles, in the north of England Brant Geese, and in Lancashire tree Geese; but the other that do fall upon the land, perish and come to nothing: thus much by the writings of others, and also from the mouths of people of those parts, which may very well accord with truth.

'But what our eies have seene, and hands have touched, we shall declare. There is a small Ilande in Lancashire called the Pile of Foulders, wherein are found the broken peeces of old and brused ships, some whereof have beene cast thither by shipwracke, and also the trunks or bodies with the branches of old and rotten trees, cast up there likewise: whereon is found a certaine spume or froth, that in time breedeth unto certaine shels, in shape like those of the muskle, but sharper pointed, and of a whitish colour; wherein is conteined a thing in forme like a lace of silke finely woven, as it were togither, of a whitish colour; one ende whereof is fastened unto the inside of the shell, even as the fish of Oisters and Muskles are; the other ende is made fast unto the belly of a rude masse or lumpe, which in time commeth to the shape and forme of a Bird: when it is perfectly formed, the shel gapeth open, and the first thing that appeereth is the foresaid lace or string; next come the legs of the Birde hanging out; and as it groweth greater, it openeth the shell by degrees, till at length it. is all come foorth, and hangeth only by the bill; in short

space after it commeth to full maturitie, and falleth into the sea, where it gathereth feathers, and groweth to a foule, bigger then a Mallard, and lesser then a

Goose; having blacke legs and bill or beake, and feathers blacke and white, spotted in such manner as is our Magge-Pie, called in some places a Pie-Annet,