BARNACLE GEESE—GOOSE BARNACLES.
113
published a monograph ' On the Tree-bird ' * in which he
explains the process of its birth, and states that he opened
a hundred of the goose-bearing shells and found the rudi-
ments of the bird fully formed.
So slow Bootes underneath him sees,
In th' icy isles, those goslings hatched on trees,
Whose fruitful leaves, falling into the water,
Are turned, they say, to living fowls soon after ;
So rotten sides of broken ships do change,
To barnacles, O, transformation strange !
'Twas first a green tree ; then a gallant hull ;
Lately a mushroom ; then a flying guU.f
Now, let us turn from fiction to facts.
Almost every one is acquainted with at least one kind of
the Barnacle shells which were supposed to enclose the
FIG 37. — SECTION OF A SESSILE BARNACLE. Balamis tintiiinahiihim.
embryo of a goose, namely the small white conical hillocks
which are found, in tens of thousands, adhering to stones,
rocks, and old timber such as the piles of piers, and may
be seen affixed to the shells of oysters and mussels in any
fishmonger's shop. The little animals which secrete and

• ' De Volucri Arborea,' 1629.
  

t Du Bartas' " Divine Week " p. 228. Joshua Sylvester's translation.