was myself that first dissolved the pleasing connexion; but it was necessary for me to separate him from me by force. Poor Jacquot fancied himself as free in the best apartment as in his own: and after several accidents of this kind, he was shut up, and I saw him no more. His inquietude lasted above a year, and he died from vexation. He was become as dry as a bit of wood, as I am told, for I would not see him: and his death was concealed from me for more than two months after the event. Were I to recount all the friendly incidents between me and poor Jacquot, I should not for several days have done writing. He died in the third year of our friendship, aged seven years and two months."

THE BERNACLE GOOSE

Of all the marvellous productions which ignorance, ever credulous, has substituted for the simple and truly wonderful operations of nature, perhaps the most absurd is the assertion that this species of Goose grows in a kind of shell, called Lepas anatifera, (Goose-bearing shell) on certain trees on the coast of Scotland and the Orkneys, or on the rotten timbers of old ships.

Of the numerous writers who have mentioned and credited these circumstances, I shall give the accounts of three, who all speak positively upon the subject.

* DESCRIPTION. The usual weight of this bird is about five pounds. The bill is short and black, crossed with a flesh-coloured mark on each side. Part of the head, the chin, throat, the under parts of the body, and the upper tail-coverts are white; and the rest of the head and neck, and the beginning of the back, are black. The thighs are mottled. Round the knee the feathers are black; and the lower feathers of the back are the same, edged with white. The wing-coverts and scapulars are blue gray; the ends black, fringed with white at the tip. The rump, tail, and legs are black.

SYNONYMS. Anas Erythropus. Linn.-Bernacle. Buffon. -Bernacle, or Clakis. Willughby.—Bewick's Birds, vol. ii. p.

One of these, Maier, who has written a treatise expressly on this bird, says, that it certainly originates from shells: and, what is still more wonderful, Maier asserts that, in the Orkneys, he opened an hundred of the Goose-bearing shells, and found in all of them the rudiments of the bird completely formed.

Our countryman, Gerard, is another writer on this subject: his account of this wonderful transformation, I shall insert in his own words, which have been often quoted:-"What our eyes have seen, and our hands have touched, we shall declare. There is a small island in Lancashire, called the Pile of Foulders, wherein are found broken pieces of old and bruised ships, some whereof have been cast thither by shipwrecks; also the trunks and bodies, with the branches of old and rotten trees, cast up there likewise; whereon is found a certain spume or froth, that in time breedeth unto certain shells, in shape like those of the muscle, but sharper pointed, and of a whitish colour, and the end whereof is fastened unto the inside of the shell, even as the fish of oysters and muscles are: and the other end is made fast unto the belly of a rude mass or lump, which in time cometh into the shape and form of a bird. When it is perfectly formed, the shell gapeth open, and the first thing that appeareth is the aforesaid lace or string; next cometh the legs of the bird hanging out; and, as the bird groweth greater, it openeth the shell by degrees, till at length it has all come forth, and hangeth only by the bill. In short space after it cometh to full maturitie, and falleth into the sea, where it gathereth feathers, and groweth to a fowle, bigger than a mallard, and lesser than a goose, having black legs, and bill or beake, and feathers black and white, spotted in such manner as our magpie, called in some places pie-annes, which the people of Lancashire call by no other name, than Treegoose; which place aforesaid, and all those places adjoyning, do so much abound therewith, that one of the best is bought for threepence. For the truth hereof, if

any doubt, may it please them to repair to me, and I will satisfy them by the testimonies of good witnesses."

The following is Sir Robert Murray's account of the Bernacle, inserted in the Philosophical Transactions:"In the western islands of Scotland, the west ocean throws upon their shores great quantities of very large weather-beaten timber; the most ordinary trees are fir and ash. Being in the island of East, I saw lying upon the shore, a cut of a large fir-tree, of about two feet and a half in diameter, and nine or ten feet long, which had lain so long out of the water, that it was very dry and most of the shells that had formerly covered it were worn or rubbed off. Only on the parts that lay next the ground, there still hung multitudes of little shells: they were of the colour and consistence of muscle-shells. This Barnacle-shell is thin about the edges, and about half as thick as broad. Every one of the shells hath some cross-seams or sutures, which, as I remember, divide it into five parts.

"These parts are fastened one to another, with such a film as muscle-shells have.

"These shells are hung at the tree by a neck, longer than the shell, of a kind of filmy substance, round and hollow, and creased 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 o the shell, and little bird within it.

66 In every shell that I opened I found a perfect Seafowl: the little bill, like that of a goose, the eyes marked; the head, neck, breast, wing, tails, and feet, formed; the feathers every where perfectly shaped, and blackish coloured; and the feet like those of other water-fowl, to my best remembrance."

Few subjects seem to have been more circumstantially related, or to rest on better evidence than the above: so natural to man is credulity, which passes all bounds, where the prodigy of an event takes firm hold of the imagination, and lays the

understanding asleep. Such are part of the wild chimeras that have been retailed concerning the origin of the Bernacles; and as these fables had once great celebrity, I have been induced to relate them here, only to show how contagious the errors of science are, and how prone men are to the fascinations of the marvellous.

In winter, Bernacle Geese are not uncommon on many of the northern and western coasts of Great Britain; but they are scarce in the south, and are there seldom seen except in inclement seasons. They-leave our island in February, and retire northward to breed.

THE CANADA GOOSE*.

Canada Geese inhabit the more distant parts of North America. Immense flocks of these birds appear annually in the spring in Hudson's Bay: they pass further north to breed; and return southward in the autumn. The English at Hudson's Bay depend greatly on Geese, of this and other kinds, for their support; and in favourable years they often kill three or four thousand, which they salt and barrel. The arrival of the birds is impatiently waited, because they are considered the harbingers of the spring, and the month in which they return is named by the Indians the Goose Moon.

The English settlers send out their servants, as well as the Indians, to shoot these birds on their passage. The men for this purpose form of boughs a row of huts, at musket-shot distance from each other, and in a line across the vast marshes of the country. Each hovel, or

* DESCRIPTION. This is a bird somewhat bigger than the tame goose. The bill, the head, and the neck, are black; and under the throat there is a broad white band, like a crescent. The breast, the upper part of the belly, the back, and wingcoverts, are dusky brown; the lower parts of the neck and belly, and upper tail-coverts, white. The quills and tail are black, and the legs dark lead-colour.

SYNONYMS. Anas Canadensis. Linnæus.-Oye à Cravate. Buffon.

stand, as it is called, is occupied by a single person. The men anxiously watch the flight of the birds; and at their approach they mimic their cackling so well, that the Geese will answer, wheel, and come nearer to the stand. The sportsman remains motionless, and on his knees, with his gun cocked the whole time; and does not fire till he can perceive the eyes of the Goose. He fires as they are going from him; then picks up another gun that lies by him, and discharges that also. The Geese that he has killed, he sets up on sticks, as if alive, to decoy others: he also makes artificial birds for the same purpose. In a good day (for they fly in very uncertain and unequal numbers) a single Indian will kill two hundred of these birds.

THE EIDER DUCK*.

In Iceland, the Eider Ducks generally form their nests on small islands not far from the shore; and sometimes even near the dwellings of the natives, who treat them with so much attention and kindness, as to render them nearly tame. Sometimes two females will lay their eggs in the same nest, in which case they always agree remarkably well.

* DESCRIPTION. This species is about twice the size of the common duck. Its bill is black, and the feathers of the forehead and cheeks advance far into the base. In the male, the feathers of part of the head, of the lower part of the breast, the belly, and the tail, are black, as are also the quill-feathers of the wings; and nearly all the rest of the body is white. The legs are green. The female is of a reddish brown colour, variously marked with black and dusky streaks. The Eider Duck is principally found in the western isles of Scotland, and on the coasts of Norway, Iceland, and Greenland.

SYNONYMS. Anas mollissima. Linn.-Oye à Duvet, ou Eider. Buff.-Eider, or Cuthbert Duck. Willughby.-Great black and white Duck. Edwards. -Colk. Martin.-Duntur Goose. Sibbald.--Penn. Brit. Zool. ii. tab. 95.—Bew. Birds, ii. p. 314,