well as the hind-head, neck, breast, wings, and tail being black*, while the fore-head, throat, and all the under parts are pure white. It has sometimes been confounded with the brand or brent goose (Anas brenta, WILLUGHBY); but the latter is much smaller, measuring only twenty-two or twenty-three inches, and is differently coloured.

This bird was not only fancied to originate from rotten timber as well as to grow on trees like some sorts of mushrooms (Agarici, Boleti, &c.), but authors of no mean reputation both in Scotland and England assert that they have themselves actually witnessed this miraculous phenomenon; and from its having been first observed in this country, the continental naturalists were led to call the bernacle the British bird by way of distinction. The Scottish historian, Boëce, being one of the oldest ocular witnesses

* Linnæus and Latham by mistake give it red feet, and call it Anas erythropus.

whom we have met with, we shall give his own narrative as translated by Bellenden :

"Rests now," says he, "to speak of the geese engendered of the sea named claiks. Some men believes that thir (these) claiks grows on trees by the nebbis (bills). But their opinion is vain. And because the nature and procreation of thir (these) claiks is strange, we have made no little labour and diligence to search the truth and verity thereof, we have sailed through the seas where thir (these) claiks are bred, and finding by great experience that the nature of the seas is more relevant cause of their procreation than any other thing. And howbeit thir (these) geese are bred many sundry ways, they are bred ay allanerly (only) by nature of the seas. For all trees that are cassin (cast) into the seas by process of time appears first worm-eaten, and in the small bores and holes thereof grows small worms. First they show their head and feet, and last of all they show their plumes and wings. Finally, when they are coming to the just measure and quantity of geese, they fly in the air, as other fowls do, as was notably proven in the year of God one thousand iiii hundred lxxx, in sight of many people beside the castle of Pitslego, one great tree was brought by alluvion and flux of the sea to land. This wonderful tree was brought to the laird of the ground, quhilk (who) soon after gart (caused) divide it by one saw. Appeared then one multitude of worms throwing themself out of sundry holes and bores of this tree. Some of them were rude as they were but new shapen. Some had both head, feet, and wings, but they had no feathers. Some of them were perfect shapen fowls. At last the people having ylk (each) day this tree in more admiration, brought it to the kirk of Saint Andrews beside the town of Tyre, where it remains yet to our days. And within

two years after happened such one like tree to come into the firth of Tay beside Dundee, worm-eaten and holed, full of young geese in the same manner. Suchlike into the port of Leith beside Edinburgh within few years after happened such one like case. One ship named the Christopher (after that she had lain iii years at one anchor in one of thir (these) isles) was brought to Leith. And because her timber (as appeared) failed, she was broken down. Incontinent (immediately) appeared (as afore) all the inward parts of her worm-eatin and all the holes thereof full of geese, on the same manner as we have shown. Attoure (moreover) if any man would allege by vain argument, that this Christopher was made of such trees as grew allanerly (only) in the Isles, and that all the roots and trees that grows in the said Isles, are of that nature to be finaly by nature of seas resolved into geese; we prove the contrary thereof by one notable example, showen afore our ene (eyes). Master Alexander Galloway, parson of Kinkell, was with us in thir (these) Isles, giving his mind with most earnest business to search the verity of thir (these) obscure and misty doubts, And by adventure lifted up one sea tangle (Laminaria saccharina? LAMOUROUX), hanging full of mussel shells from the root to the branches. Soon after he opened one of thir (these) mussel shells, but then he was more astonished than afore. For he saw no fish in it but one perfect shapen fowl small and great ay efferyng (proportional) to the quantity of the shell. This clerk knowing us right desirous of such vncouth (uncommon) things, came hastily with the said tangle, and opened it to us with all circumstance afore rehearsed. By thir (these) and many other reasons and examples we can not believe, that thir (these) claiks are produced by any nature of trees or roots thereof, but allanerly (only)

migrated, and the possessor, disliking the constant trouble of feeding it, had it killed and stuffed.

The disappearance of the foster-nestlings from the nest in which a cuckoo is hatched, is more satisfactorily accounted for by the observations of the late Dr. Jenner, to whom the world was indebted for the inestimable discovery of vaccination. "On the 18th of June, 1787," says he, "I examined the nest of a hedge-sparrow (Accentor modularis), which then contained a cuckoo and three hedgesparrows' eggs. On inspecting it the day following, the bird had hatched; but the nest then contained only a young cuckoo and one hedge-sparrow. The nest was placed so near the extremity of a hedge, that I could distinctly see what was going forward in it; and, to my great astonishment, I saw the young cuckoo, though so lately hatched, in the act of turning out the young hedge-sparrow. The mode of accomplishing this was very curious: the little animal, with the assistance of its rump and wings, contrived to get the bird upon its back, and making a lodgment for its burthen by elevating its elbows, clambered backwards with it up the side of the nest till it reached the top, where, resting for a moment, it threw off its load with a jerk, and quite disengaged it from the nest. It remained in this situation for a short time, feeling about with the extremities of its wings, as if to be convinced whether the business was properly executed, and then dropped into the nest again. With these, the extremities of its wings, I have often seen it examine, as it were, an egg and nestling before it began its operations; and the nice sensibilities which these parts seem to possess, seemed sufficiently to compensate the want of sight, which as yet it was destitute of. I afterwards put in an egg, and this, by a similar process, was conveyed to the edge of the nest and thrown out. These experiments I have

since repeated several times, in different nests, and have always found the young cuckoo disposed to act in the same manner. In climbing up the nest, it sometimes drops its burthen, and thus is foiled in its endeavours; but after a little respite the work is resumed, and goes on almost incessantly till it is effected. The singularity of its shape is well adapted to these purposes; for, different from other newlyhatched birds, its back, from the shoulders downwards, is very broad, with a considerable depression in the middle. This depression seems formed by nature for the design of giving a more secure lodgment to the egg of the hedge-sparrow, or its young one, when the young cuckoo is employed in removing either of them from the nest. When it is about twelve days old this cavity is quite filled up, and then the back assumes the shape of nestling birds in general."" It sometimes happens (which disproves Pliny's statement) that two cuckoo's eggs are deposited in the same nest, and then the young produced from one of them must inevitably perish. Two cuckoos and one hedge-sparrow were hatched in the same nest, and one hedge-sparrow's egg remained unhatched. In a few hours afterwards a contest began between the cuckoos for the possession of the nest, which continued undetermined till the next afternoon, when one of them, which was somewhat superior in size, turned out the other, together with the young hedge-sparrow and the unhatched egg. The combatants alternately appeared to have the advantage, as each carried the other several times to the top of the nest, and then sunk down again, oppressed by the weight of the burthen; till at length, after various efforts, the strongest prevailed, and was afterwards brought up by the hedge-sparrow *"

Here, then, we have the high authority of one of * Philosophical Transactions for 1788, Pt. ii.