Note 63 — Chapter IV · CRUSTACEA (CONTINUED): CIRRIPEDIA—PHENOMENA OF GROWTH AND SEX—OSTRACODA

Max Müller (Science of Language, 2nd series, p. 534) gives references to a number of old authors who vouch for the truth of this legend, going back as far as Giraldus Cambrensis in the twelfth century. The legend appears to be of Scotch or Irish origin. Giraldus complains of the clergy in Ireland eating Barnacle geese at the time of fasting under the pretext that they are not flesh, but born of fish living in the sea. The form of the legend varies, certain authors alleging that the geese are produced from the fruits of a tree which drop into the water, others that they grow in shells (Barnacles) attached to floating logs. Aldrovandus (De Avibus, T. iii., 1603, p. 174) ingeniously combines both versions in a woodcut representing undoubted Barnacles growing on a tree with luxuriant foliage at the water’s edge, below which a number of liberated geese are swimming. Müller ascribes an etymological origin to the legend, the Barnacle goose (deriv. Hibernicula, bernicula = Irish goose) being confounded with pernacula, bernacula, a little shell.