the occeane see" with their production, save
in so far as their barnacle-parents lived and existed in the waters of
the ocean.

The last account of this curious fable which we may allude to in the
present instance is that of Sir Robert Moray, who, in his work
entitled "A Relation concerning Barnacles," published in the
_Philosophical Transactions_ of the Royal Society in 1677-78, gives a
succinct account of these crustaceans and their bird-progeny. Sir
Robert is described as "lately one of his Majesties Council for the
Kingdom of Scotland," and we may therefore justly assume his account
to represent that of a cultured, observant person of his day and
generation. The account begins by remarking that the "most ordinary
trees" found in the western islands of Scotland "are Firr and Ash."
"Being," continues Sir Robert, "in the Island of East (Uist), I saw
lying upon the shore a cut of a large Firr tree of about 2-1/2 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."
Here again the description applies to the barnacles; the "little
birds" they are described as containing being of course the bodies of
the shell-fish.

"The Shells," continues the narrator, "hang at the Tree by a Neck
longer than the Shell;" this "neck" being represented by the stalk of
the barnacle. The neck is described as being composed "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 of the Shell and the little Bird
within it." Sir Robert Moray therefore agrees in respect of the manner
of nourishment of the barnacles with the opinion of Giraldus already
quoted. The author goes on to describe the "Bird" found in every
shell he opened; remarking that "there appeared nothing wanting as to
the internal parts, for making up a perfect Sea-fowl: 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
everywhere so clear and neat." The "Bird" is most minutely described
as to its