5* N A T U R A L H I S T O R Y of N O R W A Y .
Conchæ ava-
tificse.
Fable o f
Geefe faid to
grow on trees.
S E C T. XIIv j
To the Infe&a Aquatica I have yet to add that little efoatUre,
which generates in the Conchæ avitificæ; 'and, iàé!Bôtdfiàg^iïÀthe
general tradition, fhould be a young Duck or GoCifej, bf that
fort that we commonly call Stok-Ænder, àiid alfo VanfEllër:
and by fome Angle-Tasker ; which laft name Prather give them,
hecaiife the (hell looks fomething like a pocket. The birds which
have been (uppdfed hatched from thefe, generate intHe^ebtamon
way ; I (hall give an account of. thefe in; the following- ehapler
of birds. That any kind of fowls, fhould grow upon tfeés,l and
be properly and truly called Tree Geefe", is a thing which I have
narrowly examined into, and find without the lead foundation ;
tho’ it is here, and in other places, taken on!-the. credit of ;,pne
from another. Hr, Jonas Radius writes thus in his Chorographi-
cal Defcription of Norway, ^, 244,' conceming this’ matter :
It is faid that a particular fortr©£ Geefe is found in Nordland {one
may fay, with a great deal, of truth, that thofe that are; fuppofed
to be Angle-Taskers, are found in many'more- plates here onfche
weft fide of Norway) which leave their feed cai - old treesj ;and
frumps and blocks lying in thefeâ ; and that from that feed there
grows a (hell faft to the tree, from which (hell, as from an egg, by
the heat of the fun, young Geefe are hatched, and afterwards
grow up; which gave rife to the fable; that Geefe grow upon
trees. So far Hr. Ramus, who looks upon it'as a'fable: but how
are we to comprehend futh an ambiguous way of talking, namely,
to grow upon frees ? This, hé fays, is not to be underftood^to
grow like fruit growing on a' tree*; on the contrary, his
opinion is, that Geefe grow on old piles and timber bulwarks,
and the like at the fea fide; namely, when the Wild-Goofe has
dropped or left his feed on. the piles, 8tc. which gives fome
a ground and reafon for the belief of it. At the fame time I
may inform the reader, that the well-deferving, and otherwife
not credulous, Hr. Ramus, lived in the eaft country, full 50
Norway miles from thefe coafts, otherwife he wouldr: Have
better examined into the origin or rife of this opinion, and hot
have been fo liable to miftake.
The truth is this, that on the aforefaid old timber piles, and
alfo on the keels of old (hips, there is feen to grow, as by the
* Michael Meyerus endeavoured to maintain this opinion in a particular treadle,’
De volucri arborea ; and in a public fentence, 'in the Sorbonne at Paris, upon it, it
was allowed that thefe Geefe, for that reafon, were not to be reckoned amort® Birds}
and therefore allowed to be eat in Lent and falling fcafons. Mich. Bernh. Valentini
Muf. Mufeorum, Lib. ill. p. 466.
1 , exafr
N A T U R A L H I S T O R Y of N O R W A Y . 53
exa8t drawing annexed appears. This peculiar «feature Is of
about a finger’s, length and half, andjj an incfibroad, and pretty
thick .* i f is 'brown ^Jd^dogfi|ia liple curl’d of (hriveil’d, like
an apple, -when|itisidfy’d 5 ^ ' that at fwftitamay. be twke the
length. ;.fós?OBek. is tough and hollow-, like the finger of a gloves;
wheuitds opened there ;isiaü©thi®g;to be feen,-but feme (mall and
fine deep black filaments; , thefe are like bunches of flax all
through. The one end of the neck is: made faft:to the timte, in
manner: of a (pun g é ; the other, or the end that hangs down, haS
a double (hell, of a light blue : coid% and xsf febftance like a
■ möfefe-ffiëll, but much -ièfej about the fize of an almond, and,
like it, a fharp oval figure. When this fheibis opened,
there is found in it the little creature reported to feje- a young
Wild Goofe. Almoft its r whole fubftance, which is compofed of
fmall toughilh membranes, reprefents lot»« little crooked dark
feathers, iqueezed together, their endsi running together in a
clufter: hence it has been fuppofed to be of the Bird kind. At thè
extremity of. the neck alfo there is fcmething that looks like an
extreme (mall Bird’s head but one muft take the force of imagination
to help tb make it look fo; this I have conftantiy found
on many examinations; and in all my ènquïriesy I cannot learn
that any the has ever feen any thing more ; though there are many
who pretend to appeal to witneflfes for the fa$r,| that have feen
this yomn^:Gbofo, as they call it. I will allow that they may
have (ben in this (hell a living Sea-Infect, as it certainly is, but
nothing elfe.
When the Duck’s egg-is opened, the young one is never found
like this, confiding of nothing but feathers ; they on Ducklings
come afterwards, in the place of the down, which appears firft >
but here is no down, and there feems to be no body, nothing but
long, crooked, (queezedup feathers, with a little point, o# finall
button, at the end, that may referable a head, i f ikricy will have
it fo, as has been (aid.
The opinion of the Geefe’s ejeöed feed is, fetting all the reft
afide, doubly improbable, in confideration that the feme conchas
anatiferae are found not only on old timber, floating on the
water, but alfo on fmall branches of (uch fea-trees as the filher-
men affirm grow only in the deep ocean, from the very bottom,
at ïöq fathom or more. I have fome o f (uch branches, with this
ftrange growth on them- Where thefe grow no bird can come;
and their evacuations, elpecially the fluid kind,,cannot fink thither,
or be colle&ed in a ftate of proliftcation. I will not take
upon me to difcufs how contrary to nature one might call (uch a
P art IÏ. P generation,