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 A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE impossible that this should be the Barnacle in Embryo. Within the Shells are Claws, with Hairs Hke those of Lobsters, wound within one another in spiral Lines, and are not very unhke the wings of a Goose, but these I found to be perfect Shells, and not Quills or Feathers ; whence it is plain, that they could not appertain to the Barnacle, that being of the Feather'd Kind. These Shell-fishes are observable upon several Sea-weeds in the Gulph of Florida, and are there chiefly pick'd up by our Shipping : I never yet could meet with any Seeman who could affirm that he had seen any fall from Ships, and swim, which must have necessarily happen'd, had they been converted into Barnacles ; besides, in the Anatomy of Barnacles, I find them (as other Geese) Male and Female, the one having a Penis, the other Ovaria, whence it is evident that their way of breeding is no wise different from that of other Birds ; what therefore has been asserted by Speed and others concerning this Bird, is only a Vulgar Error, and they only wanted a thorow Enquiry, to give them satisfaction in this Matter.'^ That a thorough inquiry is the one thing needed to give satisfaction in matters of natural history may readily be conceded. How to make inquiries thorough is not so easily perceived. Gerarde had long-standing belief to go upon, the testimony of good witnesses, the evidence of his own senses, and yet they only combined to lead him completely astray. In Dr. Leigh's discussion it is interesting to note the comparison at one point of the cirripedes with lobsters, since it was not till well into the nineteenth century that the Thyrostraca were accepted as part of the Crustacean class. In the Systcma Natures of 1758, Linnaeus preserves a remembrance of the old fable in the name Lepas anatifera, the duck-bearing Lepas, but he places the genus in the Mollusca, between Chiton and Pholas, without any suspicion that he is dealing with near kinsfolk of the prawn and the crab. The record of Lancashire crustaceans is still at many points incomplete. Especially the Sympoda, the Isopoda terrestria, and the Thyrostraca are awaiting fuller investigation. But for the class of Crustacea at large much valuable work has been already done. Some glimpses have been given in this chapter at the arduous operations by which successful research has been carried out. Among the workers pre-eminence must be awarded to A, O. Walker, F.L.S., I. C. Thompson, F.L.S., and Andrew Scott, A.L.S., a band of zealous experts brought together by the inspiring energy of the present president of the Linnean Society, Professor W. A. Herdman, F.R.S. Among the methods employed it is interesting to recall not merely trawling and dredging on the floor of the sea, digging and raking in the mud of the shore, but a number of other queer devices which experience has gradually evolved. Thus the naturalist of to-day seeks for crustaceans on whale and weed, on starfish and medusa, on shipping and wreckage, and still more laboriously obtains them by straining the liquor from a cockle, by examining the stomach of a juvenile flounder, or by pinching the nostrils of a cod. 1 Hist, of Lane, eu., chap. ix. 'Of Birds,' p. 157. 178