at of a goose, the eyes marked; the head, neck, wing, tails, and feet, formed; the feathers where perfectly shaped, and blackish coloured; e feet like those of other water-fowl, to my membrance.'

subjects seem to have been more circumstanrelated, or to rest on better evidence, than the

so natural to man is credulity, which passes unds, where the prodigy of an event takes firm of the imagination, and lays the understanding . Such are part of the wild chimeras that been retailed concerning the origin of the Bers; and as these fables once had great celebrity, ave been induced to relate them here, only to how contagious the errors of science are, and prone men are to the fascinations of the marus. Bernacle geese are not uncommon on many e northern and western coasts of Great Britain nter; but they are scarce in the south, and are m seen except in inclement seasons. They leave land in February, and retire northward to breed. Pholas, pierce-stone; inhabitant, an Ascidia. e animals of this tribe perforate clay, spongy es, and wood, while very young; and, as they ase in size, they enlarge their habitation within, thus become imprisoned. Before these animals apt to penetrate stones, they soften them by disging a quantity of phosphorescent fluid, which mposes or corrodes the substance as effectually y chemical solvent, and prepares it for the reon of the shell, which they are enabled to insert e manner of a screw, the worm being spiral, toothed: the animal then begins to make an ene with the larger end of the shell; and thus all ibility of return is cut off. They are always d below high-water mark, and a mass of rock sometimes be seen wholly perforated by them. have two orifices, or openings, capable of

C

elongation in the manner of a proboscis: one these is supposed to be the mouth, and has t faculty of spouting water. Most of them contain phosphorescent liquor, of great brilliancy in t dark, which also illuminates whatever it touches happens to fall upon. The pholas is so called fro a Greek word signifying to lurk in cavities.'

The pholas dactylus affords the character of near the whole tribe. The very extraordinary pow possessed by these animals of penetrating into so bodies, when compared with their apparent im cility, have justly excited the astonishment of phi sophers and naturalists in all ages. When divest of their shell they are roundish and soft, with instrument that seems in the least fitted for bori into stones, which they are known to do, or even penetrating the softest substance. They are, inde each furnished with two teeth; but they are plac in such a situation as to be incapable of touchi the hollow surface of their stony dwellings. Th have also two corners to their shells, that open a shut at either end; but these are totally unservi able to them as miners. The instrument with wh they perform all their operations, and by means which they bury themselves in the hardest rocks only a broad, fleshy substance, somewhat resembl a tongue. With this soft, yielding instrument, wh yet young and small, they work their way into substance of the stone, and enlarge their apartm as their increasing size renders it necessary.

The seeming unfitness, however, of these anim for penetrating into rocks, and there forming a ha tation, has induced many philosophers to supp that they entered the rock while it was yet in a state, and, from the petrifying quality of the wa that the whole rock afterwards hardened round then degrees. This opinion, however, has been confu

5, at Puteoli, were penetrated by these animals. ce he justly concludes, that the pholades must pierced them after they were erected; for no an would have laboured a pillar into form, if been honey-combed by worms in the quarry. rt, there can be no doubt but that the pillars perfectly sound when erected, and that these is attacked them during the time in which they ued buried under water, after the earthquake wallowed up the city. From hence it appears n all nature, there is not a greater instance of verance and patience, than that which this anis seen to exhibit. Furnished with the bluntest softest augur, by slow successive applications, ects what other animals are incapable of pering by force, penetrating the hardest bodies with its tongue. When, while yet very small, it has ted an entrance and buried its body in the stone, ere continues, for life, at its ease; the sea-water enters at the little aperture, supplying it with rious plenty. Upon this seemingly thin diet it egrees grows larger and larger, and soon finds f under the necessity of increasing the dimensions Es habitation and its shell.

he motion of the pholas is slow, almost beyond ception; its progress keeps pace with the growth ts body; and, in proportion as it becomes larger, akes its way further into the rock. When it has etrated to a certain depth, it turns from its former ection and hollows downward; till at last, when habitation is completed, the whole apartment rembles the bowl of a tobacco-pipe, the hole in the ank being that by which the animal entered. Thus mured, the pholas lives in darkness, indolence, d plenty; it never removes from the narrow manon into which it has penetrated, and seems perctly content with being inclosed in its own sepulchre. he influx of the sea-water that enters by its little allery satisfies all its wants. These animals are

found in the greatest quantity at Ancona, in Italy they are found also along the shores of Normand and Poitou, in France, and upon some of the coast of Scotland. In general they are considered as great delicacy at the tables of the luxurious'.

Bivalves.

The ocean rolling and the shelly shore,
Beautiful objects.

4. Mya, gaper; inhabitant, an Ascidia.

The greater part of these animals are inhabitan of the ocean, but some of them are found in fre water. They perforate the sand or mud at the bottor Many of the species are caught for food, and othe for the pearls which are formed within their shell Some few of the species perforate and live in lim stone, in the same manner as the pholades.

The pearl-bearing mya (m. margaritifera) is four chiefly in the large rivers of northern latitudes. TI British islands, especially Ireland, have been co sidered famous for their fisheries of the mya, and few pearls of great value have, at different time been obtained from these sources; but the quali of British specimens is not held in the highest es mation. Some fine pearls, however, were procur from the Shannon in the present year (1821). T river Irt in Cumberland, the Conway in Wales, a the Tay in Scotland, were once noted for their pea fisheries. Suetonius reports that Cæsar was induc to undertake his British expedition for the sake our pearls; and, according to Pliny and Tacitus, brought home a buckler made with British pea which he dedicated to, and hung up in the temple Venus Genetrix; a proper offering to the goddess love and beauty, who sprung from the sea.

Several species of gapers are used as food both

in and on the Continent, as the mya arenaria, wn to the fishermen about Southampton by the sical name of Old Maids. These shells reside e mud or shingle on the shore, and a few inches w the surface. In some parts of England and and they are much used, but, though common cotland, they are never sought after. Another ies, the mya truncata, is also very common on coast. It prefers a hard gravelly bottom, in ch it lodges near low water-mark. The inhabitof the northern islands call it Smuoslin, and loy it when boiled as a supper dish; and it is no means unpalatable.

5. Solen, razor-shell; inhabitant, an Ascidia. Many of the bivalved shell-fishes have the powers progressive or retrograde motion, by an instrument t has some resemblance to a leg or foot, and called tongue. But these animals can, at pleasure, ke this assume almost every kind of form which ir exigencies require. They are incapable of ogressive motion on the surface; but they dig a le or cell in the sand, sometimes two feet in depth, which they ascend or descend at pleasure. The strument, or tongue, by which their motions are erformed, is fleshy, cylindrical, and situated near e centre of their body. When necessary, the anials can make the termination of the tongue assume e form of a ball. The razor-fish, when lying on e surface of the sand, and about to sink into it, xtends its tongue from the inferior end of the shell, nd makes the extremity of it take the form of a hovel, sharp on each side, and terminating in a point. Vith this instrument the animal cuts a hole in the and. After the hole is made, it advances the tongue till further into the sand, makes it assume the form of a hook, and with this hook, as a fulcrum, it obliges the shell to descend into the hole. In this manner the animal operates until the shell totally