In "Purchas, his Pilgrimage," is the voyage of Gerat de Veer to China, &c., in 1569--and he speaks of the Barnacle goose thus:--"Those geese were of a perfit red colour, such as come to Holland about Weiringen, and every yeere are there taken in abundance, but till this time, it was never knowne where they hatcht their egges, so that some men have taken upon them to write that they sit upon trees in Scotland, that hang over the water, and such eggs that fall from them downe into the water, become young geese, and swim there out of the water: but those that fall upon the land, burst asunder, and are lost; but that is now found to be contrary, that no man could tell where they breed their egges, for that no man that ever wee knew, had ever beene under 80°; nor that land under 80° was never set downe in any card, much lesse the red geese that breede therein." He and his sailors declared that they had seen these birds sitting on their eggs, and hatching them, on the coasts of Nova Zembla.
"So, slowe Boötes underneath him sees, In th' ycie iles, those goslings hatcht of trees; Whose fruitfull leaves, falling into the water, Are turned, (they say) to living fowls soon after. So, rotten sides of broken ships do change To barnacles; O transformation strange! 'Twas first a green tree, then a gallant hull, Lately a mushroom, now a flying gull."
I could multiply quotations on this subject. Gesner and every other naturalist believed in the curious birth of the Barnacle goose--and so even did Aldrovandus, writing at the close of the seventeenth century, for from him I take this illustration. But enough has been said upon the subject.
No wonder that a credulous age, which could see nothing extraordinary in the Barnacle goose, could also, metaphorically, swallow such an egg, as Licetus, first of all, and Aldrovandus, after him, gives us in the accompanying true picture. The latter says that a goose's egg was found in France, (he leaves a liberal margin for locality,) which on being broken appeared exactly as in the picture. Comment thereon is useless.
One would have imagined that this Egg would be sufficient to test the credulity of most people, but Aldrovandus was equal to the occasion, and he gives us a "Moon Woman," who lays eggs, sits upon them, and hatches Giants; and he gives this on the authority of Lycosthenes and Ravisius Textor.