Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
164
Du
Bartas
thus
describes
the
various
transformations
of
this
bird:--
"So,
slowe
Boôtes
underneath
him
sees,
In
th'
ycie
iles,
those
goslings
hatcht
of
trees;
Whose
fruitful
leaves,
falling
into
the
water,
Are
turn'd,
they
say,
to
living
fowls
soon
after.
So,
rotten
sides
of
broken
ships
do
change
To
barnacles;
O
transformation
change,
'Twas
first
a
green
tree,
then
a
gallant
hull,
Lately
a
mushroom,
now
a
flying
gull."
Meyer
wrote
a
treatise
on
this
strange
"bird
without
father
or
mother,"
and
Sir
Robert
Murray,
in
the
"Philosophical
Transactions,"
says
that,
"these
shells
are
hung
at
the
tree
by
a
neck,
longer
than
the
shell,
of
a
filmy
substance,
round
and
hollow
and
creased,
not
unlike
the
windpipe
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.
In
every
shell
that
I
opened,"
he
adds,
"I
found
a
perfect
sea-fowl;
the
little
bill
like
that
of
a
goose,
the
eyes
marked;
the
head,
neck,
breast,
wing,
tail,
and
feet
formed;
the
feathers
everywhere
perfectly
shaped,
and
the
feet
like
those
of
other
water-fowl."
The
Chinese
have
a
tradition
of
certain
trees,
the
leaves
of
which
were
finally
changed
into
birds.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
