Editing Goose barnacle (section)

== Spontaneous generation ==
{{main|Barnacle goose myth}}
[[File:PSM V04 D585 The goose tree.jpg|thumb|upright|"The goose-tree" from [[John Gerard|Gerard's]] ''Herbal'' (1597), displaying the belief that goose barnacles produced barnacle geese.]]
In the days before [[bird]]s were known to [[bird migration|migrate]], [[barnacle geese]], ''Branta leucopsis'', were thought to have developed from this crustacean through [[spontaneous generation]], since they were never seen to [[nest]] in temperate Europe,<ref name="Allaby">{{cite book |author=Michael Allaby |year=2009 |title=Animals: from Mythology to Zoology |publisher=[[Infobase Publishing]] |isbn=978-0-8160-6101-3 |chapter=Barnacles |pages=75–77 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KtKZ12YN9qcC&pg=PT91}}</ref> hence the [[English language|English]] names "goose barnacle" and "barnacle goose", and the scientific name ''[[Lepas anserifera]]'' ({{langx|la|[[:wikt:anser|anser]]}}, "goose"). The confusion was prompted by their similarities in colour and shape. Because they were often found on [[driftwood]], the barnacles were assumed to be attached to branches before they fell in the water. The [[archdeacon]] of [[Brecon]], [[Gerald of Wales]], made this claim in his ''[[Topographia Hiberniae]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Beatrice White |year=1945 |title=Whale-hunting, the barnacle goose, and the date of the "Ancrene Riwle". Three notes on Old and Middle English |journal=[[The Modern Language Review]] |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=205–207 |doi=10.2307/3716844 |jstor=3716844}}</ref>

Since barnacle geese were thought to be "neither flesh, nor born of flesh", they were allowed to be eaten on [[Meat-free day|days when eating meat was forbidden]] by some [[Christianity|Christian churches]],<ref name="Allaby"/> though it was not universally accepted. [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II]] examined barnacles and noted no evidence of any bird-like embryo in them, and the secretary of [[Lev of Rozmital]] wrote a very skeptical account of his reaction to being served the goose at a fast-day dinner in 1456.<ref>Henisch, Bridget Ann, ''Fast and Feast: Food in Medieval Society.'' The Pennsylvania State Press, University Park. 1976. {{ISBN|0-271-01230-7}}, pp. 48–49.</ref>