A curious notion prevailed in the Middle Ages, that this bird (Branta leucopsis) was generated from the barnacle, a shell-fish growing on a flexible stem, and adhering to loose timber, bottoms of ships, etc. ... The earliest trace of this fable in Jewish literature seems to be in the "'I??ur" of Isaac ben Abba Mari of Marseilles (about 1170). ... An anonymous Hebrew translator of the French cosmography called "Image du Monde," who compiled his work in 1245, speaks of geese growing on trees in Ireland and of people with tails in Brittany. He is the first Jewish author to locate the birds on Irish shores. - [Authors]

Language: English