anatifa

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A genus of thoracic or ordinary cirripeds, of the family Lepadidæ, established by Bruguière; barnacles, goose-mussels, or tree-geese. The name is derived from some fancied resemblance of the Lepas anatifera to a bird, whence arose the vulgar error that the barnacle-goose, Anas or Anser bernicla, was produced from this cirriped, which was supposed to turn into the bird when it dropped from the tree upon which it was fabled to grow.
2. n. See Lepadidæ, Lepas.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) An animal of the barnacle tribe, of the genus Lepas, having a fleshy stem or peduncle; a goose barnacle. See cirripedia.