Barnacle goose were of the same nature as other birds. The question of the nature of barnacle geese also came up as a matter of Jewish dietary law in the Halakha, and Rabbeinu Tam (1100–71) determined that they were kosher (even if born of trees) and should be slaughtered following the normal prescriptions for birds. The mythical barnacle tree, believed in the Middle Ages to have barnacles that opened to reveal geese, may have a similar origin to the other legends already mentioned. Barnacle goose The barnacle goose ("Branta leucopsis") belongs to the genus "Branta" of black geese, which contains species with
Bar-headed goose Bar-headed goose The bar-headed goose ("Anser indicus") is a goose that breeds in Central Asia in colonies of thousands near mountain lakes and winters in South Asia, as far south as peninsular India. It lays three to eight eggs at a time in a ground nest. The grey goose genus "Anser" has no other member indigenous to the Indian region, nor any at all to the Ethiopian, Australian, or Neotropical regions. Ludwig Reichenbach placed the bar-headed goose in the monotypic genus "Eulabeia" in 1852, though John Boyd's taxonomy treats both "Eulabeia" and the genus "Chen" as subgenera of "Anser". The