bernesque (bernesk)

[ Bernesque poetry is the clearest reflexion of that religious and moral scepticism which was one of the characteristics of Italian social life in the 16th century, and which showed itself more or le in all the works of that period, that scepticism which stopped the religious Reformation in Italy, and which in its turn was an effect of historical conditions. Encyc. Brit ., XIII. 510. Bernicla (bėrʼni-klä), n. [NL. (adopted as a genus name by Stephens, 1824), IMG:content-1972.png:[graphic][merged small][subsumed] Bernicla the barnacle: see barnacle1.] A genus of geese, containing the barnacle-goose, brent-goose, and related species, which have black bills, black head and neck with white markings, and the general color dark, with white or light tail-coverts. The type-species is Anser bernicla, now B. leucopsis; the brent-goose is B. brent a; the black brent of North America is B. nigricans; the common wild goose of North America, or Canada goose, is B. can a dens is; Hutchins's goose is a similar but smaller species, B. hutchinsi; there are others also. See cuts under barnacle and brent - goose. bernicle, bernicle-goose (ber'ni-kl, -gös), n. [A form of barnacle, historically obsolete, but now occasionally used with ref. to the NL. generic name Bernicla.]. The barnacle or bar nacle-goose. See barnacle1, 1.