jk 



104 COPPERSMITH— CORMORANT 



organized chasses of the lakes near the coast of Languedoc and Pro- 

 vence, of which an excellent description is given by the Vicomte 

 Lonis de Dax,^ The flesh of the Coot is very variously regarded as 

 food. To prepare the bird for the table, the feathers should be 

 stripped, and the down, which is very close, thick, and hard to 

 pluck, be rubbed with powdered resin ; the body is then to be 

 dipped in boiling water, which melting the resin causes it to mix 

 vnth. the down, and then both can be removed together with 

 tolerable ease. After this the bird should be left to soak for the 

 night in cold spring-water, which Avill make it look as white and 

 delicate as a chicken. Without this process the skin after roasting 

 is found to be very oily, with a fishy flavour, and if the sldn be 

 taken off the flesh becomes dry and good for nothing (Hawker's 

 Instructions to Young Sportsmen; Hele's Notes about Aldeburgh). 



The Coot is found throughout the Palsearctic area from Iceland 

 to Japan, and in most other parts of the world is represented by 

 nearly allied species, having almost the same habits. An African 

 species {F. cristata), easily distinguished by a red caruncle on its 

 forehead, is of rare appearance in the south of Europe. The 

 Australian and North American species {F. australis and F. avieri- 

 cana) have very great resemblance to our own bird ; but in South 

 America half a dozen or more additional species are found which 

 range to Patagonia, and vary much in size, one (F. glgantea) being 

 of considerable magnitude. The remains of another large species 

 have been described by Prof. A. Milne-Edwards {Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 

 5, Zool. viii. pp. 194-220, pis. 10-13) from Mam-itius, where it must 

 have been a contemporary of the Dodo, but like that bird is now 

 extinct. 



COPPERSMITH, see Barbet. 



COBACOID (named after the coracoid process on the human 

 shoulder-blade, which was likened in shape by mediaeval anatomists 

 to a Raven's bill) one of a pair of strong bones which connect the 

 anterior or basal margin of the sternum with the scapula and 

 clavicle, and form the chief articulation of the humerus with the 

 shoulder-girdle (see Skeleton). 



CORACOMORPH^, Prof. Huxley's name for the large group 

 of BEaMO GNATH O¥^-4jirds — incomparably the largest of those that 

 now exist, and for the most part equivalent to the Passeres of 

 Linnaeus and Cuvier, and wholly to the Volucres of Sundevall 

 {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, pp. 468-472). (See Introduction.) 



CORMORANT 2 — from the Latin coi-vus marinus, through the 



^ " La Volee aux Macreuses." Nouveaux Soiovenirs de Chasse et de la Piche 

 dans le midi de la France, pp. 53-65. Paris : 1860. 



'^ Some authors, following Caius, derive the word from corvus vorans and 

 spell it Corvorant, but doubtless wrongly. 



