578 



A HISTORY OF WATER-FOWL. 



and tobacco pouches. They bestow no small 

 pains in dressing the skin with salt and ashes, 

 rubbing it well with oil, and then forming it 

 to their purpose. It thus becomes so soft and 

 pliant, that the Spanish women sometimes 

 adorn it with gold and embroidery to make 

 work-bags of. 



Yet, with all the seeming hebetude of this 

 bird, it is not entirely incapable of instruction 

 in a domestic state. Father Raymond assures 

 us, that he has seen one so tame and well 

 educated among the native Americans, that it 

 would go off in the morning at the word of 

 command, and return before night to its mas- 

 ter, with its great pouch distended with plun- 

 der ; a part of which the savages would make 

 it disgorge, and a part they would permit it to 

 reserve for itself. 



" The Pelican," as Faber relates, " is not 

 destitute of other qualifications. One of those 

 which was brought aHve to the duke of 

 Bavaria's court, where it lived forty years, 



seemed to be possessed of very uncommon 

 sensations. It was much delighted in the 

 company and conversation of men, and in 

 music both vocal and instrumental : for it 

 would willingly stand," says he, " by those 

 that sung, or sounded the trumpet; and 

 stretching out its head, and turning its ear to 

 the music, listened very attentively to its har- 

 mony ; though its own voice was little plea- 

 santer than the braying of an ass." Gesner 

 tells us, that the emperor Maximilian had a 

 tame pelican, which lived for above eighty 

 years, and that always attended his army on 

 their march. It was one of the largest of the 

 kind, and had a daily allowance by the em- 

 peror's orders. As another proof of the great 

 age to which the pelican lives, Aldrovandus 

 makes mention of one of these birds that 

 was kept several years at Mechlin, was 

 verily believed to be fifty years old. We 

 often sec these birds at our shows about 

 town, 





