140 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



himself by the sea edge. Get a glass on him when he 

 sits or stands, the water just curling in, and at each 

 wash covering his large splay feet. " Jacky Cocktail," 

 as fisher people call him, is hard at work on his toilet. 

 He will shake himself like a horse or dog ; and, the 

 feathers after each shake falling back into their proper 

 places, he will preen and stroke them. Does he oil as 

 well as smooth them ? This is a question which no- 

 body has answered with absolute knowledge. A bird 

 has oil glands, but are they used for dressing the 

 feathers ? Wild ducks' feathers, when lying flat and 

 in their right position, are impervious to water. The 

 water slides off as if the plumage were oiled, and per- 

 haps it really may be an oil-skin coat the duck 

 has on. 



But many sea and river fowl are naturally oily. 

 May not the oil exude from the whole body of the 

 bird, more or less, and thus grease and waterproof the 

 plumage ? The idea of the bird squeezing a little 

 pomade from vessels in its body, and applying this 

 with its bill to the feathers, seems to me rather 

 fantastic. 



Sometimes the cormorant will stand for a full five 

 minutes, his wings spread out; now the wings are 

 still, now kept moving gently, as if the bird wished 

 the refreshing, cleansing sea breeze to pass through 

 them. The cormorant's favourite resting spot, how- 

 ever, is not the edge of the open sea : that seems to be 

 his toilet haunt. He prefers those gloomy stakes by 



