396 TIIE GANNET, OR SOLAN GOOSE. 



ficiently dry to enable the feathers to imbibe the oil, they press this 

 substance from, the receptacle on their rumps, and dress the feathers 

 with it. It is only in one particular state that the oily matter can be 

 spread on them when they are somewhat damp; and the instinct of 

 the birds teaches them the proper moment. 



COBVOBANTS. 



The skins of Corvorants are very tough, and are used by the Green- 

 landers, when sewed together and put into proper form, for garments. 

 And the skin of the jaws serves that people for bladders to buoy up 

 their smaller kinds of fishing darts. In China great numbers of tame 

 Corvorants are taught to catch fish for the benefit of their owners. The 

 birds so employed are kept in a state of captivity from the moment of 

 their birth. When old enough, they are taken to the water side, and 

 carefully taught to bring to their master the fishes they procure. 



THE GANNET, OR SOLAN GOOSE. 



' 



These birds are insatiably voracious, and yet they are somewhat par- 

 ticular in their choice of prey, disdaining, unless in great want, to eat 

 any food worse than Herring or Mackerel. No fewer than one hundred 

 thousand Gannets are supposed to frequent the rocks of St. Kilda; and 

 of these, including the young ones, at least twenty thousand are annually 



