418 PELICAN. 



Corvorant was kept in the house with the same care, as is used 

 in respect to the Falcons ; but we do not find it to have been 

 very common, since it has not been generally noticed by authors. 

 Willughby, who mentions the circumstance,* quotes, in the margin, 

 his authority from Faber's Notes on Recchus's Animals; but on 

 inspecting the passage, f we are merely told, that some Corvorants, 

 which had been trained for fishing, were sent, with a Vulture, as a 

 present from England to the King of France ; that they were hood- 

 winked, till they were let off to fish, in the manner of the Falcon, 

 and would fetch trouts out of the river very dexterously. That they 

 were used now and then, is plain, both from the above passage, as 

 well as what we learn from the British Zoology. % A circumstance 

 is likewise mentioned by Swammerdam, § who seems to imply that 

 the birds, though used in England, were not taught there. It appears, 

 that the Corvorant is more or less a general inhabitant of the Conti- 

 nent of Europe ; common in Greenland, where the inhabitants, from 

 necessity, make much use of it. The jugular pouch serves as a 

 bladder to keep their darts afloat after they are flung ; for the dex- 

 terous natives procure these and other birds by this mode, while 



* Engl. Ed. 329. f See Hernand. Mexic. p. 693. 



% Whiteloek says " that he had a cast of them, manned like Hawks, and which would 

 " come to hand. He took much pleasure in them ; and relates, that the best he had were 

 " presented to him by Mr. Wood, master of the Corvorants, to King Charles the First." 

 Br. Zoof. ii. 610. 



§ " Some few years ago many of these birds were carried to England, (from Holland), 

 " and sold for that purpose. In the first place, they make them so tame, that they may 

 " be brought to perch and stay upon the hand of their own accord ; when after this they 

 " are inclined to go out fishing with them, they tie to one of their legs a thin bnt strong 

 " cord, which they keep rolled up in a ball : afterwards they hold this ball, by a bobbin- 

 " handle, as our girls do their bobbins, while they roll off of them the threads made on the 

 " reel : these things being prepared, they put the ring round the Cormorant's neck, and 

 " being now come to the fish-pond, they let the Cormorant fly down into the water ; then 

 " the cord is rolled off of the ball with a whizzing twirl, and the Cormorant, to the great 

 " amazement of the spectators, quickly seizes some fishes : these, however, are stopt at 

 " the ring that has been put about its neck ; therefore when the Cormorant is afterwards 

 " drawn out by the cord, he may easily be made to throw out again the fishes it had taken 

 " into the mouth, only by squeezing its stomach and throat upwards." — Bill. Nat. \. p. 193. 



