NATURALISTS CABINET. 



Utility of its skin Remarks. 



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 b'irds teaches them the proper 

 moment. 



The skins of the cormorants are very tough ; 

 and are used by the Greenlanders, when sewed 

 together and put into proper form, for garments. 

 And the skin of the jaws, like that of others of 

 this tribe, serves these people for bladders to 

 buoy up their smaller kinds of fishing darts. 



When cormorants were trained in this coun- 

 try, for the purpose of catching fish, they were 

 kept with great care in the house : and on their 

 being taken out for fishing, they had round their 

 neck a leather thong, to prevent them from swal- 

 lowing their prey: they were also hooded till 

 brought to the water's edge. It appears that 

 King Charles the First had an officer in his 

 household, entitled " Master of the Corvorants." 



The ambassador from the Duke of Holstein, in 

 his travels into Muscovy and Persia, speaks of a 

 kind of large wild geese, or cormorants, which 

 they met with, and which the Muscovites call 

 babbes. This author describes them as being 

 larger than swans; and that their bills were above 

 a foot long, two fingers broad, and forked at the 

 end; under the bill, he says, they had a bag of 

 skrn, which they could contract quite close, or 

 extend it to sch a size as to contaiujnore than 



