WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 
the interest that would be attached to the circumstance 
and not knowing the nature of the substance, carelessly 
threw the castings away. I happened, however, to be 
present when the last sac was thrown up, and secured it 
for examination, and have handed it over to our prosector 
Mr. Forbes, for that purpose. 
This remarkable fact being now known to occur in two 
widely separate genera of birds, induces me to believe 
that the habit may exist in many other birds, but it has 
hitherto been unobserved. In many cases the substance 
would sink to the bottom of the water, where it would 
soon decompose, and this may account for its not having 
been previously noticed. 
. I feel particularly anxious to call the attention of persons 
keeping cormorants, and of those persons visiting the haunts 
of cormorants, to this habit, as it is highly probable that 
this bird does the same thing. — (From the Proceedings of 
the Zoological Society, 1881.) 
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