The Sea and Its Living Wonders: A Popular Account of the Marvels of the Deep and of the Progress of Martime Discovery from the Earliest Ages to the Present TimeHartwig, G. (Georg)
History
The Sea and Its Living Wonders: A Popular Account of the Marvels of the Deep and of the Progress of Martime Discovery from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time
Hartwig, G. (Georg)
Animal behavior; Discoveries in geography; Discoveries in geography -- History; Marine animals; Marine plants; Ocean
Humboldt's penguin (_Spheniscus Humb._) is frequently found in the Bay of
Callao. This bird is a little smaller than the common grey penguin, with
a somewhat differently coloured back and breast. The Peruvians call it
_pajaro niño_, "little darling bird," and keep it in their houses; it is
very easily tamed, gets very familiar, and follows its master like a dog.
The sight of the fat creature, awkwardly waddling about the streets on
its short feet, and violently agitating its wing-stumps to maintain its
equilibrium, is inexpressibly grotesque. Tschudi kept one of these tame
penguins, which punctually obeyed his call. At dinner it regularly stood
like a stiff footman behind his chair, and at night slept under his bed.
When "Pepe" wanted a bath, he went into the kitchen and kept striking
with his beak against an earthen jar, until some one came to pour water
over him.
[Illustration: Common Pelican.]
To the pelican tribe, which is generally distinguished by a surface of
naked skin about the throat, capable of considerable dilatation, and
serving as a pouch for the reception of unswallowed food, belong among
others the Cormorant (_Phalacrocorax_), the Frigate-Bird (_Tachypetes
aquila_), and the Gannet (_Sula bassana_), or Solan goose. All these
birds are of much more active habits than the last named family, with
bodies of more shapely form, more ample wings, and a stronger flight.
The common cormorant with his long bill, bent at the point, and furnished
with a nail, his black livery, and yellowish chin-pouch, is a most
disagreeable comrade. His smell, when alive, is more rank and offensive
than that of any other bird, and his flesh is so disgusting, that it
turns the stomach even of an Esquimaux. In spite of his voracity, he
always remains thin and meagre, the picture of a hungry parasite.
But fishing he understands remarkably well, and formerly used to be
trained for this purpose in England, in the same manner as a nearly
related species is to the present day employed in China. Mr. Fortune
thus describes this original chase, which he witnessed on the Yellow
River:--"There were two boats, each containing one man, and about ten or
twelve birds. The latter stood perched on the sides of the boats, and
seemed to have just arrived upon the scene of action. Their masters now
commanded them to leave the boats; and so excellent was their training,
that they instantly obeyed, scattered themselves over the canal, and
began to look for prey. They have a splendid sea-green eye, and quick as
lightning they see and dive upon the finny tribe, which, once caught in
the sharp notched bill, finds escape impossible. As soon as a cormorant
rises to the surface with his prey in his bill, his master calls him,
when, docile as a dog, he swims to the boat and surrenders the fish,
after which he again resumes his labours. And what is more wonderful
still, when one of them has got hold of a fish so large as to be with
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