CORMORANT. 



481 



white, roughened with a calcareous incrustation, and small 

 for the size of the bird. They appear very wary and 

 shy, and feed their young with great assiduity, whose voice 

 at this time resembles the hissing of snakes. 



The Cormorant is a very dexterous and voracious fisher, 

 committing great havoc when it visits pools and lakes ; but 

 it almost constantly resides on ihe sea shores, and is seldom 

 seen inland. Swimming beneath the water with the velo- 

 city of a dart in the air, and remaining a long time sub- 

 merged, its prey scarcely ever escapes, and it almost always 

 rises with a fish in its bill, to swallow which it employs the 

 expedient of tossing it into the air, and dexterously catches 

 the head in its descent, so that the fins lie flat, and thus 

 favor the passage down the throat ; the small pouch at 

 the same time stretches so as to admit the whole body of 

 the fish, which is often very large in proportion to the neck, 

 and it there remains undergoing a preparatory digestion 

 previous to its passage into the lower part of the stomach. 



In some countries, as in China, and formerly in England, 

 the dexterity of the Cormorant in fishing was turned to 

 profit ; for, by buckling a ring about the lower part of the 

 neck, to prevent deglutition, and accustoming it to return 

 with its acquisitions in the bill to its master, it was made an 

 useful and domestic fisher. On the rivers of China, Cor- 

 morants, thus fixed, are perched on the prows of boats, and 

 at a signal made by striking the water with an oar, they 

 instantly plunge, and soon emerge with a fish, which is 

 taken from them ; and this toil continued till its master is 

 satisfied, he looses the collar, and finishes the task by allow- 

 ing it to fish for itself But it is only hunger which gives ac- 

 tivity to the Cormorant ; when glutted with its meal, which 

 is soon acquired, it relaxes into its native indolence, and 

 dozes away the greatest part of its time in gluttonous ine- 

 briety, perched in solitude on naked and insulated or inac- 

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