276 MR. A. H. REID 



to the subject, if only as a caution to those who are 

 responsible for the supervision of stocked waters. The 

 cormorant prefers mature fish to the smaller, and I have 

 seen them chasing large trout under the banks on Mr. 

 Faure's farm at Faure. My attention was first attracted 

 by the flashing of fish in the dark water, as they darted 

 away to avoid capture. I then saw a shadowy body 

 swimming deep down in the pool against the overhanging 

 bank. At first I thought it was an otter, so waited 

 and watched, when a cormorant rose to the surface with 

 a trout about 8'' long in it's beak. The damage done 

 to trout by cormorants is inconceivable to any but those 

 who know. Their appetites are insatiable, their cunning 

 and activity in pursuit extraordinary, and their per- 

 sistence equalled only by that of the ant. They are 

 credited with digesting their own weight of fish per day. 

 Their faculty for concealment above or below water is 

 marvellous and the colour of their plumage favours them 

 in that regard. Though they sometimes visit a water in 

 numbers, as a rule they fish alone, and as they move about 

 from place to place by night as well as day, they are 

 difiicult to locate. The Curator at Jonkers Hoek Hatch- 

 ery (Mr. Chaplin) has on view the contents of the stomach 

 of one cormorant that was only a few minutes in his 

 carp pond before being shot, and it is certainly an object 

 lesson to those w^ho may have any doubts on the matter, 

 being a 1 oz. bottle full of carp fry. Cormorants should 

 be ruthlessly destroyed by all anglers and riparian 

 owners. I submit that the habits of the cormorant cannot 

 be defended and that the species should be severely dealt 

 with without delay ax all events on our inland waters 

 and rivers. There is ample evidence that they 

 have increased enormously in late years, that they are 

 voracious feeders, that they devour enormous quantities 

 of valuable fish that have been placed in the rivers at 

 great expense, and that they do not destroy any other 

 enemy of the fish. These facts can be easily proved by 



