Vol XVIII. 

 191 



1 FoRSTER, Cormorants : Arc They Pests or Othenvise ? I05 



mullet, exactly similar in dimensions to the one taken from the 

 bird. This was also quite fresh, and had a small wound on the 

 back, close to the head, which might have been made by the beak 

 of a Cormorant ; this was still bleeding. 



Mullet of such a size are rarely, if ever, found so far from the 

 mouth of a river, and this can only be explained by the supposition 

 that these mullet had ascended to this water-hole at a very early 

 stage of their existence, when quite small fry, and had been 

 imprisoned there until they had grown to their present size. A 

 fish could only pass from the salt to the fresh water on abnormally 

 high tides, as on ordinary occasions the level of the salt water 

 was much below that of the fresh. That these large mullet 

 existed in large quantities in the water-hole was evident, as they 

 could be clearly seen swimming about. 



Many years later, on the Darling River, New South Wales, 

 (luring a high flood, I came upon a large flock of Cormorants (P. 

 melanolcucits) in a backwater or creek filled by the flood water 

 from the main river. The water was deep, and the Cormorants 

 were continually diving and re-appearing, while the surface of 

 the water was literally alive with small fish about 6 to 8 inches 

 long, which were continually jumping out of the water in their 

 frantic endeavours to escape from their rapacious pursuers. I 

 could not with any degree of accuracy state what kind of fish 

 these were, but the fish inhabiting the Darling consist of. a very 

 few varieties, all of which are delicious food. At other times I 

 have watched Cormorants on the Darling for hours, engaged in 

 fishing, diving and reappearing at intervals of half a minute or 

 more. As the Cormorant catches and devours his prey under 

 water, it is not often possible to see him in the act of eating it ; 

 only in cases of the fish being too large does he come to the surface 

 to swallow it. After being thirs engaged in diving for an hour 

 or two, he comes out of the water and sits on the bank or on a log, 

 digesting his meal and sunning himself, with his wings spread out 

 to dry. When the process of digestion has been completed, after 

 perhaps a couple of hours, he re-enters the water and resumes 

 his fishing operations. 



Clearly, Captain White's investigations, at any rate with regard 

 to the dietary of the Cormorant, are made with the object of 

 deciding whether the Cormorant is to be regarded as a thing of 

 evil or a blessing in disguise ; a wholesale destroyer of a staple 

 article of human food or a harmless and discriminating bird, 

 which, although exclusively a fish-eater, devours only fish unfit 

 for human consumption ; a noxious pest, against wliich an un- 

 relenting war of extermination sliould be waged, or an interesting 

 and ornamental occupant of our lakes and coastal waters. The 

 incidents mentioned above rather tend to show that he belongs 

 to the former category : l)ut, of course, further evidence is 

 necessary l)efore the matter can be finall\- settled. 



