AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 211 



is still commonly practised in China and Japan, and 

 my good friend Captain F. H. Salvin, well known as 

 a Falconer, has tried his hand at training Cormorants 

 to fish for him in this country with very consider- 

 able success. A considerable number of Cormorants 

 frequent the coast near Dartmouth in July and 

 August, though I am not aware of the existence 

 of any large nesting-colony in that immediate neigh- 

 bourhood ; the favourite haunt and roosting-places 

 of these individuals are two or three isolated rocks 

 lying at a short distance to the eastward of the 

 entrance of Dartmouth Harbour, whence they sally 

 to fish, principally, I think, in Torbay ; a few, 

 however, regularly frequent the Dart, and also visit 

 the renowned Slapton Lea, but from observations 

 made at the season above-mentioned during four 

 successive years, I am convinced that, for some 

 unknown reason, very few of these Cormorants 

 habitually go to the westward for food or pleasure ; 

 at all events from about 5 p.m. till dark the birds 

 kept streaming from the eastward either singly or 

 in small parties, till every pinnacle of these islets 

 was crowned with a Cormorant, and from certain 

 points the fringe of these fishers sitting bolt upright, 

 often with outspread wings, with every cranny of the 

 black rocks below them occupied by Kittiwakes, pre- 

 sented a most grotesque but very interesting " marine 

 view." My belief is that these Cormorants were, 

 with few exceptions, bred upon the coast of Dorset 

 and the Isle of Wight, and that the Start was the 

 extreme westward limit of their summer fishing-range. 

 This bird frequently travels up the course of rivers to 

 a considerable distance, but is not a regular migrant, 

 to my knowledge, in any part of Europe, as the Shag 



p2 



