2 PELECANIDAG 
though I have seen a very young duckling snatched off the 
surface of an ornamental pond and demolished entire.’ 
Unlike the Auks and other diving species, the Cormorant 
does not use its wings to propel itself under water, but 
depends entirely on its huge feet. Owing to the length and 
flexibility of its neck, which it can retract and shoot out 
with the speed of a serpent’s strike, and the high speed with 
which it can travel under water, it can overtake its finny 
prey with the greatest ease. Eels are frequently seized, and 
the Cormorant has been seen rising to the surface with one 
of those fish held transversely in its beak. Under such cir- 
cumstances the bird generally manages to jerk 1ts prey into 
the air and swallow it head-foremost.2, I have seen a Cor- 
morant come up to the surface to swallow a large flat-fish, 
but under ordinary circumstances it will consume several 
small fish under water, before rising to take breath. This 
can be demonstrated in the fresh-water tanks of our 
Zoological Gardens, where the Cormorant thrives well. 
This species can be readily trained to catch fish, and in 
China and Japan it is extensively used for the purpose. 
Cormorants often fare badly in rough weather, the great 
billows buffeting them about until they are dashed against 
the headlands. During a tempest, some of the younger and 
weaker members, being unable to venture out in search of 
food, perish from hunger. 
Flight.—In the air the Cormorant somewhat resembles 
a great black goose, travelling along with outstretched neck 
and rapidly beating pinions. Solitary individuals are usually 
seen skimming over the waves, but, when taking long flights 
in company, the birds will proceed in a V-shaped flock at 
a considerable height in the air. 
On fresh-water lakes and rivers, where timber is plentiful, 
Cormorants may be noticed alighting on trees, more par- 
ticularly on the stout leafless stumps. 
' This was a tragic scene which I witnessed at a Cormorant enclosure. 
The duckling, in pursuit of flies, had only just ventured to pass through 
one of the meshes of the wire netting, when the savage inmate dashed 
across the surface of the water with a great fluttering of wings, and 
seizing the helpless fledgling, engulfed it in an instant. 
* Thave known a Cormorant to swallow an eel in this manner and 
reappear almost immediately, with apparently another eel in its mouth, 
but as this performance was repeated several times in very rapid suc- 
cession, it is more than likely that the one tish had been disgorged and 
reswallowed. 
