CORMORANT. 
o 
O 
or logs of floating timber, and may often be noticed perched 
on a rail or withered tree by the water side. They now 
and then follow the course of a river for several miles 
inland, both by flight and swimming. Sir William Jardine 
says, ‘We have known several birds take up a regular 
station, remaining to fish on the river, and roosting during 
night on its banks, upon some overhanging trees, and where 
inland lakes or waters are situate at no great distance from 
the sea, they are constantly frequented.’ 
Under the head of ‘Sporting by Steam,’ a curious circum¬ 
stance is related in the ‘Zoologist,’ page 3712, by the Rev. 
Gr. Gfordon, of one of these birds having been struck down 
and killed by the funnel of the engine of an express tram, 
as it was crossing the Loch of Spynie, in Elginshire, on the 
20th. of September, 1852. It had a flounder ten inches 
long in its bill at the time, and both bird and fish were 
taken up. On the sea these birds are undeniably shy, yet 
on inland water, that for instance at Mr. Waterton’s, where 
not disturbed, they seem to have little fear. 
Young Cormorants become perfectly tame, and are readily 
trained in this country, as well as in China, where, as is 
well known, the practice is a regular and established one, 
to catch fish for their owners, the precaution being taken 
of placing a ring round the neck of the bird, to prevent 
the prey from being totally swallowed. Montagu mentions 
one which never seemed to be so happy as when permitted 
to remain by the side of its master. Some kept by Dr. 
Neill used to roost with the poultry, but to usurp the best 
places. One of them laid two eggs while in the domesti¬ 
cated state. Sir Robert Shafto Adair, Bart, reported to 
Mr. Yarrell the circumstance of a pair of Cormorants having 
fed and brought up a nest of young Ravens, whose own 
parents had been destroyed. They provided them with a 
constant supply of fish. 
My friend the Rev. R. P. Alington mentions in ‘The 
Naturalist,’ vol. iv., page 209, how the Cormorant not unoften 
rests, apparently after long journeys, upon elevated spots. 
Many years ago one perched upon the tower of West Rasen 
Church, as another had previously done on the splendid spire 
of Louth Church. This reminds me of a still more remark¬ 
able circumstance with regard to this church and another 
denizen of the sea, which he once narrated to me, as having, 
I think he said,* seen himself, when a boy at school in that 
