DIVERS, GREBES, AND CORMORANTS. 175 
tamed, and from the earliest recorded times it has 
been trained to capture fish for its owner. To this 
day the Chinese and Japanese train Cormorants for 
this purpose. In England this sport was once a 
regal pleasure, the Master of the Cormorants finding 
a place in the Royal household. According to 
Professor Newton, the sport still lingers amongst a 
few. Willughby asserts that the trained Cormorant 
was carried hooded until cast off, but nowadays its 
hearer protects his eyes from a stroke from the 
bird’s beak, with a wire mask. A strap or a ring is 
fastened round the Cormorant’s neck, to prevent 
it swallowing its captures, just as we muzzle a ferret 
to prevent it lying up. All who have witnessed this 
novel way of fishing testify to the bird’s marvellous 
skill in catching fish after fish, until the gular pouch 
will hold no more, when the Cormorant is taken, and 
the fish removed. The food of this bird is composed 
almost entirely of fish. In winter Cormorants 
become even more gregarious, often associating 
in large flocks which wander far in quest of food. 
This bird is not so completely pelagic in its habits 
as the Auks, the Divers, andthe Grebes. It generally 
retires to the caves and shelves of the cliffs to sleep, 
whilst stormy weather will drive it shorewards soon, 
where it will sit and mope on the rocks, or shelter 
in the quiet creeks, or under the lee of cliffs, as if 
waiting for the sea to subside, and allow of its 
labours being renewed. 
As the Cormorant returns for years in succession 
