CORMORANT.— SrdCTiMS Carbo. 



CRESTED CORMORANT. — Grdcia-us cristalus. 



The Cormorant can easily be tamed, and in China, where everything living or dead is 

 utilized, the bird is employed for the purpose of catching fish. The Cormorants are 

 regularly trained to the task, and go out with their master in a boat, where they sit 

 quietly on the edge until they receive his orders. They then dash into the water, seize 

 the fish in their beaks, and bring them to their owner. Should one of these birds pounce 

 upon a fish too large for it to carry alone, one of its companions will come to its assistance, 

 and the two together will take the fish and bring it to the boat. Sometimes a Cormorant 

 takes an idle fit, and swims playfully about instead of attending to its business, when it 

 is recalled to a sense of duty by its master, who strikes the water with his oar and shouts 

 at the bird, who accepts the rebuke at once and dives after its prey. Wlien the task is 

 completed, the birds are allowed their share of fish. A detailed and interesting account of 

 these birds may be found in Mr. Fortune's work on China. 



The Cormorant, although a web-footed bird, is able to perch, and may often be seen 

 sitting on a post or a rail overhanging a stream, watching the fish as they pass below. 



The nest of the Cormorant is made of a large mass of sticks, seaweed, and grass, and 

 the eggs are from four to six in number, rather small in proportion to the dimensions of 

 the parent, and of a curious chalky texture externallj', varied with a pale greenish blue. 

 Many nests are placed in close proximity to each other, 'and, as maybe imagined from the 

 habits of the bird, the nesting-places are very ill-savoured and by no means adapted 

 to delicate nostrils. When the young are first hatched they are very odd creatures, quite 

 without feathers and covered only with a hard-looking black skin, upon which the 

 clothing of black woolly down does not appear until several days. They soon take to the 

 water, and, like most aquatic birds, swim long before they can fly. 



