28 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



The Japanese fishermen also work with 

 trained cormorants, but their birds cannot 

 be so well trained as the Chinamen's are, 

 since they are not allowed to go loose, but are 

 held by a cord attached to a sort of harness, 

 something like what is often put on pet dogs 

 instead of a collar ; this not only keeps them 

 from getting away, but serves to haul them 

 in when they have made a catch. Although 

 this shows that the Japanese birds are not 

 so docile, their masters need great skill in 

 managing them, because each man works 

 with several birds at once, sometimes as 

 many as a dozen, and has to look out to 

 avoid their lines getting tangled, to say 

 nothing of hauling them in every now and 

 then. 



The cormorant that is used in this way in 

 the East is the same kind that is found wild 

 in this country, and a few years ago, at the 

 London Hippodrome, a Chinaman with his 

 trained birds went through the whole per- 

 formance. It was very interesting to see the 

 way in which the bird which had got his fish 

 jumped from the water on to a pole which the 

 fisherman held out for him, so as to bring him 



