BIRDS UNDER WATER 153 



big paddle. Generally they only drive them- 

 selves along, both above and under water, 

 with their broad feet, but it seems that if 

 hard pressed to escape an enemy they will 

 use their wings as well, though not in chasing 

 prey. 



A cormorant afloat looks the very per- 

 fection of a diver, as he swims low with his 

 tail in the water and his head in the air, driving 

 himself along like a steamer, and sliding ever 

 so neatly under the water ; but he does not 

 care about staying in it nearly so much as 

 most of the divers, and when he has finished 

 fishing he comes out to roost on a tree or rock, 

 and seems never to sleep afloat as other divers 

 do. We mostly think of our common cor- 

 morant as a sea-bird, and our smaller kind, 

 the shag, very seldom leaves the rocks and the 

 salt water ; but the common cormorant, in 

 olden days when the beasts and birds had it 

 more their own way in Britain, must have 

 been much more of a fresh-water bird than 

 he is now ; we do not encourage cormorants 

 to come into the fresh water nowadays, as 

 they are so destructive to valuable fish like 

 trout and salmon. 



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