X30 SHOOTTXG. 



around their necks, which they avoid no further than by slipping ; 

 the head from side to side as long as they can. j 



Notwithstanding the natural Avildness of their disposition, it 

 seems, according to some accounts, that certain species of these 

 birds were formerly tamed, and rendered subservient to the pur--' 

 poses of man, both in this and other countries. Among the 

 Chinese, it is said, they have frequently been trained to fish, and 

 that some fishermen kept many of them for that purpose, by which: 

 they gained a good livelihood. A ring placed around the neck 

 hinders the bird from swallowing; its natural appetite joins with.' 

 the will of its master, and it instantly dives at the word of com- 

 mand ; but unable to gorge down the fish it has taken, it returns 

 to the keeper, who secures it t9 himself. Sometimes, if the iish be 

 large and ill to manage, two will act in concert, one bii'd taking it 

 by the head, and the other, by the tail. Willoughby tells us, that 

 in England, when these birds are brought to the rivers, their hoods 

 are taken off, and then a leather thong is tied round the lower 

 part of their necks, that they may not swallow down the_ fish they, 

 take. The birds are then thrown into the water ; they dive imme- 

 diately, and, for a time, with remarkable swiftness, pursuing the 

 fish with great ardour. _ Wlien they have caught thern, they rise to 

 the surface, and pressing the fish lightly with their bills, they 

 swallow them, till each bird has swallowed five or six ; then the 

 keepers call them to the fist, to which they_ readily fly, and little by 

 little, one after the other, vomit up all their finny captures, whicn^ 

 appear sometimes a little bruised, with the nip the bii'd has given 

 them with its hooked bill. When the fishermen have done, they 

 set the bird on some high place, and then loose the string from 

 their necks, which leaves the passage free of air to the stomach, and 

 by way of encouragement part of the prey is given back again to 

 each bii'd. Whitlock tells us, likewise, that he had a cost of cor-i 

 morants manned like hawks, which would come to hand. He took; 

 great pleasure in them, and relates, that the best he had was one.' 

 presented him by Mr. Wood, Master of the Cormorants to Charles 

 the Eirst. 



Dr. Heysham relates, that about the year 1759, one of these bii'ds 

 perched upon the castle at Carlisle, and soon afterwards removed 

 to the Cathedi'al, where it was shot at upwards of twenty times,; 

 without effect ; at length a person got upon the cathedral, fired at; 

 and killed it. In another instance, a flock of fifteen or twenty perched^- 

 at the dusk of evening, on a tree, on the banks of the river Esk,. 

 near Netherby, the seat of Sir James Graham. A person who saw 

 them settle, fired at random at them, in the dark, six or seven times, 

 without either killing any or frightening them away. SiiTprised 

 at this, he came again at daylight, and succeeded in killing one, 

 when the rest took flight.* 



Colonel Hawker tells us, that the cormorants may be seen in the 



* Latham, Willoughby, Bewick, &c. 



