512 



Crcotfurg at Natural 5? 



country between the towns of Hang-chow- 

 foo and Shang-hae. I also saw great num- 

 bers of them on the river Min, near Foo- 

 chow-foo. I was most anxious to get some 

 living specimens, that I might take them 

 home to England. Having great difficulty 

 in inducing the Chinese to part with them, 

 or, indeed, to speak at all on the subject, 

 when I met them in the country, owing to 

 our place of meeting being generally in 

 those parts of the interior where the English 

 are never seen, I applied to her Majesty's 

 consul at Shang-hae (Captain Balfour), who 

 very kindly sent one of the Chinese con- 

 nected with the consulate into the country, 

 and procured two pairs for me. The diffi- 

 culty now was to provide food for them on 

 the voyage from Shang-hae to Hong-Kong. 

 We procured a large quantity of live eels, 

 this being a principal part of their food, and 

 put them into a jar of mud and fresh water. 

 These they eat in a most voracious manner, 

 swallowing them whole, and, in many in- 

 stances, vomiting them afterwards. If one 

 bird was unlucky enough to vomit his eel, 

 he was fortunate indeed if he caught it 

 again, for another, as voracious as himself, 

 would instantly seize it, and swallow it in a 

 moment. Often they would fight stoutly 

 for the fish, and then it either became the 

 property of one, or, as often happened, their 

 sharp bills divided the prey, and each ran 

 off and devoured the half which fell to his 

 share. During the passage down we en- 

 countered a heavy gale at sea ; and as 

 the vessel was one of those small clipper 

 schooners, she pitched and rolled very much, 

 shipping seas from bow to stem, which set 

 eve 

 my 



was at its height, and the first thing I saw 

 was the cormorants devouring the eels, 

 which were floating all over the decks. I 

 then knew that the jar must have been 

 turned over or smashed to pieces, and that 

 of course all the eels which escaped the bills 

 of the cormorants were now swimming in 

 the ocean. After this I was obliged to feed 

 them upon anything on board which I could 

 find ; but when I arrived at Hong-Kong 

 they were not in very good condition : two 

 of them died soon after : and as there was 

 no hope of taking the others home alive, I 

 was obliged to kill them and preserve their 

 skins. 



" The Chinaman from whom I bought 

 these birds has a large establishment for 

 fishing and breeding the birds about tliirty 

 or forty miles from Shanghae, and between 

 that town and Chapoo. They sell at a high 

 price even amongst the Chinese themselves ; 

 I believe from six to eight dollars per pair, 

 that is, from thirty shillings to forty shillings. 

 As I was anxious to learn something of their 

 food and habits, Mr. Medhurst, junior, the 

 interpreter to the British consulate at Shang- 

 hae, kindly undertook to put some questions 

 to the man who brought them, and sent me 

 the following notes connected with this sub- 

 ject: 'The fish-catching birds eat small 

 fish, yellow eels, and pulse-jelly. At 5 P. M. 

 every day each bird will eat six taels (eight 

 ounces) of eels or fish, and a catty of pulse- 



rything on her decks swimming. I put 

 head out of the cabin door when the gale 



jelly. They lay eggs after three years, and 

 in the fourth or fifth month. Hens are used 

 to incubate the eggs. When about to lay, 

 their faces turn red, and then a good hen 

 must be prepared. The date must be clearly 

 written upon the shells of the eggs laid, and 

 they will hatch in less than twenty-five 

 days. When hatched, take the young and 

 put them upon cotton, spread upon some 

 warm water, and feed them with eel's blood 

 for five days. After five days they can be 

 fed with eel's flesh chopped fine, and great 

 care must be taken in watching them. 

 When fishing, a straw tie must be put upon 

 their necks, to prevent them from swallow- 

 ing the fish when they catch them. In the 

 eighth or ninth month of the year they will 

 daily descend into the water at ten o'clock 

 in the morning, and catch fish until five in 

 the afternoon, when they will come on shore. 

 They will continue to go on in this way 

 until the third month, after which time 

 they cannot fish until the eighth month 

 comes round again. The male is easily 

 known from the female, it being generally a 

 larger bird, and in having a darker and 

 more glossy feather, but more particularly 

 in the size of the head, the head of the male 

 being large, and that of the female small.' 

 Such are the habits of this extraordinary 

 bird. As the months named in the note 

 just quoted refer to the Chinese calendar, it 

 follows that these birds do not fish in the 

 summer months, but commence in autumn, 

 about October, and end about May periods 

 agreeing nearly with the eighth and third 

 month of the Chinese year." [See Cou- 



MORA.NT.] 



The SPOTTED CORMORANT. (Phalacro- 

 corax punctatus.) This beautiful species 

 of Cormorant is a native of New Zealand, 

 where it is said to be abundant, although it 

 is extremely rare in ornithological collec- 

 tions. It builds among rocks, and also on 

 trees which grow near the water. It is de- 

 scribed in Mr. Gould's splendid " Birds of 

 Australia" as follows : " Vertical and oc- 

 cipital crest, crown of the head and throat 

 sooty black ; back of the neck, lower part of 

 the back, and rump glossy green ; a white 

 stripe commencing above the eye passes 

 down each side of the neck to the flanks ; 

 lower part of the neck, chest, and abdomen, 

 beautiful leaden gray ; under tail-coverts 

 and tail black ; mantle, scapularies, and 

 wings brownish ash, all the feathers except 

 the secondaries and primaries having a 

 small spot of black at their tip ; from the 

 throat, sides, and back of the neck and 

 thighs, arise numerous plume-like white 

 feathers of a soft loose texture ; those on the 

 sides and back of the neck are very nume- 

 rous, but on the other parts they are few 

 and thinly scattered." 



PHAL^NA. [See MOTH.] 



PHAL ANGER. (Phalangista.) A genus 

 of Marsupial animals, distinguished by hav- 

 ing the second and third toes of the hiud 

 feet united as far as the last phalanx in a 

 common cutaneous sheath. The Phalan- 

 gista Cuvieri may be taken as an example. 



