BIRDS TRAINED TO FISH. 216 



of many other fowls that prey upon fish, but the wonderful 

 circumstance is the docility of these birds in employing their 

 natural instinctive powers at the command of the fishermen 

 who possess them, in the same manner as the hound, the 

 spaniel, or the pointer submit their respective sagacity to 

 the huntsman or the fowler. The number of these birds in 

 a boat is proportioned to the size of it. At a certain signal 

 they rush into the water and dive after the fish, and the 

 moment they have seized their prey, they fly with it to their 

 boat, and though there may be a hundred of these vessels 

 together, the birds always return to their own masters ; and 

 amidst the crowd of fishing-junks which are sometimes 

 assembled on these occasions, they never fail to distinguish 

 that to which they belong. When the fish are in great 

 plenty, these astonishing purveyors will soon fill a boat with 

 them, and will sometimes be seen flying along with a fish of 

 such size as to make the beholder suspect his organs of 

 vision ; and such is their sagacity that when one of them hap- 

 pens to have taken a fish which is too large for a single fal- 

 con, the rest immediately lend their assistance. While they 

 are thus laboring for their masters, they are prevented from 

 paying any attention to themselves by a ring which is passed 

 round their necks, and is so contrived as to frustrate every 

 attempt to swallow the least morsel of what they take. 

 They eat thankfully what is afterwards given them in 

 reward. One of the old domestic sports of the Earls of 

 Monteith, in their island home of Talla, was fishing with 

 geese. A line with a baited hook was tied to the leg of a 

 goose, which was made to swim in water of proper depth. 

 A boat well filled escorted this formidable knight-errant. A 

 marauding fish would take hold of the bait, and put his 

 mettle to the test. A combat ensued, in which, by the dis- 

 play of both contending heroes of much strength and agility 

 the goose always came off victorious, and would drag his 

 prisoner to the boat in triumph. 



