Cormorants 47 



of fare, and one too large to swallow otherwise is deftly 

 rolled round in the bill till it is brought within manageable 

 dimensions. Taking it altogether, fish of all sorts, in this 

 country, have probably no more formidable feathered foe 

 than the Cormorant. Strained and laborious though his 

 movements through the air may appear, and clumsy and 

 uncouth as they undoubtedly are upon land, few birds are 

 more thoroughly at home in the water. There, his every 

 action becomes instinct with a vigour and alertness that 

 cannot fail to arrest the eye of all beholders. Propelled 

 through the water by rapid strokes of his powerful feet, 

 which, ungainly and misshapen though they may appear 

 upon land, act, in the other element, like the paddles of a 

 small engine, the bird is able to turn almost with the 

 rapidity of a fish itself by the slightest movement of its 

 large and rudder-like tail. The long recurved neck is held 

 in readiness, meanwhile, to be shot out with lightning speed, 

 and unerring aim, the moment prey is approached with 

 sufficient nearness ; and woe betide any small fish which 

 may then find itself within striking distance of the for- 

 midable beak, or which may come within the ken of the 

 keen green eye that seems to pierce alike the depths of the 

 weed bed, and the innermost recesses amongst the rocks, in 

 which the unhappy fry would seek to hide themselves. 



Even minnows and stickle-backs are not beneath a 

 Cormorant's notice, but there can be little doubt that it 

 prefers larger and more satisfying prey, and where, as in 

 this part of Wales, it fishes fearlessly up all the small streams, 

 the number of trout consumed must be considerable. In 

 no other part of the country have I seen Cormorants dare to 

 trust themselves in such shallow and narrow reaches of a 

 river. They were frequently noticed close up to the village, 

 and one day, on the Lliw, I walked right on top of one in 

 a little pool, when it floundered out from beneath some 

 willow bushes and went scurrying over the gravelly stream 

 like some overgrown Water-Hen ! On another occasion 1 

 stalked up to one that was fishing nearer the mouth of 

 the same river, and when he came up, about twenty 

 yards away, with a perch kicking between his mandibles, 



