260 BRITISH BIRDS' EGGS. 



Cormorant extends around the coasts of our mainland and 

 islands, breeding in suitable localities, and in winter enter- 

 ing the bays and estuaries, following up river-courses, and 

 frequenting inland waters where these are not distant from 

 the sea. While passing over the land, it flies high, and 

 during its inland visits is known to roost at night upon 

 trees which overhang the river near its fishing stations. It 

 is voracious in the extreme, and is an unwearied and active 

 fisher pursuing its prey beneath the water, occasionally 

 rising to take breath, and then renewing the chase. But 

 ravenous as it is, it is easily tamed, and becomes very at- 

 tached and familiar, and formerly, both in our own country 

 and in Holland, was trained to fish, and it appears that in 

 this country there was such an office as that of "Master of 

 the Cormorants." In China, at the present day, an allied 

 species, Ph. Sinensis, is bred and trained to fishing. Sir 

 George Staunton, who observed the birds of this latter spe- 

 cies on the waters of that country, says : " On a large lake 

 close to this part of the canal, and to the eastward of it, are 

 thousands of small boats and rafts, built entirely for this 

 species of fishery. On each boat or raft are ten or a dozen 

 birds, which at a signal from the owner plunge into the 

 water ; and it is astonishing to see the enormous size of the 



