260 FISHING WITH CORMORANTS. 



under water like the otter, only coming to the surface 

 occasionally for breath. 



Indeed the voracity of this bird, which, doubtless, 

 suggested the name cormorants, has become so proverbial, 

 that a man of large appetite is often likened to a cor- 

 morant. 



In this sense Shakespeare has frequently employed the 

 word as an adjective, and we find such expressions as 



" The cormorant belly." 



Coriolanus, Act i. Sc. i. 



" This cormorant war." 



Troilus and Cressida, Act ii. Sc. 2. 



And 



"Cormorant devouring time." 



Love's Labour's Lost, Act i. Sc. i. 



Ravenous as the cormorant is, it is easily tamed, and 

 becomes very attached and familiar. The use of trained 

 cormorants for fishing is very ancient, and is believed to 

 have originated with the Chinese.* The practice has 

 been known in England, however, for many centuries. 

 Ogleby, who went on an embassy to China in the time 

 of James I., and who published an account of his travels 

 on his return, describes the way in which the Chinese take 



* In China, at the present day, an allied species, Ph. sinensis, is reared and 

 trained to fish. 



