DIVERS, GREBES, AND CORMORANTS. 175 



tamed, and from the earliest recorded times it has 

 been trained to capture fish for its owner. To this 

 day the Chinese and Japanese train Cormorants for 

 this purpose. In England this sport was once a 

 regal pleasure, the Master of the Cormorants finding 

 a place in the Royal household. According to 

 Professor Newton, the sport still lingers amongst a 

 few. Willughby asserts that the trained Cormorant 

 was carried hooded until cast off, but nowadays its 

 bearer protects his eyes from a stroke from the 

 bird's beak, with a wire mask. A strap or a ring is 

 fastened round the Cormorant's neck, to prevent 

 it swallowing its captures, just as we muzzle a ferret 

 to prevent it lying up. All who have witnessed this 

 novel way of fishing testify to the bird's marvellous 

 skill in catching fish after fish, until the gular pouch 

 will hold no more, when the Cormorant is taken, and 

 the fish removed. The food of this bird is composed 

 almost entirely of fish. In winter Cormorants 

 become even more gregarious, often associating 

 in large flocks which wander far in quest of food. 

 This bird is not so completely pelagic in its habits 

 as the Auks, the Divers, and the Grebes. It generally 

 retires to the caves and shelves of the cliffs to sleep, 

 whilst stormy weather will drive it shorewards soon, 

 where it will sit and mope on the rocks, or shelter 

 in the quiet creeks, or under the lee of cliffs, as if 

 waiting for the sea to subside, and allow of its 

 labours being renewed. 



As the Cormorant returns for years in succession 



