.■J74- HlftfOilY OF 



Says an ingenious inudern, I's disagreeable ; its voice is hoarse 

 and croaking ; and all its qualities obscene. No wonder then 

 that Milton should make Satan personate this bird, when he 

 sent him upon the basest purposes, to survey with pain the 

 beauties of Paradise, and to sit devising death on the tree of 

 Hie.' It has been remarked, however, of our poet, that the 

 making a water-fowl perch upon a tree, implied no great ac- 

 quaintance with the history of nature. In vindication of MilfoUj 

 Aristotle expressly says, that the cormorant is the only water- 

 fowl that sits on trees. We have already seen the pelican of this 

 number ; and the cormorant's toes seem as fit for perching upon 

 trees as for swimming ; so that our epic bard seems to have been 

 as deeply versed in natural history as in criticism. 



Indeed this bird seems to be of a multiform nature ; and 

 wherever fish are to be found, watches their migrations. It is 

 seen as well by land as sea ; it fishes in fresh-water lakes, as 

 well as in the depths of the ocean ; it builds in the cliffs of 

 rocks, as well as on trees-, and preys not only in theday-time, 

 but by night. 



Its indefatigable nature, and its great power in catching fish^ 

 were probably the motives that induced some nations to breed 

 this bird up tame, for the purpose of fishing ; and Willoughby 

 assures us, it was once used in England for that purpose. The 

 description of their manner of fishing is thus delivered by Faber. 

 " When they carry them out of the rooms w'here they are kept, 

 to the fish-pools, they hoodwink them, that they may not be 

 frighted by the way. When they are come to the rivers, they 

 take off their hoods ; and having tied a leather thong round the 

 lower part of their necks, that they may not swallow down the 

 fish they catch, they throw them into the river. They presently 

 dive under water, and there for a long time, with wonderful 

 swiftness, pursue the fish ; and when they have caught them, 

 rise to the top of the water, and pressing the fish lightly with 

 their bills, swallow them ; till each bird hath, after this manner, 

 devoured five or six fishes. Then their keepers call them to 

 the fist, to which they readily fly ; and, one after another, vomit 

 up all their fish, a little bruised with the first nip, given in catch- 

 ing them. When they have done fishing, setting their birds on 

 some high place, they loose the string from their necks, leaving 



1 Vide Peimant's Zoology, p. 477. 



