366 BRITISH BIRDS. 



gorge down the fish it has taken, it returns to the 

 keeper, who secures it to himself. Sometimes, 

 if the fish be too big for one to manage, two 

 will act in concert, one taking it by the head and 

 the other by the tail."* In England, according to 

 Willoughby,f they were hood-winked in the man- 

 ner of the Falcons, till they were let off to fish, and 

 a leather thong was tied round the lower part of 

 their necks, to prevent them swallowing the fish. 

 Whitlock tells us, " that he had a cast of them 

 manned like Hawks, which would come to hand." 

 He took much pleasure in them, and relates, that 

 the best he had was one presented to him by Mr. 

 Wood, Master of the Cormorants to Charles I. 



This tribe seems possessed of energies not of an 

 ordinary kind ; they are of a stern sullen character, 

 with a remarkably keen penetrating eye, and a vig- 

 orous body; and their whole deportment carries 



* Latham. 



t "When they 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 

 time, with wonderful swiftness, they pursue the fish, and when they 

 have caught them, they arise presently to the top of the water, and 

 pressing the fish lightly with their bills, they swallow them, till each 

 bird hath in this manner swallowed five or six fishes ; then their 

 keepers call them to the fist, to which they readily fly, and little by 

 little, one after another, vomit up all their fish, a little bruised with 

 the nip they gave them with their bills. When they have done fish- 

 ing, setting the birds on some high place, they loose the string from 

 their necks, leaving the passage to the stomach free and open, and 

 for their reward they throw them part of the prey they have caught, 

 to each, perchance, one or two fishes, which they by the way, as they 

 are falling in the air, will catch most dexterously in their mouths." 

 Willoughby. 



