414 COBMOBANTS. [CHAP, xn 



" On the pond I have three Cormorants (Pelecanus 

 carbo) whose diving and traversing the bottom of the 

 pond often amuse my visitors. In default of fish, they 

 thrive well on bullock's liver. They sit much on a 

 perch erected for them on the margin of the pond, and 

 in the middle of it I have placed two genuine joints of 

 the columnar basalt of the Giant's Causeway, rising 

 above the water, where one of the birds delights to 

 perch and makes rather a picturesque appearance. 



" I see that I had omitted to mention that soon after 

 the loss of my breeding Herons, I obtained a hen bird, 

 which survived all the devastations of the railway, and 

 about five years ago I got a cock Heron. Both are now 

 perfectly domesticated, but have shown no indications 

 of pairing." P.N. 



Dr. Neill's mention of his Cormorants suggests an- 

 other great fund of interest to be derived from the 

 inmates of a Gullery ; namely, that this genus of birds 

 are not merely tameable but docile. The difference of 

 disposition that exists between different sea-fowl is 

 immense. We might at first believe them to be all 

 equally wild and irreclaimable, but young full-grown 

 Guillemots are so stupid as to allow themselves to be 

 taken out of the water by hand. Once, when standing 

 on Yarmouth jetty, I saw an individual of this species 

 drifting along with the tide, and by descending some 

 steps in the direction of which it was floating, I lifted it 

 out of the sea without its attempting to escape. And 

 yet it would not eat under its new circumstances, and I 

 was obliged to turn it loose again at the end of two or 

 three days' starvation. The bird is generally so sulky 

 when caught, as to be difficult to keep alive in captivity. 

 Whereas Cormorants, wary and cunning in a wild state, 

 are, when made prisoners, soon at home, and even 



