186 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



see him straining vio- 

 lently with repeated 

 efforts to gulp it, and 

 when you fancy that 

 the slippery mouthful 

 is successfully dis- 

 posed of, all of a sud- 

 den the eel retrogrades 

 upward from its dis- 

 mal sepulchre, strug- 

 gling violently to es- 

 cape. The Cormorant 

 swallows it again, and 

 up again it comes, and 

 shows its tail a foot or 

 more out of its de- 

 stroyer's mouth. At 

 length, worn out with 

 perpetual writhings and slidings, the eel is gulped down 

 into the Cormorant's stomach, there to meet its dreaded 

 and inevitable fate." 



301. The Tropic Bird, Fig. 154, is reckoned among the 



Fig. 153 Cormorant. 



Fig. 154. Tropic Bird. 



