452 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
boat, and when he comes to a place where there are fish, he 
sends them in. They disappear under water, and in about five 
minutes reappear, bringing the fish to the feet of their owner. 
It is most interesting to see two or three of them join together 
in bringing back an unusually large fish. This sort of fishing is 
very profitable and very amusing. 
M. le President: Would the Chinese Cormorant be easy to 
introduce into this country ? 
M. Pichot: The Cormorant is a bird of our own country. 
The Chinese species, although smaller, differs very little frem 
ours. They are called Lu-tze in China, or Shui-lao-ya, which 
means ‘ Sea-crow.’ I may add on this subject, that having given 
my attention to falconry for fifteen years, I have been naturally 
attracted to fishing with Cormorants. I had, in 1861, the first 
trained Cormorants which had been seen in France for many 
years, for at one time Cormorant fishing was a royal sport.* 
I had in my service at that time a well-known Scotch falconer, 
John Barr, who was clever in training all sorts of birds, and who 
was for a long time in India with the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh, 
now resident in England, where he owns one of the finest sporting 
estates imaginable. John Barr trained some Cormorants for me 
to perfection. Since that time my friends or myself have almost 
constantly had trained Cormorants, and I have oven worked some 
of these birds in the water in the Jardin d’Acclimatation. I do 
not know at this moment whether any of my friends still keep 
Cormorants, but about eighteen months ago, during the autumn 
vacation, I trained two Cormorants perfectly for fishing which 
I had simply taken from the lake in the Jardin d’Acclimatation. 
In a fortnight they were perfectly trained, going to the water to 
look for fish and bringing them back, though rather unwillingly, 
be it understood ; for it is necessary to put a strap round their 
necks to prevent them from swallowing the smaller fish. 
M. le Secrétaire Raveret-Wattel: I may add that at the 
International Fisheries Exhibition in London there were a great 
number of Cormorants, which were exhibited by Chinese, and 
fished every day before the public, forming one of the great 
attractions of the Exhibition. All these birds were, in fact, 
furnished with straps, so as to prevent them from swallowing 
* See the chapter on “Fishing with Goemnenet in ‘ Essays on Sport 
and Natural History,’ by J. E. Harting, pp. 423—440. 
