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- 
len 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.—Tropie Bird. 
