PHALACROCORAX CARBO. 



(The Cormorant.) 



" Thence up he flew, and on the tree of life. 

 The middle tree and highest there that grew. 

 Sat like a Cormorant." 



Paradise Lost, E. IV. 



Why Milton should have selected the poor Cormorant as the emblem of 

 the evil spirit is not clear. The Dove, from its gentle nature, having been 

 taken for the third person of the Trinity, has been adopted by all persons. 

 Jack, on the other hand, calls the Cormorant an " Isle-of- Wight parson " 

 (Doran's 'Saints and Sinners,' vol. ii. p. 139). This latter designation 

 doubtless arises from the plumage. One of these birds was captured in a 

 curious manner at Parnham, Dorsetshire. When the housemaid opened the 

 shutters a Cormorant was seated on the window-ledge, and she put her apron 

 over it and secured it. The sea is about eight miles off, Bridport being the 

 nearest point. 



The best account of Cormorant-fishing that I have met with is from 

 ' Life in China,' by the Rev. Wilham C. Milne, M.A. (p. 306) :— 



" At the foot of the Tung-tsze-shan rapid, on the left hand, there rises a 

 high precipitous rock called the Tsiang-keun, or Commander-in-chief Cliff. 

 Here for a while I had an opportunity of watching a couple of fishermen 

 engaged in fishing by Cormorants. It has been reported by some foreigners 

 that these are not used in summer; but here, on the 14th of July, they were 

 at work with them in the river. The boat was small, wdth two men in it 

 and some twenty of these aquatics. There is nothing remarkable in their 



