98 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 
that it can be torn open with its long, weak bill, 
but it never attempts to bolt it whole as the 
cuckoo does. 
One day when sitting on the bank of Beaulieu 
River in Hampshire I saw a cormorant come up 
with a good-sized eel it had captured and was 
holding by the neck close to the head, but the 
long body of the eel had wound itself serpent-wise 
about the bird’s long neck, and the cormorant was 
struggling furiously to free itself. Unable to do 
so it dived, thinking perhaps to succeed better 
under water, but when it reappeared on the sur- 
face the folds of the eel appeared to have tightened 
and the bird’s struggles were weaker. Again it 
dived, and then again three or four times, still 
keeping its hold on the eel, but struggling more 
feebly each time. Finally it came up without 
the eel and so saved itself, since if it had 
kept its hold a little longer it would have been 
drowned. 
In my Land’s E'nd book I have given an account 
of a duel between a seal and a huge conger-eel it 
had captured by the middle of the body, the 
conger-eel having fastened its teeth in the seal’s 
head. 
An odd way in which birds occasionally kill 
themselves is by getting a foot caught in long 
horse-hair or thread used in building. I have 
seen sparrows and house-martins dead, suspended 
from the nest by a hair or thread under the nest 
in this way. 
