Cormorant-Fishing. 263 



cannot swallow what it catches. A man on a raft has 

 two cormorant assistants — the one is resting while the 

 other is fishing — and the man uses a long pole, which 

 he stretches out to the point where the bird rises, and 

 aids it to come on the raft with its prize. This style of 

 fishing was practised in our own country up, at all 

 events, to the time of Charles the First ; for we find 

 from authoritative documents that the fishing birds were 

 procured from Norfolk, and that he had a Master of the 

 Cormorants. Gunpowder made an end of hawking. 

 We are not aware exactly what put an end to cor- 

 morant fishing in England : possibly it just passed out 

 of fashion. As in the case of catching fish with tamed 

 otters, where the animal every short time gets a fish to 

 encourage him to go on, so precisely do the cormorants. 



As for the petrels, they are everywhere ; and the tiny 

 stormy petrel, though the smallest of all, as bold as 

 any, and perhaps most enduring. Petrels have been 

 observed 2000 miles from land. The giant frigate 

 bird, black and bold, has been seen 400 leagues from 

 land, and yet is said to return every night to its solitary 

 roost — which will suffice to give an idea of the power 

 of wing in these sea-birds. But the penguin, which 

 has but undeveloped wings, has transmuted them into 

 the most splendid oars or paddles. It moves through 

 the water at such a rate that few fishes can surpass it ; 

 and it has been seen quietly paddling at no less a 

 distance than 1000 miles from land. 



Certain other birds are very fond of periodically 

 paying the sea-shore a visit to swell the company and 

 give variety. The ring dotterel, that robin redbreast of 

 the sea-shore, which the natives in certain parts will 

 not shoot, is a pretty bird, gentle and trustful, and 

 pipes in a cheerful way as it moves along. The 



