Cormorants 



English tongue has corrupted first corvorant, then cormorant, 

 whose significance we do not always remember. 



Long, serried ranks of double-crested cormorants come fly- 

 ing northward from the Gulf states in April, and pass along the 

 Atlantic shores so high overhead that the amateur observer 

 guesses they are large ducks from their habit of flight, not being 

 able to distinguish their plumage. In the interior of the United 

 States, as well as on the coast, they make frequent breaks in the 

 long migration to their northern nesting grounds, when, if we 

 are fortunate enough, we may watch their interesting hunting 

 habits. Flying low, or just above the surface of the water, 

 the cormorant, suddenly catching sight of a fish, dives straight 

 after it ; darts under water like a flash ; pursues and captures the 

 victim, though to do it, it must sometimes stay for a long time 

 submerged; then reappears with the fish held tightly in its 

 hooked beak, from which there is no escape. Before the prize is 

 swallowed it is first tossed in the air, then as it descends head 

 downward it lands in the sack or dilatable skin of the cormo- 

 rant's throat, there to remain in evidence from without until, 

 partly digested, it passes on to the lower part of the bird's 

 stomach. After its voracious appetite has been appeased, the 

 cormorant appears moody and glum. 



On the shores of inland waters, particularly, the cormorant 

 often seeks a distended branch of some tree overhanging the lake 

 or river, to sit there, a sombre, meditative figure, only intent on 

 the fish below. In "Paradise Lost," after likening Satan to a wolf 

 preying upon lambs in the sheepfold, Milton continues with 

 another simile : 



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

 The middle tree, and highest there that grew, 

 Sat like a cormorant : yet not true life 

 Thereby regained, but sat devising death 

 To them who lived." 



In Milton's day it was royal sport to go a-fishing with half- 

 domesticated, trained cormorants. A strap was fastened around 

 the bird's throat tight enough to keep it from swallowing its 

 legitimate prey, but loose enough for it to take a full breath. 

 Then it was released to furnish amusement for the royal company 

 assembled on the shore as it darted like an arrow through the 

 clear waters, hunted the fish out of their holes, pursued, cap- 



78 



