THE CORMORANT 167 
tank with water and fish, you put the birds in, and so entice them to fish, re- 
warding them by removing the strap and giving them a bit of fish. These lessons, 
especially with the example of an old hand or ‘make bird,’ will soon get them 
ready for the brook or pond * * * *, They will go at any sort of fish, but 
perch are apt to hurt them with their large dorsal fins, unless they have their 
straps off. If there are no fish in the place you are ‘drawing,’ they will let you 
know this by flapping their wings. To make young birds hold fish, strap all 
your birds and give one a fish of some size, and you will find he will keep it 
down to prevent being robbed by the others. The best way of keeping trained 
Cormorants, is to place large stones in a yard littered down with straw, and sup- 
plied with a bath, for they wash after feeding. From this yard there should be 
a warm open shed, also supplied with large stones for them to sit upon if they 
like to retire there. This place must be either walled in, or fenced in, with upright 
palings, for I have found that, otherwise, they can pull themselves up with their 
bills in parrot fashion, and so get out. They should only be fed once a day, 
allowing them a ‘full gorge’ on Saturdays, occasionally when you are not working 
them, for when you are using them, they require to be underfed.”’ 
The Cormorant walks badly on land, but as a diver it has few equals, except 
perhaps the Darter and the Penguin, progressing under water by means of its feet, if 
not by both feet and wings. ‘‘ The activity the bird displays under water,” remarks 
Professor Newton, ‘‘is almost incredible to those who have not seen its performances, 
and in a shallow river scarcely a fish escapes its keen eyes and sudden turns.” 
It flies rapidly, but rather heavily, with its neck outstretched, and its legs extended 
under its tail. 
Cormorants are extremely voracious and “full of glotonie,” and ‘‘ when gorged 
or when the state of the tide precludes fishing, they are fond,” as Professor 
Newton observes, ‘‘of sitting on an elevated perch, often with extended wings, and 
in this attitude they will sit motionless for a considerable time, as though hanging 
themselves out to dry, but hardly, as the fishermen report, sleeping the while. It 
was perhaps this peculiarity that struck the observation of Milton, and prompted 
his well-known similitude of Satan to a Cormorant,” who 
“On the tree of life 
The middle tree and highest tree that grew, 
Sat like a Cormorant,” 
‘but when not thus behaving, they themselves provoke the more homely comparison 
of a row of black bottles.” 
The Cormorant lives to a considerable age. A bird belonging to Mr. Salvin, 
attained to twenty-three years, and was the progenitor of the first Cormorant bred 
in captivity in England. 
