118 Salmonidze 
They come waddling into the yard, the three birds with which 
we are to do our fishing. Black cormorants they are, each with 
a white spot behind its eye, and a hoarse voice, come of standing 
in the water, with which it says y-eugh whenever a stranger 
makes a friendly overture. The cormorants answer to the 
name of Ou, which in Japanese is something like the only word 
the cormorants can say. The boy puts them in a box together 
and we set off across the drifted gravel to the Tamagawa. Ar- 
rived at the stream, the boy takes the three cormorants out of 
the box and adjusts their fishing-harness. This consists of a 
tight ring about the bottom of the neck, of a loop under each 
wing, and a directing line. 
Two other boys take a low net. They drag it down the 
stream, driving the little fishes—ayu, zakko, haé, and all the 
rest—before it. The boy with the cormorants goes in advance. 
The three birds are eager as pointer dogs, and apparently full 
of perfect enjoyment. To the right and left they plunge with 
lightning strokes, each dip bringing up a shining fish. When 
the bird’s neck is full of fishes down to the level of the shoulders, 
the boy draws him in, grabs him by the leg, and shakes him 
unceremoniously over a basket until all the fishes have flopped 
out. 
The cormorants watch the sorting of the fish with eager 
eyes and much repeating of y-eugh, the only word they know. 
The ayu are not for them, and some of the kajikas and hazés 
were prizes of science. But zakko (the dace) and haé (the 
minnow) were made for the cormorant. The boy picks out 
the chubs and minnows and throws them to one bird and then 
another. Each catches his share on the fly, swallows it at one 
gulp, for the ring is off his neck by this time, and then says 
y-eugh, which means that he likes the fun, and when we are 
ready will be glad to try again. And no doubt they have tried 
it many times since, for there are plenty of fishes in the Jewel 
River, zakko and haé as well as ayu. 
Fossil Salmonide.—Fossil salmonide are rare and known 
chiefly from detached scales, the bones in this family being 
very brittle and easily destroyed. Nothing is added to our 
knowledge of the origin of these fishes from such fossils. 
A large fossil trout or salmon, called Rhabdofario lacustris, 
