132 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
fishes. Then their keepers call them to the fist, to which 
they readily tly ; and, one after another, vomit up all their 
fish, a little bruised with the first nip given in catching 
them. When they have done fishing, setting the birds on 
some high place, they loose the string (rom their necks, 
leaving the passage to the stomach free and open ; and, for 
their reward, they throw them part of their prey ; to each 
one or two fishes, which they will catch most dexterously 
as they are falling in the air.” 
At present, the corvorant is trained up in every part of 
China for the same purpose. “ It is very pleasant to behold 
with what sagacity they portion out the lake or the canal 
where they are upon duty. When they have found their 
prey, they seize it with their beak by the middle, and carry 
it without fail to their master. When the fish is too large, 
they then give each other mutual assistance : one seizes it 
by the head, the other by the tail, and in this manner 
carry it to the boat together. They have always, while they 
fish, a string fastened round their throats, to prevent them 
from devouring their prey.” 
The Shag, which the French call the lesser corvorant, is 
another of the pelican genus. The common shag is in length 
two feet. The general colour of its plumage is black, the 
belly is dusky, and the head and neck glossed with green. 
Like the corvorant it builds in trees. The crested shag is 
somewhat less than the preceding, and is less common. The 
violet , and red-faced shags , are both natives of Kamschatka; 
and spotted and carunculated shags are found in New Zea- 
land. Besides these, there are several other foreign species, 
particularly in Africa, where there are two kinds of shags 
not larger than a teal. 
The Gannet , or Soland Goose , is of the size of a tame 
goose, but its wings much longer, being six feet over. The 
bill is six inches long, straight almost to the point. It dif- 
fers from the corvorant in size, being larger ; in its colour, 
which is chiefly white, and by its having no nostrils, but in 
their place a long furrow that reaches almost to the end of 
the bill. From the corner of the mouth is a narrow slip of 
black bare skin, that extends to the hind part of the head ; 
beneath the skin is another that, like the pouch of the peli- 
can, is dilatable, and of size sufficient to contain five or six 
entire herrings, which in the breeding season it carries at 
once to its mate or its young. 
These birds, which subsist entirely upon fish, chiefly re- 
sort to those uninhabited islands where their food is found 
in plenty, and men seldom come to disturb them. The 
