BIRDS. 319 
fish ; the fresh water, and the briny waves of the sea both 
pay a large contribution to its craving stomach. The bill 
is about five inches in length, and of a dusky colour ; the 
predominant tints of the body are black and dark green. 
The smell of these birds when alive, is excessively rank 
and disagreeable ; and their flesh is so disgusting, that 
even the Greenlanders, among whom they are very com- 
mon, will scarcely eat it. They were formerly tamed in 
England for the purpose of catching fish, as falcons and 
hawks were for chasing the fleet inhabitants of the air. 
We are told that the custom is still in full practice in 
China. This bird, although of the aquatic kind, is often 
seen, like the pelican, perched upon trees. Milton tells 
us that Satan 
on the tree of life, 
The middle tree, and highest there that grew, 
Sat like a Cormorant. 
In the year 1793, one of them was observed sitting on 
the vane of St. Martin's steeple, Ludgate Hill, London, 
and was shot there in the presence of a great number of 
people. 
The crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax cristatus) is of 
a dark green, with a singular tuft on the front of the head. 
It breeds in rocky caves on the sea-coast. 
