26o 
FISHING WITH CORMORANTS. 
under water like the otter, only coming to the surface 
occasionally for breath. 
Indeed the voracity of this bird, which, doubtless, 
suggested the name cormoranus , has become so proverbial, 
that a man of large appetite is often likened to a cor¬ 
morant. 
In this sense Shakespeare has frequently employed the 
word as an adjective, and we find such expressions as— 
“ The cormorant belly.” 
Coriolanus , Act i. Sc. i. 
And— 
“ This cormorant war.” 
Troilus and Cressida , Act ii. Sc. 2. 
“ Cormorant devouring time.” 
Love's Labour 's Lost , Act i. Sc. 1. 
Ravenous as the cormorant is, it is easily tamed, and 
becomes very attached and familiar. The use of trained 
cormorants for fishing is very ancient, and is believed to 
have originated with the Chinese.* The practice has 
been known in England, however, for many centuries. 
Ogleby, who went on an embassy to China in the time 
of James I., and who published an account of his travels 
on his return, describes the way in which the Chinese take 
* In China, at the present day, an allied species, Ph. sinensis, is reared and 
trained to fish. 
