upon ancient china at Leagram Hall, Lancashire. It can easily be understood that James I., who was so
passionately fond o f sport, would not be long in taking up Cormorant-fishing; and hence we find many
interesting documents confirming this in the Record Office. From these papers it appears that he built an
extensive establishment for his Cormorants about the spot where the new Houses o f Parliament have been
erected; and here he had ponds made and stored with suitable fish, and filled witli water from the Thames
by means o f sluices. John Wood seems to have been the first Master o f the Royal Cormorants, which, like
the Master of the Horse, and the Master o f the Royal Buckhounds, was an office o f importance. Luke,
Robert, and Richard Wood, George Hutchinson, and John Harris, gentlemen, are mentioned; but they
appear to have been only Corinorant-keepers.”
“ Cormorants, when at their breeding-stations,” remarks Yarrell, “ seem to prefer the higher parts o f the
rocks or cliifs; and many birds congregate harmoniously together. They make a large nest, composed of
sticks, with a mass of seaweed and long coarse grass ; they lay four, five, and sometimes six eggs, which are
small compared with the size of the bird. The eggs are oblong, similar in shape at both ends, rough in texture
externally, o f a chalky white colour, varied with pale blue, the length two inches nine lines, by one inch and
seven lines in breadth. Mr. Selby says, •* The young, when first excluded, are blind, and covered with a
bluish-black skin; in the course of a few days they acquire a thick covering o f black down, and are sufficiently
fledged to take to the water, though still unable to fly, in the space o f three weeks or a month.’ The old
birds fly well, generally low over the surface of the water; they swim rapidly, and dive in perfection ; their
food is fish, which they appear to catch with great ease and hold with certainty by the sharp, hooked, horny
point o f the upper mandible, their dilatable throat enabling them to swallow a large prey. When fishing,
they are frequently observed to carry their heads under water, perhaps that vision may not be interfered
with by the ripple on the surface. They are frequently seen sitting on posts, rails, or leafless trees by the
water-side, when, if a fish should move on the surface within their sight, it is pounced upon and caught to a
certainty. An eel is a favourite morsel with him ; and a Cormorant has been seen to pick up an eel from
the mud, return to the rail he was previously sitting upon, strike the eel three or four hard blows against
the rail, toss it up in the air, and, catching it by the head in its fall, swallow it in an instant.”
Perhaps the most interesting feature connected with the various members o f this somewhat large family
o f water-birds is the degree o f ornamentation by which they are characterized during the periods of spring
and summer, in which respect no two species are precisely alike. Several o f the foreign kinds are more
highly decorated than our own, some having double crests, others the cheek-feathers greatly developed; and
others, again, are distinguished by peculiar marks on the thighs. That these extraordinary appendages are
perfectly useless as regards the economy o f the birds is certain; and they cannot be regarded as sexual distinctions,
both sexes being clothed alike, and the female being in some instances more beautifully marked
than the male; neither can it be for the purpose o f attracting the fishes or the lower animals upon which the
bird feeds, inasmuch as they are only carried at one season and not at others, and are not assumed under
any circumstances until the birds are fully adult, say at least two years old ; it therefore appears to me that
they are for ornamentation only. A similar nuptial dress is to be found among other groups o f water-birds,
particularly the Grebes, the Auks, and the Penguins.
The principal figure in the accompanying Plate is about two thirds o f the natural size, in the plumage o f
spring.