“THE OORMORANT. 231

-preen their feathers on the terrace which rises from the
water, within ten yards of the drawing-room windows.
“The cormorant may be justly styled the feathered terror
of the finny tribe. His skill in diving is most admirable,
and his success beyond belief: you may know him at a
distance among a thousand water-fowl, by his upright neck,
by his body being apparently half-immersed in water, and
by his being perpetually in motion when not on land.
While the ducks, teal, and widgeon are stationary on the
pool, the cormorant is seen swimming to and fro ‘as if in
quest of something.’ First raising his body perpendicu-
larly, down he plunges into the deep; and after staying
there a considerable time, he is seen to bring up a fish,
which he invariably swallows head foremost. -Sometimes
half an hour elapses before he can manage to accommodate
a large eel quietly in his stomach. You see him straining
violently, with repeated efforts to gulp it; and when you
fancy that the slippery mouthfall is successfully disposed of,
all on a sudden the eel retrogrades upwards from its dismal
sepulchre, struggling violently to escape. The cormorant
swallows it again, and up again it comes, and shows its tail
a foot or more out of its destroyer’s mouth. At length
worn. out with ineffectual writhings and slidings, the eel is