The Arizona sentinel., 1886-12-11
A BABY CoRMORANT.


 Way of Fishing-A Great Colony of His
 Kind on the Danube River.
 Here sit in my nest of sea-weed, waiting for my dinner. You may call me Tom All-alone, if you like; but in atl- other fortnight you won'tsee me on this rock, for then shall be able to fly of and provide for myself. You want to know my real nameP Well, I'm cor morant, and I am given to understand that that word means a sea-cow. 1 daresay that is quite right, though I can not be said to bear any resemblance to your old friend Jim.
 I am fond of eating. People say that cormorants are great and greedy eaters, and they are not far wrong. We kill a tremendous quantity of fishes, and for that reason are not popular in many To- calities-inland places especially. That is why, as rule, we prefer to live by the ocean, where our fnny prey are plentiful. and there is no one to com plain of our taking just as many of them as we please; but case is recorded of of some of our folk settling in the mid dle of town, and choosing the church tower for their headquarters.
 I think that the cormorants may be proud of the way in which they sustain the good name of the bird for intel ligence. Though you would not ex- pect us to be skilfu1 at fishing for others, seeing that we are so fond of eating all that we catch, I understand that our Chinese brothers are regularly tanned and trained to fish for man. This train ing begins from their infancy. They have hardly left the shell before they are taken to the water and taught to do what their master tells them, and to bring to him the fishes which they capture.
 The Chinaman goes out on the water on bamboo raft, which he drives about with a paddle, and each raft carries three or four cormorants. The only in timation that the bird gets when it is wanted to angle is a rough push off the raft. Should it be unwilling or too lazy to fish, the man strikes the water with his paddle, or else gives the cormo- rant tap with it, whereupon it dives to escape the blows. As soon as it secures a fish it rises to the surface, and, natu- rally enough, tries to swallow its vic tim. But, of course, John Chinaman has no intention to allow it to enjoy the fruits of its labor. How does he pre- vent this? Wise as we are, man is wiser; and so the cunning raftsman ties a string, or fastens a metal ring, round the birds neck, which prevents it from swallowing any but the smallest fishes. The cormorant either brings it's prey to the raft, or else the raft is swiftly padded towards it lest the fish escape, for the bird has often tough struggle before it catches large fish. A net is cleverly thrown over the bird, and it is hauled on the raft. The fish is then forced from its grasp and pitched into big basket, while the cormorant is rewarded with a mouthful of food, of which it is enable to partake by the ring being raised.
 Sometimes bird will make an at tempt to escape. In this case the China man paddles after it and soon overtakes it. But in order to crush these efforts after freedom, it is often the custom to chain the cormorant to the raft. 1 have heard that two of the birds will quar- rel for the fish that one of them has caught, and that the unsuc- cessful angler will at times chase the more fortunate bird and try to deprive it of it's victim. This proves they are capable of rivalry. and even of jealousy. These fishing exploits generally attract crowds of human spectators, who shout out loudly at the smart pieces of angling. I have no ambition to be trained fish CT, for, after all, it is slavery as com pared with the life of the wild cormo- rants, who can fish in the sea the whole day if they choose, and only for them selves and their children.
 have heard there are colonies of cor morants on some of the islands of the Danube river. A party of sportsmen once visited them, and were received with shouts of laughter by the older birds, and with whistling noises by the younger. Their nerves were upset, however, by shot, which made them dart from their nests with the speed of arrows. The observers having hidden themselves among the bushes, the birds cautiously returned, first flying round and round at great height, spy ing whether the enemy had gone, and then flying to their nests with the same sudden rapidity. Despite all their care, a number of them were shot. The wounded defended themselves with marked courage, sending a dog off bowling with pain, biting one man through his trousers, and nearly blind ing another by striking him between his eyes.
 Battles, stubbornly contested, often take place between comorants and herons, when the former try to drive the latter from their heronries. This comes of their leaving the sea and seek ing to take up their dwellings inland. Rookeries, too, are attacked; but the rocks are no match for their powerful invaders. Four pairs of cormorants once dispossessed the herons of their nests in a high beech