Evening star., 1916-12-24
BIRDS TRAINED TO FISH

~ ORMORANT fishing is phrase
IL which has to be explained, that 1t
may be understood. for the world,
outside of a small number of men who
read very old history and antiquarian
matter, and outside of a certain class
of sportsmen. Cormorant fishing sur
wives in Japan and the writings of the
japanese show that it has been prac-
ticed there since the seventh century
before the Christian era, and. of course,
it may be very older industry or sport
than the records show.
1t is generally well known that our
European ancestors trained birds to
hunt for them. A falcon was that bird
which is now called hawk. AS there
are many kinds of hawk, SO there were
many kinds Of falcon, and wing fal-
cons" which was often called hawk
ing" was both a sport and means or
obtaining food. 1t was a process en-
ployed before gunpowder and lowing
pieces came into use. and even lot
three or four centuries after the nitro
duction Of these things gunpoWoer
was expensive and the fowling pieces
had a very short range and little or
no accuracy in direction. Hence gun
powder and guns were slow in sup
planting falconry as means OF XIII
ing birds, hareS and other sflali salhe;
Even after the shotgun had supplanteu
the falcon, so far as usefulness was
concerned, men continued the pfacice
of falconry sport because OF us
age and because OF the Vensratloh ~
which they held the traoitfo1hs a, fo1conrY w
IS practiced today in some parts OF the
world. and there are hawking clubs IN
existence in England and Scotland, or
at least some of these clubs We're thriV-
Ing I'D to the outbreak or the war
As hawks were trained to hunt,
peculiar species of bird was trained 10
Ash. The bird found to be most adapt
able for the purpose was the cormoraht'
an oceanic bird, similar to the pelican
and feeding almost exclusively on hsh.
1t is intermediate in size, betWeeh Il
duck and a goose. and some OF 'he
thirty species inhabiting she world
have beautiful plumage which has a
sheen of green. blue and purple.
Though the cormorant is an oceanic
hird IT goes anywhere in pursuit of
Ash 1t has been seen along the rivers
Of China a thousand miles from SAT-
water. 1t has been plentiful along the
Mississippi and Ohio rivers and the
numerous rivers which contribute to
the volume of those great streams 1t
will go far inland and live by lake
where the fishing is to its liking.
Henry Seebohn. in his History of
British Birds wrote that cormorants
were included by Linnaeus in the
genus pelican" but that in 1860
Brisson, in his ornithologia. provided
the genus phalancroscorax for their
reception. The cormorantS have
strongly curved hook at the end of
the bill. They have rather short wings
and a long tail and they fly straight
like a duck. They walk with a clumsy
waddle but are among the best swim
mers and perhaps the best divers in the
bird creation. Their prevailing colors
are dark brown with metallic green,
blue and purple reflections.
Audubon wrote of the American cor
morants, as he did of hundreds OF other
birds, and made paintings of fine speci-
mems of such species as he observed.
He treated of the common cormorant
which In summer dwells on the coast
of Labrador. the Gulf of St. Lawrence
and the Bay of Fundy and in winter
comes as far down the Atlantic coast as
the Chesapeake bay and has often