The Warwickshire Herald. — 1889-12-26 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

CORMORANT STORY.  A correspondent to .Rod and Gun sends the following description of a tame cormorant known as "Derg," in his possesaisS, White would walk to their river of hisows aocord,-and fleh on his sushi Moil "One day," continues the writer, "when Ihim, as usual,- he was perched on a and, to my horror, I found a countryman pelting atones at him. doing? ' I indignantly asked the man.' .._ sir, I'm thryin' to kill that divil beyant there was the reply. On another occasion, also, *Dere had a very narrow escape for his life. About 6 o'clock on a summer morning a person who had been out shooting rabbits saw 'Derg 'sitting on a rock near the shores drying himself after fishing for an early breakfast. He thought to himself what a grand potshot my poor bird would make. So he crept along., wall until he got within range. He knelt on one knee,brought up the gun, took a deliberate aim, and was just in the act of pulling the trigger when it suddenly occurred to him that perhaps the bird was mine. He did not fire, and 'Derg's' life was saved. Another morning he went up the lake to fish, as usual, and did not return in the evening or next day; so I concluded that he was either shot or stolen. Time rolled on, and at the end of two yearns I happened one day to be strolling by the canal, when I saws number of little boys pelting stow at Borne object swimming and diving in the water, and I asked them not to harm it. They desisted,. and then I discovered it was a cormorant they had been hunting. To the surprise of everyone present, the bird suddenly stepped Up right opposite to where I stood, and began flapping its wings as if trying to fly up on the quay. Not succeeding it swam down the canal, and about 20 minutes later I saw a crowd of people coming up the trackway, one of them having a gun in one hand and a dead cormorant in the other. 'Here, sir,' said the. :nan with the gun, handing me the bird ; 'here is the cormorant that went away from you two years ago. I was after Shooting it in the canal, thinking it was a wild one from the lake; but, see, there is the strap on its leg that he used to wear before he left you.' The man was right. The poor bird was in reality mine. I at once recognised it by the strap and other marks. Where the poor fellow had been during those two long years I could never discover."  At Leeds assizes on Tuesday, two men, named respectively Smith and Johnson, w i were ndicted for murderously assaulting Denis Prior, policeman, at Sheffield. The offioer chased the prisoners when they were on a housebreaking expedition, and Smith, turninif upon him, stabbed him in several Places with a dagger. Smith VMS sent to penal servitude for eight years, and Johnson for being in possession of housebreaking tools was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment with hard labour. An exciting incident was recently witnessed from the cliffs and beach of Burton Bradatook, near Bridport. Some persons were watching shoals of omen mackerel playing in the bay. Suddenly base were observed chasing a turbot, "Just like a Wk of hounds after a fox," as one of the onlookers described it. The bass nearly drove the poor turbot onshore; but a wave took it back into deeper water, and then the chase was renewed. Eventually a boat was launched from the shore, and the turbot was gaffed and hauled in. It weighed about 201 b. A supplement to the London Genets states that ths Board of Agriculture have issued some orders with regard to the muzzling of dogs which are to be en!creed in the distriota of the local authorities menhoned in the schedule. The local authorities shall rause all doge suspected of or affected with rabies to be forthwith slaughtered. If any dog is found in a public place without being muzzled so that it cannot bite, the owner shall be deemed guilty of an °Sena against the Act. All stray dogs not muzzled gull be seized. The schedule applies to verities counties.