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The Fishing Cormorants

The Fishing Cormorants.jpg An Early Representation of the Whale FisheryThumbnailsFishing provided food as well as recreation for the colonists.An Early Representation of the Whale FisheryThumbnailsFishing provided food as well as recreation for the colonists.An Early Representation of the Whale FisheryThumbnailsFishing provided food as well as recreation for the colonists.An Early Representation of the Whale FisheryThumbnailsFishing provided food as well as recreation for the colonists.An Early Representation of the Whale FisheryThumbnailsFishing provided food as well as recreation for the colonists.

The Leu-tzé, or fishing cormorant of China, is the pelicanus sinensis, and resembles very much the common cormorant of England, which, we are told by naturalists, was once trained up to catch fish, pretty much in the same manner as those of China are. They are exceedingly expert in taking fish, and pursue them under water with great eagerness. They are taken out, on the rivers and lakes, in boats or bamboo rafts; and though sent on the chace after long fasting, they are so well trained that they rarely swallow any of the fish they take until they are permitted to do so by their masters. Many thousand families in China earn their subsistence by means of these birds.