handed down through so many centuries, and because we have looked into many books in vain for a plain account of its origin, and a modern description of the cirrhiped devoid of scientific technicalities.

With this apology, then, to the reader, we return to the birds.

The following dialogue between Malvolio and the Clown, in Twelfth Night, concerning wild-fowl, has reference to the theory of Pythagoras on the subject of the transmigration of souls, and is quite as applicable to birds in general as to wild-fowl in particular :

"Clo. What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wild-fowl?

Mal. That the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit a bird.

Clo. What thinkest thou of his opinion?

Mal. I think nobly of the soul, and no way approve his opinion.

Clo. Fare thee well: remain thou still in darkness: thou shalt hold the opinion of Pythagoras ere I will allow of thy wits; and fear to kill a woodcock, lest thou dispossess the soul of thy grandam. Fare thee well."Twelfth Night, Act iv. Sc. 2.*

* The doctrine of Pythagoras is again alluded to by Gratiano, who says:-"Thou almost mak'st me waver in my faith,

To hold opinion with Pythagoras,

That souls of animals infuse themselves

Into the trunks of men."

Merchant of Venice, Act iv. Sc. 1.

L L

Amongst the wild-fowl may be classed the various. species of divers and grebes which frequent our shores and harbours, especially in winter, and which afford good sport to the gunner, by their wonderful power of diving long distances in their efforts to escape.

The provincial name of "loon" (Macbeth, Act v. Sc. 3) is applied both to a diver and to a grebe. On many parts of the coast the red-throated diver (Colymbus septentrionalis) is known as the "loon," "speckled loon," and "sprat loon." In Norfolk, the name is applied to the great-crested grebe (Podiceps cristatus).

Shakespeare employs the term "loon" as synonymous with "coward;" and if we call to mind the habits of the two birds to which the same name has been applied, it is certainly not ill bestowed upon one who lacks courage to face an enemy.

Another species of grebe is referred to by Shakespeare in his Venus and Adonis:

"Like a dive-dapper peering through a wave,

Who, being look'd on, ducks as quickly in."

This is the little grebe, or dabchick (Podiceps minor). In some parts of the country we have heard it called "di' dapper," but it was not until we had met with the passage above quoted that the meaning of the word. became apparent.

On the subject of "loons," the Rev. H. Jones has some

appropriate remarks in a volume of essays entitled "Holiday Papers" (p. 65). "The great-crested grebe, or loon," he says, "is a giant compared to our little friend the dabchick, and altogether makes a more respectable appearance, both in picture and pond. The habits and figure of the two birds, though, are much the same. There are numbers of loons on the 'broads' of Norfolk.

Indeed it

is in East Anglia that I have most especially watched the dabchick. These loons, like the lesser grebes, incubate and leave their eggs in the wet, and meet with the same ridiculous failure when they attempt to walk. Like them, they are capital divers, and begin from the egg."

Close to the divers in the natural system of birds come the cormorants, whose powers of swimming are in no way inferior to those of the species we have just named. They swim so low in the water that nothing but the head, neck, and top of the back appear above the surface. The tail, composed of stiff elastic feathers, is submerged and used as a rudder, and the wings as oars. The address with which they dive, and the rapidity of their movements, are wonderful; no less so than the pertinacity with which they pursue their prey. Voracious in the extreme,-

"Insatiate cormorant."

Richard II. Act ii. Sc. I ;

they are unwearied and active fishers, following their prey

under water like the otter, only coming to the surface occasionally for breath.

Indeed the voracity of this bird, which, doubtless, suggested the name cormoranus, has become so proverbial, that a man of large appetite is often likened to a cor

morant.

In this sense Shakespeare has frequently employed the word as an adjective, and we find such expressions as

Ravenous as the cormorant is, it is easily tamed, and becomes very attached and familiar. The use of trained cormorants for fishing is very ancient, and is believed to have originated with the Chinese.* The practice has been known in England, however, for many centuries. Ogleby, who went on an embassy to China in the time of James I., and who published an account of his travels on his return, describes the way in which the Chinese take

In China, at the present day, an allied species, Ph. sinensis, is reared and trained to fish.

fish with cormorants. James himself, who was a great sportsman, kept trained cormorants for many years, and was accustomed to travel about the country with them, fishing as he went.

We have seen a curious MS. diary* in the British Museum, written in old French, by Hans Jacob Wurmser v. Vendenheym, who accompanied Lewis Frederick, Duke of Wurtemberg, in his diplomatic mission to England in 1610, from which it appears that the Duke, proceeding by Ware, Royston, Cambridge, and Newmarket, arrived at Thetford on the 7th of May,† where King James the First was then amusing himself with hunting, hawking, and fishing with cormorants.

The entry with reference to the cormorants is as follows:

Lundy

7.

:

THETFORD.

S. E. soupa derechef avecq sa Ma". Lesquel en sortans de table, entrerent en carrosse pour aller à la rivière, ou ils virent des Cormorants, oyseau qui par signe que maistre qui les addressez leur donne, se plongent sous l'eaux et prennent des Anguilles et autre poisson; lequel aussy par signe l'on le faict rendir et vomir tous vifs,

44

This diary is amongst the additional MSS. in the British Museum. It is bound in soft parchment, and entered in the catalogue as Wurmser, H. J.: Travels with Louis, Count (?) of Wurtemberg, 20,001."

†The presence of the King at Thetford at this date, as on other occasions, is recorded in the "Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities of King James the First," as published in four volumes by John Nichols, F.S.A., in 1828.