Stray Feathers From a Bird Man's Desk

by Austin Loomer Rand

In western Europe, when falconry was in favor for taking game on land and in the air, there was a certain vogue for training cormorants to take fish. Like the falcons, the cormorants were hooded and carried on the wrist, but of course where the falcons flew to their game, the cormorants swam to theirs.

It was in China where cormorants were domesticated, "completely and perfectly," as that eminent Sinologist Dr. Laufer says. Extensive breeding establishments have been maintained. The eggs of the breeding flock of cormorants are given to a hen to hatch, for cormorants as mothers prove unsatisfactory under domestication. When the eggs hatch the young cormorants must have special care; for, unlike the young of ducks and geese, young cormorants at hatching are not down-covered and able to run about, but are weak, helpless things sensitive to cold. They are placed in cotton batting, artificial heat provided when necessary, and they are fed by hand on a diet composed basically of chopped eel.

Finally the young are full grown and fully feathered. The training is now started. First the young are tied to a stake at the water's edge. A whistle signal is given and the young cormorant is pushed into the water. Thus he learns to know and obey the signal to go into the water. Then the trainer throws him little fish. These the cormorant catches in its beak and when he does the trainer whistles another signal, to bring the bird back to him with the fish. And the cord tied to the bird is used to demonstrate what is meant and make sure its done. So the training goes on until the bird has graduated to a class taught from a boat. Sometimes a small float is attached to the cormorant by a short cord, and it can be drawn in with a bamboo hook. If young birds are trained in the company of trained birds, it takes but half as long. Finally the training is complete and the fisherman sets out with his birds. This is no sporting event; it is the serious business of life, getting a living from fishing. On the sampan or the bamboo raft there may be from two to a dozen birds; sometimes they may have special perches built for them along each side of the boat. Sometimes the cormorant has a cord or band around its neck. The reason for this is disputed. Some say its a place to attach a cord; a place to get hold of the bird; some say each man's cormorant is thus specially marked for identification; some that it's to prevent the bird from swallowing its prey. With well-trained cormorants it is sometimes dispensed with. At a signal the cormorants go into the water, swim, and dive seeking fish. The fisherman, by stamping his feet, by voice or whistle, and by hitting the water with a bamboo directs and encourages the birds. When the cormorant catches a fish it brings it back to the boat, and the fisherman may use a net, or may lift up the cormorant onto the boat on an oar or pole, and take the fish from the bird. If a bird is lazy it's encouraged by beating the water near it with a bamboo pole. As cormorants' plumage is only partly waterproof they cannot stay in the water indefinitely, and this, as well as fatigue, probably determines the rest periods when the birds are lifted aboard. Sometimes the fisherman helps attract fish to the boat for the cormorants to catch by scattering grains of rice in the water.

When the day is finished the cormorants are collected, fed, and the fisherman goes home with the sustenance for his family, gathered by a bird.

In Japan the cormorant is also used, but apparently somewhat differently. There cormorant fishing may partake of the nature of a sport. Sometimes the cormorants are "harnessed" into a team, each attached by a cord to a single line, directed by one master. In China the fishing is usually done during the day, but in Japan night fishing is common, the scene being illuminated by fires in braziers or cressets on the boat, or lanterns.

THE SHRIKE'S LARDER [Ref]

Our northern shrike is a songbird which has developed feeding habits along the lines of those of a hawk. Whereas most birds its size are content with fruits, seeds, or insects of a size it can beat or bite and then swallow whole, our northern shrike takes not only small insects but prefers large ones, and mice and birds too big to be swallowed whole. It is an opportunist and takes what is most abundant and easily accessible. The shrike's strong hooked bill is a powerful weapon, used with a nipping motion that is directed at the back of the head or neck of mouse or bird.

Now with the dead sparrow or mouse the shrike is at a disadvantage. With a powerful bill hooked at the tip its feet are still those of a songbird and are not strong enough to hold its large prey while pulling it to pieces. Only small insects are held in one foot and pulled to pieces. To meet this need for holding large dead prey the impaling habit was evolved. The result of this is the so-called larders, which form a fancied resemblance to meat hanging in a butcher shop, and have given the birds their name of butcherbird. A thorn tree, a splintered end of a branch, or even the barbs of wire fencing may serve. The shrike flies to one of these, carrying the prey in its bill (rarely in its feet), and with a pulling motion fixes the prey on a projection point. Sometimes instead of impaling the mouse or bird it pulls it into the fork of a branch, and so wedges it there. Now the food is firmly held, and the shrike can use its bill effectively to pull off pieces of flesh and swallow them. When the bird has fed, it leaves the rest of the animal hanging where it was. It may return to this food and make repeated meals of it if not spoiled, or dried up, until the whole is devoured. But often parts of meals are left hanging and discarded. If suitable thorn bushes are scarce the shrike may return time after time to the same tree with its prey, and in time this tree may come to be decked with many partly devoured carcasses. Such trees are the so-called "larders." There is another aspect of shrike behavior that adds to these larders. The shrike, even when replete, may seize any prey that appears and impale it. The bird's organization is such that the sight of a small moving animal may start the actions that end with impalement even when the bird is not hungry. This food usually is not eaten later.

Thus the shrike's "butcher shop" is not primarily a store of food, even though it sometimes serves as such when in times of scarcity remains of old meals are eaten. It is not a gathering of food in time of plenty and saving it for a later use. Rather the placing of many items in one tree is the result of its being a favorable impaling place. And the impaling is behavior developed to overcome the weakness of the claws in a bird whose disposition and strong beak enable it to prey habitually on larger animals which otherwise it could not tear to pieces and eat.