they are unwearied and active fishers, following their prey
under water like the otter, only coming to the surface occasionally for breath.
FISHING WITH CORMORANTS.
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 cormorant.
In this sense Shakespeare has frequently employed the word as an adjective, and we find such expressions as—
“The cormorant belly.”
Coriolanus, Act i. Sc. 1.
“This cormorant war.”
Troilus and Cressida, Act ii. Sc. 2.
And—