Page:Under MacArthur in Luzon.djvu/156

132 raised the pistol, took careful aim, and fired. A wild fluttering of wings followed, and then a big bird circled around and around their heads, to fall dead at their feet.

"Good shot!" cried Si, as he picked up the game and made certain that life was extinct. "What do you allow it is?"

"A cormorant, Si."

"A cormorant? It don't look like the kind I've seen at home."

"It's the Asiatic variety, I guess. See, he was fishing, just as they all do in every part of the world. I caught him just as he was swallowing his prey, which is stuck in his throat."

"A double haul, Walter. We can now have both fish and fowl for our supper," cried the Yankee lad, enthusiastically. "It's a pity the fish wasn't larger."

"If he had been, the cormorant wouldn't have caught him—unless he was trained to the work."

"Trained?"

"Yes. The Chinese train cormorants to fish for them, and take them out in boats for that purpose. The cormorant sits on the gunwale, and when a fish swims near, darts overboard and hauls him in. He