FISHING BY PROXY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 143, 18 June 1936, Page 10

FISHING BY PROXY

Hoiug up or down a river in South China, in a tiny bay or backwater, you cuay come upon a raft with a 1 man standing on it, a big basket by his side and a row of cormorants perched on the raft’s edge, said Mr J. C. Steel in a recent broadcast address in England. The man casts a net across the bay, and at his signal, the birds dive one after the other, into the water. Tn time each comes up with a fish in its beak, and struggles and struggles to swallow' it. Why does the .fish down? Thev live on fish in iheit

i state and swallowing fish is no new i thing to them. But each bird has a ring round its neck and that is the se i cret. The fisherman pulls the fish out i of the bird’s beak and drops it into the * basket, while the poor creature climbs 1 up on the raft again and sits, disconsolate and dripping, until he is told to take the next plunge. However, they get their reward at ie the end of the day, when their work e is done, and they need not be kept <, hungry any longer Then the rings arc 1- taken off and they make their supper ■ smaller fish which are thrown into waler for their special honetit.