Of all the peoples of the world, the Asian is the only one that has brought the cormorants into a complete and perfect state of domestication. Japan has been an active center of cormorant breeding and fishing ever since the Yamato (大和) dynasty. In China, the center of cormorant fishing has been the lower Yangtse basin including the province of An-hui (安徽). Chiang-si (江西), Che-chiang (浙江), and Chiang-su (江蘇). From Che-chiang the practice spreads southward to the provinces, Fu-chien (福建) and Kwang-tung (広東). In the province of Se-ch'wan (四川) and Yun-nan (雲南), certain places have been noted for the excellance of the cormorants which are bred and trained for fishing. On the whole, cormorant fishing has occured intensly in southern and western China. The south-westernmost point to which the trained cormorants advance is Hanoi (河内) on Song-koi R., Indo-China. In 1931, B. Laufer has published an interesting article on relation of Japanese to Chinese cormorant fishing. The paper treats of this subject from the view-point of fishing method and process of domestication; it argues as follow. Chinese method of breeding, training and fishing are at variance with that of Japan. These two are absolutely different. But his conclution is based on the wrong premisses that the Japanese practice can be defined under the name of harness or team method. In Japan, there is no doubt that a good many local veriations exist in fishing method (cf. Table 1). Most writers who have described Japanese fishing with cormorant fail to mention these various variants. A (Free method) In this method, the birds are always free. A1 A fisherman ties with a cord round the bird's throat not to be able to swallow the fish. Next he let the cormorants loose into the water. Straightway they begin to dive autonomously and catch a great number of fish. This was once practised on Lake Suwa (諏訪) and now in the R. Takatsu (高津), Shimane Pref.. A2 Here the cormorants are only used for chasing. They do not catch fishes by themselves but give chase to fish. Being frightened at a flock of bird, fishes are driven into the nets. A3 Also cormorants are used for rousing fish. But some of them catch fishes. Certain places are noted for this method; amongst these we can name Chikugo (筑後) and Suruga (駿河). A4 This is the similar fishing to A1 and A2. Instead of using cormorants, chase-lines or bamboo poles are prepared for this fishing. The line is called "Unawa" (cormorant rope) and some of them wear the feathers of cormorant. On the top of chase bamboo-pole calling "Uzao" (cormorant pole), sometimes there attaches black charm as a symbol of cormorant. Using those chase-implements, the fishermen rouse the fishes and cacth them by nets. B (Intermediate method) This is a kind of tether method, but they use the chase implements and nets at same time. The Matsura (松浦) River, Hizen (肥前) Province, is noted for this fishing. C (Tether method) This is the most typical fishing with cormorant in Japan. A cord or rein of Japanese cypress fiber, about 12 feets long, is attached to the body of each bird. C1 During daytime, a fisherman cross over the shallow by wading. Manipulating the rein, he uses one or two cormorants. C2 Fishermen go up the river on a boat. On the head of the boat, there hangs out a burning torch. One of them lowers the cormorant one by one into a stream, altogether a team of twelve, and gathers all reins in his left hand, manipulating the various lines thereafter with his right hand, as occasion requires, to keep them free of tangles. Those varying practices, I think, are the index of various stages through which the development of the cormorant utilization has run. It is not difficult for us to imagine what the steps in the primeval process of cormorant fishing have been. Japan may has evolved a method of using cormorant as follow.[figure] The most archetype might be the free method which I named A1. This method of using cormorant is known everywhere in China. On comparing the fishing method of Japan with those of China, the author comes to conclution that the method of fishing with cormorant in Japan is not fundamentally and radically dif- frent from that of China. Thus Chinese and Japanese utilization of the cormorant might have the same basis of origin. However, author has not failed to point out the close resemblance between China and Japan, nor does he lose sight of peculiar growth in Japan. Table 1 [table]