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M. B. L. LIBRARY- WOODS HOLE, MASS.

• -

RITISH FISHES.

VOL. II.

LONDON :
PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,

Bangor House, Shoe Lane.

*

•-•

HISTOEY

RITISH FISHES

BY

WILLIAM YARRELL, F.L.S. V.P.Z.S.

ILLUSTRATED BY 500 WOOD-ENGRAV
IN TWO VOLUMES.— VOL. II.
SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:

JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW.

M.DCCC.XLI.

M.B.L LIBRAE -WvGiS HOLE, MASS.

BRITISH FISHES.

ABDOMINAL
MALACOPTERYGII.

SALMON IDA.*

THE SALMON.
SMOLT, young. GRILSE, Jlrst return from sea.

Sulmo salar, LINN.EUS.

,, ,, BLOCH, pt. i. pi. 20, female.
» >• » pt. iii. pi. 98, male in breeding season.

,, ,, Salmon, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 382.
.. M » FLEM. Brit. An. p. 179, sp. 40.

». ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 421.

.. ,. Grilse, JARDINE'S Illust. Scot. Salm. pi. 8.
» » » » i> >, ., ,, 1 & 2.

,, ,, Salmon, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, 7, old male, breeding-

state.

SALMO. Generic Characters- — Head smooth ; body covered with scales ;
two dorsal fins, the first supported by rays, the second fleshy, without rays ;
teeth on the vomer, both palatine bones, and all the maxillary bones ; branchi-
ostegous rays varying in number, generally from ten to twelve, but sometimes
unequal on the two sides of the head of the same fish.

THE SALMON is so well known for its quality as an arti-
cle of food, as well as for the immense quantities in which

The family of the Salmon and Trout.

VOL. II.

SALMONIDE.

it is taken, that it requires no other claims to recommend
it strongly to our notice ; and probably, in no country
of the world, in proportion to its size, are the fisheries so
extensive, or so valuable, as in the United Kingdom.

The history of the Salmon, and of the species of the
genus Salmo., in this work, Avill extend to a considerable
length ; and some doubts existing as to the extent of their
identity with the species of the iSalmonidte generally which
are taken in the rivers or lakes of other countries of Europe,
from the want of specimens with which to make actual
comparative examination, the account of the species here
inserted will be confined more particularly to a detail of
what is known of them in this country only.

Of the species existing in this country, the characters and
specific distinctions admit of considerable detail : too much
reliance has been placed upon colour, without resorting
sufficiently to those external indications, founded on organic
structure, which may with greater certainty be depended
upon.

In the scale of the relative value of parts affording cha-
racters for distinction, the organs of digestion, respiration,
and motion are admitted by systematic authors to hold
high rank ; and in the hope to induce sportsmen to become
zoologists — so far at least as to enable them to determine
the various species they may meet with by a reference to
those external characters which are the most important, —
the specific distinctions in the genus Salmo will be illus-
trated by referring to the number and situation of the teeth,
the form of the different parts of the gill-covers, and the size,
form, and relative situation of the fins. •

The outlines here introduced represent a front view of
the mouth, and a side view of the head, of a common
Trout. Of the first figure on the left hand, No. 1 marks

SALMON.

3

the situation of the row of teeth that are fixed on the cen-
tral bone of the roof of the mouth, called the vomer :
Nos. 2, 2, refer to the teeth on the right and left palatine
bones ; and the row of teeth outside each palatine bone
on the upper jaw are those of the superior maxillary bones :
No. 3, refers to the row of hooked teeth on each side
of the tongue, outside of which are those of the lower
jaw-bones. The Trout is chosen as showing the most
complete series of teeth among the SalmonideE ; and the
value of the arrangement, as instruments for seizure and
prehension, arises from the interposition of the different
rows, the four lines of teeth on the lower surface alternating
when the mouth is closed with the five rows on the upper
surface, those on the vomer shutting in between the two
rows on the tongue, &c.

The second figure represents, in outline, a side view of
the head, of which No. 1 is the preoperculuin ; No. 2,
the pperculum ; No. 3, the suboperculum ; No. 4, the
interoperculum ; No. 5, the branchiostegous rays : the four

SALMON1D.E.

last parts together forming the moveable gill-cover. The
different fins are sufficiently indicated by being coupled, when
referred to, with the name of the part of the body of the
fish to which they are attached.

The external appearance of the adult Salmon during
the summer months, when it is caught in the estuaries
of our large rivers, is too well known to require much
description. The upper part of the head and back is
dark bluish black ; the sides lighter ; the belly silvery
white ; the dorsal, pectoral, and caudal fins dusky black ;
the ventral fins white on the outer side, tinged more or
less with dusky on the inner surface ; the anal fin white ;
the small, soft, fleshy fin on the back, without rays, called
the adipose, fat fin, or the second dorsal fin, is of the
same colour nearly as the part of the back from which
it emanates. There are mostly a few dark spots dispersed
over that part of the body which is above the lateral line,
and the females usually exhibit a greater number of these
spots than the males.

These colours, differing but little, are, however, in a
great degree common at the same period of the year to
the three species that are the most numerous, as well as
the most valuable ; namely, the true Salmon, the Grey
Trout, and the Salmon Trout ; which are also further dis-
tinguished from the other species of the genus Salmo by
their seasonal habit of moving from the pure fresh water
to the brackish water, and thence to the sea, and back to
the fresh water again, at particular periods of the year.
Further specific distinctions are therefore necessary ; and
those that will be pointed out as existing constantly in
these species will, it is hoped, enable observers to identify
not only each of these, but also the other species of the
genus, at any age or season.

SALMON.

The vignette above represents the form of the different
parts of the gill-cover in the three species just named ; of
which the figure on the left hand is that of the Salmon,
the middle one is the gill-cover of the Grey Trout, and
that on the right hand is the gill-cover of the Salmon Trout :
the differences are immediately apparent when thus brought
into comparison.

In the Salmon, the posterior free edge of the gill-cover,
as shown in the left-hand figure, forms part of a circle ;
the lower margin of the subopercukmi is a line directed
obliquely upwards and backwards : the line of the union
of the suboperculum with the operculum is also oblique,
and parallel with the lower margin of the suboperculum ;
the interoperculum is narrow vertically, and its union with
the operculum is considerably above the line of the junc-
tion between the suboperculum and the operculum. The
teeth of the Salmon are short, stout, pointed, and re-
curved : as stated in the generic characters, they occupy
five situations at the top of the mouth ; that is, a line of
teeth on each side of the upper jaw, a line on each palatine

6 SALMON ID.E.

bone, with one line on the vomer between the palatine bones
when young, but the Salmon loses a portion of the vomerine
teeth during the first visit to salt water. I have observed
that some specimens of the migratory or Sea Trout carry
their vomerine teeth longer than the Salmon ; and those
Trout which do not migrate appear to carry their vomerine
teeth longrer than those Trout which do migrate. The teeth

O °

on the vomer of the Salmon, when the fish is old, seldom
exceed two or three in number, sometimes only one, and
that placed on the most anterior part. The Salmon has
besides these, two rows of teeth upon the tongue, and one
row along the outer upper edge of each lower jaw-bone.

The inner surface of the pectoral fin is in part dusky :
the tail very much forked when young ; the central caudal
rays growing up, the tail is much less forked the third year,
and by the fifth year it is become nearly or quite square at
the end.

The descriptions of the gill-covers of the other species
will be given in the account of the fish to which they
belong ; but it may be remarked here, that looking at
the form of the three gill-covers, it will be obvious that a
line drawn from the front teeth of the upper jaw to the long-
est backward projecting portion of the gill-cover, in either
species, will occupy a different situation in respect to the
eye ; that the line will fall nearest the centre of the eye in
the first, that of the Salmon, and farthest below it in the
second, that of the Grey Trout.

As further specific distinctions in the Salmon, I may add
that, according to Dr. Richardson, the csecal appendages are
in number from sixty-three to sixty-eight ; and several ob-
servers have stated the number of vertebrae to be sixty,
which I have repeatedly found to be correct.

Commencing, then, with the true Salmon, which ascend
the rivers, in the state as to colour before mentioned, sooner

SALMON. 7

or later in the spring or summer months, it is observed
that some rivers are much earlier than others, the fish in
them coming into breeding condition and beginning to spawn
at an earlier period.

Rivers issuing from large lakes afford early Salmon, the
waters having been purified by deposition in the lakes : on
the other hand, rivers swollen by melting snows in the spring
months are later in their season of producing fish, and yield
their supply when the lake rivers are beginning to fail.
" The causes influencing this," says Sir William Jardine, to
whom I am indebted for much valuable information on the
Salmonidec, as well as many specimens, " seem yet unde-
cided ; and where the time varies much in the neighbouring
rivers of the same district, they are of less easy solution.
The Northern rivers, with little exception, are, however, the
earliest, — a fact well known in the London markets ; and
going still farther north, the range of the season and of
spawning may be influenced by the latitude.'1 Artedi says,
" in Sweden the Salmon spawn in the middle of summer."

" It has been suggested that this variation in the season
depended on the warmth of the waters ; and that those
Highland rivers which arose from large lochs were all
early, owing to the great mass and warmer temperature of
their sources, — that the spawn there was sooner hatched.
There are two rivers in Sutherlandshire which show this
late and early running under peculiar circumstances. One,
the Oikel, borders the county, and springs from a small
alpine lake, perhaps about half a mile in breadth ; the other,
the Shin, is a tributary to the Oikel, joins it about five
miles from the mouth, but takes its rise from Loch Shin,
a large and deep extent of water, and connected to a chain
of other deep lochs. Early in the spring, all the Salmon
entering the common mouth diverge at the junction, turn
up the Shin, and return as it were to their own and warmer

8 SALMONID.E.

stream, while very few keep the main course of the Oikel
until a much later period."

Dr. Heysham, in his Catalogue of Cumberland Animals,
has supplied similar evidence. " The Salmon," it is there
observed, " is plentiful in most of our rivers, in all of which
they spawn ; but they evidently prefer, during the winter
and spring, the Eden to the Esk, the Caldew, or the
Peteril. Although the Esk and the Eden pour out their
waters into the same estuary, and are only separated at the
mouths by a sharp point of land, yet there is scarcely an
instance of a new Salmon ever entering the former until
the middle of April or beginning of May. The fishermen
account for this curious fact from the different temperature
of these two rivers ; the waters of the Eden, they allege,
being considerably warmer than the water of the Esk ;
which is not altogether improbable, for the bed of the Esk
is not only more stony and rocky than the Eden, but is
likewise broader, and the stream more shallow ; consequently
its waters must be somewhat colder in the winter season.
It is an undoubted fact, that snow water prevents the Salmon
from running up even the Eden : it is probable this cir-
cumstance may have considerable effect in preventing them
from entering the Esk till the beginning of summer, when
the temperature of the two rivers will be nearly the same.
The Peteril joins the Eden a little above, and the Caldew at
Carlisle ; yet up these rivers the Salmon never run unless
in the spawning season, and even then in no great num-
bers."

The number of fish obtained in the spring in a proper
state for food is small compared with the quantity procured
as the summer advances. During the early part of the
season, the Salmon ascend the river, advancing with the flood,
and generally retiring Avith the ebb, if their progress be not
stopped by any of the various means employed to catch

SALMON. .0

them, which will be explained hereafter. It is observed
that the female fish appear before the males ; and the young
fish on their first return from the sea, called Grilse till they
have spawned once, ascend earlier than those of more adult
age. As the season advances, the Salmon ascend higher up
the river beyond the influence of the tide : they are observed
to be getting full of roe, and are more or less out of condi-
tion according to their forward state as breeding fish. Their
progress forwards is not easily stopped ; they shoot up rapids
with the velocity of arrows, and make wonderful efforts to
surmount cascades and other impediments by leaping, fre-
quently clearing an elevation of eight or ten feet, and gaining
the water above, pursue their course. If they fail in their
attempt and fall back into the stream, it is only to remain a
short time quiescent, and thus recruit their strength to enable
them to make new efforts.

These feats of the Salmon are frequently 'watched with
all the curiosity such proceedings are likely to excite. Mr.
Mudie, in the British Naturalist, describes from personal
observation some of the situations from which these extra-
ordinary efforts can be witnessed. Of the fall of Kilmorac,
on the Beauly, in Invernesshire, it is said, " The pool below
that fall is very large ; and as it is the head of the run in one
of the finest Salmon rivers in the North, and only a few
miles distant from the sea, it is literally thronged with
Salmon, which are continually attempting to pass the fall,
but without success, as the limit of their perpendicular spring
does not appear to exceed twelve or fourteen feet : at least,
if they leap higher than that they are aimless and exhausted,
and the force of the current dashes them down again before
they have recovered their energy. They often kill them-
selves by the violence of their exertions to ascend ; and
sometimes they fall upon the rocks and are captured. It
is indeed said that one of the wonders which the Frascrs of

10 SALMONID/E.

Lovat, who are lords of the manor, used to show their guests,
was a voluntarily cooked Salmon at the falls of Kilmorac.
For this purpose a kettle was placed upon the flat rock on
the south side of the fall, close by the edge of the water, and
kept full and boiling. There is a considerable extent of
the rock where tents were erected, and the whole was under
a canopy of overshadowing trees. There the company are
said to have waited until a Salmon fell into the kettle and
was boiled in their presence. We have seen as many as
eighty taken in a pool lower down the river at one haul of
the seine, and one of the number weighed more than sixty
pounds."

At the meeting of the British Association, held at Glas-
gow in September 1840, Mr. Smith, of Deanston in the
Carse of Stirling, exhibited a model, which is thus noticed in
the Report of the Proceedings of the Natural History Sec-
tion in the Literary Gazette. " Mr. Smith gave an interest-
ing account of a stair which he had invented, whereby
Salmon might be enabled to ascend streams, notwithstanding
the existence of natural or artificial obstructions, and so con-
structed as not to diminish the power of the water, or lessen
the supply to mills ; it being understood that the disputes
between the owners of mills and of salmon-fisheries had
hitherto led to much disagreement and inconveniency. He
illustrated his observations by the model of an experimental
erection which he had constructed on the Teith, near Doune,
the result of which had been so successful, that numerous
applications had been made from various quarters for erections
of the same kind. Mr. Smith mentioned that, in connexion
with this invention, he had in contemplation the construction
of an apparatus, or index, whereby the exact number of fish
that passed up the stream by the stair might be accurately
ascertained, together with the time of their so passing up,
and the size and thickness of the fish. It is difficult to give

SALMON.

11

a perfect idea of tliis ingenious contrivance without a model.
It consists of one side of the river, under a weir or ' cauld,"1
being separated from the main stream, and intersected by
transverse pieces of wood, or stone, from each side, crossing,
perhaps, two- thirds of the width, and with considerable inter-
vals between the opposite intersections. The fish, it seems,
both from the experience on the Teith, and at another dam
at Blantyre, on the Clyde, immediately adopt this staircase
in ascending the rivers, and, finding- resting-places between
the intersecting materials, abandon the other parts of the
stream for this contingency. Some amusing remarks were
made on this communication, which is one of infinite value to
local mill and fishing interests."

The fish having at length gained the upper and shallow
pools of the river, preparatory to the important operation of
depositing the spawn in the gravelly beds, its colour will
be found to have undergone considerable alteration during
the residence in fresh water. The male becomes marked on
the cheeks with orange-coloured stripes, which give it the

SALMONID.E.

appearance of the check of a Labrus ; the lower jaw elon-
gates, and a cartilaginous projection turns upwards from the
point, which, when the jaws are closed, occupies a deep
cavity between the intermaxillary bones of the upper jaw ;
the body partakes of the golden orange tinge, and the
Salmon in this state is called a red-fish. The females
are dark in colour, and are as commonly called black-fish ;
and by these terms both are designated in those local and
precautionary regulations intended for the protection and
preservation of the breeding fish.

The process of spawning has been described by various
observers. " A pair of fish are seen to make a furrow, by
working up the gravel "with their noses, rather against the
stream, as a Salmon cannot work with his head down stream,
for the water then going into his gills the wrong way, drowns
him. When the furrow is made, the male and female
retire to a little distance, one to the one side and the other
to the other side of the furrow : they then throw themselves
on their sides, again come together, and rubbing against each
other, both shed their spawn into the furrow at the same
time. This process is not completed at once ; it requires
from eight to twelve days for them to lay all their spawn,
and when they have done they betake themselves to the
pools to recruit themselves. Three pairs have been seen
on the spawning-bed at one time, and were closely watched
while making the furrow and laying the spawn." *

The following extracts are made from a paper by Dr.
Knox, published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh.

" November &. — Salmon are observed to be spawning
in the various tributary streams of the Tweed which join
that river from the north, and a pair are watched. The ova

* Ellis on the Natural History of the Salmon.

SALMON. I.!

observed to be deposited near the sources of the stream on
the 2nd of November, and covered up with gravel in the
usual way."

" February 25, or a hundred and sixteen days after
being deposited, the ova, on being dug up, are found to be
unchanged. If removed at this time, and preserved in
bottles filled with water, the developement of the egg may
be hastened almost immediately by being put into warm
rooms : it is not necessary to change the water. The fry so
hatched, i. e. artificially, cannot be preserved alive in bottles
longer than ten days ; they eat nothing during their con-
finement."

" March 23. — The ova now changing ; the outer shell
cast ; the fry are lying imbedded in the gravel, as fishes
somewhat less than an inch in length, being now twenty
weeks from the period of their deposition."

" April 1 . — On reopening the spawning-bed, most of
the fry had quitted it by ascending through the gravel.
During a former series of observations I have found the
ova imbedded in the gravel unchanged on the 10th of
April, and as fry or fishes, but still imbedded in the gravel,
on the 17th : they were taken that year, with fly, as Smolts,
on the 22nd of April, about the size of the little finger."

Some specimens of Salmon fry now before me, with a.
portion of the ovum still attached to the abdomen of each
fish, measure one inch in length : the head and eyes are
large ; the colour of the body pale brown, with nine or
ten dusky grey marks across the sides. These dusky
patches, longer vertically than wide, are common, I have
reason to believe, to the young of all the species of the
genus Salmo. I have seen them in the young of the
Salmon, Grey Trout, Sea Trout, Common Trout, and Charr.
In a specimen of the young of the Salmon six inches long,
these transverse marks are still observable when the fish is

14 SAI.MONID.E.

viewed in a particular position in reference to the light : and
if the scales are removed, the marks are much more obvious.
They are also very distinct in the Common Trout and in the
Charr for a considerable time.

There are striking examples in other animals of this
similarity in the markings, or family likeness, in the young
of the various species of the same genus, however different
may be the colours of the parent animals. The young of
the lion and the puma are as much marked for a time as the
young of the tiger and leopard, or, indeed, of any of the
other cats, whether striped or spotted ; and the young of all
deer are said, and many are known, to be spotted, though
it is also known that the greater number of the adult animals
are perfectly plain.

I am now enabled, through the kindness of Thomas
Lister Parker, Esq., to offer some remarks on the growth
of the young Salmon in fresh water, and in order to prevent
any misconception of the terms employed, I shall speak of
the young Salmon of the first year as a Pink ; in its se-
cond year, till it goes to sea, as a Smolt ; in the autumn of
the second year as Salmon Peal, or Grilse, and afterwards
as adult Salmon.

In the autumn of the year 1835, Thomas Upton, Esq. of
Ingmire Hall, situated between Sedbergh and Kendal, be-
gan to enlarge a lake on his property, and in the spring of
1836, some Pinks from the Lune, a Salmon river which runs
through a valley not far from the lake, were put into it.
This lake, called Lillymere, has no communication with the
sea, nor any outlet by which fish from other waters can get
in, or by which those put in can get out. The Pinks when
put into Lillymere did not certainly exceed three inches and a
half in length. Sixteen months afterwards, — that is, in
the month of August 1837, Thomas L. Parker, Esq. then
visiting his friend, fished Lillymere, desirous of ascertaining

SALMON. 15

the growth of the Pinks, and with a red palmer fly caught
two Salmon Peal in excellent condition, silvery bright in
colour, measuring fourteen inches in length, and weighing
fourteen ounces. One was cooked and eaten, the flesh pink
in colour, but not so red as those of the river ; well flavoured
and like that of a Peal. The other was sent to me in spirit
of wine, and a drawing of it immediately taken. In the
month of July 1838, eleven months after, another small
Salmon was caught, equal to the first in condition and colour,
about two inches longer and three ounces heavier. No doubt
was entertained that these were two of the Pinks transferred
to the lake in the spring of 1836, the first of which had been
retained sixteen months, and the other twenty-seven months,
in this fresh-water lake.

Desirous of ascertaining the appearance of the young-
Salmon at periods intermediate between the states as Pinks
and Salmon Peal, other experiments were tried. Pinks in
the river Hodder in the month of April are rather more than
three inches long, and are considered to be the fry of that
year : at this time, Smolts of six inches and a half are also
taken. The Smolts are considered as the fry of the pre-
vious year, and are distinguished by the blue colour on the
upper half of their body, the silvery tint of the lower half,
and the darker hue of the fins generally 'as compared with
those of the Pink. In this state as to colour, the Smolts are
said to have assumed their migratory dress and go down to
the sea in May. In June the young Pink in the Hodder
measures about four inches ; in July it measures five inches,
and no Smolts are then found in the river. To be further
convinced of this change, and the length of time required
to produce it, a Pink put into a well at Whitewell in the
forest of Bowland in November 1837, was taken out in
the state of a Smolt of six inches and a quarter in July
183S. In another instance more Pinks by Mr. Upton's

16 SALMONID.E.

directions were put into Lillymere in September 1837, and
Mr. Parker caught five or six in the state of Smolts of seven
and a half inches in August 1838. In referring to the par-
ticular size of the Pinks in the river Hodder at stated
periods, it may be necessary to remark that the Pinks of
different rivers, and even in the same river, will be found to
vary in size, depending on the time at which the spawn was
deposited, the temperature of the season, and other causes.

I may here observe that I am indebted to the kindness
and liberality of Thomas Lister Parker, Esq. for a variety of
specimens, as well as for the requisite information concerning
them. Of the various fishes, when received, accurate drawings
were immediately made, and coloured representations of the
natural size of six examples at different ages, in illustration of
this subject, were published.*

A knowledge of the growth of young Salmon in a fresh-
water lake, as here described, and the experiment has suc-
ceeded elsewhere, may be useful to those gentlemen who
possess lakes near Salmon rivers from which they can supply
them with Pinks : whether the Salmon thus prevented going
to salt water will still retain sufficient constitutional power to
mature their roe, and by depositing it in the usual manner,
as far as circumstances permit, produce their species, would
be a subject worthy of further investigation. That the rate
of growth in young Salmon has some reference to the size of
the place to which they are restricted, receives further confir-
mation in these river, lake, and well specimens. The Smolt
taken from the well in July 1838, where it had been con-
fined for eight months, was rather smaller in size at that
time than the Smolts in the Hodder in the preceding April,
though both were Pinks of the same year, namely 1837.
The Smolt taken from the lake in August 1838, which then

* On the growth of the Salmon in Fresh-water. — John Van Voorst: London,
1839.

SALMON. 17

measured seven inches and a half, had also grown more rapid-
ly than that in the well, but had not acquired the size it
would have gained had it been allowed to go to sea.
Further, it may be observed, that the Salmon Peal from the
lake in August 1887, then eighteen months old, though per-
fect in colour, is small for its age; while that of July 1838,
or twenty-nine months old, is comparatively still more defi-
cient in growth, supposing both fish to have resulted from
Pinks of the year 1836, and been put into the lake at the
same time ; of which there was no doubt, since the lake, the
formation of which, though commenced in the autumn of
1835, was not finished till February 1836, soon after which
the first Pinks were put in.

In another experiment, a large landed proprietor in Scot-
land, whose name I do not know that I am at liberty to
mention, wrote as follows : — " In answer to your inquiry about
the Salmon fry I have put into my newly-formed pond, I must
tell you, the water was first let in about the latter end of
1830, and some months afterwards, in April 1831, I put in
a dozen or two of small Salmon fry, three or four inches long,
taken out of a river here, thinking it would be curious to see
whether they would grow without the possibility of their
getting to the sea or salt water. As the pond, between three
and four acres in extent, had been newly stocked with Trout,
I did not allow any fishing till the summer of 1833, when
we caught with the fly several of these Salmon, from two to
three pounds' weight, perfectly well shaped, and filled up,
of the best Salmon colour outside, the flesh well-flavoured
and well-coloured, though a little paler than that of new-
run fish.""

I have purposely adverted to the growth of the fry of the
Salmon in fresh water, as stated by Dr. Knox, Mr. Parker,
and others, in order to introduce the important experimental
observations of Mr. John Shaw on the development and

VOL. II. C

18 SALMONID.E.

growth of Salmon fry, from the exclusion of the ova to the
age of two years ; and that I may do justice to so interesting
a subject, I include a large portion of Mr. Shaw's paper as it
appeared in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edin-
burgh.

" That the facts which I communicate regarding the natu-
ral history of the Salmon in its earlier stages, may not appear
altogether undeserving of consideration, I may premise that
my remarks have not proceeded from hasty or imperfect ob-
servation, but from the experience of many years sedulously
devoted to the subject, the whole of my life, with the excep-
tion of a few seasons, having been spent on the banks of
streams where Salmon are in the habit of depositing their
spawn, and where of course the Parr is likewise abundant.
My opportunities of observation have thus been as ample, as
my efforts have been unremitting and laborious, to discover
the true history of this invaluable species. I shall here pre-
sent a brief abstract of my earlier proceedings in relation to
the subject.

" I had long been of opinion, in opposition to the senti-
ments entertained by the majority of authors, that the fish
commonly called Parr, was the natural produce of the Sal-
mon, and that all recorded attempts to trace the history of
the latter fish were fanciful in their nature, and delusive in
their results. To enable me to watch the progressive growth
of Parr, I caught seven of these small fishes on the llth of
July 1833, and placed them in a pond supplied by a stream of
wholesome water. There they continued to thrive remark-
ably well, and were seen catching flies and other insects, and
sporting on the surface in perfect health. In the month of
April following (1834), they began to assume a different
aspect from that which they exhibited when first put into the
pond, and this change was evident enough even while they
continued swimming at large in the water ; but wishing to

SALMON. 19

examine them more particularly, and at the same time to
convince others of the fact of their having changed their
external character, I caught them with a casting-net on the
17th May, 1834, and satisfied every individual present that
they had assumed the usual appearance of what are called
Salmon smalts or fry. They were now of a fine deep blue
upon the back, with a delicate silvery appearance on the
sides, and the abdomen white ; these silvery scales came
easily off upon the hand. A circumstance occurred about
the first week of May, which it may be proper to mention, as
illustrating in some manner what may be deemed the migra-
tory instinct of these fishes. They seemed to me at this
time to be decreasing in numbers, and I found, on examina-
tion, that some had leapt altogether out of the pond, and
were lying dead at a short distance from its edge.

" In March 1835, I again took twelve Parrs from the
river of a larger size, that is, about six inches long ; they then
bore the perpendicular bars, and other usual characters of
that fish. These I also transferred to a pond prepared for
the purpose, and, by the end of April, they too assumed the
characters of the Salmon-fry, — the bars becoming overlayed
by the new silvery scales, which Parrs of two years old in-
variably assume before departing towards the sea. From
these experiments I had no doubt that the larger Parrs ob-
servable in rivers in autumn, winter, and early spring, were
in reality the actual Salmon-fry advancing to the conclu-
sion of their second year, and that the smaller summer
Parrs (called in Dumfriesshire May Parrs), were the same
species, but younger as individuals, and only entering upon
their second year. This, then, I conceived to be the detec-
tion of the main error of preceding observers, who had uni-
formly alleged that salmon-fry attain a size of six or eight
inches in as many weeks, and after the lapse of this brief
period take their departure to the sea. It is the rapidity

20 SALMONID.E.

with which the two year old Parr assumes the aspect of the
salmon-fry that has led to this false conclusion, and super-
ficial or hasty observers, taking cognizance, 1st, of the hatch-
ing of the ova in early spring, and, 2dly, of the sea-ward
migration of Smolts soon afterwards, have imagined these
two facts to take place in immediate or speedy succession.
I may now mention what actually becomes of these young
fishes for some weeks after they are hatched.

" That the fish in question should not be found in the
river in an earlier state than that in which it is named the
May or summer Parr, had long appeared to me to be an
extraordinary and perplexing circumstance. I therefore made
a minute examination of the streams where the old Salmon
had spawned the preceding winter, and I there found in
vast numbers a very small but active fish, which I concluded
to be the young Parr or Samlet of the season. To prove the
fact, I scooped up with a gauze-net two or three dozen of
them, on the 15th of May, 1834. They measured about an
inch in length ; their heads were large in proportion to their
bodies, and the latter tapered off towards the tail, in the form
of a wedge. The small transverse bars, characteristic of the
Parr, were already distinctly marked. I placed them in two
ponds, each provided with a run of water, where they throve
well. In the course of the succeeding May (1835), that is,
when they were more than a year old, and had been twelve
months in my possession, I took a few of them from the
pond for the purpose of examination. They had increased to
the length of three and a half inches, on an average, and it is
important to remark, that they correspond in every respect
with the Parr of the same age which occurred in the river ;
but neither as yet indicated any approach to the silvery
aspect of the Smolt. Being satisfied, however, from the
result of my former experiments on the Parr, that they would
ultimately assume that silvery aspect, I continued to detain

SALMON. 21

them in the pond, and, accordingly, in May 1836, they were
transmuted into Smolts or Salmon-fry, commonly so called.
At this time they measured six and a half inches in length,
their colour on the back a beautiful deep blue, the sides
bright and silvery, the dorsal, caudal, and especially the pec-
toral fins, tipped with black, the abdomen, ventral, and anal
fins white. The undoubted Smolts of the river were at this
time descending sea-wards, and the most careful comparison
of these with those in my possession did not elicit the slight-
est difference between the two. Mine had completed their
second year, and is it likely that those in the river which so
identically resembled them, were only a few weeks old ?

" The minute but active fish above alluded to, is at that
early period to be no where found except in those streams
(or their immediate vicinity) in which the old Salmon had
deposited their spawn during the preceding winter. Early in
April 1835, I discovered them in one of these streams, but
so young and weak, owing to their very recent emergence
from the spawning-bed, as to be unable to struggle with the
current where it flowed with any strength or rapidity. They
therefore betook themselves to the gentler eddies, and fre-
quently into the small hollows produced in the shingle by
the hoofs of horses which had passed the ford. In these
comparatively quiet places, and covered by a slight current of
a few inches in depth, they continued with their little tails
in constant motion, till such time as my near approach was
perceived, when they immediately darted beneath the stones.
They remain with these habits, and in the situations just
mentioned, during the months of April, May, and even
June ; but as they increase in size and strength, they scatter
themselves all over the shallower parts of the river, especially
wherever the bottom is composed of fine gravel. They con-
tinue, in truth, comparatively unobserved throughout the
whole of the first summer, being seldom taken by the angler

SALMONID.E.

during that season. But when the two-year-olds have dis-
appeared (as Smolts) in spring, these smaller fishes, now
entering their second year, become bolder and more apparent,
and now constitute the May and summer Parr of anglers.
But their timid habits during the first few months of their
existence, and their consequent concealment in the shingle,
greatly screen them from observation during that period, and
have led to the erroneous belief, that the silvery Smolts were
the actual produce of the season, and were only a few weeks
old. It certainly seems singular that it should never have
occurred to any intelligent angler to inquire what had become
of the older generation of Parr, that is of the comparatively
large individuals which he might have captured late in au-
tumn and in earliest spring, but none of which he can detect
after the departure of the so-called Smolts. If the two are
not identical, how does it happen that the one so constantly
disappears simultaneously with the other ? Yet no one
alleges that he has ever seen Parr, as such, performing their
migration towards the sea. They cannot do so, because they
have been previously converted into Smolts.

" I shall here allude briefly to three different occasions on
which I have had an opportunity of witnessing the first mi-
gration of Smolts or converted Parr, that is, their descent in
small shoals towards the sea. The first of these was in the
first week of May, 1831. I was able deliberately to inspect
them as the several shoals arrived behind the sluices of a
salmon-cruive, and while they yet remained in the water, and
were swimming in a particular direction, indistinct transverse
lateral bars might still be seen, but as they changed their
position, these became as it were lost in the silvery lustre.
I also examined many of them in the hand, and could there
also, by holding them at a certain angle in relation to the
eye, produce the barred appearance, but when the fish were
held with their broad side directly opposed to view, the cha-

SALMON.

racter alluded to could not be seen. Its actual existence,
however, could be easily proved by removing the deciduous
silvery scales, when the barred markings became apparent,
and, of course, continued so to whatever light exposed. My
next opportunity occurred on the 3rd of May, 1833. The
appearance was exactly the same as that which I have just
described. They passed down the river in small family
groups or shoals of from forty to sixty and upwards, their
rate of progression being about two miles an hour. The
caution which they exercised in descending the several rapids
they met with in the course of their journey was very amus-
ing. They no sooner came within the influence of any rapid
current than they in an instant turned their heads up the
stream, and would again and again permit themselves to be
carried to the very brink, and as often retreat upwards, till at
length one or two, bolder than the others, permitted them-
selves to be carried over the current, when the entire flock,
one by one, disappeared, and then, so soon as they had
reached comparatively still water, they again turned their
heads towards the sea, and resumed their journey. The
third opportunity to which I shall here refer occurred in May
1836, at which time, as I have stated, I compared a few of
the descending Smolts with those which (having been two
years in my possession as Parr) had, in the confinement of
the Pond, assumed the corresponding silvery aspect of the
Salmon-fry. The river during this month being remarkably
low, I was thus enabled to ascertain more accurately the time
during which they continued to migrate, which I found to
be nearly throughout the whole of the month, but more
especially in the course of the second week, in which the
shoals were both larger, and more frequent in their successive
arrivals. Their external aspect was the same as that of the
former shoals, and the average length, as usual, from six to
seven inches.

SALMONID^E.

" Having thus traced the progress of the Parr from an
inch in length, through its several stages up to the period of
migration, I shall now detail my various experiments on the
ova of the Salmon, undertaken with a view to prove the
identity of these two fish. On the 10th of January, 1836,
I observed a female Salmon of considerable size (about six-
teen pounds), and two males, of at least twenty-five pounds,
engaged in depositing their spawn. The spot which they
had selected for that purpose was a little apart from some
other Salmon which were engaged in the same process, and
rather nearer the side, although still in pretty deep water.
The two males kept up an incessant conflict during the
whole of the day, for possession of the female, and, in the
course of their struggles, frequently drove each other almost
ashore, and were repeatedly on the surface displaying their
dorsal fins, and lashing the water with their tails. Being
satisfied that these were real Salmon, there being at least ten
brace of that fish engaged in the same process on the stream
at the time, I took the opportunity of securing as much of
the ova as I could possibly obtain. This I did three days
after it was deposited, the males and female still occasionally
frequenting the bed. The method by which I obtained the
eggs was by using a thin canvass bag, stitched on a slight
frame formed of small rod iron, in fashion of a large square
landing-net, one person holding this bag a few inches farther
down the stream than where the ova were deposited, and
another with a spade digging up the gravel, the current
carrying the eggs into the bag, while the greater portion of
the gravel was left behind. Having thus obtained a suffi-
cient quantity of the ova for my purpose, I placed them in
gravel under a stream of water where I could have a con-
venient opportunity of watching their progress. The stream
was pure spring water. On the 26th of February, — that is,
forty-eight days after being deposited, I found on close in-

SALMON. 25

spection that they had some appearance of animation, from a
very minute streak of blood which appeared to traverse for a
short distance the interior of the egg, originating near two
small dark spots, not larger at that time than the point of a
pin. These two dark spots, however, ultimately turned out
to be the eyes of the embryo fish, which was distinctly seen
resting against the interior surface of the egg a few days pre-
vious to its exclusion. On the 8th of April, which makes
ninety days imbedded in the gravel, I found on examination
that they were excluded from the egg, which was not the
case a day or two previous. The temperature of the water
at the time was 43°, the temperature of the water in the
river 45°, and the temperature of the atmosphere 39°. On
its first exclusion, the little fish has a very singular appear-
ance. The head is large in proportion to the body, which is
exceedingly small, and measures abovii jive-eighths of an inch
in length, of a pale blue or peach-blossom colour. But the
most singular part of the fish is the conical bag-like appen-
dage which adheres by its base to the abdomen. This bag
is about two-eighths of an inch in length, of a beautiful trans-
parent red, very much resembling a light red currant, and in
consequence of its colour, may be seen at the bottom of the
water when the fish itself can with difficulty be perceived.
The body also presents another singular appearance, namely,

26 SALMONID^E.

a fin or fringe, resembling that of the tail of the tadpole,
which runs from the dorsal and anal fins to the termination of
the tail, and is slightly indented. This little fish does not
leave the gravel immediately after its exclusion from the egg,
but remains for several weeks beneath it with the bag at-
tached, and containing a supply of nourishment, on the same
principle, no doubt, as the umbilical vessel is known to
nourish other embryo animals. By the end of fifty days, or
the 30th of May, the bag contracted and disappeared. The
fin or tadpole-like fringe also disappeared by dividing itself
into the dorsal, adipose, and anal fins, all of which then
became perfectly developed. The little transverse bars,
which for a period of two years (as I have already shown)
characterize it as the Parr, also made their appearance.
Thus, from the 10th of January till the end of May, a
period of upwards of one hundred and forty days was required
to perfect this little fish, which even then measured little
more than one inch in length, and corresponded in all re-
spects with those on which I had formerly experimented, as
well as with such as existed at that same time in great num-
bers in the natural streams.

" Although I was myself satisfied by the preceding facts
that Parr and Salmon fry were thus identical in kind, and
differed only in respect to age, I was informed that my in-
ferences were objected to, in as far as there was not suffi-
cient evidence that the spawn experimented on was actually
that of Salmon, seeing that the same streams were accessible
to other species of the genus. I therefore felt it incumbent
on me to supply this desired link in the chain of evidence,
and I accordingly repeated my experiments on ova which I
saw excluded, which, in fact, I forced the Salmon to exclude,
in the manner after mentioned, preserving at the same time
the skins of the parent fish, for the satisfaction of the curious
or sceptical.

SALMON. 27

" Before proceeding to make additional experiments, it
was necessary to lay my experimental basins dry, not only for
the purpose of removing the young Salmon of the preceding
season's produce, but also to enable me to fit them up on
such a principle as would exclude any possibility of confusion
either from the overflowing of the ponds themselves, or from
the flooding of the river Nith, on the banks of which they
are situate. Every precaution was used not only to exclude
error, but to place the young fry in circumstances as nearly
resembling the state of nature as was consistent with their
preservation.

" The ponds, which are three in number, are two feet
deep, and thickly embedded with gravel, while they are at
the same time supplied with a small stream of spring water

^

in which the larvse of insects abound. Pond No. 1 is
twenty-five feet in length by eighteen in breadth, and is fed
by the stream, which debouches into it at the fall. Pond
No. 2 is twenty-two feet in length by eighteen in breadth,
and is fed from pond No. 1, where the communication
is carefully grated with wire. Pond No. 3 is fifty feet in
length by thirty in breadth, and is fed by the stream,
having no communication with either of the other ponds.
The waste water from pond No. 1 is conducted into pond
No. 2, through a square wooden pipe covered at the mouth
with a wire grating, the bars of which are about one-eighth
of an inch apart. The waste water from pond No. 2 is con-
veyed under ground to the distance of twenty feet in a square
wooden pipe, grated in the same manner as the former.
The waste water from pond No. 3 passes down a square
wooden pipe two feet deep, covered at the top with wire-
gauze, and is conveyed under ground in a small covered
drain to the distance of twenty feet from the pond. The
water of the whole is then left to find its way to the river.

28 SALMON [D,E.

" To prevent any communication arising from an acciden-
tal overflow of the ponds themselves, I raised embankments
upon the intersecting walks of two feet in height, so that the
several families of fish which the ponds contain can have no
access, direct or indirect, to each other. Where the rivulet
is divided for the purpose of supplying the several ponds, I
have formed an artificial fall in each stream, of a construction
to prevent the fish from ascending one stream and descending
another. Finally, where the water discharges itself from the
ponds, the channels are so secured by wire-grating that it is
as impossible for the young fish to escape as for any other
fish to have access to them. The whole occupies an area of
nearly eighty feet square.

" My experimental basins being thus prepared, my next
object was to secure the fish, the progeny of which were to
form the subject of experiment. With the view, there-
fore, of securing two Salmon, male and female, while in the
very act of continuing their kind, I provided myself with
an iron hoop five feet in diameter, on which I fixed a net
of a pretty large mesh, so constructed as to form a bag
nine feet in length by five feet in width. I then attached
the hoop and net to the end of a pole nine feet long, thus
forming a landing net on a large scale. The weight of the
net with its iron hoop being upwards of seven pounds, it in-
stantly sank to the bottom on being thrown into the water.

" Being thus prepared with all the means of carrying my
experiment into practice, I proceeded to the river Nith on
the 4th January 1837, and readily discovered a pair of adult
Salmon engaged in depositing their spawn. They were in
a situation easily accessible, the water being of such a depth
as to admit of my net being employed with certain success.
Before proceeding to take the fish, I formed a small trench
in the shingle by the edge of the stream, through which I

SALMON. 29

directed a small stream of water from the river two inches
deep. At the end of this trench, I placed an earthenware
basin of considerable size, for the purpose of ultimately re-
ceiving the ova. I then, at one and the same instant, en-
closed both the fish in the hoop, allowing them to find their
way into the bag of the net by the aid of the stream. In
capturing these fish, I considered myself fortunate in secur-
ing them by one cast of the net, for, in conducting the expe-
riment of artificial impregnation, it appeared to me to be very
desirable that the male should be taken, with the female of
his own selection, at the very moment when they were mu-
tually engaged in the continuance of their species. To take
a female from one part of the stream and a male from an-
other, might not have given the same chance of a successful
issue to the experiment. Having drawn the fish ashore, I
placed the female, while still alive, in the trench, and pressed
from her body a quantity of ova. I then placed the male
in the same situation, pressing from his body a quantity of
milt, which, passing down the stream, thoroughly impregnated
the ova. I then transferred the spawn to the basin, and
deposited it in a stream connected with a pond previously
formed for its reception. The temperature of this stream
was 39°, of the river from which the Salmon were taken
33°, and of the atmosphere 3b'°. The skins of the parent
Salmon are now in my possession.

" On examining the ova on the 23rd of February (fifty
days after impregnation), I found the embryo fish distinctly
visible to the naked eye, and even exhibiting some sym-
ptoms of vitality by moving feebly in the egg. The tempera-
ture of the stream was at this time 36°, and of the atmo-
sphere 38°. On the 28th of April (one hundred and four-
teen days after impregnation), I found the young Salmon
excluded from the egg, which was not the case when I visited

30 SALMONID.E.

them on the previous day. The temperature of the stream
was then 44°. The ova, which for some time previous to
being hatched, had been almost daily in my hand for inspec-
tion, did not appear to suffer at all from being handled.
When I had occasion to inspect the ovum, I placed it in the
hollow of my hand, covered with a few drops of water, where
it frequently remained a considerable time without suffering
any apparent injury. The embryo, however, while in this
situation, showed an increased degree of activity by repeat-
edly turning itself in the egg, an action probably produced
by the increase of temperature arising from the warmth
of the hand.

" On the 24th of May (twenty-seven days after being
hatched), the young fish had consumed the yolk, but in a
few days afterwards the whole of this family, with the excep-
tion of one individual, were found dead at the bottom of the
pond, a circumstance which has occurred more than once in
the course of my experiments, arising, I apprehend, from a
deposition of mud, the same result having previously taken
place, when the pond had not been sufficiently imbedded
with gravel.

" To show the effects of increased temperature in hasten-
ing the development of the infant fish, I may relate an ex-
periment which I made upon a few of the same ova, from
which this family proceeded. On the 20th of April (one
hundred and six days after impregnation), finding the ova
alluded to unhatched, and the temperature of the stream
being 41°, I took four of them and placed them in a tumbler
of water, covering the bottom with fine gravel, in which I
imbedded the ova. I then suspended the tumbler from the
top of my bed-room window, above which I placed a large
earthenware jar, with a small spigot inserted in its side,
from which I easily directed a stream of pure spring water
into the tumbler. The waste water was carried out at the

SALMON. 31

window along a wooden channel fitted up for the purpose.
As there was no fire in the bed-room, and the window facing
the north, the temperature did not range very high, 47°
being the average, while the average temperature of the water
in the tumbler was 45°. During the night, however, the
temperature would be very considerably increased, and the
consequence was, the young fish in the tumbler were hatched
in thirty-six hours, while those remaining in the stream did
not hatch till the 28th of April, a difference of nearly seven
days. At this stage the little fish are so very transparent,
that their vital organs are distinctly visible, and, when placed
immediately under the eye of the observer, they present a
very interesting appearance. The pectoral fin is continually
in rapid motion, even when the fish itself is otherwise in a
state of perfect repose. They also begin to manifest an in-
creasing desire to escape observation, a principle wisely im-
planted for their better security, during so feeble and helpless
a condition. On the 24th of May (thirty-nine days after
their birth), the fish in the tumbler were completely divested
of the yolk, and the characteristic bars of the Parr had be-
come visible. At this time they measured nearly one inch
in length, and appeared to be in perfect health ; but fearing
that after the yolk was consumed, I should be unable to
supply them with appropriate food, I returned them to the
pond from which I had taken them on the 20th of April,
where they perished with the rest of the family.

" This last experiment proves, that by placing the ova
under a temporary stream of water in the house, the develop-
ment of the young may be materially accelerated, while it
also shows that they may be kept alive for a considerable
time afterwards ; at all events, until the yolk, which I pre-
sume to be their sole support at this period, is totally con-
sumed.

" The next experiment, the circumstances of which I have

32 SALMONID.E.

to relate, has been attended with more success than those
which I had previously made. The process of taking the
adult fish, and all the circumstances of attending the im-
pregnation, were entirely similar in this case to that already
narrated.

" That the pedigree of the young fish may not be called
in question, I have preserved the skins of the parents. The
weight of the male when taken was sixteen pounds, and of
the female eight pounds.

" The spawn was impregnated and deposited in the stream
immediately below the fall, pond No. 1, on the 27th of
January, 1837 ; the temperature of the water in the stream
being 40°, and that of the water in the river 36°. On the
21st of March (fifty-four days after impregnation), the em-
bryo fish were visible to the naked eye. On the 7th of
May (one hundred and one days after impregnation), they
had burst the envelope, and were to be found amongst the
shingle of the stream. The temperature of the water was at
this time 43°, and of the atmosphere 45°. It is this brood
which I now had an opportunity of watching continuously for
a length of time, that is, for more than the entire period
which was required to elapse from their exclusion from the
egg, until their assumption of those characters which distin-
guish the undoubted Salmon-fry. I therefore desire, even at
the risk of repetition, to describe their progressive growth
during these important and usually misconceived stages of
existence. But before doing so, I beg to be indulged in a
few miscellaneous remarks.

"It is indeed in no way surprising that any body of sci-
entific men, before whom a portion of these observations on
the growth of the Salmon in fresh water may have been
previously laid, should have been slow to express a decided
opinion on the subject, more especially when the result of my
experiments goes to prove facts so opposed to what has been

SALMON. 33

the received opinion botli of scientific and practical observers,
ever since the natural history of the Salmon became a subject
of inquiry. I have no wish to attempt removing these
opinions by the substitution of others which may be equally
destitute of a correct foundation, but by the statement of
facts resulting from the most careful and repeatedly verified
experiments — experiments which, I believe, have been made
by no other individual on the same principle for a similar
purpose ; for had they been so, I am persuaded the real
history and economy of this valuable and interesting fish
would long ere now have been more correctly understood by
the community. However, should similar observations have
been made, the results of which tend to support any material
facts contradictory of those here stated, it would be most
desirable that the scientific public should be immediately
apprised of them.

" It has been asserted, with some appearance of truth, in
support of the old school theory, that owing to the com-
paratively limited range of my experimental ponds, that
the young Salmon reared in them have not had a ' sup-
ply of food sufficiently varied, or in sufficient quantity, to
insure an equally rapid growth to those in the open river.1
This objection, I must repeat, is by no means tenable, as the
streams and ponds in which they have existed from their
birth abound with every species of insect food peculiar to the
river, and, at the same time, the fishes themselves (which are
certainly the best test), are in the highest possible health and
condition, and correspond in every respect Avith those in the
river. I have already stated that the young of the Salmon
remain in the river for the first two years after their birth,
being then known under the various local denominations of
Parrs, Pinks, Fingerlings, &c. However, in order to pre-
vent any misconception of the terms employed in the course
of these details, I shall adhere to the name Parr, as being

VOL. II. D

84t SALMONID<E.

the designation by which this fish is most generally known in
Scotland.

" The early or late hatching of the Salmon-spawn in the
river is no doubt in a great measure regulated by the tem-
perature which may prevail after its deposition. In severe
winters, when the temperature of the river for many weeks
barely exceeds the freezing point, the ova remain in the
gravel at the bottom of the stream during that period with
the living principle comparatively suspended, until the more
genial temperature of the spring brings that principle into
more active operation. In the course of experiments made
in the beginning of 1838, I had an opportunity of observing
the different effects of temperature in facilitating or retarding
the development of the Salmon-spawn. In ova placed in a
stream of spring water, the average temperature of which was
40°, the embryo fish was visible to the naked eye by the end
of the sixtieth day, and was hatched on the hundred and
eighth day after impregnation. That which the same parent
deposited the same day in the river, the average temperature
of which during the eight following weeks did not exceed
33°, was not visible to the naked eye until the ninetieth day,
and was not hatched until the 10th of May, — that is, one
hundred and thirty-one days after impregnation. The tem-
perature of the river, however, during the last forty days of
that period, had considerably increased, and on the day on
which the fishes were hatched, it had attained an elevation of
60°. Were it, then, the fact that the young Salmon migrate
to the sea the same season they are hatched, the effects of a
mild or a rigid winter would alone regulate the period of
their departure from the river. This, however, is not the
fact, as the main body of the Salmon-fry regularly quit our
rivers about the first or second week in May, whatever may
have been the temperature of the previous winter, and in
this particular instance they were actually descending the

SALMON. 35

river in shoals on the very day (10th of May) on which that
season's produce were only emerging from the ova.

" Owing to the great family likeness which is known to
exist amongst the young of the several species of the genus
Salmo in their early stages, an idea has been entertained that
unscientific observers are in the practice of confounding the
progeny of the whole of the migratory species indiscriminately
under the too general name of Parr. To obviate this in-
convenience, and to mark the distinction of species in their
earlier stages, recourse has been had to very fanciful and ill-
defined attributes ; and I am of opinion that in almost every
instance these vague characters have been applied to indivi-
duals of the young of the real Salmon, of which the charac-
ters had not been so fully developed as those of others, rather
than to the young of any distinct species. With the view,
therefore, of affording scientific men an opportunity of com-
paring the young of the Salmon Trout with that of the
Salmon, with which they are supposed to have been con-
founded, I have taken this opportunity of laying before the
Royal Society a brood of the former produced by artificial
impregnation, and exhibiting five successive stages, from the
day on which they were hatched to the age of nine months,
accompanied by the skins of the parent fishes. At the age of
six months they bear no very marked resemblance to the
young of the real Salmon either in the Parr or fry state, and
as they advance in age and size, the resemblance becomes
still slighter. However, on comparing them with the com-
mon Trout, the resemblance is very striking, the general out-
line of the fish being much less elegant than that of the
young Salmon or Parr, the external markings being also more
peculiarly those of the Trout species, so that, in the absence
of the parent skins, it would be a matter of difficulty to
determine to which kind of Trout they actually belong. A
specimen of the young Common Trout of this season's pro-

D 2

36

SALMONID^E.

duce, taken from the Clyde above the Falls, is also exhi-
bited ; so that the young of the three species most common
to this locality (and of corresponding age), viz. Salmo salar,
Salmo trutta, and Salmo fario, may be carefully compared.
The ova of the Salmo eriox, which is less common in these
tributaries, I have not as yet had an opportunity of experi-
menting upon.

" To resume my history of the so-called Parr. Having
brought the series of experiments on the ovum of the Salmon,
begun in January 1837, to a satisfactory conclusion, it may
be gratifying to those who have taken an interest in this
curious inquiry, to be put in possession of the results. I

1. Young Salmon. 2. Young Sea Trout. 3. Young River Trout.

SALMON. 37

have already detailed the particulars regarding the mode
practised in capturing the parent Salmon, the process of
fecundating the ovum artificially with the milt from the male,
and the appearance it presents from that period up to the
exclusion of the young fish from the capsule of the ovum,
which took place on the 7th of May, — one hundred and one
days after impregnation. A complete series of specimens
from the egg until the commencement of the third year,
illustrates the following descriptive notes.

" Specimens taken from the pond, when ten days old
(16th of May), had still a considerable portion of the vitel-
line bag attached to the abdomen. Specimens removed
when forty-eight days old (24th of June) had no recognisable
bag, but the symmetry of the form was as yet but imper-
fectly developed. After the lapse of two months (7th of
July) the shape was found to be materially improved, and to
exhibit in miniature much of the form and proportions of a
mature fish. At the age of four months (7th of September)
the characteristic marks of the Parr were clearly developed.
Two months later (six months1 old, 7th of November) an
accession both of size and strength was apparent, and on com-
paring the pond specimens with the Parr of the river, no
marked difference was perceptible. The average length at
this time was three inches.

" During the winter months, the general temperature of
the rivers is so low, and the consequent deficiency of insect
food so great, that the whole of the Scottish Salmonidte
which inhabit the fresh waters during that season, are well
known to lose, rather than gain, in point of condition. The
same rule holds in regard to the young Salmon in the expe-
rimental ponds, although not to the .same degree, they having
maintained comparatively a superior condition throughout the
winter to those found in the river of a corresponding age and
size. The temperature of the ponds, averaging about 40°

38 SALMONID.E.

during the winter, not only keeps the young fishes which
occupy them in a more active condition, but the insects
themselves are also more abroad, and thus afford a convenient
supply of food not to be obtained by those at that time in
the river, the average temperature of which, in ordinary win-
ters, barely exceeds 84°."

" A specimen twelve months old, taken from pond No.
1, on the 10th of May, 1838, is much improved in con-
dition, as well as in external appearance, in comparison to
those taken in February, and has exchanged its dusky au-
tumnal and winter's coating for that which may be called its
summer dress.* It measures about three inches and three
quarters in length, and is denominated, along with those of a
corresponding age and size in the river, the ' May Parr."1
Immediately after the migration of the two-year old Parr
(which the latter always effect about the beginning of May,
under the name of Salmon-fry), there is no other Parr, be-
sides such as have been recently hatched, to be found in the
river save those which correspond with this specimen, which
is the Pink of the river Hodder, alluded to by Mr. Yarrell.-f-
As the summer advances they increase in size, and are
actually the little fish which afford the angler in Salmon rivers
so much light amusement with the rod, during the months of
August, September, and October. They remain over the

* " On the approach of autumn, the whole of the Salmonida;, resident as well
as migratory, while in fresh water, acquire a dusky exterior, accompanied by a
considerable increase of mucus or slime. The fins also become more muscular.
However, on the return of spring, they resume their wonted beautiful colouring,
and the fins, the cartilaginous portions of which are frequently damaged during
the winter floods, grow up and acquire their former outline.

•f- " ' Pinks in the river Hodder, in the month of April, are rather more than
three inches long, and are considered to be the fry of that year ; at this time
Smolts of six inches and a half are also taken.' " — See Yarrell's Supplement to
British Fishes, page 6. The fry of the same year, in mild winters, are only
quitting the gravel in April, at which stage they measure not more than one
inch. — T. S.

SAL3ION. 39

second winter in the river, during which period the males
shed their milt, and are found continuing their kind along
with the female adult Salmon, although still bearing all the
external markings of the Parr, as I shall afterwards more par-
ticularly mention. A specimen eighteen months old, taken
from pond No. 1, on the 1-ith of November, 1838, measures
six inches in length, and has now attained that stage when
all the external characteristic markings of the Parr are strik-
ingly developed, and, in point of health and condition, can-
not be exceeded by any taken from the river. All the males,
at the age of eighteen months, of the several broods in my
possession, last autumn (1838) attained a most important
corroborative stage, viz. that of showing a breeding state, by
having matured the milt, which could be made to flow freely
from their bodies by the slightest pressure of the hand.
The females of the same broods, however, although in equal
health and condition, did not exhibit a corresponding appear-
ance in regard to the maturing of roe. The male and female
Parrs in the river, of a similar age, are found respectively in
precisely a corresponding state, which may surely be admitted
as most important evidence in support of the fact, that all
these individuals are, in truth, specifically the same.

" A specimen, two years old, taken from pond No. 1, on
the 20th of May, 1839, is six inches and a half long, and
has assumed the migratory dress. The commencement of
the change, which was perfected by the whole of the broods
about the same time,* was first observable about the middle
of the previous April, by the caudal, pectoral, and dorsal fins

* " One or two of each of the three broods assumed the migratory or Smolt
dress at the age of twelve months. This circumstance I am disposed to attribute
to the high temperature of the spring-water ponds, which I have no doubt has
hastened the change. I am greatly strengthened in this opinion by the fact of
no instance of a similar change having occurred with individuals reared in
similar ponds supplied with water from a rivulet, the temperature of which
throughout the year ranges pretty nearly with that of the River Nith.

40 SALMONID^E.

assuming a dusky margin, while, at the same time, the whole
of the fish exhibited symptoms of a silvery exterior, as well
as an increased elegance of form. The specimen in question,
so recently a Parr, exhibits a very perfect example of the
Salmon-fry or Smolt.

" When the migratory change takes place in the young
Salmon in the ponds, a marked alteration also occurs in their
habits. While in the Parr state, they show no disposition to
congregate, but each individual occupies a particular station
in the ponds, and should any one quit his place with the
view of occupying the position already possessed by another,
the intruder is at once expelled with an apparent degree of
violence. But so soon as the whole brood has perfected the
migratory dress, they immediately congregate into a shoal,
and exhibit an anxious desire to effect their escape, by scour-
ing all over the ponds, leaping and sporting, and altogether
displaying a vastly increased degree of activity."

" I have elsewhere stated that ' the circumstances attending
the developenient and growth of the brood in pond No. 3, so
exactly correspond with those of the preceding brood in pond
No. 1, that their history would only be a repetition of the
former. I may, however, state, that the individuals in pond
No. 3 are considerably larger than those in pond No. ] , the
difference, at the age of six months, amounting to an inch.''
This superiority in point of size, for the first six months, of
those in pond No. 3 over those reared in pond No. 1, was
not, however, maintained, with the exception of two indivi-
duals, much beyond the first six months, as by the period at
which they assumed the migratory dress (two years), no dif-
ference existed in regard either to size or condition."

" The circumstance of the male Parrs with the milt ma-
tured, and flowing in profusion from their bodies, being at all
times found in company with the adult female Salmon while
depositing her spawn in the river, and the female Parrs being in

SALMON. 41

every instance absent, suggested the idea that the males were
probably present with the female Salmon at such seasons for
a sexual purpose. And to demonstrate the fact, I, in Ja-
nuary 1837, took a female Salmon weighing fourteen pounds
from the spawning bed, from whence I also took a male Parr
weighing one ounce and a half, with the milt of which I im-
pregnated a quantity of her ova, and placed it in the stream
of pond No. 2, where, to my great astonishment, the process
succeeded in every respect as it had done with that which had
been impregnated by the adult male Salmon, and exhibited,
from the first visible appearance of the embryo fish up to
their assuming the migratory dress, the utmost health and
vigour. The very extraordinary results of these experiments,
although made with the utmost possible care, induced me to
defer giving them publicity until I had repeatedly verified
the fact. I, therefore, removed this brood to another pond,
apart from all other fish, where they had an abundant supply
of insect food and wholesome water ; and again, early in the
following January (1838), I repeated the experiment by
taking another female Salmon, weighing fourteen pounds, and
two male Parrs from the same spawning bed, and impreg-
nated two lots of her ova with the milt from the two Parrs,
and afterwards placed them in two different streams, inclosed
in boxes open at the top, temperature 45°. The extreme
severity of the weather which succeeded had, however, nearly
proved fatal to the whole. On the evening of the 8th of
January, the day on which I took the parents from the river,
the frost set in, and continued with such intensity for a suc-
cession of many weeks, that the wild fowl generally, and the
wild ducks in particular, suffered severe privations, and in
the course of their wanderings in search of food they unfortu-
nately stumbled on my boxes of ova, one lot of which they
wholly devoured, to the amount at least of five hundred.
My feelings of mortification and disappointment on the dis-

42 SALMONID.E.

covery of this unforeseen disaster may readily be conceived.
However, on examining my other box, I found there were
still a few remaining, which I carefully collected, and put
into a place of greater safety. The progressive growth of
these, from the impregnation of the ova up to the age of
eighteen months, has also been uniformly the same as those
produced by male and female adult parents, and reared under
similar circumstances.

" As a further illustration of the singular economy of the
Salmon in their native streams, I have yet to detail another
experiment or two, not less interesting than conclusive. In
December last (1838) I took a female Salmon from the river
weighing eleven pounds, and four male Parrs from the same
spawning bed. After impregnating four different lots of her
ova, one lot to each individual Parr, I placed the four Parrs
in a pond, where they remained until the following May, at
which period they assumed the migratory dress. The ova
were placed in streams to which no other fish had access, and
where they became mature in a similarly progressive manner
to those already detailed, thus clearly demonstrating that the
young Salmon of eighteen months old, while yet in the Parr
or early state, actually perform the duties of a male parent
before quitting the river.*

" While the males of the three several broods which occu-
py ponds Nos. ], 2, and 3, continued in a breeding state,
which lasted throughout the whole of the winter of 1838-39,
I impregnated the ova of three adult female Salmon from the

* " As I believe it has been objected to my views, or rather practice, regarding
this mode of impregnation, that the generative influence may have been in some
other way effected than through the medium of the Parr, I therefore took every
means to prove the truthful results of my experiments by varying in some mea-
sure their conditions. Thus, in two instances, I took a portion of the ova from
a female Salmon, and placed them, without impregnation, in a stream of pure
water. The result was as I anticipated : — up to the termination of the general
hatching season they exhibited no appearance of vitality. The female from

SALMON. 43

river with the milt of a male taken from each of the three
ponds, the whole of which ova matured. This at once re-
moves any doubt which may have been entertained regarding
the constitutional strength of individuals reared under such
circumstances.

" One of the males used in the above experiments is itself
the produce between a male Parr and female adult Salmon
taken from the river on the 4th of January, 1837, and reared
in pond No. 2, as already mentioned. The result of the
experiment practised with this specimen and the female Sal-
mon from the river, being of the utmost importance in estab-
lishing the identity of the species (on a principle recognised
by physiologists as a law of nature), every necessary precau-
tion to avoid error or confusion was observed. It was taken
from pond No. 2 on the 5th of January, 1839, being then
twenty months old, with the milt flowing from its body. A
female adult Salmon weighing twelve pounds was taken at
the same time from the river, in the act of spawning in the
absence of the male. A quantity of her ova was impregnated
in the same manner in every respect as practised in the pre-
ceding experiments, and, for the better security of the lot,
the whole was placed in a wooden trough, over which a sheet
of fine copper-wire gauze was fixed. The trough was then
placed in a stream of water previously prepared for its recep-
tion, and the results were precisely of a corresponding nature
to those already detailed, the embryo fish becoming visible
after fifty-five days, and being excluded from the egg at

which one lot of ova was taken, and placed in water without impregnation, was
the female with which the four Parrs above alluded to were spawned. They
were placed in the same stream but in a separate vessel from the four lots im-
pregnated. The other lot was taken from the female with which the male from
pond No. 3 was spawned. The unimpregnated lot was placed in the same
stream with the former. The impregnated lot was placed in the stream of pond
No. 3. To avoid contact the unimpregnated lots were in each case taken first,
and removed to a distance.

44 SALMONID.E.

the end of one hundred and nine days after impregnation,
under a temperature of 40°.

" It has been maintained by individuals whose opinions
are opposed to mine on this question, that the Parr is a dis-
tinct species, and that, by a forced connection between it and
the female Salmon, I was producing a hybrid. This idea at
once brings the importance of the last experiment more im-
mediately into view, from the circumstance of the male
parent of the specimen being actually a Parr, while the al-
leged hybrid, in its turn became the parent of a numerous
brood.

" Were these two species, then, really distinct, it would
follow that the produce would be hybrids, and ' nature her-
self has provided against the confusion of different species by
a conservative law, according to which all hybrids are barren :'
consequently, upon this principle — a law in the economy of
nature — the Parr and Salmon are really identical in species,
as proved by the fact now narrated, of the young produced
between them having actually the power of reproducing their
kind.

" Apart from these experiments, it was at one time held,
that the Parrs found in their native streams were hybrids,
from the anomalous circumstance of the males being always
found in the autumn with the milt matured, while females,
of a corresponding size, could at no season be found exhibit-
ing the least approximation to a breeding state.* However,
this idea, if it ever was seriously entertained by scientific

* " Solitary instances have occurred of large female Parrs having been found in
Salmon rivers with the roe considerably developed, and I find, by detaining the
female Smolts in fresh water until the end of the third winter, that individuals
are found in this comparatively mature condition. From this fact, therefore, it
maybe inferred, that the large Parr, either male or female, of nine and ten
inches in length, which are occasionally found in rivers, are the young of the
Salmon, which, for some natural reason, had not been prepared to migrate at the
ordinary period, and had, therefore, remained for another year in the fresh
water.

SALMON. 4-5

men, has now given way to the opinion ' that they are a dis-
tinct species, and have no connection whatever with the mi-
gratory Salmon.1* Were the Parr a distinct species, the
result of their attendance on the female Salmon would have
the effect of producing universal confusion among the migra-
tory inhabitants of rivers, from the circumstance of the male
Parrs in a breeding state occupying in great numbers the
very centre of the Salmon spawning bed, while the female
Salmon herself is at the same instant pouring thousands of
her ova into the very spot where they are thus genially con-
gregated.

" Had these extraordinary results proceeded from a soli-
tary experiment, there might have been some ground for be-
lieving that I was probably deceiving myself, and, consequent-
ly, misleading others, — a fear I myself at first entertained.
But after such a series of experiments, made with all possible
care, and uniformly ending in the same results, the fact can
no longer, I conceive, admit of doubt. Having altogether
within these last two years, made eight distinct experiments
by artificially impregnating the ova of the Salmon with the
milt of a corresponding number of male Parrs from the river,
besides three experiments with those of eighteen-month-old
Parrs from the pond — each with perfect success — I trust
that I have thrown some interesting light on the breeding of
Parrs, — a subject which has hitherto defeated all inquiry
when sought after on the principle of their breeding among
themselves as a distinct species.

* " Recent experiments having been made on the young of the Salmon by
very competent individuals, it is now admitted that they ' remain one year
in the river before they go to the sea as Smolts.' However, owing to these
fishes having escaped the observation of those individuals during the interme-
diate stage, that is, from the ovum up to the length of three inches, they were
actually twelve months old at the commencement of the experiments referred to
by Mr. Yarrell, in place of being the ' fry of that year.'" — See Mr. Yarrell's
Supplement to British Fishes.

46 SALMONID.E.

" The fact of the young Salmon propagating its kind while
it is yet itself in other respects in an immature condition, is
certainly an extraordinary departure from the ordinary laws of
nature, so far, at least, as land animals are concerned. From
certain observed facts, however, there is reason to believe that
the economy of the class of fishes differs in this respect from
that of land animals — a disparity which, in consequence of
the medium they inhabit, has hitherto escaped the observation
of the naturalist. As the young of the other migratory spe-
cies do not quit the river during the first year, it is probable
that they also observe a similar economy to that of their more
valuable congener.

" It has been generally supposed that the male Salmon,
during the spawning season, assists the female in forming the
spawning bed. This idea is, I think, founded in error, as,
during the whole course of my experience, I have never been
able to detect the male taking any share whatever in the more
laborious portion of these parental duties. The only part he
performs, beyond the mere sexual function, consists in the
unwearied vigilance which he exhibits in protecting the
spawning-bed from the intrusion of rival males, all of which
he assiduously endeavours to expel. The female, regardless
of the occasional absence of the males during these contests,
and probably satisfied with the presence of the male Parrs,
proceeds with her operations by throwing herself at intervals
of a few minutes upon her side, and while in that position, by
the rapid action of her tail,* she digs a receptacle in the
gravel for her ova, a portion of which she deposits, and, again
turning upon her side, she covers it up by a renewed action

* I am aware it has been a matter of dispute amongst observers as to which
of the two extremities of the fish is employed in the formation of the spawning-
bed. However, from late opportunities of observation, which rarely occur,
owing to the turbid state of the river in the spawning season, I am now satisfied
that it is by the action of the caudal extremity alone that the gravel is removed.

SALMON. 47

of the tail, — thus alternately digging, depositing, and cover-
ing ova, until the process is completed by the laying
of the "whole mass, an operation Avhich generally occupies
three or four days. In the course of these experiments,
it has been ascertained that the milt of a single male Parr,
whose entire weight may not exceed one and a half ounce, is
capable, when confined in a small stream, of effectually im-
pregnating all the ova of a very large female Salmon. On
the spawn first quitting the body of the female, it is found to
be enveloped in a thin coating of viscous matter, which the
action of the water does not immediately destroy, but which
continues to admit of a partial adherence to the gravel at the
bottom of the spawning bed, where the ova receives the ne-
cessary fecundation of the milt, and are afterwards covered
with gravel by the instinctive efforts of the female parent, in
the manner above described.

" How long these ova will remain excluded from the body
of the female, and yet continue capable of receiving with
effect the fecundating action of the milt, I have not hitherto
ascertained. I have, however, made several experiments on
the ova after the parent had been a considerable time dead,
and removed from the*river. In one particular instance, the
female had been dead for nearly two hours without the vital
principle of the spawn being in the least degree affected, —
as, on being afterwards placed in water, and the milt of a living
male poured upon it, it exhibited within the usual period the
same healthy and progressing vivification, under a similar
temperature, as that taken and impregnated the moment it
quitted the body of the living parent. I have merely stated
this fact as being in part corroborative, so far as relates to the
Salmon, of similar experiments made by M. Jacobi on indivi-
duals of the same genus.

" The extraordinary nature of the experiments made with
the Parr and Salmon, I have no doubt will tend to stagger

48 SALMONID:E.

the belief of many who may be disposed to admit the truth
of the facts resulting from the experiments upon the adult
fishes. Nevertheless, they are strictly true ; and I would
strongly recommend that all those interested should imme-
diately turn their attention to a subject so curious in a zoolo-
gical point of view, and so important in its bearings on the
history of the most highly prized of all the species which
ever sojourn in our river waters."

It will be recollected, then, from these details, commencing
with the observations of Dr. Knox, that the young Salmon was
believed by some to go down to salt water when only two or
three months old, or in its first spring. By others it was con-
sidered that the young fish did not go down to the salt water
till it was fourteen months old, or in its second spring ; and the
experiments of Mr. Shaw go to prove that they do not go down
to the salt water till they have completed their second year, and
are in their third spring. If Mr. Shaw is correct that a Pink
of three inches and a half in the month of April is twelve
months old, — which there is now from his various experi-
ments no reason to doubt, — it will be found that Mr. Par-
ker's observations, commencing with Pinks from the Hodder
in April, then twelve months old, subsequently corroborate
the views of Mr. Shaw both as to growth and colour.

To return to the Salmon when in a natural state. The
adult fish having spawned, being out of condition and unfit
for food, are considered as unclean fish. They are usually
called Kelts ; the male fish is also called a Kipper, the female
a Shedder, or Baggit. With the floods of the end of winter
and the commencement of spring they descend the river from
pool to pool, and ultimately gain the sea, where they quickly
recover their condition, to ascend again in autumn for the
same purpose as before ; but always remaining for a time in
the brackish water of the tide- way before making either de-
cided change ; obtaining, it has been said, a release from

SALMON.

certain parasitic animals, either external or internal, by each
seasonal change ; those of the salt water being destroyed by
contact with the fresh, and vice versa.

The fry are observed to collect in small pools and mill-dam
heads preparatory to quitting the river. The specimen from
which the figure on the page was taken was obtained in the
Thames, in which river they are occasionally caught in the
season, with other fry of Salmonidtf, by fishermen who work
at night with a casting-net on the gravelly shallows for Gud-
geons to supply the London fishmongers.

My own specimens of the young of the Salmon having
been preserved in spirits, and the colours thereby affected,
the following description is from Dr. Heyshanv's Catalogue
before referred to, premising that some differences in colour
may be expected in specimens from different rivers.

" Length seven inches and a half; circumference three
inches and one-eighth : head dark green ; gill-covers fine
silvery white, marked with a dark-coloured spot ; belly and
sides up to the lateral line of the same silvery colour ;
back and sides down to the lateral line dusky, inclining to
oreen ; sides above the lateral line marked with numerous

o

blackish spots ; along the lateral line, and both a little above
and beneath it, several dull obscure red spots : dorsal fin has
twelve rays, marked with several blackish spots ; pectoral fin has
twelve rays, of a dusky olive colour ; ventral fin eight rays of

VOL. II. E

50 SALMONID.E.

a silvery white ; anal fin ten rays of the same colour. When
the scales were carefully taken off with a knife, the obscure
red spots became of a fine vermilion, and were nineteen in
number ; and ten obscure oval bars of a dusky bluish colour
appeared, which crossed the lateral line. In a young fry
these bars are very distinct."

Whether the river be considered an early or a late river,
the descent of the fry is said to take place much about the
same time in all. It begins in March, and continues through
April and part of May. The Smolt, or young Salmon, is by
the fishermen of some rivers called a Laspring ; and various
couplets refer to the fish, as well as to the time and circum-
stances under which the descent is made.

The last spring floods that happen in May,
Carry the Salmon fry down to the sea.

And again,

The floods of May
Take the Smolts away.

But the uncertainty of popular or provincial names is a source
of great perplexity to the naturalist. The Laspring of some
rivers is the young of the true Salmon ; but it must also be
recollected that the fry of two other species probably descend
to the sea about the same time as those of the Salmon.

The Salmon fry at first keep in the slack water by the
sides of the river ; after a time, as they become stronger,
they go more towards the mid-stream ; and when the water is
increased by rain, they move gradually down the river. On
meeting the tide, they remain for two or three days in that
part where the water becomes a little brackish from the mix-
ture of salt water, till they are inured to the change, when
they go off to the sea all at once. There, their growth
appears to be very rapid, and many return to the brackish
water, increased in size in proportion to the time they have

SALMON. 51

been absent. Fry marked in April or early in May have
returned by the end of June weighing from two to three
pounds and upwards. The London markets during the latter
part of June, and the months of July and August, exhibit
young fish varying in weight from two to six pounds. I have
one, here figured, that weighed only fifteen ounces, which,
judging from its appearance when I bought it, that it had
been to sea, is the smallest specimen I have ever seen that
had been once to salt water.

These small-sized fish, when under two pounds' weight,
are called by some of the London fishmongers Salmon-Peal ;
when larger, Grilse. These fish breed during the winter ;
they return from the sea with the roe enlarged ; the ova in a
Grilse being of nearly the same comparative size as those
observed in a Salmon, but they mature only a much smaller
number. The Grilse visit the estuary, remaining for a consi-
derable time in the brackish water, afterwards in the tide-way
above, ultimately pushing up to the sources of the tributary
streams, and, as before observed, rather earlier in the season,
in the same river, than the more adult fish.

It has been a constantly received opinion, that all the
young fish after their first visit to the sea return to the
rivers in which they had been bred ; and numbers of marked
fish are stated to have been retaken in their native rivers :

E 2

SALMONID.E.

but it is equally certain that some have been taken in other
rivers not far off. The difficulty of supposing that they
could find and return to the same spot after roving for miles
along the coast remains to be solved. That they do thus
rove for miles is proved by the thousands that are taken in
nets placed in the bays along the coast. Very many Tweed
Salmon have been caught opposite Hopetoun House on the
Forth ; and a very successful fishing there is generally fol-
lowed by a scarce one in the Tweed. It is therefore very
probable, from the remarks of Dr. Heysham and Sir William
Jardine, that if the fish happen to have roved far from the
estuary of their native river, they run at the proper season
up any stream, even the first they encounter, the temperature
and condition of which are congenial to them.

The growth of the Salmon from the state of Smolt to that
of Grilse has been shown to be very rapid ; and the increase
in weight attained during each subsequent year is believed to
be equal, if not to exceed, the weight gained within the first.
The increase in size is principally obtained during that part
of the year in which the fish may be said to be almost a con-
stant resident in the sea. That the food sought for to pro-
duce and sustain so rapid an increase of size must be very
considerable in quantity, as well as most nutritious in quality,
cannot be doubted. That the Salmon is a voracious feeder,
may be safely inferred from the degree of perfection in the
arrangement of the teeth, and from its own habits, of which
proof will be adduced, as well as from the well-known habits
of the species most closely allied to it ; yet of the many
observers who have examined the stomach of the Salmon to
ascertain the exact nature of that food which must constitute
their principal support, few have been able to satisfy them-
selves. Dr. Knox states, " that the food of the Salmon, and
that on which all its estimable qualities, and, in his opinion,
its very existence, depend, and which the fish can obtain only

SALMON. 53

in the ocean, lie has found to be the ova or eggs of various
kinds of echinodcrmata, and some of the Crustacea. From
the richness of the food on which the true Salmon solely sub-
sists, arises, at least to a certain extent, the excellent qualities
of the fish as an article of food. Something, however, must
be ascribed to a specific distinction in the fish itself: for
though he has ascertained that the Salmon-Trout lives very
much in some localities on the same kind of food as the true
Salmon, yet under no circumstances does this fish acquire the
same exquisite flavour as the true Salmon."

That they occasionally, however, take other food, is also
well known. Fabcr, in his Natural History of the Fishes of
Iceland, remarks, " The common Salmon feeds on small
fishes, and various small marine animals." Dr. Fleming says,
" Their favourite food in the sea is the Sand Eel ;" and I
have myself taken the remains of Sandlaunce from the sto-
mach. Sir William Jardine says, " In the north of Suther-
land a mode of fishing for Salmon is sometimes successfully
practised in the firths, where Sand Eels are used as bait : a
line is attached to a buoy or bladder, and allowed to float
with the tide up the narrow estuaries. The Salmon are also
said to be occasionally taken at the lines set for Haddocks,
baited with Sand Eels. At the mouths of rivers they rise
freely at the artificial fly within fifty yards of the sea ; and
the common earth-worm is a deadly bait for the clean Salmon.
All the other marine Salmon are known to be very voracious ;
and there is nothing in the structure of the mouth or strong
teeth of the common Salmon, to warrant us in supposing that
there is any material difference in their food." The follow-
ing is an extract from a letter sent me by Sir William Jar-
dine, dated St. BoswelFs, 15 April 1835 : — " The fisher-
man who rents this part of the Tweed, fishing with worm one
day last week, had his hooks and tackle taken away by a fish.
He put on a new set, and again with worm in ten minutes

54 SALMONID.E.

hooked and killed a Salmon with his former hooks and bait
in his mouth. This will either prove extreme voracity, or
little sensibility in the parts of the mouth. I have often
heard fishermen mention a similar fact, but never before
knew an instance on which I could depend."

Several observers have borne testimony to the partiality of
the Salmon to the Sandlaunce as food ; and I have a record
by an angler of Salmon caught in the Wye with a Min-
now. In a prize essay published in the Transactions of the
Highland Society, vol. ii. page 392, Mr. Alexander Morrison
says, " I have taken Salmon, within flood mark, some of
which had two, and others three, full-sized Herrings in their
stomachs."

The London season of 1835 was more than usually re-
markable for large Salmon. I saw ten different' fish varying
from thirty-eight to forty pounds each. A notice appeared
in the public papers of one that weighed fifty-five pounds ;
and, from the inquiries made, there is reason to believe most
of these large-sized Salmon were sent from the Tay. Sal-
mon, however, of much larger size have been occasionally
taken. Mr. Mudie has recorded one of sixty pounds. In a
note to the history of the Salmon in several editions of Wal-
ton, one is mentioned that weighed seventy pounds ; Pennant
has noticed one of seventy-four pounds : the largest known,
as far as I am aware, carne into the possession of Mr. Groves,
the fishmonger of Bond-street, about the season of 1821.
This Salmon, a female, weighed eighty-three pounds ; was a
short fish for the weight, but of very unusual thickness and
depth. When cut up, the flesh was fine in colour, and
proved of excellent quality.

The Salmon of the largest size killed by angling, of which
I have been able to collect particulars, are, — In the Thames,
October3, 1812, at Sheppcrton Deeps, Mr. G. Marshall, of
Brewer-street, London, caught and killed a Salmon with a

SALMON. 55

single gut, without a landing-net, that weighed twenty-one
pounds four ounces.

Sir H. Davy used occasionally to visit the Tweed for the
sake of angling for Salmon. This river is famed for afford-
ing amusement to the Salmon-fisher, more especially from
the middle of March to the beginning of May. " We have
heard," says Mr. Stoddart, in his Art of Angling as prac-
tised in Scotland, " that on one occasion Sir H. Davy hap-
pened by good fortune to hit upon an immense fish, weigh-
ing about forty-two pounds, immediately above Yair-bridge,
and captured him after a severe struggle. Tin's feat he
makes no mention of in his Salmonia, although certainly wor-
thy of some notice."

Mr. Lascelles, in his Letters on Sporting, Part I. Angling,
says at page 21, " The largest Salmon I ever knew taken
with a fly was in Scotland : it weighed fifty-four pounds and
a half."

Sir Hvde Parker with a rod and line killed a Salmon in

•/

Sweden that weighed sixty pounds : and the Earl of Home,
the uncle of the present Earl, killed a Salmon in the Tweed
with a rod which weighed sixty-nine pounds and three
quarters.

It may be stated generally, that Salmon pass the summer
in the sea, or near the mouth of the estuary : in autumn they
push up rivers, diverging to the tributary streams ; in winter
they inhabit the pure fresh water, and in spring descend
again to the sea. The question has frequently arisen, Could
Salmon be preserved permanently in fresh water ? and from
the facts already adduced, it appears that they might, but not
without some diminution in size or quality, or both.

Mr. Lloyd, in his Field Sports of the North of Europe,
vol. i. p. 301, says, " N,^ar Katrineberg there is a valuable
fishery for Salmon, ten or twelve thousand of these fish being
taken annually. These Salmon are bred in a lake, and, in

56 SALMONID/E.

consequence of cataracts, cannot have access to the sea. They
are small in size, and inferior in flavour. The year 1820
furnished 21,817."

It remains to describe the different modes by which the
Salmon are taken ; and these are as various, and the fisheries
are as numerous and as extensive, as the value and quantity
of the fish would lead us to expect. The rights of the
proprietors, which have arisen in various ways, some by
royal grants, others by possession or occupation of the soil,
are generally farmed or hired at a rent depending on the
extent or value of the local stations. The first attack made
upon the fish is in the summer months, when the Salmon
rove along the coast in quest of the mouths of the different
rivers, in which they annually cast their spawn. " On these
expeditions, the fish generally swim pretty close to the shore,
that they may not miss their port ; and the fishermen, who
are well aware of this coasting voyage of the Salmon, take
care to project their nets at such places as may be most con-
venient for intercepting them in their course."

" It so happens that Carrick-a-rcde (the rock in the road),
between Ballycastle and Portrush, eastward of Ballintoy,
is the only place on this abrupt coast (the northern coast of
the county of Antrim) which is suited for the purpose. The
net is projected directly outward from the shore with a slight
bend, forming a bosom in that direction in which the Salmon
come. From the remote extremity of the net a rope is
brought obliquely to another part of the shore, by which
the net may be swept round at pleasure and drawn to the
land : a heap of small stones is then prepared for each per-
son. All things being ready, as soon as the watchman
perceives the fish advancing to the net, he gives the watch-
word. Immediately some of the fishermen seize the oblique
rope, by which the net is bent round to enclose the Salmon,
while the rest keep up an incessant cannonade with their

SALMON.

57

ammunition of stones, to prevent the retreat of the fish till
the net has been completely pulled round them ; after which
they all join forces, and drag the net and fish quietly to the
rocks."*

Pursuing a course along the shore and arrived at an estu-
ary, on each side of the mouth, and for miles up on both sides,
stake-nets are used, of which the engraving above represents
the form. The distance between high and low water mark
on the shore is the site occupied. The shallow extremity
of the net on the left hand in the figure, which is fixed and
supported by stakes, is placed on the shore at high-water
mark ; the deepest part of the net, at low-water mark ; the
concavity of the sweep of the net between its two ends,
called the court, being opposed or open to the flood-tide
running up the river, the Salmon which in their passage up
along-shore strike against any part of the net are conducted
by its form through the chambers into the trap, from whence
they can find no retreat.

Many fish, in the wide part of the estuaries, ascending
with each flood-tide and returning with the ebb, it is not

* Letters concerning the Natural History of the Basalts on the Northern
Coast of the County of Antrim, by the Rev. William Hamilton, A.B.

58 SALMON1D.E.

unusual to have stake-nets placed in the reverse position,
with the courts open to the ebb-tide, on purpose to meet this
disposition in the Salmon ; and they do actually sometimes
catch as many fish in their downward as in their upward
course.

The central portions of the streams, many of which are
very wide, are worked incessantly by fishermen in boats
called cobles, with long sweeping seine-like nets. Another
mode of fishing is with a net dropped into the water from
the stern of a boat, as the boat is rowed away from the shore.
Men are stationed at particular places near the river, where
the water is shallow, to watch the fish coming up ; and so
habituated are they to this, that they can discover by a
ripple on the surface of the water even a solitary fish making
his progress upward. When a fish is thus discovered, an
alarm or signal is instantly given to the men at the shicl or
house where the fishermen lodge : and immediately a boat is
rowed off by one man with great celerity, having a net at-
tached to it, and ready prepared for dropping gradually into
the water, one end of which is tied to the boat, and the other
is dragged with a rope by men on shore ; and by taking a
considerable sweep, an endeavour is made to surround the fish.
When thus discovered coming up, they seldom escape.

Higher up the river, and in parts that are narrow, weirs
or dams are built across the stream. At certain intervals
along these weirs, cruives are placed. Cruives are enclosed
spaces formed in the dam wall ; the fish enter these spaces,
through which the water rushes, as they push up the stream,
and are prevented by a grating of a peculiar contrivance from
returning or getting out. All the wide and open pools of
the river between these artificial, or any other natural con-
tractions of the stream, are fished with the coble and sweep
net.

In the work by the Rev. William Hamilton already

SALMON. 59

«

quoted, and in the second series of Mr. Jesse's Gleanings in
Natural History, an interesting account is related of the
assistance afforded by a water-dog to some Salmon fishermen
when working nets in shallow pools. The dog takes his
post in a ford or on a scour where the water is not very
deep, and at a distance below the net : if a Salmon escapes
the net, the fish makes a shoot clown the river in the direc-
tion towards the sea : the dog watches and marks his ap-
proach by the ripple on the water, and endeavours to turn
the fish back towards the net, or catch him ; if he fails in
both attempts, and the fish passes him, the clog then quits
the water, in which the pace of the fish is too fast for him,
and runs with all his speed down the bank of the river to
intercept the fish at the next shallow ford, where another
opportunity and a second diverting attempt occurs. — I learn
also from Mr. Bicheno, that clogs are occasionally used when
trying for Salmon in that part of Glamorganshire where he
now resides. These dogs appear to take great pleasure
in the pursuit, exhibiting by turns the most patient watch-
fulness, persevering exertion, or extraordinary sagacity, as
either quality may best effect the wishes of the master.
In some parts of Wales, where the rivers are narrow, and
the Salmon are caught in a net drawn by men on each bank,
dogs are trained to swim over from side to side with the
head and ground lines of the net, as required. From a cor-
respondent in Devonshire I learn that a clever poacher at
Totness on the Dart, admitted that he had killed many Sal-
mon in the night by setting a trammel, or three-wall net, at
the lower end of the deep pools in the river Dart, and by
sending in a Dog at the upper end of the pool, which dog he
had trained to dive like an otter. The Salmon, as soon as
the dog dived, immediately clashed down the stream, and
were taken iu the trammel-net at the lower end of the
pool.

60 SALMONID.E.

Sir Walter Scott, in his novels of Redgauntlet and Guy
Mannering, has described with his well-known skill and
effect the animated scenes which occur when parties are
engaged in spearing Salmon cither by daylight or torchlight,
as practised in the North. These works are familiar to
all, and repetition would be useless. For the following de-
scription of two other modes of taking Salmon I am indebt-
ed to the kindness of Dr. Richardson.

A particular kind of fishing is peculiar to the Solway
Firth, or at least can be practised with success only where
the tide flows, as it does there, over extensive flats. The
instrument used is termed a "halve," and consists of a fun-
nel-shaped net ending in a pocket or bag. The mouth of
this net is stretched on an oblong frame about three yards
wide, to which there is attached a handle or pole. When
the tide begins to flow, a number of fishermen proceed over
the sands, and range themselves in a close line across the
current of the flood, each with the " halve " resting on the
bottom, and its pole against his shoulder : as the tide rises,
it becomes too deep for the man farthest from the shore,
who then raises his net and places himself at the other ex-
tremity of the line, where he is shortly succeeded by another
and another, the whole thus changing places continually.
When a fish strikes the halve, its mouth is instantly elevated
above the surface by the fisherman, so as to prevent its re-
treat until it can be carried into shallow water and secured.
During the ebb a similar plan is pursued in a reversed order ;
the mouths of the nets are still turned to the current, but the
fishermen now move in turn to the end of the line which
stands deepest in the water. Flat-fish are the principal re-
turns of this fishing ; but prime Salmon are occasionally taken
botli on the flood and ebb.

This kind of fishing being as yet open to all, and unfet-
tered by parliamentary enactments, there is scarcely a cot-

SALMON. ()1

tagc on the shores of the Sol way Firth where the halve-net
inay not be seen suspended. The fishermen have all some
other employment by which they maintain their families,
being mostly artisans ; and they generally consume the
produce of the halve-net at home, unless they chance to take
a fish whose value is sufficient to compensate them for the
time spent in going to market, sometimes ten or twelve
miles distant.

Somewhat akin to this is the Salmon fishery in the
Frith of Forth. Narrow stages or platforms, supported on
wooden pillars, are carried from the shore for a considerable
distance into the river. Upon each of these half-a-dozen
or more fishermen station themselves with bag-nets, which
are dropped down from the side of the stage with the current
of the tide. The owner concealed, and also sheltered by a
straw hurdle, such as is used in decoys for water-fowl, watches
his net, and on a fish being taken, instantly secures it.
When the tide ebbs, the net is shifted to the opposite side
of the stage.

" A singular method of taking Salmon is practised at
Invermoriston, in the county of Inverness, where the river
flows in a narrow chasm between two projecting rocks.
The fisherman seats himself on a cleft of this rock, right
over the cascade, with a spear in his hand, which has a line
fixed to the upper end of the shaft, similar to the practice
of fishing for whales with harpoons. Whenever the Salmon
makes a spring to gain the ascent over the cataract, the
spearman strikes the fish and lets the shaft go, holding only
by the line until the fish has exhausted his strength ; then
the spear and fish are thrown ashore by the stream, and taken
out at the lower side of the pool."

The mode of fishing for Salmon in the Severn, and other
rivers of Wales, with coracles and nets, requires a short and
concluding notice. The coracle is a small boat constructed

SALMONID.E.

with willow twigs in the manner of basket work, or with
split slips of elastic wood, both the form and the material
varying in different counties. In the neighbourhood of
Shrewsbury, the framework is covered with canvass and
painted ; in Cardiganshire it is covered with flannel, and
afterwards with a coating of tar. The boat is something
less than six feet long, and about four feet wide, with a seat
across the middle. The form of the paddle with which this
little boat is impelled and guided along is also varied : in the
Severn, the blade is square, but a more elongated blade
is the form in use on the Dec. The boat, which in appear-
ance is not unlike one half of a walnut-shell, is so light
and portable that the fisherman carries it to and from the
water on his back. These coracles,* so called, it is said,

t This word is sometimes written coriacle, and may be derived from coriagv,
hide-bound.

SALMON. 63

from corium, the hide of the beast with which they were
formerly covered, are of great antiquity : they were known in
Caesar's time, and are described by Lucan to be very nearly
the same as in our own days.

" With twisted osiers the first boats were made,

O'er which the skins of slaughter'd beasts were laid ;
With these the Britons on the oceans row,
And the Venetians on the swelling Po."

The custom of alternately carrying or being carried, as
practised by the fisherman and his boat, is whimsically
alluded to in the following lines, extracted from an old
MS. history of Shropshire.

" Some sportsmen in pursuit of prey,
Their horses on their shoulders lay ;
But seizing of their booty, then
They sit their steeds like other men.
Returning home when all is o'er,
Their steeds they carry as before."

The coracle is in frequent request with fly-fishers,*
the banks of the rivers being in some places very rugged
and steep, in others overgrown with wood to the water's
edge.

The fishing for Salmon in coracles is performed by two
men, each in his little boat, drawing between them down
the stream a single-walled trammel, called there a horn-net,
from its sliding by means of rings of horn, instead of corks,
along the top. Through these rings runs a line, the end of
which is held by one of the fishermen. By pulling upon
this running line, which is distinct from the drag-line, the
net is quickly closed when a fish strikes it. Various mo-
difications of this sort of net occur in different rivers. Cap-
tain Medwin, in his Angler in Wales, says, " We stood
on the bridge at Machynllcth for some time, to watch the
operations of two fishermen in coracles. They were about

* Hansard's Trout and Salmon Fishing in Wales, pages 145 and 184.

SALMONID.E.

to drag for Salmon ; and it must have been difficult to
preserve the balance in such frail and fragile machines.
The net was attached to the two boats, and connected
them. When all was clear, the fishermen made with their
paddles a considerable circle, and then reunited, drawing
in cautiously the sweep. They seemed very dexterous in
the management of their canoes, and perfectly unconscious
of danger. The first essay was a failure ; a Salmon of
ten or twelve pounds1 weight leaped over the corks." — Long
doubly-walled trammel-nets are now in use near Shrewsbury.

The length of the head of the Salmon, as compared to the
whole length of the fish, is as one to five : the eye rather small,
placed nearer to the point of the nose than to the posterior
edge of the gill-cover : the peculiarities of the teeth and the
parts of the operculum have been already described ; the origin
of the last ray of the dorsal fin about half-way between the
point of the nose and the end of the tail ; the first two rays
simple and shorter than the third, which is the longest and
branched ; all the other rays of this fin branched ; the last
ray double, but arising from a single origin, is only counted
as one : the posterior edge of the base of the adipose fin is
half-way between the origin of the last dorsal fin-ray and the
end of the tail, and over the origin of the last ray of the anal
fin. The pectoral fin two-thirds of the length of the head ;
ventral fin in a vertical line under the middle of the dorsal
fin, with an axillary scale two-fifths of the length of the
ventral fin itself; the anal fin commences about half-way
between the origin of the ventral fin and the commencement
of the lower caudal fin-rays, the third ray the longest, the first
two rays simple, the others branched : the form of the tail
has been already noticed. The body is elongated ; the
dorsal and abdominal line about equally convex ; the lateral
line near the middle of the body, dividing it equally ; the
fleshy portion of the tail slender, and ending in the form

SALMON. 65

of one half of a hexagon ; the scales moderate in size, oval
and thin, easily removed when young, adherent when old.
The fin-rays in number are —

D. 13 : P. 12 : V. 9 : A. 9 : C. 19. Vertebrae 60.

Salmon, and indeed all the Salmonidte, like other fish that
swim near the surface of the water, cannot be eaten too fresh ;
its fine flavour, as well as its value, diminish rapidly after
capture. In London a Thames'1 Salmon commands the high-
est price : the next is that sent up either from Woodmill
or Chris tchurch in Hampshire ; then those fish received from
the Severn, which are usually brought up by the mail from
Gloucester.

A Thames' Salmon is a prize to a fisherman, -which, like
other prizes, occurs but seldom. The last Thames' Salmon I
have a note of was taken in June 1833. The appearance of
the Common Tern, or Sea-Swallow, which on its arrival in
May wings its flight for miles up the Thames, is the signal
to the fishermen to keep a good look-out for a Salmon : the
occasionally coincident reappearance of a Tern and a Salmon
has induced some of the Thames'* fishermen to apply to the
former the name of the Salmon-bird.

Soon after the publication of the History of British Fishes
the Earl of Home did me the favour to write various com-
ments and notes on the Salmonida of the Tweed, in the
form of a letter to the Earl of Montague, dated January 10,
1837, and has since been kind enough to give me permission
to use them. The following refer to the Salmon : —

" Mr. Yarrell is correct as to the time of the spawning
of the Salmon in the Tweed. I must, however, be allowed
to make a remark on this subject : that in the Tweed a very
great change has taken place within these twenty or thirty
years : a considerable portion of the breeding-fish not coming
into breeding condition till long after the time they had

VOL. II. F

66 SALMONID^.

formerly been in the habit of doing so. On the 2nd of
November, 1835, I killed, with fly, fourteen Salmon, from
ten to twenty pounds' weight, every one of which was in as
fine condition as fish caught in the end of July.

"It is singular enough that in the early part of the sea-
son, when the first show of young Salmon comes up the
Tweed, however small they may be, they are all denominated
Salmon. I have killed them under three pounds ; yet that
fish was called a Salmon, and the fishermen, — I mean those
above Berwick or Norham, — all allege that no Grilses ascend
the river till the second great shoal come up about the be-
ginning of June. The Berwick people are, however, now
convinced that the Grilse is neither more nor less than a young
Salmon, and accordingly call it so.

" I have always considered the Salmon as a sea fish,
leaving it for the river for the sole purpose of spawning.
That during the period they remain in the fresh water, they
are not only nearly stationary as to growth, but lose, and
rapidly top, their fine condition, and their flesh its fine and
delicate flavour. This I consider chiefly occasioned by their
not being able to obtain the more nutritious food of various
kinds which they find in the sea.

" The Salmon is no doubt a very voracious feeder at
times.

" The first Salmon I ever caught was with the minnow,
in the month of June, 1783, when I was a boy of thirteen,
fishing for Trout. That fish weighed eighteen pounds ; and
since that time I have frequently killed ten or twelve Salmon
in one day with a minnow ; the worm also is a very deadly
bait, when the river gets low in summer, and in the upper
parts of the river the worm is the principal bait used during
the whole of the spring fishing season. In the summer, too,
numbers of Salmon are caught with the parr tail.

" I have often known a Salmon Kelt take away a set of

SALMON. 07

minnow-tackle, consisting of three large hooks at least, and
caught with another set as soon as it could be put on ; but
the instances of clean Salmon being so caught are very rare.

" During the latter part of last season, 1886, there were
more Salmon in the river than I ever remember to have seen,
with the exception of one season, about twenty years ago,
and certainly a much greater proportion of very large fish by
far than I can remember.

" I observed many oversetting, (the term used when Sal-
mon jump out of the water for their own amusement,) which
must have weighed from thirty to forty pounds, and one
which I am sure must have exceeded fifty pounds at least.
I never saw so large a fish in our streams. It is a curious
fact that on both these occasions, when there were such
multitudes of fish, they would not take any fly or bait that
could be offered to them : some few were caught, no doubt,
but only here and there one ; and this was more or less the
case the whole way from the foot of Gala-water down to my
fishing-ground, where I may say the rod-fishing ends. I may
here mention that I have killed, and all with the fly, many
hundreds of Salmon weighing twenty-five pounds and up-
wards. The two largest I ever killed weighed, one forty-five
pounds, in July 1795, the other forty pounds. The latter
fish was sent to the late Duke of Buccleugh, at Bowhill.
When his old cook saw the fish he declared it was abso-
lutely impossible that any man could kill such a fish with the
rod, and to this moment does not believe I caught it. The
fish, which weighed forty-five pounds, killed also in the month
of July 1795, was a fresh run fish, with what arc called tide-
lice on it, and the finest I ever tasted.

" My uncle, my father's elder brother, caught a Salmon
with a rod which weighed sixty-nine pounds and three-
quarters.

" For a number of years, however, there has been a great

68 SALMONID.E.

scarcity of large fish in the river, few exceeding eighteen
pounds having been caught, and my present fisherman told
me he had never seen a clean Salmon above twenty pounds.
The reason for this scarcity of large fish was, first, the river
down at Berwick was over-fished ; and secondly, all the
large spawning-fish were killed during clo.se time by poachers
in the upper parts of the river, particularly in the small
streams to which the fish resort in such numbers to deposit
their spawn. Of course very few were allowed to return to
the sea, and consequently few of the old or large fish could
return to the river the next season.

" I may here be permitted to mention that in the month
of April 1795, I killed thirty-six Salmon in one day, rod-
fishing, one of which, eighteen pounds, I took home. Mr.
Yarrell may form some idea of the size and quality of the
fish when I tell him that the fisherman received twenty-five
guineas for that day's work, not including the fish I took
home. The day after, I caught twenty-six.

" In the month of June of that year, 1795, I killed in one
week, between the Monday morning and Saturday night,
eighty-two clean Salmon, all in the finest condition, and
many of them large fish, which averages near fourteen per
day, all but two Salmon.

" But, alas ! those halcyon days in Tweed are ended ; rod-
fishing is all but entirely over, and is now reduced to a few
days in spring and a few days in autumn, when the net-
fishing ends on the 15th of October. This change has been
brought about by draining the sheep farms on the hills, the
effect produced being that a little summer flood which took
a fortnight or three weeks to run off previous to 1795, is now
completely run out in eight hours. The rain which formerly
filled the bogs or sides of the hills, and which then kept
giving a constant and regular supply to the river, is now
carried off at once by these drains to the different feeders,

SALMON. 69

causing sudden and violent floods, and short as they are
sudden, so that the flood is all run off before the river has
had time to clear itself, too IOAV for a Salmon to rise, and
not clear enough to see hook, even were there Salmon to take
one. But the worst effects produced by these drains, and
consequent diminution in the volume of water, is the advan-
tage it gives to the fishermen below, near the mouth of
the river, who now hardly allow a fish to escape, and indeed
in summer the river becomes so low that it cannot clear
itself, as a quantity of filth and sludge is constantly floating
backwards and forwards with the flood and ebb tides, which
prevent the Salmon taking the river at all. Sir Humphrey
Davy in his Salmonia compares the Tweed as it was for-
merly to what it is now, to two houses, the one covered
with thatch, and the other with slate ; the one dripping for
hours after rain has fallen, the other ceasing when the rain
ceases. In short, Salmon-fishing in the Tweed is quite at an
end ; except in some particular years when there is rain
enough to ruin the crops and create almost a famine in
our harvest time, September, but that is all. What I regret
also, almost as much as the loss of Salmon-fishing, is our
Trout-fishing, — that, too, is at an end. Last year, 1836,
we had not one single opportunity, and in 1835, it was much
the same ; for, of course, the draining has affected the smaller
streams as well as the Tweed itself.

" My uncle, the same who caught the seventy pound
Salmon, had a Newfoundland dog which was celebrated for
catching Salmon. He knew the Monday mornings as well
as the fishermen themselves, and used to go to the cauld or
mill-dam at Fireburn mill on those mornings. He there
took his station at the cauld slap, or opening in the clam, to
allow the Salmon to pass, and has been known to kill from
twelve to twenty Salmon in a morning. The fish he took
to the side. The then Lord Tankerville instituted a process

70

SALMONID/E.

against the dog. I had a copy of the proceedings, but I
regret to say it was lost when the old library was altered.
This case was brought before the Court of Session, and the
process was entitled, the Earl of Tankerville, versus a Dog,
the property of the Earl of Home. Judgment was given in
favour of the dog."

The vignette below represents the bones of the head in the
Salmon.

GREY TROUT. 71

ABDOMINAL

MALACOPTERYGII. SALMON1DX.

THE GREY TROUT.

J",

THE BULL TROUT, OR ROUNDTAIL.

Salmo eriox, LINNJEUS.

,, cinereus out griseus, WILLUGHBY, p. 193.

,, griseus sen cinereus, RAY, p. 63, A. 3.

,, eriox, Grey, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 394.

,, » ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 180, sp. 46.

» ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 422.

THE GREY TROUT is distinguished from the Salmon
and Salmon Trout by several specific peculiarities. The
gill-cover differs decidedly in form, as examination of the
central figure of the illustration at page 5 will show. The
operculum is larger ; the free vertical margin much more
straight ; the inferior posterior angle more elongated back-
wards ; the line of union with the suboperculum not so
oblique, but nearly parallel with the axis of the body of
the fish : the inferior edge of the suboperculum parallel to
the line of union with the operculum : the interopcrculum

SALMONID^E.

much deeper vertically ; the vertical edge of the preoper-
culum more sinuous. The teeth in the Grey Trout are
longer and stronger than those of the Salmon ; but, like
the Salmon, the two or three teeth that may be seen on
the vomer in the adult fish occupy the most anterior part
only. The tail becomes square at the end in this species
at an earlier period than in the Salmon ; and the central
caudal rays continuing to increase with age, the posterior
edge from being concave becomes convex. The Warkworth

o O

Trout and Coquet Trout of Northumberland and Durham
are the young of the Grey Trout.

The Grey Trout, in all its stages of growth, is probably
better known in the Tweed than elsewhere : it is there
as abundant as the Salmon. I have had proof of the ex-
istence of this species in some of the rivers of Dorsetshire
and Cornwall : it occurs in the estuary of the Severn, and
I have seen it from the rivers of South Wales. Dr. Hey-
sham includes this fish among those of the rivers of Cumber-
land that run into the Solway. Sir William Jardine, Bart.
mentions it as occurring sometimes in the Annan in Dum-
fries-shire. Mr. Low says it is found in the loch of Stenness,
Orkney. In Ireland this species occurs on every side of the

GREY TROUT. 73

northern portion of the island, but its distribution in other
parts is yet to be determined.

The Grey Trout appears to be the Salmo mac.ulis cinereis
caudae extremo tequali of Artedi, page 23, sp. 2 ; and pro-
bably also, as quoted, the Graia Salmo cinereus seu griseus
of Willoughby and Ray, whose specific names have pre-
cedence of ertox. This fish sometimes attains the weight of
twenty pounds ; but it more commonly occurs under fifteen
pounds1 weight. It ascends rivers for the purpose of spawn-
ing, in the same manner as the Salmon, but earlier in
the season ; and the fry are believed to go down to the
sea sooner than the fry of the Salmon. This species affords
good sport to anglers ; and, from its great muscularity, it is
a powerful fish when hooked, frequently leaping out of the
water. It is not, however, held in the same degree of es-
timation as food as the Salmon or Salmon Trout : the flesh,
even when the fish is in season, is paler in colour, yet its
quality as food may depend on the particular stream in which
the fish has been caught. Sir Walter Scott says, " There
is an old rhyme, which thus celebrates the places in Liddes-
dale, remarkable for game :

' Billhope braes for bucks and raes,

And Carit haugh for swine,

, And Tanas for the good bull-trout,

If he be ta'en in time.'

The bucks and rocs, as well as the old swine, arc now ex-
tinct ; but the good Bull Trout is still famous." — Notes (o
the Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto IV.

The following are the notes of Lord Home on this fish : —
" The Bull Trout has increased in numbers prodigiously
within these last forty years, and to that increase I attribute,
in a great measure, the decrease of Salmon Trout, which for-
merly abounded when I was a boy. It is now a rare thing
to sec a Salmon Trout or Whitling, — for the Whitling in

74 SALMONID.E.

the Tweed was the Salmon Trout, not the young Bull Trout,
which now go by the name of Trouts simply. The Bull
Trout take the river at two seasons. The first shoal come
up about the end of April and May. They are then small,
weighing from two to four or five pounds. The second, and
by far the more numerous shoal, come late in November.
They then come up in thousands, and are not only in fine
condition, but of a much larger size, weighing from six to
twenty pounds. The Bull Trout is an inferior fish, and is
exactly what is called at Dalkeith and Edinburgh, Mussel-
burgh Trout. Mr. Yarrell is mistaken when he says these
fish afford good sport to anglers ; quite the contrary : a clean
Bull Trout, in good condition, is scarcely ever known to take
fly or bait of any description.* It is the same in the Esk at
Dalkeith. I believe I have killed as many, indeed I may ven-
ture to say I have killed more Salmon with the rod, than any
one man ever did, and yet put them all together I am sure I
have not killed twenty clean Bull Trout. Of Bull Trout
Kelts, thousands may be killed. The great shoal of these
Bull Trout, not taking the river till after the commencement
of close time, are in a great measure lost both to the pro-
prietor and the public."

The description is taken from an adult male of thirty-two
inches in length, from which the cut at the head of this
article was drawn and engraved.

The length of the head compared to that of the body
only is as one to four ; the teeth and the form of the
parts of the gill-covers have been already described ; the
elongation of the under jaw is peculiar to the males only,
but is not in the Grey Trout so conspicuous as in the
Salmon ; the dorsal fin commences half-way between the
point of the nose and the origin of the short upper caudal

* A mistake as to season, or time of year, not of the species.

GREY TROUT. 75

rays ; the base of the dorsal fin longer than the longest of
its rays : the adipose fin large, and nearer to the end of the
tail than to the origin of the last dorsal fin-ray ; the form of
the tail at different ages has been noticed ; the length of the
pectoral fin very little more than half the length of the
head. The scales of the Salmon are thin in substance, oval,
with numerous concentric lines only : the number of scales
forming an oblique line from the lateral line up to the base
of the anterior part of the dorsal fin, following the oblique
arrangement of the scales, about twenty ; and the number
in a row from the axillary scale of the ventral fin up to the
lateral line about eighteen. The scales of the Grey Trout
are rather smaller than those of the Salmon in fish of equal
size, the number forming a continuous oblique row from the
lateral line up to the base of the dorsal fin being about
twenty-six ; the number of those forming a row from the ven-
tral axillary scale up to the lateral line, whether taking the
line that ascends obliquely forward or backward, is about
twenty-five ; the axillary scale of the ventral fin nearly half as
long as the fin itself : the anal fin nearer the tail than in the
Salmon ; all the fins muscular.

The fin-rays of this Trout in number are —

D. 11 : P. 14 : V. 9 : A. 11 : C. 19. Vertebrae 59.

In six specimens out of seven, the number of vertebrse was
fifty-nine ; in the other, sixty. Fifty-nine will probably
prove to be the normal number in the Grey Trout.

The form of the body of this fish is similar to that of the
Salmon, but the nape and shoulders are thicker, the fleshy
portion of the tail and the base of each of the fins more mus-
cular : the males are the stronger in the water, but the fe-
males are the more eager for bait, and their teeth are rather
smaller. The colours of the males in the spawning season

70 SALMONID/E.

are — the head olive brown, the body reddish brown or
orange brown, that of the females a blackish grey ; the dorsal
fin reddish brown, spotted with darker brown ; the tail dark
brown ; the other fins dusky brown. The general colour at
other times like that of the Salmon Trout.

The vignette below is a view of Rothbury Bridge, over
the Coquet, looking from the south.

SALMON TROUT.

77

ABDOMINAL

MALACOPTERYG1I.

SALMON IDA.

THE SALMON TROUT.

Salmo trutta, LINNA;US.

Trutta salmonata, WILLUGHBY, p. 193.

,, ,, Salmon Trout, RAY, p. 63.

Salmo trutta, BLOCH, pt. i. pi. 20, adult.

,, schiefermulleri, ,, pt. iii. pi. 103, young.

,, trutta, Sea Trout, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 397.

,, albus, Phinock, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 180, sp. 42.

,, trutta, Sea Trout, ,, ,, ,, sp. 45.

,, ,, ,, ,, JKNYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 423.

JARDINE'S Illust. Scot. Salm. pi. 11. 3. 10. 9.*

THE SALMON TROUT is, of the migrating species in this
country, the next in value to the Salmon. It is most
abundant in the rivers of Scotland, and its flesh is excellent.
It is distinguished by the gill-cover being intermediate in
its form between that of the Salmon and the Grey Trout.
The representation on the right hand of the vignette at
page 5 is that of the Salmon Trout male. The posterior
free margin, it will be observed, is less rounded than that

* The numbers of the plates are here arranged according to the age of the
specimens figured.

78 SALMONIDJ:.

of the Salmon at the left hand, but more so than that of the
Grey Trout, which is represented by the middle figure. The
line of union of the operculum with the suboperculum, and
the inferior margin of the suboperculum, arc oblique, forming
a considerable angle with the axis of the body of the fish.
The posterior edge of the preoperculum rounded, — not
sinuous, as in the Grey Trout. The teeth are more slender
as well as more numerous than in the Salmon or Grey
Trout ; those on the vomer extending along a great part of
its length, and indenting the tongue deeply between the
two rows of teeth that are there placed, one row along each
side. The tail is less forked at the same age than that of
the Salmon, but becomes ultimately square at the end. The
size and surface of the tail also is much smaller than that
of the Salmon, from the comparative shortness of the caudal
rays. The figure at the head of this article represents the
Salmon-Trout in its fourth year; the second figure represents
this species in its third year.

This fish is the White Trout of Devonshire, Wales,
and Ireland; it is found in the Severn, in the rivers of
Cornwall, and is plentiful in the Esk and the Eden,
which communicate with the Solway, where it is called Sea
Trout.

The habits of this species are also very like those of

SALMON TROUT. 79

the Salmon, and the females are said to run up the rivers
before the males. Sir William Jardine says, " In approach-
ing the entrance of rivers, or in seeking out, as it were,
some one they preferred, shoals of this fish may be seen
coasting the bays and headlands, leaping and sporting in
great numbers, from about one pound to three or four
pounds in weight ; and in some of the smaller bays the
shoal could be traced several times circling it, and appa-
rently feeding. In these bays they are occasionally taken
with a common hang-net stretched across ; and when angled
for in the estuaries, with the ordinary flies which are used
in the rivers of the South for Grilse, rose and took so
eagerly that thirty-four were the produce of one rod, en-
gaged for about an hour and a half. They enter every
river and rivulet in immense numbers, and when fishing
for the Salmon are annoying from their quantity. The
food of those taken with the rod in the estuaries appeared
very indiscriminate ; occasionally the remains of some small
fish, which were too much digested to be distinguished ;
sometimes flies, beetles, or other insects, which the wind
or tide had carried out ; but the most general food seemed
to be the Talitris locusta, or common sand-hopper, with
which some of their stomachs were completely crammed.
It is scarcely possible to arrive with any certainty at the
numbers of this fish. Two hundred are frequently taken
at a single draught of a sweep-net, and three hundred have
occasionally been counted.1'' They are much more numerous
in the Don, the Spey, and the Tay, than in the Tweed.

Great quantities of this Salmon Trout are sent to the
London market ; those from Perth, Dundee, Montrose, and
Aberdeen appear, from their comparative depth of body,
to be better fed, are higher in colour, and considered to be
finer in flavour than from some other localities. The Ford-
wich Trout of Isaac Walton is the Salmon Trout ; and

80 SALMONID.E.

its character for affording " rare good meat," besides the
circumstance of its being really an excellent fish, second
only to the Salmon, was greatly enhanced, no doubt, by
the opportunity of eating it very fresh. Fordwich is about
two miles east-north-east of Canterbury. The stream called
the Stour was formerly very considerable ; it communicates
with the sea opposite the back of the Isle of Sheppy, and
from Fordwich one branch going eastward, again enters the
sea at Sandwich. The ancient right to the fishery at Ford-
wich was enjoyed jointly by two religious establishments :
it is now vested in six or seven individuals, who receive a
consideration for their several interests. It was formerly the
custom to visit the nets at Fordwich every morning to
purchase the fish caught during the night. I have seen
specimens of the Salmon Trout from the Sandwich river
exposed for sale in the fishmongers1 shops at Ramsgate,
during the season for visiting that watering-place ; and the
Salmon Trout is also occasionally taken in the Medway by
fishermen who work long nets for Smelts during the autumn
and winter. I have obtained a young specimen in the
Thames from the men who fish for Shads above Putney-
bridge in the months of June and July.

The following are the notes of Lord Home on the Salmon
Trout : — " Of this excellent species I can only repeat that
in the Tweed they have almost entirely disappeared. These
latter afford good sport to the angler ; but I never saw one
above seven pounds' Aveight. Of the Phinock of the Spey,
the Hirling of the Nith and Annan, the Whitling or Whi-
ting of the Esk, all one and the same fish, I can say nothing.
There is a little fish, however, which makes its appearance
about November and December, but in very small numbers,
few only being caught, and of course with the hook. They
are called here Silver Whites, and also Black Tails, from a
dusky blue spot in the centre of the tail fin. It is a beau-

SAL3ION TROUT. 81

tiful little fish, resembling much a small Salmon-Trout, and
if not a young Salmon-Trout, I know not what they are.
When caught, the scales, which are of a beautiful silvery
whiteness, separate so easily from the fish, that on taking
it up they stick to the hand, leaving almost the impression
behind. The flesh pink-coloured, and the flavour very
good."

Dr. Mac Culloch states, that " the Salmon-Trout, or Sea
Trout, as it is called in Scotland, is now a permanent
resident in a fresh-water lake in the island of Lismore,
one of the Hebrides, and without the power of leaving
it or reaching the sea. There it has been known for a long
course of years, perfectly reconciled to its prison, and pro-
pagating without any apparent difficulty."*

The length of the head is, when compared with the length
of the body alone, as one to four ; the depth of the body
compared to the whole length of the fish is also as one
to four : the teeth small and numerous, occupying five
rows on the upper surface of the mouth ; those of the cen-
tral row on the vomer extending some distance along it,
the points turning outwards alternately to each side ; one
row upon each side of the under jaw, and three or four
teeth on each side of the tongue, strong, sharp, and curving
backwards, well calculated to assist in holding a living
prey, or to convey food towards the pharynx : the middle
of the eye situated half- way between the point of the nose
and the posterior edge of the preoperculum : the form of
the parts of the gill-cover have been already described and
figured. The first ray of the dorsal fin is short ; the second
ray long, equal to the length of the base of the fin ; the
articulation at the base of the last dorsal fin-ray exactly
half-way between the point of the nose and the end of the
tail ; the fleshy fin on the back being also half-way between

* Journal of the Royal Institution, No. xxxiv. p. 211.
VOL. II. G

0< SALMONIIXE.

the base of the last ray of the dorsal fin and the end of the
tail. The body of the fish rather deep for its length ;
the lateral line very nearly straight, and passing along the
middle of the body : the scales adhering closely ; in form
rather a longer oval than those of the Salmon, and having
about twenty-three in the usual line up to the dorsal fin, and
twenty-two below it. The fin-rays in number are —

D. 12 : P. 13 : V. 9 : A. 10 : C. 19. Vertebra 58.

The upper part of the head and back dark bluish black,
becoming lighter on the sides, which are marked with nu-
merous spots, somewhat resembling in form the letter X :
these spots are mostly above the lateral line. The lower part
of the sides and belly silvery white ; cheeks and gill-covers
silvery white ; the dorsal fin, fleshy fin, and tail, nearly as
dark as the colour of the back ; the pectoral fin rather small
and bluish white ; the ventral fins white, arising in a vertical
line under the middle of the dorsal fin ; the anal fin white,
the base of the fin one-third shorter than the longest of its
fin-rays. When the Salmon Trout is placed by the side of
a Salmon, it is, in comparison, darker in colour in the body,
but lighter in the colour of the fins.

The specimens of the Phinock or Hirling of the North,
the Salmo albus of Dr. Fleming, which I have received, so
exactly resemble the young of the Salmon Trout on its first
return from salt water that I am unable to point out any
sufficiently distinguishing specific character.

The coloured Illustrations of the Scottish Salmonidte by
Sir William Jardine, Bart., represent this species, and also
the Salmon in various stages of growth.

PARR. 83

ABDOMINAL

MALACOPTERYGll. SALMONIDJE.

THE PARR.

Salmo salmultts, WILLUGHBY, p. 192.
» ,, RAY, Syn. p. 63, sp. 2.

,» ,, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 404.

THIS little fish, one of the smallest of the British Sal-
monida, has given rise to more discussion than any
species of the genus. Abounding in our Salmon rivers,
and conspicuous for those lateral marks which are known
to be borne for a time by the young of the Trout as well
as the fry of the other Salmonidte, and this fish always
appearing of small comparative size, it has frequently been
insisted upon as the young of the Salmon ; and local regu-
lations have as generally been invoked for its preservation.

The fry, however, of the different species of migratory
SalmonideE are probably even now only known accurately
to a few persons : their great similarity when very small,
as shown at page 36, has so frequently deceived even those
who have lived the greater part of their lives on the banks
of Salmon rivers, that the fry marked by them, in their
experiments, believing them all to be what they considered
the young of the Parr, have been retaken as Grilse, Grey
Trout, Salmon Trout, and River Trout. The transverse
dusky bars from which this fish has obtained the name of
Brandling and Fingerling are family marks, borne by all the
species of the genus for a time, and it has been remarked on
this subject by the late M. Fries, the Ichthyologist of Stock-
holm, that the more natural the genus the more difficult it is
to characterise the species while young.

G 2

84

Mr. Shaw's experiments and observations, already given at
length in the article on the Salmon, have gone very far to-
wards convincing many that the Parr, as a distinct species,
does not exist. Further experiments are in progress by Mr.
Shaw and others, and it is hoped their observations will be
made public, and the Natural History of our Salmanida
clearly made out.

The vignettes below represent three states of the May-fly
and two states of the Stone-fly of anglers.

•*$»

s

mr

i ir '

i-i *

COMMON TROUT. 85

ABDOMINAL

MALACOPTERYGII. SALMONID.E.

THE COMMON TROUT.

Salmofario, LINN/EUS.

BLOCH, pt. i. pi. 22 & 23.
,, Goodemi, „ pt. iii. pi. 102.

., fario, River-Trout, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 399, pi. 70.
,, „ Trout, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 85.

,, ,, Common Trout, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 181, sp. 47.

,, ,, ,, „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 424.

„ JARDINE, Illust. Scot. Salm. pi. 5 & 12.

THE COMMON TROUT is too widely diffused and too
generally known to make any enumeration of particular
localities necessary ; it is an inhabitant of most of the
rivers and lakes of Great Britain, and so closely identified
with the pursuits and gratifications of sportsmen, that those
landed proprietors who possess streams of water favourable
to the production and growth of Trout preserve them with
great care and at considerable expense. The Trout, though
a voracious feeder, and thus affording excellent diversion
to the experienced angler, is so vigilant, cautious, and
active, that great skill as well as patience are required to

86 SALMON [D£l.

ensure success. During the day, the larger sized fish move
but little from their accustomed haunts ; but towards evening
and during the night they rove in search of small fish,
insects, and their various larvse, upon which they feed with
eagerness. The young Trout fry may be seen throughout
the day sporting on the shallow gravelly scours of the
stream, where the want of sufficient depth of water, or the
greater caution of larger and older fish, prevent their ap-
pearance.

Though vigilant and cautious in the extreme, the Trout
is also bold and active. A Pike and a Trout put into a
confined place together had several battles for a particular
spot, but the Trout was eventually the master.

The season of spawning with the Trout is generally in
the month of October, at which period the under jaw of the
old male exhibits in a smaller degree the elongation and
curvature observed to obtain in the male Salmon, of which
an instance will be shown.

Sir Humphrey Davy in his Salmonia particularly alludes
to the experiments of Mr. Jacobs, a German gentleman, on
the breeding of Trout by artificial impregnation of the ova.
The Rev. Dr. Walker, Professor of Natural History in the
University of Edinburgh, thus refers to the experiments of
Mr. Jacobs in his paper printed in the second volume of the
Transactions of the Highland Society. " He found that in
Salmon and Trouts the roe is not fecundated till after ejec-
tion. That when both are extracted from dead fishes, the
roe by mixture can be fecundated by the milt, and when
placed under water in a proper situation can be brought forth
into life. He further discovered that this artificial fecunda-
tion can be accomplished with the roe and milt of fishes that
have been dead two and even three days."

By the kindness of Mr. Pickering, of Chancery Lane, I
am enabled to insert here a translation of Mr. Jacobs' paper,

COMMON TROUT. 87

Avhich appeared in 1763 in the form of a letter to the editor
of the Hanover Magazine.

" SIR, — I have thought it a duty incumbent on me to
lay my observations on the breeding of Trouts and Salmon,
as well as on other subjects, before the public. It would be
needless, and not to my present purpose, to mention every
trifling experiment which I made within the last sixteen
years, before my discovered invention ; and in twenty-four
years more afterwards, on the artificial increase of Trouts and
Salmon, perhaps I may be induced to give a more circum-
stantial account on this subject. The box, trough, or water-
bed in which the eggs, animated with the milk or sperma of
the male Trout, are scattered, needs no particular form, yet
it will be necessary to give a description how those which I
use are made.

" SECTION I.

"I.I had boxes made of various woods, but I found oak
to be the best, of about twelve feet long, one foot and a half
wide, and six inches deep.

" 2. At the head of the trough where the water is to run
in, is laid a thick board about two and a half or three inches
thick, about a foot wide, and as long as the trough is wide ;
in the middle of this board is made a hole six inches long,
and about four inches wide in the clear, with a ravet on all
the four sides of this hole, about an inch and a half wide and
deep, so as to admit a square frame, with an aperture of six
inches by four inches, or of the same size as the hole, which
frame must be covered with a brass grating of a moderate
strength, and close enough to prevent the smallest water-
shrew from passing through, otherwise all the spawn and
young fry will be in danger of being devoured by them.

" 3. Near the middle of this box or trough lay another
piece of thick board across, as long as the width of the

88

SALMONID.E.

trough, and about six inches or more wide, Avhich, when
nailed upon the edges of the side pieces, will keep them more
steady and firm.

" 4. Let the lower end board, where the water is to run
off again, be at least three inches thick, as the greatest pres-
sure is against it, have an opening cut at the top six inches
wide and four inches deep ; have a ravet made on the outside
and another on the inside, deep enough to leave at least an
inch thick of the solid board in the middle, and wide enough
to admit a frame with a brass-wired grate, like No. 2, on the
outside, which can be pushed in from the top ; the wires
should not be above a line and a half asunder, no more than
those at the top, for the same reason as mentioned before.
In the inside, opposite this opening, push a bit of board
downwards into the groove to stem the water either entirely
or to regulate its running off, according as you find it neces-
sary, or to pull it entirely out when the whole of the water is
to run off.

"5. There must be two strong covers, one between the
two cross pieces described in 2, 3, and the other below the
middle cross quite to the lower end, 4 ; both covers must be
fastened behind with strong hinges, and before with handles,
to lift them conveniently up by ; and as these boards are apt
to warp, on account of the water within and the air without,
it is requisite to have each clamped with two or three cross
pieces.

COMMON TROUT. 89

" 6. If you think fit to give the young fish more air than
what enters at the two brass grates, you may have in each
cover a hole made of the same size, and guarded with a brass-
wire grate, as 3 ; and for the same reasons, I have done this
out of precaution, but have found it, in the end, to be unne-
cessary.

" SECTION II.

" 1. Spring water out of rocks or stony ground is the
properest for breeding of Trout and Salmon ; but where it is
not to be had, other spring water may do, provided the cur-
rent is strong enough, so as not to freeze in hard frosty
weather.

" 2. If the spring has not fall enough, you must raise a
dam around it, one or two feet higher than the top of your
trough ; convey the water from thence through a pipe or
gutter, to the first grate in the opening, on the head part of
the trough, Section I. 2, of one square inch diameter, and
determine its length at least two inches above the grate ;
the remaining water from the spring can be led off sideways.

" If you have an inclination for more breeding troughs
than one, they should be fixed in the same direction as the
first, and a larger pipe must be placed to the head of the
spring, which must empty itself into smaller pipes, laid across
the water troughs, so that each trough may have its proper
quantity of water conveyed into it ; or it may be managed by
means of brass cocks ; but this is left to the choice of every
one's own pleasure, as the most convenient method will be
soon found out.

" 3. After the box or trough is properly finished, it must
be placed horizontally upon two legs of wood, stone, or
brick ; and within upon its bottom put some clean washed
gravel, about the size of peas and beans, two inches high ;
afterwards sprinkle some coarse gravel or pebbles over it, the

90 SALMONID/E.

smallest of them of the size of beans, and some larger than
hazel-nuts. This last is done, that upon the surface of the
smaller gravel many deep holes may be formed, that the
continual motion of the water may not carry away the eggs,
but that they may remain where they were at first
sprinkled in.

" 4. Then let the water run into the trough as directed in
2, and raise it higher or lower, according to the instructions,
Section I. 4, so that the water covers the gravel always one
or two inches.

" This done, you have accomplished all that is necessary
to the apparatus for breeding Trouts and Salmon.

" SECTION III.

" 1. The time of spawning begins the latter end of No-
vember, and commonly ends the latter end of January, or
beginning of February. But the spawning time of each
separate Trout continues only about eight days, as the eggs
of the female and sperma of the male become in some sooner
in others later ripe.

" Trouts meet in rivulets in great numbers, in the before-
mentioned months, and such as are ready for spawning fix
upon a place where there is large gravel, and where the water
has a quick current ; there they rush and rub their bellies
against the stony bottom, and so violent, that they often
make great holes ; and by means of this motion both female
and male get rid of their spawn and sperma.

" As a single drop of sperma contains vast numbers of
animalcula sufficient to animate hundreds of eggs, and as the
water is loaded at this time with the sperma, it is no wonder
that almost every egg becomes a fish.

" Every egg or spawn in the female comes to its perfec-
tion and ripeness at the same time and day ; but it is not so

COMMON TROUT. 91

with the sperma of the male, for the sperma, or white roe, lies
like a solid substance divided into two parts in its body close
to the back, and grows gradually liquid, and dissolves itself
into a creamy fluid, beginning at the lowest part, and dis-
charges about the sixth part of each division every day, so
that within eight days all the sperma becomes liquid and
runs off.

" SECTION IV.

"1. To breed young Trouts, according to this invention,
you must have some Trouts taken out of the rivulet in
December and January when they gather together to spawn ;
as in some rivulets their spawn becomes later ripe, you may
in the latter end of January let part of the water drain off,
by stemming the water above, that you may take as many
out as you want ; if after stroking their bellies with the
fingers, some spawn or sperma goes off, it is a sign that both
are ripe, and those must be put into a large pail or tub
for use.

" 2. Then take a wooden, earthen, or copper bowl, put
into it a pint, quart, or more of clear water ; take out of your
pail one fish after another, stroke them with the hand or
fingers downwards till the spawn discharges into the bowl :
you need not fear that it will hurt them, for they can without
danger bear great pressing ; then rub the belly of the male
Trout in the same manner till some of its milk discharges
into the water, — a little is sufficient, — then stir the whole
with your hand so as to mix it well, and all the eggs and
spawn will be fructuated ; then mix more clear water with
them to disperse them more asunder: after the eggs are
impregnated with the sperma they are apt to clog together,
which hurts them in the end ; it is therefore necessary to thin
them with more water, and to sprinkle them into the breed-
ing trough.

92 SALMONID.E.

" A small space will receive a great quantity of spawn, yet
they must not lie too thick, otherwise when many touch each
other too closely, they will get in a few clays into putrefac-
tion, and have the appearance as if a fine downy wool was
spread over them ; if they remain in this state they are unfit.
To prevent this, take a thin slice of wood, or a paddle about
the breadth of a hand, and paddle with it backwards and
forwards on the spot where the spawn lies too thick, to spread
by this motion the spawn asunder.

"3. It will be necessary to repeat this manoeuvre twice a
week, or at least once a week, and by paddling with your
wooden slice in all parts, you will bring the water upon the
eggs in motion ; for let the water be ever so clear, there will
adhere to the eggs in a few days a subtle filth, which lays the
foundation of their corruption, even when the young fish is
already alive in the egg ; therefore it is necessary to clean
them by this gentle means.

" 4. After the eggs have been about three weeks in this
state, one may perceive through the hard skin a divided black
spot, which are the eyes of the young fish ; the body is too
transparent to be seen with the naked eye, but after four
weeks, if you squeeze one of the eggs between your fingers,
you will see the fish make a motion and turn within, — then
you perceive his form.

" At last, after lying five weeks in this state, and under a
continual current of running water, the young fishes will bore
their heads through the shell of the egg, and under motion
with their bodies will, in about half an hour, free themselves
entirely from the shell, with the yolk of the mother egg
hanging to their bellies like a small bag ; so soon as they are
out of the egg, they will still be in the cavities between the
gravel, and have then the appearance as if the head of a pin
was fastened to a reddish field pea, on account of these hang-
ing bags. For three or four weeks they receive their nou-

COMMON TROUT. 93

rishment from the substance contained in this bag, till by
degrees, as the fishes grow larger, the bag disappears, then
they begin gradually to assume the shape of fishes, and
having no further sustenance from this bag, they will seek for
food themselves. But as in so small a compass as this breed-
ing trough, there cannot be a sufficient quantity of small
insects to be found for their sustenance, they seek for more
room where they may meet with them in greater abundance ;
they follow then the current of the water, and slip through
the brass grate at the end of the box, where you should have
a large wooden tub, like a brewer's cooler, or a small clean
fish pond, covered with gravel to receive them, in which they
will grow in about six months considerably.

" SECTION V.

" To instruct my readers as much as possible, I shall add
several observations on the formation of these young Trouts.

" 1. After an egg has been fluctuated by the sperma of
the male, which slips through an invisible opening into it, it
lodges in the white liquor under the shell and round the yolk,
which last is liquid and transparent, tending to a yellowish
colour, and seems to fill up the greatest space in the egg,
except the little white round it.

" 2. So soon as this little animalcule has assumed the
nature and form of the fish, it appeareth that the yolk in the
egg is separated by a very thin skin from the outward hard
membrane.

" 3. The fish itself, except the eyes, is very transparent,
and as liquid as a little mucilaginous water, yet in shape
longish ; it lies bent within the outward harder membrane of
the egg, and round the thin skin that covers the yolk.

" 4. From this time the fish is to be considered as one
body grown to the yolk from the gills downwards to the

0-t SALMONID.E.

outlet, which is in length about the quarter part of the inward
circumference of the egg ; this yolk, which looks like a bag,
becomes the belly, and without entrails.

" 5. On this expanded belly, especially in the Salmon
Trout, are plain to be seen many blood-vessels, divided into
smaller branches, and so plain, that the arteries may be dis-
tinguished from the veins with the naked eye. And it is no
wonder, for as it has been mentioned that this hanging belly
is larger in proportion to the fish, so the blood-vessels are in
proportion expanded, and are to be seen very plainly, so long
as the fish remains in a state of transparency like water.

" 6. If you open one of these bags with a needle, a liquor
runs out of a yellowish colour, which is the nutriment of the
fish, then the bag shrinks in like an empty bladder, and the
fish dies.

" After the fish has been out of its egg about a fort-
night, a thin skin separates from the inward coat of this
hanging belly, and then it shrinks so much that it appears as
entirely vanished. After the belly is entirely shrunk to its
proportionable size, this inward skin shrinks likewise, and
becomes the intestines ; from the mouth it forms a passage
into the stomach, and continues more narrowly contracted
and formed into intestines which lay one over another to the
outlet in the belly.

" It is farther to be observed that the heads of the Trout,
when they first have the shape of fishes, have not yet all the
usual shape or form, — they look as if the snout was chopped
off near the eyes ; but as their bellies shrink, their heads
grow, the mouths are formed, and after about three weeks
the heads get their proper shape.

" Lastly, I shall make a few additions, which flow from
the former observations, and are the result of experiments,
which at this present occasion I have no inclination to
publish.

COMMON TROUT. !)")

" SECTION VI.

" 1 . According to the course of nature, no T routs or Sal-
mon are generated in ponds or standing waters.

" 2. They cannot be bred there if millions of pregnant
eggs were put into them.

" 3. The young Trouts have, in the first two or three
weeks, great tenacity of life, for after the head is dead, the
body will live two days before they are quite dead ; this is to
be understood of healthy fish, kept in a current of fresh run-
ning water.

" 4. Although the young Trout love to swim with the cur-
rent within the six weeks out of their breeding trough, yet
they can be kept within them six or more weeks longer, by
particular management.

"5. They are not easily caught, on account of their small
size and rapid motion, notwithstanding they may be collected
in a pail.

" 6. They may then be put into proper water, or can be
put through a funnel into bottles, and carried to any part
provided the water don^t freeze.

" 7. The ripe eggs of a Trout, after they are four or five
days apparently dead, and gone into a kind of putrefaction,
so that the stench is intolerable, may yet be recovered and
bred out into fishes.

" 8. The eggs of Trouts will not produce fishes so long as
they remain connected with the egg stock.

" 9. The natural causes, why it is possible that a hen may
bring a live chicken into the world may very easily be ac-
counted for, from observations I have made in the breeding
of Trouts.

" 10. The natural disposition of the animalcule of the
sperma, which enters the egg, may be considerably increased.

"II. I have made many experiments, in which I found

96 SALMONID.E.

that two animalcules had slipt into the egg, and that double
fishes have been generated ; and although they had two
bodies, they had but one common stomach : how this hap-
pens, see Section V. 1.

" 12. Of these monstrous productions the most of them
were opposite to one another, and had their stomach in com-
mon between them : yet, in a strict sense, the stomach only ;
the rest of the intestines divided in about three weeks sepa-
rately.

"13. Some of these double fishes were fixed by their sides
together, when two animalcules of the sperma enter the egg in
a direct line 90 degrees one from another.

" 14. I have seen only one of these double fishes where
the backs were crossed nearest the tail in a direct angle, so
that this fish formed a kind of cross. This happens when
two animalcules enter one egg, and are placed opposite each
other from their direct line to 90 degrees.

" These monsters, 12, 13, were grown together from the
head to the opening in the belly, and that 14 had in some
degree a joined body, but the backs were distinguished one
from another.

" 15. All these kind of monstrous productions die in
four or five weeks, after their joint bag or belly is emptied ;
for as each endeavours to follow its own direction in pursuit
of food, and both hinder one another, neither of them is
capable of performing its intention; it is impossible that either
head can receive its proper nourishment, therefore they must
starve.

"16. All monstrous productions in the human and other
animal creations, with a joint stomach, are produced when
an egg is fructuated by more than one spermatic animalcule.

" 17. All observations made on the Trout, and i}s artifi-
cial method of breeding, hold good with regard to Salmon.

(Signed) " S. L. JACOBS."

COMMON TROUT. !>7

The Trout varies considerably in appearance in different
localities ; so much so, as to have induced the belief that
several species exist. It is, indeed, probable that more
than one species of River Trout may exist in this country ;
but when we consider geologically the various strata tra-
versed by rivers in their course, the effect these variations
of soil must produce upon the water, and the influence
which the constant operation of the water is likely to pro-
duce upon the fish that inhabit it ; — when we reflect also
on the great variety and quality of the food afforded by
different rivers, depending also on soil and situation, and the
additional effect which these combined causes in their various
degrees are likely to produce ; — we shall not be much sur-
prised at the variations both in size and colour which
are found to occur. That two Trout of very different
appearance and quality should be found within a limited
locality in the same lake or river, is not so easily explained ;
and close examination of the various parts which afford
the most permanent characters should be resorted to, with
a view to determine whether the subject ought to be con-
sidered only as a variety, or entitled to rank as a species.
In these examinations the character of the internal organs
also, and the number of the bones forming the vertebral
column, should be ascertained. The normal number of ver-
tebra? in Salmo fario, our Common Trout, I believe to be
fifty-six.

The remarks of Lord Home on the Common Trout are
as follows : — " I am much inclined to think there is but one
kind of River Trout ; the large Lake Trout may be different,
but of that I can be no judge, having never caught or seen
them ; but to the variation in size, colour, and appearance of
the River Trout I can speak. It has often happened to me,
when fishing in the height of the season for Trout in Tweed,
that, out of two or three dozen I have caught, there should be

VOL. II. H

98 SALMONID/E.

five or six differing not only from the common Tweed Trout,
but from each other. The reason of this difference in my
opinion is easily explained. These Trout come down into
the Tweed during the winter and spring floods from its dif-
ferent feeders, viz. the Ettrick, Yarrow, Jed, Kale, Eden,
Leet, &c. ; all differing completely from each other. These
Trout retain enough of their original appearance to distin-
guish them from Tweed Trout, which, with the exception
of the Whitadder Trout, are the leanest and worst-flavoured
of any in this part of the country ; but, after a few months'"
stay, these Trout from the small burns gradually lose their
original marks and excellence of flavour, and become like the
common Tweed Trout in every respect. There can be no
doubt that the nature of the soil through which the different
streams flow is the cause of the difference of appearance, not
only as to colour and size, but also particularly in the supe-
rior excellence of their flesh to that of the Tweed and Whit-
adder Trout. For example, the Eden and Leet, flowing
through a rich loamy and often marly soil, afford Trout of
very superior size and quality ; their bodies beautifully
marked with bright red spots, their fins orange-coloured, as
well as their sides, and their flesh fully a deeper red than that
of the Salmon, and almost as high-flavoured, particularly the
Leet Trout, which I have killed weighing seven pounds.
The largest Tweed Trout I ever saw was one I caught with a
salmon-fly : it weighed just five pounds.

" There are two considerable streams in this county which
take their rise at no great distance from each other, the
Whitadder and the Blackadder, the latter tributary to the
former. The Whitadder from head to foot flowing along a very
rocky and gravelly bed ; while the Blackadder (Blackwater)
rises in the deep mosses near Wedderlea and the Dorrington
laws (High hills), and flows for about half its course through
mosses ; the rest of its course through a rich and highly cul-

COMMON TROUT. 99

tivated district. The Trout of Whitadder (Whitewater) are
a beautiful silvery fish, but good for nothing ; those of the
other, dark, almost black, with bright orange fins, and their
flesh excellent. Nothing can be more different than the
appearance of the Trout of these two rivers ; and surely no-
thing can be more easy than at once to see the cause of this
difference. The Trout in neither of these streams are of a
great size. In the Blackadder they would attain a large
size, — say three or four pounds ; but the river is over-
fished, and poached to perfection.

" I have ascertained that the Tweed Trout, after haying
been a month or two in the Leet, change their colour, and
soon assume the appearance of those of the Leet : while,
again, not only the Leet Trout, but those of the other small
burns, soon lose their beauty and other good qualities after
they have been any time in the Tweed. I may mention that
the food in the two little rivers Leet and Eden afforded the
Trout, is the principal cause, in my opinion, of their superior
size and excellence. This food consists of small shells, cadis
bait, &c. and clouds of flies produced by the marl on the
sides of the brooks and the woods on their banks.

" Once, while fishing in the Tweed for Trout with minnow,
a Trout rose and missed. I threw the minnow over him at
least twenty times ; each time the fish rose eagerly, and made
the most unfishlike (if I may use the expression) attempts to
seize the minnow ; at last a tail-hook took hold of him, and I
got him out. It proved to be a Trout with the upper jaw
formed exactly, or very nearly, like that described in the 59th
page of vol. ii. ; and resembling as near as possible the
vignette at the bottom of that page.* This Trout was lank
and thin, but weighed a pound and a half. Unluckily I did
not preserve it."

Sir William Jardine, Bart, in a paper on the

* See page 108 of the present volume.

H

100 SALMONID.E.

published in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal
for January 1835, has described at considerable length the
variations observed in the Trout of some of the lochs of
Sutherlandshire. Other lochs abound with Trout which are
reddish, dark, or silvery, according to the clearness of the
water. Mr. Neill, in his Tour, has noticed the black-
moss Trout of Loch Knitching, and Loch Katrine is said
to abound also with small black Trout ; an effect considered
to be produced in some waters by receiving the drainings
of boggy moors. In streams that flow rapidly over gravelly
or rocky bottoms, the Trout are generally remarkable for
the brilliancy and beauty of their spots and colours. Trout
are finest in appearance and flavour from the end of May
till towards the end of September ; an effect produced by
the greater quantity and variety of nutritious food obtained
during that period. Two specimens of the Common Trout
taken early in January were unusually fine in colour for
that season of the year ; their stomachs on examination
were distended with ova of large size, which, from circum-
stances attending the capture of the Trout, were known
to be the roe of the Bull Trout. The albuminous nature
of this sort of food, which the Trout availed themselves
of, was believed to be the cause of their colour ; since other
Trout, procured at the same time from localities where no
such food could be obtained, were of the usual dark colour
of that season of the year.

The author of Wild Sports in the West of Ireland refers
particularly to the differences observed in the Trout of that
country in this 35th letter : — " The fishing party had been
successful, and returned late in the evening with two baskets
of Trout, which, although of small size, were remarkable for
beautiful shape and excellent flavour.

" It is a curious fact, that the loughs where the party
angled, though situate in the same valley, and divided only
by a strip of moorland not above fifty yards across, united by

COMMON TROUT. 101

tlic same rivulet, and in depth and soil at bottom to all
appearance, precisely similar, should produce fish as different
from each other as it is possible for those of the same species
to be. In the centre lake, the Trout are dull, ill-shapen, and
dark-coloured ; the head large, the body lank, and though of
double the size, compared to their neighbours, are killed with
much less opposition. In the adjacent loughs, their hue is
golden and pellucid, tinted with spots of a brilliant vermilion.
The scales are bright, the head small, the shoulder thick,
and, from their compact shape, they prove themselves, when
hooked, both active and vigorous. At table they are red and
firm, and their flavour is particularly fine ; while the dark
Trout are white and flaccid, and have the same insipidity of
flavour which distinguishes a spent from a healthy Salmon.
The red Trout seldom exceed a herring-size ; and in looking
through the contents of the baskets, which amounted to at
least twelve dozen, I could only find two fish which weighed
above a pound.

" The dark Trout, however, from their superior size, are
more sought after by the mountain fishermen. They rarely
are taken of a smaller weight than a pound, and sometimes
have been killed, and particularly with a worm, or on a night-
line, of a size little inferior to that of a moderate Salmon.

" I never observed the effect of bottom soil upon the
quality of fish so strongly marked as in the Trout taken in a
small lake in the county of Monaghan. The water is a long
irregular sheet of no great depth ; one shore bounded by a
bog, the other by a dry and gravelly surface. On the bog
1 side, the Trout are of the dark and shapeless species peculiar
to moory loughs ; while the other affords the beautiful and
sprightly variety, generally inhabiting rapid and sandy
streams. Narrow as the lake is, the fish appear to confine
themselves to their respective limits ; the red Trout being
never found upon the bog moiety of the lake, nor the black
where the under surface is hard <n%avel.v

102 SALMONID.E.

Mr. Stodclart, in his u Art of Angling as practised in Scot-
land," mentions an interesting experiment made with Trout,
some years ago, in the south of England, in order to ascertain
the value of different food. " Fish were placed in three
separate tanks, one of which was supplied daily with worms,
another with live minnows, and the third with those small
dark-coloured water-flies which are to be found moving
about on the surface under banks and sheltered places.
The Trout fed with worms grew slowly, and had a lean
appearance ; those nourished on minnows, which, it was
observed, they darted at with great voracity, became much
larger ; while such as were fattened upon flies only, attained
in a short time prodigious dimensions, weighing twice as
much as both the others together, although the quantity of
food swallowed by them was in nowise so great."

Of four Trout fed in a stew together, three of them
weighed fifteen pounds each, the fourth attained the weight
of seventeen pounds ; but neither the food nor the time
consumed was recorded.

A writer on fishes and fishing in the New Sporting Maga-
zine for November 1840, says, page 275, "An acutely ob-
serving friend of mine, who has paid close attention to the
growth of Trout, having regard to Mr. Shaw's experiments on
Salmon, concludes that Trout are rarely visible the first year;
that they congregate with Minnows, and other fry, the
second ; are found on shallows the third summer, about seven
or eight inches long, and subsequently increase rapidly to a
pound or a pound and a half, dependent on the quantity and
quality of their food, the season, and other circumstances.
This gentleman has, for years, kept Trout in a kind of store
stream, and, having fed them with every kind of food, has had
some of them increase from one pound to ten pounds in four
years. T found, says lie, that one of the Trout I had fed
and weighed regularly for the last six years, was not improving

COMMON TROUT. 103

in size and colour; I therefore killed it. The fish is a
female, and weighed exactly seven pounds. The accompany-
ing schedule will show its gradual increase :

Date of weighing. 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840

April 1st Olb. 12oz. lib. 12oz. 31b. 4oz. 51b. 4oz. 71b. Ooz. 71b. 4oz-

October 1st 1 4 205-05 12 78 70
Littlecot, Oct. 1840."

Stephen Oliver the younger, in his agreeable Scenes and
Recollections of Fly-fishing, mentions a Trout " taken in
the neighbourhood of Great Driffield, in September 1832,
which measured thirty-one inches in length, twenty-one in
girth, and weighed seventeen pounds." A few years since,
a notice was sent to the Linnean Society of a Trout that was
caught on the llth of January 1822, in a little stream, ten
feet wide, branching from the Avon, at the back of Castle-
street, Salisbury. On being taken out of the water, its
weight was found to be twenty-five pounds. Mrs. Powell,
at the bottom of whose garden the fish was first discovered,
placed it in a pond, where it was fed and lived four months,
but had decreased in weight at the time of its death to
twenty-one pounds and a quarter.

The age to which Trout may arrive has not been ascer-
tained. Mr. Oliver mentions, that in August 1809, " a
Trout died which had been for twenty-eight years an inha-
bitant of the well at Dumbarton Castle. It had never
increased in size from the time of its being put in, when it
weighed about a pound ; and had become so tame, that it
would receive its food from the hands of the soldiers."" In
August 1826, the Westmoreland Advertiser contained a
paragraph stating that a Trout had lived fifty-three years
in a well in the orchard of Mr. William Mossop, of Board
Hall, near Broughton-in-Furness.

The Thames at various places produces Trout of very
large size. Among the best localities may be named Kings-

104.

SALMONID.E.

ton, opposite the public-house called the Angler, Hampton-
Court bridge and wear, and the wears at Shepperton and
Chertsey. These large Trout are objects of great attraction
to some of the best London anglers, who unite a degree
of skill and patience rarely to be exceeded. The most usual
mode practised to deceive these experienced fish is by trolling
or spinning with a small Bleak, Gudgeon, or Minnow ; and
Trout of fifteen pounds' weight are occasionally taken.

On the 21st of March in the present year, 1835, a
male Trout of fifteen pounds1 weight was caught in a net.
The length of this fish was thirty inches. On the 14th of
April following, a male Trout of eleven pounds" weight,
and measuring twenty-eight inches in length, was also caught
in a net. From this second fish the representation above
shown was taken, by permission of Mr. Groves, who allowed
a drawing to be made, which was engraved for this work.

Several deep pools in the Thames above Oxford afford
excellent Trout, and some of them of very large size. I
have before me a record of six, taken by minnow spinning,
which weighed together fifty-four pounds, the largest of them
thirteen pounds. Few persons are aware of the difficulty of
taking a Trout when it has attained twelve or fourteen
pounds1 weight, and it is very seldom that one of this size is
hooked and landed except by a first-rate fisherman : such a

COMMON TROUT.

105

fish, when in good condition, is considered a present worthy a
place at a royal table.

Among performances in Trout catching, the following
may be mentioned, as found in the MS. of the late Colonel
Montagu.

" Mr. Popharn, of Littlecot, in the county of Wilts, was
famous for a Trout fishery. They were confined to a certain
portion of a river by grating, so that fish of a moderate size
could not escape. To the preserving and fattening these fish
much trouble and expense were devoted, and fish of seven and
eight pounds" weight were not uncommon. A gentleman at
Lackham, in the same county, had a favourite water-spaniel
that was condemned to suffer death for killing all the Carp in
his master's ponds, but was reprieved at the desire of Mr.
Popham, who took charge of him, in the belief that so shy
and so swift a fish as a Trout was not to be caught by a dog.
However, in this he was mistaken, for the dog soon convinced
him that his largest Trout were not a match for him." Mr.
Stoddart also, in his Scottish Angling, page 119, has recorded
the propensities of a fish-catching dog.

I am indebted to William Thompson, Esq. of Belfast,
for a very fine specimen of the Gillaroo Trout of Lough
Ncagh, measuring twenty-two inches in length, from which
fish the representation on this page was taken. The internal

106

SALMONID.K

surface of the stomach presented an indurated cuticle, but the
parietes were not thicker than those of other Trout ; the
cavity was filled with some dozens of the Paludina impura of
Lamarck, The fin-rays and vertebrae were —

D. 12 : P. 14 : V. 9 : A. 11 : C. 19. Vertebra 56.

So little difference appeared to exist between this and
English specimens of S.fario, as to induce the belief that
the Gillaroo is only a variety of the Common Trout, as
stated by Pennant.

Several loughs in Ireland produce this fish, which some-
times attains the weight of ten or twelve pounds. The teeth
are remarkably small, but in number and situation like those
of S. fario.

The figure of the Trout at the head of this article, and
the following description, were taken from a Hampshire fish
of twelve inches in length.

The length of the head compared to the length of the
head and body, not including the caudal rays, was as one
to four ; the depth of the body rather more than the length
of the head ; the dorsal fin commenced half-way between the
point of the nose and the commencement of the upper caudal
rays ; the third ray of the dorsal fin, which is the longest,
longer than the base of the fin : the origin of the adipose fin
half-way between the commencement of the dorsal fin and the
end of the upper half of the tail ; the pectoral fin two-thirds
of the length of the head ; the ventral fins under the middle
of the dorsal fin, and half-way between the origin of the pec-
toral fin and the end of the base of the anal fin ; the anal fin
begins half-way between the origin of the ventral fin and the
commencement of the inferior caudal rays. The tail but
slightly forked, and growing slowly up to square in old fish,
or even very slightly convex, as seen in the figure of the large
Thames Trout.

COMMON TROUT. 107

The fin-rays in number are —

D. 14 : P. 14 : V. 9 : A. 11 : C. 19. Vertebra 56.

The form of the head blunt ; the eye large, placed one
diameter and a half from the end of the nose ; the iridcs
silvery, with a tinge of pink : the lower jaw in the Salmo-
nid(E appears to be the longest when the mouth is opened,
but it shuts within the upper jaw when the mouth is closed ;
the teeth numerous, strong, and curving inwards, extending
along the whole length of the vomer ; the disposition of the
teeth and the form of the gill-cover shown in outline at
page 3 ; but throughout the Salmonida the teeth of the
males are larger than those of the females : the convexity
of the dorsal and ventral outline nearly similar ; the colour
of the back and upper part of the sides made up of numer-
ous dark reddish brown spots on a yellow brown ground ;
eleven or twelve bright red spots along the lateral line, with a
few other red spots above and below the line ; the lower part
of the sides golden yellow ; belly and under surface silvery
white ; the spots on the sides liable to great variation in
number, size, and colour ; dorsal fin and tail light brown,
with numerous darker brown spots ; the adipose fin brown,
frequently with one or two darker brown spots, and edged
with red ; the pectoral, ventral, and anal fins uniform pale
orange brown. The number of scales in a row above and
underneath the lateral line about twenty-five

Deformed Trout are not uncommon. " In 1829," says
the writer of the article on Angling in the seventh edition of
the Encyclopaedia Britannica, " we received some very sin-
gular Trouts from a small loch called Lochdow, near Pitmain,
in Inverness-shire. Their heads were short and round, and
their upper jaws were truncated, like that of a bull-dog.
They do not occur in any of the neighbouring lochs, and
have not been observed beyond the weight of half a pound."

108 SALMON1D.E.

Such a Trout from Loclidow was presented to the Museum
of the Zoological Society by the Honourable Twiselton
Fienncs : the figure is a representation of the head of that
specimen.

Mention of deformed Trout, as occurring in some of the
lakes of Wales, is also made by Pennant, Oliver, and Han-
sard. I am indebted to the kindness of P. Buckley Wil-
liams, Esq. of Pennant House, Montgomeryshire, for a notice
of the Hog-backed Trout of Plinlimmon, which is taken
occasionally in Bagail Lyn, ShepherdVpool, about one-third
up the Plinlimmon mountains, on the Machynllaith, or west-
ern side. This Trout, of which a figure is given in the Cam-
brian Quarterly Magazine for July 1833, is not unlike in
appearance that form which Perch sometimes assume, as men-
tioned in vol. i. page 5.

L. W. Dillwyn, Esq. sent me a copy of the following
paragraph, which appeared in a Cambrian newspaper of the
28th of November, 1829. " As Abraham Harries and
George Stephens, who reside at Llangattock, Carmarthen-
shire, were fishing with their nets in the river Towey on
Friday last, they caught a fine fish of the Salmon species
which had two heads and two tails. The heads are joined
on one neck, and the tails meet about the centre. This fish
is now to be seen alive in a small pool at Llangattock."

I have seen one very young specimen of our common Small
Spotted Shark with two distinct heads : the whole fish was
only about six inches long.

COMMON TROUT.

100

Malformations from deficiency in the number of bones of
the month, or of other parts of the head, are not uncommon.
One such instance in the Sea Bream is represented in vol. i.
page 110, of the first edition of this work, and I have seen
other instances among the flat fishes.

The vignette below represents a fishing cottage on the
Inny, in Cornwall, the property of Georgiana, Duchess of
Bedford.

110 SALMONID.E.

ABDOMIKAL

MALACOPTERYG11. SALMONW/E.

THE GREAT LAKE TROUT. < J7 ^

Salmoferox, JARDINE'S Illust. Scot. Salm. pi. 4.

,, lacustris, Lake Trout, BERKENHOUT'S Syn. Edit. 1795, vol. i. p. 79,

sp. 3.
,, ferox, Great Lake Trout, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 425.

THE GREAT LAKE TROUT of Loch Awe, to which
attention has lately been drawn by the various notices that
have appeared in print of the fish, as well as of the beauties
of the locality, was shortly noticed by Pennant, in the
editions of the British Zoology, as a native of Ullswater
Lake in Cumberland, and of Lough Neagh in Ireland, and
was considered to be identical with the Great Trout of the
Lake of Geneva. Berkenhout includes this fish in his
Synopsis of the Natural History of Great Britain and Ire-
land, as quoted above. Dr. Heysham records it in his
Catalogue of Cumberland Animals as the Ullswater Trout
and Grey Trout, some specimens of which were said to

GREAT LAKE TROUT. Ill

weigh between fifty and sixty pounds ; and the Rev. Mr.
Low, in his Fauna Orcadensis, mentions a Trout of thirty-
six pounds'1 weight or more, which, besides the Common
Trout, occurs both there and in Shetland. Mr. William
Thompson of Belfast, when at the meeting of the British As-
sociation at Edinburgh in 183-i, saw a specimen of the Great
Trout of Loch Awe, and recognised it as identical with the
Great Trout, or Buddagh, of Lough Neagh. Two examples
of large size, about thirty-five inches each in length, were
lately exhibited at the Zoological Society by Mr. Thompson.*
These were obtained from Lough Neagh, where the younger
and smaller sized fish of this species are called Dolachans.
Mr. Thompson has since learned that this fish exists in
Lough Corrib, in the county of Galway, and also in Lough
Erne, in the county of Fermanagh, thus proving it, to use
Mr. Thompson's words, to be an inhabitant of the three
largest lakes in Ireland ; and it will probably yet be found
in most of the lakes of any considerable extent in that
country. Mr. Thompson has very kindly supplied me with
a young fish of this species from which the representation
below was taken, and which, differing from specimens of large
size in having the spots more numerous, may be an accept-
able addition.

* See the Report of the Proceedings of the Society for June 9th, 1835.

112 SALMON1D.E.

According to Sir William Jarcline, this fish, as far as can
be traced, seems to have been first noticed about forty-five
years since by the late Mr. Morrison of Glasgow, who
used to exhibit them to his friends as the trophies of his
expeditions. The first specimens taken in Loch Awe by
Mr. Selby and Sir William Jardine were considered as a
species undescribecl and new to Britain ; and the name of
Salmo ferox was given to it from its extreme voracity and
rapacious habits. M. Agassiz, who saw specimens of this fish
when he was in Edinburgh, pronounced it to be different
from any of the large Continental species.

" In Scotland this fish appears to be generally distributed
in all the larger and deeper lochs. Loch Awe, Loch Lag-
gan, the upper end of Loch Shin, Lochs Loyal and Assynt,
they certainly inhabit, roving indiscriminately, and feeding
almost entirely upon the smaller fish. By persons residing
on the banks they are taken by night-lines, few rising at the
artificial fly ; but they may always be taken by strong troll-
ing tackle, baited with a small Trout. They are extremely
voracious, and, having seized the bait, they will allow them-
selves to be dragged by the teeth for forty or fifty yards ;
and, when accidentally freed, will immediately again seize
it."

This Great Trout is almost entirely confined to the lochs,
seldom venturing far either up or down any of the streams
communicating with them, and never descending to the sea.
It is known to spawn in September.

The most usual mode of fishing for this Great Lake Trout
is from a boat, which is rowed gently through the water ; the
bait, as before mentioned, a small Trout, guarded by six or
eight large hooks ; the rod and line of great strength ; for this
fish is considered to be even stronger than a Salmon of the
same size, but not so active. Young fish from one to two
pounds'1 weight rise freely to the usual Trout flies.

GREAT LAKE TROUT. 113

For the opportunity of obtaining a drawing of this fish
I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Selby and Dr.
Richardson.

The length of the head is to the whole length of head,
body, and tail, as one to four and a half; the depth of the
body not equal to the length of the head : the teeth large,
strong, and numerous, occupying five lines above and four
below, thus extending along the length of the vomer : the
free edge of the gill-cover rounded in the female, more angu-
lar below in the males ; the inferior edge of the suboperculum,
and the line of its junction with the operculum, oblique. The
commencement of the dorsal fin is half-way between the
point of the nose and the origin of the first upper caudal
ray ; the third dorsal fin-ray, which is the longest, equal to
the length of the base of the dorsal fin ; the soft fleshy fin
half-way between the last dorsal fin-ray and the end of the
caudal rays, and in a line over the origin of the last ray of
the anal fin : the ventral fins each with an elongated axillary
scale ; the fins rather small in size, but very muscular.
The fin-rays in number in this specimen from Loch Awe
were —

D. 13 : P. 14 : V. 9 : A. 11 : C. 19.

The specimens examined from Lough Neagh had one
ray less in the dorsal, pectoral, and anal fins, and one ray
more in the caudal fin. For an excellent account of this
fish, see the article Angling in the seventh edition of the
Encyclopaedia Britannica, from which I derive the following
description of the colours of this species, which was probably
taken from a recent specimen.

" When in perfect season and full-grown, it is a very
handsome fish, though the head is always too large and long
to be in accordance with our ideas of perfect symmetry in a
Trout. The colours are deep purplish brown on the upper

VOL. II. I

114 SALMONID.E.

parts, changing into reddish grey, and thence into fine orange
yellow on the breast and belly. The whole body, when the
fish is newly caught, appears as if glazed over with a thin
tint of rich lake colour, which fades away as the fish dies,
and so rapidly, that the progressive changes of colour are
easily perceived by an attentive eye. The gill-covers are
marked with large dark spots ; and the whole body is covered
with markings of different sizes, and varying in number in
different individuals. In some these markings are few, scat-
tered, and of a large size ; in others they are thickly set, and
of smaller dimensions. Each spot is surrounded by a paler
ring, which sometimes assumes a reddish hue ; and the spots
become more distant from each other as they descend be-
neath the lateral line. The lower parts of these fish are spot-
less. The dorsal fin is of the same colour with the upper
part of the fish ; it is marked with large dark spots ; the pec-
toral, ventral, and anal fins are of a rich yellowish green
colour, darker towards their extremities. The tail is remark-
able for its breadth and consequent power. In adults it is
perfectly square, or might even be described as slightly
rounded at its extremity : in the young it is slightly forked,
and appears to fill up gradually as the fish advances in age/'

" The flavour of this great lacustrine species is coarse and
indifferent. The colour of the flesh is orange yellow, not
the rich salmon-colour of a fine Common Trout in good
season." Pennant states from experience that it is but an
indifferent fish. The stomach is very capacious, and is al-
most always found gorged Avith fish. I have not had an
opportunity of ascertaining the number of vertebrae.

The form of the scales is decidedly different from that of
the Trout, and more circular than those of any of the migrat-
ing species : they are thin, flexible, and covered with a
delicate membrane.

I have reason to believe that this same species of Great

GREAT LAKE TROUT. 115

Lake Trout is an inhabitant of some of the large lakes of
Scandinavia.

Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson, Bart, visited Sweden last
summer, ascending the Gota river in his yacht, the Siren, and
passing through the celebrated sluices of Trollhattan, cruised
and fished in Lake Wenern, visiting his friend Mr. Lloyd,
who resides near the southern extremity of this noble lake.

Sir Thomas M. Wilson brought back with him five or six
skins of the Great Trout of the Lake, which were caught by
spinning with a bleak, and must, from their large size, have
afforded some excellent diversion. The largest of these
specimens measured forty-two inches in length, and weighed
about thirty-four pounds : the next largest weighed thirty-
two pounds : the third twenty-seven pounds, besides others of
smaller size. These large Trout, and larger than these are
seldom seen, are observed to be males ; the females, accord-
ing to Mr. Lloyd, who has lived for some years on the
borders of the lake, rarely exceed twenty or twenty-two
pounds.

The number of fin-rays in these specimens averaged —

D. 13 : P. 14 : V. 9 : A. 11 : C. 19.

Among other fish taken by Sir Thomas Wilson, was a large
specimen of the Ide, Leuciscus idus of authors. This fish,
which resembles our English Chub, was caught in the Gotha
Elf, a short distance above the falls of Trollhattan, whilst
trolling for Pike on a windy day : its weight was between four
and five pounds. The skins of these various specimens were
effectually preserved and mounted after they were brought to
England.

Sir Thomas M. Wilson did me the favour to show me his
numerous sketches of scenery, taken during this trip, which
include views of the Gota river, the cities and country on its
banks, the celebrated falls of Trollhattan and parts of Lake

i 2

116

SALMONJD.E.

Wenern at different points of view ; very kindly allowing me
the use of a coloured drawing, from which the vignette below,
on a reduced scale, was taken. This view represents Mr.
Lloyd's cottage on the eastern bank of the Gota ; the yacht
of Sir Thomas Wilson lying at anchor immediately opposite ;
with the remarkable and finely wooded hills of Hunneberg
and Halleberg, so much celebrated for the peculiarity of their
geological structure, bounding the distance.

LOCHLEVEN TROUT. 117

ABDOMINAL

MALACOPTERYGIL SALMON IDA'.

THE LOCHLEVEN TROUT.

Levenensis, WALKER.
,, ctcci/'er, PARNELL.

I AM indebted to Dr. Parnell for the loan of a beautiful
specimen of this Trout from which the figure was taken, and the
following account of it by Dr. Parnell is from the seventh
volume of the Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History
Society of Edinburgh.

" This fish is considered by most writers on British Ich-
thyology to be identical with Salmo fario, the Common
Trout, differing from it only in the colour of the flesh, and
in having no red spots on the sides. It is true that food and
season may have a great share in diminishing or increasing
the external markings and colour of the flesh ;* but they can
have no effect in shortening or lengthening the rays of the
fins, or in adding numbers to the crecal appendages."

" The differences that exist between S. c&cifer and S.

* James Stuart Menteath, Esq. of Closeburn, caught a number of small river
Trout, and transferred them to a lake (Loch Ettrick) where they grew rapidly ;
their flesh, which previously exhibited a white chalky appearance, became in a
short time of a deep red, while their external appearance remained the same from
the time they were first put in.

118 SALMONID.E.

fario are very striking. The pectorals in S. ceecifer when
expanded are pointed, in S. fario they are rounded. The
caudal fin in S. ceecifer is lunated at the end ; in S. fario it
is sinuous or even. S. ceecifer has never any red spots; S.
fario is scarcely ever without them. The caudal rays are
much longer in ctecifer than in fario., in fish of equal length.
In S. cacifer the tail fin is pointed at the upper and lower
extremities ; in S. fario they are rounded. The flesh of S.
ctecifer is of a deep red, that of S. fario is pinkish and often
white. The csecal appendages in S. cacifer are from sixty
to eighty in number ; in S. fario I have never found them to
exceed forty-six."

" Lochleven (of which the barren isle and now dismantled
castle are famous in history as the prison-place of the beauti-
ful Queen Mary) has long been celebrated for its breed of
Trout. These, however, have fallen off of late considerably
in their general flavour and condition, owing, it is said, to the
partial drainage of the Loch having destroyed their best feed-
ing ground, by exposing the beds of fresh-water shells, the
animals of which form the greater portion of their food.*
They spawn in January, February, and March.""

" The fish described does not appear to be peculiar to this
Loch, as I have seen specimens that were taken in some of
the lakes in the county of Sutherland with several other Trout,
•which were too hastily considered as mere varieties of *S*.
fario. It is more than probable that the Scottish lakes pro-
duce several species of Trout known at present by the name
of S. fario, and which remain to be further investigated."

Dr. Richardson, who has had opportunities of examining
very fine specimens of this celebrated Trout, considers it dis-
tinct from S. fario, and has pointed out some of the differ-
ences between them : the scales are thick, and when dry

1 There are two or three varieties of S. fario in Lochleven with white and
pinkish flesh, which are much inferior in flavour to S. c&cifer. — Encyc. Brit.

LOCHLEVEN TROUT. 119

exhibit a small ridge in the centre of each, not perceived in
other Trout : in its large and strong fins, and in its habit, as
stated by Dr. Parnell, of spawning in spring, it differs from
S. fario, which spawns in autumn, and resembles some of the
large species of Trout of the great northern lakes. Three in-
dividuals of the Lochleven Trout dissected by Dr. Richard-
son had each seventy-three pyloric cseca, and in one of them
fifty-nine vertebrae were counted. The largest of the speci-
mens measured twenty inches and a quarter, including the
caudal fin, and two inches less to the end of the scales.

Dr. ParnelFs description, taken from a specimen measuring
one foot in length, is as follows : " Head rather more than
one-fifth of the whole length, caudal fin included ; depth be-
tween the dorsal and ventral fins less than the length of the
head. Gill-cover produced behind; basal margin of the
operculum oblique ; preoperculum rounded ; end of the max-
illary extending back as far as the posterior margin of the
orbit. Colour of the back deep olive green ; sides lighter ;
belly inclining to yellow; pectorals orange, tipped with grey;
dorsal and caudal fins dusky ; ventral and anal fins lighter ;
gill-cover with nine round dark spots ; body above the lateral
line with seventy spots ; below it ten ; dorsal fin thickly
marked with spots of a similar kind ; anterior extremities of
the anal and dorsal fins without the oblique dark bands which
are so conspicuous and constant in many individuals of S.
fario. First dorsal fin placed half-way between the point of
the upper jaw and a little beyond the fleshy portion of the
caudal extremity of the body ; all the rays branched except
the two first ; the third ray the longest, equalling the length
of the long caudal ray ; the seventh as long as the base of the
fin ; the last considerably more than half the length of the
third, equalling the length of the middle caudal ray ; fin even
at the end (in many specimens it is concave, with the last ray
longer than the preceding one) ; caudal fin crescent-shaped,

120 SALMONID.E.

the middle ray rather more than half the length of the longest
ray ; third ray of the anal fin the longest, equalling the length
of the fifth dorsal ray ; the last ray as long as the base of the
fin, ventral fin equalling the length of the fifth ray of the
anal ; the third ray the longest ; third ray of the pectorals
equalling the length of the long caudal ray ; the last ray half
the length of the fin. Teeth stout and sharp, curved slightly
inwards ; thirty-two in the upper jaw, eighteen on the lower ;
twelve on each palatine bone ; thirteen on the vomer ; and
eight on the tongue. Scales small and adherent ; twenty-
four in an oblique row between the middle dorsal ray and
the lateral line ; flesh deep red ; ceeca eighty. The number
of fin-rays —

D. 12 : P. 12 : V. 9 : A. 10 : C. 19.

The vignette represents the castle and the island in Loch-
leven.

i?zi

CHARR.

ABDOMINAL
MALACOPTEllYGII.

SALMONID&.

THE CHARR.

Salmo salvelimts, LINN/EUS. BLOCK, pt. iii. pi. 99.

,, umbla, „ „ „ pi. 101.

,, alpinus, ,, ,, ,, pi. 104.

,, umbla, CUVIEO, Regne An. t. ii. p. 305.

,, alpinus, Charr, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 411, pi. 71.

,, salvelinus, Salvelian Charr, DON. Brit. Fish.pl. 112.

,, alpinus, Alpine Salmon, ,, ,, pi. 61.

,, salvelinus, Torgoch, FLEW. Brit. An. p. 180, sp. 43.

,, alpinus, Case Charr, ,, ,, ,, sp. 44.

,, umbla, Charr, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 427.

M. AGASSIZ, when in the North of England in the
autumn of 1834, had several opportunities of examining'
the Charr of the Northern lakes, which he declared to be
identical with the Ombre Chevalier of the Lake of Geneva ;
and in his " Remarks on the different species of the genus
Salmo which frequent the various rivers and lakes of Eu-
rope,1'1 read at the meeting of the British Association at
Edinburgh, that gentleman considered the S. umbla, alpinus,

122 SALMONID.E.

salvelinus, and salmarinus of Linnaeus as different states
only of the same fish.*

Examples of the Charr of the Northern lakes of England
agree exactly with the description and figure of the Ombre
Chevalier in M. J urine's paper on the fishes of Lake Leman,
Geneva.

In the former edition of this work I considered the Welsh
Charr distinct as a species from the Northern Charr, but I
have now reason to believe that I had not made sufficient
allowance for the variations in appearance produced by local
influence, as mentioned under the head of Common Trout, at
page 97 ; and, assisted by the published notes of W. Thomp-
son, Esq. of Belfast (An. Nat. Hist. vol. vi. p. 439), I am now
induced to consider as one species the Charr of England,
Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and that our fish is also the
same species as that found in Germany, in the lakes of Swit-
zerland, and also those of Scandinavia.

Mr. Thompson precedes his notes by the following re-
marks : — " The chief object of my inquiry was to learn
whether in the lakes of Ireland, and in those of Scotland,
from which I could procure specimens, the S. salvelinus of
Donovan was to be found ; and at the same time to ascer-
tain, at least for my own satisfaction, whether its characters
have sufficient permanency to entitle it to rank as a distinct
species. As they are merely crude unfinished notes that are
to follow, I shall here give the result of the investigation,
that the reader may be in possession of it without entering
into the details. In a fresh state I have had the opportunity
of examining Charr from three localities, — Windermere (Eng-
land), Lough Melvin (Ireland), and Loch Grannoch (Scot-
land) ; and, either in spirits or preserved dry, from nine other
lakes in Ireland and Scotland. The examination of these

* See the Reports of the Fourth Meeting of the British Association, p. 617
to p. 623.

CHARR.

examples leads me to believe that the S. umbla of Linnseus,
and the S. salvelinus of Donovan, are but one species ; one,
however, that, like the Salmo fario, is subject to extraordi-
nary variety. In one lake the male fish can at a glance be
distinguished from the female either by colour, or by the many
characters which are comprised under ' form.' In another, so
similar are the sexes in every external character, that, without
the aid of dissection-, they cannot be determined. In size
we find the species ordinarily attain twice the length, and
several times the weight, in one lake that it does in another,
although the area of their waters is of similar extent ; indeed,
in some of the largest lakes, this fish will be found not to
attain near the size it does in some others which are but as
pools in comparison : there are, however, various influences
which account satisfactorily for such differences. In the form
of the body again we find the species, and when in equally
high condition, to be in one lake herring-like, and in another
approximating the roundness of an eel. So manifold are the
differences presented by the Charr now before me from various
localities, that it would be tedious, and perhaps useless, to
point them out.1'

The Charr inhabits many of the lakes of Cumberland,
Westmoreland, and Lancashire, which are annually visited by
the admirers of fine scenery. Keswick, Crummock Water,
Buttermere, Winandermere, and Coniston are among the
localities best known to produce this delicate fish. It occurs
in several of the lochs of Scotland, and also in Lough Melvin,
Corrib, Esk, Egish, Neagh, Dan, Luggelaw, and probably
many other loughs in various counties of Ireland.

The Charr is the Torgoch or Red-belly of Wales, and was
formerly to be taken either in Llanberris Lake, or in Llyn
Cawellyn, two deep lakes situated on the east and west
sides of Snowden. The waters from a neighbouring copper-
mine are said to have destroyed or driven out the Charr from

124

SALMONID.E.

Llanberris, where tliey wore formerly very numerous ; and
it was remarked that some of these fish were caught in the
sea, at the mouths of rivers on this coast, after they disap-
peared from the lake.

" Llyn Cawellyn," says Mr. Donovan, " is a vast lake of
unknown depth, sheltered on one side by an abrupt moun-
tain, which rises immediately out of the water, and in the
deep recesses at the base of which the Torgoch is supposed
to pass the milder seasons of the year in perfect security.
These fish approach the shallower parts of the lake in winter,
about the middle of December, appearing in small troops at
a short distance from the shores, and are at this season taken
in some plenty by a poor cottager who resides in the vicinity
of the lake, and derives a small annual profit from the
fishery ; this delicious fish being in much request for the
tables of the neighbouring gentry."

I am indebted to the kindness of the Rev. F. W. Hope
for specimens of Charr from a locality near Barmouth in
Merionethshire, unnoticed by Mr. Donovan, but recorded by
Willughby. The piece of water is called Coss-y-gedawl — the
lake of the fruitful marsh. The meaning of this term is said
to be questionable : the primitive from which it is derived
means gift, relief, or profit. By Willughby it is spelt Casa-
geddor; by others, Cors-y-gedol.

CHARR. 125

The Charr generally inhabit the deepest parts of those
lakes in which they are found, and afford but little amuse-
ment to the angler. The most successful mode of fishing

o o

for them is to trail a very long line after a boat, using a
minnow for a bait, with a large bullet of lead two or three
feet above the bait, to sink it deep in the water. By this
mode a few may be caught in the beginning of summer, at
which time they are in the height of perfection, both as to
colour and flavour. The fly-fisher when whipping for Trout,
which frequently abound in the same lakes, occasionally
takes a Charr ; but this does not happen often : they are
believed to feed principally during the night. The stomachs
of those I have examined were empty ; but Sir William
Jardine has found abundance of minute Entomostraca in the
stomachs of some of those examined by him. The forms of
two species of these very minute animals will be represented
when describing the Vendace.

The Charr are very seldom known to wander into any of
the streams by which these lakes are either supplied or
drained, except at the season of spawning, and their decided
partiality for clear water and a hard bottom is then very
conspicuous. Winandermere has two principal feeders, the
rivers Rothay and Brathay : the Rothay has a sandy bottom,
but the channel of the Brathay is rocky. These streams
unite at the western corner of the head of the lake, below
Clappers-gate, at a place called the Three-foot-brander, and
after a short course boldly enter the lake together. The
spawning season is in November and December ; about
which time the Charr in shoals make their way up both
these rivers, but invariably, before depositing their spawn,
those fish which have ascended over the sandy bed of the
Rothay return and pass up the rocky channel of the Bra-
thay.* A few Charr also spawn in the lake; and it is

* 'i lie In. ut, in their spawning season, prefer the Rothay.

126 SALMONID^E.

observed that they frequent the stony parts only which re-
semble the bottom of the Brathay.

Charr, even at the same season of the year, exhibit con-
siderable difference in colour, which has been attributed to
different causes. M. J urine, when describing the Salmo
umbla of the lake of Geneva, which fish there is little or no
doubt is identical with our Charr, says the females are
the finest in colour. Mr. Mascall, in a communication to
the Magazine of Natural History for April 1835, states that
he found the males of the Charr of Ennerdale Lake in Cum-
berland superior to the females in colour. It is not impro-
bable that the degree of colour may depend, not so much
upon the sex, as upon the constitutional vigour of the indivi-
dual fish ; a circumstance observed in the periodical assump-
tion of peculiar tints in other animals. In reference to these
variations in the intensity of the colours, several distinctions
have been supposed to exist in the Charr of our lakes, and
the names of Case Charr, Gilt Charr, Red Charr, and Silver
Charr have been applied to them : Pennant, however, states
that, after the closest examination, he was unable to discover
any specific difference.

The most common size of our Charr is from nine to twelve
inches in length ; they are said occasionally to attain the
length of two feet ; the largest specimen in my possession
measures eighteen inches. The finest coloured specimen I
ever saw was brought me by my friends J. B. Giles and W.
C. Hewitson, from Coniston Water, in the month of May.
They are considered to be in the greatest perfection as food
from July to October.

The length of the head compared to the length of the
head and body is as one to five ; the depth of the body
greater than the length of the head : the commencement of
the dorsal fin is half-way between the point of the nose and
the adipose fin ; the posterior edge of the base of the adipose

CHABR. 127

fin half-way between the origin of the last dorsal fin-ray and
the end of the longest caudal ray ; the longest dorsal fin-ray
but one-fourth longer than the base of that fin : the pectoral
fin small ; the ventral fins originate half-way between the
point of the nose and the commencement of the under caudal
rays ; the ventral axillary scale nearly half as long as the fin ;
the anal fin small, the longest ray but little longer than the
base of the fin ; the tail deeply forked, the longest rays more
than as long again as those in the centre ; all the fins of
small comparative size. The fin-rays in number are —

D. 13 : P. 12 : V. 9 : A. 11 : C. 19. Vertebrae 59.

The diameter of the eye is less than one-fourth of the
length of the whole head ; it is placed at the distance of one
diameter from the point of the nose : the teeth small ; a few
on the anterior part only of the vomer ; the other four rows
above and four rows below, as usual in the fishes of this
genus. The branchiostegous rays vary from ten to twelve,
and frequently differ in number on the two sides of the head
of the same fish.

The top of the head and all the upper parts of the back
umber brown ; the sides lighter ; the whole of the belly,
pectoral, ventral, and anal fins, deep reddish orange ; the
first ray of the ventral and anal fins white ; the sides above
and below the lateral line marked with numerous red spots ;
the irides orange ; gill-covers yellowish olive ; dorsal and
caudal fins dark brown, tinged with purple brown ; the lateral
line straight, but rising gradually from the parallel of the
point of the pectoral fin to the top of the operculum ; the
scales very small, more than thirty in an oblique line from
the base of the dorsal fin to the lateral line, and as many
from the ventral axillary scale upwards to the lateral line.
In this state as to colour, this fish is considered to be the
S. safvelinus of authors.

128

SALMONID.E.

When not in fine condition as to colour, the top of the
head and along the back are pale purplish brown, becoming
lighter lower down ; the sides silvery ; the belly tinged with
pale orange ; above the lateral line are numerous small round
white spots ; irides and gill-covers silvery, with a tinge of
yellow ; pectoral, ventral, and anal fins, brownish red ; dorsal
fin brown ; caudal fin purple brown.

In this state, as to colour, this fish is considered to be the
S. alpinus of Continental authors, Bloch excepted, whose
*$*. alpinus, part iii. plate 104, appears to be a Trout.

In the autumn of 1839, T. Upton, Esq. of Ingmire Hall,
near Sedberg, put into his lake, the Lilleymere, near the
reservoir, some Charr from Windermere, each weighing about
half a pound; and, on the 23rd of August 1840, caught two
with a fly, full two pounds1 weight each, in the finest possible
season, well fed, and beautifully coloured. These fine spe-
cimens were served at the Queen Dowager's table, at the
Rose and Crown, Kirkby Lonsdale.

The vignette is a view of Whitewell, in the forest of Bow-
land, Yorkshire.

SMELT.

129

ABDOMINAL
MALACOPTERYG1L

SALMONID.Z.

THE SMELT.

SPIRLING AND SPARLING.

Scotland.

Osmerus eperlanns, Smelt, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 181, sp. 48.

Eperlantis Rondeletii,

,, Schonfeldii,
Salmo eperlanus,

Osmerus

CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 305.
WILI.UGHBY, p. 202.
WILLUGHBY, tab. N. 6, fig. 4.
LINN/EUS. BLOCK, pt. i. pi. 28. 2.
PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 416, pi. 72.
DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 48.
JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 429.

OSMERUS. Generic Characters. — Body elongated, covered with small scales:
two dorsal fins, the first with rays, the second fleshy, without rays ; ventral fins
in a vertical line under the commencement of the first dorsal fin : teeth on the
jaws and tongue very long, two distinct rows on each palatine bone, none on
the vomer except at the most anterior part ; branchiostegous rays 8.

THE SMELT, as a British fish, appears to be almost ex-
clusively confined to the eastern and western coasts of Great
Britain. I am not aware of any good authority for the
appearance of the true Smelt between Dover and the Land's
End.* The fish called Smelt and Sandsmelt along the

* Mr. Salter, in his Angler's Guide, page 169, says he has caught very fine
Smelts by angling in Portsmouth harbour ; but there is very little doubt thai the
Sandsmelt, or Atherine, which is there abundant, is the fish alluded to.
VOL. II. K

130 SALMONID.E.

extended line of our southern coast is in reality the Athe-
rine, as stated in the account of that fish, volume i. page
229 : but the Atherine, though furnished with two dorsal
fins, and otherwise something like the Smelt, is immediately
distinguished from it by the numerous rays supporting the
second dorsal fin ; which fin in the true Smelt is without any
rays whatever, like the adipose fin of the species of the genus
Salmo last described.

On the eastern side of our island, the Smelt occurs in the
Tay, in the Frith of Forth, in the Ure on the Yorkshire
coast ; it is taken in abundance in the Humber, on the Lin-
colnshire coast, in the Yare of Norfolk of large size, in the
Thames, and the Medway. On the western side, the Smelt
is taken in the Solway Frith, and may be traced as far south
as the parallel line formed by the Mersey, the Dee, the Con-
way, and Dublin Bay.

The Smelt inhabits fresh water from August to May.
After spawning in March or the beginning of April, they
return to the sea. The ova are small and yellowish in
colour. The fry are found about three inches long, swim-
ming near the surface in shoals in the rivers in the month of
August, ascending and descending with the tide, when the
adult fish are again visiting the fresh water. Their food is
small fish, with crustaceous and testaceous animals : Dr.
Fleming says, the principal food of the Smelt in the Tay is
the shrimp.

Two modes of fishing for Smelts are in practice ; one
on the sandy shallow shores of the sea, on the eastern coast,
particularly Lincolnshire, where large quantities are taken
in spring; the other is the river-fishing within the tide- way.
The excellence of the Smelts of the Medway is well known.
The Thames and Medway fishing with small-meshed nets
for Smelts is permitted, under the jurisdiction of the Lord
Mayor of London, from the 28th of August (St. Augustine)

SMELT. 131

till Good Friday. Formerly, the Thames from Wands-
worth to Putney-bridge, and from thence upwards to the
situation of the present suspension-bridge at Hammersmith,
produced abundance of Smelts, and from thirty to forty
boats might then be seen working together; but very few
are now to be taken, the state of the water, it is believed,
preventing the fish advancing so high up. The particular
cucumber-like smell of this fish is well known ; and it is very
considerably more powerful when they are first taken out of
the water.

The Smelt is generally in great request from its delicate
and peculiar flavour. This quality, coupled with the cir-
cumstance of the fish passing six or seven months of the
year in fresh water, has induced two or three experiments
to retain it in ponds, one of which was attended with com-
plete success, and the attempts might be multiplied with
advantage. Colonel Meynell, of Yarm in Yorkshire, kept
Smelts for four years in a fresh-water pond having no com-
munication with the sea : they continued to thrive, and
propagated abundantly. They were not affected by freez-
ing ; as the whole pond, which covered about three acres, was
so frozen over as to admit of skating. When the pond was
drawn, the fishermen of the Tees considered that they had
never seen a finer lot of Smelts. There was no loss of fla-
vour or quality.

From the point of the lower jaw to the end of the gill-
cover, the length is, as compared to the body alone, as one
to three ; the depth of the body not equal to the length of
the head : the dorsal fin commences half-way between the
point of the nose and the end of the fleshy portion of the
tail ; the first ray of this fin less than half the length of
the second, which is as long as the third ; the second and
third are the longest rays in the fin, nearly as high as the
body of the fish is deep, and as long again as the base of the

K 2

132 SALMONID.E.

fin ; the two first rays simple, all the others branched : the
anterior edge of the adipose fin is half-way between the base
of the last ray of the dorsal fin and the end of the fleshy por-
tion of the tail, and in a vertical line over the middle of the
anal fin ; pectoral fins long and narrow ; the ventral fins com-
mence on the same plane as the dorsal fin ; the base of the
anal fin long, commencing half-way between the origin of the
ventral fins and the end of the fleshy portion of the tail ; the
third ray the longest, but not so long as the base of the fin ;
the other rays diminish in length gradually : the tail slender
and deeply forked. The fin-rays are —

D. 11 : P. 11 : V. 8 : A. 15 : C. 19.

The lower jaw much longer than the upper ; the gape
deeper than wide : the teeth long, and curving inwards ; those
on the anterior parts of the tongue and palatine bones are the
longest : the breadth of the eye about one-fifth of the whole
length of the head, the irides silvery white ; the gill-cover
triangular ; the upper part of the head flat ; the nape and
back rising ; the form of the body elongated and slender ;
the dorsal and abdominal lines slightly convex : the colour
of the upper part of the body pale ash-green ; all the lower
parts, cheeks, and gill-covers, brilliant silvery white : the
scales oval, small, and deciduous : all the fins pale yellowish
white : the ends of the caudal rays tipped with black.

The specimen described measured seven inches in length.
Occasionally Smelts may be seen in the London markets ten
and eleven inches long, but this is an unusually large size.
Pennant mentions having seen one that was thirteen inches
long, and weighed eight ounces.

HEBR1DAL SMELT.

133

ABDOMINAL

MALACOPTERYGJI.

SALMON1DM.

THE HEBRIDAL SMELT.

Osmerus Hebridicus, Hebridal Smelt, YARRELL, Supplement to Brit. Fishes.

I AM indebted to Mr. William Euing of Glasgow for the
opportunity of making known a new species of Smelt which
that gentleman did me the kindness to send to me in the
month of November 1837. This fish is at once clearly dis-
tinguishable from our long-known and highly-esteemed fa-
vourite, the common Smelt, and is the more interesting from
the circumstance of its being — at least, as far as I am aware —
entirely new to Ichthyology. Mr. Euing passed part of the
summer of 1837 near Rotlisay in the Isle of Bute ; and the
Smelt in question was brought to him by a fisherman, who
stated that he caught it on a hand-line in the bay of Roth-
say, about two hundred yards from the shore, in twelve
fathom water ; that it was, though well known, but rarely
seen. This specimen measured six inches and a half; but
another example of the same sort, measuring eight inches in
length, that was taken near the same place in June 1836, was
full of roe, and when first caught the cucumber-like smell, so
peculiar to the Smelt, was in this species also very apparent.

SALMONID/E.

Unable to find any notice of a second species of Smelt in
Europe in any Ichthyological work with which I am ac-
quainted, I have little doubt that this fish has not been pre-
viously described ; and in reference to the locality in which
alone it has been as yet taken, I have ventured to name it
the Smelt of the Hebrides, Osmerus Hebridicus.

The specimen sent me by Mr. Euing, measuring six inches
and a half in length, is one inch and one-eighth deep at the
commencement of the dorsal fin, at which part the body is
deepest ; the thickness of the body compared to the depth is
as one to two, or exactly half : the length of the head is one
inch and three-eighths, and is, in reference to the whole
length of the head and body, without the tail, as one to four.
The jaws are nearly equal in length, without teeth upon
either ; but there are four long teeth upon the tongue ; the
eye is very large, the diameter almost equal to one-third of
the whole length of the head, and placed at a distance of little
more than its own diameter from the point of the nose : the
upper surface of the head is flattened, descending by a rapid
slope to the nose ; the line of the lower jaw straight ; the pos-
terior edge of the operculum rounded ; the back of the fish,
or its dorsal outline, slightly arched ; the abdominal line near-
ly straight ; the sides compressed. The dorsal fin commences
half-way between the point of the nose and the anterior edge
of the adipose or rayless dorsal fin, the longest ray nearly
twice the length of the base of the fin ; the last dorsal fin-ray
but three, the same length as the base of the whole fin. The
adipose fin is placed very near the tail ; the tail itself deeply
forked. The pectoral fin reaches to the plane of the com-
mencement of the dorsal, and its length, if turned forwards,
would reach to the centre of the eye. The ventral fin is in a
vertical line under the last ray of the dorsal fin ; there is a
slender axillary scale ; but the ends of the ventral fin-rays
being injured, the length of the fin cannot be mentioned.

HEBRIDAL SMELT. 185

The anal fin lias its last ray underneath the posterior edge of
the adipose fin ; but the rays of the anal fin are also broken.
The formula of the fin-rays is as follows : —

D. 11 : P. 14 : V. 12 : A. 12 : C. 19.

The scales are large and deciduous, the lateral line promi-
nent and nearly straight. Below the lateral line for the whole
length of the body two rows of the scales are silvery white,
forming a conspicuous elongated band, like that to be observed
in the Atherine ; the rest of the body and fins dull amber
colour, the gill-covers silvery and iridescent.

136

SALMONID.F-.

ABDOMINAL
MALACOPTERYGII.

SALMONIDJE.

THE GRAYLING.

Thymallus vulgaris, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 306.

,, ,, WILLUGHBY, p. 187, N. 8.

Salmo thymallus, LINNAEUS. BLOCK, pt. i. pi. 24.

,, ,, Grayling, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 414, pi. 72.

DON. Brit.Fish.pl. 88.

Coregonus ,, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 181, sp. 49.

Thymallus vulgaris, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 430.

THYMALLUS. Generic Characters. — Head and body elongated ; the sides
marked with longitudinal bands ; two dorsal fins, the first much longer than
high, with numerous rays ; the second small, adipose, without rays : the mouth
small, the orifice square ; the teeth very small ; branchiostegous rays 7 or 8.

THE GRAYLING, though abundant in some streams,
is yet a very local fish. Similar in many respects to the
Trout in its habits and wants, there are numbers of rivers
abounding with Trout that do not produce Grayling. In
the southern counties of Hampshire and Wiltshire, the
Grayling is found in the Test and both the Avons. In
Herefordshire, in the Dove, the Lug, the Wye, and the
Irvon. In Shropshire, in the Temc and the dun. In

GRAYLING. 137

Staffordshire, in the Hodder, the Trent, the Dove, and the
Wye. In Derbyshire, in the Dove. In Merionethshire,
in the Dee, between Curwen and Bala. In Lancashire, in
the Kibble. In Yorkshire, in the Derwent, the Ure, the
Wharfe, and the Wiske, near Northallerton. Dr. Heysham
says it is occasionally taken in the Eden and the Esk in
Cumberland. It is not found, that I am aware, either in
Ireland or Scotland ; Mr. Low, however, includes this fish
in his Fauna Orcadensis, and it is known to be plentiful in
Sweden, Norway, and Lapland. The peculiarity of the local
distribution in this country gave rise to the supposition that
the Grayling had been originally introduced by the monks,
as a fish worth cultivating ; many of the rivers containing the
Grayling being near the remains of great monasteries. But
two circumstances affect this solution : it would be very dif-
ficult to bring this fish alive from the Continent to this coun-
try ; and it is not found in the rivers of Kent, Dorsetshire,
Devonshire, or Cornwall, where monastic establishments were
formerly numerous.

The Grayling thrives best in rivers with rocky or gravelly
bottoms, and seems to require an alternation of stream and
pool. According to Sir Humphrey Davy, who has given a
good history of the Grayling in his " Salmonia," this fish was
introduced into the Test, in Hampshire, from the Avon;
and the former river, in particular parts, appears to suit it
the better of the two. Large Grayling, are, however, occa-
sionally taken in both these waters, which are constantly
resorted to by the southern anglers. Three Graylings,
weighing together twelve pounds, were caught by Thomas
Lister Parker, Esq. in the Avon, near Ringwood. A Gray-
ling of four and a half pounds'1 weight has been killed in the
Test, and one of five pounds is recorded to have been caught
near Shrewsbury.

However fastidious in the quality of the water or the

138 SALMONID.E.

choice of situation in the stream the Grayling is known to
be, experiment has proved that this fish will live in ponds
that have been newly made in hard soil, or in such as have
been very recently and carefully cleaned out ; but in these
situations the Grayling docs not breed, and they will not
continue to live in old muddy ponds. The ova of this fish
are numerous, large, and of a deep orange colour ; the spawn-
ing season is in April, or the beginning of May ; in this re-
spect differing from the other SalmonidtK, most, if not all,
of which spawn towards the end of the year, and generally
in cold weather. The Grayling, however, is in the finest
condition in October and November, when Trout are out of
season, not having then recovered the effects of their recent
spawning.

The food of the Grayling, as ascertained by examination,
besides the various flies — imitations of which are successfully
used by anglers, — consists also of the larvae of Phryganea,
Ephemera, and Libellula ; the remains of the cases of the
former, and the tough skins of all of them, being frequently
found in their stomachs. I have found also several small
shells, examples of the genus Physa, and Neritina fluvia-
tilis. Dead shells and small pebbles are also found ; but
whether these last are taken up by the fish to serve any
useful purpose, as in the stomachs of gallinaceous birds,
or have only formed part of the cases of the Phri/ganea, may
be questioned.

Some English authors have considered the Grayling a
migratory fish, passing the winter in the sea, and the sum-
mer in fresh water. " Early in spring," says Mr. Donovan,
" they ascend the rivers, where they remain till autumn,
and then return to their former element." This may apply
to Grayling on some parts of the European continent,* but
is not the case certainly with our fish in this country, in the

* Bloch says the Grayling descends to the Baltic in autumn.

GRAYLING. 139

rivers of which it is found in the most perfect condition,
and in consequence most eagerly sought after, in October
and November. The finest specimens I ever saw were taken
in November; and Sir H. Davy states in his " Salmonia," he
had proved that the Grayling of England would not bear
even a brackish water without dying.

The term Thy mall us is said to have been bestowed upon
this fish on account of the peculiar odour it emits when fresh
from the water, which is said to resemble that of thyme ;
and from its agreeable colour as well as smell, St. Ambrose
is recorded to have called the Grayling the flower of fishes.
To be eaten in perfection, it cannot be dressed too soon.
The name Grayling is supposed to be a modification of the
words gray-lines, in reference to the dusky longitudinal bars
along the body.

It has been considered that the large dorsal fin of the
Grayling enabled it to rise and sink rapidly in deep pools ;
but this power would rather seem to be afforded by the
lai^e size of the swimming-bladder. The very large dorsal
fin, compared to the small size of all the other fins, renders
the Grayling unable to stem rapid currents : they are much
more prone to go down stream than up, and are never seen
leaping at a fall, like Trout.

In a Grayling of ten inches long, the length of the head
is to the body alone as one to four ; the depth of the body
rather more than equal to the length of the head : from the
point of the nose to the commencement of the dorsal fin is
equal to one-third of the length of the whole fish to the end
of the fleshy portion of the tail ; the posterior edge of the
dorsal fin half-way between the point of the nose and the
end of the longest caudal rays ; the adipose fin rather nearer
the dorsal fin than the end of the tail : the height of the
dorsal fin equal to half the height of the body, the first
ray short, the next five increasing gradually in length ;

140 SALMON1D.E.

the sixth ray nearly as long as the seventh, and, as well
as the five anterior rays, articulated and simple ; the seventh
ray and all the rays behind it articulated, branched, and
nearly of the same height ; the length of the base of the fin
not equal to twice the length of its longest ray : the pectoral
fin small, narrow, and pointed : the ventral fins commencing
in a vertical line under the middle of the dorsal fin ; the
ventral axillary scale one-fourth of the length of the fin :
the anal fin commences half-way between the origin of the
ventral fin and the end of the fleshy portion of the tail, and
ends on the same plane as the adipose fin above it ; the
longest ray but little longer than the base of the fin : the
tail forked ; the middle rays rather more than half as long as
the longest. The fin-rays in number are —

D. 20 : P. 15 : V. 10 : A. 13 : C. 20. Vertebrae 58.

The head is small and pointed, flattened at the top : the
breadth of the eye equal to one-fourth of the length of the
whole head ; irides golden yellow, pupil blue, pear-shaped,
the apex directed forward : the opening of the mouth, when
viewed in front, square ; the teeth small, incurved, numer-
ous ; none on the tongue, and only a few on the most
anterior part of the vomer : behind the head, the nape and
back rise suddenly : the body deepest at the commencement
of the dorsal fin, then tapering off to the tail ; abdominal line
but slightly convex ; the scales rather large ; the lateral line
in the middle of the body not very conspicuous, with seven
rows of scales on an oblique line above it, and seven rows
below it ; the sides marked with about fifteen dusky longi-
tudinal bands. The general colour of the body light yellow
brown, beautifully varied with golden, copper, green, and
blue reflections when viewed in different lights, with a few
decided dark spots : the head brown ; on the cheeks and
gill-covers a tinge of blue : all the fins somewhat darker than

\YLING.

Ul

the colour of tlie body ; the dorsal fin varied with square
dusky spots on the membrane between the rays, the upper
part of the fin spotted and streaked with reddish brown.
The Grayling appears to become darker by age, and the
pectoral fins are reddish about spawning time, with small
black spots.

Switzerland also produces Grayling ; I have therefore
selected for the vignette a view of Mont Blanc.

SALMONID.E.

ABDOMINAL
MALACOPTERYG1L

SALMONIDJE.

THE GWYNIAD.

SCHELLY. Ulswater.

Cnregonusfera 1 CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 307.
,, ,, ? NILSSON, Prod. p. 16, sp. 4.

,, ,, ? JURINE, pi. 7.

Salmo lavuretiis, Gwyniad, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 419, pi. 73.
Coregomis ,, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 182, sp. 50.

,, ,, ,, JENVNS, Brit. Vert. p. 431.

COREGONUS. Generic Characters. — Body in appearance herring-like ; with
two dorsal fins, the first higher than long, the second adipose ; the scales large ;
the mouth small, sometimes with minute teeth on the jaws or tongue, or both.

THE species of the genus Coregonus are numerous in
Europe, and several of them are so similar to each other, that,
without the power of comparing those of this country with
foreign specimens, an appropriation of synonymes is at least
doubtful. Some authors have even considered the Vendisse
of Lochmaben as the same with the Powan of Perthshire,
the Schelly of Ulswater, the Gwyniad of Wales, and the
Pollan of Ireland : but it will be found that this is not the

GWYNIAD. I \-'>

case ; and, from recent observation, there is now reason to
believe that the Pollan of Ireland is distinct from the two
species of Coregonus found in Great Britain.

The Gwyniad of Wales was formerly very numerous in
Llyn Tegid (Fair Lake), at Bala, until the year 1803, when
Pike were put into the lake, which have very much reduced
their numbers. Pennant considered the Gwyniad as the
same with the C.fera of the Lake of Geneva, following in
this the opinion of Willughby ; and in the manuscript notes
of a fishing tour in Wales, by two excellent fishermen, who
had also pursued their amusement abroad, an opinion is given
to the same effect. Our Gwyniad bears a close resemblance
to the figure of C. fera in the illustrations to M. Jurine's
Memoir on the Fishes of Lake Leman : his description I
have not seen. The British fish accords also with the short
description of the C. fera in Professor Nilsson's Prodromus
of the Fishes of Scandinavia.

The Gwyniad is very numerous in Ulswater and other
large lakes of Cumberland, where, on account of its large
scales, it is called the Schelly. Dr. Heysham, the natural
historian of Cumberland, and Pennant also, in his British
Zoology, have recorded that many hundreds are sometimes
taken at a single draught of the net. They are gregarious,
and approach the shore in vast shoals in spring and summer.
Pennant says, they die very soon after they are taken out of
the water, are insipid in taste, and must be eaten soon, for
they will not keep long. The poorer classes, who consider,
and even call them the Fresh-water Herring, preserve them
with salt. The fish is not unlike a Herring in appearance,
and the Welsh term Gwyniad has reference to their silvery
white colour. They spawn towards the end of the year, and
the most usual length of the adult fish is from ten to twelve
inches.

The length of the head is about one-fifth of the whole

SALMONID.E.

length of the fish ; the depth of the body rather exceeding
the length of the head : the dorsal fin commences about half-
way between the point of the nose and the end of the fleshy
portion of the tail ; its longest ray one-third longer than the
base of the fin, and equal to three-fourths of the depth of the
body : the adipose fin rather nearer the end of the tail than
the posterior edge of the dorsal fin ; the pectoral fins narrow,
pointed, and a little shorter than the head, inserted low down
on the body : the ventral fins arising in a line under the
middle of the dorsal fin ; the ventral axillary scale one- third
the length of the fin : the anal fin commences half-way be-
tween the origin of the ventral fin and the end of the short
middle rays of the tail, and ends on the same plane with the
adipose fin ; the longest anterior ray about equal to the length
of the base of the fin ; the other rays diminishing gradually :
the tail forked. The fin-rays in number are —

D. 13 : P. 17 : V. 11 : A. 16 : C. 19.

The head is triangular ; the snout rather truncated ; the jaws
nearly equal, the lower just shutting within the upper; a very
few minute teeth on the tongue only ; the eyes large, the
breadth more than one-fourth of the length of the head ; the
form of the body very like that of a Herring ; the dorsal and
abdominal lines but moderately convex ; the scales large ; the
lateral line very near the middle of the side. The irides
silvery, the pupils dark blue ; the upper part of the head and
back dusky blue, becoming lighter down the sides, with a
tinge of yellow ; cheeks, gill-covers, lower part of the sides
and belly silvery white ; all the fins more or less tinged with
dusky blue, particularly towards the edges.

According to Mr. Thompson of Belfast,* the Pollan, or
Lough Neagh Coregomis, differs from the Gwyniad of Bala

* Reports of Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London for 1835, p. 77.

GWYNIAD.

145

in the following particulars : in the snout not being produced;
in the dorsal fin being nearer the head ; in having fewer rays
in the anal fin, and in its position being rather more distant
from the tail ; in the dorsal, anal, and caudal fins being of
less dimensions ; in the third ray of the pectoral fin being the
longest, the first being of the greatest length in the Gwyniad ;
and in the ventral axillary scale being longer.

The vignette represents the bones of the head in the genus
Coregonus.

VOL. II.

146

SALMON ID.E.

ABDOMINAL
MALACOPTERYGII.

SALMONID^E.

THE VENDACE, OR VENDIS.

Cvregonus Willughbii, Vendace, JARDINE, Illust. Scot. Salm. pi. 6.

,, ,, Vangis and Juvangis, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 420.

,, ,, Vendace, KNOX, Trans. R. S. E. vol. xii. p. 503.

,, Martenula, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 432.

BUT little is known of this delicate fish beyond what has
been published by Sir William Jardine, Bart, in the third
volume of the Edinburgh Journal of Natural and Geographi-
cal Science, and by Dr. Knox, in the Transactions of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. Sir William Jardine, in his
original communication, considered this species very closely
allied to the Salmo albula of Linnceus ; but the difficulty of
fixing synonymes satisfactorily from the short descriptions of
the older authors has since led to a request from him that
the name of our distinguished British naturalist should be
attached to it, and I with pleasure adopt the suggestion. I
believe, however, that our Vendace is the C. Martenula and
C. albula of Continental authors.

In Scotland the Vendace is only known in the lochs in the
neighbourhood of Lochmaben, in Dumfries-shire ; and in this
district some traditions and curious opinions exist regarding it.

VENDACE. 147

" The Vendace is well known," says Sir William Jardinc,
" to almost every person in the neighbourhood ; and if,
among the lower classes, fish should at any time form the
subject of conversation, the Vendace is immediately men-
tioned, and the loch regarded with pride as possessing some-
thing of great curiosity to visiters, and which is thought not
elsewhere to exist. The story that it was introduced into
these lochs by the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots, as
mentioned by Pennant in his description of the Gwyniad, —
and it is likely that his information was derived from this
vicinity, — is still in circulation. That the fish was intro-
duced from some Continental lake, I have little doubt ; but
would rather attribute the circumstance to some of the reli-
gious establishments which at one time prevailed in the
neighbourhood, and which were well known to pay considera-
ble attention both to the table and the cellar. Mary would
scarcely prefer a lake so far from even her temporary residence
for the preservation of a luxury of troublesome introduction,
and leave her other fish-ponds destitute of such a delicacy."

" An idea prevails that this fish, if once taken from the
water, will die, and that an immediate return will be of no
avail ; and it is also believed that it will not exist in any
other water except that of the castle loch. These are of
course opinions which have gradually, from different circum-
stances, gained weight, and have at last been received as
facts. The fish is of extreme delicacy ; a circumstance which
may have given rise to the first notion ; and the introduction
of it must have taken place by means of the spawn : the fish
themselves, I am confident, could not be transported alive
even a few miles. As to the second opinion, they are not
confined to the castle loch, but are found in several others,
some of which have no communication with that where they
are thought to be peculiar."

" In general habits the Vendace nearly resemble the

SALMONID.E.

Gwyniad, and indeed most of the allied species of the genus.
They swim in large shoals ; and during warm and clear wea-
ther retire to the depth of the lakes, apparently sensible of
the increased temperature. They are only taken with nets,
a proper bait not being yet discovered ; and the fact that
little excrement is found in their intestines has given rise to
another tradition, that they are able to subsist without food.
They are most successfully taken during a dull day and
sharp breeze, approaching near to the edges of the loch, and
swimming in a direction contrary to the wind. They spawn
about the commencement of November, and at this time
congregate in large shoals, frequently rising to the surface of
ihe water, in the manner of the common Herring, and
making a similar noise by their rise and fall to and from the
surface. The sound may be distinctly heard, and the direc-
tion of the shoal perceived, during a calm and clear evening.
They are very productive. The lochs abound with Pike,
of which they are a favourite food ; but their quantity seems
in no degree to be diminished, notwithstanding that immense
numbers must be destroyed. They are considered a great
delicacy, resembling the Smelt a good deal in flavour ; and,
though certainly very palatable, the relish may be somewhat
heightened by the difficulty of always procuring a supply.
During the summer, fishing-parties are frequent, introducing
some stranger friend to this Lochmaben Whitebait ; and a
club, consisting of between twenty and thirty of the neigh-
bouring gentry, possessing a private net, &c. meet annually
in July, to enjoy the sport of fishing, and feasting upon this
luxury."

While enjoying the hospitality of Sir William Jardine in
the autumn of 1840, I had the gratification of seeing some
Vendace caught in the morning, and afterwards partaking of
them at dinner. I considered the fish quite entitled to all
their character for excellence.

VENDACE. 149

The circumstance that this fish is never caught by anglers
made a knowledge of its food a matter of interest in several
points of view. Dr. Knox ascertained that this consists
principally of very minute entomostracous animals, not exceed-
ing seven-twelfths of a line in size. I have been favoured
with specimens of the Vendace by Sir William Jardine and
T. S. Bushnan, Esq. which have afforded me several oppor-
tunities of examining the contents of the stomach and intes-
tines. The contained mass, which is frequently in considera-
ble quantity, has a brownish yellow colour, appearing slightly
granulated to the unassisted eye. A very small portion being
placed on a slip of glass, and agitated gently in conjunction
with a drop of water, which separates the particles, on placing
the slip of glass under a good microscope, two species in
various states of perfection are almost constantly found. The
vignette at the end of the description of this fish represents
these two forms. The first and second figure on the left hand
are a back and side view of a species of the genus Lynceus of
Mliller and others ; the third and fourth figures are a back
and side view of a species of Cyclops of Miiller. On one
occasion, I found a very small coleopterous insect, the tough
skin of a red worm not much thicker than fine thread, and
what appeared to be a portion of the wing of a dipterous
insect.

Dr. Knox found that the females of the Vendace were
more numerous as well as larger than the males, frequently
exceeding eight inches in length; the males not measuring
more than seven inches, which was the length of the specimen
here described. They are seldom seen of larger size.

The length of the head compared to that of the body only
was as two to seven ; the depth of the body at the com-
mencement of the dorsal fin not quite equal to one-fourth of
the length of the body without the caudal rays : the body
elegantly shaped ; the convexity of the dorsal and abdominal

150

SALMONID.E.

lines about equal ; the lateral line passes straight along the
middle of the side, with six rows of scales in an oblique line
between the dorsal fin and the lateral line, and the same num-
ber between the line and the ventral axillary scale : the
dorsal fin commences half-way between the nose and the origin
of the upper caudal rays ; the longest ray double the length
of the base of the fin : the adipose fin very near the tail ; pec-
toral fin not quite equal to the length of the head ; the ventral
fin commences in a line under the first ray of the dorsal fin ;
the ventral axillary scale one-third the length of the fin ; the
anal fin commences half-way between the origin of the ventral
fin and the end of the fleshy portion of the tail ; the longest
ray about equal to the base of the fin : the tail deeply forked ;
all the fins large. The fin-rays in number are —

U. 11 : P. 16 : V. 11 : A. 15 : C. 19. Vertebrae 52.

In form the under jaw is the longest ; the mouth small,
the opening square ; a few very minute teeth on the tongue
only : the breadth of the eye one-third of the whole head,
the posterior part of the iris the broadest ; the colour silvery
tinged with yellow, the pupil blue : the upper parts of the
body of a delicate greenish brown, shading gradually towards
the belly into a clear silver ; the dorsal fin a greenish brown ;
the lower fins are all bluish white.

POWAN.

151

ABDOMINAL
MALACOPTERYGII.

SALMONID.Z.

THE POWAN.

Coregonus La Cepedei,

The Powan, PARNELL, Annals of Nat.

Hist. vol. i. p. 161.

,, clupeoides, The Herring-like Coregonus, LACEPEDE, Hist. Nat. des

Poiss. 8vo. edit. torn. x.
p. 386.

DR. PARNELL, whose Ichthyological investigations in
Scotland have not been confined to the " Fishes of the
Forth " only, has described in the first volume of the Annals
of Natural History a species of Coregonus, to which he has
attached the name of La Cepedei ; this species having been first
noticed, or perhaps distinguished, by this celebrated French
naturalist. This fish is found in Loch Lomond, one of the
largest and most picturesque lakes in the west of Scotland.
It is not unlikely that some of the species of Coregoni found
in the northern lakes of England, Scotland, and Ireland, may
exist in the lakes of Scandinavia; M. Nilsson, Professor of
Natural History at Lund, describing in his Prodromus Ich-
thyologia Scandinavicee no less than eight species as belong-
ing to that country : but from a certain general agreement in

152 SALMONID.E.

the characters of the Coregoni, it is difficult to refer our species
with certainty in the absence of foreign specimens with which
to make actual comparison.

It appears, on reference to his Natural History of Fishes,
that Lacepede became aware of the existence of this Coregonus
in Loch Lomond by the communication of M. Noel, who
visited Scotland in August 1802. Although some little
differences appear in the descriptions of this fish, as given by
Lacepede and Dr. Parnell, there is little doubt that both
authors had the same species under consideration. This fish
bears, as observed by Dr. Parnell, considerable resemblance
in appearance, and also in the number of its fin-rays, to the
Salmo Wartmanni of Bloch, part 3, tab. 105, a species of
Coregonus, named after a learned physician, who first de-
scribed it. It is found in some of the lakes of Switzerland,
and also in lake Constance; but Lacepede, to whom the
Wartmanni was known, considered the Loch Lomond Core-
gonus distinct. It is thus described by Dr. Parnell, from a
specimen fourteen inches in length.

" Head long and narrow, of an oval form, about one-fifth
the length of the whole fish, caudal fin included ; depth of
the body between the dorsal and ventral fins less than the
length of the head. Colour of the back and sides dusky
blue, with the margin of each scale well defined by a number
of minute dark specks ; belly dirty white ; the lower portion
of the dorsal, pectoral, ventral, and anal fins dark bluish grey;
iricles silvery, pupils blue. First ray of the dorsal fin com-
mencing half-way between the point of the snout and the
base of the short lateral caudal rays ; the first ray simple, the
rest branched; the second and third the longest, equalling
the length of the pectorals ; the seventh ray as long as the
base of the fin ; the last ray one-third the length of the
fourth ; adipose fin large and thin, situate midway between
the base of the fourth dorsal fin-ray and the tip of the long

POWAN. 153

upper ray of the caudal fin ; anal fin commencing half-way
between the origin of the ventral fin and the base of the
middle caudal ray ; the first ray simple, the rest branched ;
the second rather the longest ; the third as long as the base
of the fin ; the last ray half the length of the fifth ; ventral
fins commencing under the middle of the dorsal ; the third
ray the longest, equalling the length of the same ray of the
dorsal ; pectorals long and pointed, one-sixth the length of
the whole fish, caudal fin included ; the first ray simple ; the
second and third the longest, the last short, not one-fourth
the length of the first ; tail deeply forked, with the long rays
of the upper portion curving slightly downwards, giving the
fin a peculiar form. Gill-cover produced behind ; the basal
line of union between the operculum and suboperculum
oblique ; the free margin of the latter slightly rounded ; pre-
operculum angular ; snout prominent, somewhat of a conical
form, extending beyond the upper lip ; jaws of unequal
length, the lower one the shortest. The maxillary bone
broad, the free extremity extending back to beneath the an-
terior margin of the orbit. Teeth in the upper jaw long and
slender, about six in number ; those on the tongue shorter
and more numerous. Eyes large, extending below the mid-
dle of the cheeks ; lateral line commencing at the upper part
of the operculum, and running down the middle of the sides
to the base of the middle caudal ray. Scales large and de-
ciduous, eighty-four forming the lateral line, eight between
the dorsal fin and lateral line, and the same number between
the lateral line and the base of the vcntrals." The numbers
of the fin-rays, including the two short rays at the com-
mencement of the dorsal and anal fins, are

D. 14 : P. 16 : V. 12 : A. 13 : C. 20. Caeca 120.

" This fish grows occasionally to the length of sixteen
inches. In the stomach of one of the specimens examined

154 SALMONID.E.

were found several species of Entomostraca., larvae of insects, a
few Coleoptera, a number of small tough red worms, little
more than half an inch in length, and about the thickness
of a coarse thread, besides a quantity of gravel, which the
fish had probably accumulated when in search of the larvse."

" These fish are found in Loch Lomond in great numbers,
where they are called Powans or Freshwater Herrings.
They #re caught from the month of March until September
with large drag-nets, and occasional instances have occurred
in which a few have been taken with a small artificial fly : a
minnow or bait they have never been known to touch. Early
in the morning and late in the evening large shoals of them
are observed approaching the shores in search of food, and
rippling the surface of the water with their fins as they pro-
ceed. In this respect they resemble in their habits the Ven-
dace of Lochmaben and the saltwater herring. They are
never seen under any circumstances in the middle of the day.
From the estimation these fish are held in by the neighbour-
ing inhabitants, they are seldom sent far before they meet
with a ready sale, and are entirely unknown in the markets
of Glasgow. In the months of August and September they
are in best condition for the table, when they are con-
sidered well flavoured, wholesome and delicate food. They
shed their spawn in October to December, and remain out of
condition until March."

Although agreeing in the number of fin-rays with the
Pollan of Ireland, this Loch Lomond fish is at once dis-
tinguished from it by the peculiar form of its mouth, a repre-
sentation of which, in two points of view, inserted as a vig-
nette, and contrasted with the same parts in the Pollan, both
of the natural size, will, better than description, convey the
appearance in proof of distinction. The Loch Lomond fish
being remarkable for the depth of the upper lip, and the
large size of the lateral free portions of the superior maxillary
bones.

POWAN.

155

Dr. Parncll lias described a second species of Coregonus
found in Locli Lomond, which differs from the first in having
a smaller head, yet agreeing exactly in the number of all the
fin-rays ; but as I learn by communication with Dr. Parncll
that since the publication of his paper he has obtained many
specimens from Loch Lomond, the characters of which are
intermediate in reference to the two fishes described, and
appear to connect them, I have not figured it as a distinct
species.

156 SALMON1D,E.

ABDOMINAL

MALACOPTERYG11. SALMON 'ID &.

THE POLLAN.

Coregonus Pultun, The Pollan, THOMPSON, Proceedings Zool. Soc. for 1835,

p. 77 ; and Magazine of Zool. and Bot. vol. i.
p. 247.

A SHORT notice of the Pollan of Ireland, as made known
by Mr. Thompson of Belfast in 1835, was inserted in the
History of British Fishes, vol. ii. p. 88 ; and that gentleman
having most zealously followed up his zoological investiga-
tions in that country, I am now enabled to add from his re-
searches various further particulars.

" The earliest notice of the species that I have seen," says
Mr. Thompson, " is in Harris's History of the County of
Down, published in the year 1744, where, as well as in the
statistical surveys of the counties of Armagh and Antrim, it
has subsequently been introduced as one of the fishes of
Lough Neagh, under the name of Pollan : but, as may be
expected in works of this nature, little more than its mere
existence is mentioned."

" The habits of this fish do not, with the exception of its
having been in some instances taken with the artificial fly,

POLLAN. 157

differ in any marked respect from those of the Vendace of
Scotland or the Gwyniad of Wales, and are in accordance
with such species of Continental Europe as are confined to
inland waters, and of whose history we have been so fully in-
formed by Bloch. The Pollan approaches the shore in large
shoals, not only during spring and summer, but when the au-
tumn is far advanced. The usual time of fishing for it is in the
afternoon, the boats returning the same evening. On the days
of the 23rd, 24th, and 25th of September 1834, which I spent
in visiting the fishing stations at Lough Neagh, it was along
with the Common and Great Lake Trout, Salmofario and
Salmoferox, caught plentifully in sweep-nets, cast at a very
short distance from the shore. About a fortnight before this
time, or in the first week in September, the greatest take
of the Pollan ever recollected occurred at the bar-mouth,
where the river Six-milc-water enters the lake. At either
three or four draughts of the net, one hundred and forty
hundreds, — one hundred and twenty-three fish to the hun-
dred,*— or 17,220 fish were taken ; at one draught more
were captured than the boat could with safety hold, and
they had consequently to be emptied on the neighbouring
pier. They altogether filled five one-horse carts, and
were sold on the spot at the rate of 3s. 4rf. a hundred,
producing 23/. 6s. 8d. From 8s. 4rf. to 4s. a hundred has
been the ordinary price at the lake side, or directly from
the fishermen ; some years ago it was so low as Is. 8d. the
hundred, but at that time the regular system of carriage to a
distance, as now adopted, did not exist. At the former rates
they are purchased by carriers, who convey them for sale to
the more populous parts of the neighbouring country, and to
the towns within a limited distance of the lake. They are
brought in quantities to Belfast ; and when the supply is
good, the cry of ' fresh Pollan1 prevails even to a greater cx-

* The English long hundred is six score, or one hundred and twenty.

158 SALMONID.E.

tent than that of ' fresh Herring,1 though both fishes are in
season at the same period of the year. In the month of
June 1834, fifty hundreds — six thousand one hundred and
fifty individuals — of Pollan, and one hundred and twenty-five
pounds weight of Trout, were taken at one draught of a net,
at another part of the lake near Ram's Island, which was the
most successful capture made there for twenty-four years. In
1834 this fish was more abundant than ever before known.
Like the Gwyniad and Vendace, the Pollan dies very soon
after being taken from the water, and likewise keeps for a
very short time. It is not in general estimation for the
table, but is, I think, a very good and well-flavoured fish.""

" Though permanently resident, the Pollan is very far from
being generally diffused throughout Lough Neagh. It rarely
occurs between the river Mayola and Toone ; while from the
Six-mile-water to Shane's Castle is so favourite a resort, that a
few houses that formerly stood near the latter locality, were
dignified with the name of Pollan 's Town."

" In the months of November and December this fish de-
posits its spawn where the lake presents a hard or rocky bot-
tom. On the 4th of December 1835, a quantity of the
largest Pollans I have seen were brought to Belfast market.
Several were thirteen inches in length, and all on dissection
proved to be females just ready to deposit their roe. On
the llth of the same month several male specimens of full
size that I procured, and which contained milt most promi-
nently developed, measured but eleven inches and a half, —
thus showing that in maturity the female fish exceeds the
male in length in the proportion of thirteen to eleven and a
half. Its average weight when in season is about six ounces.
One specimen, mentioned to me as the largest taken within
the last ten years, weighed two pounds and a half. The
only food that I have, without resorting to the microscope,
detected in the stomach of the Pollan, was a full-grown speci-

POLLAN. 159

men of the bivalve shell Pisidium pulchellum. A pebble of
equal size was also found with it." In the stomach of a
specimen given me by Mr. Thompson I found a species of
Gammarus. Mr. Thompson, in some more recent examina-
tions, lias found mature individuals of Gammarus aqualicus,
and the larvte of various aquatic insects ; some shells of the
genus Pisidium., one of the fry of the three-spined stickleback,
and a few fragments of stone. Others were found to contain
minute Entomostraca^ two Pisidia, and a Limneus pereger ;
this last was three lines in length.

Besides inhabiting Lough Neagh, the Pollan has also
been found in Lough Derg, an expansion of the Shan-
non ; and Lord Cole, who has most condescendingly in-
terested himself in the History of British Fishes, had the
kindness to send me a jar full of Pollan from Lough Erne in
the county of Fermanagh, from one of which specimens our
figure was taken. The Pollan of Lough Erne are rather
deeper for their length than those of Lough Neagh. His
lordship has also sent me numerous Charr from Ireland ;
some from Lough Eask very much like the Charr of the
Cumberland Lakes, while those from Lough Melvyn are
short and deep fish with large fins exactly resembling the
Charr found in two or three lakes in Wales, the particulars
of which have been already described.

To return to the Pollan of Ireland, Mr. Thompson's de-
scription is as follows : " The relative length of the head to
that of the body is about as one to three and a half; the
depth of the body equal to the length of the head ; the jaws
equal in length, both occasionally furnished with a few delicate
teeth ; the tongue with many teeth ; the lateral line sloping
downwards for a short way from the operculum, and thence
passing straight to the tail. Nine rows of scales from the
dorsal fin to the lateral line, and the same number thence to
the ventral fin, the row of scales on the back and that of the

160

SALMONID.E.

lateral line not included. The third ray of the pectoral fin
the longest. The fin-ray formula is as follows —

B. 9 : D. 14 : P. 16 : V. 12 : A. 13 : C. 19. Vertebra: 59.

Of these, the first two rays of the dorsal fin, and the first two
rays also of the anal fin are short.

" The colour to the lateral line dark blue, thence to the
belly silvery ; dorsal, anal, and caudal fins, towards the ex-
tremity, tinged with black ; pectoral and ventral fins of crys-
talline transparency, excepting at their extremities, which are
faintly dotted with black. Irides silvery, pupil black."

In a number of these Pollan from Lough Erne as well as
Lough Neagh, the base of the last ray of the dorsal fin is
exactly half-way between the point of the nose and the ex-
treme end of the longest upper caudal ray. Nine rows of
scales from the base of the first ray of the dorsal fin to the
lateral line, and the same number from the lateral line to the
origin of the ventral fin, with eighty-eight scales forming the
lateral line. The fin-rays in number on several specimens
exactly as stated by Mr. Thompson.

ARGENTINE. 161

ABDOMINAL

MALACOPTERYGII. SALMONJD&.

THE ARGENTINE.

Scopetus Humboldtii, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 315.

,, borealis, NILSSON, Prod. p. 20.
Serpes Humboldtii, Risso, Ich. p. 358, tab. X. f. 38.
Scopelus ,, ,, Hist. t. iii. p. 467 .

Argentina sphyrana, Argentine, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 432, pi. 76.

,, ,, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 182.

„ Humboldti, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 433.

SCOPELUS. Generic Characters. — Body long, slender ; the principal dorsal
fin over the interval between the ventral and anal fins ; a second dorsal fin, so
small as to be scarcely perceptible : the head short ; the mouth and gill-aperture
large ; small teeth on both jaws ; palate and tongue smooth.

Ax the time of publishing the first edition of this work,
Pennant, and the Rev. Mr. Low of Orkney, appeared to be
the only British observers who had met with, on our coast,
examples of this brilliant little fish, which Cuvier considers
to belong to the genus Scopelus, as here stated ; and other
references are here added, to assist in determining the species.
The Scopelus Humboldtii, if identical with Pennant's Ar-
gentine, is taken to the north of our island, and also in the
Mediterranean, as the remarks of Professor Nilsson and
M. Risso imply ; and the latter naturalist enumerates three

VOL. II. M

162

SALMONIDE.

species of the genus, of which he says S. Humboldtii is the
best known, but that little is ascertained of their habits.

Pennant's specimen was taken in the sea near Downing
in Flintshire : Mr. Low's fish was brought to him by a boy,
who said he found it at the edge of the water among sea-
weed. The receipt of an additional portion of MS. recently
confided to me by William Walcott, Esq. furnishes a notice,
written by his late father, of a third instance of the occur-
rence of the Argentine, which was found stranded on the shore
near Exmouth : length two inches and a half. Pennant's
description is, " Length two inches and a quarter ; the eyes
large, the irides silvery ; the lower jaw sloped much ; the
teeth small ; the body compressed, and of an equal depth
almost to the anal fin ; the tail forked : the back was of a
dusky green ; the sides and covers of the gills as if plated
with silver ; the lateral line was in the middle, and quite
straight : on each side of the belly was a row of circular
punctures ; above them another, which ceased near the vent."
The formula of the fin-rays appears to be —

D. 9 : P. 17 : V. 8 : A. 15 : C. 19.

The figure of this fish referred to in M. Risso's work
represents the anal fin as containing many more rays than are
apparent in the figure by Pennant, from which the represen-
tation at the head of this article is copied.

In the volume of the Magazine of Natural History for the
year 1838, Dr. W. B. Clarke, who had found a specimen of
the Argentine at Portobello, near Edinburgh, has published
a notice of his fish, from which the following is an abstract.

" I beg leave to transmit, for insertion in the Magazine of
Natural History, a sketch and description of a species of
Argentine, which I obtained upon the shore of the Frith of
Forth, at Portobello, in April 1838.

" I discovered this highly elegant little fish, whilst looking

ARGENTINE. 163

amongst the various bodies cast up by the water, and ob-
served it lying entangled in some sea-weed, which had been
accumulated in masses, and left by the retiring tide. The
fish was dead; but from its freshness could not long have
been so.

" In the Animal Kingdom of Cuvier, translated by Grif-
fith, we have the following description of the genus : —

" Scopelus, Cuv. Serpes of Risso.

" ' Mouth and gills extremely cleft ; the two jaws fur-
nished with very small teeth ; the edge of the upper entirely
formed by the intermaxillaries ; the tongue and palate smooth.
— Their muzzle is very short and obtuse : there are nine or
ten rays to the gills ; and besides the usual dorsal, which
corresponds to the interval of the ventrals, and the anal,
there is another very small one behind, in which the vestiges
of rays are perceptible.'

" ' These fishes are caught in the Mediterranean, inter-
mingled with the Anchovies, and they are there called Me-
lettes, as are other small fishes. One of them, the Serpes
Humboldtii, Risso, pi. x. fig. 38, is remarkable for the bril-
liancy of the silvery points which are distributed along the
body and tail.'

" Then in a note we have, ' I believe this fish to be the
pretended Argentina sphyrana of Pennant's Brit. Zool.
No. 156 ; therefore it should be found in our part of the
Atlantic.'

" Besides the Scopelus Humboldtii, which probably is
identical with the species under description, there are two
other species, viz. Serpes (Scopelus) crocodile, Risso, p. 357,
and Serpes (Scopelus) balbo, Id. Ac. des Sc. de Turin, tome
xxv. pi. x. fig. 3.

" Pennant's description agrees, in many respects, with my
fish ; but as the figure contained in Mr. Yarrell's work,

M 2

164 SALMONID.E.

(which was taken from Pennant's,) differs very materially
about the head and tail, although it resembles it in the form
of the body, I have sent an exact figure of my own specimen,
to show the precise form of the bones of the opercula and
sides of the head, together with a full description ; which
may assist future observers in determining whether more than
one species visits our shores. If Pennants figure be an
exact representation, the fish it was taken from was certainly
a different species to the one under description.

" My specimen would correspond with Pennants descrip-
tion except in the following particulars : viz. length one
inch if : the back of a dense blue black, presenting, in cer-
tain lights, a brownish tinge ; lateral line central and straight,
but inclining upwards, at about its anterior sixth, towards the
upper angle of the operculum.

" The number and arrangement of the guttas in the speci-
men under consideration, are as follow : viz. on each side,
upper series between os hyoides and origin of pectoral fin,
five ; upper abdominal series between base of pectoral and a
spot perpendicularly over the ventral, nine ; lower abdominal
series, from a spot perpendicularly beneath the posterior mar-
gin of orbit, to base of ventral, twelve ; between base of ven-
tral and commencement of anal, six ; the two anterior directed
downwards and backwards ; the four posterior forming an arch

ARGENTJNE. 165

from a little above the second gutta to the commencement of
the anal fin : one large gutta, in a line with the upper abdo-
minal series, is placed slightly anterior, but above the com-
mencement of the anal fin : between the anterior commence-
ment of anal and base of caudal, twenty-four ; but between
the eighth and ninth from the caudal fin, there is a space
where a spot appears to have been obliterated.

" About midway between the anterior commencement of the
dorsal and base of caudal, but rather nearer the latter, there
is a slight elevation, where, apparently, the fleshy fin has its
origin ; but in the specimen under description it is scarcely
perceptible, being, even with the aid of a lens, only like a
slight membranous ridge.

" The formula of the fin-rays appears to be —

D. 9 : P. 17 : V. 8 : A. 20 : C. 18.

Mr. Yarrell remarks, ' the figure of this fish, referred to in
Risso's work, represents the anal fin as containing many more
rays than are represented in the figure by Pennant.' The
fish obtained by me possesses more anal rays than Pennant's
would appear to have had, judging from the figure which he
has published.

" Length of head compared with whole length of fish, as
one to four : diameter of eye to length of head, as one to
three : first dorsal fin commences midway between end of
nose and tail : depth of body to whole length of fish, as one
to five and a half: nostrils double, situated in a depression
midway between the eye and centre of intermaxillary bone.
The operculum is extremely large, and appears to be deve-
loped at the expense of the pre-operculum, which is very
small, and joins the former by a straight moveable suture,
running in a line perpendicularly downwards, from the poste-
rior margin of the orbit ; it forms an obtuse-angled triangle,
with the obtuse angle pointing downwards and backwards :

166 SALMONID.E.

the sub-orbital bone occupies nearly the anterior inferior half
of the orbit, and is of a beautiful argenteous lustre, like the
operculum. There are five oval spots, forming a fan-shaped
figure, occupying the space between the anterior edge of the
superior maxillary bone, and the anterior inferior angle of the
pre-operculum, beneath the sub-orbital bone, and distinctly
seen through the transparent intermaxillary bone, which is
very large. There is one gutta upon the pre-operculum, at
its anterior inferior angle, and the appearance of another at
the anterior inferior angle of the sub-operculum : there is no
appearance of branchiostegous rays whilst the opercula are
closed.

" The sides of this elegant little fish are of the most re-
splendent argenteous lustre ; the guttse are of a dense opaque
white, and round their margin, especially along the sub-
caudal series, there is a steel-blue tinge, giving that part of
the body a very beautiful appearance. The upper abdominal
series have an arched appearance, from this tinge not being
continued round the inferior margin of the guttcG. The back
of the specimen under description, which has been in spirits
ever since its capture, is of a dense blue black, presenting, in
certain lights, a brownish tinge.

" From specimens of this fish having been found in the
above localities, viz. — in the sea near Flintshire, on the shore
in Orkney, in Devonshire, and, lastly, in Edinburghshire, we
may infer that it is generally, although sparingly, diffused
through the British seas. Probably, ere long, we may hear
of other examples of its occurrence upon our shores, or in

our seas."

So recently as March last, 1841, and while the preceding
part of the present volume was going through the press, I
received a letter from the Rev. J. Newsam, of Redcar, on
the Yorkshire coast, informing me that a specimen of the
Argentine had been found by one of his children amongst

ARGENTINE. 1 (>7

sea-weed on the shore, about high-water mark, the colours of
which were most brilliant, and both rows of spots very dis-
tinct. This gentleman also sent me word that one or two
other specimens had been obtained, at different times, in the
same vicinity, near Redcar. The specimen preserved was
given to me by Mr. Newsam, and I beg to record my thanks
for his kindness in sending me the first example of the fish I
ever saw. From this specimen the representation here in-
serted was carefully drawn and engraved, exactly of the natu-
ral size.

In May last I received a letter from the Rev. T. S. Rudd,
also of Redcar, stating that he had found a brilliant specimen
of the Argentine, of which a fisherman, when it was shown to
him, observed, that he had seen several like it cast up on the
shore. This example, which Mr. Rudd sent for my inspec-
tion, with a request that I would keep it if of any use to me,
exactly agreed with the specimen already in my possession.
Prince Canino, during his recent visit to this country, said,
on seeing my example of this fish, that he had not found this
species in the Mediterranean, most of which are figured and
described in the 27th part of the Fauna Italica.

Both the specimens from Redcar having suffered some
slight mutilation, I was unable to decide the number of rays
in the dorsal, ventral, or anal fins ; which would have assisted
in determining the species. In the character of the fins,
the Yorkshire specimens most resemble Pennant's figure at

168

SALMONIBvE.

the head of this article ; in the number and situation of the
spots, and in colour, they resemble Dr. Clarke's fish ; and
there is a general resemblance in all three, except in size.
By endeavouring to represent the steel-blue appearance along
the lower edge of the fish, the silvery spots are rendered more
apparent. Other examples, I have no doubt, will hereafter
occur to decide the question, whether only one, or more spe-
cies, inhabit our shores.

PILCHARD. 169

ABDOMINAL

MALACOPTERYGIL CLUPEWIE*

THE PILCHARD.

GIPSEY HERRING. Scotland.

Clupea pitchardus, BLOCH, pt. xii. pi. 406.

„ ,, WILLUGHBY, p. 223, tab. P. 1. fig. 1.

,, ,, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 319.

,, ,, Pilcliard, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 453, pi. 79.

,, ,, ,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 69.

,, pilcardus, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 183, sp. 52.

,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 436.

CLUPEA. Generic Characters. — Body compressed ; scales large, thin, and
deciduous ; head compressed ; teeth minute, or wanting ; a single dorsal fin ;
abdominal line forming a sharp keel-like edge, which in some species is ser-
rated ; branchiostegous rays 8.

THE following account of the Pilchard is derived from the
MS. of Mr. Couch, from whose various scientific acquire-
ments, habits of observation and locality, it may be fairly
inferred that no better authority could be quoted.

The older naturalists considered the Pilchard, like the
Herring, as a visitor from a distant region ; and they as-

* The family of the Herrings.

170

CLUPEID.E.

signed to it also the same place of resort as that fish, with
which indeed the Pilchard has been sometimes confounded.
To this it will be a sufficient reply, that the Pilchard is
never seen in the Northern Ocean, and the few that some-
times wander through the Straits of Dover, or the Bristol
Channel, have evidently suffered from passing so far out of
their accustomed limits. They frequent the French coasts,
and are seen on those of Spain ; but on neither in consi-
derable numbers, or with much regularity ; so that few
fishes confine themselves within such narrow bounds. On
the coast of Cornwall they are found through all the seasons
of the year, and even there their habits vary in the different
months. In January, they keep near the bottom, and are
chiefly seen in the stomachs of ravenous fishes ; in March,
they sometimes assemble in schulls, and thousands of hogs-
heads have in some years been taken in scans : but this union
is only partial, and not permanent ; and it is not until July
that they regularly and permanently congregate so as to be
sought after by the fishermen.

The sean-fishery commences in August, and continues
until the shortened days and stormy weather of the equinox
render its further prosecution impracticable ; but the fish
continue to appear, sometimes in great numbers, until the
conclusion of the year. The season and situation for spawn-
ing, and the choice of food, are the chief causes which
influence the motions of the great bodies of these fish ; and
it is probable that a thorough knowledge of these would
explain all the variations which have been noticed in the
actions of the Pilchard, in the numerous unsuccessful seasons
of the fishery. In some years, at least, a considerable body
of Pilchards shed spawn in the month of May — perhaps in
the middle of the Channel, where I have known them taken,
heavy with roe, in drift-nets shot for Mackerel ; yet it seems
certain that they do not breed twice in the year, and that

PILCHARD. 171

the larger body do not perform this function until October,
and then at no great distance from the shore. I have known
an equally great variation to occur in other fishes, which have
in consequence visited us, and been in season, at a time not
expected by the fishermen.

They feed with voracity on small crustaceous animals ;
and I have found their stomachs crammed each with thou-
sands of a minute species of shrimp, not larger than a flea.
It is probably when they are in search of something like
this, that fishermen report they have seen them lying in
myriads quietly at the bottom, examining with their mouths
the sand or small stones in shallow water. The abundance
of this food must be enormous, if, as there can be no doubt
was the case, all the schulls on the coast were as well fed as
the individuals I examined. The Pilchard has been known
to swallow a hook baited with a worm ; and it is probable
that they devour the roe of fish ; for a gentleman who re-
sided on the shores of the Bay of Biscay informed me that
it is the custom of the French fishermen to throw large
quantities of the salted pea-roe of fish about their nets, to
attract Pilchards, and that he has seen much of this spawn in
the stomachs of Pilchards so taken. Large quantities of
the roe offish are imported into France for this purpose from
northern nations.

When near the coast, the assemblage of Pilchards as-
sumes the arrangement of a mighty army, with its wings
stretching parallel to the land ; and the whole is composed
of numberless smaller bodies, which are perpetually joining
together, shifting their position, and separating again. There
are three stations assumed by this great body, that have
tkeir separate influence on the success of the fishery. One
is to the eastward of the Lizard, the most eastern extremity
reaching to the Start Point in Devonshire, beyond which
no fishery is carried on, except that rarely it extends to

172 CLUPEIDE.

Dartmouth ; a second station is included between the Lizard
and Land's End ; and the third is on the north coast of the
county, the chief station being about St. Ives. It is com-
mon for one of these districts to be full of fish, while in
neither of the others is a schull to be seen ; but towards the
end of the season they often move from one station to
another, or perhaps traverse in succession all the shores of
the county. The subordinate motions of the schulls are
much regulated by the tide, against the current of which
they are rarely known to go ; and the whole will sometimes
remain parallel to the coast for several weeks, at the distance
of a few leagues, and then, as if by general consent, will
advance close to the shore, sometimes without beinof dis-

O

covered till they have reached it. This usually happens
when the tides are strongest, and is the period when the
principal opportunity is afforded for the prosecution of the
sean-fishery.

The fishery for Pilchards is carried on by drift or driving
nets, and with scans. The outfit of the former, which
somewhat resembles that already described for Mackerel,
consists of a number of nets, great in proportion to the wealth
of the proprietor and the size of the boat, but commonly
about twenty, each from eighteen to twenty fathoms long,
and seven fathoms deep ; so that a string of driving nets will
sometimes reach three-quarters of a mile. These nets are
fastened to each other in length, and to a head-line, appro-
priated to each, along which runs a row of corks ; another
line runs loosely along the middle of the nets to afford
additional strength, but no lead is used at the bottom. The
nets are carried in common fishing-boats, some of which, as
at Mount's Bay, are luggers, and most of the others have
spritsails : the crews consist each of four men and a boy.
The fishery begins a little before sunset, and the nets are
drawn in about two hours, to be again shot as morning

PILCHARD. 173

approaches ; for Pilchards enter the nets better at these sea-
sons. A rope from one end of the string is fastened over
the quarter of the boat, and the nets are left to float with
the tide, no sails being set, except rarely in very calm weather,
to prevent the nets being folded together. Within a few
years an improvement has been made, derived, it would
appear, from the practice of the herring-fishers, by which
more fish have been taken, and much of the hazard obviated
to which the nets were exposed by ships passing over them.
It consists in diminishing the number and size of the corks
along the head-line, and in fixing cords at proper distances,
each of which has attached to it a stout buoy. These cords
are from two to two and a half fathoms long, and conse-
quently allow the upper edge of the nets to sink to that
depth below the surface ; but even now it is found that the
fish are principally caught in the lower part of the net.

The number of fish taken by a drift-boat in a night's
fishing varies exceedingly : from five to ten thousand is con-
sidered moderate ; it often amounts to twenty thousand.
For the season's fishing, about one hundred and fifty thou-
sand fish would be deemed favourable.

For the sean-fishing, three boats are provided, of which
two are about forty feet long, and ten wide at the beam,
with flat timbers and a sharp bow. The first is termed the
sean-boat, and is furnished with a sean two hundred and
twenty fathoms in length, and twelve fathoms deep, which is
buoyed along the head-rope with corks, and weighed down
with leads. The second boat is called the volyer, a term
supposed to be a corruption of the word, follower. This
boat has a sean from one hundred to one hundred and
twenty fathoms in length, and eighteen fathoms deep at its
deepest part, and is termed the tuck-sean : it differs from
the former, called the stop-scan, as well in shape as in
dimensions, the middle being formed into a hollow or bunt.

174 CLUPEID.E.

A third boat, called a lurker, is less than the others, and
has no scan. The crew attending a scan consists of eighteen
men and one or two boys. Seven of these are assigned to
each of the larger boats, and the remaining four, including
the master seaner, to the lurker. This fishery commences
in August, three weeks or a month after the drivers, whose
success, or the want of it, has much influence. The three
boats proceed in the afternoon to some sandy bay, and cast
anchor, keeping a good look-out for the appearance of fish,
which are discovered either by the rippling of the water, by
the stoiting or leaping of the fish, or by the colour they
impart to the sea. In these respects, as marks of the dif-
ference between the habits of the Herring and the Pilchard,
fishermen observe that the former rarely springs from the
water, or stoits, as it is called, except when alarmed or
driven : but the Pilchard does this often, and apparently from
wantonness. When alarmed, both these fish will rush along
the distance of five or six feet, as marked by the briming;*
but the Pilchard does this with more celerity than the
Herring.

When the presence of fish is discovered, the lurker pro-
ceeds to the place to ascertain the magnitude of the schull,
and the direction in which it is moving. The depth of
water, clearness of ground from rocks and other obstructions,
and the force and direction of the tide, enter also into the
calculation of the master before he makes the signal for
preparation. All the proceedings are directed by signs, for
the fish are alarmed at noise, and when everything is favour-
able, a warp from the end of the scan is handed to the volyer,
whose place it is to keep all taut ; the lurker continuing on
the fish to watch their motions, and to point to the sean-
boat what is to be enclosed. The sean-boat is rowed by

6 The flash of light seen in the sea when disturbed in the night, and sup-
posed to proceed from minute molluscous or crustaceous animals.

PILCHARD. 175

four men, the other three being employed in throwing the
net ; and such is the vigour exerted on this occasion, that
this great body of net, rope, corks, and lead is thrown into
the sea in less than five minutes. The sean at first forms a
curved line across the course of the fish ; and while the two
larger boats are employed in warping the ends together,
the lurker's station is in the opening, where, by dashing the
water, the fish are kept away from the only place of escape.
When the sean is closed and the ends are laced together,
if the body of the fish be great and the sea or tide strong,
the net is secured by heavy grapnels, which are attached to
the head-ropes by hawsers. It will appear from this account
that it is not more difficult to take a thousand hogsheads of
fish than a single hogshead ; the only difference being, that
with the greater quantity the sean is regularly moored,
which with the smaller is unnecessary : it may even be said
that the capture of the larger body is most easily effected ;
for, as its motion is slow, its course is not so speedily altered.

When the evening has closed in, and the tide is low,
they proceed to take up the fish. For this purpose, leaving
the stop-scan as before, the volyer passes within it, and lays
the tuck-sean round it on the inner side : it is then drawn
together so as gradually to contract the limits of the fish, and
raise them from the bottom. When disturbed, they become
exceedingly agitated ; and so great is the force derived from
their numbers and fear, that the utmost caution is used lest
the net should either sink or be burst. When the tuck-sean
is thus gradually contracting and the boats surround it,
stones suspended from ropes, called minriies, are repeatedly
plunged into the water at that part where escape alone is
practicable, until the fish then to be taken up are supported
in the hollow or bunt of the sean.

When brought to the surface, the voices of the men are
lost in the noise made by the fish as they beat the water.

176

CLUPEID.E.

The seaners fix themselves in pairs on the gunwales of the
boats, with flaskets to lade the fish on board. When the
quantity enclosed in the stop-scan is large, the tuck-sean is
made to enclose no more than the boats can carry, of which
a master seaner commonly forms a correct judgment by the
extent of the briming in his sean, as the fish move in it ;
and many advantages result from taking up only a portion at
one time, for the whole can thus be salted in proper condition,
without fatigue or extraordinary expense : thus a week may
possibly elapse before the whole of the capture is secured,
part being taken up every night.

The description here given of the manner in which the
Pilchard fishery is conducted applies to the greater part of
the coast, but some variation occurs in particular districts.
In Mount's Bay the men and boats employed to take the
fish are not the same that convey it to land ; a mode of pro-
ceeding rendered necessary by the distance from shore at
which it is taken. The fishery at St. Ives is regulated by
a particular act of parliament, and huers* are employed there
and elsewhere to assist the fishermen. The sean-fishery, as
practised formerly, resembled that carried on at St. Ives ; and
in one of Norden^s maps is a representation of the taking of
Pilchards by means of a sweep-net, of which one end con-
tinues near the shore, as then employed in St. Austle's Bay.
The capture was drawn on shore in the mode now used with
ground-scans for other fish, and consequently none could be
taken unless they approached near to an open beach ; and one
end of a sean is now termed the pole end, from the pole shod
with lead then used to elevate and spread the part to which
the warp was attached.

Old and experienced fishermen have stated as the result

* Huers are men posted on elevated situations near the sea, who by various
concerted signals, made with a bunch of furze in each hand, direct the fishermen
how best to surround a schull offish.

PILCHARD. 177

of long observation, that, besides the well-known fact of
the fish being most abundantly taken within a feAv days
after the spring-tides, the direction of the tide has great
effect on the motions of the scliull. Its progress is always
towards the same point, and in drift-nets all the heads of
the fish point in one way, unless the tide has turned while
the nets were afloat. In a bay where the tide comes round
a headland and circles the bay, the fish take the same route,
and a man aware of this may know in what direction to
watch, and whither the schull is proceeding ; and as, espe-
cially when the tide is rapid, he must be careful that the
scan is not carried on the back of the schull, the net must be
so shot as to have the benefit of the tide, and yet be laid
across the front of the fish. A schull will not turn back di-
rectly contrary to its former course, although, when alarmed,
its direction may be considerably changed. In the open
sea, drift-nets are commonly cast in the direction of the tide,
because the nets are most easily kept in that course ; but
when near land, or the entrance of a bay, a favourite position
is parallel to it, by which the fish are intercepted in their
advance or retreat. I have seen drift-boats shoot their nets
in the midst of a multitude of fish, one in the direction in
which they were going, and another across their course, and
in less than two hours the second had taken nine thousand,
the other not a fish ; and yet the boats frequently prefer the
first plan. The most successful time for the drift-net fishery
is during hazy nights, with some motion of the wave, for the
fish then enter the nets freely, whereas in clear moonlight
they are shy ; and in very dark nights such is the brightness
of the briming, that the nets look like a wall of fire, and
deter the fish.

As an object of adventure, the Pilchard fishery is popular
in Cornwall, and beyond a doubt the community is greatly

VOL. II. N

178 CLUPEID^E.

benefited by it ; yet it frequently happens that the success
is partial, and the price low ; and it may be questioned whe-
ther in any year the greater part of the scans obtain more
than their expenses : but when there is a profit, it is com-
monly considerable, and in this lottery every one is led by
the hope of being among the fortunate.

The following is a statement, perhaps nearly approaching
to the truth where absolute certainty is unattainable, of the
amount of property engaged in the Pilchard fishery in the
year 1827, when the bounty began to be withdrawn : — Num-
ber of scans employed, 186 ; not employed, 130 ; total num-
ber of scans, 816 : number of drift-boats, 368 : men employed
on board drift-boats, 1600; number of men employed on
scans at sea, 2672 ; number of persons on shore to whom the
fishery affords direct employment, 6350 ; total number of
persons employed in the fishery, 10,521: cost of scans,
boats, &c. used in the fishery, 209,840/.; cost of drift-boats
and nets, 61,400/ ; cost of cellars for curing, and other es-
tablishments on shore for carrying on the fishery, 169,175/.;
total capital invested directly in the Pilchard fishery,
441, 215/. The outfit of a scan amounts to about 800/.;
a string of drift-nets will cost about 6/. the net ; and the
boat from 100/. to ISO/.; but this is used throughout the
year for the other purposes of fishing. The nets are sup-
posed to last about six years, and ought, of course, to pro-
duce their own value within that time, together with an
adequate profit ; but it is the complaint of the fishermen
that this is not the case. The profit of the men depends on
the share of the fish, which is divided into eight parts, of
which the boat has one-eighth part, the nets three, and the
men four : a boy that accompanies them is rewarded with the
fish that may fall into the sea as the nets are drawn, to
secure which he is furnished with a bag-net at the end of a
rod, termed a keep-net.

PILCHARD. II!)

The quantity of Pilchards taken is sometimes incredibly
large. A fisherman now alive was present once at the
taking of two thousand two hundred hogsheads of Pilchards
in one scan ; but the greatest number heard of as taken at
one time is stated by Borlase at three thousand hogsheads ;
in reference to which Pennant has made an astounding error,
in reckoning by mistake thirty -five thousand fish to a hogs-
head, instead of three thousand five hundred. The number
since allowed has been three thousand, and is now two
thousand five hundred fine fish ; but it is scarcely necessary
to say that they are not counted. An instance has been
known where ten thousand hogsheads have been taken in one
port in a single day, thus providing the enormous multitude
of twenty-five millions of living creatures drawn at once from
the ocean for human sustenance.

The different modes of curing the fresh fish are detailed
elsewhere. The various ports on the northern shore of the
Mediterranean are the principal places to which the preserved
fish are exported.

Our term Pilchard is said to be derived from Pdtzer,
a name by which this fish was known to some early North-
ern Continental authors. A few Pilchards make their ap-
pearance occasionally in the Forth about October, generally
preceding the Herrings ; but the great shoals appear to
belong almost exclusively to our south-western shores. They
are seldom seen east of Devonshire ; but in August 188-i
a shoal of Pilchards were observed in Poole Harbour, and
so many fish were taken that they were sold in the market at
a penny a dozen. In May 1838 I obtained one Pilchard in
the Thames.

Smith's History of the County of Cork contains a full
and interesting account of the Pilchard fishery in Ban try
Bay. They have been noticed also on the coast of the

N 2

180 CLUPEID.E.

county of Cork, and taken at Dublin and Belfast. On our
eastern coast, a few are taken every year at Yarmouth with
the Herrings. They were more than usually abundant there
in the years 1780, 1790, and 1799.

Specimens of the Pilchard sometimes measure eleven
inches in length ; the fish described measured nine inches.
It much resembles the Herring, but is smaller and thicker.
The length of the head is to the whole length as one to

O O

five ; the depth of the body equal to the length of the head ;
the transverse thickness of the body equal to half its depth :
the form of the head triangular, the upper surface flat ;
the dorsal and abdominal lines slightly and equally con-
vex ; no perceptible lateral line ; the body across the back
obtusely rounded ; the line of the abdomen smooth ; the
edges of the scales of the two sides leaving a longitudinal
groove from the branchiostegous rays to the vent, along
which groove extends a row of scales of a peculiar shape,

of which the woodcut here placed
is a representation ; the two long
narrow lateral arms extending up
each side under the scales, the
shortest projection pointing back-
ward : the scales of the body are
very large, deciduous, and ciliated
at the free edge.

The distance from the point of the nose to the base
of the last ray of the dorsal fin, and from thence half-
way along the caudal rays, nearly equal : the commence-
ment of the dorsal fin is therefore anterior to the middle of
the fish by the whole length of the base of the fin ; the
first and second rays shorter than the third, which is equal
to the length of the base of the fin ; these first three rays
articulated, but simple ; all the other rays branched : pec-

PILCHARD. 181

toral and ventral fins small, the latter commencing in a
line under the middle of the dorsal fin ; the axillary scales
very long : the anal fin commencing half-way between the
origin of the ventral fins and the end of the fleshy portion
of the tail ; the first ray short, the second and the last
two rays the longest: the tail deeply forked; the scales
at the end of the fleshy portion of the body extending far
over the bases of the caudal rays, particularly two elongated
scales above and below the middle line. The fin-rays in
number are —

D. 18 : P. 16 : V. 8 : A. 18 : C. 19. Vertebra 55.

The mouth is small, without teeth, the under jaw the
longest : the breadth of the eye one-fourth of the length
of the head, and placed at rather more than its own breadth
from the point of the nose ; the irides yellowish white : the
cheeks and all the parts of the gill-covers tinged with golden
yellow, and marked with various radiating strise : the pos-
terior edge of the operculum nearly vertical and straight : the
upper part of the body bluish green ; the sides and belly
silvery white ; the dorsal fin and tail dusky. Mr. Couch
says the Pilchard is sometimes found with a row of spots on
the side, like the Shad ; which seems the result of disease,
these fish being small, soft, and unfit for curing.

As an appropriate conclusion to this account of the Pil-
chard fishery of Cornwall, derived principally from the MS.
of Mr. Couch, the vignette at the bottom of the next page is
a representation of the harbour of Polperro, near which Mr.
Couch has long resided : and I take this opportunity of re-
cording my obligations to that gentleman, not only for his
great liberality in allowing me the unlimited use of his volu-
minous MS. of the Natural History of the Fishes which have
been found on the coasts and in the rivers of Cornwall, with

182

CLUPBID.E.

an extensive series of characteristic drawings, but also for the
warm interest and substantial support afforded to this work
during its progress.

While this sheet was going through the press, the London
newspapers noticed the appearance of numerous large shoals
of Pilchards on the south coast of Ireland, which the poor
fishermen were unable to take advantage of from the want of
proper nets and salt.

HERRING. lS:i

ABDOMINAL

MALACOPTERYCH. CLUPEID&.

THE HERRING.

Clupea harengus, LINN/F.US. BLOCH, pt. i. pi. 29.

WIIXUGHBY, p. 219, pi. P. 1, fig. 2.

,, ,, Herring, RAY, Syn.p. 103.

,, ,, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 317.

,, ,, Herring, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 444, pi. 79.

,, „ ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 182, sp. 51.

„ ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 434.

ANDERSON and Pennant were certainly mistaken in sup-
posing that the great winter rendezvous of the Herring is
within the Arctic Circle : " there they continue,"" says Pen-
nant, " for many months, in order to recruit themselves after
the fatigue of spawning ; the sea within that space swarming
with insect food, in a degree far greater than in our warmer
latitudes.""

" This mighty army begins to put itself in motion in the
spring. We distinguish this vast body by that name ; for the
word Herring is derived from the German Heer — an army,
to express their numbers. They begin to appear off the
Shetland Islands in April and May.* This is the first check

* In another part of his account, Pennant says the Herrings continue on the
Welsh coast till February. (P. 447.)

184

CLUPEID.E.

tliis army meets with in its march southward. Here it is
divided into two parts : one wing of those destined to visit
our coasts takes to the east, the other to the western shores
of Great Britain, and fill every bay and creek with their
numbers ; others proceed towards Yarmouth, the great and
ancient mart of Herrings ; they then pass through the
British Channel, and after that in a manner disappear.
Those which take to the west, after offering themselves to
the Hebrides, where the great stationary fishery is, proceed
towards the north of Ireland, where they meet with a second
interruption, and are obliged to make a second division :
the one takes to the western side, and is scarcely perceived,
being soon lost in the immensity of the Atlantic ; but the
other, which passes into the Irish Sea, rejoices and feeds the
inhabitants of most of the coasts that border on it. These
brigades, as we may call them, which are thus separated
from the greater columns, are often capricious in their mo-
tions, and do not show an invariable attachment to their
haunts."

This is Pennant's account as it regards our own islands.
To show that this supposed migration to and from high
northern latitudes does not exist, it is only necessary to state,
that the Herring has never been noticed, that I am aware, as
abounding in the Arctic Ocean : it has not been observed
in any number in the proper icy seas ; nor have our whale-
fishers or arctic voyagers taken any particular notice of them.
There is no fishery for them of any consequence either in
Greenland or Iceland. On the southern coast of Greenland
the Herring is a rare fish ; and only a small variety of it,
according to Crantz, is found on the northern shore. This
small variety or species was found by Sir John Franklyn, on
the shore of the Polar basin, on his second journey.

" That the Herring is, to a certain degree, a migratory

HERRING. 185

fish," says Dr. M'Cullocli,* " may be true ; but even a
much more limited migration is far from demonstrable. It
is at any rate perfectly certain that there is no sucli progress
along the east and west coasts from a central point." There
can be no doubt that the Herring inhabits the deep water all
round our coast, and only approaches the shores for the pur-
pose of depositing its spawn within the immediate influence
of the two principal agents in vivification — increased tempera-
ture and oxygen ; and as soon as that essential operation is
effected, the shoals that haunt our coast disappear : but
individuals arc to be found and many are caught throughout
the year. So far are they from being migratory to us from
the North only, that Herrings visit the west coast of the
county of Cork in August, which is earlier than those which
come down the Irish Channel arrive, and long before they
make their appearance at other places much farther north.
" In former times, the fishery of the east coast did not com-
mence till that on the west had terminated. It is remarkable
also that the eastern fishery has become so abundant as quite
to have obscured the western." And Dr. M'Culloch, from
other examples, confirms a statement previously made, that
the fishery has commenced soonest on the southern part of
the shore ; and, what is also remarkable, that for some years
past it has become later every year.

The Herring is in truth a most capricious fish, seldom
remaining long in one place ; and there is scarcely a fishing
station round the British Islands that has not experienced
in the visits of this fish the greatest variations both as to
time and quantity, without any accountable reason.

" Ordinary philosophy is never satisfied," adds Dr.
M'Culloch, " unless it can find a solution for everything ;

* See an excellent paper on the Herring in the 3'2nd number of the Journal
of the Royal Institution, for January 1824.

186 CLUPEIDE.

and is satisfied, for this reason, with imaginary ones. Thus,
in Long Island, one of the Hebrides, it was asserted that
the fish had been driven away by the manufactory of kelp ;
some imaginary coincidence having been found between their
disappearance and the establishment of that business. But
the kelp fires did not drive them away from other shores,
which they frequent and abandon indifferently without regard
to this work. It has been a still more favourite and popular
fancy, that they were driven away by the firing of guns ; and
hence this is not allowed during the fishing season. A gun
has scarcely been fired in the Western Islands, or on the west
coast, since the days of Cromwell ; yet they have changed
their places many times in that interval. In a similar man-
ner, and with equal truth, it was said that they had been
driven from the Baltic by the battle of Copenhagen. It is
amusing to see how old theories are revived. This is a very
ancient Highland hypothesis, with the necessary modification.
Before the days of guns and gunpowder, the Highlanders
held that they quitted coasts where blood had been shed :
and thus ancient philosophy is renovated. Steam-boats are
now supposed to be the culprits, since a reason must be
found : to prove their effect, Loch Fyne, visited by a
steam-boat daily, is now their favourite haunt, and they have
deserted other lochs where steam-boats have never yet
smoked." A Member of the House of Commons, during
the sessions of 1835, in a debate on a tithe bill, stated, that
a clergyman having obtained a living on the coast of Ire-
land, signified his intention of taking the tithe of fish ;
which was, however, considered to be so utterly repugnant
to their privileges and feelings, that not a single Herring had
ever since visited that part of the shore !

Our common Herring spawns towards the end of October
or the beginning of November ; and it is for two or three
months previous to this, when they assemble in immense

HERRING. 187

numbers, that the fishing is carried on, which is of such great
and national importance. " And here," Mr. Couch observes,
" we cannot but admire the economy of Divine Providence,
by which this and several other species of fish are brought to
the shores, within reach of man, at the time when they are
in their highest perfection, and best fitted to be his food."

The mode of fishing for Herrings is by drift-nets, very
similar to those employed for taking Mackerel and Pilchard,
with a slight difference in the size of the mesh. The net is
suspended by its upper edge from the drift-rope by various
shorter and smaller ropes, called buoy-ropes ; and consider-
able practical skill is required in the arrangement, that the
net may hang with the meshes square, smooth, and even, in
the water, and at the proper depth ; for, according to the
wind, tide, situation of their food, and other causes, the
Herrings swim at various distances below the surface.

The size of the boat used depends on the distance from
shore at which the fishery is carried on ; but, whether in
deep or in shallow water, the nets are only in actual use
during the night. It is found that the fish strike the nets in
much greater numbers when it is dark than while it is light :
the darkest nights, therefore, and those in which the surface
of the water is ruffled by a breeze, are considered the most
favourable. It is supposed that nets stretched in the day-
time alarm the fish, and cause them to quit the places where
that practice is followed ; it is therefore strictly forbidden.

A visit to the Herring-fishers on the west coast of Ire-
land is thus described by the author of " Wild Sports in
the West." — " Having lighted our pipes, and procured our
boat-cloaks, we left the pier-head in the four-oared galley.
The night was unusually dark and warm ; not a breath of
wind was on the water ; the noise of the oars, springing in
the coppered rullocks, was heard for a mile off, and the
whistle of sandpipers and curlews, as they took wing from

188 CLUPEID.E.

the beach we skirted, appeared unusually shrill. Other
noises gradually broke the stillness of the night. The varied
hum of numerous voices chanting the melancholy songs which
are the especial favourites of the Irish, began to be heard dis-
tinctly, and we soon bore down upon the midnight fishers,
directed by sound, not sight.

" To approach the fleet was a task of some difficulty.
The nets, extended in interminable lines, were so frequent,
that much skill was necessary to penetrate this hempen laby-
rinth, without fouling the back ropes. Warning cries di-
rected our course, and with some delay we threaded the
crowded surface, and guided by buoys found ourselves in the
very centre of the flotilla.

" It was an interesting scene. Momently the boats glided
along the back ropes, which were supported at short intervals by
corks, and at a greater by inflated dog-skins, and, raising the
curtain of net-work which these suspended, the Herrings
were removed from the meshes, and deposited in the boats.
Some of the nets were particularly fortunate, obliging their
proprietors to frequently relieve them of the fish ; while
others, though apparently stretched within a few yards, and
consequently in the immediate run of the Herrings, were
favoured but with a few stragglers ; and the unemployed
fisherman had to occupy himself with a sorrowful ditty, or in
moody silence watched the dark sea like some dull ghost
waiting on Styx for waftage.

" Our visit appeared highly satisfactory ; every boat tossed
us Herrings on board, until we were obliged to refuse fur-
ther largess ; and these many ' trifles of fish ' accumulated so
rapidly, that we eventually declined receiving other compli-
ments, or we might have loaded the gig gunnel-deep.

" The darkness of the night increased the scaly brilliancy
which the phosphoric properties of these beautiful fish pro-
duce. The bottom of the boat, now covered with Herrings,

HERRING. 189

glowed with a living light, which the imagination could not
create, and the pencil never imitate. The shades of gold and
silvery gems were rich beyond description ; and, much as I
had heard of phosphoric splendour before, every idea I had
formed fell infinitely short of its reality.

" The same care with which we entered disembarrassed us
of the midnight fishing ; every boat we passed pressed hard
to throw in a cast of skuddawns (Herrings) for the strange
gentleman ; and such was the kindness of these hospitable
creatures, that, had I been a very Behemoth, I should have
this night feasted to satiety on their bounty.

" The wind, which had been asleep, began now to sigh
over the surface, and before we had cleared the outer back
ropes, the sea-breeze came curling the midnight wave. The
tide was flowing fast, and having stepped the mast, we spread
our large lug, and the light galley slipped speedily ashore."

In his Prize Essay on the Fishes of the Forth, Dr. Par-
nell says, " Herrings enter the Frith of Forth about the end
of December, or the beginning of January, and remain two or
three weeks at the mouth of the estuary before they attempt
to ascend. This delay seems greatly to depend on the state
of the weather ; for in some seasons, when it is mild and fine,
they have been observed to swarm in the Frith off Mussel-
burgh in the early part of January ; whilst, in the rough and
stormy seasons, they do not make their appearance on that
part of the coast before the middle of February ; and always
disappear before the end of March. They seem to visit the
Frith regularly every winter ; and a season very seldom passes
without a few being captured, and sent to the Edinburgh
market. Some years they appear in much larger shoals than
in others, the reason of which is not accounted for. In the
year 1816, Pilchards were taken in the Frith of Forth in
great abundance, when not a dozen Herrings were seen dur-
ing the whole winter. Since that time, not a single Pilchard

190 CLUPEID.E.

has been known to enter the estuary." In June, July, and
August, Herrings are taken off the Dunbar and Berwick

o * o

coasts in considerable number, from whence the Edinburgh
market is abundantly supplied, when scarcely a single Her-
ring is to be seen higher in the Frith of a size worth the

O o

notice of the fishermen.

The Herring having spawned, retires to deep water, and
the fishing ends for that season. While inhabiting the
depths of the ocean, its food is said by Dr. Knox to consist
principally of minute entomostracous animals ; but it is cer-
tainly less choice in its selection when near the shore. Dr.
Neill found five young Herrings in the stomach of a large
female Herring ; he has also known them to be taken by the
fishermen on their lines, the hooks of which were baited with
limpets ; and they have been repeatedly caught by anglers
with an artificial fly. They are known to feed upon minute
Crustacea, small medusse, and the spawn and fry of fishes.
The Rev. Robert Holds worth wrote me word that in Janu-
ary 1823s he took a small Bass three inches long from the
stomach of a Herring, caught at Kingswear, in the river Dart.
The young abound in the shallow water all round our shores
during the summer months. I have seen them taken off
Brighton in the small-meshed nets which are there used to
draw for Atherine ; and they are caught by boys while
angling from piers and rocks at various places along the
southern coast. They are very abundant on the Yorkshire
coast, where they are called Herring-sile ; and they swarm
among the Orkney and Shetland Islands during the whole of
the summer. They remain at the mouth of the Thames dur-
ing their first autumn and winter : many are caught on the
coasts of Essex and Kent in the nets used for taking Sprats.
From repeated examinations, I am induced to believe these
young fish do not mature any roe during their first year. A
few are occasionally caught by the net in Dagcnham Breach,

HERRING. 191

seldom exceeding eight or nine inches in length, and arc re-
markably mild in flavour.

The length of the head compared to the length of the
body alone, without the head or caudal rays, is as one to four ;
the depth of the body compared to the whole length of the
fish, as one to five ; the commencement of the dorsal fin
half-way between the point of the upper jaw and the end of
the fleshy portion of the tail : the longest ray nearly as long
as the base of the fin : the pectoral fin rather large compared
to the size of the other fins. The ventral fin arises consider-
ably behind the line of the commencement of the dorsal fin :
this fin is small, with elongated axillary scales ; its origin
half-way between the point of the lower jaw and the end of
the short central caudal rays. The anal fin begins half-way
between the origin of the ventral and the end of the fleshy
portion of the tail, and extends over half the distance be-
tween its origin and the end of the fleshy portion, thus
occupying the third quarter division of the distance between
the origin of the ventral fin and the end of the fleshy portion
of the tail ; the rays very short. The tail considerably fork-
ed ; the outer rays as long again as those of the middle.
The fin-rays in number are —

D. 17 : P. 15 : V. 9 : A. 14 : C. 20. Vertebras 56;

varying in some specimens to

D. 19 : P. 17 : V. 9 : A. 16 : C. 18.

The lower jaw is by much the longer, with five or six
small teeth extending in a line backwards on each side from

O

the anterior point ; four rows of small teeth on the central
upper surface of the tongue ; a few small teeth on the central
portion of the upper jaw, and the inferior edges below the
gape finely serrated : the eye large ; its diameter compared to
the length of the head as two to seven, and placed at the

192

CLUPEID.E.

distance of its own breadth from the end of the nose : the
dorsal and abdominal lines of the body slightly convex ; the
belly carinated, but not serrated ; the scales moderate in size,
oval, and thin. The upper part of the fish a fine blue, with
green and other reflections when viewed in different lights ;
the lower part of the side and belly silvery white ; cheeks
and gill-covers silvery, exhibiting the appearance of extrava-
sation when the fish has been dead twenty- four hours. Dor-
sal and caudal fins dusky ; the fins on the lower parts of the
body almost white.

LEACH'S HERRIING. 193

ABDOMINAL

MALACOPTFAIYGIL CLUI'EID.E.

LEACH'S HERRING.

Clupea Leachii, YARRELL, Zoological Journal, vol. v. p. 277, pi. 12.
,, ,, Leach's Herring, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 434.

THE examination of considerable quantities of the various
sorts of fish caught at the mouth of the Thames during
winter by fishermen engaged in taking Sprats, has enabled
me to select what I believe to be a second species of British
Herring.

The common Herring, when it visits our coast in autumn,
is taken heavy with roe, which it deposits towards the end of
October. It is certain that the fishing for them is aban-
doned about that time, as no purchasers could be found for
the " shotten Herring;" and it is also well known that the
Herrings, having cast their roe, retire from the shore to deep
water. Numbers of the young of the common Herring are
taken with the Sprats. These are called Yawlings by some
fishermen, — a term probably derived from yearling. But
these young Herrings differ materially from the Herring which
I believe to be new. The yearling fish have the elongated

VOL. II. O

194- CLUPEID.E.

form of the adult common Herring : if seven inches long,
which is about their average length, they are only one inch
and three-eighths in depth, and are without roe. Having
examined them repeatedly during the winter months, I am
induced to believe they do not mature any roe during their
first year ; and the fact of their remaining in large shoals at
the mouth of the Thames after the Herrings that have
recently spawned have left the shore, may be taken in cor-
roboration ; for had they matured and deposited any roe,
they would, like the more adult fish of their own species,
have experienced the same necessity for retiring to deep
water.

The Herring, however, which I now refer to, is found
heavy with roe at the end of January, which it does not
deposit till the middle of February. Its length is not
more than seven inches and a half, and its depth near two
inches. It is known that Dr. Leach had often stated that
our coast produced a second species of Herring ; but I am
not aware that any notice of it has ever appeared in print.
In order, however, to identify the name of that distinguished
naturalist with a fish of which he was probably the first
observer, I proposed for it the name of Clupea Leachii.

Dr. Leach's observations on the Herring were made during
his visit to the extended line of our southern coast in the
year 1808 ; and Mr. Jesse, in his " Gleanings in Natural
History," has noticed the superiority and consequent partia-
lity that is said to exist in favour of the Herrings of Car-
digan Bay over those that are taken at Swansea.

Of the existence of a second species of Herring on our
shores further proof may be adduced in the following ex-
tracts.

" In former times," says Dr. M'Culloch, " the fishery
of the east coast of Scotland did not commence till that
on the west had terminated. It was then supposed, and

LEACH'S HERRING. 195

not very unreasonably, that the fish had changed their
ground, and that these Avere the western Herrings. Yet
it ought to have been plain that this was not the case,
as the eastern fish were entirely different in quality from
the western, and very inferior. At the same time, they
were in that condition as to spawning which proved that
they could not have been the same fish. The fact of their
being entirely different fish is now at least fully proved,
because on both shores the period of the fishery has been
the same." — Journal of the Royal Institution, No. 32, for
January, 1824, p. 217.

" A smaller but superior species of Herring is found oc-
casionally in Loch Eriboll ; but it is chiefly used for home
consumption." — Scotch Statistics, Durness,

There are three species of Herring said to visit the
Baltic, and three seasons of roe and spawning. The Strom-
ling, or small Spring Herring, spawns when the ice begins
to melt ; then a larger Summer Herring ; and lastly, towards
the middle of September, the Autumn Herring makes its
appearance, and deposits its spawn.

The length of the head compared to that of the body
alone, without the head or caudal rays, is as one to three ;
the depth of the body greater than the length of the head,
and compared to the length of the head and body together
is as one to three and a half; it is therefore much deeper
in proportion to its length than our common Herring, and
has both the dorsal and abdominal lines much more con-
vex : the under jaw longer than the upper, and provided
with three or four prominent teeth just within the angle
formed by the symphysis ; the superior maxillary bones
have their edges slightly crenated : the eye is large, in
breadth full one-fourth of the length of the whole head ;
irides pale yellow : the dorsal fin is placed behind the centre
of gravity, but not so much so as in the common Herring ;

o 2

196

the scales arc smaller ; the sides without any distinct lateral
line : the edge of the belly carinated, but not serrated ;
the fins small. The fin-rays in number are —

D. 18 : P. 17 : V. 9 : A. 16 : C. 20. Vertebra 54.

The back and upper part of the sides are deep blue,
with green reflections, passing into silvery white beneath.
The flesh of this species differs from that of the common
Herring in flavour, and is much more mild.

Intending to make the fishing-boats of several countries
the subjects of some of the vignettes, that at page 192, repre-
sents a Dutch boat : the vignette below is a representation of
a French fishing-boat.

SPRAT.

197

ABDOMINAL
MALACOPTERYGIL

CLUPEIDJE.

THE SPRAT.

OARVIE HERRING AND GARVIE. Scotland.

Clupeu sprattus, LINNKUS. BLOCH, pt. i. pi. 29, fig. 2.

,, ,, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 318.

,, ,, Sprat, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 457.

,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 435.

WILLUGHBY and Ray, deceived apparently by the mis-
application of the name by the fishermen of Cornwall, with
which the latter became acquainted during his journey in
that country, considered that the word Sprat was only a
name for the young of the Herring and of the Pilchard, and
others have been misled by their authority : but so well is
this fish distinguished from both by the strongly serrated
edge of the abdomen, that there is not a fisherman round
those parts of our coast where the Sprat is taken that cannot
immediately distinguish it from either, even in the midst of
the darkest night. Its characters being now sufficiently
appreciated, it is by some, and ought to be by all, admitted
as a good and distinct species.

Though a much less valuable fish than the Herring, it
is still a very useful one. Coming into the market in im-

1.08 CLUPEID.E.

mense quantities and at a very moderate price immediately
after the Herring season is over, it supplies during all the
winter months of the year a cheap and agreeable food.
Large quantities are eaten ; and, from their rich quality
and flavour, the consumption is not solely confined to the
lower classes. They are generally cooked while fresh, but
are also preserved in various ways.

The Sprat is included by Linnseus in his Fauna Suecica,
and by Professors Nilsson and Reinhardt in their publica-
tions on the Fishes of Scandinavia. Dr. Neill says the
Sprat is sold in Edinburgh market by the dozen ; and I
have received specimens that were taken in the Forth,
where they are called Garvie Herrings and Garvies. Dr.
George Johnston, in his list of the Fishes of Berwickshire,
says the Sprat is common there, and is a favourite food of
the Salmon tribe. Farther south, they are most plentiful
on the Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Kentish coasts. I have
taken them on the Dorsetshire coast in June, and they were
then in roe. They inhabit the deep water round our south-
ern coast during the summer months, and may be found in
the stomachs of many of our voracious fishes every month in
the year. I have taken three Sprats from the stomach of a
Whiting, and have caught young Sprats off Ramsgate, Has-
tings, and Weymouth, in the months of August and Sep-
tember. Like the other species of the genus Clupea, they
are wanderers : the shoals are capricious in their movements,
and exceedingly variable in their numbers. " Upwards of a
ton weight of Sprats was sold in our market last Saturday."
— (Taunton Courier, January 1832.) " It is nearly fifty
years since this useful fish visited the neighbouring coast, and
they now appear in exhaustless shoals close in shore on the
south coast of Devon."

The Sprat is occasionally taken in Cornwall ; and in Ire-
land, on the coasts of Cork, Dublin, and Belfast.

SPRAT. 199

In Cornwall the true Sprat is, however, very rare ; and
the name is appropriated, as it was by the old fishermen
whom Ray consulted one hundred and fifty-six years ago,
to the fry of the Herring and of the Pilchard. An analo-
gous misapplication of a name exists on the eastern coast,
where the true Pilchard rarely occurs, and where the name
of Pilchard is given to the fry of the Shad and the half-
grown Herring.

The fishing season begins early in November, continuing
through the winter months ; and the largest quantities are
taken when the nights are dark and foggy. A few, and
those of the best description, are taken in the same manner
as the Mackerel, the Pilchard, and the Herring, by drift-
nets of fine twine and suitable small mesh ; a mode of fishing
peculiarly adapted for the capture of those species which
rove in shoals through the water. But the most destructive
plan pursued against Sprats is by a mode called stow-boat
fishing. The stow-boat net goes with two horizontal beams :
the lower one, twenty-two feet long, is suspended a fathom
above the ground ; the upper one, a foot shorter in length,
is suspended about six fathoms above the lower one. To
these two beams, or balks, as they are called, a large bag-net
is fixed, towards the end of which, called the hose, the mesh
is fine enough to stop very small fry. The mouth of the
net, twenty-two feet wide and thirty-six feet high, is kept
square by hanging it to a cable and heavy anchor at the four
ends of the beams. The net is set under the boat's bottom ;
and a rope from each end of the upper beam, brought up
over each bow of the boat, raises and sustains the beam,
and keeps the mouth of the net always open, and so moored
that the tide carries everything into it. A strong rope,
which runs through an iron ring at the middle of the upper
beam, and is made fast to the middle of the lower beam,
brings both beams together parallel, thus closing the mouth

200 CLUPEID.E.

of the net when it is required to be raised. In this way an
enormous quantity of Sprats, with the fry of many other
species, are taken, which are principally sold by measure to
manure land near the coast.

From four to five hundred boats are thus employed during
the winter. Many thousand tons in some seasons are taken
and sold at sixpence and eight-pence the bushel, depending
on the supply and demand, to fanners, who distribute about
forty bushels of Sprats over an acre of land, and sometimes
manure twenty acres at the cost of twenty shillings an acre.
In the winter of 1829-30, Sprats were particularly abundant :
barge-loads, containing from one thousand to fifteen hun-
dred bushels, bought at sixpence a bushel, were sent up the
Medway as far as Maidstone to manure the hop-grounds.
The coasts of Kent, Essex, and Suffolk are the most produc-
tive. So great is the supply thence obtained, that notwith-
standing the immense quantity consumed by the million and
a half inhabitants of London and its neighbourhood, there is
yet occasionally a surplus to be disposed of at so low a price
as to induce the farmers even so near the metropolis as Dart-
ford to use them for manure.

A full-sized Sprat measures six inches in length, and
rather more than one inch and one-eighth in depth. The
length of the head compared to that of the body alone
is as one to four ; compared to the whole length of the fish,
as one to six : the depth of the body is to the whole length
as one to five. The dorsal fin commences exactly half-way
between the point of the lower jaw and the end of the caudal
rays : the ventral fins arise in a vertical line under the first
dorsal fin-ray, and have no axillary scales ; the ventral fins
in the Pilchard and Herrings begin under the middle of the
dorsal fin, and both have axillary scales, — these are two other
external distinctions : the under jaw is the longest ; the dia-
meter of the eye less than one-fourth of the whole head : con-

SPRAT. 201

sklerable convexity of the dorsal and abdominal lines ; the
latter serrated before the ventral fins, and still more strongly
so behind them : the tail deeply forked ; the scales large,
round, and deciduous ; the upper part of the head and back
dark blue, with green reflections passing into silvery white on
the gill-covers, sides, and belly ; the dorsal and caudal fins
dusky ; pectoral, ventral, and anal fins white. The fin-rays
in number are —

D. 17 : P. 15 : V. 7 : A. 18 : C. 19. Vertebra 48.

By the kindness of Mr. London, I have received some
small fish which came from Riga, where they are called Kil-
kies, and are eaten as a whet before dinner. They proved to
be our Sprat. At Reval, and other places in the gulf of
Finland, young Herrings (Stromling), when about the size of
Sprats, are prepared with spices, and sent to Petersburgh,
London, and other places, for the use of the table. These
are also in some estimation as a relish for lunch, from their
peculiar flavour, and are sold in small jars, labelled Kilo
Stromelein.

CLUPEID^E.

ABDOMINAL

MALACOPTERYGI1. CLUPEIDJE.

THE WHITEBAIT.

Clupea alba, YARRELL, Zool. Journ. vol. iv. p. 137 and 465, pi. 10.
,, ,, Whitebait, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 465, pi. 80.
,, alnsa, Young Shad, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 98.
,, alba, Whitebait, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 436.

IN the papers on the subject of the Whitebait published
in the fourth volume of the Zoological Journal, I endea-
voured to prove, historically and anatomically, that this
little fish was not, as had been supposed, the young of the
Shad, but a distinct species. In its habits it differs mate-
rially from all the other British species of Clupea that visit
our shores or our rivers. From the beginning of April to
the end of September this fish may be caught in the Thames
as high up as Woolwich or Blackwall, every flood-tide, in
considerable quantity, by a particular mode of fishing to be
hereafter described. During the first three months of this
period, neither species of the genus Clupea, of any age or
size, except occasionally a young Sprat, can be found and
taken in the same situation by the same means. The young
Shad of the year are not two inches and a half long till

WHITEBAIT. 203

November, when the Whitebait season is over; and these
young Shad are never without a portion of that spotted ap-
pearance behind the edge of the upper part of the operculum,
which in one species particularly is so marked a peculiarity
in the adult fish. The Whitebait, on the contrary, never
exhibits a spot on the side at any age ; but from two inches
long up to six inches, which is the length of the largest I
have seen, the colour of the sides is uniformly white.

About the end of March or early in April, Whitebait
begin to make their appearance in the Thames, and are then
small, apparently but just changed from the albuminous
state of very young fry.* During the fine weather of June,
July, and August, immense quantities are consumed by
visiters to the different taverns at Greenwich and Black wall.
Pennant says, " They are esteemed very delicious when fried
with fine flour, and occasion during the season a vast resort
of the lower order of epicures to the taverns contiguous
to the places where they are taken." What might have
been the particular grade of persons who were in the habit
of visiting Greenwich to eat Whitebait in the days when
Pennant wrote, I am unable to state ; but at present, the
fashion of enjoying the excellent course of fish as served up
either at Greenwich or Blackwall is sanctioned by the high-
est authorities, from the court at St. James's Palace in the
West, to the Lord Mayor and his court in the East, includ-
ing the Cabinet Ministers-f- and the philosophers of the Royal
Society. As might be expected, examples so numerous and
influential have corresponding weight ; and accordingly there

* The Shad do not deposit their spawn till the end of June or the beginning
of July.

t In the Morning Post of the clay on which this account of the Whitebait
was written, September 10th, 1835, the following paragraph appeared: —

" Yesterday the Cabinet Ministers went down the river in the Ordnance
barges to Lovegrove's West India Dock Tavern, Blackwall, to partake of
their annual fish dinner. Covers were laid for thirty-five gentlemen."

204 CLUPEID.E.

are few entertainments more popular or more agreeable than a
Whitebait dinner.

The fishery is continued frequently as late as September ;
and specimens of young fish of the year, four and five inches
long, are then not uncommon, but mixed, even at this late
period of the season, with others of very small size, as though
the roe had continued to be deposited throughout the sum-
mer ; yet the parent fish are not caught, and are believed by
the fishermen not to come higher up than the estuary, where,
at this season of the year, nets sufficiently small in the mesh
to stop them are not in much use.

The particular mode of fishing for Whitebait, by which
a constant supply during the season is obtained, was formerly
considered destructive to the fry of fishes generally, and great
pains were taken to prevent it by those to whom the conser-
vancy of the fishery of the Thames was entrusted ; but since
the history and habits of this species have been better under-
stood, and it has been ascertained that no other fry of any
value swim with them, — which I can aver, — the men have
been allowed to continue this part of their occupation with
little or no disturbance, though still using an unlawful net.

When investigating the subject of the Whitebait, I was
occasionally engaged in witnessing the mode by which such
numbers were taken. The mouth of the net is by no means
large, measuring only about three feet square in extent ; but
the mesh of the hose, or bag-end of the net, is very small.
The boat is moored in the tide-way, where the water is from
twenty to thirty feet deep ; and the net with its wooden
frame-work is fixed to the side of the boat, as shown in
the vignette at page 207. The tail of the hose, swimming
loose, is from time to time handed into the boat, the end
untied, and its contents shaken out. The wooden frame
forming the mouth of the net does not dip more than four
feet below the surface of the water ; and, except an occa-

WHITEBAIT. 205

sional straggling fish, the only small fry taken with the
Whitebait are the various species of Sticklebacks, and the
very common Spotted or Freckled Goby, described in vol. i.
page 288 ; neither of which are of sufficient value or import-
ance to require protection.*" The farther the fishermen go
down towards the mouth of the river, the sooner they begin
to catch Whitebait after the flood-tide has commenced.
When fishing as high as Woolwich, the tide must have
flowed from three to four hours, and the water become sen-
sibly brackish to the taste, before the Whitebait will be
found to make their appearance. They return down the
river with the first of the ebb-tide ; and various attempts to
preserve them in well-boats in pure fresh water have uniform-
ly failed.

The Hamble, which runs into the Southampton Water,
is the only other southern river from which I have received
Whitebait. But this I believe to be owing rather to the
want of a particular mode of fishing by which so small a fish
can be taken so near the surface, than to the absence of the
fish itself ; which, abounding as it does in the Thames, I have
very little doubt might be caught in some of the neighbouring-
rivers on our south and east coasts. In the vicinity of the Isle
of Wight, Whitebait, from their brilliancy and consequent
attraction, are used by the fishermen as bait on their lines
when fishing for Whitings.

The Thames fishermen who live at and below Gravesend
know the Whitebait perfectly, and catch them occasionally
of considerable size in the small-meshed nets used in the
Upper and Lower Hope for taking shrimps, called trinker-

* The fifteenth printed rule and order of the Lord Mayor and his court is,
that " no person shall take at any time of the year any sort of fish usually
called Whitebait, upon pain to forfeit and pay five pounds for every such
offence ; it appearing to this court that under pretence of taking Whitebait the
small fry of various species of fish are destroyed." — Page 11.

206 CLUPEID.E.

nets, which are like Whitebait nets, only larger ; but these
nets, working near the bottom, principally arrest the fry of
the ground-swimming fishes.

The Sprat-fishers take the adult Whitebait frequently on
the Kentish and Essex coasts throughout the winter.

Dr. Parnell, in his History of the Fishes of the Forth,
says, " The Whitebait is not, as it was formerly considered
to be, peculiar to the Thames, as I have found it to inhabit
the Frith of Forth in considerable numbers during the sum-
mer months. From the beginning of July to the end of
September they are found in great abundance in the neigh-
bourhood of Queensferry, and opposite Hopetown House,
where I captured, in one dip of a small net of about a foot
and a half square, between two and three hundred fish, the
greater part of which were Whitebait of small size, not more
than two inches in length ; the remainder were Sprats, young
Herrings, and fry of other fishes.

" In their habits they appear to be similar to the young of
the Herring, always keeping in shoals, and swimming occa-
sionally near the surface of the water, where they often fall a
prey to aquatic birds."

The length of the head compared with that of the body
alone is as two to five ; the depth of the body compared to
the whole length of the fish, as one to five : the dorsal fin
commences half-way between the point of the closed jaws
and the ends of the short middle caudal rays ; the longest
ray of the dorsal fin as long as the base of the fin ; the ven-
tral fin arises behind the line of the commencement of the
dorsal, and half-way between the point of the closed jaws and
the end of the longest caudal rays ; the tail long and deeply
forked. The fin-rays in number are —

D. 17 : P. 15 : V. 9 : A. 15 : C. 20. Vertebrae 56.
The head is elongated; the dorsal line less convex than

WHITEBAIT.

207

that of the abdomen ; the scales deciduous ; the abdominal
line strongly serrated from the pectoral fin to the anal
aperture.

The lower jaw the longest, and smooth ; the upper slightly
crenated : the tongue with an elevated central ridge without
teeth : the eye large ; the irides silvery : the upper part of
the back pale greenish ash ; all the lower part, the cheeks,
gill-covers, sides, and belly, silvery white : dorsal and caudal
fins coloured like the back ; the latter tipped with dusky :
pectoral, ventral, and anal fins, white. The only food I
could find in the stomach were the remains of minute crus-
tacea.

208

CLUPEID.E.

ABDOMINAL
MALACOPTERYG1I.

CLVPE1DJE.

THE TWAITE SHAD.

Alosafinta, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 320.

,, ,, WlLLUGHBY, pi. P. 3, fig. 1.

,, ,, IM Feinte, DUHAMEL, sect. iii. pi. 1, fig. 5.
Clupea alosa, LINNAEUS. BLOCH, pt. i. pi. 30.

,, ,, Shad, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 460, pi. 80.

,, ,, ,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 57.

,, ,, „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 183, sp. 53.

,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 437.

ALOSA. Generic Characters. — Upper jaw with a deep notch in the centre ;
in other respects like Clupea.

BARON CUVIEK, in the last edition of the Regne. Animal,
has advanced the Shads, of which we have two species, to the
rank of a genus, on account of the deep central notch in the
upper lip ; and I have followed this example for the addi-
tional reason that it will the more easily and effectually
afford the means of obtaining a desirable alteration in our
nomenclature.

According to Cuvier, most modern authors have misap-
plied the systematic trivial names of these two species, call-
ing the Shad with teeth, and several spots along each side,

TU'AITE SHAD.

C. alosa ; and the larger Shad without teeth, and with a
single spot only behind each gill-cover, or none at all, C.
Jinta.

The Alosa of Rondeletius is not described or figured as
possessing either teeth or spots ; and Cuvier, by his usual
research, had probably satisfied himself that the fish to which
the term alosa had been originally applied was a toothless
Shad, and that the toothed and spotted Shad was the true
Jinta. Pennant, in noticing the second British species of
Shad taken in the Thames and the Severn, which is without
teeth or the row of lateral spots, called it an Allis ; a name
which it would be desirable still to retain, in reference to the
generic term Alosa. The old name for the Shads was Lachia ;
and hence are derived Hallachia, Alachia^ Alosa^ Alose,
and Allis or Allice.

The differences noticed by Pennant and others in the
smaller species of Shad, taken also in the Severn, near
Gloucester, called the Twaite, induces the belief that it is
our common Thames Shad ; and the note by the editor
of the last edition of the British Zoology, at the foot of
page 463, (vol. iii.) is particularly deserving of notice. " I
suspect," says the note, " that the Shad and Twaite are
distinct species, and correspond with the Alose and Feinte of
Duhamel." This appears to be precisely the case, as a com-
parison of our two Shads with the representations in Du-
hamel's work will prove : and Professor Nilsson, in his Pro-
dromus of the Fishes of Scandinavia, which has been fre-
quently referred to, has correctly designated and described our
more common Shad of the Thames as ihe Jinta* of Cuvier.

I venture to propose the names of Twaite Shad and
Allice Shad for our two species, the better in future to dis-

* Page 22. — C. Jinta Cuv. C. maxilla superiore antice profunde incisa ;
inferiore vix longiore ; maculls 5 — 6 lateralibus in serie positis ; deutibus
utriusque maxilla: distinctis. Longit. circa 15 poll.

VOL. II. P

210 CLUPEID.E.

tinguish them ; thus combining the generic name Shad with
a trivial name by which these two fishes have been hitherto,
to some extent at least, locally known.

The Twaite Shad then, if I may so call it, is a sea-fish
which enters our rivers about May, and in consequence of
the time of its annual visit to some of the rivers of the
European Continent is called the May-fish. The object
of its visit to the fresh water is to deposit its spawn ; and,
that accomplished, it returns to sea by the end of July.
Twaite Shads appear during these three months in abund-
ance in the Thames, from the first point of land below Green-
wich, opposite the Isle of Dogs, to the distance of a mile
below ; and great numbers are taken every season. These
fish produce, however, but a small price to the fishermen,
being in little repute as food, their muscles being exceed-
ingly full of bones and dry. Formerly great quantities of
the Twaite Shad were caught with nets in that part of the
Thames opposite the present Penitentiary at Millbank,
Westminster. Above Putney Bridge was another favourite
spot for them ; but the state of the water, it is believed,
prevents the fish ascending the river in the same manner as in
former years, and but few comparatively are taken. The
ordinary size of the adult fish of this species is from twelve
to sixteen inches.

Shad are not allowed to be caught in the Thames after the
30th of June, that the remaining fish may cast their spawn
without interruption from nets.*

The principal spawning-time of the Twaite Shad in the
Thames is about the second week in July, when numbers
may be seen and heard frisking at or near the surface. In
the language of fishermen, the Shad are said to thrash the
water with their tails : they appear to disencumber them-
selves of the matured roc by violent muscular action ; and

* Whitebait are plentiful throughout May and June.

TWAITE SHAD. 211

on a calm still evening or night the noise they make may be
heard at some distance. I have obtained the young only
two inches and a half long in October ; and suspect they
grow slowly, finding them only four inches long, and the
young of the larger Allice Shad only six inches long, in the
following spring.

The habits and habitat of the two species of Shads have
probably been very frequently confounded. Though both
are common in the Severn during a particular season, Mon-
tagu has not noticed the appearance of either on the coast of
Devon : yet the Rev. Mr. Holdsworth sends me word that
Twaite Shad are very common on that coast and in the rivers ;
he has taken several at one time when whiffing with a light
running line for Mackerel in the mouth of the Dart. The
bait was a slice of a Mackerel. Both species have been
noticed on the Cornish coast by Mr. Couch, and one has
been taken near Dublin. I learn from Mr. Heysham that
both species have been taken on the west coast of Cumber-
land. On the eastern coast it is common in the Thames ; is
occasionally taken off Yarmouth, on the Norfolk coast, with
the Herrings, and also in the Tyne. Dr. Parnell says, " On
the coast of Scotland, the Twaite Shad receives the name
of Rock Herring. We observe this fish enter the Frith of
Forth in tolerable abundance towards the end of July, and
dozens are then taken in the Salmon-nets, at almost every
tide ; but after August we lose sight of them until the fol-
lowing season. It appears to have a considerable range to
the northward, both Professors Nilsson and Reinhardt in-
cluding1 it among the fishes of Scandinavia. The food of the

O O

Shads is small fish and the softer-skinned Crustacea.

The length of the head compared to the whole length
of the fish is as one to five ; the depth of the body rather
greater than the length of the head ; the distance from the
point of the nose to the commencement of the dorsal fin, mea-

CLUPEID.E.

sured again from thence backwards, falls far short of the end
of the fleshy portion of the tail ; the base of the last dorsal
fin-ray is half-way between the point of the nose and the end
of the caudal rays ; the longest ray of the dorsal fin is as long
as the base of the fin ; the ventral fins, without axillary scales,
are placed a little behind the line of the commencement of
the dorsal fin ; the base of the anal fin, occupying about
two-fifths of the space between the ventral fin and the end
of the fleshy portion of the tail, is shorter than the anal fin
in the Allice Shad, and has five rays less, beginning also
more forward : the tail deeply forked ; the caudal rays with
two thin membranous appendages on each side, parallel to
the seventh and thirteenth caudal rays, about an inch in
length by three-eighths deep ; all four membranes opening
from the centre, being attached by the outer edge only.
The scales of the body rather larger in proportion than those
of the Allice ; the lateral line, as in most of the Clupeidte,
scarcely perceptible. The abdomen strongly serrated. The
lower jaw the longest, with a few teeth anteriorly ; the
upper jaw with a deep central notch, and a row of small
teeth on the edge down each side. The breadth of the eye
equal to one-fourth of the length of the head ; the mucous
vessels on the surface of the gill-covers beautifully arbores-
cent ; the top of the head and back dusky blue, with brown
and green reflections in particular points of view ; from the
upper edge of the operculum a row of five or six dark spots
extend in a line backwards, the last generally the most in-
distinct, the number sometimes more than six ; the irides,
sides of the head and body, silvery white, with a tinge of
copper colour ; dorsal and caudal fins dusky ; pectoral, ven-
tral, and anal fins white. This species is immediately dis-
tinguished from the Allice Shad by possessing teeth, the
lateral spots, and the smaller anal fin. The fin-rays in
number are —

D. 18 : P. 15 : V. 9 : A. 21 : C. 19. Vertebrae 55.

ALLFCE SHAD. 213

ABDOMINAL

MALACOPTERYCII. CLUPEW^.

THE ALLICE SHAD.

Alosa commwiis, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 319.

,, ,, WILLUGHBY, pi. P. 3, fig. 2.

,, ,, Allice, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 463.

,, ,, Alase, DUHAMEL, sect. iii. pi. 1, fig. 1.

Clupea alosa, Altis, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 439.

THE ALLICE SHAD, by far the larger of the two in size,
appears to be much more limited in its localities as a British
species. It is represented by Pennant and others as abund-
ant in the Severn, but is much less known elsewhere.

Dr. Hastings, in his Illustrations of the Natural History
of Worcestershire, at page 77 says, " This is another fish
which the Severn affords in great perfection. These fish
generally appear in May, though sometimes in April. This,
however, depends a good deal upon the quality of the water :
if it is clear, they ascend early in the spring ; but if there
happens to be a flood, they wait till the waters are restored
to their former purity ; and if they meet with a flood in
their progress upward, they immediately return, and keep
below Gloucester. The weight of this Shad (the Allice

214 CLUPEID.E.

of Pennant) is seldom less than four pounds ; they continue
in the river about two months, and are succeeded by a variety
called the Twaite, which is less than the Shad, never weigh-
ing more than two pounds, and is but little esteemed. Dr.
Fleming says, that the celebrated Whitebait of the Thames,
Avhich appears near Blackwall and Greenwich during the
month of July, is the fry of this fish ; but as, although the
Shad are plentiful in the Severn, we hear nothing of the
Whitebait,* further investigation seems to be required on
this point."

In the Thames, the Allice Shad is of rare occurrence.
A specimen was brought to me in 1831, that had been
caught above Putney Bridge ; and another was taken in
1833, which is noticed by Mr. Jesse in the third series of
his Gleanings in Natural History, page 147. " This fish
was taken June 25th, opposite Hampton Court Palace ; and
its appearance so high up the river is very unusual. On
taking it out of the well of the boat, it was full of spawn, and
died immediately ." I have had opportunities of examining
very fine specimens from the Severn, sent to me by T. B. L.
Baker, Esq. of Hard wick Court.

This species is not uncommon on the north-east coast of
Ireland. On the north-eastern coast of England, — namely,
at Berwick, — Dr. George Johnston says it is frequently taken
at the mouth of the Tweed in autumn, and sold in the mar-
ket, but held in no estimation. Dr. Parnell says this species
is rare in the Forth.

The flesh of this fish is said to be of good flavour,
and the quality is considered to improve the higher the fish
ascends the river. ^Elian says the Shads appear to take
pleasure in the sounds of musical instruments ; but if it
happens to thunder when they are ascending rivers, they
return rapidly to the sea.

: This, it may be remembered, was adduced as one of the proofs that the
Whitebait were not the young of the Shad.

ALLICE SHAD. 215

Both species of Shads have great resemblance, except in
size, to Herrings, and have been frequently called the mother
of Herrings, and king and queen of the Herrings. The large
Herrings of two feet in length, so called by Anderson and
others, and said to occur in the Northern Seas, and among
our Northern Islands, are no doubt to be considered as refer-
ring to our Shads.

The specimen described measured two feet in length ;
the body deep and compressed ; the thickness rather less
than one-third of the depth. The length of the head com-
pared to that of the whole fish is as one to six ; the depth
compared to the whole length, as one to four and a half.
The length of the base of the dorsal fin three inches ; the
fourth ray, which is the longest, is one-third shorter than the
whole length of the base of the fin ; the first and second rays
shorter than the third ; these three rays simple, all the others
branched : the first ray half-way between the point of the
nose and the last ray of the anal fin ; the last ray exactly
half-way between the point of the nose and the end of the
tail. Pectoral fin small ; the upper ray the longest, strong,
and simple ; the others branched : ventral fin also small ; the
first ray arising in a vertical line under the first ray of the
dorsal fin ; axillary scales long, narrow, and pointed : anal
fin commencing half-way between the ventral fin and the
origin of the lower caudal rays, nearly one-fourth longer in
the base than the dorsal fin ; the first three rays shorter than
the fourth, which is the longest, and only one-third the
length of the base of the fin : the tail long and slender,
deeply forked ; the rays of the middle only one-fourth of the
length of the longest external rays ; the seventh and thir-
teenth caudal rays furnished with membranous appendages on
each side similar to those observed in the Twaite Shad. The
fin-rays in number are —

D. 19 : P. 15 : V. 9 : A. 26 : C. 20.

216

CLUPEIDE.

The lower jaw the longest and smooth ; the upper jaw
with a central notch ; the lateral edges crenated : the breadth
of the eye rather less than one-fifth of the length of the
head, and placed one diameter and a half from the end of
the nose : mucous vessels of the gill-covers beautifully dis-
tributed ; the nape and shoulders rise suddenly ; the greatest
depth of the body just before the ventral fin ; scales of the
body rather large, nearly circular, and thin ; no distinct
lateral line ; abdominal edge strongly serrated, particularly
behind the ventral fins. The colours very similar to those
of the Twaite Shad, with a single dusky patch behind the
operculum, sometimes scarcely visible.

Figure 1 of plate III. in Dr. Fleming's Philosophy of
Zoology is a representation of the Allice Shad.

ANCHOVY.

217

ABDOMINAL
MALACOPTERYGIL

CLUPEID&.

THE ANCHOVY.

Engraulis encrasicolus, Anchovy, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 183, sp. 54.
,, vulgaris, CUVIER, Regne An. t. il. p. 322.
,, „ WILI.UGHBY, p. 225, P. 2, fig. 2, App. 27.

Clitpea encrasicolus, LINNAEUS. BLOCH, pt. i. pi. 30, fig. 2.

,, ,, Anchovy, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 459, pi. 78.

,, ,, ,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 50.

Engraulis eitcrasicholus, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 439.

ENGRAULIS. Generic Characters. — Distinguished from the Herrings in hav-
ing the head pointed ; the upper jaw the longest ; the mouth deeply divided ; the
opening extending backwards behind the line of the eyes ; the gape and bran-
chial apertures very large ; the ventral fins in advance of the line of the com-
mencement of the dorsal ; the abdomen smooth ; branchiostegous rays 12.

I HAVE followed Dr. Fleming in preserving to the An-
chovy the old name by which it was formerly known. It
was called Lycostomus from the form of its mouth ; and
Encrasicholus Engraulis, because from its bitterness it
was supposed to carry its gall in its head. For this reason
the head as well as the entrails are removed when the fish is
pickled.

The Anchovy is a common fish in the Mediterranean
from Greece to Gibraltar ; and was well known to the Greeks
and Romans, by whom the liquor prepared from it, called

218 CLUPEID.E.

Garum, was in great estimation. Its eastern range is ex-
tended into the Black Sea.

The fishing for them is carried on during the night, and
lights are used with the nets.

The Anchovy is common on the coasts of Portugal, Spain,
and France ; it occurs, I have no doubt, at the Channel
Islands, and has been taken on the Hampshire coast.

The Rev. Robert Holdsworth wrote me word that An-
chovies had been taken in a Herring seine-net during autumn
in the river Dart ; and Mr. Couch, in his Cornish Fauna,
says that " this fish abounds towards the end of summer, and
if attention were paid to the fishery, enough might be caught
to supply the consumption of the British islands. Bloch
informs us that the fishery in the Mediterranean is carried on
from May to July, at which period this fish enters that sea
for the purpose of shedding its spawn ; and that when this
function is performed it returns to the Atlantic. I have not
found them upon our coast until the autumnal equinox ; and
the fishery would be chiefly followed in October and Novem-
ber, when the fish are in fine condition ; but some are met
with through the winter, and until the month of March."
The Anchovy is taken in the Bristol Channel. In the Ap-
pendix to Willughbys work, it is mentioned as having been
taken on the coast of Wales ; Mr. Bicheno has very recently
obtained several on the coast of Glamorganshire ; and Mr.
Dillwyn, in his contributions towards a History of Swansea,
says, " the late Charles Collins, Esq. showed me six pounds of
Anchovies which he had purchased in Swansea market for a
shilling ; and I have since ascertained, if a net with proper
meshes was used, that in some summers a vast quantity of
these fish might be taken in our bay." Pennant obtained it
near his own residence at Downing in Flintshire ; and it is
said to be sold frequently in Liverpool market. It has not,
that I am aware, been recognised on the coast of Ireland.

ANCHOVY. 21.0

The Anchovy is reported to be at this time an inhabitant
of the large piece of water below Blackwall, called Dagenham
Breach ; and in May 1838 I received one that was caught in
the Thames, where, however, this species is so little known,
that the specimen referred to was sent to me with a request
to know what fish it was.

In a series of notes on the occurrence of rare fish at Yar-
mouth and its vicinity, with which I have been favoured by
Dawscn Turner, Esq. there is mention of a specimen of the
Anchovy, taken on the beach, Avhich measured six inches and
a half in length. Mr. Couch says he has seen it in the Corn-
ish seas of the length of seven inches and a half : additional
proofs of the large size acquired by this fish on our shores.
Dr. George Johnston does not mention this species as occur-
ring' on the coast of Berwickshire, nor does Dr. Parnell

O

include it in his Fishes of the Forth : yet its range to the
North is extensive, as it is occasionally taken on the coast of
Norway and in the Baltic ; but is not included by Linnaeus
in his Fauna Suecica.

The Anchovy is immediately recognised among the spe-
cies of the family to which it belongs, by its sharp-pointed
head, with the upper jaw considerably the longest. The
length of the head compared with the length of the body
alone is as one to three ; the depth of the body but two-
thirds of the length of the head, and compared to the length
of the whole fish is as one to seven : the first ray of the dor-
sal fin arises half-way between the point of the nose and the
end of the fleshy portion of the tail ; the third ray of the
dorsal fin, which is the longest, is of the same length as the
base of the fin : the pectoral fin small ; the ventral fins arise,
in a vertical line, in advance of the commencement of the
dorsal fin, which is over the space betAveen the ventral and
anal fins : the base of the anal fin is as long as the distance
from its commencement to the origin of the ventral fins ; the

220

CLUPEID.E.

rays short : the tail deeply forked. The fin-rays in number
are —

D. 14 : P. 15 : V. 7 : A. 18 : C. 19.

The breadth of the eye is one-fifth of the length of the
whole head ; the peculiarity in the comparative length of the
jaws has been previously noticed ; the gill-covers are elon-
gated ; the scales of the body large and deciduous : the
colour of the top of the head and back blue, with a tinge of
green ; irides, gill-covers, sides, and belly, silvery white ; the
fins delicate in structure, and greenish white ; the membranes
connecting the rays almost transparent.

COMMON COD.

221

SUBBRACHIAL

MALACOPTEtlYGII.

G/1D/D/E'.*

THE COMMON COD.

THE KEELING.

Morrhua vulgaris, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 331.

,, ,, Cod, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 191, sp. 76.

,, ,, Codfish, Keeling, WILLUGHBY, p. 165, L. l,fig. 4.

„ ,, LINN*US. BLOCK, pt. ii. pi. 64.

,, ,, Common Codjish, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 231.

,, „ Codjish, DON. Brit. Fish.pl. 106.

Common Cod, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 440.

Gadus morrhua,

GADUS. Generic Characters. — Body elongated, smooth, compressed towards
the tail ; back furnished with three dorsal fins ; ventral fins pointed ; abdominal
line with two fins behind the anal aperture ; the lower jaw with one barbule at
the chin ; branchiostegous rays 7.

BARON CUVIER'S first division of his second order of
fishes, those with flexible fin-rays, and with the ventral fins
attached to the abdomen, being concluded, the soft-firmed
fishes of the second division, or those forming his third
order, succeed. These are recognised by having the ventral

* The family of the Codfish.

222 GADID^E.

fins placed very near the pectorals ; the bones supporting the
former being attached to the bones of the shoulder support-
ing the latter : and this disposition of the ventral fins has
been conveniently referred to by the single term subbra-
chial.

This division includes some of the species most valuable
to man as articles of food and commerce : among which may
be particularly noticed some of those belonging to the first
family, which includes the Common Cod, Haddock, Whit-
ing, and many others to be hereafter referred to, all more
or less remarkable for the excellence of their flesh, which
is white, firm, separates readily into flakes, is agreeable to the
taste, wholesome, and cheap.

The old genus Gadus of Linnseus included fishes with one,
two, or three dorsal fins, one or two anal fins, with or without
barbules or cirri about the mouth, and of very different forms
of body. These have been separated by Cuvier, whose first
genus includes only those with three dorsal fins, two anal
fins, and one barbule at the chin, as the generic characters
determine.

The Common Cod is not only one of those species most
universally known, but is also one of the greatest intrinsic
value, whether we consider the quality of the fish itself, the
enormous numbers in which it is taken, or the extensive
rano-e over which it exists. In the seas with which Eu-

O

ropeans are best acquainted, this fish is found universally
from Iceland very nearly as far south as Gibraltar ; but it
does not exist in the Mediterranean : it is also found and
taken in abundance as far west as the shores of Newfound-
land.

In this country it appears to be taken all round the coast :
among the islands to the north and west of Scotland it is
abundant : most extensive fisheries are carried on : and it
may be traced as occurring also on the shore of almost every

COMMON COD. 223

county in Ireland. In the United Kingdom alone, this
fish, in the catching, the curing, the partial consumption and
sale, supplies employment, food, and profit to thousands of
the human race.

The Codfish is very voracious ; a favourable circumstance
for the fishermen, who experience little difficulty in taking
them with almost any bait whenever a favourable locality is
ascertained. As these fish generally inhabit deep water,
from twenty-five to forty and even fifty fathoms, and feed
near the ground on various small fish, worms, Crustacea,* and
testacea, their capture is only attempted with lines and hooks.
Two sorts of lines, adapted for two very different modes of
fishing, are in common use. One mode is by deep sea-lines,
called bulters, on the Cornish coast : these are long lines, with
hooks fastened at regular distances along their whole length
by shorter and smaller cords called snoods ; the snoods are six
feet long each, and placed on the long line twelve feet from
each other, to prevent the hooks becoming entangled. Near
the hooks these shorter lines, or snoods, are formed of separate
threads loosely fastened together, to guard against the teeth of
the fish. Some variations occur at different parts of the coast,
as to the number of hooks attached to the line, as well as in
the length of the snood ; but the distance on the long line
between two snoods is always double the length of the snood
itself. Buoys, buoy-ropes, and anchors or grapples, are
fixed one to each end of the long line ; the hooks are baited
with sandlaunce, limpet, whelk, &c. : the lines are always
laid, or, as it is termed, shot, across the tide ; for if the tide
runs upon the end of the line, it will force the hooks together,
by which the whole tide's fishing is irrecoverably lost : they
are deposited generally about the time of slack water, be-
tween each ebb and flow, and are taken up or hauled for

* Mr. Couch has taken thirty-five crubs, none less than the size of a half-
crown piece, from the stomach of one Cod.

GADID.E.

examination after being left about six hours, or one flood
or ebb.

An improvement upon this more common plan was some
years ago suggested by Mr. Cobb, who was sent to the
Shetlands by the Commissioners appointed for the improve-
ment of the fisheries. He fixed a small piece of cork within
a certain distance of the hook, about twelve inches, which
suspended and floated the bait so as to prevent its falling on
the ground ; by which method the bait was more freely shown
to the fish, by the constant and variable motion produced
upon it by the tide. In the old way, the bait was frequently
hid from the fish by being covered with seaweed, or was
consumed by some of the numerous star-fish and crabs that
infest the ground.

The fishermen, when not engaged in shooting, hauling, or
rebaiting the long lines, fish with hand-lines, armed with two
hooks kept apart by a strong piece of wire : each fisherman
manages two lines, holding one line in each hand ; a heavy
weight is attached to the lower end of the line not far from
the hooks, to keep the bait down near the ground, where the
fish principally feed. These two modes of line-fishing are
practised to a great extent nearly all round the coast ; and
enormous quantities of Cod, Haddock, Whiting, Coalfish,
Pollack, Hake, Ling, Torsk, and all the various flat-fish,
usually called by the general name of whitefish, are taken.
Of Codfish alone, the number taken in one day is very con-
siderable ; from four hundred to five hundred and fifty fish
have been caught on the banks of Newfoundland in ten or
eleven hours by one man ; and a master of fishing- vessels
trading for the London market told me that eight men,
fishing under his orders off the Dogger Bank, in twenty-five
fathoms' water, have taken eighty score of Codfish in one day.
These are brought to Gravesend in stout cutter-rigged ves-
sels of eighty or one hundred tons' burthern, called storeboats,

COMMON COD.

built for this traffic, with a large well in which the fish are
preserved alive ; and of these a portion is sent up to Bil-
lingsgate market by each night-tide.

Well-boats for preserving alive the fish taken at sea, came
into use in this country early in the last century. They are
said to have been first built at Harwich about 1712. The
storeboats remain as low down as Gravesend, because the
water there is sufficiently mixed to keep the fish alive : if
they were to come higher up, it would kill them.

A change has lately taken place from the Cod having
shifted their ground. Formerly the Gravesend and Barking
fishermen obtained few Cod nearer than the Orkneys or the
Dogger Bank ; but for the last two or three years the supply
for the London market has been obtained by going no far-
ther than the Lincolnshire and Norfolk coasts, and even
between that and London, where previously very few fish
could be obtained.

Cod have been kept in salt-water ponds in different parts
of Scotland, and found to maintain their condition unim-
paired. Of these ponds there are three ; one in Galloway,
another in Fife, and a third in Orkney. That in Galloway
is at Logan, the seat of Colonel M'Dowall : it is a basin of
thirty feet in depth, and one hundred and sixty in circum-
ference, hewn out from the solid rock, and communicating
with the sea by one of those fissures that are common to
bold and precipitous coasts. A fisherman is attached to
this preserve, whose duty it is constantly to supply the fish
with the necessary quantity of food, which several species
soon learn to take eagerly from the hand. In the course of
the fishing for this daily supply, such fish as are not too
much injured are placed in the reservoir ; the others are cut
in pieces for food for the prisoners. The whelks, limpets,
and other tcstacea, arc boiled to free them from the shells ;

VOL. II. Q

GADID.E.

and no sooner does the keeper or his son appear with the
well-known basket of prepared food, than a hundred months
are sirnultaneonsly opened to greet the arrival. The Cod-
fish are the most numerous in this preserve ; one of which
has lived twelve years in confinement, and attained a large
size.

Dr. Parnell mentions that Cod are observed to thrive

better while under confinement than most of the species of

the same family, and in some instances they are found im-

proved by the change. Elias Cathcart, Esq. of St. Marga-

ret's, near North Queensferry, has kept for some time a

number of marine fishes in a salt-water pond of about two

hundred feet in length, and five fathoms deep, in which the

tide flows and ebbs twice in the day. The principal fishes

preserved are Cod, Haddock, Whiting, Flounders., and

Skate, which are retained prisoners by means of an iron

grating, placed at that part of the pond which communicates

with the Frith. They are fed by the keeper with sprats,

young herrings, and other small fishes, besides, occasionally,

with the intestines of sheep, which the Cod are observed to

devour with avidity. All the fish appear to thrive well,

especially the Cod, which are found to be firmer in the flesh

and thicker across the shoulders than those obtained from the

Frith of Forth, whence the Edinburgh market is supplied.

The Cod is abundant in the Orkney and other Scottish

Islands.

In a natural state the Cod spawns about February ; and
nine millions of ova have been found in the roe of one fe-
male. The Cod is in the greatest perfection as food from
the end of October to Christmas. It may, in fact, be said
of the whole of the family of Gadidtc, that they are in the
best condition for the table during the cold months of the
year. The young of the Cod, about six inches long, abound

COMMON COD. '„'.',; 7

at the mouth of the Thames and Medway throughout the
summer : as autumn advances, they gain size and strength,
and are caught from twelve to sixteen inches in length by
lines near the various sandbanks in the Channel. When of
Whiting size, they are called Codlings and Skinners ; and,
when larger, Tumbling or Tamlin Cod.

On the coast of Durham and Northumberland, and at the
Isle of Man, the Cod acquire a dark red or reddish brown
colour ; and are called Rock Cod, Red Cod, Ware Cod, and
Red Ware Cod, when of this particular colour. I saw a
considerable quantity in this state in Berwick market, and
have had others sent to me by Dr. Johnston. Both the
varieties of our Common Cod — for there appears to be two
well-marked varieties — were equally red. This colour is con-
sidered to be the consequence of particular food obtained
while lying among weedy rocks. At a short distance only
from the situations named, the Codfish are of the usual
ash-green colour.

The largest Codfish I have a record of weighed sixty
pounds, was caught in the Bristol Channel, and produced
five shillings : it was considered cheap there at one penny
the pound. Pennant, however, states that a Codfish of
seventy-eight pounds' weight was caught at Scarborough, and
sold for one shilling.

There appears to be two well-marked varieties of the
Common Cod ; one with a sharp nose, elongated before the
eye, and the body of a very dark brown colour, which is
usually called the Dogger Bank Cod. This variety prevails
also along our southern coast. The other variety has a
round blunt nose, short and wide before the eyes, and the
body of light yellowish ash-green colour, and is frequently
called the Scotch Cod. Both sorts have the lateral line white.
I believe the distinction of more southern and northern Cod

S28 GADID.E.

to be tenable, and that the blunt-headed lighter-coloured
fish docs not range so far south as the sharper-nosed dark
fish. Our fishermen now finding plenty of Codfish near
home, the London shops for the last year or two have only
now and then exhibited specimens of the short-nosed northern
Cod : both varieties are equally good in quality, and both are
frequently taken on the same ground.

The length of the specimen described was three feet, and
the weight about twelve pounds. The length of the head
compared to the length of the body alone, without the cau-
dal rays, is as one to two and a half; the depth of the body
equal to the length of the head : the first dorsal fin com-
mences in a vertical line just behind the origin of the pecto-
rals ; the second dorsal commences in a line over the anal
aperture, and ends on the same plane as the first anal fin ;
the third dorsal fin and the second anal fin begin and finish
on the same plane : the tail nearly square ; all the rays of
the fins covered with an extension of the skin of the body.

The fin-rays in number are —

D. 10. 20. 18. : P. 20 : V. 6 : A. 20. 16. : C. 26. Vertebrae 50.

The head is large ; the belly tumid and soft ; the body
tapering gradually throughout the latter half; the cavity of
the abdomen extended internally behind the anal aperture,
the intestine being recurved : the upper part of the head,
cheeks, back, and sides, mottled and spotted with greenish
ash ; the belly white ; the lateral line white, broadest along
the posterior half; all the fins dusky, the first and second
dorsal being rather lighter in colour than the rest : a broad
band of short teeth on the upper jaw, which is the longest,
and on the anterior part of the vomer ; a narrower band on
the lower jaw, with one elongated barbule at the chin : the
irides silvery, the pupil blue ; the breadth of the orbit one-
sixth of the length of the head.

COMMON COD.

229

Sonic yccirs since, I obtained from a fisherman at the
mouth of the Thames a fresh-caught example of a species of
morrhua, with the middle dorsal and the first anal fins short ;
the body as deep for its length as the luscus ; the length of
the head compared to the whole length of the fish as one to
three. Among the fishermen it was by some considered to
be an accidental deformity, with injury of the spine, and
their name for it was Lord-fish ; others said it was a fish
which they met with occasionally, and believed it distinct
from any other. A coloured drawing was made at the time,
from which the representation here given was taken, but the

fish was not preserved. The fin-rays were as stated ; and it
will be observed, on comparing the numbers, that they do
not differ very widely from those of the Common Cod.

D. 14. 19. 18. : P. 14 : V. 6 : A. 17. 11. : C. 24.

The figure above is taken from the drawing referred to,
but carefully reduced : upper part of the head, back, and fins,
mottled with two shades of brown ; the sides of the body
lighter ; the belly white ; the lateral line white, arching high
over the pectoral fins : the irides reddish orange.

230

ftADID.E.

It is probable that this is only an accidental deformity,
some injury to the spine having prevented the usual growth.

There is reason to believe that the Speckled Cod of Dr.
Turton, represented in his British Fauna as frequently taken
in the weirs at Swansea, is only the young of the Com-
mon Cod.

The vignette below represents the bones of the head in the
Codfish.

DORSE.

231

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOPTERYGII.

GADID/E.

THE DORSE,

OR VARIABLE COD.

Morrkua callaiias, CUVIER, Hegne An. t. ii. p. 332.
., ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 191.

,, ,, WlLLUGHBY, p. 172, L. 1, fig. 1.

Gadus ,, LINNAEUS. BLOCH, pt. ii. pi. 63.

» ,i BERKENHOUT, Syn. edit. 1795, p. 67, sp. 2.

,, ,, Variable Cod, PENN. Brit. Zoo!, vol. iii. p. 239.

,, ,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 441.

THE authority upon which this species was originally
introduced into the catalogue of British Fishes seems now to
be questionable. Neither Berkenhout nor the naturalists
who have followed him, in including the name of it, appear to
have seen any British example ; and Dr. Fleming, who from
his northern locality was the most likely to have seen speci-
mens, mentions it only on the authority of others, and does
not number it in his series of species. Since the publication
of the first edition of this work, Mr. Thompson of Belfast
has recorded in the Annals of Natural History the occurrence
of this species both in the North and South of Ireland, —
namely, the counties of Antrim and Cork.

It appears to be a fish well known in the Baltic, and fre-

232 GADID.E.

quently called the Baltic Cod. It is included by Professor
Nilsson in his Fishes of Scandinavia, and seems to be fully
entitled to one of its names, that of Variable Cod, four
northern varieties appearing to be well known, which are
each distinguished there by a particular term referring to
peculiarities in the colouring. It spawns in March and
April.

Fabricius describes this species as being very numerous in
many parts of Greenland ; and Captain James C. Ross, in his
Natural History, Appendix to the last Arctic Voyage, says,
c' our having found it on the north coast of the American
continent, along the shores of the inlet to the west of the
peninsula of Boothia, is an interesting feature in its history.
At the same time, the fact that the only four species of fish
which were found by us in that inlet, being also common to
Davis's Strait and Baffin's Bay, may be considered an addi-
tional proof, if any still be wanting, of a water communication
between these two seas. It is also worthy of remark, that
only two of these four species inhabit the sea on the east side
of the isthmus of Boothia."

The last published description of this species that I am
acquainted with, and most likely to have been taken from
the fish itself, is that by M. Nilsson, before referred to ; and
it is here given rather than multiply in print any well-known
description of older date. I have never seen a specimen of
the fish.

" Body elongated, subventricose ; head, back, and sides,
more or less spotted ; lateral line white, bent ; tail square ;
upper jaw much the longer ; snout prominent, sharp; under
jaw only half as long as the head, and ending on a line half-
way between the nose and the eye."

The fin-rays in number are —

D. 15. 18. 20. : P. 20 : V. 6 : A. 19. 18. : C. 24.

Length from twelve to twenty-four inches.

HADDOCK. 233

SUBBRACHIAL

MALACOPTERYGIL GADIDft.

.

THE HADDOCK.

Morrhua aglefiniis, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 331.

,, ,, Haddock, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 191, sp. 77.

,, ,, Hadock, WILLVGHBY, p. 170, L. 2.

Gadus ,, LiNNjEus. BLOCH, pt. ii. pi. 62.

,, ,, Hadock, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 241.

,, ,, Haddock, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 59.

,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 441.

THE HADDOCK is almost as well known as the Common
Cod ; and from the quantity taken at numerous localities
round the coast, and the facility with which the flesh can
be preserved, it is a fish of considerable value. Besides
frequenting the coast of Great Britain, from the extreme
north to the Land^s End, the Haddock may be traced nearly
all round the shores of Ireland ; and the largest examples
have been taken in Dublin Bay and off the Nymph Bank.
Though ranging over a considerable space both north and
south of the geographical situation of this country, the Had-
dock does not exist either in the Baltic or in the Medi-
terranean.

GADIDE.

Haddocks swim in immense shoals, but are uncertain as
to their appearance in places that had been formerly visited,
and they are prone to change their ground after having
arrived. The enormous consumption of food even in a short
space of time, when the number of mouths is considered,
may be one powerful reason for seeking new localities.
They arc probably more abundant along our eastern coast,
from Yarmouth to the Tyne, than elsewhere. There they
are caught with long-lines and hand-lines, and the most
attractive baits are pieces cut from the Herring or Sand-
launce. Along our southern shore, where the trawl-net is
constantly in use, the Haddock, feeding near the bottom, is
frequently taken in the trawl. The most common weight
of a Haddock is from two to four pounds. I have seen
Haddocks of ten pounds1 weight in the London market ;
the Brixham trawling-ground has produced Haddock of
fourteen pounds ; but the largest seen for some years past
weighed sixteen pounds, and was taken in Dublin Bay.

Haddocks spawn in February and March, and the young-
are six inches long by the beginning of September. When
kept in confinement in the salt-water preserve referred to in
the account of the Common Cod, the Haddocks were found
to be the tamest fishes in the pond, and took limpets one
after another from the hand. Their food is small fish, Crus-
tacea, and almost any of the inferior animals of the deep, even
the spiny Aphrodita. They are in the best condition for the
table during the last three months of the year.

The French fishermen call the Haddock, Hadot, whence
probably our name was derived.

Pennant says, " Our countryman Turner suggested that
the Haddock was the Onos or Asinus of the ancients. Dif-
ferent reasons have been assigned for giving this name to the
species, some imagining it to be from the colour of the fish,
others because it used to be carried on the backs of asses to

HADDOCK. 235

market." A different reason appears to me more likely to
have suggested the name : the dark mark on the shoulder
of the Haddock very frequently extends over the back and
unites with the patch of the shoulder on the other side, for-
cibly reminding the observer of the dark stripe over the
withers of the ass ; and the superstition that assigns the mark
in the Haddock to the impression St. Peter left with his
finger and thumb when he took the tribute-money out of
a fish of this species, which has been continued to the whole
race of Haddocks ever since the miracle, may possibly have
had reference, or even its origin, in the obvious similarity of
this mark on the same part of the body of the Haddock and
of the humble animal which had borne the Christian Saviour.
That the reference to St. Peter is gratuitous, is shown by the
fact that the Haddock does not exist in the sea of the coun-
try where the miracle was performed.

The length of the specimen described was twenty inches.
The length of the head compared to the length of the body,
without including the caudal rays, is as one to two and a
half; the depth of the body less than the length of the head :
the first dorsal fin commences in a line over the origin of the
pectorals ; the second dorsal fin begins in a line over the
anal aperture, and ends nearly on the same plane with the
first anal fin ; the third dorsal fin, and the second anal fin,
commence nearly on the same plane, but the base of the
first is longer than that of the second : the caudal rays rather
long, and the tail slightly forked. The fin-rays in number
are —

D. 15. 21. 19. : P. 18 : V. 6 : A. 24. 18. : C. 25. Vertebra 54.

The head slopes suddenly from the crown to the point of
the nose ; the upper jaw much longer than the lower ; the
nose projecting beyond the opening of the mouth, which is
small ; a broad band of short teeth on the superior maxillary

236 GADID.E.

bones, and a patch of teeth also, of the same character on
the most anterior part of the vomer ; lower jaw furnished
with a narrow band of teeth : the barbule at the chin small :
the eye large ; the diameter of the orbit more than one-fourth
of the whole length of the head ; the iricles silvery ; the
pupil large, somewhat angular in form, and blue : the head,
cheeks, back, and upper part of the sides, dull greyish white ;
lower part of the sides and belly almost white, slightly mot-
tled with grey ; the body covered with small scales ; the la-
teral line strongly marked and black ; under the middle of
the first dorsal fin, but below the lateral line, a black patch,
which in many specimens extends over the back and unites
with the mark on the other side ; the dorsal fins and tail
dusky bluish grey ; pectoral, ventral, and anal fins lighter.

Dr. D. H. Storer of Boston, in his valuable Report on the
Ichthyology of Massachusetts, of which he very kindly sent
me a copy, says that immense shoals of the Haddock are
found on that coast in the spring, and continue through the
season until autumn. — Page 125.

The vignette represents a Scheveling fish-cart.

\

BIB, POUT, AND WHITING POUT.

237

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOPTERYG1L

GADIDJE.

THE BIB, POUT, AND WHITING POUT.

SMELTIE, Zetland. — KLEG, Scarborough. — BLENS and
BLINDS, Devonshire and Cornwall.

Marrhua lusca, Bib, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 191, sp. 78.

,, barbata, Pout, ,, ,, ,, ,, sp. 79.

Asellus luscus, Bih <Sf Blinds, WILLUGHBY, p. 169.

,, barbutus, Whiting Pout, ,, -A pp. 22, L. 4.

Gadus luscus, LINN^US.

,, bar bat us, LINN/F,US. BLOCH, pt. v. pi. 166.

,, iitscus, Bib, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 247, pi. 34.

,, barbatus, Pout, ,, ,, ,, ,, p. 246.

,, luscus, Bib, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 19.

,, ,, Bib or Pout, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 442.

THE systematic terms which refer to the Bib and Pout are
here brought together in the belief that they are but different
names for the same fish.

Willughby, in his Ichthyology, page 169, first described
his Asellus luscus, under its Cornish names of Bib and Blinds.
Ray, in his Appendix to Willughby's work, which he edited,
admitted from Martin Lister, as a species, the Whiting

238 GADID.E.

Pout of the London market, not aware that it was the same
fish as the Bib of Cornwall, which had been already included
and described by Willughby himself. Ray continued them
as distinct in his own Synopsis, and was followed by Artedi,
Linnaeus, and others. Bloch, however, and Lacepede have
not admitted either in their works ; and Pennant, though
he gave each fish a place in his British Zoology, was
inclined to consider them identical. The excellent figure
of the fish given by Ray in Willughby's work, plate L. 4,
the possession of specimens obtained from various localities
between Berwick Bay on the north-east, and Devonshire in
the south-west, and these compared with drawings by Mr.
Couch of the Bib of Cornwall, leave no doubt that the
luscus and barbatus of authors are the same fish.

The Bib or Pout, though not abundant, is yet a well-
known species, which is found on many parts of our coast,
particularly those that are rocky. Northward it appears to
range as far as Greenland ; and is caught on the coasts of
Norway and Sweden. It is taken at Zetland and in the
Forth, where, as well as in Scotland generally, it is called the
Brassy. I have received specimens from Dr. Johnston, taken
at Berwick ; and it occurs on the coast of Norfolk. It is
common about the mouth of the Thames ; and on the Dutch
as well as the French coast. Along our southern shore as far
west as Devonshire, it is very commonly taken in the trawl-
nets ; but on the rocky coast of Cornwall it is caught by a
baited hook. It has been taken on the coast of Carnarvon-
shire, at Dublin, at Belfast, and Loch Foyle ; and I have no
doubt may be found all round the coast.

From a dark spot at the origin of the pectoral fin, in which
it resembles the Whiting, one of its most common names is
Whiting Pout ; and from a singular power of inflating a
membrane which covers the eyes and other parts about the
head, which, when thus distended, have the appearance of

BIB, TOUT, AND WHITING POUT. 289

bladders, it is called Pout, Bib,* Blens,* and Blinds.*
The flesh is excellent ; and, like most of the other fishes of
this family, it is in the best condition for the table in No-
vember and December. Its food is small fish and the vari-
ous animals allied to the shrimps. It is most frequently
caught in spring, because it then approaches the shore for
the purpose of spawning. The largest specimen I have seen
measured in length sixteen inches.

The length of the head is to the whole length of the fish
as one to four ; the depth of the body is greater than the
length of the head, and compared to the whole length of the
fish as one to three and a half; the first dorsal fin commences
in a vertical line a little behind the origin of the pectoral
fin ; the longest ray longer than the base of the fin : the rays
of the second dorsal fin are short ; the base of it as long again
as the base of the first dorsal fin, and ending nearly on the
same plane as the first anal fin ; the base of the third dorsal
fin is nearly as short as that of the first dorsal, commencing
and ending on the same plane with the second anal fin, and
both are similarly truncated. The ventral fins are consider-
ably in advance of the line of the origin of the pectorals ;
the first two rays elongated, and divided at the ends : the
anal aperture is in a line under the origin of the pectoral
fins, but the cavity containing the intestines extends much
farther back ; the first anal fin commences nearly in a line
with the beginning of the first dorsal, and ends on a line
with the ending of the second dorsal ; the rays forming the
middle portion of the fin the longest, the others declining in
length towards each extremity : the second anal fin, as before
mentioned, in extent of base and form like the third dorsal :
the tail long, the end of the rays nearly square.

* Probably derived from Bleb and 131ain, two old words meaning a blislei
or a bubble in the water.

GADID.E.

The number of fin-rays : —

D. 11. 20. 16. : P. 18 : V. 6 : A. 33. 19. : C. 21. Vertebra) 48.

In the tails of the fishes of this family there are many
short rays which are not counted, being outside the longest
ray above and below.

In form the Whiting Pout is the deepest for its length of
the British Gailida : the upper jaw is the longest ; the band
of teeth of several rows, those forming the outer row the
largest ; under jaw with a single row ; the barbule at the chin
rather long ; various mucous pores about both jaws : the eyes
large ; the orbits covered with a loose membrane which the
fish has the power of distending ; the diameter of the eye
equal to one third of the length of the head; the irides
orange colour : the dorsal and abdominal lines exhibit con-
siderable convexity ; the body tapers rapidly from the line of
the ending of the second dorsal and first anal fins : the colour
of the head, back, and upper part of the sides, a yellow
reddish brown, becoming lighter on the belly, and tinged in
places with bluish grey ; at the base of the pectoral fins a
black spot : scales small and deciduous : posterior half of the
lateral line straight, then rising in a curve over the pectoral
fin ; all the fins, except the ventrals, dusky brown ; the ven-
trals nearly white ; the first anal fin in large-sized specimens
edged with fine blue.

POOR, OR POWER COD.

241

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOPTERYGI1.

GADIDJE.

THE POOR, OR POWER COD.

Morrhua minuta, Poor, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 191, sp. 80.

Gadus mimttus, LINN/EUS. BLOCK, pt. ii. pi. 67, fig. 1.

,, ,, Power, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 249, pi. 34.

,, ,, WILI.UGHBY, p. 171.

,, ,, RAY, Syn. p. 163, fig. 6.

,, ,, Poor, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 444.

THE POOR, OR POWER COD, though somewhat similar
in general appearance to the Pout last described, is yet
readily to be distinguished from it by several well-marked
characters. It is not so deep when of the same length ; the
first anal fin does not begin so far forward as in the Pout by
nearly the whole length of the base of the first dorsal fin ; the
longest rays of the third dorsal fin and the second anal fin are
shorter than the bases of the respective fins, and do not,
therefore, produce the same vertically truncated appearance
as in the same relative fins of the Pont ; and the barbule at
the chin is much shorter.

The Power, or Poor Cod, the smallest of its genus, so

VOL. II. R

GADID.E.

called, it is said, on account of its diminutive size, seldom
exceeding six or seven inches in length, and therefore com-
paratively of little value, was first described as an English
fish by Dr. Jago, of Cornwall, and Avas introduced by Ray
at the end of his Synopsis, with a figure which particularly
exhibits the specific distinctions afforded by the form and
situation of the fins, which has been already adverted to, and
by which it may be immediately recognised.

Bloch says that the appearance of this fish in the Baltic is
a source of pleasure to the fishermen. It is called the fish-
conductor ; and excites great hopes of a rich harvest among
the larger species of the genus, the Cod, and others, which
follow in the rear, preying relentlessly on their more diminu-
tive generic companions : the fishermen in their turn prey
upon them.

Mr. Couch says it frequents the edges of rocks, is caught
by the hook, and, though always good for the table, is, on
account of its small size, chiefly used for bait. Montagu
says it is taken frequently on the Devonshire coast with the
hook, and also in the crab-pots. In the nets worked on that
coast it is caught along with the Bib, the fishermen selling
both as Whiting Pout.

It is included by Mr. Thompson in his catalogue of the
Fishes of Ireland, as occurring occasionally on various parts
of the coast, both in the north and south.

Dr. Storer, in his Report, already referred to, and which
will be frequently quoted in reference to American fishes,
says that this species has been taken once in the harbour of
Boston, but has not been previously noticed as belonging to
the American shores.

The length of the head compared to the whole length of
the fish is as one to five ; the depth of the body rather more
than the length of the head : the first dorsal fin begins be-
hind the line of the origin of the pectorals : the longest ray

POOR, OR POWER COD. 243

as long as the base of the fin : the second dorsal fin begins
and ends on the same planes with the first anal fin ; the base
of the second dorsal fin as long again as the base of the first
dorsal fin ; the base of the third dorsal fin rather more than
half as long as that of the second dorsal ; the third dorsal and
the second anal fins begin and end on the same planes, and
the peculiarity of their forms has been referred to. The
vent, or anal aperture, is in a line under the most posterior
portion of the first dorsal fin ; the first anal fin begins im-
mediately behind the vent, and under the commencement of
the second dorsal fin ; the second anal fin has been noticed ;
the tail is long, with the rays slightly forked. The number
of fin-rays : —

D. 12. 19. 17. : P. 14 : V. 6 : A. 25. 17. : C. 18.

The head is short and the nose blunt : the barbule at the
chin neither so long nor so slender as in the Pout ; several
mucous pores about the mouth : the eye large ; the breadth
equal to one-third of the length of the head ; the irides
orange : the scales of the body minute and deciduous ; the
lateral line but slightly curved, and that only where it rises
over the pectoral fin : the upper part of the head and back
brownish yellow, becoming lighter on the cheeks and sides ;
the belly dirty white ; pectoral, dorsal fins, and tail, yellow
brown, darker at the edges ; ventral and anal fins dirty yel-
lowish white.

244

GADIDE.

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOPTERYGIL

GAD1D&.

THE WHITING.

Merlangus vulgaris, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 332.

,, ,, Whiting, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 195, sp. 91.

,, ,, ,, WlLLUGHBY, p. 170, L. 5.

Gadus merlangus, LINK/EUS. BLOCK, pt. ii. pi. 65.

,, ,, Whiting, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 255.

,, ,, ,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 36.

Merlangus vnlguris, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 445.

MERLANGUS. Generic Characters. — The same as those of Morrhttn,, except
that they have no barbule at the chin.

THE WHITING is well known for the excellence of its
flesh, surpassing in delicacy that of any of the other species
of the valuable family of fishes to which it belongs : the
pearly whiteness of its flaky muscles, added to its extreme
lightness as an article of food, recommend it particularly to
invalids who are unable to digest more solid nutriment.

It is caught in great abundance almost all round our
coast, and may be traced from the Orkneys to Cape Clear.
Whitings of several pounds' weight have been caught as far
north as the Dogger Bank ; they have been taken also of

WHITING.

nearly equal size on the coast of Cornwall ; and on the
Nymph Bank, along the extended line of the south coast
of Ireland. In that country they have also been found
on the eastern coast from Waterford to Antrim, and from
thence north and west as far as Lough Foyle.

The fishing for Whiting with lines is pursued nearly all
the year through ; but the fish is most plentiful in the
months of January and February, when it comes in large
shoals towards the shore for the purpose of depositing its
spawn, and is taken in abundance within half a mile, and
seldom exceeding three miles, from land. A much larger
quantity than is consumed while fresh being frequently
taken, a portion is easily preserved either by salting or
drying.

The Whiting is a voracious feeder, and seizes indiscrimi-
nately any of the mollusca, worms, small Crustacea, and
young fishes. I remember to have taken several Sprats
from the stomach of a Whiting ; and Mr. Couch has known
four full-grown Pilchards taken from the inside of a Whiting
that weighed four pounds. It appears to prefer sandy banks,
but shifts its ground frequently in pursuit of the various fry
of other fishes, upon which it principally subsists.

Though occasionally occurring in the London market of
three or four pounds1 weight, the most usual size is from
twelve to sixteen inches in length, and wei^hino1 about one

o ' O O

pound and a half.

The length of the head compared to that of the body
alone is as one to three ; the depth of the body not equal to
the length of the head, or compared to the whole length as
one to six. The first dorsal begins behind the line of the
origin of the pectorals and before the line of the vent ; the
second dorsal and first anal fins end on the same line ; the
third dorsal and second anal fins begin and end on the same
plane ; the ventral fins are placed very forward ; the second

246

ray elongated : the anal aperture is in a line under the mid-
dle of the first dorsal fin ; the first anal fin commencing just
behind the vent ; the tail elongated ; the end nearly square.
The fin-rays are —

D. 13. 19. IP. : P. 19 : V. fc> : A. 31. 20. : C. 30. Vertebra; 55.

The body of the Whiting, like the bodies of those be-
longing to this division, is longer for its depth than that of
the Codfish ; the scales small, oval, and deciduous ; the
lateral line dark and straight posteriorly, but rising gradually
throughout the anterior half; the head elongated ; the mouth
and gape large ; the tongue white and smooth ; the upper
jaw decidedly the longest, with one row of large and sharp-
pointed teeth on the outer edge, and several rows of smaller
ones within ; the vomer with a few teeth arranged in a semi-
circular line on the anterior part ; the lower jaw with various
mucous orifices along the under surface, and a single row of
sharp teeth along the upper outer edge, which, when the
mouth is closed, range within the outer row of teeth on the
upper jaw : the eye in breadth less than one-fourth of the
head, and placed more than its breadth from the end of the
nose ; the irides silvery ; the pupils blue. The upper part
of the head and the back above the lateral line pale reddish
ash brown ; sides and belly silvery white ; pectoral, caudal,
and dorsal fins, pale brown ; ventral and anal fins almost
white ; the pectoral fins each with a decided dark patch at
the base.

COUCH S WHITING.

247

SUBBRACH1AL
MALACOPTERYG11.

GADW/E.

COUCH'S WHITING.
Merlangus albus.

Gadus albus, Risso, Ichth. p. 1 15.

Merlangus poutassou, ,, Hist. vol. iii. p. 227.

IN the month of May 1840 I received a communication
from Mr. Couch of Polperro to the following effect : — " On
the 5th of this month I had the good fortune to procure a
new species of the Gadidee, — new at least to Britain : it is
the species described by M. Risso in his Ichthyology of Nice,
page 115, and suspected by him not to be the Whiting of
the Northern ocean, from which it differs in several decisive
particulars."

M. Risso makes but few observations upon this fish either
in his single volume on the Ichthyology of Nice, published
in 1810, or in his Natural History of the Productions of the
Environs of Nice, published in five volumes in 1826. He
says it inhabits the sea of Nice, and is taken at all seasons ;
that it spawns in the spring, and that its flesh is rather soft.
This quality of the flesh of the Whiting of the Mediterra-
nean was mentioned to me by Dr. Lush, the superintendent

248 GADID.E.

of the Botanic Garden at Bombay, on his recent visit to this
country. M. Risso, in his Ichthyology, refers for an illustra-
tion of his fish to BloclVs plate 65, which is that of our well-
known and common Whiting ; but a glance at the two figures
here given, will show the distinctions, which M. Risso was
aware of, as he adds, " this fish appears to me to be a new
species : I invite naturalists to compare it with those of the
Northern seas."

The fin-rays, as given by M. Risso in the two works
already quoted, are as follows : —

D. 12. 12. 22. : P. 18 : V. 7 : A. 28. 20. : C. 38. Hist.
D. 12. 10. 20. : P. 20 : V. 6 : A. 34. 22. : C. 36. Ichlh.

The fin-rays as given by Mr. Couch are —

D. 13. 12. 22. : P. 20 : V. 6 : A. 35. 25. Vertebrae 53.

Mr. Couch's description is as follows : —

" Length fifteen inches ; the depth in a straight line, two
inches and a half: from the base of the first dorsal fin to the
vent, along the curve, three inches ; from the mouth to the
edge of the gill-covers, three inches ; from the same to the
anterior edge of the eye, one inch ; the eye large, the form a
perpendicular oval ; under jaw the longest ; the upper maxil-
lary bone terminal, the snout receding from it backward, con-
trary to the form of the Whiting, in which the upper jaw is
under a projection ; the general form of the body resembles
that of a Whiting, but rather more slender ; the back round-
ed, as if the specimen was plump, thus showing its slender
form not to be the result of emaciation ; teeth in the jaws as
in the Whiting ; on the roof of the mouth a pair of pro-
minent, sharp, incurved teeth ; lateral line straight, and pass-
ing near the back ; another line along the middle of the body
formed by the meeting of the muscles ; the body ending-
arrow-shaped at the caudal fin ; the first dorsal fin begins over

COUCH'S WHITING. 249

the posterior third of the pectoral ; the second dorsal fin like
the first in form and elevation, both being triangular; be-
tween them a space about equal to their separate breadth ;
nearly twice this breadth between the second and the third
dorsal fins ; the beginning of the third dorsal fin is slightly
anterior to that of the second anal fin ; caudal fin shaped as in
the Whiting, but less wide ; the pectoral fin ends opposite
the middle of the first dorsal fin ; ventral fins small and slen-
der, placed rather high on the side, and much like those of
the Whiting Pollack (Merlangus Pollachius); the longest
fibre measures seven-eighths of an inch ; from the point of the
under jaw to the vent, four inches and one quarter ; from the
centre of the vent to the commencement of the first anal fin,
one quarter of an inch ; first anal fin long, widest in the mid-
dle ; the second anal longer than the third dorsal, both end
close to the caudal fin : colour brown ; belly white ; a dark
spot at the upper margin of the pectoral fin ; along the base
of the anal fins a broad white band ; no such band at their
margin. The distinctions between this fish and the Whiting
are obvious, in the jaws, fins, lateral line, colour, and ver-
tebrse. The brilliant white along the base of the anal fins
remained unaltered, after the brilliancy of all beside had
considerably changed. The muscular substance of the fish
was more pulpy than that of the Whiting. It was taken
with an ordinary bait, at a few miles from land."

The figure given at the head of this subject was carefully
reduced from the drawing sent me by Mr. Couch ; and I beg
here to record my sincere acknowledgement and thanks to
him for his obliging communication.

250

GAD1D.E.

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOPTERYG1I.

GAD1D&,

THE COALFISH.

Merlaiigus curbonurius, COVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 332.

,, ,, Coaljish, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 195, sp. 93.

,, ,, Colefiih, WILLUGHBY, p. 168, L. 3.

Gadus ,, ,, LINN^US. BLOCH, pt. ii. pi. 66.

,, ,, Coaljish, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 250.

,, ,, ,, DON. Brit. Fish.pl. 13.

Merlangus ,, Coal-Fish, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 446.

THE COALFISH is most decidedly a northern fish, but,
being a hardy species, is not without considerable range
to the southward. It was the only fish found by Lord
Mulgrave on the shores of Spitzbergen ; and the fry, only
four or five inches in length, were caught with the trawl-
net on the west coast of Davis's Straits, during the first
voyage of Captain Sir Edward Parry. It is found on
the coast of the United States. It abounds in all
the northern seas and in the Baltic, and may be said to
swarm in the Orkneys, where the fry all the months of
summer and autumn are the great support of the poor.
Dr. Neill, in his tour of the islands of Orkney and Shetland,
saw an old man, and perhaps one or two boys, seated
upon almost every projecting rock, holding in each hand a

COAL FISH. 251

wand or fishing-rod, and catching young Coalfisli as fast as
they coidd bait their hooks.

As an article of food, it is more prized when small
than when of large size. The flesh of specimens weighing
from fifteen to thirty pounds is usually preserved, either
salted or dried.

This fish has more provincial names than any other spe-
cies, some of which only refer to it when of a particular
size. Among the Scotch islands the Coalfish is called
Sillock, Piltock, Cooth or Kuth, Harbin, Cudden, Sethe,
Sey, and Grey-Lord. In Edinburgh and about the Forth
the young are called Podleys ; at Newcastle the fry are
called Coalsey ; and, when twelve inches long, Poodlers.
Many are caught along shore ; and frequently, also, from a
boat rowed gently, the angler using a rod in each hand, and
trailing a fly from each line.

Mr. Couch says, " It is in the highest condition from
October to December, at which season it prowls after prey
in large companies ; so that when met with they prove a
valuable capture to the fishermen : for though but coarse
food, yet being wholesome, substantial, and cheap, they
are eagerly purchased by the poor either fresh or salted.
They swim at no great depth, and with great rapidity ;
but when attracted by bait, will keep near a boat until all
are taken ; and I have known four men with two boats,
two men in each boat, take twenty-four hundred-weight
with lines in a very few hours. The season for spawning
is early in spring; immediately after which this fish becomes
so lank as to be worthless, in which state it continues through
the summer."

In the Orkneys, according to Mr. Low, the young appear
about May ; in the Tyne, about June ; and on the Cornish
coast in July. The adult fish are called Rauning Pollacks
by the Cornish fishermen : vanning being the ancient and

GAD1D.E.

even the popular modern pronunciation of ravening, used in
reference to voracity.

The Coalfish may be traced on the Irish coast from Wa-
terford along the eastern shore to Belfast, under the various
names of Black Pollack, Blockin, and Grey-Lord.

When detained and well fed in a salt-water pond, Coal-
fish acquire large size. " They were bold and familiar ;
floating about slowly and majestically, till some food was
thrown to them ; this they seized voraciously, whether it
consisted of shell-fish or ship-biscuit. They would also
occasionally approach the margin and take food from the
hand." — Jesse's Gleanings.

From the point of the lower jaw to the end of the oper-
culum the length is to that of the body and tail as one to
three and a half ; the depth of the body about equal to the
length of the head : the first dorsal fin begins behind the line
of the origin of the pectoral fin and before the line of the
vent ; the second dorsal and the first anal fins end together
nearly on the same plane ; the third dorsal and second anal
fins nearly parallel : the fleshy portion of the tail elongated ;
the rays forked : the ventral fins small ; and the rays of the
pectoral fin only extending as far as the line of the vent.
The fin-rays are —

D. 11. 20. 20. : P. 19 : V. 6 : A. 24. 19. : C. 32.

The head and body elegantly shaped ; the scales small
and oblong ; the lateral line silvery white and nearly straight ;
the upper part of the head and the back above the lateral
line almost black ; much lighter in colour below the line,
becoming greyish white with golden reflections on the sides
and belly ; pectoral, caudal, and dorsal fins, bluish black ;
ventral and anal fins greyish white : the upper jaw rather
the shortest ; the lips tinged with purple red ; the mouth
black ; the teeth very small ; the irides silvery white ; the
pupil blue.

POM.AI N .

253

SUBBRACHJAL
MALACOPTERYGII.

GADID&.

THE POLLACK.

WHITING POLLACK. LYTHE, Scotland.

Merlangus pollachius, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 333.

,, ,, Pollack, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 195, sp. 92.

,, ,, Whiting Pollack, WILLUGHBY, p. 167.

Gadus ,, LINNJEUS. BLOCK, pt. ii. pi. 68.

,, ,, Pollack, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. in. p. 254.

„ ,, Whiting Pollack, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 7.

Merlangus ,, Pollack, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 446.

THE POLLACK is much less abundant on some parts of
the coast than the Coalfish ; but, like that species, is an in-
habitant of the seas all round our shores. Mr. Low, in his
" Natural History of the Orkneys," says, " They are fre-
quently caught close in with the shore, almost among the
sea-ware, and in deep holes among the rocks. They seem
to be a very frolicsome fish ; and I have been several times
fishing for them when they would keep a constant plashing
in the water. They bite keenly, scarce allowing the hook
to be in the water before one or other jumps at it. They
are better eating than the Coalfish ; but I do not know
whether they are ever dried or preserved otherwise, as the
quantity caught is scarce worth curing." Hand-line fishing
for Pollacks, Mackerel, &c. is called whiffing.

25-i OADID.F..

This fisli is called Lythe in Scotland, as already quoted ;
l)ut whether this term is intended to refer to its supple,
pliant activity, or is derived from lithos, a stone, from its
living among rocks, I have not seen stated. Fine speci-
mens of the Pollack are taken about the rocky coast of
Scarborough, where they are called Leets.

The Pollack is caught at Hastings and Weymouth.
Colonel Montagu says it is frequently taken in Devonshire,
where it is bought by the inexperienced as Whiting. When
only twelve or fourteen inches long, the flesh possesses a
considerable portion of the pearly appearance and delicacy of
that fish.

Mr. Couch says, " The Pollack is at all seasons one of
our most common fishes, but it is not gregarious except in
pursuit of prey ; and it rarely wanders far from its usual
haunts, which are along the edges of rocks, where, with the
head directed towards the coming tide, it is ready for any
prey that approaches. The smaller ones, which occupy such
a station covered with oreweed, have their colours very
bright, and the belly of a saffron yellow ; while on clean
ground they are less brilliant. In summer evenings, they
are often seen eager in pursuit of the sandlaunce, frequently
spring from their element, and are often taken by anglers
from the rocks and piers. The Pollack spawns in winter
near the land ; and the young abound near the edge of the
tide in rocky ground at the beginning of summer."

In Ireland, the Pollack may be traced as occurring on
the coast of the counties of Cork, Waterford, Dublin, An-

•

trim, Londonderry, and Donegal, under the names of Pol-
lack, Laith, and Lythe.

The length of the head compared to that of the body is as
one to three and a half; the depth of the body is to the
whole length of the fish as one to four and a half: the first
dorsal fin begins, as in the Coalfish, behind the line of the

POLLACK.

255

origin of the pectoral fin, and before the line of the situation
of the vent ; the second dorsal fin and the first anal fin end
on the same line ; the third dorsal fin and the second anal
fin begin and end very nearly on the same plane ; the first
ray of each of the dorsal fins the longest ; the ventral fin
very small ; the anal aperture in a line under the middle of
the first dorsal fin ; the fleshy portion of the tail long and
slender ; the end of the rays concave. The fin-rays in num-
ber are —

D. 12. 19. 15. : P. 19 : V. 6 : A. 24. 16. : C. 31.

The lower jaw is much the longest ; the mouth and lips
red, with various mucous orifices about them ; the hides sil-
very ; the sclerotic coat cartilaginous ; the upper angle of
the operculum produced ; the body elongated ; the upper
part of the head and the back above the lateral line olive
brown ; the sides dull silvery white mottled with yellow, and
in young fish spotted with dull red ; the lateral line dusky,
curved over the length of the pectoral fin, then descending
and passing in a straight line to the tail ; the dorsal fins and
tail brown ; the pectoral and anal fins brown edged and
tinged with reddish orange.

In December 1839, my kind friend, Robert Ball, Esq. of
Dublin, sent me notice of a curious monstrosity observed in
a Pollack caught during the previous spring, remarkable for
the great elongation of the rays of the first dorsal fin, which
had grown to more than three times their usual length.

256 OADIDE.

SUBBRACHTAL

MALACOPTERYGII. GADID/V.

THE GREEN COD.

Merlangus virens, CUVIEU, Regne An. t. ii. p. 33.

,, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 195, sp. 94.

Gadus ,, LINN/EUS.

,, ,, Green Cod, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 253.

Merlangus „ ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 447.

THE GREEN COD was first added to the catalogue of
British Fishes by Pennant, on the authority of Sir Robert
Cullum, Bart.; and if a distinct species, which some have
doubted, it is not only abundant, but has an extensive
range.

It is mentioned as an inhabitant of the northern seas by
Linnseus and others, and is included in the recently pub-
lished works of Professors Nilsson and Rei.nb.ardt, who have
devoted particular attention to the fishes of Scandinavia.
Dr. Neill says it is taken in the Frith of Forth during
summer ; and Mr. Couch obtains it on the Cornish coast of
eight or ten inches in length. Mr. Forbes and Mr. Wal-
lace tell me it is abundant at the Isle of Man.

This fish is by some considered as the young of the Coal-
fish, and by others as the young of the Pollack. It appears,

GREEN COD. 257

however, to be decidedly distinct from the Pollack, in hav-
ing its jaws nearly equal in length : in the Pollack the
under jaw is by much the longest ; the lateral line in the
Green Cod is straight, in the Pollack the lateral line is
curved over the whole length of the pectoral fin. Mr.
Couch in his MS. considers the Green Cod as the young of
the Coalfish, with which it certainly agrees in both the par-
ticulars in which it differs from the Pollack, but differs also
decidedly in colour from the Coalfish. It seems to combine
in itself the colouring of the Pollack with some of the pecu-
liarities of the Coalfish, but appears also to be deeper for its
length than either ; though if the young of a large species,
judging by analogy, that would not be the case.

Following the example of the Northern naturalists, who
have opportunities of making constant comparison between
this fish and the Coalfish from the abundance of both, and
who have hitherto considered them distinct, the Green Cod
is here allowed a separate place. The figure is from a draw-
ing by Mr. Couch, whose opinion is entitled to attention ;
and the subject invites the investigation of those who are so
located as to be able to obtain examples of both.

Not possessing a specimen, the description here given is
derived from the Prodromus of M. Nilsson. The under
jaw scarcely longer than the upper ; the tail deeply forked ;
the lateral line straight, white ; the colour of the back dark
green, passing by degrees into silvery grey on the sides.

From six to twelve inches is the usual size allowed to the
Green Cod ; M. Nilsson gives it a length from two to three
feet, and adds that it spawns in winter.

The number of fin-rays as stated by Linnseus : —

D. 13. 20. 19. : P. 17 : V. 6 : A. 24. 20. : C. 40.

Dr. Fleming adds, " Teeth in the upper jaw, numerous,
strong."

VOL. II. S

258

GADID.E.

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOPTERYGIL

GA

THE HAKE.

Merlucius vulgaris, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 333.

M ,, Common Hake, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 195, sp. 95.

„ The Hake, WILLUGHBY, p. 174.

Gadus merlucius, LINN/EUS. BLOCH, pt. v. pi. 164.

,, Hake, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 257.

„ ,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 28.

Merlucius vulgaris, Common Hake, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 447.

MERLUCIUS. Generic Characters. — The head flattened ; the body elongated ;
the back furnished with two dorsal fins ; the first short, the second long ; but
one anal fin, also very long ; no barbule at the chin.

THE HAKE is another of the species belonging to this
large and valuable family of fishes, which has an extensive
range, being found in the seas of the North of Europe, and
also in the Mediterranean.

Though inhabiting the seas of the western coast of Nor-
way, and included by Linnaeus in his Fauna Suecica, Dr.
Fleming says it is rare in Scotland ; and it appears to be
most abundant along the southern coast of England. Ports-
mouth market receives an abundant supply, which is brought
by fishing-boats from the Devonshire coast ; and Montagu
says there is also an abundance in the market of Plymouth.

According to Mr. Couch, " The Hake is a roving fish

HAKE.

on the Cornish coast, without much regularity in its move-
ments. From January to April, which is its season for
spawning, it keeps near the bottom, and loses the great
voracity by which it is characterised at other times, so that
multitudes of them are caught in trawls, and but few with
a line ; but, when Pilchards approach the shores, it follows
them, continuing in incalculable numbers through the winter.
It rarely happens that Pilchards are taken in a scan without
many Hakes being enclosed with them ; and thus, when the
net remains in the water for several days, they have an
opportunity of glutting themselves to their heart's desire,
which is to such an extent as to render them helpless, and 1
have seen seventeen Pilchards taken from the stomach of a
Hake of ordinary size. Their digestion, however, is quick,
so that they speedily get rid of their load ; and fishermen
observe that, when hooked, the Hake presently evacuates the
contents of the stomach to facilitate its escape ; so that when
hundreds are taken with a line, in the midst of prey, not one
will have anything in its stomach : when near the surface,
however, this rejection does not take place until after they are
dragged on board."

The Hake may be traced nearly all round the coast of
Ireland ; and is so abundant in the Bay of Galway, that,
according to a recent writer, this bay is named in some
ancient maps the Bay of Hakes. On that part of the
Nymph Bank off the coast of Waterford, this fish is also
so plentiful, that one thousand have been taken by six men
with lines in one night. It is a voracious fish, as its sys-
tematic name of merlucius, Seapike, implies. It is a coarse
fish, not admitted to the tables of the wealthy; but large
quantities are annually preserved both by salting and drying,
part of which is exported to Spain.

The Hake is very common on the northern shore of the
Mediterranean, and considerable traffic is carried on with

260 GADID.E.

tins fisli ; they are packed with aromatic plants, and sent
to the towns removed from the coast. The Hake is de-
scribed and figured by Rondeletius, and was known to the
older naturalists before him.

A Hake of three feet eight inches long in the shop of
a London fishmonger, in May 1835, supplied the means
of obtaining the following particulars. The length of the
head, compared to the length of the body alone, as one
to three ; the depth of the body not so great as the length
of the head : the ventral fins are placed in advance of the
pectorals ; the rays not unequally elongated : the pectoral
fins commence in a line under the posterior angle of the
operculum ; the rays ending with the end of the first dorsal
fin : the first dorsal fin itself short and triangular in shape ;
the second dorsal fin commences in a line over the vent ;
the anal fin begins immediately behind the vent ; both the
second dorsal fin and the anal fin terminate on the same
plane, near the tail ; the rays of both, towards the end, elon-
gated ; the caudal rays about three inches long, and nearly
even. The fin-rays in number are —

D. 10. 29. : P. 11 : V. 7 : A. 21 : C. 19.

The head is depressed : the inside of the mouth and
gill-covers black ; lower jaw the longest ; teeth slender and
sharp, in a single row in each jaw : the irides yellow with
a dark cuter circle. The lateral line of the body straight
throughout the posterior half, then gradually rising to the
upper edge of the operculum ; the appearance of the lateral
line is that of one white line between two dark ones : the
scales large ; colour of the body dusky brown above, lighter
beneath ; dorsal and caudal fins dark ; ventral and anal fins
pale brown.

I have inserted a new figure of our Hake at the com-
mencement of this subject ; the figure used in the former

HAKE. 261

edition, and which now, for comparison, is inserted as a
tail-piece, does not sufficiently exhibit the elongation of
the rays at the posterior part of the second dorsal and anal
fin, the rays being represented as rather adpressed, and ap-
pearing shorter than they were intended to be. This has,
I fear, led to some misconception, as the following extracts
seem to show.

In a communication from the Rev. R. T. Lowe, M.A.
printed in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for the
year 1840, page 36, describing certain new species of Ma-
deiran Fishes, and containing additional information relating
to those already described, Mr. Lowe observes, " The Ma-
deiran Hake, or Pescada, Merlucius vulgaris of my Syn-
opsis, page 189, proves, upon better acquaintance, distinct
from the common British Hake, Cuvier, Yarrell, he. Gadus
merlucius, Linn. Instead of being even, the dorsal and
anal fins are each produced at their hinder end into a rounded
lobe ; the jaws are nearly equal in length ; the teeth are large
and numerous ; the scales small. I do not name it, for I
believe it has already been called by Mr. Swainson M. sinu-
atus ; and I am doubtful whether it may not also be the
M. escidentus of Risso, vol. iii. p. 220, though in his syno-
nyms he has confounded it with the true Northern Hake. I
believe it to be the fish imperfectly figured long ago by
Salvianus, p. 73, copied by Willughby, t. L. membr. 2, n. 1,
which has usually been referred to also as the Northern
Hake."

Mr. Swainson's remarks in his Natural History and Clas-
sification of Monocardian Animals, more especially Fishes,
vol. i. p. 319, are as follow : — " To the first of these (the
Merluciruz), named by Rafinesque Merlucius, after the
Gadus merlucius of Linnaeus, belongs the common Hake,
peculiar to the Northern seas, with which the Mediterranean
Hake (M. sinuatus, Sw. fig. 73), now for the first time

GADID.F..

described, has hitherto been confounded by all writers : we
presume this is the species, which, under the belief that it
was the common one, Cuvicr says is abundant in the Me-
diterranean."

It is to be regretted that Mr. Swainson has not mentioned
the characters upon which he founds his distinction between
the Mediterranean and the Northern Hake ; the name and
the figure given, which is here copied, are the only guides.
If the specific term sinuatus is intended to refer to the form
of the dorsal and anal fins as a distinguishing character, it
may be desirable to state that the figures of the common
Hake, as given by Dull am el and Bloch, present the same
peculiarities, particularly in reference to the elongation of
some of the posterior rays of the dorsal and anal fins. Pen-
nant, in describing our British Hake, says of the second
dorsal fin, " of which the last rays are the highest." Mr.
Couch, who lives on a part of our coast which abounds with
Hakes occasionally, sends me word, in answer to my inquiry,
that the new figure here employed at the commencement of
this subject is a good representation of the general form of
our Hake, but that the degree of extension of the fin-rays
and the character of the waved line formed by the margin of
the fins are varied in different specimens of the fish. Dr.
Parnell, in his minute description of the Hake found in the
Frith of Forth, says of the second dorsal fin, " the first
twenty-two rays of equal length, as long as the sixth ray of
the first dorsal, the twenty-third to the twenty-seventh rapid-

HAKE. 263

ly increasing : the remaining rays gradually diminishing, the
last very short." Of the anal fin, Dr. Parnell says, " the
first, second, and third rays gradually increasing in length,
the following eighteen about equal height ; the twenty-
seventh considerably the longest, the rest gradually diminish-
ing, the last very short." Lastly, I may add, that the repre-
sentation of the Northern Hake in the work now in progress
of the Fishes of Scandinavia by MM. Fries and Ekstrom ex-
actly accords with the new figure here engraved.

I have no reason to suspect that I made any mistake either
in the counting or the printing the number of the various fin-
rays in the specimen I examined ; but there are considerable
differences when compared with the enumeration by Pennant
and Dr. Parnell : thus the numbers are according to Pen-
nant—

D. 9. 40. : P. 12 : V. 7 : A. 39.

According to Dr. Parnell —

D. 10. 39. : P. 14 : V. 7 : A. 37 : C. 20.

The Hake, according to Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Storcr,
appears to be taken both at New York and at Boston.
The fin-rays as given by Dr. Mitchell : —

D. 12. 38. : P. 13 : V. 7 : A. 41 : C. 27.

Dr. Storer : —

D. 12. 38. : P. 13 : V. 7 : A. 39.

264

GADID.E.

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOPTERYGII.

GADJD/E.

THE LING.

Lota molua, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 333.

Asellus longus,
Gadus inotva,

Motva vulgaris,
Lota molva,

WILLUGHBY, p. 175, L. 2.

LINN^US. BLOCII, pt. ii. pi. 69.

Ling, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 262.

,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 102.

Common Ling, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 192, sp. 82.
Ling, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 448.

LOTA. Generic Characters. — In addition to the elongated body, with two
dorsal fins and one anal fin, possessed by the species of Merlncius last described,
may be added, chin with one or more barbules.

THE LING is a very valuable species, scarcely less so than
the Coalfish or the Cod. Large quantities are taken among
the Western Islands, in the Orkneys, and on the Yorkshire
coast ; in Cornwall, and the Scilly Islands ; and may be
traced nearly all round the Irish coast. The fishing for them
is by hand-lines and long-lines ; and besides a portion that is
consumed fresh, the fish are split from head to tail, cleaned,
salted in brine, washed, and dried : but the demand generally
falls short of the quantity cured, and the hardy fishermen are
but poorly requited. The ports of Spain are the markets
supplied ; and so valuable an article of commerce was Ling
considered formerly, that an act for regulating the price of

LING. 265

Ling, Cod, &c. was passed as early as the reign of Edward
the Third.

The air-bladders, popularly called Sounds, are prepared
separately, and, with those of the Codfish, are sold pickled.
The roes, which are of large size, are also used as food, or,
preserved in brine, are sold to be employed to attract fish.
Another produce of the Ling is the oil extracted from the
liver, which is used by the poor to supply the cottage lamp ;
and as a medicine, Mr. Couch says, which those who have
been able to overcome the repugnance arising from its nau-
seous smell and taste, have found effectual in severe cases of
rheumatism, when taken in small beer in doses of from half
an ounce to an ounce and a half. Formerly from fifty to sixty
gallons of this oil, and that from the liver of the Codfish, were
dispensed in one large establishment for this purpose, and it
was found to act best when the perspiration was increased.
The exudation from the skin of those to whom it was ad-
ministered always became strongly tainted with it.*

In Zetland, the principal fishing for Ling is from May
to August. On the Yorkshire coast the young are called
Drizzles. In Cornwall they are caught in January and
February, and their favourite haunts are about the margins
of the rocky valleys of the ocean. The Ling is exceedingly
prolific, and of most voracious appetite, feeding on young
fish, not sparing anything that has life, and the prey is
swallowed whole, so that no great art is required to catch it.
It is tenacious of life, and survives great injury. " I once,"
says Mr. Couch, " saw a Ling that had swallowed the usual
large hook, shaft foremost, of which the point had fixed in
the stomach, and as the line drew it, it turned round, en-
tered the opposite side of the stomach, and fastened the
organ together in complicated folds ; yet having escaped by

* Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, vol. iii.;
and Dr. Bardsley's Medical Reports, 8vo. 1807, p. 18.

266 GADID.E.

breaking the line, it survived to swallow another hook and be
taken several days after."

The most usual length of the Ling is from three to four
feet ; Pennant mentions having heard of one which mea-
sured seven feet ; and Mr. Couch has known them weigh
seventy pounds.

Not having an opportunity of describing from a specimen,
I copy, by permission, the description of the Rev. Mr.
Jenyns, as given in his Manual of the British Vertebrata,
page 458, species 133.

" Body slender, more elongated than that of the Hake ;
roundish : head flat : gape large : lower jaw shorter than the
upper, with a single barbule at its extremity : teeth in the
upper jaw small, and very numerous ; those in the lower
jaw longer and larger, forming but a single row : lateral
line straight : scales small, firmly adhering to the skin : two
dorsal fins of equal height ; the first short, commencing
near the head, not pointed as in the Hake, but with most
of the rays even ; second long, immediately behind the first,
reaching nearly to the caudal ; the posterior portion the
most elevated : vent in a line with the eighth or ninth ray
of the second dorsal fin : anal fin immediately behind it,
long, resembling the second dorsal fin, and terminating on
the same line with it : caudal rounded at the extremity.

" The fin-rays are —

D. 15. 65. : P. 15 : V. 6 : A. 97 : C. 39.

" The back and sides grey, inclining to olive ; sometimes
cinereous, without the olivaceous tinge ; belly silvery : ven-
trals white ; dorsal and anal edged with white ; caudal
marked near the end with a transverse black bar ; the
extreme tip white."

BURBOT.

£67

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOPTERYGII.

GAD1DJE.

THE BURBOT.

EELPOUT. BURBOLT.

Lota vulgaris, Burbot, JENVNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 448, sp. 134.
,, ,, CUVIEH, Regne An. t. ii. p. 334.

,, ,, WILLUGHBY, 125.

Gadus lota, LINN/EUS. BLOCK, pt. ii. pi. 70.
„ „ Burbot, PENN. Brit. Zool. p. 265.

„ DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 92.
Moloa ,, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 192, sp. 83.

THE BURBOT is the only British species of this numerous
family of fishes that lives permanently in fresh water, and
prefers in this country slow running rivers ; but is neither
so generally known, nor so much esteemed and encouraged, as
from the goodness of its flesh it deserves. It is said to be
found in various parts of the North of Europe, Siberia, Asia,
and India. In this country it is rather local. It occurs in
the Cam, and in some of the rivers of Norfolk and Lin-
colnshire. The Trent produces it, and Nottingham market
is occasionally supplied with examples for sale. The Tame
is said to contain the Burbot, and so also do several rivers
in the counties of Yorkshire and Durham ; as the Ouse, the

268

GADIDE.

Esk, the Skcrn, near Mainsforth, which afterwards runs into
the Tees near Croft Bridge, and the Derwent.

The Burbot is not unlike the Eel in some of its habits,
concealing itself under stones, waiting and watching for its
prey, consisting of aquatic insects and young fish, under
arches and near eddies, into which such small and weak
animals are likely to be brought by the current of the water.
It feeds principally during the night ; and, like the Eel, is
most frequently caught by trimmers and night-lines.

The Burbot is sometimes called Coney-fish, from its habit
of lurking and hiding itself in holes like a rabbit.

It spawns in February or March ; is very tenacious of
life, and is said to have lived a considerable time in a
damp and cold situation, fed on small fishes and raw meat.
In this country it has been known to attain the weight of
four pounds and a half; but a more common size is about
two pounds'1 weight. Pennant mentions one taken in the
Trent which weighed eight pounds. In the Lake of Geneva,
into which it is stated the Burbot was introduced from
Neufchatel, it has been taken of seven pounds1 weight.
The flesh is white, firm, and of good flavour, by some con-
sidered superior to that of the Eel ; and as the Burbot is in
its nature extremely hardy, few difficulties present them-
selves in the way of their increase in quantity, while the
value of the fish would amply repay the trouble or the cost
of the experiment. It would probably thrive well and mul-
tiply in large lakes.

Length from one to two feet : the head depressed, smooth ;
jaws equal ; chin with one barbule ; the gape large, with
small teeth above and below ; eyes of moderate size ; gill-
opening large : the length of the head compared to that of
the body as one to four : the form of the body cylindrical,
compressed posteriorly. The first dorsal fin is small and
rounded ; the second elongated, reaching nearly to the tail ;

BURBOT.

269

both dorsal fins nearly uniform in height : ventral fins placed
very forward, narrow, and pointed ; the pectoral fins large
and rounded ; the anal fin begins on a line behind the
commencement of the second dorsal fin, but ends very nearly
on the same plane : the tail oval, and slightly pointed. The
fin-rays in number are —

D. 14. 68. : P. 20 : V. 6 : A. 67 : C. 36.

The colour of the body yellowish brown, clouded and
spotted with darker brown, and covered with a mucous secre-
tion ; the under parts lighter : the lateral line indistinct and
straight ; scales small ; the fins partaking of the colour of the
part of the body from which they emanate, those of the lower
surface being much the lightest.

270

GAD1D.E.

SUBBRACHJAL

MALACOPTERYGU.

GADW.L.

THE THREE-BEARDED ROCKLING.

SEA LOCHE. WHISTLE-FISH.

Motella vulgaris, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 334.
,, tricirrata, NILSSON, p. 48.

,, ,, Three-Bearded EocUing, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 449,

sp. 135.

,, ,, WlLLUGHBY, p. 121, II. 4, fig. 4.

Mustela marina, Rockling, RAY, Syn. p. 164, sp. 9, fig. 9.

Gadus tricirratus, BLOCK, pt. v. pi. 165.

,, mustela, Three- Bearded Cod, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 267, pi. 36.

,, ,, Hackling, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 2.

,, tricirratus, Three-Bearded Gade, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 193, sp. 86.

MOTELLA. Generic Characters. — Body elongated, cylindrical, compressed
posteriorly ; the first dorsal fin very slightly elevated, delicate in structure,
scarcely perceptible ; second dorsal and anal fins long, continued nearly to the
base of the tail.

THE THREE-BEARDED ROCKLING, included by the
Rev. Mr. Jago in his Catalogue of the rarer Fishes of Corn-
wall, and published by Ray, with a figure, at the end of
his Synopsis, though not uncommon on the Devonshire and
Cornish coasts, as noticed by Colonel Montagu and Mr.
Couch, is more rare on our shores generally than the Five-

THREE-BEARDED ROCKLING. 271

Bearded Rockling, of which by some it has been considered
only as a variety. It is also rare on the east coast of Scot-
land. It frequents rocky ground that is well furnished with
sea-weed, among which it threads its way with great ease and
rapidity. Besides the localities mentioned, it has been taken
also at Weymouth, in Belfast Bay, and in the vicinity of
Carlisle, probably in the Solway Frith. The individual
figured by Willughby, whose early representation of this fish
is very good, was obtained by him at Chester.

Mr. Thompson says it is generally distributed on the coast
of Ireland.

Of its habits, Mr. Couch says, " It keeps in shallow
water, feeds on aquatic insects, and will take a bait ; but it is
not commonly used as food, because it smells unpleasantly
in the course of a few hours. It is not easy to explain
the use of the frinared membrane behind the head and before

O

the dorsal fin ; it has nothing in common with the fins ;
but when the fish is lying perfectly still, and all the fins are
at rest, this is often in rapid motion. The barbules on the
upper jaw are always extended in front, and probably serve
the same purposes as the antennae in insects.1"

Bloch says that it spawns in autumn ; but other observers
consider that it deposits its spawn in winter, like most of,
if not all, those of the same family.

Pennant, in his account of the Five-Bearded Rockling,
says, " The Cornish fishermen are said to whistle, and make
use of the words bod, bod, vean, when they are desirous of
taking this fish, as if by that they facilitated the capture,
in the same manner as the Sicilian fishermen repeat their
Mamassu di pajanu, &c. when they are in pursuit of the
Swordfish." But this name of Whistle-fish was, according
to Jago's Catalogue, attached to the Rockling with three
barbules only, and even among them was but occasionally
applied to the larger specimens. Pennant, it will be ob-

272 GADID.E.

served, speaks of the cause of the application of the name of
Whistle-fish on the authority of others ; and on inquiry, I
find that the custom of whistling when fishing is neither
practised nor known to the Cornish fishermen of the present
day, and, in fact, that this fish is of too little value to be
an object of any solicitude. I believe, indeed, that while
preserving the sound of the name, the term has been changed,
and a very different word substituted, and that for Whistle-
fish we ought to read Weasel-fish. Both the Three and
the Five Bearded Rocklings were called mustela from the
days of Pliny to those of Rondeletius, and thence to the
present time.

A specimen fourteen inches long, and beautifully spotted,
was presented to the Zoological Society in 1832. The
finest examples of this species I have seen were two given
me in December 1834, by Dr. Thackeray, the Provost of
King's College, Cambridge, from the largest of which, mea-
suring seventeen inches in length, the wood-engraving was
executed, and the following description taken.

The length of the head compared to the length of the
body alone, without the caudal rays, is as one to four ; the
depth of the body equal to the length of the head : the first
dorsal fin delicate in structure ; the first ray elongated, the
rest hair-like : the second dorsal fin commencing immediately
behind the end of the first, and reaching along the back to
the tail, but ending a little short of the base of the caudal
rays : ventral fins with the first two rays elongated, the
second the most so, the two disunited ; the other five rays
nearly equal, united, and short : pectoral fins rather large and
rounded : the vent half-way between the point of the chin
and the end of the fleshy portion of the tail ; the anal fin
commences immediately behind it, is one-fourth less in length
than the second dorsal, and ends on the same plane with it :
the tail moderate in size, and rounded at the end.

THREE-BEARDED ROCKLING. 273

The fin-rays in number arc —

2nd D. 55 : P. 20 : V. 7 : A. 49 : C. 18.

The head is depressed ; the mouth wide : the jaws nearly
equal, but when separated, the lower jaw is the longest, with
one barbulc at the chin ; a mixture of small and large teeth
in each jaw ; the upper jaw with one barbule on each side
the middle, between the lip and the nostril ; inner part of
the upper lip crenate : the irides golden yellow ; the anterior
portion of the body of the fish cylindrical, or slightly de-
pressed ; the tail compressed : the general colour of the body
and head is a rich yellow brown, spotted on the top of the
head, along the back, the pectoral, dorsal, and caudal fins,
with rich chestnut brown ; the lower part of the sides, the
ventral and anal fins, pale yellow brown, approaching to
white, and without spots.

Young fish of this species arc of a uniform brown colour
until they have acquired six or seven inches in length ; in
this condition they are the Mustela alia of Ray.

VOL. II.

274 GAD1DE.

SUBBRACHIAL

MALACOPTERYGII. GADIDJS.

THE FOUR-BEARDED ROCKLING.

Motella cimbria, The Four-bearded Rockling, PARNELL, Wern. Mem. vol. vii.

p. 449, pi. 44.
Gadus cimbrius, LINN^US, Syst. Nat. p. 440, sp. 16.

RETZ, Faun. Suec. p. 323.

Enchelyopus cimbrtcus, SCHNEIDER, Syst. Ichth. p. 50, sp. 1, tab. 9.
Motella cimbrica, NILSSON, Prod. Ichth. Scand. p. 48, sp. 2.

THIS species of Motella^ first described by Linnaeus, is
included by Dr. Parnell in his description of tlie Fishes of
the Forth, a specimen, fourteen inches in length, having
been brought to him by a Newhaven fisherman, who had
caught it a little to the east of Inchkeith on a Haddock line
baited with muscles. It is a species perfectly distinct from
the Three or the Five-bearded Rockling, so much more
common on various parts of the coast, and may at once be
distinguished from either by the greater length of the fila-
ment, which is placed in advance of the almost obsolete
first dorsal fin. This filament in a fish of nine inches
long, measures one inch and seven-eighths ; and in another
fish of ten inches and a half in length, measures two inches
and a quarter, as I find from portions of two specimens

FOUR-BEARDED ROCKLING. 275

sent me by Mr. Euing of Glasgow, to whom I am indebted
for the opportunity of making known the new species of
Smelt. These two specimens of the Four-bearded Rock-
ling were taken near Rothsay, and in reference to them
Mr. Euing's letters contain the following remarks: — "I
have never met with the Three or the Five-bearded Rock-
ling, but small specimens of that with four cirri are fre-
quently brought in on the long lines from deep water. It
is, indeed, by no means a very rare fish with us, and I have
seen it at almost every visit to the coast since 1827, the year
in which I first observed it."

I have since received two preserved specimens from Dr.
Edward Clarke, who obtained several examples from the
Frith of Forth while he was residing in Edinburgh ; he is
now settled at Hartlepool, and Ichthyology is likely to be
greatly assisted by his observation and exertions.

This fish is rare in the Baltic, but is not uncommon on
the southern coast of Sweden ; it is found also among the
islands of the Catigat, on the west coast of Norway, and in
the Atlantic.

Dr. Parnell says, " on dissecting the specimen, I found
the stomach filled with shrimps and small crabs. The csecal
appendages were few in number; the roe was large; the ova
small and numerous, and apparently in a fit state to be de-
posited. It is probable that the habits of this fish are similar
to those of the other species, but from its rarity it is diffi-
cult to determine.1'1

Description by Dr. Parnell, from a specimen fourteen
inches in length : " Form closely resembling that of the
Five-bearded Rockling, but the length of the head somewhat
greater compared to that of the body. The body elongated,
rounded in front, compressed behind, tapering from the vent
to the caudal extremity ; greatest depth less than the length
of the head. Head one-sixth of the entire length, caudal

T 2

276 GADID.E.

fin included, slightly depressed ; snout blunt, projecting con-
siderably beyond the under jaw ; eye large, of an oval form,
placed high up, and about its own length from the point of
the nose ; operculum rounded, oblique ; gill-opening large ;
gape wide ; maxillary extending in a line with the posterior
margin of the orbit ; teeth sharp and fine, forming two rows
in the under jaw, and five rows in the upper ; a few are also
placed in a cluster on the anterior part of the vomer ; bar-
bules four, one a little in front of each nostril, one at the
extremity of the upper lip, and one on the chin ; tongue
fleshy, smooth, and without teeth. Fins : — the first dorsal
fin obsolete, scarcely discernible, commencing over the oper-
culum, and terminating a little in front of the second dorsal,
composed of a number of short, fine, capillary rays, of which
the first is by far the largest ; second dorsal taking its
origin in a line over the ends of the pectorals, and termi-
nating a little in advance of the caudal ; anal fin commencing
in a line under the twelfth ray of the second dorsal, and
ending under the last ray but three of the same fin, in form
similar to the second dorsal, but the rays scarcely more than
one half the length ; the first ray simple, the rest branched ;
caudal rounded at the extremity, the length of the middle
rays equalling the space between the first and the twelfth
rays of the anal, the lateral rays simple ; ventral fins jugular,
the second rays the longest, about two-thirds the length of
the pectorals ; the pectoral fins rounded at the extremities,
equalling the length of the caudal ; the first rays stout and
simple, the rest branched. The fin-rays in number are, —

IstD. 50 : 2nd D. 50 : P. 16 : V. 5 : A. 43 : C. 20. Vert. 52.

" Scales small, smooth, and adherent, covering the head,
body, and membranes of the dorsal, caudal, and anal fins ;
lateral line formed by a number of oval depressions, placed
at intervals from each other, commencing over the opcr-

FOUR-BEARDED ROCKLINO.

871

culum, taking a bend under the ninth, tenth, and eleventh
rays of the second dorsal fin, from thence running straight to
the middle ray of the caudal. Colours : — Back and sides of
a greyish brown ; belly dirty white ; second dorsal fin lighter
in colour at the edge ; pectorals, caudal, and lower part of
the dorsal, dark brown, approaching to black ; anal and ven-
trals dusky.""

278

GAD1D.E.

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOPTERYG1L

GAD1D.X.

THE FIVE-BEARDED ROCKLING.

Motella qutnquecirrata, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 334, note.

,, mustela, Five-Bearded Rochling, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert.

p. 450, sp. 136.

Mustela vulgaris, WILLUGHBV, p. 121.

Gadus mustela, LINNSUS.

,, ,, Five-Bearded Cod, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 268,

pi. 36.

,, „ ,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 14.

,, ,, ,, Gade, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 193, sp. 85.

I HAVE found the Five-Bearded Rockling, when of small
size, a very common fish on the Kentish coast in autumn,
left by the retiring tide, in small pools among the rocks, and
generally lying concealed under the tufts of sea-weed that
hang over the edges of the stones into the water. I have
observed this fish as far to the westward as Portland Island.
Colonel Montagu considered it more rare in Devonshire than
the species with three barbules at the mouth, just described :
Mr. Couch observes it on the Cornish shore : it is generally
distributed in Ireland ; and Mr. Low says it is common in
Orkney, where it is found under stones among sea-weed, but
seldom exceeding nine or ten inches in length. Pennant

FIVE-BEARDED ROCKLING. 279

says it attains the length of eighteen or nineteen inches. It
spawns in the winter, and feeds principally on small thin-
shelled crustacea and young fishes. Mr. Low says, " They
are reckoned pretty good eating, but are never got in any
quantity ; never caught at a hook : the only method of getting
them is by shifting the stones at low water, when they are to
be found with the Blennies."

Dr. Johnston says it is not uncommon at Berwick, and
Dr. Parnell finds it in the Forth : the young are about two
inches long in July.

In its habits it closely resembles the Three-Bearded Rock-
ling, and several naturalists consider them only as varieties of
the same species. Professor Nilsson regards them as dis-
tinct, and follows Linnseus in considering a fish with four
barbules also as a distinct species.

The length of the head compared to the length of the
body alone, is as one to four ; the depth of the body less
than the length of the head : the shape of the body less cy-
lindrical than that of the Three- Bearded, and the nose more
pointed ; the position and elevation of the fins similar to
those of the fishes last described, but the first ray of the first
dorsal fin is longer and more conspicuous, and the vent is
nearer the head than in those species, being less than half the
distance from the nose to the end of the fleshy portion of
the tail. The fin-rays in number are —

2nd D. 52 : P. 14 : V. 6 : A. 40 : C. 20.

The body compressed ; the head depressed ; the mouth
rather small, with a band of small teeth in each jaw, and a
patch of similar teeth at the anterior part of the roof of the
mouth ; the under jaw the shortest, with a single barbule at
the chin ; the upper lip plain, without crenation, with two
small barbules near the point of the nose, and two others, as
long again, about as much before and within the nostrils as

280 GADID.E.

the nostrils are before and within the eyes. The eyes small,
and placed near the nose. The colour of the upper part of
the head, back, and sides, uniform dark brown ; lower part of
the sides lighter brown ; under surface of the lower jaw, the
ventral fins, and the belly to the vent, white ; the other fins
dusky brown : the course of the lateral line distinctly marked
by a series of short, slender white streaks, as shown in the
wood engraving.

I have been favoured by Dr. Richardson with the follow-
ing description of the appearance of a fine example of this
species : — General colour of the body pale bronze, approach-
ing to that of jeweller's gold, with streaks of purer gold co-
lour above the lateral line in the direction of the ribs. The
upper parts of the head and the gill-covers yellowish brown,
blended on the cheeks with the bronze. The fins are also of
a brownish orange or bronze colour, but without the metallic
lustre, and their margins are blood red ; the red tinge is more
general on the pectorals ; the irides silvery, the pupils bluish
black.

The three species last described have been called mustela
by different authors. Linnaeus attached this term to the
species with five barbules : Cuvier, in the Regnc Animal,
identifies the Three-Bearded Rockling with this same word.
As the number of barbules appear to be constant in each, a
reference to the number in the specific name is, perhaps, the
least objectionable. Linnaeus, and other authors to the
present time, continue, as before stated, to consider the
northern species with four barbules as distinct from both, and
there is no doubt that they are all three good species.

MACKEREL MIDGE.

SUBBRACU1AL

MALACOPTERY011. GADID.E.

THE MACKEREL MIDGE.

Motella glauca, Mackerel Midge, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 451, sp. 137.
Ciliata ,, ,, ,, COUCH, Zool. Journ. vol. i. p. 132.

,, ,, ,, „ ,, Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 15 and 16>

fig. 2, and p. 741.

MB. COUCH'S MS. account of tins beautiful little fish is
as follows : — " It is about one inch and a quarter in length,
moderately elongated ; head obtuse, compressed : upper jaw
the longest, with four straight barbules ; the under jaw with
one barbule ; teeth in both jaws : gill membrane with seven
rays ; eyes large and bright ; a fringed membrane in a depres-
sion behind the head ; pectoral and ventral fins rather large
for the size of the fish ; dorsal and anal fins single, and reach-
ing near to the tail ; scales deciduous ; colour on the back
bluish green ; belly and fins silvery. This seems to be one
of the species spoken of by the older naturalists under the
name of apua ; and which, from their minute size, and the
multitudes in which they sometimes appeared, they judged
to be produced by spontaneous generation from the froth of
the sea, or the putrefaction of marine substances. The name
I have assigned to it is that in use among our fishermen,
and is descriptive of its colour and very minute size, for it is
the smallest fish with which I am acquainted. "

282 GADID/E.

" This fish is gregarious and migratory, never making its
appearance before May, after which it is abundant from the
edge of the shore to every part of the Channel. Its winter
station is probably deep in the water ; but in summer it
keeps near the surface, and seeks the shelter of everything it
finds floating; — a circumstance that often leads to its destruc-
tion, for it is frequently hauled on board boats among the
corks of nets, or with the line, or floating weeds ; and in a
storm they are often thrown into boats through the breaking
of the sea, — a circumstance which shows that at such seasons
they must be on the crest of the wave.1'1

" This fish dies instantly on being taken out of the
water."

Part of a letter received from Mr. Couch in May 1840 is
to the following effect : — " I yesterday had an opportunity of
observing the actions of a little company of Mackerel Midges
that had been left by the tide in a large pool. Sometimes
they gamboled about, keeping the body permanently bent at
nearly a right angle, and moving the tail with great rapidity ;
at other times they kept under the shelter of a piece of sea-
weed, or other floating substance, and, passing across it re-
peatedly, seemed to delight in rubbing their backs against it."

This small fish, with much the appearance of being the
young of a larger species, and closely allied in form to the
Five-Bearded Rockling, presents in its economy some of the
attributes of a species. Unlike the fish last described, which
is very tenacious of life, this little fish, it is said, dies in-
stantly on being taken out of the water : it does not appear
every summer, as might be expected if it was the young of
so common and local a species as the Five-Bearded Rock-
ling ; and although present, as it is frequently said to be,
during the greater part of the summer, when fry grow most
rapidly, no increase is observed in its size.

SILVERY OADE.

SUBBRACHIAL

MALACOPTERYGII. GADIDJE.

THE SILVERY GADE.

Molella argenteola, YARRELL.

Gadus urgenteolus, Silvery Gade, MONTAGU, Mem. Wern. Soc. vol. ii. pt. '2,

p. 449.

THE following is Colonel Montagu's account of this small
fish : — " There is a small species of Gadus, which is occa-
sionally found on the western coast, that is nearly allied to
the Three-Bearded Cod (Rockling) in most particulars ; but
the shape of the head and the colour are essentially different.
It has very much the appearance of the fry of some larger
species, and might have been suspected to be the young of
the Ling, had it not been for a little difference in the first
dorsal fin, and the two cirri which this has before the nostrils.
If a fourth cirrus could have been discovered, suspicions
would have arisen whether it might not have been the cim-
brius of Gmelin. Its essential characters may stand thus : —

" With two dorsal fins, the anterior very obscure, except
the first ray, which is much the longest : cirri three, two be-
fore the nostrils, and one on the chin : upper jaw longest ;
back bluish green ; sides and belly silvery.

" The head is obtuse ; eyes lateral, irides silvery : all the
fins are of a pale colour, and the whole fish is of a silvery
resplendence, except the back, which is blue, changeable
to dark green : the pectoral fin is rounded with sixteen or
eighteen rays ; ventral, six or seven, the middle ray consider-
ably the longest, and placed much before the pectoral : first

284 GADID.E.

dorsal fin commences above the gills, and the rays are very
minute and obscure, the first excepted, but more than thirty
have been counted ; the second dorsal commences close to
the other, in a line with the end of the pectoral, and termi-
nates close to the caudal ; the rays are innumerable : the anal
fin begins immediately behind the vent, and terminates even
Avith the dorsal ; the caudal fin is nearly even at the end.
Length about two inches.

" I first noticed many of these fishes thrown upon the
shore in the south of Devonshire, in the summer of 1808,
and have taken two or three since. The fishermen called it
Whitebait, but I afterwards found they had mistaken it for
the fry of Herring and Pilchard, which indiscriminately go
by that name, and are sold together in some places under the
name of Herring-Sprat.

" The Three-Bearded Cod (Rockling) is a very common
species on the western coast, and which I have taken of all
sizes, from the most minute to its full growth of sixteen or
seventeen inches, and never observed it to vary in colour,
except as it grows large it becomes more rufous and throws
out spots, which is never observed till it exceeds six or seven
inches, but is invariably rufous brown in its infant state."

It is worthy of remark, that this little fish, representing in
miniature the Three-Bearded Rockling, offers an instance
perfectly analogous to the representation in an equally dimi-
nutive size of the five-bearded species, by Mr. Couch's recent
discovery of the Mackerel Midge.

TORSK, OR TUSK. 285

SUBBRACHIAL

MALACOPTERYGLl. GAD1DJE.

^^^^^^^^^l^v

^Krr^

•'\.*"-~-=*''

•^p

'***&•*&*'.•'.•.•.. .:,:::yy^" <••••<..•• ... , .,. . .. >

THE TORSK, OR TUSK.

Brosmius vulgaris, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 334.

Erasmus ,, Common Tusk, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 194, sp. 90.

,, ,, Torsk, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 452.

Gadus brosme, ,, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 269, pi. 37.

,, ,, Scotch Torsk, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 70.

,, ,, NILSSON, Prod. p. 47, sp. 14.

BROSMIUS. Generic Characters. — Body elongated ; a single dorsal fin, ex-
tending the whole length of the back ; one barbule at the chin ; ventral fins
fleshy.

THE TORSK, OR TUSK, is a northern species, which is
only occasionally caught in the Forth, and is then brought
to the Edinburgh market. It is found more frequently in
the Orkney Islands, and swarms among those of Shetland,
where it makes a very considerable article in their fish trade.
It is caught with lines and hooks when fishing for Ling and
Cod, and is salted and dried in the same manner. When
eaten fresh, it is very firm and rather tough ; which makes
most people prefer it dry. It is one of the best fishes when
cured, swells much in boiling, and parts into very thick
flakes. I observed three examples of this fish, each about

286 GADID.E.

sixteen inches in length, in the London market, during the
month of January 1831. These were brought from the
North in the lobster-boats. The length assigned to this
species by M. Nilsson is from eighteen inches to two feet,
rarely three feet. Mr. Low says the largest he had heard of
was three feet and a half. Mr. Donovan's specimen, which
was brought alive to London in the well of a fishing-boat,
measured twenty-five inches.

But little being known in the South of the habits of
this fish, an abridgment of Faber's account of it may be
interesting.

" A northern fish, scarcely occurring below 60° or above
73° ; not migrating regularly, and therefore rarely seen by
the ichthyologists of the South. Plentiful on the coasts of
Norway as far as Finmark, of the Faroe Islands, and the
west and south coasts of Iceland ; rare on the north and east
coasts of Iceland. It must be uncommon in Greenland, as
Fabricius only knew it from the report of the natives.
Just touches the most northern point of Denmark, at Skagen
in Jutland, where it is sometimes taken ; not at all in the
south. Approaches the land early in the year in shoals, that
of Iceland in January ; remains there in company with the
Five-Bearded, and goes away again late in summer. Lives
in deep water, and is therefore seldom taken, even when it is
most abundant. Prefers a rocky bottom, on which sea-
weeds grow. Never found anything in its stomach ; and this
has probably given rise to the saying, that it lives on the
juice of sea-weeds. Spawns in April and May among the
fuci along the coast. Is rarely taken with the Cod hooks,
more frequently at the smaller lines. Sometimes taken by
the Norwegian fishermen among the Holibuts. It must
have less power of resisting the violence of the sea than its
congeners, as it is thrown up dead in incredible numbers on
the coasts of the Faroe Islands and the south coast of Iceland

TORSK, OR TUSK. 287

after a storm. Its flesh is hard, but well flavoured. In Ice-
land seldom dried, but eaten fresh. Jan Olsen says that the
fresh flesh is badly tasted, but when dried it is the best food.
In Norway it is treated like the Stockfish, but forms no
branch of merchandise. The hard roe, according to Pontop-
piclan, has a good flavour. Its enemies are the larger species
of Cod. It is much infested by a worm which forms a nidus
in its skin, and produces rounded swellings.

Dr. Storer says that a fish which he believes to be the
same as our Torsk is not uncommonly seen in the Boston
market in spring, but that in winter it is more rare. It is
taken with the hook when fishing for deep-water Cod.

The description of this fish by Mr. Low is here adopted,
with slight modification. The measurements of the specimen
from which this description was taken were the following : —
" The whole length twenty inches and a half: the greatest
breadth four and a half, which was taken at the end of the
pectoral fin ; at the vent four inches ; something more than
half-way from the vent to the tail, two inches ; at the tail,
one inch and a quarter : the length of the head four inches ;
from the point of the nose to the commencement of the dorsal
fin, six inches ; length of the dorsal fin thirteen inches ;
from the point of the lower jaw to the vent, eleven inches ;
length of the anal fin, eight inches ; tail something more
than two inches."

" The head small in proportion to the fish, with a single
barbule under the chin : the upper jaw very little longer than
the lower ; in the jaws there are great numbers of very small
teeth, and in the roof of the mouth a rough or toothed bone,
much in the shape of a horse-shoe ; a pretty broad furrow
runs from the nape to the commencement of the dorsal fin,
which runs the whole length of the back to within about an
inch of the tail ; the tail is rounded ; the anal fin begins at
the vent and ends at the tail, but is not joined with it ; the

288

G ABIDE.

rays of the dorsal and anal fins are numerous, but the soft-
ness of these and the thickness of the investing skin hinder
them from being counted with exactness : the edges of the
dorsal, anal fin, and tail, are white ; the rest dusky: the pec-
toral fins are rounded, broad, and of a brown colour; the
ventrals small, thick, and fleshy, ending in points ; the body
to the vent is roundish ; the belly from the throat growing
suddenly very prominent, continuing so to the vent, where it
becomes smaller to the tail ; behind the vent the body is
pretty much compressed : the colour of the head is dusky ;
the back and sides yellow, which becoming lighter by degrees,
is lost in the white of the belly ; the lateral line is scarcely
discernible, but runs nearer the back than the belly, till to-
wards the middle of the fish, in its passage backwards, it
curves a little downwards, and runs straight to the tail."
The fin-rays, according to Mr. Donovan, are —

D. 49 : P. 21 : V. 5 : A. 37 : C. 35.
The vignette represents a fishing-boat of Cadiz Bay.

GREAT FORKED BEARD.

289

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOPTERYGIL

GADIDJE,

THE GREAT FORKED BEARD.

FORKED HAKE. MAKERS DAME, Cornwall.

Phycisfurcatus, Common Fork Beard, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 193, sp. 84.

,, ,, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 335.

Barbus major, Great Forked Beard, RAY, Syn. p. 163, fig. 7.

Blennius physis, Forked Hake, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 259, pi. 35.

Phycisfurcatus, Common Fork Beard, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 452.

PHYCIS. Generic Characters. — Body elongated ; two dorsal fins, the first
short, the second long; ventral fins with a single ray only at the base, after-
wards divided ; chin with one harbule.

THE GREAT FORKED BEARD was first discovered on
the Cornish coast by Mr. Jago, and inserted by Ray, with a
figure, in his Synopsis, as referred to. Pennant's fish was
taken on the coast of Flintshire. A specimen appeared in
Carlisle market in December 1833, which was caught near
Bowness ; communicated to me by T. C. Heysham, Esq. :
and this fish has also occurred at St. Andrews in Scotland,
as noticed in the sixth volume of the Memoirs of the Wer-
nerian Natural History Society, page 569. It is obtained

VOL. II.

u

290 GADID.E.

occasionally in Cornwall ; Mr. Dillwyn lias published a notice
of one, measuring two feet in length, which was cast ashore
in Oxwich Bay, and weighed four pounds ; and Mr. William
Thompson has noticed the occurrence of this fish in Ireland.

The figure here given is taken from a drawing by Mr.
Couch, whose MS. contains the following notice of this
species : — " The head flat on the top, compressed at the
sides, small in proportion to the body : eyes large ; nostrils
in a depression before them : mouth wide : under jaw short-
est ; teeth in both fine ; some larger teeth on the palate : a
barb at the lower jaw: body compressed, slender towards the
tail, which is small in proportion ; belly tumid ; lateral line
elevated at first, afterwards low ; body and head with scales :
two dorsal fins, the first elevated and pointed ; second dorsal
and anal fins long, expanded, bound down towards the
tail ; the ventral fins simple rays, very long, divided or
forked, one of the divisions longer than the other; a few
spines before the anal fin ; tail rounded, all the rays soft.
Colour of the sides and back dusky brown ; on the gill-
covers sometimes greenish ; fins dusky purple, except the
ventrals ; belly whitish.

" This fish grows to the length of two feet : in a specimen
of this size the longest portion of the ventral ray was eight
inches, the shortest five inches and a half.

" Hake's Dame is the name by which alone this fish is
known to our fishermen. It is not uncommon in Cornwall ;
but I have never seen it except in winter, when it seems to
come into shallow water to spawn. It takes a bait, and is
used as food, but is not much esteemed.1'

The number of fin-rays are —

1st D. 9 : 2nd D. 58 : P. 16 : V. 1 : A. 51 : C. 18.

It is desirable to notice the specific characters of this
fish, in order to distinguish between it and a Mediterranean

GREAT FORKED BEARD. 291

species of the same genus, which, according to Cuvier, is
the true Blennius phycis of Linnaeus, and not the British
fish, as supposed by Pennant and others. The British fish
has the first dorsal fin triangular, much higher than the
second, the anterior rays produced ; the ventral rays twice as
long as the head. The Mediterranean fish, of which I
possess a specimen, has the first dorsal fin low and rounded,
very similar in character to that of the Burbot, as figured at
page 267 of this volume, with the ventral rays much shorter.
A description and figure of this fish is given by Willughby,
page 205, pi. N. 12, fig. 3.

At the time of the publication of the first edition of this
work, I had not seen a specimen of this fish. Since then I
have received a very fine example sent me by T. C. Heysham,
Esq. of Carlisle, from the west coast, where it has occurred
lately in two or three instances : one was taken on the coast
of the Solway Frith, near Whitehaven. Mr. Couch has very
kindly sent me two examples of this species, one an adult
specimen, the other a young fish only three inches long, which
was fished up in the shell of a large pinna, from a depth of
fifty fathoms, in July 1837.

u 2

292

OADIDK.

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOPTERYGU.

GADJD/E.

THE LESSER FORKED BEARD.

TRIFURCATED HAKE. TADPOLE FISH.

Raniceps trifurcatus, Trifurcated Hake, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 194, sp. 88.
,, Jago, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, 89.

,, ,, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 336.

Barbus minor, Lesser Forked Beard, RAY, Syn. p. 164, sp. 8, fig. 8.

,, ,, Forked Hake, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 261.

Batrachoides trifurcatus, Trifurcated Tadpole Fish, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii.

p. 272, pi. 38.
Raniceps trifurcatus, Tadpole Fish, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 453.

RANICEPS. Generic Characters. — Head depressed, body compressed ; two
dorsal fins, the first very small ; the second dorsal and the anal fins elongated ;
ventral fins small, the first two rays lengthened and separated.

DR. GEORGE JOHNSTON, of Berwick, in his address to
the members of the Berwickshire Naturalist's Club, read at
the first anniversary meeting in September 1832,* when
referring to the various species of fishes which had occurred
to him during the previous twelvemonths, remarks at page 7 :
" Of the Tadpole Fish, which is one of the rarest British

* See also Mr. Loudon's Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. vi. page 11.

LESSER FORKED BEARD. 293

species, and previously known only as an inhabitant of the
shores of Cornwall, I had the pleasure of exhibiting to you
a living specimen, which had been captured in Berwick Bay.
When alive, and when recently dead, the body appeared
everywhere smooth and even ; but after having lain three
days on a plate and become a little shrivelled, there ap-
peared an obscure row of tubercles, running backwards from
the pectoral fins, — and these pea-like tubercles could be more
readily distinguished by drawing the finger over the skin.
I would call attention to this fact, because the only good
distinction between the Raniceps trifurcatus and R. Jago
of Dr. Fleming is derived from the presence of these tuber-
cles ; in the former, the lateral line is said to be tubercu-
lated above the pectoral fins, in the latter it is said to be
smooth : but here we have a specimen which when alive
exhibits the character of Jago, — when dead, that of the tri-
furcatus ; and hence I am induced to think that both are
the same animal, having the tubercles more or less promi-
nent and obvious according to the leanness or other condi-
tions of the body."

The difficulty of deciding the point without possessing
a specimen, which the rarity of the fish rendered almost
hopeless, probably induced Dr. Fleming to follow Pennant
in giving both names a place in his History of British
Animals. The description of Mr. Couch is quoted by
Dr. Fleming as belonging to the Cornish fish and the Lesser
Forked Beard of Jago ; and Cuvier, in a note at the foot
of page 336 of the second volume of the Regne Animal,
quotes the Gadus trifurcatus of Pennant as belonging to
his genus Raniceps.

The advantages of equal communication and assistance on
this point from Mr. Couch and Dr. Johnston enable me to
carry the comparison of the two fishes still further.

Mr. Couch has favoured me with a drawing and a dcscrip-

294 OADID.E.

tion of a specimen taken in Cornwall. The description is
already given by Dr. Fleming. Dr. Johnston has also fur-
nished me with a coloured drawing, a penciled sketch, and a
description. These compared together, these again compared
with the double representations in the last two octavo editions
of Pennant's British Zoology, and each with the figure of
Jago's fish in Ray's Synopsis, will, I think, leave little doubt
that all are intended to represent the same fish.

Sir William Jardine has reminded me that a tolerable
figure of this fish occurs in M tiller's Zoologia Danica, under
the name of Bhnnius raninus. The figure here given is
from Dr. ParnelFs engraving in his History of the Fishes of
the Frith of Forth.

Dr. Johnston's description is as follows : —

" The comparison implied in the name Tadpole Fish is
very expressive of its general form and colour ; for when
alive it was entirely black, and the anterior parts are large
and tumid, while the hinder are much compressed. The
extreme length of our Berwickshire specimen was eleven
inches ; and its greatest circumference, which is immediately
before the pectoral fins, was seven inches, whence it tapered
rapidly to the tail. The head is very large, obtuse, and
flattened on the crown, where there is a slight depression
between the eyes, which arc an inch distant from each other,
lateral, prominent, round, and black. The mouth is wide ;
and under the chin there is a small conical barb or feeler :
the lips are rounded and white ; the inferior jaw armed with
two close rows of sharp teeth, and the upper, which is move-
able, with similar teeth, but more numerous, and not dis-
tinctly rowed. On the palate, behind the jaw, there is a
semilunar cartilaginous prominence or tubercle roughened
with small teeth ; and the wide entrance into the oesophagus
is guarded with four similar tubercles, but of a roundish
figure, two above, and two smaller below. The branchial

LESSER FORKED BEARD. 295

rays are few in number, and on the inner side of each of
them there are two rows of minutely spinous tufts. The
first dorsal fin is very minute, but is terminated by a rather
long ray : the second dorsal fin commences just behind it,
or one-third of the whole length from the head, and extends
nearly to the tail ; it is half an inch broad, equal throughout,
the rays ending in free single points. The anal fin is like
the dorsal : the pectorals are oblong wedge-shaped, one inch
and a half long : the ventral fins are small, and their two
anterior rays are very long, white, and detached ; the fore-
most one-half the length of the second, which measures
little less than two inches. Tail wedge-shaped. The scales
are small, and lie close to the body : they have an oblong
square form, marked with parallel lines or striae, which on
the exposed part of each scale run in a transverse, and on
the covered parts in a longitudinal direction."

The numbers of the different fin-rays, according to Pen-
nant are —

1st D. 3 : 2nd D.62 : P. 23 : V. 6 : A. 59 : C. 36.

Mr. Couch says this fish is too rare for us to be much
acquainted with its history. The only specimen he ever
saw was taken with a line in rocky ground, in the month of
April ; at which time its roe was small. The remains of
an echinus were in its intestines. Other examples have since
occurred ; it has been taken on the east and west coasts of
Scotland, and once in Ireland off Donaghadee Harbour, as
recorded by Mr. William Thompson. Dr. Parnell says it
spawns in April, and feeds on small insects.

The following note appears at the end of Mr. Couch's
account of this fish : —

" Mr. Jago, whose name occurs at the head of a list of
fishes at the end of Rny^s Synopsis Piscium, was a native
of Cornwall, and a minister of the Church of England.

296

GADID.E.

When Bishop Trelawney, so well known as one of the
six bishops committed to the Tower by James the Second,
endowed the Chapel of Ease at East Looe, and thereby ob-
tained the consent of the Rector of St. Martin to name the
curate, he appointed his friend Mr. Jago to the curacy ; and
the latter embraced the favourable opportunity thus placed
within his reach to make collections for an intended History
of Cornish Fishes, which, however, he never perfected.
Never having been married, his MS. and drawings at his
decease came into the possession of his friend Mr. Dyer, by
whom they were delivered to Dr. Borlase, the author of the
History of Cornwall.

PLAICE.

297

SUBBEACH1AL

MALACOPTERYGll.

PLEURONECTW&*

THE PLAICE.

Platessa vulgar it,

Plaise, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 198, sp. 103.
,, ,, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 338.

,, ,, Pluise, WILLUGHBY, p. 96, F. 4.

Pleuronectes plutessa, LINN.EUS. BLOCK, pt. ii. pi. 42.

,, ,, Plaise, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 304.

,, ,, ,, DON. Brit. Fish.pl. 6.

Platessa vulgaris, Common Plaice, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 454.

PLATESSA. Generic Characters. — Body rhomboidal, depressed; both eyes on
the right side of the head, one above the other ; a row of teeth in each jaw, with
others on the pharyngeal bones; dorsal fin commencing over the upper eye, that
fin and the anal fin extending nearly the whole length of the body, but neither
of them joined to the tail ; branchiostegous rays 6.

THE character and appearance of the various species of
Pleuronectidte, or Flatfish, as they are popularly called, arc
so peculiar and so unique among vertebratcd animals as to
claim particular notice.

The want of symmetry in the form of the head ; both
eyes placed on the same side, one higher than the other,
* The family of the Flounders, popularly called Flatfish.

298 PLEURONECT1D/E.

frequently not in the same vertical line, and often unequal
in size ; the position of the mouth ; the inequality of the
two sides of the head, and the frequent want of uniformity
in those fins that are in pairs, the pectoral and ventral
fins of the under or white side being in some species smaller
than those of the upper ; and the whole of the colour of the
fish confined to one side, while the other side remains per-
fectly white, — produce a grotesque appearance : yet a little
consideration will prove that these various and seemingly
obvious anomalies are perfectly in harmony with that station
in nature which an animal bearing these attributes is ap-
pointed to fill.

As birds are seen to occupy very different situations, some
obtaining their food on the ground, others on trees, and not
a few at various degrees of elevation in the air, so are fishes
destined to reside in different situations in the water : the
Flatfishes and the various species of Skate are, by their de-
pressed form of body, admirably adapted to inhabit the
lowest position, and where they occupy the least space,
among their kindred fishes.

Preferring sandy or muddy shores, and unprovided with
swimming-bladders, their place is close to the ground, where,
hiding their bodies horizontally in the loose soil at the bot-
tom, with the head only slightly elevated, an eye on the
under side of the head would be useless ; but both eyes
placed on the upper surface affords them an extensive range
of view in those various directions in which they may either
endeavour to find suitable food, or avoid dangerous enemies.
Light, one great cause of colour, strikes on the upper surface
only ; the under surface, like that of most other fishes, re-
mains perfectly colourless. Having little or no means of
defence, had their colour been placed only above the lateral
line on each side, in whatever position they moved, their
piebald appearance would have rendered them conspicuous

PLAICE. 299

objects to all their enemies. When near the ground, they
swim slowly, maintaining their horizontal position ; and the
smaller pectoral and ventral fins on the under side are advan-
tageous where there is so much less room for their action,
than with the larger fins that are above. When suddenly
disturbed, they sometimes make a rapid shoot, changing their
position from horizontal to vertical : if the observer happens
to be opposite the white side, they may be seen to pass with
the rapidity and flash of a meteor ; but they soon sink down,
resuming their previous motionless, horizontal position, and
are then distinguished with difficulty, owing to their great
similarity in colour to the surface on which they rest.

Though the appearance and situation of the eyes and
mouth seem to indicate a degree of deformity, yet the head
contains modifications of all the bones that are found in a
symmetrically-formed head. The vent is situated very far
forward between the ventral fins and the commencement of
the anal fin ; but the abdominal cavity, though circum-
scribed, extends backwards to a considerable distance, the
intestine returning by a convolution.

Most of the Flatfishes are deservedly in great request as
articles of food. The number of species diminishes as the
degrees of northern latitude increase. In this country we
have sixteen species ; at the parallel of Jutland, Denmark,
and the islands at the mouth of the Baltic, there are thir-
teen ; on the coast of Norway they are reduced to ten spe-
cies ; at Iceland the number is but five, and at Greenland
only three.

The Plaice is described and figured by Rondeletius, and
was known to the older naturalists long before his time.
It inhabits sandy banks and muddy grounds in the sea ; and
among the Orkney islands is caught by lines and hooks ;
but as it is not of large size there, it is not much sought
after : it is common, however, in the Edinburgh market, where

JJOO PLEURONECTID.E.

the small ones are called Fleuks. On the English coast the
Plaice is taken in abundance generally wherever either lines
or trawl-nets can be used ; and in Ireland, this fish is re-
corded to be taken from the shores of the county of Cork on
the south, round by the eastern coast to the county of Done-
gal on the north-west.

The Plaice spawns in February or March, and is consi-
dered to be in the finest condition for the table at the end of
May. Diamond Plaice is a name attached to those which
are caught at a particular fishing-station off the Sussex coast,
which is called the Diamond ground. The fish are remark-
able for the purity of the brown colour and the brilliancy of
the spots.

Plaice feed on the soft-bodied animals generally, with
young fish and small Crustacea, and have been known to
attain the weight of fifteen pounds ; but one of seven or
eight pounds' weight is considered a Plaice of large size. It
is taken sometimes in almost incredible numbers. So great
a glut of Plaice occurred once in Billingsgate market, that,
although crowded with dealers, hundreds of bushels remained
unsold. Great quantities of Plaice, averaging three pounds'
weight each, were sold at one penny per dozen. One sales-
man, having in vain endeavoured to sell a hundred bushels
at the rate of fifty Plaice for four-pence, left them with Mr.
Goldham, the clerk of the market, requesting him to sell
them for anything he could get. Unable to dispose of them
otherwise, Mr. Goldham, by direction of the Lord Mayor,
divided them among the poor.

In some parts of the North of Europe, where from the
rocky nature of the soil the sea is remarkably transparent,
Plaice and some other Flatfish of large size are taken by
dropping down upon them, from a boat, a doubly-barbed short
spear, heavily leaded to carry it with velocity to the bottom,

PLAICE. .')01

•with a line attached to it, by which the fish when transfixed
is hauled up.

In East Fricsland the Plaice has been transferred to fresh-
water ponds, where it is established and thrives well.

Like other ground-fish, all the Pleiironectidte are very
tenacious of life.

The length of the head compared to the whole length of
the head, body, and tail, is as two to nine ; the depth of
the solid part of the body, without including the dorsal or
anal fins, rather more than one-third of the whole length ;
the form subrhomboidal ; the mouth and teeth rather small ;
the upper eye the largest, and placed rather more backward
than the lower eye, with a strong and prominent bony ridge
between the orbits, and several tubercles forming a curved
line from the posterior part of the ridge to the commence-
ment of the lateral line : the preopcrculurn is in a vertical
line over the origin of the ventral fin ; the operculum ter-
minates in an angle upon the base of the pectoral fin ; the
lateral line prominent, commencing at the upper margin of
the operculum, arched over the pectoral fin, then straight
along the middle of the fleshy portion of the tail, and ex-
tending over the membrane connecting the central caudal
rays. The dorsal fin commences over the upper eye ; the
longest rays rather behind the middle of its whole length :

O •/

the anal fin, preceded by a spine, begins in a line under the
origin of the pectoral fin ; the longest rays rather before the
middle : both dorsal and anal fins end on the same plane,
and short of the end of the fleshy portion of the tail, which,
as well as the caudal rays, is narrow and elongated ; the
tail rounded.

The fin-rays in number are —

D. 73 : P. 11 : V. 6 : A. 55 : C. 16.

The body is smooth on both sides, the scales small ; the

302

PLEUEONECTID.E.

colour of the upper or right side a rich brown, with a row of
bright orange red spots along the dorsal and anal fins, and
other spots of the same colour dispersed over the body ; the
under side entirely white. Young Plaice have frequently
a dark spot in the centre of the red one.

The fishes of this first division of the Pleuronectid<e with
the eyes and the colour on the right side of the. body are fur-
ther distinguished by the term dextral fishes.

The vignette represents the bones of the head in the genus
Platessa.

FLOUNDER.

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOPTERYGI1.

P/.Ef/ROA'ECT/D//;.

THE FLOUNDER.
FLOOK, Merret. — MAYOCK FLEUKE, Edinb. — BUTT.

Platessa jiesus, Flounder, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 198, sp. 104. •

,, ,, Le Flet, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 339.
Pleuronectesfluviatilis, Fluke, WILLUGHBY, p. 97, F. 4.

,, Jiesus, ,, LINN,<F.US. BLOCK, pt. ii. pi. 44 & 50.

,, ,, Flounder, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 305.

,, ,, ,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 94.

Platessa ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 455.

THE FLOUNDER is one of the most common of the Flat-
fish, and is found in the sea and near the mouths of large
rivers all round our coast, being more particularly abundant
where the bottom is soft, whether of sand, clay, or mud.
All the bays, creeks, and inlets of Orkney produce it, accord-
ing to Mr. Low ; and it is taken in abundance in different
parts of Scotland, where it is called Fluke and Mayock
Fleukc, — a term having reference to the flattened form of

304 PLEURONECTID.E.

the fisli. It is common at Berwick and Yarmouth, at which
latter place it is called a Butt — a northern term ; and those
Flounders that are caught in the extensive backwaters behind
Yarmouth, where there is a considerable deposit of mud,
are in consequence so dark in colour as to be distinguished,
from the lighter-coloured ones caught on the sands of the sea,
by the name of Black Butts. This similarity in colour be-
tween certain fishes and the bottom upon which they arc
found has been already referred to as affording security to
the defenceless from the attacks of their enemies, and exhibits
a beautiful instance of the design employed for the preserva-
tion of species. In Sweden, according to Linnaeus, this fish
is called Flundra, from which our word Flounder is proba-
bly derived, and is said to refer to its manner of swimming
when close to the ground.

The Flounder lives and thrives whether stationary in the
sea, the brackish water, or the fresh water. In the Thames
it is taken as high up as Teddington and Sunbury : Mr.
Jesse mentions having seen the Flounder pursue Minnows
with great eagerness into the shallows where the Mole runs
into the Thames at Hampton Court. This species is caught
in considerable quantities from Deptford to Richmond by
Thames fishermen, who, with the assistance of an apprentice,
use a net of a particular sort, called a tuck-net, or tuck-sean.
One end of this net is fixed for a short time by an anchor or
grapple, and its situation marked by a floating buoy ; the
boat is then rowed, or rather sculled, by the apprentice in
a circle, the fisherman near the stern handing out and clear-
ing the net : when the circle is completed and a space in-
closed, the net is hauled in near the starting point in a
direction across the fixed end.

Flounders ascend rivers generally. Colonel Montagu says
they are found up the Avon within three miles of Bath.
They have been successfully transferred to fresh-water ponds :

FLOUNDER. 305

being long-lived out of water, the carriage from one place to
another is a matter of very little difficulty. Along our
southern shore the Flounder is very common ; and it occurs
on the Irish coast from Cork up the eastern side to Antrim,
and thence northward and westward to Donegal.

The Flounder feeds upon aquatic insects, worms, and
small fishes, and has been known to acquire the weight of
four pounds, but is not usually seen near so large. It
spawns in February or March, and the young Flounders may
be seen alive by the end of April. Varieties of the Floun-
der occur much more commonly than those of any other
species of Flatfish. I have before me, while now writing,
specimens without any colour on either side ; specimens
coloured on both sides ; and specimens with both eyes and
the whole of the colour on the left side instead of the right.
Those without any dark colour on either side are albino
varieties, through the transparent skins of which the colour
of the blood-vessels and muscles has suggested the trivial
names of rosea and carnaria to the authors who considered
them species. The PL passer, figured by Bloch, pt. ii.
pi. 50, is certainly only a reversed Flounder, having the
eyes and the colour on the' left side ; — a variety so common,
that it is scarcely possible to examine a peck measure of
Flounders without finding one or more reversed specimens.
One of the most remarkable specific distinctions of the
Flounder, the series of denticulated tubercles placed be-
tween the rays of the fins along the dorsal and abdominal
lines, is distinctly figured in both Bloch's plates as quoted,
pt. ii. plates 44 and 50.

The length of the head is to the whole length of the fish
as one to four ; the greatest width of the body, without the
fins, is to the whole length of the fish as one to three : the
mouth small : the teeth in one row in each jaw, small and
numerous ; the upper eye nearly over the lower ; the lateral

VOL. II. X

306 PLEURONECTID-i:.

line but very slightly curved over the pectoral fin, and
marked with numerous rough stellated tubercles at its com-
mencement, some more of which are arranged in two lines,
one above, the other below the lateral line throughout its
course : the body smooth ; the scales small ; the dorsal and
abdominal lines armed with a series of denticulated tubercles,
one in each space, between the rays, and alternating with
them ; the dorsal fin extends from the eye almost to the
tail ; the ventral fin is placed a little farther back than in the
Plaice, under the margin of the operculum ; the anal fin,
preceded by a spine directed forwards, also commences far-
ther back ; both dorsal and anal fins terminate on the same
plane ; the fleshy portion of the tail narrow, its rays elon-
gated, and almost square at the end. The fin-rays in num-
ber are —

D. 55 : P. 11 : V. 6 : A. 42 : C. 14.

The colour of this species is variable, the shades of brown
depending on the nature of the ground from which the fish
is taken, but generally mottled with darker brown ; the
fins light brown, occasionally varied with patches of darker
brown, but generally lighter than the body. Examples
sometimes occur with a few indistinct reddish spots on the
upper surface ; but the roughness of the lateral line in the
Flounder, and its smoothness in the Plaice, is a distinguish-
ing character in these two species, however similar they may
happen to be in colour or size.

COMMON DAI:

301

SUBBRACHIAL
UALACOl'TERYCll.

PLEUROXECTIDX.

COMMON DAB.

SALTIE, AND SALT-WATER FLEUK, Edinburgh.

Platessti limaiida,

Dab, FLEM. Brit. An. 198, sp. 105.

La Limande, CUVIEH, Regne An. t. ii. pp. 339 & 340.

Passer asper, Dab,

Pleuronectes limanda, LINN/EUS.
Dab,

»

Platessa

WILLUGHBY, p. 97, F. 4.
BLOCK, pt. ii. pi. 46.
PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 308.
DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 44.
JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 456.

THE DAB is common to all the sandy parts of the coast,
and is usually caught along with Plaice and Flounder ; but
is immediately distinguished from either by its more uni-
form and lighter brown colour, its more curved lateral line,
and the roughness of the scaly surface, from which latter
circumstance it has been called in Latin, limanda, from //ma,
a file. Dr. Neill reports it as common in the market of
Edinburgh, where it is called Saltie, or Salt-water Fleuk.
I have received it from Berwick, and it is taken at Yar-
mouth. It is very common in the London market, and
Colonel Montagu says it is caught along the Devonshire
coast with the seine-net ; many are also taken by trawling.

x 2

308 PLEURONECTID.E.

It occurs in Cornwall, and is recorded as found on several
parts of the east coast of Ireland between Waterford and
Belfast.

The Dab feeds on small fish, Crustacea, and testacea, par-
ticularly Pecten obsoletus ; and is in best condition for the
table in February, March, and April. Its flesh is considered
superior to that of the Plaice or Flounder ; Cuvier says it is
in higher estimation in Paris than the Flounder, because it
bears carriage better. It spawns in May or June ; inhabits ,
deeper water generally than the Flounder ; and on some parts
of the coast is caught both by sea-lines and hand-lines, the
hooks of which are baited with the usual marine sand-worm,
or a portion of the body of some of the testaceous mollusca.
The size of the Dab is commonly about eight or nine inches
in length, and seldom exceeds twelve inches.

The form of the body is like that of the Flounder : the
length of the head is to that of the body as one to five ; the
greatest breadth compared to the whole length is as two to
five : the mouth and teeth small, the latter separated ; the
eyes rather large, the orbits divided, but the bony ridge is
not very prominent ; the length of the pectoral fin nearly
two-thirds the length of the head ; ventral fins small, in a
line under the origin of the pectoral fin : the dorsal and anal
fins extending along the body nearly to the tail, both ending
on the same plane ; the longest rays of both are placed be-
hind the centre : tail slender, elongated, and slightly rounded.
The fin-rays in number are —

D. 76 : P. 11 : V. 6 : A. 59 : C. 14.

The form of the body is subrhomboidal ; the scales rough,
their margins ciliated ; the lateral line arched high over the
pectoral fin, the remainder to the tail straight ; the rays of
the dorsal and anal fins scaled ; the colour of the fish a uni-
form pale brown, with the under surface white.

LEMON DAB.

30.9

SUBBRACHIAL

MALACOPTERYGIL

PLEURONECTIDJE.

LEMON DAB, SMOOTH DAB.

SMEAR DAB. SANDFLEUK, Edinburgh.

TOWN-DAB, Hastings. — MARY-SOLE, Devonshire.

Rhombus Icevis Cornubicus, JAGO, Ray, Syn. p. 162, f. 1.
La vraie Limandelte,

Platessa microcephalus,
,, microcephula,

Pleuronectes l&vis,

DUHAJVI. T. des Peches, t. iii. Sect. IX. p. 268, tab.

VI. f. 3 and 4.

Smear Dab, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 198, sp. 106.
Lemon Dab, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 457,

sp. 144.

Smear Dab, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 309, pi. 47.
microcephalus. Small-headed Dab, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 42.
microstomus, NILSSON, Prod. Ichth. Scand. p. 53.

THE LEJION DAB, or SAIOOTH DAB, is not of such
frequent occurrence as the common Rough Dab ; and is, on
account of a mixture of various shades of reddish brown and
yellow colours, a prettier fish to look at. It approaches
to a rhomboid in form, even more so than any of the
species of this genus as now restricted to a certain portion
only of those Flatfishes that have the eyes on the right side.

310 PLEURONECTID.E.

In tracing the occurrence of the Smooth Dab round the
coast, Dr. Neill of Edinburgh says it is taken off Seton
Sands and Aberlady Bay. Dr. Richard Parnell, who has
devoted great attention to the fishes of the Forth, and to
whose kindness I am indebted for the largest example of this
species I have yet seen, obtained it, and other specimens, on
the Fifeshire coast during the months of February, March,
and April. I have received specimens also from Dr. John-
ston of Berwick. It is not uncommon in the London mar-
ket ; and is taken on the Sussex coast, where it is known by
the name of Town-Dab. Colonel Montagu observed it fre-
quently in Devonshire, where it is called Mary-Sole.

Mr. Couch says it is rather a rare fish in Cornwall, and
does not readily take a bait ; but he has known it to be
caught in the trawl-nets. Mr. Couch adds, he has no
doubt this fish is the Kitt of Jago, figured in Ray's Synop-
sis, No. 1 ; the fish being reversed on the paper, and ap-
pearing with its eyes and colour on the left side, as in the
sinistral fishes.

Mr. Thompson says the Smooth Dab is widely distributed
on the coasts of Ireland, but limited in numbers.

The flesh of the Smooth Dab is considered equal to that
of the Common Dab, and the substance of the body is much
thicker. This species spawns in May. It feeds on testa-
ceous and crustaceous animals, and is said to feed also on
chitons.

Duhamel was well acquainted with the Smooth Dab ; but
considered it a rare fish on the coast of France, and on some
parts of it entirely unknown.

The form of the body rhomboidal ; small-sized specimens
are more elongated : the length of the head is to that of the
head and body, without the caudal rays, as one to five and a
half; the depth of the body, including the dorsal or anal fin,
only just equal to half the whole length of the fish ; the

LEMON DAB.

311

mouth small ; lips tumid ; the jaws equal in length ; teeth in
an even, close, regular row in each jaw, but extending further
back on the white under side of the fish than on the upper or
eye side ; nostrils double : the eyes exactly over each other ;
the orbits separated by a strong, prominent, body ridge, but
without tubercles : the head small ; the pectoral fin but little
more than half the length of the head ; ventral fin small ; the
dorsal and anal fins reaching near to the tail, but distinct ; the
tail rounded. The fin-rays in number are —

D. 86 : P. 10 : V. 5 : A. 70 : C. 16. Vertebrae 46.

The general colour of the upper surface of the body is a
mixture of pale reddish brown and yellow, with small dark
brown specks ; the lips are orange, as is also the posterior
edge of the operculum, and the anterior edge of the body
immediately behind it : the body smooth, and covered with
a mucous secretion ; the lateral line but little arched over the
pectoral fin ; the under parts white.

The vignette below represents a Peter-boat as used by the
Thames fishermen between and above the different bridges.

312

PLEURONECTIDE.

SUBBRACHJAL
MALACOPTERYG1I.

PLEURONECTWJE.

LONG ROUGH DAB.

SANDNECKER. SAND FLEUK, AND LONG FLEUK, EfUnb.

Platessa limando'ides, Sandnecker, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 459, sp. 146.
Pleuronectes ,, ,, PARNELL, Edinb. Phil. Journ. July 1835,

p. 210.
,, ,, Long Rough Dab, BLOCH, pt. vi. pi. 186.

THE LONG ROUGH DAB is a very recent .addition to
the catalogue of British Fishes. The first notice I had
of the occurrence of this species on our coast was in the
autumn of 1833, from Dr. John Hanvood, of St. Leonard's,
near Hastings, who had seen a specimen that was taken
on the Sussex coast. In the summer of 1834? I received
two specimens from Dr. George Johnston of Berwick, which
had been taken in that vicinity. In May 1835 I was
favoured by Dr. Parnell with the largest specimen I have
yet seen, measuring fifteen inches ; who, at the same time,
sent me word they were to be had frequently in the Frith

LONG ROUGH DAB. 313

of Forth in May, June, and July. Soon afterwards I
learned by a letter from George T. Fox, Esq. of Durham,
that a specimen of PL limandoidcs of Bloch had been taken
some years before on the coast of Sunderland, and was still
preserved in the possession of Thomas Wilkinson, Esq. of
Bishop Wearmouth. The first recorded notice of this fish
as British, that I am aware of, is that by Dr. Parnell,
in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, already quoted,
where, by an error of the press, the fish is called PL liman-
danus, but this was corrected in the History of the Fishes of
the Frith of Forth.

Bloch received his specimen from Hamburgh, and states
that this fish is caught by the hook in the vicinity of Heligo-
land. He says it feeds on young crabs and young lobsters,
and that its flesh is white and good.

The length of the head compared to the whole length
of the fish is as one to five ; the breadth of the body,
not including the dorsal or anal fins, is equal to one-third
of the whole length ; with the dorsal and anal fins it is
equal to half the distance from the point of the nose to
the end of the fleshy portion of the tail : the form of the
body is an elongated oval, almost equally pointed at both
ends ; the parts of the mouth capable of some protrusion ;
teeth in a single row in each jaw, separate, conical, and
curving slightly inwards : eyes rather large ; the upper one
a little before the line of the other ; the orbits separated
by a bony ridge : pectoral and ventral fins small ; the former
only half the length of the head : dorsal and anal fins ex-
tending nearly to the tail ; both fins ending on the same
plane : the tail slightly rounded.

The cheeks, operculum, and body, covered with harsh,
ciliated scales, the surface exceedingly rough to the touch ;
a row of ciliated scales along each ray of the dorsal and anal
fins ; the lateral line straight, or very slightly inclining up-

PLEURONECTIDE.

wards as it approaches the operculum ; tlie head and body
one uniform pale brown ; the fins lighter ; the under surface
of the body rough and white.
The fin-rays in number are —

D. 76 : P. 10 : V. 5 : A. 64 : C. 16.

The vignette represents a Folkstone fisherman selling his
fish by auction on the beach after landing. This is done,
according to the Dutch fashion, by lowering the price de-
manded for the lot till a bid is made, when the bargain is
struck by dropping the shingle, which is held, as represented,
between the fore-finger and thumb.

I- li

I'OLF.

315

SUBBRACHIAL

MALACOPTERYGll.

PLEUROKECT1DJE.

THE POLE, OR CRAIG FLUKE.

Platessa Pnlu, La Pole, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 339.

,, ,, The Pule, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 458, sp. 145.

,, ,, Craig Fluke, PARNELL, Ediub. Phil. Journ. July 1835,

p. 210.
Pleiironectes Pola, La Pole, LACEPEDE, vol. iv. p. 368. New 8vo.

Edition, vol. x. p. 74.

,, cynoglossus, LINN. Syst. Nat. i. p. 456.

,, ,, GRONOV. Mus. Ichth. i. p. 14, sp. 39.

,, nigromanus, NILES. Prod. Ichth. Scand. p. 55.

THIS second addition to the British Fishes in the genus
Platessa is still more rare on our coast than the PL liman-
do'ides last described. In the month of May 1833 I ob-
served a specimen twelve inches long in the shop of Mr.
Groves of Bond-street ; and on pointing out the differences
between this and other Flatfishes by comparison with several
species among which it was placed for sale, and mentioning
its rarity, Mr. Groves immediately sent it to the Zoological
Society for preservation, observing that he had not noticed
the difference, and did not recollect that he had ever seen
that species before. From this specimen the woodcut was

316 PLEURONECTID.E.

executed. In May 1835, Dr. Pamell very kindly sent
to me from Edinburgh, for examination, a skin of this
species nineteen inches in length, with several other pre-
served skins of fishes taken in the Frith of Forth, where
the Craig Fluke, as this fish is there called by the fisher-
men, is occasionally taken in the months of April, May, and
June.

These are the only examples of this fish taken in our
seas that I am acquainted with. Of its habits but little,
I believe, is known. Baron Cuvier states, in his Regne
Animal, that in France the flesh of this species is in as
great estimation as that of the Sole ; and Lacepede states
that it attains a length of twenty-four to thirty inches.

The head is small ; its length compared to that of the
whole fish is as one to six : the greatest breadth of body,
dorsal and anal fins excluded, is to the whole length rather
more than a third ; including the dorsal and anal fins, rather
less than a half: the form of the body an elongated oval,
pointed at each end : the mouth small ; the lips thin ; a
single row of teeth in each jaw, close set, smooth, incisor-
like, with thin and even-cutting edges : the eyes rather large ;
the upper one ranging vertically behind the line of the
lower, with the usual intervening bony ridge ; irides orange :
pectoral and ventral fins small : dorsal and anal fins extending
very nearly the whole length of the body ; both ending on the
same plane ; the rays about the middle of each the longest ;
those at the extreme ends, before and behind, very short :
tail rather long and rounded.

The fin-rays in number in one specimen were —

D. 109 : P. 11 : V. 7 : A. 93 : C. 19.

The body is quite smooth ; the scales rather large, deci-
duous, but neither ciliated nor roughened in any way beyond
a few radiating strife ; the head smooth, without tubercles ;

POLE.

317

lateral line straight, and extending, as in all the other species
of Platessa, to the end of the membrane connecting the cau-
dal rays. The colour of the body uniform yellowish brown ;
the edges of all the fins darker : when dried for preservation,
the colour of the skin of the body becomes clove brown ; that
of the fins brocoli brown.

The vignette below represents the Thames Peter-boat
rigged with a fore-sail and main-sail, as used by the fishermen
about Greenwich, and from thence along the course of the
river downwards.

318

rLEUKONECTID.E.

SUBBRACHIAL

MALACOPTERYGI1.

PLEURONECT1D&.

THE LONG FLOUNDER.

Platessa elongata, The Long Flounder, YARUELL, Suppl. to Brit. Fishes.

I AM indebted to Mr. Baker, of Bridgewater, for several
interesting communications on Birds and Fishes, one of the
most valuable of which is the opportunity afforded me of
making known what appeared to that gentleman to be a spe-
cies of Flounder undescribed as a British Fish, and which,
after having made the usual search, I have reason to believe
is not only undescribed as a British Fish, but is altogether
new to Ichthyology. I have only as yet seen the single
specimen sent me for my use on this occasion by Mr. Baker,
from which a drawing has been made of the natural size, and
the reduced representation here given engraved on wood ;
but I understand from Mr. Baker's son that his father had
obtained a second example of the same fish. The specimen
now before me was obtained at Stoford, in Bridgewater Bay,
in the month of December. Little is of course known of
the habits of so recent and so rare an acquisition.

LONG FLOUNDER. 319

The whole length of this specimen is seven inches and
three-quarters ; the length of the head one inch and one
quarter, and compared to the whole length of the fish, as one
to six ; the greatest breadth of the body, dorsal and anal
fins included, is one inch and three-quarters, and compared
to the whole length of the fish, as one to four and a half;
the breadth, including the dorsal and anal fin, is to the whole
length as three to eight. The body very thin, and very
much elongated in form ; the lateral line passing straight
from the tail along the middle of the fish till it approaches
the operculum, then rises in a slight curve over the base of
the pectoral fin. The scales on the body are of medium
size, oval, with numerous radiating striae on the free portion.
The fins deep, and the tail long.

The outline of the whole head is rather circular, the mouth
oblique from below upwards, and below the line of the lon-
gitudinal axis of the body ; the jaws nearly equal in length,
each furnished with a single row of small and regular teeth ;
the eyes rather large, the upper eye, or that on the left side,
being a little in advance of the lower, or that on the right
side ; the inter-orbital bony ridge prominent ; the boundary
lines of the preoperculuni and operculum forming two con-
centric portions of circles. The pectoral fin, arising imme-
diately behind the edge of the operculum, is about half as
long as the head ; the ventral fin, in a line under the edge of
the operculum, is about half as long as the pectoral fin. The
dorsal fin, commencing with short rays in a line over the eye,
is at its greatest elevation about the middle of the fish, and
from thence diminishes gradually to the end, which is on the
fleshy portion of the tail, and short of the origin of the caudal
rays ; the anal fin begins close to the ventral fin, immediately
behind the post anal spine ; the first and last rays short,
those in the middle of the fin the longest, and the fin ends
on the same plane as the dorsal. The tail is elongated; its

320

PLEURONECTID/E.

length equal to that of the head, and in form but slightly
rounded at the end ; the sides parallel.
The fin-rays in number are —

D. 110 : P. 11 : V. 6 : A. 96 : C. 24.

The colour of this specimen on the upper surface is a uni-
form pale brown, the membranes of the different fins being
rather lighter in colour than the body of the fish; the under
surface of the body very pale wood-brown ; the irides yellow.

This specimen has been preserved dry.

The representation below is from the skeleton of the Com-
mon Flounder.

HOLIBUT,

321

SUBBRACHIAL

MALACOPTE11YCII.

PLEURONECTlDsE.

Hi/>paglossus vulgar is,

Pleuranectes h ippoglossus,

THE HOLIBUT.

Halibut, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 199, sp. 108.

,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 460.

Fletan, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 340.

,, WILLUGHBY, p. 99, F. 6.

,, LINNJEUS. BLOCH, pt. ii. pi. 47.

Halibut, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 302.

,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 75.

HIPPOGLOSSUS. Generic Characters. — With both eyes and the colour on the
right side in the British specimen of this genus, and with fins similar to those
of the species of the genus Platessa — the jaws and the pharynx are armed with
teeth that are sharper and stronger, and the form of the body is more elongated.

THE HOLIBUT is one of the largest species of the Pleu-
ronectida, but its capture is principally confined to the
Northern fisheries : it is noticed by Pennant in his Arctic
Zoology, and is well known on the coasts of Norway, Ice-
land, and Greenland. It is usually caught with lines and
hooks. The Greenlanders eat the flesh of this fish both
fresh and dried, for which latter purpose it is cut into long
slips and exposed to the air. They arc fished for success-

VOL. II. Y

PLEUBONECTIDE.

fully by the natives of the Orkneys, who ply their lines in the
slack water and various eddies produced by the different
islands, out of the race of the tides ; these quiet places being
more particularly the haunts of the Holibut and Flatfish
generally. A large quantity of oil is obtained from them.

The Holibut is not found in the Baltic, but it is taken on
the west coast of Norway, and, according to Lacepede, at
Iceland. It appears by the Appendix of Captain James C.
Ross, that several were taken off the west coast of Greenland
in July 1829, and Dr. Storer mentions that large quantities
are brought to Boston market.

In our Northern seas, Holibuts weighing near five hundred
pounds are said to have been obtained ; and examples of large
size have occasionally occurred nearer home. In April 1828,
a Holibut seven feet six inches in length, three feet six inches
in breadth, and weighing three hundred and twenty pounds,
was taken off the Isle of Man, and sent to Edinburgh market.
It was said to have been the largest specimen ever exhibited
there.

Mr. William Thompson mentions that the Holibut is com-
mon around the coast of Ireland ; and Mr. Couch says it is
not uncommon in Cornwall. In London this fish is occa-
sionally seen in the months of March and April : here, from
its large size, it is sold in slices at a low price by the pound
weight. The flesh, though white and firm, is dry, the mus-
cular fibre coarse, with but little flavour : the head and fins
are said to be the best parts. Specimens only two feet long
are occasionally seen in summer, but in general the examples
are much larger.

The Holibut feeds close to the ground, on the smaller
species of Flatfish and various Crustacea. It spawns in
spring ; the roe is of a pale red colour, and the ova in the
female very numerous. A specimen five feet two inches long,

HOLIBUT. 323

in the shop of a London fishmonger, supplied the means of
obtaining the following description : —

The length of the head compared to the whole length of
the fish without the caudal rays, is as one to four ; the great-
est breadth one third of the whole length, dorsal, anal, and
caudal fin-rays all excluded : the "head small, but the mouth
large ; teeth in two rows in each jaw, small for the size of the
fish, conical, pointed, and separated ; the irides yellow, the
pupils black ; the pectoral fin on the coloured or dextral side
one-fourth larger than that on the white or under side ; the
dorsal fin commences in a line over the eye, the rays longest
over the widest part of the body ; the anal fin of similar cha-
racter : both dorsal and anal fins terminate on the same plane,
and distinct from the caudal fin, the posterior margin of
which is concave ; the ventral fins are small, the white ventral
fin of the under side the smaller of the two : immediately in
advance of the commencement of the anal fin are two aper-
tures ; the anterior opening large, and evidently connected
with the intestines ; the posterior opening smaller, and appa-
rently the outlet from the urinary bladder and sexual organs.
The fin-rays in number were —

D. 104 : P. 16 : V. 6 : A. 81 : C. 16.

The form of the body elongated ; the surface smooth,
covered with small oval-shaped soft scales ; the lateral line
arched over the pectoral fin ; the colour composed of different
shades varying from light brown to dusky brown ; the surface
of the under side perfectly smooth and white.

324

PLEURONECTID.E.

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOPTERYGII.

FLEURONECTIDsE.

THE TURBOT.

KAWN FLEUK, AND BANNOCK FLEUK, Scotland.

Rhombus maiimus, Le Turbot, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 340.

,, ,, Turbot, WILLUGHBY, p. 94, F. 2.

Pteuronectes ,, LINNTEUS. BLOCK, pt. ii. pi. 49.

,, ,, Turbot, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 315, pi. 49.

„ „ ,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 46.

„ ,, ,, FLF.M. Brit. An. p. 196, sp. 96.

,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 461.

RHOMBUS. Generic Characters. — Colour and eyes on the left side ; teeth in
the jaws and pharynx ; dorsal fin commencing anterior to the upper eye ; dorsal
and anal fins extending very nearly to the tail.

THE TURBOT, so well known, so highly and so justly
esteemed, is considered the best, as it is also one of the
largest, of our Flatfishes ; and, like the Salmon, notwith-
standing its great excellence, and the immense numbers that

TURBOT. 325

arc caught in various ways, it is still in great abundance, but
not equally so on all parts of the coast.

According to Mr. Low, it is rare in Orkney ; but the
numbers taken increase on coming southward ; and in the
market of Edinburgh, according to Dr. Neill, it is commonly
denominated Rawn Fleuk, from its being thought best for
the table when in rawn,* or roe ; it is sometimes also called
Bannock-j- Fleuk, on account of its circular shape.

On the coasts of Berwick, Northumberland, Durham, and
Yorkshire, a considerable fishery for Turbot is carried on by
the fishermen with long lines, the mode of using which was
described when speaking of the common Codfish. A large
proportion of the Turbot produced in the English market is
taken on or near the various sandbanks between the long line
of our eastern shore and the coast of Holland. The writer of
the article " Fisheries," in the edition of the Encyclopaedia
Britannica, now in course of publication, says, " The only
fishery, perhaps, which neither the Scotch nor the English
follow up with the same success as the Dutch, is that of the
Turbot ; the finest of which are supposed to be taken upon
the Flemish banks. The Turbot fishery begins about the
end of March, when the Dutch fishermen assemble a few
leagues to the south of Scheveling. As the warm weather
approaches, the fish gradually advance to the northward, and
during the months of April and May they are found in great
shoals on the banks called the Broad Forties. Early in June
they have proceeded to the banks which surround the small
island of Heligoland, off the mouth of the Elbe, where the
fishery continues to the middle of August, when it terminates
for the year. The mode of taking Turbot is as follows : —
At the beginning of the season the trawl-net is used ; which

* In the West of England a different meaning is attached to this word : see
the bottom of page 251.

t Bannock, A round flat cake.

326 PLEURONECTID.E.

being drawn along the banks, brings up various kinds of
Flatfish, as Soles, Plaice, Thornbacks, and Turbots; but
when the warm weather has driven the fish into deeper water,
and upon banks of a rougher surface, where trawling is no
longer practicable, the fishermen have then recourse to their
many-hooked lines. The hooks are baited with the common
Smelt, and a small fish resembling an Eel, called the Gore-
bill.* Though very considerable quantities of this fish are
now taken on various parts of our own coasts, from the Ork-
neys to the Land's End, yet a preference is given in the
London market to those caught by the Dutch, who are sup-
posed to have drawn not less than 80,000/. a year for the
supply of this market alone ; and the Danes from 12,000/. to
15, GOO/, a year for sauce to this luxury of the table, extracted
from one million of lobsters, taken on the rocky shores of
Norway, — though our own shores are in many parts plenti-
fully supplied with this marine insect, equal in goodness to
those of Norway."

About one-fourth of the whole supply of Turbot to the
London market is furnished by Dutch fishermen, who pay
a duty of 6/. per boat, each boat bringing from one hundred
to one hundred and fifty Turbot. A very considerable
quantity is also purchased of the Dutch fishermen at sea on
the fishing stations near their own shore by English fisher-
men, and is brought by them to our market in their own
boats, paying no duty.

Along our southern coast many Turbot are caught by the
trawling vessels, and long-line fishing at particular seasons on
the Varne and on the Ridge, — two extensive banks of sand,
the first about seven miles, and the second about twelve
miles, from Dover, towards the French coast. On these
banks French fishermen also lay their long-lines ; and when
they do not succeed in selling their Turbot at sea, which

* Vol. i. page 44'2.

TURROT.

327

suits them best, they freight one or more of their own boats
with them, and send them into Dover harbour for sale, pay-
ing the usual duty. They are not, however, allowed to sell
any fish but Turbot, except under particular circumstances.
If in Avant of provision, or their boat has suffered damage
from bad weather, they are then permitted, by certificate
from a magistrate, to sell as much fish as will procure them
food, or pay the cost of repairs.

Along the Devonshire coast, Avhere trawling on an exten-
sive scale is practised, a portion of the Turbot and Dory is
forwarded during the season to Bath and Exeter ; the re-
mainder is sent to the London market by land-carriage. It
is observed that the Turbot of the northern part of our own
coast, and those bought of or brought by the Dutch fisher-
men, are darker in colour than those from the south-Avcstern
shores of England.

Mr. Couch says, " The Turbot keeps in sandy ground,
and is a great Avanderer, usually in companies ; and though"
its proper habitation is close to the bottom, it sometimes
mounts aloft, and I have known it upon the surface over a
depth of thirty fathoms : I have been informed also of its
pursuing to the surface a companion that Avas draAvn up by
the line, Avhen both Avere taken together.1"

The Turbot, though a voracious fish, is particular as to
the quality of its food : the bait used for him should be very
fresh ; if it happens to be in the least degree tainted, the
Turbot Avill not touch it. The most enticing baits to use
are those small fishes which are either very bright in colour
or very tenacious of life ; the Atherine, and the two common
species of the genus Coitus, the Sea-Scorpion and Father-
Lasher, are most frequently used : the first attracts by its
shining silvery appearance, and the others by living a long
time on the hook, and showing themselves in their struggles
to get free. The River Lampern was formerly used in large

328 PLEURONECTID.E.

quantities by the Dutch, and was a great favourite with them
as baits for Turbot, on account of the facility with which they
could be kept alive while the boats were at sea, and com-
bining bright silvery colour with great power of resisting the
usual effect of mutilation. The principal food of the Turbot
is small fish, Crustacea, and mollusca. It spawns about Au-
gust, but rapidly recovers its condition and firmness.

Turbot are recorded as having been taken on the south
coast of Ireland ; I have seen one that was caught on the
coast of Londonderry in the north : and this valuable species
occurs also at many intermediate localities.

" The Turbot was known to the Athenians, and has been
ever since a worthy object of gastronomical worship." The
most common size varies from five to ten pounds'1 weight ;
occasionally this fish attains to twenty pounds, and some-
times thirty pounds. Mr. Couch notices, in his MS. a record
of one taken in the year 1730, at Cawsand, near Plymouth,
which weighed seventy pounds. Rondeletius states that he
had seen a Turbot five cubits in length, four in breadth, and
a foot in thickness. The Turbot is considered to have been
the Rhombus of the ancient Romans, of which a specimen of
enormous size is said to have been taken in the reign of Do-
mitian, who ordained a Senalus Consultum to devise the best
mode of bringing it to table. — Juven. Sat. IV.

" No vessel they find fit to hold such a fish,
And the senate 's convoked to decree a new dish."

Sir Thomas Browne seems to have been quite aware of the
good qualities of Turbot and Brill as compared to Plaice,
Flounders, and Dabs ; he says —

" Of wry-mouthed fish, give me the left side black ;
Except the Sole, which hath the daintiest smack."

Yet a Plaice, scored and fried, is a good fish, and much better
than when boiled.

TURBOT. 329

Quin, of epicurean notoriety, is said to have given it as
his opinion that the flesh on the dark-coloured side of the
Turbot was the best meat ; and as examples occasionally
occur that arc dark-coloured on both sides, some London
fishmongers, from experience in their good qualities, recom-
mend such fish as deserving particular attention. Reversed
Turbots, as they are called, — that is, Turbots having the eyes
and dark colour on the right side instead of the left, — are also
occasionally brought to market : I have seen two or three
such ; but they have exhibited a slight degree of malforma-
tion in the form of a notch or depression on the top of the
head. The Pleuronectes cyc.lops of Mr. Donovan, plate 90,
I believe to be an example of the young fry of the Turbot,
the head of which is not perfectly formed.

The number of Turbot brought to Billingsgate market
within twelve months, up to a recent period, was 87,958 ; and
the number of lobsters within the same period 1,904,000.

The form of the Turbot, exclusive of the caudal rays, is
nearly round : the length of the head compared to the length
of the head and body alone is as one to three ; the depth of
the body, including both dorsal and anal fins, is equal to the
length from the nose to the end of the fleshy portion of the
tail : the mouth is large, the direction of the opening ob-
liquely upwards : the teeth small and numerous in both jaws ;
the eyes in a vertical line one directly over the other ; the
whole surface of the cheeks, and all the parts of the gill-cover
on the upper or coloured side, studded with numerous tuber-
cles ; the operculum ending in an angle directed backwards
and over the base of the pectoral fin ; the gill-openings large ;
the pectoral fin small ; the dorsal fin, commencing by short
rays immediately over the nostril and anterior to the upper
eye, extends very nearly to the end of the fleshy portion of
the tail, where the rays are again short, the longest rays
being over the middle of the body ; the ventral fins broad,

330

PLEURONECTID/E.

placed very far forward, appearing like the commencement of
the anal fin, and only separated from it by a narrow space ;
the anal fin ending by short rays near the tail, and on the
same vertical plane as the dorsal ; the caudal rays moderately
long, and slightly rounded. The fin-rays in number are —

D. 64 : P. 12 : V. 6 : A. 48 : C. 15. Vertebrae 30.

The whole of the upper or coloured side of the body
studded with hard roundish tubercles, the surface otherwise
smooth ; the scales small, the prevailing colour varying shades
of brown, the fins a little lighter ; the lateral line arched high
over the pectoral fin, then straight to the tail ; the under sur-
face of the body is smooth, and generally perfectly white.

The vignette represents a Dutch boat.

HRILL.

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOPTERYG1L

PLEURONECT1DX.

-Tr— -

THE BRILL.

PEARL, KITE, BRETT, BONNET-FLEUK.

Rhombus vulgaris, La Barbue, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 341.

,, non aculeatus, WILI.UGHBY, p. 95, tab. F. 1.

Pleuronectes rhombus, LINN/EUS. BLOCH, pt. ii. pi. 43.

,, „ Pearl, PENN. Brit Zool. p. 321, pi. 50.

Brill, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 97.

,, ,, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 196, sp. 97.

,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 462.

THE BRILL is a well-known fish, brought in abundance to
the London market, and procured from the same localities
and by the same modes as the Turbot ; but is not held in
equal estimation, being considered by some as inferior to
the Sole, but very superior to the Plaice.

Dr. Neill says it is found in Aberlady Bay, where it is
called Bonnct-Fleuk ; it is taken also at Yarmouth, and
other places along our eastern coast. It i.s abundant on our

332 PLEURONECT1D.E.

southern coast, inhabiting sandy bays as well as deep water,
from whence the principal part of the supply for the London
market is derived. It is taken also in Ireland. Its food, as
well as its season of spawning, are similar to the Turbot, but
it does not usually appear so large, seldom exceeding eight
pounds in weight. It should be borne in mind, that the
Kite of the Devonshire and Cornish coasts is the same as the
Brill ; but that the Kit of Jago is the Smooth or Small-
headed Dab, figured and described in this volume at page
309. Another name quoted among those in use for the
Brill, namely, the Brett, is said to be derived from the
Cornish word " brit ;" that is, speckled or spotted.

The writer of the supplementary part to the Class Fishes,
in Mr. Griffith's edition of Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, says
that the enormous fish presented to the Roman Emperor
Domitian was a Brill, Rhombus vulgaris of Cuvier, and not
the Turbot ; but the authority or the reasons for this opinion
are not given. Bloch, in his account of the Brill, makes a
similar statement.

The length of the head from the point of the lower jaw to
the edge of the operculum is, when compared to the length
of the body alone without the head or caudal rays, as one to
two ; the breadth of the body, dorsal and anal fins excluded,
equal to half the whole length of the entire fish ; the whole
breadth, dorsal and anal fins included, is to the whole length
as two to three : the form of the body rhomboidal ; the sur-
face perfectly smooth ; the position and extent of the fins
very similar to those of the Turbot last described ; a few of
the most anterior rays of the dorsal fin extend beyond the
connecting membrane ; the tail rounded.

The fin-rays in number are —

D. 76 : P. 10 : V. 6 : A. 59 : C. 16. Vertebra 35.
The mouth is large, deeply cleft ; under jaw the longest ;

BRILL.

teeth numerous, small, pointed, and sharp : the upper eye
behind the lower one in a vertical line : irides yellow : cheek
and operculum smooth, without tubercles ; basal and ascend-
ing marginal lines of the preoperculum forming nearly a right
angle ; lateral line arched over the pectoral fin, then straight
to the end of the tail : the scales are nearly round, small, and
smooth ; the colours of the body a reddish sandy brown,
varied with darker brown, and sprinkled over with white
pearl-like specks, whence, probably, another of the names be-
stowed on this fish has originated : the under surface is
smooth and white.

The young are of a pale reddish brown, marked with very
dark brown or black spots.

The vignette represents the outline of the anterior part of
a Brill with a malformed head. For the fish from which this
sketch was taken, I am indebted to the kindness of Mrs.
Nelson of Devonport. It was taken in that vicinity in June
1835, and was brought on shore alive.

334

PLEURONECTID.E.

SUBBRACHIAL

MALACOPTERYGH.

PLEURONECTWM.

MULLER'S TOPKNOT.

Rhombus hirtus, Mullens Topknot, YARRELL.

Pleuronectes hirtus, MULLER, Zool. Dan. vol. iii. p. 36, pi. 103.

,, pitnctatus, Topknot, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 322, pi. 51, and

edit. 1776, pi. 41, but named by mistake
Smear Dab.

Le Gros Plie ou Targeur, DUHAMEL, sect. ix. pi. 5, fig. 4.
Pleuronectes hirtus, Midler's Topknot, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 463,

sp. 151.

SEVERAL modern authors have confounded the present
fish with the species next to be described ; and Cuvier,* as
well as Professor Nilsson,-f* have brought together the Pleu-
ronectes hirtus of Muller, and the PI. punctatus of Bloch,
apparently considering them as the same fish. Muller
doubted whether the punctatus of Bloch was the same as
his fish, and notices the points in which they differ. The
opportunity of examining some specimens very recently,

* Regne An. t. ii. p. 341. t Prod. Ichth. Scand. p. 59, sp. 11.

MULLER S TOPKNOT.

confirms the existence of two distinct species on our shores.
Though somewhat similar in the form of the body, the
colouring, and the spots, there are still the following well-
marked distinguishing specific characters.

The hirtus of Muller, and those included in the syno-
nymcs here given, have the eye or coloured side only of the
body rough ; the under side smooth ; the eyes and mouth
small : the first ray of the dorsal fin not longer than the
succeeding rays ; the ventral and anal fins united ; the dorsal
and anal fins also connected to the tail by a membrane ; the
tail short and rounded ; the scales of the body when detached
higher than wide.

The punctatus of Bloch, and the fishes included under the
synonymes given with the next species, have both sides of
the body rough ; the eyes large and prominent ; the mouth
larger than in hirtus, and not placed so obliquely ; the first
ray of the dorsal fin elongated; the ventral and anal fins
separated ; the tail rather long ; the scales of the body when
detached wider than high.

The hirtus of Muller appears to be the most common
species of the two ; but neither occur very frequently. Dr.
Parnell has obtained it in the Forth, where it is occasionally
caught in the crab-cages. I have received a specimen from
Dr. George Johnston, which was taken near Berwick Bay ;
and I am indebted to Professor Henslow of Cambridge for a
drawing of one taken in the Medway. Dr. John Harwood,
of St. Leonard's, possesses a specimen taken on the Sussex
coast ; and both Colonel Montagu and Mr. Hamner obtained
specimens in Devonshire.

Mr. Couch considers it not an uncommon fish in the West
of England, and has furnished me with two examples, from
one of which the figure was taken. It appears to keep among
rocks, where it is not readily distinguished, on account of the
similarity in its colour to the sea-weed ; and it is chiefly taken

336 PLEURONECTID.E.

in the nets which are set for Red Mullet. In winter the
boys find small ones, not larger than a half-crown piece, in
the pools left by the tide. This species of Flatfish does not
probably attain any great size ; the largest examples I have
seen not exceeding seven or eight inches in length. It is
said to feed on mollusca and small star-fishes.

Mr. Baker, of Bridgewater, sent me a specimen, beautifully
preserved, that had been taken in the Bristol Channel : and
I have a record of one that was caught on the coast of the
county of Down in Ireland.

The whole length of the specimen described is five inches
and one quarter; the length of the head compared to that
of the body, without the caudal rays, is as one to two and
a half; the breadth of the body, not including the dorsal
and anal fins, half of the whole length : the form of the body,
including both these fins, is rhomboid : the dorsal fin com-
mences immediately over the upper lip, the rays lengthening
by degrees, and being longest over the posterior third part of
the body ; the pectoral fin small : the ventral fins placed in a
vertical line under the middle of the head, and attached to
the commencement of the anal fin by a membrane : this
latter-named fin commences under the line of the ascending
posterior margin of the preoperculum ; both dorsal and anal
fin end on the same plane, and are connected to the fleshy
portion of the tail by a membrane ; the tail small and round-
ed. The fin-rays in number are —

D. 90 : P. 11 : V. 6 : A. 70 : C. 14. Vertebra 33.

The mouth is small, the position almost vertical ; the
teeth distinct, small, conical, and sharp : the diameter of the
eye equal to one-fourth of the length of the head ; the upper
eye placed behind the line of the lower to the distance of
nearly one-half its width : the basal and ascending marginal
lines of the preoperculum form an obtuse angle ; the cheeks,

MUL LEU'S TOPKNOT. 337

operculum and body, covered with denticulated scales,
which in shape, when detached, are longest in their vertical
diameter.

The colour of the body is a reddish brown, mottled and
spotted with very dark brown or black ; a large, conspicuous
dark spot behind, but above the ends of the pectoral fin-rays ;
the lateral line curved over the pectoral fin, then descending
and intersecting the lower portion of the large dark spot,
afterwards passing straight to the tail ; the fins paler brown
than the body ; all the rays of the dorsal and anal fins with
a line or row of denticulated scales along their upper surface ;
the under side of the body smooth and white.

The vignette represents a fishwoman at Scheveling.

VOL. II.

338

PLEURONECTID.E.

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOl'TERYGll.

PLEURONECTIDsE.

BLOCK'S TOPKNOT.

Rhombus punctatus,
Pieuronectes ,,
La petite Limande,
Pieuronectes punctatus,

Rliombus unimaculatus,
Pieuronectes punctatus,

Block's Topknot, YARRELL.
BI.OCH, pt. vi. pi. 189.
DUHAMEL, sect. ix. pi. 6, fig. 5.
FLEM. Wern. Mem. vol. ii. p. 241.

„ Phil. Zool. pi. 3, fig. 2.

,, Brit. An. p. 196, sp. 99.
Risso, Hist. torn. iii. p. 252, fig. 35.
Block's Topknot, JEN\NS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 462,
sp. 150.

THE Pieuronectes punctatus of Bloch, or, as it is here
called to preserve the appropriation, Bloch's Topknot, is
much more rare than the Topknot of Muller ; but appears,
like it, to have an extended range. Professor Nilsson in-
cludes but one species in his Fishes of Scandinavia, and
brings together the trivial names of the hirtus of Muller and
the punctatus of Bloch.

By a paper published in the Swedish language by M. B. F.
Fries of Stockholm in 1839, and of which a translation in

B LOCH'S TOPKNOT. 339

German is given in M. Wiegmann's Archives for 1840, it
appears that the Swedish Ichthyologist had obtained an exam-
ple of the P. punctatus of Bloch, which fish had not been
recognised as a distinct Scandinavian species. The examina-
tion of this specimen had satisfied M. Fries that the views of
Mr. Jcnyns and myself were correct as to the distinctions be-
tween the P. hirtus of Muller and the P. punctatus of Bloch.

Dr. Fleming procured the true punctatus in Zetland,
where, according to the testimony of the fishermen, it is
not uncommon. Professor Henslow obtained at Weymouth
the specimen from which Mr. Jenyns' description and the
figure here inserted were taken. A third example has been
caught on the coast of the North of Ireland, as recorded by
Mr. William Thompson of Belfast. A comparison of the
figures and descriptions referred to under the present fish
with those of the Rhombus unimaculatus of M. Risso, in
his Histoire Naturelle, will convince the observer that they
are intended for the same fish.

Bloch, if he has correctly figured his species, was, I
think, mistaken in supposing his fish to be the same as
Le Gros Plie ou Targeur of Duhamel ; as the separation
between the ventral and the anal fins, and the want of con-
nexion between the ends of both dorsal and anal fins with
the tail, will demonstrate on comparing the two figures ;
but the character and disposition of the spots are something
like those of Muller's fish. The figure by Dr. Fleming, in
his Philosophy of Zoology, Avants only the greater elongation
of the first ray of the dorsal fin, perhaps a sexual distinction,
to render it identical with the figure here given, and that by
M. Risso.

I avail myself, by permission, of the very full description
of this fish given by Mr. Jenyns in his Manual, taken from
the specimen in the collection of the Philosophical Society
of Cambridge.

340 PLEURONECTID.E.

" Length five inches and a half. Form roundish oval ;
the dorsal and ventral lines equally convex : greatest breadth,
fins excluded, just half the length : head a little less than
one-third of the same : profile notched immediately before
the eyes : mouth of moderate size, very protractile ; jaws
nearly equal ; the lower one a very little the longest, and
ascending obliquely at an angle of rather more than forty-
five degrees : teeth so fine as to be scarcely visible : eyes
large, remarkably full and prominent ; their diameter about
one-fourth the length of the head ; placed on the left side ;
approximating ; the lower one rather more advanced than
the upper; between them a projecting ridge; basal and
posterior margins of the preopercle meeting at a very obtuse
angle, the former rising obliquely to meet the latter ; lateral
line commencing at the upper part of the opercle, at first
very much arched, but afterwards straight : both sides of the
body, but more especially the upper, extremely rough :
scales minute ; those on the upper side having their free
margins set with from four to six denticles ; those beneath
having the denticles finer and more numerous : dorsal fin
commencing immediately in advance of the upper eye, and
extending very nearly to the caudal, at the same time pass-
ing underneath the tail, where the rays become very delicate ;
greatest elevation of the fin near its retral extremity ; first
ray very much produced, nearly three times the length of
those Avhich follow ; most of the rays divided at their tips ;
some of the last in the fin branched from the bottom : anal
fin commencing in a line Avith the posterior angle of the pre-
opercle, answering to the dorsal, and terminating in the same
manner beneath the tail ; greatest elevation corresponding :
caudal oblong, the extremity rounded : pectorals inserted
behind the posterior lobe of the opercle, a little below the
middle ; the first ray very short, the next three or four
longest, the succeeding ones nearly as long ; pectoral on the

BLOCK S TOPKNOT.

341

eye side rather larger than that on the side opposite : ventral
fins immediately before the anal, and appearing like a con-
tinuation of that fin, but not connected with it, as in the
other species : vent situated between the two last pairs of
rays : the rays of all the fins covered with rough scales nearly
to their tips. The numbers of the fin-rays are —

D. 87 : P. left side 12 : right side 11 : V. 6 : A. 68 : C. 16.

" The colour above brown, or reddish brown, mottled and
spotted with black ; a large round spot, more conspicuous
than the others, in the middle of the side towards the pos-
terior part of the body ; fins spotted : under side plain white."

34-2

PLEURONECTID.E.

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOPTERYG1I.

PLEURONECTIDX.

THE WHIFF.

THE CARTER, CornWO.ll.

Rhombus megastoma,

Passer Cornubiensis,
Pleuronectes p&eudopalus,
,, megastoma,

Whiff, YARRELL.

La Cardine, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 341.

Whiff, RAY, Syn. p. 163, fig. 2.

PENN.Brit. Zool.vol.iii. p. 324, pi 52.
,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 51.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 196, sp. 98.
„ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 464.

THE WHIFF appears to have been first described and
figured by Ray from Mr. Jago^s Catalogue of Cornish Fishes,
which is introduced, with short notices and representations, in
Ray's Synopsis. This fish seems to occur more frequently in
Devonshire and Cornwall than on any other part of our coast.
Mr. Couch says, " This species is well known to the Cornish
fishermen, who apply the name of Carter to it. It keeps on
sandy ground, at no great distance from land, and takes a
bait, so that it is caught as often as any of the salt-water
Flatfishes ; but it is not highly esteemed for the table, chiefly
from being so thin." From this cause it is sometimes called

WHIFF. 343

Lantern-fish, in reference to its semi-transparency when held
up between the eye and the light ; but from experience I
can say that the flesh is excellent when fried, almost as good
as that of the Sole.

Mr. Donovan found it in Wales ; it is not unfrequent in
Ireland. Mr. Jenyns has described it in his valuable Manual
of the British Vertebrate Animals, from a specimen obtained
by Professor Hcnslow at Wcymouth. Most of the speci-
mens recorded measured from eighteen to twenty-one inches
in length.

Dr. Johnston says it is rare at Berwick, and Dr. Parncll
does not include it among his Fishes of the Forth.

But few particulars are known of this fish. It appears but
seldom in the London market : I obtained one in June 1834
which measured seventeen inches in length, from which a
representation and the following description are taken.

The length of the head from the point of the upper jaw to
the posterior edge of the operculum, compared to the length
of the body alone, without the head or caudal rays, is as one
to three ; the breadth of the body, dorsal and anal fins ex-
cluded, is to the whole length of the fish rather less than one
third : the dorsal fin commences half-way between the point
of the nose and the anterior edge of the upper orbit, and ex-
tends to within three-quarters of an inch of the end of the
fleshy portion of the tail and the base of the caudal rays ;
the pectoral fin on the under or white side is considerably
smaller in size, and contains two rays less, than that on the
upper side ; the ventral fins are of some extent at the base,
as in the preceding species of the genus Rhombus ; the anal
fin commences in a line under the origin of the pectoral fin,
extends along the whole length of the abdominal line, and
ends near the tail on the same plane as the dorsal fin ; the
fleshy portion of the tail is narrow ; the caudal rays three
inches long, and slightly rounded.

344

PLEURONECTID.E.

The fin-rays in number are —

D. 89 : P. 11 : V. 6 : A. 71 : C. 13. Vertebrae 41.

The mouth is large ; the lower jaw the longest, with a
rounded projection under the symphysis ; the teeth on both
jaws numerous, pointed, and sharp : the eyes large ; the
upper one the most so, and placed farther back than the
lower ; the orbits separated by a prominent bony ridge : the
lateral line conspicuous, elevated, and double over the pec-
toral fin, one portion being a continuation of the prominent
straight line along the body, the other taking a high curve
over the pectoral fin ; both lines ultimately approaching each
other again at the upper angle of the operculum, as shown in
the woodcut : the form of the body is an elongated oval ; the
surface rough ; the scales rather large ; the colour a uniform
yellow brown ; the fins rather lighter ; the under side smooth
and white. A specimen in the British Museum exhibits
faint indications of various spots, as shown in Mr. Donovan's
coloured plate, and in the figure by Ray in his Synopsis, but
this is not uniformly the case.

>'•--->
£^teliMfc

SCALDFISH.

345

SUBBRACH'IAL

MALACOPTERYGIL PLEURONECT1D&.

THE SCALDFISH.

MEGRIM, Cornwall. SMOOTH SOLE.

Rhombus Arnoglossus, Scaldfish, YARHELL.

„ „ ,, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 342.

Arnoglossus lavis, ,, WILI.UGHBY, p. 102, F. 8, fig. 7.

Pleuronectes casurus, ,, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 325, pi. 53.

,, Arnoglossus, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 197, sp. 100.

,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 465.

Rhombus nudus, ,, Risso, Hist. t. iii. p. 251, sp. 141.

THE SCALDFISH, or MEGRIM, as it is called in Cornwall,
appears, like the species last described, to be in this country,
as far as we yet know, exclusively confined to the southern
coast, and is only at present recorded as having been taken
between Weymouth and the Land's End.

Mr. Couch says, " he has never known it take a bait, and
its diminutive size prevents its being an object of attention to
fishermen ; but they say it is much preyed upon by Congers
and other large fishes, in the stomachs of which they often
find it : it follows from this that it keeps in deep water." It
seldom exceeds four or five inches in length ; but Mr. Couch
has seen one that measured six inches and a half. M. Risso
says the females arc very prolific.

346 PLEURONECTID.E.

The length of the head is to that of the body as one to
three, caudal rays excluded ; the depth of the body, without
the dorsal or anal fins, equal to one -third of the whole
length; the dorsal fin commences over the upper eye, and
reaches very nearly to the end of the fleshy portion of the
tail ; the pectoral fin long and narrow, but shorter and smaller
on the under side ; ventral fins under the gill-cover ; the
anal fin commencing in a line under the pectoral, and ending
near the tail on the same plane as the dorsal fin ; caudal rays
of moderate length, and slightly rounded ; but the rays of all
the fins in both the specimens before me, from which the de-
scription is taken, extend considerably beyond the connecting
membranes of each, as shown in the woodcut.

The fin-rays in number are —

D. 87 : P. 6 : V. 10 : A. 60 : C. 18.

The mouth is large, with small teeth in both jaws ; lower
jaw the longest when separated: eyes rather large; pupils
blue ; irides yellow ; orbits separated by a bony ridge ; upper
eye larger than the lower, and placed more backward in a
vertical line : body in shape an elongated oval, narrowed
towards the tail ; the scales large, round, thin, and trans-
parent, almost all wanting, so easily are they removed on the
slightest touch ; the body of the fish appears naked. I am
indebted to the kindness of Mr. Couch for a Cornish speci-
men: I also possess one from the Mediterranean, which
enables me to say that our fish is the Rhombus nudus of
M. Risso, as quoted. The lateral line after its commence-
ment at the posterior edge of the operculum rises over the
pectoral fin rather higher than the representation indicates ;
then descending gradually, deviates but little from a straight
line throughout the remainder of its course to the tail.
The colour of both specimens is alike, a uniform pale yellow
brown.

SOLE.

347

SUBBRACHIAL

MALACOPTERYCH. PLEURONECTIDJE.

THE SOLE.

Solea vulgaris, La Sole, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 342,

,, ,, A Sole, MF.RUETT, Pinax, p. 187.

Buglossus sen Solea, Sole, WILLUGHBY, p. 100, F. 7.

Pteuronectes Solea, „ LINNJEUS. BLOCH, pt. ii. pi. 45.

,, ,, ,, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 311.

,, ,, Common Sole, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 62.

Solea vulgar is, Sole, FI.EM. Brit. An. p. 197, sp. 101.

,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 466.

SOLEA. Generic Characters. — Both eyes and colour on the right side ; the
mouth distorted on the side opposite the eyes ; small teeth in both jaws, but con-
fined to the under side only, none on the same side as the eyes ; form of the
body oblong ; dorsal and anal fins extend to the tail.

THE common Sole is so universally known as to reqnire
only a particular notice of those points in its economy that
are the least obvious. It inhabits the sandy shore all round
our coast, where it keeps close to the bottom, feeding on the
smaller testaceous animals, and the spawn and fry of other
fishes. It is taken among the Orkneys, and along the north-
east coast ; but it is of small comparative size : the Soles of
the south and west arc much larger, and considered otherwise
superior to those of the north and cast.

348 1'L.EURONECTID.E.

The Sole is found northward as far as the Baltic and the
seas, of Scandinavia ; and southward, along the shores of
Spain, Portugal, and the Mediterranean. It was first de-
scribed by Bellon.

Soles — and of these an enormous quantity — are caught
almost entirely by trawling ; they seldom take any bait. It
is usual to send them to market in baskets, within which the
Soles of small size, called Slips, are arranged nearest the
wicker-work forming the outside of the basket : the larger
Soles, being more valuable, arc packed in the middle.
Eighty-six thousand bushels of Soles have been received at
Billingsgate market only within twelvemonths.

The Sole is found full of roe at the latter end of February.
They are then for a few weeks soft and watery ; but they soon
recover, and throughout a great portion of the year are de-
servedly in high estimation : the flesh is white, firm, and of
excellent flavour ; those in deep water are the finest in
quality.

The principal trawling-ground in England is along the
south coast from Sussex to Devonshire : the Sole has also
been taken on the shores of various counties in Ireland, viz.
Cork, Watcrford, Antrim, Londonderry, and Donegal. On
the Devonshire coast the great fishing station is at Brixham
in Torbay ; the boats from which, using large trawling-nets
from thirty to thirty-six feet in beam, produce a continual
supply. Soles of very large size are occasionally taken. I
have a record of one pair taken in Torbay which measured
twenty- three inches in length each, and weighed together ten
pounds ; but for the particulars of the largest I have heard
of, I am indebted to the kindness of the Rev. W. F. Cor-
nish, of Totness. This specimen, a remarkably fine-grown
fish, and very thick, was twenty-six inches long, eleven inches
and a half wide, and weighed nine pounds. — Totness market,
June 21st, 1826.

SOLE. 349

Soles appear to thrive well in fresh water. Dr. M'Cul-
loch, in his papers on " Changing the Residence of certain
Fishes from salt water to fresh,"* says, he was informed that
a Sole had been kept in a fresh-water pond in a garden for
many years ; and adds, that in Mr. Arnold's pond at Guern-
sey, which has been before referred to, the Sole becomes
twice as thick as a fish of the same length from the sea. A
letter from a gentleman residing on the banks of the Arun
contains the following statement : — " I succeeded yesterday
in seeing the person who caught the Soles about which you
inquire, and who has been in the constant habit of trawling
for them with a ten-feet beam trawl in this river for the last
forty years. The season for taking them is from May till
November. They breed in the river (Arun), frequenting
it from the mouth five miles upwards, "f* which is nearly to
the town of Arundel, and remain in it the whole year, bury-
ing themselves in the sand during the cold months. The
fisherman has occasionally taken them of large size, two
pounds'" weight each, but frequently of one pound ; and they
are thicker in proportion than the Soles usually caught at
sea : in other respects, precisely the same ; and it is evident
they breed in great numbers in the river from the quantity of
small ones about two inches long that are constantly brought
on shore when drawing the net for Grey Mullet."

Reversed Soles — that is, having the eyes and the brown
colour on the left side instead of the right — are not uncom-
mon : and I possess a specimen that is of the usual dark
colour, with rough ciliated scales on both sides.

The length of the head is to the whole length of the entire
fish as one to six ; the breadth of the body, dorsal and anal
fins excluded, compared to the whole length, as one to three :

* Royal Institution Quarterly Journal, No. xxxiv. July 1824, and No.
xxxviii. July 1825.

t For a view of this part of the Arun, see vol. i. page 244.

350

PLEURONECT1DE.

the nose is rounded and produced, projecting beyond the
mouth : the upper jaw the longest; both jaws furnished with
minute teeth on the under or white side of the fish only ; the
eyes small ; the lower eye over the angle of the mouth ; the
upper eye placed more forward in a vertical line ; the irides
yellow ; the pupils blue ; the space between the eyes, the
cheek, and operculum, flat, and covered with small rough
ciliated scales : the pectoral and ventral fins small ; the dorsal
fin begins at the point of the nose, the anal fin under the
line of the edge of the gill-cover ; both extend the whole
length of the body, ending on the same plane, near the base
of the caudal rays ; and both these fins have a series of small,
rough, ciliated scales, extending along the line of each ray :
the tail rather long, and slightly rounded.
The fin-rays in number are —

D. 84 : P. 7 : V. 5 : A. 67 : C. 17. Vertebrae 47.

The form of the body is a long oval, widest at a short
distance behind the head, becoming narrower and rather
pointed towards the tail ; the colour on the upper side almost
a uniform dark brown ; the scales small, each ciliated at the
edge, and rough to the touch ; the lateral line running
straight from the tail forward to the operculum, then rising
and ending on a line with the superior edge of the upper
orbit; the pectoral fin tipped with black. On the under
side the colour is white : about the nostril and mouth are
numerous soft papillae.

LEMON SOLE

351

SUBBRACHTAL

MALACOPTERYGII.

PLEURONECTID&.

THE LEMON SOLE.

THE FRENCH SOLE, SuSSCX COdSt.

Solea pegusa, Lemon Sole, YARRELL, Zool. Journ. vol. iv. p. 467, pi. 16.
,, ,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 467, sp. 155.

DURING a short visit to Brighton in the last week of
February 1829, I obtained a single example of this species
of Sole, which appeared to have been previously unnoticed
as occurring on our shores. Since it was described in the
Zoological Journal, as above quoted, I have obtained, but at
considerable intervals, two or three other specimens of this
fish in the London market, and have now deposited examples
in the British Museum and the collection of the Zoological
Society.

This species is occasionally taken with the common Sole
when trawling over a clear bottom of soft sand, about sixteen
miles from Brighton in a direction towards the coast of
France ; from which circumstance this fish is known to some
of our fishermen by the name of French Sole ; others call it

352 PLEURONECTID.E.

by that of Lemon Sole, in reference to its prevailing yellow-
ish colour, and on the Devonshire coast it is called the Sand
Sole. This species has since been taken in Belfast Bay, as
recorded by Mr. William Thompson.

In shape the Lemon Sole is wider in proportion to its
whole length than the common Sole, and it is also somewhat
thicker; the head is smaller, being in proportion to the
whole length of the fish rather less than as one to seven ; the
breadth of the body, dorsal and anal fins included, exactly
half the whole length : the arrangement of the fins is nearly
the same as in the common Sole ; but the fin-rays and the
number of vertebrae differ.

D. 81 : P. 8 : V. 5 : A. 69 : C. 17. Vertebrae 43.

The prevailing colour is a mixture of orange and light
brown, freckled over with numerous small round spots of
dark nutmeg brown, giving a mottled appearance to the
whole upper surface. The scales differ in character ; the
lateral line is straight, but not so prominent or strongly
marked; the tail is narrower than in the common Sole,
though containing the same number of rays ; the end of the
pectoral fin spotted with black. On the under side the ap-
pearance is still more characteristic of the distinction of the
species. The under surface of the head is almost smooth,
without any of the papillary eminences so numerous and
remarkable in the common Sole, and the nostril is pierced in
a prominent tubular projection, which is wanting in the
other : the under surface is white with the appearance of the
scales more strongly marked than upon the upper.

VARIEGATED SOLE.

353

SUBBRACH1AL

MALACOPTERYG1I.

PLEURONECTIDJE.

THE VARIEGATED SOLE.

Pole panachee, DUHAMEL, sect. ix. pi. 2, fig. 3.

Pleuronectes tinguta, Itedbacked Flounder, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 313,

pi. 49.

,, variegatus, Variegated Sole, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 117.

Solea variegata, „ ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 197, sp. 102.

Monochirus variegatus, THOMPSON, Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. ii. p. 404.

MONOCHIRUS. Generic Characters. — The pectoral fin on the upper or eye side
small; that on the under side minute, almost imperceptible, or entirely wanting:
in other respects like Solea.

THE VARIEGATED SOLE appears, like the Lemon Sole
last described, to be a rare species, and but few specimens
are to be found in collections, though it seems to have a
wide range. According to Professor Reinhardt, it is found
on the shores of Scandinavia. In the Magazine of Natural
History, conducted by Mr. London, a notice appears, vol. vi.
page 530, that it has been taken at Rothsay. Mr. Donovan
obtained one seven inches long in the London market.
Colonel Montagu mentions that Dr. Leach bought three in

VOL. II. 2 A

354 PLEURONECTID.E.

Plymouth market in August 1808, and gave him one of
them, measuring nine inches in length, from which his notes
of the species were recorded in his MS. ; and Mr. Couch has
observed it in Cornwall, very kindly sending me a specimen,
from which the woodcut was executed. But little is known
of the habits of this species ; but it is stated in Pennant that
it appears about Plymouth in the spring. It has since been
found by Mr. William Thompson in Belfast Bay.

It is immediately distinguished from either of the Soles
previously described here, by its variegated colour ; by its
scales, which are larger ; by its pectoral fins, which are much
smaller, that on the under side being very minute ; and by
the dorsal and anal fins, as shown in the cut, ending consi-
derably short of the tail.

The whole length of the specimen described was five
inches; the breadth without the fins, one inch and three-
eighths; the length of the head compared to that of the
body alone, as one to four : the dorsal and anal fins ending on
the same plane, but not reaching the base of the caudal rays,
and both having the numerous rays projecting beyond the
edges of the connecting membranes, as shown in the cut ; the
right pectoral fin small, that on the under side consisting
only of two unequal, slender, and short rays.

The fin-rays in number are —

D. 67 : P. right side 4 : left side 2 : V. 5 : A. 52 : C. 16.

The body is thicker in proportion than either of the Soles
previously described ; the scales larger, the divisions strongly
marked, the edges ciliated, rough to the touch ; the lateral
line straight : the colour of the upper side reddish brown,
clouded both on the body and fins with darker brown ; the
under surface white ; scales also ciliated and harsh to the
touch.

SOLENETTE.

355

SUBBRACHIAL

MALACOPTERYGI1.

PLEURONECTW&.

&*: '^xKfftft

Monochirus linguatulus,
Solea parva sive lingula,
La petite Sole,
Sulea parva sive lingula
Pleuronectes lingula,
Solenette,
Solea lingula,
Monochirus minutus,
,, linguatulus,

THE SOLENETTE,

OR LITTLE SOLE.

CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 343.

RONDELETIUS, p. 324.

„ French Edit. Lyons, p. 260.

Pondeletii, WILLUGHBY, p. 102, F. 8, fig. 1.
LINN. Syst. Nat. p. 457, sp. 10.
DUHAM. sect. ix. pi. 2, fig. 1 & 2.
Red-backed Sole, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 468.
PARNELL, Mag. Zool. and Bot. vol. i. p. 527.
THOMPSON, Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. ii. p. 405.

AT the time of writing the description of the Variegated
Sole for the first edition of the British Fishes, vol. ii. p. 262,
I had not seen a specimen of the true Solea parva sive lin-
gula of Rondeletius, and I find that I then included two dis-
tinct species in the synonym es employed to designate the
Variegated Sole. The Rev. L. Jcnyns, in his Manual of
British Vertebrate Animals, appears to have suspected that
there was a fourth species of Sole on our coast, since, at the
conclusion of the description of his third species, he has ob-
served, " further observation is necessary in order to decide
whether, in this instance, I have confounded two nearly allied
species."

2 A 2

356 TLEURONECTIDK.

In tlic published proceedings of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh for January 1837, Dr. Parnell has figured and
briefly described, under the name of Monochirus minutus, a
small species of Sole obtained by him at Brixham on the
Devonshire coast, which appears to be the true Solea parva
sive lingula of Rondcletius. This small fish is at once dis-
tinguished from the Variegated Sole of Donovan, and other
English authors, by the tapering of the body towards the
tail, and more particularly by the dorsal and caudal fins being
united to the base of the tail, which is not the case in the
Variegated Sole. This union of the two fins with the tail
is shown in the figure given by Rondeletius, and again by
Willughby, as referred to.

Dr. Parnell has obtained several examples of this interest-
ing little species, which is not unfrequently taken in the
trawl-nets by the fishermen of Brixham, but on account of
its diminutive size it is seldom brought on shore. It has
evidently been confounded with the Variegated Sole ; but,
independently of other distinctions, the Variegated Sole has
the tail separated from the dorsal and caudal fins by a consi-
derable interval.

The Variegated Sole of Donovan and of Montagu's MS.
the Red-backed Flounder of Pennant's Zoology, and the
Variegated Sole of Dr. Fleming, are so many specimens of
the truly Variegated Sole, and are each of them quite dis-
tinct from the true lingula. Duhamel appears to have dis-
tinguished and figured both species. Mr. Thompson has
obtained both species on the coast of the North of Ireland,
and by his kindness I have now his specimens before me
for comparative examination. Dr. Parnell has given me two
examples of his Monochirus minutus, which, as before ob-
served, I believe to be the true Solea parva sive lingula of
Rondeletius; and I have also two specimens of the true
Variegated Sole ; one of these, from which the figure in the

SOLENETTE. 357

British Fishes was drawn, has the dark clouded variation in
colour extending, as in Donovan's figure, over the back as
well as the fins : in a specimen belonging to Mr. Thompson,
in one of my own, and in Montagu's specimen, as described
in his MS. the dark variations in colour are confined to
patches on the fins, as in Pennant's figure ; but without refer-
ence to colour, this species is immediately known by the
space Avhich occurs between the two elongated fins and the
tail, which Montagu says Avas equal to half an inch in his
specimen, which measured nine inches.

Both these species belong to the genus Monochirus of
Cuvier, distinguished from those of the genus Solea by the
very small size of the upper pectoral fin, and the very rudi-
mentary state of the pectoral fin on the under side, which is,
indeed, sometimes entirely wanting. Of our two British
species of Monochirus, the M. lingiiatulus of Cuvier has the
smaller upper pectoral fin of the two, as observed by Mr.
Thompson, who has, in the second volume of the Annals of
Natural History, published some interesting details on the
two British species of the genus Monochirus.

From the numbers of these small Soles which are taken in
the trawl-nets off Brixham throughout the whole year, says
Dr. Parnell, and from their never appearing to attain a large
size, there can be but little doubt but that they are arrived at
their full growth. The fishermen, who appear perfectly familiar
with their appearance, call them Red Soles ; and scarcely a
trawl-boat leaves Brixham Harbour that does not capture a
dozen or more of these fish daily ; but, from their diminutive
size, they are either thrown overboard, or left to decay at the
bottom of the vessels.

Description : — " Length five inches ; the width at the
upper third nearly two inches : the colour of the back light
reddish brown, the under surface pale white ; every sixth or
seventh ray of the dorsal and anal fin black. In shape this

358

PLEURONECTIDE.

fish is similar to the common Sole, but is of a more wedge-
shaped form, becoming narrow at the caudal extremity.
The head is small, one-sixth of the whole length ; the mouth
is crooked ; each jaw is furnished with a number of minute
teeth, placed close together, and extending but half way round
the mouth ; the eyes are small ; the upper, or left eye, a little
in advance. The dorsal fin commences immediately over the
upper lip, and runs down the back, to be connected with the
caudal rays ; the anal fin begins under the posterior margin of
the operculum, and continues to the tail. The number of
the fin-rays are, —

D. 73 : P. 4 : V. 4 : A. 54 : C. 14.

The scales are small, with from twelve to fifteen denticles at
their free extremity, rendering the whole surface of the fish
rough to the touch when the finger is passed along from the
tail to the head. The pectoral fin, on the eye-side, is small,
with the lower half black, while the fin on the opposite side
is very minute, and of a pale white ; the lateral line is
straight throughout ; the tail is rounded at the end, and
mottled with brown."

CORNISH SUCKER.

359

SUBBKACHIAL

MALACOPTERYG1I. CYCLOPTERIDJE*

THE CORNISH SUCKER.

Lepidogaster Cornubiensis, Cornish Sucker, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 189, sp. 71.
Cyclopterus Lepidogaster, Jura Sucker, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 181,

Pl. 25.

,, ocellatus, Ocellated Sucker, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 76.

Lepidogaster biciliatus, ,, ,, Risso, Hist. torn. iii. p. 272,

sp. 163.

,, Cornubiensis, Cornish Sucker, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 469,

sp. 157.

LEPIDOGASTER. Generic Characters. — Body smooth, without scales ; dorsal
and anal fins opposite, and near the tail ; pectoral fins large, descending to the
inferior surface of the body, and by an extension of the membrane surrounding
an oval disk ; ventral fins united by a membrane which extends circularly under
the belly, forming a second concave disk.

BARON CUVIER has called the third family of the Sub-
brachial Malacopterygii, Discoboles, on account of the disk
formed by the union of the ventral fins. The term CYCLOP-
TERID.E, derived from an original Linnsean generic name, is
here adopted in order to preserve uniformity in the names of
* The family of the Sucking-fishes.

360 CYCLOPTEHID.E.

the families. The pectoral fins in these fishes are large,
descending to the inferior surface of the body, where they are
joined by four strong rays, and, united by a membrane to a
similar structure on the opposite side, form the boundary of
an adhesive disk. In the species of the first genus, a second
disk is formed by the union of the ventral fins.

The few species belonging to this small family are very
remarkable for the power they possess of attaching themselves
to stones, rocks, or other substances, by means of the adhesive
apparatus on the under surface of their bodies, apparently
deriving some degree of protection and support from the
contact.

The two British species belonging to the first genus are
small, defenceless, their bodies smooth, without scales ; and
the power of attaching themselves to stones, &c. which they
are seen to exercise, may be useful by enabling them to resist
the action of strong currents or dashing waves, and is perhaps
applicable with them to other uses, with which naturalists are
not yet acquainted.

The first prettily-marked species of Sucking-fish was dis-
covered by Dr. Borlase, who found it on the coast of Corn-
wall, and described it under the name of the Lesser Sucking-
fish, in his Natural History of that county. Pennant after-
wards found it at Jura, in the Hebrides, and called it in
consequence the Jura Sucker ; but if any name indicative of
a peculiar geographical locality is admissible, it ought to have
been that only in which it was first discovered ; and I have
therefore followed Dr. Fleming and Mr. Jenyns in calling it
the Cornish Sucker, although this name is not entirely free
from objection, two other species of fishes, provided with
suckers, being found in Cornwall. Mr. Couch says, however,
that this fish is there called pre-eminently the Sucking-fish by
fishermen, from the readiness with which it adheres to any
substance, and even to the hand that seizes it, — a circum-

CORNISH SUCKER. 361

stance which has also been noticed by Colonel Montagu.
" It is sluggish in its habits ; but seems to wander, since it is
sometimes abundant, and at others rare. Its usual haunts
are about low-water mark, where it is often left by the tide,
concealed beneath a stone. I find it," says Mr. Couch,
" large with spawn in March. Its food is crustaceous animals
and marine insects, which it swallows entire."

This species has also been found on the coasts of Antrim
and Clare in Ireland.

The whole length of the specimen described was two
inches and a half; the distance from the point of the nose
to the end of the gill-cover was equal to one-third of the
whole length of the fish : the head depressed ; mouth pro-
duced ; very much flattened ; narrower than the head ; has
been aptly called spatula-like ; gape elongated : numerous
small teeth in both jaws, forming a band in each : under
surface of the head very flat ; the first disk before the line of
the opening of the gill-cover ; the second disk behind it :
upper surface of the head smooth ; before the inner corner of
each eye a small flattened filament, about equal in length to
the diameter of the eye itself; behind this a second, but
much shorter : both of a bright carmine colour ; behind the
eyes, which are widely separated, are two distinct, red, eye-
like spots : the dorsal fin commences about half-way between
the eyes and the end of the tail ; the anal fin begins still
nearer the tail, and both are joined to it by a membrane ; the
tail rounded ; the posterior part of the body compressed.
The pectoral fin large, with an extension underneath of four
stronger rays, which with the connecting membrane form the
sides of the most anterior disk of the two ; an extension of
the membrane only, without rays, being continued along the
front. Immediately behind the broad swimming portion of
the pectoral fin on each side, a membrane arises in the same
vertical position, which joining the united ventral fins forms

362

CYCLOPTERID.E.

the free edge of the second disk, the rays of the two ventrals
occupying the posterior portion, and the continuation of the
connecting membrane making the circle entire.
The fin-rays in number are —

D. 18 : P. 19 : A. 10 : C. 18.

The general tint a pale flesh colour with spots and patches
of carmine about the upper and under surface of the jaws,
around the eyes, on the top of the head, sides of the body
and abdomen. The description was taken from the largest
of five specimens, on three of which the spots behind the
eyes were conspicuous, but wanting in the other two.

The appearance of the surface of the disk is shown in the
woodcuts of some of the more closely allied species, to assist
in determining specific distinction.

The vignette below represents a man fishing for prawns on
a rocky coast. The fisherman deposits around him eight or
ten hoop-nets, each baited with a piece of stale fish : a large
bung by way of a buoy is attached to each hoop. The man,
with a long forked stick raises the nets in succession, by
putting the fork of the stick under the bung, and deposits
them again after examination.

BIMACULATED SUCKER.

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOPTERYCH.

CYCLOPTERWX.

THE BIMACULATED SUCKER.

Lepidogaster bimacnlatus, Bimaculated Sucker, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 190, sp. 72.

Cyctopterus

Lepidogaster

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 182,

pi. 25.

DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 78.
MONTAGU, Linn. Trans, vol. vii.

p. 293.
JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p.

470, sp. 158.

THIS very distinct species was first described by Pennant
from a specimen sent him by the Duchess of Portland, which
was taken at Weymouth. It has since been taken by Mr.
Donovan on the coast of Kent ; by Professor Henslow at
Weymouth ; by Colonel Montagu in Devonshire, and at
two different localities in Cornwall, Polperro and Penzance.
It has also been taken by Mr. William Thompson of Belfast,
when dredging in deep water for shells on the eastern and
western coasts of Ireland.

Colonel Montagu obtained it by deep dredging at Torcross,
adhering to stones and old shells, and kept some specimens
alive for a day or two in a glass of sea-water.

3Gi CYCLOPTERIDE.

" In this situation they always adhered to the sides of the
glass by the apparatus termed the sucker, and frequently
remained fixed till they died ; and even after death the power
of adhesion continues ; the wet finger being applied to the
part, the fish becomes suspended : when alive they instantly
attach themselves to the hand if taken out of the water."

Mr. Couch says it keeps in deeper water than the prece-
ding species ; but is occasionally found under stones at low-
water mark.

In this species, of which I possess several examples, varying
in length from three-quarters of an inch to one inch and three-
quarters in length, the head is depressed ; the posterior por-
tion of the body compressed ; the head is shorter, compared
to the whole length, than in the preceding species : the
mouth wider, but the jaws not so much produced ; the teeth
similar ; no filaments before the eyes ; the irides pink and
gold ; the pupils blue : the additional rays at the inferior
part of the pectoral fin, and the connecting membrane on
each side, making up the lateral portions of the anterior disk,
are much longer : the ventral fins form the sides of the second
or posterior disk, and are also elongated ; the dorsal and anal
fins of equal size, opposite, short, placed far back ; com-
mencing and ending on the same planes : not connected with
the tail, between which and the two fins just named there is a
considerable space : tail rather elongated.

The fin-rays in number are —

D. 6 : P. 19 : A. 6 : C. 10.

The general colour carmine red ; pale flesh-colour under-
neath, with a light-coloured patch between the eyes, and
otherwise liable to some variation in the markings : the two
spots on the sides not always very obvious ; young specimens
are without these lateral markings.

LUMP SUCKER.

3G5

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOPTERYG1I.

CYCLOPTERIDJE.

THE LUMP SUCKER.

SEA-OWL, and COCK PADDLE.

Cyclopterus lumpus, LINN«US. BLOCH, pt. iii. pi. 90.

„ ,, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 346.

Lumpus Anglorum, WILLUGHBY, p. 208, N. 11.

Cyclopterus lumpus, Lump Sucker, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 176, pi. 24.

„ ,, ,, „ DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 10.

lt ,, Lump-fish, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 190, sp. 75.

,, ,, Common Lump- Fish, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 471.

CYCLOPTERUS. Generic Characters. — Head and body deep, thick, and short ;
back with an elevated ridge, the investing skin enclosing simple rays ; pectoral
fins uniting under the throat, and with the ventrals forming a single disk.

THE LUMP SUCKER is remarkable for its very grotesque
form, while from the large size of its body, both as to depth
and thickness in reference to its length, and the compara-
tively small size of its fins, it appears calculated to make but
slow progress through the water.

366

CYCLOPTERID^.

It is more plentiful northward than on our southern coast,
and beyond this country has a most extensive range. Pen-
nant includes it in his Arctic Zoology. It is caught on the
coast of Greenland, where it is eaten ; and the Lump Sucker
of the North American shores is apparently identical with our
own. Professors Nilsson and Reinhardt include it among
the fishes of Scandinavia ; and Mr. Low considers it common
in the Orkneys. Dr. Neill says that in the spring months
it is caught on the sands of Portobello, and sent for sale to
the Edinburgh market, where it is purchased for table, and the
male fish considered superior to the female. " If," says Dr.
Richardson, " the authority of Sir Walter Scott is to pass cur-
rent in gastronomy, the Lump, or Cock-paidle, as it is named
in Scotland, is a fish of good quality, for he makes Mr. Oldbuck
give the same price for one that he does for the Bannock-
fluke, or Turbot. The epithet of Cock-paidle seems to have
originated in the appearance of the elevated dorsal ridge,
which is enveloped, like the rest of the fish, in a thick,
tuberculated skin, with some resemblance to the comb of a
domestic cock." Along our eastern and southern coasts it is
also taken more exclusively during spring, when it approaches
the shore for the purpose of depositing its spaAvn, which hap-
pens in April or the beginning of May. This species has
also been taken in various parts of Ireland.

Some of our fishermen consider that we have on our coast
two species of Lump-fish, which they distinguish by the
names of Red-Lump and Blue-Lump, considering the first
only as eatable ; but the difference in colour, and also in the
quality of the flesh, is only the effect of season ; the fine ex-
ternal colour, as well as the firmness of the flesh, being lost
to the fish for a time by the exhausting process of spawning ;
it is then by them considered as the worthless Blue-Lump.
The ova forming the hard roe are of large size, and of a fine
reddish-orange colour.

LUMP SUCKER. 367

" Fabricius describes the Lump-fish as approaching the
rocky bays on the Greenland coast in the months of April
and May for the purpose of spawning. The female precedes,
and deposits her roe among the larger algee, and in fis-
sures of the rocks ; the male shortly follows, and fructifies the
eggs, adhering so closely to the mass of roe, that the im-
pression is left upon the hollow surface of the shield formed
by the ventrals ; after which he keeps watch over the sacred
deposit, and guards it from every foe with the utmost courage.
If driven from the spot by man, he does not go far, but is
continually looking back, and in a short time returns. Even
the well-armed Wolf-fish hazards his life if he approaches the
Lump's nest ; for this creature, notwithstanding the smallness
of its teeth, is capable of attaching itself to its adversary's
neck, and inflicting thereon a mortal wound.1'' This account
by Fabricius has been doubted by Lacepede, but in part
receives confirmation from the observations of others. Dr.
George Johnston, in his list of the fishes of Berwickshire,
says, " The Cock and Hen Paidle spawn toward the end of
March and in April. At that season the Hen approaches
the shore and deposits her spawn among the rocks and sea-
weed within low water mark, and immediately afterwards
returns to deeper water. The male then covers the spawn,
and, according to the testimony of our fishermen, remains co-
tvering it, or near it, until the ova are hatched. The young-
soon after birth fix themselves to the sides and on the back of
their male parent, who sails, thus loaded, to deeper and more
safe retreats. He is only half the size of the Hen ; and at
the breeding season his belly becomes of a reddish colour.
The spawn of a single female will fill a large basin, and is of
a beautiful pink colour : the eggs globular, and about the size
of swan shot. Not in use as food, but the Cock especially is
reported to be excellent when fried or baked."

The young are four inches and a half long, and three

368

CYCLOPTERID.E.

inches in height by the end of November. Shaw's specimen,
of six inches in length, to which he attached the specific name
of Pavonina, is only a young fish of our common species,
which for want of sufficient age had not attained its perfect
colour. The bony rays supporting the dorsal crest frequently
pierce through the skin, and giving the appearance of two
dorsal fins, have suggested the notion of another species ; the
young have also, from differences depending upon their age
and condition as fry, been considered specifically distinct, and
thus the terms pyramidalis, minutus, and two or three other
names have arisen. As the Lump-fish is retentive of life, its
power of adhesion is sometimes made the subject of expe-
riment. Pennant says, " That on placing a fish of this spe-
cies, just caught, into a pail of water, it fixed itself so firmly
to the bottom, that on taking it by the tail, the whole pail
by that means was lifted, though it held some gallons, and
that without removing the fish from its hold.'"'

The Lump-Sucker feeds principally on young fish, of
which it devours a large quantity. Mr. Couch says that it
sometimes takes a bait, and he has found in its stomach
various onisci.

In the month of March the colours of the Lump-fish are
in the highest perfection, combining various shades of blue,
purple, and rich orange ; it is then frequently to be seen in
the shops of London fishmongers, suspended by the middle of
the back, attracting attention from the combination of singu-
lar form and brilliant colours,

A specimen sixteen inches long is usually about eight
inches deep, and four inches wide : the length of the head is
about one-fourth of the whole length of the fish ; the descend-
ing line of the profile of the head is abrupt ; the back highly
arched and somewhat compressed, forming a ridge, with a
row of tubercles along the upper edge ; on cutting through
the integument, the ridge is found to be supported by several

LUMP SUCKER. 369

rays, Avhich sometimes from abrasion of the hard skin appear
externally, and have been considered as bearing some resem-
blance to an anterior dorsal fin. Behind this central ridge,
and over the last third portion of the curve of the dorsal line,
is the true dorsal fin, the length of the base of which is about
equal to the length of the longest of its rays ; the pectoral
fins descend low on the sides, and passing forwards enclose
the adhesive apparatus which extends anteriorly to the edge
of the membrane connecting the branchiostegous rays, and
backwards as far in a vertical line as the posterior angle of
the operculum : the union of the ventral fins complete the
single disk of the only species of this genus that inhabits our
seas. The anal fin is under or opposed to the dorsal, and of
nearly the same size and shape ; the tail moderate.
The fin-ravs in number are —

tt

D. 11 : P. 20 : A. 9 : C. 10.

Each of the rays with a row of hard tubercles along a con-
siderable portion of their length. The whole surface of the
head and body is covered with small bony tubercles, most of
which are more or less stellated in form. Along several parts
of the body are rows of larger and more prominent tubercles,
with surfaces minutely granulated ; one row occupies the cen-
tral ridge of a portion of the back ; two or three tubercles are
placed on each side just in advance of the dorsal fin ; one
long row extends from the upper angle of the operculum in a
straight line to the upper part of the end of the fleshy por-
tion of the tail ; a second long row reaches from the space
above the pectoral fin to the lower part of the fleshy portion
of the tail ; another row of large size extends along the ab-
domen on each side as far as the commencement of the
anal fin.

The mouth is wide ; the lips fleshy ; the lower jaw the
longest : a band of short and small teeth in each jaw : a

VOL. II. 2 B

370

CYCLOPTERID.E.

small patch of rounded teeth on the root of the tongue, with
others at the pharynx : the irides a fine red ; the colour of
the sides of the head and body, and all the upper parts,
varying shades of dark blue, lighter blue, and purple ; the
lips, under surface of the head and body, fine rich orange;
all the fins tinged with the same colour. After the season
of spawning is over, much of the brilliant colouring is lost for
a time.

UNCTUOUS SUCKER.

371

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOPTELIYG1I.

CYCLOPTERIDA;.

• '* -^X^V*' ^ v^v '-'*

THE UNCTUOUS SUCKER,

OR, SEA-SNAIL.

Liparis vulgaris, Sea Snail, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 190, sp. 73.

,, ,, CUVIEU, Regne An. t. ii. p. 346.

,, nostras, Sea Snail, WILLUGI-IBY, App. p. 17, H. 6, fig. 1.

Cyclopterus liparis, LINN/EUS. BLOCK, pt. iv. pi. 123, fig. 3.

,, ,, Unctuous Sucker, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. Hi. p. 179, pi. 24.

,, ,, ,, ,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 47.

,, „ Common Sea Snail, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 473.

LIPARIS. Generic Characters. — Body without scales, smooth, elongated,
compressed posteriorly ; a single dorsal fin rather lengthened : ventral fins united
to the pectorals, and surrounding a single disk.

THE UNCTUOUS SUCKER, or SEA-SNAIL, so called from
the soft and slimy surface of its body, appears to be much
more common in the northern parts of the British Islands
than in the southern. Mr. Scoresby, and other observers,
have even found it as far north as Nova Zembla and Green-
land ; and specimens of it were taken in the trawl-net on the
west coast of Davis's Straits during the first Arctic voyage of
Captain Sir Edward Parry.

This species is found on the Berwickshire coast ; and Dr.
Parnell has obtained specimens in the Frith of Forth.

2 B 2

372 CYCLOPTERID.E.

Mr. Low says, " The Sea-Snail is found under stones at
many places in Orkney ; but in no place more frequently than
that at the point of the Ness of Stromness, where they may
be picked up by dozens." Yet it does not appear to be men-
tioned by Professor Nilsson or Reinhardt in their accounts
of the fishes of the Scandinavian shores ; nor is it included by
Linnaeus in his Fauna Suecica.

Mr. Donovan obtained a specimen from among a parcel of
Sprats at Billingsgate fish-market : and those who recollect
the wholesale mode of fishing for Sprats practised by the
Stow-boatmen, as described at page 199, will not be sur-
prised that many rare and curious fishes of small size are
caught with the Sprats. It is also obtained on the southern
coast, under stones, and in small pools of water left by the
ebbing tide. Dr. Mac Culloch says this species ascends rivers
from the sea to deposit its spawn, and it is frequently found
near the mouths of rivers. Pennant says it is full of spawn
in January, and the matured ova are said to be very large.
It feeds on aquatic insects, testaceous animals, and very
small fishes.

The whole length of the specimen described was four
inches, which is the common size of the adult of this species ;
but it is said to grow much larger in the Northern Seas : the
head is about one-fourth of the whole length of the fish ; the
eyes widely separated, the space between them depressed ;
the nose blunt ; the lips thick and fleshy ; the mouth wide,
but not deeply divided. Mr. Low says it has no teeth ; but
this is an oversight ; the teeth are very numerous, and small,
with minutely recurved points, forming a broad rasp-like
band in each jaw ; the tongue also broad, covered with pro-
minent papillae ; the lower jaw rather the longest ; the gill-
opening placed high up ; the form from the shoulder is
compressed, and tapering all the way to the tail ; the body
invested with a thin semi-transparent membrane, which en-

UNCTUOUS SUCKER.

373

closes it like a bag, the fixed points being the lines of the
dorsal and anal fins ; the pectoral fins are large, and the
lower portions descending the side are attached to additional
rays like ventral fins, which extending far forward are situ-
ated exterior to the sides of the adhesive disk ; the belly
tumid ; the dorsal fin begins much nearer the head than the
anal fin, and both end close to the tail ; the caudal rays
rather long and narrow. The fin-rays in number are —

D. 36 : P. & V. 32 : A. 26 : C. 12.

The colour of the body is a pale brown, irregularly striped
with lines of a darker colour, which take different directions,
and give a variegated appearance to the head, back, and
sides ; these lines are confined to the outer thin skin, and
do not appear upon the more solid surface underneath ; in
this state some authors have called this species lineatus ; but
these markings are not constant, and many examples are
without any streaks or lines, the edges of the dorsal and anal
fins only being edged with a darker colour ; the tail, and
sometimes the pectoral fins, slightly barred and spotted.
When kept in diluted spirit of wine, the coloured lines and
characters of the species may be easily preserved ; but this
fish loses both markings and size if allowed to become dry.

CYCLOPTERID/E.

SUBBRACHIAL

MALACOPTERYG1I. CYCLOPTERIDJE.

MONTAGU'S SUCKING-FISH.

DIMINUTIVE SUCKER.

Liparis Montagui, Montagu's Sucker, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 190, sp. 74.

,, ,, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 346, note 2.

Cyclfipterus Montagui, Diminutive Sucker, MONTAGU, Wern. Mem. vol. i. p.

91, pi. 5.

,, >, ,, ,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 68.

,, ,, Montagu's Sucker, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 183.

,, ,, Sea Snail, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 473.

THIS species of Sucking-fish, smaller in size than the one
last described, was first discovered by Colonel Montagu. A
drawing of it was sent by that excellent observer to Mr.
Donovan, who was then publishing his Natural History of
British Fishes, and with whom the specific name, referring to
Colonel Montagu, originated. The first specimen obtained
was of very diminutive size. Subsequently Colonel Montagu
having acquired various other larger and adult specimens,
published a description and figure of this species himself in
the Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society, as
already quoted.

MONTAGU'S SUCKING-FISH. 375

This fish has since that period been found on various parts
of the coast. Dr. George Johnston has obtained it in Ber-
wick Bay ; Mr. Thompson has taken it on the south-western
coast of Scotland, and in Belfast Bay ; it has also been taken
in the south of Ireland, and it is not uncommon in Cornwall,
as well as on the Devonshire coast.

Colonel Montagu says this species inhabits only the rocky
parts of the coast, and of course is ,rarely taken with the
dredge. Those obtained by its discoverer were found at
exceedingly low tides among the rocks at Milton, on the
south coast of Devon. When it is adhering to a rock the
posterior part of the body is frequently turned to one side,
nearly parallel with the anterior part, the tail being brought
close to the head. This habit of curving its body has been
observed by all those who have found this species.

Mr. Couch's notice of it in his MS. is as follows : — " This
is a common species in the West of England, where, how-
ever, it seems to wander, since at certain times it is much
more rare than at others. It possesses considerable activity ;
and when the tide has ebbed it is often found concealed
beneath a stone, where when at rest it usually throws the tail
forwards towards the head. I have never seen it adhere to
any fixed substance. The young come to life in September."

Montagu's Sucker, in the adult state, is from two inches
and a half to three inches long : the body is rounded as far as
the vent; the posterior end somewhat compressed; head
broad, a little depressed, and inflated about the gills ; mouth
moderately large ; both jaws armed with several rows of mi-
nute teeth : eyes small, and placed high ; iricles golden ;
pupils dark blue, with a single blue line descending from the
eye to the angle of the mouth : the operculum angular ; the
branchiostegous membrane transparent ; the pectoral and
ventral fins unite ; the first is rounded ; in the last, four or
five, ravs on each side invest the adhesive disk, which is sin-

j '

376

CYCLOPTERIDE.

gle, small, and circular : an enlarged representation of the
Sucker is here added to assist in affording the means of
determining the species : the belly is very tumid ; the vent
far removed behind the sucker. The dorsal fin commences
farther from the head than in- the last species ; the most an-
terior rays short, but gradually increasing in length form a
broad fin towards the tail, where it is rounded : the anal fin
shorter than the dorsal. The fin-rays in number are —

D. 26 : P. & V. 29 : A. 24 : C. 12.

This description is partly obtained from Montagu's paper.

The prevailing colour is a dull orange, varied with occa-
sional bluish tints ; the fins brighter orange red ; the lateral
line perceptible by a lighter-coloured streak ; the under parts
of the body, and about the throat and sucker, white, tinged
with flesh colour.

•

COMMON REMORA.

377

SUBBRACHIAL
MALACOPTERYG1I.

ECHENEWsE.

THE COMMON REMORA.

Echeneis remora, Sucking-jish , TURTON, Brit. Faun. p. 94, sp. 38.
,, ,, Le Remora, BLOCK, pt. v. pi. 172.

,, ,, ,, CUVIEH, Regne An. t. ii. p. 347.

,, ,, Mediterranean Remora, PENN. Brit. Zool.vol. iii. App. p. 5'24.

„ Common ,, JENYNS, Man. Bril. Vert. p. 473,

sp. 162.

ECHENEIS. Generic Characters. — Body elongated, covered with very small
scales ; a single dorsal fin placed opposite the anal ; the head very flat, covered
with an oval disk formed by numerous transverse cartilaginous plates, the
edges of which are directed backward ; the mouth wide, with numerous small
recurved teeth on both jaws, the tongue, and the vomer.

DR. TURTON in his British Fauna includes this species
of Sucking-fish, having taken a specimen himself at Swansea
from the back of a Codfish in the summer of 1806.

The species of this singular family are not numerous :
Cuvier enumerates but four that are as yet made known, and
another large West Indian one has been more recently

378 ECHENEID.E.

described. They are immediately recognized by the flatten-
ed, oval, adhesive disk, on the top of the head, by means of
which they are able to attach themselves firmly to the sur-
face of other fishes, or the bottoms of vessels ; but whether
for protection or conveyance, or both, is a question which has
not been satisfactorily ascertained.

The Greeks and Romans were well acquainted with the
Mediterranean species, which is the fish under present con-
sideration.

The length of the head, from the end of the upper jaw,
which is much the shortest, to the end of the operculmn,
is nearly one-fifth of the whole length of the fish ; the depth
of the body about one-seventh of the whole length : the
form of the head is flattened, very much depressed ; the
body about the middle nearly round in form, the posterior
half compressed ; the mouth is wide ; the opening nearly
horizontal, with two bands of minute teeth in the elongated
lower jaw, a single band on the upper jaw, with others on
the tongue and vomer, all curving inwards : the eye placed
about half-way between the point of the upper jaw and the
rounded end of the operculum ; the gill-aperture very large ;
the adhesive disk in this species contains seventeen or
eighteen transverse laminae, divided by a longitudinal mesial
ridge ; the disk commences just behind and above the upper
lip, and extends nearly as far back as the line of the ends
of the pectoral fin-rays : all the fins are covered with a dense
membrane, which imparts to them the consistence of leather ;
the pectoral fins are rather small and rounded ; the ventrals
narrow, very close together, the inner ray of each attached
to the central line of the belly by a membrane ; the dorsal
and anal fins are both placed behind the mid-length of the
fish, beginning and ending on the same plane ; the end of
the caudal rays crescent-shaped.

COMMON REMORA. 379

The fin-rays in number are —

D. 21 : P. 22 : V. 4 : A. 20 : C. 20.

The colour is dusky brown ; the under part of the body
rather lighter than the back ; the fins darker in colour than
the body.

The disk of the adhesive apparatus in the specimen now
described with seventeen transverse laminse was one-third
of the whole length of the fish, not including the caudal
rays ; the breadth one inch and one quarter. The figure
on the left side of the vignette represents the outer surface
of the anterior half of the disk : the margin is free, flexible,
and of considerable breadth, to secure perfect contact with
the surface to which it is opposed ; the parallel laminse are
represented as only slightly elevated ; the degree of adhesion
is in proportion to the power used to raise the inner surface
of the disk in a direction perpendicular to the plane of con-
tact. The figure on the right side of the vignette represents
the inner surface of the posterior half of the disk. The ver-
tical direction of the moveable laminse is effected by sets
of muscles going off obliquely right and left from two elon-
gated bony processes, one on each half of each of these move-
able divisions. The contraction of these muscles, acting
upon these levers, raises the external edges of the parallel
divisions, increasing the area of the vacuum ; and it will be
observed that the points of the moveable transverse divisions
to which the muscles are attached are nearer the middle line
than the outer edge, by which the chance of interfering with
the perfect continuity of the free margin, and thereby de-
stroying the vacuum, is diminished. All the bony laminse,
the outer edges of which are furnished Avith rows of minute
tooth-like projections, are moved simultaneously, like the
thin vertical divisions of our common wooden window-blinds

380

CYCLOPTERID/E.

by means of the mechanical contrivance on the frame-work.
The longer muscles placed nearer the outer oval edge are
probably instrumental in preserving the contact of the more
flexible margin, and the serrated external edges of the
parallel laminae help to preserve the degree of elevation ob-
tained : the adhesive power, as before observed, is in propor-
tion to the area of the vacuum.

^HARP-NOSED EEL.

381

APODAL
MALACOl'TERYGII.

MURJENID&.

SHARP-NOSED EEL.

Angitilla acutirostris, Sharp-nosed Eel, YARRELL, Proceed. Zool. Soc. 1831,

pp. 133 and 159. Zool. Journ. vol.
iv. p. 469.

,, omnium autorum, WILLUGHBY, p. 109, G. 5.
„ acutirostris, Sharp-nosed Eel, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 474,

sp. 163.
L'Anguille,

O *

Common Eel,

Mnrtena anguilla,

» ii

Anguilla vulgar is,

Long-bee,
Common Eel,

LINN/F.US. BLOCK, pt. iii. pi. 73.
PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 191.
FLEM. Brit. An. p. 199, sp. 109.
CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 349.
BOWDICH, Brit. Fr. Wat. Fish. No. 7.

ANGUILLA. Generic Characters. — Body cylindrical, elongated, covered with
a thick and smooth skin ; the scales very small ; lubricated with copious mucous
secretion ; mouth with a row of teeth in each jaw, and a few on the anterior
part of the vomer ; pectoral fins close to a small branchial aperture ; no ventral
fins ; dorsal fin, anal fin, and caudal fin united.

BARON CUVIER, in this family of the Mureenid^ or Eel-
shaped Fishes, which includes several genera forming his
fourth order, has brought together those fishes with soft
fins which have an elongated form of body : they are also
destitute of ventral fins, and are in consequence called Apo-
dal. The genus Anguilla, including our common Eels, is
the first of this order.

382 IMUR,ENID,E.

The general appearance of the Eel is so well known, and
so unlike that of most other fishes, as to require but a slight
description ; yet it was not till a period of very modern date
that naturalists became acquainted with the fact that the
fresh waters of several countries produce three or four dis-
tinct species which had previously been confounded together.
Thus the first edition of the Regne Animal, published in
1817, included but one species of common fresh-water Eel
as well known : the second edition, published in 1829, con-
tains a short notice of four different species ; three of which,
if not all four, are found in this country.

The form of the Eel, resembling that of the serpent, has
long excited a prejudice against it, which exists in some coun-
tries even to the present time ; and its similarity to snakes
has even been repeated by those, who, from the advantages of
education, and their acquirements in natural history, might
have been supposed capable of drawing more accurate con-
clusions. There is but little similarity in the snake and the
Eel except in the external form of the body : the important
internal organs of the two animals, and the character of the
skeleton, are most decidedly different.

Eels are in reality a valuable description of fish : their flesh
is excellent as food ; they are very numerous, very prolific,
and are found in almost every part of the world. The various
species are hardy, tenacious of life, and very easily preserved.
In this country they inhabit almost all our rivers, lakes, and
ponds ; they are in great esteem for the table, and the con-
sumption in our large cities is very considerable. The Lon-
don market is principally supplied from Holland by Dutch
fishermen. There are two companies in Holland, having
five vessels each : their vessels are built with a capacious well,
in which large quantities of Eels are preserved alive till
wanted. One or more of these vessels may be constantly
seen lying off Billingsgate ; the others go to Holland for

SHARP-NOSED EEL.

fresh supplies, each bringing a cargo of 15,000 to 20,000
pounds'' weight of live Eels, for which the Dutch merchant
pays a duty of 13/. per cargo for his permission to sell.
Eels and Salmon are the only fish sold by the pound weight
in the London market.

Eels are not only numerous, but they are also in great
request, in many other countries. Ellis, in his Polynesian
Researches, vol. ii. page 286, says, " In Otaheite, Eels are
great favourites, and are tamed and fed until they attain an
enormous size. These pets are kept in large holes, two or
three feet deep, partially filled with water. On the sides of
these pits they generally remained, excepting when called
by the person who fed them. I have been several times with
the young chief, when he has sat down by the side of the
hole, and, by giving a shrill sort of whistle, has brought out
an enormous Eel, which has moved about the surface of the
water, and eaten with confidence out of its master's hand."

At a meeting of the Wernerian Natural History Society of
Edinburgh, held in January last, Professor Jameson, P. in
the chair. Mr. Walter C. Trevelyan read an account of the
habits of some tame Eels. In a small pond in a walled gar-
den at Craigo, the seat of David Carnegie, Esq. near Mon-
trosc, these Eels have been kept for nine or ten years. They
lie torpid during the whole winter, except the sun be shining-
bright, when they will occasionally come out from their
hiding-place under some loose stones, and sprawl about the
bottom of the pond, but refuse to take any food. The 26th
of April was the first day in 1840 that they rose for worms ;
but they eat sparingly until the warm weather begins, when
they become quite insatiable : one of them will then swallow
twenty-seven large worms one after the other. When they
were first put into the pond, and had no food given to them,
they devoured one another. They generally lie quietly at
the bottom of the pond, except when any of the family go

38-t MURENID.E.

and look into it, when they invariably rise to the surface,
sometimes for food, and at others merely to play with the
hand, or take the fingers into their mouths. About the
month of August they become very restless, and take every
opportunity of the pond overflowing from rain to get out ;
when sought for in the garden, on these occasions, they are
invariably found travelling eastwards (the direction of the
sea, which is about four miles from Craigo). Towards the
end of August, or beginning of September, they retire to
their winter retreat under the stones. Whether they breed
in this pond or not is uncertain ; but on clearing it out last
summer a few very small Eels were discovered, and how else
they could have found their way there is not easy to conjec-
ture, as there is a fine rose on the mouth of the pipe by
which the water enters. From their rapacity, shown in de-
vouring their companions, — some Goldfish, — it is possible
they may eat the greater part of their own small fry. — Edin.
New. Phil. Journ.for April 1841, p. 439.

" Most of the writers on the habits of the Eel have de-
scribed them as making two migrations in each year : one in
the autumn to the sea ; the other in. spring, or at the begin-
ning of summer, from the sea. The autumn migration is
performed by adult Eels, and is believed to be for the pur-
pose of depositing their spawn ; it is also said that these
parent fish never return up the rivers. The spring migration
is commonly supposed to be confined to very small Eels,
not more than three inches in length, and in reference to the
fry alone, it is too well known, and too often recorded, to be
matter of doubt. The passage of countless hundreds of
young Eels has been seen and described as occurring in the
Thames,* the Severn, the Parrett, the Dee, and the Ban.

* See an excellent account by Dr. William Roots, of Kingston, published in
the second series of Gleanings in Natural History, by Edward Jesse, Esq.
p. -50.

SHARP-NOSED EEL. 385

I am, however, of opinion, that the passage of adult Eels to
the sea, or rather to the brackish water of the estuary, is an
exercise of choice, and not a matter of necessity ; and that the
parent Eels return up the river as well as the fry."

" All authors agree that Eels are extremely averse to cold.
There are no Eels in the arctic regions, — none in the rivers
of Siberia, the Wolga, nor even in some of the tributaries of
the Danube ; yet the rivers of the southern parts of Europe
produce four species. There is no doubt that fishes in general,
and Eels in particular, are able to appreciate even minute
alterations in the temperature of the water they inhabit.
The mixed water they seek to remain in during the colder
months of the year is of a higher temperature than the pure
fresh water of the river, or that of the sea. It is a well-
known law in chemistry, that when two fluids of different
densities come in contact, the temperature of the mixture
is elevated for a time in proportion to the difference in the
density of the two fluids, from the mutual penetration and
condensation. Such a mixture is constantly taking place at
the mouths of rivers that run into the sea, and the mixed
water maintains a temperature two degrees warmer than that
of the river or the sea. This elevation in the temperature of
the water of estuaries and the mouths of rivers is, I have no
doubt, one reason why they in general abound in young fish."

In a tideway river the descent of the Eels towards the
brackish water takes place during the autumn, and various
devices are employed in different streams to intercept them
in their progress. The figure given on the next page repre-
sents the form of an apparatus used in various parts of the
Thames, called an Eelbuck, consisting of a framework of
wood supporting various wicker-baskets of a particular form.
The large open end of each basket is opposed to the stream,
and by the peculiar structure of the inside, any fish once
within the body of the basket cannot escape.

VOL. n. 2 c

386

MUR.ENID.E.

During the cold months of the year Eels remain imbedded
in mud ; and large quantities are frequently taken by Eel-
spears in the soft soils of harbours and banks of rivers, from
which the tide recedes, and leaves the surface exposed for
several hours every day. The Eels bury themselves twelve
or sixteen inches deep, near the edge of the navigable chan-
nel, and generally near some of the many land-drains, the
water of which continues to run in its course over the mud
into the channel during the whole time the tide is out. In
Somersetshire the people know how to find the holes in the
banks of rivers in which Eels are laid up, by the hoar-frost
not lying over them as it does elsewhere, and dig them out
in heaps. The practice of searching for
Eels in mud in cold weather is not con-
fined to this country ; Dr. Mitchell, in
his paper on the Fishes of New York,
published in the Transactions of the Li-
terary and Philosophical Society of that
city, says, " In the winter Eels lie con-
cealed in the mud, and are taken in great
numbers by spears." Thus imbedded in

SHARP-NOSED EEL.

387

mud, in a state of torpidity, the Eel indicates a low degree
of respiration. Dr. Marshall Hall has shown that the quan-
tity of respiration is inversely as the degree of irritability.
With a high degree of irritability and a low respiration, co-
exist— 1st. The power of sustaining the privation of air and
of food ; 2nd. A low animal temperature ; 3rd. Little acti-
vity ; 4th. Great tenacity of life. All these peculiarities
Eels are well known to possess. The high degree of irri-
tability of the muscular fibre explains the restless motions of
Eels during thunder-storms, and helps to account for the
enormous captures made in some rivers by the use of gratings,
boxes, and eel-pots or baskets, which imprison all that enter.
The power of enduring the effects of a low temperature is
shown by the fact, that Eels exposed on the ground till
frozen, then buried in snow, and at the end of four days put
into water, and so thawed slowly, discovered gradually signs
of life, and soon perfectly recovered.

The mode by which young Eels are produced appears to
have long been a subject of inquiry, and the notions of the
ancients as well as of some of the moderns were numerous
and fanciful. Aristotle believed that they sprang from the
mud ; Pliny, from fragments which were separated from their
bodies by rubbing against rocks ; others supposed that they
proceeded from the carcasses of animals ; Helmont believed
that they came from May-dew, and might be obtained by the
following process : — " Cut up two turfs covered with May-
dew, and lay one upon the other, the grassy sides inwards,
and thus expose them to the heat of the sun ; in a few hours
there will spring from them an infinite quantity of Eels."
Horse-hair from the tail of a stallion, when deposited in water,
was formerly believed to be a never-failing source of a supply
of young Eels. It was long considered certain that they
were viviparous : this belief had its origin probably in the
numerous worms that are frequently to be found in various

2 c 2

388 MUR/ENID^E.

parts of the bodies of Eels, sometimes in the serous cavities,
at others in the intestinal canal. Rudolphi has enumerated
eight different species of entozoa common to fresh-water Eels.
The enormous number of young known to be produced by
Eels is a good negative proof that they are oviparous ; vivi-
parous fishes producing, on the contrary, but few young at
a time, and these too of considerable size when first excluded.
Having devoted time and attention to the close examination
of numbers of Eels for many months in succession, the fur-
ther details of which will be found in Mr. Jesse's second
series of Gleanings in Natural History, I need only here
repeat my belief that Eels are oviparous, producing their
young like other true bony fishes.

" The sexual organ consists of two long narrow sacs ex-
tending one on each side of the air-bladder throughout the
whole length of the abdominal cavity, and continued for two
inches posterior to the vent. The membranes forming this
tubular sac, secreting on the inner surface the milt of the
male, and affording attachment for the ova in the female, are
puckered or gathered along the line of junction to the peri-
toneal covering of the spine, and the free or loose floating
edo-e is therefore thrown into creases or plaits like a frill. It

O *

is probably from this folded or convoluted appearance the
sexual organs of the Eel have frequently been called fringes.
By the kindness of my friends Mr. Clift and Mr. Owen, of
the Royal College of Surgeons, I have had the pleasure of
seeing some drawings belonging to the collection of John
Hunter, in which these peculiarities of the sexual organs in
the Eel are beautifully exhibited in various magnified repre-
sentations." These representations are now published.

Dr. Mitchell of New York, whose paper on Fishes has
been already referred to, says, " the roes or ovaria of Eels
may be seen by those Avho will look for them in the proper
season, like those of other fishes."

SHARP-NOSED EEL. 389

Eels that have lain in brackish water all the winter under
the constant influence of the higher temperature of that
locality, probably deposit their spawn earlier in the spring
than those which have passed the winter in places from which
there existed for them no possible egress. In the Mole, the
Wey, the Longford river, and in some large ponds, the
Eels in the spring of 1883 did not deposit their spawn till
near the end of April ; but in two Eels from Sheerness
received and examined on the 18th of May, the internal
appearances induced me to believe that the roes had been
passed some time. How long the ova remain deposited
before the young Eel is produced, is, I believe, unknown.
The duration of this interval is very variable in different
fishes. The roe of the Herring, deposited at the end of
October or the beginning of November, is said to become
living fry within three weeks : the ova of Eels, the produce
of which is very small, do not probably require a longer
period. Both the parent Eels and the fry occupying the
brackish water appear to have the power of going either to
the salt water or to the fresh without inconvenience, from
the previous preparation which the respiratory organs have
undergone, and many of both are found in pure sea water :
the great bulk of the young, however, certainly ascend the
stream of the river, and their annual appearance in certain
places is looked for with some interest. The passage of
young Eels up the Thames at Kingston in the year 1832
commenced on the 30th of April, and lasted till the 4th of
May ; but I believe I am correct in stating that few young
Eels were observed to pass up the Thames either in the year
1834 or 1835. Some notion may be formed of the quantity
of young Eels, each about three inches long, that pass up
the Thames in the spring, and in other rivers at the beginning
of summer, from the circumstance that it was calculated by
two observers of the progress of the young Eels at Kingston

390 MUB.ENID.E.

in 1832, that from sixteen to eighteen hundred passed a
given point in the space of one minute of time. This pas-
sage of young Eels is called Ed-fare on the banks of the
Thames, — the Saxon word signifying to go, to pass, to tra-
vel ;* and I have very little doubt that the term Elver, in
common use on the banks of the Severn for a young Eel, is a
modification or corruption of Eel-fare.

" When the Elvers appear in the Severn, they are taken
in great quantities with sieves of hair cloth, or even with a
common basket, and, after being scoured and boiled, are
offered for sale. They are either fried in cakes or stewed,
and are accounted very delicious."

There is no doubt that Eels occasionally quit the water,
and when grass meadows are wet from dew, or other causes,
travel during the night over the moist surface in search of
frogs and other suitable food, or to change their situation.
Some ponds continually produce Eels, though the owners of
these ponds are most desirous of keeping the water free
from Eels, from a knowledge of their destructive habits to-
wards the spawn and fry of other fishes. Other ponds into
which Eels have been constantly introduced are obnoxious to
them from some quality in the water ; and they are known to
leave such places during the night, and have been found on
their passage to other retreats. Dr. Hastings, in his Illus-
trations of the Natural History of Worcestershire, says at
page 134 : " I will here mention a curious confirmation of
the opinion in favour of the overland migration of Eels. A
relative of the late Mr. Perrott was out in his park with his
keeper near a large piece of water, on a very beautiful even-
ing, when the keeper drew his attention to a fine Eel quietly
ascending the bank of the pool, and with an undulating

* A pedestrian on the road is called " a way-faring man ;" and hence, also,
the price for travelling by a conveyance is called " the fare." We have also
" thoroughfare," &c.

SHARP-NOSED EEL. 39?

motion making its way through the long grass : on further
observation he perceived a considerable number of Eels qui-
etly proceeding to a range of stews, nearly the distance of a
quarter of a mile from the large piece of water from whence
they started. The stews were supplied by a rapid brook,
and in all probability the instinct of the fish led them in that
direction as a means of finding their way to some large river
from whence their ultimate destination, the sea, might be
obtained. This circumstance took place at Sandford Park,
near Enstone."

That Eels breed also in the fresh water of inland rivers
and lakes from which they are unable to visit the sea, is, I
believe, certain. A constant supply for the table is obtained
throughout the winter in these localities, as well as at other
seasons, by gamekeepers and fishermen, who have charge of
waters thus situated ; and no doubt exists in their minds that
these Eels are bred in the places from which they are ob-
tained, and of which the great variation that occurs in the
size is an additional proof.

The Eel is a voracious feeder during certain months of
the year. In winter the stomachs of those which I examined
were empty ; by the middle of March I found the stomachs
of others distended with the larvse of various insects, and the
bones of small fishes. They are known to consume a large
quantity of spawn, and will attack large Carp, seizing them
by the fins, though without the power of doing them further
injury. Occasionally they eat vegetable substances, and
have been seen swimming about the surface of water, cropping
the leaves of small aquatic plants. By means of a long and
capacious air-bladder, Eels rise to various elevations in the
water with great ease, and sometimes swim very high even in
deep water. When Whitebait-fishing in the Thames, I
once caught an Eel in the net in twenty-six feet depth of

392

MUB/ENID.E.

water, though the Whitebait-net does not clip more than
about three feet below the surface.

Eels appear to be slow of growth, not attaining greater
length than twelve inches during the first year, and do not
mature roe till the second or third year. The sharp-nosed
species, however, acquires a large size. I saw at Cambridge
the preserved skins of two which weighed together fifty
pounds ; the heaviest twenty-seven pounds, the second twen-
ty-three pounds. They were taken on draining a fen-dyke
at Wisbeach. No other fish of any sort was found in that
dyke.

Ely is said to have been so named from rents being for-
merly paid in Eels : the lords of manors in the isle were
annually entitled to more than 100,000 Eels. A stich or
stick of Eels was twenty-five ; and the practice of stringing
Eels on tough slender willow-twigs, put in at the gill-aperture
and out at the mouth, still prevails in Dorsetshire among
those who carry Eels about for sale from house to house
one, two, or three pounds1 weight being thus strung on a
stick, to suit different customers. El more on the Severn
obtained its name from the immense number of Eels which
are taken there.

In a Sharp-nosed Eel of twenty-two inches in length,
three distances taken from the point of the lower jaw arc to

SHARP-NOSED EEL. 393

the whole length of the Eel as follows : — to the upper part of
the base of the pectoral fin, as two to seventeen ; to the com-
mencement of the dorsal fin, as two to seven ; and to the com-
mencement of the anal fin, as nine to twenty-two. In a
Sharp-nosed Eel of twenty inches in length, the pectoral fin
will be almost one inch, and the vent more than an inch,
nearer the head than the same parts in a Broad-nosed Eel of
the same length.

The head is compressed, the top convex, depressed as it
slopes forward : the eye small, placed immediately over the
angles of the mouth ; irides reddish yellow : the jaws very
narrow, slightly rounded at the end ; the lower jaw the long-
est : nostrils with two openings on each side, one tubular,
the other a simple orifice ; both jaws furnished with a narrow
band of small teeth ; gape small ; various mucous pores
about the mouth and other parts of the head ; gill-open-
ing a small aperture immediately before and rather below
the origin of the pectoral fin ; the scales on the body rather
small : dorsal fin extending over more than two-thirds of the
whole length of the fish ; anal fin occupying more than half
of the whole length ; both united at the end, forming a
tail ; the number of rays in the fins not easily ascertained,
from the thickness of the skin ; the lateral line exhibits a
long series of mucous orifices; vertebrae 113. The vent
includes four distinct openings, the most anterior of which
leads upwards to the intestine, the posterior to the urinary
bladder in a direction backwards, and one elongated lateral
opening on each side communicating with the cavity of the
abdomen, as in other bony fishes.

The cranium on the right hand of the three, figured at
page 401, is that of the Sharp-nosed Eel.

The prevailing colour of all the upper surface is a dark
olivaceous green ; the sides lighter ; the belly white. When
the fish arc obtained from pure streams, the colours arc clear

394- MUR.ENIDE.

and bright, and it is called a Silver Eel ; when taken from
water over a muddy bottom, the colours are brown and dusky.
Dr. Marshall Hall, in 1831, while pursuing some physiolo-
gical investigations on the circulation of the blood in various
reptiles and fishes, observed a pulsating sac near the tail of
the Eel. The form, action, and connexions of this sac are
best seen under the microscope. A young Eel of six or
seven inches in length, if rolled up in a strip of linen cloth,
leaving out a small portion only of the tail, will remain quiet
when placed on a long slip of glass, or may be tied to it with
thread. The pulsation observed in this sac is entirely inde-
pendent of the action or influence of the heart, and the num-
ber of beats more than double in the same period of time ;
thev also continue after the heart has been removed. Some

•/

Continental physiologists have ascertained that these pulsating
sacs, which are found in the frog, the toad, the salamander,
and the green lizard,* contain lymph, and direct its motion,
and they have accordingly called them lymphatic hearts.
They are only observed in connexion with veins. " Such
is," says Dr. Miiller, " the pulsating organ discovered by
Dr. Marshall Hall at the end of the vena caudalis of the
Eel, where that organ receives the venous branches of the
extremity of the tail, and conducts its blood into the vena
caudalis. But organs of pulsation in the lymphatic system
have hitherto been altogether unknown ; it is not probable
that they should exist only in amphibia, and important dis-
coveries of a similar nature in the higher animals, such as
birds and mammalia, may be expected ; my researches, as
regards these, have however been hitherto unsuccessful.1' In
another part of his paper, Dr. Miiller observes, " I have never
discovered a trace of motion in the cysterna chyli and ductus
thoracicus of mammalia."

* See a paper in the Philosophical Transactions for 1833, by Dr. John
MUllev, Professor of Physiology in the University of Bonn.

SHARP-NOSED EEL.

395

In a conversation with Mr. Owen on this subject, he sug-
gested, that as the valves of the lymphatic vessels are very few
and imperfect in reptiles and fishes, especially in the latter,
these pulsating sacs would seem to be superadded as a com-
pensating power in the absence of that mechanism which
impresses a definite direction and an unintermitting flow
upon the currents of the lymph in the higher vertebrata,
especially mammalia.

I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Marshall Hall for
permission to copy the excellent illustration of this structure
in the tail of the Eel, from his very interesting critical and
experimental essay on the circulation of the blood.

In the vignette the arrow-heads indicate the direction of
the currents.

396

MUR.ENID.E.

APODAL
MALACOPTERYGJI.

MURJENIDJE,

THE BROAD-NOSED EEL.

Anguilla latirostris, Broad-nosed Eel, YARRELL, ProceeJ. Zool. Soc. 1831.

pp. 133 and 159. Zool. Journ.
vol. iv. p. 469.
,, ,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 476,

sp. 164.

CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 349.
BOWDICH, Brit. Fr.Wat. Fish, No. 22.

A. pimperneanr,
Glut Eel,

THE BROAD-NOSED EEL is almost as common a species
as the Sharp-nosed Eel, but is immediately distinguished
from it by the much greater comparative breadth of the
head ; the representation at the top of the page is therefore
confined to that part of the fish which exhibits the best
distinctions; and the vignette to the Snig Eel, page 401,
represents in the left-hand figure of the three heads the cra-
nium of the Broad-nosed Eel, to show this character as it
exists in the bone. This Eel is the Grig or Glut Eel of
Pennant, who says, " They have a larger head, blunter nose,
and thicker skin than the common sort." It is, probably,
also the Frog-mouthed Eel of the Severn, referred to by
Dr. Hastings, in his Natural History of Worcestershire,

BROAD-NOSED EEL. 397

page 135, and so called by the fishermen from the extraordi-
nary width of the mouth.

In its habits the Broad-nosed Eel has not been distin-
guished by any peculiarity that I am aware of from the other
common Eel ; but it does not appear to attain so large a size,
the largest I have seen not exceeding five pounds in weight.
It exists in many of the waters which produce the Sharp-
nosed Eel, is much thicker in the body in proportion to its
length, and fishermen can distinguish this species readily
when fishing in the dark by its more soft and unctuous feel
in the hand.

The term Grig is, however, in and about London, ap-
plied to a particular Eel of small size, of which the figure
here introduced represents the head. This Eel is the An-

guille plat-bee of Cuvier, Regne Animal, torn. ii. p. 349,
who considers it a distinct species. It is the Grig Eel also
of Mrs. Bowdiclis British Fresh Water Fishes, No. 28,
in which work the three Eels already spoken of here are well
figured ; and the species were considered by Cuvier as iden-
tical with those of the Regne Animal.

The name Grig is also applied by Thames fishermen to
any small-sized Eel of any species when not longer than
eight or nine inches, and of which eight or ten are required
to make up a pound weight.

In a Broad-nosed Eel of twenty-two inches in length,
three distances taken from the point of the lower jaw are to
the whole length as follows : — to the upper part of the base

398

MUR.£NID,E.

of the pectoral fin, as two to thirteen ; to the commencement
of the dorsal fin, as one to three ; and to the commencement
of the anal fin, as ten to twenty-two.

The Broad-nosed Eel has the head rounded at the back
part, and flattened from the eyes forward ; both jaws broad
and blunt ; the lower jaw the widest, and longer than the
upper : nostrils double, one tubular, the other a plain orifice ;
the gape large ; lips fleshy : teeth more numerous than in
either of the other British fresh-water species, larger, strong-
er, and forming a much broader band in each jaw : the eyes
large, placed before the line of the gape ; irides golden yel-
low : the gill-openings, pectoral fins, the commencement of
the dorsal fin, and the vent, placed farther back than in the
Sharp-nosed Eel ; dorsal and anal fins also much deeper and
thicker ; the tail broad and rounded ; the body of the fish
thicker for the same length than in other Eels : the number
ofvertebrse 115.

The colour of the upper surface of the body is a dark-
greenish brown, subject to some variation, depending on lo-
cality, soil, and the quality of the water.

SNIG.

APODAL
MALACOPTERYGII.

MUR&NID1E.

THE SNIG.

Anguilla mediurostris, Snig Eel, YARRELL. Jesse, Glean. Nat. Hist. 2nd

Series, pp. 75 and 76.
,, ,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 477, sp. 165.

I AM indebted to the kindness of Mr. Jesse, and his
friend, Francis Mills, Esq. for the first specimens of this
Eel I have seen ; and from some differences in its exter-
nal characters, in its habits, and also in the comparative size of
the head, as well as some peculiarity in the five cervical ver-
tebra that are nearest the head, I believe it to be a different
species from either of those previously described in this work.

The specimens I have had were from the Avon in Hamp-
shire, where this Eel, rather remarkable for its yellow colour,
is called the Snig, and is considered distinct from the other
well-known and more common Eels.

Dr. Hastings, in the Appendix to his Illustrations of the
Natural History of Worcestershire, page 135, says, that
besides an Eel called the Frog-mouthed Eel by the fisher-
men, from the extraordinary width of the mouth, — identical,
probably, with the Broad-nosed Eel of this work, — " there
are two distinct kinds of Eels in the Worcestershire Avon,
the Silver and Yellow Eel,"" which last may be similar to the
Snig of the Avon of Hampshire.

400 MUR.ENID.K.

The term Snig, it should however be stated, is in some
counties a general name for any sort of Eel ; and a particular
mode of fishing for Eels, which is described in most of the
works on Angling, is called Sniggling.

The Hampshire Snig differs from our other Eels in its
habit of roving and feeding during the day, which other Eels
do not. It is considered excellent as an article of food, and
of a superior flavour to other Eels : it does not however attain
a large size, seldom exceeding half a pound in weight.

The fishermen make a certain difference in the mode of
placing their eel-pots when they are desirous of catching
Snigs ; finding by long experience that the Snigs get into
those pots the mouths of which are set in the opposite direc-
tion, in reference to the stream, to others in which the com-
mon Eels are taken.

In the comparative breadth of the nose, the Snig is inter-
mediate in reference to the Sharp and Broad-nosed Eels,
but rather more resembles that with the sharp nose ; it has a
slight but elongated depression extending from the anterior
edge of the upper jaw to the upper and back part of the
head ; the tubular openings of the nostrils are longer, and the
mucous pores about the lips larger and more conspicuous ;
both jaws rounded at their extremities, the lower one the
longest ; teeth longer and stronger than in the common sharp-
nosed species ; gape large ; the angle and the posterior edge
of the eye on the same vertical line ; the pectoral fins, the
commencement of the dorsal fin, and the vent, are each placed
nearer the head than in either of our fresh-water Eels.

The general colour olive green above, passing by a lighter
green to yellowish white below.

Desirous of obtaining internal characters of distinction
among our fresh- water Eels, I prepared skeletons of each
species, selecting three examples that measured exactly the

SNIG.

401

same length, in order to afford a more just comparison. The
vignette at the bottom of the page represents correctly the
relative size and power of bone in each species. The cra-
nium on the left is that of the Broad-nosed Eel ; that in
the middle is from the Snig ; the head on the right hand is
from the Sharp-nosed Eel. It is obvious that each is able
to overcome a larger and more powerful victim as food than
the other. It will also be seen, that independent of some
difference in the length and form of some of the bones, as
well as in the size of the head in the middle, belonging to
the Snig, as compared with that on either side, there is a cha-
racteristic distinction in the form of the bones of the verte-
bral column. The first five cervical vertebrae are smooth
and round, entirely destitute of superior or lateral spinous
processes, both of which are possessed by the other two, of a
size corresponding to the character of the vertebral bone it-
self to which it belongs. With this exception, the skeleton
of the Snig most resembles that of the Sharp-nosed Eel ;
but is somewhat stronger, and particularly so in the processes
of the other vertcbrse generally.

402

MUR/ENID.E.

APODAL
MALACOPTERYGIl.

MURJENIDA.

THE CONGER.

Conger vulgaris, Le Congre, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 350.

Conger, WILLUGHBY, p. Ill, G. 6.
Murtzna Conger, ,, LINNJEUS. BLOCH, pt. v. pi. 155.

,, ,, Conger Eel, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 196.

,, ,, ,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 119.

,, ,, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 200, sp. 110.

Anguilla ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 478.

CONGEH. Generic Characters. — The dorsal fin commences much nearer the
head than in the fresh-water Eels ; the upper jaw the longest ; in other respects
resembling the genus Anguilla.

THE CONGER EEL is a marine species well known on
all the rocky parts of the coast of the British Islands, but
nowhere more abundant than on the coast of Cornwall.

Mr. Low says, " It is found very frequently round the
Orkney Islands : some are caught at the fishermen's lines ;
but the otter is by far the most successful in killing Congers.
He brings them ashore, and eats but a very small part,
leaving the rest for the next comer ; and where his haunts are
known, the country people are very careful every morning to
search for the remains of the night, and are seldom disap-

rONuER. 403

pointed, but find Cod, Ling sometimes, but especially Con-
gers, which are oftener seen amongst the deep hollows of the
rocks than farther to sea."

Dr. Neill and Dr. Parncll say this species is taken in the
Forth, and finds a ready sale in Edinburgh market.

The Conger is frequently caught at various rocky parts of
our eastern coast, and I have known specimens of large size
taken in winter about the mouth of the Thames. Congers
are caught by bulters, or long-lines, and hand-lines — modes
of fishing already described, and the most esteemed bait is
the sandlauncc. " So well assured," says Colonel Montagu,
" are the French fishermen of the advantage derived from the
use of this little fish, that the fishing-boats in times of peace
run over from the coast about Dieppe to Slapton Bay, on
the south coast of Devon, on purpose to purchase launcc ;
and for that purpose 'alone do some of our fishermen keep
fine nets for the purpose of supplying bait to these foreigners,
for which they obtain about twenty-pence the bushel. Some
principal Conger banks lie off the French coast, from which
a prodigious quantity are taken to feed the poorer classes on
maigre days.

The principal fishery for Congers in this country is on the
Cornish coast ; where, according to Mr. Couch, it is not
uncommon for a boat with three men to bring on shore from
five hundred weight to two tons, the fishing being performed
during the night ; for this fish will not readily take a bait by
day, and even on moonlight nights it is more shy than when
in the dark, except in deep water. The most usual bait
with the Cornish fishermen is a Pilchard. The Congers
that keep among rocks hide themselves in crevices, where
they are not unfrequently left by the retiring tide ; but in
situations free from rocks, Congers hide themselves by bur-
rowing in the ground.

The flesh is not in much estimation, but meets a ready
sale at a low price among the lower classes. Formerly a

2 D 2

4()i MUR.ENID.E.

very considerable quantity was prepared by drying in a par-
ticular manner, and exported to Spain : Bayonne also re-
ceived a part. When thus dried, the flesh was ground or
grated to powder, and in this state was used to thicken soup.

Congers spawn in December or January ; and the dis-
tinction of the sexes is obvious on the examination of the
roe during the cold months. Small ones, about the size of
a man's finger, are found among rocks, close to land, during
the summer. The small Eels which ascend the Severn in
such numbers in the spring, and were considered by Wil-
lughby and Pennant as the young of the Conger, are in
reality the young of fresh-water Eels.

The adult fish is most voracious, not sparing even those
of its own species. From the stomach of a specimen weigh-
ing twenty-five pounds, I took three common Dabs, and a
young Conger of three feet in length. The power of the
jaws in this fish is very great : in the stomach of small spe-
cimens examined on the coast, I have found the strong tes-
taceous coverings of our shell-fish comminuted to fragments.
They are often tempted by the Crustacea entrapped in the
lobster-pots to enter those decoys in order to feed on them,
and are thus frequently captured.

Congers acquire a very large size. Specimens weighing
eighty-six pounds, one hundred and four pounds, and even
one hundred and thirty-pounds, have been recorded, some of
them measuring more than ten feet long, and eighteen inches
in circumference. They possess great strength, and often
prove very formidable antagonists if assailed among rocks, or
when drawn into a boat on a line.

Three measurements taken from the point of the nose, as
in the fresh-water species, give the following proportions in
reference to the whole length : — the distance to the origin of
the pectoral fin is as two to thirteen ; to the commencement of
the dorsal fin, as one to five ; and to the vent, as two to five.

The head is long and depressed : the upper jaw the long-

CONGER.

est ; both jaws furnished with strong teeth, forming a broad
band in each : the lips fleshy : the nostrils double ; the most
anterior near the edge of the lip, and tubular ; the other a
simple orifice : numerous mucous pores about the parts of
the mouth and head : the mouth deeply divided, making the
gape long ; the angle forming a tangent with the posterior
edge of the pupil : the eyes large ; body nearly cylindrical ;
dorsal fin commencing immediately behind the pectorals, ex-
tending along four-fifths of the whole length of the body ;
anal fin commencing immediately behind the vent, and ex-
tending along three-fifths of the whole, and joining the dor-
sal fin, forms a pointed tail.

The colour of the upper surface of the body is a uniform
pale brown, becoming lighter on the lower part of the sides,
and passing into dull white underneath ; the dorsal and anal
fins whitish, edged with black ; lateral line almost white ; but
the colour varies, depending on the situation from which the
Conger has been taken.

The notion entertained by some, that river Eels on going
to the sea remain there and become Congers, scarcely requires
a serious remark. No one who looks for specific distinctions
can fail to observe them when comparing either of our fresh-
water Eels with the Conger. These differences, which extend
to colour, form of body, and situation of fins, receive further
confirmation on examining their internal structure : indepen-
dent of comparative difference of relative position in some of
the most important of the viscera, the greatest number of
vertebra) found in our fresh- water Eels is 116, those of the
Conger amount to 156.

In the beginning of February of the present year, 1841,
large quantities of the Sharp-nosed Eel were killed by frost in
the river Logan at Belfast, in the Bay at Dundalk, and also
in the Lee below Cork : the last were Conger Eels. A
similar occurrence took place in January 181-1. — Sec Annals
of Nat. Hist. vol. vii. pp. 75 and 236.

MURKNID.F.

APODAL

MALACOPTERYG11. MVR2EMDJE.

THE MUR^ENA.

Murana Helena, LINNJEUS. BLOCH, pt. v. pi. 152.

,, La Mure/ig, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. j>. 352.
,, ,, The Mur<rne, COUCH, MS.

It ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 479.

MUR/ENA. Generic Characters. — Body elongated ; no pectoral fins ; branchial
opening a minute o-ifice on each side ; a single row of teeth in each jaw; dorsal
and anal fin very low, united.

MR. COUCH is the only British naturalist I have heard of
•who has obtained an example of this beautifully marked
species on the English coast. The following is Mr. Couch's
account, copied from his MS. :

A specimen, the first on record as a British fish, was
caught by a fisherman of Polperro, October 8th, 1834.

Its Icntjth was four feet four inches ; body very flaccid,

O

rounded anteriorly, compressed and tapering towards the tail :
the whole body seemed plump. Before the eyes it is slender
and sharp; jaws equal ; gape moderately large ; teeth long,

MUK.KNA. 4)OT(

incurved, sharp, separate, in one row, a row on the palate ;
tongue adherent, scarcely perceptible ; a nasal barb on each
side of the end of the snout, another a short distance above
each eye, and a probe passed down the latter found its way
out at the former ; large mucous orifices encircle both jaws
at equal distances, four on each row. Eye rather small, one
inch and one quarter from the snout ; irides light bluish
grey, having a lively look ; cheeks tumid ; an extensive de-
pression at the side of the thorax, in which is the simple
orifice of the gills ; the external appearance of the branchial
aperture very much resembles that belonging to the Lam-
prey : from the snout to the branchial opening, six inches ;
from the part above the eye the head is much elevated ; the
skin wrinkled ; thorax remarkably protuberant ; the distance
from the top of the head to the thorax five inches and three-
quarters. The vent is exactly half-way between the two
ends of the body, from whence proceeds a line to the end of
the tail parallel to the anal fin, and half an inch from its
base : this line must be the lateral line, since there is no
appearance of any other. The dorsal fin begins five inches
and a half from the snout, and proceeds round the extremity
of the body to join the anal, which begins at the vent ; but
these fins are thick and fleshy, and not readily distinguished
from the margin of the body.

The ground colour of the anterior part of the body is a
fine lively yellow, the hinder part a fine purple ; but the
whole, including the fins, is divided into segments, forming
irregularly shaped spots, which yet have a tendency to re-
gular distribution ; towards the tail the yellow spots more
resemble irregular rings, with larger spaces between them ;
the whole is interspersed with innumerable spots of whitish
and deep yellow, golden, brown, and purple, forming a most
beautiful arrangement : under the thorax and to the gill-
opening are a few lines marked in the skin as if to facilitate
motion, though the skin is exceedingly smooth and soft ;

408

MUR^ENID/E.

it is strong also, and the colours were remarkably slow to fade,
contrary to what is observed in most fishes. This specimen
was taken with a line, and manifested great strength after it
was taken on board the boat.

Of this singular and beautifully marked fish Mr. Couch
very kindly sent me for my use a coloured drawing made
from the fresh specimen, from which the figure on the preced-
ing page, carefully reduced in size, was drawn and engraved.

This Mursena is considered very common in almost every
part of the Mediterranean. It was a great favourite with
the ancient Romans, who preserved large quantities of them
in their numerous vivaria, where they were fed with great
care. On the celebration of one of his triumphs, Ceesar
distributed six thousand specimens of this Mursena among his
friends.

The flesh is said to be delicately white, and very agreeable
eating. In the Mediterranean it is fished for with lines. It
is very voracious, and its bite is very severe, which, from the
nature of the teeth, and the large size of the muscles about
the head, might be expected.

This fish is said to live with equal facility in fresh or salt
water, though generally found at sea.

The vignette represents a Venetian pleasure-boat.

ANGLESEY MORRIS. -M>M

APODAL

MALACOPTERYG1L MURXNIDJE.

- *.-r. •--•••-

*-~ ~m~/3r

• •-•••• •••••• I

.- ; . - -. _•

THE ANGLESEY MORRIS.

Leptocephalus Morrisii, Anglesey Munis, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. hi. p. 212,

pi. 28.
,, ,, ,, ,, MONTAGU, Wern. Mem. vol. ii. p.

436, pi. 22, f. 1.
FI.EM. Brit. An. p. 200, sp. 111.

,, ,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 480.

,, ,, Le Leptocephale, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 358.

LEPTOCEPHALUS. Generic Characters. — Head small and short; teeth numer-
ous ; pectoral fins and gill-opening very small ; body compressed and very thin,
tape-like ; dorsal and anal fins small, united at the tail, forming a point.

THIS species was discovered in the sea near Holyhcad by
Mr. William Morris, who sent the specimen to Pennant, by
whom it was named after his friend. Pennant subsequently
sent the same specimen to Gronovius, who described it under
the generic name of Leptocephalus^ in reference to the small
size of the head.

Any doubts which might formerly have been raised as to
the real existence of such a species, to which Colonel Montagu
has alluded, must have ceased to exist, as this fish has now
been taken and recognised in various localities. Pennant, in
his first description, perhaps from the state of his specimen,
was not aware of all the characters this delicate fish possesses ;
but Colonel Montagu has well described and given a figure

410

JIUR.ENID.E.

of it in the Werncrian Memoirs, as quoted. More than
twenty specimens have within a few years been taken at dif-
ferent parts of the coast of England, Wales, and Ireland.
By the kindness of Mr. Couch, I possess three examples that
were taken in Cornwall ; and from Mr. William Thompson,
of Belfast, we learn that five or six specimens have been ob-
tained by him and his collecting friends.

There is also an interesting account of this fish, with a good
figure, in the sixth volume of Mr. London's Magazine of
Natural History, page 830, by H. V. Deere, Esq. who
states that his specimen, to all appearance dead, was brought
to him by a Devonshire fisherman, who had carried it in his
pocket, wrapped in brown paper, for three hours. After
this gentleman had held the fish in his hand for about a
minute, examining it, symptoms of life appeared, and then
the little animal was placed in a tumbler of salt and water,
where it survived its incarceration in brown paper for several
hours. Its appearance is described as most pleasing, from
its semitransparent and silvery hue, its prominent eye, and
graceful motions. It is usually found among seaweed.

I carefully dissected off the whole of one side from one of
the three specimens sent me by Mr. Couch, laying bare the
vertebral column and the intestinal canal. The bones form-
ing the vertebrae have no spinous processes whatever, either
superior or inferior ; the angles of the ascending and de-
scending oblique indented striae, visible on the external sur-
face of the skin, mark the points of union of the different
vertebrae ; the oblique muscles' between the strice are attached
to the bodies of the bones forming the column ; the margin
all round each vertebral bone is opaque, but the centre or
body of each is transparent.

The intestine is a single straight canal of small calibre,
reaching from the head to the vent; after passing from the
posterior part of the head, it descends to the abdominal line,

ANGLESEY MORRIS. M 1

wliich it traverses without convolution to the vent. This
canal may be distinctly seen in the perfect fish when placed
flat on a slip of glass, and looked at against a good light,
particularly the descending portion from the head to the
level of the abdominal line.

The head is small, short, and rather blunt : the eyes large ;
hides silvery, the pupil dark : the lower jaw slender ; teeth
in both jaws, numerous and minute ; gill-openings and pec-
toral fins very small ; the body behind the head becomes
deeper, very much compressed, as thin as tape, and when
rendered opaque by the effect of a mixture of spirit of wine
and water, which is the best mode of preserving them, this
fish very much resembles a piece of a tape worm.

The dorsal fin commences rather before the middle of the
whole length of the fish ; the anal fin rather behind it ; and
both extend to the tail, where they are united, and end in a
point. These fin-like appendages have the appearance of an
extension of the skin, and are so delicate that it is not always
easy to decide where they do begin, or may be called fin ;
the dorsal and abdominal margins, as well as the lateral line,
exhibit a series of small black specks : the obliquely striated
appearance of the sides has been already referred to. The
general colour is most like that of opal.

I have had opportunities of examining specimens from the
Mediterranean which were identical with those from Cornwall,
as well as those described and figured in the English works
already referred to. M. Risso includes but one species in
his fishes of Southern Europe and the Environs of Nice,
which he has named Leptocephalus Spallanzani, torn. iii. p.
205 ; but the description so exactly accords with English
specimens, that I have no doubt it is the fish I have seen,
and the same as that on our own shores.

4J2

MUIUSN1D.E.

APODAL

MALACOPTERYC1L AW1L<ENW.E.

THE BEARDLESS OPHIDIUM.

Oi>hidium imberbe, LINN/EUS.

,, ,, Beardless Ophidium, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 208, pi. 29.

,, ,, ,, ,, MONTAGU, Wern. Mem. vol. i. p. 95,

pi. 4, f. 2.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 201, sp. 112.
,, ,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 481.

OPHIDIUM. Generic Characters. — Head smooth; body elongated, com-
pressed ; teeth in both jaws, the palate, and pharynx : gill-aperture rather large ;
dorsal, anal, and caudal fin united.

THE BEARDLESS OPMIDIUM was first added to the cata-
logue of British Fishes by Pennant, to whom it was commu-
nicated by the Duchess of Portland : the specimen was found
near Weymouth. Pennant gave a figure of his fish in the
Appendix to the fourth volume of the British Zoology, edi-
tion of 1777, but no description. Colonel Montagu after-
wards obtained a specimen on the south coast of Devon, which
is figured and described in the first volume of the Wernerian
Memoirs, as quoted. The editor of the edition of Pennant's
British Zoology, published in 1812, left out the figure of the
Beardless Ophidium, given in the previous edition, but
copied the figure and description of Colonel Montagu.

HEARDLESS OPHIIMI'M. 413

Never having seen a specimen of this fish, Colonel Mon-
tagu's figure and description are here given, with some addi-
tions to be hereafter explained.

" Length about three inches ; depth about a quarter of an
inch. The head is very obtuse, and rounded in front : eyes
large, placed forward and lateral ; irides dark, with a circle of
silver round the pupil : mouth, when closed, inclines oblique-
ly upwards ; the lips are marginated : the gill-membranes
inflated beneath. The body is en si form, considerably com-
pressed towards the tail, and in shape is not unlike that of
Cepola rubescens, vol. i. page S24, of this work ; the lateral
line is nearly in the middle, originating at the angle of the
operculum to the gills, but rather obscure : vent nearly in
the middle : the pectoral fin is rounded ; the dorsal fin com-
mences immediately above the base of the pectoral, and is at
first not so broad, and usually not so erect, as the other part :
the anal fin commences at the vent, and, together with the
dorsal, unites with the caudal fin, which is cuneiform, but
obtusely pointed. The colour is purplish brown, disposed
in minute speckles ; and along the base of the anal fin are
about ten small bluish white spots regularly placed, but
scarcely discernible without a lens, and possibly peculiar to
younger fishes : all the fins are like the body in colour, ex-
cept the pectoral and caudal ; the first is pale, the last is
yellowish." The fin-rays in number are —

D. 77 : P. 11 : A. 44 : C. 18 or 20.

" This fish," Colonel Montagu observes, " does not ap-
pear to be very tenacious of life, like some of the Blennies,
as it was placed in a tin box with the Crested and Smooth
Blcnny, covered with wet sea-weed, and although these were
lively, the Ophidium was dead before it could be got to his
house. It died with its mouth shut, the pectoral fins thrown
forward, and the body curved a little near the vent, throwing
the head upwards."

414

MUR.ENID.E.

" Little can be said of the natural habits of this fish ; but
as it so rarely occurs, it is most probably an inhabitant of the
rocky parts ; in such a situation, at low-water, the specimen
here described was taken."

But little being known either of Montagu's or Pennant's
Ophidium, the figure at the head of this subject is taken from
Montagu's figure, and the outline at the foot of this page is
taken from Pennant's first figure, which Schneider appears to
have adopted as the representative of the genus Ophidium in
his Ichthyological work.

Never having seen either of these species, for they seem to
be distinct, any information of their appearance on our coast
is respectfully solicited by the author.

••' ;i

BEARDED OPHIDIUM.

1. 1

APODAL

MALACOPTERYGIL MURJENID&.

THE BEARDED OPHIDIUM.

Ophidium barbatum, LINN. BLOCH, Ichth. pi. 159, fig. 1.

,, ,, Bearded Ophidium, BEHKEN. Syn. vol. i. p. 66.

,, ,, ,, ,, TURTON, Brit. Faun. p. 88.

,, ,, „ ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 481.

,, ,, Donzelle commune, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 359.

THE BEARDED OPHIDIUM, a well known Mediterranean
species, has also been included by Berkenhout in his Cata-
logue of British Fishes ; but whether on the personal autho-
rity of that author, or on what part of the British coast it was
observed, or taken, no mention is made.

This fish was the subject of a paper by Dr. Broussonet,
communicated by Sir Joseph Banks, read at the Royal
Society, July 5th, 1781, and printed in the Transactions.
The author traces this species from Pliny to Bel on, Ronde-
let, Willughby, Artedi, Klein, Linnseus, Gouan, and Brun-
nich.

The form of the body is seen by the figure. The direction
of the mouth is ascending; both maxillary bones are furnished
with teeth ; the barbule on the chin is single at its origin, is
soon divided once, forming two, each of these are afterwards

41 G MUR.ENID.E.

divided again, thus together producing the appearance of four
barbules ; the dorsal fin commences on a line nearly even
with the end of the pectoral fin : the anal fin begins a little
further backward ; the scales are oval : the fish of a silvery
flesh colour, appearing occasionally slightly mottled or
spotted."

"• This fish commonly grows to the size of eight or nine
inches. It is found in most parts of the Mediterranean sea,
and in great plenty in the Adriatic. It is taken by nets in Pro-
vence and Languedoc, together with many other small species
which are not esteemed, — that is, what they call Ravailla.
In Languedoc the Ophidium is culled Donzella, and this is
the most common name for it on the coasts of the Mediter-
ranean. In summer the Ophidium is common ; its flesh is
not of a good taste, rather coarse, as that of all the species of
fishes which, having no ventral fins, are obliged to make
great efforts in swimming, and have consequently the muscles
harder. The want of ventral fins induces me to believe that
it is not a migratory species. It feeds upon small crabs and
fishes."

The vignette was copied from a sketch of a fishing party
made by T. Stothard, R.A. about the year 1780.

DRUMMOND IS E( HIODON.

417

APODAL

MALACOPTERYCll.

DRUMMOND'S ECHIODON.

Echiodon Drummondii, THOMPSON, Proceedings Zool. Soc. 1837, page 55.
,, ,, ,, Transactions ,, ,, vol. ii. part iii. p.

207, plate 38.

ECHIODON. Generic Characters. — Head oval; jaws furnished with large
cylindrical teeth in front, other smaller teeth on the palatal bones and on
the vomer. Gill-apertures large : branchiostegous membrane with seven rays.
Body smooth, without scales, elongated, compressed. Dorsal and anal fins
nearly as long as the body ; all the rays soft ; no ventral fins ; anal aperture
near the head.

A DEAD specimen of the fish figured above was found
by Dr. J. L. Drummond on the beach at Carnclough, near
Glenarm in the county of Antrim, in the month of June
1836, and from its appearance when found it was conjectured
that it had been cast ashore by the tide of the preceding
night, when a strong easterly wind prevailed. The specimen
was given by Dr. Drummond to his friend Mr. W. Thomp-
son of Belfast ; and being new in form, was made by the latter
gentleman the subject of a communication to the Zoological
Society, which appeared in the Proceedings and Transactions
of that Society as here quoted.

VOL. II.

2 E

418 MUR.ENID.E.

This specimen, Mr. Thompson observes, "being, so far
as known to me, unique, I have been unwilling to injure its
appearance by dissection. In external characters it is ex-
cluded from the Ophidta proper in consequence of not having
the barbules ; and though agreeing with the Fierasfers in the
negative character of wanting these appendages, yet, by having
the dorsal fin strongly developed and elevated, it ranges not
with them."

" Its want of the very obvious character of the Ophidia,
renders all comparison with them unnecessary ; but of two
species belonging to the Fierasfers, and which approach the
present specimen most nearly, I may state that it possesses
many of the characters of the Ophidium Jierasfer of Risso,
but differs from that species in the teeth, (both jaws are de-
scribed as armed with three rows of sharp and hooked teeth,)
number of fin-rays, and some minor characters ; besides, there
is nothing said of the remarkable teeth terminating both jaws,
as exhibited in my specimen. In the Regne Animal we again
find an Ophidium dentatum described as having in each jaw
' deux dents en crochets,' but no further details are given.
In this only character, however, the Ophidium dentatum dif-
fers from my fish, which has four large hooked teeth in the
upper and two in the under jaw."

" Although when this fish first came into my possession,
I saw that it might be classed under the Malacopterygii
Apodes, and be placed near Ophidium, I considered that in
a natural arrangement it would best constitute a new genus
of the family Taenioidea (Riband-shaped). In being apodal
it was not excluded from this family, as two genera belonging
to it are destitute of ventral fins. I did not hesitate to place
it under the Acanthopterygii, as some genera which are in-
cluded in this order are, like it, strictly Malacopterygian,
their natural connexion with genera having fins with spinous
rays being considered — and in my opinion most philoso-

DRUMMOND'S ECHIODON. 419

pliically — to outweigh this character; and further, I felt less
reluctance in thus placing it, in consequence of Cepola rubes-
cens, which it assimilates in some respects, having but one
spinous ray, and that in the ventral fin. At the suggestion
of John Edward Gray, Esq. F.R.S. I have, however, recon-
sidered the subject, and have come to the conclusion here
advanced."

As a difference of opinion may still exist with regard to
the position of this genus, I think it due to Mr. Thompson
to subjoin the observations originally made.

" Like certain other genera which are comprehended under
Acanthopterygii, the first order of the osseous fishes, its fins
are altogether destitute of spinous rays ; but, like those
alluded to, such as Zoarcus, &c. its other characters seem to
point out the T&nioides as the family to which it belongs.
Of the eight genera of Tanioides already known, viz. Lepi-
dopus, Trichiurus, Gymnetrus, Stylephorus, Cepola, Lopho-
tes, Trac.kypterus, and Alepisaurus, the specimen under
consideration agrees with Trichiurus and Stylephorus in
being apodal, or wanting ventral fins, but in this character
only is there any generic accordance. Though considerably
more elongated, from the head posteriorly it approaches most
nearly to Cepola rubescens in the form of the body, and in
the forward commencement of the anal fin, which, with the
dorsal, is prolonged until it joins the caudal ; but it is only
in the continuity of these fins until this junction is effected
that the resemblance holds, as in my specimen, the dorsal
rays, the five foremost of which are very short, increase in
length posteriorly, and near the caudal fin are about three
times as long as the depth of the body beneath them ; in
the anal fin, which is throughout much deeper than the dor-
sal, the rays likewise increase posteriorly ; and near the caudal
are in length four times greater than the depth of the body
at the same place. The length of the posterior rays of these

420 MUR.ENID.E.

fins causes the dorsal, anal, and caudal, to appear as one;
whilst, though they do join in Cepola rubescens, the last ray
of the dorsal and anal being much shorter than the outer rays
of the caudal, may at the same time be said to mark distinctly
the termination of each fin. In my specimen the anal fin
originates two lines in advance of the dorsal fin."

In the form of the head, and in dentition, it differs so
remarkably from all the other genera as to render a compa-
rison with them unnecessary. Its absolute characters must
suffice for distinction.

Description. — " Total length eleven inches ; greatest depth
at one inch four lines from the snout, six lines, thence pos-
teriorly gradually narrowing ; greatest breadth of body an-
teriorly three lines ; at the middle of the entire length one
line, and thence to the tail becoming gradually more com-
pressed. Head one inch two lines long, or rather more than
one-ninth of the entire length ; profile sloping forward equally
on both sides to the snout, which is truncated, and projects
one line beyond the lower jaw ; narrow, increasing in breadth
very gradually from the snout, its breadth compared to its
length as one to three and a half; height half its length, com-
pressed at the sides, and rather flat above from the eyes back-
ward ; from the eyes forward a central bony ridge : snout
viewed from above somewhat bifid, in consequence of the for-
ward position of the large teeth on each side. A few large
punctures extend from the snout below the eye, and are con-
tinued just behind it ; a series of small ones closely arranged
extend from the upper portion of the eye in a curved form
posteriorly to near the edge of the preopercle, and thence a
double row extends downwards. Nostrils very large, placed
just in advance of, and before the centre of, the eye, and in
form a somewhat oval transverse aperture. Eye large, occu-
pying the entire half of the depth of the head ; its width
greater than its height ; in the length of the head occupying

DRUMMONDS ECHIODON.

the place of one in four and a half; its distance from the
snout three lines, or equal to its diameter, consequently two
and a half of its diameters are contained between it and the
edge of the operculum. Operculum rounded at the base,
terminating in a minute point directed backwards, strongly
radiated, strife distant ; preoperculum ascending vertically ;
cheeks smooth and soft. Mouth rather obliquely cleft.
Teeth, two large strong ones, placed close together, and
curving inwards at each side the extremity of the upper jaw,
the two inner one-sixteenth of an inch apart. In the lower
jaw one slender rounded tooth, nearly one line long on each
side, curving outwards at the base, and inwards at the point.
Entire upper and under jaw and vomer densely studded with
small bluntish teeth, somewhat uniform in size ; vomer ex-
tending far forward, and very much developed, forming a
cavity in the lower jaw, and in advance of the tongue when
the mouth is closed ; a series of rows of teeth similar to those
last described on the palatal bones : all the teeth of the upper
jaw exposed to view when the mouth is closed. Tongue
short, not reaching within two lines and a half of the ex-
tremity of the lower jaw, and apparently toothless. On the
dorsal ridge, one inch from the snout, or two lines and a half
behind the cranium, is a short, stout, bony spine, not very
conspicuous, and, excepting at its extreme point, covered
with skin : it is six lines in advance of the first ray of the dor-
sal fin. Scales none, but it may have been divested of them
during its short exposure on the beach. Lateral line incon-
spicuous, being a slight depression extending in a straight
line along the middle of the sides posteriorly, or throughout
the greater portion of its length, but anteriorly nearer to the
dorsal than the ventral profile. Vent one inch three lines
from the extremity of the lower jaw. Branchiostegous mem-
brane opens forward rather before the extremity of the gape.
Dorsal fin commencing one inch six lines from the snout, low

MURENID.E.

at its origin, but gradually increasing in height to near the
caudal fin, which it joins, the two or three anterior rays, which
are very short, flexible and simple, the remainder articulated.
Anal fin originates just behind the vent, or at one inch three
lines from the point of the lower jaw, joins the caudal fin,
near to which it increases in depth posteriorly from its origin,
deeper than the dorsal fin throughout ; at about one inch
and a half from the caudal fin the rays are in length four
times greater than the depth of the body at the same place,
the rays of the dorsal fin opposite being three times the depth
of the body ; the first and second anterior rays flexible and
simple, the remainder articulated. Pectoral fins originate
one line behind the head, and are equal to half its length,
central rays longest, all very flexible, placed below the middle
of the sides. Caudal fin, central rays longest. Articula-
tions very long on the rays of all the fins ; no branched rays
in any one of them.

-B. 7 : D. 180 : P. 16 : A. 180 : C. 12.

The number of the fin-rays were reckoned with the greatest
care; but without injury to the specimen they could not be
ascertained with certainty to a single ray. The vertebrae,
which distinctly seen through the skin can be reckoned with
accuracy, ninety-eight. Colours, anterior half a dull flesh
colour, similar to specimens of Cepola rubescens preserved in
spirits, hence it is presumed to have been originally red ;
behind this portion reddish-brown markings appear on the
body at the base of the dorsal and anal fins, and suddenly
increase in number, until from an inch behind the middle,
the whole sides are closely marked and spotted over; the
entire top and the sides of the head before the hinder line of
the eye are similarly spotted ; just behind the cranium a few
spots also appear ; the posterior rays of the dorsal and anal,
and the entire caudal fin, blackish. Irides, operculum, and
under surface, a short way beyond the vent, bright silver."

DRUMMOND S ECHIODON.

423

" The two large teeth, resembling serpent's fangs, which
terminate the upper jaw on each side, have suggested the
generic appellation of Echiodon ; and the specific name of
Drummondii is proposed in honour of its discoverer."

The figures below represent a side view of the head, the
mouth open to show the form and situation of the teeth, en-
larged ; and a front view of the anterior terminal teeth, also
enlarged. The illustrations here used are derived from Mr.
Thompson's paper in the Transactions of the Zoological
Society already quoted ; and I with pleasure avail myself of
the opportunity in this instance afforded me of recording my
obligations to Mr. Thompson for his kind and zealous co-
operation in zoology, and particularly for the loan of this rare
specimen, and many other Irish fishes, for examination.

MUR.ENIDE.

APODAL
MALACOPTERYGII.

MURJENIDsE.

THE SAND-EEL.

HORNELS, (HORNEELS ?) Edinburgh.

TManits, Lc Lanrott, CUVIKR, Regne An. t. ii. p. 300.

,, LINN/EDS. BLOCH, pt. iii. pi. 75, fig. 2.
Angloncm verus, True Sand-Eel, JAGO. RAY, Syn. p. 165, pi. 2,

fig. 12.
Tobianus, Wide-mouthed l.aunce, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 482,

sp. 170.
Sand-Eel, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 33?

AMMODYTF.S. Generic Characters. — Head and body elongated ; gill-openings
large ; dorsal fin extending nearly the whole length of the back ; anal fin of con-
siderable length ; dorsal and anal fins separated from the caudal fin.

WE arc indebted, says Baron Cuvier, to M. Lesauvage,
of Caen, for pointing out the true distinctions in the two
species of Ammodytes belonging to the shores of the Channel,
A. Tobianus and A. Lancea, the first of which is rare, but
the second very caramon.

Oar excellent naturalist and countryman Ray, has given
us, in his Synopsis, from Jago^s Catalogue of Cornish Fishes,
a good figure of the true Tobianus ; but it was not, I bclicve;

SAND-EEL. 425

till the recent publication of Mr. Jenyns' valuable Manual of
British Vertebrate Animals, that any English Zoologist had
admitted two species among British Fishes. Shaw, in his
General Zoology, vol. iv. p. 81, plate 9, has figured both
species, but with only one name, and but one description.*

Ray, in his short notice from Jago's Catalogue, calls his
Ammodytes Anglorum verus the true Sand-Eel ; and his
figure leaves no doubt that his fish is the same as the To-
bianus of Linnceus, Bloch, and others. In the late Colonel
Montagu's copy of Berkenhout's Synopsis of the Natural
History of Great Britain, there is a note in Montagu's
writing, which states, " That at Teignmouth a distinction
is made between the Sand-Eel and Sand-Launce, by the size
and superior length of the head and gills in the one ; it is
also said to be much more rare." The rarity and greater
length of the head are both on the side of the Tobianus,
the Sand-Eel, which, as far as my own observation goes, is
much more scarce than the smaller-sized species with the
shorter head ; I am therefore desirous of preserving the dis-
tinctive appellation of Sand-Eel to the longer fish, A. To-
bianus, and continuing that of Sand-Launce to the smaller
species, bearing among naturalists the specific name of
Lancea.

M. Lesauvage gave the name of lanceolatus to the species
which had been previously called Tobianus, his trivial name
will therefore only be used as a synonym.

Willughby's figure, G. 8, f. I, appears to have been co-
pied from Salvianus. and represents an Ammodytes with two
small dorsal fins ; I have not, therefore, referred it to cither
of our fishes.

The Sand-Eel is immediately to be distinguished from
the Sand-Launce by its greater size, specimens now before me
measuring twelve inches in length ; Ray's fish was fifteen

" Doth specimens arc also figured by Klein.

3IUR/ENID.E.

inches and a half long : it is further distinguished by the
greater length of the head, and particularly of the lower
jaw ; by the commencement of the dorsal fin being on a line
with the end of the pectoral fin-rays : the dorsal fin of the
Sand-Launce beginning in a line with the middle of the pec-
toral fin, and the head smaller and shorter, as shown in the
two representations here given. The Sand-Eel is browner in
colour and less transparent in appearance, when in hand, than
the Sand-Launce.

The habits of the two species are in many respects very
similar, and will be more particularly referred to under Sand-
Launce, which being exceedingly common on all our sandy
shores, has afforded greater opportunities for observation.

Both species of Ammodytes are included by Professor
Nilsson among the fishes of Scandinavia ; both species also
occur in the Forth. Dr. Neill, in his account of the fishes
of that locality, says, the Edinburgh fishermen call the large
ones Hornels — probably an abbreviation of Horneels — in re-
ference to the greater length of body and the horn-like
elongation of the lower jaw, by means of which they are
enabled to bury themselves in the wet sands of the sea-shore,
from which they are scratched out with iron hooks for bait
or sale.

Stephen Oliver the younger, in his agreeable Rambles in
Northumberland and on the Scottish Border, when describing
the fishing in the Tyne, says, Sand-Eels follow the young
fry of the Coalfish into the harbour, and are frequently
caught with the same bait as the Poodlers (young Coalfish),
which is used in a manner similar to flv-fishinsr for Trout.

* o

The common length of the Sand-Eel in the Tyne is from
twelve to fourteen inches ; and their jaws, by a peculiar con-
formation, admit of great expansion. They swim rapidly,
and dash at a shoal of fry with the voracity and swiftness of
a Pike. Mr. Couch says that a large specimen caught on

SAND-EEL. 427

a line by a Cornish fisherman had a small fish of its own
species in its stomach. Both species occur on the sandy
parts of the coast of Sussex, Hampshire, Dorsetshire, and
Devonshire.

Mr. Thompson has recorded the Sand-Eel as taken in the
North of Ireland. A species of Ammodj/tes is taken at
Newfoundland and at New York, but what species it is
remains uncertain ; Dr. Storer has, however, obtained the
Sand-Eel, A. Tobianus, in two localities near Boston.

From the extreme point of the lower jaw to the posterior
end of the gill-cover is to the whole length of the fish as
one to four and a half; the depth of the body rather less
than one-third of the length of the head ; the lower jaw
very much elongated, with a strong, indurated projection
at the extreme tip ; the upper jaw much shorter than the
lower, with a strong forked tooth of two points descending
from the vomer ; the nostrils double ; both open on each
side on a line, one before the other, about half-way between
the eye and the point of the nose : the eyes rather small ; the
posterior margin exactly half-way between the point of the
under jaw and the posterior angle of the gill-cover : the shape
of the body very nearly round ; covered with small scales :
the pectoral fin arises under the posterior angle of the gill-
cover, its length one-third that of the length of the head ; the
dorsal fin placed in a groove, with a prominent line extending
along each side ; the rays commence in a vertical line over the
end of the pectoral fin-rays, and end near the tail ; the lateral
line indented and straight ; the abdomen with three indented
parallel lines extending to the anal aperture, which has an-
other orifice behind it ; along the whole line of the lower part
of each side extends a narrow and slender membrane attached
by one edge ; the anal fin is about one-third of the whole
length of the fish, ending short of the caudal fin, and nearly
on the same plane as the dorsal fin ; the tail forked.

428

MUR/ENID.E.

The fin-rays in number are —

D. 55 : P. 15 : A. 29 : C. 17.

The iridcs, cheeks, gill-covers, lower part of the sides,
and the abdomen, bright silvery; upper part of the head,
back, and sides, light brown, reflecting tints of blue and
green when held in different positions.

The vignette below represents the form of rake used to
obtain Sand-Eels and Sand-Launce on some parts of the
coast. A piece of strong iron wire, bent into the form of a
sickle is, however, the more common instrument used.

SAND LAUNl'E.

42.9

APODAL

MALACOPTERYCII.

M.UR&NID2E.

THE SAND-LAUNCE.

THE HIGGLE, SuSSCX COdSt.

Ammodytes Lancea, L'Equille, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 360.

,, ,, Small-mouthed Launce, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 483,

sp. 171.

,, Tobianus, Sand-Launce, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 206, pi. 28.
,, ,, Common Launce, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 201, sp. 113.

THE SAND-LAUNCE, as previously stated, is very abun-
dant on many parts of the shore of the British Islands. On
account of its silvery brightness, it is in great estimation and
constant use with fishermen as bait for the hooks of their
sea and hand lines ; and the habit peculiar to the species of
burying themselves in the wet sand as the tide recedes affords
easy means of capture. The generic term Ammodytes refers
to this power of digging in sand. With the projecting
portion of the under jaw, aided by the muscular power of the
fish, and its slender form, it is enabled to bury itself with
rapidity five or six inches deep in the soft sand as the ebbing
sea retires, and releases itself again on the approach of the
ensuing flood-tide, apparently uninjured, though deprived of

430 MUR.ENID.E.

water for several hours : another instance of a low degree of
respiration and great tenacity of life in a genus of fishes
having very large gill-apertures.

In Orkney, Mr. Low says it is constantly used as a bait
for other fish, and though of good flavour, is very seldom
eaten. On the sands at Portobcllo, near Edinburgh, as well
as at other localities in that vicinity, people of all ages may
be seen, when the tide is out, diligently searching for the
Sand-Launce, and raking them out with iron hooks. Some
are used as bait ; but many are prepared for table, and
considered delicate food.

Colonel Montagu mentions the Sand-Launce as being
extremely plentiful at Slap ton Sands, on the south coast of
Devonshire, where the fishermen employ a small seine with
a fine mesh, and are frequently so successful, that six or
seven bushels are taken at one haul : these are usually sold
to Dieppe fishermen for twenty-pence the bushel. Montagu
adds, that on the part of the Devonshire coast here referred
to, even the poorest people would not eat the Sand-Launce,
while at Teignmouth it was in great request as food, and was
counted out for sale by the score.

" It is only of late," says Mr. Couch, " that naturalists
have learned to recognise two species, though it has been
done long since by fishermen, who have been accustomed to
observe that a small species, which keeps in larger bodies,
and seldom goes far from land, is more followed by Mackerel
than the others, and that its presence is a better sign of
good fishing. On a calm evening it is an interesting sight to
see the surface of the water broken by the repeated plunges
of voracious fishes as they burst upon the little schull of
Launces from beneath. Their only certain place of refuge
from these pursuers is the sand."

I have obtained the fry of the Sand-Launce four inches
long in the month of April, and considered them to be the

SAND-LAUNCE. 431

young of the preceding year. May, August, and December,
have each been named as the month in which the adult fish
deposit their spawn ; but the habits and economy of the two
species have been greatly confounded hitherto, under the
supposition that they were but examples of the same fish,
differing only in size.

The Sancl-Launee has been noticed on the coasts of the
counties of Londonderry, Antrim, Dublin, and Cork ; I
learn also from F. C. Lukis, Esq. that both species are
found at Guernsey; but that Lancea is the most common.
The search for them in the sand prevails there, but it is
usually made on moonlight nights.

Dr. Richardson includes this species in his Fauna-Boreal i-
Americana, and I have seen a specimen that was brought
from Iceland by Mr. Proctor.

The food of the Sand-Launce is marine worms and very
small fishes.

The usual length of this species is from five to seven
inches : the length of the head compared to the length of
the fish is less than as one to five : the lower jaw shorter in
proportion than in the other species ; the protractile portion
of the upper jaw much more free to move, and when the
lower jaw is pressed down, this moveable part comes forward
and downward : the posterior margin of the eye is less than
half-way between the point of the lower jaw and the posterior
projecting angle of the gill-cover, being placed nearer the
nose than in Tobianus ; the dorsal fin commencing in a line
over the middle of the pectoral fin.

The fin-rays in number are —

D. 51 : P. 13 : A. 25 : C. 15.

432

SYNGNATHID.E.

LOPHOBRANCHH.

SYNGNATHID2E*

THE GREAT PIPE-FISH.

Syngnalhus Acus, LINN.CUS. BLOCH, pt. iii. pi. 91, fig. 1, young ; fig. 2, adult.
,, „ Longer Pipe-fsh, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 184, pi. 26.

Two figures ; upper, female ; lower,
male.

„ Pipe-fish, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 175, sp. 34.

„ Great Pipe-fish, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 484, sp. 172.

SYNGNATHUS. Generic Characters. — Body elongated, slender, covered with
a series of indurated plates arranged in parallel lines ; head long ; both jaws
produced, united, tubular ; no ventral fins. In the species of the first division,
an elongated pouch under the tail in the males only, closed by two folding
membranes.

IN the species belonging to this family the jaws are
united, forming a tube more or less cylindrical. The gills,
instead of having the pectinated appearance so well known
to exist in the fishes previously described, are separated into
small rounded tufts, which are arranged along the branchial
arches, and the fishes of this family arc therefore called
Lophobranchii.

* The family of the Pipe-fishes.

GREAT PIPE-FISH.

433

The figure on the left hand of the vignette at the bottom
of the page, represents one side of the pectinated gills of a
Pike ; that in the centre is drawn from the head of a spe-
cimen of S. acus, to show the gills in small tufts, the oper-
culum being removed : the right hand figure exhibits the
head of the river Lampern, part of the skin on the side of
the neck being removed to show another form of branchial
apparatus, in which portions of the gills occupy different
cells. The fish will be described hereafter, and this structure
referred to.

These delicate tufts in the Pipe-fishes are defended ex-
ternally by a large and hard operculum, having an aperture
in the connecting membrane at its upper and posterior part.
The fishes of this limited family are further remarkable for
the extreme tenuity of their bodies, as well as for the number
and arrangement of the indurated and sculptured plates
by which their lengthened bodies are defended. They are
frequently called Needle-fish.

The six species of British Syngnathi require to be ar-

VOL. II.

434 SYNGNATHID;E.

ranged in two divisions; the first of which includes two
marsupial Pipe-fish, S. acus and S. typhle, having true
caudal fins : four ophidial Pipe-fish, which may be again
divided into two sections, the first of which contains two
species, S. aquoreus and S. anguineus, having each a rudi-
mentary caudal fin ; the second section, also containing two
species, S. ophidian and *$*. lumbriciformis, in which there
is no rudimentary caudal fin, the round tail ending in a
fine point.

The natural history of the Syngnathi appears not to have
been so well understood, nor the species so clearly defined
by the older authors as those of many other genera. By
giving, in this work, figures taken from the specimens, and
adding besides, as vignettes, enlarged representations of
those parts which assist in determining specific distinction,
six species, it is hoped, will be made out ; and only those
actually obtained on the British coast, and of which specimens
are preserved, will be included. They are all marine.

Syngnathus acus, or the Great Pipe-fish, is one of the
most common species, and is found on many parts of the
coast, sometimes at low- water among seaweed, at other times
in deep water. It is believed that the habit of proceeding
to deep water at two different periods of the season has re-
ference to important and interesting changes connected with
the production of the young.

In a MS. History of British Fishes, written by the late
John Walcott, Esq.* during his residence at Teignmouth
in the years 1784 and 85, and which has been most kindly
lent to me by his son, William Walcott, Esq. with liberty
to make any use of it in the present work, I found a state-
ment in reference to the sexes of S. acus, which has since
been confirmed by four Continental naturalists, and which

* Author of various published woiks on Natural History.

GREAT PIPE-FISH. 435

I have verified by repeated examinations. Mr. Walcotfs
observation is as follows : —

" The male differs from the female in the belly from the
vent to the tail fin being much broader, and in having for
about two-thirds of its length two soft flaps, which fold to-
gether, and form a false belly (or pouch). They breed in
the summer ; the females casting their roe into the false belly
of the male. This I have asserted from having examined
many, and having constantly found, early in the summer, roe
in those without a false belly, but never any in those with ;
and on opening them later in the summer, there has been no
roe in those which I have termed the female, but only in the
false belly of the male."

On dissecting males and females the proof of the correct-
ness of this new view was obvious. The anal or sub-caudal
pouch is peculiar to the males only, and is closed by two
elongated lateral flaps. On separating these flaps, and expos-
ing the inside, the ova, large and yellow, were seen lining the
pouch in some specimens, while in others the hemispheric
depressions from which the ova had been but recently removed
were very visible. In each of these the opened abdomen
exhibited true male organs. The females examined had no
anal pouch, and the opened abdomen exposed two lobes
of ova of large size. In a specimen of a male of S. acus,
obtained at Dover on the 20th of July 1835, and for which
I am indebted to W. Christy, Esq. the opened abdomen
exhibited the preparatory organs of the male ; and the dis-
played sub-caudal pouch showed many eggs contained in
it, the young of which were fully developed, and ready to
escape from the capsules, while from others the young had
actually escaped. They were rather more than one inch in
length, and slightly barred with brown.

In the plate devoted to Syngnathi, in the last two octavo
editions of Pennant's British Zoology, the upper figure

2 F 2

436 SYNGNATHID.E.

represents the female, and the second figure the male of S.
acus. The enlargement on the under surface of the second
figure, looking like an elongated fin, marks the situation of
the distended pouch of a male. Pennants third figure is
the *S*. anguineus, and the fourth the S. lumbriciformis of
this work. Neither S. typhle nor S. tequoreus are figured in
the British Zoology.

At what time or in what manner the ova are transferred
from the abdomen of the female to the sub-caudal pouch of
the male is, I believe, unknown.

Mr. Walcott also adds, in his MS. that S. acus begins to
breed when only four or five inches long. This I have also
obtained proof of; and although examples of this species not
uncommonly occur of eighteen inches long, and Bloch attri-
butes to it a length of two to three feet, I have a specimen,
four inches long only, a young fish apparently of the pre-
ceding year, in the opened abdomen of which the ova, in two
small lobes, are full grown.

M. Risso notices the great attachment of the adult Pipe-
fish to their young, and this pouch probably serves as a
place of shelter to which the young ones retreat in case of
danger. I have been assured by fishermen that if the young
were shaken out of the pouch into the water over the side of
the boat, they did not swim away, but when the parent fish
was held in the water in a favourable position, the young
would again enter the pouch.

The figures of S. acus and typhle are correctly represented
by Rondeletius, and the characteristic difference in the form
and size of the tubular mouth in each is well preserved.
Below the figure, in that work, of the species now under
consideration here, several of the young are represented as
swimming near the abdomen of the parent fish. This figure
of Rondeletius is copied in Willughby, plate I. 25, fig. 6.

Mr. Couch says, " This species may be seen slowly moving

GREAT PIPE-FISH.

437

about in a singular manner, horizontally or perpendicularly,
with the head downwards or upwards, and in every attitude
of contortion, in search of food, which chiefly seems to be
water insects."

From the great similarity in the form and size of the
mouth in all the species, it is probable that their food is also
similar. Worms, small mollusca, young and minute thin-
skinned Crustacea, and the ova of other fishes, are among the
substances taken ; and these Syngnathi are supposed to be
able, by dilating their throat at pleasure, to draw their food
up their cylindrical beak-like mouth, as water is drawn up the
pipe of a syringe.

From the point of the tubular mouth to the posterior
edge of the indurated portion of the operculum, the length
is, when compared to the whole length of the fish, as one
to eight ; if measured to the edge of the shoulder, it is as one
to seven and a half, and this proportion exists in specimens of
various ages or lengths, from six inches to eighteen ; from the
mouth to a projecting point at the anterior edge of the eye,
and thence to the origin of the pectoral fin, the distances are
equal : the jaws united, tubular, slightly compressed ; in
depth but one-third that of the head at its deepest part,
which is in a vertical line with the centre of the operculum :
the mouth small, placed at the extremity of the tube, opening
obliquely upwards ; the lower jaw the longest : eyes rather
large, bony orbits prominent : operculum covered with radia-
ting striae : the head between the eyes flattened ; behind the
eyes, rising into a keel-like crest, which reaches to the neck :
from the pectoral fin to the anal aperture the body is deepest
and heptangular, with three ridges along each side, and
one along the abdomen, which ends at the vent ; the surface
defended by a series of nineteen plates ; throughout the short
extent of the dorsal fin the body is hexangular, the ridge of
the abdomen being discontinued ; thence to the end of the

438

SYNGNATHID.E.

tail, tapering, slender, and quadrangular, with a series of
forty-four plates ; the pectoral fins are small ; the dorsal fin
commences at two-fifths of the whole length of the fish, and
in a vertical line rather before the anal aperture ; the longest
rays not equal in height to the depth of the body ; the anal
fin very small ; the tail rounded and fan-shaped.
The fin-rays in number are —

D. 40 : P. 12 : A. 4 : C. 10.

The prevailing colour is pale brown, transversely barred
with darker brown.

The vignette below represents the head and tail of the
Great Pipe-fish from a larger specimen than that which is
figured entire.

This species appears to be common on the shores of the
British Islands generally.

DEEP-NOSED PIPE-FISH.

439

LOPHOBRAKCHU.

SYNGNATHID&.

THE DEEP-NOSED PIPE-FISH.

Syngnathus Typhle, LINNAEUS.

Acus Aristotelis, Typhle Antiquorum, WILLUGHBY, p. 158, 1.25, fig. 1.

Syngnathus Typhle, Shorter Pipe-jish, DON. Brit. Fish.pl. 56.

,, ,, ,, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 175, sp. 35.

,, ,, Lesser Pipe-fish, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 485,

sp. 173.

THE DEEP-NOSED PIPE-FISH is immediately distinguished
from the preceding species by the more compressed form of
the jaws, which are also so deep that the upper and lower
edges are nearly parallel with the lines of the upper and
under surface of the head. From the two large-sized Pipe-
fish of the next division this species is easily known by the
presence of pectoral, anal, and caudal fins. The figures in
the works of Willughby and Mr. Donovan are good repre-
sentations ; but I believe the figure in Bloch, part. iii. plate
91, f. 1, which has usually been considered and referred to as
Syngnathus typhle, to be only a representation of the young
of S. acus.

S. typhle has also been well figured by M. Laroche, in
the Ann. de Mus. t. xiii. under the name of S, Rondektii.

440 SYNGNATHID.E.

It is the S. viridis of M. Risso,* a term that seems liable to
objection, even if a name were wanting, inasmuch as several
other species are more or less green.

The Deep-nosed Pipe-fish does not differ materially in
its habits, that I am aware of, from the species last described.
The ova are transferred from the abdomen of the female to
the sub-caudal pouch of the male, and there hatched in the
same manner. When fishing in ten or twelve feet water
over a soft surface covered with weeds, using the small net
described and figured in vol. i. page 248, I have taken both
sorts together, finding the deep-nosed species abundant on
the Dorsetshire coast.

Dr. Parnell has obtained this species in the Forth ; Mr.
Couch includes it in his Cornish Fauna, and Mr. Thompson
has found it in two localities on the coast of Ireland.

The whole length of the largest specimens I have seen
was thirteen inches ; from the point of the closed jaws to the
posterior end of the indurated portion of the gill-cover, the
distance is, compared to the whole length of the fish, as one
to six ; the head larger than in S. acus, and without the
elevated ridge on the top of it ; the distance from the point
of the upper jaw to the projecting tubercle in front of the
eye, and thence to the end of the pectoral fin, equal ; the
united jaws are very much compressed, and nearly as deep as
the head, only slightly inclining to a slope before the eyes ;
the body hexangular ; the middle lateral angle on each side
becoming the upper angles of the quadrangular tail at the
end of the dorsal fin. This fin commences farther back than
in S. acus, the middle of the dorsal fin being very nearly the
middle of the whole length of the fish ; the series of indu-
rated plates between the shoulder and the vent includes
eighteen, thence to the end of the tail about thirty-seven ;

* Figured by M. Guerin, in illustration of the genera of the Jit-gne Animal,
Paissont) pi. 65, fig. 1.

DEEP-NOSED PIPE-FISH.

441

but both series are liable to a little variation in the number
of these sculptured plates : the abdomen is almost rounded ;
the anal fin minute ; the caudal fin pointed ; the two central
rays the longest ; the others graduated.
The fin-rays in number are —

D. 39 : P. 15 : A. 3 : C. 10.

The prevailing colour is olive green, mottled and spotted
with yellow brown and yellowish white.

As mentioned in the account of the Great Pipe-fish, last
described, the Deep-nosed Pipe-fish, S. typhle, is well
figured in the work of Rondeletius. The vignette below
represents the head and tail of this species of larger size than
the block of the whole fish would admit.

442 SYNGNATHIDE,

LOPHOBRANCH1I. SYNGNATHIDE.

y%5~. w.o^vili:j!?i,^ii.Jriv,M.,1i\.v.iU-y,Ji,v,i',-.'/',iv.. • • f /^^
/V^jMJiV >!,'<;> (i"<>^ $.Ji.$.jO S\®''!(\,-t.'?-la-^" ' '- v-' ' ^-'-

THE ^QUOREAL PIPE-FISH.

Syngnathus <equoreus, LINNSUS.

,, ,, JEquoreat Pipe-fish, MONTAGU, Wern. Mem. vol. i. p. 85,

pl- 4, fig. 1.

, ,, ,, ,, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 188.

,, ,, ,, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 176, sp. 38.

,, ,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 486,

sp. 174.

Characters. — The species belonging to the second division of the genus
Syngnathus have a dorsal fin only ; no pectoral, ventral, anal, or true caudal
fins; the latter being only rudimentary in the first two species, and entirely
wanting in the other two ; no sub-caudal pouch in either sex.

OF this division the British shores produce four species,
the largest of which, the jEquoreal Pipe-fish, was described
at length by Colonel Montagu from two specimens obtained
on the Devonshire coast. It had been noticed as long ago
as 1684 by Sir Robert Sibbald, in his Scotia Illustrata,
part ii. book 3, page 24, who attributes to it a length of
two feet.

Of this species I have not succeeded in taking any exam-
ple ; but I possess four, for one of which I am indebted to the
kindness of Mr. Embleton, of the Berwickshire Naturalists'

/EQUOREAL PIPE-FISH. 443

Club, who obtained it on the coast of Berwickshire, for the
second to Mr. Couch, and two from Mr. Wallace of the Isle
of Man. This species has also been taken by Mr. Selby on
the coast of Northumberland. By communication from F.
C. Lukis, Esq. I learn also, that this species, which I believe
to be rare in England, occurs at Guernsey.

I can add but little to the description of Montagu, and
shall therefore adopt it, with some slight modifications.

" Length twenty inches and a half, viz. ten to the vent,
and ten and a half to the end of the tail ;" the length of the
head is to the whole length of the fish as one to twelve :
" the snout is similar in form to that of S. acus ; its length
to the eye three-quarters of an inch ; from thence to the
end of the gill-cover, including the eye, one inch : the form
of the body is rather compressed and angular, with an acute
dorsal and abdominal ridge, which, together with three slight
angles on each side, give it an octangular appearance : it
is of equal size from the gills to the vent, which part con-
tains about thirty plates ; from the vent to the extremity
of the tail it is first quadrangular, and towards the end,
round and taper, containing about thirty-six plates : imme-
diately behind the vent, the body of this specimen suddenly
decreases to one-third less in diameter ; but this may be a
sexual distinction."

" The dorsal fin consists of forty rays, commencing in a
vertical line considerably before the vent, and terminating
behind it, so that three-fourths of the fin is before the ventral
aperture. The end of the tail is extremely small and com-
pressed, the rays of which are not visible to the naked eye.
The colour is yellowish, with transverse pale lines and dark
margins, one in each joint, and another down the middle
of each plate, giving it the appearance of possessing double
the number of joints it really has ; these markings, however,
cease at the vent.1'

444

SYNGNATHID^:.

Mr. Couch, it appears, has not seen more than two or
three specimens ; but the Cornish fishermen say they find
this species from ten to fifteen leagues from land, and in fine
weather swimming at the surface over a depth of fifty fathoms
or more. This species has also been taken on the south-west
coast of Scotland, in Ireland, and at the Isle of Man.

Examples of this species being rare, the sexual peculiarities
of this division of the Syngnathi will be explained when
describing the next species.

The vignette below represents the head and tail of this
species on a larger scale.

SNAKE IMI'E-FISH. 445

LOPHOBRANCHII. SYNCNATHID&.

THE SNAKE PIPE-FISH.

Syngnathus anguineus, Snake Pipe-fish, JENYNS, Cat. Brit. Veil.

„ ophidian, Serpent de Mer, BLOCK, pt. iii. pi. 91, fig. 3.

,, „ Snake Pipe-fish, SHAW, Gen. Zool. vol. v. p. 453,

pi. 179.
,, ,, Longer Pipe-fish, Low, Faun. Oread, p. 179, sp. 1.

No species of Syngnathus can better deserve the name of
ctnguineus, little snake, than the present. It is immediately
distinguishable from the fish last described, with which alone
it is likely to be confounded, by its much more slender as
well as rounder body, which scarcely exceeds a goose-quill in
size, and by the whole of the dorsal fin being, in a specimen
of fourteen inches long, more than half an inch before the
middle of the fish. Pennant has figured this fish, No. 61 of
plate 26, but not described it.

In this species, as well as the three others belonging to this
second division, neither male nor female possesses an anal
pouch, but the ova after exclusion from the abdomen of the
female are carried for a time by the male in separate hemi-
spheric depressions on the external surface of the abdomen,
anterior to the anus. The females have no such depressions.
The sexes have been determined by examination of the inter-

446 SYNGNATHID/E.

nal structure. All the specimens examined having these
external hemispheric cells proved to be males, the testes in
the abdomen obvious ; those without external depressions
proved to be all females, internally provided with two lobes
of enlarged ova. The males of this species when taken by
me as late in the season as August, had one ovum of the
size and colour of a mustard-seed lodged in each cup-shaped
cell. These specimens were caught with a keer-drag net
between Brownsey Island and South Haven, at the mouth of
Poole Harbour. Many specimens of S. acus and typhle
were obtained at the same time and place.

This species has been taken in two or three different lo-
calities in Ireland.

The length of the head in this species is, compared to the
whole length of the fish, as one to eleven ; the form of the
body slightly octangular, but more slender and rounded than
in that last described ; the body uniform in size as far as the
vent, then tapering gradually to the tail, which has a slightly
flattened end ; the divisions in the series of transverse plates,
and the angles of the body, almost obsolete ; the dorsal fin,
as before mentioned, entirely anterior to the middle of the
fish ; the number of rays thirty-eight : the vent in a line with
the last fourth portion of the dorsal fin.

The colour of the body is a uniform olive green ; the hides
red, the pupils black. The specimens I possess vary in
length from eight inches to fourteen inches.

STRAIGHT-NOSED PIPE-FISH. 447

LOPHOBRANCHI1. SYNGNATHIDsE.

THE STRAIGHT-NOSED PIPE-FISH.

Syngnathus ophidian, LINNAEUS, Syst. Nat. t. i. p. 417, sp. 5.
,, ,, ,, Faun. Suec. p. 131, sp. 1.

,, ,, Worm Pipe-Jish, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 488.

IT is only within a few years, I believe, that writers on
the Natural History of European Fishes have become aware
that in quoting, as was almost invariably the case, the figure
of the Syngnathus ophidion of Bloch, tab. 91, fig. 3, as the
true ophidian, they were not referring to, because that figure
does not represent, the true Syngnathus ophidion of Artedi
and Linnseus. The fish, as represented by Bloch, does not
exhibit any appearance of a caudal fin, but if the species
there figured from be examined, it will be found to possess a
rudimentary caudal fin,* and could not therefore be con-
sidered as referred to by Linnaeus in the short but expressive
description, S. pinnis caudee ant pectoralibusque nullis, cor-
pore tereti.

The first good figure of the true S. ophidion of Linnaeus
' British Fishes, vol. ii. p. 446, vignette.

44-8 SYNGNATHID.E.

that became known to me appeared in an octavo volume by
M. C. U. Ekstrom, on the Fishes of Morko, in Sudermann-
land, a province in Sweden, published at Berlin in 1835, a
copy of which came into my possession in the autumn of
1836. In 1838, a figure of the head of this fish appeared
with others in M. Wiegmann's Archives of Natural History
in illustration of a paper on the Swedish species of the genus
Syngnathus by M. B. Fr. Fries of Stockholm ; and this
fish having been obtained on the British coast by others as
well as by myself, I now insert a figure of it, of the natural
size.

To this last division belongs the true S. ophidian of Artedi
and Linnoeus, the males of which in the season of reproduc-
tion carry the eggs, after deposition by the female, in three
or four rows of hemispheric depressions on the under surface
of their bodies. This species, which lives among the sea-
weed on our coast, is more rare than some others. It was
found in Cornwall long ago by our countryman and naturalist
John Ray, has been recently described by Mr. Jenyns in his
" Manual of British Vertebrate Animals,1" from specimens
obtained at Weymouth, and I also possess several specimens
obtained on the Dorsetshire coast.

This little Pipe-fish is long, slender, and nearly cylindrical,
but slightly compressed from the head to the anal aperture ;
from thence to the end of the tail round and tapering very
gradually to a fine point ; the head is short, the length of it
only half an inch in a specimen of nine inches ; the length of
the head therefore, as compared to the whole length of the
fish, is as one to eighteen ; the nose is straight, rather com-
pressed, a section forming a hexagon slightly elongated, of
which the upper and under angles are the most produced ;
the distance from the point of the nose to the eye, and from
thence to the hinder edge of the operculum, equal ; no
pectoral, anal, or caudal fin ; the anal aperture is near the

STRAIGHT-NOSED PIPE-FISH.

449

middle of the whole length of the fish, with a delicately-
formed dorsal fin in a line over it, nearly one inch in length
at its base, with about one-third of the fin, which contains
from thirty-five to forty very slender rays, in advance of the
vertical line of the anal aperture. Between the head and the
anal orifice there are on the body of the fish about thirty
sculptured plates or segments, and nearly sixty on the tail,
diminishing gradually in size as they approach the tip.

Colour. — Some specimens are uniform olive green, others
are tinged with yellowish brown, and both are occasionally
varied with darker shades of colour on the body.

The largest specimens seldom exceed nine inches in length.
The figure at the head of this subject is the exact size of the
specimen from which it was drawn.

VOL. ir.

'.2

450 SYNGNATHID.E.

LOPHOBRANCHIL SYNGNATHIDM.

THE WORM PIPE-FISH.

Syngnathus lumbriciformis, YARRELL.

ACUS ,, WlLLUGHBY, p. 160.

Si/ngnathus ophidian, Little Pipe-jistt, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 187,

pi. 26, No. 22.
,, ,, ,, „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 176, sp.39.

THE WORM-LIKE PIPE-FISH is the smallest of the British
species, and is taken on various parts of the coast. Mr. Low
describes it as found in Orkney under stones ; and Mr. Couch
finds it in similar situations on the coast of Cornwall, where
it is considered common. Mr. Thompson has recorded it as
occurring in three or four different localities on the coast of
Ireland.

Pennant has figured this species with the ova attached to
the under and external surface of the abdomen, as in the
species last described. There is little doubt that the young
are produced in the same mode as in the other species be-
longing to this division of the genus, and that the same
sexual peculiarities exist. Pennant, not aware of the singular
interchange which takes place, says, very naturally, " On the
belly of the female is a long hollow, to which adhere the
eggs, disposed in three rows."

This species does not exceed five inches or five inches and
a half in length, and the wood-engraving at the head of the

WORM PIPE-FISH. 4-51

preceding page represents this fish but little less than its
natural size. It possesses when adult no fin except that on
the back, which in the specimen I examined contained thirty
rays. The nose is very short, turned a little upwards ;
the eyes prominent ; from the point of the jaws to the pos-
terior edge of the orbit, and thence to the end of tlie opcr-
culum, the distances are equal ; the length of these two
portions together, compared to the whole length of the fish,
is as one to twelve ; the form of the body nearly cylindrical ;
the vent is situated at the end of the first third of the whole
length, with a series of nineteen plates before it, and in a
vertical line, with three-fourths of the dorsal fin behind it ;
from the vent the body tapers gradually all the way to the
tail, which ends in a point ; the number of plates forming the
series between the vent and the tail-end, about fifty. The
surface of the body is more smooth than in the two species
previously described, and the colour is dark olive green.

In 1837 the late Professor B. Fries, of Stockholm, pub-
lished an interesting paper on the metamorphosis which takes
place in this species : an interesting fact hitherto unobserved
to the same extent in the class of Fish, — namely, that the
young of this species at their escape from the egg have the
entire tail covered with a fin-like membrane, which extends
partly up the back, and also along the under surface as far as
the anal aperture : the little fish at this stage possesses also
pectoral fins. Except the portion required to form the per-
manent dorsal fin, all these, at a subsequent unknown period,
are thrown off in a way similar to that of the larvse of frogs
rejecting their tails. The absorption of the pectoral and
caudal fins is the novelty in this case : the existence and sub-
sequent absorption of part of the dorsal and anal membrane
was previously known to occur in the young of the Salmon.

G

452

SYNGNATHID.E.

LOPHOBRANCH11.

SYNGNATHIDJ:

THE SHORT-NOSED HIPPOCAMPUS.

Hippocampus brevirostris, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 363.
,, Rondeletii, WILLUGHBY, p. 157, I. 25, fig. 3.

,, brevirostris, Sea-horse, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 489, sp. 177.

HIPPOCAMPUS. Generic Characters. — The jaws united and tubular, like
those of the Syngnathi ; the mouth placed at the end; the body compressed,
short, and deep ; the whole length of the body and tail divided by longitudinal
and transverse ridges, with tubercular points at the angles of intersection ; both
sexes have pectoral and dorsal fins ; the females only have an anal fin ; neither
sex has ventral or caudal fins.

PENNANT, in the edition of his British Zoology, the
three first volumes of which were published in 1776 and the
fourth in 1777, states that he had been informed the Syng-
nathus Hippocampus of Linnjeus, or what the English im-
properly call the Sea-horse, had been found on the southern
shores of this kingdom. John Walcott, Esq. whose MS.
History of British Fishes was written in the years 1784 and
1785, says, in reference to a drawing of a female specimen

SHORT-NOSED HIPPOCAMPUS. 453

of what I believe to be the Hippocampus brtvirostris of
Cuvier, " This was taken on the coast of Hampshire, and
given me by the late Mr. Brander."

L. W. Dillwyn, Esq. obtained a specimen of Hippocam-
pus, some years ago, which was said to have been taken on
the Dorsetshire coast ; and Messrs. C. and J. Paget, in their
sketch of the Natural History of Yarmouth, state that the
Hippocampus is also occasionally met with there.

According to Mr. Thompson, a Hippocampus has been
taken both in the north and the south of Ireland, — namely, at
Belfast and Youghal. Dr. Storer includes the Short-nosed
Hippocampus in his Catalogue of the Fishes of Massachusetts.

But the most valuable information I have received on this
subject has been supplied by F. C. Lukis, Esq. of Guernsey,
to whom I am indebted for the loan of the male and female
specimens from which the figures at the head of the preceding
page were taken.

By a comparison with M. Guerin's figure of the Hippo-
campus brevirostris of Cuvier's Regne Animal, I have little
doubt that the two fishes here figured are examples of H.
brevirostris; and Mr. Lukis, in the autumn of 1835, ob-
tained two specimens of Hippocampus on the Hampshire
coast, one of which is stated to be identical with those here
figured : there can therefore be no doubt, from these various
authorities, that at least one species is found on our coast,
and that this species is also obtained at Guernsey and the
other Channel islands.

The circumstance of the same species occurring at Guern-
sey and on our southern coast, gives additional value to the
following communication. At the time of writing, June 9,
1835, Mr. Lukis had two female specimens of Hippocampus
brevirostris, then healthy and active, which had been living
twelve days in a glass vessel, their actions equally novel and
amusing. " An appearance of search for a resting-place

454 SYNGNATHID.E.

induced me," says Mr. Lukis, " to consult their wishes by
placing seaweed and straws in the vessel : the desired effect
was obtained, and has afforded me much to reflect upon in
their habits. They now exhibit many of their peculiarities,
and few subjects of the deep have displayed, in prison, more
sport or more intelligence."

" When swimming about, they maintain a vertical posi-
tion ; but the tail is ready to grasp whatever meets it in the
water, quickly entwines in any direction round the Aveeds,
and, when fixed, the animal intently watches the surrounding
objects, and darts at its prey with great dexterity.""

" When both approach each other, they often twist their
tails together, and struggle to separate or attach themselves
to the weeds ; this is done by the under part of their cheeks
or chin, which is also used for raising the body when a new
spot is wanted for the tail to entwine afresh. The eyes move
independently of each other, as in the chamelion ; this, with
the brilliant changeable iridescence about the head, and its
blue bands, forcibly remind the observer of that animal,"

The vignette in illustration of the habits here described
Avas copied from a drawing by Mr. Lukis, most obligingly
lent me for this purpose.

By the kindness of William Walcott, Esq. I learn that
a gentleman of the Island of Jersey, an attentive observer of
nature, remembers having more than once seen specimens of
Hippocampus curled up in oyster-shells. About four years
since, a specimen was shown at Southampton, which lived
more than a fortnight in a glass globe. This was said to have
been obtained on the French coast near Granvillc, and was
brought to Southampton by one of the sailors of a steam-
packet ; I have also heard of one that lived three weeks in
confinement at Harwich, the undulating motion of which
when swimming was performed with great case, and was very
interesting to observe.

SHORT-NOSED HIPPOCAMPUS. 45")

The species of Hippocampus in tlicir sexual peculiarities,
as far as they have been investigated, appear to coincide with
those of the Syngnathi. I had the pleasure of looking over,
with Mr. Owen, some specimens in the collection of the
Royal College of Surgeons, which had been examined and
the internal structure partly exposed to view by the dissec-
tions of John Hunter. The females with the abdomen
enlarged, as shown in the right-hand figure at the head of this
article, have a small anal fin of four rays, but no true pouch ;
the ova in the abdomen. Males have no anal fin, in any of
the specimens I have examined ; the pouch obvious ; the
abdomen smaller than in the females, as shown in the left-
hand figure. The two specimens represented in the vignette
are both females.

Their food is unknown to me, but is probably very similar
to that taken by the Syngnathi.

The whole length from the point of the nose to the end of
the tail is about five inches : the connected jaws, forming a
tubular mouth, are considerably shorter than the rest of the
head : the eyes prominent, the irides straw yellow ; over
each eye a single prominent spinous tubercle : the operculum
covered with striee, radiating from the front : the pectoral fins,
placed immediately behind the operculum, are small, appa-
rently containing about eight rays in each ; the form of the
body heptangular, three angles on each side, the seventh
longitudinal angular line being on the abdomen ; the back
flat ; the transverse segments of the body eleven, with tuber-
cular projections at the points of intersection; the rays of
the dorsal fin about sixteen : the anal fin is peculiar to the
female only, and probably performs some office at the time
of the transfer of the ova to the pouch of the male ; this
anal fin contains four rays : the abdomen as deep again as the
tail ; from the vent the form of the tail is quadrangular,
ending in a point : the number of segments about thirty.

456

SYNGNATHID^E.

The general colour is a pale asli brown, relieved by a
changeable iridescence, and variable tints of blue dispersed
over different parts of the head, body, and tail.

I have not included any reference to Linnaeus or Bloch in
the synonymes, being doubtful that the species are identical
with the one here described. Klein^s figure, No. 10, very
closely resembles the H. brevirostris ; and by the description,
the H. antiquus of Risso is also the H. brevirostris of
Cuvier.

PENNANTS GLOBE-FISH.

457

PLECTOGNATHI.

GYMNODONTID&.

PENNANTS GLOBE-FISH.

Tetrodon Pennanlii, Pennant's Globe-jish, YARRELL.

stellatus, Stellated ,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 64.

Tetraodon lavigatus, Globe Diodon, PENN. Brit. Zool. ed. 1776, vol.

iii. p. 132, pi. 20.
Tetrodon lagocephalus, Globe Tetrodon, PENN. Brit. Zool. ed. 1812, vol.

iii. p. 174, pi. 23.
Tetraodon stellatus, Stellated Globe-fish, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 174, sp. 31-

Proceedings Zool. Soc. 1833,
p. 115.
Tetrodon ,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 489.

TETRODON. Generic Characters. — Both jaws are divided in the middle by a
suture, producing the appearance of four teeth in front, two above and two
below. The skin, over part of the body, armed with numerous short spines.
The branchial orifice small.

IN this order of fishes, the Plectognathi of Cuvier's ar-
rangement, the principal distinctive character consists in the
maxillary bones being firmly attached to the intcrmaxillaries,
and both united to the palatine arch.

Three examples of this singular-looking fish have been
taken in this country, and all three in Cornwall. Pennant
first described it as British from a specimen caught at Pen-

458 GYMNODONTID.E.

zance. Mr. Donovan has recorded a second, taken on the
Cornish coast, and mentions another obtained in the Euro-
pean seas. Still more recently a specimen was taken in
Mount's Bay, a drawing of which was sent to the Zoological
Society by Dr. Boase, and a notice of its occurrence appeared
in the Proceedings for October 1833, as referred to.

In Ireland this fish has occurred once on the coast of
Waterford.

Pennant called his fish Icevigatus in the edition of his
work published in 1776, and his editor adopted that of
lagocephalus in the edition of 1812, referring to Linnaeus
and Bloch ; but the figure of the two specimens by Pennant
and Mr. Donovan, and the drawing of the third sent to the
Zoological Society by Dr. Boase, agree more closely with
the figure of the Globe-fish in Grew's Rarities, tab. 7, and
the Orbis lagocephalus of Willughby, plate I. 2, which
appear to be intended to represent the same fish, and being
without spots or stripes, are, I think, distinct from the lagoce-
phalus of Linneeus and Bloch, the spots of which are referred
to in the description of the one, and both spots and stripes
shown in the coloured figure of the other.

Mr. Donovan, when calling this fish stdlatus, appears not
to have been aware that this term had been previously ap-
propriated to an Indian species with black spots ; and still
considering this fish provisionally as a new species, I propose
for it now the name of our highly-esteemed British zoologist,
by whom, as far as I am aware, it was first made known.

" The species of this genus are remarkable for being
provided with the means of suddenly assuming a globular
form by swallowing air, which, passing into the crop or first
stomach, blows up the whole animal like a balloon. The
abdominal region being thus rendered the lightest, the body
turns over, the stomach being the uppermost part, and the
fish floats upon its back, without having the power of direct-

PENNANT'S GLOBE- FISH. 45!)

ing itself during this state of forced distension. But it is
while thus bloated and passive, at the mercy of the waves,
that this animal is really most secure ; for the numerous
spines with which the surface of the body is universally beset
are raised and erected by the stretching out of the skin, thus
presenting an armed front to the enemy on whatever side he
may venture to begin the attack."

The following extract is derived from the very scientific and
interesting narrative by Mr. Charles Darwin of the Surveying
voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, vol. iii. page 13 : —
" One day I was amused by watching the habits of a Diodon,
which was caught swimming near the shore. This fish is well
known to possess the singular power of distending itself into a
nearly spherical form. After having been taken out of water
for a short time, and then again immersed in it, a considerable
quantity both of water and air was absorbed by the mouth,
and perhaps likewise by the branchial apertures. This pro-
cess is effected by two methods ; the air is swallowed, and is
then forced into the cavity of the body, its return being
prevented by a muscular contraction which is externally
visible ; but the water, I observed, entered in a stream
through the mouth, which was wide open and motionless : this
latter action must, therefore, depend on suction. The skin
about the abdomen is much looser than that of the back ;
hence during the inflation, the lower surface becomes far
more distended than the upper ; and the fish, in consequence,
floats with its back downwards. Cuvier doubts whether the
Diodon, in this position, is able to swim ; but not only can
it thus move forward in a straight line, but likewise it can
turn round to either side. This latter movement is effected
solely by the aid of the pectoral fins, the tail being collapsed,
and not used. From the body being buoyed up with so much
air, the branchial openings were out of the water ; but a stream
drawn in by the mouth constantly flowed through them.

* Dr. Roget. Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. p. 433.

46'() GYMNODONTIDjE.

" The fish, having remained in this distended state for a
short time, generally expelled the air and water with consi-
derable force from the branchial apertures and mouth. It
could emit, at will, a certain portion of the water ; and it
appears, therefore, probable that this fluid is taken in partly
for the sake of regulating its specific gravity. This Diodon
possessed several means of defence. It could give a severe
bite, and could eject water from its mouth to some distance,
at the same time it made a curious noise by the movement of
its jaws. By the inflation of its body, the papillse, with
which the skin is covered, became erect and pointed. But
the most curious circumstance was, that it emitted from the
skin of its belly, when handled, a most beautiful carmine red
and fibrous secretion, which stained ivory and paper in so
permanent a manner, that the tint is retained with all its
brightness to the present day. I am quite ignorant of the
nature and use of this secretion."

The vignette is copied, on a very reduced scale, from one
of the illustrations published in the Catalogue of the Museum
of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and is thus
described : — " The figure in this plate is taken from the
large specimen of Crop-fish, or Globe-fish (Tetrodon Pen-
nantii, Yarrell). The abdominal parietes, and those of the
cesophageal dilatation forming the air-bag, are laid open to
show the smooth internal surface of the air-bag ; the anterior
opening into the first oesophagus, and the valvular passage to
the second esophagus."

Pennant's fish measured one foot seven inches in length ;
the belly when distended, one foot ; the whole circumference
when in that state, two feet six inches. The form of the
body is usually oblong ; but when alarmed, it assumes the
shape which has been already referred to. The mouth is
small ; the irides white, tinged with red ; the back from head
to tail almost straight, or at least very slightly elevated ;

PENNANTS GLOBE-FISH

there are no ventral fins ; the dorsal fin is placed low on the
back ; the anal fin is opposite ; the tail almost even, divided
by an angular projection in the middle.

The number of fin-rays according to Mr. Donovan —

D. 11 : P. 14 : A. 10 : C. 6.

The back is of a rich blue colour ; the belly and sides
silvery white, studded over with straight spines arising from
the centre of four rays ; the fins and tail brown. The spines
in Pennant's representation of this fish are not so thickly set
as in the figure of Mr. Donovan, or in the drawing by Dr.
Boase ; but the space over which they are spread is alike in
all three, — that is, bounded superiorly by the lower jaw and
the base of the pectoral fin, and posteriorly by the anal
aperture.

4G2

GYMNODONTIDE.

PLECTOGNATIII.

GYMNODONTID&.

THE SHORT SUN-FISH.

Orthagoriscus mo/a, SCHNEIDER. CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 369.

,, liondeletii, Suiifish, WIT.LUGHBY, p. 151, I. 26'.

Tetrodon mo/a, Short Tetrodon, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 172, pi. 22.

,, ,, Sun-fish, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 25.

Orthagoriscus mo/a, Molebut, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 175, sp. 32.

,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 490, sp. 179.

ORTHAGORISCUS. Generic Characters. — Jaws undivided, forming a cutting
edge ; body compressed, deep for its length, short, truncated, without spines ;
tail short, and very high vertically ; rays of the dorsal and anal fins long and
pointed, both united to the caudal fin at the base.

SHORT SUN-FISH. 463

THE SUN-FISH, as this species has been called from the
twofold circumstance of its almost circular form and shining
surface, though occurring but occasionally, may be said to
have been taken from John o1 Groat's to the Land's End.

Sir Andrew Balfour and Sir Robert Sibbakl have noticed
this species in Scotland, and Dr. Ncill mentions three ex-
amples that were taken in the Frith of Forth. I am in-
debted to Edward Jesse, Esq. for a memorandum of one
caught on the coast of Northumberland in October 1834.
Dawson Turner, Esq. and Mr. Pagct have known it to be
taken at Yarmouth. I have seen one that was brought to
the London market. Colonel Montagu, in his MS. notes,
mentions one that was caught at Salcombe in July 1799 :
this specimen was of large size, and weighed three hundred
pounds. In the fifth volume of Mr. London's Magazine of
Natural History, page 315, there is a record of one that was
taken at Plymouth ; and Dr. Borlase, Willughby, and Mr.
Couch have seen and described examples that were taken on
the Cornish coast. Still farther to the westward and north-
ward, the Sun-fish has been taken in the Bristol Channel,
and one was caught during last summer at Tenby. On the
Irish coast, it has been taken at Londonderry ; and I am
greatly indebted to the kindness of Dr. Arthur Jacob, Pro-
fessor of Anatomy in the Royal College of Surgeons in Dub-
lin, for his remarks on a specimen taken in the month of
August 1826, between the south-west coast of England and
Dublin Bay. This paper was published in the Dublin
Philosophical Journal for November 1826, and is the best
account of this fish that I am acquainted with.

Since the publication of the previous edition of this work
several other examples of this species have been taken on
various parts of the coasts of the British islands. One at
Shetland ; another in the Forth, some of the anatomical pecu-
liarities of which have been described by Mr. Goodsir, in the

464

GYMNODONTIDK.

Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal for January 1841,
with a representation of the hinder part of the skeleton, from
which the figure here given, greatly reduced in size, was
taken. Another specimen was washed ashore near Scar-
borough, and is now preserved in the museum there : this
specimen weighed one hundred and twenty pounds. A spe-
cimen which weighed two hundred pounds was exhibited for
several days in a fishmonger's shop in London in December
1840. The Rev. J. M. Colson sent me notice of one that
was taken in Swanage Bay ; and another was taken at the Isle
of Purbeck. The Rev. Robert Holdsworth of Brixham has
written to me of a small one, about eighteen inches long, that
was caught off the Start Point. My friend Mr. George Mello
sent me various particulars of a specimen taken in the autumn
of 1839, about three miles from Ilfracombe. This example

SHORT SUN-FISH. 465

was estimated to weigh four hundred pounds. Mr. Dillwyn
has recorded the capture of a Sun-fish, weighing about ninety
pounds in Carmarthen Bay. Mr. M'Coy of Dublin sent
me notice of the recent occurrence of this species on the
coast of Ireland, and others are also recorded. Lastly, Dr.
Storer includes this species of Orthagoriscus in his Cata-
logue of the Fishes of Massachusetts ; one example had been
secured near Boston, and others had been taken at no great
distance.

When observed in our seas, they have generally appeared
as though they were dead or dying, and floating along on
one side, presenting the broad surface of the other side to
view. Dr. Neill says, of one that was brought to him,
" The fishermen informed him, that when they observed it,
it was swimming along sideways, with its back-fin frequently
above water. It seemed to be a stupid, dull fish : it made
little or no attempt to escape, but allowed one of the sailors
to put his hands under it, and lift it fairly into the boat.
The Sun-fish has been generally mentioned as remarkable
for its phosphorescence ; but this specimen did not exhibit
that phenomenon so distinctly as a Haddock or a Herring."
Pennant repeats Brunnich's account, that between Antibes
and Genoa he saw one of this species lie asleep on the sur-
face of the water : a sailor jumped overboard and caught it.

Mr. Couch says the Short Sun-fish is migratory, keeping
probably at the bottom, and feeding on seaweeds in its ordi-
nary habits ; but in calm weather it mounts to the surface,
and lies, perhaps asleep, with its head and even its eyes
above the water, floating with the tide. Mr. Couch lias

* O

known the Sun-fish make powerful but awkward efforts to
escape when attacked, bending and directing its motions in
various ways.

The representation at the head of this subject is from an
adult fish, the Scarborough specimen, which measured, from

VOL. II. 2 H

466 GYMNODONTID.E.

the point of the nose to the end of the caudal fin, three feet
five inches ; depth of body alone one foot nine inches ; height
of dorsal fin one foot five inches ; across the body, including
dorsal and anal fins, four feet six inches : the weight one
hundred and twenty pounds. The Ilfracombe specimen
measured, from the point of the nose to the end of the caudal
fin, five feet one inch ; depth of body alone three feet one
inch ; height of dorsal fin one foot ten inches ; across the
body, including dorsal and anal fins, six feet nine inches :
weight as estimated four hundred pounds : from the point of
the nose to the eye eleven inches ; diameter of the orbit two
inches and a quarter : the irides greyish brown, with a bright
straw-coloured ring near the pupil ; the pectoral fin is lodged
in a depression ; the basal attachment of each fin is thick and
fleshy. In these adult fish the skin is generally of a dingy
greyish brown, the colour becoming lighter towards the belly ;
the texture of the skin very hard, thick, and rough. These
adult fish are also longer in the body, compared to their
depth, than young fish ; the latter, without including the
caudal fin, being almost round.

The second figure of this fish here given, and the descrip-
tion, are taken from a preserved specimen in the Museum of
the Zoological Society. This is the smallest example I have
seen. Tt measures but fourteen inches from the point of the
nose to the end of the body ; the breadth of the caudal fin
two inches ; the depth of the body eleven inches and a half :
the length of the dorsal fin eight inches ; of the anal fin,
seven inches and a half: the extension of skin connecting the
fin-rays rather thick. The mouth small ; the branchial aper-
ture just in advance of the pectoral fin, small and oval ; the
vent just before the anal fin ; the caudal fin occupying the
whole space between the anal and dorsal fins, and attached to
the posterior vertical edge of the body as by a long hinge ;
the surface of the body in this young specimen but slightly

SHORT SUN-FISH.

467

roughened, and somewhat wrinkled. The colour of the upper
part of the body dusky bluish grey ; the lower part olive
brown. The fin-rays in number are —

D. 15 : P. 11 : A. 15 : C. 13.

I am indebted to Mr. Couch for the under jaw-bone of a
Sun-fish of considerable size. The outer margin of this
bone, for three inches round the front, in which there is no
division, is covered to its edge by a narrow band of enamel :
the inside, near the centre, contains various dull pearl-like
teeth ; some thin and flat, presenting an edge : behind them
others, more cylindrical, short, and rather pointed.

The Sun-fish is often infested with one or more species of
parasites adhering to various parts of the body. Dr. Storer
found one species attached to the branchiae ; the Ilfracombe
fish had several attached to the soft parts about the anal

2 H 2

468 GYMNODONTID.E.

aperture, and upon the external surface of the head of the
example of the Sun-fish taken at Tenby, there were attached
about twenty specimens of Tristoma coccineum. Two of
these were given to me by H. E. Strickland, Esq. of Cra-
combe House, Gloucestershire, from one of which the repre-
sentations in the vignette below of the upper and under
surface were taken of the natural size. For an account of two
species of these very rare parasitic animals, see the Synopsis
Entozoorum of Rudolphi, page 427.

OBLONG SUN-FISH.

4G9

PLECTOGNATHI.

GYMNODONTW1E.

THE OBLONG SUN-FISH.

Orthagoriscus oblongus, SCHNEIDER. CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 370.
Tetrodon truncatus, Oblong Tetrodon, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 170,

pi. 22.

,, ,, Truncated Sun-fish, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 41.

Orthagoriscus truncatus, ,, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 175, sp. 33.

,, oblongus, Oblong Sun-fish, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 491,

sp. 180.

IT has been the opinion of some naturalists that this Ob-
long Sun-fish is the same species as that last described, and
that its greater length in proportion to its depth is but the
consequence of greater age. One of the largest Short Sun-
fish of which I have weight and measurement was that taken
at Salcombe on the coast of Devonshire. It weighed three
hundred pounds, was four feet five inches long, and six feet
from the tip of the dorsal fin to the end of the anal fin.
This was seen by Colonel Montagu, who was too keen an
observer and too good a naturalist not to have detected the

470 GYMNODONTID.E.

difference between the fish he examined and the described
characters of the true mola, if any had existed ; and this fish
being probably very old, as well as very large, was the more
likely to have assumed the elongated appearance of this se-
cond species.

The oblong Sun-fish seems to be much more rare than
that last figured. Dr. Borlase appears to be the first and
almost the only English writer who has seen and described it.
In his Natural History of Cornwall, he speaks of it under
the title of the Sun-fish from Mount's Bay, after having
described and figured the Short Sun-fish, and mentions that
a specimen of this second species was taken at Plymouth in
1734- that weighed five hundred pounds.

Mr. Donovan, in his Natural History of British Fishes,
says, " We have seen the dried skin of this species, the
animal of which, when living, weighed between two and
three hundred pounds. Our figure is taken from a small
specimen, obtained in a recent state, in one of our fishing
excursions on the Bristol Channel. This fish subsists on
worms of the testaceous and other tribes, small crabs, &c.
fragments of these being found on dissection in the stomach."

Since the publication of the first edition of this work, a fish
of this rare species wandered into the lock of the newly-made
canal at a short distance west of Fowey, and was carefully
skinned and preserved to be presented to the Royal Cornwall
Museum. A description by Mr. Couch, published in the
sixth volume of the Annals of Natural History, is as follows :
— " The length twenty-two inches ; depth of body over the
side eleven inches and a half; from the snout to the eye two
inches and three quarters ; to the origin of the pectoral fin
eight inches and a half; length of pectoral fin four inches and
a half; width of caudal fin one inch and a half; dorsal and
anal fins each about six inches long."

Never having seen a specimen of this fish, the figure here

OBLONG SUN-FISH. 471

given is from Mr. Donovan's work, with part of the descrip-
tion of Pennant.

" This fish grows to a great bulk ; that which was ex-
amined by Salvianus was above a hundred pounds in weight.
In form it resembles a Bream, or some deep fish cut off in
the middle. The mouth is very small, and contains two
broad teeth, with sharp edges."

" The eyes are small ; before each is a small semilunar
aperture : the pectoral fins very small, and placed behind
them. The dorsal fin and the anal fin are high, and situated
at the extremity of the body ; the tail fin is narrow, and
fills all the abrupt space between those two fins."

" The colour of the back is dusky, and dappled ; the
belly silvery ; between the eyes and the pectoral fins are
certain streaks pointing downwards. The skin is free from
scales."

" When boiled it has been observed to turn into a glu-
tinous jelly, resembling boiled starch when cold, and served
the purposes of glue, on being tried on paper or leather.
The flesh of this fish is uncommonly rank : it feeds on shell-
fish:1

" There seems to be no satisfactory reason for the old
English name. Care must be taken not to confound it with
the Sun-fish of the Irish,* which differs in all respects from
this."

Dr. Turton describes the body of the Oblong Sun-fish to
be nearly thrice as long as it is deep : the aperture of the
gills semilunar. The fin-rays in number, according to Mr.
Donovan, are —

D. 12 : P. 14 : A. 15 : C. 17.

* The Sun-fish of the Irish coast, particularly on the west coast of Ireland,
is the Basking Shark, to be hereafter described, which sometimes attains a
length of thirty feet, and is so called from its habit of basking and sunning itself
at the surface of the water.

472 BALISTID.E.

PLECTOGNATHL BALISTID&*

THE EUROPEAN FILE-FISH.

Batistes cupriscus, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 372.

Capriscus Rondeletii, Pesce Balestra, WILLUGHBY, p. 152, I. 19.

Balistes maculatvs, File-Jish, BLOCK, pt. v. pi. 151 I

,, capriscus, Mediterranean File-fall^ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 492.

BALISTES. Generic Characters. — Body compressed, covered with hard rhom-
boidal imbedded plates, which are not imbricated like scales ; two dorsal fins,
the first containing spines only, the second long ; mouth with incisor-like cut-
ting teeth in each jaw.

THE only example of this genus which has occurred in the
English seas, that I am aware of, was taken off the Sussex
coast in the month of August 1827 ; and the circumstance
was made known by J. G. Children, Esq. who obtained the
specimen, and who recorded this interesting capture in his
address delivered at the anniversary meeting of the Zoolo-
gical Club of the Linnean Society on the 29th of November
of the same year. The specimen was exhibited.

This fish has since been deposited in the national collec-
tion at the British Museum ; and by the kindness of the

' The family of the File-fishes.

EUROPEAN FILE-FISH. 473

officers of the natural history department of that establish-
ment, I have been permitted to take a drawing and descrip-
tion from the specimen caught in our seas.

The Batistes capriscus is a species well known to the
older authors as an inhabitant of the Mediterranean ; is
figured by Salvianus ; by Grew, in his Rarities, tab. 7 ; and
by Klein, tab. 3. It is, however, rather rare, though stated
also to be an inhabitant of other seas. M. Risso says the
flesh is tolerably good.

Baron Cuvier, in the Regne Animal, in part of the first
note at the foot of page 372, says in reference to Batistes
capriscus., " Je suis meme tente <Ty rapporter le B. buniva
de Lacepede." Possessing a dried specimen of B. buniva
from the Mediterranean, which agrees exactly with the pub-
lished descriptions of that species by Lacepede and M.
Risso, I have compared it with the specimen of B. capriscus
at the British Museum, and feel confident that the B. bu-
niva of Lacepede is, as Cuvier suspected, identical with the
B. capriscus of authors.

The first and strongest spine of the back in this fish is
studded up the front with numerous small projections, which
under the microscope have the appearance of so many points
of enamel or pearl arising from the surface of the bone, giving
a rough denticulated appearance ; and hence the name of
File-fish. The second smaller spine has at the anterior part
of the base a projection which, when the spines are elevated,
locks into a corresponding depression in the posterior part of
the base of the first spine, and fixes it like part of the work
in a gun-lock ; and from this similarity this fish on the Ita-
lian shores of the Mediterranean is called Pesce bahstra.
The longest spine cannot be forced down till the shorter
spine has been first depressed.

The length from the nose to the branchial orifice is to the
whole length of the fish as one to four ; the depth of the

BALISTIDE.

body is rather less than half the whole length of the fish, the
tail included in both measurements : the body compressed ;
the surface hard ; the scales arranged in oblique lines over
the whole breadth ; no lateral line observable, except along
the middle of the fleshy portion of the tail : the mouth small
and narrow ; the visible teeth four on each side the centre
above and below, incisor-like or cutting ; the forehead wide
between the eyes, which are small, enclosed in well-defined
orbits ; the branchial orifice an elongated aperture commen-
cing in the front at the base of the pectoral fin, and ascending
obliquely backward ; pectoral fin of small size : first spine of
the first dorsal fin in a vertical line over the branchial orifice,
the second close behind and attached by a strong ligament ;
the third spine removed to a distance, but connected by a
membrane : the second dorsal fin is high anteriorly and long,
commencing in a vertical line before the commencement of
the anal fin, but both ending on the same plane, and far
short of the base of the caudal rays ; in advance of the anal
fin is a strong rough keel, which has some resemblance to
ventral fins : the fleshy portion of the tail free, and rather
long ; the rays nearly square at the end, large and strong.
The fin-rays in number are —

D. 3. 28 : P. 15 : A. 26 : C. 14.

The colour in the dried specimen is nearly a uniform pale
brown ; rather darker on the back ; becoming lighter on the
belly, and particularly on the under surface of the head :
the naked gums smooth and dark brown. Living specimens
are said to be tinged and even spotted with blue ; and it is
probable that an individual in this state has furnished the
material on which B. maculatus of Bloch is founded : the
irides are described as green.

The whole length of the Museum specimen is nine inches
and a half ; the depth four inches and three-eighths without
the dorsal or anal fins.

COMMON STURGEON. 475

CHONDROPTERYGII. STURIONIDJE*

THE COMMON STURGEON.

Acipenser Sturio, Common Sturgeon, LINN/F.US. BLOCH, pt. iii. pi. 88.

Sturio, The Sturgeon, WILLUGHBY, p. 239, P. 1, fig. 3.

Acipenser Sturio, Common Sturgeon, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 164, pi. 22.

,, ,, L'Esturgeon, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 379.

,, ,, Common Sturgeon, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 65.

,, ,, Sturgeon, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 173, sp. 30.

,, ,, Common Sturgeon, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 493, sp. 182.

ACIPENSER. Generic Characters. — Body elongated and angular, defended
by indurated plates and spines, arranged in longitudinal rows ; snout pointed,
conical ; mouth placed on the under surface of the head, tubular, and without
teeth.

ALL the remaining portion of the British Fishes to be yet
described belong to Cuvier's division called Chondroptery-
giens, or Cartilaginous Fishes, the skeletons of which are
made up of cartilage, and not, as in the divisions of Acan-
thopterygiens and Malacopterygiens^ made up of true bone.
The earthy matter in the hard parts of these fishes is smaller
in quantity, is deposited in grains, and does not assume the
form, as in other fishes, of distinct osseous fibres.

In the fishes of the families contained in this order there
are several interesting peculiarities. Some have their gills
free, like those of ordinary fishes ; there are others in which
the gills are fixed by having their outer edges attached to the

* The family of the Sturgeons.

476

STURIOMD.E.

skin. Several of them bring forth their young alive in a
manner very different from any of the true bony fishes ; while
some, and these the last in the series, want that degree of or-
ganization in the bones of the upper jaw observable in those
generally which have been hitherto described, but of which
two or three examples of deficiency by malformation have
been figured.

This order may be said to be further distinguished by
including within its limits fishes exhibiting in certain points
of their structure the highest as well as the lowest degrees of
organization observable throughout the whole class. These
different peculiarities will be pointed out on arriving at the
different genera in succession.

The Sturgeon, the first of the cartilaginous fishes, allied to
the Sharks in the elongated form of its body, resembles other
fishes in having the gills free, and in being oviparous. It is
caught occasionally on various parts of our coast, most fre-
quently in the estuaries, or but a short distance up rivers ;
very seldom taken in the open sea, where it is believed
to inhabit deep water, beyond the reach of nets, and is not,
that I am aware, ever caught upon the fishermen's lines.
Dr. Neill says that one or two are generally taken every
summer about the mouth of the Almond or of the Esk,
where they get entangled in the Salmon nets, and when of
large size frequently doing the fishermen considerable damage
by tearing their nets. They are otherwise harmless. One
caught in a stake net near Findhorn in Scotland in July
1833, measured eight feet six inches in length, and weighed
two hundred and three pounds.

The Sturgeon is occasionally taken on the East coast, and
frequently brought to the London market from various loca-
lities. When caught in the Thames, Avithin the jurisdiction
of the Lord Mayor, it is considered a Royal Fish ; the term
being intended to imply that it ought to be sent to the King,

COMMON STURGEON. 477

and it is said that the Sturgeon was exclusively reserved for
the table of Henry the First of England.

On our southern coast, Colonel Montagu mentions one
taken in the estuary at Kingsbridge ; and Mr. Couch enu-
merates three instances at different periods of different years ;
one in the Tamar in June, one at Plymouth in August, and
one near the Eddystone in January. In September 1802,
a specimen, eight feet long, and weighing one hundred and
ninety-two pounds, was caught in a weir below the castle at
Shrewsbury. The largest specimen taken in this country
is probably the fish recorded by Pennant, which was caught
in the Esk, and weighed four hundred and sixty pounds.

In Ireland the Sturgeon has been taken on the south, the
east, and the north coasts.

In the northern parts of Europe this fish is much more
numerous than with us, and extensive fisheries are established
for its destruction. Caviare is made of the roe of the female ;
isinglass is obtained from the dense membrane forming the
air-bladder ; and the flesh, besides being preserved by salting
and pickling, is in request for the table while fresh, being
generally stewed with rich gravy, and the flavour considered
to be like that of veal. The flesh, like that of most of the
cartilaginous fishes, is more firm and compact than is usual
among those of the osseous families.

The Sturgeon, as has been before observed, is oviparous,
spawning in winter. It has been frequently remarked that
Sturgeons of very small size are seldom seen : by the kindness
of Mr. George Daniell, however, I possess a small specimen,
only twelve inches long, that is quite perfect, and exhibits
all the characters of the mature fish. " It is presumed that
the young, as soon as they escape from the eggs, which the
female deposits in fresh water, descend immediately to the
sea, and do not visit the places of their birth again till they
conic in their turn to deposit their spawn." The Sturgeon

478

STURIONID.E.

is said to subsist on small fishes ; from the structure of the
mouth it probably feeds also on any soft substance that it
finds at the bottom.

The body is elongated ; from the shoulders backward
somewhat pentagonal in shape, with five longitudinal rows
of flattened plates, having pointed central spines directed
backwards, — one row, larger than the others, along the ridge
of the back, one row on each side, and another along the
edge of the abdomen in a line from the pectoral fin to the
ventral on each side ; the flattened plates are marked with
radiating striae. The nose is long and pointed ; the forehead
with a longitudinal depression ; the crown of the head ele-
vated, the occiput rising into a sharp keel : the mouth placed
on the under surface of the head, rather wider than long,
with a projecting rim ; no teeth within : about half-way
between the mouth and the end of the nose, are four cirri
ranged in a line across ; the eyes small ; the operculum
hard and strong, covered with striae radiating from a centre ;
dorsal fin placed very far back, but little in advance of the
line of the anal fin : tail forked ; upper lobe much the longest,
and pointed. The fin-rays in number —

D. 35 : P. 28 : V. 24 : A. 23 : C. 125.

The colours of the body are various shades of brown ; the
plates nearly white, the belly silvery.

The vignette represents the under surface of the head ; and
two other representations of the head are given with the next
species for comparison.

BROAD-NOSED STURGEON.

479

CHONDROPTERYG1I.

STURIONIDJK.

THE BROAD-NOSED STURGEON.

Acipenser latinmtiis, Broad-nosed Sturgeon, PARNELL, Trans. R. S. E. vol. xiv.

pi. 4.

„ ,, „ ,, PARNELL, Fish, of the Forth, Wern.

Mem. vol. vii. p. 405, pi. 39.

IN the papers here referred to, Dr. Parnell observes, that
but one species of Sturgeon has hitherto been recorded by
the different writers on British Ichthyology, but from the
observations of practical fishermen, as well as his own, Dr.
Parnell adds, " I think there is little doubt that two species,
at least, will in future be recognized as inhabiting the British
coast.

"It has long been noticed by the fishermen of the Sol way
Frith, that two species of Sturgeon are occasionally entangled
in their Salmon-nets, the one with a blunt nose, and the
other with a sharp one ; the latter species being the most
common of the two.

" A fine specimen of the Blunt-nosed Sturgeon was taken
in the Frith of Forth in the month of July 1835, and

480

STUR10NID.E.

brought to the Edinburgh market for sale, the head of which
I preserved. A few weeks after another was taken in the
Tay, which differed in no respect from the former, except in
sexual distinction."

" Length seven feet nine inches ; weight eight stone, or
one hundred and twelve pounds. The colour of the back
and sides is of a light grey, with a shade of olive ; the belly
dirty white. The body is armed with five rows of osseous
shields, running from the head to the tail. The first row
commences behind the head, and runs down the central
ridge of the back ; the two next rows arise one on each side
of the former. Immediately on the lower margin of the pec-
torals the other two rows commence. The skin is rough,
with a number of small angular osseous plates intermixed
with very minute spicula. The first free shield on the dor-
sal ridge is nearly circular, and very slightly carinated ; all
the rest in that row are of an oval form. The snout is wide
and depressed, much broader than the diameter of the mouth.
On the under surface, placed nearer to the tip of the snout

BROAD-NOSED STURGEON.

481

than to the mouth, are four cirri arranged in an irregular line.
The summit of the head is rough, with the central plates
beautifully radiated, and of a fibrous appearance. The posi-
tion of the fins is the same as in other Sturgeons."

" This fish differs from the Common Sturgeon, Acipenser
sturio, in having the tip of the snout much broader than the
mouth, in the keel of the dorsal plates being but slightly
elevated, and having the cirri placed nearer to the tip of the
snout than to the mouth.'"

" The Sturgeons are all much allied to each other ; and
not being able as yet to find the right synonym for the pre-
sent one, I have proposed, in the mean time, the name
latirostris, as characteristic of the species."

" In the stomach of the one from the Tay was found an
entire specimen of the Sea-mouse, Aphrodita aculeata."

Dr. Parnell has presented the preserved head of this spe-
cimen to the Museum of the Zoological Society ; but, like
Dr. Parnell, I have been unable to identify it with any de-
scribed Sturgeon. It does not agree with either of the nine

VOL. II. 2 I

482

STURIONID.E.

species found in the various waters of the Russian empire,
figured and briefly described by M. A. Lovetsld, in the
third volume of the Transactions of the Imperial Society of
Naturalists at Moscow ; nor am I able to say that it agrees
with either of the eleven species figured and described by
Messrs. Brandt and Ratzburg in their Medical Zoology.

Baron Cuvier has observed in his Regne Animal, t. ii. p.
379, note, that the species of this genus are not yet well de-
termined by naturalists, nor their comparative characters suffi-
ciently defined. Supposing that the bony plates of the head,
by their form, size, and relative situation, might afford specific
characters, I have given two views of these parts in our two
British Sturgeons, not without some suspicion, like Dr.
Parnell, that we may have even more than two.

NORTHERN CHIM.F.RA.

is:]

CHONDROPTERYGH.

CHIMMRIDM.

NORTHERN CHIM^ERA.

KING OF THE HERRINGS. RABBIT-FISH, Zetland.

Chimtera mmistrosa, LINNAEUS. BLOCH, pt. iv. pi. 124.

,, ,, Northern Chimtera, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 159.

,, ,, Sea Monster, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 111.

,, ,, Rabbit-Jish, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 172, sp. 29.

,, ,, Sea-Monster, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 494.

CHIM/ERA. Generic Characters, — Body elongated, the tail ending in a
lengthened filament ; the first dorsal fin short at its base, but high ; the second
dorsal fin low, commencing immediately behind the first, and extending to the
tail.

THIS fish has considerable resemblance to the Sharks in
the form of the body, and the position as well as the shape
of the fins.

" The Chimserre," says Dr. Richardson,* " though placed
by Cuvier at the end of the Sturionidae^ seem to belong
* Fauna Boreali-Ameiicana, pt. iii. Fishes, page 285.

2 i 2

484 CHIlkLERID.E.

more properly to his second order of Chondropterygii, in
which the gills are fixed : for though there is only one appa-
rent gill-opening on each side, the gills in reality adhere by
a large part of their borders, and there are consequently five
holes communicating with the external gill-opening. They
have a rudimentary operculum concealed by the skin ; and
their jaws, still more reduced than those of the Sharks, are
furnished with hard plates, four above and two below, in
place of teeth. The males are distinguished by trifid bony
appendages to the ventral fins, and produce very large lea-
thery eggs, having flat velvety edges." The first figure here
given is that of a male ; the second that of a female.

The Northern Chimsera is represented as a fish of singular
appearance and beauty, a native of the northern seas princi-
pally, where it seldom exceeds three feet in length, and is
generally taken when in pursuit of shoals of Herrings, or
other small roving fishes, upon which it principally subsists :
Bloch says it feeds also on medusfe and Crustacea. The flesh
is described as hard and coarse. According to some authors,
the Norwegians extract an oil from the liver which they con-
sider of singular efficacy in disorders of the eyes.

Pennant received from a gentleman a drawing and particu-
lars of one that had been taken among the Shetland Islands :
this species was also known to Dr. Walker as an occasional
visitor in that locality. Never having seen this fish, I avail
myself of Dr. Fleming's description, taken from a specimen
sent by L. Edmonston, Esq. from Unst, where it is termed
the Rabbit-fish. A specimen taken from the same locality
has lately been received by Mr. W. C. Hewitson of New-
castle, the author of a valuable work on the eggs of British
Birds.

" Length nearly three feet. Body compressed. Head
blunt ; the snout sub-ascending, blunt. A narrow crenulated
grinder on each side in the lower jaw, and a broad tubercular

NORTHERN CHIM.ERA.

1.S-,

one corresponding above. Nostrils immediately above the
upper lip contiguous, each with a cartilaginous complicated
valve. Branchial openings in front of the pectorals. Eyes
large, lateral. On the crown, in front of the eyes, a thin
osseous plate, bent forwards, with a spinous disc at the ex-
tremity on the lower side. Lateral line connected with nu-
merous waved anastomosing grooves on the cheeks and face.
The first dorsal fin above the pectorals narrow, with a strong
spine along the anterior edge. The second dorsal rises im-
mediately behind the first, is narrow, and is continued to the
caudal one, where it terminates suddenly. The pectorals are
large, and subtriangular. Ventrals rounded ; in front of each
a broad recurved osseous plate, with recurved spines on the
ventral edge. Claspers pedunculated, divided into three
linear segments ; the anteal one simple, the retral ones having
the opposite edges covered with numerous small reflected
spines. A small anal fin opposite the extremity of the second
dorsal. Caudal fin above and below, broadest near the origin,
gradually decreasing to a linear produced thread.'"

The appendage on the front of the head in this fish is

486

CHUVI.ERID.E.

peculiar to the males only, and has given rise to the name of
King-fish, applied to it by the Norwegians ; who also call it
Gold and Silver Fish, in reference to its beautiful colours:
these are various shades of rich brown on a shining white
ground. The eyes are large and brilliant ; the pupils green,
the irides white.

This fish was first made known by Gesner.

The first representation here given is that of a male fish,
and was taken from one of two views of this fish forming the
subjects of the fifth and sixth plates in the second volume of
Natural History Memoirs of Drontheim. The second figure
is that of a female, and is derived from the Fauna Italica of
C. L. Bonaparte, Prince of Canino : this species is therefore
found in the Mediterranean. The final vignette, also from

O '

the Memoirs of Drontheim, represents the abdominal osseous
plates with their spines, the under surface of the ventral fins,
and the pedunculated claspers peculiar to the males.

SMALL-SPOTTED DOG-FISH.

487

CHONDROPTERYGJI.

SQUALID JE*

THE SMALL-SPOTTED DOG-FISH.

MORGAY, Scotland. — ROBIN HUSS, Sussex coast.

CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 386.
FLEM. Brit. An. p. 165, sp. 8.
JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 495,

sp. 184.

BLOCK, pt. iv. pi. 114.
Spotted Shark, \ PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. pi. 19.

Lesser Spotted Shark, J Upper fig. male ; lower fig. female.

,, ,, ,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 55.

NILS. Prod. Ichth. Scand. p. 113.

Scylllum canicula, La Grand Rou&sette,
,, catuiits, M or gay,
,, canicula, Spotted Dog-jish,

Squalus canicula,

catulus,

canicula,

Scijlliorhinus catulus, Le Squale Roussette, BLAINVILLE, Faun. Fran9- p. 69.
Scyllium canicula, BONAP. Faun. Ital. fasc. vii.

SCYLLIUM. Generic Characters. — An anal and two dorsal fins ; the first
dorsal fin placed behind or opposite, but never before, the abdominal fins.
Head short and blunt ; nostrils pierced near the mouth, and continued by a
fissure in the upper lip, forming valves. Teeth small, triangular, pointed, with
one or more lateral denticles at the base on each side. Eyelids wanting.
Spiracles distinct. Branchial openings five, partly over the pectoral fins.

THE true Sharks, as previously stated, have their gills
fixed, their margins being attached ; the water escaping by
five elongated branchial apertures, the form and position of
which, in conjunction with modifications observed in the

* The family of the Sharks.

488

SQUALID^.

fins and other parts, furnish characters by which the different
divisions forming this family are distinguished. Among the
Sharks, the males differ from the females externally in having
an elongated cylindrical appendage at the inner edge of each
ventral fin, the uses of which are not understood. The third
species of Shark here figured represents a male fish, and
shows the peculiarity of the ventral fins in that sex. The
females are not furnished with these appendages : the figures
of the first two species represent females, and the vignettes
to each show on an enlarged scale the specific and sexual
peculiarities of the ventral fins, and also the difference in the
form of the mouth in these two species.

Of the true Sharks, some produce their young alive, and
are called viviparous ; others, like those under present consi-
deration, bring forth their young enclosed in horny cases,
an example of which is here introduced, a portion of one side
of the case being removed to show the young fish within.

On examining adult females, the ova are observed in differ-
ent stages of growth descending from the ovaries, usually in
pairs, frequently one in each oviduct, becoming enclosed in
the protecting covering when about to be excluded. These
cases, which are frequently found on the sea-shore, and are
called Mermaid's purses, sailor's purses, sea purses, &c. are

SMALL-SPOTTED DOG-FISH. 489

oblong, of a pale yellowish horny colour, semitransparent,
with an elongated tendril at each of the four corners : these
are deposited by the parent Shark near the shore in the win--
ter months. The convoluted tendrils hanging to sea-weed
or other fixed bodies prevent the cases being washed away
into deep water. Two elongated fissures, one at each end,
allow the admission of sea-water; and the young fish ulti-
mately escapes by an opening at the square end, near which
the head is situated. For a short time the young Shark con-
tinues to be nourished by the vitelline fluid contained in the
capsule attached to its body by the connecting pedicle, till,
having acquired the power of taking food by the mouth, the
remains of the ovum are taken up within the abdomen, as in
birds and some other animals.

A curious peculiarity has been observed in the young of
both Sharks and Skate during a very early stage of their ex-
istence. From each of the branchial apertures, branchial fila-
ments project externally ; each filament contains a single
minute reflected vessel, in which the blood is thus submitted
to the action of the surrounding medium. These appen-
dages are only temporary, and the blood of the fish is after-
wards aerated by the true gills. This very interesting disco-
very, which I believe is of recent date, forcibly reminding us
of the temporary external branchiae in the young of Batra-
chian reptiles in the tadpole state, has been observed by Mr.
Richard Owen in the Blue Shark, Carcharius glaucus, by
Dr. John Davy in the Torpedo, and by Dr. Allen Thomp-
son of Edinburgh in the Thornback. Cuvier had previously
noticed it, and in the Regne Animal has referred to a figure
published by Schneider of a very young Shark in this condi-
tion, for which, regarding it as the normal state of this fish,
that industrious pupil of Bloch had proposed the name of
Squalus ciliaris.

490

SQUALID.E.

Among the Sharks, as among the truly predacious birds,
the females are larger than the males ; and almost all the spe-
cies have received some name resembling Beagle, Hound,
Rough Hound, Smooth Hound, Dog-fish, Spotted Dog,
Penny Dog, &c. probably from their habit of following their
prey or hunting in company or packs. All the Sharks are
exceedingly tenacious of life. Their skins, of very variable
degrees of roughness, according to the species, are used for
different purposes ; in some instances by cabinet makers, for
bringing up and smoothing the surfaces of hard wood.

The two British species of Spotted Sharks appear to have
been frequently confounded with each other. The terms
Greater and Lesser seem sometimes to have been considered
as referring to the size of the spots, and at others to the size
of the fish. A slight alteration in the names, which is here
suggested, will assist in defining the two species, and other
decided specific distinctions will be pointed out. Both spe-
cies are called Roussette by the French, on account of their
prevailing reddish brown colour.

The Small-spotted Dog-fish, the subject of the present
notice, is one of the most common species on our shores,
particularly along the southern coast. Its station in the
water is near the bottom ; its food, small fish and Crustacea.
It takes a bait freely, and is often caught on the fishermen's
lines, but is a useless capture to them. It is troublesome
and annoying from its numbers, and injurious to the fisheries
from its voracity.

The teeth of the Sharks are very for-
midable weapons, generally constructed
decidedly either for cutting or holding.
The teeth of the Shark now under consi-
deration is of the form here shown. The
outside tooth in the front row of each jaw

SMALL-SPOTTED DOG-FISH. 491

is supported on the inside by various other teeth, which
supply deficiencies as necessity may require.

The specimen from which the description was taken mea-
sured eighteen inches in length ; the body, from the base of
the pectoral fins, where it is thickest, tapering all the way to
the end of the tail. The head is flattened on the top ; the
eyes large ; the orbits elongated, with a distinct aperture
(a spiracle) behind each ; the form of the under surface of
the nose, the nostrils, and upper lip, as shown in the left-
hand figure of the vignette at the end ; the mouth shaped
like a horse-shoe, the extreme angles only being directed
outwards ; the teeth numerous, small, pointed, and sharp ;
the pectoral fins large : the branchial apertures on the sides
of the neck elongated vertically, five in number, the first
rather the largest, the last the smallest ; the fourth aperture
over the anterior edge of the pectoral fin : the ventral fins
united almost to the posterior extremity in the males, less
completely united in females ; the elongated anal aperture
in the middle between them : the outer posterior margins,
in both sexes, are as oblique as those of the front : the right-
hand figure of the vignette at the end shows the lozenge-
shape of the fins when seen from below. The first dorsal fin
is over the space between the ventral and anal fins, and occu-
pies nearly the middle of the whole length of the fish ; the
anal fin is under the space between the first and second dorsal
fins ; the posterior edge of the second dorsal fin half-way
between the commencement of the first dorsal fin and the
end of the tail ; the vertebral portion of the tail nearly in a
line with the body, with a narrow elongated membranous
expansion above it, and one long and one short triangular
expansion below it. All the upper part of the body marked
with numerous small, dark, reddish brown spots, on a pale
reddish ground ; the spots on the fins rather larger and less

492

SQUALID-E.

numerous than those on the body ; the lower part of the
sides and the under surface yellowish white. The skin, to
the finger passed from the head towards the tail, is smooth ;
in the opposite direction it is rough. The appearance of the
skin under a lens is that of being covered with minute spi-
culse, all the points of which are directed backwards.

LARGE-SPOTTED DOG-FISH.

493

CHONDROPTERYGII.

SQUALIDJE.

THE LARGE-SPOTTED DOG-FISH.
BOUNCE, Scotland and Devonshire.

ROCK DOG-FISH.

Scyllium catulus, La Petite Roussette, CUVIEU, Regne An. t. ii. p. 386.
,, stellaris, Le Rockier, ,, ,, ,, ,,

,, stellare, Bounce, FI.EM. Brit. An. p. 165, sp. 7.

,, stellaris, Rock Dog-fish, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 496, sp. 185.

Squalus catulus et stellaris, LINN/EUS.

Scylliorhinus stellaris, Le Squale Rockier, BLAINVILLE, Faun. Franf. p. 71.

Scylliwn stellare, BONAP. Faun. Ital. fasc. vii.

THIS Shark is at once distinguished from the species last
described by its larger but less numerous spots, and by the
ventral fins, which are truncated or nearly square at the end.
Like the Small-spotted Dog-fish, its haunts are near the
bottom, and its food similar ; but it also frequents rocky
ground, and has accordingly been distinguished on the Con-
tinent by the term Rockier, as shown in the list of syno-
nymes.

Mr. Jenyns, in his valuable Manual of British Vertebrate
Animals, has so clearly pointed out the specific distinctions
of this fish, from examples obtained at Weymouth, that,

494

SQUALID.E.

having no specimen, this Shark being by much the more rare
of the two, I avail myself, by permission, of the comparative
description therein given.

" Length from two to three feet. According to M.
Blainville, this species attains to a larger size than the last.
Differs essentially from S. canicula in the structure of the
lobes of the nostrils, and in the form of the ventrals :* the
former are not united as in that species, and of a smaller
size, leaving the whole of the mouth and the upper lip vi-
sible : the ventrals, instead of being cut obliquely, are cut
nearly square, their posterior margins meeting at a very ob-
tuse angle ; they are united or separate according to the sex,
in a similar manner ; the snout is rather more elongated ;
and, according to some authors, the tail rather shorter, giving
the dorsal a more backward position ; but this last character I
have not noticed myself. Upper parts brownish grey, with
very little of the red tinge observable in the last species :
back, flanks, and tail, sparingly marked with large spots of a
deep brown or black colour: under parts whitish."

* See the vignettes of the nostrils and the ventral fins of both species.

BLACK-MOUTHED DOG-FISH. 495

CHONDROPTERYG1I. SQUALID^.

THE BLACK-MOUTHED DOG-FISH.

EYED DOG-FISH, Cornwall,

Sqitalus anmilatus, NILS. Prod. Iclith. Scand. p. 114, sp. 2.

Scyllium melanostomum, Eyed Dog Fish, COUCH, MS.
Scylliorhinus Delarochianus', BLAINV. Faun. Franf. p. 74.
,, melunflstomus, ,, ,, ,, p. 75.

Scijllium melanostomum, BONAP. Faun. Ital. fasc. vii.

Pristiurus melanostomus, MULLER & HENI.E FLAG. p. 15.

PRISTIURUS. Generic Characters. — Differ from Scyllium only in having a
longer snout, and a series of larger scales arranged like the teeth of a saw on
the upper edge of the tail.

AT the time of publishing the account of this Shark in the
first edition of the British Fishes, I was only aware of the
single example obtained by Mr. Couch. Since then I have
ascertained from the communications of John Malcolm, Esq.
that this species is not uncommon on the west coast of Scot-
land ; and Mr. Malcolm, very kindly, gave me one of two
specimens that had been procured and sent to him from that
locality. It has also been taken in the North of Ireland by
Captain Portlock, to whom I am indebted for sketches from
which the different subjects forming the vignette at the end

SQUALID.E.

were taken. This Shark appears to be known to several
authors in the North of Europe, and has been called annula-
tus by M. Nilsson in his Prodromus of the Ichthyology of
Scandinavia, as quoted at the head of the synonymes, on
account of the ring-shaped disposition of the coloured
markings.

The account of this species in the MS. of Mr. Couch is as
follows : —

" The specimen from which my description has been
taken was caught on a line by a fisherman of Polperro on the
8th February 1834. Its length was twenty-five inches
and three-quarters, and seven inches round where stoutest.
The head flat on the top, rather wide posteriorly ; snout
thin, protruded one inch and three-quarters from the ante-
rior angle of the eye ; nostrils one inch and a quarter from
the snout, double, one beneath linear, the other on the mar-
gin, the hinder edge prominent, a depression in the head im-
mediately above it ; eye rather large, oval, close behind it a
moderately sized temporal orifice ; mouth one inch and three-
quarters wide ; teeth numerous, small, sharp, at each side of
the base of each tooth a small sharp process ; spiracles five,
open ; the back somewhat elevated close behind the head ;
the skin rough against the grain ; pectoral fins wide, much
like those of the Picked Dog : the first dorsal begins at
twelve inches from the snout, and behind the ventral fins ;
the second at sixteen inches and a half, both rather small :
ventrals ten inches from the snout ; anal fin four inches long,
rather narrow, terminating just opposite the end of the second
dorsal ; extreme length of the tail seven inches : the upper
lobe in a line with the body, bent down towards the termina-
tion, rounded, incised, or jagged ; under lobe rather narrow
in its course, expanded beneath ; the upper ridge of the su-
perior lobe has a double row of prickles pointing outward and
downward on each side ; lateral line suddenly bent opposite

BLACK-MOUTHED DOG-FISH.

497

the origin of the caudal fin. Colour, a light brown on the
head and along the back : on each side two rows of ocellated
spots ; one row beginning at the side of the neck, and con-
tinued along the side of the back ; the second row commen-
cing behind the eye and passing along the upper side of the
belly, becoming obsolete near the ventral fins ; these rows are
separated by numerous irregular spots, which, however, as-
sume somewhat of a straight direction ; the fins and hinder
part of the back are finely barred and clouded with various
tints of brown and yellow ; the mouth dark-coloured within.

This species is well known in the Mediterranean. Mr.
Couch's specimen was that of a male, and the figure is taken
from a drawing lent for that purpose.

The vignette represents two of the teeth ; the protecting
case of the young, which differs in form from that of the
Sharks belonging to the genus Scyllium^ as shown at page
488 ; and a portion of the skin of the upper part of the tail,
showing the arrangement of the large scales on the upper
edge, from whence it has obtained the name of Pristiurus, or
saw- tail.

VOL. II.

2 K

SQUALID.E.

CHONDROPTERYGJ1.

SQUALID&.

THE BLUE SHARK.

Carcharias glaucus, Le Bleu,

CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 388.

Galeus
Sqitalus

tt

Carcharias
Squalus

Blew Shark, WILLUGHBY, p. 49, B. 8.

Le Cagnot bleu, BLOCH, pt. iii. pi. 86.

Blue Shark, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 143.

,, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 167, sp. 13.

,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 499.

Sqnale bleu, BLAINV. Faun. Franc, p. 90.

CARCHAIUAS. Generic Characters. — One anal and two dorsal fins ; the first
dorsal placed over the space between the pectoral and abdominal fins. Jaws
and head depressed. Teeth flat, pointed, and cutting ; serrated in the upper
jaw only, sometimes in both jaws. No temporal orifices in adults, but rudi-
ments may be observed in the foetus of some of the species.

THE publication by MM. Muller and Henle of their
general work, containing Systematic Descriptions of the Car-
tilaginous Fishes with Transverse Mouths,* has induced me
to modify the arrangement of the Sharks followed in the
former edition of this History of British Fishes, and has
enabled me also to make useful additions to the generic
characters.

The affection of the Blue Shark for its young was the

* Systematische Beschreibung der Plagiostomen. Berlin, 1841.

BLUE SHARK. 499

theme of several of the older writers, ichthyologists as well as
poets ; and mariners of the present day believe that, when
danger appears, the young brood enter the mouth of the
parent fish, and take shelter in its belly. Living young have
doubtless been found in the stomachs of large Sharks : their
extraordinary tenacity of life is proverbial, and will account
for this ; but the safety to be expected from incarceration in
such a prison is somewhat problematical.

The Blue Shark is an inhabitant of the Mediterranean,
and appears to occur much more frequently on the Devon-
shire and Cornish coasts than on any other part of the British
Islands ; it has been taken in the Bristol Channel, and in
Swansea Bay ; it has also been taken off the south and east
coasts of Ireland, and has been known to wander even as far
north as Zetland.

Mr. Couch, who has had frequent opportunities of seeing
this species, makes the following observations : — " The Blue
Shark is migratory, and I have never known it arrive on the
coast of Cornwall before the middle of June ; but afterwards
it becomes abundant, so that I have known eleven taken in
one boat, and nine in another, in one day. The injury they
inflict on the fishermen is great, as they hover about the
boats, watch the lines, (which they sometimes cut asunder
without any obvious motive,) and pursue the fish that are
drawn up. This, indeed, often leads to their own destruc-
tion : but when their teeth do not deliver them from their
difficulty, they have a singular method of proceeding, which
is by rolling the body round so as to twine the line about
them throughout its whole length ; and sometimes this is done

O C'

in such a complicated manner, that I have known a fisherman
give up any attempt to unroll it as a hopeless task. To the
Pilchard drift-net this Shark is a still more dangerous enemy,
and it is common for it to pass in succession along the whole

2 K 2

500 SQUALID.E.

length of the net, cutting out, as with shears, the fish and the
net that holds them, and swallowing both together."

Mr. Couch has lately ascertained that the Blue Shark pro-
duces its young early in June.

The specimen described measured fourteen inches ; the
head depressed, broadest between the eyes, which are lateral ;
half-way between the eyes and the point of the nose are the
nostrils, linear, directed obliquely downwards and backwards,
the most inferior portion covered with a valvular fold of skin ;
the eyes round and rather large ; the mouth forming half a
circle, the teeth in this specimen very minute, — the cutting
teeth of the left side in the representation at the end belong
to this species, in each jaw of which there are three rows,
those immediately in the centre, to the number of four, being
calculated more for holding than cutting ; the number of rows
of teeth in the Sharks are said, and I believe correctly, to in-
crease with age, and vary in this species from one to six.
The branchial apertures are five, the fourth placed over the
line of the anterior edge of the pectoral fin ; the pectoral fins
large and falciform ; the body of the fish deepest in the line
of their origin, but becoming more compressed and tapering
from thence to the tail ; the first dorsal fin situated over the
space between the pectoral and anal fins, rather small, low
and rounded above, with a horizontal projecting elongation
at the base behind : the ventral fins small, obliquely truncat-
ed, and placed under the space between the first and second
dorsal fins ; the anal fin placed half-way between the ventral
fins and the lower lobe of the tail, opposed to or under the
second dorsal fin, and each ending in a prolongation directed
backwards ; the tail divided, the upper lobe two-thirds longer
than the lower, the vertebral column continued along it ; the
inferior lobe somewhat triangular in shape ; the upper lobe
falciform, and with an extension of the membrane towards the
extreme end.

BLUE SHARK.

501

The whole of the upper surface of the head, back, both
dorsal fins, and most of the tail, are of a fine slate blue ; the
irides, upper surface of the pectoral and ventral fins, are also
blue ; the lower part of the sides, under surface of the head,
neck, pectoral fins, belly, ventral fins, and the anal fin to the
base of the tail, white. The skin of this Shark has a granu-
lated appearance on the surface, and is only slightly rough to
the touch on passing the finger in the direction from the tail
towards the head.

For a reference to habits see volume i. page 171. in the
account of the Pilot-fish.

The teeth represented below are the five first, and from
the outermost row in the upper and under jaw, beginning
from the centre of the mouth in front, and occupying a short
space along the left side. The teeth of the Sharks generally
diminish gradually in size from the front backwards, and when
they are pointed and curved, the point is directed backwards
on both sides of the mouth towards the posterior angle of the
gape.

502

SQUALID/E.

CHONDROPTERYGH.

SQUALID^.

THE WHITE SHARK.

Carcharias vulgaris, Le Requin, CUVIEH, Regne An. t. ii. p. 387.

Canis Carcliarias,
Squalus ,,

White Shark, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 167, sp. 12.

WlLLUGHBY, p. 47, B. 7.

White Shark, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 139.

,, „ JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 497, sp. 186.
Le Squale Requin, BLAINVILLE, Faun. Franf. p. 89.

THIS species has been noticed by several English authors,
but apparently not from specimens which had been examined
by them personally. Low says that, according to information
given him, it is sometimes met with among the Orkney Is-
lands. Grew, in his Rarities of Gresham College, page 90,
states that they are sometimes found upon our own coast
near Cornwall. As it appears to be well known in the Me-
diterranean, and to be a great wanderer, the Cornish coast is
a very probable locality, and it, or the fish figured in the
vignette, may prove to be the Rashleigh Shark of Mr. Couch.

This fish acquires a large size, and with another species,
not very dissimilar in shape and equally powerful, are the
terror of mariners in most of the warm countries of the globe.
It swims with great ease and swiftness from the large size of

AVHITE SHARK.

its pectoral fins ; and when caught with a baited hook at sea,
and drawn upon deck, the sailors' first act is to chop off its
tail to prevent the mischief otherwise to be apprehended from
its great strength.

Cuvier, in the Rcgne Animal, says the only good figure of
this fish is that in Belon, page 60 ; and having no access to a
specimen, that figure has been carefully copied, and the fol-
lowing description is from M. Risso.

The body is elongated, covered with a hard skin, ash
brown above and whitish below. The head is large ; the
muzzle depressed, short, and pierced with numerous pores :
the mouth is large and wide ; the tongue short and rough :
the upper jaw furnished with six rows of triangular teeth,
thin, nearly straight at the edges, and serrated ; in the under
jaw four rows, sharper than those above, but less com-
pressed : the irides are pearl white ; pectoral fins very large ;
the first dorsal fin elevated ; the ventral fins small ; the anal
fin is opposed to the second dorsal ; the tail is divided, form-
ing two lobes, of which the upper lobe is the longest.

It is most frequently seen in the Mediterranean during
spring and autumn.

The vignette represents another species, which has also
been called White Shark, and may assist observers on the
coast.

504

SQUALIDE.

CHONDROPTERYG1I.

SQUAL1D.K.

THE HAMMER-HEADED SHARK.

Zygana malleus. Val.

Zygcena, BELON, p. 61.

RONDELET, 1554, p. 389.
Marteau „ 1558, p. 304.

Zygcena, SALVIANUS, tab. 40.

,, Salviani, WILLUGHBY, p. 55, B. 1.
Squalus zygcena, LINN. Syst. Nat. t. i. p. 399, sp. 5.

,, ,, DUHAMEL, sect. IX. pi. XXI. fig. 3.

Squale marteait, LACEI>EDE, t. i. p. 257, 4to. etlit.

t. v. p. 443, 8vo. edit.
,, ,, Risso, Icht. p. 34.

Zygcena malleus, ,, Hist. p. 125.

,, ,, VAL. Mem. du Mus. t. ix. p. 222.

ZYGOSNA. Generic Characters. — Head depressed, more or less truncated in
front, the sides extended horizontally to a considerable length, with the eyes at
the external lateral extremity. Teeth of the same shape in the upper and lower
jaw, viz. the points directed towards the corner of the mouth, with a smooth
edge when young, hut distinctly serrated in adult specimens. Branchial open-
ings five. Two dorsal fins, the first in a line close behind the pectorals: the
second over the anal fin.

IN the sketch of the Natural History of Yarmouth and
its Vicinity, by C. J. and James Pagct, which I have fre-

HAMMER-HEADED SHARK. 505

quently had the pleasure to refer to in the History of the
British Birds, and also in the British Fishes, it is stated at
page 17 that a specimen of the St/ualus zygcena, or Hammer-
headed Shark, was taken there in October 1829, and deposited
in the Norwich Museum ; and by the kindness and influence
of J. H. Gurney, Esq. of Norwich, I have had the loan of
drawings that were made from this Shark sent to London for
my use in this work.

In August 1839 another example of this species of Ham-
mer-headed Shark was taken in a herring-net off the Monk-
stone rocks, about two miles to the west of Tenby. Of the
capture of this fish I was favoured with notices from the Rev.
T. Salwey of Tenby, Dr. John Ford Davis of Bath, and J.
Dillwyn Llewelyn, Esq. of Penllergare. The latter gentle-
man has published an account, with measurements of the fish
and other particulars, in a paper communicated to the Royal
Institution of South Wales ; and Mr. Salwey's obliging letter
contained an excellent outline of the form, with various mea-
surements. The whole length of the fish, when fresh, was
ten feet three inches ; the circumference of the body six feet,
and it was supposed to weigh between six and seven hundred
pounds : the teeth were in six rows, flat, pointed, curved and
sharp ; the back of a dark greenish lead colour, and reddish
yellow on the belly. When opened on the third day after
capture, the body contained thirty-nine young ones, perfectly
formed, and each about nineteen inches in length.

Among the numerous species included in the genus
Squalus of Linnseus, — and I might say, indeed, in the
whole class of Fishes, — there is no form more extraordinary
than that of the Hammer-headed Sharks, four species of
Avhich are noticed in the memoir by M. Valenciennes here
quoted, where they are considered as a sub-genus, under the
name of Zygacna.

The Hammer-headed Shark taken on the coast of Norfolk

506

SQUALID;E.

and at Tenby, being also a native of the Mediterranean Sea,
has been long known, and is figured in the works of Belon,
Rondelet, and Salviamis, as already quoted. The figure at
the head of this article is taken from the Fauna Italica of
the Prince of Canino. Its greatest singularity consists in the
extraordinary form of the head ; but its habits, as far as they
are known, afford no physiological illustration of this very
remarkable structure. In other respects it is very like the
Sharks in general. This species is said to be ferocious, to
frequent deep water, and measures from seven to eight feet in
length. Baron Cuvier states that it has been known to attain
the length of twelve feet. The female produces many young-
ones, which are of considerable size at the end of autumn.
In some countries the flesh of several species of Sharks is
eaten, but that of the Hammer-headed Shark is said to be not
only hard, but very unpleasant both in smell and flavour.

The head of this Shark, — representations of the upper and
under surface of which, on a small scale, are given below, —
measured from one eye to the other, is very large and wide ;
the eyes are furnished with eye-lids, which arise from the
internal part of the orbits, the iricles are golden yellow, the

HAMMER-HEADED SHARK. 507

pupils black ; the nostrils are elongated, and open immedi-
ately underneath the depression, or notch, in the anterior
margin of the laterally expanded portions of the head ; the
mouth semicircular, and furnished with three, four, or five
rows of teeth, depending upon the age of the specimen ; these
teeth are large, sharp, somewhat triangular and curved, with
smooth cutting edges when the Shark is young, but serrated
afterwards ; the teeth in the upper jaw having their points
directed towards the angle of the mouth ; those of the lower
jaw have the same direction, but they are narrower.

The body is elongated, covered with a skin slightly gra-
nulated ; the colour greyish brown above, nearly white be-
neath : branchial openings five, all before the base of the
pectoral fin ; the pectoral fins nearly triangular ; the first
dorsal fin large ; the second small, and placed just in advance
of the commencement of the tail ; the inferior lobe of the
tail small, the superior portion as long as the head of the
fish is wide ; the anal fin is under the second dorsal.

This species is found in the Mediterranean, on the shores
of the various countries of Europe, in the Ocean, and on the
coast of Brazil.

To make this subject as complete as my means will allow,
and afford an opportunity of identifying any other species
of Zygoena that might wander to our shores, I here add,
as a vignette, representations of the heads of the other known
species, of which No. 1 is Zygcena tudes, Val. the synonymes
being, according to M. Valenciennes, Le Squale pantouflier
of Lacepede, t. i. p. 260, pi. VII. fig. 3. Duhamel, sect. IX.
pt. ii. pi. XXI. fig. 4 to 7. Koma Sora Russel, pi. XII.
This species has been found in the Mediterranean, on the
coast of Coromandel, and at Cayenne, S. America.

No. 2. Zygoena Tiburo, Val. syn. Squalus Tiburo,
Linn. torn. i. p. 899, sp. 6. Tiburonis species minor,
Marcg. 181. Willughby, tab. B. 9, fig. 3. Klein Misc.

508

SQUALID/E.

Pise. III. p. 13, tab. II. figs. 3, 4. This species has only
as yet been met with on the coast of Brazil.

No. 3. Zygoena Blocln'i, Cuv. Regne An. t. ii. Bloch,
pi. 117. The locality from which this species was obtained
is unknown, but specimens are still preserved.

No. 4. Zygoena laticeps, Cantor. This is a new species
lately described and figured by Dr. Theodore Cantor, who
obtained it in the Bay of Bengal, and in which the head is
still wider than in either of the other known species ; a
straight line drawn from the one eye to the other is equal to
about one half of the total length of the fish.

In shape the fins are like those of the four species already
known ; the only difference I have observed, says Dr. Cantor,
is the situation of the anal fin, which in the present species is
somewhat anterior to the second dorsal, while these fins in the
others are opposite.

COMMON TOPE. 509

CHONDEOPTERYGIl. SQUALIDM.

THE COMMON TOPE.
PENNY DOG, Hastings. — MILLER'S DOG, Cornwall.

Galeus vulgaris, Le Milandre, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 389.
Canis galeus Rondeletii, WILLUGHBY, p. 51, B. 6, fig. 1.

Squalus galeus, LINNAEUS. BLOCFI, pt. iv. pi. 1 18.

,• ,, Tope Shark, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 146, pi. 18.

Galeus vulgaris, Common Tope, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 165, sp. 6.
Squalus galeus, ,, ,, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 501, sp. 191.

,, ,, NILS. Prod. p. 115.

,, ,, Le Milandre, BLAINV. Faun. Franf. p. 85.

Galeus canis, BON A p. Faun. Ital. fasc. viii.

GALEUS. Generic Characters. — Fins in number and position as in the last
described genus. Head flat and rather long ; temporal orifices present ; teeth
pointed, concave, and serrated on the outer edge in both jaws.

THE TOPE is a common species along the southern coast,
where it is known by the names of Penny Dog and Miller's
Dog ; it has also been noticed by Pennant in Flintshire ; and
by others in different parts of the coast of Ireland. It is not,
however, considered so plentiful in the north, but has been
taken about Berwick Bay, and its occurrence recorded by Dr.
Johnston in his address to the Members of the Berwickshire
Natural History Club for the year 1832. It has also been
taken in the Frith of Forth, as recorded by Dr. Parnell.

510

SQUAL1DE.

On the Cornish coast this is a common and rapacious
species ; but it is not so destructive as the Blue Shark.
The larger specimens, which are about six feet long, abound
chiefly in summer ; and the young, to the number of thirty
or more, according to Mr. Couch, are excluded all at once
from the female in May and June. They do not reach the
full size until the second year, and continue with us through
the first winter, while those of larger size retire into deep
water. No use is made of this species beyond melting the
liver for oil. When caught on a fisherman's line, this fish
sometimes has recourse to the same attempt at deliverance as
the Blue Shark, by twisting the line throughout the whole
length round its body.

Body fusiform : the skin almost smooth ; lateral line
straight ; the first and second dorsal fins rather small, tri-
angular, very slightly convex on their posterior edges, both
ending in points directed backwards; the first dorsal fin
placed over the interval between the pectoral and ventral
fins ; the second immediately over the anal fin, and a little
larger than it in size : the head is rather large ; the muzzle
elongated and depressed ; nostrils pierced very near the
mouth, in part closed by a membrane ; the eyes moderate,
and over the mouth ; temporal orifices small ; the jaws semi-
circular ; teeth small, in several rows, and very nearly alike
both above and below, triangular and denticulated on the
outer side ; the branchial apertures are small, placed near
together, the four first nearly equal in size, the fifth the

COMMON TOPE.

511

smallest, and placed over the anterior edge of tlic pectoral
fins ; the pectoral fins are of moderate size, and triangular in
shape ; the ventral fins small, near the middle of the whole
length, and under the space between the first and second dor-
sal ; the tail rather less than half the length of the body, with
a bi-lobed fin ; the upper lobe terminal, oblique, and trun-
cated ; the inferior lobe with one deep triangular elongation,
and a smaller one near the end.

All the upper part of the body and sides are of a uniform
slate grey, the under surface lighter in colour, inclining to
greyish white.

The vignette represents the head of a Shark.

512 SQUALID E.

CHONDROl'TERYGH. SQUALID^.

THE SMOOTH HOUND.

SKATE-TOOTHED SHARK. RAY-MOUTHED DOG, Cornwall.

Mustelus Ifcvis, L'Emissole, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 389.

Squalus mustelus, LINNJEUS. WILLUGHBY, p. 60, B. 5, f. 2.

,, ,, Smooth Shark, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 151.

Mustelus lavis, Smooth Hound, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 166, sp. 4.
Sqitalus mustelus, ,, ,, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 502, sp. 192.

,, ,, Itevis, BLAINV. Faun. Franc, p. 84.

Mustelus Plebejus, BONAV. Faun. Ital. fasc. viii.

MUSTELUS. Generic Characters. — The same as in the last genus, Galetis,
except the pointed teeth, which in this are flat, like those of the Skate.

THIS Shark is rather a common species round our coast.
It is occasionally taken in the Frith of Forth ; and Dr. Flem-
ing says the flesh of it is used as food in the Hebrides, and is
esteemed a delicate dish. I have received this Shark from
Dr. Johnston of Berwick, and have seen it at various places
on the coasts of Kent and Sussex. It is called Smooth
Hound, from the comparative softness of its skin in reference
to British Sharks in general ; and it is also called Ray-
mouthed Dog in Cornwall, from the form of its teeth, which
are flat and without prominent points, like those of the fe-
male or young male of the Thornback. The vignette repre-
sents an inside and an outside view of one half of the mouth

SMOOTH HOUND. 513

and teeth of this Shark, which are so different from those of
any other British Shark as to serve the purpose of a distin-
guishing character. The peculiarity in the form and arrange-
ment of these teeth, so closely resembling those of the Skate,
is seen by comparing the vignette before referred to with that
representing the teeth of the Thornback, which is given here-
after, when describing the first species of true Skate.

The young of the Smooth Hound frequently have nume-
rous small white spots above the lateral line ; but the teeth
and other characters agree so closely with the spotless grey
examples of larger size, that I am induced to consider these
spots only as marks of youth, which may also be observed in
other species, particularly in the Picked Dog-fish, Spinax
Acanthias, Cuvicr : and in this view I am further confirmed
by the opinions of Mr. Couch and Dr. Johnston.

Mr. Couch says of this species, in reference to its habits,
that it is common, but not abundant, and keeps close to the
bottom on clean ground, where it feeds on crustaceous ani-
mals, which it crushes previous to swallowing, and for which
its flat pavement-like teeth are well adapted : it also takes a
bait, but is less rapacious than most of the tribe. The young-
are produced alive in November, the whole coming to perfec-
tion at once ; but they are few in number, not perhaps ex-
ceeding a dozen, and soon after birth they all go into deep
water, from which they do not emerge until the following
May.

This species has been taken on the coasts of the counties
of Antrim and Londonderry.

The specimen described measured eighteen inches in
length ; the top of the head flat and rather broad ; the begin-
ning of the back elevated and rather rounded ; the eye large,
lateral, elongated horizontally ; temporal orifices rather small,
and placed immediately behind the posterior angle : first dor-
sal fin considerably larger than the second ; both of the same

VOL. II. 2 L

514

SQUALID.F..

shape, with an elongated free point at the base projecting
backward, the centre of the first dorsal at the distance of six
inches, and that of the second at twelve inches, from the
point of the nose. Under surface of the head flat ; nostrils
semilunar in shape, with a central free cutaneous valve : the
mouth half the width of the whole under surface, rather an-
gular in shape than semicircular ; upper lip on each outside
ending in a free elongation of the membrane ; the teeth small,
flat, like those of a young Skate ; pectoral fins large, com-
mencing at three inches and a half from the point of the
nose ; ventral fins under the space between the two dorsals ;
the anal fin begins in a line under the middle of the second
dorsal fin, but being only half its size, ends but a little behind
it : the upper part of the caudal fin is a long narrow horizon-
tal slip ; the free part of the under portion is made up of two
triangular portions, the first of which is long, the second and
last short. The surface of the body smoother than that of
Sharks in general : the colour of the upper part of the head,
body, and fins, pearl grey ; under parts greyish yellow white :
lateral line prominent ; above it the body along its whole
length is marked with numerous small circular white spots,
which, as before stated, are most conspicuous while this fish
is young.

PORBKAOLK. 515

CHONDROPTERYG1I. SQUALWX.

THE PORBEAGLE,

OR BEAUMARIS SHARK.

Lamna Cornubica, Le Squale Nez, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 389.

,, ,, Porbeagle, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 168, sp. 15.

Squalus Cflrnnbicus, ,, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 152 & 254,

pi. 20.

Shark, DON. Brit. Fish.pl. 108.
„ ,, ,, GOODENOUGH, Linn. Trans, vol. iii. p. 80,

tab. 15.

„ ,, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 500 & 501.

,, ,, NILSS. Prod. p. 116.

Lamna Cornubica, BONAP. Faun. Ital. fasc. xiii.

LAMNA. Generic Characters. — Two dorsal fins, the first but little behind the
line of the pectoral fin ; the second dorsal fin over the anal. Skin smooth.
Head pointed ; nose pyramidal ; nasal valves small. Temporal orifices, or
spiracles, very small, at a distance behind the eye. Teeth flat, triangular,
smooth, sharp, cutting, with a small denticle at the base on each side in adults.
Branchial openings large.

IN the former edition of tins work, I had, with others,
considered the Beaumaris Shark distinct from the Porbeagle,
but opportunities of examining four specimens which have
been taken on different parts of our coast since 1837 induce

2 L 2

516 SQUALID.E.

me to believe that tlic differences observed arc only the
effects of greater age, and I have therefore now brought them
together, believing them to form but one species.

The Porbeagle occurs occasionally on the northern and
on the southern coasts of this country, and is mentioned
as having been taken at Belfast. The specimen described
and figured by Dr. Goodenough in the Transactions of the
Linncan Society, as quoted, was taken at Hastings ; Mr.
Couch has seen it occasionally in Cornwall, and it was figured
by Dr. Borlase in his history of that coast. Mr. Couch
states of this species, " That it associates in small companies
in pursuit of prey, from which circumstance, and a distant
resemblance to the Porpus, they derive their name. I have
found the remains of cartilaginous fishes and Cuttles in their
stomachs, and in one instance three full-grown Hakes.
This species attains a large size at an early age, so that I
have found it cutting its second row of teeth when nearly
full-grown."

On the northern and north-east coast it occurs most fre-
quently during autumn, and, not to multiply descriptions
already in print, I shall here insert one furnished by Dr.
George Johnston of Berwick, who examined two specimens
in the autumn of 1884, both of which were taken in Ber-
wick Bay, and who also very kindly sent me, Avith his de-
scription, a portion of a jaw, from which the teeth here in-
serted were drawn. Of these teeth
there were three rows, the third or
inner row beins1 much smaller than

O

the teeth of the two preceding
rows, and perhaps only recently ex-
posed.

Body fusiform, very narrow at the tail, and strongly keeled
there on each side ; skin smooth when stroked backwards,
of a uniform greyish black colour, the belly white ; snout

PORBEAGLE. 517

obtusely pointed, with a band of punctures on each side of
the forehead terminating above the eyes, a few similar punc-
tures behind the eyes, and a triangular patch of them before
the nostrils ; they are the apertures of canals filled with a
transparent jelly : eyes round, dark blue ; branchial slits five,
cut across the neck, the posterior oblique and close to the
pectoral fin ; back rounded ; dorsal fin triangular, with a free
pointed pale-coloured process behind ; posterior dorsal fin
also pointed posteriorly ; pectorals somewhat triangular,
obliquely sinuate on the posterior edge, black ; ventral fins
rhomboidal, meeting at the mesial line, on which are the
anal and generative apertures ; anal fin small, pointed be-
hind ; tail lunate, with unequal lobes, the superior and larg-
est with a projecting outline near the tip ; above the tail
there is a flat space bounded by a short transverse ridge, and
a similar one opposite on the ventral side : lateral line
straight ; the keel on the body runs forward on the tail, and
there is a small keel beneath this confined to the tail itself.
The length along the lateral line, five feet eight inches and a
half; circumference in front of the dorsal fin, two feet eight
inches and a half ; from the snout to the eye four inches and
three-quarters ; diameter of the eye, one inch and one-tenth :
breadth between the eyes, five inches and one-quarter ; from
the snout to the margin of the upper lip, four inches and a
half, thence to the angle of the mouth also four inches and a
half; breadth of the mouth from angle to angle, eight inches
and one-quarter ; snout to dorsal fin, two feet one inch and
three-quarters ; height of dorsal fin, nine inches and three-
quarters ; length of dorsal fin, ten inches and one-quarter ;
length of the free portion of it, three inches ; space between
the first and second dorsal fins, one foot eight inches ; length
from the snout to the anal aperture, three feet eight inches ;
extreme breadth of the tail, one foot eight inches ; length of
the tail in the mesial line, six inches and one quarter.

518

SQUALID,*:

CHONDROPTERYGH.

SQUALID JE.

THE BASKING SHARK.

THE SUN-FISH, and SAIL-FISH.

Selachns matimtis, Le Pelerin, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 390.

SljlittluS ,, LiNN/EUS 1

,, ,, Basking Shark, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 134, pi. 16.

,, ,, Common Snil-Jish, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 164, sp. 5.

,, ,, Basking Shark, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 503, sp. 193.

,, ,, NILSS. Prod. p. 114.

SELACHUS. Generic Characters. — Two dorsal fins, the first placed but little
behind the line of the pectorals, the second over the interval between the ven-
tral and anal fins. The skin rough. Snout short and blunt. Temporal orifices
very small. Teeth very small, numerous, conical, edges smooth, no lateral
denticles. Branchial openings large, nearly encircling the neck.

THE BASKING SHARK, so called from its habit of remain-
ing occasionally at the surface of the water almost motionless,
as if enjoying the influence of the sun's rays, whence it is
also on some parts of the Irish and Welsh coasts called Sun-
fish, is one of the largest of the true fishes, and has been
known to measure thirty-six feet in length. It has been seen
generally from the month of June to the commencement of

BASKING SHARK. 519

winter. When northerly winds prevail, it is most frequent
on the west coast of Scotland. It has also been seen on the
north and on the west coasts of Ireland. If westerly winds
prevail, it is not unusual to see them along the whole line of
the southern coast. It has been taken on the coasts of
Waterford, Wales, Cornwall, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, and
several times at different places on the coast of Sussex.
The specimen described and figured by Sir E. Home, in the
Philosophical Transactions for 1809, was taken off Hastings ;
and the largest specimen I have seen, which measured thirty-
six feet in length, was caught some years since off Brighton.
From our southern coast it frequently wanders as far to the
eastward and south as the coast of France ; and the fish de-
scribed and figured by M. de Blainville in the eighteenth
volume of the Annales du Museum, I have very little doubt
was of the same species as that described by Sir E. Home,
which has been already referred to.

The difficulty of obtaining a perfect view of this unwieldy
fish, either when floating in water, or when from its great
weight it lies partly imbedded in the soft soil of the sea-
shore, has led to the differences which appear in the repre-
sentations of it which have been published by different na-
turalists.

The Basking Shark is said to exhibit but little of the
ferocious character of the Sharks in general, and is so indif-
ferent to the approach of a boat as to suffer it even to touch
its body when listlessly sunning itself at the surface. From
its habit of swimming slowly along with its dorsal fin, and
sometimes part of its back, out of water, it has obtained in
the North the name of Sail-fish. In Orkney it is called
Hoe-mother, and by contraction Homer, — that is, the mo-
ther of the Picked Dog-fish, which is there called the Hoe.
If deeply struck with a harpoon, the Basking Shark plunges
suddenly down, and swims away with such rapidity and vio-

520 SQUALID/E.

lence as to become a difficult as well as a dangerous capture.
This species has the smallest teeth in proportion to its size
of any of the Sharks. No remains of fish have been found
in its stomach. One examined by Mr. Low contained a red
pulpy mass, like bruised crabs, or the roe of Echini. Mr.
Low adds, that this Shark's appearance, manners, and wea-
pons do not indicate it to be a ravenous fish. Linnseus says
that its food is Medusa, and Pennant considered that it sub-
sisted on marine plants.

The body is thickest about the middle, and diminishes
towards both extremities ; when afloat the form is nearly cy-
lindrical ; the skin thick and rough, of a brownish black
colour, with tints of blue. The head conical, the muzzle
short, rather blunt, smooth, and pierced with numerous circu-
lar pores ; eyes near the snout, small, oval, the elongation
horizontal, the irides brown ; half-way between the eye and
the first branchial opening is the temporal orifice, oblique and
small ; branchial openings five on each side, of great vertical
length, each set including the whole side of the neck, and
leaving only a small space above and below ; nostrils oval,
small, placed rather laterally, and opening on the edge of
the upper lip, pectoral fins of moderate size for so large a
fish, — perhaps, as before stated, the largest of the true fishes,
— the form somewhat triangular, placed close to the last bran-
chial orifice, convex anteriorly and thick, slightly concave
and much thinner behind ; the ventral fins also of moderate
size, rather elongated at the base, placed behind the middle
of the whole length of the fish, convex in front, concave be-
hind, the inner and posterior half free, exhibiting in the
figure chosen the cylindrical appendages peculiar to the male.
The first dorsal fin, placed before the middle of the whole
length of the fish, is much the larger of the two, forming an
elevated triangle ; anterior edge but slightly convex, posterior
edge concave, with an elongated point at the base directed

BASKING SHARK.

521

backwards : the second dorsal fin much smaller than the first ;
rounded above, attached throughout half its base only, and
placed at two-thirds of the distance from the first dorsal to
the caudal fin ; the anal fin is still smaller than the second
dorsal, but of the same shape. From the line of the anal
fin to the base of the tail there is a strong and prominent
keel-like edge on each side, and just in advance of the base
of the caudal fin, both above and below, is a groove, — that
underneath rather smaller than that above. The caudal fin
divided into two lobes, the upper one larger than the lower ;
the posterior edge of the caudal fin appears to become notch-
ed and abraded by age and use, and is frequently found un-
equal at its margin, and variable in shape.

The vignette below represents the Argulus foliaceus of
J urine ; another species of parasitic animal occasionally found
attached to fresh-water fishes. I have specimens that were
taken from the Pike and the Trout. The figure on the left-
hand represents the upper surface of a male : by the powers
of the microscope some of the vessels of the body are ren-
dered visible through the external tunic. The figure on the
right-hand represents the under surface of a female : the ova
are very conspicuous. The small figure between the two is
of the natural size.

SQUALIU.K.

CHONDROPTERYGH.

SQUALID A:,

THE FOX SHARK.

SEA-FOX. THRESHER. SEA-APE.

Carcharias vulpes, La Faux, ou Reiiard, CUVIER, Regne An. t.ii. p. 388.

Thresher,

FI.F.M. Brit. An. p. 167, sp. 14.

Vulpes marina,
Squalus vulpes,

Aln/iias

WILLUGHBY, p. 54, B. 6, fig. 2.

Long-tailed Shark, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 145.
Sea-Fox, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 498.

Le Squale Renard, BLAINV. Faun. Franc, p. 94.
BONAP. Faun. Ital. fasc. xiii.

ALOPIAS. Generic Characters. — Head, dorsal and anal fins, and spiracles,
as in the genus Lamna ; upper lobe of the tail very long, with a depression at
the base. Teeth triangular, flat, with smooth cutting edges in both jaws, curv-
ing outwards on each side from the centre. Branchial openings small, the last
over the pectoral fin.

THIS species is occasionally met with on the British coast :
Pennant examined one that measured thirteen feet in length ;
and specimens have been seen of fifteen feet long. It is
called the Sea-Fox from the length and size of its tail ; and,
according to Dr. Borlase, has received the name of Thresher
from its habit of attacking other animals, or defending itself,
by blows of the tail.* It is an inhabitant of the Mediterra-
nean as well as other seas ; and a specimen has been taken
near Belfast.

* See vol. i. p. 165.

FOX SHARK.

The extreme length of ;i Fox-Shark examined by Mr.

J

Couch, " was in a straight line ten feet ten inches, and along
the curve eleven feet eight inches ; three feet four inches
round where thickest ; solid at the chest ; conical from the
snout to the pectoral fins, and thick even to the tail, which
organ from the root was five feet and a half long, and conse-
quently more than half the length of the body ; eye promi-
nent, round, hard, four inches from the snout ; iris blue,
pupil green : the nostrils small, and not lobed ; mouth five
inches wide, shaped like a horse-shoe ; teeth flat, triangular,
in two or three rows, not numerous ; spiracles five ; pectoral
fins wide at the base, pointed, eighteen inches and a half
long. Measured along the curve, from the snout to the first
dorsal fin, was two feet five inches, the fin triangular ; from
the first dorsal to the second, fourteen inches and a half; this
and the anal fin small ; ventral fins also rather small, triansm-

O

lar ; above and below at the base of the tail a deep depres-
sion ; skin smooth ; lateral line central and straight ; breadth
of the tail, including both lobes, thirteen inches ; the upper
lobe narrow throughout its great length, and on the lower
margin, at four inches from the extremity, is a triangular
process. Colour of the body and fins dark blue, mottled
with white over the belly."

Mr. Couch says it is not uncommon for a Thresher to
approach a herd of Dolphins (Delphini) that may be sport-
ing in unsuspicious security, and by one splash of its tail on
the water put them all to flight like so many hares before a
hound.

" The specimen here described was taken at the entrance
of the harbour of Looe in Cornwall, in October 1826, hav-
ing become entangled in a net set for Salmon. The stomach
was filled with voiing Hcrrinsjs.'"

SQUALID.E.

CHONDROPTERYGII.

SQUALID

THE PICKED DOG-FISH.
BONE-DOG, Sussex. — HOE, Orkney.

Acanthiitsvutgaris,
Spinax acanthias,
Galeus ,,
Squaliis ,,

Risso, Hist. vol. iii. p. 131.

L'aiguillat, CUVTER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 391.

she spinux, WJLLUGHBY, p. 56, B. 5, f. 1.

LINN/EUS. BLOCII, pt. iii. pi. 85; the young, pt. iii. pi. 75,

fig. 1.

,, spinax, Picked Shark, PF.NN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 133.
,, acaiithins, ,, ,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 82.

Spinax ,, Common Dog-Jish, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 166, sp. 10.

Squaltts ,, Picked Dog-fsh, JENVNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 505, sp. 194.

„ „ Nn.ss. Prod. p. 117.

,, ,, BLAINV. Faun. Franf. p. 57.

Spinax acanthias, BONAP. Faun. Ital. fasc. viii.

ACANTIIIAS. Generic Characters. — Two dorsal fins, with a spine before
each ; first dorsal behind the line of the pectorals ; the second dorsal over the
space between the ventral and caudal fins; no anal fin. Skin rough in one
direction ; the scales heart-shaped, with a central spine directed backwards.
Temporal spiracles large. Several rows of teeth in both jaws, cutting and
sharp, the points directed outwards and backwards.

THE PICKED Doo-FisH is a very common species, at
once distinguished from the other British Sharks by the sin-
gle spine placed in advance of each of its two dorsal fins, —
a weapon from which it derives its specific appellation, pick

TICKED DOG-FISH.

being synonymous with pike or spike. Among the Scotch
islands, where it is called the Hoe, it appears most nume-
rous at the full and change of the moon, on account of the
then greater quantity of water, and consequent increased
strength or race of the tide in some of the narrow straits.
Being gregarious, they frequently make their appearance in
such shoals that the fishermen load their boats to the water's
edge with them ; and, acccording to Mr. Low, they prove a
valuable capture. The flesh is dried and eaten : the livers
yield a large quantity of oil, while their intestines and other
refuse parts are strewed over the land as manure. Dr. Neill
and Dr. Parnell say this species is very common in the Forth
during the Herring season, where numbers are caught ; but
their flesh is not eaten in that neighbourhood. The Dog-fish
is common also at Berwick, and on the north-eastern coast
generally.

The Picked Dog-fish is found in numbers at most of the
fishing stations along the south-eastern coast, round to Kent
and Sussex, where it is almost universally called the Bone
Dog. According to Montagu's MS. it is very numerous in
Devonshire and in Cornwall. Mr. Couch says, " It is the most
abundant of the Sharks, and is sometimes found in incalcu-
lable numbers, to the no small annoyance of the fishermen,
whose hooks they cut from the lines in rapid succession. I
have heard of twenty thousand taken in a sean at one time ;
and such is the strength of instinct, that little creatures not
exceeding six inches in length may be found, in company
with the larger and stronger, following schulls of fish, on
which at that time it is impossible they should be able to
prey. The Picked Dog bends itself into the form of a bow
for the purpose of using its spines, and by a sudden motion
causes them to spring asunder in opposite directions : and so
accurately is this intention effected, that if a finger be placed
on its head, it will strike it without piercing its own skin.

526 SQUALID.E.

This fish is subject, like many others, to occasional mon-
strosity. A friend of mine was in possession of a Picked
Dog-fish with two heads, the separation continuing so far
back as behind the pectoral fins. The fishermen who found
it informed me that there was only one egg attached to it,
and that it must have been dropped from the mother after
she was taken. The young are produced at various periods
from June to November.

This species is common on various parts of the coast of
Ireland.

The whole length of the specimen described was eighteen
inches ; the top of the head flat ; the temporal orifices large,
and seen from above : first dorsal fin commencing at one-
third of the whole length ; rather small in size ; front edge
convex, concave behind ; the point of the spine preceding the
fin half as high as the fin : the second dorsal fin half-way be-
tween the first and the end of the tail ; small in size, with a
spine as high as the fin : the nose rather pointed ; the eyes
lateral, elongated horizontally; temporal orifices behind, large,
but above the line of the eye ; nostrils small, with a minute
valve ; mouth semicircular, when quite open nearly round ;
the teeth from the centre of both jaws with points projecting
outward on each side, the edges sharp ; pectoral fins large,
commencing half-way between the snout and the first dorsal ;
ventral fins small, placed intermediate, in a vertical line, be-
tween the first and second dorsal ; no anal fin ; tail powerful,
upper membrane broad, the lower anterior part triangular,
ending in a slip prolonged backward. The upper part of
the head, body, and fins, slate grey ; under parts yellowish
white ; young specimens generally exhibit a few white spots.
Skin moderately rough on passing the finger upwards towards
the head ; in the contrary direction quite smooth.

GREENLAND SHARK.

CriONDUOPTERYGH.

S QUA I.I DM.

THE GREENLAND SHARK.

Scymnns borcalis, Greenland Shark, FLERI. Brit. An. p. 166, sp. 11.
Sqnalus ,, ,, ,, SCORESBY, Arctic Regions, vol. i. p. 538,

pi. 15, figs. 3, 4.

,, glacialis, Faber, NILSSON, Prod. Icht. Scand. p. 116, sp 7.

,, borealis, Greenland Shark, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 506, sp. 195.

,, Norwegianus, BLAINV. Faun. Franc, p. 61.

SCYMNUS. Generic Characters. — All the fins small : two dorsal fins, the first
but little before, and the second but little behind, the line of the ventrals ; no
anal fin. Skin rough. Temporal orifices, or spiracles, large, placed rather
high up on the head, above as well as behind the eyes. Teeth in the lower jaw
crooked at the point, equilateral at the base ; in the upper jaw lancet-shaped,
but little curved ; the points in both jaws diverging from the centre. Gill-open-
ings small.

THIS species of Shark, which is a native of the Northern
Seas, has been twice noticed in Scotland. According to Dr.
Fleming, one was caught in the Pentland Frith in 1803 ; and
another, measuring thirteen feet and a half long, found dead
at Burra Frith, Unst, was seen by Mr. Edmonston.

528 SQUAL1D.E.

I am indebted to J. Hutcliinson, Esq. of Durham, for the
knowledge of the occurrence of an example of this species on
the coast of Durham in April 1840, and this specimen has
been preserved for the Durham University Museum. Mr.
Hutchinson's very obliging communication contained various
interesting particulars, with a penciled sketch of the fish, the
fins, the teeth, and the spinous asperities on the skin, to be
hereafter noticed in the description.

This Shark appears to be well known to several Northern
zoologists ; and the following account is derived from the va-
luable work on the Arctic Regions by Captain W. Scoresby.

" The Squalus borealis is twelve or fourteen feet in
length, sometimes more, and six or eight feet in circumfer-
ence. The opening of the mouth, which extends nearly
across the lower part of the head, is from twenty-one to twen-
ty-four inches in width. The teeth are serrated in one jaw,
and lancet-shaped and denticulated in the other. It is with-
out the anal fin, but has the temporal opening ; the spiracles
on the neck are five in number on each side. The colour is
cinereous grey. The irides are blue, the pupil emerald
green."

" This Shark is one of the foes of the Whale. It bites
it and annoys it while living, and feeds on it when dead.
It scoops hemispherical pieces out of its body, nearly as big
as a person's head ; and continues scooping and gorging lump
after lump, until the whole cavity of its belly is filled. It
is so insensible of pain, that though it has been run through
the body with a knife and escaped, yet, after a while, I have
seen it return to banquet again on the Whale, at the very
spot where it received its wounds. The heart is very small ;
it performs six or eight pulsations in a minute, and continues
its beating for some hours after being taken out of the body.
The body, also, though separated into any number of parts,
gives evidence of life for a similar length of time. It is

GREENLAND SHARK. 529

therefore extremely difficult to kill. It is actually unsafe to
trust the hand in its mouth, though the head be separated
from the body. Though the Whale-fishers frequently slip
into the water where Sharks abound, there has been no in-
stance, that I have heard of, of their ever having been at-
tacked by the Shark."

" Besides dead Whales, the Sharks feed on small fishes
and crabs. A fish, in size and form resembling a Whiting,
was found in the stomach of one that I killed ; but the pro-
cess of digestion had gone so far, that its species could not
be satisfactorily discovered. In swimming, the tail only is
used : the rest of its fins being spread out to balance it, are
never observed in motion but when some change of direction
is required.

" To the posterior edge of the pupil of the eye is attached
a white vermiform substance, one or two inches in length.
Each extremity of it consists of two filaments, but the cen-
tral part is single. The sailors imagine this Shark is blind,
because it pays not the least attention to the presence of a
man ; and is, indeed, so apparently stupid, that it never
draws back when a blow is aimed at it with a knife or lance."

The eyes of this Greenland Shark, with the appendages,
were brought home by Captain W. Scoresby, preserved in
spirits, and submitted to Sir David Brewster, who gave one
specimen to Dr. Grant. The appendage proved to be a new
species of parasitic animal, which Dr. Grant named Lerntea
elongata, and described it, adding a figure of it, in the
seventh volume of the Edinburgh Journal of Science. The
imperfection of the vision of the fish was probably produced
by the various perforations made in the cornea by the tenta-
cula of this new species of Lerntea ; as it is by those organs
that these parasitic animals retain their hold and live upon
the fluids extracted from the part to which they adhere,

VOL. II. 2 M

530 SQUALID.E.

This species of Lernaca is perhaps the largest known : it mea-
sured three inches in length.

A Shark of this species is the subject of a memoir by
M. Valenciennes in the first volume of the " Nouvelles An-
nales clu Museum,1'' where, on account of the very small size
of its fins, it is called Scymnus micropterus. This example
was found stranded on the sand in the large bay at the
mouth of the Seine, about the end of March or the begin-
ning of April 1832. It was bought, and afterwards exhi-
bited at Havre, and was finally sent to Paris, very well
preserved, considering its bulk, in a large wooden box sa-
turated with pyroligneous acid. The whole length was
thirteen feet. The head and body compressed ; numerous
mucous pores, arranged in lines, about the head and neck ;
the body deepest in the region of the pectoral fin ; the first
dorsal fin smaller than the pectoral fin, and preceded by
an elongated ridge or keel on the back of the fish, formed
by a fold or duplicature of the skin ; the second dorsal fin
preceded also but by a shorter keel : the fish was a male ;
the ventral fins and sexual appendages, or claspcrs, very
small ; no anal fin ; the colour dark brown on the back, grey
on the belly.

No doubt exists that this species lives in the northern
seas, agreeing in dentition with preserved parts of a large
Shark brought from North Cape, and also Avith the fish
described and figured by Gunner in the second volume of
the Natural History Memoirs of Drontheim, p. 330, plates
X. and XI. under the name of Squalus Carcharias. M.
Blainville, as seen by the synonymes at the head of this sub-
ject, calls this species in the " Faun. Franc.11 Norwegianus.
Mr. Hutchinson, in his letter to me referring to the Durham
specimen, particularly mentions, and shows in his drawing,
the small size of the fins, which accounts for the sluggish
movements of the fish as described by Captain Scoresby.

GREENLAND SHARK.

Mr. Hutchinson says the colour of the fish when fresh was
brown, deeply shaded with blue ; the blue soon faded, and it
became dark brown ; when quite dry it was cinereous brown.
The rows of teeth vary in number from two to six, probably
depending upon the age of the fish ; I have only figured
the outer row in each jaw, that the form might be clearly
defined, those on the left being from the lower jaw. The
points in all the rows of each jaw diverge from the centre
as figured in the single row of each here given under the fish.
The vignette represents the form of row-boat in use on the
west coast of Norway, derived from Barrow's visit to Iceland.

2 M 2

532

SQUALID.E.

CHONDROPTERYGII.

SQUALID&.

Squalits spinosus,

THE SPINOUS SHARK.

Echinorhinus spiiwsus, BLAINVILLE, Faun. Franc. Poiss. p. 66, sp. 6.
,, ,, BONAP. Faun. Ital. fasc. xiii.

,, obesus, Dr. A. SMITH, Zool. South Afr. No. 1.
GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I. p. 1500, sp. 27.
LACEPEDE, Hist. Nat. Poiss. 4to. t. i. p. 30, tab. 3, fig.

2 ; 8vo. t. v. p. 354, pi. 22.
SCHNEIDER, p. 136, sp. 31.
Risso, Ichth. p. 42, sp. 18.

Hist. t. iii. p. 136, sp. 21.
CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. 1829, p. 393.
AOASSIZ, Recherches tur les Poiss. Foss.

Scymnus

Goiioidits

Generic Characters. Echinorhimts, Blainville. Gonuidus, Agassiz. — The
first dorsal fin opposite to the abdominal ones. Teeth in both jaws, broad and
low, the edge nearly horizontal ; the lateral edges have one or two transverse
denticles. (1 species.)*

SOON after the publication of that part of the British
Fishes which contained the Sharks, I received a communica-
tion from Mr. John Hey, then Honorary Curator to the
Leeds Philosophical Society, with a coloured drawing of the
well known Spinous Shark of authors, a specimen of which

* Miiller and Henle. Generic characters of Cartilaginous Fishes. Mag.
Nat. Hist, for 1838, p. 89, and Syst. Besch. Plag. 96.

SPINOUS SHARK. 533

had been taken in Filcy Bay, on the Yorkshire coast, in the
summer of 1830, and therefore entitled to a place among
British Fishes ; but the whole of the then remaining portion
of the work being at that time printed for publication on
the 1st of August, 1836, I was unable to avail myself of this
interesting information, which came to my hands on the 7th
of July.

On the 30th of the same month I was favoured with a
letter from Dr. H. S. Boase of Penzance, containing an
account of the capture of a Spinous Shark on the 23rd of
that month, near the Land's End ; and Dr. Boase also very
kindly sent me in his letter pen-and-ink sketches of two
views of this Shark, made to a scale of one inch to a foot,
with representations and specimens of the teeth and spines.

In November 1837, the Rev. Robert Holdsworth sent me
notice by letter of the capture of a Spinous Shark, taken in a
trawl-net off Brixham, with pen-and-ink sketches of the form
of the body, with a small portion of its spine-studded skin,
and some of its teeth.

At the meeting of the British Association at Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, in August 1828, Arthur Strickland, Esq. of
Bridlington, exhibited in the section devoted to Natural
History a drawing, and read a short description, of a Spinous
Shark, which had been recently found on the Yorkshire
coast, and was evidently of this species, Mr. Gray referring
to the figure of it lately published by Dr. Andrew Smith in
the first number of his " Illustrations of the Zoology of
South Africa," which the drawing exhibited by Mr. Strick-
land very closely resembled.

Lastly, I may add that on the 9th of November 1838, the
Rev. Robert Holdsworth sent me word that another speci-
men of the Spinous Shark had been caught on a fisherman's
line off Berry Head on the previous Tuesday. I soon af-
terwards received a notice of this last capture from my

534

SQUALID.E.

D

friend Mr. Couch, of Polperro, and also from Mr. Heggerty,
of Torquay, to which place, as I understood, this last speci-
men had been brought for preservation.

Four examples of this Shark are therefore known to have
been obtained on our coasts within the last three years, and
one in the summer of 1830.

This very remarkable Shark was first described by Brous-
sonnet under the name of Le chten de mer boucle, in the
" Memoires de P Academic des Sciences pour 1780," and,
as may be seen by the numerous synonymes at the head of
this subject, is a species that is exceedingly well known,
having a wide geographical range, extending from the North
Sea to the Cape of Good Hope in one direction, and from
the shores of Italy into the Atlantic in another.

The specimen described by Broussonnet measured only
about four feet in length ; but it has been taken upwards of
seven feet long on the Cornish coast ; and M. Risso mentions
that one of four hundred pounds' weight, and therefore pro-
bably still longer than the Cornish specimen, was caught by
the Mandrague, or Tonnaro fishermen of Nice, in the hori-
zontal nets set up by them to catch Tunnies.

Some differences will be observed in the comparative
length and thickness of the figures here given, the first of

SPINOUS SHARK. 535

which is taken from the drawing sent me by Mr. John Hey
of the Filey Bay specimen ; the second representing, on the
other side, a more bulky fish, is taken from Dr. A. Smith's
illustrations. The figures given by Lacepede and the Prince
of Musignano are rather long and slender, and were probably
taken from specimens of small comparative size ; the figure
sent me by Dr. Boase from a fish more than seven feet long,
and the drawing exhibited by Mr. Strickland at Newcastle,
more resembled the figure by Dr. Smith. Some specimens are
described as being intermediate, and all these differences in
the same species may be referred to age or sex, or both, a
young male and an old female presenting the greatest con-
trast. The decided similarity in the teeth, which are very
peculiar, and which only differ in size, with the particular
character of the skin and its spines, with their radiated bases,
leave no room to doubt that these various examples belong to
one and the same species.

We become a little acquainted with some of the habits of
this Shark by noticing the circumstances under which it has
been captured. Of the first Cornish specimen, Dr. Boase
says, this Shark was caught on the 23rd of July, 1836, west
of the Long Slips, Land's End. Just before the moon set
the fishermen had been very successful, but all at once lost
their sport, or as they expressed it, " the Congers suddenly
sheered off to a man." When hooked, it was not more
troublesome than a Conger ; but when brought to the water's
edge, it gave battle, and was secured with great difficulty.
The first specimen noticed by the Rev. Robert Holdsworth
as caught in a trawl-net off Brixham, had a portion of a
Gurnard in its stomach. Of the third specimen, caught on
the southern coast, near Berry Head, Mr. Holdsworth says,
this Shark was taken near the bottom on a hook baited with
cuttle. The men were fishing for Conger Eel, and other
large fish, when this Shark was hooked. They describe his

536 SQUAL1D.E.

action in the water as most powerful, and were obliged to let
him run with the line four times to the bottom before they
could hamper him with a sliding noose let down over the
line to his tail. These lines and the trawl-net only do
their work at the bottom, and we may, therefore, conclude
that this species is a Ground Shark. As such Cuvier had
arranged it in his genus Scymnus, and Dr. Andrew Smith,
who from his extensive acquaintance with this division of the
cartilaginous fishes is an admitted authority, confirms this
opinion. Of this Spinous Shark, Dr. Smith says, " This
species is comparatively rare at the Cape of Good Hope. It
is described by the fishermen as sluggish and unwieldy in its
movements, and but seldom to be observed towards the sur-
face of the water. When they obtain specimens, it is gene-
rally at a time when they are fishing in deep water, and when
the bait with which the hooks are armed is near to the bot-
tom. In this respect it resembles the Scyllia, or Ground
Sharks ; and, if we were to regard only its internal organisa-
tion, we should be disposed to consider it as closely allied to
that genus."

Never having seen a specimen of this Shark, the following-
description of its colour and form is derived from Dr. Smithes
work.

Colour : — The head and back, as far as the first dorsal fin,
dark leaden grey ; the rest of the back, the sides, and the
belly, pale coppery yellow, clouded with purple and brownish
tints ; and the belly besides is marked with blotches of light
vermilion red ; the fins towards their bases reddish brown,
tinged with dull grey, towards their extremities a lighter
shade of the same colour; chin, sides of muzzle, and some-
times a spot behind the eye, dull white ; eyes coppery green.
Form, &c. — Body very thick in proportion to its length,
with only a slight diminution in size towards the tail ; the
back in front of the first dorsal fin nearly straight ; the head

SriNOUS SHARK.

537

flat above, and slightly sloping to the muzzle, which is
rounded ; nostrils transverse, and each partially divided by a
narrow membranous lobule, which projects backwards from its
anterior margin ; their position is nearly over the most pro-
jecting, or central portion of the upper jaw, considerably
nearer to the eyes than the tip of the snout, and about half
way between the latter, and the angle of the mouth. Eyes
rather nearer to a line raised from the angle of the mouth
than to the nostrils ; pupil circular and small ; postocular
spiracle scarcely visible. Gape wide and arched, having at
each corner a triangular fold of skin formed by the union of
the upper and lower lips. Teeth regularly placed upon each
jaw, only one row in use at a time, the rest reclined ; they
are large, compressed, and somewhat quadrangular, the cut-
ting edges nearly horizontal, and both of their sides are
generally bicuspidatc, as will be seen by the figures here in-
serted, representing from young and old specimens the teeth
of both jaws as opposed to each other.

Branchial openings all in front of pectoral fins ; the first not
more than half the length of the fifth. Pectoral fins rather
small, the hinder edges nearly square ; the dorsal fins are
small, the first narrower at its base than at its extremity,
which is slightly rounded ; the second nearly throughout of
equal breadth, the hinder edge almost square ; the ventral
fins short, broader behind than at their bases, and their pos-
terior edges slightly undulated ; the caudal fin entire, some-

538

SQUALID.E.

what triangular, and slightly falciform ; the upper portion
high above the line of the back, the lower scarcely below the
line of the body immediately in front of it. Lateral line
distinct, commencing above the branchial openings, and ex-
tending nearly without curve or undulation to the commence-
ment of the caudal fin, from thence it ascends the latter, and
extends along it, nearer to its anterior than posterior edge,
until it reaches its upper extremity ; at its origin this line is
nearer to the middle of the back than the base of the pectoral
fin ; to the touch it feels slightly rough, which arises from its
being beset with a number of minute prickles, which are
most distinctly seen in preserved specimens. The surface of
the skin both on the body and fins is more or less sprinkled
with strong bony-looking spines, with large circular and flat-
tened bases, which are striated from the centre towards the
circumference. These spines vary in size as well as form,
some being hooked, others quite straight ; in some places
they are disposed in clusters, in others they are solitary, and
on the extremity of the muzzle are nearly wanting. The
appendages to the ventral fins in the male seldom extend
much beyond their posterior margins.

According to M. Risso, the females of this species have a
smaller number of these spines than the males.

ANGEL-FISH.

589

CHONDROPTERYCJ1.

SQUALW.%.

THE ANGEL FISH.

MONK-FISH, SHARK-BAY, and KINGSTON.

Squatina angelus, DUMERIL. CUVIED, Regne An. t. ii. p. 394.

,, Monk, or Angel-Jish, WILLUGHBY, p. 79, D. 3.

Squaius squatina, LINNAEUS. BLOCH, pt. iv. pi. 116.

,, ,, Angel Shark, PENN. Brit. Zoo], vol. iii. p. 130, pi. 15, male.

,, ,, ,, ,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 17.

Sqnatina vulguris, Monh-Jish, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 169, sp. 16.

,, Angelus, Angel-Jish, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 507, sp. 197.

,, vulgaris, Risso, Ichth. p. 45.

SQUATINA. Generic Characters. — Body very much depressed; head flat,
rounded anteriorly ; both eyes on the upper surface ; temporal orifices large, be-
hind the eyes ; mouth at the end of the snout ; pectoral fins large, attached an-
teriorly to the head, the posterior edge free ; two dorsal fins, both behind the
ventrals ; no anal fin.

THIS fish, certainly more remarkable for the singularity of
its form than for its beauty, is called Angel-fish in England,
France, and Italy, and is said to have acquired that name
from the extended pectoral fins having the appearance of
it is also called Monk-fish, because its rounded head

wings

540

SQUALID.E.

looks as if enveloped in a monk's hood. Mr. Donovan says
the form of its body has obtained for it in some places the
name of Fiddle-fish ; and it is also called Shark-Ray, from its
partaking of the characters of both Shark and Ray, though
in some respects distinct from either. It is, however,- by no
means so truly osculant between those families as the exotic
genus Rhinobatus.

It is most numerous on the southern coast of our island ;
but is occasionally taken in the Forth, and some other parts
of the east coast, particularly about Cromer and Yarmouth.
It is common on the coasts of Kent and Sussex, where it is
called a Kingston, — a name for it that occurs in Merretfs
Pinax. It is also taken in Cornwall ; and is recorded as oc-
curring in Ireland on the coasts of Kerry, Waterford, Dub-
lin, and Belfast.

This fish is very voracious, and feeds on the smaller flat-
fishes, which, like itself, swim close to the bottom ; occasion-
ally, like them also, hiding itself in the loose, soft soil that
floats over it. The Angel-fish sometimes attains a large
size. Cuvier, Pennant, and others, mention having seen
specimens that would have weighed one hundred pounds.
The flesh is now considered indifferent and seldom eaten, but
is said to have been formerly held in high estimation. The
skin is rather rough, and is used for polishing, and other
works in the arts : Mr. Donovan also says that the Turks at
the present time make shagreen of it.

A second species of this genus has been supposed to occur
on our coast ; but the Angel-fish is probably liable to some
variation in colour, depending on the nature of the ground
in the locality in which it is found : the sexes also exhibit
some differences. The females produce their young alive in
June.

This species is said to attain the length of seven or eight
feet ; the specimen described measured but fourteen inches ;

ANGEL-FISH.

the breadth of the head in the line of the temporal orifices
three inches, whole breadth across the pectoral fins from
angle to angle seven inches and a half, breadth across the
ventral fins four inches and one quarter ; head depressed,
rounded at the anterior margin ; eyes on the upper surface,
distance between them one inch and one quarter ; temporal
orifices very large, one inch and a half apart, elongated
transversely, about as far behind the eyes as these are from
the anterior margin of the head : pectoral fins large, lateral,
pointed in front, triangular on the outer edge, and rounded
posteriorly ; sides of the body of the fish parallel behind their
free edges ; ventral fins elongated, slightly rounded, con-
tracted in breadth behind ; commencement of first dorsal fin
even with the posterior edge of the ventrals ; the second dor-
sal fin begins at the half of the distance between the com-
mencement of the first dorsal and the caudal fin ; tail with an
equal-sized triangular lobe above and below. The mouth is
very wide, opening on the anterior margin of the head ; the
angles of the mouth under the external angles of each tem-
poral orifice : teeth long and pointed ; branchial apertures
elongated ; the parallelism of the sides of the fish most con-
spicuous from below ; anal orifice rather before the middle of
the whole length ; the colour of all the under parts dirty
white ; the surface smooth ; all the upper surface granulated,
rough, of a dark mottled chocolate brown ; a row of short
spines, directed backwards, are ranged along the central line
of the back between the ventral fins.

RAIID.E.

CHONDROPTERYG1I.

U All DA*

THE OLD BRITISH TORPEDO.

COMMON CRAMP-FISH. NUMB-FISH, WeymOllth.
ELECTRIC RAY. CRAMP-RAY, Cornwall.

Torpedo CUVIEU, Regne An. t. ii. p. 369.

,, Cramp-fish, WILLUGHBY, p. 81, D. 4.

Raia Torpedo, LINN/EUS. BLOCK, pt. iv. pi. 122.

Torpille, UUHAMEL, Sect. ix. pi. 13.

Torpedo, WALSH, Phil. Trans. 1772, vol. Ixiii.

Raia Torpedo, Electric Ray, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 118, pi. 12.

„ „ ,, ,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 53.

Torpedo vulgaris, Common Cramp-fish, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 169, sp. 17.

Torpedo marmorata, Risso, Ichth. p. 20.

,, ,, MULIER & HENLE, p. 128.

TORPEDO. Generic Characters. — The disk of the body nearly circular ; pec-
toral fins large ; two dorsal fins placed so far back as to be on the tail ; surface
of the body smooth ; tail short, and rather thick ; teeth small and sharp.

The family of the Rays or Skate.

OLD BRITISH TORPEDO. 543

THE earliest notices of this fish on our coasts by English
writers were made by Smith in his History of Waterford,
and afterwards by Pennant and Walsh ; but as, according to
Baron Cuvier, several species have been included under the
name of the Raia Torpedo of Linnseus, the true name of one
British species is still doubtful, and it remains therefore for
some naturalist who is fortunate enough to obtain British
specimens to determine the particular species of our coast.

Colonel Montagu, in his MS. notes, mentions having met
with two examples of the Torpedo ; but no description of
either of them is given. The first was of small size, and
was taken at Torcross, where it was so rare as to be unknown
to the oldest of the fishermen of that place. Of the second,
the notice is as follows : — " I observed a very large specimen
that was taken on a turbot-hook off the coast of Tenby, in
Wales. It was dead when disengaged from the hook, or the
fisherman would certainly have had a shock that would have
made him remember the species again. It appeared, how-
ever, so rare an occurrence here, that no one knew the fish,
which was exhibited as an extraordinary creature. Its weight
was about one hundred pounds."

The figure at the head of this subject was taken from a
small specimen which appears to be of the same species as
that figured by Pennant in the British Zoology ; but Pen-
nant's plate, which exhibits in the two outside figures the
under and upper surface of a female, the third and middle
figure being that of a male of smaller size, appears to have
been copied from a larger print representing specimens taken
on the sea-shore in the neighbourhood of La Rochelle. Mr.
Donovan's figure differs from that of Pennant in exhibiting
a marbled appearance on its upper surface, with five distinct
dark spots : it differs also in its form and proportions.

The electrical powers of the Torpedo are so well under-
stood by the different names that have been applied to it, as

;">44 RAIIDE.

well as by the various and voluminous accounts that have
been published, that it is unnecessary to repeat here what
has already appeared so often in print elsewhere. The situa-
tion of the apparatus or structure from which these species
derive their extraordinary power is indicated by the two ele-
vations, one of which is placed on each outside of the eyes
and temporal orifices, and extending to the lateral external
rounded edges. The apparatus occupies the whole of the
space between the upper and under surface of the body, and
is composed, as shown by the figures of Walsh and Pennant,
of a great number of tubes arranged perpendicular to the
plane of the upper and under surfaces, which when exposed
by a transverse section have very much the appearance of a
portion of honeycomb. The tubes contain a mucous secre-
tion, and the structure is largely provided with nerves deriv-
ed from the eighth pair. It is said that when the shock is
given, the convex part of the upper surface is gradually de-
pressed, the sensation is then felt, and the convexity sud-
denly returns.

The whole use of the electrical apparatus and power to
the fish can only be conjectured. That it serves as a means
of defence, is very probable ; that it also enables a slow, inact-
ive fish to arrest and obtain as food some of the more active
inhabitants of the deep, is also probable. Mr. Couch thinks
other powers may be derived from it, and his opinion is thus
expressed : — " One well-known effect of the electric shock is
to deprive animals killed by it of their organic irritability,*
and consequently to render them more readily disposed to
pass into a state of decomposition, in which condition the di-
gestive powers more speedily and effectually act upon them.
If any creature more than others might seem to require such
a preparation of its food, it is the Cramp-Ray, the whole

* The bodies of animals killed by lightning do not become stiff, and decom-
position goes on rapidly.

OLD BRITISH TORPEDO. 545

canal of whose intestine is not more than half as long as the
stomach."

" So long ago as the time of Dioscorides, the physician of
Anthony and Cleopatra, the shock of this fish was recom-
mended for medical purposes, and especially for pains of the
head ; and this may be considered as the earliest record of the
application of electricity to medicine. In later times, it was
applied to the cure of gout ; the patient being directed to
keep his foot on the fish until the numbness extended to the
knees. Baron Humboldt remarks, that the will of the fish
directs the effect to whatever part it feels most strongly irri-
tated, but only under the influence of the brain and heart.
When a fish was cut through the middle, the fore part of the
body alone gave shocks."

But little of its habits are known : it is said to prefer soft
and muddy ground, where its actions are slow and inert. It
is rare on the British coast ; but two or three species inhabit
the Mediterranean, and there is reason to believe that two
species inhabit our seas. Walsh obtained specimens in
Torbay ; and the figure of his fish in the Transactions of our
Royal Society exhibits the temporal orifices, or spiracles,
round and stellated, or having notched or fringed edges.
Pennant's figures appear to have been copied from those
of Walsh ; but Pennant was too good a naturalist to have
adopted a figure that did not agree with his specimens ;
moreover, in his description are the words, "Behind each
(eye) was a round spiracle, with six small cutaneous rags on
their inner surface." Mr. Donovan's figure exhibits spiracles
with fringed edges. The colour was a pale mottled brown. I
have assumed, therefore, for distinction's sake, that it may be
the marmorata of MiAller and Henle. The species next to
be described has the spiracles oval, with perfectly smooth
edges, and has been taken on various parts of our coast.

VOL. II. 2 N

546

RAIID/E.

CHONDROPTERYGII.

RA11DA-..

THE NEW BRITISH TORPEDO.

BONAP. Faun. Ital. fasc. xii. 1835.
THOMPSON, Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 292.
,, ,, Fauna of Ireland, div. Vertebrata.

emarginata, M'Cov, Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. vi. p. 407 ?

Torpedo nobiliana
,, Walshii,

IN the month of September 1808, H. Hunt, Esq. of
Dartmouth, did me the favour to send me two examples of a
Torpedo taken on the coast of Devonshire, and these are the
only British caught specimens I ever possessed. One of
them was very large, and was taken in a trawl-net ; this fish
I presented in Mr. Hunt's name to the Museum of the Zoo-
logical Society, and it is now in the collection : the second
specimen being smaller and more manageable, I preserved it
for myself, and from it the figure here given was drawn.

NEW BRITISH TORPEDO. ~>47

This species differs from the one represented by Walsh,
Pennant, Hunter, Shaw, and Donovan, and also that figured
by myself in the last engraving, page 542, in having tem-
poral spiracles with perfectly smooth edges : it agrees, more-
over, with the Torpedo caught in July 1840 in one of the
weirs at Swansea, so minutely described by L. W. Dill-
wyn, Esq. in his " Contributions towards a History of Swan-
sea." It agrees also with the Torpedo Walshii of William
Thompson, Esq. who has seen my specimen, and considers it
identical with those which have been taken on different parts
of the coast of Ireland, most of which are particularly referred
to by Mr. Thompson in his paper in the fifth volume of the
Annals of Natural History, as already quoted among the
synonymes. My specimen is, I believe, identical also with the
Torpedo emarginata of Mr. M'Coy, as described and figured
in the sixth volume of the Annals of Natural History, pages
407 and 408.

When looking over my collection of British Rays with
C. L. Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, during his visit to Lon-
don in May last, that distinguished naturalist, on seeing the
Torpedo, immediately said, " that is the nobiliana of my
Fauna Italica," and I have accordingly placed that name at
the head of the synonymes. There is, I think, little doubt
that this Mediterranean fish is identical with our new British
Torpedo ; the figure in the Fauna Italica exhibits the double
emargination on the anterior edge at the junction of the pec-
toral fins with the head, as shown and described by Mr.
M'Coy, in his communication to the Annals of Natural His-
tory, before referred to ; but it does not exhibit the anterior
dorsal fin entirely behind the ventrals. In other particulars
it agrees with the New British Torpedo, our second species.

Several specimens of Torpedo, besides those already men-
tioned, have been taken at various times on different parts of
our coast, particularly in Devonshire, Cornwall, South Wales,

2 N 2

548 RAIID.E.

and the south of Ireland ; but their peculiarities were either
unnoticed or unrecorded, and it is therefore doubtful to
which of our species they belonged. Some naturalists may
still consider that we have but one species, and that the
present fish is identical with that of Walsh and Pennant.
Montagu, unfortunately, did not describe or particularise either
of the two specimens he saw, but I think it may be con-
cluded that he would have done so had either of his examples
differed from the figure and description given by Pennant.
The New British Torpedo appears to vary in its colour from a
reddish brown to a dark greenish or bluish black ; it remains
to be shown whether the smooth uninterrupted margin of the
spiracles may be depended upon as a permanent specific
character. Excellent descriptions of the new Torpedo have
been given by Mr. Dillwyn and Mr. Thompson in the
volumes quoted, and a single specimen may decide the
question.

The whole length of the fish from which the figure was
taken is twenty-six inches ; the greatest breadth fifteen inches
and a quarter ; the length to the posterior free margin of the
pectoral fins thirteen inches and a half; the base of the first
dorsal fin occupies the central line of the lower third portion
of the ventral fins ; the second dorsal fin is placed half-way
between the posterior edge of the first dorsal fin and the
commencement of the upper lobe of the tail ; the second
dorsal fin is of the same shape, but only half as large as the
first dorsal fin ; the upper and under lobes of the tail, form-
ing together the caudal fin, are nearly equal in size, and
somewhat triangular in shape ; the posterior free margin but
slightly concave in the centre ; the eyes small ; the spiracles
perfectly smooth at the edge, not in the least serrated, and
rather oval in shape than circular, but this form may have
been produced while the skin was drying ; teeth small, nu-
merous, and pointed, calculated for holding rather than for

NEW BRITISH TORPEDO.

cutting, the form being that of a sharp incurved spine issuing
from a broad base ; the mouth wide ; the colour on the upper
surface of the body and fins a uniform dark chocolate brown
tinged with dark bluish black ; the under surface white,
which, while the fish is fresh, is said by observers to have
over it a blush of red. The specimen was a female. The
males have long cylindrical appendages to the inner edge of
the ventral fins, which in the Rays, or Skate, are called
claspers.

The vignette represents a boat of the Lake of Geneva.

550

RAIID/E.

CHONDROPTERYG11.

n AH DA:.

LONG-NOSED SKATE.

Raia mucronata,

,, rostrata,
Ltfviruja oxyrhynchus,
Raia vomer,

Long-nosed Skate, COUCH'S MS.
BLAINV. Faun. Franc, p. 30.
BONAP. Faun. Ital. fasc. xxv.
FRIES, Ichth. Scand.

RAIA. Generic Characters. — Form of the body rhomboidal, very much de-
pressed; tail long and slender, generally armed on the upper surface with one
or more rows of sharp spines ; two small fins near the end of the tail, and some-
times a small terminal or caudal fin ; the eyes and temporal orifices on the
upper surface of the head ; nostrils, mouth, and branchial apertures, beneath ;
teeth flattened, lozenge-shaped, the inner angle elongated in old males.

THE RAYS, or Skate, as they are popularly called, are
remarkable for the rhomboidal form and consequent breadth
of their bodies, contrasted with their long narrow tails, frc-

LONG-NOSED SKATE. .">">1

quently furnished with two and sometimes three small fins,
and mostly armed with one or more rows of sharp spines
along the whole length. The whole body is very much de-
pressed ; the great breadth of it is produced by the expansion
of what are considered as the pectoral fins, the base of each
of which is equal to the whole length of the side of the fish.
The Skate may almost be considered as having no true head
or neck, the sides of both being included and thus protected
by the expanded anterior margin of each pectoral fin. The
nostrils, mouth, branchial and anal apertures, are on the
under surface ; the eyes and temporal orifices on the upper
surface. The texture of the skin of the body varies consi-
derably, and will be referred to when describing the different
species. From the peculiar form of the body, admirably
adapted to exist at the bottom of the water, the Skate may
with more propriety be called a Flatfish than any species of
the Pleuronectidte. Their mode of progression is not very
easily described : it is, when they are not alarmed, performed
with a slight undulating motion of the pectoral fins, some-
thing between flying and swimming. I once heard a North-
country fisherman call it sluddering. When a Skate makes
the best of its way either to gain a prize in the matter of
food, or to escape an enemy, great muscular exertion is evi-
dent. The mode of defending itself, as described by Mr.
Couch, is very effectual : the point of the nose and the base
of the tail are bent upwards toward each other ; the upper
surface of the body being then concave, the tail is lashed
about in all directions over it, and the rows of sharp spines
frequently inflict severe wounds.

Some sexual peculiarities require particular notice. The
woodcut introduced overleaf represents in the left-hand por-
tion an inside view of one-half of the mouth of an adult male ;
that on the right, an inside view of one-half of the mouth of
an equally adult female of the Thornback Ray. While both

552

RAIIDE.

are young, the teeth in both sexes arc alike broad and flat ;
but as the male acquires age and sexual power, the teeth that
are nearest the centre begin to alter in form and become
pointed, as will be seen on close examination, by an elonga-
tion of the internal angle ; all the points being directed back-
wards or towards the throat. Some exceptions to this appa-
rent rule will be pointed out.

Another sexual peculiarity in which the Skate resemble
the Sharks is the cylindrical appendage to each ventral fin in
the males. The figure at the head of this subject is taken
from the under surface of a female, in which no appendages
exist ; the second figure of the Sharp-nosed Skate, the next
in succession, is from the upper surface of an old male, and
appendages lying on each side close to the tail may be seen ;
even in very young specimens, not more than three inches in
breadth, the sexes may be determined by the constant exist-
ence of these appendages in the males. The fourth figure is
taken from the under surface of a vouno1 male, and exhibits

v O

these appendages of smaller size : their use may be inferred
from the name they bear — they are commonly called claspers.
The second figure of the Sharp-nosed Ray exhibits also other
peculiarities common to males : these are the clusters of spines
outside the eye and temporal orifice on each side, and the
regular rows of spines towards the upper outer surface of the
pectoral fins. The elongation of the central teeth, the devc-

LONG-NOSED SKATE.

lopmcnt of the cylindrical appendages, and the appearance and
growth of the clusters and rows of spines on the upper surface
at the parts pointed out, may be considered analogous to
those sexual distinctions which exist in many species of birds
and mammals, and which, have been called by John Hunter
and others, secondary sexual characters. These spines on the
upper surface of the males occur in the different species of
Skate with smooth skins, as well as in the others, and are
entirely independent of those spinous productions of the
cuticle which distinguish two British species, and will be
more particularly noticed hereafter. It may here be stated
generally, that the Skate are very voracious : their food con-
sists of any sort of fish that they can catch, with mollusca,
testaceous or naked, and Crustacea. So powerful are their
muscles and jaws, that they are able to crush the strong shell
of a crab with ease. As in the Sharks, the females are larger
than the males.

The under surface of the Skate at the head of this subject
presents two central circular cavities. The upper one just
below the transverse mouth is bounded laterally by the five
branchial apertures on each outside ; within this cavity the
gills are placed. The circular cavity below is the abdomen,
and contains the stomach, intestines, and other viscera. The
heart is placed immediately in the centre between the two
cavities, and is protected by a broad and strong transverse
cartilaginous arch, the situation of which is indicated.

The young are produced towards the latter part of spring,
or during summer. They are deposited by the parent
fish in thin horny cases, like those of some of the Sharks
already described ; but they are more square in form, as
the representation here inserted will evince. These horny
cases of the Rays, like those of the Sharks, are also
called purses ; and on the coast of Cumberland bear the
name of Skate-barrows, from the resemblance in shape to

554

RAIID/E.

a four-hand eel machine by which two men carry goods. As
the young Skate increases in size, the angular parts of the
body curve over for a time, till the fish ultimately escapes
to provide for itself in a much wider but more dangerous

region.

The eleven species of true Rays which are found on the
coasts of this country will be arranged here in two divisions ;
the first of which contains seven species, having the skin per-
fectly smooth ; the second division contains two species with
rough skins, and two which are furnished with numerous short
sharp spines on various parts of the surface of the body ; these
lead to three other genera, the species of which are still more
powerfully armed with a long spine.

The Skate, as food, are held in very different degrees of
estimation in different places. In London, particularly,
large quantities are consumed, and the flesh is considered
delicate and well-flavoured ; but on some parts of the coast,
though caught in considerable numbers, both by lines and

LONG-NOSED SKATE. ~~.1

nets, the flesh is seldom devoted to any purpose beyond that
of baiting pots for catching crabs and lobsters.

Skate arc in the best condition for the table during autumn
and winter. In spring, and in the early part of summer, they
are usually maturing eggs or young, and their flesh is then
soft and woolly.

The Long-nosed Skate is immediately distinguished from
any other Skate found on the British coast, not only by'thc
great length of the nose, but also by the distance between its
most extreme point and the transverse line of the mouth ;
characters particularly observable in comparison with the spe-
cies next in order, with which it most assimilates in colour.
The snout is very much produced, narrow and sharp, slender
as far as the eyes, from whence the body dilates gradually
to its greatest breadth, which is behind the centre ; the
whole length of the body and tail one-third longer than the
width. On the upper surface the body is of a light lead
colour ; the tail with a row of crooked spines ; the small fins
on the tail not far removed from each other, the second about
its own length from the end. The under surface is a dirty
greyish white, marked with numerous mucous pores which
look like dusky specks ; the body is thin in substance ; the
nostrils are lobed ; the mouth narrow ; the teeth in old males
sharp : on the snout two rows of minute tubercular spines ;
towards the outer upper edge of the pectoral fins on each side
are the usual rows of sharp hooked spines, and close to the
tail the long pendent claspers. The figure here given repre-
sents the under surface of a female.

According to Mr. Couch, this species frequents deep water,
and is not caught through the winter : fishermen say that it is
exceedingly violent when hooked. I may here state gene-
rally, that the greater part of the Skate brought to market arc
taken in trawl-nets.

556 RAIID.K.

CHONDIWPTER.YG1I. RA11D&.

THE SHARP-NOSED RAY.
WHITE SKATE, Scotland. — BURTON SKATE, Cornwall.

Raia ariirJiynchus, Sharp-nosed 11 ait) MONTAGU, Wern. Mem. vol. ii. p. 423.

,, ,, ,, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 113.

,, ,, ,, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 171, sp. 21.

,, ,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 511, sp. 20.

,, ,, Burton Skate, COUCH'S MS.

,, lintea, FRIES, Ichth. Scand.

THIS species, says Mr. Couch, from whose drawing the
figure is taken, " may be easily recognised by its sharp
snout, by the waved line of the margin of the body from
the snout to the extremity of the expansion, and by its pure
white colour on the lower surface. It is the largest of the
British Rays ; for though in length and breadth it may not

SHARP-NOSED RAY. ">">7

exceed the common Skate, its superior thickness rentiers it
heavier."

Colonel Montagu, in the Wcrnerian Memoirs already
quoted, says, by way of further distinction, the snout in this
species is slender, the lateral margins in a moderately-sized
fish running nearly parallel to each other for three or four
inches at the extremity. The skin is smooth, with the ex-
ception of the spines on the upper surface, peculiar to the
males, as shown in the figure ; the colour a plain brown with-
out spots or lines, and never so dark as the Skate last de-
scribed, with which it is sometimes confounded. The teeth
of the males, according to a specimen of the mouth very
kindly sent to me by Mr. Couch, are longer, more pointed,
and sharper than those of any other species I have had an
opportunity of examining. The tail is armed with three rows
of spines.

Mr. Couch states that the smaller-sized specimens are
taken throughout the year ; but those which are larger keep
in deep water, and are only taken in summer and autumn.

The French are great consumers of Skate, and this species
is their favourite fish : their boats come to Plymouth during
Lent to purchase Skate, which they preserve fresh and moist
during the run back to their own coast by keeping them
covered with wet sand.

This species is the White Skate of the Orkneys, and of
Scotland generally. Dr. George Johnston says it is not un-
common at Berwick, and attains a very large size : this gen-
tleman had measured one Avhich was seven feet nine inches
in length, and eight feet three inches in breadth. It is said
to have been taken on the south-east coast of Ireland.

Two examples of this species have been obtained at Madeira
by the Rev. R. T. Lowe, as recorded in the Proceedings of
the Zoological Society for 1889, p. 92.

558

CHOXDROPTEU YOU.

RAiii'i:.

RAUDX.

THE FLAPPER SKATE.

Raia intermedia. Parncll.

Hula intermediti. Flapper Skate, PARNELL, R. S. E. Proceedings, 17 April,

1837, p. 166.

Trans. R. S. E. vol. xiv.pl. 6.
,, ,, ,, ,, ,, Mem. Wern. Nat. Hist. Soc. vol.

vii. p. 429, pi. XL.
,, ,, ,, ,, MULLER & HENLE, Flag. p. 147.

" THIS fish," says Dr. Parnell, " which was obtained in
the Frith of Forth in the month of May, seems to be a new
species of Skate, since I am not aware of its having been
previously described. It appears to be the connecting link
between Raia batis and Raia oxyrhynchus, to both of which
it is closely allied, and it is from this circumstance that I
suggest the specific name of intermedia.'''1

FLAITKR SKATE. 559

" It is distinguished from Raia ball's, in the upper sur-
face of the body being perfectly smooth, without granulations,
and of a dark olive colour spotted with white ; in the ante-
rior part of each orbit being furnished with a strong spine
pointing backwards ; in the dorsal fins being more remote
from each other, and in the anterior margins of the pectorals
being rather more concave, giving the snout a sharper appear-
ance ; whereas, in Raia batis, the upper surface of the body
is rough to the touch, of a uniform dusky grey without spots ;
the orbits without spines ; the dorsal fins nearly approximate,
and the anterior margins of the pectorals nearly straight."

" It is likewise removed from Raia oxyrhynchus, in the
snout being conic ; the under surface of the body dark grey ;
a spine in front of each orbit, and the back of a dark olive-
green, spotted with white ; whereas in the Raia oxyrhynchus,
the snout is sharp and long, with the lateral margins parallel
near the tip ; the under surface of the body pure white, and
the back of a plain brown without spots."

This species is not uncommon in the Frith of Forth, and
" I have met," observes Dr. Parnell, " with two examples of
a variety of this fish which were taken in the salmon-nets at
Queensfcrry. They were both of small size, about eighteen
inches in length. The back was of a uniform dark olive
green without spots of any description, covered with a thick
mucus ; under surface of a dark grey ; body very thin ; snout
sharp, conical ; pectorals at their anterior margin rather
sinuous, passing off somewhat suddenly at that part, in a line
with the temporal orifices, giving the outline of the anterior
part quite a different appearance to that observed in Raia
intermedia ; the anterior part of each orbit is furnished with
a spine ; back perfectly smooth ; tail with one row of spines
on the dorsal ridge ; fins, and in all other respects, similar
to Raia intermedia.''''

A female specimen of this fish, about two feet in length,

5GO

RA1ID.E.

tail included, is thus described by Dr. Parnell : — " Body
rhomboidal, the transverse diameter equalling the distance
between the point of the snout and the last tubercle but
three on the central ridge of the tail ; from the point of the
snout to the temporal orifice, rather more than one-third the
length as far as the end of the anal fin, and one-fourth the
length as far as the termination of the first dorsal. Body
very thin ; snout pointed, conical ; pectorals large, somewhat
of a triangular form, uniting in front at the snout, and ter-
minating at the base of the ventrals ; the anterior margin
rather concave, the posterior margin rounded ; ventrals
about three times the length of their breadth ; anals
commencing close behind the ventrals, and terminating in
a free point ; rounded at the outer margins. Tail short
and firm, being no longer than the distance from the
base of the anal fin to the anterior margin of the orbit ;
along the mesial line is a line of tubercles with sharp points
directed downwards, about eighteen in number, commencing
at the base of the anal, and terminating at the commence-
ment of the first dorsal fin ; no lateral spines visible. First
dorsal fin small, rounded at the free extremity; situated
about one-third of the length of the tail from the tip ; the
base of the fin about equalling the length ; second dorsal
rather smaller than the first, and about the same form, placed
about half-way between the termination of the first and the
tip of the tail ; caudal fin rudimentary. Colour of the upper
surface of the body of a dark olive green, with numerous
white spots ; on the under surface dark grey, with minute
specks of a deeper colour. Eyes rather small, flattened
above, placed in front of the temporal orifices ; skin both
above and below perfectly smooth ; a strong, sharp, bent
spine in front of each orbit; ho spine or tubercles of any
description on the back. Mouth large, placed beneath ;
teeth small, not so large or so sharp as those in Raia batis.

CHONDROPTERYGII.

SKATE.

561

RA1ID&.

THE SKATE.

BLUE SKATE, and GREY SKATE, Scotland.
TINKER, Lyme Regis.

Raia batis, LINNAEUS. BLOCH, pt. iii. pi. 79, female.

,, ,, La Raie cendr&e, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 398.

,, Icevis sen cinerea, WILLUGHBY, p. 69, C. 5, male.

„ batis, The Skate, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 11 1.

,, ,, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 171, sp. 24.

„ ,, „ JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 510, sp. 199.

,, ,, ,, COUCH'S MS.

,, ,, NILSS. and FRIES Ichth. Scand.

,, ,, BLAINV. Faun. Franf. p. 13.

,, alba ,, ,, ,, p. 14.

,, batis BONAP. Faun. Ital. fasc. 29.

THIS species, which is frequently called the True Skate,

VOL. II. 2 O

562

RAIID.E.

to distinguish it from the Thornback and Homelyn, which
are also popularly called Skate, is not so/ commonly taken
as either, but is still better than either as an article of food.

It appears to be found among the Orkneys, in the Forth,
and on the coast of Scotland, where it is called Blue Skate
and Grey Skate. From thence southward as far as Kent,
and again westward to Cornwall, it is found along the whole
line of coast. In Ireland, the Skate is taken from Cork up
the east coast to Antrim, and from thence northward and
westward to Londonderry and Donegal. At Lyme Regis,
on account of its dusky grey colour, it is called the Tinker.

Dr. Storer includes this species in his Report on the
Fishes of Massachusetts.

In this species both sexes when adult have sharp teeth, the
points beginning to elongate by the time the body of the
fish has attained the breadth of twelve or fourteen inches.
The females are generally called Maids ; and fishermen dis-
tinguish the females of the three species of most frequent
occurrence by the names of Skate Maid, Thornback Maid,
and Homelyn Maid, — frequently calling the old male of the
Skate with his two long appendages the Three-tailed Skate.
In each of these species the females are observed to be much
more numerous as well as larger than the males. Pennant
mentions having seen a Skate that weighed two hundred
pounds : it is very voracious, and Mr. Couch has known five
different species of fish, besides Crustacea, taken from the
stomach of a single individual. There is reason to believe
that the true Skate produces its young later in the season
than either the Thornback or the Homelyn.

The breadth of the body is to its length nearly as four to
three ; the form of the nose conical : the lines from the nose
to the extreme lateral angle of each pectoral fin slightly con-
cave ; from thence to the ventral fins, the posterior free mar-
gins are rather convex ; the eyes are slightly elevated above

SKATE.

563

the line of the upper surface of the body, with a short, hard
tubercle in the front of each, and a second on the inner side
of each ; the irides yellow ; the temporal orifices valvular,
and placed close behind : the dorsal ridge of the body with-
out spines till near the origin of the ventral fins ; then com-
mence a single row on the centre, reaching along the tail as
far as the first of the two small fins, all the points of the
spines directed backwards ; one spine between the two small
dorsal fins. On the sides of the tail of a female of small size
there were no lateral spines ; but in a young male of the
same size, there were several lateral spines on each side, the
points of which were directed forwards, and are in that respect
characteristic of this species. The colour of the upper sur-
face of the body and tail greyish-brown : the margins anterior
to the angles of the pectoral fins tinged with reddish-brown ;
those behind the angles brownish-black, darker than the
body : the colour on the under surface is sooty white, with
dark lines in various directions, and numerous mucous pores
looking like blue specks with small sharp points disposed
among them over the surface. The nostrils are valvular, half
the width of the mouth in advance of each of its angles ; the
mouth rather wide ; the teeth in this species are sharp in
both sexes when adult, the inner angles of the central teeth
beginning to elongate in specimens when they are about
twelve inches in breadth across the body.

I may here add that the true Skate, the subject of the pre-
sent article, the Long-nosed Skate, the Sharp-nosed Skate,
and the Flapper Skate, which precede it, are, in some lo-
calities, included under the general term of Skate, from their
similarity in colour.

56-t

KAIID.E.

CHONDROPTERYGI1.

RA UD/E.

THE BORDERED RAY.

Raia marginata LACEPEDE.

,, ,, Bordered Ray, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 172, sp. 27.

,, ,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 512, sp. 201.

,, ,, BLAINV. Faun. Franf. p. 19.

,, ,, BONAP. ,, Ital. fasc. vi.

THE BORDERED RAY, as it is called from the broad
dark marginal edge of its pectoral fins, has been taken at
Liverpool, Brighton, and Weymouth ; it has also been
taken at Dieppe, and noticed by M. Noel and Lacepede.
It is a well-known species in the Mediterranean, described
by M. de Blainville, by the Prince of Musignano, and M.
Risso. But little is known of its habits, and it does not
attain a large size. M. Risso states that the flesh is con-
sidered pretty good.

BORDERED RAY. 565

I avail myself, by permission, of Mr. Jenyns1 description
of this species, taken from a specimen obtained at Wey-
moutli by Professor Henslow.

" Total length fifteen inches six lines : length of the
head from the end of the snout to the spiracles behind the
eyes, three inches six lines ; of the tail from the vent to its
extremity, seven inches nine lines : greatest breadth across
the pectorals, eleven inches three lines. The total length
of M. de Blainville's specimen was two feet. The form
rhomboidal ; the transverse diameter rather more than one-
third greater than the length from the end of the snout to
the vent : snout elongated, projecting considerably from
between the pectorals, terminating in a sharp point, with
the lateral margins nearly parallel for the last quarter of
their length : mouth moderately wide ; jaws transverse ;
teeth numerous, closely set, in several rows, roundish or
somewhat quadrilateral at the base, each terminating in a
sharp point : nostrils in a line with the corners of the mouth,
and rather more than half-way between them and the upper
margins of the pectorals ; a channel from the nostrils to the
mouth, covered by a membranous flap : eyes and spiracles
both large : skin perfectly smooth above ; and beneath also,
excepting along the anterior margins of the pectorals and
the surface of the snout, which are set with very minute
spines and denticles : one large spine above each eye, in-
clining backwards, and another smaller one behind each eye :
no spines on any part of the back, but three rows on the
tail, one occupying the middle ridge, the two others the
sides ; the spines on these rows strong and sharp, and mostly
inclining backwards : tail scarcely longer than the body,
depressed, rather stout, with two moderately-sized finlets
of equal form, nearly contiguous ; scarcely the rudiment
of a caudal : pectorals broad, with the anterior margins hol-
lowed out, and not prolonged beyond the basal half of the

566

RAIID.E.

snout ; ventrals moderate, deeply notched or bilobated. Ge-
neral colour of the upper part reddish-brown, somewhat paler
on the pectorals, with a faint indication of round whitish
spots ; beneath white, with a broad border all round, es-
pecially beneath the angles of the pectorals, of dark reddish-
brown, approaching to dusky : tail entirely black.""

Since the preceding portion of this article was printed, I
have received a specimen of the Bordered Ray from Lyme
Regis, for which I .am indebted to the kindness of Lord
Cole.

The vignette below represents a view taken near Hunger-
ford market.

SMALL-EYED RAY.

CHONDROPTERGYIL

567
RAIID^E.

THE SMALL-EYED RAY,

OR PAINTED RAY.

Raia microcellata, Small-eyed Ray, MONTAGU, Wern. Mem. vol. ii. p. 430.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 171, sp. 23.

„ ,, „ „ JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 515, sp. 204.

„ ,, Painted Ray, COUCH'S MS.

COLONEL MONTAGU and Mr. Couch appear to be the
only British naturalists who have obtained this species ; and
it must be considered a rare one, since the first of these
gentlemen saw but two examples, and the latter has only
seen one. The very small size of the eye is stated by both
to be a remarkable and striking distinction.

The length of the specimen obtained by Mr. Couch was
thirty-three inches and a half, of which the tail measured

568 RAIID.E.

thirteen inches ; breadth across the fins twenty-four inches ;
the eyes three inches apart, and five inches and a half from
the snout. The outline of the body much resembles that
of the Thornback, R. clavata ; snout a little prominent,
the margin waved to the extremity of the expansion, behind
rounded ; the eyes very small ; temporal orifices large : the
body covered with rough granulations, but altogether with-
out spines, either on its surface or about the eyes, except
a row that runs along two-thirds of the back, and down the
middle of the tail to the fins ; an irregular row of similar
hooked spines extends along each side of the tail ; along the
tail is a border on each side, like a membranous fin ; two
rounded fins towards the end of the tail, somewhat separated,
the hindmost one inch from the end, with which it is con-
tinuous by means of an elevated ridge. In the distribution
of its colours this is the most beautiful of the British Rays.
The upper surface is a light grey, with a lighter line running
along the back and middle of the tail, enclosing the central
row of spines. The disk is beautifully and regularly quar-
tered, first by three white lines enclosing each other, and
passing from near the eye circularly to near the extremity
of the expansion, the convexity of the arch inwards, and
consequently the shorter line nearer the margin ; on the
hinder edge of the disk, formed by the pectorals, are two
other lines passing from behind the expansion circularly to
the neighbourhood of the abdominal fins, the convexity of
the arch inwards ; on the more central part of the disk are
a few whitish spots, those of both sides answering to each
other ; the extreme edge of the disk posterior to its greatest
expansion, and also the abdominals, as well as the fin-like
margin of the tail, are edged with white. The nostrils have
a prominent expanded membrane ; width of the mouth three
inches ; teeth flat, like those of the Thornback ; mucous
orifices on the under surface numerous, and as if punctured
with a pin ; the colour of the skin a pure white.

SMALL-EYED RAY.

561)

Such is the description Mr. Couch gives of his specimen,
which was a female, and which was taken by a line on the 28th
of January 1835. In it numerous eggs were found, some of
which had attained their full growth ; — a circumstance which
fixes the period for the production of the young in this
species. Mr. Couch writes me word that he has since ob-
tained a second specimen, and Mr. M'Coy has described one
in the 6th volume of the Annals of Natural History, that
was taken in Dublin Bay, p. 407.

Montagu says both his examples were females, resembling
his R. maculata in form ; Mr. Couch refers to the Thornback
for shape : the figure here given is taken from Mr. Couch's
drawing, and it will be observed that all three have consi-
derable similarity of outline. A few extracts from Monta-
gu's description will exhibit further resemblance. The pro-
portions by measurement are very nearly alike ; the upper
surface pale brown, with a few scattered spots and lines of a
lighter colour on the margins of the wings ; the skin covered
with minute spines, which make it feel rough : the eyes
remarkably small, at once pointing out a material distinction ;
those of the specimen described did not exceed half an inch
in diameter from the opposite angles of the eyelids ; whereas
the R. maculata, and most others of similar size, have eyes
nearly double that diameter : one row of small hooked spines
on the tail, continuing along the dorsal ridge to the head.
Colonel Montagu's specimens being younger than that ob-
tained and described by Mr. Couch, had not acquired the
lateral marginal rows of spines on the tail ; the under part
smooth and white ; the teeth obtusely cuneiform, with a
broad edge that felt rough to the finger as it was withdrawn
from the mouth.

570

RAIID.E.

CHONDROPTERYGIL

RAIID&.

THE HOMELYN RAY.

THE HOME, SAND RAY, AND SPOTTED RAY.

Paia miraletus, LINNAEUS.

,,' maculata, Sand Ray, MONTAGU, Wern. Mem. vol. ii. p. 426.

,, miraletus, Mirror Ray, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 103.

,, rubus, Rough Ray, ,, ,, ,, pi. 20.

,, oculata, Mirror Ray, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 172, sp. 26.

,, maculata, Spotted Ray, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 514, sp. 203.

,, ,, BLAINV. Faun. Franf. p. 15.

,, aster ias, ,, ,, ,, p. 25.

,, miraletus, ,, ,, ,, p. 27.

,, ,, BONAP. Faun. Ital. fasc. iii.

THIS smooth-skinned spotted Ray, called Raia lams
and Homelyn so long ago as the time of Merrett,* and one
of our most common species along the line of our southern

* Pinax Rerum Naturalium Britannicarum. London, 1667, p. 185.

HOMELYN RAY. 571

coast, has not been so well distinguished or so clearly defined
by some authors as its obvious characters admit and require.
The males, though they have, like the females, a perfectly
smooth skin, have also spines about the eyes, rows of small
hooks on the upper surface of the pectoral fins, one row of
spines along the dorsal ridge, with one on each side a little
below the commencement of the dorsal series, and when full-
grown, with three rows of strong spines on the tail. Thus
extensively armed, the male has been called rubus : but those
authors who quote as a synonyme the R. rubus of Bloch,
part iii. pi. 84, have been misled by the German ichthyolo-
gist, whose figure proves his fish to have been a male of the
Thornback, of which his plate 83 is the female.

The Homelyn of our coast has been best made out and
described by Mr. Donovan, Colonel Montagu, and more
recently by the Rev. Mr. Jenyns, under the different names
here quoted.

This species is liable to some occasional variation in the
manner in which the upper surface of the body is spotted ;
the spots are sometimes numerous, at others sparingly distri-
buted : I have seen it quite free from spots, and have also
seen it with only one eye-like spot on each side, not far re-
moved from the line of the back. I have mentioned that
the skin, independent of the accessory organs, is quite
smooth. These variations have given rise to the different
trivial names miraletus, oculata, Itevis, and maculata, which
have been applied to it by different authors, from the appear-
ance of the particular specimens examined.

Colonel Montagu, referring to the miraletus and rubus of
Mr. Donovan, had no doubt that they were both identical
with his own maculata, since, being a common species on the
Devonshire coast, he had ample opportunities of seeing it
under its different appearances.

Mr. Donovan has given correct figures both of the Mirror

572 RAIID.E.

Ray and of tlie Homelyn, as quoted, the latter under the
trivial term rub us ; but he believed with Montagu, that they
were not distinct species. Mr. Donovan had noticed two
similar eye-like spots on several small examples of the true
Skate (batis) ; and I possess young specimens of the Thorn-
back (clavata) with the same sort of ocellated lateral spots,
and have seen many others of the three most common species.
Mr. Donovan's remark accords so closely with my own view,
that I insert it here in his own words : —

" Although we present this as the Raia miraletus of Lin-
nseus with perfect confidence, it is not without some hesita-
tion at least that we can offer it as a distinct species. In
every respect, except the ocellar spot on the wings, it perfect-
ly agrees with the Homerling Ray, and may possibly prove,
on further examination of other specimens, to be only a lusus,
or remarkable variety of that fish."

The figure given at the head of this subject exhibits the
eye-like lateral spots, from the possession of which it has been
called miraletus and oculata : the smoothness of the surface of
the skin, and its numerous smaller spots, sufficiently warrant
the terms leevis and maculata. The words oculata and laevis
were combined by some of the older authors, and probably
referred to this species.

The Homelyn and the Thornback, which are not very dis-
similar in shape, though otherwise perfectly distinct, are the
two species most common in the London market : a large
proportion of both are taken in the trawl-nets.

This species is not common on the east coast of Scotland.
In Ireland it has been taken at Belfast, Dublin, and Youghal.

The form is rhomboidal ; the diameter of the body about
one-fourth greater than the length : the nose short and blunt,
its projection beyond the outline of the pectorals but small :
in a young male specimen of twelve inches in breadth the se-
condary sexual characters begin to appear ; there are numc-

HOMELYN RAY. 57--

rous small spines about the nose, and some extending along
part of the anterior edge of the pectoral fins ; two or three
prominent spines before and behind each eye, with rough
granulations on the surface of the skin before and between
them : the more conspicuous characters that distinguish the
males have been already noticed. The eyes and temporal
orifices are large : the central row of dorsal spines commence
above the middle of the body, with one strong spine on each
side of it about the middle of the body and in the line of its
greatest diameter : the series of spines on the dorsal ridge
extend along the centre of the tail, with a row along each
side of it in adult specimens ; in young examples the series
on each side is not complete. On the tail are two small fins,
with two spines between ; the points of all the spines on the
central line and on the tail directed backwards.

The colour of the upper surface is a pale yellowish or
reddish brown, with spots of darker brown, subject to the
variations that have been already pointed out ; the colour of
the under surface plain white ; the skin smooth ; nostrils and
mouth near the end of the nose ; the mouth transverse, rather
small. Montagu says, both sexes of the maculata have sharp
teeth ; but this refers to examples that are perfectly adult :
young males of small size, and females when larger, have the
teeth blunt; in old males, and very probably also in old
females, from the operation of those laws which influence the
secondary sexual characters, the teeth become pointed.

The term Sand Ray is in some localities applied to the
males of this Skate, but that name belongs to the next spe-
cies.

574

RAIID.E.

CHONDROPTERYGII.

THE SANDY RAY.

Raia spinosa, RONDELETIUS, p. 355.

„ radula, DELAR. M6m. Poiss. Ivic. in An. Must. Hist. Nat. t. xiii. p. 321.

,, ,, Raie rape. Risso, Hist. t. iii. p. 151, sp. 38.

,, ,, ,, ratissoire, BLAINV. Faun. Franf . p. 25.

,, circularis, The Sandy Ray, COUCH, Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. xi. p. 71.

,, ,, ,, Cornish Fauna, p. 53.

,, fulsavela, BONAP. Faun. Ital. fasc. xxvi.

IN the second volume of the New Series of the Magazine
of Natural History, and the eleventh volume of the whole

SANDY RAY. 575

work, Mr. Couch has given a figure and description of a
species of Ray, which he hopes will be sufficient to prove
that it cannot be confounded with any other Ray recognised
as British ; " but whether," says Mr. Couch, " it can be re-
ferred to any species described by other authors, I am not
able to specify, except that I have with some degree of
hesitation, supposed it to be possibly the Raia asterias of
Ray, Syn. Pise. p. 27.

" I cannot, however, persuade myself but that this species
has been described by some authors, to whose writings I
have no opportunity of obtaining access ; I therefore refrain
from assigning to it a trivial name, that I may be in no
danger of adding to science a useless synonym e. Its English
name of Sandy Ray will be sufficient as a provisional de-
signation."

The close accordance of the figure and description of this
fish given by Mr. Couch, to the figure and descriptions of the
Raia radula of the authors here quoted, leaves little room to
doubt but that they refer to the same species, and I include
the fish, therefore, as here given, on Mr. Couch's authority.
The figure in the Fauna Italica represents a female of our
Sandy Ray, with the cluster of central dorsal spines, and the
particular form of the ventral or pelvic fins, with other cha-
racteristics.

" It bears but a distant resemblance to the Raia maculata,
or Homelyn," Mr. Couch observes, " either in appearance or
value ; for while the Homelyn is esteemed as food, either
fresh or salted, this is thought worthy only to bait the crab-
pot, or, just as frequently, to be thrown aside for manure.
It is of frequent occurrence in moderately deep water, from
spring to the end of autumn. In winter, however, it is not
often seen, chiefly, perhaps, because at that season the boats
do not venture quite so far from land ; but, perhaps, also,
from the fish having changed its quarters. It seems to be

576

R A TIDE.

an indiscriminate feeder, living on small fishes, and different
kinds of Crustacea."

" The specimen described, which was of the ordinary size,
measured three feet eight inches in length, of which the tail
was nineteen inches ; the breadth two feet four inches and a
half. The snout projected three-quarters of an inch, pro-
minent and elevated ; the mouth three inches and a half
wide, six inches from the snout. Under jaw peaked in the
middle ; the teeth slender, sharp, in rows not very closely
placed. The body passes off circularly from the snout, the
greatest breadth opposite the centre of the disk, and of a
rounded form. From the snout the ridge is elevated to the
eyes, a distance of five inches and three-quarters ; eyes two
inches asunder ; temporal orifices large. Body thickest pos-
teriorly ; the tail stout at its origin, rounded above, tapering ;
a groove along the body and tail ; two fins on the latter
close together. A few spines near the end of the snout ; a
semicircle of them behind each eye ; four short parallel rows
on the centre of the back, and a middle one continued along
the groove to the tail, which is covered with stout hooks,
scarcely in regular order. The remainder of the body
smooth. Colour above a uniform dusky brown, white below.
On the back a variable number of ocellated spots, the size of
the section of a large pea ; the centre pale yellow, the margin
a deeper impression, of the colour of the skin. I have
counted from eight to sixteen of these spots in different
specimens, and believe they have no determinate number ;
but they are always placed, on each side, with corresponding
regularity.

" Besides this description and figure, which I hope will
enable^, those who visit our fishing vessels to ascertain this
species, I will further observe, as marks of distinction from
the other British species of this genus, that in addition to
the form of the teeth, which are crooked and slender, resem-

SANDY RAY.

577

bling a bird's claw in miniature, but which still are less long,
slender, sharp, or crooked, than in young specimens of the
Raia oxj/rhj/nchus, it may be distinguished by a great ten-
dency to circularity in the disk, formed chiefly by a rounding
off of the pectoral fins, by a flatness of the anterior portion,
by the uniformity of its colour, the regularity of the spots,
and the comparatively short and tapering tail.

Since the publication of the Supplement to the British
Fishes, in which a considerable portion of the previous ac-
count appeared, I have been favoured by Captain Portlock, of
the Ordnance Survey, with excellent drawings of a male and
female of this species, which were caught in the North of
Ireland, and from the drawing of the female the representation
at the head of this subject was engraved. I am also indebted
to Captain Portlock for many other interesting communica-
tions on the Natural History of Ireland. The Sandy Ray
has also been taken in Dublin Bay. The detailed descrip-
tion by Mr. M'Coy of a Ray without a name, in his paper on
some rare fish from the coast of Ireland, printed in the sixth
volume of the Annals of Natural History, p. 405, to which I
have before had the pleasure to refer, appears to belong to
this species.

i
I"-'"

. - - - " - ' • = :' - , • in '•?, --,-•

- _: -

' • ''" ''- " •

578

RAIID.E.

CHONDROPTERYG1I.

l\ All DIE.

m- m

THE SHAGREEN RAY.

Paia fullon icfl, LINN/F.US.

,, chagrined, Shagreen Kay, MONTAGU, Wern. Mem. vol. ii. p. 420, pi. 21.
,, ,, ,, ,, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 117.

,, aspera, „ ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 172.

,, chagrined, ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 513.

,, ,, ,, ,, PARNELL, Wern. Mem. vol. vii. p. 431, pi. 41.

IN the first edition of the History of British Fishes, I
made the mistake, from the want of specimens, of confound-
ing the Shagreen Ray of Montagu with the Long-nosed
Skate of Mr. Couch. Dr. Parnell very kindly set me right,
and sent me, from Edinburgh, for my use, an example of the
Shagreen Ray, which appears to be a rare species here in the

SHAGREEN RAY. 57!.)

south ; at least I have not as yet been fortunate enough to
obtain one.

According to the late M. Fries of Stockholm, the Shagreen
Ray of English authors, so called from the rough shark-like
texture of the skin, is the Raia fullonica of Linnaeus, and is
probably, though this is not allowed by some writers, the
same species as that called fullonica by Rondeletius, p. 856
of the Latin edition of 1554, and p. 283 of the French
edition, printed at Lyons in 1558, illustrated by figures from
the same wood-blocks. This species is also probably the
R. fullonica of the Danish naturalist, M. Muller.

In the Frith of Forth, according to Dr. Parnell, " The
Shagreen Ray is occasionally taken in the stake-nets set in
deep water, more especially in the months of May and June,
when a few may be seen in the Edinburgh market along with
Grey Skate and Thornbacks. It is known to the fishermen
under the name of Rough Flapper, and its flesh is considered
inferior as food to that of the other species of Skates, it being
soft and dry. It feeds on small starfish, and crustaceous ani-
mals in general.""

Pennant met with a specimen at Scarborough, where he
says it is called the French Ray, and that it is caught on
hooks baited with sand-eels or sand-launce.

Montagu has noticed it on the Devonshire coast, and men-
tions having seen several of both sexes, but none larger than
that which he has described. He adds, that it is known to
some of the west country fishermen by the name of Dun Cow.

The Shagreen Ray has been taken on the north-east coast
of Ireland, by the collectors under the directions of the Ord-
nance Survey ; and Mr. Thompson has included this species
in his Report to the British Association on the Vertebrata of
Ireland, which is published in the volume for the year 1840.

This species appears to be the Raia aspera of the Fishes
of the Fauna Fran9aise by M. Blainville, p. 22.

2 P 2

580 RAIID.E.

Dr. Parnell's specific characters, ami description, from the
fish, while fresh, which I hope, on that account, to be excused
for making use of, are as follows : —

" Body on the upper surface very rough ; on the under
surface of a pure white ; a row of spines round the inner edge
of each orbit ; two rows of large bent spines on the tail."

" A female specimen, three feet two inches in length, tail
included. Body of a rhomboidal form ; the transverse dia-
meter rather greater than the distance between the tip of the
snout and the end of the anal rays ; from the point of the
snout to the tip of the pectoral, and from thence to the base of
the ventral fin on the opposite side equal ; the length of the
tail equal to the distance from its base to the posterior margin
of the orbit ; from the tip of the snout to the middle of the
eye, one-seventh of the whole length, catulal included ; the
transverse cartilage is situated mid-way between the extremity
of the nose and the termination of the base of the anal fin.
Snout sharp, conate ; the anterior margins of the pectorals
slightly sinuous ; the posterior margins rounded ; ventrals nar-
row, being three or four times longer than their breadth,
placed between the termination of the large broad pectorals
and the commencement of the anals, composed of five rays, of
which the second is the longest. Anals rounded at their
outer margins, and terminating free below, about five times
the breadth of the ventrals, each furnished with about twenty-
one rays. Dorsals approximate, small and thin, situated
nearly at the extremity of the tail, both of equal size, round-
ed at their posterior free margins ; each fin furnished with
eight rays, which appear to branch off from one large ray
situated horizontally. Caudal fin rudimentary, about half the
length of the base of the second dorsal. Colour of the upper
surface of the body of a uniform yellowish brown ; under sur-
face pure white. Eyes large ; a temporal orifice situated at
the posterior part, and a little on the outer side of each orbit ;

SHAGREEN RAY.

581

mouth large, placed beneath ; teeth strong and sharp-pointed,
arranged in each jaw in many rows. Skin on the upper sur-
face very rough, having a granulated feel when the hand is
passed over the pectorals ; at the base of the ventral and
anal fins the skin is perfectly smooth. About six large bent
spines, with broad bases situated on the upper part of the
snout ; round the inner margin of each orbit are from ten to
twelve of these spines, arranged in the form of a crescent ; on
the dorsal ridge, from the nape to the transverse cartilage, is
a row of six spines ; about a little more than half-way down
the back commence two rows of spines, which run down the
tail as far as the first dorsal fin ; the first ten or twelve spines
are very small, the rest gradually increase in size as they pro-
ceed ; no spines on the central ridge of the tail ; each spine
has its broad base more or less grooved, and its point directed
backwards ; on each side of the base of the tail are a number
of small hooked spines, placed in two or three irregular rows."
Montagu's figure, in the Memoirs of the Wernerian So-
ciety, was taken from an old male ; the figure here given is
that of a female, carefully reduced from Dr. Parnell's fish.

RAHD.E.

CHONDROPTERYG1L

RAUDJE.

THE THORNBACK.

Raia cluvtita, RONDELETIUS.

,i ,, Thnrnback, WILLUGHBY, p. 74.

,, ,, LINN.EUS. CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 398.

,, ,, Thornback, BLOCH, pt. iii. pi. 83, female.

,, rubvs, Rough, Ray, ,, ,, pi. 84, old male.

,, clavata, Thornback, MONTAGU, Wern. Mem. vol. ii. p. 416.

,, ,, ,, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 122, pi. 14, female.

,, ,, „ DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 26, female.

,, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 170, sp. 19.

,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 516, sp. 205.

,, ,, ,, COUCH'S MS.

,, ,, FIUES, Scand.

,, ,, et rubus, BLAINV. Faun. Franf. 33 & 21.

Dusybatis clnvata, BONAP. Faun. Ital. fasc. xxix.

THE THORNBACK exhibits very marked distinguishing
characters, and being also a very common fish, is one of the

THORNBACK. 583

best known of the species of Rays, — a term which Mr. Couch
considers to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon ' Reoh,1 which
means ' rough,1 and is particularly appropriate to the Thorn-
back, which, on the Cornish coast, is pre-eminently distin-
guished as the Ray. The Thornback is also taken com-
monly both on the coast of Scotland and Ireland. From the
good quality of the flesh of this fish, and the immense quan-
tity taken every year, the Thornback, and its female, the
Maid, is one of the most valuable of the species. Mr. Couch
says that the flesh takes salt well, and in this preserved state
affords the poor fishermen and their families many wholesome
meals when stormy weather prevents them obtaining fresh
supplies. The Thornback is taken in the greatest abundance
during spring and summer, because the fish then frequent
sandy bottoms in shallower water and nearer the shore than
usual, for the purpose of depositing their eggs ; but the flesh
of the Thornback at this season is not, as before noticed, so
firm as in autumn and winter. It is in the best condition for
table about November. Their food is various other fish, par-
ticularly flatfish, testaceous mollusca, and Crustacea.

Blocli's figure, plate 83, represents the female of this spe-
cies, under the name of R. clavata ; and the fish next in suc-
cession in that work, plate 84, is an old male of the same
species, but is called R. rubus, although most of the syno-
nymes quoted are those of clavata.

The figure here given was taken from a young male mea-
suring fourteen inches in breadth. The point of the nose is
but little produced : the anterior margins of the pectorals are
undulated ; the outline behind each lateral angle of the pec-
torals nearly straight, or slightly rounded : the eyes and tem-
poral orifices rather large, with two or three strong hooked
spines both before and behind them. The whole upper sur-
face of the body rough with small points, which when examin-
ed with a lens have stellated bases. Besides these, there are

584 BAIIIXE.

distributed over this upper surface numerous nail-like tuber-
cular spines, each of which has an oval osseous base ; the
margin of the base entire, with a central projecting crooked
shank or spine directed backward. Two of these broadly-
based spines occupy the central ridge of the nose ; others, to
the number of thirteen or fourteen, are distributed over each
side with some regularity, and similarly disposed on the two
sides. The dorsal ridge of unequally-sized spines begins a
short distance between and behind the temporal orifices, one
or two small spines occurring between each of the larger ones :
this single line of spines extends to the origin of the tail,
where three rows of spines begin and are continued along it,
forming a series of powerful weapons. The tail is furnished
with two membranous fins on the upper central ridge, and
ends with a small dilatation. The prevailing colour of the
upper part is brown, with numerous lighter-coloured spots,
and sometimes, as has been noticed already, with one larger
rounded spot on each pectoral. Young males and females
have fewer spines on the body than old males, and both
sexes attain some size before they put forth any ; they have
frequently also but one row of spines along the tail. The
colour of the under side is pure white, with a few spines only
on each side. The teeth of the adult male in this species are
decidedly different from those of the female, as shown in the
woodcut at the top of page 552 ; those represented on the
left hand being from a male fish, and those on the right from
a female fish of the same size, and representing one-half of
the inside of the mouth of each as seen from behind.

STARRY RAY.

585

CHONDROPTERYG1I.

RA1ID&.

THE STARRY RAY.

Raia rudiata, Starry Ray, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 114, female.
,, ,, ,, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 170, sp. 20.

,, ,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 517, sp. 206.

,, ,, FRIES, Scand.

THIS very beautiful and well-marked species was made
known by Mr. Donovan in his History of British Fishes,
and a very good coloured representation of it is added in
that work, which will prevent its being confounded with any
other.

Whether this species was really known to other authors
their descriptions do not afford unequivocal proof, and I
have therefore only quoted those synonymes which I know
to refer to this fish. Mr. Donovan's specimen, which was

RA1ID.E.

not more than four inches across and seven inches in length,

O

was caught on the north coast of Britain, and was commu-
nicated to him by Mr. Stuchbury.

Dr. Fleming, in his History of British Animals, quotes
as a synonyme to radiata the R.fullonica of the Fauna of
Greenland, by Fabricius ; and it is probably a Northern
species, the only three examples of it I have seen having
been received, one from Berwick Bay, and two from the
Frith of Forth. The first was a female, for which I am
indebted to the kindness of Dr. George Johnston, and from
this example the figure here given was derived. In 1835,
Dr. Parnell sent me from Edinburgh two examples, a male
and a female, which had been obtained in the Forth, and
obligingly permitted me to retain the male for my own col-
lection, which came marked accordingly. On comparing
these three examples with Mr. Donovan^ figure, no doubt
remained that they were of the same species.

The habits of this fish are but little known, and the figure
here given being that of a female, I shall closely describe
the male, which was nineteen inches long from the point of
the nose to the end of the tail, and fourteen inches in
breadth ; the snout but little produced, almost falling in
with the line of the anterior margin ; the lateral expansion
of the pectorals and their posterior margins rounded ; the
pelvic fins rather large : the central ridge of the nose, and
a great portion of the pectoral fins or wings, are covered
with asperities of different sizes, the forms of which are all
alike, being a single spine bent backwards, arising from a
stellated base of many radii ; these appear to be nearly sym-
metrical, and about equal in number on the two sides : the
eyes are blue and rather large, placed about half-way be-
tween the central transverse cartilaginous arch of the body
and the end of the snout ; before each eye one large spine,
and two large spines behind, with several smaller ones along

STARRY RAY.

587

the inner edge of each eye ; temporal orifices rather large ;
one large spine above the line of the transverse cartilaginous
arch, one upon the centre of it in the line of the dorsal ridge,
and two spines at each lateral extremity of the transverse
arch : below this cross-bar commences a series of equally
large spines on the dorsal ridge, which extends to the first fin
on the tail ; between these large spines arc a few smaller ones,
and on each side the central row of large spines is another
row of spines about half the size of the large ones, but more
numerous, forming three distinct rows down the back and
tail ; but all of them, though differing in size, have the same
character in respect to the beautifully radiated form of the
base from which the ascending spine arises : the upper surface
of the body independently of this arming is perfectly smooth ;
the colour pale brown, with a tinge of orange brown.

On the under surface the colour is uniformly white ; the
skin soft and smooth ; the nostrils large, defended by a cuta-
neous valve ; the mouth rather small ; the teeth in the male
with the internal angle elongated and sharp, and in a second
specimen, a female of ten inches only in length, the teeth are
becoming pointed.

The sexual appendages in the male here described are half
as long as the tail ; and as these, as well as the other sexual
distinctions, are well marked in this fish, which only measures
fourteen inches in breadth, I am induced to believe, from
the early acquisition of these characters, that this species
does not attain a very large size. This species is probably
the Raia asteria aspera Rondelctii of Willughby, p. 73,
pi. D, o, f. 4, and the Raia aspera of M. de Blainville, in
the Faun. Fran$. ; but I have not included these names
among the synonymes at the head of the subject, for the
want of that additional certainty which good figures would
have supplied.

588

RAIID.E.

CHONDROPTERYGIL

RAI1DJE.

THE STING RAY.

COMMON TRYGON. FIRE FLAIRE.

Trygon pastinaca, La Pastinaque, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 399.

,, ,, Common Trygon, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 170, sp. 18.

Pastinaca marina, Rondeletii, WILLUGHBY, p. 67, C. 3.

Raia pastinaca, LINN.EUS. BLOCK, pt. iii. pi. 82.

,, ,, Sting Ray, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 125.

,, ,, ,, ,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 99.

,, ,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 518, sp. 207.

,, ,, NILSS. Ichth. Scand. p. 120.

,, ,, BLAINV. Faun. Franf. p. 35.

Trygon pastinaca, BONAP. ,, Ital. fasc. 6.

TRYGON. Generic Characters. — Head enclosed laterally by the pectorals ;
posterior portion of the disk of the body somewhat rounded ; tail armed near
its origin with a long and sharp flattened spine, serrated on both edges : the
rest of the tail slender, without fins, and ending in a point ; teeth small.

FROM the Rays whose bodies are more or less covered and
protected with sharp spines supported on broad bases, and

STING RAY. 589

which spines, continued along the upper surface of the tail,
are defensively or offensively used, the transition to those
species of Rays which are still more powerfully armed is
easy and natural.

The Sting Ray was well known to the ancients, who en-
tertained many curious notions of the power and venom of
its spine ; and this fish is also noticed as an inhabitant of
the shores of this country so long ago as the days of Merrett
and Sibbald. Dr. Parnell has obtained one in the Forth.
At present it is more frequently taken on the southern coast
than elsewhere, from Sussex even as far west as the county
of Cork in Ireland. It appears, however, otherwise, to oc-
cupy an extensive range, being found in the Mediterranean,
and from thence to a high degree of north latitude on the
coast of Norway.

Colonel Montagu, in his notes, mentions obtaining a spe-
cimen, taken at Hastings, which was presented to him by the
Rev. Mr. Whitear. " At the base of the bony process in
the tail of this fish, was a smaller one ready to replace the
original if by accident it should be lost ; or possibly this
weapon may be deciduous and occasionally discharged." I
have lately obtained two in the London market.

Mr. Couch in his MS. says, " This species keeps on
sandy ground at no great distance from land, and in summer
wanders into shallow water, where it is often entangled in
the fishermen's nets, — the only way in which it is usually
caught, for it rarely swallows a bait. The manner in which
this fish defends itself, shows its consciousness of the formid-
able weapon it carries on its tail. When seized or terrified,
its habit is to twist its long, slender, and flexible tail round
the object of attack, and with the serrated spine tear the
surface, lacerating it in a manner calculated to produce vio-
lent inflammation." Other authors state that it is capable
of striking its weapon with the swiftness of an arrow into its

590 RAIID.E.

prey or its enemy, when with its winding tail it secures its
capture. These spines, as may be supposed, possess no really
venomous quality : when lacerated wounds happen to men of
a bad habit of body, the symptoms are frequently very severe.
In some countries, serrated fish spines, admitting of easy
application by tying, are used to point arrows and spears,
which when thus mounted become very formidable weapons.

A specimen examined and described by Pennant was two
feet nine inches long from the tip of the nose to the end of
the tail ; to the origin of the tail, one foot three inches : the
breadth, one foot eight inches. The body is quite smooth,
except, according to M. de Blainville, a few small tubercles
along the central line of the back and tail, as well as on the
upper and posterior part of the pectoral fins — probably a male
fish ; the shape almost round, and of a much greater thick-
ness and more elevated form in the middle than any other of
the Rays, but grows very thin towards the edges ; the nose is
very sharp-pointed, but short ; the irides are of a gold co-
lour ; behind each eye the temporal orifice is very large : the
colour of the upper surface of the body is a dirty yellow ; the
middle part, of an obscure blue : Mr. Donovan says the young
are spotted with brown. The tail and spine are dusky ; the
former very thick at the beginning : the spine, placed at
about one-third of the length of the tail from the body, is
about five inches long, flat on the top and bottom, very hard,
sharp-pointed, the two side edges thin, and closely and
sharply serrated the whole way ; the tail extends four inches
beyond the end of this spine, and becomes very slender at the
extremity. The under surface is white ; the nasal lobes very
large ; mouth and teeth small. The flesh is said to be rank
and disagreeable, and when laid bare by skinning or cutting
into, is very red, — a circumstance which may account for the
old name of Fire Flaire.

EAGLE RAY

591

CHONDTtOPTERYGlI.

UAIIDA:.

THE EAGLE RAY.

THE WHIP RAY. MILLER.

Myliobatis aquila, Aigle de mer, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 401.

Aquila Pellonii, WILLUGHBY, p. 64, C. 2.

Ruia aquila, LINN;EUS. BLOCK, pt. iii. pi. 81.

,, ,, Whip Kay, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 128.

,, ,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 519.

,, ,, BLAINV. Faun. Franc, p. 38.

Myliobatis aquila BONAP. ,, Ital. fasc. 2.

MYLIOBATIS. Generic Characters. — Head partly disengaged from the pec-
toral fins; teeth flat; the central plates much larger than those which are
lateral ; pectoral fins wing-like ; the tail armed with one fin upon the root,
behind that a serrated spine, as in the last genus Trygon.

PENNANT, in his British Zoology, states that Mr. Tra-
vis, surgeon at Scarborough, had the tail of a Ray brought
to him by a fisherman of that town : he had taken it in

592 RAI1D.E.

the sea off that coast, but threw away the body. It was above
three feet long, entirely covered with hard obtuse tubercles,
extremely slender and taper, and destitute of a fin at the
end. The tail of a fish received from Sicily, and believed
to have been taken from a specimen of the Eagle Ray, which
is not uncommon in some parts of the Mediterranean, cor-
responded with the description given by Mr. Travis.

On this authority the Eagle Ray was admitted into the
first edition of the History of British Fishes, in the hope that
observers on the coast would be induced to record any new
occurrence that might come under their notice. Aware of
this, says Dr. George Johnston, in the Proceedings of the
Berwickshire Naturalists1 Club, for September 1839, " it
was, with no ordinary delight, that I received a perfect spe-
cimen of the Raia aquila on Wednesday last, September
llth, which had been found that morning on the shore of
our bay (Berwick) near Spittal. It was quite fresh, and in
fine preservation ; and proves, as I think, that the conjecture
of Mr. Travis's fish being the aquila is perfectly correct.
There is, at all events, now no doubt that this species is a
native of our seas."

The following is Dr. Johnston's description of his spe-
cimen. " Body rhomboidal, expanded laterally, flat, thick -
ish, and raised in the middle, which gradually passes into
the thin sides or fins, of a uniform dusky olive green colour,
smooth and even. Head depressed, with a square vertex, or
we may compare it to the figure of a horse's hoof, having an
oblong space in the centre that represents the hollow part of
the hoof ; the front suddenly lowered, round and entire. Eyes
lateral, wide apart, roundish, dark grey, overhung by a bony
ridge. Behind them there is a large elliptical hole leading
to the gills. There is a series of punctures on each side of
the head, becoming most distinct and visible on the occiput.
Each fin forms a wide triangle, with entire plain margins.

EAGLE RAY. 593

Posterior fins square, and very small proportionally. Tail
once and a half as long- as the body, flagelliform, tapering
to a point, quadrangular, smooth, furnished with a small fin
within two inches of its root, and immediately under this fin
the aculeus, or sting, is protruded, which is upwards of three
inches in length, linear-lanceolate, long, serrated on both
sides, the serratures reflected. Ventral surface whitish, duskier
at the sides, smooth. Teeth transverse, linear-oblong, with
a small open space between the end of every pair on each
side."

" Extreme breadth twenty-one inches. From the snout
to the insertion of the tail thirteen inches. Length of the
tail twenty-one inches and a half."

I should be most ungrateful if I did not here record my
sincere thanks to Dr. Johnston, whose extreme liberality in-
duced him to present this interesting and unique British
specimen to me, and it is now preserved in my collection,
containing most of our British Rays.

This fish is called Eagle Ray from the wing-like form
of the pectoral fins ; and Whip Ray, from the long, slender,
and flexible character of its tail. The outline near the figure
of the fish represents the teeth of the upper and under jaw ;
each jaw forms part of a circle ; and from a particular rolling
motion, added to the crushing power of these teeth, the fish
has acquired the additional name of the Miller, in this and
in some other countries.

The Eagle Ray inhabits the European seas, the Mediter-
ranean, and has been found as far south as the Cape. Bloch
says he obtained one from Hamburgh, but it appears to be
much more common in the Mediterranean. Risso, in his
Ichthyology and Natural History of the environs of Nice,
says, that this species is taken throughout the year on the
shores of Nice, and is exposed for sale in the markets of
Sardinia and Rome : at the former place the spine of the

VOL. II. 2 q

594

RAIID.E.

tail is always cut off under a local regulation. The wounds
produced by these caudal spines are considered so dangerous
that the fishermen cut them off as soon as they get the fish
out of the water ; Risso, however, says that the common
notion that these spines possess venomous qualities is a mis-
take. Spallanzani and many other observers had satisfied
themselves that these serrated spines, when driven with force,
penetrating and tearing at the same time, though producing
painful wounds, leave no trace of the least poison. Risso
further mentions that the Eagle Ray swims rapidly without
much action of the pectoral fins ; that the flesh is not in
great estimation, but that the oil from the liver is considered
useful in paralytic affections.

I find this species, the one last described, the Sting Ray,
a Torpedo, and four other species of Rays, included in a
catalogue of one hundred and thirty-seven different kinds of
fish, of Malta and Gozo, with their Maltese, Latin, Italian,
English, and French names, as well as their season, by
Gaetano Trapani, first clerk in the Office of the Magistrate
for the markets, printed at the Government Press, Malta,
1838. For a copy of this very useful little book I am
indebted to the kindness of Mrs. Sarah Austin, a sister of
Richard Taylor, Esq.

HORNED RAY.

59-3

CHONDROPTERYGIL

RAUD/E.

THE HORNED RAY.

Cephalojitera Giorna, Risso, Ichth. p. 14.

,, ,, ,, Hist. p. 163.

,, ,, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 401.

Raia mobidar, BLAINV. Faun. Fran9- p. 41.

Ceplialoptera Giorna, THOMPSON, Report Brit. Assoc. 1840, p. 399 & 409.

CEPHALOPTERA. Generic Characters. — Body depressed ; head truncated in
front ; on each side of the head a membrane rolled upon itself, extended, in form
like a pointed horn : eyes large, lateral ; mouth transverse ; teeth small, like a
file ; the other characters as in the genus Tri/gon.

To William Thompson, Esq. of Belfast, one of the Vice-
Presidents of the Natural History Society of that town,
I am indebted for many valuable and interesting notices of
the fishes of the Irish lakes and coast which are distributed
in various parts of this work. In 1835, Mr. Thompson
made the following communication to the Zoological Society
of London, which is published in the Proceedings for that
year, at page 78.

2 Q 2

596 RAIID.E.

" Cephaloptcra, Dumeril. — A fish of this singular genus,
taken about five years ago on the southern coast of Ireland,
and thence sent to the Royal Society of Dublin, is at pre-
sent preserved in their museum. In breadth it is about
forty-five inches. The specimen being imperfect, and the
characters of some of the species being ill-defined, I hesitate
applying to it a specific name. It somewhat resembles the
Cephaloptera giorna as figured by M. Risso."

It is most probable that it is this fish, since the C. giorna
is the only species of the genus as yet known to exist in the
European seas. I am aware that M. Risso considers that
he has found a second species in the vicinity of Nice ; but
several good authorities believe that his examples of Cepha-
loptera Massena are only old and large specimens of Cepha-
loptera giorna.

The Horned Ray, differing greatly in size, appears to have
come often under the observation of M. Risso at Nice ; and
the following remarks, in reference to its Natural History,
are derived from his published works.

This fish approaches the shore, and is most frequently
taken in the month of July. From their horned appearance,
small ones are called vachetta, — young cow ; the larger ones
vacha. When found in pairs, the males appear to have a
strong attachment to the females. M. Risso relates that a

O

female was taken in one of the divisions or chambers of a net
arranged to catch Tunnies : the male constantly remained in
the vicinity for two days, from time to time approaching and
wandering round the net, as if in search of the female. Two
days afterwards he was found dead in the same division of the
net which had proved the fatal prison of his companion.
The young come forth in September, having been previously
deposited by the mother in long yellowish eggs. Their food
consists principally of cephalapods and fishes. Their liver is
large, and produces abundance of oil ; their stomach and in-

HORNED RAY. 597

testines exhibit numerous plicae. Contrary to that which is
observed in cartilaginous fishes generally, which are remarka-
bly tenacious of life, the Horned Ray dies immediately on
being taken out of the water, and even if confined by a rope
tied over the pectoral fins, though allowed to remain in the
sea, it dies in a few hours. The flesh is red, dense, hard,
difficult of digestion, and not in esteem as food, but is eaten
by the poorer classes. Females are larger and darker in
colour than males. They grow to an almost incredible size.
M. Risso saw a male that weighed eight hundred pounds,
and a female that weighed twelve hundred pounds. In the
Arcana of Science and Art for the year 1834, page 224, is
a description and a figure representing this fish, copied from
M. Le Vaillant. He saw three in lat. 10° 15' N. ; longitude
335° W. ; he prevailed upon the crew to attempt the capture
of one of them, which they effected, and took the smallest,
which measured twenty-eight feet in width, and twenty-one
feet in length, and was supposed to weigh a ton (twenty hun-
dred weight) ; the mouth like a Ray's mouth, but wide
enough to swallow a man. The name was applied to it by
Lacepede in compliment to the late Professor Giorna, of the
Academy of Turin.

The description of M. Risso is as follows :

" The body is thick, and slightly rounded, transversely
elliptical, smooth, of an indigo-blue colour above, dingy
white underneath ; the mouth is of great size ; the jaws large ;
the eyes globular, the irides bluish silver ; the spiracles elon-
gated ; the branchial openings slightly crescentic ; the dorsal
fin small, triangular, dark blue, varied with white at the
edge ; the ventrals short, with a small appendage ; the tail is
long, thin, and slender, smooth for one-fourth of its length,
then tuberculated, and armed at its base with a long and
sharp flattened spine, serrated on both edges.

5.98

PETROMYZ1D/E.

CHONDROPTEUYGIL

PETROMYZWsE,*

THE LAMPREY.

Petromyzon marinus, LINNSUS. BLOCH, pt. iii. pi. 77.

,, ,, La Grande Lamproye, CUVIEE, Regne An. t. ii. p. 404.

Lampelra Rondeletii, WILLUGHBY, p. 105, G. 2, f. 2.

Petromyzon marimif, Sea Lamprey, PENS-. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 102, pi. 10.

,, ,, Spotted Lamprey, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 81.

,, ,, Lamprey, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 163, sp. 1.

,, ,, Sea Lamprey, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 520, sp. 209.

PETROMYZON. Generic Characters. — Body smooth, elongated, cylindrical,
like that of an Eel ; the head rounded ; the mouth circular, armed with hard
tooth-like processes ; the lip forming a continuous circle round the mouth ;
seven apertures on each side of the neck, leading to seven branchial cells ; no
pectoral or ventral fins ; the skin towards the tail extending in a fold from the
body both above and below, forms dorsal, anal, and caudal fins.

THE last family of the cartilaginous or chonclropterygian
fishes contains the Lampreys, and some cylindrical fishes
very closely allied to them. These fishes are, in reference to
their skeleton, and in some other respects, the lowest in
the scale of organization among vertebrated animals. The
form and peculiarities of the mouth will be best understood
* The family of the Lampreys.

LAMPREY. 599

by a reference to the vignette ; the figure on the left hand of
which shows the flexible lip concealing the mouth ; the figure
on the right hand represents the rounded mouth, the small
and numerous tubercular teeth, and the central aperture lead-
ing by the throat to the stomach.

The situation of the branchial cells, and the gills or
branchiae within these cells as they exist in the common River
Lamprey, or Lampern, as it is also called, are shown in the
right-hand figure at the bottom of page 433 : and the water
obtains access and egress by seven small apertures on each
side of the neck, by the mouth of the fish, or by an aperture
through the upper part of the head which communicates with
the pharynx, and which communication is distinctly seen in a
divided head.

The Lampreys, like the Sharks and Rays, have no swim-
ming-bladder ; and being also without pectoral fins are usually
seen near the bottom. To save themselves from the constant
muscular exertion which would be necessary to prevent them
being carried along by the current of the water, they attach
themselves by the mouth to stones or rocks, and were in
consequence called Petromyzon, or Stone-sucker ; while the
circular form of the mouth induced the name of Cyclostomes,
or Round-mouthed Fishes, which was bestowed upon them
by M. Dumeril.

In reference to the respiratory apparatus in the species of
this genus, Mr. Owen has remarked,* that " when the
Lamprey is firmly attached, as is commonly the case, to
foreign bodies by means of its suctorial mouth, it is obvious
that no water can pass by that aperture from the pharynx to
the gills ; it is therefore alternately received and expelled by
the external apertures. If a Lamprey, while so attached to

* Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Physiological Series of Com-
parative Anatomy contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons
in London, vol. ii. page 80.

600 PETROMYZ1D.E.

the side of a vessel, be held with one series of apertures out
of the water, the respiratory currents are seen to enter by the
submerged orifices, and, after traversing the corresponding
sacs and the pharynx, to pass through the opposite branchiae,
and to be forcibly ejected therefrom by the exposed orifices.
The same mode of respiration must take place in the Mix-
ine," (a species of this family to be described hereafter,)
" while its head is buried in the flesh of its prey. The
cyclostomous fishes thus present an obvious affinity to the
Cephalopoda, inasmuch as the branchial currents are inde-
pendent of the actions of the parts concerned in deglutition."

The intestinal canal is small, and extends in a straight line
along the abdomen to the anal aperture without any convolu-
tion. The Lampreys are oviparous, spawning late in the
spring ; the roe escaping, in both sexes, by a small membra-
nous sheath, which has internally at its base five apertures,
one leading upward to the intestine, one to each kidney, and
one to each lateral cavity of the abdomen.

The Marine Lamprey, which from its mottled appearance
was called P. maculosus by Artedi, has a very extensive geo-
graphical range. It is found in the Mediterranean, and from
thence northwards in most of the rivers of Europe as far as
Scandinavia, during the spring. Professor Reinhardt in-
cludes it among the fishes of Iceland, and our countryman
Pennant gives it a place in his Arctic Zoology. From a
description and figure in the Natural History of the Fishes
of Massachusets, by Dr. Smith of Boston, this fish appears
to be common in the rivers of North America, attaining a
large size in those of the more southern states, but not ex-
ceeding seventeen or twenty inches in length in a high
northern latitude. Dr. Mitchell also includes this species
among his fishes of New York. Dr. Storer of Boston, how-
ever, considers this fish distinct from the European Lamprey,
and calls it the P. Americanus of Le Sueur. Our fish is

LAMPREY. G01

rather common during spring- and summer in some of the
rivers on the southern coast of England, particularly the
Severn, and is found in smaller numbers in several of the
rivers of Scotland and Ireland about the same period of
the year.

I have received specimens of large size from the Severn
in April and May, during which months it ascends that river
to a great distance from the sea for the purpose of depositing
its spawn. At this time it is considered in perfection as
food, and considerable quantities are prepared in various ways
for the table : the potted Lampreys and Lamperns of Wor-
cester are in high estimation. A few are caught in the
Thames almost every year, up which river it travels notwith-
standing all the numerous and various obstacles which the
port of London presents. I am indebted to my friend Mr.
Broderip for a note of one taken in June 1834, and another
in the same month of 1835, as high up the Thames as
Sunbury Weir. A fisherman saw the Lamprey, and struck
at it with his punt pole, and supposed he hit it, as the fish
rose to the surface and was taken as it was swimming along.
The haunt of this Marine Lamprey at Sunbury is a little
above the church, and nearly opposite the vicarage, in a place
called the Church Deep.

In Scotland, the appearance of the Lamprey in the fresh
water is rather later in the year than in the rivers of the
south. Sir William Jardine says, " They ascend our rivers
to breed about the end of June, and remain until the begin-
ning of August. They are not furnished with any elonga-
tion of the jaw, afforded to most of our fresh-water fish, to
form the receiving furrows at this important season ; but the
want is supplied by their sucker-like mouth, by which they
individually remove each stone. Their power is immense.
Stones of a very large size arc transported, and a large furrow
is soon formed. The P. mar inns remain in pairs, two

PETROMYZID.E.

on each spawning place ; and while there employed, retain
themselves affixed by the mouth to a large stone."

After the spawning season is over, the flesh of the Lam-
prey, like that of other fish, loses for a time its firmness and
other good qualities, and the weakened fish makes its way
back to the sea, to recruit its wasted condition.

The food of the Lamprey consists generally of any soft
animal matter ; and in the sea it is known to attack other
fishes even of large size, by fastening upon them, and with
its numerous small rasp-like teeth eating away the soft parts
down to the bone. It is not very often caught while it
remains at sea.

This species usually measures from twenty to twenty-eight
inches in length ; the head is rounded ; the form of the body
long and cylindrical, slightly compressed towards the tail ;
on the top of the head, rather before and between the eyes,
is an external aperture, which if examined with a blunt probe
is found to pass downward and backward, opening into a tube
on a line with the internal orifice of the first branchial sac :
along each outside of the neck are seven rounded apertures,
leading to as many branchial cells lined with a membrane
constructed like that of the gills in fishes ; each of these cells
has an internal opening into a tube which is closed by a car-
tilaginous pericardium at the bottom, but communicates up-
wards with the mouth : the lips surrounding the mouth, and
the numerous small teeth within, have been already referred
to : on the lower third portion of the body are two distinct
membranous dorsal fins, the second of which is the most
elevated, the edges of both convex ; a continuation of this
membrane round the extreme fleshy portion of the tail forms
a caudal fin, and a narrow slip passing upwards on the under
side forms an anal fin.

The skin is perfectly smooth ; the colour of the body olive
brown, mottled and spotted on the back and sides with

LAMPREY.

603

darker green and dark brown ; the margins of the fins in-
clining to reddish-brown ; the irides golden yellow.

In slowly-running water, the Lamprey swims with a lateral
undulating motion of the body, assisted by its dorsal and
caudal fins : where the current is rapid, it makes successive
plunges forward, attaching itself quickly to any fixed sub-
stance that offers to secure the advantage gained.

The figure of the fish at the head of this subject was taken
from an excellent drawing made by Mrs. Ley.

Dr. Parnell says that in the Forth, above Alloa, when the
fishermen take the Lamprey in their nets, they invariably
return them again to the water, having a prejudice against
them. They are consequently never, under any circum-
stances, seen in the Edinburgh markets.

Pennant states that it has been an old custom for the city
of Gloucester annually to present the Sovereign of the realm
with a Lamprey pie, covered with a large raised crust.

Of this species in Cornwall, Mr. Couch, in his Fauna, says,
" Common, but rarely used as food."

60-4

VETROJMY/ID.*:.

CHONDROPTERYGII.

PETROMYZIDX:

THE LAMPERN, OR RIVER LAMPREY.

Petromyzon fluviatilis, LINNAUS. BLOCII, pt. iii. pi. 78, fig. 1.

,, ,, CuviEn, Regne An. t. ii. p. 404.

,, ,, Lesser Lamprey, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 106, pi. 10.

,, ,, Lampern, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 80.

,, ,, River Lamprey, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 163, sp. 2.

,, ,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 521,

sp. 210.

THE RIVER LAMPREY, or Lampern, as it is called by
fishermen for distinction, is a well-known species which
abounds in many rivers of England, particularly the Thames,
the Severn, and the Dee : it is also said to be abundant in
the Tweed., in several rivers of Scotland, and on the north,
the east, and the south in Ireland.

Some authors state that this species, like that last described,
visits our rivers in spring, and returns to the sea after spawn-
ing ; but the recorded opinions of others, and my own obser-
vations, induce me to believe that it generally remains all
the year in the fresh water. In the Thames I am certain it
is to be obtained every month in the year ; but is considered

LAMPERN. 605

in the best condition for the table from October to March,
during which time it is permitted to be caught, according
to the rules adopted for the conservation of the fishery.

Formerly the Lampern was considered a fish of consider-
able importance. It was taken in great quantities in the
Thames from Battersea Reach to Taplow Mills, and was
sold to the Dutch as bait for the Turbot, Cod, and other
fisheries. Four hundred thousand have been sold in one sea-
son for this purpose, at the rate of forty shillings per thousand.
From five pounds to eight pounds the thousand have been
given ; but a comparative scarcity of late years, and conse-
quent increase in price, has obliged the line fishermen to
adopt other substances for bait. Formerly the Thames alone
supplied from one million to twelve hundred thousand Lam-
perns annually. They are very tenacious of life, and the
Dutch fishermen managed to keep them alive at sea for many
weeks.

If this species, which is very easily obtained, be examined
in the months of March or April, the distinction of the sexes
will be immediately evident on opening them. The female
may generally be known externally by the larger size of the
abdomen, and the male by his lips being more tumid and the
mouth larger than that of the female. The season of spawn-
ing is May, and the process has been described by several
observers. This sometimes takes place in pairs only, and at
others by many of both sexes occupying one general spawning
bed.

The food of this species, according to Bloch, is insects,
worms, small fish, and the flesh of dead fish.

The adult fish is usually from twelve to fifteen inches in
length ; the body rather slender, cylindrical for two-thirds
of its length, then compressed to the end of the tail ; the
head rounded, with a single aperture on the crown, leading to
the tube between the cells, as in the other species : the eye

606 PETROMYZID.E.

rather large ; the seven lateral openings ranged in a line
behind, but a little obliquely and below it, on each side : the
lip surrounding the mouth has a continuous row of small points
on its margin ; the mouth and teeth as represented near the
figure of the fish : the back furnished with two rather elongated
dorsal fins, with a separation between them ; the tail furnished
with an extension of the membrane above and below.

The skin is quite smooth, of a blue colour on the back and
sides, passing into silvery white underneath.

In " The Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle," attri-
buted to Dame Juliana Berners, and first printed by Wyn-
kyn de Worde, in his edition of the Book of St. Albans, in
1496, the learned lady, after recommending a minnow and a
worm as proper baits for the Trout in the month of March,
adds, " In Aprill take the same baytes : and also Juneba,
other wyse named VII. eyes.""

Seven eyes and nine eyes, in reference to the apertures
about the head, are common names for the Lamprey in this
and some other countries ; but a derivation for the term
Juneba is a desideratum.

Linnseus, in his Tour in Lapland, particularly notices this
species, vol. ii. p. 196, as found in West Bothnia, and de-
scribes the modes by which they are caught, — namely, hollow
cylinders of wood, and elongated wicker-baskets, like those in
use in this country for catching Eels. These, he says, " are
laid at the depth of two ells in the river, and kept down with
stones, the opening being turned to meet the current."

This species is also said to be found at Moscow, and in the
Black and the Caspian Seas.

FRINGED-LIPPED LAMPERN. GOT

CHONDROPTERYG11. PETROMYZIDJE.

THE FRINGED-LIPPED LAMPERN.

PLANER S LAMPREY.

Petromyzon Planer i, Planer's Lamprey, BLOCH, pt. iii. pi. 78, fig. 3.

f> ,, La Petite Lamproye, CUVIEH, Regne An. t. ii. p. 404.

,, Planer's Lamprey, JENYNS, Man. Br. Vert. p. 522, sp.21 1.

THIS species, when adult, is easily distinguished from the
Lampern last described, by its being much shorter in length,
and yet equally thick in substance : it may also be recog-
nised at all ages, on comparison with it, by its having the
whole broad edge of the circular lip furnished with numerous
papilla forming a thickly-set fringe, and by the depth and
close connexion of the two dorsal fins.

Dr. Parnell says, this species is found in the Forth, the
Teeth, the Allan, and several other rivers in Scotland. I
am indebted to the kindness of Sir William Jardine for two
specimens of the young of this species, which were sent
from the Tweed. Dr. Johnston has been told that it is
not uncommon at Melrose. I have received some from
Surrey, and Mr. Linwood mentions having found some in
Sussex. Mr. Couch has obtained specimens from a branch
of the Looc, in Cornwall. I have received some specimens

G08 PETROIMYZID.E.

from Lancashire, the males of which measured eight inches
in length, and the females nine inches. Mr. William
Thompson, in his Fauna, records this species as having been
taken in the north, east, and south of Ireland.

This species was named by Bloch after his friend Planer,
a professor at Erfort, who sent him specimens ; but if Blocks
species be the same as our British fish, his figure is excep-
tionable. This Lampern appears to be well known to M.
Nilsson, who includes it in his Prodromus of the Fishes of
Scandinavia, and says it is an inhabitant of almost all the
brooks and rivers of Sweden, and that it spawns in April or
May. M. Nilsson gives to this fish the length of six inches
only : it appears therefore that this species, like P. marinus
and P. fluviatilis, does not acquire in high northern regions
the size of our specimens in this country.

When compared with P.Jluviatilis, Planer's Lampern has
the orifice on the forehead, the eye, and the first of the bran-
chial apertures, much nearer the anterior edge of the lip than
in the other species ; the lip broad and fringed, and the dis-
position of the teeth as shown in the additional figure of the
mouth only : the first dorsal fin begins about the middle of
the whole length of the fish, and is in close contact with the
second dorsal fin, which in its base is as long again as the
first : the tail is furnished with an extension of membrane
above and below, forming a caudal fin ; and a narrow slip
passing forwards towards the anal sheath, forms a rudimentary
anal fin.

In its colours this species agrees with the common Lam-
pern, being dusky blue on the back and sides, passing into
silvery white on the belly, the fins having a brown tint.

In its habits, Planer's Lampern so closely resembles the
common Lampern, as frequently, no doubt, to have been
mistaken for it. Both may go to the salt or brackish water
from that part of a river within the influence of the tide.

PRIDE.

CHONDROPTERYCII.

PETROMYZIDJE.

THE PRIDE, AND SANDPRIDE.

SANDPREY, AND MUD LAMPREY.

Ammoccctes branchialis, Lamprillon, CUVIEH, Regne An. t. ii. p. 406.
,, ,, Pride, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 164, sp. 3.

,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 522, sp. 212.

Petromyzon

CCECUS,

LINNAEUS. BLOCH, pt. iii. pi. 78, fig. 2.
Pride, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 107, pi. 10.

Mud Lamprey, COUCH, Loudon's Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. v.
p. 23, figs. 9 & 10.

AMMOCCEFES. Generic Characters. — Form of the body, the branchial aper-
tures and fins, like those of the Lampreys; upper lip semicircular, with a
straight, transverse under lip ; mouth without teeth, but furnished with nume-
rous short membranous cirri.

THIS small fish is very similar in its general appearance to
the young of the Lampreys found in fresh water ; but its
prominent lip is in the form of a horse-shoe, and the circle
not being complete, it has not the power of adhering to
stones and other substances like the true Lampreys, but
generally hides itself in the mud or loose sandy bottoms of
rivers and brooks in this country, in most of which it will be
found, but requires close search to detect it. It is of little
value, seldom exceeding six or seven inches in length, and is
about as thick as a large quill.

VOL. II. 2 R

GH) PETROMYZID.E.

It was formerly considered to be a Lamprey, and was
called Petromyzon cacns by Ray, on account of its very
small eyes : it afterwards had the trivial name of branchialis
bestowed upon it by Linnseus, from a notion that it attached
itself to the gills of fishes. It is said to be common about
Oxford, and was called by Dr. Plot, in his History of Ox-
fordshire, the Pride of the Isis ; Prid being an ancient dimi-
nutive for Lamprey. It is very common in the Thames about
Hampton, where it is called Sandpride. Mr. Jesse says the
Eel is one of its greatest enemies, and feeds greedily upon
it. I have received it from Hertfordshire, and some other
inland counties. It spawns at the end of April or the begin-
ning of May, and feeds upon worms, insects, and dead or
even putrid animal matter.

Dr. Parnell and Dr. George Johnston have noticed this
species as found in the Forth and in the Tweed.

Mr. Couch says, " I find this species frequents our smaller
streams in Cornwall, living in the muddy bottom, from which
it rarely, if ever, willingly emerges. I have kept it for
months in stagnant water, with mud at the bottom, without
injury to- its health or activity. The only apparent use of
its fins is to enable it to regain its station, when forced from
it by violent torrents. When kept in clear water it seems to
sleep much. I have never found this species to attach itself
to any object by the mouth ; but the lips are capable of
extensive and complicated motions. Our fishermen collect
them to use as bait for their hooks when whiffing for Pol-
lacks."

All the British Lampreys are found in the waters of Ire-
land, and this diminutive species has been taken in the
north, the east, and the south.

The upper lip and the mouth in this species, as shown in
the enlarged representation of the lower surface of the head
under the figure of the whole fish, is in the form of a horse-

PRIDE.

Gil

shoe ; the inner part furnished with numerous short and
slender membranous cirri ; " the lingual and palatine plates
somewhat harder than the other portion, but no true teeth :"
on the top of the forehead is a small orifice and canal, which
leads to the internal tube between and connected with each
lateral set of branchial cells, as in the Lampreys ; the eye is
very small, so much so as to have been occasionally over-
looked, and it is situated at the bottom of a small and deep
depression : the branchial apertures are seven on each side,
arranged along a kind of lateral groove : the body of the fish
at this part is rather tumid ; behind this the form of the body
is nearly round, the portion beyond the anal opening com-
pressed : there are two dorsal fins, the first short and low,
the second longer and higher, with a distinct diminution
between it and the first dorsal fin, and also with the dilated
membrane forming the caudal fin, which is somewhat round-
ed, the fleshy portion of the tail being pointed ; a narrow
slip of membrane forms an anal fin.

Some variations occur in specimens of this fish from differ-
ent localities, and there is even reason to suppose that two
species may exist. The most frequent colour is yellowish
brown, approaching to blackish brown on the top of the head
and upper part of the back, much lighter underneath and on
the fins.

2 R 2

I'ETROMYZIPE.

CHONDROPTERYGII.

PETROMYZID&.

THE MYXINE.

GLUTINOUS HAG, AND BORER,

Gastrobranchus ctrcus, Blindjisli, BLOCH, pt. xii. pi. 413.

,, ,, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 406.

,, ,, Glutinous Hag, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 109.

Miiine glutinrsa, LiNN.tus.

,, ,, Glutinous Hag, FI.EM. Brit. An. p. 164, sp. 4.

,, ,, ,, ,, JENVNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 523,

sp.213.

GASTROBRANCHUS. Generic diameters. — Body elongated, cylindrical,
smooth; dorsal fin very low, continued round the tail to the vent ; a single
spiracle on the head communicating with the interior ; lips surrounded with
eight barbules or cirri ; mouth with one hook-like tooth ; tongue with two rows
of teeth on each side; branchial apertures two, placed under the commencement
of the belly.

THE worm-like form of the fish figured above induced
several systematic authors, including Linnseus, to class it
with the Worms ; and it was not till after dissections and
published descriptions that its true relations with the Lam-
preys were acknowledged. Of these memoirs, that furnished
to the French Institute in 1797 by Bloch, the ichthyologist

MYXINK. C13

of Berlin, will be read with interest ; and the substance of it
will be found in the twelfth part of his valuable work on
Fishes, in which the internal structure is rendered obvious by
various coloured illustrations.

In the family of fishes now under consideration, the last
of vertebrate animals, the spinal column is in a rudimentary
condition. In the Lampreys it is but indistinctly divided
into rounded portions. In the Myxine, in place of a series
of bones composing the vertebral column, there is merely a
soft and flexible cartilaginous tube ;* while in the diminutive
fish next to be described, which is the last of the British
species, this support is reduced to a small and slender semi-
transparent column, extending throughout and connecting
the whole length of the body like the flexible horny pen in
some species of Cephalopods, and to which class other rela-
tions of structure both in the Myxine and in this small fish
Avill be pointed out.

As a British fish, the Myxine occurs most frequently on
the eastern coast. " It enters," says Pennant, " the mouths
of other fish when on the hooks attached to the lines which
remain a tide under water, and totally devours the whole
except the skin and bones. The Scarborough fishermen
often take it in the robbed Jish on drawing up their lines."
On this part of our coast it is called Hag, and also Borer,
because, as others say, it first pierces a small aperture in the
skin, and afterwards buries its head in the abdomen or
body. It is most usually found in the body of the Cod, or
some other equally rapacious fish.

For the only specimens of the Myxine I ever possessed, I
am indebted to the unremitting kindness of Dr. George
Johnston of Berwick, who has assisted me most materially
by sending me examples of many interesting species which

* If a section be made, a probe passes readily in either direction.

PETROMYZIDE.

have been referred to throughout this work. The Myxine
is not uncommon at Berwick ; but it is only to be obtained
at a particular season of the year in one or two particular
localities, when during fine weather, at the end of spring or
the beginning of summer, the fishermen lay their long lines
on a bank with a soft mud bottom near that coast when
fishing for Cod and Haddock. It is considered by some
that the Myxine, which is without eyes, obtains access to
the interior of the body of the fish by passing in at the
anal aperture ; others endeavour to account for its being
found in the belly of a voracious fish by supposing it had
been swallowed ; while many experienced fishermen still
repeat their belief that the Myxine enters the mouth of the
Codfish while it is hanging on the line. It is conjectured
that the Myxine does not fasten upon any fish unless it be
either dead or entangled on a hook : but how a fish that
is blind is able to find its way to a particular aperture, is
a matter not easily explained. The eight barbules or cirri
about the mouth of the Myxine are, there is no doubt,
delicate organs of touch, by which it obtains cognizance of
the nature and quality of the substances with which they are
in contact ; and its single hooked tooth upon the palate en-
ables it to retain its hold till the double rows of lingual teeth
are brought into action to aid the desire to obtain food.

The high northern geographical range of this singular fish
is shown by M. Nilsson including it among the fishes of
the shores of Scandinavia, where, he adds, four and even
six examples have been found within the body of one Had-
dock, the flesh of which was entirely consumed. Gunner
includes it, with a figure, in the Natural History Memoirs of
Drontheim, as taken on the west coast of Norway. Mr.
Thompson records it as found at Belfast ; and Mr. Couch
names it as occurring, though rarely, on the coast of Cornwall.
The Myxine is oviparous, and the ova are of the same colour,

D1YXINE. 615

size, and form as those of the Lampcrn, — that is, small,
round, and yellow.

Along the whole length of the under surface of the body,
from head to tail, there are two rows of mucous pores, from
which a large quantity of a gelatinous secretion is expressed
occasionally at the will of the animal, and by which, either
in reference to its quality or quantity, or both, this fish is
said to escape its enemies. So copious and so thick in its
consistence is this jelly-like secretion, that some of the older
naturalists believed this fish had the power of converting
water into glue, and it obtained in consequence the name of
the Glutinous Hag.

The body is elongated, eel-like in form, cylindrical
throughout the greater part of its length, tapering and com-
pressed towards the tail ; the whole length from twelve to
fifteen inches ; the skin perfectly smooth and unctuous ;
the head obtusely pointed, with a single spiracle connected
with the interior of the mouth and branchise ; eyes wanting ;
eight tentacula, cirri, or feelers, as they are called, are placed
about the lips, four near the front, and two on each side :
lips soft, extensible, inclining to a circle in their figure ;
one single hooked tooth on the palate ; the tongue fur-
nished with four rows of small pointed teeth, two rows on
each side : at the division between the thoracic and abdo-
minal cavities are two external apertures, each of which is
connected by a membranous tube with the six branchiae on
its own side ; hence Bloch's name of Gastrobranchus. The
anal aperture is an elongated fissure situated about two
inches before the end of the tail ; along the whole under
surface of the body are ranged two rows of pores, which
afford egress to the secretion of the numerous glands within ;
the dorsal fin is low and rudimentary, except towards the
tail, \shere the membrane is dilated, and being continued
round the end of the tail, and thence upwards to the anal

616 PETROMYZID.E.

aperture, forms in addition a caudal and an anal fin, which
no doubt materially assist this fish in swimming. In colour
the Myxine is dark brown along the back, lighter chestnut
brown on the sides, and yellowish Avhite underneath.

The vignette here added is from a drawing by Mr. Clift,
engraved for the Philosophical Transactions for the year
1815, where it illustrates a paper by Sir E. Home on the
organs of respiration in the Lamprey and Myxine.

The upper angle of the figure exhibits the single spiracle,
about it the eight tentacula, on the centre of the palate the
single hooked tooth ; to the right and left are the double
rows of lingual teeth : an inch below, on each side, are the
six branchial cells, with their internal communications Avith
the central canal ; on the outside each cell communicates with
a tube that is common to the six cells on that side, which,
passing downward, ends at the external aperture below.
Beneath this is the stomach and intestinal canal, which, as
in the Lamprey, is straight ; the rounded marks along the
margin on both sides from end to end show the numerous
mucous glands that have already been referred to. It is
impossible to dissect a Myxine, and attend to the structure
and substance of its investing skin, without being forcibly
reminded of its great resemblance to the investing mantle of
the Cephalopods.

The relations of structure in the Myxine to the Lampreys
on the one hand, and the first class of mollusca, the Cepha-
lopods, on the other, appear to prove that the situation
claimed for this fish by Bloch, and systematic authors since
his time, is the natural one. The relation to the Lampreys
is shown in the elongated, cylindrical form of the body ; the
single spiracle on the head ; the general similarity in the
parts of the mouth ; the character of the branchial cells, and
the viscera.

The relation to the Cephalopods i.s apparent in the eight

MYXINE.

(517

tentacula or feelers about the head, the horny but flexible
nature of the columnar support of the body, the character of
its external covering, and by the power of ejecting a copious
secretion whenever it considers itself in danger.

I'KTROMYZID.E.

CHONDROPTERYG1L

I'ETROMYZW.E.

THE LANCELET.

•

Amphioxus lanceolatus, YAK HELL.

,, ,, COUCH, Mag. Nat. Hist. 1838, and Corn. Fauna, p. 54.

Limax „ PALI.AS, Spic. Zool. X. p. 19, t, i. fig. 1 1.

AMPHIOXUS. Generic Characters. — Body compressed, the surface without
scales, both ends pointed ; a single dorsal fin extending the whole length of the
back ; no pectoral or ventral fins ; mouth on the under part of the head, narrow,
elongated, each lateral margin furnished with a row of slender filaments.

THE singular little animal here figured of the natural size,
although one of the smallest, as well as the last, among
British fishes, is by no means deficient in interest. The
specimen, the only one I ever saw, and which is probably
also the only one that has been taken for many years, was
sent to me by Mr. Couch, who found it himself on the
shore near Polperro. A portion of the tail of this little
fish was sticking out from underneath a stone in a small
pool left by the tide. Mr. Couch perceiving it, took it up
with some water in the hollow of his hands. It was alive,
very active, and so transparent that the viscera were perceiv-

LANCELET.

able through the external covcrino-. It was taken home by

o o

Mr. Couch, who made a drawing of its appearance under a
microscope.

The only notice of this little animal on record that I have
become acquainted with, which was pointed out to me by my
friend Mr. I. E. Gray, is that by Pallas, in his Spicilegia
Zoologica, already quoted ; and I insert at the foot of the
page, as a note, the Latin description by Pallas,* believing
that the reader will then have before him all that has been
published of this very rare little animal, of which, at least
as far as I am aware, possibly no other specimen has been
found or noticed since that to which Pallas refers, and
which, it is not a little singular, was also obtained from
Cornwall.

Of the specimen in his possession Pallas says, " Quod
nunquam vivum vidi, sed liquore servatum e mari Cornubiam
adluente accepi olim, quoclque prima facie refert piscem
Leptoccphalum Gronovii."

At first sight this little fish has somewhat the appearance
of a Leptocephalus, a British fish first sent to Gronovius
by our countryman and zoologist Pennant ; it more par-
ticularly resembles it in the arrangement of the strise on
the flattened sides : but Leptocephalus, as will appear by
a reference to the figure of it in this volume at page 409,
has a perfect head, though a small one, with jaws, teeth,
eyes, and gill-covers ; while the fish under consideration has
neither eyes nor gill-covers, nor any fins except one along
the back, which forms an anal fin by passing round the tail.

* "

Limax lanceolatus. Corpus anceps, planum, linear! lanceolatum, utrin-
que acutissimum. Margo undique limbo membranaceo auctus ; subtus vero ad
duas tertias longitudinis margo bilabiatus est, sulcatusque, ut sit quasi pes
liraacinus angustissimus. Tentacula plane nulla. Latera striis obsoletis,
antrorsum obliquatis prope dorsura angulo recurvatis, ut quasi latus pisciculi
desquamatum refeiant."

PETROMYZID.E.

Supported by the opinion of Mr. Gray, and two or three
other zoological friends, I have placed this little animal in
this family, near the cyclostomous fishes, believing it to be,
as far as at present known, the lowest in organization among
this class ; and although I am unwilling to mutilate entirely
by my rough dissection the only specimen probably I shall
ever possess, and which is perhaps unique, I shall yet be able
to show, by the figures given and some further description,
that this animal is entitled to a place at the end of the pre-
sent family.

The form of the fish is compressed ; the head pointed,
without any trace of eyes ; the nose rather produced : the
mouth on the under edge, in shape an elongated fissure,
the sides of which are flexible ; from the inner margin ex-
tend various slender filaments, regularly disposed, which
cross and intermingle with those of the opposite side. Along
the sides of the body the muscles are arranged in regular
order, diverging from a central line, one series passing ob-
liquely upward and backward, the other series as obliquely
downward and backward : the anal aperture is situated one-
fourth of the whole length of the fish, in advance of the
end of the tail ; the tail itself pointed : from the nose to
the end of the tail a delicate membranous dorsal fin extends
the whole length of the back, supported by very numerous
and minute soft rays ; the surface of the body smooth.

The body is strengthened and supported internally
throughout its length by a flexible cartilaginous column,
from which the numerous muscles diverge ; the cavity of the
abdomen is comparatively large ; the intestine a canal of
considerable calibre, without convolution ; above it a double
row of flattened globular bodies, which have all the appear-
ance of ova. The figure at the top of the illustration re-
presents this fish of the natural size. The right-hand figure
in the middle line is an enlarged representation of the

LANCELET.

mouth as seen from below, with the filaments from cacli side
stretching across the opening ; the outline on the left of the
middle is a magnified view of the two portions of the hyoid
or lingual bone, to which the filaments are attached, one
branch of which bone is divided, and the cut portions
turned up and down to expose the other perfect side ; the
figure at the base is a magnified view of the appearance of
the whole fish.

Several relations in structure to the Lampreys and Myx-
ine are observable, — namely, the fringed mouth, the armed
lingual bone, the absence of eyes, the want of pectoral and
ventral fins, the investing tunic, and the tough, but flexible,
internal dorsal column. Of its habits, that which has been
stated is known : it is extremely active when in water, and its
food is probably some of the most minute among the thin-
skinned Crustacea, or decomposing animal matter.

It may perhaps be expected that I should state on what
grounds I have ventured to differ from such a naturalist
as Pallas in considering this animal a fish, and not a Limax,
It is distinguished from the Limaces by the absence of the
ventral muscular disk for locomotion ; and from every other
molluscous genus, in the position of the anal aperture, which
is unconnected with the respiratory cavity. On the other
hand, the dorsal fin, and regular oblique strata of muscular
fibres clothing the sides of the body and having their points
of origin attached to a firm dorsal internal axis, — with the
existence of a lengthened internal vertebral column, although
in a soft cartilaginous state, as in the Myxine, — are sufficient
to determine the primary division of animals to which the
Amphioxus belongs.

The publicity given to this little animal, which appeared
not to have fallen under observation since the time of
Pallas, and the situation claimed for it, in the first edition
of the History of British Fishes, have led to many satisfac-

PETROMYZID.E.

tory results. My friend, Mr. Edward Forbes, told me that
he had obtained two specimens. These were dredged up by
himself from a sandbank in deep water on the east coast of
the Isle of Man ; they were extremely active, and on super-
ficial examination resembled small Sand-eels. With his cha-
racteristic liberality, he placed these two specimens in the
hands of Mr. John Goodsir, Conservator of the Museums
of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, with a re-
quest that he would employ them for the purpose of drawing
up a detailed account of the animal. This account, forming
an elaborate anatomical paper, is published in the fifteenth.
volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edin-
burgh, to be hereafter referred to.

Finding that I had originally misunderstood some of the
circumstances connected with the capture of the first fish by
Mr. Couch, I here insert with pleasure Mr. Couch's own
statement, as now published in his Fauna of Cornwall, p. 54.
" When alive, this fish had a very evident, though diapho-
nous fin, extending from near the snout, round the extre-
mity of the tail, which it encircled in the manner of the same
organ in the Eel, and terminating at the vent ; and the ap-
pearance in the engraving is probably owing to the influence
of the preserving liquor, which has caused the membrane to
contract. The rays of this fin are arched transversely, in a
very singular manner. The specimen was not found in a
pool, but lay buried in a small quantity of sand, at about
fifty feet from the receding tide ; and on turning over a small
flat stone that was on the sand, the tail of the fish appeared
exposed. When moved it exhibited signs of great activity,
so that the head could not readily be distinguished from
the tail ; and as there can be no doubt that the fish had
sought the shelter of the sand in which it was found, there
is little question that such is its usual habitation : a circum-
stance still more probable by its want of eyes. It was

LANCELET.

623

discovered on tlic 21st of December 1831, after a heavy
storm that had torn it from its native situation, which, from
its rarity, we may suppose to be in deep water. In February
1838, I obtained two other specimens, which had been
thrown up by a tempest. The largest measured two indies
and three-tenths in length, which enabled me to discern still
more of the internal structure of this fish."

The Zoological Society have since received two specimens
of the Lancelet, which were forwarded in a small bottle, with
several examples of Leptocephalus Morrissii,* from the Me-
diterranean, by the late Dr. Leach, but no particular locality
was named with them.

I had the pleasure of receiving a visit from Professor
Miiller when he was in London in 1837, and placed before
him for his examination the opened specimen of the Lancelet
from which I had taken my description. Professor Miiller
has since received two examples, and the result of his dissec-
tions, embodying also observations by Professors Retzius and
Sundevall of Sweden, will be found in the Proceedings of the
Academy of Berlin for 1839, page 197. The Lancelet has
now been taken on the coasts of Norway and Sweden.

I overlooked the membranous folds of the abdomen and
the anal fin. Mr. Couch anticipated, and very kindly stated
the true cause of the omission, — the contraction delicate
membranes undergo from long immersion in spirits. The
fish was caught in December 1831, and was examined by me
in the summer of 1836. These parts are thus described by
Mr. Goodsir : — " The folds commence, minute, on each side
of the hyoid apparatus, pass back on the sides of the abdo-
men, increasing in breadth till they are as broad as one-fifth
of the depth of the animal ; they then diminish and terminate
at the point where the muscles approach on each side of the

* Brit. Fish. vol. ii. p. 409.

624

PETROMYZ1D.E.

intestine, — that is, at the junction of the middle and posterior
thirds of the animal."

" The anal fin is a fold of integument, which, commencing
at the point where the abdominal folds terminate, is continued
to the anus, where it is interrupted, but reappearing behind
it, and becoming broader, passes on to be continuous with
the dorsal fin at the extremity of the tail. The existence of
a median fin in front of the anus is, as has been observed by
Miiller, very remarkable ; but it is in exact accordance with
a fact mentioned to me by Professor Agassiz, that in certain
fresh-water fishes, — the developement of which he had watch-
ed,— a fin of this kind, with rays, exists for a short period of
their embryonic existence, and then disappears."

The minute anatomical details of Professor Mliller and
Mr. Goodsir are unsuited to popular pages ; the conclusion
appears to be that the zoological position of Amphioxus is
the lowest place in the Class of Fishes, and the discovery of
a second species in the Mediterranean by my friend Mr.
Wilde, which possesses a circular mouth, and some observed
habits in the original species, both having been found at
Algiers, seem to confirm the connexion of these fishes with
the Myxine and Lampreys.

Extract from a Narrative of a Voyage to Madeira, Tencriffe,
and along the shores of the Mediterranean, by W. R.
Wilde, M.R.I.A.

" As I obtained several of the Lancelets during our stay at
Algiers, I may be permitted to offer some observations on
them. There were two descriptions ; the first, and most
common, about an inch and a half long, the Amphioxus lan-
ceolatus of Yarrell and the Limax of Pallas, who first noticed
it. The body is diaphonous, and enclosed in a thin flexible
envelope, not circular, but preserving a five, and, in some

LANCELET. 625

instances, a seven sided figure. This in every respect resem-
bles the calamus or pen of some of the Mollusca, especially
that in the common cuttle-fish. These little animals had
a power of attaching themselves to each other in a remarkable
manner, sometimes clustering together, and at others forming
a string six or eight inches long ; the whole mass seemed to
swim in unison, and with great rapidity, going round the
vessel in a snake-like form and motion. They adhered to
one another by their flat sides ; when in line, the head of one
coming up about one-third on the body of the one before it ; no
doubt those sides are of use in forming this attachment.
The other variety was thinner, and from two and a half to
three inches long, having a large dorsal fin, which moved
continually in an extraordinary manner, describing a circle by
rotating upon its narrow base. The mouth was a circular
disk, surrounded by cilise that continued in constant motion.
When put into a tumbler of water it moved round the glass,
and although no eyes were perceptible, it carefully avoided
the finger, or any substance put in its way, stopping sud-
denly, or turning aside from it. Both these animals when
taken out of the water kept up a strong pulsatory motion for
some time. The small one, the Amphioxus lanceolatits, by
this means pumped out of its interior a quantity of air and
water ; and they could be seen coming to the surface to
inhale, and a globule of air was observed floating through the
internal cavity. In the larger species the internal tube was
perfectly distinct, and of a blue colour. When put into
spirits and water it died almost immediately, and turned
opaque. A number of circular bands also appeared on it.
Mr. Yarrell, in his beautiful work on British Fishes, has
placed this singular little animal among the finny tribe.
With all due deference to him, I would suggest the following
reasons for it belonging to the Mollusca: the absence of

VOL. II. 2 S

626 PETROMYZIDE.

vertebral column, the transparency, and the thin flexible
skeleton of the animal being external."

At the time of writing this Mr. Wilde was not aware of
the dissections and consequent conclusions of others.

Searching BeckwitlVs enlarged edition of Blount's Tenures,

o s

I found those that here follow ; which, as they refer to fishes
or fishing, may be considered entitled to a place in this
work.

" In the simplicity of older times, when gold and silver
were scarce, the household of the king was supported by
provisions furnished from his demesnes. By degrees the
servants here employed obtained a fixed tenure of the es-
tates, rendering certain services, and supplying certain provi-
sions. Many lands were from time to time granted on con-
dition of yielding such supplies ; but these reservations were
small, and many of them only to be rendered when the king
travelled into the country where the land lay. In some,
special care was taken that he should not make this service
burthensome by coming too often.

" Ayhsbury. — William, son of William of Alesbury,
holds three yard-lands of our lord the king in Alesbury, in
the county of Bucks, by the serjeanty of paying three Eels
to our lord the king, when he should come to Alesbury in
winter.

" Conway Castle — Is now held of the crown by Owen
Holland, Esq. at the annual rent of six shillings and eight
pence, and a dish of fish to Lord Hertford as often as he
passes through the town.

" Degemue and Eglosderi, county of Cornwall. — Wil-
liam Trevelle holds one Cornish acre of land in Degemue and
Eglosderi, by the serjeanty of finding one boat and nets for

LANCELET.

fishing in Hellestonc Lake, whensoever our lord the king
should come to Hellestone, and so long as he should stay
there.

" Gloucester. — Pennant states that it has been an old
custom for the city of Gloucester annually to present the
sovereign with a Lamprey pie, covered with a large raised
crust.

" Rodeley, county of Gloucester. — Certain tenants of the
manor of Rodeley pay to this day. to the lord thereof, a rent
called Pridgavel, in duty and acknowledgment to him for
their liberty and privilege of fishing for Lampreys in the river
Severn. Pridgavel : Prid, for brevity, being the latter sylla-
ble of Lamprid, as this fish was anciently called ; and gavel,
a rent or tribute.

" Stafford. — Ralph de Waymer held of the king in fee
and inheritance the stew or fish-pond without the eastern gate
of the town of Stafford, in this manner, that when the king
should please to fish, he was to have the Pikes and Breams ;
and the said Ralph and his heirs were to have all the other
fishes with the Eels coming to the hooks, rendering therefore
to the king half a mark at the feast of St. Michael.

" Yarmouth. — The town of Yarmouth in Norfolk is bound
to send to the sheriffs of Norwich a hundred Herrings,
which are to be baked in twenty-four pies or pasties, and
thence delivered to the lord of the manor of East Carlton,
who is to convey them to the king. They are still sent to
the clerk of the kitchen's office at St. James's. In 1778,
the sheriffs of Norwich attended with them in person, and
claimed the following allowance in return, viz. — ' Six white
loaves, six dishes of meat (out of the king's kitchen) ; one
flaggon of wine ; one flaggon of beer ; one truss of hay ; one
bushell of oats ; one pricket of wax ; six tallow candles.1
But no precedent appearing of these things having been de-

628

PETROMYZID.K.

livered, they were refused. — Records of the Board of Green

cloth r

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The final vignette to the first volume represents the Old
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