THE COD FAMILY. 257 



THE WHITING. (Gadus merlangus, L.) 



This little relative of the cod differs considerably in its 

 development from it. 



The male whiting is usually rather smaller than the female, 

 the opposite relation holding in the haddock and cod. A ripe 

 female may contain as many as 300,000 ova, a large number, 

 but many times less than in the case of the cod. Corre- 

 lated with this we find the fact that the female is never so 

 abnormally distended at the breeding season, the weight of 

 the ripe ovary being only a small portion of the total weight of 

 the body, whereas in the cod it may reach as high a proportion 

 as ith. Hence the whiting is not so affected by the effort of 

 spawning, and ' spent ' whiting are commonly caught and sold 

 for consumption. 



The spawning-period appears to extend on the east coast 

 from March to June, but principally during April and May, so 

 that, as will be seen by reference to the table, it is rather later 

 than that of the cod. 



Again, the whiting does not appear to migrate so far 

 seawards for the purpose of spawning as its allies, the cod and 

 the haddock, mature females being found in the Frith of Forth, 

 and not further seawards than about 60 miles offshore. Much 

 reliance, however, need not at present be placed on these 

 limits. The authors of the Scandinavian Fishes 1 , on the other 

 hand, observe that the whiting does not spawn in so large 

 companies as many other species, but retires into deep water, 

 so that more information is required on this point. 



The egg of the whiting (fig. 16, p. 68) closely resembles 

 that of the other gadoids, but is slightly smaller than that of 

 the cod, having an average diameter of 0476 inch (T204 mm.). 

 Holt (Ireland) gives T07 to 114 mm. There is no oil-globule. 

 Development is rapid and the early stages conform to the 

 gadoid type (see Chap. V, and figs. 16 to 23). By the 

 eighth day yellow chromatophores appear upon the dorsal 

 region of the larva, and upon the yolk-sac, a number of 



1 p. 491. 

 M. F. 17 



