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 



