PICKED DOG. 51 



a full-grown fish, are yet found accompanying their parents in 

 the pursuit of prey; and it is not to be doubted that the 

 newly-born of a variety of kinds of the common sorts of fish 

 are the ready food on which they subsist, until they have 

 acquired more enlarged powers of depredation. 



But the full-grown fish, existing as it does in such large 

 numbers, is not inferior to the much bulkier members of this 

 predaceous race in the annoyance, if not absolute injury, inflicted 

 on the fishermen. Nets suffer greatly from their depredations, 

 as well by the jagged bites with which they destroy the texture 

 of the twine, even where it is not cut through, as by the 

 pieces cut from the fishes that had become entangled in the 

 meshes, but which are thus rendered unfit for the market. To 

 lines they are not less injurious; and it has frequently happened 

 that fishermen, who have gone to sea with a good supply of 

 hooks, have been compelled to return from having had the 

 whole cut from the line by the teeth of the Picked Dog. It 

 is the belief of fishermen that these annoying enemies are often 

 in the habit of taking their station at mid-depth of water, and 

 watching until a whiting or other small fish has taken the 

 hook; when they cut the line to intercept the capture, and so 

 carry off the prize without risk to themselves. 



When however they have chanced to swallow the hook, or 

 when entangled in a net, it is the scarcely probable belief of 

 fishermen that their escape is not commonly by means of their 

 teeth, but by the cutting powers of the spines, which stand in 

 front of the dorsal fins; in the use of which there is no doubt 

 they possess intuitive knowledge. If laid hold of by the head, 

 they will bend the back into a bow, and so bring the spines 

 into a favourable position for a backward stroke, which is effected 

 by a sudden and violent return of the body to the straight 

 posture. The spines are thus thrust asunder in such a manner 

 as to tear any thing that lies within reach of the stroke; and 

 as a defence this action is so effectual as to demand from the 

 fisherman some care in the handling of it; for the fish is 

 able to direct its spines with a considerable degree of preci- 

 sion; although the effort is not always sufficient to save it 

 from the clutches of other voracious inhabitants of the seas; 

 and I have accordingly found it in the stomach of Ling, Blue 

 Shark, and other fishes. 



