MALACOPTF.RYGII SUBBRACIIIATI. 511 



ascends with the salt-water. It is known throughout the whole 

 of the north, and generally taken in the month of June. It feeds 

 on marine worms, Crustacea, mollusca, and young fishes. 



Its flesh, which is something like that of the whiting, is 

 more agreeable when fresh than that of any other species of 

 gadus. Although in general it is very white, it has some- 

 times a manifest tint of green, which is attributed to its 

 stopping for some time among the algae, which abound in the 

 muddy and sandy bottoms near the northern shores. 



The Icelanders salt and dry this fish, but the Greenlanders 

 frequently eat it half rotten. 



The Gadus barhaius, or tacaud, is about eighteen inches 

 or two feet long. It inhabits the seas of north Europe, often 

 at considerable depths. It approaches the shores at spawn- 

 ing time, and lives on Crustacea and small fish. It is an 

 article of food with the Greenlanders, though not in very 

 high estimation. 



The Merlangus is a subgenus, the type of which is the 

 whiting, a fish very common on our coasts, and in great 

 esteem. The species of fishes which compose this subgenus, 

 are of considerable utility from the abundant and wholesome 

 food which they supply to man. Their flesh is also recom- 

 mended by physicians to persons with weak and exhausted 

 stomachs. Among them is particularly distinguished the 

 common whiting, Merlangus vulgaris. It inhabits the 

 European seas, and chiefly towards the north. It feeds on 

 worms, mollusca, crabs, and young fishes, and often ap- 

 proaches the shores, which causes its fishery to be carried on 

 for most part of the year, though with less success at certain 

 seasons than at others. It more particularly abandons the 

 high seas, not only at the period of the spawning, but like- 

 wise when it hopes to find towards the land a more abundant 

 degree of nourishment, and an asylum from the large marine 

 animals which pursue it, These circumstances are of course 



