77 



POUTASSOU. 



Pnutassoit' gros, RTSSO; the Poutassou simply being the Pollack. 



Couch's Whiting, YARRELL; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 247. 

 Gadus poutassou, GUNTHER; Cat. Br. Museum, vol. iv, p. 333. 



THIS fish was formerly mistaken for the Common Whiting, 



./ O * 



but Risso was led to suppose that there was a specific difference 

 between them, although no opportunity had offered itself to 

 him for comparison. In the month of May, 1840, an example 

 answering to Risso's description of this species, was taken with 

 a line by a fisherman of Polperro, and, as even to this ordinary 

 observer, its difference from the well-known Whiting was 

 apparent, it was brought to me for further inquiry. A 

 description and figure were taken, and the first announcement 

 of its discovery in Britain was made by Mr. Yarrell, in the 

 second edition of his "History of British Fishes," where, 

 however, the engraving represents it much darker than it 

 should be. 



Risso says that its haunts are in the deepest portion of the 

 sea in the neighbourhood of Nice, where it is fished for at 

 all times of the year; that it spawns in the spring, but that 

 its flesh is rather soft. And this seems to have remained the 

 whole which was known of its history, until the summer of 

 1851, when, in the month of July, I received information that 

 immense numbers of small fishes were at a few miles from 

 land along our coast, and that the larger fishes were devouring 

 them eagerly, so that the stomachs of the latter were found 

 distended with them. There was little difficulty in procuring 

 an opportunity for examination, and I was agreeably surprised 

 to find that these numerous small fishes were the young of the 



