GARFISH. 147 



prey becomes torn from it in a manner well known to fisher- 

 men. But when again the hook is felt in the gullet, the 

 Garfish does not seek to escape by darting away, but, as if 

 conscious only of the annoyance from the restraint of the line, 

 it will mount to the surface, even before the fisherman dis- 

 covers that he has had a bite; and there, with its body partly 

 out of the water, it struggles with the line in a variety of 

 active contortions. 



The feeding of this fish appears to be indiscriminate, for 

 whatever of an animal kind it can seize and swallow; but it 

 feeds also on a black fly which alights on the sea in fine 

 weather, and sometimes its stomach is filled with them. I have 

 taken Herrings of about one third the full growth from their 

 stomachs, a single one in each; for it will not hold more, and 

 the passage is straight to the vent. 



There are times also, when the sea is calm and smooth, that 

 it may be seen engaged in solitary amusement at the surface, 

 or perhaps many together, by leaping again and again over 

 some floating object, as a rod or straw; or it may thrust itself 

 bolt upright out of the water, to fall back again in an apparently 

 clumsy manner. It is an amusement with fisherboys to throw 

 some slender stick to the Garfish, when it will execute a variety 

 of evolutions about and over it as it floats. 



The roe is of full growth from the beginning of January to 

 about Midsummer; and Nilsson says that the season of spawning 

 is three times in the year, but not with the same individual 

 fish. The largest spawn first, and so in succession to the 

 youngest. We have already shewn, when speaking of the 

 European Halfbeak, that in their early stage the young may 

 be distinguished from those of that fish by some decisive marks; 

 and they appear to be of quick growth, so as to be from six 

 to nine inches in length by the month of October. 



On the east and south coasts of England there are fisheries 

 for the Garpike, with nets, which are shot by night from small 

 boats; but which are received on board a larger boat that 

 attends them, if the weather becomes stormy. But this fish is 

 not much valued as food; although it meets with a sale in 

 London and some of the larger towns, and where known it is 

 as welcome a dish as some that are elsewhere highly valued. 

 Among fishermen it is for the most part cut in pieces and 



