THE GADUS CARBONARIUS. 221 



when)eaten e fresh, the Dutch fishermen endeavour, by means 

 of perforated tubs, to convey them alive to the sea ports. 

 But the English prick the air-bladder with a pin, which 

 obliges them to remain at the bottom of the vessel they are 

 put in, and this preserves them longer alive. The stomach 

 is larg-e, and at the orisrin of the intestinal canal there are 

 six appendages divided into several branches. The liver is 

 of a pale red colour, consisting of three lobes ; the spleen is 

 blackish and long ; the kidneys are at the back-bone, along 

 the ventral cavity ; the seed-vessel and ovary are double. 



The cod generally haunts deep places in the open sea, 

 coming on the banks and shores in spawning-time ; they eat 

 crabs, whelks, herrings, and other fish, and are so greedy 

 that they do not spare even their own young; like birds of 

 prey they have the faculty of casting up what they do not 

 digest, but according to Anderson, their digestive powers 

 are so strong, that the fishermen of Heligoland have found 

 the haddocks which were thrown out for baits completely 

 digested in their stomachs in six hours. 



SPECIES II. 



THE GADUS CARBONARIUS, 



OR 



COD COAL FISH * 



The Gadus Carbonarius is an inhabitant of many of the 

 rocky coasts in Great Britain, more especially towards the 



* The Cod Coal Fish, or Coal Cod, takes it name from the black 

 colour which it sometimes assumes. Belon calls it the Culfisch, imagin- 

 ing that it was so named by the English zoologists, from its producing the 

 Tchthyocolla or Isinglass, but Gesner has given the true etymology."— 

 Sir A. Brooke. 



