230 The Irish Nahiralist. October, 



sides and under parts towards the spectator ; while the Razor- 

 hills and Guillemots may be s^enjlym^ under water with out- 

 spread wings air bubbles adhering to and shining on their 

 plumage. 



I extract the following from my notes :— 17th August, 1893, 

 Got a dip of fry out of a very big ball to-day. We sailed slowly 

 past it after getting the dip, the ball passing along our port 

 (weather) side, and at the quarter one might have had another 

 dip. We saw several Piked Dog-fish sailing slowly through 

 the now rather spread out and elongated shoal, which 

 looked very beautiful. The Dog-fish were so near I stretched 

 out my hand to catch one by the tail ! Their movements 

 were most easy and graceful. At another ball later we saw 

 two or three large Coal-fish at the very surface. One put his 

 back above the water at the boat's side and could easily have 

 been gaffed. Piked Dog-fish and Knowds were also at this 

 ball. We came-to there and very soon caught five fine Stan, 

 locks {i.e., Coal-fish) and a Cod, and lost three or four Stanlocks. 

 We also caught 5^ dozen Knowds and 60 or 70 Dog-fish. 

 The large fish at the balls were most interesting." Another 

 day — 26th August — I do not find any mention of balls, 

 but we came-to among the birds about ij miles off Castle- 

 chester and caught 7 Stanlocks, 7 Carp (Sea Bream), 98 

 Knowds, 4 Mackerel, 3 Whiting, 7 Codling, i Skate, and 

 about 50 Dog-fish. Another day in August, some years 

 ago, our present excellent Lord Mayor, Sir Otto Jaffe, and 

 his son, w^ere with me, and were much surprised at what 

 they saw. On sailing up to a ball the boatman Scott gaffed a 

 Codfish, loose, so to speak, and its body being torn open by the 

 gaff, in one moment the floor of the boat was covered with 

 living fry, jumping in all directions, which the cod had 

 just swallowed. 



Countless thousands of millions of fry must thus perish, the 

 larger denizens of the deep also levying a heav}^ toll off them. 

 In a note of mine on the Irish Cetacea, which appeared in the 

 Irish Naturalist for August, 1900, I stated that I had often 

 observed the two larger species (meaning thereby the Beaked 

 or Bottle-nosed Whale and Rorqual) change the direction of 

 their course and go straight to a " play " of birds over a " ball " 

 of fry, towards which their attention had been directed when 



