380 FISHES. 



flesh deteriorates, the Pollack is a handsome green fish, with 

 protruding lower jaw and no barbel. This fish — which is 

 Pollack or taken in the Channel, as on the Scottish and 

 Lythe. Irish coasts, to a weight of 25 lbs. — lurks dur- 



ing the day in the darker pools among the rocks; but 

 after sunset, and for an hour either side of sunrise, it comes 

 to the surface, where it either chases the sand-eels, or, as I 

 have repeatedly watched it, gambols in a manner that, 

 unless its object be the riddance of its body from some 





unwelcome parasite, can only be regarded as wanton sport. 

 When hooked, this fish at once heads for the bottom, and 

 the angler tries, at any cost, to keep it from the rocks. It 

 is often taken coiled up in a crab-pot; and its fondness 

 for the neighbourhood of these baited pots is so well 

 known that pollack-fishers ask no better moorings than 

 the corks on the line of the pot. Pollack taken on the 

 sand are not only lighter in colour, but usually exhibit 

 light patches soon after death. 



Why the Coal-fish should ever have been confused with 

 the pollack, seeing their many points of difference, is not 

 Coal-fish, easy to understand ; but the fact remains that 

 or Saith. -tj^ey have been confused. This fish, which 

 grows to, if anything, a heavier weight than the pollack, 

 may be readily distinguished by the presence of a small 

 barbel, and the more abrupt division between the greenish 

 grey of the back and the silvery white of the belly. The 



