396 FISHES. 



taking the hook in the daytime. The food of the larger 

 fish seems to consist mainly of lobsters and cuttlefish, and 

 they are also partial to a medium- sized rockling. The 

 breeding of the conger has been much studied of late 

 years. The eggs are apparently deposited in summer, and 

 I recollect Mr Dunn of Mevagissey telling me some years 

 ago that in his opinion a number of ripe females would 

 gather in a bunch, while a small male would swim round, 

 impregnating the ova as they fell. This was, however, 

 mere theory. It seems in any case probable that both 

 sexes die after the first spawning. Upwards of eight 

 millions of eggs have been counted in a fish measuring 

 about 5 feet. Besides her greater length, the female may 

 be distinguished by her more pointed snout and by the 

 more complete absence of colour from the belly. 



[The Murry, or Muraena, of the Mediterranean seems to 

 have wandered to our seas on one or two occasions, as Day 

 mentions an example of over 4 feet. The body is without 

 scales ; the nostrils are tubular, and there are pores on the 

 jaws. In colour it is brown, with or without yellow spots.] 



CHAPTER XVIII. THE HERRING FAMILY. 



This is, commercially at any rate, the most important 

 group of food-fishes. They are all surface-feeders, and are 

 therefore taken for the most part in drift-nets, that float 

 like walls near the top of the water. All our herrings are 

 small fish, as we have none of the giant members of the 

 family, such as the tarpon of Mexico, or other giant 

 herrings of the Queensland coast. The members of this 

 family are silvery fishes with large thin scales ; and they 

 lack the lateral line. 



