GEN. MERL ANGUS. GREEN COD. 199 



the water, often with a very rude tackle, and 

 almost any kind of bait that happens to be at hand. 

 They rise freely to an artificial fly. Mr. Wilson 

 mentions that he once killed thirty-three dozen 

 with the rod in a few hours, using six small flies, 

 and frequently landing an equal number of fish at 

 once.* In the winter time, as we are informed by 

 Mr. Low, while the fry of this fish is in the har- 

 bour of Orkney, it is common to see five or six 

 hundred people, of all ages, fishing for them, with 

 small angling rods about six feet long, and a line 

 a little longer ; but with this simple apparatus they 

 kill vast numbers, none going away without as 

 many as he inclines. The whole harbour is covered 

 with boats, and the piers with men, and all are 

 supplied ; for from the surface to the bottom of the 

 water it is crowded. 



Full grown specimens of the Coalfish are between 

 two and three feet in length. 



(Sp. 156.) M. virens. Green Cod. If this fish 

 is not a particular state of the fry of the Coalfish, 

 which Mr. Couch and some other ichthyologists 

 believe it to be, it certainly makes a very near ap- 

 proach to that species, the general form being simi- 

 lar, the lateral line straight, the tail deeply lunate, 

 if not actually forked, and the colours not beyond 

 the range which might legitimately be assigned to 

 a species kno^vn to be very variable in this respect. 

 With the exception of the colour, and, as Mr. Yar- 

 rell thinks, a greater proportional depth than the 

 * Encyc. Brit. Ichthyology, p. 218. 



