SOFT-RAYED BONY FISHES 99 



seemingly dead will suddenly lash out and make a vicious snap 

 with its jaws. Even when the head has been severed, the 

 mouth will close firmly upon any foreign body thrust between 

 the jaws, and Mr. Paterson has recorded how a boy was rash 

 enough to put his toe into the mouth of a Conger-head left on 

 the beach by the. fishermen ; " his yells ", he adds, " soon 

 brought assistance and release ! " When taken from the 

 water a Conger will sometimes make a harsh barking sound, 

 caused by the sudden expulsion of air from the air-bladder. 



The breeding habits of the Congers have not yet been 

 elucidated to the same extent as those of the Common Eel, 

 but preliminary researches were being carried out by the 

 Danish investigator, Dr. Johannes Schmidt, at the time of 

 his death a few years ago. He has shown that the European 

 species has a wide breeding area, and spawns in the Medi- 

 terranean, in the eastern Atlantic between the Azores and 

 Gibraltar, and probably elsewhere. The breeding season 

 probably varies in the different regions. The larva, when 

 newly hatched, is quite unlike its parents, being long, ribbon- 

 like, translucent, and quite colourless ; the head is tiny, and 

 the small mouth is armed with needle-like teeth. Such a 

 larva is known as a Leptocephalas, and is characteristic, not 

 only of all the eels, but also of the tarpons and their allies 

 the ten-pounders and lady-fishes. The larva of the European 

 Conger was first discovered by William Morris in 1763, near 

 Holyhead, but was not described until 1788, when the Swedish 

 naturalist, Gmelin, named it Leptocephalus morrissii. It was 

 nearly 100 years later that it was definitely established that 

 this larva became transformed into the Conger, for a French 

 scientist was able to keep one alive in an aquarium and to 

 observe the whole process. During the transformation or 

 metamorphosis the larval teeth are shed, the body shrinks in 

 size and becomes rounded instead of flattened, the shape of 

 the head changes, and the pigment in the skin is developed. 



The European Conger is fairly important as a food-fish, 

 more than 50,000 cwts. being landed by British fishing vessels 

 in an average year. Much of the " stock " for turtle soup is 

 said to be made from its flesh, which is wholesome and quite 

 tasiy. It is caught mainly by means of long lines baited with 

 pieces of fish or cuttlefish. In medieval times the Conger 



