PHYCIS MEDITERRANEUS. 198 



in Madeira and in the Mediterranean their place, but very inefficiently 

 supplying it both in regard to quality and numbers. 



The Sea-tench, however, in Madeira, when in season, that is, from 

 October to December, when it is also in milt or roe, is a delicate, good 

 fish ; often compared, as it was long ago by Willughby, to the Whiting, 

 which it resembles in taste, but more in the tenderness, transparency, and 

 lightness of its flesh when boiled. Thus in its season, both of breeding 

 and of finest order for the table, the Sea-tench does not depart from the 

 general habit of its tribe. Mr. Yarrell says of the common Codfish 

 (Aforrhua vulgaris, Cuv.), that it spawns about February, and " is in 

 the greatest perfection as food from the end of October to Christmas. 

 It may, in fact," he adds, " be said of the whole family of the Gadidae, 

 that they are in the best condition for the table during the cold months 

 of the year." * 



The Sea-tench is, according to Cuvier, called in the Mediterranean 

 Molle, or Tanche de mer. Rondelet gives Mole for its Proven9al, Sal- 

 viani Tenca marina and Pesce Jico (which Rondelet reporting, and pre- 

 disposed to find in it Aristotle''s (pvKig-, has spelled phi/co) for its Roman 

 name : both the first and last being probably derived, as these authors 

 have themselves observed, from the softness of its flesh. An enthusiastic 

 etymologist might be sorely tempted, following this lead, to look at once 

 for the origin of its Portuguese name, Abrdtea, in the Greek aBporrjg, 

 or a^^og, ob carnem delicatam, friabilem, mollem. The wild Asphodel 

 {Asphodelus ramosus, L.) is, according to Brotero, also called Abrotea : 

 and it is possibly from some fanciful or unexplained connection with this 

 plant that the fish has come to be so called. I find a " Brota," which 

 is said to be the same fish as the Madeiran, in a list from TenerifTe. At 

 Nice, Risso reports that it is called " Moustella bruna."" On the British 

 shores it is unknown ; the only kind of Phycis they possess being the 

 true P. furcatus, Cuv. 



The Abrotea, or Sea-tench, is taken in Madeira from a depth of two 

 or three fathoms, close in shore, to one of two or three " linhas," or 

 a hundred fathoms ; and if never in profusion, like the Mackerel or 

 Bonito, being a solitary, not gregarious fish, it is scarcely ever absent 

 altogether from the market. 



The late Mr. Bowdich was misled, by an accidental monstrosity or 

 mutilation in the example which he figured, into the formation of a 

 species ; to which he gave a name pre-occupied by a very distinct mem- 

 ber of the genus, which has not yet occurred in Madeira, though it is 

 found both in the Mediterranean and Britain, the P. furcatus of Cuvier, 

 the Great Forked Beard, Forked Hake or Hake's Dame of YarrclFs 



* Brit. Fish. ii. 14iJ. 



