THE COD FAMILY 245 



seaweed and their other surroundings. The parent fisli, too, vary somewhat in appearance, 

 those round the Enghsh coast as a rule having brown backs with irregular spotty markings 

 on the sides, while those from more northern waters usually have darker backs and are less 

 often spotted. Cod are most enormous feeders, and in consequence grow very rapidly. At 

 the Southport Aquarium codling of only | lb. increased in weight to 6 or 7 lbs. in about 

 sixteen months. 



So voracious is the cod that it is very apt to swallow anything it sees moving, without 

 considering whether it is wholesome. In 1879 a black guillemot in perfect condition was 

 removed from the stomach of one of these fish ; while among other strange finds by cod- 

 fishermen from the same receptacle was a piece of tallow candle 7 inches long, a hare, a 

 partridge, a white turnip, and. going back to the year 1626, a " work in three treatises," which 

 was found in the stomach of a fish captured in Lynn Deeps on midsummer eve, and brought to 

 the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge. The usual food of cod is, however, small fish of various kinds — 

 herrings, pilchards, sprats, crabs, and sea-worms; but the species is not particular what it seizes 

 when shoaling before the spawning-season and food is scarce owing to the number of mouths. 



CHAPTER IX 



CAVE-FISHES, SAND-EELS AND THEIR ALLIES, AND FLAT-FISHES 



BY W. P. PyCRAFT, A.L.S., F.Z.S. 



THE subterranean fresh-water caves of Cuba furnish the most interesting and most 

 remarkable members of the family in certain small fishes known as C.WE-FISHES. 

 Li\ing in complete darkness, the eyes have degenerated so as to be no longer useful 

 as organs of sight; indeed, in many species they are entirely wanting. By way of compensation 

 delicate organs of touch have been developed, taking the form, in different species, of barbels, 

 hair-like processes, or tubercles. These blind fishes are closely allied to certain marine forms 

 found in the tropical Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and it is curious to note that amongst these 

 about seven very rare species are found at great depths in the southern oceans, so great that 

 light fails to reach them, and they too are blind. 



The Sand-eels, or Launces, are extremely common on the sandy shores of Europe and 

 North America, living in vast shoals, and displaying a wonderful unison in their movements, 

 rising and falling as with one accord. They burrow in the sand with amazing rapidit}-, forcing 



-J 



Phm by iV. Savilli-Kitt, F.Z.S.'} lMii/trd.in-Sid 



SPOTTED SOLE 



.^ larger and coarur fiih than the common izh 



