140 WHITING 



IrelcincI, the North Sea, and the Norwegian sea as far north as 

 Trondhjem, at depths between 20 and 25 fathoms. It may be 

 taken that Hjort is right in giving the optimum spawning depth 

 as 10 to 30 fathoms. Storrow has made an admirable series of 

 draAvings dej)icting the egg at all stages, which is reproduced 

 on p. 214 of Migrations of Fish. 



The Spawning Period 



Clark states that whiting spawn from February to September, 

 and that there is a large production of fry in the Plymouth area. 

 Meek gives the spawning time as February to June. 



Incubation 



Mcintosh and Masterman hatched out the eggs ^ (in April) on 

 the tenth day at a temperature which is not stated in their book. 

 The writer can find no record of any hatching table designed to 

 show the effect of warmer or colder water on the time taken in 

 the process. 



The Larvae and Fry 



On hatching, the larvae measure (3 -2-3 -5 milHmetres) just 

 over one-tenth of an inch. They appear to ' swim about 

 actively in the surface water ', which may mean that they are 

 able to look after themselves very early in Hfe. While in this 

 stage they drift all over the North Sea, the Channel, and the 

 Irish coast, also along the south and west coasts of Iceland and 

 the Faeroes, and along the Norwegian coast. They are beheved 

 by some people, including Sars, to shelter themselves under 

 jelly-fish when floating at the surface. As they reach the 

 shallows near the 50-fathom line they take to the sea-bed, and 

 continue their journey towards the coast. In winter they 

 retreat into rather deeper water. 



Subsequent Development 



The most interesting and most recent observations on young 

 whiting are those of Clark and Dr. Lebour'^ at Plymouth in 

 1920, and Storrow at Cullercoats has done characteristically 

 excellent work on the earher stages. Two days after hatching, 

 his young whiting were 3-9 millimetres long.^ The writer has 

 found no record of attempts to feed whiting in this early stage 

 before the yolk is absorbed, and this leaves a lacuna in our 

 knowledge of its life-history in the most important and most 



^ The eggs average 0-047 inch = 651,000 to the ((uart. 



« Journ. 31. B. A.,^. S. Xil, No. 2, p. 182. and pp. 279-82. 



» Migrations of Fish, p. 218. 



