THE COD FAMILY AND THE SAND-EELS 243 



difficulty in recognising the scales on a hake or haddock at the 

 fishmongers ; they are easily seen and are very apparent to 

 the touch. But in life, when the fish is thickly coated with 

 mucus, it might pass for scaleless. 



There are three variations in the number of the dorsal 

 fins. Thus, while the cod and haddock and several others 

 have three, the hake and ling have only two, and the torsk 

 only one. 



A character found in many, but not in all, of these fishes is 

 the beard, or barbel, on the chin ; but this has no value as a 

 determining character even in a genus, since one species will 

 have it, while another is without. The whiting, the pollack 

 and the hake have no barbel, while in the rocklings there is 

 not only one on the chin, but a varying number as well on 

 the snout, or upper lip, which might more appropriately be 

 termed moustaches. 



Some have endeavoured to show that such gadoids {i.e. fish 

 of the cod family) as lack the barbel {^e.g. hake and pollack) are 

 particularly given to chasing fry at the surface. Such general- 

 ising, may be tempting, but it is not always safe. Thus, 

 the coal-fish, which has a small barbel, also chases the fry, 

 even more furiously at times than the pollack ; while, on the 

 other hand, the whiting, which has no barbel, feeds, as a 

 rule, nearer the bottom than the surface, and is often sluggish 

 in the extreme. 



The migrations of the cod and its relatives are far less 

 extensive, it may be surmised, than those of the herring and 

 mackerel and their allies, and there are deep-water grounds on 

 which they seem to be present in varying numbers throughout 

 the greater part of the year. Near the land, however, there is 

 abundant evidence of regular movements according to season, 

 for the whiting are not taken on the Eddystone grounds 

 between Christmas and the late spring, and both they and the 

 cod approach the coast of Kent in great number in late autumn, 

 following the sprats, and some years they practically absent 



