256 SALT-WATER FISHES 



being of sociable disposition and banding together to chase the 

 shoals of launce and brit. Both also show a preference for 

 rocky ground, and the coal-fish seems, of the two, less 

 disinclined to leave it and seek its food on the sand. 



Professor Mcintosh alludes to the similarity between this 

 fish and the cod in size, structure, habits, larval development, 

 and life-history. The coal-fish spawns in early spring, from 

 February to April, and by June it has grown to a length of 

 2 in. The eggs are very numerous, a female of 23-1 lb. 

 having been computed to contain about four millions. The 

 egg closely approximates that of the whiting in both size and 

 structure, and measures rather more than -^ in. Great 

 numbers of coal-fish are caught in the vicinity of Gairloch, on 

 the west coast of Scotland, and from that locality were obtained 

 the first eggs systematically studied and described. Whereas 

 the larger coal-fish journey considerable distances from the 

 land, the younger haunt the weed zone. 



The remaining fairly common members of the cod genus 

 are two, the poor cod and the poutassou, and they are less 

 familiar than any of the foregoing on account of their insig- 

 nificant size. 



The Poor Cod (G. miniitus), or " Power," as Cornish 

 fishermen call it, is not unlike the pout in outline, but it may 

 be distinguished by its smaller size, its greater length in 

 proportion to depth, and the absence of dark bands on the 

 sides. The largest recorded example measured 8^ in. There 

 is also a difference in the tail-fin, that of the poor cod being 

 more forked, and that of the pout ending square. In colour 

 the poor cod is greyish green above and lighter below. The 

 eye is large ; and when the fish is hauled quickly from the 

 rocky bottom through 40 or 50 fathoms of water, the eye, 

 enveloped in a crystalline, gelatinous rim, seems to start from 

 the head. The writer has frequently caught this fish in 

 company with pout in Cornwall, and has observed this 

 peculiarity in the eyes of both, though to the greater degree 



