.SAND-KEKS. 



o79 



out ill deep wiitcr, hut not tar ('i — 14 uicti-cs) from tlii' 

 surface, at tlic spots where- Hcrrin^-fry were abundant. 

 As he did not see -Auy large specimens at the same time, 

 he cont-hi(hMl tliat the young Sand-Kels lead a roving 

 life, whih' the oltler ones seem to he more tied to oni! spot. 



( )u the sliores of Xor\va\' the Sand-lCels are not 

 rare and are known by the name of .SV(7. When the 

 liottom is left dr\- h\- the ebb-tide, tiiey bury themselves 

 lliere, and nio\(' aliout at high water. But tiiev' also 

 occur far out at sea in water of considerable deptii, 

 whei'e during summer they are caught in large luunbers 

 li\- se\cral seabirds {Moiiikdi iircticn.s^ Uria troile). This 

 can, of course, happen oidy when the tish is swimming 

 about- — During winter, M'hen the Sand-Eel keeps to 

 deep water, we may in all probability assume that like 

 most other fishes at this season, it leads a still more 

 quiet life than in sunnncr. At this season, too, it pro- 

 liabl\- haunts a sandy bottom and lies l)uried in the 

 sand. Professor F. W. Akeschdug informed .'slndkvall 

 that one winter a tisherraan who was dragging to iind 

 some Cod-lines that had been lost, took up a Sand-Eel 

 King (a large Ammoihites lanceoJutiis) on a sandv bottom 

 at a great depth. It api)ears, however, that even at 

 this season the Sand-Eel occasionall)' moves about, from 

 the fact that during winter it is often found in Cod 

 caught iu deep water. 



The food of the Sand-Eel is composed of all kinds 

 of small marine animals, especially worms, which it is 

 believed by some to search for in the sand. It is not 

 for this purpose, however, that it burrows in the ground. 

 It is impossible for a tish buried in this manner 

 to seek or seize any prev. The Sand-Eel lies in the 

 sand to rest and to avoid its many different enemies: 

 Porpoises — which have been observ^ed even to root up 

 the bottom to find their victims — Mackerel, Cod-fishes 

 — especially the Pollack, which has been seen in shoals 

 chasing the Sand-Eels up towards the sui'face to seize 

 them from below and devour them — Garpike, and 

 i)ther tishes-of-prev, as well as seafowl. The principal 

 food of the Sand-Eel consists, however, of small fishes, 

 belonging even to its own genus. We have already 

 mentioned that tiie fry swim ;d)out where young Her- 

 rings are plentiful. The middle-sized Sand-Eels devour 

 their smaller congeners and other fry: while the largest 



Sand-Eels seem to live almost cxclusivch- on the middle- 

 sized ones. 



The spawning-season of tlie smaller si)ecies, the 

 Sand-l..aunce, occurs in August. Si'NDKvall was in- 

 formed, however, b\ Mr. Halck of Sinu'ishamn, that 

 iu l<S.")(i the spiiwuing of the Sand-I^aunce lasted at 

 least until the 15th of Septendx-r. — Still the spent 

 fish remain in the shallows together with the others. 

 At many spots in lingland and Ireland" the Sand- 

 Launce is caught between the tide-marks even in win- 

 ter, though then, after the spawning-season, it is "so thin 

 as not to be sought after generally for food". It is a 

 remarkable circumstance that the spawning does not 

 begin until the fish has l;)een three months at tlie spa wiiing- 

 place. — Less is known of the spawning-season of the 

 larger species, the Sand-Eel. Nilsson received informa- 

 tion from Vstad to the effect that the Sand-Eel spawns 

 tliere in April; but it is hardlj' probable that the species 

 ascends to the shallows so early. On the 12t]i of Octo- 

 ber, 1892, our Museum received througli Mr. i\ A. Lind- 

 HOTH a newly caught Sand-Eel 25 cm. long, with the 

 testes just beginning to swell, from Stenvik (Ejusteron) 

 in the island-belt of Stockholm. Malm gives an ob- 

 servation of a female 28 cm. long, that had fully de- 

 veloped roe on the 5th of June; but he does not state 

 whether the roe was cjuite ready to be deposited. At 

 St. Ives Day found the generative organs of the Sand- 

 Eel and the Sand-Launce to be equally developed in 

 August. In Scandinavia both species ascend into shal- 

 low water at the same time, in the month of May, and 

 it seems most probable that tliey also spawn at about 

 the same time, the larger perhaps, as is common among 

 fishes (in the Herring, for example), before the smaller. 



Of the growth of the fry Sundevall remarks that 

 the j'oung specimens, 75 or at most 100 mm. long, 

 which in summer (from Julv to Se])teml)er, or perhaps 

 still longer) i-ove far and wide in search of prey, pro- 

 bably belong to the fry of the previous year, and that 

 the ordinarj- specimens 125 mm. or more in letigth 

 seem to be a year older. At the end of Jidy, 1880, 

 oft' Groto among the Lofoden Islands, Cdlleit also 

 distinguished between three difterent generations of the 

 Sand-Launce, 75, 125, and 170 mm. long and, iu his 

 opinion, respectively 2, ?>, and 4 years old'. Whether 



" See for example Thompson, Nat. Hist. Ini., vol. IV, p. 238. 



'' We arrived at quite different results in a consignment of Sand-Launces from Sondruni, oS. Halmstad, taken at the beginning of 

 .\ngust. Among these specimens a few measured between 50 and 55 mm. in length, while the others, we may almost say, were of all pos- 

 sible sizes between 05 and 125 mm. 



