1041 



may he <j;atliere(l tVcuii tlie tact tliat it lias been seen 

 to tear asunder lines as thick as a mail's tiiigei'. It 

 docs j^rcat damage to fishing-tackle, and ]a_ys tlie lisher- 

 man's take under hea\ y coiiti'ihutioii. It I)ites holes 

 in the nets and drags out the fish. It creeps into 

 lobster-pots, makes siiort work ot" the catch, and if the 

 material of the jiot is flexilile, bores its way out, fail 

 first, through one of tlie chinks. Like the coniiiuiu h'el, 

 it is sensitive to changes in the weather. Ininiediateh' 

 before a gale it is restless, and many Congers are cast 

 ashore in stormy weather. It seems to suffer es])eeially 

 from cold. In winter it is often found half-dead at 

 the surfaet', with air-ldadder stroiigh" distended. The 

 cold apparentlx' dejii^ives it of coiniiiand o\ei- the disten- 

 sion of this organ. 



The rapacity of the Conger often embroils it with 

 other ]jirates of the deeji. and it falls a \ictiiii to jxir- 

 poises, dolphins, Sharks, and large Ivavs. In the Medi- 

 terranean one of its bitterest enemies is its own relative, 

 the large Mur;Bna, and the combats of these antagonists 

 were famed even among the ancients. Against the 

 Miira-na its ordinary stratagems, such as snddenlv tak- 

 ing refuge in holes, or firmly coiling its tail round 

 stones or in crevices, are of no avail; and as a proof 

 of its tenaeit\' of life the old stoi-s' relates that the 

 Mura.Mia bites off its tail, but that it survives the 

 wound. 



The diet of the Conger comprises all kinds of fish 

 — principally belonging to the Clupeoid and Gadoid 

 families, and especialh- Rocklings — lobsters, crabs, and 

 cuttles; and it shows no mercv to its own species. 

 The Conger is conserpiently taken in luunbers on the 

 hook, with a bait of Herring or other fish; but the 

 bait sliould, if i>ossible, be fresh. Yet it does not 

 disdain decomposing flesh, and it has been found con- 

 cealed within the dead bodies of large animals. 



The spawning-season occurs in winter. Blcklanii 

 estimated" the number of eggs in a female at over 

 fifteen million, perhaps a liberal computation ; but Day 

 mentions a female, weighing nearly 7 kilo., that had 

 died in the Southport Aquarium, and the ovaries of 

 which weighed rather more than 3 kilo., containing 

 over six million eggs. In fecundity the Conger is thus 

 by no means inferior to the common Kel. The actual 

 spawning has never been observed; but the young have 



been diligenth' studie<l in recent times, especially b\' 

 the Italian I'accioi.a '. lie distinguishes between six 

 different L('j>l<i(i'iili<iliis forms belonging to this species, 

 more or less distinct transition forms which com])0,se 

 an unbroken series from the most degenerate larva-, 

 Lcptoccphalits hueqiiaUfi, or fi-om the longer kno\vn 

 Leptocephaln.s Morrisii, to the easily recognisable fry 

 of Conr/cr iiit/er. The iii-st-mentioned lar\-a; are sharp- 

 nosed, transparent, slender, but deep behind the middle 

 of the body, are furnished with com|)aratively large, 

 subulate jaw-teeth, and have the beginning of the dorsal 

 fin situated in the jxisterior third of the length of the 

 bodv, tlie vent in the hindmost lil'tli thereof. Lrjito- 

 fi'jili(il/(s Miin-'isii is blunt-nosed, with prominent tip 

 of the snout, terete, tiiougli transparent, and of more 

 unifortn depth, has lost all the jaw-teeth or the greater 

 numbei' thereof, and has tlie l)eginning of the dorsal 

 fin situated at a distance from the ti]) of the snout 

 measuring about 28 % of the length of the liody, the 

 vent at a distance from the same point measuring about 

 38 ?v of the said length. The ascertained fry of Con- 

 f/er ni(/er are brown on the back, and at first show 

 two longitudinal bands of chestnut-brown. As we have 

 already remarked, however, the average size of the last- 

 mentioned, least degenerate forms may be less than 

 that of Leptocephalus iruequaUs. 



The subsequent growth of the Conger is apparently 

 very rapid. Jackson, the manager of the Southport 

 Aquarium, added to the collections a number of Con- 

 gers w-eighing 2 — 8 lbs. (0'9 — 1"36 kilo.), which he 

 assumed to be about a year old. Five vears afterwards 

 (in 1880) one of these specimens died, and was sent 

 to BucKLAXD. It measured ti ft. ."> in. (1,956 mm.) 

 and weighed 90 lbs. (40-8 kilo.). 



In aquaria the Conger is easilv kept alive, but its 

 ravenous hunger renders it a dangerous comrade to its 

 fellow-captives. "We find these congers," wrote Jack- 

 son, "are the most voracious creatures we keep; they 

 attack and devour even dogfish, and these of a size 

 that one would think bevond their jiowers of swallowing. 

 We have ipiite gi\en up keeping the piked dogfish with 

 them, and even the topers must be big ones, or down 

 they go. The onlv safe things are our big stui'geons, 

 monk-fish, skate, and the huge tui'bot we have reared 

 from little ones (these latter continue to grow). Con- 



" Nat. Hist Brit. Fit^h., p. 387. 



'• // .Xiituralista Siciliano, Anno XII, 189:i, p. 194. 



