195 
where some of the November fish had formed its redds, and 
_ whose eggs were just hatching. 
We see the same thing in marine fishes, thus there is not a 
month around the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland that 
herrings cannot be found breeding. In the United States the 
Fishery Department have ascertained that the cod-fish (Gadus 
morhua,) breeds during nine months of the year, namely, from 
September until May. 
Some fishes merely breed once a year, while others do so 
more frequently. During the breeding season some fishes, 
as the salmon and the shad in our fresh waters, and the 
herrings of our seas, appear to decrease the amount of food 
they consume, or even entirely cease feeding; this may be 
necessary in some gregarious marine forms, for the following 
_ reason: Unless they congregate together at this period there 
_ would be great danger in the deposited ova not being fertilised 
| by the milt, for we know that should such not take place ina 
short time in fresh water they do not become vivified. Should, 
_ therefore, fish in this condition have to be roving about in 
_ search of food, there would be the possibility that large quan- 
_ tities of eggs would be spoiled, while the forms which produce 
_ the greatest number of ova are often those which live in large 
- communities. 
| Whether breeding occasions any deleterious effects upon 
Z fish is capable of more than one answer. Fresh-water forms 
_ that produce a moderate number of eggs, or do so gradually, 
_ or at more than one period in the year, do not appear to be so 
- much affected as those which deposit large numbers of ova, and 
q complete this process within a short space. As a rule, the 
result of breeding is that the parent fish goes out of condition, 
and continues so for a longer or shorter period of time. 
‘Herrings, as soon as they are “spent,” fall off in condition; 
the salmon kelt becomes absolutely unwholesome, or else so 
lean and flabby as to be unsuitable for the table. 
_ Fishes’ eggs are of various sizes, and which size is not in 
relationship to that of the magnitude of the species—thus a 
codfish has much smaller eggs than a trout, and a common 
