87 



GREEN POLLACK. 



From a distant date a fish called tlie Green Pollack has 

 occupied a place in the list of British natural history, and it 

 has a station in the system of Linnaeus, with the name of 

 Gadus virens. Other references are: — 



Asellus virescens, Willoughby; p. 173, table L. M. N. 1. 



But he had never seen the fish, and 

 supposes it to be the young condition of 

 the Pollack, which his own figure might 

 have taught him it was not. 

 Gade sey, Lacepede. Rrsso. 



Merlangus virens, Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 195. 



" " Jexyns; Manual, p. 447. 



" " Yarrell; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 256. 



We believe that a notice of the Green Pollack, in the 

 supposition that it is a distinct species, was communicated to 

 Pennant by Sir John CoUum, who obtained it in Devonshire; 

 and if so the fish must be the same as that with which we 

 are acquainted, and as is represented by Mr. Yarrell, in which 

 case it certainly is as we have described it. But our fish 

 does not closely answer to the figure given by Fries and 

 Eckstrom. 1 possess no other than the first edition of Pennant's 

 work, in which there is no account of the Green Pollack. 



This fish is common, and at times abundant, even in con- 

 siderable schools, which are sometimes seen in harbours, or the 

 close neighbourhood of the shore. But without hesitation I 

 express the opinion that it is only the young form of the 

 Coalfish or Kauning Pollack, of which the gradations may be 

 traced in all stages of its growth from five or six inches in 



