THE PICKED DOG-FISH. 557 



of the same size, and equally developed in every way. He 

 is further of opiuioa that the female does not produce 

 more than about ten young ones ; and in this he is partly 

 corroborated by the fishermen, who have assui'ed him 

 they seldom find in her stomach at the same time more 

 than five or six that VLveftdl-grodda, or fully grown. 



Couch, when speaking of the Picked ©(^g-Pish, says : — • 

 " Such is the strength of instinct, that little creatures, not 

 exceeding six inches in length, may be found in company 

 with the larger and stronger, following ' schulls ' of fish, 

 on which at the time it is impossible they should be able 

 to prey." The fishermen in the Bohus Skiirgard, and 

 elsewhere, assert, on the contrary, that the young, so far 

 from accompanying the old ones in their predatory excur- 

 sions, always confine themselves to shoal water, and keep 

 to the bottom, where many ai'e captured during the 

 autumn by the line. Believing in the correctness of 

 these men's statements, Swedish and Danish naturalists 

 rather smile at this " iirade," as they call it, of our cele- 

 brated ichthyologist. The gravid female, when hauled 

 into the boat, is not unfrequently, in its death struggles> 

 taken in labour ; and the learned therefore surmise that 

 it is the young thus prematurely ushered into the world 

 that have given rise to the fiction in question. 



This fish is taken in various ways in Scandinavia. At 

 times in nets, called Ha-gavn, constructed expressly for 

 the purpose ; and at others on lines and in nets laid out 

 for other fish. Occasionally they are captured in enormous 

 numbers. " One morning," says Kroyer, " I was present 

 near Agger, in Jutland (lat. 56° 47'), when the fishermen 

 drew their nets on shore filled almost exclusively with the 

 picked dog-fish. From the best calculation I was able to 

 make, not less than eleven thousand were taken at this 

 fishing-station alone during the preceding night." When 

 the Picked Dog-Pish are congregated in numbers they give 



