252 AN EAST COAST NATURALIST 



members of the Cod family) seems probable, for I 

 cannot learn of examples having been previously ob- 

 served by the Yarmouth fish curers, through whose 

 hands many millions of these fish pass annually, and 

 who are very ready to mark any departure from the 

 normal.'" 



Another hermaphroditic Herring was recorded 

 from Cley in December 1902. Having been, in 

 all probability, taken off this coast, its record will 

 not be out of place beside my own. A gentleman 

 had cooked a Bloater when he noticed the bi-sexual 

 characteristics of the fish. The milt and the roe 

 were situated in the usual cavity, terminating near 

 the tail, and in this particular case the milt occupied 

 three-fourths of the entire length, the remaining 

 portion being perfectly formed roe. The roe and 

 milt were separated by a thin tissue which formed 

 a complete partition. The finder regretted the 

 spoiling of the specimen by cooking. In the autumn 

 fishing of 1903 a fish merchant informed me he had 

 seen a cooked Herring one breakfast-time which, on 

 being opened, displayed a perfect coupling of the 

 sexes, one lobe being of roe, the other milt. 



But the strangest instance of a hermaphroditic 

 Herring occurred on 1st December, when a person, 



