298 LIFE BY THE SEASHORE. 



off the edge of the rocks with an incoming tide. The 

 humanitarian may protest against this, and exclaim that the 

 naturalist cannot admire without seeking to destroy, but the 

 fact remains that while you call these fish merely " fish " in 

 the indefinite sense, you will observe but little of their 

 habits; while if you possess yourself of a few specimens, 

 learn their name, and something of their characters, the 

 next time you see those shoals you will not only observe 

 much more than you did the first time, but your interest 

 will be greatly intensified, and your chances of seeing much 

 greater. 



There need be no difficulty as to name, for these pretty 

 fish are saithe, or coal-fish (see Fig. 85), in the adult stage 



Fio. 85. Saithe, or coal-fish (Gadus wrens), to show typical fish-like shape, 

 di, d 2 , d'J, the three dorsal fins ; v, the ventral fin of right side ; p, the right 

 pectoral ; a 1 , a 2 , the two anal fins ; t, the equally lobed tail fin ; b, the rudi- 

 mentary barbule. Note also the lateral line, and the operculum (o) covering the 

 gills. After Day. 



often sold to innocent housewives as cod, and in the young 

 stage known to all boys as poddlers, or by a dozen other 

 names beside. The adults grow to a length of two or three 

 feet or more, but the shoals found off the rocks in summer 

 time are usually the young, and are not more than a few 

 inches in length. 



As in most fish, the body is spindle-shaped, tapering 

 behind so as to offer the least resistance to the water. It 

 ends in a tail fin which is equally lobed, so that every stroke 

 drives the animal straight through the water. This is a 

 point of some interest, for it is only modern fish which 

 possess tails of this kind. In the fish found as fossils in 

 the older rocks, as well as in the living dog-fish and skate, 



