588 MISCELLANEOUS 



Malm have established in the case of the plaice, one of the most 

 typical of this group of fishes. The gurnard family must also be 

 included in this category; the spawn of the red mullet, we believe, 

 has been observed floating in aquariums; and the dory, from its close 

 affinity to the mackerel, may be expected to follow the same rule. 

 On the other hand, we know that the spawn of the herring is com- 

 monly found at the bottom, although it by no means follows that the 

 parent fish is there when the ova are excluded ; for the full herring is 

 frequently taken in drift nets which are very near the surface, and 

 these nets are often covered with small lumps of spawn. At the same 

 time the specific gravity of herring spawn is greater than water, and 

 it sinks to the bottom sooner or later if nothing intercepts it. There 

 is no evidence of its ever floating at or near the surface as is the case 

 with that of the cod. In fact, the aggregation of the ova into masses 

 of various sizes, and the glutinous substance in which the ova are 

 embedded, by which they are enabled to adhere firmly to anything 

 with which they may come in contact, point to their remaining in 

 a fixed position during the process of development. It might have 

 been anticipated that the other members of the herring family the 

 pilchard and sprat, for instance would also have spawned on the 

 ground, but, so far as we are aware, their ova have never been found 

 there. Indeed, nothing is known of the spawning habits of the sprat, 

 although this little fish has the roe well developed in December or 

 January, when it is found in the greatest abundance on our coast, 

 and comes nearest to the shore. The spawning of the pilchard is a 

 matter of some little interest. The late Mr. Jonathan Couch, who 

 probably devoted more time to the study of the habits of this fish 

 than any other ichthyologist states his belief that the pilchard 

 spawned at the surface, and the ova became mixed with a large 

 quantity of tenacious mucus which spread out like a sheet on the 

 water and kept them floating. If this should be confirmed it will 

 prove that even in the case of agglutinated masses of ova, develop- 

 ment may naturally take place in them far away from the bottom. 

 There appears to be little doubt that the pilchard spawns far put at 

 sea, as they are on chance occasions taken in spawning condition in 

 the mackerel drift-nets early in the year; and when, some months 

 later, the shoals of pilchards approach the land the roe shows no 

 signs of development. These circumstances favour the idea that pil- 

 chards are surface spawners, as believed by Mr. Couch. 



There are several other kinds of edible fish of whose spawning 

 habits we have no definite knowledge, but enough has been discov- 

 ered of the habits of most of the fish which are valuable for the 

 purposes of food, to show that there need be no anxiety about their 

 spawn being destroyed by any of the methods of fishing in ordinary 

 use. The only apparent exception to this statement is in the case 

 of the herring, whose spawn it has been alleged has been destroyed by 

 the beam-trawlers. But if the beam-trawlers wish to avoid tearing 

 their nets in pieces, they must work where the ground is smooth ; and 

 in the few precise localities where it has been positively ascertained 

 that the herring does spawn, the general character of the bottom is 

 rough. That is the ground specially worked over by the line fisher- 

 men for haddock, cod, turbot, and other fishes, which come there 4n 



"History of British Fishes, vol. Iv, p. 81 (1865) 



