THE FISH OF DORSET. 37 



CLUPEA FINTA. 



TWAIT SHAD. 



Arrive in Swanage bay before the herrings (Rev. Lester Lester). 

 Couch IV., p. 122, PI. CCV. Day II., p. 236, PI. CXLI. 



BELONE VULGARIS. 



SNIPE EEL, GAR FISH, GREEN BONE, GORE BILL, LONG NOSE. 



These fish are sometimes taken in great numbers both off 

 the Chesil Beach and inside Portland in seine nets, they 

 also often take the bait when mackerel fishing. They are 

 excellent eating cut in pieces and fried, and also make good 

 bait for other fish. Some people, though, will not eat them 

 on account ot their bones being a bright green colour. In 

 the young the upper jaw is quite short. Hence the name 

 half-beak. Couch IV., p. 146, PI. CCIX. Day II., p. 147, 

 PI. CXXVIL, fig. 1. 



ANGUILLA VULGARIS, 



THE COMMON EEL. 



Until lately there were supposed to be at least three different 

 sorts of the common or freshwater eel, and they were distinguished 

 as the broadnosed, sharpnosed, and snig eel. Couch also figures 

 one as the Dublin eel, but it is now considered that they are all 

 one species, that the broadnosed and snig are the males which 

 do not go very far into fresh water but remain more or less in the 

 brackish water of estuaries and mouths of rivers. They do not 

 grow to a large size, and are of a dark olive colour on the back and 

 a greenish yellow or golden underneath. The females, or sharp- 

 nosed eel, on the other hand ascend to the very sources of rivers, 

 and go up ditches into ponds and lakes, and will even work their 

 way over land where the grass is wet. Their life history is far 

 from having been satisfactorily worked out, but it is known that 

 the spawn is deposited in the brackish water of estuaries, that the 

 young, called elvers, ascend the rivers in vast multitudes when 

 about three inches long and about the thickness of a knitting 



