36 THE COMMERCIAL SEA FISHES OF 



quently care no more for the results, consuming either the 

 eggs or fry should they come in their way. Lastly, we 

 have forms which deposit their eggs in large numbers, as 

 the herring, and then appear to take no further account of 

 them. 



The time of year at which spawning is effected varies in 

 accordance with the locality and family of the fish. This, 

 again, appears to be further susceptible of modifications, in 

 accordance with the temperature of the water and many 

 other local causes, while there are some fishes which breed 

 once a year, and others are supposed to do so oftener. 

 There does not appear a month in the year that the 

 herring is not breeding off some portion of the British 

 coasts. 



The effect of spawning may render a fish, in an economic 

 point of view, almost valueless, being positively unwhole- 

 some, while in other forms it does not cause its suitableness 

 as food to be altered, and this is mostly in such species as 

 deposit the least number of eggs. 



The following figures give the number of eggs which 

 have been observed in certain of our marine commercial 

 fishes : Cod, from 3,000,000 to at least 7,500,000 ; mackerel 

 (at I lb.), 86,120; at 18 oz., 546,681 ; herring (at 8 oz.), 

 19,840; at 5 oz., 36,960; turbot (128 oz.), 385,200; brill 

 (64 oz.), 239,775 ; flounder (24 oz.), i,357,4OO ; sole (14 oz.), 

 100,362 ; 16 oz., 134,466. 



Respecting hybridism among marine fishes, it has not 

 been so much observed as in fresh-water forms. A hybrid 

 between a brill and a turbot is not very rare, but what 

 becomes of these hybrids, as to the continuation of their 

 kind, absolutely nothing is known. 



The eggs of fishes kept in an aquarium appear to give 

 fewer young, and those more sickly, than when taken from 



