144 THE COMMERCIAL SEA FISHES OF 



young herrings and other small fish ; in the winter on the 

 stone-coated worms (serpula), which fishermen call haddock 

 meat. They consume great quantities of herring ova and 

 fry, while the sprat is likewise favourite food. 



In the Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. 1792, pp. 367-373, is an 

 account of a remarkable failure of these fishes in Northum- 

 berland. 



Means of capture. Line or beam-trawl fishing, as it 

 generally feeds near the ground. Off Norfolk long lines 

 for haddock fishing, the length of each of which is about 

 370 fathoms, are locally termed schulls. In the Moray 

 Firth it is taken throughout the year, except during the six 

 or eight weeks of the herring fishery, when the fishermen 

 are otherwise engaged ; but in stormy weather it refuses all 

 baits. Pennant (1776) observed that three fishermen within 

 one mile of Scarborough Harbour frequently loaded their 

 coble or boat with them twice a day, taking each time 

 about a ton of fish ; when they shot their lines upwards of 

 three miles from the shore they took nothing but dog- 

 fishes, which showed the limits to which they resorted for 

 feeding. The best sold at is. to is. 6d. the score, and the 

 smaller ones at a penny and sometimes a halfpenny a score. 



Baits. Cuttle, mussels of both the horse and edible 

 species, sprats, and cod bait. 



Breeding. In America, a haddock of 2-f- Ib. gave 169,050 

 eggs, the number increasing in quantity until from one 

 9_2__ Ib. 1,839,581 were taken ; the shortest time required for 

 hatching was eight, and the average nine days. Pennant 

 observed that they spawn in January. Some are certainly 

 in full roe during February and March, during which latter 

 month R. Couch observed that they spawned in Cornwall ; 

 and, Parnell, that they likewise did so in the Firth of Forth. 

 Sars remarked that the spawning process of this fish is very 





