3 26 



THE COMMERCIAL SEA FISHES OF 



the wriggling of their dangling bodies had a strange effect. 

 They were too far from the edge to be captured by arr 

 available means, but I have no doubt that they were all 

 full-grown individuals of this species." It consumes water- 

 insects and the flesh of dead fish, while itself falls a victim 

 to a large extent to rats, which prefer the breathing-hole 

 any other portion of the fish. 



Means of capture. They used to be taken in enormous 

 numbers in the Thames from Battersea Reach to T 

 Mills. Now they are detained and caught at the Teddingtc 

 Weir in a sort of basin, being unable to reach their spawning 

 beds. In 1882 it Was stated that 120,000 had been take 

 in the Thames up to the middle of January, and they still 

 kept coming. As they decrease in numbers, their price 

 rises for the Dutch market, where they are required for the 

 turbot and cod fishermen, and as many as 400,000 have 

 been supplied in one season from the Thames at 40$-. 

 a thousand, but which have now risen to loos, a thousand. 

 They are very tenacious of life, and are kept alive for some 

 weeks at sea. They are generally taken in wicker traps. 



Baits. Dame Juliana Berners observes, when recom- 

 mending a worm or a minnow for trout, " in Aprill tc 

 the same baytes ; and also Juneba, otherwise vii eyes." 



Breeding. Yarrell examined some from the Than* 

 every week from March until the middle of May, and witl 

 the following results. To April iQth the females exceeded 

 the males in number ; subsequently the females became 

 nearly ready to spawn, when he found the proportion to be 

 two males to one female. By the 26th of April all th< 

 females were ready to spawn, and the milt from the malt 

 readily exuded. By May loth all were shotten. A corre- 

 spondent of Loudon (Mag. Nat. Hist, vol. v.) observed 

 that when breeding, one twists its tail around another, 



