1050 



THE NATURE BOOK 



In an earlier article attention was drawn 

 to some types of wandering fishes, whose 

 travels are perhaps more interesting 

 than their home hfe. Now, however, it 

 may be interesting to set down a few 

 facts, as far as we know them, in the life 

 story of the stay-at-home kinds that 

 lack either the inclination or opportunities 

 for extended travel. The Bass, the 

 Grev Mullet, the Gurnard and the Turbot 

 appear satisfactory representatives of 

 these. 



The Bass is sometimes regarded as a 



migratory fish. It is not found on the 

 same grounds throughout the year. In 

 a Devonshire river, for example, on the 

 banks of which I have lived for some 

 years, it is caught only in the warmer time 

 of the year, say from April until Septem- 

 ber. Yet I long suspected that its change 

 of quarters was only local, and that, instead 

 of travelling hundreds of miles, like 

 the Mackerel and Herring, it moved only 

 from the deep to the shallow water and 

 back again. This belief has more recently 

 been confirmed by a study of the Bass 

 in Turkish waters, where this fish 

 attains to a far greater weight than 

 with us, specimens of thirty jiounds 

 being not uncommon in the markets. 

 One gentleman, an enthusiastic Bass 

 fisherman who resides at Constanti- 

 nople, catches these fish all the year 

 round, only in winter he has to seek 

 them in deeper water, that is all. 

 Like many other fishes, these Bass go 

 in shoals, those of the same size re- 

 maining together. They ascend rivers. 



GUKNAKD. 



