290 MARKETABLE BRITISH MARINE FISHES 



as in others, but both sexes seem to be often mature at 1 1 or 

 12 inches, while some females were immature at i6 inches. We 

 may consider ii to i6 inches about the length reached at two 

 years of age. 



According to Mr. Holt's experience, when the fish of the 

 year are taken, less than 5 or 6 inches in length, no large fish 

 are captured, and he believes that the haddock swims in shoals, 

 the older fish separate from the younger. The smaller fish in 

 the catches made by the trawlers are 10 to 13 inches long, and 

 the proportion of these was noticed to decrease in summer and 

 increase in autumn and winter. Mr. Holt suggests that the 

 reason of this is that the shoals of full-grown or large fish are 

 recruited at this season of the year from the small fish which 

 have grown large enough. But it seems that the recruits must 

 be at the end of their second year, as very few if any probably 

 reach 10 inches at the end of their first year. 



^"^'''-v Whiting (Gadiis nierlangiis). 



DistingtiisJiiiig Characters. — No barbel on the chin ; the 

 black spot is above and about the root of the breast fin. The 

 vent is further forward than in the cod or haddock, the first 

 ventral fin commencing beneath the middle of the first dorsal. 

 The tail-fin ends with a straight or very slightly incurved edge. 

 The largest whiting recorded by Dr. Fulton was 21 inches long ; 

 the weight of large fish is usually from 3 to 4 lbs. 



Habitat. — From Norway to the Mediterranean. More 

 abundant and larger off the south coast of England than in 

 the North Sea, but occurring in numbers round all the coasts of 

 Britain and Ireland. On the west coast of Ireland it was not 

 taken at a greater depth than 40 fathoms, and it is restricted to 

 the neighbourhood of the land more than cod or haddock. 



Food. — Five hundred and thirty-nine stomachs containing 

 food, from whiting taken in the Firth of Forth, were examined. 

 The pringipal food was fish and Crustacea, 65 per cent, of the 

 stomachs 'containing the former, 37 per cent, the latter. Of 

 the Crustacea, only the common shrimp and the red shrimp 

 occurred abundantly ; of the fish, herrings and other whiting 



