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THE OTTAWA NATURALIST. 
Vou. XIX. OTTAWA, MARCH, 1906. No. 12 
THE EGGS OF THE FRESH-WATER LING. 
By Professor E. E, PRINCE and ANDREW HALKETT, Marine and Fisheries 
Department, Ottawa. 
The discovery of the eggs of the burbot or fresh-water ling 
(Lota maculosa, LeSueur) deposited by the parent fish, exhi- 
bited in the tanks of the Ottawa Fisheries Museum, is a matter of 
unusual scientific interest.* While the burbot is not a valuable 
or esteemed species, it is, in many ways, an interesting fish to the 
naturalist. It is known in different parts of Canada by no less than 
fifteen different names,t most of them uncomplimentary ; indeed, 
as the late Frank Buckland said, many years ago, of the British 
burbot or burbolt, ‘‘ they are such a stupid and ugly fish that I 
cannot advise trouble to be taken with their dissemination. .... 
they are so destructive to the eggs of all other fish... . they eat 
an enormous quantity of fry, and they swim after the manner of 
eels.’ The same author stated that they are a nocturnal fish, 
spawn in the deepest holes in lakes, 480 to 540 feet deep, and 
after having been frozen stiff will revive. Belonging, as the bur- 
bot does, to the family Gadid@, which includes the cod, haddock, 
hake, whiting, and other valuable food fishes, it might be 
imagined that it is excellent as a table fish. Of its edible 
qualities the most opposite opinions are held. On some lakes of 
the Northwest it is highly regarded ; but in other localities, in- 
deed generally, it is not regarded with favor, and has been even 
pronounced poisonous. In this connection, the following extract 
from a special report, published in the Blue Book of the Marine 
and Fisheries Department, 1go00, has an interest and may be ap- 
propriately quoted here (vide report mentioned pp. lv-lvi). 
“The eggs were collected by Mr. Andrew Halkett for study in a fresh 
living condition, while others were preserved by him in formalin. 
