244 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



brown in colour — in fact, are the very shade of the sand over 

 which they have been swimming. 



In the spring of the year the little red Pollack may be found 

 inshore. They have a decided tinge of red in the fins, and 

 sometimes streaks of red running down through the olive of the 

 belly ; while others are dark orange along the sides and belly, 

 mottled with blue spots and streaks. Couch, in his ' British 

 Fishes,' remarks on small Pollack being bright orange on the 

 sides, caused by living in the shelter of the rocks clothed with 

 sea-weeds. But this red colour can scarcely arise from this 

 cause, seeing that three had a decided tinge of red when caught, 

 and these were from the surface of the sea, not from the rocks. 

 I have seen Pollack as much as seven pounds weight with 

 a red tinge in the fins and red markings running down their 

 sides. 



A coating of transparent mucus envelopes the whole fish ; in 

 summer it is reduced to a very thin film ; in winter it increases 

 to more than the sixteenth of an inch in thickness, and no doubt 

 protects the fish in cold weather. 



Diseases. — These seem to be very few in the Pollack. One 

 form is the wasting of the liver, caused by the boring though it 

 of the parasite, Filaria x>iscmm. Another disease is like that 

 which is so common to the Cod, Bream, Mackerel, and Garfish, 

 viz., curvature of the spine. Pollack afi'ected with this disease 

 seldom reach five pounds in weight, while full-grown, well-fed fish 

 have been known to attain to twenty-four pounds. 



Parasites. — Very few of these are found on the Pollack, 

 probably from their living so near to suitable places for scraping 

 them oS: the large close-standing stems of some of the olive sea- 

 weeds and the projecting points of rock are admirably suited for 

 this purpose. A very common expression with fisher-boys, when 

 fishing for young Pollack near shore in clear water and expecting 

 a bite, is, " Look out ! I saw a Pollack turn bright side up." The 

 idea conveyed is that a Pollack is close by, and may be expected 

 to take the bait ; and this turning " bright side up," which they 

 often do, by scraping their backs along the weeds and rocks, 

 is no doubt the act of raking off the parasites. I only know 

 three parasites common to this species — the LepeojJtheirus ; the 

 young of a sessile-eyed crustacean belonging to a species of 

 Cirolana (the latter is also found in great numbers in the Red 



