CHAPTER X 

 FISHES AND FISHING* 



BY L. W. BYRNE 



There are perhaps no living creatures which are more 

 constantly brought to the attention of any person living 

 on or near the sea than fishes, and yet there are not 

 many groups whose habits and life-histories require 

 more elucidation. Our knowledge of the growth and 

 appearance of the young stages of even the commonest 

 fishes of our own coasts has only been acquired within 

 the last quarter of a century, and there are still species 

 of no mean commercial importance of whose breeding 

 habits we are almost completely ignorant. 



The persons for whom the present work is primarily 

 intended may well have neither the opportunity nor 

 the leisure to make exhaustive collections of specimens 

 of fish, and our endeavour in the following pages is to 

 direct attention to the class of observation that is 

 likely to prove both interesting to the actual observer 

 and useful either to the student of ichthyology or the 

 practical fisherman. 



Whatever the nature of the observation made, it is 

 obviously of the first importance that the species of 

 fish under observation should be correctly identified. 



* The author of this chapter desires to make particular 

 acknowledgment of the advice and assistance given him by 

 Mr. E. W. L. Holt, one of the Inspectors of Irish Fisheries. 



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