THE LIFE-HISTORIES OF FISHES 173 



suitable to their mode of life. We can find those 

 which reach the shallow, sandy shores, but we are 

 unaware of the proportion which go elsewhere. 

 Fishermen are always struck with the apparent 

 facility with which plaice find areas of sea-bottom 

 where food is very abundant, A " strike " or 

 deposit of mussels or other shell-fish larvae may take 

 place on a certain area, and in a short time an 

 extensive bed of young molluscs is formed. Then 

 it is very often the case that enormous numbers of 

 plaice may be found feeding on these young shell- 

 fish, and the fishermen immediately credit the fish 

 with some occult power of scenting out this food 

 from great distances. It is a much more probable 

 explanation that the plaice, which are Continually 

 moving about in all directions, come across this 

 food by pure accident, and are immediately arrested. 

 If this goes on for a few weeks, there will soon be 

 a vast number of fishes aggregated on one limited 

 area, not by reason of any remarkable powers of 

 sense possessed by them, but in a perfectly simple 

 and commonplace manner. 



Food of Fishes 



Finally, I may notice the different habits which 

 have been adopted by various fishes in respect of 

 the manner of feeding. There are two principal 

 categories of marine fishes, characterised by the 

 zone of sea frequented and the kind of food usually 



