252 PHTSOSTOMI. 



and huge turbot.s safe in such company, their digestion being very rapid. It 

 does great injury to the net-fishermen, tearing the captives out of the meshes. 

 It feeds upon fisli, especially pilchard, hake, and herring along the south coast, 

 lobsters, crabs, and, in short, almost any form of animal life. Templeton recorded 

 that a vessel loaded with salt herrings was wrecked on the coast of Rathlin, and 

 these fish gorged themselves on them in great numbers, and for several days 

 subsequently were washed ashore dead. 



Mr. Ogilby informs me of one 58 ir lb. weight, and measuring over six feet 

 long, which was taken in a net at Portrash, July 21st, 1876, while in the act of 

 trying to swallow a marked 6 lb. salmon, which it has succeeded in doing so far 

 as the mesh of the net. Mr. Dunn, at Mevagiasey (October 9th, 1883), found 

 they had swallowed stones from one to four ounces in weight, and also that it 

 was a common occurrence as observed at the fish factory. Eleven days subse- 

 quently, on a conger being hooked, it tried to free itself by ejecting something 

 from its stomach, but the stone which it was trying to force out was broader one 

 way than the other, evidently the small end having been swallowed first, but on 

 coming up it turned and completely choked the conger; and after death, so 

 firmly was it found jammed that after the fish's head was cut off, it could not be 

 moved, and is still imbedded in the skull of the creature. It would appear likely 

 that these stones have been swallowed for the purpose of obtaining the animal life 

 attached to them, while they are subsequently ejected. 



Mr. Dunn, at Mevagissey, kindly kept a list of the various kinds of food taken 

 from congers' stomachs in one day in August at the fish factory. Goldsinny 

 wrasse, skuJpin, lesser sand launce, father lasher, one-spotted goby, pollachs, 

 recklings of sorts, powers, lesser fork-beard, carter, pilchards, very small congers, 

 pipe fishes, small squid, five varieties of crab including the hermit-crab, a whelk 

 without its shell, and other animal substances. Small congers are frequently found 

 in the stomachs of their larger relatives, while it is not uncommon for a small 

 one, after having been hooked, to be swallowed by one which exceeded it in size : 

 while the five-bearded rockling is a favourite food, also the large pipe fish. 



Many instances, observes Thompson, have been recorded of the decapitated 

 heads of these fish closing upon foreign bodies being inserted between the jaws ; 

 and Mr. Pattei'son of how a boy, seeing on the shore the head of one of these fish ■ 

 just left by fishermen, pushed his toe into it ; his j'ells soon brought assistance 

 and release. 



Means of capture. — Along our south coast, although occasionally taken 

 handlining, it is otiefly caught by long lines or bulters baited with pilchards, 

 mackerel, or sand launce : its mouth is rather tender for handlining, still this is 

 the favourite method of pursuing it in the Channel Islands ; but at the sea bottom 

 it gorges the bait, which must be quite fresh. A conger can bite through a cord 

 as thick as the finger, and twist the line round into a ball, and in this manner 

 often drags the hook from the jaws. In most places on being captured it is 

 knocked on the head or over the abdomen ; but not so in the Channel Islands, 

 where such a proceeding, it is considered, would spoil its appearance. Taken 

 in Ireland mostly in May and June. Thompson mentions that congers have been 

 known to destroy £5 worth of nets in a single night, and seven or eight hooks 

 have been removed from a single fish. 



Baits. — Red sea bream, pieces of almost any fish, as pilchards, herrings, and 

 likewise cuttles. At Portrush, where it is very common, Mr. Ogilby observes 

 that the lines set for it are only let down about an hour and in a slack tide : the 

 bait should be perfectly fresh, as it will not look at anything stale. 



Breeding. — In June, 1876, a female died in the Southport Aquarium, which 

 weighed 16j lb., while the ova were full 7 lb., showing a total of 6,336,512 eggs. 

 Dr. Otto Hermes found 3,300,000 in one, the ovaries of which weighed 22\ lb. 

 Tarrell asserts that they spawn in December and January. In Germany, Otto 

 Hermes refers to female congers dying, unable to deposit their ova, while one at 

 Frankfort-on-the-Maine burst in consequence of the unnatural development of its 

 ovaries. It would seem to be a rapid-growing fish when abundantly supplied with 

 food, thus Mr. Jackson at the Southport Aquarium observed that in about sixteen 



