CHAP. XVI.] Colonel Montagu. 295 
send you another small fish, which I hope you will give me 
your opinion upon at your leisure. I freely confess that I 
am at a loss about it. Although small, it is so well pro- 
portioned in every respect, so firm, and so compact, that I 
can not believe it to be a young specimen. . I took it about 
a fortnight since, in a small shoal of Thompson’s Midge; 
and though I have been netting each day since then, I have 
not yet met with another.” 
Mr. Couch was equally at a loss with Edward. At first 
he said, “It appears to be a Wrasse labrus, but it is not 
exactly like any of the known kinds.” In his next letter 
he said, “I think your little fish is the young of the rock 
goby.” This did not satisfy Edward. He answered that 
“the fish, though little, was a full-grown fish ; and that it 
might possibly be one of Thompson’s Irish fish.” ‘“ No,” 
replied Couch ; “it will be plain to you that it is not Irish, 
from Mr. Thompson’s own description,” which he then 
gave, At last he thought it to be “the true mackerel 
midge.” He examined the little fish again, and finally 
came to the conclusion that it was a long-lost fish—Mon- 
tagu’s Midge, or the silvery gade. 
Colonel George Montagu was an old soldier and sports- 
man, who had flourished in Devonshire some seventy years 
before. Living in the country and by the sea-shore, his at- 
tention was directed to the pursuit of natural history. At 
first it was his hobby, and then it became his study. He 
observed birds carefully: this was natural to him as a 
sportsman. He published an “ Ornithological Dictionary 
of British Birds.” But his range of study broadened. The 
sea-shore always presents a great ‘attraction for naturalists. 
The sea is a wonderful nursery of nature: the creatures 
that live in and upon it are so utterly different from those 
which we meet with by land. Then, every thing connected 
with the ocean is full of wonder. 
Colonel Montagu was an extraordinary observer. He 
was a man who possessed the seeing eye. He forgot noth- 
