350 PEOSE HALIEFTICS. 



Gadus Mbrlucius (Hake). 



A somewhat lengthy notice of the cod will preclude 

 our saying anything of many other gadeans, almost as 

 beneficial to mankind as the cod itself. Of the haddock, 

 which an English admiral,* in his quarterings, ' clutches 

 in strong right-hand,' while a German Baront ' embays' 

 it over the episcopal hat of an ecclesiastical ancestor ; of 

 whiting, which, in the opinion of a French connoisseur, 

 is so light ' qu'il ne poise non plus dans I'estomac que 

 pendu k la ceinture,'t and which ornamented the table 

 at the coronation fish banquet of Catherine, queen of 

 Henry the Fifth; of ling, which the third Edward 

 thought so valuable as, Numa-Uke, to tax the sale of it; 

 of the burbot, or coney fish, between two of which, ' ar- 

 gent on a chevron azure, a coney courant,' is conspicuous 

 in the arms of a Gloucester prelate, § and to procure 

 constant supplies of which a French countess is said to 

 have sunk half her fortune ; — of all these and other no- 

 tabilities of the present family we cannot here speak, 

 but must reserve our remaining ' few words ' for the ga- 

 dus merlucius, or hake, the pseudo-descendant, as will 

 shortly appear, of the ancient ass-fish, asellus. This 

 some of our older naturalists for awhile gave out to be the 

 haddock, because of his Norman name of donkey, plus 

 an asinine stripe across the shoulders, || plus a barbel be- 

 low his nether jaw ; till it was discovered that the had- 

 dock was not a Mediterranean fish ; and the hake, a 

 near neighbour, whose general hue of body was sufiici- 

 ently asinine to sustain a simile, and who moreover 

 frequented that sea, was made to supplant him. 



* Sir Nicholas Haddock. f Baron von Eytzing. 



J Eondolet. § Cheney. 



II Thus Lister, interpreting a passage of Varro, says : ' Ex vir- 

 gatis macuhs nigris ad scaptdas et secundum, ventrem asinorum 

 instar nomen habet.' — List, in Apic. 



