140 SALT-WATER FISHES 



and September must be one year old, and were therefore 

 hatched from the egg between June and September of the 

 preceding year. It may be that subsequent investigation 

 of the larval dory and its development will confirm Cunning- 

 ham's view, but he has certainly made as much of the rather 

 meagre evidence as could have been expected. 



Small dories are said to feed on gobies, which would 

 probably imply that they hunt their food nearer to the ground 

 than the larger individuals, which, as already stated, chase 

 surface-swimming fishes not far below the surface. 



Scombresocidae 



The Gar-fish (Bektte vulgaris) is perhaps the most easily 

 recognised of our fishes, having a flattened, silvery, eel-like 

 body and a development of the jaws, the lower one the longer, 

 that recalls the bill of the woodcock. Examined more closely, 

 the gar-fish is found to have numerous small teeth in both jaws 

 which at once distinguish these from the typical bill of existing 

 birds), wide gill-openings, small scales, the dorsal fin far 

 back, the tail forked, and large eyes. In colour the gar-fish 

 is bluish green, with metallic reflections, and even the bones 

 are green, both in the natural state and when cooked — a 

 character that has, quite needlessly, prejudiced consumers 

 against this very excellent food-fish. 



There can be no doubt that the gar-fish is migratory, or 

 that it consorts at some seasons with the mackerel shoals. 

 The writer never caught gar-fish except when mackerel fishing, 

 in either the Channel or the Baltic Sea. In the latter this 

 species was abundant in summer, always in company with 

 the mackerel, and the two are said to enter from the North 

 Sea in May or June, with the inflow of denser water through 

 the Skager Rack. All around our coasts this companionship 

 between the gar-fish and mackerel seems to be remarked as 

 something more than a coincidence in the season of their 

 inshoring, and the gar-fish is invariably taken on the same 



