26o SALT-WATER FISHES 



would in all probability require as long as seven days in our 

 colder seas. This assumption is based on the analogous size 

 and behaviour of the flounder's egg. The larva, like that 

 of the poor cod, is dotted with yellow. 



The Ling [Molva vulgaris) represents yet another type 

 of this important family of our food-fishes. Elongated 

 almost to the proportions of some marine eels, it has, like 

 the hake, two dorsal and one ventral fins ; but these, with 

 the tail fin, are less rounded than in the last, and are edged 

 with white. The skin is even smoother to the touch, for 

 the scales are yet smaller, and there is a barbel of moderate 

 size on the chin. This suggests a residence near the bottom 

 (though the coal-fish has already been cited as an exception 

 to the rule), and, indeed, the ling is taken on hand-lines 

 on the conger grounds, where it devours fishes, cuttles, and 

 crustaceans, and is not found in the surface-nets with hake. 



The colour of the full-grown ling is dull grey and white, 

 but the young are more highly tinted with orange and olive 

 bands and other markings. Its distribution in our seas 

 seems to be general, for it is abundant, and with less irregu- 

 larity than the hake, both in the north . of Scotland and on 

 the Cornish coast, though less so at some points between 

 the two. It has been caught measuring 7 ft. and weighing 

 124 lb., but such fish are not often met with nowadays. 



The ling is reckoned one of the most rapacious fishes 

 of the offshore waters, eating sharks and chimasras, cod and 

 whitings, halibut and dragonets.* As the head of the 

 devoured fish usually points forwards, it is thought that the 

 ling must swim swiftly and seize its victims, in their flight, 

 from behind. Some have inferred that it may be more 

 convenient to swallow these fishes tail first, though a moment's 

 contemplation of the dorsal spines of, for instance, the male 

 dragonet would seem to lead to an opposite conclusion. 



The ling is perhaps the most prolific of our food-fishes, 

 * Scandinavian Fishes, p. 529. 



