Fishes 3483 



Dorsettensis, Pagurus Bernhardus, Nephros Norvegicus, Hyas ara- 

 neus, Hyas coarctatus, Stenorhynchus Phalangium, Portunus depura- 

 tor, Galathea nexa, Pandalus annulicornis, Gebia deltura, Nika edulis, 

 and nearly as many more species of less frequent occurrence. It is 

 rather singular that neither Carcinus Mamas, the most abundant Crus- 

 tacean on the coast, nor the lobster (Homarus vulgaris), is to be found 

 in the above list. Their absence from this bill of fare may be ac- 

 counted for by the habitat of the former being too far inland, and in 

 too shallow water, to allow the cod to reach them, and by the power 

 with which the latter can wield its defensive arms against an enemy 

 to which most if not all of its congeners must succumb. It does not 

 appear that large subsidies are levied from among the Echinodermata; 

 yet when a colony of Ophiocoma rosula, or a goodly sized Ophiura 

 texturata is discovered, they are not spared. The Asteriadae seem 

 very unpalatable to them ; not so a Cucumaria pentactes, or a Pria- 

 pulus caudatus. It would, however, require a lengthened list and an 

 abler hand to enumerate all the species which the cod of the Moray 

 Firth gathers as its food from the other lower orders of marine ani- 

 mals. Suffice it here then to state that very frequently a "Sea-mouse" 

 {Aphrodite), and occasionally an Actinia, or "Sea-paap," seems to be 

 "tucked in" without exciting any squeamishness in the eater. To the 

 published facts regarding the various substances foreign to their wide 

 domain which have found their way through the gullet of the omnivo- 

 rous cod, it may be added that grain (barley and wheat), pieces of 

 potato and of paper, probably thrown overboard, feathers of middle- 

 sized birds, in one case an entire partridge, and a mass of hair, have 

 been seen in the corners of these " crops for all corns." 



The Haddock, Morrhua JEglifinus. (Adag,- Attac). Perhaps in 

 no other part of the British seas is this well-known and valued deni- 

 zen of the deep so steadily and successfully sought after, as in the 

 waters of the Moray Firth. From the fishing villages so thickly set 

 down on its shores, and throughout the whole year, save the six or 

 eight weeks of the herring-fishery, the haddock is carried many a 

 weary mile in heavy burdens by the fisherwomen to the inland towns 

 and rural districts, where it is exposed for sale in its fresh as well as 

 in its half-dried or smoked state, in which latter condition the Stotfield 

 fish at least have long been rivals to the far-famed " Finnon haddie " 

 of Aberdeen. The haddocks caught at the larger stations of the Firth, 

 are likewise salted in large quantities during the winter and spring 

 months for exportation to more southern markets. The fishermen 

 state that the "Garvie" (Clupea Sprattus) is the favourite bait for the 



