SAND-EELS. 
579 
out' in deep water, but not far (5 — 14 metres) from the 
surface, at the spots where Herring-fry were abundant. 
As he did not see any large specimens at the same time, 
he concluded that the young Sand-Eels lead a roving 
life, while the older ones seem to be more tied to one spot. 
On the shores of Norway the Sand-Eels are not 
rare and are known by the name of Siil. When the 
bottom is left dry by the ebb-tide, they bury themselves 
there, and move about at high water. But they also 
occur far out at sea in water of considerable depth, 
■where during summer they are caught in large numbers 
by several seabirds ( Mormon arcticus , Uria troile). This 
can, of course, happen only when the fish is swimming 
about- — During winter, when the Sand-Eel keeps to 
deep water, we may in all probability assume that like 
most other fishes at this season, it leads a still more 
quiet life than in summer. At this season, too, it pro- 
bably haunts a sandy bottom and lies buried in the 
sand. Professor E. W. Areschoug informed Sundevall 
that one winter a fisherman who was dragging to find 
some Cod-lines that had been lost, took up a Sand-Eel 
King (a large Ammodytes lanceolatus ) on a sandy bottom 
at a great depth. It appears, however, that even at 
this season the Sand-Eel occasionally moves about, from 
the fact that during winter it is often found in Cod 
caught in deep water. 
The food of the Sand-Eel is composed of all kinds 
of small marine animals, especially worms, which it is 
believed by some to search for in the sand. It is not 
for this purpose, however, that it burrows in the ground. 
If is impossible for a fish buried in this manner 
to seek or seize any prey. The Sand-Eel lies in the 
sand to rest and to avoid its many different enemies: 
Porpoises — which have been observed even to root up 
the bottom to find their victims — Mackerel, Cod-fishes 
— especially the Pollack, which has been seen in shoals 
chasing the Sand-Eels up towards the surface to seize 
them from below and devour them — Garpike, and 
other tishes-of-prey, as well as seafowl. The principal 
food of the Sand-Eel consists, however, of small fishes, 
belonging even to its own genus. We have already 
mentioned that the fry swim about where young Her- 
rings are plentiful. The middle-sized Sand-Eels devour 
their smaller congeners and other fry; while the largest 
Sand-Eels seem to live almost exclusively on the middle- 
sized ones. 
The spaAvning-season of the smaller species, the 
Sand-Launce, occurs in August. Sundevall Avas in- 
formed, hoAvever, by Mr. Halck of Simrishamn, that 
in 1856 the spaAvning of the Sand-Launce lasted at 
least until the 15th of September. — Still the spent 
fish remain in the shalloAvs together Avith the others. 
At many spots in England and Ireland" the Sand- 
Launce is caught between the tide-marks even in Avin- 
ter, though then, after the spawning-season, it is “so thin 
as not to be sought after generally for food”. It is a 
remarkable circumstance that the spaAvning does not 
begin until the fish has been three months at the spawning- 
place. — Less is known of the spawning-season of the 
larger species, the Sand-Eel. Nilsson received informa- 
tion from Ystad to the effect that the Sand-Eel spawns 
there in April; but it is hardly probable that the species 
ascends to the shallows so early. On the 12th of Octo- 
ber, 1892, our Museum received through Mr. C. A. Lind- 
rotii a neAvly caught Sand-Eel 25 cm. long, Avith the 
testes just beginning to SAvell, from Stenvik (Ljusteron) 
in the island-belt of Stockholm. Malm gives an ob- 
servation of a female 28 cm. long, that had fully de- 
veloped roe on the 5th of June; but he does not state 
Avhether the roe was quite ready to be deposited. At 
St. Ives Day found the generative organs of the Sand- 
Eel and the Sand-Launce to be equally developed in 
August. In Scandinavia both species ascend into shal- 
low Avater at the same time, in the month of May, and 
it seems most probable that they also spaAvn at about 
the same time, the larger perhaps, as is common among 
fishes (in the Herring, for example), before the smaller. 
Of the growth of the fry Sundevall remarks that 
the young specimens, 75 or at most 100 mm. long, 
Avhich in summer (from July to September, or perhaps 
still longer) rove far and Avide in search of prey, pro- 
bably belong to the fry of the previous year, and that 
the ordinary specimens 125 mm. or more in length 
seem to be a year older. At the end of July, 1880, 
off Groto among the Lofoden Islands, Collett also 
distinguished between three different generations of the 
Sand-Launce, 75, 125, and 170 mm. long and, in his 
opinion, respectively 2, 3, and 4 years old 6 . Whether 
a See for example Thompson, Nat. Hist. Irel., vol. IV, p. 238. 
b We arrived at quite different results in a consignment of Sand-Launces from Sondrum, off Halmstad, taken at the beginning of 
August. Among these specimens a few measured between 50 and 55 mm. in length, while the others, we may almost say, were of all pos- 
sible sizes between 95 and 125 mm. 
