ZIEGE. 
825 
body, being small on the back and belly, largest at the 
middle of the sides. The large scales are of a rounded 
quadrilateral shape or almost circular; the small ellip- 
tical, with the longitudinal axis set across the body. 
The concentric striae are extremely fine and dense; the 
radiating grooves few and faint on the hind part of 
the scale, hardly visible on the inserted part, though 
the latter, at least in the large scales, is usually si- 
nuate at the margin. 
The coloration resembles that of Alburnus and 
Clupea. According to Hf.ckel and Knee “the occiput 
is steel-blue or bluish green, the back grayish brown, 
the cheeks of a nacreous lustre, the sides of a light 
silvery lustre; the dorsal and caudal tins grayish, the 
others with a dash of red; the iris silvery.” 
The Ziege, like the Zarthe and, in some localities, 
the Zope, is an anadromous fish, ascending rivers from 
the sea or the great lakes in order to spawn. Its best 
known haunts, where it is taken in millions, are the 
Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the Caspian, and the Sea 
of Aral, with all the large rivers flowing into these 
waters. But the species also occurs in the Baltic, 
chiefly to the south and east, west to Greifswald, and 
in Lake Ladoga. From these localities it makes its way 
into the North German Haffs and estuaries and into 
most Russian and some Finnish rivers. Within the 
basin of the Danube it is common in Hungary, and in 
summer some Hungarian lakes yield large catches of 
Ziege; but in Bavarian waters it is rare. At the middle 
of the last century, according to Linnaeus, it frequented 
the River Helge off Kristianstad, in spring, till the end 
of May. The specimen taken in this river and de- 
scribed by LinnvEUS (length 22 cm.) is still preserved 
in the Zoological Museum of Upsala University. The 
species has never since been caught in the Helge, but 
off the mouth of tins river it is well known to some of 
o 
the fishermen of Alius, according to their own asser- 
tion, being frequently taken in the Herring-nets. In 
Denmark it has never been found. 
The Ziege is an active and roving fish, not unlike 
the Herring. It lives on miscellaneous small animals, 
such as crustaceans, insects, the fry of other piscine 
species, and small fishes. It seeks its food, as indicated 
by the position of the mouth, in the same manner as 
the Bleak, mostly at the surface of the water. In spring 
and early summer, from May to July, it spawns 
in shallow water on a weedy bottom. In a female 
weighing 117 grin, and with ovaries weighing 77 
grm., Bloch estimated the number of the eggs at 
105,740. 
Bony, lean, and thin — hence, it is said, the Ger- 
man name of Ziege (goat) — the species is held in 
little esteem where other fish is to be had; but where 
this is not the case, or where the Ziege is taken in 
enormous quantities, as in Southern Russia, it is used 
as human food. Its scales are employed, like those of 
the Bleak, in the manufacture of the so-called essence 
d’orient, the colouring matter of imitation pearls. The 
nearest fishing-stations to Scandinavia where the Ziege 
is taken in any considerable quantity, lie on the 
Prussian coast and in the German Haffs, the tackle 
used consisting of gill-nets, which are set at the sur- 
face, or drift-nets. “It has numerous foes,” says 
Bloch, “in predatory fishes and waterfowl, to which 
it often falls a prey, its silvery colour rendering it 
easy of observation.” Thus the Ziege shares the fate 
of the Herring, and where these two species live in 
company, the former has as good means of escape 
as the latter, if not better, its sharp tins being well 
adapted for rapid flight and speedy doubling. 
