COMMON LING. 
529 
rupted or broken up into small spots. The markings 
of the anal tin are like those of the second dorsal, but 
the ground-colour resembles that of the belly, though 
with a stronger tinge of gray. The caudal fin is of 
the ground-colour of the dorsal side, with a border 
broken up into spots, like that of the fins already 
described. On this fin as well as on the sides of the 
body and on the dorsal tins appear traces of the above- 
mentioned opalescent stripe of the juvenile stages, in 
the form of vermiform, violet and light blue transverse 
stripes, spots, and longitudinal bands. The pectoral 
fins are ashy blue on the inner part (the base), on the 
outer (distal) part orange-yellow. The ventral fins 
are of the same colour as the ventral sides. The barbel 
and the tip of the loiver jaw are darker. In old spe- 
cimens the ordinary coloration is much plainer, the 
upper parts of the body being grayish brown (chocolate 
gray) or greenish, the belly white and more or less 
grayish. The spots and bands of the younger specimens 
grow fainter and fainter, only the white margin of the 
vertical fins becoming still more distinct; but in old 
specimens we sometimes find large black spots irregu- 
larly distributed over the body and the vertical fins, 
twice, three times, or four times as large as the eyes. 
Nilsson mentions a variety “strewn with scattered, 
round, black spots, of the size of large peas.” 
The internal organs resemble those of Molua di- 
pterygia, but the abdominal cavity is somewhat shorter, 
extending back only to a line with the base of about 
the 12th or 13th ray of the anal fin, and the perito- 
neum is white. The pylorus is also situated further 
back, nearer the bottom of the stomach. 
The Ling is one of the most important Scandi- 
navian fishes. It is apparently most common on the coast 
of Norway, from the neighbourhood of Bergen north to 
Finmark; but to the south it is also the object of an 
important fishery. Its geographical range extends along 
the coast of Europe from the Murman coast — where, 
according to Mela, it is common — to the Bay of Bis- 
cay, where it is extremely rare. Moreau records the 
capture of one specimen off Arcachon and of another 
in the neighbourhood of the Spanish frontier. In the 
English Channel and round the shores of Ireland it is 
common. Off Iceland it is also fairly plentiful; but 
whether it occurs on the Atlantic coast of America, is 
as yet a doubtful question. Fabricius, it is true, in- 
cludes it in his Fauna groenlandica (p. 148), and gives 
an Esquimaux name for it, but he had never personally 
seen it in Greenland. Duhamel states that the Cod- 
fishers on the coast of North America sometimes catch 
nothing but Ling; but as he adds that the Ling is 
fished for off Spitsbergen in particular, his authority 
for both statements seems to lie far from trustworthy. 
On the coast of Spitsbergen there is no recorded in- 
stance of the occurrence of the Ling. In the official 
statistics of Newfoundland" and Canada 6 small catches 
of Ling appear; but neither Jordan and Gilbert nor 
Brown-Goode and his collaborators include this species 
among the fishes of America. 
In the Baltic proper the Ling is wanting, but at 
its south-west corner, off Kiel, the species has been 
met with twice, according to Mobius and Heincke. In 
the Sound it is rare, but, according to Winther, has 
once been taken just north of Copenhagen. Off Kullen 
it is somewhat commoner, but its true habitat begins 
in the north of the Cattegat and the Skager Rack. 
The Ling is really a deep-sea fish. The most nu- 
merous and the largest Ling are taken in more than 
100 fathoms of water. There they lead, without doubt, 
a life of plunder, so greedy that under ordinary cir- 
cumstances they do not even associate with each other. 
The strong teeth of the Ling are an unmistakable sign 
of this; and in its stomach proofs have been found of 
the greatest voracity. Fishes of all kinds — Sharks and 
Chimaerse, Cod and Whitings, Halibut and Dragonets, 
etc. — form the chief portion of its food, and that it 
chases and seizes them in their flight, appears from the 
fact that they are frequently found in its stomach with 
the heads turned forward. About 8 miles off Wick c , 
in March, 1872, a Ling about 6 feet in length was 
taken which had in its stomach a Salmon 27 in. long. 
But crustaceans and starfish are also devoured by the 
Ling, which probably keeps to the bottom of the sea 
during the greater part of its existence. As in the case 
of the Cod, we have the most singular evidence of the 
voracity of the Ling. Off Brandon Head on the south- 
west coast of Ireland a Ling was once'' caught that had 
in its stomach a pewter flask containing “two glasses 
a See, for example, Bull. U. S. Fish. Comm., vol. V (1885), p. 71. 
6 L. c., vol. VI, p. 54. 
c See Buckland, A 'at. Hist. Brit. Fish., p. 129. 
d Bull. U. S. Fish. Comm., vol. V (1885), p. 78. 
Scandinavian Fishes. 
67 
