GARFISH. 
147 
prey becomes torn from it in a manner well known to fisher- 
men. But when again the hook is felt in the gullet, the 
Garfish does not seek to escape by darting away, but, as if 
conscious only of the annoyance from the restraint of the line, 
it will mount to the surface, even before the fisherman dis- 
covers that he has had a bite; and there, with its body partly 
out of the water, it struggles with the line in a vai'iety of 
active contortions. 
The feeding of this fish appears to be indiscriminate, for 
whatever of an animal kind it can seize and swallow ; but it 
feeds also on a black fly which alights on the sea in fine 
weather, and sometimes its stomach is filled with them. I have 
taken Herrings of about one third the full growth from their 
stomachs, a single one in each; for it will not hold more, and 
the passage is straight to the vent. 
There are times also, when the sea is calm and smooth, that 
it may be seen engaged in solitary amusement at the surface, 
or perhaps many together, by leaping again and again over 
some floating object, as a rod or straw; or it may thrust itself 
bolt upright out of the water, to fall back again in an apparently 
clumsy manner. It is an amusement with fisherboys to thiow 
some slender stick to the Garfish, when it will execute a variety 
of evolutions about and over it as it floats. 
The roe is of full growth from the beginning of January to 
about Midsummer; and Nilsson says that the season of spawning 
is three times in the year, but not with the same individual 
fish. The largest spawn first, and so in succession to the 
youngest. We have already shewn, when speaking of the 
European Halfbeak, that in their early stage the young may 
be distinguished from those of that fish by some decisive marks; 
and they appear to be of quick growth, so as to be from six 
to nine inches in length by the month of October. 
On the east and south coasts of England there are fisheries 
for the Garpike, with nets, which are shot by night from small 
boats; but which are received on board a larger boat that 
attends them, if the weather becomes stormy. But this fish is 
not much valued as food; although it meets with a sale in 
London and some of the larger towns, and where known it is 
as welcome a dish as some that are elsewhere highly valued. 
Among fishermen it is for the most part cut in pieces and 
