Natural history of British fishes : their structure, economic uses and capture by net and rod, cultivation of fish-ponds, fish suited for acclimatisation, artificial breeding of salmon / by Frank Buckland.

  • Francis Trevelyan Buckland
Date:
[pref. 1880]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Natural history of British fishes : their structure, economic uses and capture by net and rod, cultivation of fish-ponds, fish suited for acclimatisation, artificial breeding of salmon / by Frank Buckland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    SHKIMPER AND GREBE CHOKED BY BULLHEADS. neither backwards nor forward, so I could neither press it down the oesophagus nor it out altogether. Mr. Grebe evidently was not aware that the miller’s thumb was armed with two very sharp spikes on each side of the gill cover, and when the fish found himself in trouble he simply expanded these spines, which fixed him so firmly in the bird’s mouth that he died from suffoca- tion. I have had two or three specimens sent me of kingfishers destroyed by bullheads sticking in their throats. SEA BULLHEAD. Acanthopteri. Sclerogenidcc. [Coitus scorpius.) Local names: Sea scorpions, Sea devils, Sea toads, and Father- lashers. German; Der seeskorpion. Danish: Ulk. Swedish: Skraha. French: La Cotte scorpion. The Father-Lasher, Sting-Fish, or Long-Spined Cottus, is a very common fish among the rocks upon the British coast, and is very frequently found left in fishing weirs when the tide goes down. It is often caught in shrimp nets, for its principal food consists of shrimps; its head and cheeks are armed with spines. The Folkestone fishermen call it the bull-rout. When taken out of the water, it always distends its gills as wide as it possibly can ; the spines on the gill covers are for- midable weapons. A man who was fishing with a shrimp-net caught a father-lasher, and without think- ing, tried to bite its head off; the fish gave a sudden kick and slipped down his throat; it then expanded its gills, the spines stuck in the man’s throat, and he was shortly suffocated.
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