THE HABITS OF FISHES
35
But even if this explains anything,
douhtful, there
are still some difculties _in the way of accepting it. The
Plaice eggs from the Danish Belts carried-into the Western
Baltic, to conditions quite different from those of the“North
Sea or the Belts, still manage to deVelop ,and- the
-
to grow there remarkably Well. '
;_
.
-
The young Plaice
a year orymo'rei'in: the
neighbourhood of the shore, and then they begin—to wander
outwards into deeper water and along the coastS.- ;1n soi—ne
‘
cases, as inthe North Sea,
takes them back
_
in the direction towards the spaWning grounds of the adults,
and in this way they complete a cycle inthe course of three
to fOur years. In other'caseS, hoWever, as -.in the Channel,
_
this cycleisnot so obvious, and the Wanderings seem to be
directed simply towards where the sh can nd the most
,
able food. It would appear that some ancestral memOry
"
guidesthem, for we cannot imagine that they leave
and travel ten to twentÿ miles toanother knowing that “bet—ter
foodawaited them there, when they themselves
no
'
'
'
experience of._the
__
_,
; ,
»
.;_--ÇÏ
'
ThlS examplezwill perhaps suîcé- to indicateÏ,'Îthat5the;
fÏ "
:
'
yetïbe neglectèd in.cndèavourîng ,
'
t0und€rstandtheW«‘mfîermgsand
habits
'
game
of inëtîëfî' connectxenwnhthemboth1mp‘y
‘
something that cannot be
One might say that the fobd attraets the Plaice to particular
grounds, and in the case of the old Plaice which return yéarly, '
'
after spawning, to the same hays, the word has a denit‘e
meaning, but when the young have never been there .hefdre
'
'
difcult to speakôf attraction,
_
…
; A further interesting example of this
,
_
-
alsobe mentiohed,_ After the:Plaice have
.
QIÏ€"OUÎ :Of— condition, _it has been discovered-thäÿtheyê—donotf‘
ï
their ordinaryéhauhts and food—(Molluscs),
but.
,thçgsofter muddÿ'gÏtounds whereïcçÿÿacanfeed
ï