EELS: A NATURAL AND UNNATURAL HISTORY. By Christopher Moriarty.

1978 1st edition. 8vo (140 x 222mm). Pp192. B/w photographs, illustrations, bibliography. Blue cloth, spine titled in gilt.

More of a layman's guide than Bertin or Tesch. "In 1959, when I entered the Irish fishery service, the director of the laboratory said 'You do eels.' I have been doing them ever since and will be happy to continue. A single species or even an individual is such a complex being that no research worker can hope to discover much about it in a lifetime, since every problem solved poses a hundred more. ..These fish are so interesting and so much a part of the lives of fishermen, zoologists and people who simply love country life that it seemed worthwhile to set down some of the facts and speculate on a few of the many mysteries." Chapters on farming, trapping and cooking eels: Lore and legend; Facts of life; Wanderings; Catching eels; Farming eels; Eels for eating; Investigating eels; The Order of Eels. Appendices include: length distribution of eels; Age distribution of eels; Food preferences of eels; List of food organisms found in eels.