HERRING. 191 



seldom exceeding eight or nine inches in length, and arc re- 

 markably mild in flavour. 



The length of the head compared to the length of the 

 body alone, without the head or caudal rays, is as one to four ; 

 the depth of the body compared to the whole length of the 

 fish, as one to five ; the commencement of the dorsal fin 

 half-way between the point of the upper jaw and the end of 

 the fleshy portion of the tail : the longest ray nearly as long 

 as the base of the fin : the pectoral fin rather large compared 

 to the size of the other fins. The ventral fin arises consider- 

 ably behind the line of the commencement of the dorsal fin : 

 this fin is small, with elongated axillary scales ; its origin 

 half-way between the point of the lower jaw and the end of 

 the short central caudal rays. The anal fin begins half-way 

 between the origin of the ventral and the end of the fleshy 

 portion of the tail, and extends over half the distance be- 

 tween its origin and the end of the fleshy portion, thus 

 occupying the third quarter division of the distance between 

 the origin of the ventral fin and the end of the fleshy portion 

 of the tail ; the rays very short. The tail considerably fork- 

 ed ; the outer rays as long again as those of the middle. 

 The fin-rays in number are 



D. 17 : P. 15 : V. 9 : A. 14 : C. 20. Vertebras 56; 



varying in some specimens to 



D. 19 : P. 17 : V. 9 : A. 16 : C. 18. 



The lower jaw is by much the longer, with five or six 

 small teeth extending in a line backwards on each side from 



O 



the anterior point ; four rows of small teeth on the central 

 upper surface of the tongue ; a few small teeth on the central 

 portion of the upper jaw, and the inferior edges below the 

 gape finely serrated : the eye large ; its diameter compared to 

 the length of the head as two to seven, and placed at the 



