PILCHARD. 8^3 



of what may be vegetable substance; but animal forms have 

 also been discovered, and on one occasion, in the middle of 

 summer, when multitudes were caught in drift-nets, as they 

 were seen actively engaged in some pursuit close to the surface, 

 an examination laid open the existence of vast numbers of a 

 small shrimp-like creature, on which they had been feeding to 

 repletion. On another occasion the stomachs of several were 

 found to contain examples of the mackarel midge; and I have 

 been informed that instances have been met with in which a 

 Pilchard has taken the fisherman's hook. The rarity of such 

 an occurrence may perhaps be explained by supposing that 

 the size of the hook or bait, rather than want of appetite in 

 the fish, is a hindrance to its being more frequent. 



The roe of some kinds of fish may also be the occasional 

 food of the Pilchard; as I have been informed by a gentleman 

 who resided several years at Croisic, in France, that it is the 

 custom with French fishermen to scatter the salted roe of fish 

 about their (drift) nets, in order to attract the Pilchard into 

 them, and that he had seen this spawn in the stomachs of the 

 fish thus caught. I have learned also from the British 

 consul at Brest that the use of the salted roe of fish is uni- 

 versal on that coast for the purpose of attracting the Pilchard 

 into the nets; and hundreds of tons of the roe of the Cod 

 and Ling are imported into that country for this purpose. It 

 is scattered in the direction of the nets with a ladle, and the 

 stomachs of the Pilchards are found to be filled with this food. 



There cannot be a doubt that the fishery for Pilchards is 

 of ancient date, and the regard in which the fish was held 

 appears from its having been admitted into heraldry at a time 

 when coats-of-arms Avere of great importance; but I find no 

 mention of it in public documents before the age of Queen 

 Elizabeth, when we find that the drying of Pilchards was 

 among the monopolies granted by authority to some courtiers, 

 the clamour against which so moved public indignation as to 

 cause their surrender. But from this time the fishery is 

 known to have so far attracted the attention of the public as 

 to become the subject of particular laws, the special enactments 

 of which afljord proof that the methods of conducting it were 

 different in some considerable degree from those practised at 

 present, as well as the manner of preparing the fish for u 



