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FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



one-sixth as deep as long, thus suggesting a smelt 

 in its general outline. Its dorsal fin, too, stands 

 wholly in front of the ventrals instead of over the 

 latter, as in herring, alewives, and shad ; and there 

 are fewer anal fin rays (only about 13, whereas the 

 herring has about 17, the alewife about 19, and the 

 shad about 21) than any of the latter. 



Color. — Olive green above with silvery sides and 

 belly. 



Size. — Eight to ten inches long when adult. 



General range. — Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico 

 coasts of the United States; occasionally common 

 as far north as Woods Hole; sometimes straying 

 past Cape Cod, to the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — This southern 

 fish has been taken at Provincetown, Mass., 

 whence the Museum of Comparative Zoology has 

 two specimens; one was taken in the Yarmouth 

 River which empties into Casco Bay, and one in 

 the bay itself on September 15, 1924; 18 it has been 

 reported from Jonesport, Maine; also from East- 

 port, Maine, in 1908." And a number of them 

 Were taken at Campobello Island, at the mouth of 

 Passamaquoddy Bay in September 1937. 20 



Herring Clupea harengus Linnaeus 1758 



Sea herring; Labrador herring; Sardine; 

 Sperling; Brit 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 421. 



Description. — The sea herring is typical of its 

 family in form, with body so flattened that it is 

 much deeper than thick; moderately pointed nose; 

 large mouth situated at the tip of the snout and 



'• Reported to us by the late Walter H. Rich of the U. S. Bureau of Fish- 

 eries. 



" Reported in the newspapers. 



» Reported by Leim, Progr. Rept. 21, Atlantic Biol. Sta. Fish. Res. Bd. 

 Canada, 1937, p. 5; and by McKenzie, Proe. Nova Scotia Inst. Sei., vol. 20, 

 1939, p. 15. 



lower jaw projecting a little beyond the upper when 

 the mouth is closed; sharp-edged belly; and deeply 

 forked tail. The dorsal fin stands over the much 

 smaller ventrals, its origin about midway the 

 length of the body. The scales are large, their 

 rear margins rounded, and so loosely attached that 

 they slip off at a touch. There is no adipose fin, 

 and its absence at once distinguishes all the her- 

 rings from any of the salmon tribe. The chief ana- 

 tomical character separating the sea herring from 

 the shad and from the several alewives (genus Po- 

 molobus) is that it has an oval patch of small teeth 

 on the vomer bone in the center of the roof of the 

 mouth. Conspicuous field marks separating her- 

 ring from shad, hickory shad, and alewife are that 

 the point of origin of its dorsal fin is about midway 

 of the length of its trunk (considerably farther for- 

 ward in the others) ; its body is not so deep, a differ- 

 ence shown better in the illustrations; and the 

 sharp midline of its belly is only very weakly saw- 

 toothed but is usually strongly so in the others, 

 especially along the space between ventral and 

 anal fins. 



Color. — Deep steel blue or greenish blue on the 

 back with green reflections; the sides and belly 

 silvery; the change from dark belly to pale sides 

 often marked by a greenish band. The gill covers 

 sometimes glisten with a golden or brassy gloss; 

 indeed, fish just out of the water are iridescent all 

 over with different hues of blue, green, and violet; 

 but these colors soon fade, leaving only the dark 

 back and silvery sides. The ventral and anal fins 

 are translucent white; the pectorals, however, are 

 dark at the base and along the upper edge; the 

 caudal and dorsal fins are dark grayish or shading 

 into green or blue. 



Size. — Herring grow to a length of about 17 

 inches and to a weight of about IK pounds. 



Habits. — The herring is a fish of open waters, 



Figure 41. — Herring (Clupea harengus). From Goode. Drawing by H. L. Todd, 



