332 THE REASON WHY: 



" The lusty salmon, then, from Neptune's wat'ry realm, 

 When as his season serves, stemming my tideful stream." DRAYTOJ 



are even then mixed with others of very small size, as though the roe had 

 continued to be deposited throughout the summer. In their habits they appear to 

 oe similar to the young of the herring, always keeping in shoals, and swimming 

 occasionally near the surface of the water, where they often fall a prey to aquatic 

 birds. Whitebait live upon minute Crustacea. 



1061. What are anchovies? 



Anchovies are a genus of soft-famed fishes,* belonging to the 

 family of herrings, but separated from that genus by certain 

 structural differences of habit and haunt. 



1062. The habits of all the herring family are similar : they are migratory, and 

 swim in shoals ; and, with the exception of the shad, and those species which 

 frequent the great freshwater lakes and do not migrate to the sea, they all remain 

 in salt water. The anchovies inhabit waters nearer to the equator than the 

 herrings, and may be said to take up the occupation of the sea where the 

 herrings leave it off. 



1063. Wliy do salmon arrive in some rivers earlier than in 

 others ? 



It has been suggested that this depends upon the varying warmth 

 of the waters ; those highland rivers which arise from large locks 

 being all early, owing to the warmer temperature and great mass of 

 their sources ; while those rivers which are swollen by melting 

 snows in the spring months are later in their fish-producing 

 season. 



1064. Why do female salmon in the spawning season ascend 

 the rivers before the males? 



Because the former are impelled by a necessity which probably 

 operates in a higher degree with them than with the latter : the 

 males, therefore, follow the females, and pair, and attend them 

 during their spawning, and afterwards become, as it were, their 

 escort to the sea. 



1065. The sexes of fishes, if we except the sharks and rays, offer no very decided 

 external characters. In the males, the respiratory organs occupy more space than 



* Engraulis encrasicolus. 



