2864 THE BONY FISHES AND GANOIDS 



Northern Atlantic, the herring ranges eastward to the seas on the north of Asia. 

 Associating in shoals numbering millions of individuals, the herring feeds upon 

 crustaceans, worms, insects, and the young and eggs of other fishes, as well as 

 those of its own kind. " During the day ," writes Mr. J. M. Mitchell, " the shoals 

 are sometimes observable near the surface, and may be seen playing on the water, 

 as the fishermen call it, making a ripple, a dark roughness similar to what we may 

 see at the beginning of a slight breeze, this being somewhat observable without the 

 appearance of either whales or birds. The passing near or over them of a boat or 

 ship makes them instantly dart off in every direction, leaving the appearance of 

 long trails of light, if at night. We have been informed by fishermen of New- 

 haven that the herrings take considerable flights out of the sea; off Stonehaven, in 

 the month of September, one of these men having seen a shoal, after the spawning 

 season, rise up out of the water in a vast mass of many yards in extent, sparkling 

 and flashing and flying several feet above the surface. . . . On some of the coasts, 

 as on those of Norway the herring shoals are frequently accompanied or pursued 

 by numbers of whales and aquatic birds, which are all occupied in preying on them. 

 The large dark masses of the whales rising and blowing and throwing up great 

 quantities of the herring into the air, sparkling and glittering in the clear winter 

 day; the constant movements of the birds, with their shrill notes, actively engaged 

 in seizing their easily-obtained food, vying with man in their attacks on the count- 

 less myriads of herrings, form a most wonderful sight. . . . When the herrings 

 swim near the surface, if it is calm weather, the sound of their motion is distinctly 

 heard at a small distance; and at night their motion, if rapid, causes a beautiful 

 bright line from the phosphorescent quality of the skin; and it is also said, that 

 when a great body of them swims near the surface, their presence is ascertained by 

 a strong fishy smell." In another passage, after stating that the idea of fish 

 migrating from the Arctic regions southward is purely erroneous, the same author 

 observes that ' ' from all circumstances known of the natural history of the herring, 

 in regard to its visits on our own coasts and the coasts of other countries, it is 

 reasonable to suppose that it inhabits the seas in the neighborhood of the coasts on 

 which it spawns, and that it arrives at particular seasons near the coasts for the 

 purpose of spawning, the shoals leaving the coasts immediately thereafter; and 

 the early or late, distant or near, approach to the coast in different years, perhaps 

 depends on the clear and warm, or dark and cold weather of the seasons, as well as 

 upon the depth of water at the feeding and spawning grounds. ' ' Herrings have 

 been kept in a brackish-water pond communicating with the Humber, where they 

 became dwarfed in size. 



The much smaller sprat (C. sprattus}, so abundant on the Atlantic coasts of 

 Europe, differs by the absence of vomerine teeth; while the shad (C.fmta'), shown 

 in the upper figure of the illustration on p. 2863, may be distinguished by having 

 one or more black blotches on the sides. In this species, which not only frequents 

 the European coasts, but ascends rivers, and is abundant in the Nile, the bony gill 

 rakers, of which there are from twenty-one to twenty-seven on the horizontal por- 

 tion of the outer gill arch, are short and stout. On the other hand, in the similarly 

 spotted allice shad (C. alosa) the gill rakers are very long and fine, and number 



