CLASS PISCES: ORDER TELEOSTEI. 



Fig. 836. 



195 



ClupZa serrata, Herring. T V 



Pimelodus atrarius, Cat-fish or Horned-pout. J. 



Siluridae. The Cat-fish, or Horned-pout, has a naked 

 skin, and the mouth surrounded by tentacles. 



Clupeidae ( shad-like) . T h e Fig m 



He rring ascends fresh -water 

 streams to spawn, thus coming 

 each spring from the depths of the 

 ocean to the hand of man. Im- 

 mense schools go up the same 

 stream in which they were spawned the previous year, and 

 always select the branches leading to certain head-waters, for 

 which they have a preference. 



thus hotly pursued, at length dropped into the pea ; but we were rejoiced to observe 

 that they merely touched the top of the swell, and instantly set off again in a fres-h 

 and even more vigorous flight. The direction they now took was quite different 

 from the one in which they had set out, implying that they had detected their fierce 

 enemy, who was gaining rapidly upon them. The greedy dolphin was fully as quick- 

 sighted : for whenever they varied their flight in the smallest degree, he lost not the 

 tenth part of a second in shaping his course so as to cut off the chase ; while they, in 

 a manner really not unlike that of the hare, doubled more than once upon their pur- 

 suer. But it was soon plainly to be seen that the strength and confidence of the flying- 

 fish were fast ebbing ; their flights became shorter and shorter, nnd their course 

 more fluttering and uncertain, while the leaps of the dolphin seemed to grow more 

 vigorous at each bound. Eventually this skilful sea-sportsman seemed to arrange 

 his springs so as to fall just under the very spot on which the exhausted flying-fish 

 were about to drop. This catastrophe took place at too great a distance for us to see 

 from the deck what happened ; but on our mounting high on the rigging, we maybe 

 said to have been in at the death; for then we could discover that the unfortunate 

 little creatures, one after another, either popped right into the dolphin's jaws as 

 they lighted on the water, or were snapped up instantly after." 



