200 FISHES. 



are divided into three pieces. The brancliiic are so much cleft, that all 

 the fishes of the genus are said to die instantly when taken from the wa- 

 ter. The sides of the branchial rays next to the mouth are pectiniform. 

 The stomach is an elongated sac; the natatory bladder long and pointed, 

 and the cseca numerous. Of all fishes, these have the finest and most 

 numerous bones. 



Clupea, Cuv., 



The Herrings, properly so called, have the maxillaries arcuated before, 

 and longitudinally divisible in several pieces; opening of the mouth mo- 

 derate . upper lip not emarginated. 



C. harencius, L., Bl. 29, 1. (The Common Herring). This 

 well-known fish has the teeth visible in both jaws; carina of the ab- 

 domen but slightly marked ; suboperculum rounded ; veins on the 

 suborbital, preoperculum, and upper part of the operculum. The 

 ventrals arise from under the middle of the dorsal; the length of 

 the head is one-fifth of tliat of the whole fish, and by transferring 

 backwards the measure of the distance from the snoui to the first 

 dorsal, it marks the middle of the caudal. There are sixteen rays 

 in the anal. 



This celebrated fish leaves the Arctic seas every summer, and de- 

 scends in autumn on the western coast of France in numberless 

 legions, or rather in solid shoals of incalculable extent, spawning on 

 their way, and arriving at the mouth of the British Channel, in the 

 middle of winter, in a very extenuated condition. Whole fleets are 

 occupied in this fishery, v.hich supports thousands of fishermen, 

 salters, and dealers. The best are those taken in the North; such 

 as are caught on the coast of Lower Normandy are lean, dry, and 

 of a disagreeable flavour (c). 



C. sprattus, Bl. 29, 2. (The Mellet, Esprot, Harsngvet, or the 

 Spi'at of the English). The proportions of the Herring, but a much 

 smaller fish; no veins on the opercula; a gilt band along the flanks 

 in the spawning season*. 



C. latulus, Cuv., Schonefeld, p. 41. (The Blanquette, the Breit- 

 ling of the Germans, and the White-Bait of the English). The 

 body more compressed, and the abdomen more trenchant than in the 



* Artedi and his successors have confounded the Sprat with the Sardine. 



|gf° (a) The Herrings form their great rendezvous in the Arctic Circle, from 

 which they hegin to descend about April, and in general are off the Shetland Islands 

 in May; but the principal shoal does not arrive in our latitudes until June. It is 

 evident that tliis periodical migration is had recourse to by the Herrings for the pur- 

 pose of depositing their spawn in wanner temperatures. According to Pennant's 

 account, the great shoal is first divided in its course southward by the Shetland 

 Islands, on arriving at which one wing takes its course to the eastern, the other to 

 the western shores of Great Britain, each division having its res))ective leader to 

 guide it. The fishery begins at the Hebrides, and the fishermen there make such 

 good use of the opportunity, that they have made these islands the great Herring- 

 lishery station. The division of the fish which proceeded to the west is again sub- 

 divided, one portion drifting itself into the Atlantic, the other coasting down the 

 Irish Sea. — Eng. Ed. 



