736 



HERON'S B I L L- H E R R I N G. 



standing its unmusical voice, is really a very beautiful 

 bird ; and from the number of noxious creatures that 

 it destroys, it is very far from being a useless bird. 



The female differs in nothing from the male bird, 

 excepting that perhaps the ash-colour on the wings is 

 a little darker ; and those who have described the 

 female as being without the crest have evidently con- 

 founded it with the young. In the young of the year 

 the colour on the upper part is very deep brown, 

 streaked with reddish white, and having triangular 

 spots on the back and wings, which extend from the 

 middle of the feathers to the extremity. The quills 

 are dusky black, with a white spot on the tip ; the 

 belly white, with dusky streaks ; the iris bright 

 orang-e, and the legs and feet pale green. These 

 colourings differ so much from those of the mature 

 bird, that unless the fact had been ascertained by 

 actual observation, the identity of the species would 

 not readily be believed. In the second year the 

 brown on the head and back still remains, but the 

 whitish spots are smaller and less numerous. The 

 spots on the wing-feathers are also smaller, and ash- 

 colour appears on some of the quills. There is also 

 generally a greenish tinge on the scapulars, and the 

 under parts are whiter than in the birds of the year ; 

 the bill is of a blackish brown, the iris reddish brown, 

 and the feet slightly greenish. 



It does not appear that there is any difference of 

 colour in birds of the same age, as they have been 

 seen in Europe, in Southern Asia, and in North 

 America ; and indeed the only difference at all per- 

 ceptible is that of size, already mentioned ; and we 

 believe that in this respect they are much more uni- 

 form in America than in Europe, which is another 

 reason for concluding that they are more at home 

 there. 



Such are the outlines of a few of the more remark- 

 able birds in the very numerous and highly interest- 

 ing family of the herons. Had our limits permitted, 

 we might easily have extended the list, though the 

 extension would have, after all, been little else than 

 so much mere description of shape and colour, which, 

 considered in themselves, are matters of minor con- 

 sequence. The species which we have enumerated, 

 go, we believe, to the more striking characters and 

 habits of the genus, whether as one, or as divided into 

 sections. 



HERON'S BILL is the Erodhtm, a genus of 

 plants, defined and described by Le Heritier. 



HERRING (Clupea, or rather perhaps Clupeidac, 

 the herring family). A genus of malacopterygious, 

 or jointed-rayed fishes, with abdominal fins ; and, in 

 an economical point of view, one of the most valuable 

 of all the many inhabitants of the waters. They hold 

 nearly the same place among fishes permanently inha- 

 biting the sea, as the salmon family do among those 

 who live in fresh water, or alternately in the salt 

 water and the fresh ; and though none of them at 

 all approach the size of the more important of the 

 salmon, and are not so much prized, their number?, 

 and the various ways in which they rnay be preserved, 

 as well as the length of time that the preserved ones 

 may be kept, and the distance to which they may be 

 carried, add greatly to their value as an article of 

 human food. 



In addition to the characters already mentioned, it 

 may he slated that the herring family differ from that 

 of the salmon in having no adipose or tatty dorsal 

 fin, but agree with the trouts in having the inter- 



maxillary bones without pedicles. Their bodies arc 

 always very scaly ; the greater number have an air- 

 bladder and numerous caecal appendages to their in- 

 testines. They are chiefly sea fishes, but some peculiar 

 ones are found in large fresh water lakes, and others 

 ascend the rivers at least as high as the termination of 

 the brackish water. The species, as well as the indi- 

 viduals, are very numerous; and they have sometimes 

 been divided into different genera, though such divi- 

 sion does not appear to render the study of them any 

 easier, and therefore we shall not pay much attention 

 to it. We have already given some account of two 

 of the species, namely, of the shad, in the article 

 ALOSA ; and another, the ANCHOVY, we noticed 

 under, that title. We purpose in the present article 

 very briefly to mention the more remarkable of the 

 remaining ones. 



THE HERRING (C. harengus). This is a fish so 

 familiar to everybody that no formal description of it 

 is necessary ; and yet, strange to say, it is one respect- 

 ing which very many absurdities have been written, 

 and that even by naturalists who in some respects 

 are worthy of commendation. The old opinion was, 

 that these fishes, which retire from our shores at cer- 

 tain seasons of the year, and return to them at others, 

 swam off en masse to the polar seas during the 

 winter months, remaining there and enjoying some 

 incomprehensible benefit from a frozen canopy over 

 them, until the returning season, which in the com- 

 mencement of winter had sent them from cold to 

 colder, brought, them back to warmer habitations to- 

 ward the end of summer. What they may have done, 

 or could have gotten, in the extreme north during the 

 intensity of the cold, for they continue on some parts 

 at least of the British shores till nearly the end of the 

 year, the manufacturers and retailers of these most 

 singular allegations have not apparently felt them- 

 selves bound to say. It will however be but right 

 to hear Pennant on the subject, because he gives 

 the story with all due pomp and circumstance. The 

 opening of course alludes to their advance from the 

 north, when, like so many Goths and Vandals of the 

 ocean, they come to overrun and take possession of 

 our more hospitable seas : 



" This might}' army," says Pennant, " begins to 

 put itself in motion in the spring. We distinguish 

 this vast body by that name ; for the word herring 1 is 

 derived from the German Hcrr an army, to express 

 their numbers. They begin to appear off the Shet- 

 land islands in April and May. This is the first 

 check this army meets with in its march southward. 

 There it is divided into two parts : one wing of those, 

 destined to visit our coasts, takes to the east, the other 

 to the western shores of Great Britain, and fill every 

 bay and creek with their numbers ; others proceed 

 towards Yarmouth, the great and ancient mart of her- 

 rings ; they then pass through the British Channel, 

 and after that in a manner disappear. Those which 

 take to the west, after offering themselves to the He- 

 brides, where the great stationary fishery is, proceed 

 towards the north of Ireland, where they meet with a 

 second interruption, and are obliged to make a second 

 division : the one takes to the western side, and is 

 scarcely perceived, being soon lost in the immensity 

 of the Atlantic ; but the other, which passes into the 

 Irish sea, rejoices and feeds the inhabitants of most 

 of the coasts that border on it. These brigades, as 

 we may call them, which are thus separated from the 

 greater columns, are often capricious -in their motions, 



