570 THE HEREING. 



the rich and the nourishment of the poor, capable of preservation 

 throughout a long period, easily packed, quickly and simply dressed, 

 and equally good whether eaten fresh or salted, smoked or potted. 



During the greater part of the year the Herring lives in deep water, 

 where it^ habits are entirely unknown. About July or August it is 

 urged, by the irresistible force of instinct, to approach the shores for 

 the purpose of depositing its spawn in the shallow waters, where the 

 warm rays of the sun may pour their vivifying influence upon the tiny 

 eggs that will hereafter produce creatures of so disproportionate a size, 

 and where the ever-moving tides may fill the water with free oxygen 

 as the waves dash on the shores and fall back in whitened spray, thus 

 giving to the water that sparkling freshness so needful for the develop- 

 ment of the future fish. 



The Herrings, when they once begin to move, arise in vast shoals and 

 direct their course toward some part of the shore. In their choice of 



locality they are 



1 most capricious 



M fish, sometimes 



^b^^^ frequenting one 



spot for many 



successive years, 



then deserting it 



J for a length of 



- time, and again 



3 returning to it 



without any ap- 



. ^, , . parent reason for 



Ihe Herring (Clupea harenqus). .^i p 



^ ^ ^ ' either course or 



proceeding. They are essentially gregarious while on the move ; and 



each shoal is so closely compacted, and its limits so well defined, 



that while one net will be filled almost to bursting with Herrings, 



another net, only a yard or two distant, will be left as empty as when 



it was shot. 



The Herring is one of the fish that cannot endure absence from 

 water, dying almost immediately after it is taken out of the sea, and 

 thus giving rise to the familiar saying, "As dead as a herring." 



The food of the Herring is extremely varied, even in the compar- 

 atively shallow waters, and its subsistence during the time it is sub- 

 merged in the deep is necessarily unknown. In the stomach of the 

 Herring have been found Crustacea of various kinds, molluscs, the 

 si)awn and fry of other fish, and even the young of its own kind. It 

 can be taken with a hook, and has been known to seize a limpet that 

 was used as a bait. The color of the Herring is blue above, with green- 

 ish reflections, and the rest of the body is silvery white. After the fish 



