CLUPEID^ ; HERRING, PILCHARD, &C. /3 



rine Fishes, nearly allied to the Salmons, constitute the family 

 SCOPELID^E. They differ from the Salmonidae in the structure 

 of the upper jaw, and also in the absence of an air-bladder. 



635. The family of CLUPEID^E, or Herrings, and their allies 

 is one of the highest importance to man. These have a scaly 

 body like the Salmon's, but no adipose dorsal fin ; and there is 

 also a difference in the arrangement of the bones of the jaws. 

 They are for the most part marine fishes ; only a few species, 

 as the Shad and White Bait, ascending rivers periodically like 

 the Salmon. The habits of the common Herring, in regard to 

 its reputed migrations, have been already noticed ( 566) ; not- 

 withstanding the very circumstantial account given by Pennant, 

 and copied by later authors, it seems now to be well established 

 that the only migration of the Herring is from the deep seas 

 to the shores at the spawning season, and from the shores to the 

 deep seas when this is over. It is a curious and perplexing cir- 

 cumstance that the shoals of Herrings do not continue to resort 

 to the same localities ; but that they will leave some parts of the 

 'coast which they had been accustomed to visit with regularity, 

 and make their appearance on others which they bad not pre- 

 viously frequented. Their food consists of small Crustacea and 

 Fishes ; and it appears tjiat they do not spare the young of their 

 own race*, five small Herrings having been found in the stomach of 

 a large female. They usually swim near the surface of the 

 water ; and, like other fishes whose habit is the same, their gill- 

 openings are large, their respiration considerable in amount, 

 their muscular energy great, and their demand for oxygen so 

 constant, that, when taken out of the water, they speedily die. 

 The Pilchard, Sprat, Shad, White-Bait, Sardine, and Anchovy 

 are all more or less closely allied to the Herring, the last de- 

 parting from it 

 most widely. The 

 range of the Pil- 

 chard, which 

 abounds on the 



FIG. 385. ANCHOVY. r* -\ 



Cornish coast, is 

 more southern than that of the Herring ; and the Anchovy and 



