OSSEOUS FISHES. 575 



they had detected their fierce enemy, who was following them with 

 giant steps along the waves, and was gaining rapidly upon them. 

 His pace, indeed, was two or three times as swift as theirs, poor little 

 things ! and the greedy dolphin was fully as quick-sighted ; for when- 

 ever 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 the pursuer. 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, and 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 

 may be 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." 



THE CLUPEAD.E. 



Of this family the herring is the graceful, useful, and well-known 

 type, to which also the pilchard, the shad, and the anchovy belong. The 

 Clupea have the body longish and compressed, especially at the belly, 

 where it comes to an edge ; it is clothed with large scales, forming 

 towards the belly a saw-like edge, which is very thin and easily 

 removed. One dorsal fin without spinous rays,, and one ventral, both 

 placed near the middle of the body, are its locomotive charac- 

 teristics. 



The Herring, Clupea liarengus (Fig. 383), is too well known to require 

 description ; its appearance is beautiful ; but we shall only remark 

 here that its back, which in the fish after death is of an indigo bluish 

 colour, is green during life ; the other parts vary considerably in their 

 colours and markings, sometimes representing written characters, 

 which ignorant fishermen have considered to be words of mystery. 



