leach's herring. 107 



between the- muscular fibres; although something of this appears 

 in the finer fish caught about July. The dorsal fin is behind 

 the centre of gravity, with nineteen rays, the first very short. 

 Pectorals placed close below the hindmost gill-cover, having 

 fifteen rays; ventrals beneath the dorsal, having nine rays, with 

 a free scale at its root, half its length; anal fin wider than in 

 the Pilchard, with sixteen rays; tail forked. Colour of the 

 back dark bluish, a tinge of pink often on the sides, silvery 

 below; behind the top of the head tinted yellow; fins semi- 

 transparent; along the belly a ridge, with scales not easily 

 counted. The air-bladder is silvery, long, and slender; much 

 more slender forward to the base of the skull, where it ends 

 between two projecting processes, to which it is joined by two 

 diverging sets of fleshy fibres; posteriorly it reaches close to 

 the vent; and in its course it receives a lengthened and slender 

 tube from the end of the stomach, the use of which seems 

 uncertain. It is the same in the Pilchard. 



LEACH'S HERRING. 



Clupea Leachii, Yaeeell ; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 193. 



Mr. Yarrei,l was of opinion that he had ascertained the 

 existence of a species of Herring that was different from the 

 common kind, and of which he gave the character, that "it 

 was found heavy with roe at the end of January, which it does 

 not deposit till the middle of February. Its length is not more 

 than seven inches and a half, and its depth near two inches;" 

 and in proof that the time of spawning and difference of the 

 quality of its flesh are decisive marks of a difference of species, 

 a quotation is produced from the Essay on the Herring, by 

 Dr. Mac Culloch. In Mr. Yarrell's further description of this 

 fish, besides dwelling on the greater comparative depth of the 

 fish, he also mentions the dorsal fin as somewhat anterior to 

 the place it occupies in the kindred species; and the number 

 of vertebrae as being fifty-four, whereas in the Common Herring 

 they amount to fifty-six. 



