ENEMIES OF THE HERRING. 6 i 



the voracious habits of the dogfish on certain parts of our 

 Scottish coasts ; and owing to the destruction of the nets 

 from its impetuosity, they avoid those localities where it 

 is known to be most prevalent, however abundant the 

 herrings may be. 



The solan-goose or ganuet (Sula Alba of Fleming) is 

 in constant pursuit of the herring and other fishes, and 

 darts with great velocity into the sea, seizing and swallow- 

 ing them rapidly. We remember seeing the celebrated 

 naturalist, Dr Neill, give six large herrings to one of 

 these birds which he kept tame in his gai'den, and which 

 it gulped over rapidly in succession. Mr James Wilson, 

 brother of the late Professor Wilson, in his interesting 

 and amusing " Tour round Scotland and the Isles," vol. ii. 

 p. 106, says, when describing St Kilda, as to this bird, 

 " Let us suppose that there are 200,000 solan-geese in 

 the colony of St Kilda (we believe, from what we saw, the 

 computation moderate), feeding there or thereabouts for 

 seven months in the year. Let us also suppose that each 

 devours (by itself or young) only five herrings a day, this 

 amounts to one million ; seven months (March to Sep- 

 tember) contain 214 days ; by which if we multiply the 

 above, the product is 214 millions of fish for the summer 

 sustenance of a single species near the island of St 

 Kilda." 



And the gull (Larus, L.), cormorant (Pelicanus Carlo), 

 and the divers {Colymhidai), all take their full share of the 

 herrings, particularly when these are young. 



Man applies many means to add to the destruction of 

 this useful fish. The most unwarrantable is the ground or 

 beam trawl-net, which, if at all used on gravelly, hard, or 

 rocky bottoms, must annihilate vast shoals of herrings in 

 a state of spawn ; and, considering the quality of the fish 



