FOOD OF THE HERRING. 53 



There liaviug been much controversy on the subject of 

 the food of the herring, we have thought it right, not 

 merely to make the most careful examination, but also 

 to obtain the best authorities. And we may here state 

 that the celebrated Agassiz, in a conversation we had 

 with him at the first meeting of the British Association 

 at Edinburgh, said, that from the form of its mouth and 

 teeth he considered that its food must be of a more varied 

 sort than generally supposed. 



It is therefore evident that the herring does not con- 

 fine itself to one particular kind of food, as has been 

 maintained, but that it feeds upon Crustacea — the young 

 of other fishes, its own young, ovse, worms, and flies. 



