278 THE FLYING-FISH. 



dams, however, here as elsewhere, has served to clieck their increase. The English Herring 

 was once declared to be distinct, but is now regarded as identical with the present species. 

 The celebrated White-bait was once regarded as an English Herring of a peculiar small kind, 

 but now it is definitely known that White-bait is the young of the common Herring. Mr. 

 Blackford informed us that the White-bait, precisely similar to the English, is taken off Coney 

 Island. Young White-bait were kept in aquarium until they had grown to be twelve inches 

 in length. 



Hard Head, or Menhaden {Brevoortia tyrannus) Moss-bunker, Bony-fish, White-fish, 

 Bug-fish, Fat-back, Yellow-tail, Pogy, Poghagen, Skippaugs, or Bunkers, so called in various 

 places. This is one of the most familiar of native fishes, though it is not a food-fish, but a 

 very valuable one in its services to the fishermen as bait. It is even so numerous at times as 

 to be taken in vast quantities for manuring land. Its oil is used largely in cheap painting. 



Another species of this fish, called Leach's Herring {Olupea leacMi), is captured 

 during the winter months ; the roe being well developed at the end of January, and the spavsTi 

 dej)Osited in February. It is a small si^ecies, between seven and eight inches in length. 



The common Sprat is another very useful fish, though not so extensively valued as 

 the fierring. 



Like that fish, it swims in vast shoals during the spawning season, which immediately 

 succeeds that of the herring, so that from July to February and March the public can com- 

 mand a continual supply of fresh sea-fish, which can be jjurchased at so cheap a rate as to be 

 within the reach of aU classes, and are, nevertheless, of such excellent flavor that if they wei-e 

 as scarce as they are plentiful, they would be held in high estimation at the tables of the 

 wealthy. To the taste of many persons, however, the Sj^rat is too rich and too strongly 

 flavored to be in much request. 



This fish is captured in nets of various kinds, the nature of the net mostly depending 

 on that of the locality ; and as it swims in shoals quite equal in numbers to those of the 

 herring, it is taking in countless miiltitudes when the boats happen to be fortunate in their 

 selection of a fishing-ground. Now and then the "take" is so enormous that even the 

 European markets, which usually absorb every eatable article which can be brought for sale, 

 and often anticipate the future crops or supplies, are at times so overstocked with Sprats that 

 the fishermen can find no ordinary sale for their perishable goods, and are perforce obliged 

 to dispose of them to the farmers, who spread them over their lands for manure, most unfra- 

 grant but exceedingly fei-tilizing. In color it is very like the herring. 



One or two members of this genus demand a brief notice. 



The Pilchard, or Gipsy Herring {Qlwpea pilcliarduH), is another of the gregarious fish, 

 and is taken about the month of August by a wonderfully intricate system of boats and nets 

 that seem capable of sweeping every fish out of the sea. Tliough very like the herring, it may 

 easily be distinguished by the position of the dorsal fin, which is set so far forward that if the 

 fish be held by the first ray of that fin its body slopes upward, whereas in the herring it is 

 nearly balanced and slightly inclines downward. 



o 



The far-famed Flying-fish exists in many of the warmer seas, and derives its popular 

 name from its wonderful powers of sustaining itself in the air. Its picture is placed on 

 the next page. 



The passage of this fish through the atmosphere can lay no just claim to the title of flight, 

 for the cn-eature does not flap tlie wing-like pectoral fins on which it is upborne, and is not 

 believed even to possess the power of changing its course. As much of the history of the 

 Flying-fish has been given while treating on the coryphene, the reader is referred to the 

 description of that fish on page 248, where may also be seen an illustration of the attitudes 



