HERRING TRIBE. 489 



informed by fishermen of Newhaven that the herrings take considerable flights out 

 of the sea; off Stonehaven, in the month of September, one of these men having 

 seen a shoal, after the spawning-season, rise up out of the water in a vast mass of 

 many yards in extent, sparkling and flashing and Hying several feet above the 

 surface. . . On some of the coasts, as on those of Norway, the herring-shoals are 

 frequently accompanied or pursued by numbers of whales and aquatic birds, which 

 are all occupied in preying on them. The large dark masses of the whales rising 

 and blowing and throwing up great quantities of the herring into the air, sparkling 

 and glittering in the clear winter day ; the constant movements of the birds, with 

 their shrill notes, actively engaged in seizing their easily-obtained food, vying with 

 man in their attacks on the countless myriads of herrings, form a most wonderful 

 sight. . . . When the herrings swim near the surface, if it is calm weather, the 

 sound of their motion is distinctly heard at a small distance ; and at night their 

 motion, if rapid, causes a beautiful bright line from the phosphorescent quality of 

 the skin ; and it is also said, that when a great body of them swims near the surface, 

 their presence is ascertained by a strong fishy smell." In another passage, after 

 stating that the idea of fish migrating from the Arctic regions southwards is purely 

 erroneous, the same author observes that " from all circumstances known of the 

 natural history of the herring, in regard to its visits on our own coasts and the 

 coasts of other countries, it is reasonable to suppose that it inhabits the seas in the 

 neighbourhood of the coasts on which it spawns, and that it arrives at particular 

 seasons near the coasts for the purpose of spawning, the shoals leaving the coasts 

 immediately thereafter : and the early or late, distant or near, approach to the 

 coast in different years, perhaps depends on the clear and warm, or dark and cold 

 weather of the seasons, as well as upon the depth of water at the feeding and 

 spawning-grounds." Herrings have been kept in a brackish-water pond com- 

 municating with the Humber, where they became dwarfed in size. 



The much smaller sprat (G. sprattus), so abundant on the Atlantic coasts of 

 Europe, differs by the absence of vomerine teeth: while the shad (C.jinta), shown 

 in the upper figure of the illustration on p. 488, may be distinguished by having 

 one or more black blotches on the sides. In this species, which not only frequents 

 the European coasts, but ascends rivers, and is abundant in the Nile, the bony gill- 

 rakers, of which there are from twenty-one to twenty-seven on the horizontal 

 portion of the outer gill-arch, are short and stout. On the other hand, in the 

 similarly spotted allice-shad (0. alosa) the gill-rakers are very long and fine, and 

 number from sixty to eighty on the part mentioned. Both the shads are consider- 

 ably larger than the herring. Whereas in both the herring and the sprat the 

 opercular bone is smooth, in the pilchard or sardine (C. pilchardus) this part is' 

 marked by ridges radiating towards the subopercular. This species is abundant 

 in the English Channel, the seas of Spain and Portugal, and the Mediterranean; 

 Vigo Bay being noted for its sardine-fishery. 



The following account of the sardine-fisheiy is taken from the Asian news- 

 paper. " Sardines are migratory in their habits, and the exact /<>r<i/r of their 

 winter quarters, despite frequent research on the point, remains a mystery. In 

 ordinary years it is the custom for the fish to make their first appearance 

 on the coast of Africa about the end of March, then passing northward in 



