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THE WORLD OF ANIMAL LIFE 



The Pike is not so rounded in form as most other fish, its 

 head being extended into a long flattened snout. Its jaws are 

 furnished with very formidable teeth. In colour it is green and 

 yellow on the back, and white underneath. 



THE HERRING (Family Clupeid^) 



The Herring is unquestionably nearly related to the Salmon 

 proper, and it was formerly included in the Salmonidae, but now 

 the various species of herring have been placed in a separate 

 family. 



It is a most interesting sight to see the herring-fleet sail out of 

 the harbour of one of our coast towns before sundown. The herring, 



Herring 



with which all must be familiar, can only be caught at night, and as 

 it lives in immense shoals it is taken by means of drift nets attached 

 to bladders, which you may see stretched in long lines in the water. 

 The fi.shermen set their nets when they go out at night, and early in 

 the morning they take them in again. The fish are often collected 

 from the different boats by steamers, and carried off" straight to the 

 markets. As the herring is very erratic in its movements, a boat 

 may be very lucky one night and get nothing at all the next, while 

 the fishing at a station may be very successful one season and 

 a complete failure the following year. 



The herring, which is a migratory fish, spends the winter in the 

 deeper parts of the ocean, where its food is most abundant; but 

 when the warmer weather returns it comes in in great shoals to the 

 shallower water of bays and river-mouths for the purpose of deposit- 



