CLUPEID^. 225 



longer than the eye. In colour — it is by no means rare to see pilchards, even 

 as many as one in five among thousands, sparingly marked with black spots, and 

 which become still more apparent on the scales being removed. In some the eyes 

 are black-ringed, in others white, the former, according to Mr. Dunn's observa- 

 tions, being most numerous in the summer months, the latter in the autumn. 

 Mr. Couch, June 8th, 1868, observed: " I have also obtained a box of sardines 

 from Marseilles, a.nd am rather surprised to find them only so many small pilchards. 

 I cannot find in them any difference from our pilchard, except that they are about 

 five inches long and of poorer quality." That the sardine is the young or small 

 pilchard has been asserted from the time of Belonius in 1553 to the present ; it 

 has also been so considered by all modern ichthyologists, and Dr. Giinther in 

 1868, in Proc. Zool. Soc. expressed his surprise that it was not utilized in the 

 same manner as the sardine. Mr. Dunn, of Mevagissey, appears to have been the 

 first to propose preparing sardines in this country. 



Names. — A dried pilchard in Devonshire is sometimes termed a fair maid, 

 derived from fumado ; smaller forms go by the name of sardines when tinned. 

 Halliwell gives surding as synonymous with the pilchard. In Cornish it is known 

 as hern, hernan, and llean. The term pilchard has been variously derived, some 

 considering it to be from "pittch," an old English word signifying a piece of 

 cloth to wrap round a young child, because these fish were formerly cooked in 

 paper, similarly to red mullets of the present day. It has also been derived from 

 peltzer, a name by which it was known to some early Northern Continental 

 authors. It has been termed a "Looe trout," when impressed on a token struck 

 at Looe in the reign of Charles II. Garvie-herring, Gipsy herring and Grue 

 herring, Scotland. Pennog mair, Welsh. The springing of pilchards out of the 

 water has been termed stoiting (East) or poppling in Devonshire. 



Habits. — Gregarious but very timid fishes, and believed to be easily alarmed by 

 noises.* They congregate in dense masses by day, but as evening sets in spread 

 out along the shore (I am here alluding to St. Austell's Bay), apparently feeding 

 from oS the land, and so retire to the deeper waters with the return of the 

 morning's light. At sundown nets are shot outside these feeding-places, thus 

 arresting the shoals in their progress towards the deep sea, while during the 

 daytime these fish are taken on the deep-sea side of the nets. As I have already 

 alluded (note, page 220) to the herrings being driven from the open sea into 

 creeks by whales, pilchards likewise have been known to ascend into brackish 

 water when under the influence of fear. Thus, in 1722, a large number were 

 taken in the Dart at Totnes Weir, having been chased there by porpoises ; and in 

 July, 1880, when it was nearly low water, one was seen coming down the same 

 river by persons standing on Totnes Bridge, which is twelve miles from the sea, 

 pursued by an otter ; the pilchard leaped on the bank and was secured. They will 

 eat small Crustacea, and their stomachs are found gorged with such food, and also 

 any similar to that eaten by the herring. The roe of the cod or ling they devour 

 voraciously, also crumbs of bread. Off the French coast salted fish roe, mostly of 

 the cod but also of the mackerel, mixed with the pounded flesh of that fish, is 

 employed to attract pilchards. It is termed resure, rave, or more commonly rogue, 

 and is largely brought from Norway, more especially from Dronthein. The 

 fishermen say that they have seen pilchards in multitudes quiescent at the bottom 

 of the sea, as if examining with their mouths the sand and small stones in the 

 shallow water, and probably hunting for food. During the colder months of the 

 year they are frequently found in the stomachs of large ground fish that have 



* In "Natural History of Ireland" (1755, p. 192) exists an extract from a letter by the 

 Archbishop of Dublin, wherein he observes, "there was a good fishery of pilchards on the south 

 coast of Ireland before the year 1688, but since the fight in Bantry Bay between some of the 

 English fleet under Sir George Rook and the French in 1689, the pilchards, I understand, have not 

 been on that coast : the reason of their leaving it is supposed to be the shock given by the firing of 

 guns • and it was observed that some gentlemen having provided a yacht for their pleasure and 

 firing' their guns frequently in the Bay of Dublin, the herring fishing in the Bay failed entirely that 

 season." Couch observes that the firing of a heavy gun at the distance of twenty miles has been 

 known to cause the fish to sink, and thus disappoint the hopes of the fishermen. 



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