230 . PHYSOSTOMI. 



become reduced during tlie last twenty years it has not fallen below £20 a ton. 

 Mr. Dunn remarks at Mevagissey that in seasons of plenty 3 gallons of oil are 

 obtainable from every hogshead of pilchards,* whereas in bad seasons, the fish 

 being few, merely about 1 gallon can be extracted from the same quantity. In 

 this computation only the summer shoals are alluded to, as the yield in winter 

 is hardly more tban half what it is in the summer. In a MS. note in my copy of 

 Pennant's Zoology, 1776, I found it stated, " If the fish are very fat 8 hogsheads 

 of pilchards will produce one hogshead of oil." Rutty, 1772, observed in the 

 county of Dublin that the oil serves curriers and for lamps : while the fish are 

 preserved in casks of beech wood. 



Diseases and causes of destruction. — The picked dog-fish, Acanthias vulgaris, is 

 partial to these fish, pursuing the shoals and even tearing them out of the fisher- 

 men's nets. Mr. Dunn, writing from Mevagissey (December 4th, 1882), observed 

 how these predatory vermin in many instances rushed in numbers at the netted fish, 

 eating all the captives and doing so much mischief that some boats had their nets 

 entirely destroyed. Others left the ground, which is within a few miles of the 

 Eddystone rocks, while at one time it was thought probable that the fishery 

 would have to be entirely given up. Other forms of predatoiy fishes, porpoises, 

 whales, and birds likewise prey extensively upon them. 



It is not unusual to see these fish removed from the nets with one or both eyes 

 gone — not, I think, due to the gar-fish, Belone, or the saury Scomhresox, having 

 pierced their heads but consequent upon attacks of fish parasites. In several 

 instances in which both eyes were gone I found the bony interorbital septum still 

 intact which it could not be had the fish been pierced through the two eyes. It 

 is found with Lernece perforating its eye as seen in sprats. 



Habitat. — It is found from the seas of Northern Europe extending to 

 Madeira, also off the French and Spanish coasts, and the variety sardine is 

 found through the Mediterranean. 



At Aberdeen an example was taken among some herrings in November, 1881 

 (Sim) : Firth of Forth (Parnell) : Berwickshire (Johnstone). A casual visitor off 

 Yorkshire, occasionally in some numbers (Yorkshire Vertebrata), and every year 

 off Yarmouth (Yarrell), Harwich (Dale), also a few have been taken off Dover, 

 in the Downs, and in the Isle of Wight by herring fishers. In May, 1838, 

 Yarrell obtained one from the Thames. Dnder the head of migrations I have 

 alluded to their distribution along the south and south-west coasts of England, as 

 it is more especially a Devonshire and Cornish fish. A few occur in Swansea 

 Bay, but I believe never in shoals (Dillwyn). 



In Ireland it is local and chiefly taken along the south coast, where a few 

 occur every year, while occasionally large numbers are captured, especially near 

 Cork. It has been recorded from Belfast Bay, Newcastle (County Down), 

 Youghal, and the south-west of the counties of Cork and Galway. Andrew 

 (Ich. S.W. Coast of Ireland, P. Roy. Dub. Soc. v, 1866-70, p. 382) observes that 

 small fry of the herring and pilchard are met with in the month of October in 

 great quantities in Dingle and in Ventry Harbours and the Short Strand. 



The pilchard rarely exceeds 11 inches in length ; but Mr. Cornish (Zool. 1879, 

 p. 62) observed that on December 29th, 1878, he measured the largest he had 

 ever seen, and that it was 11| inches long, while Mr. Dunn has seen one of the 

 length of 14 inches, taken in a mackerel net. 



♦ Conch obseryes (iv, p. 92) that when these fieh are in bulk 8 or 9 gallons of oil have been 

 obtained from a hogshead. 



