268 



CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



the pikes, where this fin is invariably inserted very near 

 to the caudal : the pectoral is always pointed, and that 

 of the tail (except in Osteoglossuni) is uniformly forked: 

 the ventrals are very small, sometimes obsolete, and 

 rarely wanting ; while the lateral line is either very close 

 to the belly, or is not discernible. The unusual sharp- 

 ness and rigidity of the belly in these fish, if the 

 accounts of the mode in which they deposit their spawn 

 can be relied upon, is easily explained: when the season 

 for this operation commences, the herrings, abandoning 

 their winter quarters, proceed in large troops to the 

 breeding grounds ; there they commence rubbing their 

 belly against the ground, and, as if under great excite- 

 ment, they rapidly vibrate their fins, agitate their bodies, 

 and imbibe and reject the water through their gills with 

 unusual vivacity. The food of the British herrings has 

 been already noticed : those of Norway feed upon an- 

 other species of minute crab, named by Otho Fabricius, 

 from this circumstance, Astacus harengum. The num- 

 ber of these little creatures, during summer, is so near 

 infinity, that in taking up a jug of sea water it will be 

 often found to contain thousands. So partial are the 

 herrings to these insects, that they follow them where- 

 ever they are driven by the currents or tides ; and by 

 feeding upon them continually, the belly of the fish 

 acquires a tinge of red, occasioned, according to Stroem, 

 by a reddish humour contained in these little creatures : 

 that putrefaction proceeds more rapidly in such herrings 

 as have been caught with their bodies thus filled, may 

 be readily supposed, for the same takes place in all other 

 animals j and it is well known to cooks, that the best 

 method of keeping any animal for a long time fit for 

 eating, is to clear out the contents of the stomach. 



(235.) Recent investigations have gone far to prove 

 the inaccuracy of those wonderful accounts, given by 

 Pennant and others, on the migrations which the her- 

 rings and pilchards were supposed to make every year, 

 from our own shores to the Arctic regions. The facts 

 upon which this was founded seemed to favour the 



