218 
THE FLYING-FISH. 
dams, however, here as elsewhere, has served to check their increase. The English Herring 
was once declared to be distinct, but. is now regarded as identical with the present species. 
The celebrated White-bait was once regarded as an English Herring of a peculiar small kind, 
but now it is definitely known that White-bait is the young of the common Herring. Mr. 
Blackford informed us that the White-bait, precisely similar to the English, is taken off Coney 
Island. Young White-bait were kept in aquarium until they had grown to be twelve inches 
in length. 
Haed Head, or Mexhadex (Brevoortia tyrannies ) Moss-bunker, Bony-fish, White-fish, 
Bug-fish, Fat-back, Yellow-tail, Pogy, Poghagen, Skippaugs, or Bunkers, so called in various 
places. This is one of the most familiar of native fishes, though it is not a food-fish, but a 
very valuable one in its services to the fishermen as bait. It is even so numerous at times as 
to be taken in vast quantities for manuring land. Its oil is used largely in cheap painting. 
Axothee species of this fish, called Leach’s Her king ( Clv/pea leacJdi), is captured 
during the winter months ; the roe being well developed at the end of January, and the spawn 
deposited in February. It is a small species, between seven and eight inches in length. 
The common Speat is another very useful fish, though not so extensively valued as 
the herring. 
Like that fish, it swims in vast shoals during the spawning season, which immediately 
succeeds that of the herring, so that from July to February and March the public can com- 
mand a continual supply of fresh sea-fish, which can be purchased at so cheap a rate as to be 
within the reach of all classes, and are, nevertheless, of such excellent flavor that if they were 
as scarce as they are plentiful, they would be held in high estimation at the tables of the 
wealthy. To the taste of many persons, however, the Sprat is too rich and too strongly 
flavored to be in much request. 
This fish is captured in nets of various kinds, the nature of the net mostly depending 
on that of the locality ; and as it swims in shoals quite equal in numbers to those of the 
herring, it is taking in countless multitudes when the boats happen to be fortunate in their 
selection of a fishing-ground. Now and then the “take” is so enormous that even the 
European markets, which usually absorb every eatable article which can be brought for sale, 
and often anticipate the future crops or supplies, are at times so overstocked with Sprats that 
the fishermen can find no ordinary sale for their perishable goods, and are perforce obliged 
to dispose of them to the farmers, who spread them over their lands for manure, most unfra- 
grant but exceedingly fertilizing. In color it is very like the herring. 
One or two members of this genus demand a brief notice. 
The Pilchaed, or Gipsy Heeeixg ( Clupea p ilchard us ) , is another of the gregarious fish, 
and is taken about the month of August by a wonderfully intricate system of boats and nets 
that seem capable of sweeping every fish out of the sea. Though very like the herring, it may 
easily be distinguished by the position of the dorsal fin, which is set so far forward that if the 
fish be held by the first ray of that fin its body slopes upward, whereas in the herring it is 
nearly balanced and slightly inclines downward. 
The far-famed Flyixg-fish exists in many of the warmer seas, and derives its popular 
name from its wonderful powers of sustaining itself in the air. Its picture is placed on 
the next page. 
The passage of this fish through the atmosphere can lay no just claim to the title of flight, 
for the creature does not flap the wing-like pectoral fins on which it is upborne, and is not 
believed even to possess the power of changing its course. As much of the history of the 
Flying-fish has been given while treating on the coryphene, the reader is referred to the 
description of that fish on page 248, where may also be seen an illustration of the attitudes 
