THE HERRING AND ITS KINDRED 
261 
photo by W, Saville-Kmt^ F.Z.S.~\ \^Milford~on*Sea 
OX-EYED HERRING 
This species attains a length of several feet 
sweeping trawl-net. The shad’s eggs also sink to the bottom, but are deposited in the less 
buoyant waters of rivers. 
The Pilchard, the all-important fish (together with mackerel) on the south-west coast of 
England, is of a more decided green hue than either of the foregoing. Its scales are large and 
coarse, and its back-fin starts closer to the head than in the rest. The pilchard of Cornwall and 
the sardine of the Mediterranean are one and the same fish in different stages of growth — that is 
to say, the pilchard is a grown-up sardine. The late Matthias Dunn of Mevagissey was one of 
the first practical fishermen to accept this identity, and the flourishing sardine factory at his 
native town bears lasting witness to his enterprise. Although, from the economic standpoint, 
we associate the pilchard with the extreme south-west of the English Channel, the fish finds its 
way to more eastern counties. The writer has found it at both Bournemouth and Ventnor ; 
and it is taken, though sparsely, in the herring-nets of the North Sea fleets. 
The Anchovy, smaller than any of the foregoing, may be distinguished by its projecting, 
shark-like snout and deeply cleft mouth. It is seen in England only pickled for table purposes, 
but the writer used fresh anchovies for bait almost daily during a stay of four months on the 
shores of the Mediterranean. 
The two shads — the Allis Shad and Twaite Shad — are in some respects, though less 
important commercially, the most interesting of the family. Their habit of coming up rivers to 
spawn, like salmon, has been already noticed, but they appear to be more difficult to please than 
the other fish. The Severn used to be a noted shad-river, but the fishery has fallen off of 
late years. The Allis Shad grows to a weight of 7 or 8 lbs., and its pale green and silver 
scales are varied by some darker spots at irregular intervals on the shoulders and sides. The 
edge of the belly is serrated, like that of the sprat. The fish has a curious transparent 
eyelid, and its other peculiarities include an abnormally large number of gill-rakers, through 
which the water filters much as it does through the “ whalebone ” of whales. Its food is said 
to consist of small fishes and shrimps, as well as of vegetable substances. Though usually 
caught, for market purposes, in a seine-net, which is slipped round the shoal in shallow water, 
the shad is now and then taken on the hook, and instances of this are on record in the 
neighbourhood of Deal. The rivers of Morocco are very productive of shad, particularly the 
Bouregreg at Rabat, and the Um Erbeya at Azimur. At the latter town the writer has 
bought newly caught shad weighing 5 or 6 lbs. for native money equivalent to as many pence, 
