222 
NATURAL HISTORY 
HERRING. 
This useful species of fish is about nine 
or ten inches long, and about two and a 
half broad ; the under jaw is rather longer 
than the upper one, and it has large round 
scales; the body, is of a fat, soft, delicate 
nature; it lias a two-forked tail. It is said, 
that if eaten too greedily, they are apt to 
breed fevers. The Herring is by some called 
the king of fish. They swim in large shoals, 
and spawn once in the year, about the au- 
tumnal equinox, at which time they are con- 
sidered best. Like the mackerel, they die 
almost immediately after being taken out of 
the water. They subsist almost entirely on 
marine worms, the lesser species of crabs, 
and small fish. 
