Strange stories of the animal world : A book of curious contributions to natural history / by John Timbs.
- John Timbs
- Date:
- 1866
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Strange stories of the animal world : A book of curious contributions to natural history / by John Timbs. Source: Wellcome Collection.
374/404
![numbers for about a fortnight in localities favourable for the reception of their ova. Here they lie in tiers, covering square miles of sea-bottom, and so close to the ground that the lishermen have to practise a peculiar mode of fishing in order to take them; while every net and line used in the fishing is thickly covered with the adhesive spawn which they are busily engaged in shedding. So intent are the fish on this great necessity of their existence that they are not easily driven from their spawning-ground; but when once their object has been attained and they have become spent fish the shoal rapidly disappears, withdrawing in all probability into deep water at no great distance from the coast. There is no positive evidence as to the ultimate fate of the spent Herrings; but there is much to be said in favour of the current behef, that after a sojourn of more or less duration in deep water they return as Maties to the shallows and lochs, there to run through the same changes as before. The Commissioners were unable to gain any information res]:)ecting the time which one and the same Herring may pass through the cycle. The enemies of this fish are, however, too numerous and active to render it at all likely that the existence of any one fish is prolonged beyond two or three reproductive epochs. The conclusion is, that the Herring spawns twice annually, in the spring and in the autumn. The food of the Herring consists of Crustacea, varying in size from microscopic dimension to those of a shrimp, and of small fish, particularly sand-eels. 'While in the matie or fat condition, they feed voraciously ; and not unfrequently their stomachs are found immensely distended with Crustacea and sand-eels, in a more or less digested condition. Herrings thus gorged have all their tissues so permeated with fat, that they](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28127420_0376.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
