For beauty of colour, the Perch nearly equals the gaudiest of the inhabitants of the ponds, lakes, and rivers; the back glows with the deep reflections of the brightest emerald, divided by five broad stripes; the belly imitates the tints of the opal and mother of pearl, and the ruby hues of the fins complete an assemblage of colours most harmonious and elegant. It is a gregarious fish, and is caught in many of the rivers of this island; the flesh is firm, delicate, and much esteemed. They are generally boiled in wine or vinegar, which adds a considerable solidity and flavour to the flesh.

These animals are remarkably tenacious of life; and some of them, particularly the River Perch, have been carried sixty miles among straw, and have survived the journey. From the ease with which this fish is taken and transported, it has become the most common inhabitant of our fishponds.

THE HERRING.

THE Common Herring is distinguished from the other fish of the same tribe, by the projection of the lower jaw, which is curved, and by having seventeen rays in the ventral fin. The head and mouth are small, the tongue short, pointed, and armed with teeth; the covers of the gills generally have a violet or red spot, that disappears soon after the death of the fish, which survives a very short time, when taken out of its natural element.

Herrings breed in the inaccessible seas of high northern latitudes. Hence they issue in multitudes as countless as the sands of the sea. On commencing their emigration the swarms divide into distinct columns, each five or six miles in length, and three or four in breadth. Their course is made visible to an observer by the ripple which they cause in

the water. They reach the Shetland Islands in June, separate, surround the British Isles, and unite again at the Land's End in September. They then continuè their progress to the American shore, every bay, river, and creek of which they fill. Having spawned there, the old fish proceed to Newfoundland, whence they finally return to their polar habitations. During their protracted voyage they are closely pursued by numerous marine enemies, and by flocks of seafowl.

The principal of the British Herring fisheries are off the Scotch and Norfolk coasts; and in our seas the fishing is always carried on by nets stretched in the water, one side of which is kept from sinking, by means of buoys fixed to them at proper distances; and, as the weight of the net makes the side sink to which no buoys are fixed, it is suffered to hang in a perpendicular position like a screen: and the fish, when they endeavour to pass through it, are entangled in its meshes, from which they cannot disengage themselves. There they remain till the net is hauled in, and they are shaken or picked out. The nets are never stretched to catch Herrings but during the night, for in the dark they are to be taken in much the greatest abundance.

After the nets are hauled, the fish are thrown upon the deck of the vessel, and each of the crew has a certain task assigned to him. One part is employed in opening and gutting them, another in salting, and a third in packing them in the barrels in layers of salt. The Red Herrings lie twenty-four hours in the brine; they are then taken out, strung by the gills on little wooden spits, and hung in a chimney formed to receive them; after which a fire of brushwood, which yields much smoke, but no flame, is kindled under them, and they remain there till sufficiently smoked and dried, when they are put into barrels for carriage.

Herrings become very soon tainted after they are dead; in summer they are sensibly worse for being out of the water only a few hours; and if exposed only a few minutes to the rays of the sun, they are quite useless, and will not take the salt.

THE Sprat is a native of the European seas, greatly resembling the herring, though a good deal smaller, and having thirteen rays in the back fin. They are caught in the Thames from the beginning of November till March, and afford a very seasonable relief to the poor of the metropolis. In the Mediterranean there are such swarms of them that forty or fifty barrels will often be taken in one haul of a large net.

Sprats are sometimes pickled, and rendered in flavour scarcely inferior to anchovies, from which they are only to be distinguished by their bones being indissoluble.

THE ANCHOVY.

THE Anchovy is about three inches long, though mention is made of some being six inches and a half. The nose is pointed; the edge of the jaws finely serrated, the upper being longer than the under; the eyes large; the body round and slender; the back of a dusky green colour; the sides and belly of a silvery white;

between the ventral fins it has a long pointed scale, and the tail is forked.

At different seasons it frequents the Atlantic ocean and the Mediterranean sea, passing through the Straits of Gibraltar towards the Levant in the months of May, June, and July. The greatest fishery is at Gorgona, a small isle west of Leghorn, where they are taken at night in nets, into which they are allured by lights fixed to the stern of the vessels. When cured, their heads are cut off, their gall and entrails taken out, then salted and packed in barrels. It scarce needs to be mentioned, that being put on the fire, they dissolve in almost any liquor. They are well tasted when fresh. But it has been found by experience, that Anchovies taken thus by torchlight, are neither so good, so firm, nor so proper for keeping, as those which are taken otherwise. From December to March, vast numbers are caught on the shores of Provence and Catalonia, and during June and July in the English channel, and in the environs of Bayonne, Venice, Rome, and Genoa. From the Anchovy the ancients prepared one of the liquids called garum, which was in high repute among epicures.

THE WHITE BAIT.

THIS fish has a great similarity to the bleak, and during the month of June, appears in the Thames, near Black wall and Greenwich. The usual length of this small species is two inches; the dorsal fin is placed near the head, so that, when suspended by it, the tail sinks down; the tail is forked and black on the tips. These small fry are usually caught for the purpose of bait for other fish. When fried with flour, they are reckoned a delicious viand by the metropolitan epicures, who frequent the taverns contiguous to the places where they are taken.

Naturalists were long undetermined to what particular fish this belongs, though all agreed it is the young of some fish that resort here. Some have ascribed its origin to the sprat, the smelt, and the bleak. These fish, however, are all found in other streams, while the White Bait is peculiar to the river Thames. Pennant is of opinion that it is of the carp kind, though he is unable to ascertain the species. Mr. Donovan, however, seems to have proved satisfactorily that it is the fry of the shad, in which case it belongs to the genus Clupea, and we have, therefore, placed it with the herring and other fish of that genus.

THE Turbot, like some others of the flat fish, grows to a great size. It has occasionally been known to weigh from twenty-five to thirty pounds. In its general form it is somewhat square. Flat fish swim sideways, on which account they are styled pleuronectes by Linnæus. The eyes of all of them are situated on one side of the head, those of the Turbot on the left, and it is a curious circumstance, that while the under parts of their body are of a brilliant white, the upper parts are so coloured and speckled, as, when they are half immersed in the sand or mud, to render them imperceptible. Of this resemblance they are so con