Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 19.djvu/451

Rh Like most fishes, the herring is propelled chiefly by the sculling action of the tail-fin, the rest serving chiefly to preserve the balance of the body, and to keep it from turning over, as it would do if left to itself, the back being the heaviest part of the fish.

The mouth of the herring is not very large, the gape extending back only to beneath the middle of the eye, and the teeth on the upper and lower jaws are so small as to be hardly visible. Moreover, when a live herring opens its mouth, or when the lower jaw of a dead herring is depressed artificially, the upper jaw, instead of remaining fixed and stationary, travels downward and forward in such a manner as to guard the sides of the gape. This movement is the result of a curious mechanical arrangement by which the lower jaw pulls upon the upper, and I suspect that it is useful in guarding the sides of the gape when the fish gulps the small living prey upon which it feeds.

The only conspicuous teeth, and they are very small, are disposed in an elongated patch upon the tongue, and in another such patch, opposite to these, on the fore part of the roof of the mouth. The latter are attached to a bone called the vomer, and are hence termed vomerine teeth. But, if the mouth of a herring is opened widely, there will be seen, on each side, a great number of fine, long, bristle-like processes, the pointed ends of which project forward. These are what are termed the gill-rakers, inasmuch as they are fixed, like the teeth of a rake, to the inner sides of those arches of bone on the outer sides of which the gills are fixed. The sides of the throat of a herring, in fact, are, as it were, cut by four deep and wide clefts, which are separated by these gill arches, and the water which the fish constantly gulps in by the mouth flows through these clefts, over the gills and out beneath the gill-covers, aerating the blood, and thus effecting respiration, as it goes. But, since it would be highly inconvenient, and indeed injurious, were the food to slip out in the same way, these gill-rakers play the part of a fine sieve, which lets the water strain off, while it keeps the food in. The gill-rakers of the front arches are much longer than those of the hinder arches, and, as each is stiffened by a thread of bone developed in its interior, while, at the same time, its sides are beset with fine sharp teeth, like thorns on a brier, I suspect that they play some part in crushing the life out of the small animals on which the herrings prey.

Between these arches there is, in the middle line, an opening which leads into the gullet. This passes back into a-curious conical sac which is commonly termed the stomach, but which has more the character of a crop. Coming off from the under side of the sac and communicating with it by a narrow opening, there is an elogatedelongated [sic] tubular organ, the walls of which are so thick and muscular that it might almost be compared to a gizzard. It is directed forward, and opens by a narrow prominent aperture into the intestine, which runs straight back to the vent. Attached to the commencement of the intestine