HERRING- (AS. Baying, OHG. harine. Ger. Tiering. herring, from AS. here, 011G. hart, heri, Ger. neer, army; in allusion to the shoals in which the fish moves). A fish of the family Clupeidre. belonging to the genus Chqiea, very closely related to the shad- and sardines. Tier ring are soft-rayed fishes, with a compre—ed body and rather large eyeloid scales. The bead is naked. and the caudal fin is forked. They occur in all the northern seas, and make periodic mi grations from the deeper waters to the shore for the purposes of spawning. In the more northern regions this occurs during the spring and early slimmer; in the more southern regions, in July to Deeember. The average yield of eggs is about 3n.nnn to the fish. with a maximum of about 55,000. They are laid in shallow waters and are slightly glutinous, sticking in clumps to rocks etc., on the bottom. The young herring probably remain on the shallow spawning beds all the year. At this period of spawning they swim in great schools, and arc taken in vast, numbers for commercial purposes. The herring fisheries are very extensive both in Europe and America. The boated animal ea tell is :3.000,000,0m, weigh ing one•half that many pounds. They are largely smoked, salted, and canned. The young in cer tain regions are canned as sardines. Fresh her
ring are much used as bait for cod and other fishes taken by line. See FisnEat Es.
Ho rring live on minute crust:means and larval forms of a great variety of animals, which they strain out of the water, and are themselves preyed upon to an enormous extent by cod, had dock, sharks, and other fishes, and by sea-birds.
The common herring ll'hipea harengus) fre quent,: hoth sides of the Atlantic southward to the thirty-seventh parallel. It attains a maxi mum length of about 17 inches, the usual average being about 12 inches. The California herring I Chipeo Ponosi) strongly resembles the Atlantic one in form and habit. and is about equally alum dant and an important There are other less valuable species, belonging to this or a re lated genus. Thus the various species of alewife (q.v.) are known as 'herrings,' with distinguish ing adjectives. The 'lake' or `li•higan herring.' however, is an entirely unrelated form, being a salmonoid (see Cisco). although greatly resem bling the common herring in form and general appearance. Consult. for an extensive natural history of the herring family. Goode, Fish ery Industries. Section 1. (Washington. 1SS4). See Plate of HERRING AND SII AD.