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Show WARFARE AMONG THE FISHES. Man's natural condition is said to be warfare; but it is not so much his condition as it is that of fishes, which really dwell amid ceaseless strife and destruction. They can afford, perhaps, to prey on one another in the manner they do because they exceed in number, both as to species and individuals, all other classes of vertebrates combined. In the sea there is perpetual slaughter. The big fish subsist upon the little ones; the members of the vast finny tribe eat and are eaten in regular turns. Herrings are a fair sample of the unfortunate experience of small fish. If they were not so supremely prolific - 68,000 eggs have been counted in the roe of a single female - they would soon disappear between the immense numbers caught and their incessant devouring by their own kind. Certain localities are favorite spawning grounds of the herring. When the great annual shoals are seen on the coasts they usually swim near the surface, and are followed and preyed upon by any quantity of larger fish. What is equivalent to a hogshead of herring has often been found inside a whale, and 15 to 20 have been taken from a cod. Gulls and other sea birds eat them voraciously, and the Island of St. Kilda, a favorite haunt of sea birds, demands, it is estimated, for yearly consumption of near 300,000,000 herring. Shoals have sometimes even been driven ashore in greater quantities than the inhabitants of the neighborhood could find means of curing. Such instance occurred 40 or 50 years since at Crail, Scotland. As the tide came in it was full of herring, and when it ebbed such numbers were stranded and left that after all the salt obtainable had been exhausted the local magistrates were obliged to offer a shilling a cart-load for their removal. |