GEN. CLUPEA. WHITEBAIT. 173 



Being usually brought to the market soon after 

 the Herring season is over, they form a cheap, 

 "wholesome, and very agreeable article of food ; the 

 flesh is rich in quality, and M^ell flavoured. Some- 

 times they are salted, at other times dried (as at 

 Gravesend and Yarmouth), and form, in that state, 

 a very acceptable accompaniment to many kinds of 

 stimulating beverage. 



(Sp. 143.) C. alba, Whitebait. This little fish, 

 the smallest of the British ClupeidsB, has attained 

 some degree of celebrity on account of the excellence 

 of its flavour, which has made it an object of great 

 request among the London epicures. Still further 

 interest is attached to it, from it being long supposed 

 that it was so local in this country as to be con- 

 fined to the Thames. That river still seems to be 

 its principal habitat, although there can be little 

 doubt that, if it were sought for with equal care, it 

 might be found in many other places in equal if not 

 greater abundance. It has been found by Dr. Par- 

 nell, in some plenty, in the Firth of Forth ; it also 

 occurs in the vicinity of the Isle of Wight, and in 

 the river Hamble, which flows into Southampton 

 Water. The Kentish and Essex coasts likewise 

 produce it. 



It is a striking proof of the difficulties that stand 

 in the way of investigating the history of fishes, 

 owing to the element they inhabit and other causes, 

 that up to the year 1828, this fish was generally re- 

 garded as the young of the Shad. Pennant conjec- 

 tured, however, that it was an independent species ; 



