SEA BREAM IN ESSEX WATERS. 239 



Southend Pier, in water about three fathoms deep. The 

 fish was new to them as others of fishermen at work hard by. 

 When fresh caught its brilliant silvery scales immediately 

 attracted attention. According to the men its head and dorsum 

 were only slightly tinted with pale orange pink, the silvery 

 hue visibly predominating. Such certainly was the case when 

 brought to me. Moreover, it was destitute of the black shoulder 

 patch so specifically characteristic of the full-grown Pagellus 

 centvodontus . 



Extreme length, g^ inches. It barely turned the scale at 

 •|lb. weight. Greatest depth of body just behind the pectoral 

 fin 2-9 inches. Eye -*ths of an inch in diameter. Sex doubtful. 

 Food, quite a number of young of the Greater Pipefish 

 (Sygnatlius acus) ranging from i\ to 3^ inches in length ; also a 

 post - larval Butterfish or Gunnell (Centvonoius gunnellus) 

 38 mill. — ij inches long. 



This Essex specimen of immature Sea Bream (yearling or 

 thereabouts) seems to come under what are known by the local 

 name of " Chad " by the Devon and Cornwall fishermen. 

 Theirs is an indefinite term for the young bream of various sizes 

 destitute of the adult's dark-coloured shoulder mark and deep 

 orange hue of the dorsum. Our estuary example may have been 

 a straggler from a roving squad ; for in their immature stages 

 during the autumn months they crowd in shoals among the 

 inshore shallows of the above counties, whereas the older bream 

 are stated to keep to deeper water and more rocky grounds." 2 



The species in question may be said to have its headquarters 

 quite within the western area of the English Channel. At times 

 it is plentiful and exposed for sale in the fish-marts of Plymouth 

 and Brixham. 3 There seems to be a gradual diminishment in 

 numbers, proceeding eastwards, up channel. For example, on 

 the Sussex coast, 4 they are relatively fewer, and still less so 

 around Kent, which, indeed, somewhat resembles Essex in 

 paucity of their visits. On the Suffolk and Norfolk seaboards 

 they are now seldom caught. 5 



It was originally intended that the specimen of Thames 

 Estuary Sea Bream should have been exhibited to the members 



2 Wilcocks, The Sea Fisherman, 3rd Ed. (1875), p. 189. 



3 Houghton, Commercial Sea Fishes (1884), p. 100. 



4 Yarrell, Hritish Fishes, 3rd Ed., Vol. II., p. 147 ; also Merrifield, Natuial Histoiy of 

 Brighton (1869), p. 112. 



5 Patterson, "' Fishes of Great Yarmouth," Zoologist, 1897, p. 544. 



