THE LIFE-HISTORY OF THE PILCHARD. 153 
the days that they were feeding they were seen to “peck” at the 
particles of food suspended in the water, and the food was seen in 
the intestine as a white opaque mass contrasting with the transparency 
of the body. On the 15th there were few left alive, and on the 
17th only one was left, which I took out and mounted. ‘Thus, the 
longest time any were kept alive was ten days. In the oldest larvee 
no great advance in development had taken place ; no indication of 
the permanent fin-rays had appeared, but radiating lines in the larval 
fin in the caudal region indicated the commencement of the primitive 
fin-rays. The oldest larve did not exceed 5°5 mm. in length in the 
preserved condition, and very little shrinkage took place in the pro- 
cess of preservation. Fig. 3 shows the condition of one of the larva 
killed and preserved on September 16th, when nine days old. 
In September I found that the Saltash men were fishing with 
large seines for sprats, in the Hamoaze on the west shore, between 
St. John’s Lake and Millbrook Lake. Besides abundance of adult 
sprats there were taken numbers of small fish of the character 
of whitebait, and miscellaneous fish of other kinds, including a few 
small mackerel, small bream, and Belone acus. On examining a 
sample of the small clupeoids I found they consisted chiefly of 
young sprats from 24 to 34 inches in length, evidently the produce 
of the preceding spawning season in the early part of the year. But 
there was also a small proportion of young pilchards, 2% to 43 
inches in length. These must be derived from the spawn shed in 
the same year in the early part of the spawning period, that is to say 
in the months of May and June. It has long been known that 
sprats and herrings are found in estuaries at this age and size, but 
pilchards have not hitherto been recorded in such localities in 
England, nor I believe elsewhere on the Atlantic coast. Young 
pilchards of this age are taken regularly, as described by Professor 
Marion in the Annales du Musée de Marseille, 1890 and 1891, in the 
Gulf of Marseilles by seimes and other engines worked from or close 
to the shore. 
