ICHTHYOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 331 



attention to such a record in YarrelPs British Fishes. In that 

 work, first edition^ 1836, vol. ii, p. 117, is an account of what the 

 author believes to be a distinct species of herring, which he calls 

 Leach's herring, Clnpea Leachii. Yarrell says that he found her- 

 ring of this sort among the fish taken at the mouth of the Thames 

 during winter by the sprat fishermen. He points out that the 

 common herring deposits its spawn towards the end of October, 

 and says that numbers of the young of these herring are taken with 

 the sprats. These are yearling herring, have the elongated form 

 of the common herring, and although reaching 7 inches in length 

 are without roe. The herring of the new species is found heavy 

 with roe at the end of January, and does not deposit its spawn till 

 the middle of February. Its length is not more than 7^ inches, and 

 its depth near 2 inches. The characters by which Yarrell distin- 

 guishes this species from the common or autumn herring are not 

 very salient, but it is quite possible that they correspond to those 

 in which, according to Heincke, the spring race of herrings differs 

 from the autumn race. The principal are the greater depth of the 

 body and the more anterior position of the dorsal fin. Howevei', 

 whether these herrings are structurally distinct or not, the impor- 

 tant fact is that Yarrell found them spawning in the middle of 

 February. I inferred in my previous paper, from the occurrence 

 of the larval herrings in Thames whitebait, that the parents of the 

 latter spawned in March, April, and May ; and it is not improbable, 

 considering that Yarrell did not fully determine the limits of their 

 spawning period, but only states that they did not spawn until the 

 middle of February, that he only noticed the commencement of the 

 spawning, which may have continued till the middle of May. Mr. 

 Holdsworth, in his book on Deep Sea Fishing, p. 249, refers to 

 Yarrell's account of Leach's herring in the Thames, stating that a 

 more extensive examination has resulted in ranking it only as one 

 of the numerous races of the common herring. He states also that 

 this " small variety '' of herring appears in the Wash in December, 

 and spawns in February and March, and that it is there the object 

 of a regular but not very extensive fishery. 



Mr. Holdsworth further points out in his letter to me that he 

 states in his book that the herring fishery takes place at Eamsgate 

 in October and November, not the spawning, as in the citation given 

 in my paper. With regard to the spawning, the statement in his 

 book is that the herring are full at the eastern end of the Channel 

 in November, and his impression is that the end of that month 

 would be the general spawning-time in that locality. I am glad to 

 correct this slight inaccuracy in my quotation of Mr. Holdsworth's 

 observations. I assumed that some ripe, spawning herring were 



