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XXXVII. On the supposed Identity of Whitebait and Shad. 

 By William Yarkell, T.sq. F.L.S.* 



nPHAT the diminutive fishes called Whitebait are the young 

 ■*■ of the Shad [Clupea alosa) is a point so long considered 

 to be settled, that I fear I sh^U be thought guilty of a crime 

 little short of treason in Natural History by declaring for an 

 opposite opinion ; but having devoted considerable time and 

 attention to this subject during the present season, I shall 

 proceed to detail the facts, historical as well as anatomical, 

 of which this investigation has placed me in possession, and 

 which have led me to adopt a conclusion at variance with all 

 the English authors on this point. 



Mr. Pennant in his British Zoology gives the Whitebait a 

 place as an appendage to the Bleak {Cyprimis alhurmis), rather, 

 as he remarks, " than form a distinct article of a fish which it 

 it impossible to class with certainty." 



The editor of the edition published in 1 812 says, " Mr. Pen- 

 nant was either deceived in the specimens sent him as White- 

 bait, or the branchiostegousrays were injured ; since he counted 

 only three (genus Cyprinus) instead of eight (genus Clupea) of 

 these rays, which number they certainly possess." 



Dr. Shaw in his General Zoology follows Pennant, and de- 

 .scribes the Whitebait as a species of the Carp or Cyprinus 

 genus. 



Dr. Turton in his British Fauna, attached to his description 

 of the Bleak, Cyprinus albiirnus, has the following observation : 

 " The Whitebait which has hitherto been considered as a va- 

 riety of this fish, appears by the judicious and accurate inves- 

 tigation of the author of the Natural History of British Fishes, 

 to be merely the young fry of the Clupea alosa or Shad." 



Mr. Donovan, in his Natural History of British Fishes, treats 

 this subject at some length, and considers that his examination 

 affords incontrovertible evidence that the Whitebait is really 

 the fry of the common Shad. 



Dr. Fleming, in his recently published History of British 

 Animals, follows Mr. Donovan in considering the Whitebait 

 as the fry of the Shad. 



To place this subject, upon which such different opinions 

 have been entertained, in a clear point of view, it may be pro- 

 per to conmience with a short account of the habits of each of 

 these two fishes. 



All Fnglish writers agree that the Shads enter our rivers in 

 tlie month of May, for the purpose of depositing their spawn, 

 and, this object accomplished, they return to sea by the end of 

 July. Tliey appear during these three months in the greatest 



• I'loin tlic Zoylogicul Journal, vol. iv. p. 137' 



abundance 



