of Whitebait and Shad. 259 



1 inch in length to ^\ ; all taken this season, and all, as I be- 

 lieve, young fish ot" this year. ]3y this it Avill be evident that 

 their size has been nuich under- rated by those authors who 

 have described the length as not exceeding 2 inches. I have 

 also before me a fine specimen of 4 J inclies in length, an adult 

 fish with roe, and as the fishing for Whitebait will probably 

 continue till October, I have little doubt of obtaining others 

 in a more advanced state as the season proceeds. I believe 

 that these fishes deposit their spawn during the winter, that 

 the young are slow in their first development, as well as in 

 their subsequent growth, and probably never attain any con- 

 siderable size. The food found in their stomachs most distin- 

 guishable, consisted of very minute shrimps. 



To show that my expectations of obtaining other adult spe- 

 cimens of Whitebait with roe as the winter approaches, have 

 some foundation, I quote from Mr. Pennant's editor the fol- 

 lowing sentence, " the accurate Duhamel asserts that the JFVanc 

 Blayiquet (of the identity of which with the Whitebait we en- 

 tertain little doubt) is full of eggs and milt in November and 

 December." 



The slow development of the ova of fishes which spawn in 

 winter may principally be referred to temperature. From the 

 spawn of Salmon, deposited in December and January, the 

 young fry do not come forth till March and April, while the 

 ova of some other species, deposited in the midst of summer, 

 become living fishes on the ninth day. 



Believing that the more closely this subject is examined, the 

 more evident the true distinction between the Whitebait and 

 Shad will appear, I venture to propose the term alba for the 

 former species, the chai'acters of which have been already no- 

 ticed in detail*. The name given by Mr. Donovan to his White- 

 bait {Clupea alosa jtiniur) may still be retained without incon- 

 venience, since the fishes represented by that gentleman in his 

 98th plate, are in reality young Shads, and not Whitebait; and 

 I have entered thus fully into the investigation with the hope 

 of clearing up the confusion and errors at present existing on 

 this subject, in most of, if not all, our Zoological works. 



Ilydcr-Btreet, St. James's, August 1828. 



Additions to the foregoing Remarks f. 

 The season for Whitebait fishing having expired soon after 

 the sending my former remarks on that sul)ject for inser- 

 tion in the l+th Number of the Zoological Journal, I waited 

 with some anxiety for the period when nets of small meshes 

 might legally be worked at the mouth of the Thames for Smelts 



* A rorrcci fiirnrr l)y i\lr. .F;iincsSowcrl)y is};i\en in thcZoolygiculJoitriial. 

 f I'Voin lla ZooK'ijical Journal, vol. iv. |). I(i5. 



2 L 2 and 



