260 Mr. Yarrell on the supposed Identily 



and Sprats, in the hope of obtaining further evidence of the 

 distinction between Whitebait and Shads; and in this expec- 

 tation I was not disappointed. I obtained, but in small num- 

 bers only, both adult Whitebait in roe, and some young ones ; 

 but it appeared that the large shoals of this fish, like all those 

 which visit the fresh water for the purpose of depositing their 

 spawn, had, with their fry of the year, quitted the river and re- 

 turned to the deep. As late as the month ofNovember I obtained 

 several small Shads, only 2\ inches in length, which illustrated 

 another point in the history of that fish. We are told by Baron 

 Cuvier and M. Valenciennes, in the second volume of their 

 ■work on the Natural History of Fishes (p. 25), that a Perch 

 of 7 inches is in his third year; and I therefore felt convinced 

 that these young Shads, only 2^ inches in length when taken 

 in November, were in reality young fishes of the same year, 

 and that the young Shads of 4 inches in length, obtained in 

 the months of July and August preceding, were the young 

 fishes of the year before, the greater part of them having ar- 

 rived at the length of ^ inches at or very soon after the time 

 the adult fishes had shed their ova. There was also this ob- 

 vious and invariable distinction between young Shads and 

 Whitebait: the latter never exhibited any trace of the spots 

 on the sides, so conspicuous in the Shads. The Shads, on the 

 contrary, were never without some indication of these peculiar 

 spots, though their number and intensity of colour appeared 

 to depend on the strength and condition of the fish. The 

 first spot immediately behind the operculum however is never 

 wanting ; some of the young Shads taken in July and August 

 exhibited as many as five spots, but the youngest as well as the 

 weakest invariably possess one spot behind the upper part of 

 the edge of the operculum ; even the young Shads of 2| inches 

 only, taken in November, the smallest I have been able to 

 procure, have this distinction, and in this state most resemble 

 Whitebait; but I may add in conclusion, as an invariable 

 point of distinction between the two fishes, that I have never 

 seen a Whitebait of any age or size with this spot, or a Shad 

 without it. 



On showing a series of specimens of these two fishes to 

 M. Valenciennes during his late visit to London, that gentle- 

 man, who has made this branch of Natural History his parti- 

 cular study, stated that he considered them decidedly dif- 

 ferent. 



In proposing the term alba as a specific distinction for the 

 Whitebait, in a former paper, I by no means intended to be 

 understood as supposing that this fish had remained as yet 

 undescribed by continental naturalists, I only desired to claim 

 for this distinct species an appropriate appellation in our list of 



British 



