Rocklinys and Herring Family. 71 



" Goss " or " Gossat " (Buckland). We have seen an odd one or 

 two of both sexes taken in the shrimper's net above the 

 Chapman Light, near W. Shoebury Buoy, again between 

 the Nore and tlie Jenkins, as also near the Oaze and 

 Spile. In tlic winter months, especially December and 

 January, they seem to congregate rather numerously in the 

 Hadleigh Ray, but apparently take more seawards as spring 

 advances. The smallest we have obtained in August was 2| 

 inches, and the largest in November and December 6 and 8| 

 inches long. They, however, grow to twice that length. At the 

 end of December we have found a female with full but not ripe 

 ovary, but others less advanced. As to food, shrimps and 

 Amphipods, small shore and pea crabs has been their diet. 

 Though their flesh is fair eating, they are never used as food. 



The Herring Family (Glnpcidce). Some of these (sprat and 

 herring) frequent our outer coast in immense shoals during the 

 latter part and beginning of the year from Dungeness to Dover- 

 court. But the herring and sprat are also, in more scattered 

 groups of different ages, more or less always within our estuaries 

 up to the brackish water. The shads, however, push right up 

 into the fresh water of the rivers annually for spawning pur- 

 poses. The above three furnish considerable revenue to our 

 fishermen, whereas pilchard and anchovy do not ; they being 

 scanty in numbers and irregular in their visits, which are chiefly 

 round South Kent. The clupeoids, unlike the cod and flatfish 

 families already described, present striking diversity in their 

 modes of spawning. For example, the herring has eggs which 

 are adhesive and sink in the water ( = demersal), becoming 

 fastened in clumps or in flat patches to stones, seaweed, or 

 hydroids, fig. 11 (i.e. " whiteweed " of Leighmen). The sprat, 

 pilchard and anchovy, on the contrary, have surface-floating 

 spawn (= pelagic). The shads again bear an intermediate 

 character, for their eggs, while quite separate, and not attached 

 to foreign bodies, still have a tendency to gravitate, and lie 

 towards the bottom. 



