104 Pilchard and Anchovy. 



of England. Still a few stragglers are brought in with the 

 herrings at Yarmouth (Patterson, Zool., 1897). Yarrell obtained 

 one in the Thames in 1838, and according to Dale occasionally 

 they were brought to Harwich by the herring fishers. Our 

 Dungeness, along with the Rye, fishermen captured a biggish 

 lot in that neighbourhood in September, 1868. Boys recog- 

 nised its presence among the fishes of Sandwich fully a century 

 ago. The decrease of pilchards on the east coast is interesting, 

 as clearly showing this has not been produced by over fishing 

 or capture of the young. 



(6) The ANCHOVY (Engraulis encrasicholus), like the pre- 

 ceding, is a southern form, and only occasionally rounds Kent 

 or is taken on our eastern borders. Yarrell merely gives it as 

 a report of inhabiting the Dagenham Breach (?) and mentions 

 his having received one caught in the Thames (May, 1838). 

 Curiously enough, at the same date one pilchard was obtained 

 by him in the Thames. We, perhaps, are not justified in 

 attributing an error, or doubting such an authority on fish, but 

 at all events the coincidence is remarkable. Whatever may 

 have been the case as respects Dagenham Lake in years gone 

 by, we may at least refer to J. Hilliar, an experienced angler 

 on that piece of water, who (in Essex Nat. VI.) says that in 

 1892 he did not find them there. Day's habitat " Coasts of 

 Essex " is somewhat vague, though doubtless correct. Frank 

 Buckland has recorded in Field, July, 1864, an anchovy 4 

 inches long caught in the whitebait nets at Purfleet in June, 

 1864. Some years ago Carrington received a few anchovies 

 which had .been obtained by the Southend whitebaiters. On 

 21st November, 1900, H. Wilder, of Leigh, got a specimen in 

 his stow-net near the Knock Buoy. On examination we found 

 it to be a female, roe non-developed, and it had been feeding on 

 minute crustaceans. It measured 4| inches in extreme length. 

 In South Kent the anchovy appears sporadically, large numbers 

 having been captured in the drift-nets at Dover in November, 

 1889. ' 



