138 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 



all over the British coast, but more particularly 

 on the coasts of Kent and Essex, where they 

 were taken in immense quantity, so that they 

 were sold at sixpence a bushel as manure for 

 the land." 



The sprat, according to Dr. Parnell, breeds 

 early in March ; * it feeds on small crustaceous 

 animals. In Scotland it is called the garvie, 

 or garvie-herring. 



A silvery little fish, well-known as the white- 

 bait, (Clupea alba, Yarrell,) is a visitor to the 

 Thames, remaining in the brackish water from 

 the beginning of April to the end of September. 

 Donovan and others regarded the whitebait as 

 the young of the shad an error now rectified. 

 Is is not only in the Thames that whitebait 

 is taken ; it is found in the Hamble, which 

 flows into the Southampton water, and accord- 

 ing to Dr. Parnell, it inhabits the Frith of 

 Forth in considerable numbers during the 

 summer months, especially in the neighbour- 

 hood of Queensferry. 



In the Thames, the whitebait advances with 

 the flow of the tide as high as Woolwich or Black- 

 wall, returning with the ebb to the wider por- 

 tions of the river, where the water is permanently 



* Mr. Yarrell has seen the sprat taken in June, then in 

 roe. 



