The Zoologist— August, 1868. 1323 



Valenciennes and others, but without success, as organs which only 

 exist in a rudimentary condition cannot be regarded as affording a 

 secure basis for the determination of species ; hence great confusion 

 has arisen, and numerous supposed species have been admitted into 

 the British Fauna. 



Thus the whitebait has been regarded as a distinct fish, and named 

 Clupea alba; whereas it is in reality the young fry of the herring. 



The facts on which Dr. Giinther bases this conclusion are as 

 follows : — The dorsal and ventral fins are situated as in the mature 

 herring; the lateral scales are the same in number; there is the same 

 arrangement of teeth on the vomer; the same number of vertebrae— 

 namely, fifty-six, a number not found in any. other clupeoid ; and, 

 finally, whatever may be the size of the whitebait, they are never 

 taken in roe, and an adult or mature fish has never been seen. 



These conclusions were generally acquiesced in by the Meeting. 

 Henceforth, unless these opinions of Dr. Giinther are proved to be 

 based on insufficient evidence, we must regard the whitebait as 

 herring fry. 



Such being the case, the question arises whether or not it is 

 desirable to continue their capture ; for it does not follow that because 

 they are young herrings, therefore it is a wilful waste of human food 

 to capture them in an immature condition. Of the immense number 

 of young produced by fish, it is obvious that only a minute fraction 

 can arrive at maturity. Nature is prodigal of life, and the balance 

 may possibly be so arranged that we are even increasing the number 

 of adult fish by lessening the teeming myriads of fry, and so leaving 

 more food and a larger scope for those that remain behind. — From 

 the 'Field' of June 13. 



The Whitebait and the Theories respecting it.— Since the time of 

 Penuant, who, in the latter years of the last century, described " the 

 lower order of epicures" as frequenting the long-shore taverns of 

 Greenwich and Blackwall to feast upon whitebait fried with fine flour, 

 there have been various theories propounded as to the true species of 

 this small clupeoid fish. Pennant himself, writing when the structure 

 of fish and the distinctions between their several families were not 

 well known, stated that "it was impossible to class this fish with 

 certainty;" and the editor of the edition published in 1812 described 

 it as belonging to the Cyprinus group, or as allied to the carp family. 



