leach's herring. 117 



ABDOMINAL 



MALACOPTERYGIl. CLUPEIBM. 



LEACH'S HERRING. 



Clupea Leacfdi, Yarrei.l, Zoological Journal, vol. v. p. 277, pi. 12. 



The examination of considerable quantities of the various 

 sorts of fish caught at the mouth of the Thames during 

 winter by fishermen engaged in taking Sprats, has enabled 

 me to select what I believe to be a second species of British 

 Herring. 



The common Herring, when it visits our coast in autumn, 

 is taken heavy with roe, which it deposits towards the end of 

 October. It is certain that the fishing for them is aban- 

 'doned about that time, as no purchasers could be found for 

 the " shotten Herring ;" and it is also well known that the 

 Herrings, having cast their roe, retire from the shore to deep 

 water. Numbers of the young of the common Herring are 

 taken with the Sprats. These are called Yawlings by some 

 fishermen, — a term probably derived from yearling. But these 

 young Herrings differ materially from the Herring which I 

 believe to be new. The yearling fish have the elongated 

 form of the adult common Herring: if seven inches long, 



