126 CLUPEID.K. 



ABDOMINAL 



MALACOPTERYGII. CLUPEWJE. 



THE WHITEBAIT. 



Clupea alba, Yarrell, Zool. Journ. vol. iv. p. 137 and 465, pi. 10. 



,, ,, Whitebait, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol.iii. p. 465, pi. 80. 

 Clupea alosa, Young Shad, Don. Brit. Fish. pi. 98. 



In the papers on the subject of the Whitebait published 

 in the fourth volume of the Zoological Journal, I endea- 

 voured to prove, historically and anatomically, that this 

 little fish was not, as had been supposed, the young of the 

 Shad, but a distinct species. In its habits it differs mate- 

 rially from all the other British species of Clupea that visit 

 our shores or our rivers. From the beginning of April to 

 the end of September this fish may be caught in the Thames 

 as high up as Woolwich or Blackwall, every flood-tide, in 

 considerable quantity, by a particular mode of fishing to be 

 hereafter described. During the first three months of this 

 period, neither species of the genus Clupea, of any age or 

 size, except occasionally a young Sprat, can be found and 

 taken in the same situation by the same means. The young 

 Shad of the year are not two inches and a half long till 



