Artaur.—On the New Zealand Sprat. 205 
market about eight years ago, so probably he means or refers to the same 
date as above, although he could not tell me very exactly the time of the 
occurrence. Neither can I find that this herring has been again seen on 
our coasts till May of this year, when it appeared in large numbers for a 
short time, as I have said, at Oamaru, close inshore, about a fortnight 
altogether; then bad weather set in, and it has not been heard of since. 
The shoals did not visit Moeraki Bay, nor Dunedin Harbour, but those 
fish caught were sent to Dunedin, and were found to possess good edible 
qualities. 
As to the habits, reproduction, and growth of this fish we know less 
than the little which is known of the British herring. Possibly, however, 
the sealers and whalers, still living, may possess information which would - 
be of great interest in elucidating its natural history. Meantime one cir- 
cumstance may fairly be inferred from the minuteness and buoyancy of 
the ova, which is, that in whatever depth of water spawning may take 
place, the hatching will occur on the surface of the sea in all probability. 
I have made a rough calculation from the size of the roe-lobes and find 
that one of these fish will contain over 20,000,000 ova! ‘This is an almost 
ineredible number, and would require verification by an examination of a 
number of other individuals when an opportunity again occurs. I may 
mention, however, that. Mr. Frank Buckland, in his Natural History of 
British Fishes, gives approximations to the above number in the roes of the 
turbot and conger eel, which are given at 14,000,000 and 15,000,000 
eggs respectively. The great number of ova in this sprat is suggestive 
of a very heavy death rate due to this species of herring being pro- 
bably the food of the seal, whale, and predatory fishes, as well as of 
marine birds. 
The fact of these fish visiting our coasts at considerable intervals 
of time, points to another circumstance which may regulate their 
movements. Dr. Parnell in his ‘Fishes of the Forth,” describes 
the British form of the sprat as being very sensitive to cold, and 
that on the approach of winter it ascends the estuary of the Forth 
to the brackish water in search of a warmer locality. An old theory was 
also held by Pennant that the herring migrated to the arctic seas before 
winter. While there is much evidence of the presence of herring on the 
British coasts during winter, there is nothing against the probability of 
some of the species absenting themselves in the direction indicated at that 
time of the year. Be that as it may, if our sprat is as sensitive as its 
British representative, a reason would exist for its migration from more 
northern waters to the antarctic seas after our summer is past. For a 
warm current is believed to flow from the tropical region of the Pacific 
