232 PHYSOSTOMI. 



Fleming, following Willugtby and Ray, observed that the fry of the herring and 

 pilchard are confounded together under the epithet sprat, consequently he ignored 

 this species, although Pennant had previously contested this view. The sprat and 

 the sardine were considered synonymous by Lacepede and others. 



Names. — Onrvie, garvock, or garvie-herring, Scotland. Sprat, besides being the 

 name of this fish, is in places erroneously employed for the young of the herring. 

 At Teignmouth, in Devonshire, this fish is termed the London sprat, as the 

 sand-eel, Ammodyies, goes by the designation of "sprat." Britt along the 

 Devonshire coast, and which ascends the mouths of rivers, consists either of 

 young sprats or young herrings. Whitebait likewise may be wholly or partially 

 composed of small sprats. In Ireland the fishermen at Youghal distinguish 

 several varieties as true, soft, or hard-headed sprats. Coog Bennog, Welsh. De 

 Sprot, Dutch. L'Esprot, French. 



Habits. — Gregarious ; often in enormous shoals, while it is very common to 

 find young and old together, although the larger examples do not generally come 

 off our coasts until the autumn and winter months. They ascend rivers as high 

 as the tide flows. Britt, which consists of young- herrings or young sprats, ascend 

 rivers along the Devonshire coast, and are found as high in the Exe as Exeter, 

 unless a flood occurs, when they are unable to face the fresh water. 



Migrations. — Although during the very cold months herrings and pilchards 

 more or less retire to the deep, sprats, on the contrary, come towards the shore ; 

 but even when present the shoals are capricious in their raovements, as well as in 

 their extent. Tbiis, in 1832, it was observed in Taunton that after an absence of 

 nearly fifty years this fish visited the neighbouring coast in exhaustless shoals. 

 Nox-folk, Suflblk, Essex and Kent are noted for the large shoals which occasionally 

 show themselves, while they disappear more completely from the western side of 

 the kingdom during their season of absence than they do from the eastern. Even 

 the time of appearance varies considerably in different years at the same place. 

 During the summer and autumn months young or snaall in-shore sprats are rarely 

 absent from our coasts. In the Moray Firth, and elsewhere, shoals are frequently 

 discovered by seeing flocks of gulls and other sea-birds hovering above them. 



Means of capture. — These fish are mostly captured during the winter mouths, 

 whether in Scotland or in England. In 1880 this fishery commenced in the 

 Beauly Firth on October 12th, but on the south-west of Ireland it is earlier, and 

 in Donegal Bay continues from August until nearly the end of December. When 

 fished for in the sea they are generally taken from close in shore to about three 

 miles out. Sprats are mostly captured by means of a large bag-net, made with small 

 meshes, and termed a stow-net, the use of which was formerly forbidden between 

 November 10th and February 10th, but which is now the principal time it is 

 carried on ; while ground seines were legal between November 1st and April 1st. 

 The stow-net is placed in a tideway, its mouth towards the tide. In Scotland 

 the seine net is used for taking these fishes, while ofi" Ramsgate drift nets 

 are also employed for sprat fishing, dark and foggy nights especially being 

 suited for its capture. In Ireland the sprat fishing is carried on during the 

 autumn months, and Mr. Sinclair, writing from Donegal (Field, November 5th, 

 1881), observes that the sprat fishing is now over. One method adverted to by 

 Mr. Yescombe, in Land and Water (November 26th, 1881), is to choose the 

 vicinity of an old wooden pier, or some such structure, round the supports of 

 which small shoals of sprats frequent. Secure your boat to the end of one of 

 these piles on a fine day ; use a net attached to a thin iron frame about 3 yards in 

 circumference, and which is suspended by three cords fixed to it at about 3 feet 

 apart. About a foot above the ring of the net these cords are tied together and 

 attached to a single strong one. The net is lowered into the water to about 2 feet 

 below the surface, and some fine-boiled mealy potatoes thrown in, which attracts 

 the sprats above it. Then allow it to be quietly drawn up with the fish that are 

 swimming above it, and the shoal does not become alarmed. 



Said not to be taken by a bait, probably from the small size of its mouth. 



Breeding. — I have obtained sprats with developed roe from both tbe north 

 and south coasts of Cornwall, during the months of December and January, but 



