20 SPECULATIONS AND CONSIDEEATIONS. 



last been much speculation, many very dissimilar ideas having 

 been propounded as to the period at which the " poor man's 

 fish" arrives at the reproductive st^e. As we know that 

 there are different races of herrings coming to maturity at 

 different times, there ought to be no difficulty on this point, 

 as the waters must constantly contain fish of all ages, and it 

 appears certain that the whitebait of May and June cannot 

 be older than the year; it seems pretty certain, also, that 

 the sprat-sized herrings which begin to come to market early 

 in November are a little over a year old; they were pro- 

 bably released from their tiny shells early in the August or 

 late in the July of the previous year. It is admitted by at 

 least one competent naturalist, that fry of the sprat may be 

 seen in multitudes in July and August, when they are of the 

 length of two inches. We know, also, that young herrings and 

 young sprats are captured indiscriminately in the Firth of Forth 

 in the same shoals, of the same size, and presumably of the 

 same age. In a shoal of young herrings the sizes of the fish are 

 exceedingly varied, ranging from three to six inches in length, 

 and of corresponding girth ; some serrated, some not ; some 

 weighing a quarter of an ounce, some nearly an ounce. Were 

 these fish all bom at once ? How about the serrations ? Again, 

 a jar of whitebait from the Thames, received by the writer for 

 examination, contained specimens of all sizes ; some little more 

 than an inch long, while some were two or three inches. How 

 old would these be ? and were some of them serrated and others 

 not? The bellies being all decayed, that point could not be 

 determined in any of the specimens received. February and 

 March are the great months for, the spring races of herring to 

 spawn ; so that the specimens of whitebait just alluded to (there 

 were other fishes besides the young of the herring and the sprat) 

 would be about three months old ; and by November they would 

 in aU probability be grown to the average size of sprats. Young 

 herrings of the Moray Firth, spawned in August, can sometimes 

 be seen inshore about November, looking exactly like whitebait. ' 



The blanqueite of Normandy and Brittany did not look when 

 examined — if it was it that was placed before us — to be any 

 other fish than our sprat in an early stage of its life. It 

 is curious that whitebait exhibit many of the characteristics 

 of the sprat, and particularly the strongly serrated abdomen. 

 That peculiar mark is held by some naturalists as good proof 

 that sprats never become herrings of any kind ; if so, the same 



