CLUPEID^E. 23 L 



3. Clupea sprattus, Plate CXXXIX, fig. 2. 



Sprattus, Willugh. Hist. Pise. p. 221. Spratti, Ray, Piscium, p. 105. Clupea 

 quadriuncialis, Artedi, Synon. p. 17, Gen. p. 7, Spec. p. 33. Sprat, Pennant, 

 Brit. Zool. (Ed. 1776) iii, p. 346 (Ed. 1812) iii, p. 457. Sordino,, Rutty, Nat. 

 Hist. Co. Dublin, i, p. 362. De Sprat, Duhamel, Peches, pt. ii, sect, iii, p. 471, 

 pi. xvi, f. 2. 



Clupea sprattus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 523 ; Block, Fische Deuts. i, p. 206, t. 

 xxix, f. 2 ; Gmel. Linn. p. 1403 ; Bonn. Enc. Ich. p. 185, t. lxxv, f. 311 ; Bl. Schn. 

 p. 423 ; Lacep. v, p. 444 ; Turton, Brit. Fauna, p. 107 ; Nilss. Prod. p. 22 and 

 iSkan. Fauna, Fisk. p. 516; Risso, Ich. Nice, p. 352; Faber, Fisc. Isl. p. 178; 

 Jenyns, Brit. Vert. p. 435 ; Yarrell, Brit. Fish. (ed. 1) ii, p. 121, c. fig. (ed. 2) 

 ii, p. 197 (ed. 3) i, p. 115 ; Tenipleton, Mag. N. H. 1837 (2) i, p. 411 ; Parnell, 

 Wern. Mem. vii, p. 322, t. xxxv, or Fish. Firth of Forth, p. 162, t. xxxv ; Bonap. 

 Pesc. Eur. p. 34 ; Gaimard, Toy. Scand. Poiss. pi. xviii, f. 2 ; Kroyer, Damn. 

 Fisk. iii, p. 177, c. fig.; White, Catal. p. 84; Thompson, Nat. Hist. Ireland, iv, 

 p. 176 ; Schlegel, Dieren Ned. p. 146, pi. xiv, f. 2 ; Malmgren, Wieg. Arch. 1864, 

 p. 341 ; Giinther, Catal. vii, p. 419, and Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 672 ; Winther, 

 Prod. Ich. Dan. Mar. p. 49 ; Malm, Fauna, p. 582. 



Clupea viacrocepliala, Swainson, Fish, ii, p. 387 ; White, 1. c. p. 84 ; Higgins, 

 Zool. 1861, p. 7317 ; Couch, iv, p. 124. 



Clupea Schoneveldvi, Kroyer, 1. c. v, p. 193, c. fig. ; Gaimard, 1. c. pi. xviii. 



Harengula sprattus, Cuv. and Yal. xx, p. 285. 



Spratella pumila, Cuv. and Val. xx, p. 357, pi. 600 (marked Meletta vtdgaris). 



Meletta vulgaris, Cuv. and Val. xx, p. 366 (not pi. 603) ; Moreau, Poiss. de 

 la France, iii, p. 447. 



Sprat, Couch, Fish. Brit. Isles, iv, p. 109, pi. cciii. 



B. vi-vii, D. 16-18 (tVtV), P- 16-17, V. 7, A. 17-20 ( t VtV)> C. 19, L. 1, 47, 

 L. tr. 13, Ccec. pyl. 7, Vert. 47-48. 



Length of head 4| to 5^, of caudal fin 6, height of body 4^- to 5j in the 

 total length. Eyes — with narrow anterior and posterior adipose lids, diameter 'S\ 

 in the length of the head, 1 diameter from the end of the snout, and |- of a 

 diameter apart. Lower jaw prominent. Opercular pieces smooth ; subopercle 

 almost triangular, its posterior and inferior borders being continuous. Lower jaw 

 rather prominent. The posterior extremity of the maxilla reaches to beneath the 

 first third of the orbit. Teeth — absent from the jaws, tongue, and palate (an 

 elongated oval patch of very minute teeth on the tongue has been recorded ; also 

 rugosities or small teeth on the maxillaries and palatines) ; in an example 4| inches 

 in length none are visible under a |-inch power of the microscope. Gill-ralcers 

 — closely set, rather shorter than the eye. Fins — The dorsal* commences above 

 the ventral and about midway between the hind edge of the eye and the base of 

 the caudal fin, being rather longer at its base than it is high anteriorly. Ventral s 

 inserted in a vertical line below the anterior dorsal rays, the fin reaches about 

 half-way to the vent. Pectoral shorter than the head. Caudal forked. Scales — 

 deciduous, smooth; the keeled row along the ventral surface well developed, 

 making the edge like a saw, 21 to 23 being bef ore the base of the ventral fin and 1 1 

 or 12 behind it. Intestines — 7 rather long ccecal appendages ; Parnell found 12. 

 Colours — bluish along the back, becoming silvery on the sides and beneath, in the 

 young a yellow or bronze band divides the blue of the back from the silvery 

 abdomen, this baud being frequently more intensely golden during the breeding 

 season. 



I r arieties. — Moreau divides C. phalerita, Risso, from this species, as he considers 

 the subopercle in the first is twice as long as high and in the sprat three times. 



* Neill (Mem. \V~eru. Soc. p. 545) observed that if a straight line be dropped from the forepart 

 of the dorsal fin it will in the herring fall a little in front of the ventral fins, but in the sprat it will 

 lull just behind them. 



