Report of the Committee on Marine Zoology. 243 



repeated. Dr Parnell has very concisely and most accu- 

 rately stated them, as noticed in the last Beport of the Com- 

 mittee ; but it may be useful to mention the prominent and 

 easily noticed markings which separate the two species, so 

 that any one upon looking over the surface of a mass of fish 

 so abundantly brought to market, may distinguish without 

 difficulty the one from the other. The head of the herring, 

 from the point of the lower jaw to the farthest part of the 

 gill plates, is about a fourth part longer than the head of 

 the sprat ; the eye is one-third larger ; the lower jaw pro- 

 jects more beyond the upper jaw ; the tail of the herring is 

 dark ; that of the sprat light-coloured, much broader, shorter, 

 and less forked than that of the herring ; and the body of the 

 fish at the insertion of the tail is also much broader ; the 

 abdominal line is strongly serrated and sharp all along ; the 

 same line in the herring is rounder and quite soft (except- 

 ing in small specimens, but there is never any serration 

 under the pectoral fins) ; the sprat is more plump and com- 

 pact, and resembles in shape a miniature salmon, and the 

 scales are larger, and their insertion much farther apart 

 than in the herring. Upon the vexed subject of herring 

 spawn it may be stated, that during several years while the 

 herring have been upon the coast in abundance, the Com- 

 mittee, from the beginning of August to the middle of 

 October, have dredged and trawled in Aberlady Bay and off 

 North Berwick down to Tyningham Sands, without bringing 

 up a trace of herring spawn ; and they are quite satisfied 

 that none is deposited upon proper trawling or dredging 

 ground. Among the millions of fry which have come under 

 the observation of the Committee during the present month 

 not a single specimen of whitebait, Glupea alba, has been 

 detected, and, what is somewhat remarkable, although white- 

 bait was found in abundance at Seafield in the autumn of 

 1859, as the Committee then reported, without any admix- 

 ture of sprats ; during last season, at the same period, only 

 sprats were found without any whitebait. 



A vote of thanks to the Committee on Marine Zoology, 

 and to Mr George Logan, Convener, was moved by the Pre- 

 sident, and was unanimously agreed to. 



VOL. II. 2 I 



