48 



Appendices to Second Annual Report 



Amongst invertebrates, again, the ova of Squids, Natica, whelk, nudi- 

 branchs, mussel, starfishes (Asterias rubens), lobster, and shore-crab were 

 observed in process of development. 



APPENDIX F. — No. III. 



RE POET on the Sprat Fishing during the Winter of 1883-84. By 

 J. Duncan Matthews, F.R.S.E., Demonstrator of Zoology in the 

 University of Edinburgh. With Plate III. 



Having been desired by the Scientific Investigation Committee of the 

 Fishery Board for Scotland to undertake the examination of samples of 

 fish brought ashore by the sprat fishers during the past winter, for the 

 purpose of ascertaining to what extent young herring were intermixed 

 with them, I utilised the opportunity thus afforded to make a compara- 

 tive examination of those points in the anatomy of the sprat and young 

 herring which serve to distinguish them from each other. 



Before stating the result of my examination as to the intermixture of 

 fish in the samples which I received, I propose to describe shortly the 

 general appearance of the sprat (Clupea sprattus), and the characters 

 which mark it off as a distinct species from the herring {Clupea harengus). 



Although the question of whether the sprat is in itself a separate 

 species of the Clupeidse, or is only the young condition of the winter or 

 autumn herring, or of both, is one which has been largely discussed ; yet, 

 notwithstanding the numerous answers in the affirmative which have 

 been given by various observers, it is one with respect to which the 

 opposite opinion is still largely held among fishermen and others. 



The principal — generally external — characters which are peculiar to 

 the sprat have been noticed and described by Artedi, Linnaeus, Pennant, 

 Cuvier and Valenciennes, and many others since, but certain discrepancies 

 exist between some of these descriptions, probably to be accounted for by 

 the small number of specimens examined ; for although the sprat differs 

 widely from the young herring, yet in some respects there occurs a con- 

 siderable variation among themselves, which the examination of only a 

 few specimens would be unlikely to disclose. 



I have attempted to avoid discrepancies by the large number which I 

 have examined, and, as a result, I have been able to verify in many 

 respects previous observations, and also to add still further to the list of 

 characters which not only distinguish the sprat from the young herring, 

 but clearly prove that it forms in itself a distinct species. In all points 

 of difference between the sprat and herring, I have verified the per- 

 sistence of the specific characters in each by the examination of sixty 

 sprats,* comparing them with an equal number of young herring, as nearly 

 as possible of similar lengths. Besides this, I have separately examined 

 and made a comparison of the variations existing among the sprats 

 and herring themselves in 150 examples of each, and many of the 

 external characters were observed in some thousands of sprats and young 

 herring which passed through my hands for the purpose of noting the 

 percentage present of each species. Finally, I compared what I had de- 

 termined to be young herring with adult examples of both the autumn 



* Taken from the Firth of Forth, but a few specimens received from Wick, 

 Lybster, Stonehaven, and Girvan, as well as those from the Beauly Firth and Firth 

 of Tay, were all found to be identical in every respect with them. 



