98 



Appendices to Fottrth Annual Report 



analysis. I feel safer in declaring that there is not a ' racial ' distinctioti 

 between the herrings frequenting the different localities on our coasts. Dr 

 Heincke divides the Baltic herring into two varieties, and each of these 

 into spring and autumn varieties. While then we have some justification 

 in supposing the latter to be the condition of our herrings, we have no 

 evidence whatever in favour of the former being applicable to them. 



im ad 



APPENDIX F.— N*o. V. .. .. . luo \o 



■Ti;o7.G'i .ai noii 



ON THE NATUEE OF THAMES AND FORTH WHITEBAITf. 



By J. C EwART, M.D., and J. Duncan Matthews. n 



Within the last few years it has become more common to hear doubts 

 expressed as to whether the small fish sold (so extensively in some of our 

 markets, and known as 'Whitebait,' may be considered as forming a 

 distinct species of the genus Chipea. Yarrell (confirmed later by Couch) 

 called the whitebait Clupea alba; Valenciennes, forming a new genus, 

 named it Rogenia alba ; and Donavan supposed them to be the fry of the 

 shad. Pennant suggested that they were the fry of bleak, deciding that 

 they could not be sprats or shad, as these had ' eight branchiostegal rays, 

 whereas the whitebait had only three. If this statement of Pennant's 

 was correct, the whitebait examined by him cannot have been the same 

 as that of the present time, which certainly have the typical number of 

 branchiostegal rays found in the herring and sprat. It is probable, 

 however, that Pennant had counted only the three flattened and easily 

 seen external rays, overlooking the others, which in the very small fish 

 are extremely delicate and not readily made out. 



Among later writers the fact that they were merely the fry of one or 

 more species has been generally asserted. Glinther states that they are 

 the young of herrings, and he found this to be the case with Yarrell's 

 examples preserved in the British Museum. Saville Kent says that 

 whitebait 1 to 1 J inches long were reared in the Brighton and Manchester 

 Aquaria until they reached the size of young herrings, while Day, after 

 examination of several samples, decided that the London whitebait con- 

 sisted of the fry of both herrings and sprats ; the result of his examination 

 of a sample of 138 whitebait in May and June showing a percentage of 

 young herrings and sprats of 90 and 10 respectively, a sample of 46 in 

 August giving 21 herrings and 20 sprats, and an October sample con- 

 sisting of nothing but young herrings. More lately the whitebait has 

 been included under the old title of Clupea alba as a distinct species in 

 the ' Handbook to the Aquarium, South Kensington,' issued by authority 

 of the National Fish Culture Association. 



A further and more extensive examination of the whitebait seemed 

 therefore desirable to confirm or refute these conclusions, and especially 

 by the examination of samples, consisting of larger numbers than hitherto, 

 and procured during the whole of the principal fishing seasons, to settle 

 whether whitebait varies at diflerent seasons. The following are the 

 results of such an examination of the whitebait sold in the London and 

 Edinburgh markets in 1885 and 1886. 



Of the London whitebait the examination during the month of 

 February of samples amounting to 1400 specimens, showed that these 

 were composed of 93 per cent, of young sprats and 7 per cent, of young 



