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 Eeport 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 alha, 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 
