54 Ichthyology of the Firth of Forth. 
slender, and few in number ; they are situated on the most ante- 
rior parts, and are more obvious on the lower than on the upper 
jaw; the tongue as well as the roof of the mouth is also armed with 
fine teeth, their points being slightly bent inwards. The under jaw 
is the longest. The belly is strongly serrated as far as the anal 
aperture. The convexity of the dorsal and abdominal lines is much 
greater than is observed either in the white-bait or the herring. 
The fin rays in number are. 
D. 17; C. 19; P. 15 ; V. 7; A. 18; Vert. 48; Coecal append, about 12. 
The dorsal fin commences exactly half way between the point of 
the lower jaw and the end of the middle caudal rays. * 
The ventral fins arise anterior to a vertical line dropped from the 
origin of the first dorsal ray, and have distinct axillary scales, nearly 
half as long as the fin, which are always present in a recent and per- 
fect sprat, t 
The scales are large, about the size of the orbit, round, and very 
deciduous. They are placed in seven rows between the dorsal and 
ventral fins. 
The sprat differs from the herring, white-bait, pilchard, and shad 
in two most striking characters ; in having only 48 vertebrae, and 
in having the origin of the ventral fins placed before a vertical line 
dropped from the commencement of the first dorsal ray. 
Clupea harengus. (The Herring.) Tab. I. Fig. 3. Dorsal fin half 
way between thepointof theupper jaw and end of the long caudal rays. 
Herrings enter the Firth of Forth about the end of December, 
or the beginning of January, and remain two or three weeks at the 
mouth of the estuary before they attempt to ascend. This delay 
seems greatly to depend on the state of the weather, for in some 
seasons when it is mild and fine, the herring has been observed to 
swarm in the Firth off Musselburgh in the early part of January ; 
whilst in the rough and stormy seasons they do not make their ap- 
pearance in that part of the river before the middle of February, 
and always disappear before the end of March. They seem to visit 
the Firth regularly every winter, and a season very seldom passes 
without a few being captured and sent to the Edinburgh market. 
Some years they appear in much larger shoals than in others, the 
reason of which is not accounted for. In the year 1816, pilchards 
* In Yarrell's British Ichthyology, vol. ii. p. 124, the dorsal fin is said to 
commence exactly half way between the point of the lower jaw and end of the 
caudal rays. 
f In Yarrell's British Ichthyology, vol. ii. p. 124, it is there stated that the ven- 
tral fins arise in a vertical line under the first dorsal ray, and have no axillary scales. 
