482 
POPULAS SCIENCE EEYIEW. 
this small size, the lateral range of dushj spots is 'perceptible through the beau- 
tiful silver scales, as in the larger fish. It exhibits, in a word, the most perfect 
but diminished view of the common shad, not a solitary character excepted. 
Nothing more indicative of self-conceit can well be imagined 
than the foregoing remarks of Donovan_, and, moreover, 
nothing could more fully demonstrate the entire force of the 
error into which he fell. The sentence in which he tells ns how, 
in the whitebait, the range of spots may be perceived through 
the silver scales, proves incontestably that the specimens 
upon whose examination he founded his opinion were not 
whitebait at all, but genuine shads ; for, as we shall see 
presently, the absence of the spots is one of the most pro- 
minent features which seem to mark out the whitebait as a 
distinct species. Turton, in his British Fauna,^^ Fleming, 
in his History of British Animals,"’^ and a host of other 
naturalists followed in Donovan^s track, and swore by him and 
his theory. But at last, in the year 1828, as we have already 
said, a new light was thrown upon this obscure subject, and 
the muddle which resulted from the in great measure fore- 
gone conclusions of Pennant, Turton, Shaw, Fleming, and 
Donovan was removed. To Mr. Yarrell the credit of clearing 
up the mystery is wholly due, and to him we owe all that is 
exact in our knowledge of the whitebait. 
The whitebait belongs, like the shad, herring, sardine, 
anchovy, and sprat, to the great family of abdominal-soft- 
finned fishes, known as Clupieid/s. It comes under the genus 
Clupea, of which the shad is 0, alosa ; but since it has now to 
be regarded as a separate species, it has received the specific 
appellation of alha; hence, when fully titled, it is styled 
Clupea alha. In Fraitbe it is called hlanquette, and is found in 
great abundance on the coasts of Picardy and Normandy, as 
well as in the Northern Ocean. Its anatomy has been rather 
fully detailed in the splendid treatise of MM. Cuvier and 
Valenciennes,* a work which will amply repay those who refer 
to it for the purposes of natural history investigation. The 
arrangement of the viscera in the whitebait resembles that of 
the herring ; but the differences observable in the form of the 
digestive organs give more force to the specific distinction 
between the two than even the external characters. The ali- 
mentary canal commences as an extremely wide oesophagus, 
which occupies all the upper and front portions of the abdo- 
minal cavity. It ends in a very narrow conical sac ; and from 
the right of this constriction may be observed a rising branch. 
* “ Histoire naturelle des Poissons.” 
