WHITEBAIT. 
48o 
wliicliis of some capacity, and wliich, by occupying tbe inferior 
part of tlie abdominal chamber, renders the entire apparatus 
the more conspicuous. The pylorus is surrounded by nu- 
merous ceecal appendages, which are longer and larger upon 
the right side than upon the left. The intestine makes two 
folds, which approach each other in the left lateral portion of 
the abdomen; and in passing from the junction with the 
branch to which we have referred, it descends, and constitutes 
a simple straight rectum, which terminates in the anus. The 
liver is composed nearly altogether of a narrow lobe, situated 
upon the curved part of the oesophagus, and affords a good 
specimen of hepatic structure, the bile-cells being extremely 
well marked, even under a low microscopic power. The 
spleen, which is small, is seated upon the right side. 
So much, then, for the general visceral anatomy of the white- 
bait. Let us now see, following Mr. Yarrell, why it is that his 
fish is not to be considered the young of the shad. The points 
of difference are striking and numerous. The shad enters our 
rivers in the month of May for the purpose of depositing its 
spawn ; and, according to most authorities, it leaves for the 
sea in July. ISTow it is pretty nearly during this period that 
the whitebait fishery takes place ; from which it is clear that, 
if the supposed relationship between the two fish existed, the 
individuals captured ought to be full-grown shads, and should 
contain roe. Such, however, is not the case : the fish known 
as whitebait are too small to represent mature shads ; and, 
further, they never — during the season ’’ — present a trace of 
roe. From the continued observations of Mr. Yarrell, it 
appeared that, as a rule, the young shads do not make then* 
appearance till the autumn ; whereas, as we have already 
stated, the whitebait are caught in the spring — indeed, some- 
times as early as the end of March. This naturalist suc- 
ceeded, with some difficulty, in obtaining, towards the end of 
summer, complete and mature whitebait, and these he found 
to measure from four to five inches in length — a very great 
size when it is considered that those which are eaten during 
the season seldom exceed an inch and a half or two inches. 
Some of these specimens were found full of roe ; and, what 
was more characteristic, they preserved the silvery appearance 
of the young fish, and presented none of those dusky spots 
which are invariably found upon the shad. Thus, then, we 
perceive the very serious objections to Mr. Donovaff s hypo- 
thesis. Anatomical comparison of the two fish {G. alosa and 
C. alba) enhances the difficulty of believing these spebies are 
identical. 
As the object of this paper is to give the results of Mr, 
YarrelFs researches, proving that the whitebait is a distinct and 
VOL. IV. — NO. XVI. 2 K 
