1G 
ME. J. T. IIOTBLACK ON THE HERRING. 
admits that Cuvier includes the Shad, and that Linnaeus includes 
the Anchovy in the Clupea. 
Day, one of our later writers, makes the family Clupeidce 
include — 
The leachii of Couch is, no doubt, only one of the numerous 
racial varieties of the true Herring, and there will be little doubt 
that he (Couch) is wrong, both about the Sardine and the 
Whitebait, as it is now well established that the Sardine is the 
young of the Pilchard, and that Whitebait are sometimes Sprats, 
sometimes Herrings, and other times Herrings and Sprats mixed. 
I think it would have been better if Day, who is sound as to 
the above, had followed the earlier author in leaving the Shads 
and the Anchovy out of the Clupeidse, thus retaining only the 
Herring, Pilchard, and Sprat, about which both authors are 
equally agreed, and it is to these I propose to limit this paper. 
It would be impossible to say much about the Herring Avithout 
referring to the Pilchard and Sprat, so nearly allied are they. 
It has been often asserted that Sprats are only young Herring, 
but there are certain anatomical differences Avhich it seems 
impossible to get over, and I think it is now generally admitted 
that they are a quite distinct fish ; still it is a curious fact that 
I have never seen a Sprat with either milt or roe, nor have I ever 
found any one else avIio has, and I have met with but one author 
Avho says that he has, and he only says that in the North of 
Scotland, in December, they have been caught Avith the milt and 
roe “commencing” to form. Of course, if they are mature fish, 
they must reproduce their species, and I should like to knoAV 
where and Avhen. 
In Yarmouth, some years since, I met with an elderly Scotch 
gentleman avIio Avas one of the Scotch Fishery Commissioners, 
and avIio had recently been paying a visit to Frank JBuckland, then 
just appointed Inspector of Fisheries, or something of that sort, 
under Government ; after telling me a characteristic tale of the 
Enjraulis encrasicholus 
Clupea harengus 
Clupea pilchardus 
Clupea sprattus 
Clupea alosa 
Clupea Jinta 
the Anchovy 
the Herring 
the Pilchard 
the Sprat 
the Shad or Pock Herring 
the TAvait or TAvait’s Shad 
