Volume 39, Plate III / Ichthyology (Fish)

Herring & Sprat, or Garvie Herring

Clupea harengus & C. sprattus

1. The Herring. Familiar as food yet imperfectly understood, the Herring was once thought to migrate from the Arctic, though many now hold it inhabits deep water off our coasts year round, approaching shore to spawn about late October. Swimming in vast shoals, it feeds on minute entomostraca and, near shore, on fry and spawn, and is taken at night with drift-nets, most readily on dark, breezy waters.
2. The Sprat, or Garvie Herring. Often confounded with young Herring and Pilchard, the Sprat is known by its sharply serrated belly, its dorsal fin set near the tail, and its ordinary length of five to six inches. Variable in its haunts, it abounds off Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Kent, spawns in March, feeds as the Herring does, and forms a cheap, wholesome food, sometimes salted, dried, or even used for manure.