WHITEBAIT, a small fish, called by Valenciennes rogenia alba, and for which he con stituted the genus rogenia as a distinct genus of the herring family (etupeida), but which is now generally regarded by naturalists as merely the fry of herring. The white bait fishery is actively prosecuted on some parts of the British coast, particularly in the estuary of the Thames, where the whitebait is very abundant in spring and summer, beginning to appear in the end of March or early in April. Adult whitebait are caught on the coasts of Kent and Essex during winter, and in this condition are about 6 in. in length. Whitebait is also found in the Forth. It is much in request as a delicacy for the table, forming a favorite dish of epicures. At the time when ordinarily captured. whitebait are only from an inch and a half to 4 in. in length. They are caught by means of bag nets sunk 4 or 5 ft. below the surface of the water. For several months they continue to ascend the river in shoals with the flood-tide, and descend with the ebb-tide, not being able to live in fresh water. They are fried with flour or crumbs; they are often laid on a napkin and sprinkled with fine flour and a little salt, rolled about till well covered with flour, and then thrown into a pot of boiling lard, where they remain till they are of a pale straw color. Londoners resort to Greenwich and l3lackwall to enjoy
whitebait dinners. It has become the practice for her majesty's ministers to repair to Greenwich for a whitebait dinner every year before the prorogation of parliament in autumn. Some of the corporations of London indulge in a similar annual festivity. The whitebait has the body more compressed than the mature herring; the belly is ser rated; the lower jaw is longer than the upper; the scales are very soft, small, and thin, and very easily rubbed off; the color is silvery white, greenish on the back. The food of the whitebait seems to consist of minute crustaceans. It seems probable that the fry of al! the British clupeidw—the pilchard, the sprat, and the shad—are indiscriminately taken and used like the fry of the herring, under the Dame of whitebait.