Abstract
IT was long since proved that the pilchard of the southwest coasts of England and the south coast of Ireland is the same species of fish as the sardine of the Atlantic coasts of France and Portugal, and of the Mediterranean. But there are apparent differences in the sizes and habits of these fish in different regions, of which the explanation has only recently been sought. The life-history of the species has been studied during the past few years with great care by several naturalists at various points of the coasts along which its habitat extends; and as a result of these researches, the extent to which its local peculiarities are real or only apparent is gradually being ascertained. Thus Marion at Marseilles has established the facts that the Mediterranean sardine in that neighbourhood spawns chiefly in February and March, but that the spawning period extends from December to May, that the adult fish does not exceed 18 cm. in length, and that the smallest sexually mature individuals are 15 cm. long. The majority of the pilchards caught by drift-nets on the south coasts of Devon and Cornwall are from 20 to 25 cm. in length, while those which I have seen in the ripe condition were 23 to 25 cm. Thus it is clear that the Mediterranean sardine, at any rate in the Gulf of Lions, is in its adult state a much smaller fish than the Cornish pilchard, although no structural differences have yet been described which would separate the two as local races or varieties.
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CUNNINGHAM, J. The Growth of the Pilchard or Sardine.. Nature 45, 255–256 (1892). https://doi.org/10.1038/045255a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/045255a0