whitebait (hwitbat)

1. A small clupeoid fish, prized as a delicacy in England. Whitebait are best when from 2 or or 3 inches long, but retain the name up to a size of 4 or 5 inches. They abound in the estuary of the Thames and in other similar British localities at certain seasons. The fishing begins in April, and lasts through the summer; the fishes are taken in bag-nets. They are chiefly of a silvery-white color inclining to a pale-greenish on the back. Some places in England, as especially Green wich, are famous for their whitebait dinners. The fish are usually fried till they are crisp. The identity of whitebait has been much discu ed and disputed. They have been supposed to be a distinct species, named Clupea alba, and even placed in a genus framed for their reception as Rogenia alba. They have been more generally recognized as the fry of certain clupeoids, as the sprat ( Clupea sprattus ), the herring (C. harengus), and the shad (of one or another of the British species). But careful examinations of great quantities of whitebait, made in different localities at different times, have shown these opinions to be more or le erroneous. Whitebait consists in fact of the fry of several different clupeoid fishes, mainly the sprat and the herring, with occasionally a small percentage of yet other fishes; and the relative quantity of the different species represented varies, moreover, according to season and locality. Our wives (without whose sanction no good man would surely ever look a whitebait in the face) gave us permi ion to attend this entertainment. Thackeray , Philip, xl. 2. A Chinese salmonoid fish, Salanx sinensis . See Salanx . 6910 yellow below, and marked along the sides with several blackish lines. for buttons, which are made by first casting and then carefully pre ing so as to bring out the ornamental pattern on the surface. white-beaked (hwit'bēkt), a. Having a white beak. (a) White-billed, as a bird. (6) Having the snout white-breasted (hwit'brested), a . 1. Having or rostrum white, as a skunk-porpoise of the genus La genorhynchus (which see). whitebeam, whitebeam-tree (hwit'bēm, -trē), A small Old World tree, Pyrus Aria, hav n. ing the under side of its foliage, as well as the young twigs and inflorescence, clothed with silvery down. See beam - tree. white-beard (hwīt bērd), n. [ shall be quyt by Blackberd or Whyteberd. And yff they wolle not dredde, ne obey that, then they Paston Letters, I. 131. White- beards have arm'd their thin and hairle scalps Against thy majesty. Shak., Rich. II., iii. 2. 112. a white breast or bosom. White-breasted like a star Fronting the dawn he moved. Tennyson, Enone. 2. Having the breast more or le white: specifying numerous animals. See cut under squirrel-hawk. white-brindled (hwit'brindled), a. Brindled with white: specifying a British moth, Botys olivalis.