TU'AITE SHAD. 



C. alosa ; and the larger Shad without teeth, and with a 

 single spot only behind each gill-cover, or none at all, C. 

 Jinta. 



The Alosa of Rondeletius is not described or figured as 

 possessing either teeth or spots ; and Cuvier, by his usual 

 research, had probably satisfied himself that the fish to which 

 the term alosa had been originally applied was a toothless 

 Shad, and that the toothed and spotted Shad was the true 

 Jinta. Pennant, in noticing the second British species of 

 Shad taken in the Thames and the Severn, which is without 

 teeth or the row of lateral spots, called it an Allis ; a name 

 which it would be desirable still to retain, in reference to the 

 generic term Alosa. The old name for the Shads was Lachia ; 

 and hence are derived Hallachia, Alachia^ Alosa^ Alose, 

 and Allis or Allice. 



The differences noticed by Pennant and others in the 

 smaller species of Shad, taken also in the Severn, near 

 Gloucester, called the Twaite, induces the belief that it is 

 our common Thames Shad ; and the note by the editor 

 of the last edition of the British Zoology, at the foot of 

 page 463, (vol. iii.) is particularly deserving of notice. " I 

 suspect," says the note, " that the Shad and Twaite are 

 distinct species, and correspond with the Alose and Feinte of 

 Duhamel." This appears to be precisely the case, as a com- 

 parison of our two Shads with the representations in Du- 

 hamel's work will prove : and Professor Nilsson, in his Pro- 

 dromus of the Fishes of Scandinavia, which has been fre- 

 quently referred to, has correctly designated and described our 

 more common Shad of the Thames as ihe Jinta* of Cuvier. 



I venture to propose the names of Twaite Shad and 

 Allice Shad for our two species, the better in future to dis- 



* Page 22. C. Jinta Cuv. C. maxilla superiore antice profunde incisa ; 

 inferiore vix longiore ; maculls 5 6 lateralibus in serie positis ; deutibus 

 utriusque maxilla: distinctis. Longit. circa 15 poll. 



VOL. II. P 



