J 78 MALACOP. ABDOM. HERRING FAMrLY. 



found by Pennant, near his own residence in Flint- 

 shire. The Bristol Channel, coast of Glamorgan- 

 shire, Norfolk, and Durham, may be mentioned as 

 localities where it has occurred. Mr. Yarrell states 

 that a specimen was caught m the Thames, in 1838, 

 but the fish was so little known there, that it was 

 brought to him with a reque&t to know what fish it 

 was. 



Besides the British species of the Herring family 

 above enumerated, Mr. Swainson describes another 

 under the name of Clupea macrocephala^ or Great- 

 headed Sprat, which was taken by him in some 

 abundance, in the river Mersey, in the spring of 

 181 7. He says that the perfectly central position 

 of the ventral fin, and the number of vertebrae, 

 which are fifty-five instead of forty-eight, together 

 with the large size of the head, &c. separate it from 

 C. sprattus ; the more backward position of the 

 dorsal distinguishes it both from the Whitebait and 

 Twaite-shad of Yarrell, although both have nearly 

 the same number of vertebrae : from the other Bri- 

 tish Clupeidae its differences he considers as too ob- 

 vious to be mentioned.* 



We are not aware that this supposed species has 

 been noticed since, or is in any way alluded to by 

 Ichthyologists. Some further acquaintance with it 

 is therefore desirable, before a place can be with 

 safety assigned to it among the well authenticated 

 species. 

 * See Nat. Hist, of Fishes in Lardner's Cab. Cyc. vol. ii, p. 387. 



