458 PROCEEDINGS OF TSE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.50. 



is nearer the base of the caudal than the snout; the scales are rounded 

 and not striated; the maxillary does not reach quite to the center of 

 the eye. The peritoneum is black. There are weak serratures along 

 the whole ventral edge from the head to the anus, 19 to 20 of them 

 before the ventrals, 12 or 13 behind. The gill rakers are 65 to 70 in 

 number on the lower limb of the first gill arch and equal in length 

 the diameter of the eye. 



This species has been recorded from Port GaUegos, near the eastern 

 entrance of the Straits of Magellan, by Smitt.^ 



The genus to which this species belongs is difficult to ascertain, and 

 it is placed provisionally only in Sardinella. 



ETHMIDIUM, ne^jv genus (Clupeidae). 



Clwpea notacantlioides Steindachner, from the west coast of South 

 America (Peru), was referred by Abbott^ to the genus Potamalosa 

 of Ogilby. In this, however, he was undoubtedly in error, as it is a 

 distinct genus, to which the name Etlimidium may be given, and which 

 has the foUowmg characters: A row of scutes with long lateral pro- 

 cesses along the ventral edge of the body; another row of scutes 

 along the dorsal edge of the body between the dorsal and the occiput, 

 without the long lateral processes of the ventral row; anal short, 

 composed of about 15 to 17 rays; gill rakers very long and very 

 numerous, as in Brevooriia; vertebrae 45 to 50; ventral fins inserted 

 behind the first dorsal ray, which is midway between the snout and 

 the base of the caudal; no teeth; branchiostegals 9 or 10; scales 

 more or less pectinate or fluted; maxillaries broad; a deep narrow 

 notch between the premaxillaries ; mandibular articulation behind the 

 vertical from the eye; cheeks deeper than long; peritoneum black. 



TyjJe of genus. — EtJimidium notacanthoides (Steindachner). 



This genus is perhaps closely alUed to Brevoortia, it resembling 

 that gonus in shape of body and of head, character of gill rakers, 

 articulation of mandible behind the eye, and the notch in the pre- 

 maxillaries. It diffei-s in the absence of the double dorsal row of 

 fringed scales so characteristic of Brevoortia, and in the presence of a 

 row of scutes in their place. Of the two species included in the new 

 genus, E. coerulea is without the marked pectination of the body 

 scales and has fewer gill rakers. It seems to be the nearest of the two 

 species to the herrings, while the fluted scales and very numerous 

 gill rakers of EtJimidium notacanthoides ally it unmistakably with 

 Brevoortia. The two species can not be genericafly separated, 

 however. , 



Of the recent genera, the "double-armored" herrings, Potamalosa 

 and Uyperloplius, differ very markedly from Brevoortia and Ethmi- 



• Bih. Svensk. Akad., vol. 23, 1897, p. — . 

 a Proc. PhUa. Acad. Sciences, 1899, p. 333. 



