NO. 1499. THE HERRINGS OF JAPAN— JORDAN AND HER RE. 637 



Family VII. ENGRAULID^. 



Body elongate, more or less compre.>«sed, covered with thin cycloid 

 scales. Head compressed. Mouth extremely large, more or less 

 oblique, usually overlapped by a pointed, compressed, pig-like snout. 

 Gape very wide, the maxillary very long and slender, formed of about 

 three pieces, extending backward far behind the eye; in some species 

 beyond the head. Premaxillaries not protractile, very small, firmly 

 joined to the maxillaries. Teeth usuall}^ small, in a single row in 

 each jaw; canines sometimes present. Eye large, well forward. Pre- 

 orbital narrow. Opercles thin and membranceous. Gill-rakers long 

 and slender. Branchiostegals slender, 7 to 14 in number. Gill mem- 

 branes separate or joined, free from isthmus. Fseudobranchia? pres- 

 ent. No lateral line. Belly rounded or weakly serrate. Fins 

 various; the dorsal usually short and median; no adipose fin; caudal 

 forked. Small, carnivorous fishes, usually swimming in large schools 

 on sandy shores; abundant in all warm seas, occasionally entering 

 rivers. 



KEY TO GENERA. 



a. Body moderately elongate, the anal fin not confluent with the caudal; no filaments 

 on the pectoral fin; in.sertion of dorsal in advance of that of anal. 

 b. Teeth equally small; gill membranes sejjarate. 



c. Vertebrje about 41 ; bones firm ; tropical species Anchoma, 13 



cc. Vertebrae about 45; bones feeble; species of the temperate zone. Engraulis, 14 



aa. Body greatly elongate, the tail much produced; anal fin very long, confluent 



with the caudal Co'dia, 15 



13. ANCHOVIA Jordan and Evermann. 



Stoh'pJionis Bleeker, Ned. Tyds. Dierk., Ill, p. .303 {"jnjKniicu.'^," not of 



Houttuyu). 

 Anchovia Jordan and Evermann, Fish. North and Mid. Amer., I, 1898, ji. 449 



{macrolepklota) . 



This genus, as now understood b}" us, includes the great multitude 

 of tropical anchovies, characterized by the firm skeleton and by the 

 presence of 40 or 41 vertebra?. Most of the species are compressed, 

 translucent, and with long anal fin, and a silvery band along the sides, 

 which has caused them to be confounded with the true jStole_phoru.s. 

 Besides the following species, assigned to Japan bj^ Bleeker, another 

 species, Anchovia chinensls Giinther, has been wrongly assigned to 

 Japan, on the supposition that it was the original of Houttu3^n's Athe- 

 rina japonica. It is recorded by Giinther'* as EngrauUs japonica. 



{anchovia, anchovy, an old name of Enf/rau/it^ enchrasicohis of 

 Europe.) 



«Cat. Fish., VII, p. 390. 



