414 CLUPEID.'E. 



may be said with regard to the teeth on the palate ; and innumerable 

 instances may be met with in which it is impossible to say whether 

 a certain bone has been provided with teeth or not. However, in 

 the few species provided with an ovate patch of vomerine teeth these 

 are constant. 



Such is the imcertainty of the character employed by Valen- 

 ciennes for the division of the Herrings ; and serious errors in the 

 distinction and arrangement of the species, committed by him and 

 those who followed him, were the natural consequence of such a 

 method. He twice describes the common Sprat, referring it to two 

 different genera ; the young of the Herring is made the type of a 

 distinct genus, to which Bleeker adds a second, East-Indian species, 

 which has less natural affinity to the European Herring than any 

 other of the species of Clupea ! Girard describes the CaUfornian 

 Pilchard twice, under two generic names, &c. Finally, one and the 

 same species is described by one author as toothless, whilst another 

 mentions teeth on one or more parts of the mouth. 



In the following arrangement of the species I have used the den- 

 tition only as far as it appeared to be a safe guide for the recogni- 

 tion of the species ; no mention whatever is made of the teeth in 

 the jaws, as they are the least reliable part of the dentition. 



Synopsis of the Species. 



I. A conspicuous ovate patch of minute teeth on the vomer (CItipm), 

 p. 415. 



II. Minute teeth on the palate, none on the vomer. 



A. Atlantic species. 



a. Root of the ventral opposite to the origin of the dorsal, p. 419. 



b. Root of the ventral opposite to the middle of the dorsal, p. 420. 



B. Species from the Indian Ocean and Archipelago. China. 



a. Root of the ventral opposite to the origin of the dorsal, p. 42.3. 



b. Root of the ventral opposite to the middle of the dorsal. 



aa. The height of the body is one-third or more of the total length 



(without caudal), p. 42-3. 

 66. The height of the body is less than one-third of the total length 



(without caudal), p. 425. 



c. Root of the ventral opposite to the posterior half of the dorsal, 



p. 4.30. 



(3. Australian species, p. 431. 



III. No teeth, or on the tongue only. 



1. The last dorsal ray prolonged into a filament (OpistJionenui), p. 432. 



2. The last dorsal ray not prolonged (Alosa). 

 A. Atlantic species, p. 433. 



R. Pacific species, p. 44.3. 



