THE HERRING FAMILY 209 



fishing has the landowner's leave. I should say that they 

 would not come under the Act, as it can be proved that 

 they are not fresh-water fish, and are in the fresh water only 

 three weeks ; but it would raise a very pretty argument on the 

 wording of the Act, which is wide enough to cover them if the 

 words are read one way." 



Mr. Willis Bund's remarks on the relative distances to 

 which the two species ascend the Severn are of great interest, 

 because they conflict with the observations of Ehrenbaum on 

 the shad of the Elbe. In that river it is the allis which spawns 

 as far up as Dresden, while the twaite remains below Hamburg. 



The twaite enters every river on the Atlantic seaboard of 

 Morocco, being called "shaval" by the Moors. The Bouregreg, 

 at Rabat, and the Um Erbeya, at Azimur, are both visited by 

 this shad each spring, and in the latter river the writer has 

 bought these fish from the netsmen at the Spanish equivalent 

 of a penny the pound. 



The allis is the larger species, growing to a length of 4 ft., 

 while the twaite is not known to exceed 16 in. Except that 

 the latter has a row of indistinct spots along the sides and much 

 fewer and thicker- gill-rakers {i.e. about twenty or thirty in the 

 twaite ; sixty or eighty in the allis), the two bear a close 

 resemblance. Like the pilchard, they have radiating lines on 

 the gill-cover ; their scales are small ; and the edge of the belly 

 is serrated. The teeth in the jaws are very small, and there 

 are none on the tongue or vomer. They further resemble the 

 pilchard in having the commencement of the dorsal fin nearer 

 to the tip of the snout than to the base of the tail. 



Shad feed on sprats and other small fishes, and are 

 occasionally caught by amateurs in the Downs, near Deal. 

 Otherwise they are netted, for the most part, in rivers, though 

 a number are sometimes taken in the Plymouth mackerel 

 seines. 



One of the greatest feats achieved by State fish-culture in 

 America is the transport of the shad from the Atlantic to the 



14 



