990 



SCANDINAVIAN KISHES. 



pregnated. Wlieii tlii' s]);nviiiiig is over, tlie Sliad's 

 powers are exhausted, and its value lost. Man}' |»erish, 

 others are cari-ied iialf'-dead b}' the current back to the 

 sea; and by the end of tiic summer all the full-grown 

 Shads liavc usiialh' (|iiittcd tlie rivers and streams. 



Each adult female lays, it is stated, 100,000— 

 200,000 eggs" 1'' or 2' mm. in diameter, Avhich sink 

 to the bottom, and are hatciied in a few days. In 

 October Yakkell obtained young Twaite Shads 2' ., in. 

 (63 mm.) long; and in the following spring lie found 

 young Twaite Shads 4 in. (1 dm.) long and young 

 Allice Shads (I in. ( 1 ' ,, dm.) in length''. Where the 

 Shad sjjends the intervals of its existence, and liow it 

 lives in the sea, until it attains a length of about 3 — 

 4 dm., and appears after 2 or 3 vears in fresh water 

 as an adult tisli, is unknown to us. 



As tlie Salmons occur in fresh-water forms that 

 ne\er reach tlie sea, so the Sliad is sometimes contined 



foi' its whole life in lakes and their feeders. To this 

 category belong, according to Fatiu. the so-called Aqun'i, 

 a kind of Twaite Shad, that inhabit the great lakes of 

 Loinbardy and South-eastern Switzerland. The lar^e 

 Twaite Shads, known as Cheppip, ascend tlie Po from 

 the Adriatic, and spawn during June and July in this 

 river and its tributaries, retui-ning in August to the 

 sea. Tlie A//oi/l, on tlie otiier liand, though they attain, 

 according to Die Betta, a length of 3 — 4 dm. and 

 according to Fatki, a weight of 1' „ lbs., jiass the 

 whole year in tiie lakes of Ticino and Lonibard\-, where 

 they spawn in May and June. 



In its liest condition, after lixing a dav or two 

 in fresh water, the Shad, especially the fat .Mlice Shad, 

 is said to be excellent eating, in spite of the numer- 

 ous bones, which are more troublesome even than in 

 the Herring. After the spawning the fle.sh is lean 

 and dry. 



Gems STOLEPHORUS. 



Month large, tlie length of the marUtariefi hetitfi inore than half that of the liead. Tip of tlie snout projecting 



more or less distincflg liegond the lower Jan:. Gill-openiiigs large, the branchiostegal memhranes being for the 



greater part of their extent free from each other and from the isthmus. Anal fin free from the caudal. 



Among tlie .\ncho\v forms tApical in other resiiects we 

 find species in which the hind extremities of the ma- 

 xillaries are \erv ol)li(|uelv truncate, with the lower 

 corner longer than the upper and even iiointed — as 

 for example in Stolephorus heterolobns from the Red 

 Sea and India — so that the generic character depended 

 merelv on a greater or less degree of prolongation. 

 To tlie genus Coilia, which in foi-m of body calls to 

 mind the .Macruroids, ^\'e find among the Anchovies 

 transition forms that Swainsox'' proposed to isolate in 

 a genus Setipimta'', characterized by the long anal fin, 

 which sometimes occupies more than half the length 



" In American Sliads weigliiiij; 4 — 5 lbs. McDoxalp found only 20,000 — 40,000 ova; but he adds tliat in oilier fenniles (he 

 number sometimes exceeds 100,1)011. 



' Beneckk. 



' Fatio. 



"* Cf., however, Ehrenbaum (S(.nderbeiliige zn den Mitllicilungen del' Sektion fiir Kiislen- und Hocliseetischerei, Jalirgaiig 1892. p. 12), 

 who is of opinion thai yonng Twaite Shads of the said size are a year older, and have already paid one visit to the sea. 



<■ Cuv., Vai,., Hist. Nat. Pois.'i., vol, XXI, p. 5. 



^ Ri'gne Anininl, ed. I, tome II, p. 17G. 



? Nat. Hist. Fish., Amph., liept., vol, II, p. 292. 



* tri'NTHEii's Telara and Heterotlirissu, Cat. Brit. Mas., Fisli., vol. VII, p. 385. 



Ranged beside the preceding genus the European 

 Anchovy may indeed appear to be so sharply distin- 

 guished therefrom that it might lay just claim to a 

 place at least in a separate subfamilv. But on ti com- 

 parison ^vith the other genera of the family the dif- 

 ferences disappear, and even the genus Sfolephorns is 

 difficult to define with natural limits. ^^\LENCIENNE.s' 

 pointed out this circumstjince, and restored to the ge- 

 nus those species which Cuvier', on account of the 

 backward prolongation of the niaxillaries (extending 

 behind the articulation of the lower jaw and even be- 

 hind the head), had removed to a separate genus Thrissa. 



