130 FISHES OF NORTH CAROLINA. * 



eye; jaws without teeth, small teeth on tongue; eye large, longer than snout, about .33 length of 

 head; gill-rakers long and slender; scales in lateral series 50, in transverse series 15, ventral 

 scutes strong; dorsal fin long, its origin in advance of ventrals and midway between snout and 

 anal fin, the rays 19, the last ray extending to base of caudal; anal rays 24; paired fins small. 

 Color: bluish above, silvery below; a dark spot at base of each scale on back, the spots forming 

 longitudinal streaks; a bluish spot on shoulder; tip of anterior part of dorsal black in adult, 

 dark in young, (oglinum, perhaps from ogle, in allusion to the prominent eyes.) 



The thread herring is a regular visitant from the West Indies to the South 

 Atlantic coast, and occasionally goes as far north as Massachusetts. In the 

 Beaufort region it is usually not very abundant, but some seasons it occurs in 

 considerable numbers. In August and September the young, 3 to 4 inches long, 

 are sometimes very numerous in Beaufort Harbor; in 1902 many hundreds were 

 seined about Bird Shoal and Town Marsh, but in the following year only a few 

 were taken. In 1905, more than 75 were caught in the laboratory pound-net 

 between July 18 and August 28, some being found in the net at nearly every 

 haul. The fish reaches a length of a foot, and has little food value. It is caught 

 incidentally with menhaden about Beaufort and is utilized at the fertilizer 

 factories. The local name is "hairy-back". 



Genus BREVOORTIA Gill. Menhadens. 



Sea fishes of the western Atlantic, swimming in large schools. Head large, 

 body short, compressed, tapering from head to tail; mouth large, lower jaw 

 included, teeth absent; gill-rakers long, thin, and numerous; scales closely over- 

 lapping, their posterior margin not convex; fins small; intestine long, the stom- 

 ach an olive-shaped gizzard-like organ. Several species and varieties, found 

 from Canada to Patagonia; the principal species abundant on Atlantic coast of 

 the United States. (Named for James C. Brevoort, an American ichthyologist.) 



112. BREVOORTIA TYRANNUS (Latrobe). 

 "Menhaden"; "Bug-fish"; "Fat-back"; "Shad"; "Old-wife"; "Alewife"; 



"Yellow-tail". 



Clupea tyrannus Latrobe, Transactions American Philosophical Society, v, 1802, 77, pi. i; Cnesapeake Bay. 



Brevoortia menhaden. Yarrow, 1877, 215; Beaufort. 



Brevoortia tyrannus, Goode, History of the American Menhaden (in Report U. S. Fish Commission 1877), 1879, 



6. Jenkins, 1887, 86; Beaufort. Smith, 1893a, 191, 195; Pasquotank River and Edenton Bay. Jordan 



<& Evermann, 1896, 433, pi. Ixxiii, fig. 195. Linton, 1905, 352; Beaufort. 



Diagnosis. — Body short, compressed especially below, back broad, depth .33 total 

 length; head large, deep, less than .33 length of body; mouth large, weak, maxillary reaching 

 beyond posterior border of eye; gill-rakers much longer than eye; scales irregularly arranged, 

 their posterior edge vertipal and fluted, number in lateral series 60 to 80; ventral plates 20 

 before vent, 12 behind; fins low, height of dorsal less than length of maxillary, height of anal 

 less than half length of maxillary; dorsal rays 19; anal rays 20; caudal widely forked; ventrals 

 very short, with a large axillary scale. Color: back greenish or bluish, sides brassy; a round 

 black humeral spot, with a variable number of smaller black spots behind it; fins yellowish. 

 (tyrannus, tyrant or ruler.) 



The menhaden is probably the most abundant economic fish inhabiting the 

 waters of the eastern coast of the United States, and is one of the most abundant 



