289 



VENDACE. 



The Vandoise of Duhamel appears to be the Dace. 



Coregonus Willonghbii, Yarrell; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 146. 



" marcenula, Jenyns; Manual, p. 433. 



Vendace, Dr. Knox in Zoologist, 1856, p. 4710. 



Salmo marcenula, Block ; pi. 28, f. 3P and if so, Nilsson 



refers it to Coregonus albula of 



Linnaeus. 



The Vendace is a small fish which in Britain is believed 

 to be peculiar to Lochmaben and the neighbouring pieces of 

 water, in Scotland, and into which, on account of its supposed 

 superior delicacy for the table it is reported to have been 

 conveyed from abroad at the suggestion of the unfortunate 

 Queen Mary; but by Sir William Jardine, Bart., who first 

 decided that it was a distinct species, this is thought to be 

 unlikely, and from whence it was imported there appears to 

 be no traditionary remembrance. But if the above account be 

 correct, no small amount of care and skill must have been 

 exercised in the conveyance, since the living fish will scarcely 

 bear exposure, at least for the requisite length of time; and 

 therefore it must have been the roe that was transported, 

 and the fish is exceedingly prolific, so that they exist in large 

 numbers within their limited district, in spite of the depredations 

 committed on them by the voracious fishes which are found 

 in the same lakes. They swim with great activity in consid- 

 erable schools, and sometimes with a remarkable separation of 

 the sexes; and Dr. Knox, who studied the habits of this 

 species with close attention, on dissection discovered that out 

 of forty individuals taken at one time only two were males, 

 and on another occasion, at the middle of December, of 



VOL. lY. 2 p 



