niSTOHY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 17 



33. In Belknap's Ilistory of Kew Ilampsbire, this species is mentioned 

 under the name ^^ Cliqyca dura Icvvi mystax (hardhead)."* Since no de- 

 scription is given, this name can have no significance. 



34. Mitchill's " jSew York Shadine" {Cliqjea sadina)j appears to be 

 identical with Brevoortia tyrannus, as is indicated by the smutty oper- 

 cular spot, the wide and toothless mouth, and protruding gill apparatus. 

 The deciduous character of t' e scales may have been due to poor pres- 

 ervation of the t;y3e specimen. 



Gronow, in 1703, described the species under the name Chipca Garo- 

 Ibiensis^X but his manuscript was not published until 1854, aud his name 

 must yield precedence to those which are really much more recent. 



The Gulf Menhaden. 



35. A second North American species of menhaden has recently been 

 discovered. A description will be given in a subsequent paragraph (42). 

 This species has been reported only from the Gulf of Mexico. The 

 name chosen for it has reference to the presence of a parasite which has 

 already been mentioned, and which was described by Latrobe as the 

 Oniscus prwgustator. This parasite is common to both Brevoortia tyran- 

 nus and Brevoortia patronus, the gulf form ; the specific name of the 

 latter has been selected to carry out the quaint conceit of Latrobe, who 

 fancied that the menhaden resembled a Roman ruler in having a "taster"" 

 who first tested every dish to prove its harmlessness. 



The Menhaden of Brazil. 



36. The species described, from Brazil, by Agassiz and Spix, under the 

 name Clupanodon aureus^ does not appear to be distinctly separated 

 from Brevoortia tyrannus. Ko diagnostic characters can be detected in 

 the descriptions of either Agassiz or Giiuther; that is to say, characters 

 which do not disappear upon the study of a large series of specimens. 

 Agassiz's specimens, collected probably at Bahia, and in 1829 preserved 

 in alcohol in the Munich Museum, were eight inches long. He himself 

 seems to have had an inkling of their identity with the North American 

 species, from the fact that he cites, doubtfully, as a synonym, Mitchill's 

 Clupea menada. The difference in spelling this specific name is doubt- 

 less an attempt to put in Latin form the Indian name used by Mitchill. 

 Two specimens from Sambaia, Brazil, and one from Eio Janeiro, col- 

 lected by the Thayer expedition, agree closely with the figure in Spix's 



* Belknap's History of Now Hampshire, 2d ed., 1813, HI, p. 133. 



t Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc, N. Y., 1814, pp. 457, 458. 



t Catalogue of Fish, collected aud described by Lawrence Theodore Gronow, now in 

 the British Museum. Published by order of the Trustees, Loudon, 1854, pp. 140. 



§ Selecta | Genera et Species | Piscum | quos | iu Itiuere per Brasiliam | Annia 

 MDCCCXVII-MDCCCXX | * * =* | collegit, et pingeudos curavit | Dr. J. B. de 

 Spix, I » * * I digessit, descripsit, et observaticnis anatomicia illustravit | Dr. L. 

 Agassiz, 1***1 Monachii, | Typis C. Wolf | = | 1829, p. 52. 

 2 F 



