202 FISHES. 



A. vulgaris; Chpea alosa, L., Duham., Sect. Ill, pi. 1, f. 1. 

 (The Shad). Becomes a much larger and thicker fish than the 

 Herring, attaining a length of three feet; is distinguished by the ab- 

 sence of sensible teeth, and by an irregular black spot behind the 

 gills. It ascends the rivers in spring, and is then highly esteemed; 

 when taken at sea it is dry and of a disagreeable flavour. 



A.fnta, Cuv. ; CI. finta, Lac; the Venth of the Flemish; Agone 

 of Lombardy ; Lochia, Alachia of Italy, &c. More elongated than 

 the Shad, and has well-marked teeth in both jaws; five or six black 

 spots along the flank. It is found as far as the Nile, but is greatly 

 inferior in its taste*. 



Chatoessus, Cuv. 



The Chatoessi are true Herrings, whose last dorsal ray is prolonged 

 into a filament. In some the jaws are equal, and the snout is not pro- 

 minent; the mouth small and without teeth f. 



In others the snout is more prominent than the jaws, their mouth also 

 is small. The superior combs of the first branchia unite with those of 

 the opposite side, forming a very singular pennated point under the 



Next to the true Herrings come some foreign genera, which approach 

 them in the trenchant and indented abdomen. 



Odontognathus, Lacep. — Gnathobolus, Schn., 



Have a strongly compressed body, with very acute dentations, as far as 

 the anus; the anal long and low; a very small brittle dorsal, which is 

 almost always destroyed ; six rays in the branchiae ; the maxillary some- 

 what extended into a point, and armed with two small teeth directed for- 

 wards; ventrals have never been perceived on it§. 



But a single species is known, that from Cayenne, the Odon- 

 tognathe aiguillonne, Lacep. II, vii, 2, which resembles a small Sar- 

 dine in form, but is still more compressed. 



* Bloch, pi. 30, under the name of Alosa, gives afinla, the posterior part of whose 

 abdomen had been deprived of scales. Add, CI. vernalis, Mitch. V, 9; — CI. astivalis, 

 Id. V, 6; — CI. menhaden. Id. V, 1 \—Cl. matowaka, Id. V, 8; — CI. palasah, Cuv., Russ. 

 198; — CI. kelee, Id. 195; — Clupanodon ilisha. Ham. Buch. XIX, 1i;—Clupan. cham- 

 pole, H. Buch. XVIII, 74, and his other species, p. 246—251. 



The genera, Pomolobus, Dorosoma, Notemigonus of Rafin., (Ohio fishes), must 

 approach the Alosa more or less ; they have no teeth, but we are not sufficiently ac- 

 quainted with them to assign their definitive situation. 



t The Cailleu-tassard of the Antilles, {Clup. thrissa, Bl. 404, f. 3), Duham., Sect. 

 Ill, pi. xxxi, f. 3; — Peddakome, Russ. 197; — Megalops oglina, Lesueur, Ac. Nat. Sc. 

 Phil. I, 359;— M. notatus, Id. 36;—M.cepedianus, Id., lb. 



X Clupea nasus, Bl. 427, or Kome, Russ. 196. 



§ M. de Lacepede having only seen one badly preserved specimen, thought that 

 its maxillaries naturally projected in front of the mouth like two horns; this, how- 

 ever, was an accidental circumstance, for they are placed in this genus as in all the 

 others. It is from this erroneous idea that he gave it the name of Gnathobolus, i. e. 

 shooting out its jaws. 



