192 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Genus cli'pea (Artedi) Linnaeus 



True herrings with the body elongate, numerous vertebrae, 

 tlie ventral serratures weak, and an ovate patch of small but 

 persistent teeth on the vomer. The few species belong to the 

 northern seas, where the number of individuals is inordinately- 

 great, exceeding perhaps those of any other genus of fishes. 

 Not anadromous, spawning in the sea. 



The genus C 1 u p e a, which includes the shad, river alewif e 

 or herring and the Ohio golden shad or skipjack, admits of division 

 into several subgenera, one of which includes the common sea 

 herring and other marine species, another the shad and still 

 another the river alewives. The last have the suborbital bone 

 longer than deep and are supplied with teeth on the tongue and 

 in some species in the jaws. 



110 Clupea harengus Linnaeus 

 Sea Herrmg 



Clupea harenfjus Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. ed. X, I, 317, 1758; Mitchill, 

 Amer. Month. Mag. II, 323, Mar. 1818; Ouvier & Valenciennes, 

 Hist. Nat. Poiss. XX, 30, pi. 501, 1847; Gunther, Gat. Fish. Brit. Mus. 

 VII, 415, 1868; Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 265, 1883: 

 GooDE, Fish & Fish. Ind. U. S. I, 549, pi. 204, 1884; Bean, 19th 

 Rep. Comm. Fish. N. Y. separate, 42, pi. XXIV, fig. 32. 1890; Jordan 

 & EvERMANN.Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 421, 1896, pi. LXX. fig. 185, 

 1900; Smith, Bull. U. S. F. C. XVII, 91, 1898. 



Clupea halcc Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Sec. N. Y. I, 451, 1815. 



Clupea piisilla Mitchill, op. cit. 452, 1815. 



Clupea coerulea jMitchill, op. cit. 457, 1815. 



Clupea elouiiata De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 250, 1842; Storer. Hist. 

 Fish. Mass. 152, pi. XXVI, fig. 1, 3867. 



liody elongate, slender, fusiform, compressed, its greatest 

 depth one fourth of total length without caudal; caudal pedun- 

 cle slender, its least depth one third of length of head; head 

 moderate, two ninths of total length without caudal; eye large, 

 thi-ec and one half to four in head, and with a well developed 

 adipose eyelid; lower jaw strongly projecting; maxilla reaching 

 lo helow middle of pupil, its length three sevenths of length of 

 1m:i(I; (licfks longer than high; an ovate patch of small teeth 

 on voni.i-. pnlntine t.M^th minute or wanting, small teeth on the 

 '""-'" ^''''" '''' li i" tl>" jaws in young examples, usually dis- 



