PISCES. 115 



Clupea L. (excl. of some genera). Teeth in jaws, palate and 

 tongue small; sometimes no teeth. Gape of mouth moderate. 

 Superior maxillary bones divided into 3 laminae. Jaws subequal, 

 or lower produced beyond upper. Branchiostegous membrane with 

 6 8 rays. Body compressed, elongate, keel of abdomen serrate. 

 Scales large, thin, deciduous. 



A very numerous genus, which VALENCIENNES has lately divided into 

 many small genera, based especially on the teeth. Since however the teeth 

 are very fine, and occur sometimes in young fishes of the same species that 

 are afterwards without them, since moreover many of these groups do not 

 differ in habitus and other characters, we cannot adopt these divisions as 

 genera, and even think that some of them are of little service as sub-genera 

 for the distinction of the species. We shall, nevertheless, as far as our plan 

 permits, follow them. 



t Supramaxillary bone adhering by a movedble joint to the end of the tmaU 

 intermaxillary bone. Lower jaw produced beyond the upper. 



A. Very small teeth in vomer, tongue and palate. Jaws rough, with very 

 minute teeth. 



Clupea VALENC. (and Eogenia ejusd.). Branchiostegous membrane 

 with 8 rays. 



Sp. Clupea harengus L., BLOCH Ichth. Tab. 29, fig. i, Cuv. R. Ani., 3d. ill., 

 Poiss. PI. 104, fig. i ; the herring ', der haring, lehareng, a fish of the North 

 Sea, which does not occur in the Mediterranean, and of an astonishing 

 fecundity. When WILLEM BEUKELZ at the end of the fourteenth century 

 had discovered the mode of curing herrings, the capture of this fish, the 

 great fishery of Holland, soon became a gold-mine for the country ; which, 

 in the seventeenth century sent out annually about two thousand herring- 

 boats. VALENCIENNES has treated at length of the natural history, and 

 of the history of the fishery, Hist. not. des Poiss. xx. pp. 31 242. 



Clupea alba YARR., Rogenia alba VALENC., YARR. Brit. Fish. u. p. 126, 

 Cuv. et VAL. Poiss. PI. 60 1, has teeth not only on the palate-bones, but also 

 on the pterygoids. This is the celebrated white-bait of the English. In the 

 beginning of summer white-bait dinners are very common at Greenwich 

 and Blackwall. 



All the known species of this sub-genus are from the northern hemisphere ; 

 Clupea pontica belongs to the Black Sea, and a fourth different species to 

 the coasts of North America. 



B. Teeth of vomer none ; teeth in tongue, palatine and pterygoid bones. 

 Jaws with teeth very small or none. 



Sardinella VALENC. Jaws edentulous. Dorsal fin placed over 

 ventral fins. Branchiostegous membrane with 6 rays. 



Harengula VALENC. Branchiostegous membrane with 6 or 7 

 rays. 



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