258 THE FRESH. WATER FISHES OF EUROPE. 



Dr. Biidham states that when taken at sea in winter, it is a dry poor 

 fish, but after a month's sojourn in fresh water in spring, becomes very rapidly 

 plump and delicate. This estimable author remarks in his work " Prose 

 Halieutics," ' ' the Alli-s forms one of an elaborately-finished group of mosaic 

 fish in a house at Pompeii. It was therefore known to the Balbi and their 

 contemporaries, but whether they appreciated it as much as the bon vivants of 

 ancient Greece, or disparaged it like Ausonius as a mere solatium paujieris, 

 ' the pauper's Alose from the sputtering stall/ is more than we can undertake 

 to settle ; but as it occupied the skilful fingers of the ancient mosaicisti, and is 

 still considered a fine fish at Naples, we are inclined to think it was held in 

 like estimation by the connoisseurs of the same regno under the ancient regime. 

 A love for music and dancing has been imputed to this fresh-water herring. 

 Aristotle affirms that he 110 sooner catches the sound of music or sees dancing, 

 than, like Crabbers sailor ' who hears a fiddle and who sees a lass/ he is irresis- 

 tibly led to join the sport and to cut capers and throw somersaults out of the 

 water." 



The only justification for this statement is the circumstance that the 

 Shad assemble in great numbers near the surface of the water and are noisy in 

 their movements, like so many other fishes at spawning-time. Buckland 

 remarks that they are said to thrash the water with their tails, and that on a 

 calm evening the noise they make may be heard at some distance. -ZElian 

 improves on Aristotle's statement by assuring us that the fishermen being 

 well aware of the habit, fasten little bells to their nets so that by the tinkling 

 above the surface, the Shad are attracted to the spot, and netted. 



The body is elevated and compressed laterally, and is so like the smaller 

 fish known as the Twaite Shad, that they are not easily distinguished by 

 external characters. The most important distinction, according to Giinther, 

 is found in the gill-rakers, which are very fine and long in the Aliis Shad, and 

 number from sixty to eighty on the horizontal part of the outer branchial 

 arch, while the Twaite Shad has thick gill-rakers, but they are numerous on 

 the other arches, the numbers being ninety-nine to one hundred and eighteen on 

 the first, ninety-six to one hundred and twelve on the second, seventy-four to 

 eighty-eight on the third, and fifty-six to sixty-five on the fourth. Other 

 distinguishing characters are the compressed ventral edge in front of the anal 

 fin, armed with a row of thirty-seven to forty-two spines, and the low anal fin. 

 There is also a conspicuous dark spot behind the operculum, and the fish has a 

 curious eyelid. 



The proportions of the Shad vary somewhat with age. In old females at 

 spawning-time the height of the body exceeds the length of the head, and 

 the body is only three and a half times as long as high. The height is 



