THE SHADS, THE EELS, AND THE LAMPREYS 289 



of common origin. Scarcely could two fish be more different 

 in appearance, but if there is anything more slippery than fish 

 themselves, it is the nomenclature by which men have dis- 

 tinguished them at different times. Anyhow, the shad was 

 known- in Anglo-Saxon as sceadda, which appears to be the 

 same word as the Gaelic sgddan and the Welsh ysgadan^ 

 herring, and the shad is but a larger herring. 



The shad :s remarkable as being the only British fish of 

 fresh water that possesses eyelids. These are merely folds 

 of transparent skin, opening with a vertical slit, instead of a 

 horizontal one, as in birds and mammals. The body is 

 covered with large silvery scales ; there is a conspicuous and 

 large dark blotch on the shoulder just behind the operculum, 

 or upper gill-cover ; sometimes followed by two or three 

 other such spots in a horizontal line. The abdomen forms 

 a sharp ventral edge from the anal fin forwards, armed with 

 a row of from thirty-seven to forty-two spinous scales, like 

 the teeth of a saw, supported by the sternal ribs. The most 

 conspicuous of the fins is the caudal, which is deeply cleft, 

 with sharply-pointed lobes. The middle rays of this fin are 

 covered with a peculiar arrangement of long, pen-like scales, 

 upon each of which are fixed three or four smaller scales. All 

 of the Herring Family are distinguished by the ample 

 development of the gills, the gill-opening being very large. 

 In the Allis shad the gill-rakers (Fig. 'III. 62, p. 23) form a 

 remarkable feature, being very long and fine, and numbering 

 from sixty to eighty. 



The shad is a well-known visitant to most of the large 

 rivers of Western Europe and the Mediterranean, It is also 

 found in the Danube, but in Russia its place is 

 'supplied by a kindred species, the Black Sea herring 

 {Clupea ponticd). It used to be common in the Thames, and 

 still frequents the Severn and the Wye. The principal shad- 

 fishery is at Newnham, near Gloucester, where operations are 

 begun towards the end of April or beginning of May, when 



19 



