Mr. Yarrell on a new species of Herring. 279 



the swim-bladder ; the pyloric appendices 20 in number, from the base 

 of which the intestine passes in a straight line to the vent. 



It is even probable that our shores produce a third species of Herring 

 much larger than either of the two now named. In Pennant's British 

 Zoology, it is stated under the article Herring, on the authority of an 

 experienced fisher, that there is sometimes taken near Yarmouth a Her- 

 ring distinguished by a black spot above the nose ; and that he once saw 

 one that was 21 inches and a half long. He insisted that it was a differ- 

 ent species, and varied as much from the common Herring, as that does 

 from the Pilchard, A notice, it may be added, appeared in a Glasgow 

 Newspaper of the last week in May, 1831, that " a Herring had been 

 " caught in the Tay, which weighed four pounds and one quarter:" and 

 Anderson the historian of Greenland and Iceland, mentions Herrings 

 of two feet in length. 



The Herring of the American coast is distinct from either of thosef 

 which visit our shores ; it is less in size and very inferior in quality. A 

 small quantity are occasionally imported here in a dried state, and from 

 examination of these it appears that their average length is about 7 inches ; 

 the dorsal fin contains 16 rays, the pectoral 19, ventral 10, anal 16, 

 caudal 18, and the vertebrae are 58. The Herring of the Mediterranean 

 appears, by the description of M. Risso, to be also distinct from cither 

 of the species here enumerated: its branchiostegous rays are said to 

 be six in number, its dorsal fin contains 17 rays, pectoral 17, ventral 8, 

 anal 1 8, caudal 1 8, and it deposits its spawn in summer. 



While on the subject of the species of the genus Clupea I may men- 

 tion that I obtained last summer two species of Shads from the Thames, 

 the Clup. Alosa of Linnseus, and the Clup. fallax of La Cepfede, the one 

 with teeth, the other without, but externally very similar. Baron Cuvier, 

 in the second edition of his Regne Animal, Vol. II., p. 319, has advanced 

 the Shads to the rank of a genus, separating them from the Herrings, on 

 account of the difference in the form of their intermaxillary bones. 

 The AUis of Pennant's Zoology in the Clup. Alosa of M. Cuvier. 

 The Clupea Leachii is figured on Plate XII. 



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