236 PISCES. 



Shad, and has well marked teeth in both jawsj five or six black 

 spots along the flank. It is found as far as the Nile, but is 

 much inferior to the vulgaris.(l) 



Chatoessus, Cuv. 



The Chalocssi are true Clupec"e, whose last dorsal ray is prolonged 

 into a filament. In some the jaws are equal, and the snout is not 

 prominent; the mouth small and edentated.(2) 



In others the snout is more prominent than the jaws, their mouth 

 also is small. The superior combs of the first branchia unite with 

 those of the opposite side, forming a singular pennated point under 

 the palate. (3) 



Next to the true Clupeoc come some foreign genera, which 

 approach them in the trenchant and indented abdomen. 



Odoxtognathus, Lacep. — Gnathobolus, Schn. 



A strongly compressed body, with very acute dentations, as far as 

 the anus; the anal long and low; a very small frail dorsal, which is 

 almost always destroyed; six rays in the branchiae; the maxillary 

 somewhat extended into a point, and armed with two small teeth 

 directed forwards; ventrals have never been perceived on it. (4) 



But a single species is known; the Odontognathe aiguillonm, 



Lacep. II, vii, 2, which resembles a small Sardine in form, but 



is still more compressed. From Cayenne. 



(1) Bloch, pi. 30, under the name of finta, gives an Alosa the posterior part 

 of whose abdomen had been deprived of scales. Add; CI. vernalis, Mitch., \ , 

 9; — CI. aestivalis, Id., V, 6; — CI. menhaden. Id. V, 7; — CI. maimoaka. Id. V, 8; — 

 CI. palasah, Cuv., Russ., 198; — CI. hel-e. Id., 195; Clupanodon ilisha, Ham. Bucli., 

 XIX, 7o; — Clupan. champole, H. Bach., XVIII, 74, and his other species, p. 

 246—251. 



Tlie genera, PoMotoBrs, Dorosoka, Notemigonus of Kafiii., (Oliio fishes) must 

 approach the Alosa more or less; they have no teeth, but we are not sufficiently 

 a'cquainted with them to assign their definitive situation. 



(2) The Cailleu-tassard of the Antilles [Clup. thrissa, Bl., 404, f. 3,) Duhani., 

 Sect. HI, pi. xxxi, f. 3; — Feddakome, Russ., 197; — Megalops oglina, Lcsiieiir, Ac. 

 Nat. So. Phil., I, 359; — M. notatus. Id., 36; — M. cepedianus. Id., lb. 



(3) Clupea nasus, Bl., 427, or Kume, Russ., 196. 



(4) M. de Lacdpede having only seen one badly preserved specimen, thought 

 that its maxillaries naturally projected in front of the mouth like two horns; this, 

 however, was an accidental circumstance, for they are placed in this genus as in 

 all the others. It is from this erroneous idea that arose the name of Gnathobolus, 

 i. e. shooting out its jaws. 



