NO. l8 MENHADEN, GENUS BREVOORTIA — HILDEBRAND 3 



The length of the head was measured from the rim of the snout to 

 the most distant part of the bony margin of the opercle, and its depth 

 is the distance between the slight groove at the occiput and the keel of 

 the first ventral scute. Although the last-mentioned measurement is 

 not an exactly vertical one, it does constitute one between two solid 

 points, and therefore a fairly accurate one. The mandible was mea- 

 sured to its posterior extremity. The length of the pectoral and ventral 

 fins in each instance is the distance between the base of the first ray and 

 the tip of the fin ; the lower lobe of the caudal was measured from the 

 middle of the caudal base ; and the axillary appendage of the pectoral 

 was measured from the base of the upper ray of the pectoral. The 

 other measurements were made in the usual way, or if there is any 

 deviation, it is so stated in the descriptions. 



Acknowledgments. — The writer is indebted to many persons for 

 specimens, data, and other help received. He is particularly grateful to 

 Gordon Gunter, of the University of Texas, for furnishing a very 

 fine series of specimens of the new species herein named for him. The 

 kindness of William C. Schroeder, of the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, and of William C. Neville and John C. Pearson, of the 

 United States Fish and Wildlife Service, in furnishing specimens is 

 deeply appreciated. I am indebted, furthermore, to Mr. Schroeder 

 for the loan of specimens from South America, for without them it 

 would not have been possible to give adequate descriptions of those 

 hitherto obscure species. I am grateful, of course, to those officers of 

 the United States National Museum who have provided laboratory 

 space and the use of the specimens in the National Museum collections. 



While most of the data used were compiled by me, during the course 

 of about 30 years, I have included some unpublished enumerations 

 and proportions by the late William C. Welsh, and others by Dr. A. B. 

 Hardcastle, now of the United States Bureau of Animal Industry. I 

 am grateful to Dr. Hardcastle for the use of his unpublished manu- 

 script on B. tyr annus based on a study of specimens from Beaufort, 

 N. C. The illustrations were prepared by Mrs. Ann S. Green, bio- 

 logical aid with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, who also 

 gave valuable assistance in compiling the data and in preparing the 

 bibliography. 



Origin and necessity of the reviezv. — This review is primarily a "by- 

 product" of the study of the genus in connection with the preparation 

 of accounts of the species of Clupeidae for the forthcoming general 

 publication on the "Fishes of the Western North Atlantic," by the 

 Sears Foundation, Yale University. As that general work is intended 

 for the use of the general biologist and intelligent layman, taxonomic 



