FAMILY CLUPID^ — CLUPEA. 251 



at night, by which the shoals are broken up, and the fish frightened away. The causes of 

 the irregular appearance and disappearance of many species of this family are not yet under- 

 stood, and the wildest conjectures are substituted as a cloak for ignorance. Thus, in some 

 of the western islands of Scotland, their disappearance was attributed to the fires used in 

 making kelp, although they appeared on other shores where these fires were also kept up. 

 Another fancy is, that they are driven away by the firing of guns ; and hence they have left 

 the Baltic since the attack upon Copenhagen. So firmly is this believed, that no guns are 

 allowed to be fired during the fishing season. Steamboats are also charged with driving 

 away fish ; and the answer to this is, that in Loch Fine, where a steamboat plies daily, they 

 are abundant, while they have deserted other places where a steamboat never yet appeared. 

 When the species above described first made their appearance in Long Island sound, in 1817, 

 they were mistaken for the European herring, and were gravely stated to have followed the 

 English squadron thither in the attack upon Stonington in 1814. The best satire upon these 

 wild conjectures, is found in a statement made in the English House of Commons, to this 

 effect : A clergyman on the coast of Ireland having signified his intention of taking the tithe 

 of fish, it was considered to be so utterly repugnant to the privileges and feelings of the finny 

 race, that not a single herring has ever since visited that part of the shore. 



THE STRIPED HERRING. 



Clcpea tasciata. 



Clupea fasciala, The Fasciated Herring. Lesoehr, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Vol. 1, p. 233. 

 C.pusilla, Tiny Herring? MiTCHiLL, Lit. and Phil. Soc. Vol. 1, p. 451 (young?) 

 C. fasciata, The Fasciated Herring. Storer, Massachusetts Report, p. 112. 



Characteristics. Seven or eight blackish blue lines at the side of the back. Length two to 

 nine inches. 



Description. Body compressed ; back straight ; breast and abdomen forming a bow dovro- 

 wards as far as the tail. A rounded notch at the bottom of the divisions of the tail, of which 

 the lower lobe is longest. The entire length of the body is about six times the length of the 

 head, which is not equal to the depth of the body. Snout short ; jaws equal ; maxillaries of 

 middling width, scarcely reaching beyond the centre of the eye, which is round, near the end 

 of the snout. Opercle parallelogramiform, slightly oblique, and depressed at the lower edge. 

 Dorsal as high as the width of the base. Pectorals acute, rather long. Ventrals somewhat 

 behind the front of the dorsal, which is large and truncated. Anal long, subequal. Lateral 

 line scarcely visible. Branchial rays seven. 



Color. Blue on the back ; lighter at the sides, and of a silver white under the abdomen, 

 breast and tail. Yellow tints are reflected from the scales upon the opercles, base of the tail 

 and fins. Seven to eight lines, of a blackish blue color, at the sides of the back ; deeper 

 towards the back than the abdomen, where they disappear. 



