Fishes of Massachusetts. E 437 
The fin rays are: D. 18; P. 19-1 9; A 18; 
22. 
"M Sueur describes the iris as “ reddish ;" he pro- 
bably saw his specimens after they had been some 
time taken. The iris of most fishes changes to a 
»* 
brown very soon after death. 
C. fasciata. Le Sueur. The fasciated HM: 
Journal Academy Nat, Sciences, vol. i. p. 233. i i 
For a long time, I supposed I had seen speci- 
mens of this species in Boston market, with the 
“ Alosa vernalis?’ but now think I may have been 
mistaken. Not having seen an individual, how- 
ever, since the description of our fishes was under- 
taken, which answers to the species of Le Sueur, 
I have no alternative left me, but to copy his 
account. 
“The species which I call Clupea fasciata, 
(fasciated Herring,) is known under the name of 
alewive by the fishermen of Sandwich, and appears 
only in the spring; but about the end of August, 
1816, we still had a sight of several individuals, 
in length one, two, four, eight, and nine inches, all 
alike, except as to size. Body compressed; back 
straight; breast and abdomen forming a bow down- 
wards as far as the tail; seven to eight lines of a 
blackish blue at the sides of the back, and a rounded 
notch at the bottom of the divisions of the tail, of 
which the lower lobe is the longest. The entire 
length of the body is about six times that of the 
