Isospondyli 51 
Cuba is Sardinella pseudohispanica, the sardine of California, 
Sardinella cerulea. Sardinella sagax abounds in Chile, and Sar- 
dinella melanosticta is the valued sardine of Japan. 
In the tropical Pacific occur other valued species, largely 
belonging to the genus Kowala. The genus Harengula contains 
small species with very large, firm scales which do not fall when 
touched, as is generally the case with the sardines. Most 
common of these is Harengula sardina of the West Indies. 
Similar species occur in southern Europe and in Japan. 
In Optsthonema, the thread-herring, the last dorsal ray is 
much produced, as in the gizzard-shad and the tarpon. The 
two species known are abundant, but of little commercial im- 
portance. Of greater value are the menhaden, or the moss- 
bunker, Brevoortia tyrannus, inhabiting the sandy coasts from 
New England southward. It is a coarse and bony fish, rarely 
Fic. 40.—Menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus (Latrobe). Wood’s Hole, Mass. 
eaten when adult, although the young in oil makes acceptable 
sardines. It is used chiefly for oil, the annual yield exceeding 
in value that of whale-oil. The refuse is used as manure, a 
purpose for which the fishes are often taken without prepara- 
tion, being carried directly to the cornfields. From its abun- 
dance this species of inferior flesh exceeds in commercial value 
almost all other American fishes excepting the cod, the herring, 
and the quinnat salmon. 
One of the most complete of fish biographies is that of Dr. G. 
Brown Goode on the ‘‘ Natural and Economic History of Men- 
haden.”’ 
Numerous other herring-like forms, usually with compressed 
bodies, dry and bony flesh, and serrated bellies, abound in the 
