clupeoidejE. 229 



CLUPEOIDE.E. 



The members of this family may be at once recognised by their having jaws 

 similar in structure to those of the trouts, but no adipose fin. Their bodies are 

 always very scaly. The greater number possess an air-bladder and numerous 

 caeca. Only some species ascend rivers. The following are indicated in the 

 Regne Animal as frequenting the shores of the United States. Alosa vernalis 

 (Spring-herring, or Alewife, Mitch.), A. cestivalis (Summer-herring, Mitch.), 

 A. menhaden (Bony-fish, Hard-heads, or Marsh-bankers, Mitch.), A.matowaka 

 (Long Island-herring, Mitch.), Chatoessus oglina (Megalops oglina, Le Sueur), 

 Ch. Cepediana (Megalops Cepediana, Le Sueur), Elops Carolina, Butirinus 

 vulpes (Catesby, t. 1, f. 2), Hyodon clodalis, H. tergisus (Le Sueur), Amia 

 calva, Lepisosteus rostratus (Esox osseus, Linn.), and L. spatula. Dr. Mitchill 

 mentions in addition to these Clupea halec, pusilla, parvula, indigena, vittata, cosru- 

 lea, alosa, mediocris, and sadina, the last being an Engraulis, and the two which 

 precede it Shads. Dr. Smith gives Clupea minima in his list of Massachusetts 

 fish, and M. Rafinesque's uncertain genera of Pomolobus, Dorosoma, and Notemi- 

 gonus, are founded on Ohio fish, which Cuvier thinks are more or less nearly allied 

 to the Alosce. The Engraulis encrasicholus has a place in the Fauna Grcenlandica 

 of Fabricius, from having been found in the stomachs of seals killed in Davis' 

 Straits far from the shore. All the specimens he saw were much mutilated, and 

 the species therefore must be doubtful. 



[88.] 1. Clupea harengus. (Linn.) The Common herring. 



Family, Clupeoideae. Genus, Clupea. Linn. Sub-genus, Clupea. Cuvier. 

 Clupea harengus. Fabricius, Faun. Graenl., p. 182. Rich., Fr. Journ., p. 716. 

 Kapiselik. Greenlanders. 



In the herrings a small portion only of the upper jaw consists of the short, 

 narrow intermaxillaries, its sides, which are alone protractile, being formed by the 

 comparatively long labials ; the acute rim of the belly has the scales arranged like 

 the teeth of a saw. The labials are moreover divisible into three pieces, the gill- 



