58 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Family XV. CLUPEID/E. The Herrings. 
Body oblong or elongate, more or less compressed, covered with cycloid or pectinated scales; belly 
sometimes rounded, sometimes compressed, in which case it is often armed with bony serratures; head 
naked, usually compressed; mouth rather large, terminal, the jaws about equal; maxillaries forming 
the lateral margins of upper jaw, each composed of about 3 pieces; premaxillaries not protractile; 
teeth mostly small, often feeble or wanting, variously arranged; adipose eyelid presenter absent; gill- 
rakers long and slender; gill-membranes not connected, free from the isthmus; no gular plate; gills 4, 
a slit behind the fourth; branchiostegals usually few (6 to 15); posterior lower part of opercular region 
often with an angular emargination, the tips of the larger branchiostegals being abruptly truncate; 
pseudobranchne present; no lateral line; dorsal fin median or somewhat posterior, rarely wanting; no 
adipose fin; ventrals moderate or small (rarely wanting); anal usually rather long; caudal fin forked; 
vertebra; 40 to 56. Genera about 30; species 150; inhabiting all seas, and usually swimming in immense 
schools; many species ascend fresh waters, and some remain there permanently. The northern and 
fresh-water species, as in many other families, differ from the tropical forms in having a larger num¬ 
ber of vertebral segments. 
Genus 21. ETRDMEUS Bleeker. 
Body elongate, subcyliiwlrieal or somewhat compressed; abdomen rounded, not. compressed or 
serrated; snout pointed; adipose eyelid covering the eye wholly without pupillary slit; mouth 
terminal, of moderate width, formed as in Clupea, but the maxillary more slender; teeth moderate, in 
patches on jaws, palatines, pterygoids, and tongue; gill-membranes separate, with numerous fine 
branchiostegals; pseudobranchise well developed; pyloric appendages numerous; scales cycloid, entire, 
and very deciduous; pectoral and ventral fins shielded; no lateral line; dorsal fin rather long, of IS 
to 20 rays, placed entirely in advance of ventrals; anal fin low, of moderate length; caudal deeply 
forked; the scales of the breast more or less adherent, dilated and forming a membranous ventral Hap 
which covers the closed pectoral fins, leaving only the dorsal edges and the extreme tips of the fins 
visible; axillary scales very large, that of pectoral extending nearly to its tip, that of ventral reaching 
slightly farther than tip of tin; lateral scales extending continuously on center of caudal fin almost 
to margin of middle rays. 
Etrame.ua Bleeker, Verb. Bat. Gen., XXV, 48, 1853 (micropus). 
Perkinsia Rosa Smith Eigenmann, Amer. Nat., February, 1891, 153 ( othono])8 ). 
22. Etrumeus micropus (Schlegel). “ Mukiawa." Fig. II. 
I lead 4.5 in length; depth 5.5; I'. 20; A. 11; I’. 16; V. 9; scales about 52; eye 3 in head; snout 3.5; 
mandible 2; interorbital space 4.3; maxillary 3; width of head 2 in its length; F. 1.5 in head; V. 2.67; 
least depth of caudal peduncle 3.67 in head. 
Body elongate, subeylindrieal, somewhat compressed; head elongate, compressed, pointed; snout 
long, pointed, flattened above, the sides somewhat compressed; eye large, covered by the thick adipose 
eyelid; mouth small, terminal, the mandible very slightly projecting when the mouth is closed; teeth 
in fine villiform bands on vomer and palatines, those in jaws minute; maxillary slipping under the 
preorbital ridge and extending posteriorily a little beyond the anterior edge of eye; nostrils together 
on upper side of snout, much nearer its tip than anterior edge of eye; interorbital space and top 
of head flattened and with ridges forming an elongated W; preopercle with radiating branching 
mucous canals giving a striated appearance; opercles more or less smooth; gill-openings large, mem¬ 
branes free from isthmus; gillrakers long, slender, and fine; gill-filaments longer, fine, and the pseudo¬ 
branchiae also long; peritoneum pale or silvery; scales all more or less deciduous, mostly falling off in 
alcoholic specimens, rather large, cycloid, those between the pectorals and ventrals forming a thin 
broad flap; both pectorals and ventrals with long pointed scaly flaps but little shorter than the fins 
themselves; origin of dorsal nearer tip of snout than base of caudal by 1.3 eye diameters; anal fin very 
small, its origin about midway between origin of ventrals and base of caudal; caudal rather small, 
deeply emarginate; pectorals rather short, about 2.5 in space to ventrals; ventrals small, behind tip of 
depressed dorsal, and 2 in space to origin of anal; caudal peduncle compressed. 
