58 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Family XV. CLUPE1D/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 present or 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; 
pseudobranchise 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; 
vertebrae 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. ETRUMEUS Bleeker. 
Body elongate, subcylindrical 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 18 
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 flap 
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 fin; lateral scales extending continuously on center of caudal fin almost 
to margin of middle rays. 
Etrumeus Bleeker, Verb. Bat. Gen., XXV, 48, 1853 {micropus). 
Perkinsia Rosa Smith Eigenmann, Amer. Nat., February, 1891, 153 ( othonops ). 
22. Etrumeus micropus (Schlegel). “ Makiaica.” Fig. 11. 
Head 4.5 in length; depth 5.5; D. 20; A. 11; P. 10; 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; P. 1.5 in head; V. 2.07; 
least depth of caudal peduncle 3.67 in head. 
Body elongate, subcylindrical, 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- 
branchise 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 tins 
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. 
