'HE SHAD. 
285 
{oval, and anal fins are fmall in proportion to tlie fi Hi’s 
fize ; and the lait is placed very near the tail, which is 
greatly forked *. 
The Severn produces the Iliads in higher perfeSion 
than any other Britijh river. They appear there in 
April or May, according to the warmth of the Spring 5 
and after two months they difappear, and are fucceeded 
by other varieties of the fame fiih. About Gloticcjler, 
the (had is efteemed a great delicacy ; it is there caught 
in nets, and fold at a price as high as that of lalrnon It 
is from thence they are fent to the London market, where 
they are didinguiihed from the fhad of the 'Thames, by 
the French name alofe. 
It is not afeertained where the lhads fpawn : at the 
time of their mounting the river, they are in full roe j 
but none are caught on their return to the fca, after 
fhedding their foawn -f-. The bleak, which are caught in 
the Severn in the months of July and Augujl, arc erro- 
neouily fuppofed to be the young of this fpecies. The 
fliad is found at certain feafons in the river Nile ■, it is 
there, as well as in England, a fiih of paffage t ; it is alfo 
feen in the Mediterranean near Smyrna, and on the coalfc 
of Egypt, in the neighbourhood of Rofetto. 
This fpecies was reckoned very mean food by the an- 
cients ; yiufonius characterifes it as the food of the 
poor §. Thole of the Thames agree to his defeription, 
being a very infipid and coarfe fiih. Jovius gives a fimi- 
Jar account of this animal as an article of food ; but af~ 
ferts that it improves after afeending the Tiber ||. In 
the 
* Willough. page 22 7. t Bclon, 307. I Eelorm Inner, pS. 
* Stridentefque focis obfor.ia pkb'.s Alaufas; Mofclla, I* 8 - 
;j I)c I’ifcib. Roman, 
1 
