Vendace

Vendace, the name of a British freshwater fish of the genus Coregonus, of which two other species are indigenous in the fresh waters of the British Islands, the gwyniad and the pollan. The vendace (C. vandesius) is restricted to some lochs in Dumfriesshire, Scotland; it is, however, very similar to a species (C. albula) which inhabits some of the large and deep lakes of northern Europe. From its general resemblance to a dace the French name of the latter, vandoise, was transferred to it at the period when French was the language of the court and aristocracy of Scotland. So great is the local celebrity of the fish that a story has been invented ascribing to Mary Queen of Scots the merit of having introduced it into the Lochmaben lochs. It is considered a great delicacy, and on favourable days when the shoals rise to the surface, near the edges of the loch, great numbers may be taken. It spawns in November. In length it scarcely exceeds 8 in.