2l8 



Percesoces and Rhegnopteri 



side Labidesthes sicculus, which swarms in clear streams from 

 Lake Ontario to Texas. This species, three to four inches 

 long, has the snout produced and a very bright silvery stripe 

 along the side. Large and small species of silversides occur 



FIG. 172. Blue Smelt or Fez del Rey, Atherinopsis californiensis Girard. 



San Diego. 



in the sea along the California coast, where they are known 

 familiarly as "blue smelt" or"Peixe Re." The most impor- 

 tant of these and the largest member of the family, reaching 

 a length of eighteen inches, is Atherinopsis californiensis, an 

 important food-fish throughout California, everywhere wrongly 

 known as smelt. Atherinops affinis is much like it, but has 



FIG. 173. Flower of the waves, Iso flos-maris, Jordan & Starks. Enoshima, 



Japan. 



Y-shaped teeth. Iso flos-maris, called Nami-no-hana, or 

 flower of the surf, is a shining little fish with belly sharp like 

 that of a herring. It lives in the surf on the coast of Japan. 

 Melanotania nigrans of Australia (family Melanotceniidce} has 

 the lateral band jet-black, as has also Melaniris balsdnus of the 

 rivers of southern Mexico. Atherinosoma vorax of Australia has 

 strong teeth like those of a barracuda. 



Fossil species of Atherina occur in the Italian Eocene, the 

 best known being Atherina macrocephala. Another species, 

 Rhamphognathus paralepoides, allied to Menidia, occurs in the 

 Eocene of Monte Bolca. 



