SMELT. 



129 



ABDOMINAL 

 MALACOPTERYG1L 



SALMONID.Z. 



THE SMELT. 



SPIRLING AND SPARLING. 



Scotland. 



Osmerus eperlanns, Smelt, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 181, sp. 48. 



Eperlantis Rondeletii, 



,, Schonfeldii, 

 Salmo eperlanus, 



Osmerus 



CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 305. 

 WILI.UGHBY, p. 202. 

 WILLUGHBY, tab. N. 6, fig. 4. 

 LINN/EUS. BLOCK, pt. i. pi. 28. 2. 

 PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 416, pi. 72. 

 DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 48. 

 JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 429. 



OSMERUS. Generic Characters. Body elongated, covered with small scales: 

 two dorsal fins, the first with rays, the second fleshy, without rays ; ventral fins 

 in a vertical line under the commencement of the first dorsal fin : teeth on the 

 jaws and tongue very long, two distinct rows on each palatine bone, none on 

 the vomer except at the most anterior part ; branchiostegous rays 8. 



THE SMELT, as a British fish, appears to be almost ex- 

 clusively confined to the eastern and western coasts of Great 

 Britain. I am not aware of any good authority for the 

 appearance of the true Smelt between Dover and the Land's 

 End.* The fish called Smelt and Sandsmelt along the 



* Mr. Salter, in his Angler's Guide, page 169, says he has caught very fine 

 Smelts by angling in Portsmouth harbour ; but there is very little doubt thai the 

 Sandsmelt, or Atherine, which is there abundant, is the fish alluded to. 

 VOL. II. K 



