MUGILID.E. 



easterly winds. Dr. Parnell says, " Of late years they have 

 been undoubtedly scarce. Two instances only have occurred 

 to me in which the Atherine was found in the Frith of 

 Forth ; the first was taken in Kincardine in company with 

 Sprats, and other small fish ; the second was drawn ashore in 

 a net about two miles west of Newhaven. The fishermen 

 say it is more frequently met with in Guillon Bay." The 

 Atherine is a delicate, and perhaps a tender fish, unable to 

 bear a low temperature , Mr. Couch says, that during severe 

 frosts large quantities are sometimes killed and left by the 

 tide. 



Mr. Thompson, in his published notes on the Fishes of 

 Ireland, says of the Atherine, " This is taken plentifully on 

 the coast of Down, especially in Strangford Lough. Of 

 about forty specimens from this locality, which I examined in 

 January 1835, the average length was six inches and one 

 quarter, a few were seven inches, and one was seven inches 

 and a half long. Mr. Ball informs me that the Atherine is 

 not unfrequently taken along with Sprats at Youghall, and 

 that on the 14th of September 1834, he saw a shoal of them 

 at Portmarnock, county Dublin, where a stream had formed 

 a pool in the sand below high- water mark." 



The length of the head, from the point of the under jaw 

 to the edge of the operculum, compared to the length of the 

 body and tail, is as one to four ; the depth of the body not 

 quite equal to the length of the head ; a silver-coloured band, 

 half as broad as the space above it, and one-third as broad as 

 the space below it, passes from the upper edge of the oper- 

 culum and the base of the pectoral fin, to the centre of the 

 base of the tail ; four rows of scales above the silver band, 

 and six rows below it ; the band itself occupying two rows. 



The form of the head rather short : nose blunt ; upper jaw 

 capable of considerable protrusion ; lower jaw the longest 

 when the mouth is open ; one row of minute teeth along the 



