ACANTHOPTERYGII. 321 



The Oblada is also a Mediterranean fish : Belon asserts 

 that it is met with in the north part of the Atlantic, but very 

 rarely. It swims at moderate depths along the coasts during 

 the whole year, though the female may be seen occasionally 

 pursued by the male, swimming with great swiftness along 

 the surface of the sea. 



M^na, the first genus of the fifth family of the Menides, 

 lives near the coasts in places abounding in algae, and with a 

 muddy bottom. ' Their food consists of small fish and naked 

 mollusca, which they find among the marine plants. 



The common msena inhabits various parts of the Mediter- 

 ranean, and is taken at all times of the year. The females 

 spawn in July and August. It is absolutely rejected as 

 food : its very name, indeed, in Venice, seems to designate 

 a person or thing of no worth, and to call a person magname- 

 nole is a very great insult. 



The species of the genus Smaris all inhabit the Mediter- 

 ranean, though some advance into the Atlantic, and are found 

 at the Canary Islands, and on the western coast of Africa, and 

 even so far as the Antilles. 



The common smaris, according to Belon, is the marida of 

 the modern Greeks. It lives near the shore, and feeds on 

 small Crustacea. These fish abound so much at Ivica, that, 

 according to Laroche, they alone form more than one half of 

 the total product of the fishery of that island. Rondelet tells 

 us that after being salted they are exposed to the air to make 

 a sort of garum. It would even appear that the French name 

 of this fish, picarel, is derived from its pungent taste when 

 so prepared. But Duhamel appears to have corrected this 

 mistake, for according to the observations of a correspondent 

 of his from Antibes, the picarel, or pitre, is confounded with 

 a fish of the herring kind, known there under the name of 



pyraie. 



The genus Gerres is found in both oceans; specimens 

 vol. x. Y 



