upon the British Shores. 23 



to be the only British observers who have met with, on our 

 shores, examples of this brilliant little fish, which Cuvier con- 

 siders as belonging to the genus Scopelus" " Pennant's speci- 

 men was taken in the sea near Downing, in Flintshire. Mr. 

 Low's fish was brought to him by a boy, who said he found 

 it by the edge of the water, amongst sea- weed. The receipt 

 of an additional portion of M.S. recently confided to me by 

 William Walcott, Esq. furnishes a notice, written by his fa- 

 ther, of a third instance of the occurrence of the Argentine, 

 which was found stranded on the shore, near Exmouth." 



Pennant's description agrees, in many respects, with my 

 fish ; but as the figure contained in Mr. Yarrell's work, (which 

 was taken from Pennant's), differs very materially about the 

 head and tail, although it resembles it in the form of the body, 

 I have sent an exact figure of my own specimen, to shew the 

 precise form of the bones of the opercula and sides of the 

 head ; together with a full description : which may assist fu- 

 ture observers in determining whether more than one species 

 visits our shores. If Pennant's figure be an exact represen- 

 tation, the fish it was taken from was certainly a different 

 species to the one under description. 



Pennant describes his as follows ; viz. " Length, two inches 

 and a quarter : the eyes large, irides silvery ; the lower jaw 

 sloped much : the teeth small : body compressed, and of an 

 equal depth almost to the anal fin : tail forked : back was of 

 a dusky green : the sides and covers of the gills as if plaited 

 with silver: the lateral line was in the middle, and quite 

 straight : on each side of the belly was a row of circular punc- 

 tures, above them another, which ceased near the vent." 



My specimen would correspond with the above, except the 

 following; viz. Length, 1 inch \l : the back of a dense blue- 

 black, presenting, in certain lights, a brownish tinge : lateral 

 line central and straight, but inclining upwards, at about its 

 anterior sixth, towards the upper angle of the operculum. 



The number and arrangement of the guttce in the specimen 

 under consideration,, are as follows ; viz. On each side, upper 

 series between os hyo'ides and origin of pectoral fin, five ; up- 

 per abdominal series between base of pectoral and a spot per- 

 dendicularly over the ventral, nine ; lower abdominal series, 

 from a spot perpendicularly beneath the posterior margin of 

 orbit, to base of ventral, twelve ; between base of ventral and 

 commencement of anal, six ; the two anterior directed down- 

 wards and backwards ; \hefour posterior forming an arch from 

 a little above the second gutta to the commencement of the 

 anal fin : one large gutta, in a line with the upper abdomi- 

 nal series, is placed slightly anterior, but above the com- 



c 4 



