FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



70. Silverside ( Menidia notata Mitchill) 



179 



Young smelt; Green smelt; 



Sand smelt; Whitebait; Capelin; Sperling; 

 Shixer 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, pp. 800, 2S40. 



Description.— This silvery little fish is often confused with the young smelt, 

 but it does not require very close examination to tell them apart for the adipose 

 fin characteristic of the smelt is lacking in the silverside, while the latter has a 

 spinous as well as a soft dorsal fin instead of one dorsal only as in the smelt, this 

 last character distinguishing it equally from young herrings. The silverside is a 

 slender fish, about one-sixth as deep as long, not counting caudal fin; thin-bodied but 

 with rounded, not sharp-edged, belly; with short head, large eye, and small mouth 





-■.~-".'7'' 



Fig. 80.— Fry, 13 millimeters 

 SILVERSIDE ( it cnidia notata) 



set very obliquely. Both head and body are clothed with large scales. The first 

 dorsal fin (5 spines) is smaller than the second and originates about midway between 

 the tip of the snout and the base of the caudal fin; the second dorsal has 8 to 10 

 soft rays. The vent is under the middle of the first dorsal, and the anal fin origin- 

 ates under its last spine. The anal (of 24 rays, the first stiff and the others soft) 

 is falcate in outline. The caudal peduncle is slender and the tail forked. 13 



19 The common silverside is represented on the coasts of the eastern United States by two races, a southern and a northern, 

 not, however, very distinct and connected by such various intergradations that they hardly deserve the two names with which 

 they are usually dignified. The southern form has fewer scales than the northern, only 4 instead of 5 spines in the first dorsal, and 

 is rather a stouter-bodied fish. Kendall has given an account of the genus in Report .Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, 1001 

 (1902), p. 241. 



