FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



125 



positions of the fins, the dorsal being altogether behind instead of over the ventrals, 

 with the latter originating close behind the tips of the pectorals when these are 

 laid back against the body, by its much longer anal fin, and by the fact that the 

 bellv is rounded instead of sharp edged. The lack of an adipose fin back of the 

 dorsal is sufficient to separate anchovy from smelt at a glance, while the silversides 

 (Menidia) has two dorsal fins instead of only one. The anchovy has large, thin, 

 easily detached scales and a deeply forked tail. Its'body is about four times as 

 long as deep, and compressed, while the tip of the upper jaw or "snout" is shorter 

 than in most of its immediate relative*. 



Fit;. 49.— Egg 



Fig. 51— Adult 

 ANCHOVY (.Anckovia mitchilli) 



Color. — The anchovy is a whitish silvery translucent little fish, its most charac- 

 teristic marking being an ill-defined silvery band scarcely wider than the pupil of 

 the eye running from the gill opening back to the caudal fin. There are also many 

 dark dots on body and fins. 



Size. — Two and one-half to four inches long. 



General range. — Coast of the United States from Maine to Texas, chiefly west 

 and south of Cape Cod. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The anchovy is mentioned here because it 

 has been taken in Casco Bay and at Provincetown. It has no real place in the 

 Gulf of Maine fauna, being a southern fish that rarely strays past Cape Cod, though 

 it is abundant about Woods Hole and thence westward and southward. Stragglers 



