BOIER'S ATIIERINE. 



Atherina Boieri, 



Risso. CuviER. 



Report of Penzance Society of 



Natural History, for tlie year 1849. 

 GuNTHER ; Cat. Br. M., vol. iii, p. 394. 



In the autumn of the year 1846, in the midst of turbulent 

 weather, there was discovered in the harbour of Polperro, on 

 the south-east coast of Cornwall, a large number of small fishes, 

 which manifested actions that attracted attention as being 

 unlike those of species commonly known. Their first appearance 

 was traced to the 21st. of October, and as the roughness of 

 the sea became calmed down it was ascertained that they were 

 a species of Atherine; but to obtain an example became a 

 matter of no little difficulty. 



The larger sort of Atherine, already described, (A. presbyter, 

 or Smelt,) usually swims at a considerable depth in the water, 

 but in the present instance they were all near the surface, not 

 more than three or four within a foot or two of each other, but 

 the whole scattered loosely over the water, to the number of 

 several thousands. Their heads were in one direction, as if 

 passing inward, and they were constantly rising dimples on the 

 surface, like scattered drops of rain, by apparently examining 

 or seizing some floating object; but, however earnestly engaged, 

 their vigilance was never remitted, and it became scarcely 

 possible to approach them, as in an instant they were oflf in 

 another direction at the sight of a moving object. As it was 

 found that their mouths were small — as indeed might be expected 

 in fishes which did not exceed three inches in length — it was 

 difficult to find a hook which they could take; and when a 



