60 GRAINING. 



the fishes of this family and of fresh-water generally are prone 

 to change their colour when dead, and kept out of their element 

 sufficiently long to be conveyed to a considerable distance; and 

 that those I have seen were of a decidedly blue colour along 

 the back. The Azurine also, as they came to my hands, were 

 one of them drab coloured, and another a fine blue. 



Mr. Yarrell's description is, that although similar to the Dace 

 in shape, it is clictinguished from it by being still more slender 

 in form. The Graining has the top of the head, the back, and 

 upper part of the sides of a pale drab colour, with bluish red, 

 which is separated from the lighter coloured and inferior parts 

 by a well-defined boundary line; the irides yellowish white; 

 infraorbital portion of the head, operculum, and sides shining 

 silvery white, tinged with yellow; all the fins pale yellowish 

 white; the lateral line descending from the upper angle of the 

 operculum by a gentle curve to the middle of the body, thence 

 to the centre of the tail in a straight line; the scales of 

 moderate size, marked with numerous concentric striae and 

 prominent radiating elevated ridges; whereas in the Dace the 

 radiating lines on each scale are produced by grooved depressions. 

 The central portion of each scale in the Graining is brighter 

 than its sides, thus producing the appearance of shining longi- 

 tudinal lines through the whole length of the body. The head 

 is small, depressed, cheeks flat, line of the back but little 

 elevated. The dorsal fin begins exactly half-way between the 

 nose and the end of the fleshy portion of the tail; the first ray 

 short, second longest, last double, nine in all. The mouth 

 small, without teeth; eye large, nostrils nearer the eye than 

 the nose, gill rays three; ventral fins on a vertical line but 

 little in advance of the anterior portion of the dorsal fin, with 

 ten rays; the anal fin commences, on a vertical line, immediately 

 under the termination of the dorsal fin rays when that fin is 

 depressed, and has eleven rays; the first of these rays short, 

 the second longest, the last double. The fleshy portion of the 

 tail long and slender, the rays deeply forked, nineteen in 

 number. This fish does not often exceed the weight of half 

 a pound. 



