GEN. ENGRAULIS. THE ANCHOVY. 177 



pressed. America has several remarkable kinds, 

 but only two seem to inhabit Europe, and one of 

 these can be claimed as British. It is 



(Sp. 146.) E. encrasicolus. The Anchovy, — ^a 

 name familiar to most people as applied to a very 

 palatable and racy preserved kind of food in very 

 general request, of which Cuvier says that it is " un 

 des mets les plus repandus." The fish is of small 

 size, seldom measuring above six inches and a half 

 in length ; the form rather slender, especially to- 

 wards the tail, the head long and sharp-pointed 

 anteriorly, the colour of the head and back greenish- 

 blue, nearly all the other parts silvery white. It 

 must be ranked among the rarer, at least more 

 local, of our British fishes ; although it has been ob- 

 served in many different places, and even so abun- 

 dant on the Cornwall coast, that Mr. Couch is of 

 opinion that if due attention were paid to the fishery, 

 enough might be caught to supply the consumption 

 of the British Islands. A most extensive fishery is 

 carried on in the Mediterranean, particularly at 

 Gorgona, a small island west of Leghorn, and the 

 fish are preserved by pickling. The Anchovy, 

 however, is not a permanent resident in the Medi- 

 terranean (at least if Bloch's information be correct), 

 but merely enters it for the purpose of spawning, 

 and after that function is fulfilled, again returns to 

 the depths of the Atlantic. It is frequently found 

 on the coasts of Spain and Portugal. Ray first as- 

 certained it to be British, having obtained examples 

 from the estuary of the Dee. It was afterwards 



M 



