302 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



THE SILVERSIDES. FAMILY ATHERINIDAE 



These are small fishes, smelt-like in appearance, 

 except that they have a spiny dorsal fin as well 

 as a soft dorsal fin; do not have the adipose fin, 

 and have much smaller mouths than the smelt. 

 Two species are known from the Gulf of Maine. 



KEY TO GULF OF MAINE SILVERSIDES 



1 . About 24 rays in the anal fin 



Common silverside, p. 302. 

 Only about 15 or 16 rays in the anal fin 



Waxen silverside, p. 304. 



Silverside Menidia menidia (Linnaeus) 1766 



Green smelt; Sand smelt; White-Bait; 

 Capelin; Sperling; Shiner 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, pp. 800, 2840. 



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 spiny dorsal fin as well as a soft dorsal fin 

 instead of the one soft dorsal only, as the smelt 

 does; this last character distinguishes it equally 

 from young herrings; its anal fin too is much 

 longer than that of the smelt. 



It 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, gaping hardly as far 

 back as the front of the eye, and set very obliquely. 

 Both head and body are clothed with large scales. 

 The first dorsal fin (3 to 7 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 7 to 10 soft rays and origi- 



nates over the middle of the anal. The anal (of 

 23 to 26 rays, the first stiff and the others soft) 

 is falcate in outline. The caudal peduncle is 

 slender, the tail moderately forked. 46 



Color. — Translucent bottle green above, with 

 top of head, nose, and chin dusky. The upper 

 parts of the sides are thickly speckled with dark 

 brown, and there is a silver band outlined above 

 by a naiTow black streak, running along each side 

 from close behind the pectoral fin to the base of 

 the caudal fin. The belly is white. 



Size. — The silverside grows to a length of about 

 5% inches, adults usually running 4 to 4% inches 

 long. 



Habits. — Silversides tend to congregate in schools 

 usually made up of even-sized individuals. They 

 frequent sandy or gravelly shores chiefly, and 

 there is no reason to suppose that they ever ven- 

 ture out to sea. At high tide they are often seen 

 among the sedge grass (Spartina), where it grows 

 sparsely between tide marks, particularly about 

 the inner bays and in river mouths where they 

 follow the tide up and down the beach within a 

 few yards of the water's edge. They also run up 

 into brackish water; near St. Andrews, in fact, they 

 are chiefly found in brackish situations though 

 more generally distributed on the New Brunswick 

 shore further up the Bay of Fundy and on the 

 Nova Scotian side as a whole. They do not or- 

 dinarily descend deeper than a fathom or so in 

 summer. But some of them, at any rate, sink 



*' 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 in tergradations that they hardly deserve two 

 names, subspecies menidia for the southern and subspecies notata for the 

 northern. 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 (Report, IT. S. Comm. Fish (1901) 

 1902, p. 241). For a recent discussion see Bayllffe (Publ. 90, Chesapeake 

 Biol. Lab., Maryland Dept. Nat. Res.. 1950, p. 5). 



Figure 159. — Silverside (Menidia menidia), Connecticut. From Goode. Drawing from H. L. Todd. 



