GEN. MOTELLA. MACKEREL MIDGE. 211 



equally so is to be found in tlie great length of the 

 cirriform filament placed in front of the almost ob- 

 solete first dorsal, which in a fish of ten inches and 

 a half long, measures two inches and a quarter. It 

 is difficult to see what Linnaeus can mean when he 

 says that this ray presents the appearance of the 

 letter T. The colour of the back and sides is grey- 

 ish brown, the belly dirty white. The lateral line 

 is very distinct, and composed of a series of oval 

 depressions ; it describes a slight curve towards the 

 middle of the body. 



(Sp. 163.) M. glauca. Mackerel Midge. If this 

 be really a mature fish (and in the present state of 

 our acquaintance with it, we are not entitled to 

 come to any other conclusion), it is one of the 

 smallest, and among the most delicate of all the 

 finny tribes that frequent our shores. Its length is 

 about an inch and a quarter ; the colour of the back 

 bluish green, the whole of the other parts, including 

 the fins, silvery. The head is obtuse and compressed ; 

 the snout with four straight barbules, the under lip 

 with one. The fins, particularly the pectoral and 

 ventral ones, are rather laro;e for the size of the 

 body ; the tail nearly straight. The anterior dor- 

 sal is almost obsolete, and it does not appear from 

 the descrij^tion given by its discoverer, whether 

 there is a large cirrose ray in front of it. This 

 beautiful little fish was first noticed by Mr. Couch 

 on the Cornish coast and described by him in Lou- 

 don's Mag. of Nat. Hist., under the name of Ciliata 

 glaiica. It was soon afterwards, however, referred 



